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iPod Touch / iPhone Apps AroundMe [Find nearby banks, cafes, etc] Free BeatMaker [drum machine, sequencer] £11.99 Bloom [generative music] £2.39 eBay [shopping] Free Echofon [Twitter] Free | £2.99 Facebook [social Networking] Free Flixster [Movies, what's on, trailers] Free fring [instant Messenger, Skype] Free Google Earth [expanded Maps] Free iNXES [Xbox Live Friends List] Free Last.fm [Music streaming, Social Networking] Free MySpace [social Networking] Free Photo Swap [random pictures] Free Plaringo [instant Messenger] Free Pocket Gamer [app and game reviews] Free Stanza [eBook] Free TweetDeck [Twitter] Free Tweetie 2 [Twitter] £1.79 Prices subject to change.

Odd that Blakey just posted a picture in the Latest Purchase thread as I just finished this myself today. Its only a couple of hours long. The immediate comparison in my mind was Katamari Damacy where as you move something around and as you add to the thing you're moving it gets bigger. In this case it's a hole. The more that goes in the bigger the hole gets and the bigger the things you can swallow. It's more set pieces in opposition to Katamari's sprawling playscape and Donut County is much more story driven. Its about a racoon called BK and his pal, a young lady called Mira. Using an app on his phone that controls the moving hole, BK has basically swallowed up the town including himself and Mira. Turns out the Earth is hollow and all the townsfolk have gathered together underground to try to figure a way out. The levels you play are flashbacks leading up to the current event. In the levels themselves you move the whole around, swallowing things up. Each level is split in to little areas and sometimes the hole size resets, depending on the goal. Also there are puzzle elements. Like in the second level you need to launch a hot air balloon by swalling a flaming kiln. The hole then emitts hot air so you can lift the balloon and end the level. It gets more complicated than that obviously but you get the picture. BK the racoon is quite funny, he's a selfish cunt to comedy effect. The games humour continues in the Trashapedia which is basically a log book of all the shit you pick up with amusing(ish) descriptions. So yea, its nice. Looks nice, nice music. You know, nice. It's just quite short. I liked it though, my kind of game. Nice.

This is definitely one of the more unusual games I've played. It's a visual novel but set out in the style of a text conversation with some modern day smartphone features like pictures, GPS coordinates, maps etc. too. It plays out in real time (you can adjust this if you want to speed up the story) with you acting as Majd and typing his responses, chatting to his wife/girlfriend Nour. It tells the story of a refugee escaping the Syrian Civil War and attempting to travel into Europe so on the face of it you'd think the story would be pretty grim and dark, but it is often surprising how normal and down-to-earth the conversations between the two are, often making jokes, taking the piss out of one another and things like that but obviously dark subjects come up when Nour is in a dangerous area or is put in a dangerous situation and all you can do is wait until she comes back 'online' to ask if she's ok. The notifications on your phone pop up like regular text messages throughout the day and I have found myself compelled and caring for Nour and her journey, wondering if she's ok in between messages, I know it sounds a bit silly but after it feeling a bit of a throwaway game/conversation the first day or so it has grown on me and I find myself looking forward to the messages from Nour more and more just wondering what the hell is gonna happen next. Definitely not for everyone but for £3 I'd recommend it, definitely think it's worth a go.

I don't really know how to give impressions on this game since it belongs in the MOBA genre and they are usually those Computer Games. You know the kind; billions play them but you never see them out in the street, irl. I guess they're inside, playing their Computer Games all the time. I should tell the press about them. Who knows what other degenerative stuff they get up to *shudders* But this one is on Switch as well so it must be cool and not have people who write things (((like this))) for some reason. Anyway! The game itself. I think I like it. Its made by a large Chinese tech company that bought Riot Games, responsible for League of Legends, and from what I've read it feels like that to play. It's designed for mobile so matches are a lot shorter. Around ten minutes. As I understand it a LoL or DOTA match can approach an hour(?) I could easily be wrong. The general impression I've always had of MOBAs is they are pretty much competitive Diablo from my perspective. You deal with that kind of gameplay, defeating other players and dealing with simple objectives that level you up on a game by game basis. Thankfully you can set it to be pretty automatic. Levelling up skills can be done automatically and buying better equipment can easily be done by setting an upgrade route and things get purchased as the money comes in. I can't put me finger on it at the moment; it's all quite new to me, but I do find the game compelling and I'm certainly into while in a match. I absolutely dominated on my first game, but I suspect it was everyone's first game and they didn't pay as much attention to the UI as me, because they weren't upgrading shit and just got slaughtered by me. In my second game, we won, but I wasn't dominating at all. To be honest, I solo'd the middle lane in that game and I think I held it pretty well. None of our towers got destroyed and they were double teaming me a lot. My stats didn't look good but that middle lane was barely touched. I still think I'm the best MOBA player.

