TouchArcade.ru

While Apple keynotes themselves are always a lot of fun, I actually almost like the day immediately before the keynote more. Speculation on what's coming reaches a climax, and all you've got to do is wait a day to see who was right and who was wrong. MacRumors provides a rundown of possibilities from the hardware lineup, and subsequent rumors make an iPhone 4S seem even more reasonable as more and more vague leaks of "iPhone 4S" branding appear. Following case leaks and a few other shaky rumors, there hasn't been a very strong indication that the redesigned iPhone 5 is coming at all– At least not yet.

Regardless of what the new iPhone looks like, the addition of the A5 processor should make the iPhone 5 (or 4S) a pocket-sized power-house. Anandtech recently posted a set of benchmarks of mobile GPU's, and the GPU in the iPad 2 is still blowing the doors off the competition:

The rumor mill seems to be in agreement that the "main" feature to be touted at this keynote will be an entire new voice-powered "Assistant." Check out a demo video that MacRumors compiled based on rumors of how it will work:

9to5Mac has an interview with the co-founder of Siri, the company who is believed to be behind this new technology, who has the following to say:

Make no mistake: Apple’s ‘mainstreaming’ Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event. I’d go so far as to say it is a World-Changing event. Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language. The PAL will get things done and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We’re talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift.

So here comes the fun part, what do you think is going to come of tomorrow's keynote? A spec-bumped iPhone 4S? A surprise reveal of an entirely new iPhone 5? New iOS 5 features that haven't been revealed yet like Assistant? New iPod touches to coincide with the iPhone launch? Or will something come out of left field like the iPad 3 with Retina Display, or a million other things that could potentially happen that Apple managed to keep a total secret?

Personally, I think the iPhone 4S is happening but I just can't shake the thoughts of the potential redesign. I'm not sure how credible the weird case "leaks" we've seen are, but the rumored redesign appearing in an Apple app I just can't rationalize in any way other than a design like that is coming. What reason could Apple, a company who historically has put immense importance on a refined user experience place that icon in their own apps? It just doesn't make sense!

I guess we'll find out tomorrow, but, in the time being, we can let our speculation run wild– At least for another 24 hours or so.

[source]

Wanna be a baller? I can't help you there, but you might want to take a look at PikPok's Slam Dunk King [Free] for a bit of inspiration. You might have all the coordination and slick moves of a sloth, but if you've got nimble fingers you're most of the way there. And, honestly? You don't need to care a whit about basketball to love this game.

Slam Dunk King is all about the trick shot. Balls are sent your way, and you've got to dunk them like a pro while racking up some crazy combos. Flick them into the net, flick away bombs, and sneak a few tricks in and you'll be well on your way. There are twelve tricks to learn, from the humble Juggle to the Air Gordon, and each will rack up your points. Tie them all together and you'll fly off the charts.

Once a round is up, your score is taken and run through a series of modifiers. How long did you go without dropping a ball, how big were your combos, how cool were your tricks? All of that is taken into account before you get your final score.

There are three ways to play. Time Attack gives you 90 seconds to earn the biggest score you can. Bombs slow you down, but nothing can stop you but the clock. Arcade mode gives you three balls – drop 'em all or let a bomb hit the net and you're done. You can earn balls back with good performance, though. Finally there's Sudden Death, by far the most punishing. One missed ball will end your game. Arcade and Sudden Death can both be unlocked by earning high scores.

Accompanying you on your quest for Slam Dunk coronation is your choice of mascot. Copernicus the robot comes along for free, and when you score enough points you can trigger him to earn bonus points for hitting bombs. There are five others to unlock, each with its own special ability.

To unlock them, and cosmetic upgrades like new courts and balls, you need crowns. Crowns can be earned by playing well. In Time Attack, performing well opens up overtime, where the balls are traded out for bronze, silver and gold crowns. Each one you dunk gives you a bit more currency to work with. You also earn a ranking that can be leveled up as you play. Not only does it give you crowns each time you level, it also increases your score modifiers.

Now, about the whole "free" things — PikPok has been incredibly generous with this freemium model, and I hope it pays off. You can play the whole game, accessing every bit of content for free, without any limits. The only thing you have to put up with is a banner ad in some menu screens, and you can pay to banish it. You can also pay to get more crowns — you earn them fairly slowly while you play, and there are a lot of tempting cosmetic upgrades to use them on. But nothing is locked behind a paywall.

