If you feel that your Apple device is a bit lacking in Samurai themed tower defence games, then the good folks at Sega have come up with something to fill that rather specific niche. Samurai Bloodshow has been released onto the App Store today, and is priced at $1.99 for your iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone.
The game task players with building an army of sorcerers, warriors, and, for better or for worse, scantily clad samurai (presumably female!). That unlikely pairing aside, feudal Japan needs defending, and with 100 different levels on offer, Samurai Bloodshow certainly offers a lot of bang for your buck. Winning battles unlocks more powerful units, although the cashed up amongst you can buy them instead.
Multiplayer is via Bluetooth connection and online, with the latter offering up a ‘mystery opponent’ to test your strategic skills against.
So if the above tweaks your interest, that’s $1.99 for Samurai BloodShow, now available on the App Store. Happy defending!
Americans are just plain ugly! Well, at least in Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon they are. Backbone Entertainment alongside 345 Games made the game available for the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on August 31. Enjoy a fast pace action shooter that can be played co-op online and locally.
With their world drawing near to its end, our common day heroes from the New York’s Department of Integration must find the cause of terror and stop it in its tracks. Play as Mark Lilly, Callie Maggotbone, Leonard Powers, or Frank Grimes and unleash your own version of hell on any opponent. By picking up random objects in the world, your arsenal of weapons can be anywhere from throwing baseballs to launching rockets.
Remember its Ugly Americans: Apocalysegeddon. If you spelled it wrong, you are probably right.
Enjoy the trailer, and don’t forget to buy this game! (HERE) – Xbox 360 (800 MSP)
EA interactive has a whole line of summer releases for those of us going into holidays and eager for new apps to pass our time. After all, there’s nothing quite like tanning on the beach while playing on your iPhone. They’ve got a great range coming out as well, so no matter your taste there’s sure to be something that’ll catch your eye.
First off, for the sports nuts out there who like them some American football, there’s Madden NFL 12. It boasts the best game so far, with improved graphics, real teams, and over 2,500 real NFL players. Plus, if you have Origin mobile, you can play with your favourite NFL teams for a place on the leaderboard. There’s various Madden modes, ranging from a 16-game season, to replaying the 2010/2011 playoffs.
For those of you who are less about moving around football players as moving around little cartoon characters, there’s SPY Mouse (which I’ve written on before). Move around mazes, gathering cheese and avoiding murderous felines. For those Aussies out there, SPY Mouse is the work of Australian developers Firemint so show your patriotism to our fellow Aussies and give this cute special agent a go.
Finally, there’s the game for those gourmet connoisseurs’ who love to practice their skills on iOS. Restaurant City: Gourmet Edition lets you own your own restaurant, cook your own meals, and gourmet them up as much as you want in terms of decorations or ethnicity. Live out your restaurant-owning dreams without the fear of bankruptcy to restrict your menu or restaurant decorations!
Madden and Restaurant City are available on iPhone, iTouch and iPad while SPY Mouse is available on iPhone and iTouch. The prices are as follows:
Madden NFL 12 is $7.49
SPY Mouse is $0.99
Restaurant City is FREE
So go get your apps, whether your taste falls in sports, cute cartoon character puzzles, or simulation restaurants!
*update – click here for an in-depth preview of the game*
The Neverwinter RPG franchise is taking an interesting turn, with Atari’s next release in the series coming in the shape of a Facebook game – Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter.
Heroes of Neverwinter will follow the 4th edition ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons, utilising the Facebook platform to provide players with bite size chunks of classic RPG gameplay. The social networking aspect of the platform will allow for plenty of additional features, with friends able to have their character and abilities in another player’s game without actively being present – the usual Facebook style asynchronous multiplayer.
The adventure will begin in the city of Neverwinter, with players able to select a pre rolled character or dive into the character creator to build their own customised adventurer. This is one of the many ways in which the developers seem to be trying to draw in both the die hard RPG fans and the casual Facebook crowd – and it’s an admirable goal. The gameplay is designed to be easy to pick up and play (a point and click interface, for example) yet deep enough to satisfy the more hardcore gaming crowd. On that note, dungeon masters will be happy to hear that Heroes of Neverwinter will allow players to design their own adventures for friends, with in game achievements unlocking more tools for the dungeon creator toolset – the more you play, the more you get to play with.