Gorogoa is a hand drown indie puzzle game that has been in development for years and years and was finally released today. It's gotten some very good reviews. Basically the game involves you interacting with pictures and moving them around in order to cause something to happen or open a way forward etc. It starts off easily enough but soon gets devilish. I've played it for an hour but am well stumped on Chapter 3 so I've taken a break, but I won't give up... Lovely game so far.

Let me tell you the story of Vault 111. In the beginning, there was Vault 489 and it was a happy place. For about 30 minutes. It turned out that the Overseer really didn't know what he was doing and had badly misjudged how much power he needed and sent too many of his people out into the wasteland to forage instead of looking after the vault's meagre power station, canteen and water system. So the people left in Vault 489 were pretty much fucked. The Overseer being a heartless bastard abandoned his people and left for a bigger screened vault to look over (albeit with slower, more sluggish technology) and opened Vault 111 to the world. He was expecting maybe a round of applause or special item for naming it 111, but sadly that didn't happen. Everything was going pretty good. The people were happy, the vault was improving all the time. People went out looking for goodies while others stayed behind and looked after the vault, then everyone was called back to work together and help with booting out (or straight up murdering) raiders who broke in, killing giant roaches who burrowed in or putting out random fires. The Overseer paid special attention to hooking couples up in the private quarters and watching them pair up to make new little survivors. Of course the pregnant vault people were pretty useless in a fire or fight but could do any other job the Overseer told them to do. After a certain amount of time (approximately 3 hours), the pregnant survivors gave birth to little ones who would take the same amount of time to become an adult. The Overseer spent this time shouting at his control screen demanding the rubbish ankle biters "hurry up and drop your balls, for the love of Christ", as children can do absolutely nothing but wander the vault smiling in their stupid smug manner. The water, power, canteen and even the vault door got upgraded and everything was going well until supplies were running low and that stupid child wouldn't grow up quick enough and the other pregnant survivors weren't popping soon enough and people started getting sick. Then the roaches came and the Overseer pretty much gave up. About 6 of the 16 inhabitants died before he gave up, turned his control screen off and refused to go back to the vault. I'm sure later on he'll arrive at a new vault and start the whole process over again. With a new goal of seeing if he can cause incest, seeing as the men and women in there will pretty much fuck anything after a while.

Cleared some space on my Wii for this most precious of gems. Looks awfull on the 42" but fuck it, i love this game from the bottom of my asshole. Im really interested to hear from someone who has never played it becaue my rosetints ae welded to my face. I love the soundtrack so much, honestly, i ony got to my first oppertunity to save and i had a massive boner. Even when you save it the music is awesome... Im gonna bum this hard like i do my girlfriend when she's asleep.

Never got into AC before and will see how this one goes. Its basically about collecting and building up a campsite right? Not sure where the satisfaction is yet but will give it a bit more time

