Reliving your childhood with retro games on iOS is, I find, one of the best ways to spend a quiet Sunday afternoon — until you get frustrated with the virtual controls that keep getting you killed and you threaten to throw your iPad out of the window. But thanks to the iCade 8-Bitty, a new Bluetooth control pad for iOS, you can now play your favorite titles with real controls.
Double Fine is putting several fantastic games on sale today, from Stacking and Brutal Legend on consoles to Iron Brigade on Steam.
But the best news of all is that the company has also dropped the price of one of the best games of all time, Psychonauts, to a mere five dollars. Well, $4.99 to be exact. How can this be?
FIFA 13 kicks off this week’s must-have games roundup, delivering a much-improved version of everyone’s favorite soccer sim. In addition to new visuals and optimization for the iPhone 5, FIFA 13 finally boasts an online multiplayer mode, allowing you to play against friends and random opponents over the Internet.
We also have Rovio’s latest release, Bad Piggies; a stunning adventure RPG called Lili, a new Monsters Ate My Condo game, and more.
It’s the weekend–time to relax, chill out, play some video games. You know, the usual. We checked out the new Mac Game Store app today to see what was on special, and found a ton of great games for $15 and less. Here they are, all available from the new Mac Game Store app or website. All of these are great games (except that sixth one, but it’s great for nostalgic reasons alone), so consider it money well spent.
I remember playing MechWarrior 2 in the mid 90s. Man, what thrill — I spent days piloting horribly destructive giant robots around a 3D battlefield, firing rockets, blasting anything that moved with terawatt lasers.
Of course, that was on my old 386 PC clone, back when I still followed the dark side of the force and hadn’t jumped onto a Mac yet. But the MechWarrior / BattleTech series of games has been around on Apple machines since day one — so I’m pretty jazzed to finally see the a MechWarrior game arrive for the iPad in the form of MechWarrior: Tactical Command.
It’s about two years behind the Windows release, but who cares; in just under a week you’ll be able to tell those Zune-loving sods to take their “but Macs can’t game” nonsense and shove it down the barrel of your MP5 — because Call of Duty: Black Ops arrives next Thursday. In the meantime, Aspyr has again made the three other Call of Duty titles temporarily half-off, just to hold you over.
Gaming is going to be a new experience on the iPhone 5 with that larger 4-inch display, which means it’s going to take a little while for your favorite games to be optimized. Fortunately, there are some incredible titles already available. We’ve put together a list of the best ones, so that you can start enjoying your iPhone’s 4-inch display the day you unwrap it.
Ticket to Ride Pocket is one of those games whose very existence seems absurd. It’s an iPhone version of an iPad version of an online game that originally gained popularity — massive popularity — as a board game. But the talented people over at Days of Wonder (who publish the entire series) managed, inconceivably, to make a triumph of TTR Pocket through careful execution and attention to detail. And today is your last chance to own it for free, before it heads back up to $2 at midnight.
We’ve been eagerly awaiting Infinity Blade: Dungeons since it was teased by Chair Entertainment during Apple’s iPad keynote back in March. But six months later, the title is yet to hit the App Store. There’s a chance, however, that we could finally see its launch today during Apple’s iPhone 5 keynote. Here’s why.
When people think computer gaming, they may not think Macintosh right away. However, there are a host of games both new and old, expensive and cheap, indie and triple-A for the Macintosh platform. The following list, then, is of the best strategy games the Mac platform has to offer; all of these received an over 80 score on Metacritic, a gaming review aggregation site. Most of them are playable on modern Macs, with a few exceptions as noted.
Vectrex, the sent-from-the-future vector-based games console from 1982, is soon to come to iOS. The Vectrex Regeneration emulator, complete with the entire original game catalog, will launch soon as a Universal app, and will use optional expansion packs to enable extra features.
Well-known video game developer and publisher, Sega, is taking a cue from publishers like Chillingo and helping indie game studios find their footing in an uncertain market.
The initiative, called the Sega Alliance, will assist independent developers with creative consultation, marketing, production, localization, and distribution tasks. The first indie studio to get this special support from Sega is Owlchemy Labs, the makers of Smuggle Truck and Snuggle Truck for iOS, Mac, and PC.
Apple’s iOS devices have had a huge impact on gaming, and more and more people are choosing to get their kicks on the iPhone and iPad rather than dedicated handheld consoles from the likes of Sony and Nintendo. By the end of this year, analysts expect Game Center accounts on iOS to surpass the 200 million milestone, making it the world’s biggest gaming platform.
Leap Motion‘s worldwide call for developers “to imagine and create the future” has resulted in a virtual stampede of interested parties applying for the Leap SDK, which will allow them to make apps using Leap Motion’s revolutionary 3D motion tracking technology.
