MADFINGER Games, the independent mobile games developer responsible for hits such as SHADOWGUN and DEAD TRIGGER, has released a new update for its multiplayer first person action shooter, SHADOWGUN: DeadZone. Update 2.0 offers new game features which promise to extend the current borders of mobile multiplayer game progression. The game is available on both App Store and Google Play.

MADFINGER Games has again heeded to the requests of its fans. The largest update since the release of the game in November 2012 brings new maps, weapons and game content, which was sourced directly from player feedback, including, among others, the “friends” feature. “Now players can invite their friends to Zone Control mode or monitor their game stats, “said Marek Rabas, CEO at MADFINGER Games of the new “friends” feature.

Rookies can look forward to a Special Tutorial mode. The update offers optimizations, bug fixes, as well as support for new gamepads.  In addition, SHADOWGUN: DeadZone Update 2.0 incorporates Boosters (Speed, Armor, Damage, Accuracy, Invisibility), which enable players to experience an entirely new dimension of gameplay.

Finally, Update 2.0 introduces localization for eight new languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese). “We worked hard and strived to improve the game across the board. We have always adhered to the principle that our games must first and foremost, entertain us as players. We also pay honest attention to the feedback we receive from our players. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to pack it all into the game,“ explains Marek Rabas.

Moreover, this Friday, April 5th, MADFINGER Games will launch a new website, www.shadowgun-deadzone.com, dedicated to SHADOWGUN: DeadZone.

Hmm… This game is bloody difficult and what the heck am I supposed to do now. Those thoughts came into my mind while I was playing Master of Alchemy: Vengeance Front and getting stuck at…level 3 of this oddball of a physics game. The problem was solved when I realized that I needed to scroll down to see the rest of the level.

It still didn't detract the fact that the game is tough. The nearest comparison I have to MoA:VF, would be Disney's Where's My Water series but instead of just dealing with water particles, you'll need to transmute other types of particles as well, with one type that floats up instead of flowing down. Players drag and drop platforms as well as rotate them in order to get the particles to flow to the destination that they want them to go.

The platforms are a finite resource, so placement is paramount and this alone makes MoA:VF a thinking person's casual game. Aside from the title that obviously suffers from the “Japanese-syndrome-for-throwing-random-words-in-game-titles” (I alway imagine it must be a very liberating exercise for a video game marketer), MoA: VF has plenty going for it.

50 levels with beautiful steampunk graphics and a really smooth physics engine to boot, there's plenty to like about this title. It wouldn't hurt though to make the game a little user friendly; an in-game tutorial would be nice, as well as some visual cues on what to do or use. Nineoverten.com rates Master of Alchemy: Vengeance Front at a 4 out of 5.

The game is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 1.99, check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/master-alchemy-vengeance-front/id560080981. A review code was provided to Nineoverten.com for the purpose of this review.

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If you are living in the States or Canada and in the market for photobooks and you have an iPad, you may want to consider the Printzel iPad App. Created by a New York company of the same name and recognized as a Friends of eBay company, this app is a showcase of the Printzel API & SDK which enables developers to build apps that allow users to create fully customizable, professionally printed photo books directly in­-app.

The masterstroke would be Printzel will handle the printing, shipping and billing portions of the business, allowing developers to focus on doing what they do best, creating awesome apps tapping on the Printzel API & SDK. Developers can subscribe to Printzel’s e-mail list to receive notification on the open enrollment.

For more information on the SDK, head over here: https://printzel.it/developer. To see the API & SDK in action in the Printzel iPad App, download it for FREE from the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/printzel-app-powered-printing/id620028937?mt=8

Linden Lab’s highly acclaimed and extremely popular iOS app, Creatorverse has gone the freemium route. Described by Kotaku as “One of the coolest things you can do on the iPad”, the app, which allows users to create all kinds of stuff, is now free with basic tools for users to start creating. Additional tools are available via in-app purchases. Check out the press release below for details.

Linden Lab, the makers of shared creative spaces including Second Life®, PatternsTM, and dioTM, today announced that CreatorverseTM for iOS is now available for free. Previously, Linden Lab had offered Creatorverse for iOS for $4.99, and Creatorverse Lite for free, but now Creatorverse is available for iOS as a single, free app. Creatorverse for Android and for Kindle Fire will soon follow the same model.

With the new, free app, users can access all of the thousands of creations that other users have made with Creatorverse (on any platform) and shared to the cloud – from animated animals, sports simulations, vibrant vehicles, interactive art, intricate puzzles, mini-games, crane contraptions, pinball machines, dancing robots, and more. The free app includes the basic tools to remix those creations or to make your own from scratch and share them to the entire Creatorverse universe.