Played the first 90 minutes or so of this earlier. Been wanting to play this for absolute donkeys years but missed the boat on its first 360/PS3 release, got it on PS+ but by then my PS3 was unplugged and in the cupboard, so just been biding my time for it to get to a price I'm comfortable paying on Steam. I never played the NES original so have no reference for how faithful a remaster/remake etc. it is, I vaguely remember them saying they got the original voice actors back but I'm not sure of that. Anyhoo, the game is pretty good, I roughly knew what to expect by watching footage years back, I knew about the pogo stick beforehand and am familiar with the characters from watching the TV show as a kid, got a kick out of hearing the theme tune when I first booted the game up. The gameplay really surprised me by how tight it controlled, it controls really nicely and I got into the Platforming very early on. Not really sure what the point is of it other than get a shit-load of cash and the level selection seems rather limited, but yeah I'm having a great time with it I have to say, reminds me of DKCR a bit with the hidden paths that there are to find, it has actually exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways. Had to restart after getting stuck on the first 'proper' level though, bloody hard it is! Feels like it has retained its NES-era difficulty for sure, can't imagine how difficult it would be on Hard! So yeah, restarted after getting stuck on the first level and went through the tutorial and eventually completely the first Amazon level on Easy. Will pick it up again tomorrow.

I started this on Friday with zero expectations but, as easily pleased boy is, i was pleased with it, easily. Its basically GTA at school - steal bikes instead of cars, shoot slingshots instead of guns, kiss young girls instead of raping/murdering prostitutes. As usual in these sorts of games (with me anyway) the plot soon became a distant memory as i chose instead to see how many steps i could olly up on my skateboard and to see how many people would fight me at the carnival. Its got its own version of Paperboy in there too, im lovin that at the moment, as well as the Go Karts and the Bike Races. Oooh, and the Lawnmowing jobs too, awesome!

Fire Emblem: Heroes is out. I haven't played it yet but I'll give it a bash later.

Anyone else played Mario Run yet? It seems pretty excellent.

This is up for free on PS+ right now, and I played it, so here is some impressions. I think I just want to vent. Man, do I hate this game. And for God's sake did I not want to hate it, I didn't want to be that guy. Table Top Racing is made by X-Wipeout folk, and that game rules so, so much. And after Sony Liverpool was dissolved this was what came out. A total mess. I'm heartbroken. It looks like Micro Machines from the 90s. I'm from the 90s, and I liked those Micro Machines games. They should have me in the palm of hair hands, nodding to a game from the 90s with me, as desperate as I am to hold on to my youth (got ID'd last week, I'm still a teen really). But no, this game is really, really confused. It is a lot like Micro Machines in a way. The tracks take place on table tops and its all small and cute, avoiding bread sticks and stuff. But, one of the 'cars' you can buy at the start to race in is the Breaking Bad meth wagon (it has official licencing) so I dunno what they're going for with tone ( Coming from a Mobile origin I guess who cares?). But screw all that: It's about the gameplay. That's what gamers tell me. Even though it is Micro Machines in presentation and has adult content officially licensed in a game that doesn't warrant it... and has a soundtrack that tries to beat Motorstorm: Pacific Rift despite in wubs despite not building up the atmosphere to make it work. The game itself is just shitty. It's a crude mobile port. Knowing it came from a gyroscode design I do respect it in a way. It's a Mario Kart style game that solely requires knowing the tracks for the best racing line, a lot like Wipeout I guess, but it is just executed in such an unsatisfying way; a way that is so unfun, especially compared to Mario Kart which it clearly tries to be as well; a game where it is more fun the faster you go thanks to the drift mechanic. This game punishes going fast in a silly way, despite presenting itself as Micro machines, at least visually. It's like it requires you to drive carefully, be sensible, hitting those apexes right (in a game where you drive through billiard balls like they're paper, with wubs, driving a meth van, with Mario Kart power ups). It's just all wrong. Play it! Tell me it works! I just can't believe these veterans got this so wrong, or they don't care anymore and just want to make something to tick enough boxes for loads of people to work. But this shit doesn't click, and it won't work on a large audience.. I guess they looked a Rocket League and thought they had the game to be this year's version. I expected better from these guys. Fuck this game. It's the fucking worst. Fuck this game. I've not hated a game this much in ages. Thanks for that, I guess.