Slam Dunk King masters the frantic, barely-controlled flicking and swiping that makes games like Fruit Ninja so great. Learning to juggle balls, pull off tricks and defend from bombs is a challenge, but the rewards for improvement are great. This game has the makings of a great leaderboard competition on Game Center and OpenFeint, but it's a lot of fun to challenge your own scores too. And it's free, so you really shouldn't miss it. The ball is in your court, and once its yours, you should swing by our discussion thread and let us know what you think.

[source]

What does a good-looking, yet buggy and monotonous game like Shadowgun [$7.99] really need? It needs extremely ambitious multiplayer, apparently. Madfinger Games has announced that it’ll launch bits and pieces of the game’s slated competitive online component in waves. First up: cross-platform team and regular deathmatch. Next up: more exotic, though still un-announced modes.

Love or hate the game, you have to appreciate the scope of what Madfinger is working within as it continues to try to raise the bar with Shadowgun.

What’s kinda striking us as funny is that there’s no ETA on this update. Generally speaking, that’s a bad sign. We rarely see iOS game competitive components release after launch and if they do, they launch a long, long time after initial game release. Hold on to your butts, in other words.

[Via Pocket Gamer]

[source]

Hardcore privacy advocates might want to think twice about playing EA games in the future, per a recent press release fired off the starboard bow of the U.S.S. Electronic Arts corporate battleship. What EA legends does is summarized in this hilariously buzzword-laden sentence: "The insights suite aggregates metrics, brand impact, social buzz, ad effectiveness, and ROI across all of EA's ad products and platforms." In other words, EA has came to the realization that they've got over 300 million players in their games worldwide, and will be providing marketers as much about you as they can to effectively run ad campaigns and dabble in other forms of sponsored content.

The motivation behind al this is actually fairly reasonable, even if it does feel a little creepy to know that EA is essentially analyzing you for maximum profits. With the rise in the popularity of gaming, combined with the forecast of EA increasing its audience reach by 30% this year, they think they're going to have a real shot at competing directly with advertising dollars that would have traditionally been funneled into TV ads.

It makes sense too, as it's not very hard to find someone in the advertising industry who is more than happy to tell you how the way lots of people are shifting how they're entertained (as opposed to, say, sitting in front of the TV watching network programming for hours on end) is rapidly changing. As far as what information of yours EA will have access to and will be able to offer advertisers, we'll have to wait to find out, it seems until EA Legend is premiered at the Advertising Week convention next week in New York City.

[source]

A cute panda, a match three puzzler, and a summery theme with cute accouterments such as picnic baskets and watermelons — where can Panda Picnic (Free) go wrong? I mean, if you literally think about the idea of pandas out on a picnic together, you immediately start smiling. Or at least I do. I'm assuming the picnic basket is full of bamboo, though — not my idea of a scrumptious lunch. Maybe I'll hang with the humans after all.

Enough about food: Let's talk about how Panda Picnic works. If you have ever played the notoriously popular Words With Friends, at least one pat of the format here will look familiar, and that's the part where you play with online friends. Panda Picnic has one flaw right out of the gate, in my opinion, and that is that is does not have a single player mode to allow you to practice on your own. Your options are to start a game with a Facebook friend, a random opponent, or a local friend.

There is nothing wrong with any of these options as long as the other player actually takes their turn, which can take ages if said person has gotten distracted from their phone and is dicking around updating their profile or whatever else it is we spend years on the internet doing. With a game as popular as Words With Friends, the waiting is not as bad, but with Panda Picnic, your best bet is to have at least three or four games going at a time. At least that way, you have more chances of actually making a move.

Speaking of making moves, here's how it all works. Each level opens with a slot machine in the bottom of your screen, and the puzzle with the panda curating it for you up top. You'll take a spin, get a series of different fruits, and decide if those are the ones you want for your next turn. If you have some coins accumulated, you may be able to spin again (these can be won or purchased in microtransactions). If not, you may be stuck with what you got. You'll notch each of these in a little slingshot and hurl them up to the top of the board, Bust-A-Move style. There's a little tally on the right side of the screen that shows off  how many of each fruit you still need to completely clear the board too, which I mostly just forgot was there in the first place.

The controls are very accurate, and I do like that there is a chat feature in case you want to actually speak to the person you're playing, although I never used it myself. The sounds are fun, and my only small complaint was the panda does this thing where he flicks his tongue in and out of his mouth like a snake and looks a little drug-addled. But hey, his problems have nothing to do with the gameplay, so you really don't have to worry too much about him.

Panda Picnic is pretty cute, and I admit I did enjoy the gameplay. Ultimately, however, I would wander away from it because it took so long for people to make moves. Playing with a local friend was more satisfying for me, as the gameplay could actually flow and I didn't have to do so much waiting. If you're on the lookout for a free puzzler you can play online with at anytime though, you may find the arcade twist to the gameplay hits that sweet spot you were hoping for.

