If you are into games in general, then there’s absolutely no way you haven’t yet heard about Bastion, Supergiant Games’ debut title that was originally released on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade title. Bastion featured a really unique way of narrating the player’s actions throughout the whole game and offered an equally unique and beautiful art direction. No wonder the game became a huge success, was ported to nearly any and all platforms available (including iOS – you can find it on the App Store) and developed quite the fan base.

Why am I telling you all this? Because Transistor is Supergiant Games’ follow up title and many players had high hopes for this game. Did Transistor manage to meet all of these expactations? Well yes and no. Yes, because the game features yet again an incredible art direction, superb (and I really do mean superb!) soundtrack and a great narrative. However, its gameplay can’t really be compared to Bastion’s and some players didn’t quite like that. Personally, I think Transistor’s turn based combat is more nuanced than what Bastion had to offer and, most importantly now that the games is available on iOS, is more suited to touchscreen inputs. Additionally, I really like the fact that Supergiant Games tried to evelop something new and unique, rather than simply copying Bastion’s formula to success.

If you like games with a unique art style and an incredible soundtrack (just listen while you watch the trailer) – check out Transistor, it might be one of the best games available on the App Store right now.

In my mind, there is no doubt: BioShock is one of – if not the – best game of the last console generation. And it’s currently on sale on the App Store for $2.99. BioShock is the spiritual successor of System Shock 1&2, released in 1994 and 1999. System Shock was truly ahead of its time and offered a great setting and atmosphere, but was a bit held back by the technical limitations back then (at least System Shock 1 – the controls were pretty crazy). Although I really like the System Shock premise, I believe that BioShock presented the most atmospheric setting ever: Rapture. An underwater city, built by and for the brightest minds of the world, who want to break free of the shackles that are artificially imposed upon them by their government or for religious reasons. “No Gods or Kings. Only Man.”. It’s a first person shooter at heart, although it does have some sort of RPG layer on top of the shooting mechanics: Plasimds. Plasmids are genetic mutations that you will be able to find and/or buy throughout the game that will give you a wide variety of abilities: Shooting fireballs, lightning bolts or summoning insect swarms. It’s great fun experimenting what tactics work with different weapon/plasmid combos.

Unfortunately, the iOS port of BioShock has suffered quite a bit of a graphics downgrade. This does hurt the atmosphere a little bit and you will notice that this game wasn’t developed with touch controls in mind. However: It’s still an incredible game at its core and if the setting intrigues you just a little bit, I can’t recommend BioShock enough. And for $2.99 it’s an absolute steal.

Gameloft was one of the very first developers who really tried to push the envelope when it came to creating App Store games that aspired to be like full blown console games. And while one might not like the freemium trend (I think the word “trend” might not even apply anymore: Freemium is here to stay) that Gameloft tends to follow nowadays, or the fact that most Gameloft games are quite obviously inspired by some of gaming’s biggest IPs, I do believe that Gameloft played a vital role in making iOS gaming as big as it is today.

Looking at Dungeon Hunter 5, I guess you can find all the positive and negative qualities I have just described – depending on what you’re preferences are when it comes to playing games on your iPhone or iPad. Dungeon Hunter 5 is a top-down action RPG, very much in the spirit of Diablo, the genres most prominent entry developed by Acitvision Blizzard. If you watch the trailer above closely, you will most likely find quite a few similarities, especially the environments remind me a lot about Diablo 3 – but actually, when it comes to the visuals, it seems like there’s also some Torchlight 2 DNA in there.
But enough with the comparisons – the Dungeon Hunter series has so far been quite enjoyable, so if the trailer intrigued you and you like the premise of action RPGs, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t head over to the App Store and download Dungeon Hunter 5 in order to give it a try – it’s free, after all.

Ah, the good old days. Icewnind Dale makes me remember them. The days, when computer games didn’t care that their complexity requires you to study a handbook with dozens of pages. The days, when you even died during the tutorial level because you had no real grasp of the game mechanics and there wasn’t a popup window every ten seconds explaining you exactly where to click next. Quite a few gamers miss those days. Occasionally, I miss them as well. And that’s when you realize: Holy moly, there’s Icewind Dale on the App Store!

Icewind Dale is a classic role playing game, based on the Dungeons & Dragons system. It uses the same engine as Baldur’s Gate 2, considered by many to be one of the very best RPGs ever created. Both Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale are available on the App Store as “Enhanced Editions”. It is debatable, whether or not the term “Enhanced” really fits. There aren’t really that many changes compared to the original game, but on the other hand, that’s also a good thing. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, right? I’d say that the most important enhancements are technical aspects, and Beamdog, the development team behind the Enhanced Editions, handled that pretty well with this release.

Beware though: Icewind Dale was never meant to be played on the go in short bursts, this game really requires you to devote some time if you want to get the most out of it. But if you are willing to do just that, I can pretty much almost guarantee that you’ll have an incredible time with this game!

What. The. Fuck. Seriously. What the fuck. Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, just casually announced that they’ve closed Impossible Studios. This is the team responsible for Infinity Blade Dungeons, and therefore the development of the game is now on hold. Again: What the fuck. It’s not like Infinity Blade Dungeons is one of the most anticipated mobile titles and that it was expected to be available already a long time ago.

