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About a week back I had a chance to visit Gameloft's Manhattan studios and have a look at their upcoming racing simulator GT Racing: Motor Academy [App Store] for iPhone. Tonight, GT Racing has gone live in the App Store and we've got a chance to take a closer look.

GT Racing is a driving simulation as opposed to an arcade racer. Gameloft likens the title to Real Racing, which it considers the only other driving simulation in the App Store. Being a simulation-style racer, it starts off much like the definitive driving sim, Gran Turismo. You are presented with a few initial challenges (accelerate to maximum speed and then come to a stop between the lines, etc.) that must be completed before your achieve your first racing license. From there it's a Campaign journey through a variety of tracks around the world. Though, I will say the game is rather more forgiving than Gran Turismo, partially due to the integrated Break Assist system (like Real Racing), but more due to the overall control scenario.

The game features over 100 cars from 24 different manufacturers to choose from for a race to the finish across 14 different worldwide tracks. The better you rank, the more credits you accumulate, and the fancier cars and equipment you can purchase. Progressive tracks are unlocked in Campaign mode, and any unlocked track can be used for a quick spin in the game's Arcade mode.

GT Racing features three different control methods: accelerometer (default), screen keys (think Vector Tanks – kinda), and wheel. I find accelerometer to be my preferred method that, for what it is, really leaves little room for control improvement. Score tracking has handled through the integrated Gameloft Live network. Like Asphalt 5, Gameloft also offers an online multi-player component that we were unable to test at launch, but we're certainly a feature we're glad to see.

GT Racing is one of the most visually impressive racers in the App Store. On my iPhone 3GS test unit, the game exhibits an impressive, but subtle, HDR effect to the rendered scene and runs at a very smooth frame rate. Six different driving views are provided — three outside, three inside — to allow for the view that bests fits your driving sensibilities. All races can be seen in Replay mode which is, as well, an impressive thing to behold, and videos can also be uploaded to YouTube (example video). One notable issue with the visuals, however, is a noticeably short draw distance resulting in buildings abruptly popping into view which can be distracting.

There are a few other issues we ran across with the initial version. On occasion, my car appeared to aburbtly jolt into a nose-up position, half embedded in the track, with a warning of "wrong way" presented. (One of these incidents is recorded in our demo video.) As well, in-game language suggested that I had access to a particular track before it was supposed to be unlocked. Neither game breaking, but notable for early adopters.

See our brief gameplay video for a closer look.

Overall, GT Racer is probably one of the best racers on the App Store. In particular, racing fans looking for a realistic racer that offers nicely varied racing action wrapped up in a very pretty package should enjoy Gameloft's latest offering.

Impressions from early adopters on the forum have been similarly positive, but similar caveats:

• tadad1 – lots of control adjustments, including driving aids, amazingly crisp graphics, but short draw distance, no crash damage, massive content
• morphman – Lots of options, good but not stellar framerate on 3GS, pop-in apparent, graphics look amazing
• iPhondTouch3G – screenshots from iPod Touch 3G
• Diablohead – huge difference in FWD, RWD and oversteer is a big factor here, can do doughnuts very easily if you power out of corners
• nizy – nice graphics, real life tracks recognizable, pop-in noticeable but not too annoying. early AI not challenging
• howiedeano – handling and controls good, tracks better than NFS shift, best realistic type racing game on platform

App Store Link: GT Racing: Motor Academy, $6.99

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Updates are an integral part of the App Store and its economy. They allow developers to (instead of rushing out new games) draw fresh eyes to their old games by providing more content, crucial bug fixes, and general improvements. Updates are, however, as numerous as they are important, and it's sometimes difficult to find much to say about an update other than "new levels, hooray!"

With this in mind, we've decided to take steps to "update" our coverage of updates with a comprehensive article summarizing the most important updates. Worry not, these lists will not drone on about minor bug fixes and the like; only games that have been updated in at least somewhat substantial ways will be covered.

Battle of Puppets
Current Version: 1.1
[App Store]
[Our Review]

Battle of Puppets really stepped up to the plate to address player complaints, adding in a new tutorial and a complete hint system to help out new players. Other changes include increased performance on all hardware versions and a bunch of random bug-smashing.

