It’s been a long time since I’ve played a golf game. Remember the glorious days of Super Stickman Golf? Those were the days. Sometimes I think that golf and mobile are meant for each other because of the relaxed nature of the game. This makes it easy to create an intuitive but fun golf-related games. A brilliant example of this is Golf Clash, by Playdemic, which combines very easy to learn controls with well-thought gameplay centered around online matches.
Developer: Playdemic
Price: Free
Setup and Tutorial
When you start the game, it will ask you to link it to your Google Play Games account. Immediately after this, the game will throw you into a very short tutorial that will explain the two main gameplay mechanics.
First, you will determine how far you want the ball to go. Obviously, in the first shot, you would want it to go as far as possible, but in subsequent shots, a compromise has to be reached in order to propel the ball as close to the hole as possible.
Then, you will be able to shoot the ball by pressing the Take Shot button. The shot itself can be done by pulling the ball to a blue target that will appear on the bottom. The game does a good job in indicating where is the sweet spot, so you don’t have to do any guessing. After this, a target with a moving needle will appear, and your goal is to release the ball when the needle is in the center of the target.
This is easier said than done, as you might expect, so the game gives you different feedback based on your performance. If you land it perfectly, the ball will only be moved by the wind. If you do great, the ball will move slightly towards the direction your needle is pointing to. Do horribly wrong, though, and you’ll be stuck in the middle of the bushes or in a sand trap.
When you reach the final section and you have to putt the ball, the controls change slightly. You still need to pull the ball, but now you’ll have to align it to a cyan trail that appears on top of the grass. Then, you’ll need to align two arrows in order to get the perfect shot. You can see the Setup gallery to get what I’m saying.
After going through the tutorial, the game will throw you directly into a match. Do not be intimidated, though. Even though it looks like it searches for a player online, I’m pretty sure that the other player is a bot, since it does everything it can to avoid winning.
Overview
After getting through the tutorial, you’ll be greeted by a very crowded main screen. The most important element of this screen is the “Play Golf” button, which makes you choose between playing a match against an online player or against a friend. Since I don’t have friends, the online matches will have to do.
There are different tournaments you can choose from. All of them have an entry free that you have to pay in coins, which is one of the two in-game currencies (you already know the drill by know, so you can probably guess the other). In return, winning doubles the coins you disbursed for entry and will also increase your trophy count.
As with so many other games, trophy count is like your overall ranking, and winning matches will increase this rank and unlock new tournaments where stakes are higher. You can’t farm the beginner tournament forever since it can yield a maximum of 20 trophies.
Matches are straightforward: the one who gets the ball into the hole using the least amount of shots, wins. If both use the same number of shots, then you go to a tiebreaker, in which you have only one shot and whoever places the ball closest to the hole, wins.
After winning games, you will also receive chests that open after a certain time (such as the timed blocks in Pokémon Duel, for example). These will yield coins, gems, upgrade cards and other similar items.
Speaking of upgrade cards, if you know a bit about golf, you would know that they use different kinds of clubs based on the situation. This is also true for the game, and you can upgrade each kind of club by getting upgrade cards and paying some coins. This will improve the accuracy, power and in-game help that the club provides.
This will improve the accuracy, power and in-game help that the club provides. There are a lot of clubs that you unlock when unlocking the upper levels, adding a lot of replayability to the game.
Aside from clubs, you can also buy ball packs. These special balls (no double entendre, please) are much better than the regular ones you use since they have perks such as being less resistant to the wind, reaching farther distances, having more sidespin and such. These can be bought with gems only.
In case you haven’t guessed it until now, gems are the second in-game currency. You can use them to buy new clubs, balls, and chests. You can also use them to open chests received through online matches without waiting for the timer. In case you are low on coins, you can also exchange gems for coins and continue your ass-kicking in online matches. Prices for these gems range from $0.98 for 80 to a whopping $99.34 for 17000. Your choice.
General Impressions
Until you get the hang of it, prepare to experience frustration in online matches. It is baffling to me that there’s no practice mode or something similar so that you’re not forced to make a fool out of yourself in online matches until you get decent at the game, but life is hard.
