Home » Articles and Reviews by 'James Gilmour'
Fright Heights Review
Games which revolve around hotel management usually involve trying to fill up your holiday inn by attracting as many guests as possible. Chillingo's spooky scare-'em-up Fright Heights, on the other hand, is all about scaring guests away. It's essentially a block puzzler in which you arrange guests and ghosts throughout the hotel to clear out floors and empty the building. Each floor has a fear rating which must be hit in order wipe it from the screen. To cajole your guests into paroxi…
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Expansion packs for Galaxy on Fire 2 now half price
The expansion packs for gorgeous space-based shooter Galaxy on Fire 2 are now available for half price. If you're unfamiliar with the free-to-play blaster, Galaxy on Fire 2 puts you in control of a fighter vessel, and asks you to zip around the universe zapping enemies and trading goods with other space-faring types. The first update, entitled Valkyrie, expanded the Galaxy on Fire universe further, adding new missions, plus a host of extra weaponry, characters, and ships. After Valkyrie came the Supernova update. This expansion let you do battle in the radioactive glow of a recently exploded star. It also featured new missions and gear, including a shield capable of dealing with gamma r…
Season 2 of The Walking Dead to be unveiled tomorrow
Having already received plaudits for the first episode of The Wolf Among Us, Telltale is about to lift the mortuary sheet from a soon-to-be reanimated corpse. Yep, you guessed it: The second series of The Walking Dead: The Game is about to be revealed. The news, which broke when Telltale posted a teaser image on its Facebook page, will likely excite fans of the multi-award-winning first season. We at AppSpy have been on tenterhooks since July's satisfying DLC stopgap episode The Walking Dead: 400 Days, and can't wait to see what morally compromising situations the developer has cooked up for us this time. Given the tone of the teaser image - which features Clementine's blood…
Hazel Dazzle iPad Review
Hazel is a budding archaeologist who is trying to stop an evil doctor from using the ruins of an ancient race for his own nefarious purposes. The game she inhabits, Hazel Dazzle, is an action adventure that borrows from the spinning, spherical levels of Super Mario Galaxy, and combines them with more traditional dungeon-crawling sections. Unfortunately, though this marriage of gameplay styles can work, Hazel Dazzle is a shallow experience which is afflicted by some irritating tech…
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Infinity Danger Review
When you first pick up Infinity Danger, you might find yourself wondering where the rest of the game went. Imagine a bullet-hell shooter in which all the levels have been stripped away. So, instead of fighting waves of enemies to get to an end boss, you engage in one timed boss battle after another. Now imagine you're fighting same boss every time, chipping away at layer upon layer of modular evolution to reveal the heart of the ship, and blast it smithereens once more. After your fi…
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Autumn Dynasty: Warlords invading the App Store next month
Handsome real-time strategy game Autumn Dynasty is getting an iOS follow-up in November. Titled Autumn Dynasty: Warlords, this sequel will move beyond the battlefield, allowing players to erect cities upon conquered lands, and grow their empires and armies through resource management and wise leadership. According to details released by developer Touch Dimension, the central campaign (which allegedly contains 60-hours-worth of missions) can be completed in a number of ways, giving you the power to groom warlords, and pick and choose your battles. These decision aren't arbitrary, either, with apparently insignificant choices capable of creating a chain reaction which could cause your empir…
Tear through the streets in Blur Overdrive on November 1st
For those who enjoy racing games with fewer gear-tuning options and more high-voltage taser attacks, 2010's console-based racer Blur was a bit of a godsend. Unfortunately, despite positive reviews, the hyper-real street racer didn't sell half as well as it should have. Soon after it launched, the developer responsible, Bizarre Creations, closed its doors for good, apparently killing any prospect of a Blur sequel. Well, it turns out there still developers who think the Blur license deserves another shot at pole position. And, thanks to Appcrowd and Marmalade Play, Blur Overdrive will come burning onto the App Store on November 1st. As this is a mobile game, there have been a few ch…
Echo Prime Review
Having touched a nerve last year with its turn-based strategy hit Hero Academy, Robot Entertainment has returned to the iOS battleground with a new game in tow. Obviously keen to try their hand at a combat system with more immediacy than Hero Academy's asynchronous duels, the team has knocked up a a sci-fi-flavoured action-RPG. Here, the combat is real time, and your enemies' feet aren't rooted to tiles on the floor. You take control of a space-marine type who has been charged with ba…
