On rare occasions I will tell you to go and grab a game immediately and then come back and read this review…….this is one of those occasions and to be honest what do you have to lose when all you’ll be spending is 99 cents on a universal app that will work on both your iPhone and iPad should you be lucky enough to have both.
You may be thinking, especially if you already have Asphalt 6, why should I even spend more money on the next version of Gamelofts arcade racer and the simple answer is this, it’s Bigger, Better, Faster and there’s more of it, so much in fact this review may only scratch the surface of all the features that are packed into this racing game.
If you have played any of Gamelofts games before then you will know what to expect when it comes to sound and graphics, and in Asphalt7 Heat they continue to lead the way a rainbow of electric lights that illuminate 15 different tracks from all around the world and with a pumping soundtrack the game is a dream to both see and hear.
There are four control options to choose from so you are bound to find one that suits your driving preferences, from using the accelerometer, on screen steering wheel or the screen itself the controls work very well, and you can also choose from auto or manual acceleration depending on your preference.
The quality of the controls are highlighted due to the fact that you can jump straight into Quick Play mode and start winning races immediately. Quick Race is just the beginning though, as the Career, Online and Multiplayer modes are where the real value comes in.
The Career Mode is spread over 13 cups each with 4 different races and these include normal races, elimination, knockdown, paint job and king of the hill which all offer slightly different variations on driving as fast as you can around the streets of the world.
As you work your way through the career mode you’ll have the ability to unlock and upgrade a great range of licensed cars, from a Mini Cooper S to the Shelby GT 500, from a BMW Z4 to the Lamborghini Countach and everything in between. There are 60 cars in total so there should be something for everyone.
The cars handle as well as you would expect for an arcade racer, the game relies heavily on drifting but this is relatively easy to control, early on at least, only when you start to unlock the bigger, faster cars does it get a little trickier, by the time you unlock them though you’ll be well practised, right?
Of course you don’t have to work through the game and earn your racing stripes to unlock all the flash cars, instead you can purchase your in game dollars by spending your hard earned dollars via in-app purchase but it’s well balanced, meaning that if you are willing to put the time in you can achieve your rewards without the need of spending above and beyond the original $1 outlay.
The online options are really where the game comes to life and it does this in two ways. First up is the online multi-player where you can race against your friends, and enemies, in any combination of race types and locations. The online mode works well, the games come thick and fast and there is relatively little slow down, it adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay that will keep you playing Asphalt 7 for a long time to come, or at least until Asphalt 8 comes out!
If you don’t want to want to race against people online in real time you can choose the weekly event that makes up the Asphalt Academy and see how far up the world rankings you can get.
With the game being a universal app it’s good to see that your progress can be transferred between devices. Asphalt Tracker allows you to transfer your progress between devices using either Facebook, or Gameloft’s own servers and while this isn’t quite as seamless as iCloud syncing would be it works and prevents you having to play the game twice across all of your devices.
Asphalt Tracker also enables you to send offline challenges to your friends via Gameloft which just adds more depth to an already deep game and that’s before mentioning the goals are Gameloft’s equivalent of GameCenter Achievements.
After all this eulogizing you’d think that perhaps I didn’t have anything bad to say about the game, that’s not the case. Asphalt 7’s all about social gaming and this takes the form of Facebook integration, the problem with this is though that between races and for every earned goal you are prompted to confirm whether or not you want to publicize the achievement and if you don’t want to bombard your Facebook newsfeed with your progress it can get a little frustrating.
If you’ve got this far and have not been simultaneously downloading Asphalt 7 on your iOS device you have permission to do so now!
[rating: 5/5]What we like
What to know
It seems to be tradition now that every holiday brings a binge of iOS price cutting and Presidents Day is no different and many of the major publishers have started already.
Here are some of the highlights:-
All the racing games by Electronic Arts have been a huge hit and worthy of having them on your iOS device if you love the racing genre. One the must have games would have to be Gangstar Rio: City of Saints as it offers real value for money being universal and offers one of the best crime based gaming experience.