So, to me there are several things happening here that are “interesting”. First of all, let’s look at Infinity Blade Dungeons. This game was presented on-stage by Apple, undoubtedly to appeal to the hardcore gaming crowd to get them pumped for the new Apple devices. It was a product demo, promising to show us what we would get if we buy that powerful new device. In the past, this would mean that either the game was already out, or that its release was imminent. So that’s why everyone got all excited to get their hands on Infinity Blade Dungeons. Because, well, that’s just how it works when something is teased at an Apple keynote. That’s almost a year ago now. By the end of 2012, Epic said the game would be released sometime “in 2013″. And, as was established at the beginning of this article, it’s now on indefinite hold.

So that was just stating the facts. Now let’s talk about Epic Games themselves. This is where I want to state very clearly upfront that this is pure speculation on my part and that I do not have any information backing up these thoughts I’m having of the “state of Epic Games”. Alright, now that hopefully no one is going to sue me let’s talk about said state of Epic. Currently, something seems to be going wrong at that company. Senior staff who have been working at Epic for ages were leaving (Cliff Bleszinski being arguably the most prominent one). Highly anticipated (and therefore most likely very profitable) games not being released. The rumors about the now infamous Samaritan tech demo actually having been developed as a game, which then faced major problems during development and, because of it, never turned into a real game. The closing of development studios.

Is it just me, or does that sound like things are not so great at Epic Games right now? Of course, there’s still the very strong licensing arm that Epic has. However, with the next console generation around the corner, it’s not clear whether or not the Unreal Engine will also be the major player in a world of Playstation 4s and Xbox720s like it was this generation.

So what do I want to say with this? Not much, really. Just that Epic Games seems to be in a bit of a struggle at the moment. By no means must this mean it’s a struggle for survival. But it’s most definitely a struggle of some sort. Let’s hope they sort it out. I do want me some Infinity Blade Dungeons, after all.

I have played the brand new Heroes of Order & Chaos only a little bit so far, so take my first impressions with a grain of salt. However, let me get to the point right away: It’s friggin’ awesome. Heroes of Order & Chaos is Gameloft’s attempt to bring the hugely popular MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) style of games to your iPhone and iPad. And this is not a simple task, since the genre is everything but casual. So when I first found out that Gameloft is trying to port it to mobile devices, I was pretty skeptical at first. But before I talk more about Heroes of Order & Chaos, let me backtrack a little bit to give our readers who are not familiar with the MOBA games somewhat of a background.

There was one game that started the genre: DotA (Defence of the Ancients). It was a mod for Warcraft 3, Blizzard’s very successful RTS that was released ten years ago, in 2002. And this game jump started the whole genre. Basically, the mod took a real time strategy game, removed all the base building, added elements from tower defence games, added plenty of role playing elements and limited your control to just one unit, your hero. And BAM – one of the most awesome 5vs5 multiplayer games that ever existed was created (in my own, biased opinion). There are 2 sides, each one with a pre-existing base at the corner of the map. The bases are connected by 3 lanes, protected by towers that shoot the heroes if they cross the border to enemy territory. In regular intervals each base will send out computer controlled creeps, that move along the lanes, trying to get into the enemy’s base and attacking everything that’s in their way (enemy creeps, enemy towers and enemy heroes). To tip the scales of the battle, the five heroes try to support their creeps as good as possible, earning money and experience along the way that has to be invested in new gear and skills so you can ultimately destroy the enemy’s base.

I guess now you’ll understand what I meant by saying this genre is everything but casual. And that’s just the bare bones explanation to give you an idea what MOBA games are about – there’s plenty more to it, like different hero types, upgradable and combinable items, last hitting – I could go on and on. Now, I’d usually point you to some of the genre’s biggest games if you’re interested in learning more about them. But in this case, I’m pointing you towards Heroes of Order & Chaos on your favourite iOS device! Why? Because Gameloft, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, did an outstanding job with their tutorial! In fact, that’s the kind of tutorial I wish DotA 2 would offer (I can’t speak for League of Legends as I’ve never tried it).

So by now we’ve established what a MOBA game is, and that Heroes of Order & Chaos is very competent at making you at home in this genre with its tutorial. So far, so good! The next thing I’d like to talk about is the business model. Heroes of Order & Chaos is a freemium game – and freemium oftentimes is either very good, or very bad news. In this case however, I’d say it’s good news with a bitter taste. First of all, the good news: MOBA games are very dependant on an active online community. These games are really meant to be played against human opponents, so with it being freely available on the App Store, this very much raises the chances for it to get a healthy and active community. On top of it, the way Gameloft handles access to the content necessary to play and enjoy playing the game, it is not necessary to invest money in order to have fun for a substantial amount of time. Heroes of Order & Chaos currently features 30 unique heroes that all need to be purchased to be permanently available for you to chose from. However, at any give time, six of those heroes will be available for you to play with for free. The line-up will change weekly.

