Mac gaming is still in a precarious position despite some progress in recent years, but one of the year's biggest titles is about to land on an Apple computer near you.

Larian Studios has confirmed that Baldur's Gate 3 is coming to the Mac on September 21 —  a day before another big release in the shape of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro.

The addition of Baldur's Gate 3 to Mac's arsenal is a notable one given not only its popularity on PC and PS5 to date but also the fact that the specification requirements from Larian Studios appear to open the door to a lot of Mac owners.

Apple silicon fights the good fight

Baldur's Gate 3 hails from the world of Dungeons and Dragons and will see gamers gather their party "and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power." Larian Studios says that "mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a mind flayer parasite planted in your brain."

That all sounds very interesting indeed, but that's nothing compared to the good news you'll find when you scroll to the bottom of the game's Steam page to find the minimum and required system specifications.

Starting with the minimum requirements, we're told that any Mac running a modern Apple silicon chip will be good to go. That includes any Mac with an M1 chip with 8GB of RAM installed, including the base model M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. Gamers can expect to be able to play on low or medium settings with any of those machines.

But what about playing on more impressive settings? Larian Studios says that M1 Macs with 16GB of RAM will be able to do just that, which is good news for owners of 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros in particular. Those Macs all ship with at least 16GB of RAM as standard, not to mention upgraded Pro and Max chips.

Have an older Mac? A 2.6GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 and 8GB of RAM with an AMD Radeon 460 should be enough to make the game run. Baldur's Gate looks like a strong contender for game of the year with its astonishing Metacritic scores, and Mac users can get in on the action on September 21. 

Starfield, Microsoft and Bethesda’s biggest game release of the year, is nearly here. Now, fans who bought the $300 Constellation Edition can sync the preorder bonus, a Chronomark Watch, with their iPhones thanks to this new Starfield Watch app on the App Store.

The Starfield Watch app allows you to set up your watch via Bluetooth, toggle notifications and music control settings, and adjust the date and brightness. Fans of the new Bethesda IP who have tried the Chronomark Watch are having a blast, with users taking to Twitter to emphasize just how cool a space watch on your wrist can be.

The Starfield Constellation Edition costs $300 and includes the Starfield Base Game, Shattered Space Story Expansion when the DLC is released, with five days early access to start playing on September 1st. But that's not all. There's a steel book, a patch, the aforementioned watch and case, a Credit Stick with Laser-Etched Game Code, and access to in-game bonus items such as new armor and the digital artbook and original soundtrack.

It’s a pricey collector’s edition, but for those who have waited years to play the next new Bethesda offering, it’s a small price to pay.

Starfield releases globally on September 6, 2023, and is available on Xbox Game Pass. You can purchase early access to play the game on September 1st for $34.99 or as part of the Constellation Edition.

Is $300 worth it for a watch? — iMore’s take

The only way to get Starfield’s Chronomark Watch is by forking out close to $300. Obviously, that’s a similar price to an Apple Watch with far less functionality and cheaper build quality, but do you get one of the best video games of this generation included with your Apple Watch? I thought not.

Right now, the best Apple Watch available is the Series 8, which starts at $399. Apple is likely to unveil the Apple Watch Series 9 at the next Apple event in September alongside the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

The Chronomark Watch is a fun collector’s item for anyone who loves the Starfield IP and could be iconic if Starfield is as good as everyone hopes it will be. That said, as a huge gamer but someone who rarely buys fancy collector’s editions, I’d much rather pay $10.99 for Game Pass Ultimate and spend the rest on an Apple Watch to get a better product.

However, I love video game collector’s editions that don’t opt for cheap tat and try to do something different. Hopefully, if the Constellation Edition sells well (it’s currently sold out, so looks to be a success), then we’ll get more original items included with expensive video game editions moving forward.

EGGLIA: Rebirth is an upcoming console port of the 2017 mobile title EGGLIA: Legend of the Redcap for Nintendo Switch. Admittedly, I was completely unaware of the original launch of this vibrant portable RPG. As an enormous fan and supporter of Brownies/Brownie Brown, I feel a little shame being so late to the party. However, thanks to some massive changes and improvements with the console version of EGGLIA, it seems like there's never been a better time to discover this gorgeous hidden gem.

I've spent the last few weeks playing EGGLIA: Rebirth on Nintendo Switch and, despite some of my reservations regarding its mobile game roots, I've found myself hooked by its charming gameplay loop. Created by Shinichi Kameoka, the iconic artist and animator of some of the earlier Mana titles, EGGLIA beautifully captures the magic of classic and criminally underrated RPGs like Legend of Mana, while introducing modern design elements from titles like Animal Crossing to offer an easily digestible Switch title. EGGLIA: Rebirth has quickly become a staple in my daily comfy gaming rotation despite my mountainous backlog.

Who is Brownies?

Brownies, or Brownie Brown as they were previously known, has had a fascinating video game industry legacy. Originally formed in 2000 as a subsidiary of Nintendo, Brownie Brown was primarily comprised of ex-Squaresoft developers who mainly worked on beloved titles like Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, and Legend of Mana. Initially led by Kameoka Shinichi and Kōji Tsuda, this fresh studio started with a reputation for crafting some of the most stunning JRPGs of the era.

Under the Brownie Brown banner, this team delivered a series of popular titles exclusively designed for Nintendo's handheld hardware. Starting with Magical Vacation for Gameboy Advance 2001, the artistic and mechanical influences of Shinichi's and Tsuda's previous works were immediately apparent. Brownie Brown went on to ship further entries in the Mana series, such as Sword of Mana, and even partnered with HAL Laboratories to develop the cult Gameboy Advance title, Mother 3, in 2006.

After over a decade of shipping titles on Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS titles, the direction of Brownie Brown began to shift. Nintendo soon allocated them as a support studio for titles like Super Mario 3D Land under the name 1-Up Games. Following this restructuring, key figure Shinichi Kameoka left to form his own independent studio, Brownies, in 2013. Soon after, this new team began work on two mobile titles: Seventh Rebirth and EGGLIA: Legend of the Redcap.

The launch of EGGLIA: Rebirth on Nintendo Switch marks the beginning of a new chapter for Brownies. Studio founder Kameoka has stated that the company will be shifting away from mobile development and moving back towards more traditional games. While the next significant titles from Brownies remain a mystery, it's clear that EGGLIA: Rebirth shipping as a Nintendo Switch exclusive is a mission statement as to where fans and players can expect their games to launch in the future.

What exactly is EGGLIA: Rebirth?

EGGLIA: Rebirth is a fantasy RPG that incorporates elements of farming, turn-based combat, tabletop dice-rolling, relationship management, home customization, and crafting. Players take on the role of fallen Redcap, a mythical goblin-like species known for its pension for bloodshed. However, your playable hero is much friendlier than your typical Redcap because your terrifying horns are broken. After waking with a limited recollection of what caused your current predicament, you're approached by a Fairie and a woman named Robin, who ask for your assistance in constructing a village and rebuilding an isolated world.

Source: iMore

In EGGLIA: Rebirth, the ancients have sealed sections of the land away in mystical eggs, and you're one of the only people with the ability to set these areas free. As you progress through the game, you'll unlock different eggs, which are used to open new locations to explore. These distinct environments serve as the primary gameplay focus for EGGLIA: Rebirth's unique spin on turn-based combat. They also operate as a crucial vessel for introducing the vibrant cast of diverse and often hilarious characters.

While EGGLIA: Rebirth introduces free movement in your village, mobility and actions are tied to dice rolls when out on missions. Each stage is divided into honeycomb-style grids, and the player rolls a die at the beginning of each turn. The outcome of this roll determines how many spaces you can move on this grid, as well as the amount of damage dealt when attacking enemies. It's a fascinating approach to traditional turn-based combat that borrows heavily from the randomized nature of classic tabletop games. Initially, I wasn't entirely sure I loved the system, but I quickly grew to appreciate its simplistic hook.

In between your expeditions to these egg-shaped lands, you'll head back to your home village to manage a host of captivating farming mechanics. Players can grow crops, harvest minerals, lure new partner spirits with food, and even customize their own house as they see fit. As many of these systems are tied to timers, they encourage a fascinating blend of active and passive gameplay. You are rewarded with items and resources for essentially everything you do in EGGLIA: Rebirth, and that always delivers a satisfying sense of progression, even when I was only able to play for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

Why EGGLIA: Rebirth is worth your time

While it can often be diminutive to compare one game to another directly, this RPG truly feels like so many of the things I love about Legend of Mana and Animal Crossing. It's no secret that I consider Legend of Mana to be one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, and a tremendous amount of my admiration for this title stems from its unforgettable presentation. This Squaresoft masterpiece presented one of the most vivid and original game worlds ever created. Every single character and environment was meticulously handcrafted. That care is undeniably demonstrated in every frame of Legend of Mana.

Source: iMore

EGGLIA: Rebirth manages to tap into the iconic art direction of Legend of Mana in powerful ways. From quirky characters like Jazoo, who is quite literally a dog with a pair of pants for a hat, to the variety of lush, gorgeous landscapes, I immediately found myself enamored by the presentation in this RPG. Even simple things like consumable items or seeds for farming are oozing with attention and creativity. It's hard not to smile seeing some of the ingenious ways this team merged common foods and animals into entirely unique pieces of produce. The iconic water-color-inspired art style of titles like Legend of Mana is incorporated with modern 3D models to incredible effect.

For fans of Animal Crossing, the wholesome and soothing gameplay loop will feel right at home. In addition to some elements of action-oriented combat, players can view EGGLIA: Rebirth as a relaxed way to unwind at the end of the day. Outside of the dungeon-like stages, your home village will serve as your social hub for all the residents you'll recruit throughout your adventures. You can spend time getting to know them, give them gifts, and even help them redecorate their houses. If you've played Animal Crossing, this loop will likely be very familiar and very satisfying.

The deeper I got into EGGLIA: Rebirth, the more engaging I found the crafting mechanics. Gathering resources in an overworld stage would allow me to take those items and create new pieces of furniture for my own use as well as my residents. Much like Animal Crossing, furniture doesn't inherently affect the gameplay systems. However, it allows you to express yourself within the game. I'm not even at the end of EGGLIA: Rebirth's campaign, and I've already unlocked hundreds of customization items. It's too early to say whether or not this will be one of the best RPGs on Switch, but if you're looking for a beautiful RPG that's instantly comfortable and soothing to play, EGGLIA: Rebirth is worth putting on your radar.

EGGLIA: Rebirth is launching on Nintendo Switch on February 10, 2022.

Battleheart came out over seven years ago, but it remains one of my favorite iOS games of all time, and that's not an easy feat. I remember first downloading it when it came out, and I invested dozens of hours into the game — I was clearly addicted.

Several years later, Battleheart Legacy came out, and while it had the same general feel, it just felt slightly off to me. It definitely didn't hook me like the first game, and it was somewhat forgettable compared to the original.

But now Battleheart 2 is out, and it's rekindled my old flame with Mika Mobile.

$3.99 - Download Now

• Story and setting
• Gameplay
• Multiplayer
• Controls
• Visual and audio design

Story and setting

Just like the first game, there's not much of a story going on in Battleheart 2. There's a bit of flavor text for each character that you can use in your party, but other than that, players get an assortment of pint-sized battles to partake in.

The world of Battleheart 2 is pretty, though. As you go through the world map, you'll see that it takes place in the typical fantasy medieval setting that's standard fare for most RPGs. You'll find various environments for each stage, such as lush forests, hot deserts, icy tundras, and more. Each area appears quite detailed as well, giving the game a much more polished and modern feel than the first.

Gameplay

While Battleheart is an RPG at its core, the gameplay works a bit differently than what we're used to. However, since the game is on a touch screen device, it works out incredibly well.

You'll see the world map each time you enter your game save file or return from a battle. Several randomized battles appear on the map, with details like level and rewards shown to you.

Before going into each fight, you can pick up to four characters (out of 12) for your team. Unlike most RPGs, you can select any character you want, as they're all unlocked and available from the get-go. Each one specializes in tanking, damage, or healing, as indicated by the symbol next to their class type. They'll have their own unique spells and abilities to use in battle, but stronger ones need to be purchased with skill points that you earn.

Ideally, you'll want to go for a battle that's closer to your current party level, but harder fights usually have better rewards. I'd recommend at least grinding a few levels before attempting a tougher one.

Each battle consists of several waves of enemies. Once you defeat one wave, there's a few seconds before the next one comes in. The fights consist of drawing lines with your fingers to direct movement and select targets. Everything happens in real-time as well, the game's fairly fast paced.

Once the battle is over, you'll earn experience for your team (the team level covers every character so they're all equal), and receive any additional rewards that you saw on the level select screen.

After every battle (win or lose), a new, random selection of battles appears on the map. You can also tap on the "Gear/Talents" section to view the shop, equip your team, upgrade their talents (skill points), and enchant their gear (crystals). The shop inventory changes after every battle, so make sure to check it often!

Multiplayer

While Battleheart 2 retains much of the original gameplay mechanics, it does introduce multiplayer co-op battles.

To use the multiplayer feature, just tap on it on the main menu of your chosen game file. Then give the room a name or enter the name of an existing room. All available players in a room are shown in the left, and you can select as many characters as needed so that there are a total of four among all players. The number of characters can't exceed more than four.

Whoever's the leader of the room gets control over the map and levels. During battles, you can only control your chosen characters, but you can select teammates as targets for heals and other defensive capabilities.

