Feelin’ lazy? Dial GARMIN (427646) from your Ocean, Fin or Mysto and hit OK to jump directly to the download page. Already got it? Go into Settings > Route View > 3D to switch over.

Update: After reading some of the comments of it not working, it appears only the Mysto (and I’m assuming the Fin) version of Garmin Mobile have this. The way the Helio store is setup separates the Ocean from other devices because of Ocean’s screen flip function. Hopefully we will see the update mosey on over to the Ocean shortly.

The eternal question everyone asks themselves constantly through the day, what is the Ocean 2 going to be like? While we still don’t know much about this device, we’d like to start seeing what our community wants to know.

Over in our forums we would like our users to post the top 3 to 5 things they’d love to know about the Ocean 2. Don’t be lethargic and say “I WANTZ 2 KNO EVRYTHNG!!1!”. Think about it! New web browser functionality? IM capability? Hardware specs? You name it.

Why are we doing this? There are secret Helio/Virgin Mobile spies lurking around every corner… Well, not quite, but we do know that they read our forums every now and then, and we’d love to see if we can eventually get them to spill some details on this mystery device.

If you’re bored with the pictures, check out the user manual for the Ocean 2. Nothing like reading the manual for something you can’t have yet, eh? Skimming through it gives away a few details (but in no way guarantees a final feature list as it’s an extremely old document– only the basics):

Both have plenty of experience in the industry and will hopefully have some great input on the future of Helio through Virgin Mobile. Read the whole press release HERE.

While the specific release date of the Ocean 2 hasn’t been announced, last night we received an e-mail from Virgin Mobile USA’s PR rep Jayne Wallace telling us the general time frame– the Ocean 2 will be released sometime in the 1st quarter of 2009.

This can be taken as great news and not-so-great news depending on how you look at it. It’s not-so-great for all the current Helions who have been waiting endlessly for the Ocean 2 through all the madness and mayhem that has happened in the past year. It can be taken as great news because there is finally an official source stating when the Ocean 2 is going to drop. Virgin Mobile obviously realized that the Ocean 2 was quickly outdated by the many new phones coming out and wants to work on that aspect of the OZ2.

“The Ocean 2 is not going to be 2008,” Wallace said. “It has been manufactured, and there is a commitment to putting it on the market, but it’s going to be in early 09 … just because the shell has been manufactured doesn’t mean it should be released right now. We want to put it out when it’s the best it can be.” (from PCMag)

In addition to their new slogan, “Helio By Virgin Mobile: Plan To Have It All.”, Virgin Mobile USA also announced a few other interesting things today. The launch of a new Helio integrated handset called the Shuttle, which should be out on September 28th at Best Buy. It wasn’t extremely clear if it was being launched under VM or the ‘Helio by VM’ brand Looks like it will definitely be a VM phone with Helio features. From the newest press release dropped by VM, it says:

“Following Virgin Mobile USA’s recent acquisition of Helio, the Shuttle will be the first handset enabled to integrate several features from the Helio portfolio. This will include improved access to social networking communities and other mobile internet sites through partnerships with Accuweather, ESPN, Facebook*, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo! and more.
The Shuttle is also slated to feature Virgin Mobile’s first location-based services from uLocate including:
— Buddy Beacon, the popular ‘friend-finder’ solution which allows
customers to find friends in a crowded city and show where they are
and what they’re doing; and
— Where, the application that delivers local information to easily
discover nearby places and things of interest such as locating the
lowest gas prices, finding local events, and getting restaurant
recommendations.”

The $80 A-La-Carte plan has also been given a nice update, from 1500 minutes to unlimited. This option will be available for current and future Helions.

A small announcement, but it’s good to hear at least something is happening. Keep things rollin’, VM.

Earlier today, Virgin Mobile USA announced via press release that the acquisition of Helio has been completed.

What does the future hold for current and future Helio subscribers? They are saying everything we currently have + more. Hopefully this stands true, and hopefully this means the release of the long awaited Ocean 2 is just around the corner! Don’t disappoint us, VM.

We also had the chance to do a mini-interview with the Vice-President of Your World Games, Robert Sprogis. To read, click the link at the end of this post!

Heliocity: Please state your name, and what you do at Your World Games.

Robert: Robert Sprogis, I’m the VP and studio head at YWG in charge of game development and pretty much everything else.

Heliocity: How long have you been in the games business? What was the first commercial game that you worked on?

Robert: I’ve been doing this for almost 6 years The Shroud being my first commercial game. Unfortunately we’ve been working on The Shroud for close to 3 years now. The game being as deep and involved as it is resulted in an unusually long dev time, but compounding that were a number of roadblocks that resulted in further delays. As a company we decided to put a hold on any other potential development projects until we were comfortable that we had done everything possible to ensure the success of The Shroud.

Heliocity: Did you always expect to be working somewhere in the gaming/mobile industry?

Robert: No, I expected to be working in PR, journalism or politics. I have a degree in journalism and political science, I also went to law school before helping start Your World Games. Entering the game business was by pure coincidence.

Heliocity: What are some of your favorite games of all time and current favorite games?

Robert: Favorite game of all time, and the game that really got me thinking about the real potential of video games was the PC Privateer series, part of the Wing Commander series. A lot of those games were linear but they still had an open world that assuming you were not on a mission enabled you to go off and do whatever you wanted to do. I thought the freedom to do what you wanted to do in a video game, not having to follow a set game plan was amazing. I would spend hours flying the same trade routes to earn enough cash to upgrade my ships. Current favorites would have to be a tossup between COD4 and Battlefield Bad Company. I’m big into multiplayer online games now. But Oblivion holds a very special place in my heart as being one of the best RPG’s I’ve played in many years, apart from The Shroud of course.

