5 Websites For All The Latest Happenings In Dota 2 [MUO Gaming]

Dota 2 is a huge game right now, and while it may not be as popular as League of Legends, it is hot on its heels with an ever rising player base. As a whole, the MOBA genre is growing by leaps and bounds every single day, with new players discovering it and deciding to take the time to learn what these games bring to the table.

With all of that being said, Dota 2 and League of Legends are hard games to learn. The skill required to master each of the heroes is great, and it’s not the kind of game you are just going to pick up and play without getting your butt handed to you on many occasions. As I mentioned previously, watching Dota 2 streamers is a great way to learn, but if you want to go even further, there are tons of websites designed to help new players progress in the game.

In addition to learning, there are many Dota 2 websites out there designed to help keep up with the competitive scene. The rise of the MOBA has had a direct impact on the popularity of so called esports, and Dota 2 has a lively competitive scene that can be hard to keep up with. Some of the sites on this list will let you know who are the teams to watch out for, and when the next great tournament is taking place.

PurgeGamers.com

I’ve talked about Purges stream before, but his Dota 2 website is also a fantastic resource for Dota 2 information. I am especially fond of his giant article called “Welcome to Dota, You Suck.” This epic article covers almost every aspect of the game and is something I suggest all new players take the time to read. It’s not a short article by any stretch, but the knowledge contained within makes it well worth the time to sit down and plow through.

In addition to his articles, Purge also pulls some select games from his streams and posts them to the site. He even does commentary over replays of games, which offers more detailed learning, because he is focused more on teaching and less on playing. The News section even covers the competitive scene, so this site really has it all.

Dota2.com

The official Dota 2 website is a shockingly good resource. It comes equipped with a “Heropedia” designed to introduce games to the massive list of heroes, and the Steam Guides, which are also available in the game itself. These guides, written by players, offer an incredible amount of depth and knowledge for specific heroes and general gameplay tactics.

The official site does not go too deep into the competitive scene, but it covers the big tournaments like The International. Any Dota 2 fan should spend a good deal of time on this site.

PlayDota.com

This is, without question, one of the most content-packed Dota 2 websites around. It is considered an official site, and as such, all the information contained within it is accurate. In terms of news, it’s not the most active website, but it does cover much of what is happening in the biggest professional tournaments.

The bread and butter of PlayDota is the forum. It is a massive community of players covering everything from the competitive scene to tips for new players. It even continues to deal with the original Warcraft 3 Dota mod, so old school players can still get their fix there. Besides the forums, there is tons of articles and other key information to help you expand your knowledge of everything Dota. For the hardcore player, it’s easy to lose many hours hanging out on PlayDota.

Reddit.com/r/Dota2

The Dota2 Reddit is always growing, and with it, the amount of content posted expands. As you would expect from Reddit, plenty of photos are posted, but there is also a great deal of strategy discussion and players talking about the competitive scene. If you want a place to come discuss Dota 2 with other serious players, this Reddit is a great option.

Dota Insight

Dota Insight has a website, but there is not much on there other than a few hero guides. The reason this makes the list is because of their fantastic Dota 2 podcast. It’s very active, with new episodes airing weekly. Each episode covers fun games the hosts played in the last week, tips for heros, the latest patches, and the biggest happenings from the professional Dota 2 scene. If you want to consume your Dota information in audio form, this is the Dota 2 website for you.

Your Turn

What Dota 2 websites do you visit? Hit the comments section below and let us know!

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Create Fun Melodies On The Go With Free Rolling Tones for Android

I have absolutely no musical training or background. Give me an instrument, and I’m hopeless. But give me a simple sequencer, and I can make some music. Sequencers are brilliant because they abstract away much of the “hard stuff”: You don’t have to keep a beat, because the sequencer does it for you. You don’t have to try and pick notes that go well together, because they all go well together. If you’re a real musician, you may lament losing all of these nuances and fine-grained elements that combine to make a high-quality composition (in which case, you may want to try one of these music creation tools). But if you’re just looking to have some fun, a good sequencer is all you need. And Rolling Tones for Android is a great one. No, it’s not Holo, and I wouldn’t say it’s a gorgeous app, but it’s well-made, simple to use, and yes — free. It’ll have you making music before you know it.