For more complex creations, packs of advanced tools like teleporters and motors, are now available for purchase within the app. In addition, a new capability for Creatorverse, thrusters, are now available in the RocketPack, which will allow users to easily add rockets, jetpacks, and more to their Creatorverse designs.

Anyone who purchased Creatorverse for iOS prior to today’s change will automatically receive the Advanced Creator Pack (normally $4.99), which includes all of the advanced creation tools they enjoyed prior to today’s change.

“With thousands of creations already shared in the Creatorverse galaxy, there’s something for everyone to enjoy,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab. “But so much of the fun of Creatorverse is in remixing those creations to make them your own, or building your own design from scratch, so we’re happy to make the basic creative tools free for everyone and looking forward to seeing what they’ll make.”

Head over here to download the app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/creatorverse/id563088306?mt=8

The folks at Mexican digital agency Grupo W have a pretty interesting iOS gem of a game in the form of Metal Junk. The game is their take on a game genre that has been made popular on iOS devices and it is a genre that can count Temple Run as one of its luminaries. Yup, Metal Junk is one of those endless running game, but a good one at that.

Unlike most endless running titles where you would play as an Indiana Jones rip-off, a ninja or Barry Steakfries, Metal Junk will have you play as a self-aware robot names Ascii out to save his sorry, metal hide from being chomped on a conveyor belt from hell.

Now, you literally have to get pass a whole bunch of (metal) junk to put some decent distance between Ascii and the chomper. This is easier said than done as there's plenty of heavy stuff lying around, and some of these junk are a danger to Ascii, with some discharging electricity to temporary stun him or exploding and blocking your screen with the resulting debris.

There are some power ups that can help you negotiate the maze of junk, and collecting batteries allows Ascii to unleash an attack that destroys surrounding junk. The developers have done an amazing job welding together great looking graphics with a smooth gameplay experience. I particularly like the startup sequence where the robot gets thrown onto the conveyor belt after it was discovered to be self-aware (poor thing), and keep an eye out on what constitute junk in the game, such tongue-in-cheek humor, LOL.

Players who have done well in the initial Survival Mode can unlock the Frenzy Mode after achieving a certain number of points in the former. There's an added element of social competition with the inclusion of Game Center online leaderboards.

Nineoverten.com rates Metal Junk at a 4.5 out of 5 for providing a beautiful and fun challenge (who would have thought that there's beauty in junk) for fans of the endless running genre. The game is currently available on the iTunes App Store for iPad 2 or better at a price tag of USD 0.99, check it out over here: http://bit.ly/WnOKfV

A review code was provided to Nineoverten.com for the purpose of this review.

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Just last month I reviewed Train Empire, an iOS title inspired by table top train sets. This month, I have the opportunity to review Belight Software's latest iOS title Rails, which at first glance seems to be similar with Train Empire. Several play-throughs later yielded a different, but ultimately good conclusion that Rails is a different kettle of fish.

First up, Rails requires players to construct the tracks to hook up the train stations in any given level. The placement of the stations are randomized every time you start a level ensuring that you get something different with each and every play-through. Now, this includes building the intersections and deciding where trains can switch tracks.

Proper placement of tracks would make it easier for you to direct the trains, which sometimes, if you are not careful may intersect which each other, causing a collision. Fortunately you can still deal with the aftermath of collisions (more on that later), but there is no excuse in not manipulating the signal lights along the track that you've placed. This will indicate to a particular train on whether can it proceed, stop or go back to where it came from.

The game time in each level can span hundreds of years, from the 1800s right up to the 21st century. Power-ups can be used to speed up trains, clear debris (as a result from collisions) among other things and they can be pretty useful in a pinch. The earnings are tracked in each level and players will need to balance between spending money to build new tracks and delivering trains to their respective destinations in an efficient manner.

Rails features a really polished interface along with beautiful isometric in-game graphics. The game is easily one of the prettiest games of its genre and really stand out. To top it off, Rails comes with a Trainopedia, containing information and trivia about the trains available in the game.

There's plenty to like about Rails, with the fun of building tracks and directing trains along with the oh so sweet graphics. Nineoverten.com rates Rails at a 4.5 out of 5 and its definitely worth checking out. The game is available on the iTunes App Store for $ 1.99. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rails/id556517203?mt=8

A review code was provided to Nineoverten.com for the purpose of this review.

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Ravensburger Digital's popular card game, San Juan, is currently on sale on the iTunes App Store. This universal app, optimized for the iPhone 5 and the iPod touch 5, is now being priced at USD 2.99 instead of USD 6.99. Would be conquistadors would do well not to miss this as with other previous app sales by Ravensburger Digital, it's only for a short period of time.