This is a fairly simplistic looking rhythm game that I got of the E Shop for summink like £3.19. You bash bad guys to the beat of the music with your hammer as they run either at the top of the screen or the bottom. At first which part of the screen they are running along was confusing, top and bottom fields seem very close but I soon got used to it. I used the touch screen but you can also use the d-pad or the buttons. Your choice. You also get offered presents which basically adds as a distraction but it's another thing to keep you challenged. Well, the music isnt bad, all original songs so far that remind me a little of Jet Set Radio, I've struggled with a couple of songs that dont have strong beats but then that's a consistant problem with me and rythym games. It looks nice, all cartoony and that, you play the part of a little looking girl called July Ann who is using the pirate radio station you are listening to the songs on as a metronome of justice, taking down perverts and bad guys to the beat. Despite being only top or bottom it picks up the pace quite quick. You can just simply clear the stage but you are given little missions represented by stars, like get a certain amount of great or perfect hits, no miss clear a stage or collect all the white and red presents that are randomly offered to you whilst avoiding the yellow and black presents that are offered as traps. Or tricks. I've only payed the first two chapters that contain five stages each but it's been fun, especially as it was so cheap. It's not the best rhythm game in the world but I like it enough to recommend it for three bleedin quid. Here's some gameplay for your eyes and ears:

Apologies if there's already a thread for this, please merge if there is! I think a few of you have played it. I just played an hour and a half of it there, it's brilliant. It's like playing through a novel. I have no idea how long it is, or if the ending is satisfying, but it's a very interesting game to play. Well you don't really play it so much as watch it. You have access to a database of police interviews (brilliantly acted). You find new videos by searching for information or words that came up in the videos you've watched. All of this is completely up to you. The game has a very minimal interface. The sparse music is nice and the occasional flicker of a face on the screen is quite spooky! I've been taking notes with a pen and paper and have covered two envelopers front and back with words to search for, and almost another a4 sheet! So far the story that has developed has been very interesting, and I've unlocked 5/13 of the game's achievements. Great stuff.

After finishing the last Lego game I played (whatever it was) I swore i'd never play another Lego game again. Then I bought this one in the sales (ages ago). I'm glad i'm an idiot that just buys anything for cheap because this is bloody good. Definately for fans of LOTR though, not exclusively but you'll get a lot more enjoyment from the game if you love the world it's set in. The puzzles are genuinely enjoyable, not once have I felt like i'm just playing to get through the levels like I have in previous games. It's full of usual Travellers Tales humour, both in the gameplay and the cut scenes. Oh, the cut scenes. Ones I actually dont mind watching (which is lucky as in Story Mode they are unskippable), a lot of though has gone in to them , they use sound bites from the films that brings them to life. The entire musical score is from the films too which adds to the atmosphere immensly - love that music. So yeah, super impressed especially as my expectations were so low. I think i have two more missions before Story Mode is complete. You can then go through in Free Play and mop up all the collectables, that's possibly where the fun may run out for me but I can't complain at what I've got out of a game that I paid less than £4 for.

For those that dont know... Guitar Hero is back... and its Live! Most pressing, the fucking buttons have changed, they've changed the fucking buttons. Gone are the five colours in a row. Now they're all the same colour, theres six of them - 3 at the top and three directly underneath. In theory this is easier but my brain doesnt work that way yet. They symbols are obviously different as there are no colours to match them with so you have plectrum shaped icons that are either black or white. Black are the top three, white are the bottom. You can also power chord by hitting top and bottom together. Ive gone from half decent to being a bit shit again but I spent an hour and a half practicing last night and i was getting better, i was able to do two quick notes on the top and a note on the bottom then switch back up to the top (then power chord) relitively pain free. Still, when it gets fast I was fucking up here and there. So it's a long road ahead to re-learn shit to a point where your brain just does it for you but I am enjoying the experience thus far. The two main modes of gameplay are Live and TV. Live is career mode, you play as part of a 'real' band to a 'live' crowd and jolly on through becoming more awesome and visiting bigger venues getting all famous and shit, same old story. TV is a bit different. TV is a constantly broadcasting network of channels that you can hop on to at any time and play track. It's like an interactive MTV channel, but here there are about 10 channels showcasing different types of music that you can flick between. There are always people to play against wether they are online or offline, I guess it just selects people around your skill level and you have to try and beat their score. The higher you finish the more exp and coins you get, the exp is for leveling up and unlocking skills you can upgrade (i've no idea what these are yet, im level 6 and you unlock your first skill at level 9) and coins are for buying 'plays'. The game did explain what this entails but i didnt read it or listen to be honest and it hasen't really affected me so far so fuck it, I'll find out what it is later. Look, amongst all this shit is Guitar Hero. I just wanted to play Guitar Hero again. And I am. And it's good fun.