Heard of any others? Post them in the comments below or tweet me at @4forkssake.
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The holiday season sends iOS Developers scrambling each year in order to finish up their apps for submission before Apple stops accepting new submissions for the year. However, over the last three years, its become obvious that during this time, app developers experience much higher sales. This could be due to one of two things, either people are downloading more of the old apps because there is less to choose from during this time or because of Apple’s App Gifting service, accessible directly through the App Store.
During this time, popular game devlopers such as Gameloft and EA push out as many apps as they can to flood the market, in order to increase the number of downloads. EA and Gameloft apps often show up under the featured list, claiming #1 and #2 spots, and even App of the Week on many occasions.
Camera+[App Store] developer’s TapTapTap revealed their download numbers with MacRumors early Thursday, describing a significant increase in sales. Camera+ moved up and down the list between 4-8 and settled at position #8 in the Top 200 list during the holiday freeze. Camera+ typically experiences about 18,000 downloads on any given day, but jumped to over 73,808 sales on Christmas day.
Camera+ sells for $0.99 in the App Store, which means that after Apple’s 30% cut, TapTapTap received $51,665 in revenue only for the day of Christmas. That’s a significant increase, but not surprising considering the number of iPod Touches, iPhones, and iTunes gift cards being activated and given as presents on Christmas. The App Store is the basis for numerous success stories, about small developers making a hit with their apps and becoming millionaires overnight, some making anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 dollars in one day.
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[rating: 4.5/5]
9mm Review: Gameloft have released a high end action shooter onto the App Store in the form of 9mm, a universal app for both the iPhone and iPad. At $6.99 it’s not the cheapest game but is it worth it?
The game starts as it means to go on as you are thrown straight into the action, along with a tutorial to help you get accustomed to controls. Not that it takes to get too long to get used to them.
A floating D-pad controls your movement and you can drag your finger over your device’s screen to look around your environment and aim your weapon. You can choose to use the inbuilt gyroscope to control your sight and aim if you are using one of the devices with that available to you but I preferred the more subtle control of using my fingers.
As mentioned before though it doesn’t take long to pick all of this up and you’ll soon be shooting your first, of many, victims. During the tutorial you are also introduced to the slow motion mode where your can launch your character, Kannon, backwards, forwards or sideways in slow motion, shooting and dodging bullets as you do. This is a vital skill to learn and you a duly rewarded with certain achievements when you successfully kill multiple opponents in this mode.
Wi these skills learned you take you character, Kannon, on to the wrong side of town where violence, and gun shots are around every corner. It’s a drug war out there and you find yourself in the thick of it. The story is told via the usual cut screen movies but they are nicely balanced and while they keep the story moving along they don’t make you feel like you are watching a movie.
Talking of movies the game does have a great cinematic look to it and you could be fooled into thinking that you are playing the game on one of the latest consoles. The voice acting is well done too, all be a little cheesy at times, and along with a thumping soundtrack from some established artist of the hip-hop and rap seen the overall experience is one that keeps you coming back for more.
The action never let’s up either, whether you are defending your child from an apparent pedophile, clearing out a strip club or rescuing your family from a firefight in a restaurant the gun fire just keeps raining down on you. Luckily for Detective Kannon you have a large armory at your disposal and you can also pick up the weapons and ammo from your fallen enemies.
While shooting is the mainstay of the game you’ll also find yourself have to tap and swipe across the screen in any given pattern to complete certain takes. This can be simple taps to open doors, more complex combinations to interrogate suspects and swipes up and down the screen fight dogs, dodge bullets and leap fences. It’s a dirty world in the world of 9mm and you’ll be fighting for your life all the way through it.
On successful completion of each of the 12 levels you will be rewarded with coins which you can then spend in the in game store to purchase extra protection, extra weapons or more powerful ammo. You can also purchase more in game coins with your real money should you really want to rampage through the game with a full set of armour. However I was able to complete the whole game without the need for any additional purchases meaning the game doesn’t need to cost you any more than the original $6.99.
