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An iPad and iPhone game has jumped to PC, while a PC game is still set for a release on iPad. Earlier this week, Capybara’s experiential adventure game, Sword & Sworcery landed on Steam, while the dudes behind Legend of Grimrock [$14.99, Steam] continued to pound away at the long-awaited iPad version of the dark, atmospheric, and classic-style RPG.

Sword & Sworcery is currently $5.99 as part of a launch promotion that ends April 23. It’s a straight-up port so it doesn’t rock any new content, but it certainly looks prettier on our monitors than on our iPads.

The last time we covered Legend of Grimrock, developer Almost Human was thinking it had a chance of putting the game out to iPad by the end of 2011. Obviously, that didn’t pan out, but an iPad version is still very much in the works. An “iOS version is in the plans,” the developer wrote via its Twitter account the other afternoon. We’ve contacted Almost Human for a, uh, more specific answer.

Years ago, we wouldn’t have even thought this kind of movement was possible. Phone games were just… phone games. It’s incredible that these mobile experiences are becoming so much more than just time-wasters in such a short period of time. Wonder what kind of movement we’ll see within the next three-to-four years?

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Growing up as an avid Mac gamer in the 1990s, I was a huge fan of RPGs put out by the folks at Spiderweb Software. Not particularly known for their graphical prowess (even back then), these shareware games of old focused more on exploration, narrative and, most important, freedom. Avernum: Escape From The Pit [$9.99] is the second game from Spiderweb to hit iOS, serving as the pinnacle for these RPG tenets and should be looked at as a gold standard for iOS RPGs.

First, a brief history lesson is in order. Avernum for iPad is a remake of the 1999 Avernum title, which itself was a rewrite of the 1995 Mac shareware title Exile: Escape from the Pit. While each iteration brought visual and combat upgrades, the same open-ended exploration system remained. The same holds true for Avernum for iPad, which receives overhauls in both its visual and character/battle systems.

In Avernum: Escape From the Pit, the Empire rules the surface. Anyone that crosses this oppressive regime is banished to underground region of Avernum, a world unto itself that replaces the sun with luminescent moss and the sky with endless caverns. The world, along with all its inhabitants comes to life in the game’s deep narrative which could easily span its own novel. It’s this world that you’re violently thrown into, and it’s in this world that you are free to do what you wish.

It’s this freedom that makes Avernum such a compelling and enjoyable experience. From the moment you customize your four person party at the onset, you are allowed to do what you wish. Sure, you are presented with some overarching decisions as you spend more time in the world (complete with three separate endings), but like all great RPGs, the true reward is in the journey. Whether you choose to be a willing asset of the struggling makeshift kingdom in Avernum, a lone wanderer trying to make do in the cavernous wild, or an agent of destruction and chaos, all paths are available in this title.

In terms of character development, there’re attributes, abilities and traits to customize, each being open to all characters. You really can’t appreciate the sheer amount of options you have as opposed to most other RPGs as a plethora of weapons, armor, abilities and spells supplement the core character stats mentioned above. Fans of the original Avernum series will notice that some of the skills have been streamlined. However, the options have been consolidated for the better, preserving the majority of the customizability while making the game far more accessible.

For those looking for a rundown of Avernum’s gameplay, you need not look any further than our review of Avadon: The Black Fortress, Spiderweb Software’s initial iOS offering that debuted last year. The same isometric, turn-based combat system returns, complete with various difficulties, an auto-save function and a new collection of achievements to earn. As with Avadon, the touch-based control system works well enough, although there are occasions of imprecise tapping, making your characters potentially act in ways you did not mean.

One of the side effects of open-ended gameplay is a shift in exploration and gameplay style. In the world of Avernum, you can and most likely will run into areas that you simply should have not stumbled onto. Enemy fortresses may have hidden rooms (complete with warning signs) featuring overpowered enemies that may wipe your party out. This leads to a lot of saving/reloading as well as a lot of backtracking should you choose to return to previously visited locales to beat that one powerful demon. Fans of streamlined experiences may balk at this gameplay style, but I love the variety as it sets the tone of Avernum as a chaotic world that isn’t as clear-cut as it may appear.

As we mentioned earlier, Spiderweb Software games are homages to classic 90s RPGs in many aspects. That includes the visuals and music, which are simplistic and work just enough to provide ambience. And yet, there were many occasions while playing in which I felt far more attached to the events unfolding than I have while playing any ‘next-gen’ RPG. The amount of effort and care put into the narrative, quests and even level design create an atmosphere that is sorely missed in other titles (assuming you’re willing to lend an able imagination to fill in the gaps).

