As MCV reports, Microsoft's Richard Teversham, (former) Senior Director of Business, Insights, and Strategy for Xbox, has left the company to join rival Apple.
According to MCV, Teversham has accepted a position in Apple's European offices and will be working in an education-related capacity. He held the role of Xbox Director for Platform and Marketing from 2005 to 2007, before becoming the company's Xbox strategy boss. Teversham leaves Microsoft after 15 years with the company.
Microsoft is currently in the process of recruiting Teversham's replacement.
Apple, with the iPhone platform, is well poised in the mobile game industry and, as a move like this shows, it's clearly gaining momentum.
Last month Let's Golf [App Store]took the App Store by storm, receiving both positive reactions on our forums as well as in our review. While fans of arcade style sports games loved Let's Golf, it failed to satisfy gamers looking for the realism previously seen in EA's Tiger Woods series of golf games.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour [App Store] does away with Let's Golf's simple three tap swing system (and slightly more complicated "Advanced" swing mode) in exchange for EA's "touch-n-drag" swing meter which allows for much more control. Swiping your finger across the screen also allows far more customization of the English you give the ball while it's soaring through the air.
One of the first things I first noticed about Tiger Woods PGA Tour is the sky high framerate. The game runs remarkably well, and the performance is most likely a direct result of the lower detail level of your surroundings on the course. Trees and buildings are constructed from very low polygon count models with low resolution textures to match. However, the things that really matter all look great. Your golfer, the swing animations, and the actual courses themselves all look rather lifelike for an iPhone game.
Packed inside Tiger Woods PGA Tour are seven famous PGA courses as well as a line-up of top golfers to play as or against. Like all Tiger Woods games, you can also create your own golfer with a few basic customizations like my pasty white, pink shirt equipped golf master seen in these screenshots. EA even included voiceovers by Kelly Tilgman from The Golf Channel and former pro golfer Sam Torrance that get a little repetitive at times, but greatly added to the immersion of the game.
My initial impressions are positive, and I'm really blown away by the depth of this game. On top of the intricacies and difficulty involved in the unassisted swing control, there's also a equipment shop where you can purchase upgrades with your winnings. Available upgrades include power, power boost, drive control, impact, approach, putting, recovery, and spin. Between these features and the amazing 120 holes included, I expect Tiger Woods PGA Tour should keep golf enthusiasts busy for quite some time.
Some reader reviews in our forums have been quite positive: Acidbottle and slickninja.
Here's a brief gameplay video of one of the holes showing the swinging mechanism:
Glu mobile has recently released a Lite version of their time-management game Build-a-Lot. Build-a-Lot Lite [App Store] offers an abbreviated version of the full game with the following features:
6 levels in 2 unique neighborhoods
Construct, buy, sell and upgrade different types of buildings and homes
Earn rent to purchase blueprints
Enhanced graphics augment the beautifully rendered animated backgrounds and sleek user interface
We quite enjoyed the full version of the game when we reviewed it:
I never would have expected a simple game based around renting and flipping houses could be as hectic as a good tower defense game, and although Build-a-Lot has questionable replay value once you beat the 35 included levels, it’s great fun the first time through. If you’re looking for a unique time management simulation game, we recommend giving Build-a-Lot a try.
Chance to Win Full Version
Glu is offering 10 TouchArcade readers a chance to win the full version [App Store] which is currently on sale for $1.99. Here's how to enter the giveaway (U.S. Residents only):
1) Download and Play the Lite version of Build-a-Lot
2) Send an email to buildalot-iphone@glu.com with the answer to this question: "Name one goal from level 4"
3) Send the email by Friday May 1st at 11:59pm Pacific Time.
4) Winners selected at random from pool of correct answers and will be announced in this article.
Last week Touch Arcade visited Gameloft's Manhattan offices to preview a few new titles, one of which was the iPhone version of the mobile top-down airplane shooter Siberian Strike. Today, the game landed in the App Store and is available for download at a price of $5.99 [link].
When you fly at the speed of sound, you have to think at the speed of light... Discover the fastest-paced shoot'em up with hours of aerial action and fun!
1940s. You are Elliott Freeman and your mission is to track and destroy an evil soviet cyborg that is threatening to invade Europe.
Features as listed by Gameloft:
Fast-paced action, intense combat and 4 difficulty levels to keep you constantly challenged
Unique gameplay mixing shooting and insane piloting missions that test your dexterity
Choice between Accelerometer and Touch controls that let you steer and target enemies like a real pilot
Join your friends in frenetic local Wi-Fi Multiplayer to experience a crazy adventure
Gigantic boss fights and memorable moments with immersive 3D animations
12 amazing levels to explore across varied environments: Canyons, secret bases, tunnels, and more!