After some matches, though, you will be able to systematically do good shots and you’ll feel more in control of the game. Normal matches are tense because you know that if you make one mistake, you are probably out. The mechanic for deciding who wins in a draw is very interesting and matches can be decided by just portions of a yard.
Regarding online matches, I experienced very few issues with connection. Other games with a higher volume of players have constant connection issues that plague the online matches. However, everything ran smoothly here aside from a couple of seconds of reconnecting dialogs here and there.
However, the problem was with the matchmaking itself. While I was a proud holder of 18 trophies, I got mixed with a guy who had 47, all with fancy clubs and deluxe balls. All I could do was hope for a mistake, which he obviously didn’t make because he was more experienced.
Graphics
As always, there are two sides for the graphical aspect. The first one is the user interface, which I like in this game. A lot of animations are present and buttons are very easy to press. Even though sometimes you can get the impression that it is too busy, it works fine most of the time. The in-game help for controls is very responsive and looks good.
Even though sometimes you can get the impression that it is too busy, it works fine most of the time. The in-game help for controls is very responsive and looks good.
However, the graphics in matches themselves leave a lot to be desired. Elements such as trees, grass, and bushes look sub-par, and when you compare them to other games, they look truly archaic and outdated.
This is very noticeable on the screen where you choose the direction of your shot before actually hitting the ball. Trees and other nature elements are very low-detailed and textures are either bad or nonexistent.
Sound
There are a few sounds effects to accompany your actions in the game, such as when you hit the ball, some claps when you do a good shot, and the characteristic sound the ball makes when being introduced into a hole. Also, there’s a voice who says “Perfect Shot” when… Wait for it… You do a perfect shot. However, that’s it.
I’m serious. Tapping elements on menus yield zero audible feedback. Actually, there’s no background music, neither in the menus nor in the matches. At first, I got a little afraid because I thought that my phone’s speaker was giving in. However, after realizing that it worked fine because the game itself made some sounds, I realized how flawed sound is in this game.
To add insult to injury, the sound effects come turned off by default! I seriously have no idea of what is going on here. A quick trip to the options will change that, though.
Conclusion
Through relatively simple controls and a great emphasis on online interaction, Golf Clash manages to provide entertainment. Also, thanks to the possibility of participating in several tournaments and upgrading clubs, the game has a replay value aspect adhered to it. Where it suffers is in the graphics and sound department, with very low-quality graphics and inexplicable omissions regarding sound. Also, a lack of offline gameplay is a bummer. However, give it a shot and see if you can overcome the bad aspects and enjoy the good ones.
Download and install Golf Clash from the Google Play Store.
Well it’s 2017 and Jolla has been busy putting itself back together. The company doesn’t see itself as exiting the market, so it has been focusing on finding new opportunities and developing new partnerships.
The first device expected to support Sailfish OS is the Sony Xperia X, a handset which was launched last year. Jolla hopes a community release on 
In case you don’t remember the 
For the time being, Samsung has reserved all existing 
This week OpenSignal launched a new app called Meteor which lets users know which apps will work well on the speed available on their network.
Yes, there are quite a few solutions available for network speed testing including 
While most apps will simply display the amount MB/s or KB/s flowing through the connection, they don’t translate what that means for user experience. Here’s where OpenSignal hopes to fill in the gap with its new Meteor app.
However we should note that the app doesn’t rate every app out there. Still it features an extensive list which includes some of the most popular Android apps out there including Chrome, Dropbox, Amazon, Facebook, Flipboard, Gmail, Google Maps, Instagram, Skype, Spotify Music, Street View, Twitter, Uber, Waze, WhatsApp and YouTube.
OpenSignal is open to feedback from users, so if an app will be requested enough it will probably make it into Meteor’s list.
On top of that, the company said it will soon launch game-related pages in the 
And if that’s not enough, Google will start letting developers adjust their own prices and run promotions on their own. The search giant found that during the testing phases, developers noticed an increase of up 20 more downloads during the deal periods. The option will be available starting this week via the Google Play Developer Console.
Nokia says it has brought Android onboard in order to cater to the needs of consumers, who have been asking for this for a while now. But the Android market is very competitive today, so will Nokia’s slew of Android devices be able to make it?
So how do the new Nokia phones feel? At MWC 2017 we had the chance to play with them a little bit and here’s our first impressions. First off, let’s start with the Nokia 6 which is the top of the line device.