One downside to this great game is how quickly it can be completed, especially on the easy level where I was able to complete it with only a couple of hours of gameplay. On the plus side though the game includes a multi-player mode that is not only enabled for local play but also over the Internet. This addition means that you’ll be playing 9mm long after you’ve completed the single player game.
You will need to create an account with Gameloft to play online but this is simple enough and can be done in game, once that is done you can join a existing game or create one yourself. There are 4 maps to choose from a couple of games modes to including a simple free for all where it’s a case of hunt or be hunted.
Online you’ll start off with some basic weapons but you can again use the coins that you have earnt from the single player game to by the better guns. This you will certainly need to do if you are to stand a fighting chance at survival given the skills of some of the people hat you will meet online. The online game is simple to setup though and very intense to play making it something that you’ll certainly want to come back to.
Overall 9mm is a great additional to the App Store and if you can overcome the strong language that litters the game you are in for an enjoyable romp through the mean streets as you look to clean them up!
Pros
Cons
Green Farm is brought to you by Gameloft the creators of games like N.O.V.A 2 and more recently Fast Five The Movie: Official Game. Green Farm for iPhone and iPad is an online farming game with social tie-ins. Manage livestock, grow crop and decorate it by growing scenery. If you have ever played Farmville and enjoyed it then this is a game for you!
Green Farm first started out as a Facebook game. So, if you’ve already got this playing away on Facebook you can carry on with the farm on your iOS device. It is also worth noting that at the moment you can only sign in and play the game if you have a Facebook account. Something that hopefully will change in the very near future!
When you first start you get to decide on your avatar and how he or she will look. Make sure you dress them just how you like because later on in the game it will cost you coins to change them. Once that is all done you are ready to start the game.
When you first begin the game it will guide and show you how to play. To start you need to plow a few plots and pop your seeds in. You do all this from the main multi-touch button. Simply go to the market and select what you want to grow. You will need coins to buy these items so make sure you have enough in your virtual bank. Every time a plant is grown and you collect you earn coins and xp points which help you level up.
You can also buy and sell animals to earn you points. Be sure to feed them and show them some love by petting them. It all adds up and gives you points. Purchasing fruit trees will also get you lots of money in the bank, as long as you look after them. Each item for example an animal when you tap on it once will bring up options. These options will be to sell it, rename it, pet it or move it somewhere else. If you tap and hold the animal it will tell you its name, what level it is on and how many times it has been petted. The same goes for the crops you are growing, if you tap it, it will tell you how long there is left before it is ready to collect.
You can also buy buildings which will produce a product, these provide ongoing money for you and are something that you don’t have to maintain very much. It is therefore worth investing in a few of these to increase your income.
Before you purchase and plant a crop it will tell you how long it will take to grow. This is ‘real’ time so it may be that you have to come back at a later date when they are ready. Don’t forget about them though or they will wither and die. The same goes for when you are feeding your animals. They need to be fed at set intervals. You will know when they need feeding though as an icon of a picture of corn will appear above their head. Just tap it and providing you have enough money in the bank it will then feed the animal. If you don’t keep up to feeding them they will fall asleep.
You can also purchase animal buildings. Once you put your animals inside they will produce an income of coins for you regularly. Again you will know when it is ready because it will show you an icon this time saying ‘ready to collect’.
While building your farm you can also purchase vehicles. These all help you do your farming. There are plowers, seeders, harvesters, and crop dusters. Once you have purchased them from the market to use them you simply select the tools icon in the menu. There are also Robots you can buy which work the same way as vehicles, they help you do your farming jobs by trimming trees, cutting weeds and even feeding your animals. Of course they come with a catch, the robots need energy to work.
Energy is needed for the vehicle and robots to work. You can see your energy levels at the bottom of the screen. When it runs out you can of course buy more at the market.
All your friends on Facebook who are currently playing this game can be your neighbors on Green farm. Once you have a neighbor you can go visit them. When visiting you can help your neighbor by collecting their crop. If you do lend a helping hand you will receive some of their income for doing so.
