A Rube Goldberg machine with 'Crayon Physics'

The player of Crayon Physics in the video below did a great job. For starters, he created a super elaborate solution for this puzzle, way beyond what was needed to solve it. But then, he also put together a great video that does more than just showing his final solution.


Crayon Physics.... One possible solution from Highway6 on Vimeo.

Obviously, the PC version and a mouse was used for the above solution. That level of detail would be harder (but not impossible) to achieve with the iPhone / iPod Touch and a fat finger.

Review of "Asphalt 4: Elite Racing" for the iPhone / iPod Touch

Right now, the top 4 road racing games on the Apple AppStore are Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, Moto Chaser, Cro-Mag Rally, and Asphalt 4: Elite Racing.

I am very happy with Moto Chaser and have finished it some time ago. I have not been interested in buying Nitro Kart 3D or Cro-Mag Rally because they look too cartoonish (just personal preference). I have recently bought Asphalt 4 ($5.99) and these are my impressions about it.

Likes:

• A cool-looking intro movie.
  
• It loads quickly (just skip the movie!).
  
• Very complete racing game with several game modes: regular race, cop chase, etc.
  
• Good graphics, fast pace, smooth scenery rendering.
  
• Night and day racing. Weather effects such as snow.
  
• Option of racing either cars or motorcycles. In your garage you can pick from many licensed models (BMW, Aston Martin, Kawasaki, etc.)
  
• Three alternative control modes that explore the touch screen and inertia sensors in different ways.
  
• You can play either in landscape mode or in portrait mode.
  
• Lots of garage options to tune (pimp?) your ride.
  
• Multi-player over Wi-fi (but I haven't been able to try it yet).
  

Dislikes:

• The graphics of the intro movie may set your expectations too high compared to the graphics of the actual game.
  
• As far as physics realism goes, Asphalt 4 is all the way to the "arcade" side of the arcade-to-simulator spectrum.
  
• The car-tuning options are pointless given the low level of physics realism in the simulation.
  
• [Edited] There is something wrong with the steering or with the visual feedback of the steering. It is either lack of smoothness or linearity or maybe a problem of delay. This can be seen with any of the three control methods.
  
• The inclusion of "pit girls" is sophomoric.
  

In conclusion and on balance, Asphalt 4 is, for me, still an improvement over Moto Chaser and is worth the six dollars. However, I hope this game is not indicative of the best the iPhone / iPod Touch hardware can support in terms of racing simulation realism. I have faith that this amazing gaming platform can offer something even better in the future.

If you think you're good at Guitar Hero ...

You may wanna try this. 'Cause real guitars have strings, not keys like pianos ;-) Too bad is expensive :-(