The folks at Navigation-Info have come with something really interesting for the iPad, a Tower Defense game that makes use of the iPad’s screen real estate for players to go head-to-head against each other! In their newest, post-apocalyptic setting, game, AFTO (Assault For The Oil), players not only have to  defend against enemy attacks, they’ll have to build units to attack their opponent occupying the other half of the battlefield.

AFTO takes the concept of offense as the best kind of defense as assaults will throw your opponent’s mind of attacking you, leaving you to concentrate on raising income to build more ground and air forces. Just take a look at the gameplay video below, it’s FRANTIC (damn I should go get an iPad like immediately and load this game up).

The game features 6 defensive towers and 18 offensive units (it does stick to its doctrine eh?) along with 2 super weapons and counterattacks. There are 5 maps currently available and Navigation-Info has promised free updates of new maps, towers and units. AFTO will also have the single-player mode included sometime in September. AFTO is available now for the iPad at a price of USD 5.99, check it out over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/afto-assault-for-the-oil/id390127899?mt=8

JZFJPURMRX4Q

Guess who is back? Every year we hear about him coming back to the PC, but at the same time he has been a no-show and is a multi-year recipient/nominee for Wired’s Vaporware award. If he were a enterprise software project, it would have been a total nightmare that even a I.T project manager like myself wouldn’t dare touch. But guess what?  Hail o the King, baby!!! Duke Nukem is coming back in a big way.

But before you go ahead and let out a yawn (and a mehh…), read this first: Gearbox Software, the guys and gals who brought us Borderlands have taken over development for Duke Nukem Forever, and they are bringining over to the PC, PS3 and the Xbox 360. Visitors to the on-going Penny Arcade Expo 2010 were treated to playable demos of the game!! (link) This is so cool I want to get a can of beer…and the game, of course.

Indie game development studio, Koolfing, has announced the launch  of its brand new title for the iPhone/iPod touch, Whack’N Roll. The game is a fresh take on the whack-a-mole concept with brand new gameplay mechanics, combining both fast paced gameplay and strategy.

Whack’N Roll features 45 amazing levels, 6 different gameplay modes, 5 worlds, 3 difficulty levels, a star collection system and a full achievement tree to unlock. Players will use their thumbs to fight and defeat enemies, face up to many bosses as well as bombs, floods and other natural disasters.

Characteristics :

• Discover the “Classic Push-to-Whack” mode. Whack the enemies endlessly with a growing difficulty.
• The “Classic Whack” mode will evaluate the age of your brain through the analysis of your reflexes. The game estimates gamers’ dexterity thanks to a database realized with people aged from 12 to 70 years old.
• The “Adventure” mode allows you to play through 45 challenging levels. You follow the adventure of 3 characters in 5 different worlds.
• Thanks to the “Competition” mode you will be able to fight other gamers to become the “World’s best whacker”.

Check out the trailer below:

Whack’N Roll is now available on the Apple App Store. Check it out over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whackn-roll-an-awesome-funny/id381037050?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

The Play-Asia sale is back, and you know what that means?! Called the Summer Barbecue Sale, thousands of hot products, including  video games, consoles, toys, music CDs and movies are now available at hot discounts! Here’s your chance to grab those Japanese exclusives at low prices and also stand a chance in winning Play-Asia’s store credit for future purchases in the Lucky Draw. Each purchase during the Summer Barbecue sale is considered a single entry to the lucky draw, so what are you waiting for?

Check out Play-Asia’s Summer Barbecue sale over here.

The guys and girls over at Nexx Studio must be a really happy bunch as they announced that their game, Glow Puzzle for the iPhone, has been downloaded over 1 million times  in just 10 days and the count stands at over 1.6 million downloads as of now. In addition to this, Glow Puzzle’s first major patch (v 1.1.0) has been approved and released today. This new patch features over 60 new and more levels in Level Pack 2.