Surprised there was no thread for this already. A few people told me how good this was, so I was at a lose end tonight and decided to download it. It was a good decision. The Walking Dead is based on The Walking Dead comics and is a point and click adventure. However, it rips off a few things from other games and adds some new stuff on top. The stuff that's ripped off comes right out of Mass Effect and games of that ilk in where you have an either/or situation or conversation tree which effects what will happen further down the line. It's basically a branching story of which will evolve to your particular choices as you play. Replies to characters in game are mapped to a face button, and while some are timed in others where you are not in control of the situation, there are others that allow you to take your time and pick wisely what you want to say. The new thing that has been brought to the table is context sensitive combat. Now this sounds horrible, but they actually made it like an interactive qte, as in you actually have more control over what happens, but the effects of the qte are always the same, or at least I think they are. Outside of combat qtes, the left stick controls your character and the right stick controls the 4 points cursor, with each point signifying an action on the d-pad. These actions range from observing items, talking to people and interacting with stuff. It's a simple yet elegant set up. The whole shebang is wrapped up in some very nice celshaded graphics that harp back to the comic origins of the series. The way the story is acted out ranges from excellent to a bit choppy, but it's more of the excellent side than the crappy. The sound effects are quite good too, it looks as the whole package has had a lot of thought put into it. I particularly liked the attention to detail on one of the neon lights trying to hawk cola onto people, it's stuff like that that is prevalent here in the south of the USA. It's full of little design touches like this. Either they researched that sort of stuff or some people on the team have lived in the areas they have portrayed here in the game. Other than that, I can't really say much without spoiling the game or soiling the experience, as it's something you played maybe once or twice and then be done with. It's 400 points and is the first of five episodes that will be released. I have no idea when the new episodes will drop, but I'm looking forward to them The episode is quite short, I think I finished it in about 2 1/2 hours, although I think I missed a puzzle. I'm not sure though, it could have just been a dead end, I did look about to see if I could complete it but the game sort of pushed me right towards the end once I past a certain point. A nice touch is that right at the end it tells you what decisions other people made and how you aligned yourself within these decision. Maybe when/if the thread takes off we can talk about it all in spoilers, there's not much point me talking about it until a few other people have played and completed the game. Anyone else played it or interested in it? Click to get the demo Click to buy the game

400 quid on a new system and my favourite thing on it is a ten quid game I could've bought on the PS3 and did buy on my iPad. This video - http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-counterspy/2300-9358/ - sold me on it. I didn't realise it was on PS3 so I got it on iPad and, well, it doesn't control great on a touch screen. It's all swipes and gestures and too easy to do things you don't intend. So I got the PS4 version knowing that the game has a rather cool feature in that you can sync your progress across from mobile to console and back again. So the couple of hours I put in on iPad weren't in vain. The art style is pretty cool, it's like Team Fortress 2 but side-on. It takes the piss out of both Russia and America and the ridiculousness of the Cold War - both sides are in a race to blow up the Moon with nukes. Why? Because. Before each level you pick which side you want to go against for that mission (CounterSpy is a third party organisation, trying to stop both super powers), taking into account which bonuses you can pick up. Then you go through taking out soldiers, finding money, articles, mission plans, weapon plans and perk plans. You can use up to 3 perks in a level and the most useful ones I used all the time was one to bring the a Defcon level down one each time and one to make your shots take out armoured guards and cameras. The weapons are pretty smart too - silenced pistol is a must, plus a dart gun that makes enemies turn against his mates and take them out. Ultra useful when surrounded by a massive pack of cunts. The snag for these great weapons and perks though is you have to unlock them eventually by picking up pieces in the levels so you'll start off with nothing interesting at first. Grinding isn't a chore though because the levels are all randomly generated and they're still all pretty short. Longest level I've played is maybe 15 minutes long, depending on your style of play. Though I wouldn't really advise all guns blazing. It's an option, but the game is really geared towards stealthy play. I don't like writing too much so I'll leave it there but well worth a tenner. Though I'm sure it'll come to PS+ down the line.

