Seasonal theme, “25 days of Angry Birds” until Christmas, Game Center support, new achievements. 99 cents in the App Store. Looks like a nice update.
From Ars Technica’s interview with John Carmack:
If there’s one thing that’s holding developers from creating full-featured game experiences on iOS, that would be battery life.
A few weeks ago we saw the first screenshots of the next version of The Incident, which will allow you to mirror the game on your TV and control it with your iPhone. Admittedly, the iPhone can serve as a great “external” controller, even better than when you’re using it to control and play at the same time because you don’t have the actual game covered by your fingers. With a small multi-touch surface in your hands, the possibilities for TV gaming are endless.
The next version of Chopper for Mac, Chopper 2, will allow for a similar setup, although the TV isn’t involved this time. Instead, Chopper 2 will let you pair your iPhone with your Mac and control the game on your computer using the accelerometer and multi-touch technology on your iPhone. The demo video below gives you a brief preview of what’s coming, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Mac games that will be published in the Mac App Store will take advantage of this pairing technology or not.
What’s for sure is, the iPhone can be a great game controller. Read more
I never had the chance to play the original ChuChu Rocket! 10 years ago on the SEGA Dreamcast. I didn’t have a Dreamcast back then. In fact, I think I was playing with the PSX back in 2000, and I’m sure I had a Game Boy Color. A few years later I bought the GBA, a Game Cube and a PS2 – but I never bothered grabbing a Dreamcast to check out the gems released by SEGA and other 3rd party developers. I regret that, mostly because I’m still lacking knowledge in true masterpieces such as Shenmue (although this one’s been re-released on the Xbox) or Jet Set Radio.
Luckily enough for me, looks like iOS devices are somehow here to save the day and allow us to re-enjoy games first appeared years ago and now ready to come to life again under the power of multi-touch. That’s exactly what’s happening with ChuChu Rocket! HD for iPad: released a decade ago and subsequently redesigned to appear on the Game Boy Advance, the game’s now running on the iPad taking advantage of its larger screen and touch controls.
So why is this a Weekly Game anyway? Because it’s as genius as it was 10 years ago, and it’s a truly addictive puzzle game. Read more
Frankly, I saw this coming: with all the offers and deals that have started to pop up in the App Store since last week, the rapid arise of games in the App Store charts doesn’t come as a surprise at all. Still, the results and numbers are noteworthy: while counting all the games in the App Store is nearly impossible (at least basing on official data, which Apple doesn’t provide), we can simply take a look at the “Top Paid Apps” and “Top Grossing Apps” charts to see what happened.
Games are dominating the Thanksgiving week in the App Store. Especially on the iPhone App Store, where at the moment of writing this only 26 apps out of the top 100 are non-games apps. The fact that we refer to them as “non-games apps” also tells a lot about the environment Apple created. The situation is slightly different on the iPad App Store (“only” 40,000 apps, newer platform) but the trend is just about the same on both the stores. Games are selling like hotcakes, huge discounts or not. Read more
So you’re downloading iOS 4.2.1 for your iPad and the Apple TV is waiting an iOS 4.2 as well, but what about the Mac today? Well, there’s no software update in sight, but at least you can give it some Grand Theft Auto love.
As we previously reported, today Rockstar released GTA Trilogy for Mac, a package that contains the original GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas – all capable of running natively on your Mac. Read more
If this is just an experiment, both from a pricing and technical standpoint, then I wonder what we’ll be able to play on a 3.5-inch screen in 2 years. The iOS gaming scene couldn’t be more promising.
In case you missed the whole story: Rage HD is available at $1.99 in the App Store, and it’s mind-blowing.
Just as promised two days ago, Firemint released Flight Control HD for Mac today. The game is available at 3,99 Euros via Steam, and it’s been published under the SteamPlay label so you’ll be able to play it both on a Mac and a PC – without having to buy it twice.
You’re an air traffic controller at an increasingly busy airport; just point and drag aircraft to their landing zones with your mouse or trackpad. Sounds easy? It isn’t! You’ll need nerves of steel and smart strategy to keep the chaos under control. Flight Control HD has been especially redesigned for PC and Mac, with updated graphics and an even tougher new challenge – the Steam exclusive Stunt map where you can increase your score by flying through the gates before landing!
The Mac version of Flight Control comes with an exclusive map and also features Steam achievements and leaderboards. Flight Control HD is coming to the Mac App Store as well.
This summer, there was this friend of mine at the camping – Marco – who regularly came asking for my iPhone 4 to play one game: Zen Bound 2. He had become addicted to it since I first showed the app to him, and he turned out to be so good at covering creepy wood shapes with paint that I had to make him stop. Seriously, I uninstalled the app.
For those who of you unaware of the total awesomeness of Zen Bound 2, here’s the gist: in this game you have to wrap a rope around wood objects, the rope covers them with paint, you have to cover objects with a certain percentage of paint to complete a level. Absurd, simple. A must-have available at $2.99 for iPhone and iPad with Game Center support and Retina graphics. Read more
