GMT Games to bring serious board games to iPad - with a catch

You might never have heard the name GMT Games, but it is a boardgame publisher with a seriously dedicated fan base.

See, GMT Games produces serious, strategic boardgames - and specifically wargames. If you've ever seen an image of a map covered with hexagonal "spaces," with little coloured cardboard icons sitting on top covered with random numbers and icons, then you've probably seen a GMT Games title.

GMT Games are great fun, despite looking strange on the surface

Review: Tactical Soldier: Undead Rising (iPhone)

Zombies are pretty popular right now. I'm sure there's some kind of reason on a deep psychological level that zombies hit a primal soft spot, that as a twisted reflection of ourselves there's a more powerful horror than regular monsters could ever achieve. Or it could just be that zombie AI patterns are relatively easy to program and they're good for no-frills kills.

Which brings us to Tactical Soldier: Undead Rising - a fairly straightforward strategy RPG dealing with a zombie invasion in a way that only B-grade entertainment can deal with. It's no Disgaea, it's no Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's a rollicking good time nonetheless.

Exactly where you want to be headed during a zombie invasion

Conquer the universe with XBLA Indie game, Cepinas

Cepinas, from Pame Interactive, is a new XBLA Indie title that will have players conquer the world with some space-age action/ strategy gameplay.

Dissidia Duodecim Prologus Final Fantasy - the demo of the future?

Square Enix has hit on a brilliant system for doing demos, and come up with something that people will not only pay for, but actually want to keep them on the system after they buy the full game. I’m talking about Dissidia Duodecim Prologus - one of the smartest stunts I’ve seen the Japanese publishing giant pull to date.

Let’s get something straight from the outset – Prologus is a demo. For $5 you’re getting a small section of what you’ll find in the full game, with a limited number of playable characters, stages, and stories.

Review: Final Fantasy III (iPhone/ iPad)

Please note: this review is based on the Nintendo DS game. However, we don’t expect Square Enix to mess up the iPhone port (they certainly didn’t with Final Fantasy I and II). Come release date if there is a significant quality difference, we will re-review the game.

Perhaps the least played and understood Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy III (the real Final Fantasy III, not Final Fantasy VI) was a game that had not been seen outside of Japan until 2006, when a Nintendo DS remake finally saw an official translation hit the stores.

It's always about the crystals

Sega offers up goodies for Japan charity

Sega of America is holding an auction to raise funds to help disaster-stricken Japan.

There's 20 pieces up for grab - some of them quite rare, and will be good value for collectors. 100 per cent of money raised will go to the American Red Cross to support the Japanese aid efforts.

Shave Me! tears it up on iPhone

 At Digitally Downloaded, we love weird games. Shave Me!, a new game on the Android platform, from Metaversal Studios, is certanly up there.

Review: Boom Boom Gems (iPhone)

Boom Boom Gems plays on our love of popping bubbles (they’re meant to be gems, but they look like bubbles). Brightly coloured floating bubbles. It’s not the first bubbly game on the iPhone, and stacked against competition such as Nnooo’s Pop, it’s not the best, but it is still good fun.

Streaks of lighting like this are good news. It means you've chained a lot of gems

Ballardia combines browser RPG with zombies

Web-based MMOs must be pretty popular, because there's a lot of them. You know what else is popular? Zombies. So mixing the two is a sure fire success, or so Ballardia hopes.

Konami's PES kicks it on Windows Phone 7

Here's a bit of a coup for the Windows Phone 7 platform as a gaming device - owners will now be able to play PES 2011 on it.

Infinity Danger fires up on XBLA Indie Games

Infinity Danger it a good looking little XBLA Indie Games release, and it's available now, for just 80 Microsoft Points!

Review: Traverse (iPhone)

Traverse is a easy game to get into. It features stylish, neon-cool visuals with simple but enjoyable puzzles and throws in a heck of a lot of content.

It's a difficult game to explain the core gameplay, but after a few attempts, it becomes second nature. The aim of the game is to use basic physics to collect the maximum number of "orbs" possible. These orbs are placed in a variety of patterns - usually in the shape of some kind of famous landmark, artwork, or animal. 

The almighty smilie

Is Homefront a socially irresponsible game?

Does anyone remember the “Domino Effect” theory? It was a popular theory in the US in the 50s that predicted the spread of communism throughout Asia, and from there, the world. China would be the first domino to “fall,” from the Soviet Union’s influence (and in all fairness, it was) and from there it would spread like a disease to Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and India (this is where the theory fell down). And then Australia, apparently.

Historians will know where this theory led – directly to a very couple of very stupid wars that unnecessarily cost a lot of lives on both sides (yes, Vietnam and Korea). And its effects are still evident in today’s society – if you polled a number a group of people about what “communism” is, in many cases you’ll find it’s still considered something of a boogyman.

Big Blue Bubble releases Animal Pop on iPhone

Canadian studio, Big Blue Bubble is no stranger to the iPhone format, so its new game, Animal Pop, looks set to be another hit.

