iGame Radio

Podcast Episode 77 is now available. Great episode wherein I talk about the dangers of game studies, whether to OS 3.0 or not to OS 3.0, and why you can’t be Obama in Second Life anymore.

Also:

• A review of Braid, by Jonathan Blow, ported to the Mac by Hothead Games. Braid is one of those unique games that stepped outside the development box of safety and won the game of risk. Truly a game that will be remembered for its game mechanics, its art, and most importantly, integrating all of this together into a truly fluid piece of art that is eminently playable and fun.





• A review of Ice Road Truckers, Slitherine Software’s first foray into iPhone games. A racing game wrapped with a History Channel show.





• An interview with Dennis Fong, CEO of Raptr, about their social gaming utility.

Today’s iPhone game watch list includes zombies, because, well, no game watch list would be complete without them, now would it?

Dead Panic is a zombie shooter for the iPhone. The interesting thing about it is that it includes a cool sci-fi storyline, though I’m unclear about how integrated the storyline is with the gameplay. It also includes a distinct strategy element wherein you must place your combatants before combat. You can turn them during, but you can’t seem to move them. So you have to plan for a good 360 degree coverage…or else. Check out the video.

Binary Hammer has released Polyhedra which requires some 3D thinking. You have to place the polygons on the screen so that you get the highest amount of coverage. You can resize the polygons as well. Not your dad’s Tetris game for sure! Video of gameplay here.

Hero Defense just looks cool. A shooter with some adventure elements to it and some very nice artwork. ‘Nuff said. Now you can look at the video.

ETA: Heard back from developer Paul Hutson. The iPhone app will cost $2, starting low to catch as many people into the game as possible. The browser portion is a subscription model which only charges after level 10. Pricing schemes of 1 month $3.99, 3 months $10.99, 6 months $19.99 and 1 year $37.99. They’ve also got a special offer of a lifetime subscription for $99.99 right now, too. Oh, and I’ll be doing an interview with Paul soon, so look for that in an upcoming podcast!

I heard about this before but haven’t had a chance to look it over in detail. A MMOG game for web browser and iPhone, specifically targeting the EVE Online and such-like crowd. The game is called Outer Empires, and the browser side just went live yesterday. The iPhone/iPod Touch version was submitted to Apple around the 15th, so it may be a few more days before we get access to it.

From the site:

“Outer Empires is a new-born galaxy, just waiting for players to begin building history by colonising planets, exploring the far reaches of space and forming powerful cadres of miners, traders and pirates,” says Iron Will Studio lead designer Paul Hutson.

Sounds like a cool game, and you don’t need to be sitting in front of your computer to do it. Okay, EVE Online, the gauntlet has been thrown. It’s your turn now. ;-)

ETA: PopCap says that Rick might have competition for being the overall best at Zuma in the form of Jackie Strickland…a 67 year old great-grandmother. Not your grandma’s game indeed. Also, a trailer has been revealed. Very cool!

ETA2: And catch the screens at the bottom, too.

PopCap Games has just announced that Zuma’s Revenge, the sequel to the incredibly popular Zuma, is headed to the Mac (oh, uh, and Windows). Zuma’s Revenge promises high-resolution graphics, wild new game mechanics, all-new modes and power-ups, and much more. The game is scheduled for release on September 15, with a list price of $19.95, and will be available both retail and download.

From the press release:

In Zuma the player takes the role of a fearless ball-shooting frog, exploring ancient temples and ruins. By firing colored spheres into an advancing chain of balls to make matches of three or more, the frog blasts his way through a series of arcade challenges. The sequel brings the player to an all-new setting, the Polynesian paradise of Zhaka Mu, and ups the ante with nearly triple the screen resolution of the original game, cool 3-D particle effects, and support for widescreen monitors. A full list of new features in Zuma’s Revenge! will be available at launch.

Only PopCap Games can make a game, whose main character is a ball-shooting frog, exciting.

What’s even more interesting is that they’ve got Rick Fortin beta-testing the game. If you’re a Zuma fan, you know Rick. He’s gotten the highest known score in Zuma…3,384,820 with 34 extra lives! What better person to beta-test the sequel.

You can check out some tidbits regarding the game at PopCap Games’ site, or here.

But how long can he do that before going insane? Via TechCrunch comes this tidbit about how Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, is personally responding to developer concerns regarding App Store rejections. And I do mean personally, as in sending personal emails or phone calls. Obviously, he can’t do all of them, or he’d be nuts already (and incapable of doing the rest of his job). So he’s doing the ones that get profiled in the online media.

