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A couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to get some hands-on time with the iPhone and iPad version of Puzzle Agent from Telltale Games. The story of FBI puzzle detective Nelson Tethers was coming together nicely for the iOS devices, and now the game is finally available. Puzzle Agent succeeds beautifully in the art style and story departments, but falls a little flat with the actual gameplay offered. If you go into Puzzle Agent expecting a robust puzzle game with a lot of content and replayability, you'll likely be disappointed. However, if you're looking for an excellent mystery to solve with humorous characters and an interesting plot, you'll find a lot to enjoy about the overall experience of Puzzle Agent.

The game starts with Nelson sitting at his desk in the FBI headquarters. You can tell he doesn't see a whole lot of action, as he is surprised to receive a phone call asking him to go on an assignment in the field. The eraser factory in Scoggins, Minnesota has ceased production, and thus been unable to supply the White House with their required allotment of erasers. All inquiries as to what the problem is at the eraser factory have resulted in odd puzzle-related responses from the townsfolk in Scoggins, making Nelson the perfect candidate to have investigate the situation. You'll travel to Scoggins to question people, solve puzzles, and uncover a twisted tale of what has gone awry at the eraser factory.

Puzzle Agent functions similar to other point-and-click adventure games, giving you a scene with various interactive elements to investigate. A circle will emanate from wherever you touch on the screen, and an icon will show up within that circle if something can be interacted with. I love this mechanic as it allows me to easily check an entire area for clues without tapping on every square inch of the screen. Talking with characters in the game is definitely the high point of Puzzle Agent. Each character is fully voiced and has multiple points of conversation to engage in. The amount of personality and humor that the characters exude through the dialogue is phenomenal, and playing through Puzzle Agent is analogous to watching a well crafted animated film. The art style is also very pleasing, featuring the minimalist hand drawn style of Graham Annable who created the Grickle comics and animated shorts.

iPad screenshots (click to enlarge):

The actual puzzles you'll be solving in Puzzle Agent are a mixed bag. Some are interesting, intuitive, and fun while others are just plain awkward and frustrating. Many times it's just not clear what you are supposed to be doing in a given puzzle. A hint system is in place in case you get stuck, so it never really prevents you from progressing, but it can be annoying to spend time trying to solve a difficult puzzle with trial and error when you are immersed in the story. Another frustration with Puzzle Agent is the controls. The game is designed very well for touch screen, but the actual responsiveness when touching or dragging items is not so great. It feels like the game is optimized for the mouse and cursor of the Mac/PC version, and using the larger surface of a fingertip doesn't afford the precision needed to perform some of the basic actions in the game.

There also isn't much reason to go back and play the game once you've beaten it, as the puzzles and story don't change. One important point to bring up is that Puzzle Agent looks far better on the iPad than it does on the iPhone. Many of the textures are blurry and show signs of artifacting, and are a far cry from the App Store screen shots that look like they are optimized for Retina Display.  This leads me to believe that it's just a bug with the release version that doesn't allow it to display the game in the proper resolution, although I have yet to confirm this. It doesn't completely ruin the game, but it is a significant distraction. The iPad version doesn't seem to exhibit this problem, and hopefully the issue gets rectified with the iPhone version soon.

Even with these issues, Puzzle Agent is still a really enjoyable experience. And that's what it really boils down to – it's better served as an exceptional entertainment experience rather than an exceptional game. The art style, music, voice acting, and story are incredibly well done, but the controls and puzzles are pretty hit and miss. If you're looking for something akin to an enjoyable interactive movie, Puzzle Agent serves this purpose really well.

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All the way back in the middle of December of last year we first got our hands on EA's Mirror's Edge [$4.99] for the iPhone, but it came without any solid release date. Mirror's Edge then disappeared until the iPad launch when Mirror's Edge for iPad [$9.99] popped up once again. Back then, we figured the iPhone release was immanent, but once again, it never came. Tonight is finally the night, and after spending quite a bit of time with the game today, it seems remarkably similar to the iPad version, downsized to the iPhone. In fact, it's so similar to our preview from last year that everything I said back then is still relevant.

The world of Mirror's Edge is set in the future, where a totalitarian regime is in power and an underground resistance powered by runners move information around on foot to avoid to watchful eye of the government which have implemented intense levels of surveillance across all communication mediums. You play as Faith, one of these runners.

The game is controlled using very simple swiping gestures that all feel very natural. Swiping right or left makes you run in that direction, swiping up makes you jump, and swiping down makes you slide. When you run across opposition, you can also use similar gestures to take them out with a variety of moves such as sweeping their legs out from under them or jump kicking them. There are many other interactions with different obstacles you come across, like jumping off spring boards, sliding down zip lines, and wall-running across billboards.