Review: Battle for Wesnoth HD (iPad)

The Battle for Wesnoth is proof that open source community projects can make awesome games. It's been around for years, of course, and over that time has developed a very faithful community that has produced an immense range of scenarios and refinements, but the HD iPad version is perhaps the most natural fit of all.

That poor dude in the middle ran into the quicksand

Preview: Time of Fury, more hardcore strategy from Matrix Games!

World War II will always be a lucrative source of material for strategy video games. Emotionally and politically charged, the huge variance of battle grounds, nations involved and strategies that were enacted also means that capturing the historical depth is a challenge for developers.

Review: Super Stack Attack (iPhone)

Super Stack Attack is one of ‘those’ games. It’s cheap, disposable, charming and simple. They’re a dime a dozen on the iPhone – look at the likes of Sneezies, Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja, Flight Control and Angry Birds, so it’s up against some powerful competition.

That sun scares us

New iOS and social game developer, Gamagio, opens its doors

With a team of 50 people, Gamagio has its sights set high on becoming a premiere mobile phone and social gaming developer.

Pen and paper geniuses, EN World, step into MMOs with War of the Burning Sky

In the world of pen-and-paper RPGs, the big daddy of them all, Dungeons and Dragons, has moved on to fourth edition. However, the popularity of the previous edition - 3.5 - remains strong, and this faithful player base is precisely what GSG is banking on with War of the Burning Sky.

We've been waiting to play this in MMO form...

Boom Boom Gems brings another match-3 puzzler to iOS

Another match-3 contender has hit the iPhone app market, with Boom Boom Gems from Taiwanese developer, Ezmobo, taking a crack at PopCap's crown.

Running Pixel launches Bouncing Avatars on XBLA

Running Pixel is a long-time supporter of the XBLA Indie Games platform, and has just launched its sixth title, Bouncing Avatars.

Spacecraft hits XBLA Indie Games in a unique fashion

It's been announced by one of the weirdest press releases we've ever seen, but new XBLA indie game, Spacecraft, looks pretty good.

Why the Sony PSP Go will see the NGP to success

Sony's NGP is a controversial device, with opinions very divided on whether it can succeed in a world that will no doubt be dominated by the Nintendo 3DS, and faces increasing competition from the likes of the iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

As a gaming device, the NGP will be the most powerful of the lot, and dual analogue sticks will appeal to FPSer fans like nothing else. But the real reason the NGP will find a substantial niche in the market is ironically, the PSP Go.

Five good books about games

The games industry is a reasonably mature one now. People are thinking more about games, the debate “are games art?” rages on, and as a marketing tool, games are becoming a powerful force.

As a side effect of that, there is a growing amount of literature looking at games from design, art and even philosophical viewpoints. For those looking at getting a deeper understanding of games and what holds them together, here’s a few reasonably accessible books to look into:

Mystery 2D Game For 3DS Announced By Marvelous Entertainment

In the midst of all the hype, anticipation and excitement surrounding the upcoming Nintendo 3DS it is a bit difficult to find news surrounding games from lessor known developers. While there is plenty of news around first party Nintendo titles and major flagship third party games such as Capcom's legendary Street Fighter or LucasArts LEGO Star Wars III The Clone Wars there hasn't been a whole lot of news around some more niche titles.

But Yoshifumi Hashimoto of Marvelous Entertainment has revealed that they are working on a game' creating a game with 2D artwork that takes full advantage' of the unique 3D capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS.

Last year Marvelous Entertainment's group manger, Tomio Kanazawa, revealed that the company is  also considering releasing a 3D version of Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Nintendo 3DS. 

Wicked Witch shows off two awesome prototypes

A small Australian developer, Wicked Witch, has uploaded a handful of prototype videos for DS games that we would just love to see completed.

Review (Japanese): Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls

In some genuinely awesome news for PS3 owners, it looks like Wizardry is finally making its way out of its modern homeland of Japan, with XSEED to publish Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls for the PS3 in the US.

We're not sure whether it will be available in both retail and through digital distribution for the western release, but it's definately available for download in Japan, which is where this review is coming from.

It's been a long hiatus for Wizardry games out west - although the series has remained strong in Japan thanks to publisher, Aspire, the ultra-hard and ultra-slow style of dungeon hack that had people glued to their TVs in the earlier eras of gaming has fallen out of favour with a western audience more interested in action experiences now. With the exception of smaller, more experimental titles such as The Dark Spire on the Nintendo DS, or more modern takes on the genre such as Etrian Odyssey, it's been difficult to find games of this style in English.

(please note the product links above provide Amazon Associate commission to digitallydownloaded.net, and help keep us going and providing the best coverage we can manage for you!)

We'll take what she's offering

RPG Maker VX game review: The Lore of Lorewyn

The Lore of Lorewyn is a good case study for showcasing how effective music can be in RPGs. The game itself is middling, but the game designer, Christian Clinton, has considerable musical talents, and the result is a lengthy quest that you'll be able to play through to the end.

It's getting hot in here