[source]

We were shot some unexpected, but welcome news from Double Fine this afternoon. The studio, which is probably most known for Brutal Legend but let’s not talk about that because it ugh, has launched its very first iOS application: the Psychonauts Vault Viewer [Free]. As the name implies, it’s a companion app that lets fans view every slide from the game’s vault with the added bonus of commentary from Double Fine’s Time Schafer and Scott Campbell. In addition to learning a thing or two, you’ll probably get a few laughs. Also, it’s free and universal.

Here’s a small taste of Tim and Scott in just one of the slides:

TIM: “Now, he’s way up in the air. Is there an artistic term for that? Can you tell?”

SCOTT: “Uh, air-spective.”

TIM: “And what is the dad doing? Is he unapproving? Is he saying, ‘why are you throwing my baby in the air?' "

SCOTT: “He’s probably like, ‘I don’t understand the fun in this.' "

TIM:“And you snuck in a little cleavage, too, which is your way… sneaky.”

In other Psychonauts news, Double Fine has also launched a Steam update for the title alongside this app, adding in cloud saves and achievements and a small tweak said to make the game’s brutal Meat Circus level “slightly less punishing.” A Mac version of Psychonauts [$9.99] is also now live on the Mac App Store and Steam. Play this game, people! It's great!

[source]

Back in the depths of 2008, we had our hearts broken by I Love Katamari. The controls were problematic, there were performance issues, it was Katamari, but it was a mess. Now Namco is taking another shot at winning our love with Katamari Amore [Free].

Full disclosure: I'm a Katamari fan from way back. I got in on the ground floor with Katamari Damacy on PS2 and I've played every console release since. Over the years the formula has become a little stale, the craziness has started to feel a little forced, but I'm still a person who loves to roll things up. Sushi, cats, Ultraman, I'm not picky. So it's with a heavy heart that I tell you that Katamari Amore is a loveless thing.

Yes, yes, it's Katamari! On iOS! But that's not enough. The framerate gets choppy at times, especially on my 3GS. The controls are improved over the last outing, now offering one virtual pad, two virtual pads or tilt. The two-stick method is essentially the same as the console controls, if a bit stiff. The method for switching controls is awkward and confusing, but whatever. Technically this game is pretty much fine. It's just completely and utterly joyless.

The level design is the worst offender. One of the joys of the Katamari series is exploration. Strange scenarios can be found if you pay attention. You might find bears corralling humans at a campfire, or a hidden shrine to sashimi. It doesn't often make sense, but it rewards curiosity. In Katamari Amore, you'll find whatever random items are needed to make you bigger, strewn appropriately to allow you to progress. The most interesting thing I found in my travels was a space dog with an astronaut, and I guess the game thought it was interesting too because I got an achievement for rolling it up.

And that's emblematic of the whole problem with Katamari Amore. Nothing is there just for fun. To clear most of the Story Mode levels you'll need to roll up nearly every item available. This turns the game from a frantic size race to a tedious exercise in hunting down the one item you need to get just big enough to get the next batch of items. It's a bare-minimum philosophy that permeates everything — the King of All Cosmos's dialogue, the levels, the items and the entertainment value.

We mentioned that this game would have a special Pac-Man themed level, and it does. But don't get too excited. It's basically one level of the classic game, but with terrible controls and an obnoxious camera angle. There are better ways to play Pac-Man.

If none of this concerns you and you just want to get your Katamari on, here's what you need to know. The game is free to download, and contains one level of Time Attack mode. With an in-app purchase of $3.99, you can unlock all six currently available levels. Each has a Story Mode (in which the King asks you to roll up a specific item that always happens to be the largest item in the level), time attack, an exact size challenge and eternal mode. There are more packs on their way, but there's a reasonable amount of content here to start with.

It's not that Katamari Amore is completely terrible. There are a few technical speedbumps, but it's competent on the whole. Some of our forum users have decried the graphics, but simple art is a series staple. And it's a functional game, with plenty to do. It's just that it could be so much more.

Most of the things Namco has left out aren't the things that would push the limits of the platform – they're the humor and the spirit of the series. iOS games can be made with love and joy, they can be funny and charming. Those are things the Katamari series has had in spades, and it's a shame they're missing here.

[source]

A few days back we posted word that John Calhoun would soon be launching an iOS version of his classic early Macintosh game, Glider, in the App Store. Glider Classic [link] is now available for download and I've had a chance to put it through its paces. Let me share my impressions.

The good news is that Glider Classic for iOS is just what Glider was for the early Macs: quaint casual gaming with nicely frustrating puzzle elements and a simple visual aesthetic.