First Steps

The Rolling Tones Google Play page says the app is based on ToneMatrix, a simple Flash-based music sequencer that we’ve looked at in 2009. Yes, they’re both sequencers, but while ToneMatrix lets you compose single segments, Rolling Tones lets you record entire songs and offers a much more complete experience. I would say GrooveMixer is actually a bit more similar to ToneMatrix than Rolling Tones.

When you first launch Rolling Tones, you’ll see a blank screen with lots of space for your music:

Tap anywhere on the screen, and you’ll make a note. The sequence keeps playing over and over (at 120 beats per minute, by default), so you will soon hear your note. Tap anywhere else on the screen, and you’ve made another note. A beat is formed. Pretty soon, your screen may look like this:

This is a complex sequence that’s actually a part of the demo song that ships with Rolling Tones. The different colors denote different instruments: You can see the eight available instruments lined up along the bottom of the screen.

The matrix itself is easy and intuitive to read: The vertical axis denotes pitch, while the horizontal one marks a note’s position in the sequence. This sounds clunky when explained, but as soon as you start messing around with it, you’ll get it.

From Sequence To Song

One thing I often find frustrating about simple sequencers is that they’re built like toys: You can make a basic sequence, but you can’t make a song. Any sequence you made will just repeat over and over until you change it, but there is often no way to save a sequence and move to the next one, assembling a song. Tone Matrix does let you do this. Let’s look at the relevant bit of the screen a bit closer up:

Ins and Add let you add a new segment to your song; Del lets you remove it. The << and >> buttons let you scroll through your song, and in between you can see the sequence of segments that go to make up the current song (just a five-segment portion of it — the full song can be much longer).

In the next row, the Song button lets you switch between working on the whole song or playing the current segment. Z lets you zoom in on the sequencer matrix for “precision work” — something I’ve found unnecessary on my own device, but may come in handy if you have a smaller screen. The |< and >| buttons let you change the sequence number for the current spot in the song. The Copy and Paste buttons let you quickly take a segment’s contents and paste it into a new segment, while Clear wipes the current segment clean.

This sounds like a lot to take in, but in practice, it’s quite simple. My own workflow goes something like this: I first start messing with a single segment, working up a simple beat I like. I then hit Add three or four times to duplicate the sequence. Then it’s time to change it up, so I hit Copy, hit >| to create a new sequence number in that spot in the song, and hit Paste. I then make one or two changes in the sequence (not too much though, because it still has to sound like it belongs in the same song). I then duplicate that several times, then make another tweak, and so on. Pretty soon, I have a basic melody. It may not be a hit, but it sounds like a song, and it’s fun to make.

Documentation

Rolling Tones is easy to pick up, but it also comes with a simple help page:

This is not obvious, and it does help when you’re trying to figure out what each button does. The included sample song helps, too.

Final Thoughts

Rolling Tones doesn’t win in the looks department, but it definitely has the right functionality, coupled with an intuitive interface and an attractive price tag.

Do you know of a better sequencer for Android that’s still simple enough for non-musicians to use? Let me know in the comments! And if you make anything fun with Rolling Tones, feel free to share a SoundCloud link or two, as well.

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Photo Finish With The Best: 8 Photography Contests You Can Win With Your Best Snap

Contest. That word has a charm of its own. Ever since the days of the cavemen right till today’s Olympics, the brave and the meek have gone up against each other. A contest has a simple pull – all of us want to know and show if we are the best. Even on the comparatively egalitarian World Wide Web, it is a barometer for a self-pat on the back. We have online photography contests of all kinds; from the recent best body and fitness contests to regularprogramming contests. Google contests are used by a big company as part of their promotion strategy. Graphic lovers have their Photoshop contests.

Photographers aren’t in any way left out. In fact, they seem to be the most proactive lot when it comes to contests. Bakari showed us someawesome free photography contests. So, let’s launch into some more popular photo contests and pit ourselves against the best of the rest.

National Geographic – Your Shot

Calendar Date: Always Open

The National Geographic photo contest can either make you go “wow”, or make you feel inferior if you are starting out with your DSLR. National Geographic is one of the more preeminent places to take your photos to. If any of your photos get selected, then it is the best badge to say that you have finally arrived. Your Shot is the magazine’s photo community which invites regular submissions from photographers of all hues.  Whether a hobbyist or a pro, you can participate fearlessly. National Geographic editors review each submission carefully and the best 12 get picked in the popular Daily Dozen category.

The best thing is that the editors also offer professional tips which are an invaluable learning experience. The publication of photos in the magazine or the website is reward enough for any photography enthusiast. The guidelines are explained here in more detail.