Leap Motion is a San Francisco company developing the world’s most powerful and sensitive 3D motion-control and motion-sensing technology. Leap Motion’s first product, the Leap — featured with an exclusive hands-on video demonstration on Cult of Mac last month — will be available in early 2013. The Leap is the first product to let users navigate and interact with computer applications using natural hand and finger movements. Founded in 2010 by Michael Buckwald and David Holz (pictured), the company aims to revolutionize the way we interact with our computers.
Led by the iPad, tablet sales are now expected to overtake laptop sales within four years. Given how disruptive the iPad has already been to many industries, it’s almost impossible to read reports like that without wondering which industries the iPad will topple or transform over the next five to ten years.
A new Morgan Stanley report identifies some of the likely winners and losers in an iPad and tablet dominated world. The industries expected to succeed include a couple of surprises – at first glance.
On Monday, Sony Computer Entertainment acquired cloud-based game streaming company Gaikai for around $380 million in a move that is sure to excite fans of the company’s PlayStation devices. If the Japanese company uses its purchase to create a compelling alternative to OnLive, it has the potential to gain a huge advantage over rivals like Microsoft and Nintendo.
The same service could provide an even bigger advantage to Apple. In fact, there are a number of reasons why the Cupertino company should use its ever-increasing cash pile to make Mac and iOS gaming even greater.
Ever wondered if aluminosilicate glass surface of your iPad would make a great dance floor? Now you can find out.
For those of you on the verge of being disowned/dumped/fired by parents/girlfriends/bosses who’re tired of your broomstick-toting shenanigans as you jump out from behind a door and yell “TANGO DOWN!” in a misguided attempt to recreate Call of Duty: Black Ops — just tell them you’ll put the broom down this fall.
Aspyr says they’re bringing the highly rated first-person title to the Mac App Store this fall. No word on pricing or exact date yet.
In the meantime, existing CoD Mac titles (like CoD 4: Modern Warfare) are half-off everywhere you can get ’em; not a bad deal, considering CoD 4 is one of the most expensive games at the App Store. If you do pop for it, the Aspyr team will let you take potshots at them during their Community Multiplayer Event on July 6. Show the love.
Mac gaming, long the red-headed-stepchild of the computer gaming scene, just stepped up its, well, game. Today’s World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco saw several announcements from Apple regarding gaming, including the fact that the hot new MacBook Pro will have Retina graphics capabilities.
If you’re a mobile gamer, then you already know the pangs of those on-screen controls. That’s why any serious gamer heads straight for some form of bluetooth controller to get his/her game on. Snakebyte (Sunflex), a company that makes gaming-related peripherals, has announced their plans to sell a new bluetooth gaming controller for Android and iOS. The idroid:con looks to differentiate itself from other bluetooth conrtollers by being the first to have five different functions and come with no app obligation.
I love playing games on my iPad, but I hate playing games with on-screen joysticks. Your finger drifts away from where it’s supposed to be, and you end up flailing around at a crucial moment. If only there was a way to put an actual, physical thumb pad on your iPad’s screen?
Of course, there is. It’s called the Fling, and was debuted some time ago by Ten One Design. I recently picked up the European version, which is the same thing only it’s sold by Targus, and comes in ugly packaging. I have been putting it through its paces in Grand Theft Auto III, Streetfighter 2 and others. How does it do?
I’m expecting some really cool iOS/Android stuff to pop out of indy dev First Post. The year-and-a-half-old startup is run by Jacob Robinson, the former art director at Sony Online Entertainment (who had a hand in forming legendary titles like the EverQuest series, DC Universe, Star Wars Galaxies and Unreal Tournament). It’s also completely self-funded, “which is not an easy thing to do at all,” says Robinson.
First Post’s debut game, Snacksss, may not exactly be the stellar breakthrough title one might have hoped for; the cartoony, Sonoran Desert-themed iPhone game has lots of pretty artwork but needs help in the gameplay department, which has the player listlessly flicking a hungry snake at rabbits ad nauseam.
Let’s hear that again. Apple is taking in 84 percent of all mobile gaming revenue in the US.
With all the fooferaw about how many more Android handsets are selling than iPhones, it’s easy to think that Apple may be on the way out. Not so, says a new report from NewZoo, a market research company in the gaming space.
When Apple introduced the new iPad earlier this year, it didn’t just discontinue the iPad 2; it dropped its price and sent it out to do battle with cheaper, Android-powered tablets from the likes of Amazon. But that’s not the only change the Cupertino company made to the device.
Although there’s no mention of it, if you buy a brand new iPad today, it will pack a new A5 processor under the hood that’s a little different to earlier A5 chips, and delivers much better battery life.
Saving up for that widely-rumored Apple television set? Well, according to one analyst, you have plenty of time. J.P. Morgan’s Mark Moskowitz issued a note to investors this week in which he states there is no indication Apple’s TV will make its debut during 2012, and that the current economic climate just isn’t suitable.
Moskowitz believes we’ll be waiting until 2014 instead, but suggests we could see an exciting new Apple TV set-top box before then.