That simple assessment should be enough to let those familiar with the original title know that it's definitely worth a grab. For the uninitiated, let me explain the magic of the formula. (But I'll go ahead and toss out a spoiler: you want this game, too.)

Glider was originally released by Soft Dorothy in 1988 as shareware. It presents a simple proposition: fly your paper glider through a house filled with obstacles, room to room, and get it outside. The only controls were (and are) "move left" and "move right." Air vents on the floor and sources of heat, such as lights and stereo equipment, keep your glider aloft. And don't land on anything. That's it. It's a task that sounds far simpler than it is, and giving it your best is a whole lot of fun.

The original game featured modest aesthetics — line drawn shelves, simple dithered object shading, etc. — and that was, in part, forced by the limitations of the original platform, which was a Macintosh with an 8MHz CPU and a 512×384 pixel black and white display. The developer made the best of it way back when and the result was a charmingly simple, yet complex, casual game. The formula worked, and worked well. And so, in bringing Glider to the staggeringly more powerful iOS platform of today, Calhoun has maintained the control and visual aesthetics — the former by way of left / right tap controls, and the latter by entirely re-creating the visuals, but doing so in an intentionally minimalist fashion. The result is a game that looks and plays like the modern analog of the original that it is.

For those familiar with the earlier versions of Glider, Calhoun indicates that Glider Classic, from a gameplay perspective, is something of a mix of all of the titles from version 4, on down. He considers his commercial release of the game, Glider Pro from Casady & Greene, to have strayed a bit from the solid formula of the earlier releases, and so it was not a basis for the iOS version.

The house in Glider Classic features five different floors plus a basement level to fly through. The first floor is a pretty easy run, but the challenge ramps up notably as you progress. The developer not only hopes to add more houses to the game in a future update, but may also bring the classic Mac OS "house editor" to Mac OS X Lion, which would allow users to create their own play areas for the iOS version as well as the possible Mac App Store version that he indicates is likely to arrive at some point.

The current v1.0 release of Glider Classic runs on the iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch devices, on up, including the iPad (it's a universal application). Calhoun let me know, however, that he has already submitted the v1.0.1 update to Apple, which enables support for earlier iPhones and iPod touch devices, and squashes a few minor bugs, as well.

Glider is just a great little game with a lot of personality. And whether or not you've spent time with it in the past, it's a treat to play on modern iOS devices. The only criticism I can make. based on my time with the title so far. is the lack of online leaderboards. However, I discovered in a recent conversation with the developer that Game Center integration is on the list for a future update.

As indicated in our earlier post, John Calhoun recently left Apple after 16 years in order to bring Glider Classic and other titles to iOS. Last month he released Lab Solitaire [App Store], a photo-realistic version of Free Cell. For a bit more history on his days as a Mac game maker, I recommend checking out Bitmob's article entitled "Dreaming of a thousand-room house: The evolution of Glider," as well as MacScene's two part interview.

Glider Classic is currently available for a limited time at an introductory price of $0.99.

[source]

I want to love Madfinger's Shadowgun [$7.99]. I really do. It's a lovely looking game, one of the best on iOS, but it's so riddled with holes, crashes, bugs and repetition, it's easier to walk away frustrated than in awe of it.

You play John Slade, a brute with a gun hired to bring back a mad scientist. There's a whole back-story about how corporations rule the world and whatnot, but none of that makes a difference to the core of the game. It's basically you and your A.I. making bad jokes at each other while a mad scientist is on the loose causing havoc.

Shadowgun is a looker in all respects and running it on both an iPhone 3GS and an iPad produces amazing results (although, text is incredibly blurry on the 3GS). If you look closely, you can see some of the tricks Madfinger used to make it run and look the way it does, but as far as the environments go, it's hard not to sit with your mouth agape in awe.

There has been a lot of speculation that this is a Gears of War clone, but it's not as blatant as it appears. Yes, it's a cover-based shooter with enemies that appear to dig bondage, but the comparisons pretty much stop there. The guns aren't as fun to play with as Gears and the lack of any squad mechanic ensures Shadowgun won't be confused as a Gears clone by anyone who's actually played it. The weapon variety is stagnant, all feeling relatively similar and none of them standing out from the usual suspects in action games — shotgun, SMG, rocket launcher, grenade launcher — you get the point.

For movement, the controls work well and cover is handled automatically when you get near a wall. However, I was either running into a bug or an odd feature on both devices that would lock my gun in place while shooting a little over half the time. It was never consistent when it would decide to do this, and was amazingly frustrating during portions of the game that had enemies who actually moved. Maybe it's supposed to be like this, but if it is, it doesn't work well.

