iGame Radio

ETA: I incorrectly thought that Dingo Games’ iPhone game was a port of their Tasty Planet sequel. It is not…it is a port of their original Tasty Planet game for the Mac/Windows. They are planning on doing a port of the sequel, though.

Team Sollmo, the game dev team of game publisher Company100, has released Buddy Rush, a casual dungeon-crawling RPG for iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, and Facebook. The clever twist is that you can bring along your Facebook friends’ custom characters with you. It’s not a multiplayer game, as these characters are AI controlled, but they do get XP and other bennies. Encounter naughty Oblins, fight off hordes trying to steal your sheep, and gather materials for the village. The trailer looks graphically rich and clever in gameplay, so I’m already intrigued. This is also a freemium game with in-app purchases, to boot.

G5 Entertainment releases yet another hidden object game, this time about Marcus traveling to Rome. Set in ancient Rome, Romance of Rome takes you through 17 locations and 30 levels as you search for valuable artifacts that the Emperor has lost. The hand of the Emperor’s daughter awaits the finder of the artifacts, but Marcus isn’t the only one searching for them. Gaining the love of the citizens by helping people out and purchasing valuable items is the key to success. Romance of Rome is available for iPhone/iPod Touch for $4.99, and iPad for $6.99, and includes Game Center support. Also, G5 is running a contest for the game’s launch, which you can check out on their Facebook page.

Lastly, Dingo Games has released their Tasty Planet 2: Return for Seconds game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Launched as Tasty Planet, the game follows the hunger needs of the little tiny ball of grey goo that increases in size as it eats more. A mashup of Osmos and Katamari Damacy-like gameplay, you can now control your grey goo with your finger or tilt-control. Dingo also just added Game Center support, so you can now compete with your friends. Tasty Planet is only $0.99, a real bargain.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of Hordes of Orcs 2, by Freeverse. The sequel to the original tower defense game by Freeverse, that isn’t.
  
• Also, a review of Poker Night at the Inventory, by Telltale Games. A nice poker game to just kick back for a while and chill out with your favorite game characters.
  

Ubisoft released their third-quarter 2010-11 sales report yesterday, and within the report was a list of fourth quarter releases…including Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood for the PC and Mac. The release schedule is set between January and March 2011.

Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood for Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2010, selling over 6.5 million units. Speaking to investors on a conference call yesterday, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that a new Assassin’s Creed game will be announced in May 2011. But it seems that they are not finished with the Brotherhood version yet, desiring to release the PC and Mac version before the end of the current quarter.

Transgaming’s Gametree Online has already released the Mac version of Assassin’s Creed II, so one can postulate that they are also going to release the Mac version of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. However, as always, there is no comment.

GLaDOS and friends are finally getting ready to meet you. Portal 2, delayed twice, is now in pre-order phase. The sequel to Valve’s epic game about jumping through portals and eating cake can now be pre-ordered through numerous retail outlets, including Steam.

A number of special pre-order bundles are being offered, and different locations are offering different goodies. Steam offers Portal 2 and Portal at 10% off for both Mac and PC. You can pre-order at Gamestop and get Portal 2 for $5 off and receive GameStop exclusive customized skins for the co-op bots Atlas and P-body.

In addition a new Valentine’s Day trailer has been released to celebrate the pre-order phase of Portal 2, which teaches everyone the value of the right choices to make for V-day purchases.

Available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, and Mac, Portal 2 is scheduled to ship worldwide the week of April 18, 2011.

If you look at Dr. Carole Lieberman’s website (careful, it’s VERY PINK), you see a woman who has spent her lifetime so far catering to the rich and famous. She has published two books, has a radio show, and has testified in high profile cases, such as the Terri Schiavo and Roseanne Barr v. Tom Arnold cases. And now she has an opinion regarding violent video games.

“The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” state Dr. Lieberman in a recent Fox News article. This article is targeting Epic Games soon to be released Bulletstorm, an ultra-violent video game that, among other things, gives points for particularly skillful kills.
Read more…

You all may have been wondering we’ve been quiet for the past week. But believe me, we don’t just disappear and abandon our fans for any reason at all. No siree!!

We were slaughtering Orcs in the underground fortress of the Wizard of Blazarbag while countless goblins melted at our roar…

Uh, actually we were screaming our way down Mount Rainier on a snowboard with nothing on but a Necklace of Icing…

Wait, no, we were mowing down Cyberoids in the nearby stellar asteroid system while our smoochie-pooh fed us chocolate candies…

Okay, so we were in bed all week moaning in pain and agony and waiting for it all to end. They say that there are only a few things in life as painful as labor. Having gone through both now, I can honestly say they were right.