All of these things can be seen in the following gameplay video:

If you are like me and enjoyed the idea behind the console version of Mirror's Edge, but didn't really like the first person viewpoint and all the issues that caused in a platforming environment, you will love the iPhone version of the game. All of the visibility problems are gone thanks to the 3rd person view, and the game as a whole has been transformed in to a fun reaction game instead of an often frustrating and sometimes motion-sickness inducing first person experience.

New additions to Mirror's Edge since last year include new leaderboards that track your time through every level along with a whole heap of achievements to soak up and artwork to unlock. The whole game is optimized for the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, and looks really great in motion. This doesn't mean it won't run well on older devices, as forum members are reporting that Mirror's Edge even runs just fine on the first generation iPod touch.

Mirror's Edge is an effortless recommendation, and while I'm not sure waiting all this time has made the game any better, I'm glad it's finally here. Sure, there have been tons of running games in the past year but Mirror's Edge still is able to stand on its own, even after all this time. Playing through the game is a really cool experience, the controls work well, and just like the iPad game EA did a fantastic job of nailing the look and feel of the Mirror's Edge universe.

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Today Apple held its media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and unveiled its work in significantly evolving a number of its mobile and media products. I had a chance to see it all first hand and spend some hands-on time with the fruits of the company's recent labor.

The announcement that is likely of the most interest to our readers is the arrival of the new iPod touch, thinner than ever and featuring the same razor-sharp Retina display used in the iPhone 4. (And, holding the new device in my hand, I can confirm that the screen is every bit as sharp as that of the iPhone 4.) The upgraded device is, indeed, basically "an iPhone 4 — without the phone," with a few exceptions. It utilizes the same A4 processor used in the iPhone 4 and the iPad, and features integrated gyroscopes for added in-game control precision. It has front- and back-facing cameras, as well, allowing FaceTime video chats. But the rear-facing camera offers a relatively low 960×720 pixel resolution, as compared to 2592×1936 pixels on the iPhone 4. That means it produces photos that are only 14% the size of those taken with big brother iPhone 4.

But, we're gamers here! And in that capacity, the new iPod touch is a golden mobile gaming device. During today's event, Steve Jobs indicated that the iPod touch is presently the #1 selling mobile game device, outselling Sony and Nintendo's devices, combined. He revealed that 1.5 billion entertainment and game app downloads have passed out of the App Store. With the dramatic enhancements on most every front that the new iPod touch puts in the hands of gamers, we don't expect the touch to give up the crown anytime soon.

Another big announcement that Steve had in store is the reinvented Apple TV. No longer a scolding-hot slab of metal and plastic with the footprint of a Mac mini, the new Apple TV is a quarter the size of its predecessor, shrouded in black plastic, and cool to the touch.

This time around, Apple dispensed with local media storage and has positioned the new unit as a video streaming device, built on a video rental model. First-run HD movies can be rented at $4.99 per, with HD TV shows available at $.99 an episode — all HD. Netflix streaming is integrated, as well. And all of the local media sharing capabilities of the original device (tying to computers in your home for media display on TV) are preserved, with the notable addition of media streaming from an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. And all that, which I can confirm fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, can be had for just $99.

The new Apple TV should be of particular interest to our readers for another reason — it's based on Apple's A4 processor. Intel is not inside, this time around. Given that, it's clear that the new device is based on some form of OS X for the ARM processor. Apple isn't calling it iOS but, if it's not iOS proper, it's something extremely close. But, likely, it actually is iOS under the hood. Daring Fireball's John Gruber recently lent strong confirmation of that, as well.

And if, indeed, the new Apple TV is an iOS device, is there an App Store in its future? Let's hope so…

Apple also showed a new iPod shuffle which, happily, brings back the buttons of the previous versions and also demonstrated the new iPod nano. The nano is about the size of the shuffle, but features a multitouch display and a user interface styled after iOS (though it's not iOS-based). It's a pretty amazing device to play with, extremely light, small, and functional. It's not improvements all around with this one, though; the new nano lacks video recording as well as playback capabilities. It seems Apple's decided that's functionality to be found only in the iPhone and iPod touch.

On the software front, Apple has released iTunes 10 (available now), which offers several interface improvements as well as Ping, a new social network of sorts that allows iTunes users to follow one another and share news of what they're listening to online. Facebook integration is in place as well. iOS 4.1 will be released next week and will include a number of new features including the launch of Game Center — Apple's leaderboard network. Other improvements include bug fixes, and performance enhancements for 3G owners. iOS 4.2 was also previewed which will finally bring OS 4 to the iPad and is due in November.