The Smithsonian Phototography Contest

Calendar Date: Annual (open till November 29, 2013)

Another renowned name, but one you may not immediately associate with photography. But you will be surprised to know that the Smithsonian magazine’s photography contest has its own place. Standards are of course, very high. You can enter any of the five categories — the American Experience, the Natural World, People, Travel and Altered Images – to win cash prizes. The grand prize winner gets $2500. Read the complete FAQs here.

Wiki Loves Monuments

Calendar Date: September (expected)

It’s printed in large letters — The world’s largest photo contest. It is also certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest photo contest in the world. Not really surprising because it was organized by the Wikipedia community. The contest started off in 2010 in The Netherlands. By 2012, it was held across 35 countries and garnered 350,000 photo submissions. The international photo contest is meant to showcase the cultural heritage through monuments of each participating country.

Though the contest for this year is yet to be announced, you can still see the latest uploads coming into the site. The photos are all freely licensed under Wikimedia Commons.

Pixoto

Calendar Date: Weekly

Pixoto is a photography contest of a different kind, and one which makes it the easiest to participate. The photo service uses an algorithm called ImageDuel to submit each photo to a comparison and voting process. The photo with the best positive feedback (an image score) wins. There are dozens of categories and each top photo can win $150 every week. Others among the top 20% can get badges to display alongside their profiles and photos on the site.

ViewBug

Calendar Date: Always open

ViewBug is a photography community with a few contests of its own. There are premium (paid) and free contests to go along with the free and premium plans the site has for you to join. The free membership allows you to participate in the free contests. There were about 16 contests going on at the time of writing this article. Awards include photography kits, pro-memberships, and exposure. Some of the categories are unique – from photographing subjects floating on water to capturing scenes by looking up.

World In Focus

Calendar Date: Annual (to be announced for 2013)

PDN’s World in Focus is a travel photography contest which is awarded separately to amateurs and professionals. There is an entry fee for this contest – amateurs ($22) and professionals ($45). The contest is open internationally. The submission date for this year’s announcements has passed, but it could be worthwhile to wait and prepare for next year. The contest closed in October last year, and the winners photos were published in March 2013. Winning entries are featured on the website and in the magazine.

No Man’s Art Gallery

Calendar Date: Annual (to be announced for 2013)

The No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest is an annual photography contest held exclusively for kids in an underprivileged neighborhood in the world. The winning photo is exhibited in the art gallery of the organization. Children are taught how to use a camera in a workshop and then given a free rein to express themselves and their lives with photos. The site says that Plans for 2013 are to give the children in the slums of Capetown the opportunity to experiment with photography. Though this is not a usual photography contest, I decided to mention this for its novelty, and also to show how photography can be used for the charitable good. You can also sponsor a participant with your contribution.

World Press Photo

Calendar Date: Annual (February)

This is the definitive site for photo journalists to come and win an award for their profession. The World Press Photo Awards are the world’s largest and most celebrated annual press photography contest. The non-profit organization holds the contest annually. The 2013 awards were announced in February. Photos are submitted across a wide range of categories that also include arts and entertainment, portraits and nature. The awards have been held for 55 years and are meant to showcase the often dangerous, often invaluable work of photo journalists.

The Best Way to Be In The Know: Photo Contest Directories

The best way to be completely aware of the next photo contest around the turn of the calendar is through photo contest tracking websites. Subscribe to their RSS feeds or Twitter updates. But do keep them bookmarked. Here are three of the more comprehensive ones I found.

• The Photo Contest
• The Photo Contest Directory
• Photography Competitions

You have to enter to win. That’s the slight trouble you have to take with contests. I have tried to mix this article up with some high-brow contests, and a couple which you can enter more easily if you are an amateur photographer. But there are photography contests all around us, some local, some national, and international like the ones above.

Photography contests aren’t about winning prizes alone. They are also about being part of the wider photography community and taking our photography learning to a new level. Have you taken your best snaps and put them to the test on a photo contest? Tell us about the best photo contests out there; because there are so many.

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Internet Forums Reimagined: The Future Of Online Discussions

Last year, I wrote about the history of online communication and how it has evolved all the way from online bulletin board systems to social media. But what does the future have in store for us in terms of communicating online?

The latest iteration of online communication may indeed be social media, but it seems that the most popular avenue is still the old-fashioned internet forum. It remains today as an excellent way to structure a community on the web. While social media can be somewhat amorphous at times, forums provide order and a sense of home.