Kidney Stones suck giant donkey wangers.

They should make a video game out of this suffering. After all, if someone can sell Angry Turds, they should be able to sell a game based on trying to get the damn stone through a convoluted passageway with a minimum of damage. Oh, wait…

Anyway, we are now back to normal thanks to modern medicine (yah, modern medicine) and will be entertaining you with great insight again.

Oh, and drink more fluids, folks.

 

Alexandra Butova of Alawar Entertainment was at Macworld 2011 showing off their latest iPad game, Hamlet. This point and click adventure game reminds one of Myst in the type of puzzles it provides, and the artwork is quite original. This is an example of the new path that Alawar ha been taking on all of their games in 2010, and they intend to continue this path. I talked with Butova about their games on Mac and iOS devices and where they are going from here.

 

Jeff McCord has a long history in the game industry. Best known for developing Sword of Fargoal back in 1982 (a game which was listed in 1996 by Computer Gaming World as #147 on the “Top 150 Best Video Games of All Time”), McCord has brought this well-beloved game back to PC, Mac, and even iPhone and iPad. Now he has moved forward with two endeavors to continue his gaming career with the development of Sword of Fargoal 2, and Trouble Brothers, a company he is working in conjunction with Steven Shippert to develop strategy games, including the recently released Wizard Hex.

UPDATE: Apple has removed the iCoder version of Lugaru from the Mac App Store, though when that was done is unknown at this time. No update to the Wolfire or iCoder sites has been made regarding the issue. However, Kotaku posted an update today in which a spokesperson for iCoder stated that they pulled them game from the Mac App Store, though gave no reason why.

…or what happens when people don’t read legal agreements, as apparently has happened to Michael Latour of iCoder, who has taken the GPL’d source code to Wolfire Games’ Lugaru and chosen to release the game, in its entirety, on the Mac App Store as his own.

Back a few months ago, during the Humble Indie Bundle 2 sale, Wolfire Games graciously set free the source code to their game Lugaru, about warring rabbits. The post regarding that release was very clear about what was free and what was not, which included that the game assets (graphics, etc) were not allowed to be resold without permission from Wolfire Games.

The game assets are included in the snapshot, and can be redistributed for free, but cannot be resold without our permission.

Apparently, Michael Latour chose not to read the license, or the initial post, when he decided to do just that…sell the game with all game assets without the permission of the developer. You can find the game on the Mac App Store under the name Lugaru, despite the fact that Wolfire Games already has the original version up there under the name Lugaru HD. A spokesperson for iCoder, Alex Maitlin, has already stated they don’t believe they are doing anything wrong.

From the Kotaku site:

While we do understand [Wolfire's] regrets, this does not change the fact that we have every legal right to market and sell the software, and we feel that $1.99 is a fair price. The license we were granted allows for non-exclusive redistribution of the source code or the compiled product, modified or unmodified, for a fee or free of charge.

This is obviously not the case. iCoder seems to be from every indication clearly in violation of Wolfire’s copyright. In fact, this would be no different than any company choosing to take Quake 2, also released under the GPL, and releasing the entire game on the Mac App Store. No one would be surprised if id Software were to file a notice with Apple or a DMCA takedown notice.

One would believe with such a clear violation of the agreement, Apple would decide to bring the game down off the Mac App Store immediately. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. According to Wolfire Games, Apple has still not responded to Wolfire Games after several days even though the violation is quite obvious. One wonders just how much proof one needs to show Apple to prevent a violator from continuing to sell a fraud of your product on their store. Or, perhaps one needs to have a high profile name.

Whichever is the case, we will continue to monitor this situation and give updates as they occur.

Many of you might not be familiar with Out of the Park Developments. They develop the Out of the Park Baseball series (OOTB), and I recently came across them through a friend’s nod toward OOTB 11 just launching on the Mac App store. Wow, sorry I missed them before.

From the screens, this seems to be a baseball sim like none other. Very detailed in stats, graphics, and historical information. You can create a modern league of your own making, create one based on historical information going all the way back to 1871, and even create a multi-league world that involves several countries. And that’s just solo. You can also join online leagues and play against other human players.

You can also check out the website as pre-orders for OOTB 12 for both Windows and Mac have already begun. Pre-orders will not only get the game for $29.99, 25% off the list price, but will be able to download the game 2 days before everyone else.