It's clear from today's event that Apple has been keeping a laser focus on the areas that have become its clear domain: media and mobile.

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As part of today's keynote, Epic Games showed a brief tech demo of the Unreal Engine 3 running on an iPhone. In a surprise twist of events, this very same tech demo just appeared on the App Store mere moments ago as a free universal app. If you've got an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, 3rd Generation iPod touch, or iPad, feast your eyes on Epic Citadel [Free].

The 82.2MB tech demo includes a medieval town to explore, complete with a bizarre and a "mysterious cathedral". If you've been waiting to see just what the latest-generation iOS lineup of devices is capable of, you really need to check this out. Epic Citadel is a fantastic display of the potential of future gaming on the platform, as it has been developed using the exact same tools and technology that developers are using now to create high-end console games.

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Moments before the Apple keynote is scheduled to start today, Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD for the iPad. The game sounds like it will feature the same content of the existing iPhone version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the iPhone, with HD graphics and modified controls like most HD-ized games.

Chinatown Wars will be available on September 9th for $9.99. For more information on the iPhone version of the game, buzz on over to our comprehensive review from when it originally was released. During keynotes, Apple has historically shown gameplay footage of yet to be released big name titles from large publishers like EA and Gameloft. If we're lucky, maybe we'll see Grand Theft Auto on the iPad today.

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We are mere hours away from Apple's latest media event held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Few people know for certain what will be discussed today, but the rumor mill is on fire with what could be a potentially redesigned iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle as well as the somewhat inevitable iPod touch refresh. Photos of leaked front panels of what could be the new iPod touch have been floating around the Internet for quite some time now, and it appears that this year could potentially be the year that the iPod touch finally gets a camera– Maybe even a front facing camera to place FaceTime calls. Other rumors have been circulating including potential enhancements to the Apple TV and even revamping the pricing structure for some content on iTunes such as 99¢ rentals for episodes of TV shows.

Yesterday they announced that they will be streaming this event live:

Apple will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

If you don't have a Mac, iPhone, or iPod touch to watch the event on, there is a guide on MacRumors to watch the stream using VLC on a PC. Of course like all Apple keynotes we will be providing live coverage of things from the keynote that pertain to gaming, and we will be on site after the event to hopefully get some hands-on time with whatever new products are available.

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Big name developers just love setting their iTunes Connect release dates to Thursdays. Every week around this time we start seeing new releases slowly pop up in international markets, then filter out to the rest of the world as the Earth spins and it slowly becomes Thursday across the planet. This week is no different, and tonight at 11:00 PM EST all of the following games will be available for download in the US App Store. (Or even sooner if you're east of us.)

Mirror's Edge for iPhone, $4.99 – We first previewed this game in late 2009, and spent months wondering when it was going to be released. We found our answer as Mirror's Edge for iPad [$9.99] landed on the App Store as an iPad-only launch title for Apple's (then) new device. Back in April we thought it was inevitable that the game would be released for the iPhone yet, but we never suspected it would take nearly six months to happen.

Here's the gameplay video we shot from our preview last year:

From my brief time with Mirror's Edge on the iPhone, it plays just the same as the iPad version and is seemingly identical to the preview we did before of the iPhone version. Mirror's Edge for the iPhone comes packed with Retina Display friendly graphics and looks outstanding on the iPhone 4.

Puzzle Agent, $4.99 / HD – We had some hands-on time with this game not too long ago, and it's definitely something any fan of Professor Layton style games needs to pick up. In the game you play as Nelson Tethers, an agent of the FBI Puzzle Research Division and need to investigate the happenings of an eraser factory in Minnesota.

Puzzle Agent has already been released for the PC on Steam, and has been well received by most gamers. We thought it was a decent port in our preview, but we're going to spend more time with it to see if that still holds true as we get deeper than a brief preview allows.

Other potentially noteworthy games being released tonight include two new offerings from Namco who apparently have no problem juicing poor old Pac Man for all he's worth. PAC-CHAIN [$4.99] is an action puzzle game for the iPad where you tap groups of similarly colored ghosts from the game board with all kinds of Pac Man themed power-ups. Their other release tonight is Mishap [$4.99] a hidden object game for the iPhone that at least looks slightly intriguing with the inclusion of mini-games.

Finally, there's a new Chillingo iPad game on the verge of being released. Lamp of Aladdin [$4.99] is another hidden object game, but the matching mini-game looks like it could be interesting and there's something about the above trailer that's oddly alluring.

We're going to spend the day playing through as many of these games as possible, and like every Wednesday, plan on having reviews available by the time the games appear for download in the US App Store.