While Avadon served as a streamlined ‘introductory’ experience to the world of classic RPGs, Avernum (as evidenced above) removes all the handholding in order to create a more open-ended experience. I believe this choice makes Avernum the more fulfilling and satisfying title, as well. The storytelling, customization, and sheer amount of content make this RPG a true powerhouse on iOS. There’s also a certain amount of nostalgic satisfaction as newer gamers are able to experience a world made popular during the Mac shareware golden age. While there will undoubtedly be some who turn away because of the retro look and feel, a truly rewarding experience awaits anyone else willing to dive into the pit.

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Fans of 2D Minecraft-ing on iOS have had it pretty good with the excellent Junk Jack [$2.99/Lite], but the developers at Bytebin Studios want to know what would happen if you take a similar Terraria/Minecraft sandbox idea, placed it in a steampunk setting, and let everyone connect to one giant persistent world together online MMO style. The result is Deepworld, and you can get a pretty good idea of what it’s like in this new gameplay trailer.

Deepworld is in an alpha state but is close to entering beta, and as the game stands right now it contains procedurally generated worlds, a robust crafting system, a day/night cycle and weather effects, and a limited number of enemies. It will also be coming out for Mac, and since the game world is stored in the cloud, there will be cross-platform play between the iOS and Mac versions.

Longer-term goals for Deepworld are a dynamic ecosystem that can be dilapidated and brought back to health, a steam-based power source for creating vehicles and machines, and social game types like Capture the Flag and Freeze Tag. While the idea of something like Deepworld is certainly intriguing, it’s also incredibly ambitious for an iOS title. I’ll feel much better once the initial product gets released and I can actually try it out, and much like Junk Jack or Minecraft itself, Deepworld will likely evolve over time.

It sounds like Deepworld is set to initially launch pretty soon, and we’ll keep an eye out for a specific release date. Until then you can swing by our forums to talk about the game.

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One of the all-time best platformers on iOS would have to be Acne Play’s Pizza Boy [ $1.99 ]. Released back in September of 2010, Pizza Boy absolutely nailed the virtual controls thing on the touchscreen, and almost more importantly they totally got the “feel” right – that is, the weight and movement of your character as he ran and jumped through the world felt perfectly tuned, like a classic 2D Mario game.

We thought Pizza Boy was great when it hit, though it was a bit on the short side, something that was rectified a few months later. Now, after all this time since Pizza Boy’s release, Acne Play, in conjunction with NCSoft, has announced their newest game for iOS and Android called My Little Hero with the following teaser trailer.

The problem with this teaser trailer is, well, that it’s just one big tease. There’s no gameplay shown and we’re really left wondering what kind of game My Little Hero is. I guess that is the point of a teaser, right? At the very least our interest is piqued.

The only other information we’ve been able to glean from our forums is that My Little Hero is an action adventure title and we should be hearing more on the game in the way of screens and videos soon. Given how awesome Pizza Boy is, consider us excited for whatever My Little Hero turns out to be.

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We’ve been following the upcoming Jetpack Joyride [ Free ] update since we first caught wind of it back at GDC. Since then Halfbrick has been slowly teasing additional gadgets that are going to be included in the soon-to-be-released update.

Here’s the latest:

In a nutshell, gadgets are going to work sort of like the perk system in Call of Duty and other similar games where you can mix and match two persistent bonuses. It sounds like it’s going to add even more replay value to the game as players slowly figure out which two gadgets they like pairing together.

If all goes as planned, the update should be landing sometime later this month.

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In January Namco Bandai released an excellent iOS version of their classic 3D fighter SoulCalibur [ $11.99 ]. A a fan of SoulCalibur on Dreamcast more than a decade ago, the faithful iOS port was a great way to re-experience the game. The virtual controls worked well, the graphics were crisp and high-res, and the finely-tuned mechanics withstood the test of time.

However, as good as iOS SoulCalibur was, it was strangely devoid of any kind of multiplayer, a key component for a fighting game. Over the weekend, Namco Bandai looked to rectify that omission by releasing a new update that adds Bluetooth multiplayer to SoulCalibur. The new versus mode works just as well as you’d expect it to, and squaring off against an opponent face-to-face is just as fun as it was back in the day. It really is crazy just how well SoulCalibur has aged after all these years, especially as a competitive game.

One important thing to note though is that multiplayer isn’t compatible with the iPod touch. SoulCalibur is a pretty technically demanding game anyway, and even upon release required at least an iPhone 4, iPad 2 or 4th generation iPod touch to run. It is likely the lower amount of RAM in that iPod touch device that is the reason multiplayer is a no-go.

