Home » Articles and Reviews by 'James Gilmour'
Blizzard's Warcraft-inspired card game Hearthstone has been soft-launched on iPad
Blizzard's Warcraft-inspired collectible card game (CCG) Hearthstone has just been soft launched on iPad in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Created by Team 5, a cluster of programmers within Blizzard, the game draws upon their experiences playing CCGs like Magic: The Gathering, and Jihad in the '80s. However, while this turn-based battler won't have you engaging in raids or grinding for wolves toes, Hearthstone is still firmly embedding in the Warcraft mythology. You choose your class from a familiar list (Warrior, Mage, Paladin etc.), and then do battle against the A.I., or another human opponent. The game already has 10 million registered users thanks to the beta release of t…
AppSpy Plays: The Wolf Among Us - Part 1 (Twitch catch-up)
With our Twitch channel output ramping up, you may have missed out on our playthrough of the first part of The Wolf Among Us yesterday. Fortunately, we have wrapped it up in a neat little video package, which you’ll find below. Developed by Telltale, the folks behind The Walking Dead’s game adaptation, this tale has also sprung out of a comic book franchise: the lesser-known, but equally loved, Fables. The story takes place before the Fables’ outset, and uses The Walking Dead’s cel-shaded graphical stylings and moody lighting to recreate the look and feel of the comic. Expect slightly off the wall versions of Toad of Toad Hall, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and,…
Eye on the App Store: FTL, Monument Valley, and more
It's Wednesday once again, so that can only mean one thing: New games on the App Store at midnight! To guide you through the best of them, join Peter and I for Eye on the App Store, our weekly show in which we take a look at the most exciting new releases 24-hours before they are released. Expect to see the long-awaited port of real-time roguelike space-sim FTL: Faster Than Light. We'll also be looking at the pretty and intricate platform-puzzler Monument Valley. There’ll likey be some other treats too... quite possibly a taster of Warhammer 40K: Storm of Vengeance, and the second act of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf. Join us live at 5pm GMT / 9am PST / 12pm EDT over on the…
Monument Valley | Hands-On
Monument Valley, the latest game from Whale Trail developer ustwo, is due to land on the App Store at midnight tonight. And if you like clever puzzles and oodles of atmosphere, you should consider adding it to your wishlist. This game is a far cry from the endless-runner antics of Whale Trail. In fact, the team behind Monument Valley's precise, architectural puzzles appear to have spent the last few months staring at Escher lithographs, rather than watching Free Willy. It's a game which plays with perspective and perception, forcing you to attack each maze as both a 2D and a 3D puzzle. You push and drag platforms to bridge gaps, and even twist and turn the tower itself to create impossible…
The Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Odyssey Ace crossover has begun
Match-three RPG phenomenon Puzzle & Dragons has just begun a brief crossover with Ragnarok Odyssey Ace. This union of franchises will give all Puzzle & Dragons fans the chance to add characters from the PS Vita RPG Ragnarok Odyssey Ace onto their monster hunting team. Expect heroes Marin, Angeling, Develing, and Grendel to make an appearance over the next couple of days. The uber successful Puzzle & Dragons - which has been download 32 million times worldwide - will also be visited by Cathy Crazy from Freak Tower, and Kite, Jell's Angel, and Balloons Penguins from Princess Punt. According to Siliconera, these crossovers will expire on April 6th, so you'll need to update your a…
Game Insight declassifies its unknown enemies in upcoming sci-fi strategy X-Mercs: Invasion
X-Mercs: Invasion is a sci-fi strategy game. It involves taking control of a military squad whom you must lead into battle against alien invaders. You are dropped into scuffles by a snazzy looking airship, and the ensuing combat plays out in turn-based fashion on a virtual grid. Once you've completed a fight, you can return to your base to upgrade squad members, research new weaponry, and monitor the global situation from your command room. If this is all sounding weirdly familiar, then you've probably played X-Com: Enemy Unknown, a game to which X-Mercs undoubtedly owes a sizeable creative debt. There does appear to be some subtle deviations from the X-Com formula, however. For exampl…
Tiny Space Adventure | Hands-On
You know that bit in Scooby Doo cartoons where the gang rushs between doors in a long corridor, entering one room and emerging from another, seemingly disconnected door further down the hallway? Well, that's a bit like how it felt to play new sci-fi puzzler Tiny Space Adventure. You take control of an astronaut who must navigate a series of doors to reach an exit. Along the way, you have to avoid getting frazzled laser barriers, or spotted by robot sentries. As you're popping in and out of identical-looking black doors, you need a decent memory and a good mind for pattern recognition to be successful. Which probably explains the trouble I had reaching the end of some of the levels. Check…
AppSpy Plays: Star Horizon (Twitch catch-up)