I believe that forums will never die out, but forums will evolve and adapt to advancements in web technology. Please join me as I take a look at a few forum software systems that are so innovative that they’ll transform the concept of the forum forever.

Moot

Moot (Beta) is a very interesting project in my eyes because there’s a bit of tension in its design philosophy: it wants to take a step back into the past and recover the lost relevance ofmeaningful discussion (which they claim have died with social media) while incorporating features of the future (clean and responsive interface).

But more importantly, Moot is entirely embeddable, meaning you don’t need to download a package and upload it to your own web host. Instead, all of the data and control is done through your Moot account and your forum theme; forum content are embedded directly into your site wherever you want it to go. It has been designed from the ground up for complete and easy integration.

Other notable features that Moot is pushing:

• Both forums and comments. Moot is a full-fledged forum embed system AND a comment embed system. Unlike other forum systems where comments are just normal forum threads with their post data molded and displayed differently, Moot lets you embed unique comment threads onto pages using one line of HTML. Each comment thread is unique, dynamic, and separate from your forums.
• No content deletion. Moot is taking a hard stance: deleting posts and comments disrupts the natural progression of a discussion, resulting in an incomplete thread that’s harder to follow. Therefore, once content is older than 2.7 minutes, it cannot be deleted. Also, if a post or comment has received any replies or likes, it can’t be deleted.
• Complete control. Even though Moot is a third-party service that you have to embed onto your site, you will have full control over it. You can alter the design using CSS. You can also alter the behavior and extend Moot functionality using an API that will be released in the near future.

Discourse

The mentality spurring the Discourse team is the desire to “raise the standard of discussion on the web through better forum software.” Core to their actions is the belief that forums are an integral aspect of proper web communities, yet most forum designs are stuck in the 1990s. With Discourse, they want to make forum hosting easy, flexible, and appealing to the 21st Century.

The Discourse interface takes a lot of inspiration from social media: just-in-time loading of content, flat and sleek aesthetics that are indicative of social media design, @replying to users, logging in with social media accounts, real-time stream updates, and more. But unlike Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and the others, Discourse remains faithful to big blocks of text for deeper, more meaningful conversation.

Other notable features that Discourse is pushing:

• Notifications. One big problem with legacy forum systems is the lack of convenient notifications. Up until a few years ago, the best we ever got was clunky email notifications, then we had RSS subscriptions, but both of those had their limits. Discourse will regularly notify you on the site when someone mentions you, replies to you, quotes you, or anything else that involves you.
• Forked conversations. Instead of having a linear thread where users reply to multiple users in a single post (often using ugly blocks of quotes to establish context), Discourse allows discussions to fork by letting you reply to individual posts and branch off.
• Smart interactions. One awesome feature of Discourse is that you can begin writing your reply even before you’ve finished reading the thread. The reply box will follow you no matter where you are on the page, which means you can reply while you read. Also, when you prematurely leave a thread (maybe you had to go somewhere), Discourse will remember your place and start you there the next time you come back.
• Dynamic moderation. As users participate on your Discourse forum, they gain something called trust. Users that have trust can help with forum moderation by culling spammers, flamers, and trolls before they get too big.

We took a detailed look at Discourse when it emerged on the scene.

Vanilla

Moot and Discourse are relative newcomers to the forum scene, but Vanilla has been innovating the forum concept for years already. Honestly, ask anyone (who has forum experience, obviously) which forum software is the most non-traditional and I’m willing to bet that most would say Vanilla.

Vanilla has gained a lot of traction over the years. Big name sites, like Penny Arcade, are starting to turn to it for their discussion needs because of its cutting edge design. This is a free, open source project that really is revolutionizing the forum landscape.

Other notable features that Vanilla is pushing:

• Scalability. One major issue in many free forum systems – and some paid systems too – is that they buckle under too much traffic. When it takes over 10 seconds for a thread to load, users are too frustrated to continue a discussion. Vanilla is built for speed and can handle millions of users right out of the box.
• User reactions. With Vanilla, you can set various “reactions” that users can have to content: like, dislike, spam, off topic, insightful, funny, or whatever else you can come up with. These reactions have actions associated with them (e.g. add score to the post). The result of the user reactions system is that users can decide on and promote valuable content.
• Built-in gamification. Gamification describes the addition of game elements in a non-game context for the purpose of engaging users. By participating, users can earn badges (achievements) and reputation (score) which lead to user promotions and access to more features if you choose to set it up that way.

