Author Archive for ChiffaN

The Red Star is coming to the iPhone – What if USSR… whoops… I meant U.R.R.S ruled the world?

The Red Star was quite a highly acclaimed PS2 Action title (Metacritic score – 72), released back in 2007. Without much fuss XS Games have added an iPhone section to their website with The Red Star release date as TBA.

Game features include:

• Three playable legendary warriors, each with unique fighting skills and weapons
• Two player cooperative gameplay that lets you enter the fray with a friend
• Relentless action that seamlessly blends brutal melee with “old-school” shooter gameplay
• Unlockable secret characters, hidden gameplay modes and more for extensive replay value

I don’t know about you, but having read some PS2 reviews and taken a good look at the screenshots/video, I’m quite excited with its eventual App Store release. The game should be an excellent match for the platform, especially if the developers get the controls right. And it will probably be the first game ported to the iDevice from the PS2, which is also a significant milestone.

Video and some more screens after the gap.

iDongle – Boot your tethered jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch without a PC

One of the issues for the free-minded owners of later versions of the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 2G & 3G is the inability to do an “untethered jailbreak”. These devices CAN be jailbroken but have to be connected to a PC on each reboot and be jailbroken again, or else be stuck in recovery mode. There is still no word from either Geohot or the iPhone Dev Team when or even whether an untethered jailbreak will be possible for the latest Jesus devices.

Meanwhile, Mribreakit, an electronics engineer from France has decided to go the other way and make a dongle-type device to make a standalone tethered boot of a jailbroken device. And while it’s still in prototype stages at the moment, it seems like a new round of Apple vs Community battle has begun.

Product info, video and some pictures after the gap.

Dracula: The Path Of The Dragon Part 2 submitted to Apple (Updated! It is available now!)

I am very pleased to announce that part 2 of the excellent Dracula: The Path Of The Dragon adventure game has finally been submitted to Apple for review and should be biting it’s way onto the AppStore soon. This coincides quite nicely with the recently opened dedicated section for Tetraedge Games support, opened jointly with the developers to have direct access to their community. And while you’re waiting for the release, be sure to check out our review of Part 1 (Dracula: The Path Of The Dragon – Part 1 in Review – sadistically beautiful) and the game itself if you haven’t already!

UPDATED: It is already available on the AppStore for just $1.99! Go get it!

Chillingo Ltd, Dracula: The Path Of The Dragon – Part 1 – $0.99

Chillingo Ltd, Dracula: The Path Of The Dragon – Part 2 – $1.99

The official app description and some screenshots to wet your appetite after the gap…

Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes in Review – Choosing your own adventure, page by page!

Some time ago I reviewed Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain – a rendition of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure Book for the iDevice and was quite satisfied with it. Just recently Tin Man Games released a similar title in Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes, but it is completely original and developed exclusively for the iPhone. How does it match up against the series, written by Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone? It seems it is actually better! Feel free to discuss this review of Gamebook Adventures 1 in our forums.

*For the promo code giveaway, please refer to the comments area after the review for details (Closed).

Artist Colony in Review – Truly a work of art!

Ah, the artistic person! Sometimes it seems they grow on trees. But until the artist becomes prominent enough for us common folk to know their name it is a long journey to the top. And for some this journey takes them to so-called artist communes or colonies – places where groups of artistic types hang out and try to create something great. Have you ever wondered what really goes on in there apart from the obvious sex, drugs and rock and roll? Thanks to I-play’s latest, Artist Colony, you can have the entire experience, but from the safety and relative drug-free confines of your own two hands. Feel free to discuss this review of Artist Colony in our forums.

Space Miner: Space Ore Bust in Review – We Will Rock You!

The Californian Gold Rush which lasted for 7 years in the middle of the 19^th century was arguably one of the most romantic periods ever. Some people think that once we finally truly step into space the rush will come again, but this time people will go hunting for rich asteroid deposits the scientists are predicting. How long do we have until the next Gold Rush is a mystery, but Venan Entertainment will be ready for it. Space Miner: Space Ore Bust – is the future miner’s guide to all things asteroid mining -minus the bad puns of course. Feel free to discuss this review of Space Miner: Space Ore Bust in our forums.

iTête à iTête – Interview with Arto & Peter from Dicework Games – Rimelands: Hammer Of Thor was actually the game we originally wanted to do.

Despite there being over 150 000 apps on the AppStore, many of which are games, quality RPGs are few and far between. And even fewer of them don’t go the Japanimation console style RPG route. Frankly, only three come to my mind – our own shigzeo’s favourite The Quest with its many addons, the excellent old-school Undercroft (TMA Review) and, of course, the much hyped Diablo-clone Dungeon Hunter (TMA Review). And don’t even get me started on Ravensword: The Fallen King (TMA Review). But they should beware, because it seems a new contender to the RPG throne is in the works. I’m talking about the game that came to my attention recently – Rimelands: Hammer Of Thor. Intrigued, I immediately contacted the developers of this ambitious project and secured an interview to learn more details.

Dicework Games is a small company located in the city of Tampere in Finland and consists of the CEO and lead designer Arto Koistinen and the talented graphics artist Peter  Finnberg. Having been laid off during company negotiations just 1.5 years after THQ Wireless’s acquisition of Universomo, they decided it was to go solo and started their own company. Their first game was the critically acclaimed Diceworks which was a test of both their skill as well as how well they could do at the AppStore. And now they are steadily finishing up the project they originally conceived when their company formed – a classic Rogue-style RPG game titled Rimelands: Hammer Of Thor. And today I have both of them on the line to talk about it!

AGS (Adventure Games Studio) coming to the iPhone via XAGE… Eventually… Possibly…

Whatever Apple thinks, they aren’t the first to open up the market to indie developers. Probably one of the first and simplest ways to date to get into the business of creating games (be it adventure ones) is still AGS – Adventure Games Studio – where even newbie developers are able to create games similar to the 90s Sierra titles without knowing one bit of programming. Quite a number of quality titles have been released based on the engine, including some commercial ones that have been well received by the critics. And now it seems the engine might finally find it’s way to the iDevice, bringing with it vast amounts of high-quality adventure games, thanks to Daniel Alexander and his Xna Adventure Game Engine.

ChiffaN’s Comment of the Month (February 2010) – Spring is here and I’m dishing out a $10 iTunes Gift Card again!

Well, spring is here and it’s finally getting warmer. The birds are singing, the sun is shining and it’s time to wrap up the comments for the month for February. This month has been kind of slow on the comments part, maybe due to the enormous amount of activity happening on our recently opened forums.

You can find the winner of this month’s contest along with the recap of rules after the gap. And people, I encourage you to comment more and more! The amount of digging I had to do to find a suitable comment this month appalled me! Anyway, here we go!

Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer – out and free for a limited time

I’m going make this short and sweet to get it out as soon as possible. Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer is out now and FREE for only 48 hours (God knows how much time is still left). It is a MMORPG spin-off of the main series exclusively for the iPhone. Compete against up to 3 other players in an fight to become the Master Assassin.

Get it now and check out the details and screens after the gap later.

Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed II: Multiplayer – Free