Users who have not purchased the Level Pack 2 (it’s an in-app purchase) will still get to enjoy new maps in the form of additional 5 free levels. A double validation process has also been instituted in this update in order to help users on older iOS (3.0) who were having trouble downloading additional Level Packs. Glow Puzzle also now features high-res icons for both the iPhone 4 (taking advantage of Retina Display) and the iPad versions of the game.

Glow Puzzle is available for free on the App Store, check it out over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glow-puzzle/id370410649?mt=8

OK, so Yoda says: “Download Star Wars: Battle for Hoth Lite you shall, and prizes stand a chance to get “. Yup, the old green one has spoken and indeed the guys at Fluffy Logic (the makers of that really cool Star Wars tower defense game, Battle for Hoth on the iPhone) are organizing a competition in conjunction with the release of Star Wars: Battle for Hoth LITE. The free game lets you experience a slice of what the full game has to offer, with  3 levels out of the full 15.

More importantly, to enter the contest, all you need to do is download the game, and leave a review of four words or less on iTunes. The prizes on offer are really cool with 1980s action figurines of Luke Skywalker and a Stormtrooper as the top 2 prizes respectively. The top 2 winners and runner-ups will also receive a copy of the book Plug In & Turn On: A Filmmakers Guide to Internet.

For more details about the contest (and who to send you entry to), please refer to this blog post over at the Fluffy Logic site: http://www.fluffylogic.net/star-wars-battle-hoth-lite-four-word-review-challenge. In the mean time, you can start downloading the game over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-wars-battle-for-hoth-lite/id385813045?mt=8

The Organization Committee for the Milthon 2010 European Game Awards have announced the President of the 4th Milthon awards as well as nominees officially selected for the various categories in the competition. The ceremony rewards the European video game studios for their artwork quality, during the grand opening of the 5th Paris Game Festival.

The President of the Jury

The 2010 President is the utmost charismatic Martyn BROWN, co-founder of the Britannic studio/publisher Team17. Well known for the international true phenomenon Worms, Martyn Brown and Team17 represent one of the major Independent studios with over 60 titles (130+ skus) on over 20 platforms in their history.

“Obviously I was tremendously honored and excited to be invited to be president of the jury at the Milthon Awards “, Martyn Brown declares, “with such a strong short-list and some exciting independent entries, it is sure to be a fitting tribute to yet another superb year for the European games industry.”

The Nominees

8 Milthon awards will be given, among them the highly anticipated “Game of the Year”. 15 European games have already been nominated in 7 categories, featuring the following list.

Best Console game:

• Alan Wake (Xbox 360) from Remedy Entertainment (Finland)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Playstation 3/Xbox 360) from EA DICE (Sweden)
• Heavy Rain (Playstation 3) from Quantic Dream (France)

Best PC/MAC game:

• Colin McRae : DiRT 2 from Codemasters (United-Kingdom)
• Metro 2033 from 4A Games (Ukraine)
• Napoleon: Total War from The Creative Assembly (United-Kingdom)

Best Mobile game:

• Dodogo! (Nintendo DS) from Alien After All (France)
• iBlast Moki (iPhone/iPod) from Godzilab (France)
• N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance (iPhone/iPod) from Gameloft (France)

Best Indie game:

• Limbo (Xbox 360) from Playdead (Denmark)
• LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias (Wii) from Frontier Developments (United-Kingdom)
• Machinarium (PC) from Amanita Design (Czeck Republic)

Best Game Design:

• EA DICE (Sweden) for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Playstation 3/Xbox 360)
• Quantic Dream (France) for Heavy Rain (Playstation 3)
• The Creative Assembly (United-Kingdom) for Napoleon: Total War (PC)

Best Visual Art:

• Playdead (Denmark) for Limbo (Xbox 360)
• Remedy Entertainment (Finland) for Alan Wake (Xbox 360)
• Ubisoft Montreuil (France) for Red steel 2 (Wii)

Best Audio Design:

• Climax Studios (United-Kingdom) for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)
• IO Interactive (Denmark) for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Playstation 3/Xbox 360)
• Remedy Entertainment (Finland) for Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

The Ceremony will be held in Paris on Friday 10th of September 2010, as the 5th Paris Game Festival inauguration. The Milthon awards will also be the occasion to once again reward the Video Game Creation teaching organizations and their students’ artwork excellence, thanks to the Paris Game Festival Student Award.