While I only spent a short while with the title at Gameloft, I found the overall flow of the onscreen action to make for a great shooter experience with a real arcade feel. Siberian Strike impressed me as one of the best shooters I've encountered for the iPhone.
We will be posting a much closer look, with video, shortly.
Fans of BioWare's action RPG Mass Effect have something to look forward to. According to Joystiq, it was revealed in a survey taken by a reader that EA will be bringing Mass Effect: Jacob's Story to the App Store.
The iPhone version is a top-down shooter, punctuated with comic book-style sequences, featuring Jacob Taylor, "a biotic-powered super-soldier who stumbles across a plot to terrorize civilization's greatest beacon of hope." Jacob's Story will serve as a predecessor to the upcoming Xbox 360 and PC title Mass Effect 2, introducing players to some of the characters' backstories.
According to Joystiq, depending on the success of the title, EA and BioWare may look into expanding the game into an entire series. The survey also suggests that mobile versions of the upcoming Dragon Age RPG are under consideration.
Jacob's Story is expected to provide about two hours of gameplay and to debut at a price point of $2.99. No release date is indicated.
Long time readers will know that I have a strange obsession with Sunflat's Papi-series of iPhone games. It all started with Papi Jump which was a brilliant yet simple game.
It's hard to say if Sunflat has been able to surpass their initial iPhone effort, but their collection of games always contain a surprising amount of playability. The latest game is similar to Missile Command. Here's the developer's game description (which is part of the Papi experience):
OMG! Many enemy missiles are falling down to the Papi Town. Slide your finger from a military base to launch Mr.Papi (red ball guy) and break all the enemy missiles.
- If you break many missiles at a time, you get more score.
- If all the bases are destroyed by missiles, the game is over.
- Sometimes an extra base flies through the air. If he gets it, a destroyed base will be recovered.
The game becomes quite difficult as the levels progress, it provides a simple, free diversion.
Fish Labs have released a free Lite version of their space shooter Galaxy on Fire [App Store].
The game is an space commerce shooter that takes place in a massive galaxy with hundreds of planets and space stations.
The game has generated a lot of interest and praise since its inital release, though there were several (now resolved) issues in the 1.0 version. The full version of the game includes over 20 hours of gameplay is truly an impressive effort.
Don't look at the all time Flight Control leaderboards if you want to keep thinking you're an great Flight Control player. The highest recorded score is 3155 planes landed in a single session.
Yes, Flight Control's 1.1 version update went live yesterday and now offers CloudCell integrated online leaderboards. Flight Control is, of course, Firemint's massively popular flight time-management game that remains one of our favorite iPhone games.
Aside from the global scores, the update also provide a save/resume feature and some minor bug fixes. Firemint will follow with additional updates that add new airports and aircraft to the mix.
Meanwhile, the team at Firemint has publicly released sales numbers for Flight Control after it's first month and a half on sale. Firemint had committed to releasing numbers well before they knew what a huge success the game would be.
A summary of results is provided here:
Sales during the report period: 587,485
Sales to date (6 March to 27 April): over 700,000
Graph of global sales per day
Total sales per country (57% of sales in USA)
Peak sales days (over 35,000 sold on best day) and sales trends over time
Highest daily sales per country (19,164 in the USA)
And a detailed PDF can be downloaded from their blog entry.
Joystiq has received word that Popcap's Peggle is finally making its way into the App Store on May 12th.
Joystiq can excitedly confirm that Peggle for iPhone / iPod Touch will be released onto the App Store on Tuesday, May 12. PopCap is still considering an appropriate price, but we can assume Peggle is not going to be tossed in the 99-cent free-for-all pile and will probably fit into a more "premium" price range between $5-6.
Pricing has not been determined but, for reference, Popcap's most recent iPhone release Bookworm [App Store] was introduced at the $4.99 price.
Peggle is an incredibly popular game from PopCap that was named in the "Top 5 most addictive computer games of all time." by MSBNC, as well as host of other awards.
The object of this game is deceptively simple: Fire balls into a crowded field of blue and orange pegs, with your eventual goal being to clear the orange pegs before the last ball runs out. This gets harder and harder as you move deeper and deeper, and before you know it, you’re hooked.
A version of the game can be downloaded for the Mac or PC.
When we met with Com2US at GDC, they showed us a few of the projects they had been working on. One called Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D is almost ready for release.