Conclusion

On paper, these systems may not seem like a huge deviation from the usual forum platforms that we typically see. However, paper can be deceiving. Take one look at each of the solutions above and you’ll notice a landslide difference in the end user experience. And in my humble opinion, all three systems are doing a heck of a job in refreshing the boring realm of forums.

Do you use forums? Know of any other forum systems that are revolutionizing the field? Please share with us in the comments!

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Photovine: A Unique Photo Browser, Editor & Slideshow Viewer For Instagram & Facebook [iOS]

Remember Google’s Photovine? No? Well, that’s OK. You’re not expected to remember every single one of Google’s whims, especially not those that lived for less than a year. To refresh your memories, Photovine was a photo-sharing app that launched following Google’s acquisition of a company called Slide, and revolved around photo vines, which are not unlike tags on Instagram or Flickr.

Google’s Photovine died over a year ago, but it seems the brand is not dead. A new iPhone app called Photovine has recently emerged, and while this one doesn’t really have anything to do with Google’s old vines or Twitter’s new Vine, it brings an innovative way to view your Instagram and Facebook photos which involves music, slideshows, and an unusual interface.

Curious? Keep reading for a full hands-on with Photovine.

Photovine Unchained

Photos have been around forever, but the Instagram era brought them to the front and center of our online and social lives. Accordingly, many of today’s apps strip social networks of their “boring” text, and bring us what we really want to see: photos. Twizgrid, a visual Twitter browser I adore, is a great example, and if you haven’t tried it out yet, I highly recommend it.

Photovine, unfortunately, can access only your Facebook and Instagram photos, but it nonetheless offers a pretty unique viewing experience.

Photovine revolves around a photo wheel, where you can choose which photos you wish to view. Your options are your Instagram photos, your friends’ Instagram photos, your Facebook photos (photos you’re tagged in), your friends Facebook photos, popular photos, and all your photos, which is these four options combined.

The photos of your choosing are presented in a dynamic collage, which you can animate and move around by shaking your device. You can also view your photos individually, by tapping on the photos and sliding left and right. An icon on the top shows you which network the photo comes from. You can like and comment on photos from the app, and share them via Facebook, Twitter, email, or text message.

Up until now, Photovine is a pretty standard photo app, but this is where the fun begins. Above your main photo collage, you’ll find several additional buttons. The “play” icon activates slideshow mode, letting you set your preferred transition time, choose which music to play (if at all), and decide whether you’d like a photo-only slideshow, or one with titles and timestamps.

Slideshow mode is not the only way to combine music with your photos. The next button lets you enable background music for the app, and if you prefer to play different music for this occasion, that’s possible too. The right-most button is the refresh button, to refresh your feed — an action that can also be done by pulling the photo-collage down.

Taking, Editing & Posting Photos

Photovine is not only a browser, it’s also a great way to edit and upload photos to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, as well as share them with your phone’s contacts. To add a photo, tap the camera button at the bottom. You can take a photo with your phone’s camera or use an existing photo from your library.

Photovine comes with a built-in photo editor powered by Aviary, which includes some automatic enhancements, 11 filters and effects, orientation and cropping options, and even a drawing tool.

Once your photo is done, give it a title and choose where you want to upload it to. For some reason, both Twitter and Contacts options have LinkedIn’s logo next to them, but don’t mind that.

Bottom Line

To me, Photovine is a strange bird. On one hand, it brings together an innovative photo browser and a photo editor/uploader, and combines them under a pretty unique interface. On the other hand, this interface, while being interesting and easy to use, is not half as nice to look at as I would have expected from such an app. To be blunt, it’s a bit on the ugly side, and reminds me of Android apps from two years ago.

That being said, Photovine is a fun way to discover and browse your photos and photo streams, and combined with the music and slideshow options, can make a great screensaver for your phone while its idle; one you can always glance it, and see something interesting. It’s ability to take, edit, and upload photos to all three major social networks can be a huge timesaver, and Aviary’s filters and tools could help you stand out from the regular Instagram stock.

Download: Photovine on the App Store (Free)

If you don’t own an iOS device there are plenty of other great ways to view your Facebook, Instagram and Flickr photos under one roof and on the Web.

Did you get a chance to try Photovine? Do you have a similar app you like better Let us know in the comments.

