Michael Fahey, Somewhat More Reasonable

ce Combat Fan: As much as I love the earlier entries in the series, I must admit that flying around in circles until the missiles hit was getting a bit tedious. Project Aces’ new Close-Range Assault system gives me the chance to experience a more dynamic and dramatic sort of dogfighting. I’m riding my enemy’s tails, camera shaking as I struggle to keep them in my sights. I’m killing bad guys with my machine guns — something that almost never happened in earlier entries in the series. Sure it’s essentially on rails at that point, but the action is so intense that I don’t mind so much. Between the new combat system and the frequency of flying (or not flying) things that are not jets, Assault Horizon doesn’t feel like an Ace Combat game, but what it does feel like is a game I didn’t mind purchasing

f8 Developers Conference: Facebook game shares move to the Ticker

Super Mario Facebook Share
You know those annoying pop-ups Facebook displays whenever you try to share something in FarmVille or what have you? Soon, those might be a thing of the past, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook boss announced the change in brief during the f8 Facebook Developers Conference, referring to a particularly hilarious Internet meme.

This change applies to Facebook apps across the board, but, of course, we're concerned with the games. According to Zuckerberg, sharing activity will be directly and automatically published to the News Feed or the Games Ticker, depending on what exactly it is you're sharing. And with that comes the privacy concerns.

Judging from Zuckerberg's brief mention of the change, this would cause apps to inform users upon installation exactly what activity they will automatically share. This information is extremely early, but we imagine that, if developers like Zynga were to implement this change, that players would have the be informed of those changes.

Later in the presentation, Zuckerberg mentioned that games will take even more advantage of the Games Ticker, which launched earlier this summer. The Facebook chief showed an instance in which a friend played the word "TEXT" against another in Words With Friends, which was displayed on the Games Ticker. He then proceeded to mouse over that Ticker notification, and it displayed a snapshot of the game board.
Words with Friends Share
Of course, you could then jump into the game and start a match with either player. In short, the day of the game-stopping share notification will soon be over. In its place, much of the viral sharing in Facebook games seems as if it will take place in the Games Ticker. It appears that these changes have already taken place in Words With Friends.

When these specific changes will take place has yet to be announced, though we imagine much of them will be up to the developers. And if FarmVille players' reactions to when Zynga made similar changes to its flagship game is any indication, we're opinons will be ... mixed. We'll keep you posted.

What do you think of Facebook doing away with the game share notifications, automating them and moving them into the Games Ticker? Share with us in the comments. 1 Comment