The game is a homerun derby type game with the ability to customize characters and equipment. The batting itself is controlled in part by the iPhone's accelerometer allowing players to line up the baseball bat to strike the ball. The game provides online matchups, character customization and 3D effects.
Features include:
Four different play modes: Matchup, Arcade, Training, and Classic modes
Head-to-head online match-ups with friends and rivals
Seven item balls with different traits and benefits
Player customization including body, look ,and baseball equipment
Social networking
Virtual item store (expected to be available this June when Apple opens SDK 3.0 )
Electronic Arts has brought the 1996 PC / Playstation / Saturn Eidos title Pandemonium! [App Store] to the iPhone and iPod touch.
Originally published by Crystal Dynamics, Pandemonium is a run, jump, shoot, and stomp platformer that is best described as "2.5D", in that, while the graphics are fully 3D rendered, gameplay takes place along a 2D plane. It feels something akin to (the more notable titles) Crash Bandicoot meets NiGHTS Into Dreams.
The game stars Nikki, a young sorceress in training, her court jester friend Fargus, and his puppet Sid. One night at a wizards' training seminar, they get hold of the Anicent Wizards Spellbook and Nikki starts casting spells atop Lancelot's Castle. It's all fun and games until she unwisely attempts a 10th level spell and summons a frightful beast known as Yungo who proceeds to consume the entire village in a single gulp. Stricken, the lot sets off for the Wishing Engine in an attempt to save the village and undo the damage they'd wrought.
Gameplay involves running amongst the twisty paths and platforms of 18 different worlds (each with a number of levels) in an attempt to save the village. Along the way there are treasures, weapons, and health power-ups to collect while dodging, stomping, and shooting a host of beastly enemies, including spiders, poison plants, dragons, and goons. At the start of each level, the player can choose between Nikki and Fargus. While Fargus has a cartwheel-attack skill, acrobatic Nikki can perform double jumps so useful in reaching far-away platforms.
I first encountered the game as a pack-in title that came with a 3Dfx Voodoo video card for the PC, back in 1998. It was an impressive demonstration of the video hardware of the day and, at the time, was fairly well reviewed by critics. Pandemonium! for the iPhone is closer to the Windows version of the game, which features perspective correct texture mapping and an overall cleaner look than the console versions. And while the graphics break no new ground today, they hold up rather well and actually seem best suited for a mobile device rather than a big screen, given the relatively simple textures used in the rendering.
I've tried Pandemonium! on both an iPhone 3G and a 2G iPod touch and have noted that, while the animation is quite smooth on the touch, the game does exhibit occasional framerate dips on the iPhone 3G. Another mild criticism I might make concerns the simple sound effects and fairly monotonous in-game music -- they could have done with a bit of an overhaul.
The game utilizes an on-screen D-pad and button touch controls for movement, jumping, and firing. As is often the case with such arrangements on ported titles, the controls can be cumbersome. It's easy to lose track of where your fingers are while attempting some of the complex acrobatics required to get from platform to platform. The longer I played, however, the more comfortable I became with the controls.
While it's obviously not a game built with the iPhone's unique attributes in mind, I'm glad to see it ported to the platform. In evaluating Pandemonium! for this post, I found it a hard game to put down -- some of that owing to nostalgia, of course, but it's actually a fun game to play. I think those who can get behind the 2.5D play mechanic and don't mind D-pad controls, even without previous familiarity with the game, may find Pandemonium! to be a charming platform experience.
See our gameplay video (taken on a 2G iPod touch) for a look at the first few worlds.
Pandemonium is an iPhone port of Crystal Dynamics / Eidos' 1996 2.5D console platformer. The visuals stand up well as a mobile title and it's a fun on-rails platform experience. Being a console port, the game features on-screen D-pad controls which can be cumbersome and on devices other than the 2G iPod touch, occasional framerate issues appear. Those wanting a nice looking run, jump, shoot, and stomp platformer may enjoy.
Just when you think you’ve seen enough of match-3 games, another comes walking through the door.. and this time for free. Color Drops [App Store] is from JVL Corporation whose mantra is “We take our games seriously”, and that’s obviously true in the case of Color Drops.
The rules of the game are somewhat simple: match three or more balls by number or color and this can be done horizontally, vertically and diagonally. The game is polished from the music and graphics to the interface and overall gameplay.
Overall, Color Drops is a great variation on the traditional match-3 game, and while the gameplay may be simple, it’s obvious that the developers put a good deal of thought into the game itself and added some nice touches that take advantage of the iPhone/iPod Touch.
There is a Color Drops thread in our forum where it's seen rather positive reaction from readers.
