Yay, fans of Sam & Max rejoice as once again, Telltale Games is bringing the dynamic duo onto iOS devices. This time, the first episode of the classic Telltale saga, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, titled “Ice Station Santa” is now available on the iTunes App Store as a universal app.

As an extra incentive to gamers, Telltale has included an explosive mini-game and witty soundboard that can only be found in the iOS version! A fun and frenetic Sam & Max ‘Whack da Ratz’ mini-game lets players compete for the top spot in the Freelance Police Hall of Fame. Sam & Max buffs can also spend their free time creating new and deranged quotes uttered by their favorite characters with the all new soundboard.

Here’s a quick description of what you can expect in Episode 1 – ‘Ice Station Santa’:

He’s the most ancient and powerful opponent they’ve ever faced, a hairy, bloated, pagan God – Santa Claus! Can the Freelance Police make sense of this Christmas conundrum in time to save the world’s children from a holiday tainted by tears, turmoil, and Torture-Me-Elmer?

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space – Episode 1 for iPad and iPhone is now available for $6.99 as a universal app!  You won’t have to wait too long to get the rest of your Beyond Time and Space fix, episodes 2-5 are coming soon.  So grab your iPad or iPhone and jump into the DeSoto with Sam & Max as they face every murderous robot, insidious goldfish, foul mouthed rat and gothic, German vampire that is thrown their way.

Check out the app over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sam-max-beyond-time-space/id474013188?mt=8

Indie darling and perennial favourite on Steam, The Binding Of Isaac is about to get its retail debut, and it promises to be a doozy. Ever wondered what it’s like to be hunted through basements, caves and dungeons, whilst being hounded by mutants, searching for holy relics and cutting deals with the devil on a mission to escape your mother, who just happens to be hell bent on sacrificing you with a large shank to the big man upstairs in order prove her faith..?

No, neither have we… But this March 16th, Merge Games will make this your reality, with a special edition retail release of The Binding of Isaac. “The Unholy Edition” includes a DRM free Version, free Steam gifting key, the award winning soundtrack, spectacularly weird poster and 40 page “Devzine”.

Dieter Schoeller, MD of Headup Games, states: “Through our partnership with Merge Games to cover many more territories we are making at least sure that we are not the only ones going to hell for publishing the meanest, darkest and most unholy edition of The Binding of Isaac.”.

“We are delighted to be working with Headup Games to bring The Binding of Isaac to retail are the thrilled to be adding this Indie hit to our portfolio. We think you will be blown away by the “Unholy Edition’s extra goodies.” – Luke Keighran MD Merge Games Ltd

 Spacetime Studios takes its mobile and desktop Legends franchise into a frightening new world with Dark Legends. Players will embrace the secret societies of vampires to challenge the hordes of undead, werewolves, demons and humans that hunt them. The title will be released for Android, iOS and Chrome in the first quarter of 2012.

Fans of the popular Legends franchise, Pocket Legends and Star Legends, will discover a gameplay evolution in Dark Legends that draws them even deeper into the experience. The combat system delivers fast paced, action oriented gameplay that includes new mechanics such as charge attacks and the ability to drain enemies. A wide breadth of solo and multiplayer content will also be available.

The most significant change is a much deeper focus on narrative. In addition to story communicated during the 3D multiplayer missions, players will periodically be given the option to complete quick action missions with a single tap. These missions use brief cut scenes to create an interactive storybook, where players experience the life of a vampire up-close and personal.

The company’s goal for Dark Legends is to combine casual, strategic advancement content with their award winning real-time 3D multiplayer system to create a blend of gameplay never before seen.

“With each entry to the Legends franchise we raise the bar for the pick-up-and-play MMO space,” said Gary Gattis, CEO, Spacetime Studios. “The changes between Pocket Legends and Star Legends were significant, but Dark Legends is a quantum leap forward in interactive storytelling.  Live the dark fantasy and play anywhere, anytime, anyone!”

