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Have you ever been chilling out, watching ‘iCarly’ with their interesting gourmet concoctions and thought to yourself “That actually might taste good.”

Well coming soon to your Nintendo DS, you’ll be able to prepare all of the treats on the show without making such a mess!  With ‘iCarly: Groovy Foodie’ you’ll be able to do just that.  We were lucky enough to try the game by D3Publisher, and it was a blast.  It was tough, but our hungry customers couldn’t get enough of the Fat Cakes, Spaghetti Tacos, and Schneider’s Pickles that we were tossing down the line!

Of course, the customers weren’t making it easy for us.  Whether it was the senior citizen who was often confused, the web mascot who couldn’t see a thing through his mask (a groovy toss helped us knock it off for him,) or Bigfoot who needed an extra heaping pile of food to satisfy his hunger, we had to figure out how to satisfy each one.  Carly (Miranda Cosgrove) and Sam (Jennette McCurdy) make the perfect hunger smashing team. 

We think after all of this, Sam will hold her temper with rude customers.  You’ll know what we mean when you scoop the game up June 12!

Article source: http://www.fanlala.com/news/serve-it-hot-icarly-groovy-foodie-nintendo-ds

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In fortnightly ‘Notes’, Game On presents a short, curated collection of games and links that don’t fit elsewhere.

Games: 

It’s the big name, heart-rate raising iPhone games like Ski Safari, Jetpack Joyride and Ziggurat that usually get the loudest praise from me. In practice, though, I obsess over these games for many weeks before gradually dropping off—they take dedication to play, despite their burst-play mechanics. I can’t play Ziggurat before I go to bed because if I do, I won’t sleep for hours.

It’s the contemplative games, then, that get the most consistent play from me. I use them as a routine and ritual, to organise my mind. I have a Solitaire app on my iPhone that’s seen more hours of play than any other app by some margin—a margin I’m loathe to reveal to anyone, in fact.

So it was with some excitement that I found Froggies recently, an iPhone and iPad game by Ondrej Sedlacek, a Czech developer who was raised and educated in Australia. It’s a neat spin on Peg Solitaire—have all frogs jump each other to leave one standing—that uses different frog types to complicate things. Some frogs can move one space without jumping, others can be jumped over twice without being removed.

Only time will tell if I end up using Froggies in the same ritualistic sense as my Solitaire app, but some factors are there, resulting in meditative and interesting gameplay.

Another game that really caught my eye this last fortnight was Souvenir, a Masters student project at Parsons. It’s an amazingly creative game in terms of level design—it’s a biography of sorts, taking the player through a childhood home, a high school, a church, and a camping trip. The game is obviously non-professional, and the navigation system is deeply flawed. It’s not an amazing game to play, but it is interesting just to be in the space. It’s freely available at the project website, linked above.

Articles:

James Pinnell has a provocative piece up over at Games.on.net, where he charts what he calls “the culture of gamer entitlement.” It seems important to note these things at the moment, though it feels difficult, to me at least, to grasp a bigger picture. There is a lot of anger spread across the videogames communities, but it also feels like a shift not entirely limited to games.

Finally, Fez was featured in a two-page spread in the New York Times this week. The writer, Chris Suellentrop, is more generous than I was, but it’s interesting to see that videogames seem to have regular and critically engaged coverage in the Times.

Article source: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/game-on/2012/05/18/notes-froggies-and-souvenirs/

Continue reading »]]> DOVER, Del. — A bill authorizing online betting in Delaware and allowing more venues for sports wagering and other types of gambling is on its way to the state House for a vote.

The House Gaming and Parimutuels Committee voted Thursday to release the bill, despite objections from anti-gambling advocates and complaints from the state’s harness racing industry that it would not get its fair share of gambling proceeds.

In addition to offering online slots and table games, Gov. Jack Markell has proposed expanding keno beyond Delaware’s three existing casinos to at least 100 sites throughout the state, and authorizing betting on NFL football in at least 20 more sites.