I felt quite limited to the kinds of crops and buildings I could purchase. You buy these with coins that you have collected from your farm when growing your crops and selling animals. So you can either wait until you have enough or buy more coins through an in-app purchase. I think if you want to do really well and progress quickly you are going to have to buy some of these. I did it with out and although I had been playing often I still had not collected a lot of income to buy most items. I had definitely not got enough for all the things I required to get a steady income flowing. So if you don’t buy the coins, the game will progress quite slow.
Pros
Cons
Gameloft in an unusual fashion released their latest space combat simulation game for the iPhone and iPod touch called Star Battalion (View in iTunes). You take the role of an ace star pilot fighting against the militaristic Royalists who overthrow your leader. The objective of the game is to lead the Resistance movement in a high-intensity space simulation filled with action.
Star Battalion has been fully optimized for the iPhone 4 Retina Display and offers Gyroscope support, Gameloft believes that this title will be “the benchmark for space combat simulation that fans have been waiting for.” The game also supports Apple Game Center allowing you to play the game in online and local (via WiFi and bluetooth) cooperative modes.
Gameloft will be releasing a free comic book app for iPhone and iPad based on the story line of Star Battalion. The comic book story will offer you history of the main characters which takes place 20 years before the events of the game.
The graphics look great and the storyline of ‘Star Battalion’ sounds very interesting, if you enjoy the space combat simulation genre then this title is certainly worth checking out. Let us know what you think about the game in the comments section.
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Gameloft has dropped the price of Iron Man 2 and now it’s available for only $0.99. The game was recently updated for iPhone 4 with High-definition graphics that fully utilize iPhone 4’s Retina display.
Play as Iron Man for speed and agility or suit up as War Machine for maximum firepower. Both suits offer easy-to-learn controls and the ability to run, hover and fly at will. You’ll also have the chance to jump into the Mark IV, Mark VI, Stealth and underwater suits. Whether you prefer to pound your foes in melee combat with your fists or to lay down the destruction from a far with your weapons, you can upgrade your suit after each stage with improved weaponry and abilities to devastate your foes.
Iron Man 2 packs in a lot of content as you battle your enemies across 9 locations. The 3D graphics are stunning and at $0.99 it’s a steal!
Gameloft updated their twitter status saying that the sale won’t last long so push that buy button now if you enjoyed the movie or enjoy action packed games!
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Gameloft (EPA:GFT), possibly the most popular mobile game developer, has revealed it has sold over 20 million games on Apple’s App Store since its inception in July 2008. Impressive stuff!
To hit the huge number it’s taken over 100 releases, 47 of those this year alone. Unbelievably all but 5 of those have been part of the store’s top 5 best-selling games. 5 of those even made it to number one!
The first half of 2010 marks a new step for us on the App Store,” declared Michel Guillemot, President of Gameloft. “The launch of the iPad and iPhone 4 has opened new horizons for developers and allowed us once again to transform our consumers gaming experience. 20 million paid downloads is proof that our games meet the expectations of our players and we will continue to satisfy them
With releases such as Let’s Golf and Brothers in Arms 2, it’s possibly not all that surprising after all.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/gameloft-sells-20-million-games/feed/ 1Let’s Golf!
A 3D golf game with 63 holes in 4 different locations. There are 4 characters to choose from that you can customize and each one has their own individual skills.
You can play through multiplayer via wifi with your friends. There is an easy and advanced mode so it really is suitable with any whether you have golf experience or not. Great for fans of golf simulation games.
Real Tennis
Tour the world showing your tennis skills and try to be the best. You have a choice out of 8 players to choose from with 7 different stadiums and a choice of 3 different surfaces you can play on. The controls are easy and at times you use tilt on your phone to serve.
Again this also can be played multiplayer via wifi. You can also play it in career mode that lets you join a tennis tour.
Pro Baseball
Enjoy the real baseball experience in this great 3D baseball game. There are different game modes to try with a 162-game season and with play offs in the home run mode.