Dark Legends opens with the player recently raised and under the direction of the vampire that sired them. The secret existence of vampires has been exposed and angry, misguided humans are uniting to exterminate the undead plague by any means necessary. Players must work with their clan to survive this brutal new world.

The previous Legends titles, fantasy Pocket Legends and sci-fi Star Legends: The Blackstar Chronicles have been downloaded more than seven million times, making it the world’s largest mobile MMO franchise. Dark Legends with be shown for the first time publicly at GDC 2012.

My casual game of choice during lunch breaks is not Hanging With Friends, neither is it Angry Birds….it’s actually a game that takes two very distinct subject matter, mathematics and gameplay from Fruit Ninja and mashes them both to come up with a thinking person’s version, of well, Fruit Ninja.

Titled Factor Samurai, this iOS title by Third Rail Games will have players slicing numbers, any number is fair game as long as they are not prime numbers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “prime number” (where were you in school during Math?), it’s a term used to define a number that can only be divided by 1, or by itself.

The game’s difficulty mode is divided into 3 with the toughest being “Master”, which when selected will cause you to think that the game is spitting out numbers at you out of spite and your score keeps reducing over time if you are not slicing non-prime numbers fast enough. Personally, I would prefer to select the “Apprentice” difficulty mode to have an enjoyable, math-based gaming experience.

For parents, this can be a great teaching tool for kids, and a fun one at that to learn about prime numbers (and division, to a certain extent), and it’s actually available for free on the iTunes App Store! Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates Factor Samurai a 5 out of 5, for being both an awesome educational tool and a great game. Check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/factor-samurai/id441919897?mt=8

Nine Over Ten 9/10 favourite, Breakout: Boost (read the review here), has now a paid version of the game released today on the iTunes App Store, titled Breakout: Boost+. This new version of the game comes with 100 new levels and the same gameplay that I really liked from Breakout: Boost.

Honestly, if you love Breakout: Boost. you definitely should check out Breakout:Boost+. The game is available from the iTunes App Store (USD 0.99) for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, check it out over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id494136657

If I’m on a tour of Dublin, one of the items on my itinerary would be a visit to the Guinness Storehouse. Having been a fan of Guinness Stout for years (even as a kid, yeah, I kinda started early), it would be pretty awesome to take a tour of that place. Having said that, air flight tickets to Dublin aren’t exactly cheap. Anyways, there’s a new official Guinness Storehouse app that serves as a virtual companion for visitors to that “hallowed” ground.

Once downloaded onto their phone, users can map their journey to the Storehouse using Google maps, purchase tickets online and check opening times. The Guinness Storehouse® App offers fully digitised multi-lingual tours of the seven storey building in English, German, Spanish, Italian and French.

These tours feature unique and interactive Hotspots, which upon selection, showcase specific points of interest on each floor through the use of photos, video and descriptions. These hotspots include the ingredients exhibition, Guinness® advertising and the popular Cooperage which showcases the ancient craft of barrel making.

Another unique function on the App is the photo gallery page which allows fans to upload images from their visit with ease and view a gallery of 25,000 visitor photos since 2008. Amateur photographers will be able to enter the monthly Guinness Storehouse® Photo Competition on Facebook or Twitter via the App, allowing interaction and engagement amongst fans and friends.

For foodies, Guinness Storehouse® App users will be able to watch the Storehouse head chef Justin O’Connor give video cooking demonstrations or try out some Guinness® recipes such as Guinness® Brown Bread and Guinness® and Beef Stew from FIVE, the newly launched Guinness® and Food Experience, which will be available for download.

The exciting mobile App was developed by Guinness Storehouse® in partnership with O2 and is available to download for all Smartphones. iPhone users need to simply search “Guinness Storehouse” on the iTunes App Store and Android users can search the same terms “Guinness Storehouse” in the Android Market.

Since it was the first day of Chinese New Year (yesterday), I was pretty much stuck in the kitchen, cooking up a storm. But this year, I decided to have some fun with the Nintendo 3DS’ camera. For those of you who are not in the know, it actually shoots 3D pictures in the form of MPO files. You can actually view these files using certain viewing software, or through a browser that supports this kind of files.

