Sep 22, 2009
The wildly popular iPhone / iPod touch racing franchise from Gameloft is back, & everything’s been pushed to max speed! Drive over 30 licensed cars & motorbikes from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati and more in 15 locations. Challenge yourself with 8 different racing events, from drift contest to chase mode, and varied track surfaces including ice, mud and snow. You can even challenge friends in Bluetooth and Online Multiplayer modes, then upload your greatest victories directly to YouTube!
The game features:

• Get behind the wheel of over 30 vehicles from prestigious manufacturers (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi, Ducati)
• Race in 12 unique locations including St. Tropez, Aspen and Las Vegas, with varied track surfaces, short cuts and spectacular jumps.
• Upload replays to YouTube and show off your best times on the leaderboard.
• Bluetooth and Online Multiplayer: Chat with opponents in online lobbies before the race, take part in tournaments and in the Asphalt Academy!
• Purchase new tracks and cars via the downloadable content system.
• Play your own music from your iPod/iPhone library during the race!

Highly polished HD graphics let you see every detail and animation of the track as you speed over snow, mud, dirt and more in 12 beautiful locations around the world including St. Tropez, Aspen and Las Vegas. Discover hidden shortcuts and jump off ramps! Six-player Bluetooth and Online Multiplayer lets you compete against friends and anyone around the world in tournaments and join the Asphalt Academy on asphalt-5.com. Speed your way to the top of the online leaderboard! Tune your car radio to play your favorite songs stored on your iPhone/iPod touch during the race and let the music move you.
The game should be released in the beginning of next month!


www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLsNV36vQrg
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• Best graphics of any baseball simulation on the App Store with all 3D players and stadiums
• Lifelike animations when batting, pitching or catching and also features an innovative gauge to use for batting so swings can be even more accurate and powerful
• iTunes Music Library access
• Delivers intense realism thanks to audio commentary, sound effects and spectator reactions to your plays

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pramOefl18

The game features:

• 4 SINGLEPLAYER MODES: Single Race, Tournament, Challenges and Arena modes
• LOCAL MULTIPLAYER MODE: Challenge your friends to eat your dust via Wi-Fi (with up to 6 players) and Bluetooth (2 players)!
• MILES OF RACING FUN with 19 cups in the Tournament mode and 72 challenges to face!
• 10 UNIQUE KARTS: Each character has custom built his or her own vehicle, each with a special ability and different characteristics.
• 11 DEFENSIVE & OFFENSIVE POWER-UPS: Drop the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon on an opponent or shoo away those Angry Bees by wiping off the screen with your finger!
• 15 TRACKS (12 Speedways & 3 Arenas): Beautiful 3D environments from throughout the Kingdom, from Shrek’s home in The Swamp to the palm-lined streets of Far Far Away.
• MORE THAN 10 PLAYABLE CHARACTERS: Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Ogre Triplets, Puss In Boots, Gingy, 3 Little Pigs, Pinocchio, Big Bad Wolf and the Ghost of Lord Farquaad!
• iPod LIBRARY ACCESS: Rock out to your own personal soundtrack while you speed towards the Finish Line! (Works with the OS 3.0 software update.)

Race Happily Ever After!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLxYSkJ_0Bc
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Here’s a description of what’s in store!
Nick Chase, a hard-boiled Private Investigator, is in need of a job. Lucky for him, one arrives from a man known only as The Collector. Solve a variety of puzzles and find hidden clues to uncover the mystery behind the missing manuscript penned by Leonardo Di Vinci. Explore gorgeous hand drawn scenes with a gritty film noir style in this one of a kind Adventure game where everyone is a suspect!

The game features:

• Plays like an interactive film noir graphic novel
• Use your own detective skills to find evidence and solve puzzles
• Beautiful hand drawn scenes
• Exciting film noir setting
• Listen to your iPod library while playing with fully integrated OS3 music controls

iPhone Ace Combat plays pretty much how you’d expect it to, but for a series that’s as huge on control and precision as Ace Combat it’s awesome to see that Project Aces managed to squeeze all the controls from the main game into the tiny platform.