Officials say the money generated from the expanded gambling would allow them to eliminate the $4 million in slot machine fees paid by the existing casinos and cut their table game fees from $6.75 million to $3 million.

In return for those financial breaks, the casinos would pledge to spend an equal amount on traditional business expenses such as marketing, capital improvements and debt reduction.

“This is key to making sure that this industry stays competitive for the years to come,” state finance secretary Tom Cook told the committee, noting that Delaware’s gambling industry has faced increased competition from neighboring states in recent years.

The administration’s presentation to the committee included testimony from industry officials intended to assure lawmakers that online gambling would include proper safeguards to keep minors from betting.

“Nobody wants underage gaming activity,” said Melissa Blau, an online gambling consultant who has worked with the industry in Europe.

Blau said systems can be set up to monitor every computer keystroke made by someone who goes to an online betting site, and that registration and account information, and the monitoring of betting behavior, can help officials determine whether someone is underage.

Peter Murray, head of gaming and consumer services at GB Group, an identity monitoring and management company based in the United Kingdom, said Social Security numbers and other personal information collected from potential gamblers would help ensure legitimacy of the online betting system.

But Rep. Clifford “Biff” Lee, R-Laurel, told the administration witnesses they had not allayed his concerns about underage gambling.

“If you were trying to sell me a new pickup today, you probably wouldn’t have sold that vehicle,” said Lee, who nevertheless voted to send the bill to the full House.

Lee and other lawmakers also questioned whether the 4.5 percent share that the harness racing industry would receive from online table games such as blackjack is adequate. The horsemen get an equivalent percentage now from casino table games, but those games do not require the use of third-party vendors who would be paid for providing online games.

In addition to the vendor payments, the state would take $3.75 million off the top from online gambling proceeds to recoup the money lost by cutting the casinos’ existing table game fees.

Sal DiMario, executive director of the Delaware Standardbred Owners Association, said the bill as currently written is not fair to the harness-racing horsemen.

Michael Barlow, Markell’s chief counsel, said DiMario has asked for a cut of 12.5 percent from online table games.

Rep. John Viola, chief sponsor of the bill, urged administration officials to continue negotiations with the harness racing officials while the legislature takes a two-week break for budget markup.

“Online gaming is coming, … and we need to decide in this building whether we want to be on board with that or not,” said Viola, D-Newark.

But opponents of the proposal urged lawmakers to carefully consider the impact of expanding the availability and accessibility of gambling in Delaware.

“This legislation is at the first a moral piece of legislation,” said Jon Boulet, pastor of Hockessin Baptist Church.

Boulet said the bill was nothing more than a recommendation to “devise and implement a temptation of vice” that would be wielded to extract money from people by taking advantage of their “loneliness, weakness and idleness.”

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57436938/online-betting-bill-advances-in-delaware-house/

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The Diablo 3 Launch and The Perils of Online-Only

Dave Thier
Contributor

I imagine that while console gamers rage against the coming tide of digital rights management, subscription services and used games prohibitions, PC gamers have a nice little chuckle. They’ve been dealing with this kind of thing for years.

The Diablo 3 launch put the problems of anti-piracy measures into stark relief –of course, Blizzard has lots of reasons for  online-only play does a lot of things, but the anti-piracy angle is hard to sweep under the rug. In this case, Blizzard wanted to keep an eye on players by keeping them on line. The problem was, it  underestimated just how much activity it would have at launch. That policy meant that huge numbers of gamers found themselves locked out of the game they had waited for for more than a decade.

For indie PC designer Jeff Vogel, it’s this kind of thing that’s hurting PC games. Next to the (comparatively) consumer-friendly world of console games, why would anyone bother with a DRM-tangled world of PC gaming?

The reason that this bothers me so much is that this sort of thing is bad for PC/Mac gaming. It’s not bad for Blizzard. They’ll still make a mint. But this sort of thing tarnishes the entire platform. Every gamer who gets hit with this sort of thing has a chance of being pushed away from the PC (and with good reason!) and toward consoles and iOS, platforms that don’t have these hassles.