I love the multiplayer capability, but it's a little disappointed that it appears to be local only. Maybe someday in the future Mika Mobile can add online co-op.

Controls

When Battleheart first came out, it was a completely unique game with an interesting control scheme. While many games have come out since then with similar controls, Battleheart 2 sticks to their tried-and-true formula. For those who haven't played the original, the controls in Battleheart are simple, intuitive, and designed for touch screens.

To direct movement for each character, draw a line from the one you want to where you want them to go. If you draw the line to an enemy, the character auto-attacks once they're in range of their target. Healers can target teammates to heal or cast other defensive spells on them. Your team can also begin attacking automatically once enemies approach them.

As mentioned earlier, each character has unique abilities. In order to activate these skills, tap on the character you want, and then tap on the skill icons in the upper left to use them. Everything has a cooldown, but you can queue it up to use immediately when ready.

The only negative thing about the controls is selecting characters when they're overlapping each other in the midst of battle. When this happens, it can be difficult to pick the character you want, and sometimes you end up making ranged attackers move instead of targeting an enemy.

Visual and audio design

One of the things that made me fall in love with the original game was the art style. The first game had a cute cartoonish style that I found simple but incredibly charming, and it introduced me to Mika Mobile's flair.

With Battleheart 2, the aesthetic's upgraded, so there's no more of the simple cartoon style that fans adored. However, the new graphics appear to be much more polished and modern, giving the game much more life, so to speak. The environments look gorgeous with textures and shadows, and each character sprite packs in a lot of detail.

The music remains similar to the original game, as well as the sound effects. If you enjoy medieval tunes, then Battleheart 2 has your jams.

My verdict

After being slightly disappointed with Battleheart Legacy, I'm glad that Battleheart finally has a true sequel. This title follows their classic formula, and it's equally as fun now as it was back then. I love being able to pick whatever character I want as well, since it gives you a good chance to play around and experiment with what works best.

Once you start Battleheart 2, you'll have a hard time putting it down. It's definitely worth the wait and the price.

$3.99 - Download Now

Whether your one of the lucky ones to have gotten an invite to Fornite Battle Royale already or you're eagerly awaiting to receive that email from Epic Games, you may be wondering how to controls of such a massive game translate to the small screen of an iPhone.

If you're familiar with other iPhone FPS or TPS games, Fortnite uses a similar dual stick control system that a lot of game do. Here's a quick rundown of all the actions you need to know, so you can battle it out to be the last person standing!

Move Around

In the bottom left corner of your screen, you'll see an on-screen joystick, and that's what you'll use to move your character around.

Just press your finger down and slide it around in whatever direction you want to go!

Crouch

Crouch lets your character hide behind cover and makes it harder for other players to see you.

Press the crouch button that's located near the top right of the screen.

Jump

Jumping allows you to move over obstacles and climbing structures, which can give you a higher vantage point.

Press the jump button located on the right side of your screen to jump.

Pick up items

To pick up ammo, guns, and building materials you just have to run over them; however, certain items like chests you need to open manually.

Just tap on the item you want to pick up or open.

Switch weapons/items

All the items you have at your disposal will appear in a row of icons at the bottom of your screen.

To use any of those items or weapons, just tap the item you want to use and your character will equip it.

Aim/Look around

Of course, not all the enemies are going to pop out directly in front of you, so you'll need to aim.

To aim or look around your environment, drag your finger around the right side of the screen. You can do it from almost anywhere on the right side of the screen, but in the negative space between the buttons and your items (shown by the gold rectangle above) is a good place to keep your finger.

Attack/Fire/Use item

There are actually two ways to attack, fire, or use items in Fornite Battle Royale. You can tap anywhere on the screen, or tap the attack button on the left side of the screen.

Aim down sights

If you have a weapon with a scope, or just want to line up your shot better, you'll need to aim down your sights.

You can do this by hitting the aim button on the right side of the screen when you have a weapon equipped.

Reload weapon

No weapon can fire forever, you'll need to reload if you want to stay alive. Just hit the reload button above your items near the bottom of your screen to give your gun more bullets to shoot!

Access your backpack

If you want to take inventory of all the item you can carry you can do so by tapping the backpack button at the bottom of your screen.

Build menu

If you're looking to build a structure, you'll first need to access the building menu. You can do so by tapping the building button on the right-hand side of your inventory icons.

Build a structure

Once you're in the build menu you, you can build a structure. Tap the screen to switch between wooden, metal, and brick buildings and choose what type of structure you want to build.

Once you have selected the structure and moved it into the position you want, you just need to tap the screen to complete the building process!

No MFi Controller support

The controls for Fortnite Battle Royale aren't too clunky; however, I still think a MFI Controller would be a great addition to the user experience. I hope they add support in a future update!

Anything else you want to know?

Let me know in the comments below!

Since its launch in 2014, ARK: Survival Evolved has created a community of over 13 million players. Following its release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, developer Studio Wildcard has announced it's now bringing the game to Android and iOS.

The mobile version of ARK: Survival Evolved will be free-to-play, and while the graphics won't be as sharp as what you'll find on PC or console, the core gameplay will remain the same. Players can explore a large, open-world island with 80+ dinosaurs, craft and build weapons, clothes, and houses, and fight against competing tribes.

You can play an offline single-player mode to test your might solely against ARK's dinosaurs, and you'll also be able to jump online with up to 50 other players.

War Drum Studios is developing ARK's mobile port, and previous games it's worked on include mobile versions of Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and its own Auralux.

ARK: Survival Evolved is now in closed beta for iOS, with a global launch expected this Spring on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for iOS and Android, respectively.

For more information about the game and to sign up for the beta, head to ARK's website.

It's been a while since I have been this excited about a new game on the App Store, and it's been a while since I have been able to write a review for a game. Lucky for me, Cat Quest not only exceeded my expectations, but it was also nearly purr-fect, giving me plenty of reasons to share my thoughts with you.

I was drawn to the game by the colorful and cartoonish art style, the cat-tastic puns, and the fact that I love action adventure RPGs probably more than any other genre. Needless to say, I went into Cat Quest with some pretty high expectations, and I came out the other side ready for more cat-ventures!

Play Cat Quest today!

Story & Setting

Let's talk about the big fat elephant in the room — or cat in this case — Cat Quest doesn't have the most original story. In fact, take a look at the screenshots below and let me know if they seem familiar.

Yes, it's pretty obvious that Cat Quest is paying a little too much homage to Skyrim in the opening credits of the game; however, it was pretty easy to overlook this flaw once you carry on and discover there's a method to the madness.

You play as an unnamed cat, who is by all accounts minding his own business when an evil white-furred cat comes along, steals his sister, destroys his boat, and leaves the nameless cat for dead. You're awoken on the shore by a cat spirit, aptly named Spirry, who decides to help you out.

This tiny blue cat spirit may also look familiar to gamers out there as Spirry is eerily similar to Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was right about here in the story where I realized a pattern was emerging; Cat Quest has plenty of other references, callbacks, homages, or whatever you feel like calling them to many popularly adventure and RPG games in video game history. Now you understand when the Skyrim-like plotline is not only forgivable but rather charming in retrospect.

In case this still isn't enough to satisfy you, the game itself points out just how generic the villain of Cat Quest seems to be written. The developers have clearly gone out of their way to produce not only a ton of cat puns but a healthy dose of satire into their game. I would be lying if I said the punchline lands every time; however, I found myself chuckling a fair amount at the absurdity of it all.

While the main story may not be the most original thing since sliced bread, the sheer number of unique side quests available in Cat Quest had me excited. Lots of interesting NPCs with mysterious motives always seem to be sending you on wacky quests, so much so that after about four or five hours of playing Cat Quest, I realized I had only completed about two main story quests. Just like a true RPG, Cat Quest lets you blaze your own trail and will reward you with loot, gold, and extra experience for exploring.

Gameplay

On the surface, Cat Quest doesn't offer anything groundbreaking to the RPG genre, but it provides an incredibly entertaining and smooth experience throughout the game, much of which the game owes to its simple, yet clever use of controls.

Usually, the use of on-screen controls (especially in the RPG genre) frustrates the living daylights out of me. The controls are often unresponsive or require too much precision for me to fully feel comfortable or immersed in the experience. I'm happy to say that Cat Quest never made me yearn for a MFi controller, and since using a MFi controller is my favorite way to game on mobile, that's saying something!

If you read various forums or other reviews of Cat Quest, you'll notice some people complain that the combat is a little dry. What others call dry, I call simple and effective. Yes, the game will auto-attack for you as you come across the various enemies in the world, and you are limited to four activated spells and three pieces of equipment at all times; however, I think the limited scope of the combat system increases the overall challenge level of the game. When you have a limited amount of equipable spells and other abilities, it forces you to focus on how you approach each battle, rather than just having the perfect skills for every enemy.

Like any good RPG, Cat Quest is nonlinear, meaning you will run into enemies that are much higher level than you at multiple points in the game. As if that wasn't difficult enough, even when the enemies are the same level as you, typically you come across multiple different enemies with different attacks and abilities at the same time. You can't expect to run into combat without a care in the world and hope to survive, in fact, you should probably expect a game over (or a few dozen) during your adventure.

That being said, the gameplay is smooth overall, and other than the occasional two- or three-second loading screen for new areas, you can play Cat Quest at a blistering high-speed pace, making the entire game feel much more energetic than other RPGs on the market.

Design & Sound

The cartoonish world of Cat Quest is quite beautiful as you wander around the extremely colorful world. Everything is vibrant, and the super-saturated colors of the world around you help stay immersed in the world the game creates. Even the many small towns, towers, shops, caves, and other places of interest you find along the way have a way of popping out from the background while remaining true to the art style of the world.

What really stood out was the design of all the special abilities and spells you collect throughout the game. Each spell has a different animation and attack pattern, and each weapon or piece of armor looks different from all the others. In a game as fast-paced as Cat Quest, it would be easy for all the magic, weapons, and other equipment to look bland and to fade into the background; however, each one stands out every time. Not only does give Cat Quest some of the more beautiful and smooth animations I have seen in a mobile game, but it also makes this particular adventure a blast to play.

The soundtrack in Cat Quest is very catchy. I would often find myself whistling or humming along to the tune when exploring the world map. The soundtrack adapts throughout your journey to fit the pace of what is going on in the game. Some of the more spooky-looking areas have more tense music, while the lush and beautiful environments have more upbeat music, allowing the soundtrack to pull you along for the ride and help you feel more immersed in the game. The game also has some pretty stellar sound effects, including several different growls, meows, and other cat-related noises.

My Verdict

• Smooth and fast gameplay
• Full of great humor
• Fantastic visual and sound design

• Not the most original story

Cat Quest is full of cat-related puns, bright and colorful surroundings, and really solid gameplay that makes it an adventure worth owning.

Although the story likes to poke fun at the RPG genre isn't the most original at times, overall, I can't say I didn't enjoy the heck out of Cat Quest. The game is incredibly fun and so easy to lose yourself in that it's impossible not to play for hours at a time. The stunning visuals and fantastic gameplay make the game stand out as one of my favorites this year.

The game costs $4.99, and with the sheer amount of side quests, main story quests, and hidden loot available to find throughout the game, Cat Quest is definitely worth the money.

Play Cat Quest today!

What's your opinion?

Have you played Cat Quest already? Will you play it in the future? I want to know! Leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter and tell me what you think!

When it comes to RPGs on the App Store, the good ones can seem few and far between. If you're a big console gamer like myself, It's hard to make the adjustment to playing an RPG on a phone because the platform is so different and seemingly takes away a lot of the things you may love RPGs. Playing on the small screen means the expansive worlds are smaller, the stories are shorter, and the controls are much simpler, which can all take away much of the appeal of an RPG.

If you're a gamer, you may be turned off by Djinn Caster because it's published by Kemco — and I wouldn't blame you. After all, they've pumped out some pretty lackluster titles in the past. But Djinn Caster is worth a look!

Play Djinn Caster today!

Story & Setting

Djinn Caster takes place in a setting that isn't super typical of most RPGs (especially previous Kemco titles), and it's a breath of fresh air. You're thrust into a middle-eastern-like desert setting that's entirely reminiscent of Aladdin, with all the sandstorms, Sultans, and scimitars to boot!

While this may seem like a minor detail, I was very pleasantly surprised that this wasn't another action RPG that's set in some ancient, lush Final Fantasy-esque world that has every type of climate you can imagine. We've seen far too many of those, that any deviation is welcome.

When it comes to storytelling, Djinn Caster starts off a little weak but becomes incredibly strong as the game goes along.

You start the adventure as the Young Elmir (or another name is you choose) who is running away from the Sultan's guards with his good friend Jameel after causing some mischief. As you split up, you come across another man being attacked by the guards and before his dying breath he hands Elmir a fancy looking dagger. As it turns out, the dagger is actually an ancient mystically weapon that can harness the power of the Djinn and the Sultan will kill to get his hands on it.

I told you it started of a little weak, and I regret to inform you that through for the first 30 or 40 minutes of its hard to pay attention because nothing super exciting happens; however if you stick it out the plot thickens quickly and takes a very interesting turn. After about an hour of playing through the story, I was hooked.

Gameplay

Djinn Caster doesn't offer anything groundbreaking to the action RPG genre, but it provides a fun and smooth experience throughout the game.