Heliocity: The Shroud’s GPS feature is currently exclusive to Helio’s handsets. Can you explain to the users how the GPS side of the game works, and how to access it?

Robert: There are a couple of ways the GPS portion of the game works. If the user is near a designated GPS hotspot, (YWG uses lat and lon coordinates to create a location in the real world that activates the GPS challenges) the game will tell the user they are near a GPS hotspot and assuming the user follows the on screen instructions they get to experience the fun of a GPS challenge. If however, the player is not near a GPS hotspot and the game does not automatically start a challenge, the user can manually start a challenge by hitting the “9″ key. This will create a random GPS hotspot that will be located within walking distance of the user. Important side note - we have a post on our forums www.yourworldgames.com/forum where players can have YWG add specific GPS hotspots. All we need is the address, city, state and the latitude and longitude coordinates and players can have their house, favorite coffee shop, really anywhere included in the game.

Back to the game, once the player is informed of a GPS hotspot, a compass will pop up on the phone screen directing the player to the GPS hotspot. Once the player physically moves close enough Taro will get warped off to another part of the map, more often than not the hidden north pond where he has to perform some kind of challenge such as catch a fish or find a mineral in the mines. If the player is successful they get a reward. If the player is really lucky they might even get the star flower gem. If the player uses the star flower gem and has enough of them they can stop The Shroud I.E. the black slime from attacking their farm either indefinitely or at least for a few days. For those of you out there that need an ending to the game this is as close as it comes, The Shroud otherwise has no ending and is a persistent game as we can and plan to add new FREE quests periodically.

Heliocity: We’ve heard a bit about downloadable content for The Shroud such as new quests. Can you explain what kind of things you guys will be creating for the game in these updates?

Robert: I hinted to this in the previous question but adding new quests is key to The Shroud. Presently the game has 10+ quests to mess around with however, YWG can add new quests to the game that will not only add new elements of gameplay but also further the story of The Shroud. For those of you who have looked at the game map on our site www.shroudgame.com (check it out) you will have noticed there are 5 mine entrances that presently are not even being used. On top of that Kay and Mel have yet to give out any quests. If we have our way we will have quests that make use of these 5 unused mine areas and introduce Kay and Mel into the mix. It does go without saying though that our incentive to keep adding quests is only there if people keep subscribing to the game. So if people out there enjoy The Shroud and feel there is value in continuing to play, we will continue to reward their loyalty. With that being said we will come out with our first pack of new quests this month! Yes all quests for The Shroud are 100% FREE.

As to the kind of stuff we can add, well we can do anything we want and have the player do again pretty much anything we want. We’ve got a few cool new quests planned for the next pack, and we are going to open up some new areas and introduce a new NPC/quest giver into the mix. With all of that said, we do have a post in our forums www.yourworldgames.com/forum dedicated to the new quests, where players can vote for the type of quests they want to see added. Taking it a bit further we want people to actually write us a message and tell us exactly what they want to see happen. How often are gamers given a voice to have something added into a game they are playing and see those comments taken directly into account. Let me be the first to say, we are listening and I visit the forums daily.

Heliocity: What kind of feedback are you interested in from our users?

Robert: Simple and short answer, any kind of feedback. As a developer good feedback telling us how great the game is, is the kind of stuff we love to see but even constructive critical feedback is welcome. We hope The Shroud does well enough to warrant a second game, of course we plan to learn from any mistakes we made and make a better game.

Heliocity: Are there any plans to bring out any other games from your company to Helio?

Robert: Right now we are 100% committed to supporting The Shroud so we don’t have any new projects presently green lit. I’m hoping that this will change in the coming weeks but as is often the case a lot does depend on the success of The Shroud. If The Shroud does well I see many more revolutionary GPS games on the horizon with Helio playing a key role in our future plans.

Heliocity: Any closing words for the Heliocity users?

Robert: Only that we hope Heliocity users enjoy the game, provide us with useful feedback, tell us what GPS hotspots they would like to see added, as well as what kind of quests they want to play in the future. The more Helio gamers playing The Shroud, the more Your World Games will continue to support the game. This is a symbiotic relationship.

The head of games at Helio, Leo Jun, was kind enough to send us a preview copy of the new Oregon Trail game from Gameloft. Yeah, yeah, I know. Lots of game talk recently, however, there is some cool new stuff upon the horizon.

Most people remember the Oregon Trail from the old Apple II (If you don’t, check out the Wiki article on it). It was probably the best game in the late 80s on that system. If you’ve never played, it revolves around a family traveling along the trail to Oregon back in the 1800s, and you have to hunt for food, avoid diseases, snake bites, drowning while crossing rivers, and essentially getting to Oregon.

Gameloft’s refreshed version definitely does not disappoint. They did an excellent job of reviving the Oregon Trail series, which I was kinda worried about (Since sequels, especially mobile ones aren’t usually great). They kept the core gameplay pretty much the same and added new mini-games, side-quests, and graphics without ruining the classic style of it. I also found some parts of this game hilarious, such as the bear attack animations, the snake bites, and other things I don’t think I should spoil. Everything you would expect and more is there from the original game, such as hunting, and navigating the river when you miraculously make your wagon float and oxen swim. Some new things such as fixing the wagon by whacking nails, and fishing add to the gameplay in a positive way.

This is definitely a hot game so I’ll make a post once it hits the Helio store. It’s just got a few tiny bugs in it, so it shouldn’t be too much longer before it’s released. Stay tuned!