So what happens to the rest of them? You know, the ones that probably have just as much of a right to be on the App Store, but that TUAW or TechCrunch or TMO or TouchArcade, etc don’t pick up. Well, they will probably end up being screwed until Apple does fix the glaring problems within the App Store. And unfortunately, many of those problems are made of the very things that make up Apple…non-transparency, corporate greed, etc.

But there are other problems too, which can be fixed. And they can be fixed right now. Inconsistency.

Case in point: Trak4Games is a little developer that released a game called Trak4 back in June. Passed through the system with no problems and was launched onto the App Store. Then developer Keith Kolmos sent in his 1.1 update to the game. Which was rejected. When he asked why, he was told that when you hit the solve button and your wrong, a glass breaking sound plays and the pieces crumble. The reviewer interpreted this artwork as the screen breaking, which is apparently a big no-no for Apple.

Except that the original game had the exact same feature. And passed the test. So, here we have an excellent example of two different interpretations of the Apple protocols regarding what is and isn’t allowed in the App Store, and a developer caught in between.

Hopefully, this is exactly what Phil Schiller and Apple are working on fixing. Because obviously when you have hundreds of apps being approved daily, you have dozens of people performing the approval process. And the more people involved, the more chances you have of misinterpretations of policy and protocol…especially when that policy or protocol is poorly written.

Ankama has announced that they will reveal DOFUS 2.0, a revamped version of their popular tactical MMORPG for the PC/Mac at PAX this year. Five years after its initial launch, DOFUS has gained 20 million players, and Ankama has decided to release a new version, complete with more detailed graphics, new animations, and improved performance and gameplay. Nearly two dozen computers will be dedicated to DOFUS 2.0 play for the first time in the US.

I’ll be there to take pictures, play the game, and give feedback about this first-time event for my American audience. So make sure to check back here during PAX week, September 4 – 6.

Podcast Episode 76 is now available. Great episode wherein I rant about Australia’s regressive gaming classification, expound upon the new Warhammer Online Mac client, wax nostalgic about possible new games from old Bullfrog IP, and bounce about over Deathspank and Insectoid!

Also:

• A review of Black & White 2, ported to the Mac by Feral Interactive. Gorgeous graphics, fun puzzles, tries to do too many things for too many people. What kind of game was it again?
• A review of Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D, the next Baseball iPhone game from Com2Us. The best baseball batting game for the iPhone out right now.
• An interview with Ariella Lehrer, CEO of Legacy Interactive, about their new Game Share and Compare service on Facebook. Tired of trying to figure out what the rankings on the App Store actually mean? GSC wants to make them mean something real.

The twenty examples of supreme gaming madness, the Omeganauts, were revealed recently in a press release secretly passed around in the gaming industry hierarchy by the folks of PAX 2009. These manly gaming demons (diluted 15% by estrogened succubi) will be faced with playing the most awesome games of our times. Yes, folks, in order to prove their gaming worth, they will be forced to play…

MARIO KART FOR THE WII!!!!

Was that a bit snarky?

Actually, the fact the Mario Kart for the Wii is in the list of games the Omeganauts contestants must play, along with Bookworm Adventures, Halo 3: ODST, and CONNECT FOUR (connect four??!) shows the strength of this particular gaming competition. It isn’t good enough for you to learn every AAA FPS title out there. You have to have flexibility, be able to play a wide variety of genres, think outside the box, to really prove that you are a true Omeganaut gamer.

Sennheiser is in the final stages of a US tour of their headphone line. The tour will move onto Canada after this, but Seattle is apparently their last US stop. So, I’ve decided to hit one of their locations, check out their gaming headphones, and do an interview.

This is actually a friendly competition between the “Girls” and “Guys” Teams that are in various locations throughout the country right now. The Guys Team is here this week, so I’ll be talking to them about their HD555, PC350, PC161, and PC151 headphones. I might even be able to do some reviews of the headphones. Depends on whether I can smuggle some out get some review samples.

Anyway, if you have any questions you’d like to ask the Guys Team you can email them to me and I’ll add them to my list, complete with your name!

Red Marble Games has announced the release of Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets for the Mac. Developed by Floodlight Games, this hidden-object-cum-mystery game combines story, seek-and-find, and other types of puzzles together. Dr. Lynch has made a habit of debunking paranormal stories, but now must figure out the mystery of the ghostly girl in the photo. Is she really a ghost?

The game runs on Intel Mac only, but Red Marble supplemented that with “at this time”. A possibility that it might make it’s way to PPC? The game has a demo to play, and is available for $22.95. Oh, and if you subscribe to their newsletter, you get a $5 discount. ‘Course, you won’t know how until you do. Heh.