Usually, on-screen analog sticks frustrate the living daylights out of me, but the controls in Djinn Caster were very responsive. On occasion, my finger would slip, and the screen would register a different action than the one I had intended, but it never happened enough for me to take much notice.

The combat is a little dry. Although the enemies are tougher and you should probably expect a game over or two along your adventure, the battles do seem to get somewhat repetitive even as you get further in your journey. It's always a combination of running around, mashing the attack button, and activating your special abilities at the opportune moments.

That being said, the gameplay is smooth overall, and other than the occasional two or three-second loading screen for new areas, you can play Djinn Caster at a blistering high-speed pace, making some of the monotonous combat feel much more energetic.

Design & Sound

The level design of the cities and towns you come across in Djinn Caster are truly beautiful. Each market is bustling with characters running to and fro in the background, and the buildings are different colorful shapes that give the entire town a breath of life.

Sometimes, even important characters don't pop out of the background or draw attention to themselves causing them to hide in plain sight. It makes the odd time you're looking for someone specific in any given city a welcome challenge, but more importantly, it clever disguises who is relevant to the story and who is not. You interact with a lot of people in Djinn Caster, and a lot of RPGs are guilty of making significant characters look out of place to the world around them. It's nice to see Djinn Caster avoid this common practice.

More often than not, the soundtrack fades into the game seemingly undetectable, which is both good and bad. The good part is the soundtrack is appropriate and changes to fit the pace of what is going on in the game. The bad part is there were a couple of instances during some key plot twists in the story where the music cut out altogether, and I didn't even notice until after a couple of minutes . In other words, the soundtrack didn't add enough to my experience to be outstanding or memorable at any point.

My Verdict

• Smooth and fast gameplay
• Refreshing setting
• Story is compelling

• Combat is a little repetitive
• The narrative is slow to start

Djinn Caster is an above average action RPG that makes use of an untraditionally setting and with the exception of the start, has some serious storytelling chops.

The combat is a little bland for my liking, as it involves a lot of repetitive button-mashing, but it's layered with lots of abilities, special attacks, and different items to keep things interesting enough never to get truly boring.

I bought this game when it was $7.99 when it first launched, and I'll admit, that figure is a little steep; however, it seems the price is now discounted to $4.99, and I think that's a reasonable sum.

Play Djinn Caster today!

What's your opinion?

Have you played Djinn Caster already? Will you play it in the future? I want to know! leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter and tell me what you think!

E-Line Media will launch Never Alone: Ki Edition, the mobile adaptation of the acclaimed PC and console adventure game, on June 23 for the iPhone and iPad.

Here's a quick description of Never Alone:

Never Alone: Ki Edition will have some features just for mobile gamers:

Although Brave Frontier is overwhelming at first, this Japanese role-playing game will suck you in faster than you can say, "Attack!" Whether you're looking for a head-start or are playing catch-up against your friends, these nifty tips should get you on your way to slaying monsters in Grand Gaia.

• Free - Download now

1. Take advantage of daily rewards

Brave Frontier offers rewards for the devoted player. Each consecutive day you log in will grant you a special item of increasing rarity. Every third day you receive one or two gems; find out how to put these to best use in the following steps.

2. Save and utilize your brave bursts at the opportune time

As you defeat enemies in any stage of questing, your units will receive "Brave Burst" power-ups that fill your Brave Burst bar. The power-ups look like blue prisms, as seen above in the first screenshot. When your unit's Brave Burst bar is full, you can hold down your finger on the unit and swipe up to unleash a powerful attack. I've found that saving your Brave Bursts for the final boss battle is the best method for a relatively easy fight.

3. Use proper elements against foes

As seen in the first screenshot above, the cyclical nature of elements in Brave Frontier can be used to your advantage. Water is strong against fire; lightning is strong against water, etc. When you've selected an enemy to attack, you will notice a red or blue sword beside the element type of your own units (seen in the second screenshot above). Red sword pointing up means extra damage, blue sword pointing down denotes less damage given to the enemy. This elemental aspect works both ways, so enemies with weaker elements will deal less damage to your units.

4. Use gems to upgrade unit slot capacity

Time to use the gems collected from the daily login bonus! As you win battles and gain notoriety, units will want to join your squad. These extra spots are crucial later on if you want to fuse and evolve your units. Spending one gem adds five slots to your Max Unit Capacity. Using the same method, you can also upgrade your item capacity, making more room for things like Cure Potions.

5. Collect free material from town

Your Town screen is a portal to upgrades and items. The town is sometimes sparkling with magic – you have likely noticed. You can tap the sparkling tree, mountain, river, or arch and receive materials and items. For free. When you've exhausted these areas, do some questing or take a break before returning to town. The sparkles and free items will refresh over time.

Your top Brave Frontier hints, tips, and cheats?

Let us know below what you think of these hints, tips, and cheats, and please include some of your own ways to get the most out of Brave Frontier!

If you are both a game developer and a fan of the Infinity Blade iOS game series from Chair Entertainment and Epic Games, you can now access 7,600 art assets from the series for free if you create games using Epic's Unreal Engine 4 tools.

Epic says the amount of art that is being offered in this collection of assets is worth about $3 million. It added:

Remember, you can still get Infinity Blade III for free on the iOS App Store from now until September 17 at the link below.

• Free - Download Now

Source: Epic Games

One of the most popular indie PC games, Terraria, has finally made its way the Mac. Developer Re-Logic has launched the OS X version of its action-adventure sandbox game on Valve's Steam service, along with a Linux version. The price is $9.99, but people who have already purchased Terraria on Steam for the PC can get it for free.

The 2D game has retro-style 16-bit graphics as players craft and combat in a procedurally generated world. Here's a quick description:

In addition to the game client, Re-Logic has released the dedicated server files for the Mac version of Terraria. There is cross-platform multiplayer support for the PC, Mac and Linux ports and save files can also be used and shared in all three versions.

• $9.99 - Download now on Steam

Source: Terraria

In Love Live, you'll find elements taken from rhythm games, role-playing games, and trading card games. Introducing anyone else to this remorselessly addictive title seems cruel, so consider this your lone warning that Love Live's super-cute exterior masks a deep pit of singing management insanity that might take over your life. But, y'know, in a charming way.

Time for a breakdown

This game revolves around managing a singing club made up of high school girls who cover catchy pop hits, which means you have a lot of moving pieces to track: the stats and skills of each of the girls, the team dynamics, and so on.

In Love Live, the girl groups perform "live shows" together; you can perform songs at a variety of difficulties. When you play a song, circles fall towards each of the girls on the screen in time with the song's rhythm, and you have to hit the circles as they highlight each girl's face. Sometimes two girls are singing at once, sometimes you'll need to hold down a circle rather than just tapping it, and so on. These are typical rhythm-matching mechanics, and the songs will get harder and harder as you go.

Most other Love Live tutorials online revolve around team management — definitely an important part of the game — but almost no one talks about the intense difficulty of the rhythm component. As you can see from my screenshots, I am not yet a superstar at the rhythm game component of Love Live, and yet, I am compelled to keep trying. And as such, here are some of my favorite tips for making your way through sick beats and bratty schoolgirls to conquer all in your path.

Use your index fingers

Since you only ever need to hit two circles at one time, you could play the game with your thumbs: If you hold your iPhone sideways to do so, however, your palm may mute the speaker. Given that this is a rhythm game, and you need to hear the song in order to play it properly, this can cause problems. And even if you use headphones, you need to hold your phone securely in order to hit complicated rhythms, and the pressure of the headphone jack into your palm might be irritating.

There's much debate as to whether using index fingers or thumbs make the game easier, but I tend to score better when I use my index fingers. In my experience, it's best played while sitting at a table or desk with your iPhone propped up on a book or stand; this frees up your index fingers to play. I still occasionally hold my phone and use my thumbs, but I don't tend to score as well when I do so.

This is probably about the time to warn you that playing this game might hurt your neck. Take breaks. If you can't take breaks because the game has dragged you into its horrific maw, I also recommend trying not to hunch over too much.

Don't feel guilty about skipping the story

Love Live has a visual novel built into it, because apparently the game's creators didn't think it had enough going on already (!!!), but every aspect of the game's story mode is skippable. Ordinarily, stories are my favorite part of an RPG game, but I didn't find the writing in Love Live to be particularly compelling; I was pretty relieved when I found out I could skip all of it and just focus on the music. If you do fall in love with these characters, though, Love Live's story continues in both an anime and an upcoming movie.

Auto Formation is your new best friend

If you want to understand more about Love Live's confusing menu layouts, this guide by Arden Kehoe will help you through what each of the numbers and sections on the screen denote.

I originally wanted to play the songs without worrying too much about the specifics — but difficult songs can be cleared more easily and scored best with the right team members and formation in place. Arden's guide helped me understand why I was scoring low on songs even when I hit most of the beats: It was because of my bad team formations.

For example, I need at least a few of my team members to have high stamina because that way, I'll have more chances to do a terrible job on a hard song. Eli Ayase's member card (shown above) displays her statistics, including her Stamina, which is the 3 next to the green heart. If my girls run out of that green stamina bar at the top of the screen during a Live Show, they'll fail out and the show will be over.

It's also important to create at least three teams devoted to each of the three skills, which are Pure, Cool, and Smile. Pure is represented by a green sparkle icon, Smile by a pink sun icon, and Cool by a blue half-moon icon. Remember these icons, because they will appear again on the song selection screen. A song with a Cool icon should only be played by your Cool team, Pure songs by your Pure team, and so on.

Don't forget to apply the "Auto Formation" tool to optimize each group's order: Auto Formation will let you build your team according to any of the three Pure, Smile, and Cool categories. And if you want to build even more specialized teams, try using the "Change Position" tool.

"Practice" Mode, a.k.a. Schoolgirl Sacrifice Mode

The girls undergo "Practice" and "Special Practice" to level up, but the mechanics behind these modes are a bit... unorthodox. See, the process of leveling up involves combining them with one another in order to create, uh, more powerful versions of themselves. In "Practice," you select one main girl to level up, and then you select several other girls who will sacrifice themselves to make the main girl more powerful. The girls you select as cannon fodder will disappear, so make sure not to avoid sacrificing anyone you like.

Many of these schoolgirls are literally identical to one another; there are only so many types of girl at this high school. (Eventually they start running into their own clones, I guess?) Anyway, if you have two of the same girl, use "Special Practice" to combine them into one way cooler version of that girl. This is slightly less dark, because at least you're not getting rid of anybody... unless you believe clones have souls.

Don't think about it, okay?

Any more tips for beginners?

Those were a few of my favorite tips for Love Live; now, I want to hear from you. If you've become addicted to Love Live as I have, tell me your best tricks for beating songs! (Especially if you have any tips on how to get my fingers to tap those moving circles faster.)

Beamdog, the development team behind the popular enhanced versions of the classic role playing games Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 for Mac and the iPad, have announced plans to release an all new Baldur's Gate game sometime in 2015. Its storyline will be set in between the events of the first two games and will use the Infinity Engine that was also used for those titles.

Other than that, Beamdog has revealed little about what they have planned for this new Baldur's Gate game, but they did say that more information will be revealed in the spring of 2015. It added, "We have an exciting release planned for this game, something bigger than we've ever done before." The blog post did include a link to some blurry screenshots of the game, taken from a smartphone.

Beamdog also has a second game in the works for 2015, saying only that "it's a departure for us in terms of what we've done in the past." However, they also confirmed that they don't currently have any plans to make a Baldur's Gate III.

Source: Beamdog

There are plenty of games you could pick up and play on the eve of the new year. Do you play an:

A) RPG

B) party game

C) co-op game

D) first person shooter

E) text-based interactive sci-fi novel about robotic sentience, nostalgia, and the very meaning of humanity

Today, I picked E and downloaded Choice of Robots, a text-adventure game that captivated my mind and won my heart.

As part of working at iMore, I have a lot of little games lined up to test, play, and otherwise review. I wasn't planning on actually playing Choice of Robots today, but after just about every one of my game-loving friends started praising the text adventure, I sat down and opened it. My initial intention was to play the first chapter or so while I waited for some article photos to upload; and yet, two hours later, I found myself glued to my iPhone for the closing scene.

Choice of Robots is just that good. The basic plot starts you off as a graduate student about to invent a robot, but it quickly unspools from there, sending you across time as you live out the paths of their life — through hedonistic parties, corporate espionage, war, rebellion, and robot ethics.

The story is backed up by excellent writing, intriguing story branches, moral quandaries, and even a bit of romance. It creates an incredible empathetic experience for the player; the game got into my head the way few first-person titles dare to, and on more than one occasion had me questioning my judgements: Am I really speaking for my character, or for me? Would I make that choice in real life?

On the eve of 2015, when most of us are questioning and reflecting the decisions we've made over the past twelve months, Choice of Robots lets you step into the life of another person and make another set of decisions — ones whose consequences are revealed much faster than the passage of a year's time. I don't know if there's a better game to play tonight.

• Choice of Robots: $3 - Mac / iOS / Google / Kindle

Every day dozens and dozens of new and updated apps and games hit the iOS and Mac App Stores. It's impossible to keep up with them all, but it's not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! Today we've got tons of great games, an important update (and price reduction) on FX Photo Studio, new version of the great drawing tool Paper and much more!