Here's a little background on the game: Puerto Rico is at its prime. But does this also apply for this beautiful island’s capital city? Take on the role of the governor, builder, producer, trader or councilor and bring the city wealth and prestige.

The game is available right over here: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/san-juan/id513228980.

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Sales of smartphones and tablet are outstripping those of PCs and laptops. Although there has been a huge increase in tablet users over the last year, smartphone users are now spending more time online and consuming more online data than tablet users. Interestingly around 41% of tablet users and 39% of smartphone users are duel screen users, meaning that they use their tablets and smartphones while watching TV. Both smartphone and tablet users spend a great deal of their time playing online games on these devices and overall tablets are favoured over phones for doing so.

Comparing the technologies of the current generations of mobile phones and tablets, from the point of view of processing power there is very little difference between the two. The latest generation of phones now have eight core processors, but it won’t be long before we see similar processing power in tablets. That is a huge amount of processing power, but no doubt games developers soon will find ways of making use of it.

The obvious advantage of tablets is their larger display size, but the display sizes of some of the latest Android smartphones are nearly as large as the smaller tablets. Also, while tablets have larger displays, top end smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy 4 have superior resolution, so what is lost on the roundabouts is gained on the swings. While mobile phones win in terms of convenience, tablets still hold the edge in terms of display size.

Ultimately, when choosing between a smartphone and a tablet, it comes down to user preference. If you like online casino games such as roulette and blackjack at sites http://www.jackpotcity.co.uk/online-slots/ while on the go then you are likely to prefer using a mobile phone, but if you prefer playing more graphically complex games then a tablet is likely to be your choice.

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Using an iPad with Retina Display can most certainly leave someone spoilt. I was taking screenshots of my iPad's home screen the other day and I noticed the rather large picture files when the shots arrived on my MacBook Pro via Photo Stream. The amount of detail available in each shot however justified their size.

In any case, I do wish sometimes for developers of certain kind of games to up their ante a little bit and support the native resolutions of Retina Display iPads. Most of the time they are just contented to slap on the HD tag simply because the app is “iPad compatible”. I had the opportunity to review Selectsoft's latest hidden-object game, Lost Tales of Egypt HD, and it was a mixed bag.

The game had one thing that I really like though, support for multiple user profiles. It's such a rare thing to see in iOS games and I was pleasantly surprised to see this in Lost Tales. Now to the part that makes the game such a mixed bag. The thing about most hidden object games that I've played or reviewed is that they tend to be hand-drawn, and with that, it's easy to start with high-res, and work downwards.

Lost Tales however employs photographs, and with photos, you are only as good as your source files. This results in a pixelated mess which gets even worse when you zoom in. It's a shame though as each level is populated with a chokeful of items, and you are tasked with looking for just specific ones, either through a written list or a list of shapes.

The game can certainly benefit from immediate improvement to the quality of photos as there really nothing wrong with the gameplay. Nineoverten.com rates Lost Tales at a 4 out of 5, flawed but definitely worth checking out.

Lost Tales is now out on the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lost-tales-of-egypt-hd/id596992480?ls=1&mt=8. A review code was provided to Nineoverten.com for the purpose of this review.

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This is pretty interesting, I just got a high score playing Crushin’ Robots – NYC on the iPad with Natalia sleeping on my lap. All other play-through attempts on this new game by indie devs Falling Objects Entertainment’s latest game ended rather dismally but I’ll get to that in a moment.

The game is pretty simple with players taking on the role of a lone construction worker taking on an invasion of New York by a bunch of evil robots. The overweight chap is initially armed with some light, for a lack of a better term, weapons such as a nail gun, spanners and gas cylinders.

These basic weapons can at best take you up to levels 5 or 6, as the game gets progressively harder the longer you play. The longer you play, different robot types are unlocked and the 2D graphics do well in conveying the added carnage. Destroying robots also allows players to access power ups and chalk up scrap which can be used to upgrade and get new weapons.

Now here comes the clincher. The weapons come off as being too weak initially and with upgrades seem to cost too much in terms of scraps, it seems a little bit convenient to have in-app purchase function to buy more scraps. I know it makes me sound a little cynical but it looks like you’ll need to pay to win or work your fingers off for a long time in the game.

IAP aside, Crushin’ Robots – NYC is a pretty polished debut and Nineoverten.com rates the game at a 4 out of 5. The game is now available on the iTunes App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crushin-robots-nyc/id568075534?ls=1&mt=8.

A review code was provided to Nineoverten.com for the purpose of this review.

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