So if you are viewing this on a 3DS, try tapping on the image of the pork roast below (yup, I roasted that, and made the apple sauce as well), to view the 3D version of the image

The folks at Telltale Games have been very busy this New Year. First up, they are having their Epic iOS Sale from the 19th of January to the 29th of January. This ten-day sales sees a truly great selection of games going for just USD 0.99. This includes Sam & Max: The Penal Zone Episode 1, the Puzzle Agent Series and the Hector: Badge of Carnage games.

Also, Telltale Games is thrilled to announce that the fourth episode of Law & Order: Legacies, Nobody’s Child is now available on iOS.  Based on NBCUniversal’s Emmy-winning Law & Order TV series, Law & Order: Legacies allows players to work cases as both investigators and district attorneys alongside the full roster of fan-favorite characters from the Law & Order franchise.

iOS gamers can now access the next case of Law & Order: Legacies, ‘Nobody’s Child ‘ via in-app purchase, and available to those who have previously bought the series Multi-Pack for $12.99. The remaining 3 episodes in the season long saga will be released soon after and delivered right to your touch screen device. Check out the game over here.

Last but not least, the adventure continues in Episode 3 of Telltale’s cinematic journey, Jurassic Park: The Game – Episode 3, “The Depths”! Available for immediate download, check out the next chapter in the saga of Gerry Harding’s crew and their perilous adventures as they flee Isla Nublar.

Episode 3: “The Depths” – The group looks for escape through the dark maintenance tunnels that connect the park, while being hunted by relentless pursuers and carnivorous dinosaurs along the way. Uneasy partnerships teeter as the simmering tensions explode and the survivors begin to turn on each other. Check out the game right over here.

One of our favourite indie games on the iPhone, Spin Gem (screenshot below, read the review here), is now available for free on the iTunes App Store as developer Waggle is celebrating the upcoming release of a new freemium title in a high fantasy universe setting. Titled Loot Lust, the game is set in Vale, where Castle Galathorn was abandoned 600 years ago after bloody infighting between 5 potential heirs.

The five heirs struck an accord, which has been honoured over the centuries and became the status quo, until The Dark Council seized upon a rare planetary alignment to combine enormous tidal gravitational forces with their own fell magicks to break a demonic force to the surface of Vale.

There are a choice of 48 unique player characters with unique skills.  There are 5 realms and 42 areas to explore and 5 dungeons brimming with great loot.  Team up and go raiding with a group?  Help the guild masters to complete quests?  Free roam adventure anywhere you’re strong enough to explore or even recruit others and form your own clan!  Loot  Lust is a brand new IP developed specially for iPhone and iPad.

Explore the 5 realms of Vale, make and break deals with the overlords.  Find artefacts, treasure, and weapons.  Survive battles with wolves and gangs of brigands in Hilmerton, to Sand Burrowers and Witchdoctors of Bleached Bone Beach.  Play from a varied set of character styles including Soul Gardener, Headhunter, Dreadcloak or Cutpurse.

Fulfil your path to power and your lust for loot… and bring your friends! In the mean time, download Spin Gem for free: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/spin-gem/id467428948?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

I downloaded the demo for Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS on a lark, knowing full well that me and horror (be it movies or games), don’t actually go well together…in fact, I can’t go through a horror movie without an extended amount of cringing. It turned out to be one of the best looking games I’ve ever seen on a Nintendo portable platform.

If you have not checked out the demo yet, head over to the eShop and start downloading now. I’ve still haven’t gotten used to the game yet, having made it only to the part where the character I was playing found the hidden object scanner. The enemy creatures look absolutely scary and you’ll need to be prepared to expend plenty of bullets to take each of them down.

There’s only one difficult mode for the demo and there’s no ability to save as well, but yes, the game seems to be a good sampler for the real thing that is scheduled to be released early next month. Will I be getting the game? Maybe not (the reason is in the first paragraph), but if you enjoy the series or the genre of games, feel free to check it out!