If you’re a SoulCalibur fan in the iPhone or iPad camp then get to updating your game and go search out a worthy opponent. Believe it or not, SoulCalibur is actually on sale right now to celebrate the update, down from its normal price of $14.99, so if a lack of multiplayer caused you to pass on the game before now is not a bad time to finally pick it up.

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This week on The TouchArcade Show, we do another stellar job staying on topic — for the most part. At the top, we spend a good amount of time to the latest releases: Epic Astro Story, Puncho Fighto, and Burnout: Crash eat up a lot of our games section. Topics like the recent Kickstarter explosion and Magic: The Gathering on tablets round out the show. We also answer quite a few user e-mails, which we always appreciate.

If you’d like to listen this week, go ahead and do so via the handy links below. If you would rather get these things the easy way, feel free to subscribe to us on iTunes or, hey, even Zune. The subscription is free and automatic. It’s a win-win. Or something.

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-047.mp3, 42.2MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Burnout Crash! [ $4.99 ]
• Puncho Fighto [ $0.99 ]
• Epic Astro Story [ $3.99 ]
• Blast Ball [ $1.99 ]
• Infinity Blade 2 [ $4.99 ]
• Kitten Sanctuary [$0.99 / Free ]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• LoveCat [ $1.99 ]

FRONT PAGE

• ‘Magic’ Coming To iPad
• 2XL’s ‘XLR8′ Isn’t a Game, But it Makes Driving Feel Like One

Also, this owns, thanks @mikemeade:

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The very first post on TouchArcade was over four years ago now, which, for those of you playing along at home, was before the iOS App Store even launched. (Heck, back then it wasn’t even iOS yet, and wouldn’t even be iOS for another two years.) We’ve been hard at work on our own app with the help of Flexibits and Bartelme Design for what seems like forever, and with it being unleashed to the world next week, I figured now was a great time to lay out the features and functionality of the app.

First off, the main screen (seen below and to the left) is what you see when you launch the app. It has a featured story, which usually will be whatever our last review was, or any other story that deserves some kind of special attention. To the right of that is the “Hot Games” list, which is a killer feature of the app. What you’re looking at here is a realtime display of the games that have generated the most interest in our community.

There’s a whole bunch of behind the scenes wizardry taking place to compute this list, utilizing tons of different data points to create a surprisingly accurate display of what the hottest games at the time are. The cool thing about this is that the list is constantly being updated. If you want to know what the most popular games amongst our community are at this exact moment, look no further than the hot games list.

The other views of the app share a similar look, and you’re able to really drill down on reviews for all the games we’ve looked at via a set of drop downs. So, for instance, if you wanted to see reviews of free action games posted in the last month. Totally doable. The “News & Reviews” function gives you a quick glance at all the content on the site. Oh, and if you decide to, you can even get push alerts when we post a new story.

Our forums are (obviously) huge for our community, so we’ve included forum integration in the app. Each thread display also features all the information you’d need about a game at a glance, with ratings from both the actual App Store as well as amongst our own users. You can even assign your own ratings just like you can on your browser. See the little slider with the binoculars? Things with the app get even better.

The watch list, much like the wish list in the AppShopper App [ Free ] is my favorite feature. By flipping the toggle switch seen above, you can add any game, regardless of whether or not it’s released. From there, you can see any stories that have been posted about that specific game. Also, if the push alerts for everything we post is a little too much for you, you can set the app to only send you alerts when articles that pertain directly to your watch list are posted.

So, if we post a preview for a game that interests you, all you’ve got to do is add it to your watch list, and you’ll get alerts for when it’s released, when we post a review, and potentially even if it ever gets updates or a price drop and we cover it.

The app also has tons of information about all the games on the App Store. Once you get into the actual details page of any game (which is accessible by numerous methods within the app) you’ll see our own review scores as well as the rating from out community, and you’ll be able to jump into any forum thread that pertains to the game. Also, obviously, any associated trailers or screenshots are there along with the iTunes text and anything we’ve posted about the game.

We’ve put a ton of work into the TouchArcade app, and we’re all really proud of what we’re about to release. There’s a number of other little features and settings that you’ll discover as you’re using it, but this is the core functionality of the app. We’ve been using it for months now to discover games to cover on the site, and we’re confident that it’ll become your go to app to find the latest and greatest games the App Store has to offer.

If everything goes as planned, it will be available for free, globally, next week.