There is also a lot of great sound effects and audio commentary that make this another great game complimented by a range of animations.
Grab this now at the app store!
]]> https://touchreviews.net/gameloft-release-sports-packk-iphone/feed/ 1Earlier this week we reported that Palm had announced a public beta version of the Palm® webOS™ Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) as available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). This enhancement to the current SDK allows developers to target high-performance 3D graphics and native ARM code. Something that I and many other developers had pointed out to Palm was sorely missing from their development system.
Palm is demonstrating a fairly healthy batch of new games at it’s booth at GDC this week. I’ll be checking the SDK out in coming weeks and will report back on my findings.
At CES in January, Palm introduced 12 games built by four leading developers with early access to the PDK:
• “Asphalt 5” (Gameloft)
• “Brain Challenge®” (Gameloft)
• “Glyder 2” (Glu Mobile)
• “Let’s Golf!” (Gameloft)
• “MONOPOLY” (EA Mobile™)
• “Need for Speed™ Undercover” (EA Mobile)
• “SCRABBLE” (EA Mobile)
• “Sudoku” (EA Mobile)
• “Tetris®” (EA Mobile)
• “The Oregon Trail” (Gameloft)
• “The Sims™ 3” (EA Mobile)
• “X-Plane” (Laminar Research)
Since then, more than 20 exciting webOS titles have been launched by these early-access developers:
• “Apollo” (Laminar Research)
• “Assassin’s Creed™ – Altair’s Chronicles” (Gameloft)
• “Brothers In Arms®: Hour of Heroes” (Gameloft)
• “Castle of Magic” (Gameloft)
• “Deer Hunter 3D” (Glu Mobile)
• “Dungeon Hunter” (Gameloft)
• “Earthworm Jim” (Gameloft)
• “Gangstar: West Coast Hustle” (Gameloft)
• “Giant Fighting Robots” (Laminar Research)
• “Guitar Hero 5 Mobile” (Glu Mobile)
• “Hero of Sparta” (Gameloft)
• “Real Soccer 2010” (Gameloft)
• “Real Tennis” (Gameloft)
• “World Series of Poker: Hold’em Legend” (Glu Mobile)
• “X-Plane Airliner” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Carrier” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Extreme” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Glider” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Helicopter” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Racing” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Space Shuttle” (Laminar Research)
This batch of titles far outstrips anything that Microsoft have been able to pull together for it’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series. We reported on their rather lacklustre and frighteningly small list of titles in development this week. The number of titles Palm already has bears out the advantage I mentioned of going with an API in OpenGL ES which is already being used by thousands of developers world-wide.
There is little doubt that Microsoft will catch up, or that quite a few of those titles above are being made by developers who are already working with Microsoft, most likely on ports. And there is also little doubt that Apple and the iPhone will still lead the way in terms of diversity of entertainment titles. But this is heartening news from Palm. I think for some time we’ll see titles appearing on iPhones, Android and Palm before they do on Windows 7.
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UPDATE: ‘N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance’ is now live on the App Store (iTunes link) $6.99
First Person Shooter (FPS) games have always been one of the hottest genre in the gaming industry. The instant thrill of victory and being able to kill enemies by strategically planning your move is exciting for most gamers.
Gameloft’s upcoming sci-fi first person shooter NOVA will be available on December 17. Checkout the in-game footage!
NOVA iPhone Game: Trailer
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Bailout Wars iPhone
Bailout Wars [rating: 3.5/5]
Gameloft has been publishing some fabulous games for the iPhone and iPod touch and as they continue to launch new games almost every week, it clearly signifies that they consider iPhone as a very promising portable gaming device.
Castle defense (or Tower defense) games have been one of my all time favorite genre and am always up for a new game based on this traditional style. In Bailout Wars Gameloft in its amusingly clever attempt gives you an opportunity to take revenge on bankers who misused the bailout money.
Your main goal in Bailout Wars is to stop bankers from stealing money from the White House by raging a war against them. The game is graphically very appealing and the background music score as well as the animations are very comical.
