Install Google Play on an Amazon Fire HD

I recently purchased an Amazon Fire Tablet, I found the results to be mixed. On the plus side, the tablet was cheap and very well made, fast and responsive, but on the downside, it's not a true tablet in the way I'm used to: without access to the Google App store it was more of an Amazon interface device with a limited supply of useful apps. The only reasonable course of action was to get those sweet, sweet Google apps, but that was more effort than I expected, or needed it to be.

There are a couple different methods for getting Play on a Fire, but one of them requires rooting, which I didn't find necessary (I don't like Rooting, it can be dangerous). You will need to enable 3rd party apps, Android devices turn this off by default as a security setting, a bit of a questionable step, given the history of Android apps, but not the dumbest thing either. I'd also recommend doing a download/install sequence, download an APK, then install it, as opposed to downloading them all then going through the installs (I don't know for a fact they need to go in using the sequence I've put down, but I do know for a fact that it worked smoothly).

TL;DR Version (if you already know what you're doing):
First, turn on third party app downloads. Second, go to an apk download site, I use APK mirror for this, their site looks spammy and slightly sketchy, but the downloads appear to be clean and up to date; download and install 4 apk's, Google Account Manager, Google Services Framework, Google Play Services, and Google Play.

Detailed Version (If you need steps laid out)
1. Turn on 3rd party apps. On your Fire open Settings > Security and toggle the switch labeled "Apps from Unknown Sources". By default this is grayed out and turned off, touch the switch to activate and back out to the home screen, a reboot is not required to make this take effect, but it doesn't hurt to give it one if it makes you happy. This setting will remain until you manually turn it off, I always leave it enabled on my devices.

2. Find the Apps (APIMirror). One of the big problems I had was finding the correct APK's to download, most of the articles I read had linked the appropriate files, which were now being reported as obsolete, I ended up searching them manually on the site. Once I had found the correct services it became necessary to find a working file, due to the obscurities of file versioning and encryption, I ended up with a number of files that were labeled as simply "Parsing Error" when I tried to run them. I ended up taking the oldest versions of the files I could find for the Account Manager and Services Framework, however the newest version of the Play Services and Play Store did work. All I can say here is, start downloading the APK's that look correct and try to install them, if the work out they'll update themselves to the correct version and you're good to go.

The following are links to the version list of each service you'll need, in the order of install:

Google Account Manager

Google Services Framework

Google Play Services

Google Play Store

3. When you have the files downloaded, go into your downloads (either open the Downloads section of Silk, the default browser, or open Docs and go into 'Files') and launch each one in sequence, starting with the Account Manager, and ending with the Play Store. If you get one that gives you a parsing error, get a different APK and try again; if you cannot find one that works you may as well quit, you will need all 4 of these running in order to get the Play store working.

With Play installed and your credentials entered you'll now be able to install Chrome, Gmail, Youtube, and pretty much every other app you actually want to use. There should be no danger of anything going wrong in this process, but I'm not responsible for your chimp fingers hitting the wrong sequence of keys and bricking your tablet!

Deadly 30

Deadly 30 is a bit of a conundrum for me, I like the game a lot, but I don't know if my likes outweigh the problems I have with it. On the positive side, it's fun, it's got a neat concept, and it's definitely cheap; on the down side, it's a major resource hog, it's not very long or diverse, and I don't care for the control scheme.

The game is a WWII side scrolling zombie survival shooter, you start out as an American infantryman (machine gun) but as you progress you pick up other survivors, a Russian sniper (rifle), and a German officer (shotgun). You plod through a few different zones collecting scraps to create new weapons, ammunition, and general upgrades, returning to your base each night to fend off an attack. Rinse, repeat.

Decent looking for the price.

Although the game is fun, there isn't much variety to it, only a couple of different screens, and it can get frustrating as there doesn't seem to be a very good balance to it, I would almost call the difficulty curve broken. Biggest complaint I have though is that the game is a resource hog; the graphics and action are well done in this game, but considering this is a sidescroller, I am consistently amazed by how it bogs my laptop down. The game does warn you of this, but that does little to prepare you for the experience.

I'm going to give this a 7/10, I've gotten more enjoyment out of it than frustration and it is cheap, but this game is definitely not without its flaws. Deadly 30 gets a hesitant recommendation from me.

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition

Not much to be said for Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition, one of the finest games of the 90's (can't say how much time I burnt playing Duke Nukem 3D), with possibly the worst sequel in the history of gaming.

If you have a nostalgia fit and need to play an old school game this one will fit the bill nicely, same old game with updated graphics and physics to match. Word of warning though, if you have no nostalgia for this title, I doubt this game will make you a believer.

8/10, I replayed the entire game several times after picking this up, but not because of anything it's adding to the genre, play this one for the memories and relive the dawn of FPS gaming. If you're approaching this as a brand new IP I'd rate it as 4/10 at most.

Gratuitous Tank Battles

Having already played Gratuitous Space Battles I was pretty sure what I'd be getting from Gratuitous Tank Battles and starting it up offered even less than I hoped for. If you like tower defence games with no character this game is made for you.

Place your turrets along a road and watch them chew up the bad guys who come marching along. There are a multitude of units that can be placed, ranging from infantry to heavy guns, and you can customize the units, but at the end of the day there is little flavour in this, it's strictly roughage to pass time with.

Pictured: A big pile of meh!

The great tower defence games I've played have offered something beyond the core gameplay, usually humour, that keeps me wanting to play. The game looks ok, but by design it doesn't have a lot of graphics going on, same as soundtrack. I'm not holding this against the game, but I am saying it didn't thrill me.

I'm going to go 6/10, the game does what it wants to, and if that's what you're looking for then this game delivers. If you're looking for more, like a story, you'd best just do the walk on by.

Back to the Future

The Back to the Future series are Telltale games, which,  honestly, should tell you everything you need to know: It's a story driven point and click adventure that you'll pay a little bit too much for, even if you find it on sale.

To be honest, I'm a fan of Telltale, they make good games and obviously put a lot of love into them, which Back to the Future is an excellent example of, even if the price is higher than I'd like. You play through different areas from the movie getting a chance to experience the it in a depth that was previously impossible.

What's not to love? Apparently, according to me anyway, the price is what's not to love, so let me explain: the price they charge is more in line with big title action games, not quite CoD money,  but more than you'd expect to pay for a casual game, which pretty much where point and clicks fall. My opinion is that Telltale pays too much for their licenses, but it could just be their decision to gouge a bit, I don't know.

If you're not a fan of the movie series this may not be for you; the game is full accessible even if you've never seen the movies, but I think it requires some of that context to fully immerse the player. I'll do 7/10 for this one, I've enjoyed it, but it's not cheap, and there is a slight accessibility/engagement issue, but if you like point and click adventures, this is an excellent example of the medium.