TileStorm
Current Version: 1.0.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

This update has been long-coming, but a lot of user-friendly options have finally been added to TileStorm to make it less of a hassle to navigate the menus. There's now a pause menu, the ability to restart a level without having to exit it and reselect it, and a "back" button was added to the level select screen. The other big fix in this update is the inclusion of the ability to "surrender" up to 10 times throughout the game. This counts the level that you surrendered on as a completed level (sort of) so you can unlock more levels and come back to the difficult levels later.

Parcel Panic – Post Car Racer 3D
Current Version: 1.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

OpenFeint has been added, and along with that, of course, comes online leaderboards and achievements. Other issues addressed include the ability to add boxes during free ride and some slight texture work to improve the game visually.

Bust-A-Move
Current Version: 2.1.0
[App Store]
[Our Coverage]

OpenFeint 2.4 has now been included in Bust-A-Move, so high-score chasers and achievement lovers can rejoice! Facebook and Twitter connectivity was also added in this update for the social networking addicts out there.

Words With Friends
Current Version: 3.06
[App Store]
[Our Review]

Along with a bunch of various bug fixes, an entirely new dictionary has been integrated into Words With Friends. The dictionary is being touted as "a big improvement" from the developer, and will probably ease a lot of frustrations that people had with earlier versions.

Little Metal Ball
Current Version: 1.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

A bug in the spotlight levels that was wreaking havoc on iPhone 3Gs has been issued here, but the biggest reason that this update is worth talking about is the substantial performance improvements that you'll notice while playing the game. I really enjoyed Little Metal Ball and made that clear in my review, but it doesn't seem like many of our readers ever really latched onto the game (especially given the low number of comments on that review). I'd like to seriously recommend that anyone who likes Labyrinth-style games check this out, because it's a ton of fun and deserves some love.

Ravensword: The Fallen King
Current Version: 1.2
[App Store]
[Our Review]

This isn't exactly a major update for Ravensword, but I'm sure that plenty of users will appreciate the integration of Crystal for online leaderboards and achievement support. Being a single-player game, Ravensword could benefit from a little bit of community integration, so I'm pretty happy about this particular update.

Battle For Wesnoth
Current Version: 1.3
[App Store]
[Our Review]

Kyle Poole just keeps on delivering with episodic content updates for Battle of Wesnoth, and the newly-added Episode 3 reportedly will clock in at over 10 hours of gameplay for those who delve into it. Not only has an entirely new campaign been added, but a whole slew of bug fixes (including one that reduces memory requirements to make the game more stable) and OpenFeint 2.4 with achievemens has been integrated. That, my friends, is how to do episodic updates. Bravo, Mr. Poole.

Diner Dash
Current Version: 2.0
[App Store]
[Our Coverage]

In an unexpected show of love for one of their original hit games, PlayFirst has delivered an update for Diner Dash that promises enhanced graphics (with a focus on larger sprites to make control easier), difficulty adjustments, and 10 new levels. Facebook connectivity has also been added, just in case there's a single person on your friends list who cares about your progress in an iPhone game.

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Last year we reported on an upcoming multi-player update to the iPhone card game Durak. The promised update has finally arrived and delivers a number of new multi-player features.

Durak is a popular Russian card game typically played between two to six people (two to four in the iPhone version). Each player receives six cards and the objective is to get rid of all your cards. The game is a trump-card based game where players take turns being on the attack. Attacking involves placed a card down face up. The defending player must place a card of higher value with the same suit or a trump card. Attacks can continue if you have additional cards in your hand whose face values that match any of the cards in play. If the defender can't defend, then they must take all the cards into their own hand. If the defender does successfully defend the attacks, all the cards get swept into the "graveyard" and remain out of play. The goal is to get rid of all your cards.

We described the iPhone implementation of Durak to be "top-notch" and the only real criticism we had was the lack of any sort of online multiplayer. A list of new features include:

• More difficult single player
• Online multiplayer (3G and Wi-Fi)
• Bluetooth multiplayer
• Chat
• Buddy lists
• Push notifications
• Nudge notifications
• Profiles
• Private games
• Local and global leader-boards

If you already own Durak, now's your chance to upgrade to try out the online features, or buy it if it interests you.