It’s a big ask to pack something like a Neverwinter game into the Facebook platform, but Atari and Liquid Entertainment look to be doing their very best to pull it off. Now I’m no D&D fanatic, but the consensus seems to be that the 4th edition ruleset focuses more on the combat mechanics than previous ones, so is conveniently ideal for such an adaptation.
The closed beta is running now, with the open hitting sometime around the 15 September, so head over to the game’s Facebook page for more info! You never know, you might meet someone from Capsule Computers wandering around in there…
So is something like this possible to pull off on Facebook? Personally I’ve never played anything on it, yet am really interested to see how this one turns out. Sound out in the comments section below, and stay tuned for a preview!
*update – click here for an in-depth preview of the game*
I dont know what to say to Bethesda studios that would even express my gratitude towards them except a very large thank you from the bottom of my farmville hating heart and soul. While countless major gaming studios are following the social gaming trend and doing the whole facebook thing, here is a studio that represents gaming incarnate, confident that their hardcore fans have very little interest in seeing their beloved high end core titles represented on social media platforms. In a recent interview with Gamesindustry, Bethesda’s Pete Hines is adamant that the company isnt “interested in chasing the next big thing, and would continue to cater to the blockbuster market.”
Bethesda are very aware of the current trends in the gaming market but are also very confident in their own abilities, know their own specialities and resources and act accordingly. The bulk of Hines remarks give a strong indication that the studio plans to stick to its current IP at least in terms of genre rather than try to branch into markets on platforms where they lack expertise. Bethesda boasts a very repectable resume of top selling highly rated titles including Fallout and Skyrim as well as promoting Rage and obtaining Dishonoured and a sequel to Prey.
Despite Bethesda’s plan to keep their popular titles off current social media platforms such as Facebook and Smartphone App stores, they are not ignorant to the popularity enjoyed on these systems. While giving praise to a lot of the ideas and game developers, Hines makes note that its just not in Bethesdas interest to get involved and try and compete. Using the Nintendo DS as an example Hines says “We had the same thing a couple of years ago with the DS and everybody running after the DS and creating social games and games for girls, and now it’s shifted from, ‘Oh, we’re going to put out lots of stuff for the DS or the PSP,’ now it’s Facebook and social gaming and iPhone.
Bethesda instead plans to continue to publish only a handful of high -quality PC and Console releases each year, rather than moving into areas and platforms they dont specialise in. Just to emphasis this fact Hines says “It’s not what our company was created to do, it’s not what we aspire to do. We want to focus on three or four big releases a year. Games that when they come out and you’re like, ‘I can’t wait to play that.’
The author apologises to the feelings of any IOS, Android or social media title that potentially had their feelings hurt. The author is old, bitter and twisted and doesnt have the patience to learn new platforms when the old ones aint broke. Bethesda we’re not worthy.
In the age of Apple and Iphone domination, its nice to see a competitive product that is easily differentiated in design, concept and feel, that can try and stand up to the white army. Yes I realise there are other brands out there, but when you see a Nokia you can tell its a Nokia. Their latest range of smartphones such as the E7 and N8 are stylish and sleek in design and have a certain appeal that in my opinion is not present in many other major competitors smarthphones.
Nokia continue their line of smartphones with the introduction of the “all screen” Nokia N9 smartphone, powered by the MeeGo OS, a sway away from the Symbian 3 platform used in the majority of their current models. Featuring the same AMOLED screen as the N8, the Clearblack display will ensure clearer more vivid contrast ratios and colours. The N9 casing is tough as nails, using the same material as ice hockey helmets with bled through paint meaning colours will remain intact even when scratching occurs.
Nokia have also continued with their theme of simplicity, incorporating three homepages neatly arranged on a spinning carousel style system. The large 3.9″ screen can be pinched and zoomed at will to show either four or nine open Apps which are located on the main hompage. The other two relate to such functions as the calendar, calling and texting.
I am hoping for Nokias sake that the camera is as good as that which was incorporated on the N8, as this surely should be the benchmark for the industry. It looks at least as though the protruding lens has been done away with to maintain the slim new look of the design. The N9 will come with an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a wide angle lens with HD video capture and large lens aperture for better performance in low lighting conditions. It also features NPC technology, allowing users to transfer information between devices by simply touching them together.
Just to add the icing to the cake the N9 is eligible for Nokias turn by turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance and Nokia store gicing you access to any app you should require.