Despite the small size of the elements on the screen, Bozon reports the buttons were 100% accurate. Tilt controls were solid but no options for sensitivity were found on this build. The demo mission offered to TGS attendees was a basic dog-fighting round. In the end, the game was described as looking “very, very, good”.

Sep 16, 2009
Ace Combat XI from Namco has been announced today for iPhone and the first screenshots had appeared in the web. There is no any details yet however it seems the game might be interesting especially considering the fact that it’s coming from Namco.

Ace Combat is an arcade style Flight Action video game series published by the Japanese company Namco Bandai Games. Emphasizing action and dramatic plots over complete reality, the series has established itself in Japan, and the world as a prime example of the pseudo realistic flight action genre.
The games of the series all take place in the same fictionalized world populated with fictional countries with details loosely based on real-life location, events, and wars. One of the main selling points of the series is the ability to pilot a range of aircraft that include slightly modified representations of present day military aircraft, prototypes that never saw actual battle, and completely fictional boss-type superweapons. Long time fans of the series are rewarded with small hints of the continuity between the games, as some characters and events are referenced from one game to another.

We’ll follow the games information as it will appears and publish a detailed review after the game will be released.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK85HDdir6w
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Depending on the track surface and weather, a variety of dust, spray, and even dirt particles will be generated for each individual tire. The various kinds of particles act quite differently. On dry, dusty tracks the car leaves a massive cloud of dust while racing through a forest on a rainy day you can literrally see the mud flying.
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Thanks to the high-powered 3D chips (OpenGL graphics acceleration) in the iPhone, we can light the vehicle in a variety of ways, depending on the weather: with lots of light and shadows when it’s sunny, diffuse when the sky is overcast, and correspondingly dim in rain and storm.

The game will include 27 courses and weather effects for sun, rain, and snow. No official release date yet announced, but the game should be out in one of the two upcoming months.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8Y__e_dWI
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• ACHIEVE VICTORY WITH TOUCH-SCREEN POWER

Drag and scroll to gauge the battlefield. Pinch-zoom in and out of the action. Select and move units with a tap. Control multiple units at once!

• CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE FACTION

Fight for Soviet domination or battle to restore peace with the Allies. Deploy military might unique to each side and engage in different campaign storylines.

• BATTLE THROUGH 12 COMBAT LEVELS

Fight in Skirmish Mode on two different battlefield maps with war squads you create and control.

• MANAGE TROOPS ON REALISTIC BATTLEFIELDS

Command units in different environmental conditions. Build your base and manage supplies with a new easy-to-use combat system.

• ARM YOURSELF FOR WAR

Employ classic units like Kirov Air Ships and new units like the Paladin Tank. Or R&D new technologies to destroy your enemies.

Command & Conquer Red Alert (iPhone/iPod touch) will be available in the App Store on October 23rd.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB6Tz7kfZy8

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Oct 1, 2009
Pocketgamer has recently taken an interview with Crescent Moon Games revealing new details and exclusive screenshots from their upcoming open world game Ravensword: The Fallen King:

Can you tell us how the adventure kicks off?
In Ravensword, you enter a world where people are afraid to leave their houses at night – a mysterious power has overcome the king, and you awake from a coma to find out that you have no belongings, and no identity. You start exploring and building up your character to find out who you are.
There looks to be a wide variety of environments from snowy fields to castles to creepy caves… can you tell us about some of these environments?
You start off in a town, the town of Aven (which is also my son’s name). There are mountains, forests, rivers, lava, cliffs, caves, dungeons and other areas to explore. You can go everywhere – you aren’t limited with barriers when you are in a specific area. It feels like a large world. Everything is physics-based, so there are objects that you can move or knock over.
What role-playing games have inspired you in the development process? Have you taken more from console and PC titles or competitors on iPhone and other handhelds?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fable, Gothic, The Legend of Zelda would be the biggest influences on this game. I liked some of the RPG elements of Oblivion, but like the puzzles and missions of the Zelda series. We tried to do a little bit of both and I feel as if we’ve created a miniature version of a classic 3D adventure/RPG game. Some of the mini-games in Ravensword: The Fallen King directly mirror some of the Zelda mini-games, though there will be a few surprises. We didn’t look at any other iPhone games in the construction of our game, it was purely influenced by those titles that I mentioned (and our own imagination of course!).
How important is story? Is there more emphasis placed on exploration and combat or does it get equal billing?
The story is just as important as exploring. You need to follow the story to access certain areas, but you could continue to level up in the lands surrounding the town and keep playing that way if you wish. To obtain the magical runes in the game, you need to follow at least part of the story. In my opinion the runes are the most fun. They allow you to perform some bits of magic, which will be expanded upon in updates and the expansion pack.
What has been the greatest challenge in bringing an open-world 3D role-playing game to iPhone?
Figuring out how to ‘break up’ the world was a very difficult issue that we struggled with early on. We decided it was best to break the game up into different areas connected by portals. It will truly seem like a massive world when you first explore it. When you go between areas, there will be a loading screen. Loading time depends on [what] your phone is – obviously the older phones will take longer, but it’s not bad at all.
That bring us to device compatibility. So we will we be able to play it on first generation iPhone and iPod touch. Will the game launch with firmware 2.2.1 support?
This version will support 2.2.1. You can play on the older devices, but it won’t be as smooth as when played on an iPhone 3GS or iPod touch. This will also help us in developing Ravensword Online, which we plan for next year.
Will Ravensword integrate Open Feint or any other network platforms for achievements and such?
We will be working to integrate Chillingo’s Crystal SDK into Ravensword, as we have signed on with Chillingo to publish the game.
Given that iPhone is a mobile device and role-playing games require a significant time investment, how have you tackled the issue of portability? How are games saved?
It’s a large area to explore, but every time you exit the game, you can continue exactly where you left off. You could play for five minutes, exit out, and not have to worry about it. You can just pick up with what you were doing, check your missions to see if you have any to work on.
How have you approached the issue of control? In other words, what makes the analogue stick and camera controls in Ravensword work, feel natural?
The controls were refined over a long period of time, as far as character movement goes. Tilting up and down controls looking up and down in the game. Movement on the control pad controls forward movement and turning, and even someone (such as my wife) who had never played the game before said it was very easy to control.
Is there any interest in pursuing a PSP mini version of DSiWare iteration of Ravensword?
We will consider it after the release to the App Store, but right now its not on our list of priorities.
Finally, when do you expect to submit the game to Apple and at what price?
It should be submitted October 15th to the App store, pending anything major doesn’t come up at the very end. The price will be under $7, but we haven’t decided the exact number yet.

Sep 27, 2009
Previously independently developed Ravensword will now be published by Chillingo, and submitted to the App Store by October 15 (to be released a few weeks after that, if the approval process goes smoothly). Ravensword Online, the MMO update slated for next year, will also use Chillingo’s Crystal network.

Sep 14, 2009
Crescent Moon Games has just released the first gameplay trailer for their upcoming anticipated 3D Action RPG Ravensword: The Fallen King. Ravensword will have an open world with a main quest line that will take about 6 hours to complete, along with a hefty amount of side quests to also keep you busy in the games world. Crescent Moon Games reports they are close to completion of the game and estimate the submission date of September 30th. The game will have close to 50 different characters and is described as a “massive sandbox environment” so that you can explore it as you please. The trailer includes both cinematics as well as actual gameplay footage. Shortly after the release of the game an expansion pack will be announced.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrDW5Dh3pCU