Every since we saw the first screenshot for the upcoming Defender Chronicles iPhone game back in February, we've been anxious to hear more about the it. The game is said to be a fresh take on Tower Defense that's also blended with a role-playing adventure. The game is being developed by Gimka Entertainment, Inc and Menara Games and they have just released to us the first gameplay video... and it looks very promising.
Defender Chronicles is set in a fantasy medieval world. The capital city of men, Londrom has fallen to the Orc Hordes. As a warlord, you must defend the Empire from the invasion of the Orc Hordes and the rising Undead.
Gameplay features include:
6 distinct defenders - warrior, archer, berserker, ranger, halfling, and mage. Each defender has its own unique ability and voice acting.
5 beautifully hand-drawn battlegrounds – with the side-view perspective, you can now zoom in to view the battle close up.
5 game modes – campaign, classic, classic endless, extended, and extended endless.
4 difficulty levels – casual, veteran, master, heroic. Each difficulty level is designed carefully for a specific audience and each can be won with perfect score.
Fun storyline – travel the path of a legendary defender as you lead the army through the beautiful land of Athelia and with the company of your trusted advisor.
Fight a variety of enemy bosses – from Gnoll Captain, Orc Chieftain, and Queen Goblin to the fearsome Wyrm Rider Duo, Awe Inspiring Giant Golem and Meat Chomping Slimeballs.
Four original music soundtracks and a variety of sound effects with 3D positioning – zoom in to hear the battle just like you where there.
The game is expected for release in May and will be priced at $4.99.
Pick Up and Play has released their online multiplayer first person shooter iFPS Online [link] into the App Store this evening.
iFPS Online features a full 3D FPS experience. Challenge your friends to a death match with up to four players. The first and only iPhone online multiplayer FPS. Host a game through your wifi; Join a game through your wifi or 3G!
The game offers online deathmatch with up to 4 players over Wi-Fi or a 3G connection, making it the first App Store game to do so.
First impressions of the game can be best summarized as "not bad". The game offers two types of control:
Two Joystick - left stick for movement, right stick for looking around with Fire and Jump buttons on each stick, respectively
One Joystick - single stick for movement, accelerometer for looking and two on screen buttons for jump or fire
Both control systems seem less than ideal. I found the dual-stick option the more usable in my very brief time with the game.
The developer's gameplay video shows off the controls and action:
The game feels rough to start, and the three included multiplayer maps are quite small. When tested over a 3G connection iFPS was reasonably playable, though we haven't had an opportunity to test the game in more ideal scenarios (such as a local Wi-Fi connection) yet.
The gameplay itself is limited compared to most modern FPSs with only 2 possible weapons. Matches can limited to # of kills or a certain number of minutes and player kills are tallied on screen. In-game chat is accomplished through pre-defined phrases that can be triggered during the game. iFPS does offer a single player Survival mode and a Practice mode where you play against the AI, but the real draw to the game is the multiplayer.
Despite the limitations, why's it still "not bad"? Well, there's something about online-multiplayer deathmatch that is very compelling and I found my first few online matches very enjoyable. It does, however, also make me look forward to more ambitious multiplayer FPS games such as Ngmoco's LiveFire which has already been announced.
iFPS is also being discussed by TouchArcade readers in this discussion thread, and we'll provide some more thoughts when we've had more time with the game.
Be sure to restart your iPhone or iPod Touch before playing the game for the first time. There have been reports that many of the performance issues can be addressed with a restart.
As MCV reports, Microsoft's Richard Teversham, (former) Senior Director of Business, Insights, and Strategy for Xbox, has left the company to join rival Apple.
Last week Touch Arcade visited Gameloft's Manhattan offices 
Fans of BioWare's action RPG 
Fish Labs have released a free Lite version of their space shooter Galaxy on Fire [
Electronic Arts has brought the 1996 PC / Playstation / Saturn Eidos title Pandemonium! [
I first encountered the game as a pack-in title that came with a 3Dfx Voodoo video card for the PC, back in 1998. It was an impressive demonstration of the video hardware of the day and, at the time, was fairly well reviewed by critics. Pandemonium! for the iPhone is closer to the Windows version of the game, which features perspective correct texture mapping and an overall cleaner look than the console versions. And while the graphics break no new ground today, they hold up rather well and actually seem best suited for a mobile device rather than a big screen, given the relatively simple textures used in the rendering.
The game utilizes an on-screen D-pad and button touch controls for movement, jumping, and firing. As is often the case with such arrangements on ported titles, the controls can be cumbersome. It's easy to lose track of where your fingers are while attempting some of the complex acrobatics required to get from platform to platform. The longer I played, however, the more comfortable I became with the controls.