In case you missed out on our regular AppSpy Plays live stream last Friday, we’ve brought it back to life using modern technology on our YouTube channel (oh, and below too). On-rails sci-Fi shooter Star Horizon received a 4 out of 5 in our review last week. So, having not played it personally, Peter and I planted ourselves firmly in front of it to see what this looker could do. There was barrel-rolling, betraying, blame for one-starring missions and a trench run that looked awfully familiar... We had a great turnout for the live stream, taking some much appreciated advice from onlookers, including developer Tabasco Interactive who joined us in the chatroom. Aside from our regular '…
CLARC | Hands-On
One game stood out when I blasted through the week's new releases on Twitch yesterday. It wasn't the WipEout-inspired Flashout 2, nor Clash of Clans successor Boom Beach. No, the game that captured my attention was an unassuming but charismatic offering called CLARC. It's an isometric puzzler in which you navigate an adorable maintenance robot through a series of corridors. Along the way you'll manipulate blocks with an anti-gravity beam, make friends with a missile, and try to power-up a robot disco. The visuals are lovely, the controls are tight, and there's a robot disco. Still not sold? Check out our hands-on video below to see CLARC in action.…
Eye on the App Store: Boom Beach, Flashout 2, Little Big Adventure, and more
It’s the middle of the week! You know what that means - Snowden’s favourite spies are back to give you your weekly injection of Eye on the App Store, going live today at 5pm GMT / 9am PST over on the AppSpy Twitch channel. Most of the games we’ll be covering will go live on the App Store at midnight tonight, so come get a heads-up on which games will suit your delicate taste buds before they’re locked to your iTunes account forever. Watch us grind up the walls something awful in Flashout 2, a futuristic racer heavily inspired by Sony’s WipEout series. Cult classic Little Big Adventure is alive and well on iOS almost 20 years after its initial PC release (apo…
Forever Lost prologue episode Cabin Escape: Alice's Story out now on iPhone and iPad
If you're a fan of developer Glitch Games's point-and-click adventure series Forever Lost, then you're probably on tenterhooks waiting for episode three to arrive. However, to tide you over until then, the team has released a prologue episode called Cabin Escape: Alice's Story, which is available free from the App Store right now. The game exists in the same universe as Forever Lost, and features similar gameplay tropes. Playing as Alice, you find yourself trapped in a log cabin, and must examine your surrounding to find clues to help you escape. Your trusty camera returns, allowing you to photograph important items and locations to reference later. You'll also get some back story relat…
WipEout-inspired anti-gravity racer Flashout 2 out on iOS tonight
You like WipEout, right? Well so does Polish developer Jujubee. So much so that it's followed up its WipEout-inspired anti-gravity racer Flashout 3D with a brand new sequel. Drifting onto the App Store at midnight tonight, Flashout 2 brings a bunch of new features to the sci-fi racing franchise. For starters, you'll get to try out 10 new international tracks, spanning locations including London, Paris, and Moscow. Additional game modes have also been added, giving you access to a Burnout-style Elimination race, and the violent Destruction mode. Beyond the tweaked physics and narrative-driven career mode, however, the most notable new feature is the inclusion of online multiplayer.…
Supercell's militaristic Clash of Clans successor Boom Beach landing on iOS this Thursday
Mobile gaming goliath Supercell is poised to release its first new App Store offering since the chart-dominating hit Clash of Clans. It's called Boom Beach, and it's due to hit the App Store on March 27th. The game has been available in soft-launch form in Canada for a number of weeks now, so we have a pretty good handle on what it's all about. And yes, as you would expect, it has more than a few things in common with Clash of Clans. You take control of a band of soldiers who must land on a beach, and fortify it. You'll need to create barracks to raise an army, and build tanks and other military equipment to defend your position. Once you've established your own stronghold, you can set…
Metronomy releases sci-fi game based on the music video for I'm Aquarius
If you follow the band Metronomy, you may already have the group's latest earworm I'm Aquarius lodged in your skull. However, the folks at Mutant Labs have gone a step further, creating a rhythm-based avoidance game for iOS based on the song. The game involves piloting the brightly coloured spaceship (based on the craft seen in the I'm Aquarius music video) through a pulsing minefield of asteroids, obstacles, and lasers. Naturally, the action plays out to the sound of the title song, which has been remixed exclusively for this interactive experiment. There are leaderboards to climb and social media integration to abuse, but you'll mostly be floating through space and bobbing your hea…
Apocalyptic stunt racer Trials Frontier crashing onto the App Store next month
As you may already know, the Canadians have been doing jumps and breaking bones in Trials Frontier for three months now. However, we've just discovered that the rest of the world can get in on the bike-flipping fun when the game goes global on April 10th. As well as being the first official iOS incarnation of the popular Trials franchise, Trials Frontier is also the series' first foray into freemium territory. Set in a post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-esque world, the game has you riding your bike over a series of obstacle courses, attempting to perform the wildest stunts your thumbs will allow. Along the way, you'll encounter a colourful cast of characters we will set you missions, and p…