Case in point, the Nokia 6 doesn’t look like your average budget phone. It’s manufactured from a block of aluminum with diamond cut edges. When you hold the phone in your hand it gives you a very industrial, metallic feel. The sharp edges are also a good combination for the matte aluminum body. The phones bet on a Norse design – characterized by almost monastic simplicity, utility and beauty.
The Nokia 6 features a 5.5-inch display which spacious but not too big. Viewing angles, as far as we can see are pretty good. The phone has a physical home button where the fingerprint scanner lives.
When it comes to specs, the Nokia 6 isn’t mind-blowing, but it does offer enough. We have a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, 3GB of RAM (for the normal variant) or 4GB of RAM (for the limited edition) and 32GB of internal storage (for the normal variant) and 64GB of internal storage (for the limited edition). The device features a microSD card slot.
Anyhow, the phone has a main 16MP camera with dual tone flash and an 8MP selfie shooter with wide angle lens and auto-focus.
The phone also it features an affordable price ($242 for the matte black, silver, blue or copper Nokia 6 and $315 for Nokia 6 Arte Black), but as we mentioned above we would have liked to see a better processor onboard.
Like the Nokia 6, the Nokia 5 features a physical home button with an embedded fingerprint sensor and relies on the Snapdragon 430 to keep the lights on. It takes advantage of only 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (microSD card slot available). Nokia also bundled a 13MP main camera with f/2.0, phase detection autofocus and dual-LED flash plus an 8MP wide-angle selfie camera.
Last but not least, comes the Nokia 3. It’s the most affordable one in the bunch and should start selling for around $147. The Nokia 3 isn’t made of metal like its brothers, instead it offers a polycarbonate body and an aluminum frame. It looks sleek nevertheless.
The Nokia 3 has a MediaTek MT6737 chipset under the hood (quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A53) which is paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (microSD cardslot available). In the photography department, the Nokia 3 has an 8MP main camera with autofocus/LED flash and an 8MP selfie shooter.
Nokia says that 45% of people tend to shop in the budget segment and that’s why they have chosen to cater to this sector first. But while the new Nokia phones look and feel great, they are still far from being a flagship. While the company hasn’t confirmed it has plans to launch such a device, we’re hoping Nokia will unveil a worthy Galaxy S8 competitor sometimes later this year. A successful 
Now the candy bar feature phone is coming back with a modern take. The new Nokia 3310 is small, colorful and looks like a lot of fun. It’s slimmer than its predecessor and you can barely feel its weight in your hand. And like its predecessor it offers long standing battery life – 25.3 days in standby mode and up to 22.1 hours of talk time..
The phone is built on the S30+ operating platform (developed by MediaTek for Nokia) and offers all the basic features you’d expect including voice and text messaging, Internet browsing (via the Opera Mini browsers), music listening, a camera, two SIM slots and of course Snake.
Sure, you won’t be able to run any fancy apps and there’s no touchscreen onboard. But that’s not really the point with the modern Nokia 3310 is it? Actually the feature phone constitutes a welcome relief from all smartphone galore we’ve seen for the past few days.
The cute, little phone with a color display will be made available for purchase for approximately $51. You’ll be able to grab it in red and yellow with gloss finish and polycarbonate exterior or dark blue and grey with matte finish. Are you getting one? We know we are!
grid vary; and they require you to figure the correct combination of cue strikes in order to get the ball in the pocket. This includes using the same cue more than once, and sometimes using the same more than once in a row. With these multiple cues also comes a shot limit per level, so you are confined to a finite number of shots to succeed.
calling “bot tiles”, that have a number and direction imprinted on them. Upon striking the ball to these tiles, the ball is redirected in the direction and distance as shown.
Along the bottom you have a settings button (audio, volume, vibration, buy options), and a level menu in which to pick from any level you’ve previously beaten. You can also pick from several themes: light & dark are free, but others such as ‘daisy’ and ‘graphite’ are $1 each.
Sony has also added in predictive technology to start capturing whenever it sees movement. This will allow you to capture video right at the start of the action, rather than when your fingers actually hit the record button. This also works for pictures as the phone will take up to four shots from the start of the action until when you snap the shutter.
You may remember that Sony has