It's a good thing the enemies don't move much. Most of them will be content appearing on screen, running to cover, then popping up to shoot at you. There are a few different types of enemies who don't do this, but their movement is mechanical and predictable throughout. They're not stupid so much as programed to only follow a set path, regardless of where you are or what you're doing.

Then there are the crashes. So many crashes. In around four hours, the game had crashed around twenty times on my iPhone 3GS, then, after the third hard-reset, it decided to delete my save game on the second to last level. Full disclaimer: I didn't bother going back to it at this point.

I've learned to deal with a lot of technical issues with games in the past, but the one I have no tolerance for is a deleted save game. It's the gaming equivalent of blacking out at party and finding pictures of yourself making out with a goat in the morning. It's heart breaking, frustrating and there's nothing you can do about it.

Maybe if Shadowgun was a little more diverse I would be interested in pushing through it again, but the bulk of the game follows the same formula on repeat: walk into area, trigger event, enemies rush out, hide behind cover, shoot. There are enemies later on with different attack-styles, but most of your time will be spent in long corridors with unexplainable cover, shooting at grunts.

All of that said, there are a few interesting mix-ups throughout the campaign worth noting. Boss fights, for example, are well thought out and shift from combat to minor puzzle solving. There are also Simon style hacking mini-games spread throughout to mix things up, as well as light environmental puzzles here and there. They work as a nice respite from the game's shooting heavy tone, but are never challenging enough to offer more than a quick stop-gap in the action.

I have a whole list of pet peeves Shadowgun manages to break – poorly chosen checkpoints, unpredictable splash damage, and the bizarre choice of chapter ends – all things that will frustrate some more than others.

If Madfinger can fix the crashing and save-game deletion issues with a patch, they're still left with a repetitive, but lovely looking shooter. There are hints of true quality in the boss fights and some minor sections of the campaign, but the majority relies on a simple, corridor design that's hard to find engaging for very long.

[source]

Big Blue Bubble’s Fling a Thing [99¢] is one of those simplistic games with an almost indescribable appeal. Its core mechanic is so refined and entertaining and its constituent parts exist in such a strong harmony that you can’t escape re-visiting it. Fling a Thing is great because of the sum of its parts – the sound direction, the presentation, the action, and even the level progression system live to serve each other and it makes for a good time over and over again.

Fling a Thing is what happens when a studio takes the Doodle Jump formula and gives it structure, and then swaps the alien for an insect that has a suction-cup for a mouth. In the game, you control a sticky-mouthed "Thing" that adheres to glass panes. By grabbing its tail, you gain the power to fling the Thing in an arc. Sometimes you’ll need to attach to other bits of glass, but more often you’ll be flinging to bubbles, which act as a puzzle device.

What makes this mechanic pop is the approach to the puzzle design. Bubble puzzles are all free-form and not available in bits and bobs of UI. The number of “flings” you get at the start of the experience is all you’ll get until you’re out. As you progress, you’ll get shots at earning more flings via power-ups, but not enough to entitle you to horse around.

In a larger sense, Fling a Thing is a game about attrition and patience, and that’s a smart way to design a puzzle-light experience. You could go ballistic and waste flings on clearing four bubbles, but wouldn’t it be better to wait to fling until they line up, the game asks? You never know how much further up you could go, it teases.

Sometimes its fun to be a game manager as well an active participant. If you want to be critical and reserve what you can, you’ll be rewarded. If you want to just fling around, there’s simple entertainment to be with that, too. Big Blue Bubble nails the two approaches and seamlessly integrates them together.

The progression components back up the idea of infinite-ish play, as the game offers up various unlockables including different Things to play with, different level themes, and modifiers for the power-ups you’ll encounter in exchange for stars, which are the game’s currency. You can buy stars for a real-world price or gather them as they spawn randomly. You’ll need a lot to purchase stuff, so be prepared.

All the pieces of Fling a Thing fit together well. The fling mechanic and your strange avatar are held up by the otherworldly look of the visual direction while also propping up the bubble puzzle mechanics, and the design direction is bolstered by a rich progression system that keeps rewards coming with continued effort. One issue really sticks for me: it's hard to fire your Thing with any sort of accuracy when its lands in a corner.

The mark of a strong mobile game is often how much you go back to it and everything in Fling a Thing beckons more play. Fling a Thing is a sharply put together a package, assembled with a care to simple refinement that we often see in the indie space. Give it a spin if you need something fast and fun. You’ll dig it.

UPDATE: We've been informed that the ads, which we originally criticized, were a mistake. They are being removed.

[source]