PopCap Games Releases The iOS Port Of The Classic Arcade Puzzler Candy Train

PopCap Games has re-released the old-time classic, Candy Train, into a native iOS app. Candy Train is a simple to play but difficult to master puzzle game. A locomotive makes its way throughout the gameplay area picking up candy that becomes the railroad cars on an endless track you need to create. You don’t recreate the track from scratch, rather put it together properly by tapping on the railway sections to rotate them.

There are a few “gotchas” to pay attention to. The train slowly speeds up as time progresses and the candy will vanish sooner or later. Those aren’t the most devastating factors. The track sections eventually change on their own and track components aren’t guaranteed to connect to one another. So, keep alert and plan ahead.

Once you finally get the hang of it, you should be able to make your train complete — meaning a caboose. After collecting the caboose, a train station will appear. Get to the train station to unload your cars and move onto the next level. If you feel really cocky, there’s an Expert mode for overachievers.

As mentioned earlier, Candy Train is the second title from 4th and Battery, “the experimental sandbox of a label within PopCap, in which we present smaller, less polished, and sometimes weirder games than you would normally expect from us.” While maybe not polished, I didn’t notice anything to gripe about, and certainly not for the game’s price of free.

Candy Train is a universal app compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 3.2 or later, and available as a free download in the App Store now.

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD Updated, Now Optimized For The iPad 2

The popular racing app, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, has just received a great iPad 2 update. Now, gamers can enjoy “faster gameplay and incredible new visual features” when playing Asphalt 6 on their second generation iPad.

New features of the $6.99 app include “smoother real time reflection,” real time road lighting and shadows, motion blur, and massive performance improvements. Asphalt 6now runs twice faster on the iPad 2 than on the original iPad, which is very impressive.

Additional improvements include support for the gyroscope (in your garage, you can now turn your iDevice and view your cars as if you’re actually there), and improved particle effects – meaning smoke, collisions, and off road driving will look more real than ever!

The updated version of Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD ($6.99) is available now in the App Store. If you have an iPad 2, check it out, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

iPad 2 "Optimized Games"

If you just got an iPad 2 and are looking to stretch its legs, the device launched with four games that have been "optimized" for the device. Only one of them is even a new game, the rest of them all had free updates land today to beef up the graphics (and the file size, unfortunately) for the iPad 2.


Real Racing 2 HD, $9.99 

 There's not a whole lot to say about this game that we haven't already other than it runs on the iPad and looks fantastic on the iPad 2. We loved the iPhone version in our review, and RR2 HDalmost feels even more immersive because of the increase of screen size. One thing though, with the bigger screen, just how flat the cockpits of the cars look is much more noticeable. I'd love to see some bump mapping or other depth given to them, as once you notice it, it's kind of hard to un-see. Obviously, it runs much better on the iPad 2 than the original iPad as well.


Dead Space for iPad, $6.99 

When it was first released it was amazing then, and now it's even better with some heavy anti-aliasing. Check out the crisp border of the sign in the above screenshot, on the original iPad that's jaggy as all get-out. This new iPad 2 version of the game looks good enough that it's worth re-playing the whole game over again just to see it.


Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, $6.99  

This is the most underwhelming of all the "optimized" games. It runs great on the device, and the draw distance is crazy, but after playing Dead Space or Real Racing 2 HD, the lack of anti-aliasing really sticks out. Also, while the draw distance is far enough out to completely eliminate pop-in, power-ups and other cars still seem to pop-in even though the scenery doesn't. It's a good effort I suppose, but if you're only going to pick up one of these iPad 2 games, don't let it be this one unless you're just crazy about Burnout-style games.

Infinity Blade, $5.99  

"It doesn't get much more 'must-have' than this." That goes double if you've got an iPad 2. This gesture-based sword-fighter looks nuts. Infinity Blade is such an impressive display of what the iPad 2 is capable of that it should have come preloaded on the device.

These four launch day games are very impressive, and I doubt I'm alone when I say that I can't wait to see what developers come up with on this substantially faster device.

Real Racing 2 HD arrives just in time for the iPad 2 launch

Last December, Firemint wowed everybody by releasing Real Racing 2 [$6.99], the sequel to their popular racing sim that originally hit in Summer of 2009.  One thing we weren't sure of, however, and something that many players and elsewhere had been wondering about, was if there would be a Real Racing 2 for the iPad? Firemint since confirmed that it was in the works, and part of the hold up was seeing what Apple's plans were for the iPad 2 which was announced last week and is available starting today.

Well, just like clockwork, and echoing the original iPad's release, Real Racing 2 HD [$9.99] has launched just in time to be one of the flagship titles for the new iPad 2. Firemint claims that Real Racing 2 HD is optimized for both the original iPad and the extra performance muscle of the iPad 2, so should serve as a great title to show off your shiny new toy should you be picking up an iPad 2 later today.

‘Brink’ Hands-on Game Preview – A Deft Balance of Innovative and Creative Gameplay

First-person shooter (FPS) games are starting to develop a certain stigma; if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

Typically, FPS games fall into two categories: Call of Duty and Halo. If a game opts for realism, it’s compared to the Call of Duty franchise. Conversely, if a game goes with the fantasy angle, Halo fanboys will lash out with fury saying the game can never compare toHalo 2 or Halo Reach. Each franchise excels in both single and multiplayer play. So, when you go into a game demo and see an FPS, all you can think is, “Yeah, it’s like Call of Dutyor Halo with a few bells and whistles.”