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Do you remember the Bullet Time Wars of the early ’00s? Every game had to have it, and not one of them got it right. We lost a lot of good games during that time; lost to the unnecessary addition of a dumb movie gimmick.

But then Max Payne [ $2.99 ] was released, and overnight the war ended. There was no disputing that, finally, a game had gotten bullet time right. That day was almost 11 years ago, and since then the world has changed. Games still implement bullet time, most of them successfully, but they all owe it to Max Payne.

For those of you who somehow missed out on it the first go around, Max Payne is revenge story wrapped in a noir coat that is so thick that the game occasionally comments on how warm it is. It serves as almost a noir for dummies book. Can’t sit through Chinatown? Max Payne will teach you all there is to know about noir.

But, for as silly as the writing occasionally is, it is still a good story. You will run into some truly gut-wrenching moments before you hit the 5 minute mark. But I wouldn’t dare spoil an 11 year old game, so I’ll stop right there. If you want to know more… Well, I assume you know what to do.

There is little sense in reviewing an 11 year old game that won nearly every award it could when it was first released. It’s well established that Max Payne is a fantastic game, but it is also ELEVEN years old. That means it comes with all the baggage that an 11 year old game has earned. So, rather than focusing on Max Payne the game, lets talk about Max Payne the iOS port instead.

This is the absolute best this game has ever looked. On the new iPad, the game sees resolutions and clarity that were pipe dreams when it first came out. Granted, the textures are low resolution, but they still look pretty good rendered on the iPad’s Retina Display. The between level “comic book” sequences are not Retina resolution, but it’s not a great mystery as to why.

I doubt anyone at Remedy envisioned people wanting to play the game at ridiculous resolutions, so it’s likely that they never created super high-resolution assets for anything. But, thanks to how well everything upscales, they still look pretty good. While it didn’t age as well as Grand Theft Auto 3 [ $4.99 ] did visually, it is still a great looking game. Bonus points if you can make it through the whole game without giggling at Max’s facial texture.

Controls are about what you would expect from virtual joysticks. Max feels a bit floaty when he moves, and looking around can be a pain, but the game is still very playable, thanks in part to a pretty competent auto aiming system. I know a lot of folks scoff at the idea of auto-aim, but it really does make the experience more cinematic and fun. When I turned off auto-aim, the results were decidedly less than fun (and often borderline frustrating), but your mileage may vary.

The real problem with the default virtual control layout is that the hit zones for buttons are too close to each other. Because you are aiming at a nondescript part of the screen, rather than a button, you will often find yourself jumping when you want to enter bullet time. A minor problem once or twice, but growing in annoyance significantly over the course of an 8 hour game. Like GTA3, you can move the buttons around on screen in the options, but you never really shake the feeling that this is a game made for a controller (or keyboard and mouse).

(Original E3 2011 trailer for PC version.)

Playing Max Payne to completion takes anywhere from 7 to 10 hours. If you intend to make that journey, please be sure to manage your own save files. Yes, Max Payne offers an auto-save, but I found it to be unreliable at best, and downright abusive at it’s worst. Unfortunately, games ported from PCs seem to bring more quirks than if they were ported from a console. Max Payne is from a time where we didn’t trust the game to save for us, so we took that responsibility upon ourselves. Max Payne for iOS has ported that feature spectacularly, so make sure you adjust your habits accordingly.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was super stoked about Max Payne coming to iOS. It was a game I loved on the PC 11 years ago, and I wanted to see how rose the colored glasses were. The answer is, surprisingly, not that rose. While it looks old, and has virtual joysticks, Max Payne is every bit the great game it was 11 years ago. I wish Rockstar had put more love into the port, but for costing me 1/25th of the original game, I’ll cut them some budgetary slack.

Now if I could just get rid of these war flashbacks, I’d be in business.

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Ladies and gentlemen, fire up your speculation machines, as this one is a doozie. According to Apple Insider, Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted wandering around the Valve headquarters in Bellevue, WA earlier today. What his purpose was for swinging by is basically a game of Apple rumor whack-a-mole. Valve got involved with the Apple community when they released Steam for the Mac, and since then have even released Steam Mobile [ Free ] for iOS devices.

The possibilities are endless. An expanded collaboration between the two companies could be in the works which could mean more Mac games, or potentially Valve even getting into iOS development. Either way, something strange is afoot. Of course, Tim could just have flown up there to go out to lunch with Gabe, too. Or, maybe he’s just a fan of the greater Seattle area.

Speculation time… GO!

[via Apple Insider]

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