Tiger's spider burning bright

I recently bought a game for my iPhone, which in itself is unusual as I don't normally buy things from the iTunes store as I don't like the idea of only being able to use them whilst Apple says I can. The game in question is Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (developed by Tiger Style) and in this case a combination of the free demo Spider: Hornet Smash and the fact that Randy Smith was involved was enough to get me to part with the small amount of £1.79.

If you don't want to read any more, I'll say here and now that it's a very good game and if you play games on your iPhone you should buy this one.

As I said I came to the game through the demo; Hornet Smash. The demo uses the same levels as the main game but it takes a small mechanic from the main game and expands it slightly to actually make a fairly different game. Hornet Smash is more fast paced than the main game with greater dynamism as you leap non-stop around the levels tackling as many hornets as you can before inevitably succumbing to the steadily growing number. Playing well will slow the hornets' growth but I don't know if it's possible to play well enough to reach equilibrium.

In contrast, the main game only contains a few (non-multiplying) hornets and mostly plays out at a more sedate pace. The main adventure mode game is based around building webs to catch and eat enough insects in the level to open the portal to the next level. You do this by anchoring a thread to the level and then leaping to a second point to secure the thread between those points. Completely surround an empty space with threads and a web will appear between them trapping any insect that flies over it for long enough. You can anchor threads to webs, allowing you make new webs that were previously impossible. Eating insects will replenish your silk supplies and running out of silk means imminent death (there is a grace period in which to quickly eat an insect). One nice touch is that at the end of a level you are shown the complete room including your cobwebs, giving a feeling of the house gradually becoming more disused and deserted as you travel through it.

After a little practice, if you charge through the game, then the Blitzkrieg acheivement of completing it in under 30 minutes is easily achievable. But, if you do that and then leave the game you'll have missed most of what makes it enjoyable. Rushing through the levels would mean not noticing the many details in the rooms and not finding the numerous secret areas that help to tell the story of the house you are making your way through and the family that lived there. If you find and follow all the clues there is also a secret room to find. (There is also the sealed room which is easier to find but also hidden).

There are also three other game modes, one where you try to eat as many insects as possible in 3 minutes, one where you have to eat insects regularly to avoid dieing (with the frequency increasing as you eat more), and finally a mode very similar to the main game but with your threads shortened and reduced in number which makes forward planning far more important.

According the lifetime stats the game provides I've played it for over 16 hours and have now completed the game, found the secret room, and completed all of the optional achievements which I found rather fun.

So overall an excellent way to spend £1.79, highly recommended.

New Lens

I recently bought a second hand Nikon 70-210mm f4-f5.6 AF lens from eBay for £65 as I'd read some good things about it, and it comes from the same era as my 35-70mm f2.8 which I like very much (but which was also rather more expensive).

I already have an 18-200 VR so this new 70-210 is going have to be better than that lens to avoid going straight back on eBay.

I set the camera up on a tripod pointing down the garden and took a few shots with each lens at 200mm and 210mm with varying apertures. These are 100% crops from near the centre of the frame (unsharpened). The last shots are shrunk versions of the full image to give an idea of the extra reach the 70-210 has.

These results are a bit disappointing, the 70-210 is clearly putting more pixels over the same area, but I'm not convinced it's actually capturing much more detail (especially at f5.6).

I've also just taken the 70-210 down to the park to take some photos of my daughter, and I've learned how important shutter speed is with this lens at 210mm. I guess I've been spoiled by the VR on the 18-200 but it does seem that you need a shutter speed of 1/400s or faster when hand holding which means you need quite a sunny day to also get down to f8-f11.

That said, I did get some quite nice shots in the park and noticed that it might be front focusing slightly which I should be able to correct for in the camera.

In terms of build quality the 70-210 wins, feeling much more solid. But it loses out in terms of focus speed to the 18-200's built in AFS. The AF-D version of the 70-210 is supposed to focus twice as fast which would certainly help (but they are also rarer and more expensive on eBay).

So for now I'm leaning towards the 18-200 as it's only marginally less sharp, but focuses faster, has VR and can go all the way to 18mm. However, if I didn't already have the 18-200 I'd certainly be happy with 70-210, especially at the bargain price it can be had for.