Game News: iOS App Store Sale - Many £0.69/$0.99 bargains to be had!

To celebrate independence day, a few select publishers are selling many games for the iPad and iPhone at the low low price of £0.69/$0.99 on the app store. 

Full list of sale items:

Electronic Arts: (All £0.69 inc. iPad versions) 
Real Racing HD
Real Racing 2 HD

Monopoly Here & Now 

Trivial Pursuit Master Edition 

Burnout Crash 

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 

Dead Space 

Mass Effect Infiltrator 

Monopoly 

Tiger Woods PGA 12 

Need for Speed Shift 2

Sim City Deluxe 

Fifa 11 

Fifa 12 

Madden NFL 12 

NBA Jam 

Reckless Racing 2

Command and Conquer Red Alert 

The Game of Life 

Risk: The official game 

Battleship 

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 

Battlefield Bad Company 2 

Yahtzee HD 

Bop it! 

Max and the Magic Marker 

Need for Speed Shift 

Scrabble 

Mirror's Edge 

Tetris 

The Simpsons Arcade (iPhone) 

R Type (iPhone) 

Warner Bros: (all 69p) 

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 

Batman Arkham City Lockdown

Midway Arcade 

Lego Batman: Gotham City (iPhone) 

Capcom: (All £0.69) 

Megaman X 

Streetfighter IV Volt (iPhone)

Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting 

Ghosts 'N Goblins Gold Knights 

Various (All £0.69): 

Fibble (by Crytek) 

Wind Up Robots 

Super Monkey Ball 2 

Infinity Blade 1 


Non-Game App:
Screens VNC (50% off)

- Ben Carron

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Tech News: Google announces Nexus 7 Tablet

Google's new Nexus 7 Tablet 

Earlier today, Google revealed their first official 7" tablet, the Nexus 7, at their Google I/O conference.


The tablet, made by Asus, will be the first device to debut with the upcoming Android 4.1 release 'Jellybean'. Google will be launching two very affordable models come Mid-July.

Model - UK/US Price

8GB £159  $199

16GB £199 $249

Google's speedy tablet is set to run on a powerful 1.3Ghz Tegra 3 Quadcore processor, 1GB of RAM, a crisp 7" 1280x800 HD resolution screen (216 PPI) and will come in 8GB and 16GB storage models. Unfortunately for high capacity enthusiasts, there will be no physical expandable memory slots.


The full list of specs can be found: Here

As well as fighting for a share of Apple's current share in the tablet market, this new powerful yet affordable tablet is set to challenge Amazon's Kindle Fire which is currently the best selling Android Tablet in the US. Amazon has yet to release their 7" Kindle Fire tablet outside of North America which means Google could be the first to tap into the 'affordable premium tablets' market in the UK.


- Ben Carron

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Game Review: Edge

EDGE Review:

 Creating more polygons than I can account for

Publisher: Mobigames

Developer: Two Tribes (PC), Mobigame (iOS)

Platforms: Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Onlive,
 PSN & Steam 

Genres: Puzzle
Players: One

Release Date: December, 2008

Price: Around £3-£5.49/$3-$5

What happens when one takes a game from the platformer genre, keeps gravity intact, and takes away all jumping whatsoever? Why EDGE comes out of course. EDGE is a game on both iOS and Steam created by the studio Mobigame; the Steam version was published by Two Tribes. Two Tribes are responsible for the popular egg collecting game, Toki Tori.

 Edge consists of navigating a flashing cube across various obstacles to reach an end point. This is done by “rolling” the cube, in a sense, through grey and white alleyways, tunnels, and labyrinths, among other pathways; this is the core gameplay, but Mobigame throws in quite a few twists and turns to keep the game interesting, and above all, entertaining. The first of which is thrown in is the most obvious, shifting platforms, the staple of all platforming games. In this title, platforms will on their own, slide, ascend, descend, or follow predetermined paths. Most of these actions are automatic, the other case of these events are through the use of buttons strewn throughout the entire game. These buttons will trigger a variety of events which ranges from the simple one directional movement of a block to a completely orchestrated set a pathways in which the player must traverse. Along the way, the player will also pick up small cubes called prisms, which, in conjunction with a good time will display mastery of the stage.

              

 Through all of this mayhem, the player must learn to master a skill that will be persistently appearing in the game, and that is, as the name implies, edging. Edging is when the player moves in a direction and keeps the flashing little cube between falling back to rest and ascending to the next height. Haven’t mastered the concept yet in the game, or don’t know when to use it? Fear not, because the game offers hints through floating question marks that will show a ghost image of your cube and guide it through the given obstacle.

The controls in the game are very simple, and incredibly solid. On a keyboard, they consist of the up, down, right and left arrow keys. This can prove to be a bit confusing at first since the game is in an isometric view, but one should be able to pick up after getting their bearings within the game. If the default of up going northeast is too troubling, in the options, up can also be set to northwest. The title also supports the use of an Xbox 360 controller as well.

The game offers forty-eight stages which the player must trek through, in which the difficulty will ramp up gradually in which there won’t be an incredibly difficult challenge until about stage 20 or so, and up. It’ll begin with the moving from point A to point B with little to no trouble. The game will gradually add more twists and turns, such as timing when to roll onto a platform to continue progress. Buttons will also be added in gradually, but it’s not the general use of buttons which can prove to be difficult, but what they trigger. They can be as simple as pushing you in the direction of the goal, however, they can be downright nasty, and trigger a set of blocks to push the cube off the edge and the player will have to think fast and move swiftly in the hopes of not falling off.

All in all, the game is a great package, now with an “extended” set of levels to keep the entertainment going after beating the initial forty-eight stages, and this title will sufficiently entertain those needing to burn about a half hour.

- Kevin Morrison

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Game Review: Game Dev Story - iOS/Android

Ever wondered what it was like to run your own games company?

Developer: KAIROSOFT CO.,LTD.

         Platforms: iOS Devices/Android phones

Genres: Simulation/Strategy/Casual

Release Date: April 21st 2011

Price: £2.49/£1.60 (Android)

Game Dev Story appeared on digital shelves out of nowhere, there was very little coverage about it; a surprise hit. Once it was released however, it quickly gathered steam through word of mouth keyboard online and received mostly positive reviews from purchasers on the mobile markets. 

The premise of Game Dev Story is straightforward: You start off with a brand new games development studio and have to produce games and work your way up the market. Just like any developer or publisher around today did, even the likes of Electronic Arts or Activision, whom are now giants within the games industry.

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