My business will, in a small way, get tarred with this brush, and it hurts my bottom line. Which makes me sad.

The conventional wisdom is that piracy forced developers to a safer platform – the console – as a way to stem the bleeding from thousands of illegal downloads of their games. There’s definitely some truth to that. But the other side of this story is important too. How many gamers were forced to consoles after becoming fed up with restrictive responses to piracy?

These are questions that the PC game world has struggled with for years, and the console world is going to start wading into wholesale. I hope they can figure it out a little better.

The Bottom Feeder

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Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/05/17/has-the-diablo-3-launch-damage-pc-gaming/

Continue reading »]]> Welcome back to our regular column Android Gaming Weekly, where we recap all the new releases and highlights every Wednesday. We post small bits throughout the week related to Android games, but readers have requested a condensed summary that makes it easier to keep up with all the latest news. Read on for this week’s best in Android gaming.

Top 7 New Games This Week

This week I’m testing out a new format. I always try to find the top rated games each week, but now I’m going to limit my recommendations to the Top 7 games. The number of quality games comes and goes each week, but I felt like 7 suggestions was a nice odd number that I could achieve each week. Let me know what you think of the new format in the comments below.

Machinarium

Developer says: “Discover the award-winning, steam punk world of Machinarium, navigating a clever little robot called Josef from the scrapheap into the city to save his robot girlfriend. Solve puzzles, quests, brain-teasers and mini-games to rid the city of the wicked Black Cap Brotherhood robots. Gorgeous hand-drawn graphics and animations bring the robot’s story to life, using unique comic bubbles and symbols to convey the plot.”

Taylor says: I’m going on a road trip this weekend, so I need a new puzzle game to burn up some time. The video sold me and I just handed over my $3.99. I’ll let you know how it was next week. Update: This game is awesome!

Machinarium
Hothead Games
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Mini Motor Racing

Developer says: “Mini Motor Racing plays like a favorite remote-controlled car showdown, combined with modern tech to nitro-boost your engines! Play multiplayer against up to four of your friends via WiFi! Race in campaign competitions for big rewards! Upgrade your skills and cars to win more! It’s all here in Mini Motor Racing.”

Taylor says: Reminds me of Micro Machines Racing, which I played for countless hours. Asking price is $1.99, but early reviews are good with a 4.3 average score.

Mini Motor Racing
The Binary Mill
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Doraemon Fishing 2

Developer says: “You will start going fishing as Doreamon, Nobita or Shizuka and try to feed the beloved dinosaur Pisu. Besides casting the hook as deep as possible to collect coins and catch fishes while avoiding sharks, with the new gameplay, players will touch on fishing jumping out and flick them towards Pisu.”

Taylor says: I think I have a thing for Japanese game music. Game was so odd I just had to share it.

Doraemon Fishing 2
PTT Solution INC.
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Big Win Hockey

Developer says: “CREATE your own unique dream team, COMPETE against opponents from around the world, WATCH your team battle it out on the ice, BOOST your player’s passing, shooting, skating and other skills and get ready to hoist the Daily Trophy for the ultimate BIG WIN!”

Taylor says: I’m not even a fan of hockey and this game looks awesome. It’s free so you have nothing to lose. I’m installing this on my Transformer Prime right now.

Big Win Hockey
Hothead Games
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Lunar Racer

Developer says: “Strap on your moon boots and fire up your nitro boosters! The real space race is about to begin! Sure there’s racing games… but then there’s racing games with powerups! Ever tried racing with homing missiles, land mines, bubble shields and gravity thrusters? Yeah, didn’t think so!”

Taylor says: It’s from the developer of Super Stickman Golf and it’s free. Graphics look simple, but gameplay looks addicting. Average early review score is 4.8.

Lunar Racer
Noodlecake Studios Inc
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Plopp

Developer says: “Bubble-like circles, so called ‘Plopps’ emerge all over the place and start growing. When you tap on a Plopp, it explodes and a shockwave is unleashed. If other Plopps are hit by this shockwave they also explode causing big chain-reactions!”