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Games based on comic books have been almost as hit or miss as games based on movies in the past, so I think my cautious optimism for Gameloft's recently released Spider-Man: Total Mayhem [$6.99] was well deserved. Sure, there are some absolutely fantastic comic book games such as the quarter-sucking X-Men Arcade Game, and a few others over the years. Unfortunately, many fall in to the same pit that movie games fall in to where they lean far too heavily on whatever intellectual property the game is based on instead of actually having good gameplay. This is true to some extent in Spider-Man: Total Mayhem, but the whole package is comprehensive enough that it doesn't even seem to even matter.

Like all Gameloft games, many parts of Spider-Man are clearly borrowed from other titles of theirs, and Total Mayhem is no different. A lot of the combat feels like a mix of James Cameron's Avatar [$4.99 / Free / Free] and Iron Man 2 [$4.99 / Free / HD]. Spider-Man is host to the same wall climbing and rail sliding sections as nearly every other 3rd person action Gameloft game, and just like almost all of their other titles, the voice work is laughable at best and face palm worthy at worst. They even managed to sandwich the upgrade system from Hero of Sparta II [$6.99 / Free] in that nearly everything in the game drops orbs of various colors which are then used to upgrade Spider-Man's various abilities.

What saves the whole game is that even though they recycle all these different elements, they seem to combine extremely well to create a game that just feels like a Spider-Man game should. There are endless thugs for you to bash, a heavy reliance on the spider sense, and a surprising array of extremely recognizable bosses that anyone who has read a Spider-Man comic or watched a Spider-Man cartoon will know. The levels included are fairly linear, but feature a great mix of fighting standard enemies, bashing mini-bosses, swinging around, climbing, and the varied events leading up to the boss encounter.

The combat system works well, and even though it feels a little button mashy at times, it's a lot of fun to watch Spider-Man execute his combos filled with punching and web slinging. However, even fighting bosses is a little too easy because of how well the spider sense evasion system works. Whenever you're fighting, when there's an incoming attack you're able to slam your thumb down on a virtual button that appears just to the left of the joystick. A successful button mash kicks the game in to slow motion, and Spidey evades the incoming blow and counter-attacks. It all flows together great, and these spider sense moves usually look really cool.

There's a surprising amount of content in Spider-Man: Total Mayhem, including a hefty amount of unlockables to boost replay value. Twelve levels are included, and in each of the levels are tokens you can pick up to unlock bonus art to look at. In addition, there's an "ultimate" difficulty to unlock as well as a boss rush mode. There's even the black Spider-Man symbiote suit to unlock to play through the game again with Spidey powered up. Also, when fighting bosses you have opportunity to take photos of them, and these photo opportunities seem fairly easy to miss. If you're a completionist, you will be playing through Spider-Man: Total Mayhem many times.

Total Mayhem is loaded with high resolution graphics that look absolutely fantastic on the iPhone 4. It's not universal, but like most Gameloft games it wouldn't surprise me if an iPad-specific HD release was on the horizon. Gameloft did a great job of making a game that plays like a Spider-Man game needs to. The spider sense seems entirely overpowered in combat, and it won't take long for you to get tired of the spider sense quick action sequences that are liberally used in cut scenes, but beating up an endless array of nameless thugs is just as fun as it should be.

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It's hard for us to say enough good things about Halfbrick's Monster Dash [99¢] and Ratloop's Helsing's Fire [99¢]. One game takes the running right forever gameplay formula that's become so popular, spices it up, and adds weaponry. The other is an incredibly unique puzzle game which is unlike anything we've played on the iPhone, a claim that's almost impossible to make with puzzle games. Both games have received recent updates, so be sure to download them if you haven't already.

Monster Dash now comes packed with an additional power-up for Barry to pick up, a motorcycle that makes you temporary invincible while riding it. Along with the motorcycle comes new motorcycle-related stat tracking and achievements as well. Halfbrick also made some fixes and other tweaks to the game such as fixing heart placement so they're a little easier to pick up. Best of all, this update just shows that they're committed to supporting the game much like Fruit Ninja [99¢ / HD] which has also been host to several great updates.

Helsing's Fire 1.2 adds an entirely new campaign to play through, a new character, a new enemy, additional puzzle mechanics, and even a cool online system where you can solve puzzles for bounties to compete against other players online. The new campaign also comes with an additional survival arena, and you can now replay, save, and share puzzles you've played in the past.

If you still don't own these games, we have overwhelmingly positive reviews for both Monster Dash and Helsing's Fire that you should check out. The two games combined would probably be the best $1.98 you'll spend today, but if you already own them, be sure to mash your update button in iTunes as soon as possible.

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