App Store Link: Durak, $4.99

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Assassins's Creed 2 was extremely well-received on the PS3 and X360, numbering amongst the stand-out titles of 2009. It's no surprise then that Ubisoft would want to strike while the iron is still hot, and capitalise on the popularity of the franchise. Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery [App Store] is their (somewhat late) answer to that, but does it do justice to its bigger brother?

The Assassin's Creed universe is undoubtedly one of the more unique intellectual properties to hit the gaming world, and offers a rich source of story and background to draw from. The iPhone off-shoot of Assassin's Creed 2, as in the console version, focuses on the protagonist Ezio and his battle against the Templars throughout Italy and Spain. The story operates as an aside to that of the console storyline, and follows Ezio as he tracks down another threat to the Assassins; a hunt that takes him across the seas to Spain.

Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery is essentially a 2D platformer that employs the Assassin's formula of deception, agility and deadly force. There are a few types of missions to complete in Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery; some which require stealth, where being discovered too many times will see you caught; others that throw Ezio into an acrobatic chase sequence; and those where Ezio must simply reach a predefined target. At the end of each level you are (quite ruthlessly) graded for the time you have taken and kills made, and awarded synch points which can then be used to unlock a number of "animus hacks", such as hard mode and a number of cheats.

Ezio is controlled by a left and right slider dictating his walk/run speed and a number of context-sensitive thumb-buttons to control his aerial and combat abilities. Ezio has two speeds of movement: a stealthy creep and an all-out sprint; the latter of which is responsible for some concerns with Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery.

In the first few missions the high speed at which Ezio runs simply means a few important leaps are missed, requiring you to traverse to the top of the level again, resulting in heavy hits to your time score. This would be fine if we were playing a Sonic-of-old where such speed is encouraged by the level design, but when the chase missions begin Ezio's blazing speed will see you unwittingly running into guards, falling over blind jumps into deadly pits, or scaling walls when you intend to drop down them — failing the mission time and time again until you have memorized the level in its entirety. One of our early frustrations with the game was a lack of clear goals at the start of each mission, resulting in some excessive trial and error as you learn about the different types of levels.

Despite it being a 2D platformer, the levels are crafted in 3D, and the attention to detail in both the levels themselves and the characters that populate them is outstanding. The animations, particularly the many 'kill' and counter animations that Ezio performs, are terrifically life-like and a delight to watch; easily some of the best we've seen on the platform to date. The combat mechanics are simple but effective, utilising two buttons to attack and counter in order to dispatch your foes. In fact, if the game didn't tie you so strictly to a timer in many levels, the combat itself may have presented a more enjoyable distraction, rather than something to be avoided.

Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery features 8 memory blocks (read: missions), each comprising a few different sequences. There is a solid amount of content on offer here. While there are some things in Assassin's Creed II that make the game feel like it could have been left in the oven a little bit longer, it's still easily one of the better platformers on the App Store. Be forewarned that the performance on the 3G is rather lackluster, but the game is a visual treat on the 3GS and has a few enhancements (graphics, audio, extras) over the DS version.

App Store Link: Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery, $9.99

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Brothers In Arms 1

Touch Arcade recently had the opportunity to visit Gameloft's Manhattan offices to preview a number of forthcoming iPhone titles. Among them was the sequel to the studio's late-2008 iPhone release, Brothers In Arms: Hour of Heroes.

Set to make its App Store debut in the next week and a half or so, Brothers In Arms 2 is a title developed specifically for the iPhone that is designed to run smoothly on all iPhone platform devices. Unlike its iPhone predecessor, which featured an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective, Brothers in Arms 2 delivers a first-person shooter experience.

The game features six different play environments — the Pacific, North Africa, Italy, Normandy, Germany, and Ardennes — across 16 levels, each of which offers 25-30 minutes of playtime (6+ hours total, estimated), basically double that of the iPhone original. While much of the combat is carried out running, dodging, and ducking through the various environs on foot, airplanes, motorcycles, and tanks are also thrown into the mix.

I spent a brief period with the game in the studio, playing through the test build's early stages and found it to be a rather well done, graphically impressive work that ran glass smooth on the 3G iPod touch demo unit. And, while I only put the initial weapons through their paces, the game offers much in the way of munitions. The list includes a bazooka, fixed minigun, iron bar (–whack–), flame thrower, a Thompson, sub machine gun, and grenades.

