iGame Radio

 

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of Majesty 2, by Virtual Programming. The bounty twist of Majesty 2 turns a standard strategy sim into something new and exciting. The humor of both the advisor and the heroes within the game keeps you moving through the mouse click problems and the difficulty issues, to conquer your enemies and win the day.
  
• Also, a review of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, published by Feral Interactive. Another opportunity to merge LEGOs with a pop culture icon, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga gives you and your friends the chance to play it all. The humor does it best, pulling you back again and again.
  

Just got the first set of screens for the new Ducati Challenge, a 3D racing game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Ducati Challenge lets the player race the most powerful of the Ducati my2011 line through multiple tracks and locations.

The Ducati my2011 line includes six categories: Monster, Hypermotard, Diavel, Multistrada, Streetfighter and Superbike. You’ll have the ability to race in Championship mode, which features three competitions of increasing difficulty. The Quick Race lets you pick a bike and a track so you can jump right into a single race. And multiplayer mode offers challenges for up to 4 players over Wi-Fi.

Game Extras include exclusive Ducati images and achievements, while you can listen to your own music playlists in-game, and fine-tune bike handling and steering sensitivity in the Options section.

Today we have a special treat…a game preview! Bad Apples: Battle Harvest, by Metaversal Studios, is awaiting Apple approval for the iTunes App Store at this moment, but we couldn’t wait to talk about it.

Bad Apples: Battle Harvest is the sequel to the original match-three game of fruit. The twist to the game involves worms that pop up from the ground to infect your fruit. Every round they move up through your columns of fruit, causing damage to your soldiers at the top. Infected fruit rots, and can even become enmeshed in vines and immobilized. If enough of your fruit a the top are damaged, the game is over.

The game uses the traditional swap mechanic, allowing you to swap one fruit with another (assuming they are mobile). You can also drop a piece of fruit from one column to another lower one. Three or more matches result in the removal of all of the fruit that are matched.

The game includes powerups as well, special fruit dropping from above into your columns. Including them in a match can result in some spectacular results, so plan accordingly.

There are three modes. Story follows the storyline of the game over three locations and a total of 45 levels. In Invasion, you face a never-ending assault. Recruit mode provides interesting puzzles that are solved through matches with limited moves and no worms to worry about.

The artwork is professional and detailed, including tree leaves that escort each image off the screen. Developer Metaversal Studios Put a lot of work into this game, and it shows.

Transgaming has announced pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Didn’t we tell you it was coming?

The second of the Assassin’s Creed series to hit the Mac, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood follows Master Assassin Ezio as he commands an entire order of assassins against the Templar Order. Ezio and his Brotherhood journey to Rome, the center of power, greed, and corruption, to strike at the heart of the Templar enemy. Recruit and train promising young assassins, then deploy them or call them to aid you. You can also unlock extra factions and missions by rallying the citizens through revitalizing their city, or collaborate with actual historical characters, such as da Vinci or Machiavelli. Read more…

Slitherine, Matrix Games, and Bloober Team have worked together to release History Egypt Engineering An Empire across multiple platforms, including the iPad. The first strategy wargame from Slitherine to reach iOS, players can build their own empire from its foundations to the height of its power, acting as the leader of a territory from the Egyptian Empire. Players manage all aspects of the rise, including economic growth, political power, development of armies, expansion through war or diplomacy, etc. This turn-based strategy game has already reached the top 5 in the US charts.

Pogo Pig takes the ideas behind Doodle Jump one step further, or maybe down? Whereas in Doodle Jump you were always jumping ever skyward, in Pogo Pig you can jump up, down, and sideways. The game utilizes the vertical and horizontal axis for maximum bouncy platform fun.

I got wind of daWindci (no pun intended?) last year, and have been eagerly awaiting its release. This top down physics puzzler has you sailing away in your beautiful balloon on 45 expeditions searching for valuable items and solving puzzles. You navigate your balloon by creating wind, hurricanes and lightning on your screen with your fingers. The graphics are gorgeous and the music is delightful. You can play it on iPhone or iPod Touch, but this is the perfect game for your iPad.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• A review of Dancing Craze, by Alawar Games. This time management game could really be a lot of fun, if the challenge imbalances were corrected. Otherwise, buyer beware that you could find yourself frustrated trying to get money out of all of those dancers.
  
