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SPICE INVADERS – Developer: On5 – Publisher: Chillingo – Format: iOS – Price: Free

Tower defence games are one of the most popular genres on the iOS platforms. The reason behind their overwhelming dominance of the App Store charts is due to their accessibility and addictive gameplay. So how does a new tower defence game on the scene attract new players? The innovative chaps at Chillingo and On5 believe that space pirates and their unhealthy obsession with spice is the way to capture your attention, and it works. The wacky concept, design, world map, music, all of it is of an impeccably high standard, which grabs you initially, but is Spice Invaders’ attraction superficial? Or does this free game have the makings to be a great pastime? Read on.

This one got our heads spinning with sheer delight! We were planning on using an egg pun or two here, but the official announcement has pretty much cracked them all (wheyy!)..

Dizzy® Returns In An Egg-Shell-Hen-T Arcade Eggventure For iOS & Android — Friday, 9th December

We’re not yolking — Dizzy is back!

After two decades, Dizzy, the iconic 8-bit cartoon eggventurer has been resurreggted in this HD iOS/Android* eggdaptation of Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk. Dizzy returns complete with his iconic red boxing gloves and trademark somersaults as he ventures forth in an eggventure packed with collect-and-solve puzzles in a magical cartoon world.

The Cursed Crusade launches you back to the time of the Fourth Crusade during the early 13^th Century.

It all revolves around co-operative combat, putting an Army of Two style focus on you and your partner battling your way through various stages together while using all manner of weapons, from swords and maces, to axes and spears. The combat is bloody, gory and the finishing moves can be extremely gruesome. Beheadings and impalings, anyone!?

Serious Sam 3: BFE  -  Beta Preview

When playing a Serious Sam title, players have come to expect more carnage than you can shake a sledgehammer at; the newest installment in the franchise, Serious Sam 3: BFE, is no different. During beta testing I found myself loving every satisfying splatter, blood spray, and explosion.

This game makes most shooters look like a walk in the FPS park, and it’s hard to wipe a grin off your face as you mow down wave after wave of ill-tempered baddies. I was once told that to enjoy life you need to ‘embrace the chaos’; well, to enjoy SS3 you need to not only embrace the chaos, but own it.

Simply Marvel-lous.

Zen Studio’s are known as the masters of the pinball gaming scene. Yeah, it’s a niche, but it’s also a fun one that they know like the back of their hand. Their latest offering is no exception. Four initial tables are included, Spiderman, Wolverine, Iron Man and Blade. Yeah. Blade. However, two additional tables, Fantastic Four and Captain America, are available as DLC.

Each table gives the player the chance to battle against the most notorious villains from each of the comics. These boss battles are unlocked in differing ways on each table, from hitting certain bumpers, shooting ramps in a certain order to many other more complex requirements.

The guys at Hi-Rez studios have just unveiled a new gameplay teaser trailer & a bunch of screenshots for upcoming MMOFPS, Tribes: Ascend.

We reckon it’s looking pretty awesome! What do you think?

Details are pretty scarce at the moment, but we do know that Tribes: Ascend is being developed using the Unreal 3 engine, is being positioned as the multi-player successor to the much lauded Tribes 2, and will act as a re-introduction of the franchise to the gaming world.

Hand to hand combat has never felt so hands off.

The Witcher: Versus is a new kind of experience for me – a game focused on combat that relies mostly on human psychology and chance.

Combat takes place in a turn-based system with each player queuing up their defensive and attacking tactics and clicking play. Once combat starts your input stops – kind of like rock, paper, scissors, but with sorceress’ and a cash shop.

The game starts well with a great introduction to the systems and the combat through the use of a few simple tutorials and a handy help section. Even without these little introductory pieces, the gameplay is so simple it wouldn’t take long for you to pick it up and start playing.

Whether you’re listening out for the blood curdling shrieks of your enemies as you bludgeon them with a herring, or taking in the sights and sounds of the bustling virtual metropolis that surrounds you, audio is king.

Great sound production can create immersion the likes of which no amount of graphical polish could ever produce, and only a decent sound system can offer you the best experience.

SteelSeries have come to the rescue with their 5XB Spectrum, a headset offering on the fly balance adjustment between voice and game, a retractable mic, and a wonderfully lightweight design targeted solely at Xbox 360 gamers.

First impressions are positive; the headset is crafted beautifully in black gloss plastic with lime green trim, screaming X360 fanboi from the off. The fit and feel is that of a well designed product, but the weight of the headset will leave you in two minds. The light-weight construction makes for comfortable gaming sessions into the very early hours of the morning, but the gloss plastic combined with this incredibly light structure leaves a niggling doubt about the build quality.

It’s hard to start any review of Mythos without at least briefly touching on its development story.

Created back in 2006 by Flagship Studios, Mythos was actually little more than a network testing tool for their other project at the time, HellGate: London.

When they saw Mythos had the potential to become a game in its own right, a team was created to make it happen.

However, shortly after the game reached an open-beta stage, Flagship had to close its doors, meaning ownership of the IP was handed over to Hanbitsoft.

Now, after partnering with top online publishers Frogster, the game is finally finished. Having recently come out of beta, its time to give the game a review and find out if Mythos was worth the long-ass wait.

Mythos is free-to-play MMO set in the world of Uld, where a bunch of once peaceful races are now at war. An alliance based on cooperation was held between the Humans, Gremlins, Satyr & Cyclops, but as always, all it takes is one greedy person to destroy it for everyone. A Human mercenary decided to steal an ancient Cyclops artefact, causing the entire world to lose the plot; normally peaceful animals became feral, attacking anything and everything that moves. This is where you enter the world.
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It takes a special game to pull off an immersive, sandbox space sim. X3 is arguably the daddy of the genre – a game full of exciting combat, intricate politics and a realistic economy.

At first glance fans of X3 could believe that Starpoint Gemini will satiate their need for more hardcore space action. Sadly, they would be mistaken. Starpoint Gemini may tease greatness on the back of the box and in the trailer, but in actuality the game is a dilute Freelancer, filled to the brim with horrific voice acting, dodgy controls and poor-looking character models. Starpoint may look pretty, but under the hood it’s not got a lot going for it apart from the story.

Like most space sims, you can go through an optional tutorial at the beginning, which consists of a rigid, pasty figure in the top right corner walking you through the menus in a terrible Russian accent. It’s all easy enough and the menus aren’t as complex as many other sims, but if you dare do something you’re not supposed to, like move a bit, you actually fail the tutorial.

That’s right – the hokey Russian kicks you out of freelancer school just for doing a little control experimentation. Either let us use the controls or don’t! Don’t penalize us for trying to figure out how the game works.
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