Coming from Gameloft, a comparison to the studio's highly popular space-based FPS N.O.V.A. [App Store] is inevitable. While the core controls between the two games are are similarly arranged and responsive, Brothers in Arms 2 definitely has more of a duck-and-cover mechanic to it than N.O.V.A., which feels a bit more "brute force" / barrel through the enemy. And, while both are quite visually impressive, due to the nature of the environments, Brothers in Arms 2 probably gets to strut its stuff a bit more, as far as laying down distant polygons in vast surroundings.

If the campaign gameplay grows tiresome, there's a local WiFi multiplayer option available that features an in-game text chat system (to help dole out the smack). The option to override the in-game audio track with music from your iTunes library has been provided, as well.

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For the many that surely missed it, on Wednesday Apple quietly announced a new member of the iPhone OS family, the iPad. And, while it runs existing iPhone applications just fine in a pixel-for-pixel or 2x-scaled mode, the device with its 9.7-inch screen has much more to offer in the way of screen real estate (over 5x the pixel count of the iPhone) and both CPU and GPU power. The iPad proposition gives iPhone developers much to ponder in the way of just how best to support it.

James Brown, author of the lovely, zen-like frog manipulation game Anicent Frog [App Store] has, himself, begun to ponder the situation and has shared his thoughts on what he feels makes the most sense in bringing Ancient Frog to the iPad, in a recent blog post.

I can make the current iPhone application recognise the iPad and behave more like a native application on that platform. What I've done here is run it at 768×1024, but allowing it to letterbox slightly to retain the original aspect ratio (luckily the ragged border gives me a neat way to bring the edges in a bit, as well as a bit of room to lose some pixels top and bottom). This already looks way better than the previous shot – lots of elements are still blurry, but things that appear at varying scales in the game are already at a higher resolution. This means the text, the daisy and the particle effects are all crisp, which makes the whole thing seem higher resolution

He goes on to point out that fully supporting the iPad's enhanced resolution in his existing iPhone game would not only require a reworking of the graphics that make up every level, but would also push the game above the 10MB barrier for Edge / 3G download, which would greatly reduce the game's "impulse buy" potential for iPhone users.

Brown's plan is to bring the incremental upgrade that he describes, enhancing the game experience on the iPad in the near term and, down the road, release a separate, larger iPad-only version that takes full advantage of the device, but does not penalize iPhone and iPod touch gamers with a larger install.

For new games, moving forward, building in specific support for the iPad is one thing. But reaching into the back catalog to refresh existing titles for Apple's new device is quite another. Just what degree of iPad support is worth adding? What make the most sense? Once gamers start getting iPads in their hands, the early reaction to the experience of gaming on the device, as well as overall sales levels, should help answer that question. But developers and gamers alike should keep in mind the fact that, when the App Store launched, the iPhone had been on the market for a full year with millions of units sold. When a gamer downloads the first iPad game from the App Store, its market will be starting at zero. As such, it will be some time before developers determine where the "sweet spot" of iPad development effort lies.

App Store Link: Ancient Frog, $4.99

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Originally announced in mid-2008, it sounds like Trism 2, the sequel to the early iPhone smash hit Trism [App Store], is one step closer to seeing the light of day. Demiforce released the following teaser trailer, mentioning that Trism 2 is not only coming for the iPod touch and iPhone, but also the iPad:

We got in touch with developer Steve Demeter to get some more details on what to expect in Trism 2. While he's not releasing any screenshots just yet, he did mention that Trism 2 is being overhauled from the ground up, and apparently looks quite a bit nicer than the first. The sequel will also have multiplayer, but is implemented in "a really fun way that you might not intially suspect".

Demeter hopes to have an iPad optimized combo app that also will run on the iPhone or iPod touch, but isn't ready to make any promises yet because of how important he feels being under the 10MB 3G download cap is. The sequel of course will also include a "classic" mode that will play like the original where players tilt their device to alter gravity while sliding rows of triangles to make matches.

For more information on Trism check out our review.