• Also, a review of Exclusion Zone, by Appular. Pure military destruction in quick bites, Exclusion Zone helps you trace your way to victory. A fun, addictive time.
  
• Also, a review of Tasty Planet, by Dingo Games. With multiple controls suited to your delight, Tasty Planet is a tasty romp through item absorbing fun on your iPhone or iPad.
  

• Tasty Planet
• Exclusion Zone: Anti-Air Warfare
• Dancing Craze HD

Not satisfied with PAX Prime or PAX East, the organizers behind both have created PAX Dev. Bringing together programmers, designers, producers and artists to explore the craft of creating digital and physical games, PAX Dev will take place two days before PAX Prime.

PAX Dev is designed to be an intimate event where game developers can concentrate solely on the art of game development. To keep that focus, the PAX folks have outlawed marketing buzz, bizdev speed dating events, and PR opportunities with the press. Attendees will be participating in learning, sharing, and debating.

“The idea started with friends in the game dev community asking us to host an event where they could really focus on exchanging ideas without any distractions,” said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. “There are events that are great for signing your next deal or promoting your current project, but that’s not PAX Dev. We’re 100 percent focused on the craft of game development.”

PAX Dev will cover exploration of not just video games, but also pen and paper, tabletop, board, and collectible card games for a complete picture of game development. “…We’ve all seen how ideas in one segment can feed and influence innovation in another part of the game industry,” stated Khoo. “Having representatives from all of the extended game development family can only make PAX Dev stronger.”

PAX Dev takes place Wednesday, August 24 and Thursday, August 25 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. Early registration is $249 (at the door pricing is $329) and approximately 750 tickets will be sold at the PAX Dev 2011 site. Individuals interested in presenting at PAX Dev can submit panel applications to the PAX Dev panel site as well.

Right now, Portal 2 is sitting in our hot little hands…well, actually, on our hot little harddrives. We must work, then there will be lunch, and there will be cake. Yes, Portal 2 has arrived.

The sequel to Valve’s epic game about jumping through portals and eating cake can now be ordered through numerous retail outlets, as well as ordered and downloaded through Steam. Play the single-player game as Chell, the lab rat turned rogue determined to get out of the trap and away from GLaDOS, the lethal computer. Or jump into co-op multiplayer mode with Atlas and P-Body and run through the portal trenches together. There’s even an in-game store to make purchases…but watch out.

Portal 2 is available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, and, of course, the Mac, Portal 2 was released last night and is available today for $49.99 US.

System requirements include:

• OS: MAC OS X 10.6.7 or higher
• Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
• Video: ATI Radeon 2400 or higher / NVIDIA 8600M or higher / Intel HD Graphics 3000

Yeah, that bird that tweeted to us about a LEGO game…the one being released by Feral Interactive? We had our thoughts, which Omaha discussed on the podcast last week. The top two contenders were LEGO Indiana Jones 2 and LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean.

And guess what…WE WERE RIGHT!

Feral Interactive announced LEGO Indiana Jones 2 this morning. And a perusal of the ESRB has shown an interesting revelation for LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney has apparently garnered an ESRB rating of 10+ for LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean for the following platforms: Macintosh, Windows PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

Now, this of course doesn’t mean that we’re going to see an announcement for LEGO PotC for the Mac tomorrow…but I somehow doubt that Disney would waste its time obtaining a rating for the Mac, and creating box art including it (and publicly displaying it, no less) if Disney didn’t intend on releasing a version for the Mac sometime soon.

The question is, will this be straight through Disney? Feral Interactive? Is it a cider port, through Transgaming? Inquiring minds want to know…

Last week, a little bird tweeted to us that Feral Interactive would be announcing a new LEGO game soon. Our inbox was blessed today with this very news…LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues will be making its way to your Mac soon.

Set to release April 28th, LEGO Indiana Jones 2 will continue the adventures of famed archeologist turned LEGO, Indie, as he makes his way through the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Travel through all four cinematic adventures, with new characters, new vehicles and animation, and the ability for players to create levels of their own.

Multiplayer is included, allowing any friend (or frenemy) to pop in and play a spell. Split screen will result if both players end up too far away from each other, allowing both to continue playing. The game also includes a level creator, character creator, and adventure creator to add to the fun.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues will be available for US $29.99, UK £19.99, and European €24.99, for both retail and download, including the Mac App Store, and the Feral Interactive Store.