New and updated iOS apps

• Dragon Quest IV: A classic Square Enix RPG, the first installment of the Zenithian Trilogy. Five chapters, each focusing on a different cast of characters - more than 40 hours of gameplay. $14.99 - Download now
• Fates Forever 2.8: Player vs. Player (PvP) action game. Introduces new Contestant, Mona. Also buffs towers, changes to other Contestants, new Forums and more. Free - Download now
• Joe Dever's Lone Wolf 3.0: Mashup of gamebook and action RPG with turn-based combat system. Act 3, "The Shianti Halls," now available. Free - Download now
• Oceanhorn 2.0: Legend of Zelda-style adventure game in which you explore islands and fight monsters, learn to use magic and more. Now "Game of the Year" edition with up to four hours of additional gameplay. $8.99 - Download now
• Order and Chaos Online 2.6.0: Fantasy-based MMO for iOS. New "Battlefield" PvP mode, join a league of champions to earn Honor Points, new special events and more. Free - Download now
• Paper by FiftyThree 1.6.3: Awesome drawing, sketching and illustration tool with natural media and brush simulation. Now supports 64-bit processing for faster load times, support for Pogo Connect stylus on iPad Air, and better "Kiss to Pair" support for Pencil. Free - (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-by-fiftythree/id506003812?mt=8&at=10l3Vy&ct=d_im)
• Touch Racing 2: R/C racer featuring speed cars, offroad rally vehicles and power boats. Upgrade, customize, challenge friends in multiplayer modes, defeat bosses. Free - Download now

Discounted iOS apps

• Deus Ex: The Fall: Cyberpunk action-RPG set in a future world. Globe-spanning adventure with full-on action and stealth elements. $6.99 $0.99 - Download now
• Documents to Go Free View 5.2.0: View, edit and create Microsoft Office files and view Adobe PDF files. Supports viewing charts and images, works with password-protected Word and Excel 2013 files, and more. $9.99 Free - Download now
• FX Photo Studio 6.0: Turn ordinary photos into creative works with filters, special effects, text and more. Completely redesigned, sports new filters, new editing tools and sharing features. $2.99 $0.99 - Download now
• 1Password: Password manager and secure wallet for iOS. Syncs with Mac/Windows versions. $17.99 $9.99 - Download now

New and updated Mac apps

• Quiver 1.2: "The Programmer' Notebook." Cell-based design lets you combine notes with code. Sports an integrated code editor and full text search. Now supports linking between notes, go back and forward between notes, drag any file into a cell and turn it into a clickable file URL and more. $9.99 - Download now

More apps and updates?

If you try any of the apps or updates, let me know how they work for you. If you got any new or updated apps today that you loved, but don't see here, let us know about them!

Undead Labs, the development team behind the popular zombie action game State of Decay for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms, have just revealed their plans to launch their first game for mobile platforms like the iPhone and iPad, a fantasy RPG called Moonrise.

Here's a quick description of the game:

Kabam will publish Moonrise, with a planned release sometime in early 2015. A beta version of the game will be released sometime this fall. What do you think of Moonrise?

Source: Moonrise game site

Every day dozens and dozens of new and updated apps and games hit the iOS and Mac App Stores. It's impossible to keep up with them all, but it's not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! Today we've got loads of new and updated games, a cool currency converter, new private messaging app that emphasizes photo sharing and more!

New and updated iOS apps

• City Rush 1.3: Lead the cars and beat time records by controlling traffic junctions. This update adds Paris to the game's maps. Free - Download now
• MTN: An unusual game that makes you interact with a virtual mountain. $0.99 - Download now
• Magick: Retro 8-bit-style platform action game for the iPad. Help Oz to escape. Five chapters, each comprising 12 levels, each chapter ending with a boss battle. 50 percent off for launch. $0.99 - Download now
• Hay Day 1.19.85: Grow crops and make products to sell, rebuild your farm from the ground up! New cotton crop, sewing machine, decorations, wheel of fortune products, and more. Free - Download now
• Eurrency: A currency conversion calculator that works with six customizable shortcuts. $0.99 - Download now
• BeamIt: Private messaging that emphasizes photo sharing. Features group sharing, unsend, offline support, automatic backup and more. Free - Download now
• Fly 0.930: Simple and fast video editing tool. Add dissolve transitions, split screen, and picture in picture, add music and voice over, trim and rearrange clips and make multiple angle videos using multiple devices. Now imports video from Camera Roll, increases video length to up to five minutes, crop portrait videos. Free - Download now
• Sosh 4.0.1: Discover events in cities including SF, New York City, Chicago, Washington DC and Seattle (more on the way). Rebuild from the ground up, new This Week recommendations, bookmarks reworked, more. Free - Download now
• Transit App 3.1: Know when the next bus or train is due. Works in most Metro US areas. Now includes Citi Bike bicycle sharing info, redesigned home screen, universal search bar, bug fixes and performance improvements. Free - Download now
• Yahoo Mail: Version 3.1 of Yahoo's mail application brings the news, search, weather features that debuted on the iPhone to the iPad. The update also adds the ability to create, delete, and edit. Free - Download Now

New and updated Mac apps

• Transmission 2.84: BitTorrent client for OS X. Fixes a peer communication vulnerability. Free - Download now

More apps and updates?

If you try any of the apps or updates, let me know how they work for you. If you got any new or updated apps today that you loved, but don't see here, let us know about them!

School of Dragons is based off the popular How to Train your Dragon movie series. In the game, you'll prepare to be the ultimate dragon trainer with the help of Hiccup and his winged companion, Toothless. After picking your very own dragon, you'll have to attend flight school, learn how to fish, and most importantly, care for your dragon. Game play involves some patience and in order to excel faster, some smart decisions on your part. That's where iMore comes in! Here are our top tips, hints, and cheats to helping you train your dragon!

1. Don't spend gems on energy

Sometimes you won't be able to complete a quest in School of Dragons if your dragon has low energy. While it may be a huge pain to back out of a mini-game and go find food or other ways to give your dragon energy, it's a much better option than spending precious gems on energy. The game gives you a very easy way to spend a few and keep going but resist it. You'll be glad you did when you need those gems for something more important.

2. Fish and farm regularly

This goes along with the first tip. Make sure you are fishing and farming regularly. This way you always have plenty of food to keep your dragon happy and healthy. At least this way you'll only need to back out of a challenge long enough to tap on your dragon and feed them. Much better than having to find a lake to fish in or travel back to your farm.

3. Pay to turn your dragon into an adult

It takes several levels before your dragon is old enough for you to actual ride them and start really leveling them up. Instead, pay the $5 to buy the gems you need to turn them into an adult early. This also unlocks both Broadwing and Shortwing abilities, instead of having to wait even more levels to shoot fireballs and do other flying tricks.

4. Learn your way around all worlds

Berk and the worlds around it are rather large. A lot of the buildings and landscaping tends to look the same too. Find a few key landmarks and know what areas you have to enter and exit from to come out in a different world. Since there are so many loading screens to get through sometimes, this will help a lot when you want to get places quickly. Nothing's worse than roaming in circles to try and get where you need to be. And sometimes quest arrows just aren't as helpful as you'd like them to be.

5. Complete flight club more than once

Flying is one of the most important skills you need to master in School of Dragons. Flight Club costs you nothing and you're free to repeat lessons as many times as you want. Even if you've unlocked all of them, learning to fly may be easy but learning to fly well is completely different. You'll thank yourself in further quests.

6. Join a clan to earn free gold

If you're looking for competition, there's no better way to get it than to join a clan. School of Dragons has regular competitions that allow clans to compete for the top spot on the leaderboard. Better yet, if your clan wins competitions regularly, you can earn lots of free gold or gems as well.

7. Don't forget to check your quest list

Once you get further into School of Dragons, you may find yourself wandering around and starting multiple quests at once. Sometimes that makes it easy to completely forget about a quest. In some situations, you can't progress without completing them. So be sure to check your quests regularly and make sure you aren't missing anything.

8. Check out chat for tips and help from other players

One of the best part of School of Dragons is the fact that it really is played as a true RPG. That means you've got chat too. You can communicate with all players, people in your friends list, or only people in your clan. Either way, chat is a great place to ask for help when you're stuck or to drop in for tips when you've got some time.

9. Invite your friends to earn gems

Inviting your friends to play School of Dragons can earn you quite a few free gems, which are very rare to find during game play. While RPGs aren't everyone's style, if you know some friends that may like School of Dragons, having them join up will earn you 50 free gems each time.

10. Raise multiple dragons

Once you start getting further into the game, you may find it beneficial to hatch multiple dragons. On occasion you'll either catch them for free or on sale. When one is out of energy, you can always substitute in another one. It's also almost necessary if you want to hit the top of the leaderboards and collect tons of XP and UDT points. If your goal is to become the ultimate dragon trainer, keep an eye on dragon specials when they come up, and take advantage of them.

Your tips and tricks?

If you've been playing School of Dragons, have you come across any tips, hints, or cheats that would help out other players? Be sure to let me know in the comments! If you're part of a clan or want to share your friend ID, be sure to let us know that too!

One of the best Mac and iOS game series of the past couple of years is based on The Walking Dead, the popular graphic novel and TV series. Developed by Telltale Games, it's a point and click adventure game. It's thoroughly modern, featuring top-notch voice acting, a 3D engine and great production quality. It can also trace its roots back to some of the earliest popular computer games, a genre called Interactive Fiction, or IF for short.

The beginning of text adventures

Though it certainly wasn't the first text game, the grandaddy of all these games is Colossal Cave Adventure (sometimes called simply Adventure or ADVENT in some of its incarnations), featuring an axe-throwing dwarf and a magic bridge and all manner of creative fantasy, all based on a real-world cave.

"You are standing at the edge of a road before a small brick building," the game begins. Using simple text commands you navigate your way through the world and interact.

Colossal Cave would be recreated and revamped a number of times over the years, and gave rise to a new genre of games that we know today as interactive fiction. Some gaming empires would eventually rise and fall based on the popularity of such work.

You can still play Colossal Cave — there are versions available for iOS and OS X too. (The screenshot I included is from Lobotomo Software's OS X game Adventure.)

The Infocom years

For gamers of a certain age like me, the word "Infocom" evokes memories of hours of fun. The company exploded on the burgeoning personal computer gaming scene in the early 1980s based on the success of a game called Zork, a text adventure game inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure — but vastly superior thanks to the quality of its writing and the expansion of its text parsing system, making it easier for laypeople to have fun exploring instead of struggling to understand how to enter commands.

"It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue," was one particularly memorable (and frequent) Zork moment. And if you moved around in the dark too much without activating a light source, you indeed would be eaten by a grue.

Originally developed for use on a mainframe computer at MIT, Zork would eventually be ported to almost every home computer platform available, and would spawn a number of sequels. What's more, Infocom developed an entire line of interactive text adventure games — most of them completely original works, spanning fantasy, science fiction, and more. They even collaborated with Douglas Adams to produce a text adventure game based on Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.

Infocom further sweetened the pot by producing elegant packaging for their games that often included props, which the company called "Feelies." My copy of Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy included a "Don't Panic" button, "Peril Sensitive Sunglasses" (made of black cardboard) and other props, for example.

In the mid-80s Infocom was acquired by Activision. The company folded entirely in 1989, though its games live on today in the form of "Z-Machine" emulators like Andrew Hunter's Zoom for OS X.

Graphical adventure games take root

By then gamers' tastes changed to more graphical fare. Sierra Online would herald the next great revolution in text adventure games with titles like King's Quest, which employed color graphics and pseudo-3D scenes you could move your character to walk through and interact with. Text descriptions, written dialogue and narration and a text parser to enter commands still figured prominently in the game, of course. The graphics were great, but at its heart, King's Quest was still ultimately a text adventure game. (In recent years King's Quest has been resurrected by AGD Interactive, which remade the first three games in the series for Mac and Windows.)

Graphic adventure games continued to refine the way players interacted with their environment, eventually eschewing a text parser all together. LucasArts saw a lot of success in the 1990s with their graphic adventure games like Day of the Tentacle, and series like Sam & Max and Monkey Island. Westwood Studios, legendary makers of the Command & Conquer real time strategy game series, had their own success with Legend of Kyrandia.

Nowhere was the emphasis on graphics-only adventures more evident than with Myst, the groundbreaking graphic adventure game from Cyan. Originally developed on the Macintosh using Apple's HyperCard — an early graphically oriented programming tool — Myst emphasized elaborate visual puzzles and some embedded videos that were cleverly integrated into the game's graphics to move the story along. (Myst continues to live on; you can download the reworked version with a real 3D engine, RealMyst, from the iOS App Store and Mac App Store.

Myst would inspire a new generation of game developers to dabble with the graphic adventure game format — series like Presto Studios' The Journeyman Project leveraged burgeoning multimedia technology to incorporate pre-rendered 3D graphics, video and audio together into an immersive adventure game.

Graphic adventure games waxed and waned in popularity as gamers' tastes continued to evolve. Text-driven adventures, however, seemed like a dead end. They've carried on in some niche markets — Japan has, for years, had a market in "visual novels" that emphasize a text-based narrative — but it seemed like the western market was moribund.

The return of the graphic adventure game

Then Telltale Games came along.

It may not come as a surprise, but Telltale Games was founded by former LucasArts employees. They picked up where LucasArts left off. LucasArts shuttered a Sam & Max sequel that graphic adventure game fans were clamoring for, the employees left and founded Telltale. That game didn't come to fruition but Telltale would secure the rights to the Sam & Max franchise. They'd go on to acquire the rights to other licenses including Back To the Future and Jurassic Park. Telltale exploded with the release of The Walking Dead, which has proven to be enormously popular on both Mac/PC and iOS platforms.