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Early last week we reported that the C64 for iPhone emulator [App Store] would soon be getting global leaderboards and achievements for in-library games via the OpenFeint network. These features were rolled out yesterday as part of the v1.4 update.

The final list of these updates is as follows:

• Jupiter Lander: leaderboards and achievements
• Lemans: leaderboards and achievements
• Arctic Shipwreck: leaderboards
• Uridium: leaderboards
• Nebulus: leaderboards
• Paradroid: leaderboards and achievements when you own the 999 droid
• NOTE: High scores are recorded only when trainer is OFF

As the in-app games themselves were changed to facilitate these enhancements, they must be "purchased" again from within the application before the global network features can be utilized (at no additional cost to the user). The developer also indicates that the emulator environment received certain performance enhancements that allow iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch units to run all games at a solid 50fps for smoother gameplay.

Manomio indicates that the upcoming v1.5 update will be focused on usability and playability; controls and the UI will get some work. Details on these will be forthcoming on the developer's blog.

Another very interesting bit of news comes from forum reader killy billy who spotted seven new games listed in the C64 in-app shop yesterday but, as yet, unavailable for purchase. The list of games he saw follows.

• International Karate
• Microprose Soccer
• Jumpman
• Druid
• Wizball
• Trailblazer
• Elite

We grabbed the update and took at look at the app's game shop, but the indicated games were not listed, presumably pulled until available for actual purchase. Let's hope they reappear with full global network integreation — and soon. What a superb list of titles it seems Manomio has in store for us. All are highly playable, but Archer MacLean's International Karate, a C64 favorite, and David Braben and Ian Bell's seminal space trader Elite, considered the best game ever written by many critics, are particularly welcome.

We'll let readers know when these games appear for purchase within the app and will pass on further news and information surrounding this great emulator as we get it.

App Store Link: C64 for iPhone, $4.99

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iPhone developer Ryan Mitchell has just released Necromancer Rising [App Store], a large-scale, first-person RPG with an air of the macabre that should appeal to fans of dark and dank dungeon crawlers.

Necromancer Rising places you in the unenviable position of the last surviving Battle Priest of the king's army with a wife and child that were recently slaughtered and buried, and — as if that wasn't enough — robbed from their graves by the minions of the evil Necromancer, tunneling in caverns below. Your goal is to regain your former strength and visit grave vengeance upon the aforementioned Necromancer in the name of your beloved family.

The game features a highly detailed stats and equip system; your person features 16 equipment locations for weapons and armor allowing for a great many battle configurations. The author indicates that the game includes tens of thousands of items as well as 50,000 different weapons, in all. (All items are freely available to those who spend the time to find them, but for those who don't mind paying for a bit of a short-cut, certain particularly useful items are also available as in-app purchases.) There are 50 different levels to explore (with 49 end-bosses) and each is dynamically generated upon entrance, so no level is ever the twice the same.

See the developer's trailer video for a look at the game in play.

As yet, I've spent but a brief while with the title and find that what it lacks in polish in some areas (menu system, look controls, etc.), it makes up for with a pleasantly ghoulish atmosphere thanks to the creepy level and creature design, as well as the superb, moaning sound effects and evocative background score. The whole thing has a nice sort of campy Evil Dead feel to it that lends it a particular sort of charm that I find myself enjoying.

Our forum members have had a lot to say about this one. Hitch enjoyed it, while noting the lack of polish in some areas.

This is a hardcore RPG. If you're a casual gamer, I'd probably pass as of now. It has good graphics, sounds, and gameplay elements/length, but a crappy menu system and messy controls keep the game from living up to it's potential. Great game, but hard to work with.

8/10- Must have for PATIENT RPG fans, but needs quite a few updates to make it a must have for everyone.

SharpCarlos is enjoying it as well.

Overall, it's scratching my dungeon crawl itch. There's random loot in varying levels of quality with random affixes (just found a helmet that increases my intelligence). It runs smoothly on my 3GS. And it SEEMS like there's a lot of game here. The dungeon is 50 levels deep, and if there continues to be several quests per level, it'll take quite a while to burn through them.

Have a look at the game trailer (this early version of the bundled tutorial video might be helpful as well) to aid in your decision.

App Store Link: Necromancer Rising, $6.99

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