Taylor says: This developer just uploaded four new games to the Google Play store and they all look pretty unique. Plopp looked the most interesting to me out of the bunch. It runs $1.25, so you might want to wait for more reviews to come in before you buy.

Plopp
games2be
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Ninja Slash!

Developer says: “Are you tired of always and only cut fruit? No problem! You’re one step away from starting the final cutting experience! Run, Jump and Slice at the same time!”

Taylor says: Odd combination of running and slicing gameplay looks hard as heck. I think this looks pretty fun, and it only costs $0.99. The developer has a good track record, so I think it’s a safe buy.

Ninja Slash!
CatfishBlues Games
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Android Games Coming Soon

Gameloft finally supports the ASUS Transformer Prime

This week Gameloft updated their popular MMORGP game Order Chaos with a new dungeon called Sailen: The Lower City. More importantly, they finally added support for the ASUS Transformer Prime. Keep an eye on other Gameloft titles for future Transformer Prime support.

Order Chaos Online
Gameloft
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N.O.V.A. 3 dropping any day now

Speaking of Gameloft, we still expect NOVA 3 to be available any day now. The iOS version went on sale last week for $6.99 and we expect the Android version to cost the same. Check out the Gameloft Blog for first impressions of the game. (Gameloft, I will freaking love you if you release this on the Prime!)

Will Max Payne Mobile ever come to Android?

Another week and another delay. This game was supposed to be released in April, but it keeps getting pushed back. We were told several times that it would be available in previous weeks, but I honestly have no idea when it is coming out. Keep an eye on@RockstarGames for updates on the release. They seem pretty focused on Max Payne 3, so we might not hear anything for awhile now.

Shoot the Zombies arrives May 24th

It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t mention at least one zombie game this week. DroidGamers reports that Shoot the Zombies from Infinite Dreams will arrive on the Google Play Store around May 24th. This game is the sequel to Shoot the Birds, but this time you have to protect your pumpkin farm from a plague of undead, evil zombie birds.

Games I’m currently playing

Sonic 4 Episode II: This is the biggest release of the week so I just had to try it. I grew up on Nintendo and Mario, so I never really spent much time with Sonic. I played several Sonic games over the years, but I never finished one. I just got a wireless controller for the ASUS Transformer Prime and HTC One X, so look for my review in the coming weeks. Check out our Sonic 4 preview for a chance to win an Android tablet.

Sonic 4 Episode II THD
SEGA of America
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What Android games are you playing?

Find any great new Android games this week? Share your favorites in the comments below so we can check them out.

Article source: http://androidandme.com/2012/05/games/android-gaming-weekly-mini-motor-racing-machinarium-big-win-hockey-ninja-slash/

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Now I’m up to speed with the ins and outs of archery, after reading Jim MacQuarrie’s post about the Brave film trailer, I watched the trailer for the related game with some interest.

The focus here is on the action rather than technique from what I can make out. It will be interested to see how they make use of the motion controls. With not only a Wii version but PS3 Move and Xbox Kinect also being supported it looks like gestures will form a major part of the experience.

In the game, which takes the route of “inspired by” the film rather than “recreating it,” you play as Merida the female expert archer. The usual platforming actions of running, jumping and fighting are joined by plenty of arrow shooting and targeting as you play through the mythical Scottish landscape.

In addition to the single-player there’s a co-op mode to cater for multiple players at the same time, as well as a special Bear mode — although I’ve not quite figured out exactly what that is so far.

Brave: The Video Game will be released this Summer alongside the film. Interestingly it’s currently slated for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and Windows PC/MAC — nothing mentioned about 3DS or Vita at this stage.

Brave is available to pre-order via Amazon from $49.99.

Article source: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/05/brave-wii-ps3-360/

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(Photo: www.nintendo.com) – The new Nintendo 3DS Midnight Purple hits stores this Sunday

According to a news release, Nintendo made a statement saying, “Now fans have another option to customize the look of their systems to suit their individual styles and personalities.”