Telltale Games' graphic adventures are the next logical step for this style of gameplay — fully 3D-rendered environments featuring scripted scenes. Taking control of the player character you can walk around and interact, setting off trigger events that require action, puzzle-solving or quick thinking to avoid death. There are also key elements of text adventure games of yore, such as branching storylines that change depending on how you handle a situation, or different choices in dialogue that affect how characters react.

Telltale's not stopping with The Walking Dead, either. They've had broad critical acclaim for The Wolf Among Us, a new episodic series based on a graphic novel series called Fables, and they just recently announced Tales from the Borderlands, based on the popular first person shooter from Gearbox Software.

Telltale isn't the only modern company producing graphic adventure games, either — Double Fine Productions, founded by another LucasArts alumnus, Tim Schafer (creator of Grim Fandango, a LucasArts graphic adventure hit), recently released Broken Age, a game whose development was paid for via a campaign on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. There are other examples too — last year's Gone Home employs a graphic adventure narrative to tell a really unusual story for a video game — it's a coming of age story recounted as clues found by a young woman wondering where her family has gone. Device 6 for iOS deconstructs the genre even further, a combination of text, still images, videos and puzzles that immerse you into a surreal thriller.

We've come a long way from the days of pure text-based adventures, and we'll never see that level of success again. Despite the success of niche publishers like Telltale and Double Fine, the phrase "adventure game" is largely ignored in the boardrooms of video game publishers as a commercially unviable genre, compared to the vast money made by first person shooters, massively multiplayer online games and other more current fare.

IF's legacy lives on

Purely text-based interactive fiction, for its part, may no longer be a commercially viable game genre, but it's far from dead. The Interactive Fiction Database is a game catalog that offers visitors links to IF past and present. There's even a modern day equivalent to the Choose Your Own Adventure books I mentioned — Inklewriter. This site enables you to write branching, interactive stories without having to worry about programming. The developers of Inklewriter even offer a Kindle conversion service, bringing the Choose Your Own Adventure concept back to its roots as the modern equivalent of a book.

Whether you prefer full-blown graphical adventures, text-based adventure games or Choose Your Own Adventure stories, there is still a thriving community of IF writers and players and plenty of new content to explore. Just don't expect any more Feelies any time soon.

Role-playing games are a dime a dozen on the App Store. How does a new RPG stand out? Slingshot braves from Japanese developer COLOPL does so by using a unique slingshot mechanic. Pull back on your hero, let go, and watch him or her fly into the enemy like a cue ball. It’s a different and surprisingly fun way to kill monsters on your iPhone or iPad.

Read on to learn about more features like online co-op that make this free to play RPG worth a download.

Slingshot warriors

After engaging in one of those climactic teaser battles that shows you what the game is going to be like, players awaken in the building of a heroes’ guild. The first thing you’ll do is customize your anime-style character from a too-small assortment of pieces. Then comes the fun part: deciding on your slingshot.

Slingshot Braves initially offers three main types of slingshots, each of which affects the mechanics of a character’s attacks (two more types unlock later). All can be aimed simply by pulling back on a character and then releasing.

 Attacks with the blade cause a character to ricochet around until he or she stops hitting targets, not unlike a pinball. The lance pierces through multiple enemies in a straight line, usually reflecting off the wall for extra hits. The hammer strikes all enemies within a certain radius, usually producing massive combos as a result.

The choice of weapon for your main character won’t lock you down too tightly, as the other two weapons are shared by your second and third party members. Players only control two characters at a time during battle, but either one can be swapped out for the third in order to recharge health or mix up combat strategies. Team combos are easy to set up and add extra damage to each character’s assaults.

Co-op

Another cool aspect of the game beyond the great combat system is the co-op mode. These can be played either by local Wi-Fi or online. The matchmaking system and menus are extremely clunky, but you should be able to find a partner eventually. Or you could add me as a friend! Go to Friends, pick Find Friend, and then enter PACEVEDO to send a friend request.

During co-op missions, each player takes only two characters into a battle – no third wheels allowed. Both human partners will take turns attacking the enemies and can even combo off of each other. If one person gets disconnected, the AI will automatically fill in for the other player. Even if you die, your partner can go on to win the mission and earn rewards for you both!

Free to role-play

Slingshot Braves uses the common stamina system to encourage in-app purchases. Each mission players go on will drain a little stamina. Your stamina bar increases as you level up, but you’re bound to run out if you play a lot. Stamina refills cost gems, the premium currency. Other uses for gems include expanding your storage, changing your character’s appearance, and playing the “Gacha” game to win random premium items.

Even the most dedicated Japanese RPG enthusiasts must admit that turn-based battles can get old after a while. Slingshot Braves flies right past that obstacle with its slingshot-based fights and optional co-op battles. Hopefully COLOPL continues to support Slingshot Braves with more content and special events in the future. Pull back and give this one a try!

• Free – Download now

Between its charming 8-bit look, thankless challenge curve, and pared-down controls, Slayin has found a sweet spot in iOS gaming. Players only have one life to make their way through as many waves of enemies and bosses as possible, while collecting treasure along the way. Your hero is constantly moving forward, weapon drawn - all you have to do is steer them left or right, and jump when appropriate. The gold coins gathered can be spent on equipment which, with any luck, will buy you another minute or two, but ultimately everybody falls to the unrelenting hordes of fantasy monsters. Over time, your heroics earn you fame points which can be spent on unlocking new heroes and new game modes.

That’s Slayin in a nutshell, but if you need some help getting into it, we’ve got some tips to make sure you’re hacking and slashing your way to level 100.

• $0.99 - Download now

1: Get the dragon scale first

You may be tempted to spend your hard-earned Fame Points on a new hero right out of the gate, but hold that thought. The Dragon Scale, costing 5000 FP, will grant you an extra life, which will in turn increase how much fame your bring back with every round, and also stem the monotony of having to start over from scratch again.

2: Always buy armor

Survivability is your biggest challenge, so don’t skimp on armor when the opportunity arises. Meat is also available to replenish health, and though its cost increases with every serving, it’s often worth topping up. If your armor is depleted and the vendor pops up, it’s worth your while to work your way to him to get more armor.

4. Command one side of the battlefield

It’s hard to get by when you’re surrounded on all sides, so pick one edge of the screen and stay close to it. Clear out enemies as soon as they get close, and only venture across to the other half periodically. This might mean that levels take a little while longer to clear, but you’ll certainly be playing it safe. Get in the habit of a circular attack pattern: jump forwards to clear airborne enemies or avoid incoming ground obstacles, plow through a few on the ground, then head back to pick up loot and clear out any fresh spawns.

5. Know when to leave loot alone

Don’t ruin a great score multiplier and lose a bunch of health just for a few gold coins. Treasure disappears quickly, and it’s hard not to charge towards it whenever something drops, but resist temptation. The gold only really helps you to stay alive, but can only do so much in the hands of a brave suicidal adventurer. The only real exception to this would be to go after treasure chests, but even then, it’s best to err on the side of caution.

Cheat: Get 500 Fame Points for free

After playing for awhile, you’ll get a pop-up suggesting that you rate the game and get 500 Fame Points. The thing is (and this goes for any game that tries to entice you to rate and earn in-game currency), there’s no way for them to confirm you actually rated their game. Tap “Yes, rate it”, it’ll boot you out to the App Store, but you can switch right back without having written a thing. Now, Slayin is a great game and you should leave it a nice review, but strictly speaking, it’s not required.

Finally, here’s a list of the bosses you’ll encounter and a quick look at their attacks and how to approach them.

Boss list for Slayin

• Minotaur: Leap over as he charges, then attack from behind.
• Royal Slime: Splits in two and speeds up with every attack. Clear smaller spawns before attacking larger one again.
• Imp: Teleports to either side. Fires linear fireballs at ground level, wave-path fireballs from higher.
• Peloria: Avoid sprouts and attack main body before she attacks and goes back underground.
• Death Worm: Avoid disturbed ground, attack sides after it erupts.
• Harpy: Makes diagonal, burst feather attacks, and occasional dive bomb attacks. Strike from below.
• Spectral rider: Teleports to either side while steed stomps and unleashes ground flame attack, then dismounts, flies, and flings energy attacks.
• Dragon: Breathes fireballs at ground- and mid- level, unleashes volleys of four fireballs from above. Attack when head is highest.

Your top tips, tricks, and cheats?

That's about all we've got for Slayin, but be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts on classes and general strategies for Slayin! If you haven't given it a shot, be sure to download Slayin from the App Store.

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Hay Day is one of the most popular free to play games on the App Store, but it'll cost you a bundle in in app purchases if you're not careful. Here are some tips I've figured out on how to get ahead in the game without paying a dime.

Hay Day puts you in charge of rehabilitating a farm that's seen better days. You grow and harvest crops, raise livestock, clearing land, and make goods you can sell to local businesses and consumers to make a tidy profit. With each new level comes new goods you can make, new livestock and crops, and some other assorted goodies to help make your farming experience better. Like most free to play games, there's an in app purchase mechanism that you can use to buy a hard currency in the game (diamonds) which will get you ahead and get you out of jams. The tips I've come up with are to keep you out of those jams.

1. Don't run out of seed crops

Every crop you plant will double its yield upon harvest — one unit of corn planted in your field yields two corn units in your silo. As tempted as you may be to use up all the seeds in your silo to fill a lucrative order, don't. Plant those seeds and make sure to keep enough on hand to create the products you're going to need later. If you do, you'll have no choice but to use diamonds to buy more seeds.

Especially as your farm grows, you're going to need to constantly supply your livestock with feed — to that end, you should always have a good stock of wheat, corn, soybeans and other feed in your silo at all times.

2. Plant slow-growing crops at night or during work hours

Some crops only take a few minutes to pop up — wheat, corn, and carrots, for example, all take less than ten minutes. Others, like pumpkins and indigo, take hours. Make sure to plant those crops before you go to sleep or if you're going to busy with work or school for a few hours; that way they'll be ready when you get back and you can harvest and use them as you need to.

The same rule applies to livestock and to finished goods you're making. Some take hours to get ready, so make sure they start production before you're off to bed, and they'll be ready when you wake up the next day.

3. Don't bother with visitors to your farm

Visitors to your farm want to buy your goods, but they typically don't want to pay a premium for them. So don't be afraid to say no. They won't take offense and they'll come around again soon enough as soon as the mood strikes them.

About the only exception I make is when I have a total glut on something, like chicken eggs, or something I can make really fast, like wheat.

This brings me to my next tip...

4. Use your roadside stand to fill your coffers

Rather than selling goods to visitors, sell them to your friends and followers who are also playing Hay Day. You can check your newspaper to see what your friends are selling products for and follow suit. What I usually do is just max out the price of the good then knock 10 percent off. Usually it sells right away.

5. Don't be afraid to say no to orders

Your bulletin board will pile up with orders from nearby businesses that need your goods — stores, salons, schools, churches and more. They're usually willing to pay a fair price, but sometimes you don't have enough goods to fill the orders, or it'll take too long, or you may not even have the equipment or livestock to fill the order. Don't be afraid to dump the order in the trash.

You'll end up waiting a few minutes until the next order arrives, but if you can fill it, it'll be more worthwhile than having the limited space you have for orders taken up by stuff you can't or don't want to fill.

6. Balance money with experience

As your orders come in, you'll see two figures appear at the bottom — coins and stars. Coins are the money you'll get for each order, and stars are the experience points you'll get for completing that order.

Succeeding at Hay Day is as much about leveling up as it is about making coins, so look at those orders carefully. It may be worth your while to go with an order that offers less cash but more experience to help you level up faster.

7. And a cheat - reload the game to refresh the newspaper

I've already given you six tips and tricks, but I promised you a cheat too, so here you go: Your newspaper shows you the current deals that other Hay Day players are offering. You can force the newspaper to refresh if you quit the game entirely, then relaunch it. (And when I say quit the game, I mean get it out of active memory - if you're unfamiliar with how to do so, follow these instructions.) The newspaper should be refreshed and you'll see new deals.

Your top tips, tricks, and cheats?

So there you go — six quick tips for getting the most out of Hay Day. Do you have others? Are you frustrated with Hay Day? Or has it already cost you a bundle in in app purchases? Sound off in the comments and let me know what you think. And if you haven't already tried Hay Day, make sure to check it out in the App Store.

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It's the news that D&D and role playing game fans have waited months to hear: Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition is now available for download from the App Store. Following the Mac and PC versions' release, the iPad version has passed muster with Apple and is ready to be played.

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is a modern version of Bioware's nearly legendary fantasy role playing game that originally saw the light of day in 2000. The game follows the exploits of Gorion's Ward, the protagonist of the first game, as he (or she) and their party of skilled adventurers makes their way across the Forgotten Realms as they battle the wizard Irenicus.

The Enhanced Edition incorporates both the original Baldur's Gate II, subtitled Shadows of Amn and a later-released expansion pack called Throne of Bhaal. Four new party members have been added, and a high-level combat scenario called The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay has also been included. Multiplayer gaming is supported, as well.

Baldur's Gate II for iPad seemed lost in limbo for a while - it was submitted for Apple's approval weeks ago. Trent Oster, the game's creative director, has been on tenterhooks awaiting the game's release, which he finally confirmed yesterday via Twitter.