I suspect there's posts about Year Walk on the forum but there doesn't seem to be a thread. I've not quite finished it yet, looking at where I can potentially go there's not a lot left, not that it's impossible that a whole new area will open up, and there's still a box I have no idea what to do with. For those that haven't played it, it's basically a point and click, but one that fairly quickly becomes bleak as fuck. You're not quite just switching between locations, you have to walk along until you get to the path to the next area, which is occasionally used quite well, in quite an ominous way, but when you're stuck, lost, or have to do some leg work to solve a puzzle, it gets tedious. Which is where I'm at with it at the minute and why I'm writing this and not playing it. I've worked out what I need to do to solve a puzzle (in the graveyard for those that have played it) but it involves wandering around finding things that I've forgotten the location of, and I'll probably need to write the solutions down on something. So yeah, time for a coffee and a break before going and doing that. It's good though, I love a good off-key dark fairytale, and that's kind of what this is. It does seem odd that it started out life as a phone game still

What's in the cube? A broken server, that's what. It took me ages to finally get in and then trying to buy the stats screen (only costs 100 coins which you'll get in about 10 seconds) is proving impossible. The "game" itself is exactly as Molyneux described and they point out in the about page that it's not a game and is more of an experiment so it's weird to see people so dismissive and angry about it. It hasn't been out long and already the first layer is nearly gone.

Made by the team that did World of Goo and the guy who was behind Henry Hatsworth. You can tell the World of Goo thing by the art style and sense of humour, a mile off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04GSCt2Wiqo It's a little bizarre. It's a sandbox game with no fail state but there is a running narrative and story. You order objects which you place in your fireplace and then set them on fire. Build combos by combing certain objects together and you'll start unlocking more lists of stuff to buy. All in-game money, no IAP's as far as I'm aware. It's oddly compelling but there isn't much point to it. From Wired:

I have had so many opportunities to play Team 17's Alien Breed throughout my twenty seven years of gaming, but always passed or got busy with other games. Last night I started playing the PlayStation Vita port of Alien Breed and wow it is fantastic. Alien Breed is up there with Dyson vacuums, The Business and Liverpool FC as one of the greatest thing given to mankind by the English. The Vita port includes the original 1991 Amiga game, the 1992 enhanced special edition and what looks like expansions packs (Convergence, Valiance and Synergy). Wi-Fi and Ad-Hoc co-op is included. Team Bloober did the VIta port and it looks fantastic on the Vita's screen. Not sure how the controls where set up on the Amiga, but the twin sticks and touch screen on the Vita work wonderfully. Great game. Highly enjoying it. Easy Trophies if that is your thing.

Dokuro is a puzzle platform game from Game Arts and GungHo Online. The basic plot is the Dark Lord kidnaps a princess for him to marry (by force). You play as Dokuro who is one of the Dark Lords skeleton minions. Dokuro sees the princess crying and seeing as he is tired of being ignored by the Dark Lord decides to help her escape the Dark Lords castle. The gameplay revolves around flipping switches to guide the princess out of the level unharmed. The game play gets more complex adding chalk, which can be used to connect platforms with chain and rope. Dokuro can also drink potion which turns him into a knight giving him stronger attacks. After five levels you have a boss fight before moving onto the next section of the castle. I would put Dokuro up there with Limbo as one of the more beautiful games on Vita. In fact if you liked Limbo I would strongly recommend Dokuro. The graphical style has a chalk or pastel look to it. Dokuro is also one of the better made games on the device with the gameplay being as solid as a brick. It was only $2.99 on the PlayStation store and it should be in every Vita owners digital library. For non-Vita owners Dokuro has been ported by GungHo to iOS and Android, but without physical face buttons and d-pad I’m not sure how it will play.

Do you like SNK's Metal Slug game? Do you like tower defense games too? Well SNK just dropped free-2-play Metal Slug Defense on Andriod and iOS today. Downloading at the moment and will write my thoughts after I sink some time into it.