Unfortunately for the company, Nintendo has faced a huge financial loss due to low sales for the 3DS system and Wii console. For the first time in 30 years, they are suffering a net loss of $533 million.

“Mario Tennis Open” will be released on the same day of the Midnight Purple launch, so that not only adds to the anticipation on Sunday for gamers, but high hopes for the company as well.

For more information and other features, visit http://www.nintendo.com/3ds

Article source: http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/1658/20120517/nintendo-3ds-launch-new-midnight-purple-mario-tennis.htm

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The App Store is filled with games. Most of them are cute little puzzle games that, while fun, do not offer the depth of a “real” game. However, every so often a game comes along that reminds us why we love the iPhone as a gaming platform so much. Lost Winds 2: Winter of the Melodias (Universal App, $3.99) is one of those games.

The sequel to the critically acclaimed platformer takes everything that was good about the original and makes it better. It not only reminds us that an iPhone game can be more than a cheesy puzzler, it also shows us that a game can be brought to the iPhone from another platform and not suck.

Controls

The first issue whenever you are talking about complicated iPhone games will always be the controls. After all, it does not matter how good your game looks, how great your story is or how innovative your gameplay mechanics are if the game does not control well. Fear not, because the controls in Lost Winds 2 are magnificent.

The game offers two control options. The first sees the player tapping the screen in the direction they want Toku to travel. The other option is an on-screen joystick. Either method will have you swiping the screen to create wind gusts that make Toku jump and help you manipulate objects in the world.

Personally, I preferred the joystick control method, but both methods worked great. It comes down to preference, and the fact that Frontier Developments gave us a choice is awesome.

Gameplay

Lost Winds 2 is a mix of a platformer and puzzler, with a little RPG thrown in for good measure. You play as young Toku, who is on a mission to rescue his mother. To accomplish this, you must use the Wind Spirit’s powers to navigate though the world.

You can switch between winter and summer, and this requires some serious thought on which season will help you get through the level.

The cold levels bring an awesome mechanic where not only must you worry about solving the puzzle and figuring out where to go, you need to keep Toku warm. Fear not, because there is plenty of fire throughout the level, although you may have to get creative to light it.

Speaking of fire, you will have to use your wind powers and fire to advance through the world and this will require some creative thinking on your part. If an icy wall is blocking your path, you can drag a wind gust through the fire and use it to melt the ice to advance in your quest. This is just another example of the fun mechanics that are all over Lost Winds 2.

Overall, the gameplay is just plain fun. Whether pinching to create a snowball or traversing the beautiful environments, Lost Winds 2 is just a thoroughly enjoyable experience from a gameplay perspective.

Presentation

I mentioned those beautiful environments a moment ago, and they really are something to behold. It is not just the environments though; the characters also look awesome. Playing this game on the Retina Display is a true reminder of just how good an iPhone game can look when the developers put forth the effort to do it right.

Visually, it seems like every detail of the game was done with care. While it does not feature the realistic graphics of a game like Modern Combat, the style of the game is perfectly suited for the device. It is easily one of the best-looking iOS games.

The only drawback to the presentation is the story. The story is actually very good, but it is also easy to miss because much of it comes from reading things found in the world. It is a shame that many gamers will breeze right through this and miss one of the better-done stories on iOS.

Suggestions

It is hard to offer any suggestions for a game this close to perfect. Instead, I will just say the things I like about it again in a concise list: it looks amazing, it is fun, it has a decent level of challenge while still being easy enough for casual gamers, the story is good, the sound is among the best on the platform and the list just goes on and on.

Conclusion

Seriously, you need to play this game. I did not play the first one, and I can honestly say it did not detract from my enjoyment of Lost Winds 2 at all. It is one of the best games on iOS, and every iOS gamer needs to experience it. 10/10

Article source: http://theappera.com/2012/05/17/lostwinds2-winter-of-the-melodias-review-yeah-this-game-is-really-good/