In-app purchases are available which unlock additional characters and artwork, but they're not required to finish the game.

• $14.99 - Download now

GOG.com is offering Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics for free for the next two days as part of their Winter Promo giveaway. That's a savings of $29.97 compared to their regular price.

The Fallout series is a post-apocalyptic action role playing game series in which you assume the role of a Vault Dweller, the survivor of a nuclear apocalypse who must now roam the radiation-blasted landscape looking for parts to restore the water making ability of their home Vault. Fallout 1 and 2 continue the same story line, set 80 years apart from one another, while Fallout Tactics is actually a spinoff game that focuses on tactical combat rather than role-playing.

Like much of GOG.com's catalog, the three free Fallout games are older - Fallout originally debuted in 1997, Fallout 2 in 1998 and Fallout Tactics in 2001. Also, like many of GOG.com's games, the three Fallout games are not "native" Mac (or Windows) ports - in fact, they run inside of a DOS emulator. Having said that, they work on a wide variety of Intel-based Macs and are a lot of fun to play, so don't let a little emulation stand in your way of having a great time - for free.

Editor's note: As I posted this on Friday GOG.com's web site seemed a bit overwhelmed with traffic, so don't be surprised if you have to retry a few times before the game's download.

• Free - Download now

Yesterday we looked at Elemental Kingdoms, a card battling RPG. Today we're back with a massively multiplayer online RPG/town-building hybrid called Dragon Realms from GREE International. The spiritual successor to last year’s Kingdom Age, Dragon Realms was developed internally at GREE’s RPG+ Studio. Hundreds of creatures to collect, cooperative and PVP play, and cross-platform multiplayer make for a lengthy and addictive experience.

In case the title didn’t clue you in, Dragon Realms takes place in a medieval fantasy setting. The story revolves around a war between three factions: the Silver Alliance, the Feral Horde, and the Undead Legion.  Unbeknownst to all of them, a dark figure works in secret to orchestrate the conflict and sew chaos. What a jerk!

As the player, you’ll need to choose a hero from one of the factions and then work to uncover the source of the war and unite the warring factions. GREE promises to expand and evolve the story through future updates and in-game events.

Speaking of the title, it wouldn’t do for the game to have just one or two dragons. There are actually nine different types of the giant beasts at present, with more on the way. Each of these dragons can evolve into four different forms. The only way you could get more dragon in there is if the realms themselves were made of dragons. I don’t know; that might be too much dragon.

Build your realm

Gameplay in Dragon Realms is divided between two core components: realm (town) building and quests. The player’s realm starts with a single castle. As you accumulate gold and reach new level milestones, you’ll be able to construct a variety of buildings for your realm such as farms, granaries, barns, and more.

All buildings produce gold over time. They can also be upgraded to produce more gold, though it naturally costs gold to level them up. Some buildings provide bonuses for the player or other resources than gold as well.

As with most city building games, building construction takes varying amounts of real time to complete. If you’re in a hurry to finish a structure, you can spend gems (premium currency) to instantly finish construction.

Growing and customizing a town is much more fun when you can share your handiwork with others. Thankfully Dragon Realms allows players to visit the realms of people on their friends lists.

Questing

Dragon Realms doesn’t have an exploration element to speak of, though players do unlock new areas for quests by leveling up and other actions. To pick up quests, you simply select them from a quest menu. Each quest conveniently offers a Visit button that allows players to jump to its location.

Quests often have combat-oriented goals such as killing a certain number of monsters or battling against another player. Other quests require certain buildings to be created or upgraded, or for the player to level up. Quest rewards include gold, XP, and new heroes or items.

Guilds

Guilds provide Dragon Realms with its MMO aspect. Any time after completing the starting tutorial, players can create or join a guild and team up with other players.

The main benefit of joining a guild is access to guild-specific quests. These include Epic Boss events that a single player couldn’t defeat alone and invasions that require coordination between guild members.  Guilds can also gain access to unique buildings and special perks that give combat bonuses to heroes.

Player versus player

Dragon Realms has a strong competitive component as well. Players can engage in PVP battles at any time. The matchmaking system presents a selection of opponents of varying levels to choose from. The battles go by quickly and unlike Elemental Kingdoms there’s no real penalty for losing, so new players shouldn’t feel intimidated by the competition.

Winners of PVP battles receive XP and Honor. Honor is a unique currency that can only be acquired from PVP battles. You can increase your rewards by taking advantage of the game’s unique streak system. Each time you win a battle against another player, your win streak increases by one. You have a short amount of time to engage in a new battle and keep the streak going. As long as you keep winning, the XP and Honor gains will keep on rising.

Collect them all

Dragon Realms’ combat system is quite simple. Players assemble a team of up to 9 heroes of various races and species and then clash against a rival team. You’ll also be able to enter coliseum areas in which your main hero takes on multiple attackers one at a time. Either way, you just double tap an enemy to unleash your attack.

The hero collecting system is what really gives Dragon Realms its flair. There are over 200 heroes to gather, with more coming later via updates. Each hero has attack and defense ratings that determine its effectiveness in battle. Some heroes have special abilities like increasing the player’s attack, buffing other heroes’ attacks, and reflecting the opponent’s attacks back at them.

Heroes can be strengthened in two ways: leveling up and evolving. You can mix and match both forms of upgrades, leveling an evolved hero and vice versa.

To level a hero up, players select a base hero and up to 10 additional heroes to be combined with the base hero. Leveling up provides a significant boost to the hero’s attack and defense stats.

It takes two heroes of the same type to perform an evolution. The end result will be an evolved hero that is much stronger than the characters used in its creation. Each hero has four stages of evolution to go through.

While Dragon Realms undoubtedly brings loads of cool heroes and creatures to the table, their visual presentation isn’t always top notch. Sure, the character art seen in the trailer and during story scenes looks quite beautiful. But the actual sprites are small and don’t exude too much detail or personality. Using separate art styles for character portraits and sprites may be common practice, but I’d rather the entire game looked as fetching as those portraits.

In-App Purchases

Being a free to play game, Dragon Realms naturally has both standard and premium currencies. Gold is the standard type. You’ll earn it as building revenue and by completing quests. Honor can be earned through defeating other players as I described earlier.

Gems are the game’s premium currency. They can be used to acquire more heroes, level and evolve those heroes, and of course, speeding up building completion times.

Multiplatform and upcoming features

MMOs – even largely asynchronous ones like this – live and die by their player bases. If nobody else is playing, you won’t be able to take on tougher foes and guild quests.

Luckily Dragon Realms has one big feather in its cap as far as player base goes: multiplatform support. iOS and Android players can join the same guilds, chat, participate in events together, and even battle each other. With players from the two largest smartphone platforms intermingling, the player base should last for quite a while.

Cross-platform multiplayer is great, but Dragon Realms lacks one very important feature at present: cloud saves. Save data is stored locally, not online. GREE is already working on Game Center support though, so the security of cloud saves won’t be too far off.

• Free - Download Now

Having been first teased at the September 10 iPhone event, blockbuster game title Infinity Blade III is now available to download in the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

It looks amazing, and we're looking forward to seeing what it can do on the new iPhone 5s later in the week. For now, grab a beverage, wait for it to download, and get your game on. It's a pretty hefty 1.47GB in size, so make sure you've got the space before pulling the trigger.

Once you've taken it for a ride, let me know what you think.

• $6.99 - Download Now

It’s been out for a while now, but Square-Enix’s original Chaos Rings remains one of the best and most popular Japanese Role-Playing Games on iOS. Like many RPGs, Chaos Rings is a lengthy game full of mysteries and secrets. Our occasional contributor and always RPG fan Paul has explored every inch of the game in order to bring you this in-depth strategy guide.

Game flow

While each team takes on the areas in a different order, their games all follow the same flow:

• First area
• Second area
• Arena battle against another team
• Third area
• Fourth area
• Arena battle against remaining team
• Original door
• Bereshith Road (fifth area)

The first four areas each consists of two halves and two bosses, plus four puzzles each. If you get stuck on a puzzle, use this guide.

After defeating the Agent and going through the Original Door, you’ll get an ending. Make sure you save once the credits finish. Then load the same team and the Bereshith Road area will become available. Don’t forget to save after Beredith Road, because you’ll be revisiting the team later on!

Each time your team completes an area, Piu Piu’s shop updates with new inventory. Always buy the best weapon, armor, and jewel available in his shop. The stat boosts will make life much easier. Keep at least 10 keys on-hand as well so that you don’t miss out on valuable locked chests.

First team: maxing out the genes

Your first team’s playthrough will be the longest because you’ll be working on maxing your genes out at the same time. Gene progress (and money) carriers over to the other teams, so subsequent playthroughs will go much faster. You can choose Escher’s or Eluca’s team for this run; I suggest starting with Escher and Museia to keep things simple.

The first time you fight any new type of enemy, you’ll acquire its gene. A gene starts with only one skill. As you fight more of that enemy type, you’ll randomly acquire that gene’s remaining skills. Get all six of a gene’s skills to max it out.

Your team is more likely to acquire skills from higher level enemies. You can also increase your chances of learning skills by equipping a maxed out Slug gene. As soon as you learn the Slug gene’s ‘Get More Genes’ skill, equip it on both characters. Don’t unequip it until you’ve maxed out every gene.

The strategy for learning new skills is simple. Whenever you find a new type of enemy as a random encounter, stay in that area and grind until you’ve maxed out the skill. Enemy types that first appear as bosses will eventually show up as regular enemies, so don’t worry if you haven’t seen one appear for a while. Several genes can’t be maxed until Bereshith Road.

Here are the genes you need to max out:

• Mouse Genes
• Dog Genes
• Crocodile Genes
• Deer Genes
• Bird Genes
• Monkey Genes
• Hippopotamus Genes
• Insect Genes
• Manta Genes
• Slug Genes
• Tiger Genes
• Elephant Genes
• Lion Genes
• Fish Genes
• Tortoise Genes
• Devil Genes
• Dinosaur Genes
• Dragon Genes
• Panda Genes
• Celestial Genes

You can also find a complete list of gene abilities, and complete list of which enemies appear in each area.

First team: leveling up

To fully experience all of Chaos Rings’ secrets (and stand a chance at the very last boss), you’ll want to get at least your first team up to the maximum experience level of 100.  The key to leveling quickly is the Elephant gene’s ‘EXP Up’ skill. As soon as you get that skill, equip the Elephant on both of your characters and don’t take it off until they hit 100.

The best place to grind for EXP is Bereshith Road. There are two possible strategies to take before you reach that area:

• Play slowly. Do runs through the first four areas on both the same level you’re on and the highest level available. This takes longer but it’s a fair bit easier.
• Play quickly. Only run through each area once, selecting the highest level available. This is harder, but saves grinding time that will be better spent in Bereshith Road. Just make sure you’ve always bought the best equipment available and plenty of healing and elemental items.

Once you clear the fourth area, Piu Piu starts selling the Paradise Apple (Body) in the shop. This item doubles EXP gained from a battle. You only need to use one per battle; the benefit applies to both teammates.

As soon as they become available, buy all the Paradise Apples (Body) you can afford. I would get 50-90, just to be safe. Use one in every battle that follows, whether it’s the final Arena battle or a random encounter in Bereshith Road.

The single best location to grind for EXP is the treasure room on floor 137 of Bereshith Road. (pictured two images above) The fifth area doesn’t actually 137 floors; you’ll reach 137 fairly quickly via elevator. Near the end of floor 137, you can take an exit crystal towards the computer room and the area boss, or go past that exit to another exit. The second exit leads to a room with three treasure chests; that’s our destination.

Inside the treasure room, you’ll randomly encounter three types of panda enemies. The red variety, Tomorrow Biliken gives the most EXP in the game. Use a Paradise Apple (Body) while fighting him and your team will gain 2-6 levels after the battle!

Sometimes Tomorrow Bilikens appear relatively frequently, other times hardly at all. Just stay in the treasure room, using Paradise Apples (Body) during every single battle, and you’ll reach level 100 after one or two hours.

Once you hit 100 (and assuming you’ve maxed all genes), turn off Random encounters by pressing the button at the top-right corner of the screen and then press the ‘Enc’ button that appears at left of the Camp button. Proceed to the computer room and the area boss. Save after beating the boss, and then it’s time to start the next team!

Second, third, and fourth teams

The three remaining team scenarios will go so much quicker than the first. Follow this strategy and they will take about four hours apiece to complete.

At the start of each team’s game, head to the shop and buy the best equipment and some healing items. You’ll also need to equip three genes on each character before heading to the first area. I recommend:

• Elephant (for the EXP boost and S-Healing)
• Lion (for Auto Counter, which helps battles go faster whenever it activates)
• Dragon (adds 100 points to speed and attack)

This setup only gives your team fire magic. You’ll mostly be brute forcing battles instead of worrying about elements. But when you need the elemental advantage during a boss fight, just use element-changing items.

Having readied your party, jump into the first area on 11-20 difficulty. Use the ‘play quickly’ strategy I described earlier, running through each area only once instead of multiple times. Occasionally a boss might give you trouble, but if you remember to heal and use elements as needed, you’ll come out on top.

Once your teams reach Bereshith Road (71-80), you can make for the treasure room and get them properly leveled. I highly recommend getting each team to at least level 80, if not 100. They still have a few tough boss fights ahead after Bereshith Road…

Complete the ‘Final’ battle

Having completed each team’s story, you’ll now have the option to engage in the Final scenario with any team. The Final scenario consists of four consecutive battles; one for each duo of heroes. As long as your teams are high level, these battles will be a cakewalk.

