Based on the popular Fighting Fantasy gamebooks released in the 80s, Sorcery by Steve Jackson Games returns as a dynamic iOS game. The team at Inkle spent some time with us at PAX to show us how this new Sorcery experience works. Read More
Lots of great game series fizzle out after a few too many sequels, but some just go off the rails entirely due to a mistake in judgement on the part of the developers. Just look at EA’s recent SimCity launch on PC for a great example of how to disappoint your game’s fan base. Last year, Gameloft plunged a little too quickly into freemium monetization with Dungeon Hunter 3, a game that took a big step away from what made the series great: epic exploration and storytelling. Dungeon Hunter 4, available in April, brings back the plot-driven exploration, but also keeps the freemium model.
Alien vs. Predator: Evolution now has a launch date! According to Fox Digital Entertainment, it’ll be available on iOS and Android next Thursday, February 28. From our experience, that means it’ll actually hit the US App Store the night before. AvP: Evolution seemed a little rough around the edges when we played the preview, but it still looks nice, and has an ambitious alien life-cycle hook that could support a fun single-player campaign.
Oceanhorn is an upcoming action RPG from Cornfox & Brothers and FDG Entertainment. If you want to get excited about the game, all you need to do is look at the screenshots and watch the early gameplay footage below. But there’s a lot more to Oceanhorn than just good looks. We recently chatted with designer/artist/creative director Heikki Repo about the game, and he has us pretty excited to get our hands on it when it launches later this year. Read on for the goods. Read More
To coincide with the release of a new video detailing the game’s control scheme, lead developer Ben Cousins chatted with members of the press to share more information about his upcoming free-to-play shooter The Drowning. Watch the video if you haven’t already, and then read ahead to find out more.
After yesterday’s surprising announcement that Real Racing 3 has moved to a freemium model, we were curious about how this would change the feel of the landmark racing series. Now that we’ve spent some time playing the final version of the game, and had our questions answered by the developers from Fire Monkeys, we’re confident that Real Racing 3 will live up to its predecessors, with just a few annoying pay-gates– especially if you’re a reckless driver.
In a year of big-name console ports like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi, plus original mobile games based on popular brands like Total War Battles and Sonic Jump, one of Sega’s biggest iOS hits is based on a new IP: Kingdom Conquest. Sega told us that the original freemium game, which combines card-battling, city-building, and dungeon-crawling, now brings in an average of $100 from players. This means that while many users play it for free, there are some big spenders who break the bank trying to build up their virtual city and army. Read More
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes has already lived two lives. The game is a unique puzzle/ strategy RPG that first came out for the Nintendo DS in 2010. The following year it was reborn as an HD game on the downloadable stores for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game’s third life begins on January 24, when it comes to the App Store as a universal app for $4.99. We’ve already taken it for a spin on the iPad; read on for the details. Read More
One of the effects of having the App Store serve as a living museum of classic videogames is that controversy becomes quaint with the passage of time. Games like Doom and Carmageddon were shockingly violent when they were first released on PC, but on iOS, they look more like relics from a long-gone past. Shadow Warrior, which was 3D Realms’ follow-up to Duke Nukem 3D in 1997, is a low-res throwback where the pixels stand out more than the blood spatters. Read More
The original Ravensword was a landmark iOS game– a 3D, open-world RPG made just for mobile devices. At GDC back in March, we had a chance to go hands-on with the highly-anticipated sequel, Ravensword 2. Like we did with Crescent Moon’s last major RPG, Aralon, we want to give you an updated preview of Ravensword 2 by taking you on a tour of the first hour of gameplay. Read More
StarFox-style space combat sims are in pretty short supply on the App Store, and besides recent gems like Arc Squadron, it’s been hard to find a good 3D pick-up-and-play iOS game with lots of lasers and photon torpedoes. BlastPoints from Pub Games is an upcoming, Unreal-powered space shooter that seems to meet a very particular need for action gamers. It doesn’t have much in the way of characters or a story, but it’s got plenty of action. Read More
Gameloft’s Modern Combat series lets you chart the evolution of the iOS platform over the years. From our first encounter with Modern Combat: Sandstorm in 2009, to the sequels Black Pegasus and Fallen Nation in 2010 and 2011, we’ve watched the series add more features and graphical fidelity to bring it closer to its console inspiration, Call of Duty. Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour feels largely identical in terms of gameplay, but as our run through the first level demonstrates, there’s a lot more going on in the periphery. Read More