The 4th Milthon ceremony is presented by Games Fed, the Cultural Ministry, the Industrial Ministry, the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and the Regional Île-de-France Council. Official Website: www.milthon.com

Zattikka, the mobile phone and browser gaming giant has recently announced the released of Prism: Light the Way for both the iPhone and the iPad. The company has been on a roll in recent times, with this announcement coming on the heels of the USD 5.5 million in funding raised by Zattikka parent company for research, recruitment, developing and marketing its portfolio of browser-based and mobile phone-based games.

Check out the following press release for further details on this new game:

Zattikka announces Prism: Light the Way for the iPhone and iPad. Addictive Light-Based Puzzler Launches Today

London, 23rd August, 2010 – Zattikka, a major new player in social and casual gaming across online and mobile platforms today announced the launch of Prism: Light the Way, a compulsive and unique puzzle title now available for iPhone and iPad.

In Prism: Light the Way creatures known as Glowbos are dying from darkness and only the healing light of smiling, friendly Bulboids can save them. Taking place across 120 varied and challenging puzzle boards, your mission is to transport the Bulboid’s energy beams to the Glowbos via touch gestures and a generous allotment of devices to help you. As well as the core Puzzle mode, Infinite mode gives you an infinite number of random puzzles to play at your leisure, and Time mode adds pressure with a ticking clock and online high scores. Hyper mode further deepens the gameplay with an action orientated gameplay twist.

“Prism is such a fun game to play, whether you prefer the more relaxed puzzle mode or the high pressure challenge of Time mode” said Head of Product Development Matt Spall. “This is also our first game for the iPad and it looks fantastic on the higher resolution screen”. Prism is available now via the iTunes App store, price based on territory:

• U.K. £1.19 (iPhone) £2.99 (iPad)
• E.U. €1.59 (iPhone) €3.99 (iPad)
• U.S.A. $1.99 (iPhone) $4.99 (iPad)

While I was in Saigon for a holiday last weekend, indie developer Villain has released their highly acclaimed iPhone based MMOFPS, Archetype, for the Apple iPad in the form of Archetype HD.  The best part is, you can take part in cross platform matches between iPhone, iPod touch and iPad players! Check out the press release below for more information:

Archetype HD Brings Stunning ‘iPwnage’ to the iPad with Exclusively Optimized Version of Popular Multiplayer First Person Action Shooter

Highly-rated Online FPS from Villain Delivers High-res Large-screen Mobile Mayhem for Just $4.99; Launch Celebrated with Special ‘Ten Days of iPad’ Giveaway

San Francisco, CA – August 19, 2010 – Villain™, an independent publisher of fiendishly entertaining portable game titles, announced today the launch of Archetype HD, an all-new fully optimized iPad version of its top-selling and critically acclaimed online first-person shooter game for the iPhone and iPod touch.  Now available in the App Store worldwide, Archetype HD stays true to the Archetype lineage of console-style online FPS experience but delivers an even higher-resolution display that has been optimized for the larger screen iPad platform. Archetype HD features multiplayer team deathmatches through an expansive set of levels and game types for Apple iPad for US$4.99.

“Archetype HD brings a whole new scale of iPwnage with intense FPS gameplay that is jaw-droppingly good on iPad,” said Dane Baker, Lead Producer at Villain. “Everything that has made our game such a hit with fans, including the recent additions of the Avarice level and the Rocket Arena, is featured in Archetype HD. In addition, the in-game HUD was redesigned to take advantage of the iPad screen size so, fans of the device can dive into our special brand of multiplayer mayhem.”