Watch the end credits and remember to save. Ready for more bosses?

Defeat the hidden bosses (all teams)

Each of the five main areas has two hidden bosses who can only be fought after completing Bereshith Road for the first time. These bosses award the best weapons, armor, and jewels in the game.

When you’re ready to face the hidden bosses, return to any of the main areas. In the spot where you previously faced a boss, you’ll now find a large crystal. Activate it to fight the hidden boss within.

To reach the hidden bosses as fast as possible:

• Turn off random encounters
• Choose to skip the first half of the area. You’ll start just past the first boss fight. Just backtrack immediately to reach the first hidden boss. Then progress through the rest of the area to meet the second one.

All four teams must defeat all nine secret in order to unlock the final secret boss. The process should take about 20 minutes per team. After beating the last hidden boss with your fourth team, save and return to the Ark.

Finally: face the secret boss

Once you’ve defeated all hidden bosses with all couples, take your strongest team and talk to Piu Piu. You’ll now have the chance to fight the hardest boss in the game!

The boss is so challenging because he casts a different elemental attack every 1-2 turns and automatically recovers 10,000 HP every turn. Your team will need to cast whatever spell the opponent is currently weak against (or use an item to do so) and then attack until he changes elements again. Repeat the process, casting S-Heal as necessary, until you win.

The battle should take 10 minutes or so. Once it ends, you’ll receive the best “jewel” in the game: the ‘Super MV.’ Piu Piu only needs to be beaten once, but each team you thwart him with adds an extra two percent to your completion ratio.

Prepare for Chaos

We hope you’ve found this guide useful! Don’t miss our original Chaos Rings review.

• $8.99 – Download now

Order & Chaos Online is a pretty impressive MMORPG available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and if you're new to the game or just want to sharpen up a little, then this is for you. Courtesy of Paul Acevedo over at our sibling site Windows Phone Central, comes the complete beginners guide to the game.

Naturally, it's being played out on a Windows Phone 8 device, but since it's a cross platform game, iOS Order and Chaos Online players can still take advantage of all the tips. You'll find an in-depth video walkthrough along with a host of fantastic written content. We originally posted this for part one, but now part two has been published, the beginners guide is complete so jump below for all the links you need. If you like what you see or have any tips and tricks of your own, be sure to tell us in the comments below. And remember, your Mobile Nations Passport will let you comment over on Windows Phone Central too!

• Read Now - Order & Chaos Online beginners guide: Part one
• Read Now - Order & Chaos Online beginners guide: Part two
• $6.99 - Download Now - Order & Chaos Online for iOS

Old-school role-playing game fans will have noticed Baldur’s Gate launching on iPad last week. The Dungeons & Dragons classic has suffered a few delays, which isn’t entirely unexpected when porting an older PC game to an entirely new operating system.

Baldur’s Gate follows the story of an orphan who is rushed out from his home by his caretaker, who is promptly killed outside the city by a mysterious armored figure and a band of mercenaries. Your character has to then start piecing together the mystery of his murder by enlisting the aid of fellow adventurers along the road. Before long, you’re looking into a strange iron shortage which is plaguing the region and ultimately tied to your guardian’s death. The game also includes The Black Pits, which follows a group that has been abducted to fight in an underworld gladiatorial arena.

The classic RPG mechanics are all here; go on quests, kill monsters, earn loot, get experience points, level up, unlock new abilities, rinse, repeat. The controls are mostly well-adapted from the PC version, though I have experienced a few hiccups. It’s clear that the precision of a mouse is sometimes needed to accurately tap on entrances to new areas or corpses to loot. Often, I’ve had to pinch to zoom in a few times to get close enough to tap accurately. There are also a few performance hiccups, such as the keyboard summoning when you tap into the Journal section, and parts of the UI temporarily disappearing when you switch between apps. On the plus side, there’s multi-player available through good ol’ direct IP, with plans for a more streamlined cross-platform multiplayer experience soon.

The “Enhanced” part of this version of Baldur’s Gate seems to primarily mean fresh cutscenes peppered throughout the game, though putting them at the beginning every time you load up is a bit excessive. The developer also squashed over 400 bugs from the original game, and added in classes and races that were previously only available in Baldur’s Gate 2.

There are plenty of dialog options throughout the game which have very real consequences in how events pan out. If you’re particularly snarky to some stranger on the road, they may decide to attack you. If you manage to bribe an assassin, they may provide some information on who hired them to kill you. The winding storyline is as solid as ever, and a hallmark of the game’s original creator, BioWare. There are a lot of interesting paths to take on the dialog front, but the real action is in combat.

Encounters with bad guys are fast and furious, often requiring players to pause, line up actions for each character, unpause, see how they resolve, and designate another set of actions. This can feel a little clunky for many, but adds a ton of depth to combat.I don’t know if games were harder when I was younger, or if I’ve gone soft in my old age, but Baldur’s Gate can be really, really difficult. If your character dies at any point, you have to re-load from your last save point. Characters can be killed very easily if you don’t take your time and carefully plan out attacks and are amply prepared with potions and characters with healing classes.

The game’s graphics are a mixed bag. Character portraits are still gorgeous and plentiful, but the animation and actual character sprites are a little chunky, especially when zoomed in. It would have been great to see at least character assets re-rendered in 3D, but that might have looked out of place with the rest of the world. The audio is still fantastic, particularly the voice acting. Every character has a ton of personality, though certain canned responses get a touch repetitive. The background music is also great, and easily makes up for the scenery’s lack of fidelity.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition costs $9.99, which is a little on the steep side, plus they’re trying to sell portrait packs, voice packs, and new characters for $2.99. Those that succumb to nostalgia probably won’t bat an eyelash at spending over fifteen bucks for Baldur’s Gate and the extras, but anyone else won’t be so easily persuaded.

• Superb voice acting and writing
• Classic, challenging RPG action

• Dated graphics
• Controls could use a bit more touch optimization
• Relatively high pricetag

Though some of Baldur’s Gate’s relics sort of get in the way of gameplay, such as obscure D&D mechanics, mouse-optimized controls, and dated graphics, the spirit of the game still holds a ton of appeal. Rich character portraits and top-notch voice acting deliver convincing personalities, whileintense background music and steep difficulty curve can create truly gripping combat experiences. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition is a fine example of bringing classic franchises back to life on mobile; I just can’t wait until Baldur’s Gate 2 comes out for iOS.

$9.99 - Download Now

The Walking Dead game for iOS is lurching towards parity with its PC counterpart, having recently launched episode three of its zombie-filled storyline. The survival-horror game puts you in the shoes of Lee, who has been thrust into protecting a small girl from the horrors of a ravaged world while running from his own checkered past. The cel-shaded art style mimics the original comic series, but still maintains its own independent plotline that grows every episode.

Graphics and audio

Telltale has done a great job of expressing convincing human emotion through the slightly-exaggerated art style and the superb voice acting. The soundtrack ranges from frantic to foreboding, and sets an excellent mood no matter which situation you find yourself in. I occasionally experienced user interface glitches when conducting dialog, where completely different options would be selected from what I tapped. The framerate on the iPad 2 would also drop during the odd fast-paced section and lip syncing wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping it would be, but still close enough to its PC version. 

Though this might go without saying, The Walking Dead, as a game about zombies, is full of gore, violence, and swearing. It’s not senseless mind you, but it might be a little too much for sensitive players, and definitely not appropriate for kids. On the other hand, the graphics are outstanding if you're a fan of horror; the action sequences when you're being ambushed by the undead can really get the heart pumping.

Gameplay and controls

The Walking Dead Game is busted up into three major gameplay types. One is picking dialog options with lasting effects throughout the rest of the series, sometimes on a timer. Another type is combat, whichvinvolves fending off zombie attacks with rapid-fire taps on target areas and appropriate swipes. Lastly, there are puzzle sections that involve finding items and using them with others to accomplish certain tasks. These are slightly less frustrating than those in old-school point-and-click adventure games, since every object you can interact with has a target icon over it. The only time the puzzles get really challenging is when you don’t have a lot of time to make your decisions. 

The Walking Dead occasionally errs on the side of dramatic camera angles instead of practical ones, though by and large it’s easy enough to get by. Dragging your finger across the screen will dictate where Lee walks when in a free-movement sequence, while the more fast-paced action scenes involve precise, rapid taps and swipes. Let it be known that facing off against zombies is just as scary and time-sensitive as the dialog-based encounters that will often put you in the position of making life-or-death decisions. Even the more subtle dialog can have lasting repercussions throughout future episodes. Though there's some replay value in exploring the different plot branches, they're a bit limited once you know the eventual outcome and major progression points, kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

One particularly interesting thing The Walking Dead Game does is compare the major decisions you make against those of other players at the end of every chapter. Some of the stats that they've generated about certain decision points can be fairly surprising. 

The good

• Rich, varied storyline
• Expressive voice acting
• Appropriately disgusting zombies

The bad

• Excessive gore and swearing may turn off more sensitive players
• Some performance lag on older iOS devices
• Limited replay value, despite branches

The bottom line 

The Walking Dead is a little pricey at $4.99 per episode, even if you get the whole set for $14.99, but the writing and story are so excellent that you may be willing to drop the extra dough on such a high-quality experience. Though there is a fair bit of replay value available as you discover the various paths and turns the plotline can take, you probably only have two or three play-throughs before most of the major options have been explored. 

If you’re looking for something to get you into the Hallowe’en spirit, be sure to give at least the first episode a shot. The Walking Dead is a unique, thrilling experience that's rich with drama. 

$4.99 - Download Now

Brandnew Boy launched on iOS not too long ago, offering up a unique mix of 3D hand-to-hand combat, colorful anime graphics, and a soundtrack that sounds like it's straight out of Kill Bill. The iPhone and iPad game had a big content update last week, went on sale, and now they're hosting a giveaway in our forums for ten $10 iTunes Gift Cards and 10 promo codes for Brandnew Boy.

Brandnew Boy puts you in control of a kid that has had his memory wiped, and the only one that is able to help him piece together his identity is a sassy little robot named Onaona that speaks in TV sound bytes. The kid, appropriately named Rookie, quickly finds out that he can still fight with panache, and liberally dishes out the whoop-ass to anyone standing between him and his memories. If you're just interested in action, the latest update includes a new endless-wave mode, which is also available as a stand-alone free game. Though the Infinity mode has entirely separate character progression, some rewards transfer over, depending on the power-ups you pick after levelling up. Every wave has a few bonus objectives, such as beating enemies without dodging, which provide bonus rewards.

The gameplay is very unique for the genre. Instead of the usual dual-stick layout which consists of pounding buttons to execute attacks, Brandnew Boy relies on a vaguely rhythm-based mechanic. A cursor slides up a target bar below Rookie, and as it approaches the target area, you have to tap the screen. The closer to the target when tapping, the more powerful the attack. The unfortunate side-effect of this mechanic is that attention is directed pretty much exclusively on that little bar, not on the rich 3D mayhem.

After awhile, you can start learning the animations of Rookie's attacks to time your taps, but that method is much less precise than relying on the target bar. Every once in awhile action is mixed up with special attacks which are activated from a button bar along the bottom-left, and if things get really hairy, Rookie can dodge with swipe gestures. These secondary actions are really important to staying interested in the action, since the "tap when the thingie hits the thingie" mechanic can get really boring really quickly. Regardless, I could see there being a lot of room for the devs to play around with the idea - multiple target zones, different fighting styles with varied target shapes and attack rhythms, and syncing attacks with music, for example.

The game progresses in a standard RPG format: defeating enemies through a linear story arc allows you to level up and increase stats like strength, dexterity and vitality as you see fit. New abilities are unlocked from defeating bosses, but can also be improved as you level up. Defeating bosses allows you to summon them to your aid Pokemon-style, though only for a brief time, and requiring a fairly lengthy cooldown period. There's a wealth of gear to buy with the coins you earn through gameplay, though you can speed up the process with in-app purchases. There are quite a few vanity costumes which range from svelte to ridiculous, and thanks to the recent update, you can play as a Brandnew Girl too. Various power-ups and potions can keep Rookie on his A-game.

Brandnew Boy's style is steeped in classic anime, including tons of exclamation points in dialogue, giant eyes for everybody, bizarrely-shaped enemies, and cutesy animal references. Generally that kind of stuff really turns me off, but the rockin' soundtrack and edgy, modern costumes are enough of a juxtaposition to keep me interested. The kind of over-the-top, unapologetically unrealistic violence reminded me a lot of No More Heroes, an action game on Wii with a similar east-meets-west theme. Even outside of gameplay, the menus are bold, bright, and a joy to navigate.  The combat animations are smooth and colorful, though the pixellation along the edges of 3D models can sometimes get a bit distracting.

Brandnew Boy is universal, so your achievements and scores will be carried over to Game Center, but I wasn't able to get games to sync across iPad and iPhone. The one-touch control makes Brandnew Boy entirely viable to play on the iPhone, but it's much easier to soak in the excellent graphics on an iPad.

The good

• Original and colorful art style
• Ample character customization

The bad

• Importance of attack bar distracts from game's solid graphics
• Attack mechanic can get repetitive

The bottom line

Brandnew Boy is a decidedly different kind of action RPG with a truly unique style. While there are some things I would change about the gameplay, namely how much attention you have to pay to the moving attack bar, the core mechanic is a refreshing change of pace. The writing, art style, and animation are all very unique among the usual crop of iOS fighting games, and even as someone who generally isn't into anime, Brandnew Boy adds enough of a twist to make the experience enjoyable.