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Gaming Google Maps With Street View Games

Google Maps is an essential tool for anyone planning a day trip or holiday, providing a clear yet detailed overview of locations and how to reach them. More than that it provides a simple way for all of us to find our literal place in the world, though it cannot help with the more figurative notion of belonging.

Google Maps was already amazing, and then a few years after its launch Google Street View was added to the mix. At which point the opportunity to take a virtual trip around real towns and cities revealed itself. Google Street View coverage now includes more than 60 countries, with ground-level panoramic views (often containing strange sights) for huge swathes of those locales available to view online.

However, Google Maps, and in particular Google Street View, isn’t only good for planning routes. There have been some fantastic Google Street View mashups created over the years, and there are also websites which use Google Street View to help you do some virtual globetrotting.

And then there are games built on top of Google Maps and Google Street View, five of which are listed here for you to enjoy when you’re bored at work.

Real World Racer

Real World Racer is a simple Google street view game that offers exactly what the title implies it should. While most racing games rely on either completely imaginary routes or rough approximations of real-world locations, Real World Racer lets you race on real roads around the world.

OK, so the visuals aren’t going to win any awards, and the controls are rather limited, but for those people who miss the days when top-down racers were as good as it got, Real World Racer should hit the (nostalgic) spot.

You choose a route — either a pre-existing one from the eight on offer or one chosen by yourself by simply inputting a start and finish point — and then race your car against the computer-controlled opponents. The first to cross the finishing line wins, obviously, though you win nothing more than the satisfaction wrangled from besting poor AI.

Street View Quiz

Street View Quiz is another Google street view game whose title says it all. This is a website full of quiz questions based on Google Maps and Google Street View. Some of the questions make more sense than others, though they can all conceivably be solved by using nothing other than the image presented to you.

Rather than answering any from the homepage you’re better served clicking on individual entries and tackling them one at a time. If you get stuck trying to use the image alone then a simple Google search should suffice in helping you to answer any question posed.

GeoGuessr

GeoGuessr presents you with an image from Google Street View and asks you to locate it on a map of the world. It sounds easy, but it’s actually maddenly difficult. Thankfully it’s also very entertaining and more addictive than it has any right to be.

Each round consists of five destinations. At the end you’re presented with a chart showing how far out your guesses were each time, and the total score acquired. You can then start the process all over again to see if you can improve.

It’s a lot harder than you may imagine to guess which country you’re in just from a single image. Road signs, the terrain, and the weather can all give clues, but you’ll be amazed how far away some of your guesses will be. Or perhaps I’m just geographically dumb.

Pursued

Pursued is very similar to GeoGuessr, with the same basic principles applying. However, rather than dropping you somewhere completely at random and asking you to vaguely point to it on a map, Pursued features pre-approved levels and asks you to name the city or landmark you’re seeing.

This is also more of a complete game, with a plot of sorts — you have been abducted and need to tell your friend where to find you — and level packs, achievements etc. Which all helps add to the intrigue and innate playability of Pursued.

The whole thing comes across as very professional, with the only annoying aspect being the need to jump through social networking hoops in order to play more levels. Still, there are user-submitted levels aplenty for those who aren’t willing to participate.

Streetview Zombie Apocalypse

Streetview Zombie Apocalypse is a clever little Google street view game that works despite its obvious flaws. Especially as the street cred of zombies has never been so clear thanks to The Walking Dead and other zombie-focused fayre.

The premise is simple… you choose a location where you want to get dropped, and as soon as you pitch up in said location the undead hordes start to chase you in order to eat your brains. Which would be a whole lot scarier if the zombies in question weren’t tiny little sprites you could flick away with one finger.

The aim of Streetview Zombie Apocalypse is to stay alive for as long as possible. To do so you need to run from your starting point, avoiding the undead as you go. Choose your location with care, as some will lead you to a premature death thanks to featuring a rat run of narrow alleyways and dead-ends.

Conclusions

These games are not only entertaining they’re also educational, revealing parts of the world perhaps previously unknown to you. Google Maps is a powerful tool in this regard, in the same way Wikipedia is a powerful tool for learning about new people or uncovering previously unsolved mysteries that can actually be easily explained.

What do you think of the Google Street View games on this list? Do you have a favorite? Perhaps you know of another game which utilizes Google Maps; if so, we’d love you to share it with us in the comments section below along with your thoughts on the subject at hand. All comments are read, and most are afforded a reply.

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