In your attempt to stop the bankers approaching the White House and stealing the money you can flick or drag the bankers to the ground which cause them to explode, strip or run away. The game features 5 types of bankers (banker, VP of Acquisitions, Stock Broker, High Risk investor and CEO) which require special gestures to defeat. All bankers drop gold coins and objects which can be used to purchase defenses for the White House. However, the bailout money does not replenish at any given time.
Bailout Wars iPhone_1
As the action becomes frantic and to avoid bankers stealing the limited bailout money you can buy and upgrade three kinds of defenses (Sniper, Tank, Uncle Sam) for the White House.
We love the concept of Bailout Wars but, found it to be very imbalanced. After trying several combination’s of defense upgrades we could not cross the 14th level. It is very hard to defeat the CEO as you have to accurately throw small bankers on its face even as other bankers are racing towards the White House to steal the bailout money. The only upgrade which can save you from CEO’s is Uncle Sam and in a level with 4 CEO’s you can’t use that upgrade very often as it takes a long time to energize. The bankers do not drop enough gold when they explode and the upgrades are very expensive. Almost all Castle Defense games allow you to restore the Castle but in Bailout Wars there is no option to replenish the bailout money.
The game features interesting statistics which include longest hold, Bankers juggled and collectible items grabbed. You can also unlock many achievements as you clear higher levels. Even if a game is priced at $.99 it cannot be excused for not featuring online leaderboard and we hope Gameloft adds this feature and fixes the balance in a future update.
Bailout Wars is a witty game wounded by poor balance.
Price: $.99
The Good
The Not So Good
Bailout Wars Trailer & Some Interesting Links!
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Guitar Rock Tour 2 [rating: 5/5]
Feel the rhythm and experience the world of stardom in this fascinating Rock ‘N Roll game!
The most rockin’ music game is back on your iPhone and iPod touch. More songs, more stages, more characters, new features… MORE ROCK!
Gameloft has been one of the major leaders in the mobile gaming market and are truly rockin’ App Store with over 6 Million games sold for iPhone/iPod touch. They have around 35 games available in the App Store, of which 18 have made the Top 10 Paid Games List worldwide.
One of the many reasons for Gameloft’s success has been their ability to develop high quality games fast and offer great entertainment value.
Guitar Rock Tour 2 is an immersive rhythm-based game where your object is to perform on stages all around the world and captivate your audience. The game allows you to create your profile starting with signing a contract (scribble on the touch screen), then choosing your character and instrument. Current version of Guitar Rock Tour 2 features drums and guitar as instruments.
The graphics set a new standard for iPhone games with attention to almost every aspect of a stage and this certainly enhances the game by creating a spellbound addiction. While you take the center stage during the live performance, other band members perform with you in the background.
Controls are simple and responsive, you tap the notes as they align with the pickup, tap and hold to score long notes. Complete power note sequence and fill the Pyro Meter and then shake your device or flick the switch to activate Pyro effect and let the crowd go wild.
Guitar Rock Tour 2 has three game modes: Quick Play, Career Mode and Multiplayer. Quick Play is great to get started quickly without going through any settings and jumping right into the gameplay. In Career Mode you advance by unlocking songs and performing in new locations along-with optional assignments. Multiplayer Mode offers the ability to play two player mode over local (wifi) network.
With an explosive list of licensed tracks such as “I Love Rock ‘N Roll”, “Call Me” and “Paranoid” Guitar Rock Tour 2 is a must have for all rock music lovers.
Price: $4.99
The Good
The Not So Good
Guitar Rock Tour 2 – iPhone/iPod touch Cinematic Trailer
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Gameloft today posted trailer of their highly anticipated FPS for iPhone/iPod touch.
The controls look similar to Hero of Sparta, Brothers in Arms, Assassin’s Creed and other similar games where you move using the virtual analogue stick and perform attack, aim or change weapons by tapping the onscreen controls. 3D graphics look outstanding, which is quite common with any gameloft game
Video
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