Here's the download link, but don't forget, you could win a copy in our forum giveaway!

$3.99 $0.99 - Buy Now

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In a recent interview Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney talked a lot about the freemium model, convergence, and in particular how successful they've been in mobile.

If you're not familiar, Gears of War is a massively popular shooting game franchise on console which originally launched in 2006 and spawned multiple sequels. The latest title sold 3 million copies in its opening week, beating out the previous two games. As of September 2011, the whole series has grossed over $1 billion.

iOS has been eating the lunch of traditional portable gaming consoles for some time now, but the new iPad has started steering towards competing with consoles, primarily by way of comparison of the Retina display's resolution with standard HD TVs. Even though the processing power and storage space of the iPad and iPhone currently limits what can be done in iOS games, those are limits that even AAA developers like Epic are willing to work around if they can enjoy higher profits than their console titles. Of course Infinity Blade is the exception rather than the rule, but it proves mobile can be at least as profitable for game developers as other platforms.

Sweeney's interview revolved a lot around the Unreal Engine which they created and has a prominent position in the mobile sphere, and provides a clear transition path for developers moving from PC and consoles. Sweeney was largely supportive of the freemium model,  and expects that all games will at some point in the future be distributed globally and digitally.

If Epic can make more money on Infinity Blade than Gears of War, is this a signal that other big-name developers should switch gears to mobile? If so, does iPhone and iPad stand any chance  of becoming a more popular gaming platform than PCs or consoles, regardless of technical limitations?

Source: Gamasutra

Battleloot Adventure was recently made available free for a limited time on iPhone and iPad - what better reason to try out a promising fantasy turn-based combat with a fresh twist? You're in charge of a party of adventurers clamoring to win a year without taxes in a tournament spanning the entire kingdom of Kameloot. As you might expect, the lust for fame and fortune feature prominently in your heroes throughout the story's progression.

As you play, you earn experience points and level up, unlocking new abilities. Gold is spent on new gear, such as weapons and armor, which contribute the four attributes of each character, as well as their primary scores (health, energy, and damage). Every piece you equip is faithfully represented on your characters in game, making that ridiculously oversized helm just as much of a fashion statement as an implement of protection. As you might expect, you can buy gold through in-app purchases to accelerate your progress, but seeing as it's a single-player game, I don't see that advantage being particularly unfair to anyone. Besides, you still have to level up in order to access the real good stuff. The talent system is simple enough, and offers a decent amount of customization.

Combat is a simple series of taps - tap your dude, tap the bad dude, and he attacks. You only get one attack per turn, so be sure to chose who's doing the swinging wisely. Once your turn's up, the opponent gets a shot. There's a slight real-time element involved, whereby you can tap your own team members to initiate blocking during combat, or get other team members to assist a primary attacker on your turn. If those assists stack up to enough attacks, a star will spawn afterwards that you have to tap to collect before a short timer runs out. Every character only has a limited amount of energy which regenerates over time; blocking eats up that energy, which can leave you too winded for a follow-up attack. If your party gets wiped out, you can either start the mission over again or pay to have your party revived.

The real tactical element comes into play with the Edge advantages. It's basically a game of rock, paper, scissors where some classes get an additional attack against others. Soldiers have the edge against sages, sages against mages, mages against rogues, and rogues against warriors. This cycle is what really forms your attack strategy and helps you figure out how to budget energy, how to compose your group, and which enemies to attack.

You eventually get access to up to 8 characters (two variants of each class), though you have to pay in gold for access to them. You only get three to use in your party and any given time, and have to assign them to a tactically advantageous position - front, flank, or rear. Every character has unique special skills that are automatically used throughout combat, such as the bandit's grenades which reduce accuracy, as well as active ones that require using the stars you accumulate in combat. Each character also has their own inventory that includes potions of various kinds, but don't worry - you don't have to resupply after you use them. Inventory items only require a single purchase, and are restocked between battles.

The graphics are sharp, animated, and really unique. The gigantic heads have a distinct anime feel to them without going overboard. The cutscenes between acts in the storyline include great cardboard cutouts, which is consistent with the gameplay animation style. The music is as whimsical and charming as the art style. There were a few minimal glitches I experienced through gameplay, such as an occasional extra attack animations from enemies, and no pop-up in the help menu. It would be nice if hit points in combat were represented on a bar rather than (or in addition to) numerically, like the energy bar, but on the whole, I was really happy with the graphics in Battleloot Adventure. There isn't Retina iPad support, which was cut in order to save on file size. Personally, I'm okay with the trade-off, but not everyone will be. Unfortunately the compromise doesn't go quite all the way, since there are still separate versions for iPhone and iPad, meaning there isn't any syncing your progress between iOS devices.

The dialogue peppered throughout battles is full of humor and well-written. Encounters usually involve several waves of enemies and are spread throughout a number of regions that you progress through in a more or less linear way. You can always revisit encounters to earn higher scores (marked in a three-skull rating system) and get more gold. There are also feats to achieve in each encounter if you can win within certain conditions. Eventually you have to pick a city to represent, and as you gain fame with those cities through specific quests, you unlock unique items for the classes they represent. Of course, you can always change your allegiance whenever you want. Finally, there are a few gladiatorial quests that offer the chance at big prizes, but you've got to pay a registration fee up front.

The good

• Fun, unique art style
• Classic RPG combat

The bad

• Not universal
• Not optimized for Retina iPad

The bottom line

While the classic RPG mechanics are a familiar sight, there are a few real-time twists on the turn-based combat that keeps players on their toes.  The cardboard cutout art style is definitive and unique - the big bobble-heads, as goofy as they are, really grow on you. Between weapons, armor, equipment, talent, and hero selection, the amount of customization is absolutely great. All in all, Battleloot Adventures provides a fine mix of old mechanics and new twists; lighthearted art style and deep gameplay. It's free for the time being, so what have you got to lose? Try it out!

Free - Download for iPhone

Free - Download for iPad

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Heroes Call recently made a big splash onto the App Store, touting itself as a viable mobile alternative for Diablo fans. Gameloft's tried-and-true Dungeon Hunters series has typically claimed that title, but is there another that can hack and slash its way into our hearts while navigating the perilous trappings of the freemium model? The control scheme of Heroes Call is natural and rich with lots of tactical depth. Attacks are automatically launched after you select an enemy, but if you tap the enemy a few times in a row, you can shoot off a combo. Double-tapping casts a poisonous damage-over-time spell, while a swipe gesture through your avatar casts a nearby area attack. You move around simply by tapping where you want to go, and you can hold down on the screen to continually move.

The usual role-playing game mechanics are here, including leveling up, unlockable abilities, and a wide range of equipment to find and purchase. Mind you, there aren't any of the traditional ability scores, like strength, dexterity, or intelligence, opting instead to mark progression with equipment. The nods to Blizzard's Diablo franchise are numerous, complete with Identify Scrolls used on ancient weapons you stumble upon, and destructible barrels inexplicably full of gold coins. Dungeons are branching, and paths that diverge from the main objective are always full of rewards.

The graphics are really sharp, and host a bunch of great lighting effects from torches and magical powers. The level environments have lots of rich textures and models. The visuals in Heroes Call are optimized for the new iPad's Retina display, if you happen to be using the third-gen iOS tablet. My only complaints are fairly minor; the running animation has a serious slow-mo moonwalk feel to it, and new equipment isn't represented on your character. The audio quality isn't quite as good. The in-game music is repetitive, and the lack of much ambient noise makes you feel like you're running around in outer space until the fireballs start flying. There is some crackling from nearby torches, but some sound effects for footsteps would go a long way. That audio that is there for monsters and attacks is fairly high quality, at least.

The biggest strike against Heroes Call is its transaction model. The game is free, so some freemium stuff is to be expected. You get a warrior class for free, but the spellcaster requires that you spend at least $2.99 on their in-app currency, gems. The developer would really do much better to just charge that $2.99 up-front and offer both classes right off the bat.  At least you can earn gems through regular gameplay, but you'll have to be diligent - they don't drop often. Identification scrolls and in-game gold can also be obtained through in-app purchases.

There's one other other major problem with Heroes Call: there are timers imposed on a few of the game's mechanics, which is primarily a means to egg users to burn through gems to override the wait. Having timers on secondary game elements such as identifying magical items at the local appraiser isn't so bad, but the fact that they put this restriction onto the core gameplay for each level is absolutely ridiculous. Even after shelling out gems (which were likely bought through IAP) for a caster class, you have to wait up or pay up just to play the next level.

The story in Heroes Call is actually fairly gripping; instead of the usual spic-and-span, chisel-jawed goody-two-shoes, you take on the role of someone cast out from a typical heroic order, leaving you have to pick up the shattered pieces of your old life. Though the writing between levels is pretty good, it would be great if the game engine were leveraged to make proper cutscenes. Cloud saving is enabled through a Facebook log-in, plus the app is universal, so there's no worries about splintering your game progress or losing any gems you've acquired. Heroes Call further burrows into your social graph by offering in-game incentives to invite friends on Facebook.  There's no Game Center support or multiplayer, unfortunately.

The good

• Excellent graphics
• Fluid controls, well-suited for hectic action
• Free!

The bad

• Pushy in-app purchases
• Timers feel forced
• No multiplayer

The bottom line

Despite excellent gameplay and sharp graphics, Heroes Call really pushes its luck on a few fronts. Players will immediately be turned off by the timers imposed on access to the core game. The required $2.99 in-app purchase to access the second class is a bit pushy, even if it has its own storyline and levels. Compared to Dungeon Hunters, I find Heroes Call feels more like a gritty dungeon crawl than an arcade hack-and-slash, which seems to me more true to the spirit of the Diablo games. If you're looking for swords and sorcery on the iPhone or iPad, Heroes Call can give you a great experience without having to spend a dime.

Free - Download Now

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Seemingly repeating the steps of last year, Epic games has just announced Infinity Blade 2 for iOS just in time for the holiday season. While on stage demoing Mike Capps from Epic made to sure to let everyone know what they'll be bringing with Infinity Blade 2:

Needless to say, we're pretty sure a lot of people will be downloading this when it is released on December 1st

Image Source: This is my next

Dungeon Hunter 2, the heavily anticipated sequel to to Gameloft's popular Dungeon Hunter, has now been released on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. While this release can be played on the iPad, it does not have native iPad support and an iPad version has yet to hit the App Store.

Dungeon Hunter 2 has an all new Co-op multiplayer mode that lets up to 4 players play through local Wifi or bluetooth. This game is also game center compatible!

25 YEARS LATER, RETURN TO GOTHICUS - IN HD

• You are one of the immortal king’s sons. Survive a war, escape from prison, and travel across your realm to save everything!
• Enter Gothicus' dark fantasy atmosphere with high-definition graphics, optimized for iPhone 4.

DUNGEON HUNTER LEVELS UP!

• Enjoy the same addictive hack 'n slash gameplay with new finely tuned controls and save system.
• An open world 5 times bigger than before with more enemies, more areas, more quests and more hours of enjoyment.
• 3 difficulty levels, all of which can be unlocked by finishing the game once.

DEEP CUSTOMIZATION SYSTEM

• Choose among 3 character classes with 2 specializations each and improve your character with dozens of different skills.
• Hundreds of unique items to collect, including melee and ranged weapons, that will impact your character’s look and skills.

This holiday gaming season is turning out to be a good one for Action/RPG fans! Check out more pics and let us know what you think by leaving a comment after the break!!

[Dungeon Hunter 2 on iTunes]

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In Gameloft's Dungeon Hunter [$4.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone and iPod touch, you play a prince whose bride dies on your wedding night. In sorrow you decide to resurrect her. And as anyone who's ever watched Buffy could tell you (or could have told the developers), this is a recipe for disaster.

Anyway, she becomes evil (duh!), kills you by way of thanks, and then proceeds to wreak havoc on the world. But here's where it becomes an RPG -- you, the prince, get a second chance to make things right.

The graphics in Dungeon Hunter are beautifully rendered. They are clean and crisp and allow you to fully immerse yourself in the fantasy environment. Load times, however, are extremely long. I have a 3G but if you have a 3GS it may not be that bothersome. Loading occurs not only when you begin the game but also each time you zone into a new area during the game.

Dungeon Hunter begins by asking you to choose between three different classes: warrior, rogue or mage. Though some people may enjoy the game enough to play it again using another type of character class, I doubt many would find the storyline compelling enough to go through the same stages again.

There are also five fairies which join you throughout the game. Each of these fairies gives you access to a different element of magic. The elements are: fire, air, water, earth and lightning. You can only choose one fairy to accompany you on your quest at a time.

Sorting through your various magic items can be a difficulty in RPG games. Dungeon Hunter has each magical item color coded so that you know how many magical properties it has. Items written in white have no magical properties while those in gold have 4.

Likewise, RPGs can be cumbersome and take a long time to learn character movements and spells. I found that the controls to the game were very intuitive and the manner of moving your character easy. The story is well developed and the quests are not overly difficult. If you are looking for a lot of difficult puzzles to figure out, you won't find them here. However, if you want a fun, beautifully rendered RPG for your iPhone or iPod touch, give Dungeon Hunter a try and let us know what you think!

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