Well, thankfully, Bethesda Softworks and the developers at Splash Damage have decided to shake up the world of FPS gaming with Brink.

After getting a good hour of hands-on time with the game, it’s clear that Brink is a deft balance of innovation and creative entertainment in a genre that was becoming more monotonous every year.

What sucks the most about playing an FPS title?

You either play it for the multiplayer component or the single player campaign. However, one usually comes up short. There’s only so much realism you can get in a single-player campaign mode before “realistic graphics” loses its significance. Also, no matter how many textures you add, the eyes tend to always look dead. Then when you hop on multiplayer, those realistic graphics are downgraded; plus, you usually end up with the same cache of Deathmatch and Objective missions.

Brink says screw realistic graphics. And, screw fantasy for that matter too. Splash Damage decided to give gamers a hybrid instead. Brink combines FPS play with MMO customization and a slight-Anime style. If you’ve ever watched the Jackie Chan cartoon or The Batman, you’ll know what I mean.

The game takes place on a floating city called the Ark, which is on the “Brink” of civil war. Gamers can play as the Security or the Resistance, in teams of up to eight players. The actual campaign is completely multiplayer based. So gamers can jump into and out of gameplay at any time. Hopefully, you’ll be paired with a good team so you can continue on.

There are four classes: the soldier, the medic, the engineer and the operative. Obviously, each class has its own benefit. But what’s different in Brink is that gamers can jump swap classes at any time. Gamers are also rewarded with experience points for playing out their character type. For me, playing as a Medic was finally fun. Actually, it was one of the most rewarding gameplay experiences. Giving my team health and speed boosts or reviving them before they bled out was handsomely rewarded. Soldiers can boost their teammates ammo and engineers can buff weapons or give out Kevlar ammo. Yet, there is no XP given out for buffing yourself with medic supplies or armor. Operatives are the only class type that cannot buff their fellow players, but they can walk up to downed enemies and dress up like them. They can also put a homing device on an enemy so that teammates can track them down.

This is a game that really rewards you for playing strategically. We’ve all played Objective multiplayer games, where one player will think that he or she is Rambo and go around killing people without helping out the team. Sure, at the end of the game they have a high kill-to-death ratio, but they didn’t actually do anything to support the mission. Brink makes team play absolutely necessary by design.

Richard Ham, the Creative Director at Brink who also worked on Prince of Persia, joined the Brink team to flesh out the overall direction on the characters. He opted for exaggerated body proportions in the design. As far as customization goes, you there’s an insane load of different facial types as well as character accents. Olivier Leonardi manages the art direction, while Tim Appleby (who worked on Shepherd and the main aliens in Mass Effect) handled the character designs. Instead of just regular fatigues, your grunts will wear more patchwork clothing like homeless people. These are fighters who use the resources around them to stitch loads of crap together into awesome designs.

It’s only fair to say that the customization in Brink is far superior to anything you’ve experienced in a multiplayer game before. Not only are the characters customizable, right down to the voicing, but the weapons have ridiculous levels of customization as well. You can add a silencer to a weapon, but it may take down the weapon’s overall damage. Putting on a drum magazine may slow down your fire rate. You can press a button at any time (Triangle on the PS3) to see how your character or your weapons would look outfitted as a Resistance or a Security soldier.

There are light, medium and heavy body types. Each type has its own benefit. Lighter types will be able to climb to certain places but headshots kill in one shot. Medium and Heavy types will need more than one shot to the head to die. Splash made the active choice to give characters a little more power so that newer gamers weren’t so easily killed. Heavy types can carry bigger guns and have access to different weapons. You can change anything at any time, except for tattoos, which are permanent. As for character classes, you can switch between class types seamlessly and you will still be able to use any weapon.

Levels are broken down in sections of 5, with gamers able to rank up to level 20 at present.

Scheduled to launch in mid-May, Brink may just be the game that will lead gamers through endless hours of play this summer.

Volcano Escape- iPhone App Of The Month

Volcano Escape (99 cents) is an arcade platformer type of game where your challenge is to see how high you can climb as you escape the rising lava of a volcano. The control system includes onscreen joysticks for movement and firing your weapon, and you have a jump button in the upper right for jumping ever higher, away from the rising lava. As you climb, you'll encounter bad guys you need to shoot so they can't take away from your health (you get three hearts to start off). You'll also be able to collect boxes that give you power-ups like shields and jet packs. Collecting boxes also lets you unlock new characters to play. If you can manage to stay away from the rising lava and clear your path of baddies, you'll be on your way to new high scores.

Volcano Escape is a game that I really want to like, but it definitely has a few problems. The gameplay is a bit choppy; at one point, I even force-quit all my apps and rebooted my iPod Touch, which still didn't work. It's also difficult to tell where the level of the lava is on your first several games, making it a surprise sometimes when you die. The jump button is also problematic because it's above the shooting controls, and I'd often end up pressing the wrong button. If they fix these issues, it would be easy to recommend this game, but you may want to wait before paying any money.

Overall, Volcano Escape is a pretty fun game in spite of its problems. It's a shame that the good-looking graphics and game concept seem to be undermined by a few minor problems. Once they fix a few of the issues or allow for more control customization, this game will be great for anyone who wants an easy-to-pick-up time waster.