Players enter team deathmatch battles starting as lowly cadets and advancing to higher ranks as they earn experience points and medals, including each match’s coveted “MVP” medal. Up to ten players can compete at one time with up to five players per team battling across six different levels using six unique weapon types and two kinds of grenades. Players wreak havoc using the game’s precise dual joystick-style controls in a new big screen HUD configuration designed for the iPad, bringing the best aspects of FPS gaming to the revolutionary Apple device.

Archetype HD players can join cross-platform online matches with the robust community that has quickly grown to more than 280,000 Archetype fans on iPhone and iPod touch while enjoying a full set of FPS features including player rank-based team matchmaking, melee combat, buddy lists, and radar-based player tracking. Archetype HD offers a console-style experience over Wi-Fi or 3G that gamers can enjoy on the go—or on the couch at home. Players can share their exploits via Facebook™ and go online to track and compare their stats to other players while competing to reach top-10 leaderboards.

Archetype HD is published by Villain and developed by San Francisco-based MunkyFun, Inc. The game is available on the App Store, visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/archetype-hd/id380751457?mt=8 for $4.99. To follow Archetype on Facebook, visit http://www.facebook.com/archetype and on Twitter, visit http://twitter.com/archetype.

To celebrate the launch of Archetype HD on iPad, Villain will be giving away one iPad a day for the first ten days of launch. For more information and to learn how to enter, visit madebyvillain.com/archetype.

Calling all iPhone fighter jocks out there, Paramount Digital Entertainment has announced that Top Gun 2 will be coming soon to the iPhone and the iPod touch. Check out the following press release and screenshots for more details:

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! PARAMOUNT DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT AND FREEVERSE ANNOUNCE TOP GUN 2 IPHONE GAME – COMING SOON TO APP STORE

Following the success of the original Top Gun iPhone game, Paramount Digital Entertainment today announced that Top Gun 2 for the iPhone and iPod touch is coming soon to the App Store. Top Gun 2 provides action-packed air-to-air and air-to-ground combat with dynamic level design and adrenaline-fueled excitement. Players will take control of US Navy jets and navigate intricate environments in the all-new arcade-style shooter. Using the accelerometer, players can perform all-new high-speed defensive maneuvers and offensive strikes.

Top Gun 2 features include:

MORE JETS, MORE WEAPONS

Players can jump into action with three state-of-the-art combat aircraft to choose from: the F/A-18 Hornet, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the F-14 Tomcat — each with fully upgradeable cannon and missile systems. In addition to standard-issue Sidewinder missiles and Vulcan cannons, each jet has unique offensive and defensive capabilities. The F-14 features Metal Storm offense and Afterburner defense, the F-16 offers Missile Barrage offense and Shield defense, and the F/A-18 features Smart Bomb offense and Flares defense.

ADRENALIZED ARCADE ACTION

Dynamic level design keeps players on the edge of their seats with surprise attacks and unique gameplay, enhanced AI capable of multiple attack patterns and evasive maneuvers. Blistering boss battles ensure an intense rapid fire fighting combat experience.

SEVEN UNIQUE THEATERS OF OPERATIONS

Top Gun 2 features air-to-air and air-to-ground combat against enemy armor, helicopters, and fighter jets over all types of terrain — even outer space — across seven different arenas of battle.

BREAK THE TECHNOLOGY BARRIER

Fullscreen anti-aliasing, shader effects and enhanced specular and particle effects provide incredibly rich and exciting visual effects and deeply immersive environments.

POWERED BY DAREDEVIL SQUADRON

A raucous soundtrack by Brooklyn-based rockers Daredevil Squadron, as well as the classic composition “Danger Zone” keep players inspired to hit their targets in Top Gun 2.

More information on Top Gun 2 is available at: http://www.paramount.com/games/top-gun-2-for-iphone/details.