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Grab Knights of the Old Republic for half price now
In the pantheon of Star Wars games, BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic will go down in history as one of the greatest. It's one of the reasons we were so chuffed when the epic space opera set in that galaxy far, far away jumped onto the App Store earlier this year. If you were put off by the game's £6.99 / $9.99 price tag, however, then you patience has been rewarded, young padawan. As of this very moment, Knights of the Old Republic is available for half-price. Apart from the new touchscreen-friendly control scheme (which is surprisingly decent) we found the iOS version of KOTOR a near perfect recreation of a truly landmark RPG. Don't believe us? Then we suggest y…
The Wolf Among Us coming to the App Store this autumn
Having floored the critics with is multi-award-winning interactive comic book adaptation The Walking Dead: The Game, Telltale Games is prepping fairytale-inspired follow-up The Wolf Among Us for the App Store. Based on another comic book property - this time the Fables series - The Wolf Among Us casts you as Bigby Wolf, a man with more than a little animal inside him. It's up to Wolf to get to the bottom of a grisly murder, the solving of which will involve interacting other characters pulled from the pages of folklore. Along the way, you'll be forced to make difficult decisions which could have huge repercussions further on in the game. As you can see from the trailer (above) fans…
Hero Academy creator's new game Echo Prime out now
Echo Prime, the new sci-fi action-RPG from Hero Academy creator Robot Entertainment, has just warped onto the App Store. While Hero Academy took a turn-based approach to its fantasy fisticuffs, Echo Prime is all about real time swordplay and flying lasers. Cast as a space marine-looking security operative, you have to a series of vessels and fight your way through an intimidating roster of bio-mechanical aggressors. Helping you along the way are Echoes - ethereal spirits who grant you special powers and perks which can be triggered during battles. There's a touch of Hero Academy's asynchronous multiplayer mojo in the mix, too. If you like, you can call upon other player's Ec…
Catch up with Rayman Fiesta Run on November 7th
Everyone's favourite floaty-limbed hero is set to dash onto the App Store again next month. You see, Ubisoft, custodian of the Rayman series, has just announced that auto-runner sequel Rayman Fiesta Run will be available on iOS from November 7th. If you're familiar with last year's Rayman Jungle Run, then you'll understand why we're so excited for this fiery sequel. By combining the visual style of gorgeous console platformer Rayman Origins with short, ingenious levels, and a simple one-touch control scheme, developer Pastagames cooked up a real winner with Rayman Jungle Run. Though this follow-up has been developed by Ubisoft Casablanca, it looks like the team has stuck pretty close to…
DEAD TRIGGER 2 Review
In a world filled with derivative grey zombie shooters, how do you make yours stand out from the shambling crowd. In the case of Madfinger's 2012 hit Dead Trigger, the answer was simple: make it look fantastic. However, though it was definitely one of the prettiest games on the App Store, it was let down by repetitive gameplay, dull enemies, and freemium grind fatigue. With Dead Trigger 2, Madfinger has attempted to inject some variety into the series, adding new zombie types, more va…
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Terraria 2 should launch on iOS alongside PC version
In the fight for the title of best 2D craft-'em-up on iOS, there are two major contenders: Terraria, and Junk Jack X. As you have probably noticed from AppSpy's ongoing series The Junk Jack X Files, we've taken to Junk Jack X in a big way. Developed from the ground-up for touchscreen devices, it features a slightly more intuitive interface than Terraria's, and more refined movement controls. However, the fight for mobile supremacy is not over. Terraria creator Andrew Spinks is preparing the battleplan for a second volley, revealing that Terraria 2 should arrive on iOS around the same time that the PC version is launched. Speaking to Pocket Gamer, Spinks said: "I am wanting to code Terra…
Dead Space talent behind F2P shooter Lawless
Publisher DeNA is having a stab at merging third-person shooting and free-to-play mechanics in upcoming gallery shooter Lawless. This 1990s-based blaster is the result of a team-up between two studios: Scattered Entertainment (responsible for freemium FPS The Drowning), and EightPixelSquare (founded by members of the Dead Space: Extraction team). According to Scattered Entertainment head Ben Cousins, Lawless will be "an intense skillful game designed as an ode to classic 'light gun' shooters and filled with the retro Californian feel of '90s bank robber movies." As you can see from the trailer (above), you'll be discharging rounds into law enforcers as you attempt to complete heists in…