So here’s the bad news: If you don’t want to pay any money, you wont always be able to play with your favourite hero. Which means you’ll also have to learn how to play the other heroes – be it what items work well with them or what skills you need to level. Also, buying a hero can be pretty expensive: From what I saw, the most expensive heroes will set you back almost 17$. That’s actually very expensive if you ask me. Now, if some of the most expensive heroes turn out to also be the strongest, this could result in some real balancing issues. Or if you can buy overpowered items with real money that give you a huge advantage in-game.

But like I said, I have only played a little of it so far, so I can’t really comment on the balancing. This is of course of major interest for anyone who plans on playing this game for a long time, but since everyone can check it out for free, I’d say just give it a shot and see for yourself how things turn out. You also have to keep in mind that Gameloft can adjust the freemium system anytime to resolve balancing issues (if it’s in their interest) – or to introduce balancing issues (if it’s in the interest of making more money with the game).

The final thing I’d like to say about Heroes of Order & Chaos is about the presentation. I would have never guessed I’d see the day where I say this, but here it goes: I love the voice-overs! In general, from the tutorial, to the menus and the in-game graphics, Heroes of Order & Chaos looks and sounds great! But what really took me by surprise was that so much of the tutorial, the menu information and the characters was voiced-over. And what was even more surprising: It doesn’t suck! In fact, I found it to be very atmospheric!

So that’s it, these are my first impressions of Gameloft’s brand new MOBA Heroes of Order & Chaos. There’s still many unanswered questions since I haven’t played that much yet – I just wanted to give you a basic idea of what to expect. If this intrigued you, I wholeheartedly recommend that you go ahead and give it a shot, especially since it’s free!

Infinity Blade Dungeons, Epic Games’ prequel to their incredibly successful Infinity Blade saga, was announced earlier this year. What makes it stand out form the previous games is the fact that it’s an isometric hack and slash game. And while this year saw the release of hack and slash heavy hitters like Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2, I’m still super excited for Infinity Blade Dungeons! There’s just something about the presentation and the atmosphere that make Epic’s Infinity Blade games a truly unique experience. The official release date still says “Coming Soon”, and I’m expecting this game to definitely hit before Christmas.

Star Command. Star friggin’ Command. I can’t wait for this game to be finally released on the App Store! The premise of Star Command is as simple as it is beautiful: You’re given the freedom to build your own spaceship, hire your own crew and then go explore the universe with them. Basically, it’ll make you feel like James Tiberius Kirk himself. And that’s just brilliant. Star Command was successfully funded on Kickstarter – but that was already one year ago. At the time, the developers were shooting for a Holiday 2011 release. The good news is that the devs have announced to publish a 10 minute gameplay video this monday. I’m excited to see what Star Command’s current state of development is!

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is a port of the classic PC RGP that pretty much redefined the genre back then. Baldur’s Gate is a real RPG heavy weight and I’m happy to see games of such complexity being brought to the iPad. It has been in development for quite some time now and is coming out on November 30th. If you are even remotely interested in a deep and rich RPG experience, get ready to be blown away.

All hail Squeenix! Yes, they’ve done it again – their third installment in the Chaos Rings saga not only holds up to the high standard set by its predecessor, no, it succeeds it! So let me be clear: Do you like JRPGs? Are you into japanese voice overs? Don’t you mind losing yourself in a game for countless hours? Yes? BUY THIS GAME! Simple as that. Forget all those quirky puzzle games and physics based time-wasters that are on the App Store right now (not that I don’t like them as much as the next guy!), because now it’s time for some very old school, very hardcore, super cheesy JRPG grinding on your iOS gadget!

And since the pricing of Chaos Rings 2 has turned into a controversy right now, let me assure you: This game could have been sold as a full-price PS2 title. And I would have bought it. And then played the shit out of it.

Now that’s a full load of Chaos Rings. Just one day after the release of Chaos Rings Ω on the App Store, which is set 10.000 years before the original Chaos Rings, Square Enix has uploaded a teaser trailer for Chaos Rings II. Unfortunately, due to my rusty Japanese skills, I can’t make out a whole lot from the trailer since it’s only available in Japanese. But from what the trailer reveals, the visuals look much improved compared to both the orignal Chaos Rings and the newly available prequel. There’s no word on a release date yet, we will keep you updated as we get new information.

Square Enix has uploaded the first trailer for Chaos Rings Omega, a prequel to one of the best RPGs the App Store has to offer. The trailer features a lot of dialogues that presumably prepare us for the story – “presumably” because the trailer is only available in Japanese and my Japanese is, well, let’s say rusty.

However, Andriasang.com managed to translate the latest bits of information from the Japanese gaming site Famitsu. According to them, the story in Omega takes place 10.000 years before Chaos Rings and will be centered on a character called Viegue, his wife and his daughter Vahti.

Viegue looks a lot like a character from the original Chaos Rings called “Olgar”, so it will be interesting to see how Square ties the story of the games together.

It’s great to see more of Chaos Rings coming from Square and from what I can tell from the trailer it looks like they have focused on an epic story this time around. Chaos Rings Omega will be released in Japan next month, a global release date has yet to be announced by Square Enix. As soon as we find any information about the international release, we’ll let you know about it.