Here are a few quotes from some big names in the industry, namely Optus and Telstra, but it should give you an idea of what to expect from this new addition to the Nokia family of smartphones.
“It’s clear that Nokia fans have something quite special to look forward to in the Nokia N9,” said Andrew Volard, director, Telstra Mobile Products. “It’s fast, simple to navigate and features a beautiful design that sets the N9 apart in a crowded smarpthone market. We’re looking forward to making it available to our customers on Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile network.”
“The Nokia N9 is where form meets function- this is a sleek, stylish and highly intuitive smartphone, offering customers a device that looks as good as it feels,” said Ross Parker, general manager of Devices and Pricing at Vodafone. “The N9 will be Nokia’s flagship device for 2011 with good reason, and we are thrilled to be delivering the N9 to our customers on Australia’s best value mobile plan range, Vodafone Infinite.”
Those wanting to register for the N9 can goto Nokia.com.au/N9
Telstra customers can register their interest on Telstra.com/N9
Colours available for the 16Gb include black, blue and pink while the 64Gb will only be available in black. Anyone interested in any of the models should contact their network provider to discuss availability.
For all those NFL gaming fans out there, the wait is over for this year’s installment as copies hit retail stores across Australia today. You can purchase it for 360, PS3 as well as on the Android and iOS Marketplaces!
With an all new collision and Player Dynamic system, this year’s edition promises to offer extensive improvements upon all areas of the game and we can’t wait to get our hands on a copy. Players are said to be more unique than ever with styles changing in accordance with the progress of the match.
Madden NFL 12 was the first title to use EA Sport’s Season Ticket program. Season Ticket subscribers were provided full digital access to Madden NFL 12 three days before retail launch, something EA will apparently integrate into other titles in the future.
Madden is putting you closer to the action than ever before, and we’ll have our review out as soon as possible so keep your eyes open.
Sony Computer Entertainment Australia today revealed a PlayStation 3 sales surge of over 400% in the week following the implementation of the recent price drop across the 160GB and 320GB models in Australia. This is based on official NPD Group Australia sales data from retailers, collected from around the country.
“This new price point really represents fantastic value for money as PlayStation 3 delivers full HD games, Blu-ray capability, plus music, movies, catch-up TV and more on demand,” said Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia.
“Australians love not only games, but also the quality home entertainment PS3 provides. Sales are booming because PlayStation 3 is the best device to connect to your TV, at incredible value, to provide the ultimate home entertainment experience.”
The new recommended retail price of the cutting-edge entertainment device, PlayStation 3, at just RRP $349.95 for 160GB and RRP $449.95 for 320GB model, represents a significant saving of approximately $150 on the former recommend retail price. It was effective in-stores on 22 August, 2011.
The sales momentum is set to continue in the lead up to Christmas with the release of highly anticipated blockbuster titles such as Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Resistance 3 as well as PlayStation Move enabled titles such as DanceStar Party from the creators of the smash hit SingStar.
High octane shooter Bodycount has been released in Australia and New Zealand, battering it’s way on to shelves in an effort to take it’s place amongst the already packed FPS genre. Codemasters latest seems to be going for a light hearted approach, with the emphasis being on how fun it is to blow stuff up rather than any world/universe endangering crisis. Indeed the plot details stretch as far as “fight on behalf of The Network to bring down the mysterious ‘Target’.”
So it’s all about no nonsense, shoot ’em up fun – no bad thing! The release trailer isn’t exactly subtle about it, and shows off the overpowered weaponry, destructible environments and super intense gun battles. The main campaign is of course backed up with both a co-op and competitive multiplayer, where the destructible environments should add a nice element of strategy to taking down your foes.
Bodycount looks like a fun title, so it will be interesting to see if a new FPS can make a dent in the market. For more info on the game check out it’s offical Facebook page.
If you happen to live in Australia and have been holding out on getting a 3DS, you might want to wait just a couple weeks longer as Nintendo have announced that the region would indeed be receiving the Flame Red 3DS on September 22nd.
So far, the available colors to choose from have been Aqua and Black, but thankfully the big N made a small statement today that confirmed the new shade will be gracing store shelves in the coming weeks. If you are reading this and are in the U.S. however, you just have a little over a week to go as the Flame Red 3DS hits American shops on September 9th. So what color will you/do you own?
