Of all the outfits at E3 showing iOS related stuff, Chillingo by far had the best overall lineup. All four of these games look great, and I really can't wait to give 'em all a try. They really know how to pick the games they're going to promote now, and while I'm not entirely sure any of these will be the next Angry Birds, they might be the next Feed Me Oil.

Roll in the Hole - The title of the game basically tells it all, and the rest is explained by watching the video. It's a super casual puzzle game that customers on the App Store have basically voted with their wallets in telling Chillingo "We want more of this, please."

Blobster - This is a really interesting game that I'm not sure if I'd totally describe as a platformer, but it does have some definite platforming sort of elements to it. You control your dude with a slick little slingshot mechanic, which really seems like a much better control solution than the typical array of virtual controls and buttons.

DrawRace 2 - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited for this game. I liked the original a lot, and the sequel adds cool 3D traffics, more tracks, and tons more goodies.

Contre Jour - Similar to Blobster, I'm not really sure the best genre to categorize this game, but the art style if sick. I'm totally loving the look and feel of this one.

Meeting with EA is always a little weird at conventions. Like most massive companies they're governed by many layers of management, marketing, and more. Because of this, details on a lot of these games are hilariously vague. In fact, I was able to get a peek at The Sims Medival, but at this point in time, the only thing EA is willing to let me take away from the event is its logo. Similarly, all they'd tell me about Madden 12 is that it's better than last year, and it has leaderboards.

Oh well, I'm sure we'll have more details soon. Anyway, on with the show-

Madden 12 - The Madden series iterates heavily from year to year, with basic tweaks, improvements, a new roster, and maybe even a new feature or two. This year seems to be no different. The player models seemed to look a little better, the textures were a bit more crisp, and of course, it ran fantastic on the iPad 2.

FIFA 12 - Us Americans don't care too much for soccer, but it's really cool to see EA expanding their system they used in Scrabble to use smaller iOS devices as controllers for a game taking place on the iPad.

Battleship - Everyone remembers Battleship, right? Do I need to explain how it works? Here's what you need to know: No online multiplayer. Weird, right? Either way, the little animations between shots looks neat, and are easily skippable by tapping the screen.

Monopoly: Here and Now: World Edition - Aside from having entirely too many colons in its title, this version of Monopoly has an entirely new board and some other nice additions that you can see in the video.

Capcom (and their tiny mobile division Beeline Interactive) had a massive booth at E3. In this tiny booth was a single kiosk showing off their iOS offerings. Regardless, the guys are Capcom were totally excited to show everything off. I'm sure people will be most interested to check out Street Fighter IV Volt, the upcoming addition to the iOS Street Fighter series:

On the beeline side of things, they had two freemium titles I was able to get video of. I'm not entirely sure how popular these will be amongst our community, but that sure hasn't stopped Smurfs' Village from making bazillions of dollars.

Monster Pet Shop:

Dream Park:

Alright, I'll admit I'm a little excited for Dream Park, but only because I'd love an iOS version of Rollercoaster Tycoon.

It seems like every convention we see a game (or, sometimes, games) that make us take a step back and say, "Whoa, now that's really cool." As a former hardcore Dungeons & Dragons player, Pocket Heroes hit all the right notes for me. Here's the game in a nutshell: Take a party-centric tabletop-style turn based game, give it sprite-based UI, and then add in Words With Friends-style push-powered asynchronous online multiplayer.

The developers explain it better than I can:

It remains to be seen just how awesome the game will be once it's finally released, but I'm super excited for this. Some of the best times I've had in a gaming environment has been in Dungeons & Dragons games, so if F5 Games can even capture a sliver of that fun I'll be totally happy.

For more details, check out the thread in our forums.

Do you find yourself craving Mario Kart on your iPhone, but then are depressed every time you realize that there isn't a Nintendo logo on the device, making such a thing hilariously unlikely? Well, Sega might be offering the next best thing. Sonic & Sega Allstars Racing takes a load of hints from Mario Kart, and utilizes their array of Sega characters instead of the Nintendo favorites. It's got multiplayer, loads of power-ups, a cool drifting system, and more.

Check it out in motion:

Gameloft's Shrek Kart [$4.99 / Free / HD] didn't really scratch that Mario Kart itch how I wanted it to, but I'm thinking Sonic & Sega Allstars Racing might. Stay tuned for more details from Sega.

Believe it or not, E3 wasn't all big name developers and publishers, even though the insane show floor would make most believe otherwise. No, actually, it turns out that there were quite a few indie developers around enjoying the sights and sounds that I was able to catch up with. The first of which was the guys from Muteki Corporation, who had a few really rad things to show off.

Dragon Fantasy - There's already a thread in our upcoming games forum, but here's the gist- Muteki, like most of us old school gamers grew up with all kinds of fantastic old school RPG's. The battle system is basic, the graphics are pixelated, and the story is gloriously cliche... And that's just the way we like it. Dragon Fantasy is an homage to these games of yore.

Give it a look:

Next up was Game Studio, a neat little utility that we got a semi-secret look at during GDC earlier this year. It's in the same vein as Game Salad and other similar easy game creation suites, except this one exists entirely on the iPad. My favorite feature of it is the drag and drop game logic portion.

Check out this extensive walkthrough:

Last, but certainly not least, was a look at an impending update for Super Jetpack Dragon IV [Free / HD]. It shifts the gameplay style from an endless running kind of thing to a level-based platformer. It's pretty neat, and more features and functionality in existing games is always welcome around here.

Take a look:

We've posted about Shadow Gun a few times now, but really haven't gotten much confirmation that the game will actually look (and perform) like it does in the trailer footage. Heck, being skeptical about such things is entirely reasonable too, as it seems like over the course of video game history more than a few developers have released trailers that are either pre-rendered or captured running on hardware that far exceeds the target platform. And really, I suppose as a game developer the greatest compliment you can get is producing something that is so good that people don't think it's real.

Well, I can assure you all that Shadow Gun is real, and the footage that has been shown so far really does reflect how the game looks and plays. Sure, it doesn't seem like there's much gameplay yet aside from a basic third person shooter, but this seems like an awesome starting point.

Here's the game running on an iPad 2, I do some zooming in on the character model so you can see the lighting:

Pretty crazy, right? If you're wondering what's going on behind the scenes, Unity just released the following video that reveals it's not witchcraft, wizardry, or other forms of sorcery... It's actually really clever way to handle character models and lighting. Give it a look:

I'm really looking forward to Shadow Gun, I just hope that Madfinger Games builds an awesome game around these graphics. I'm worried that it could potentially turn into another Samurai II, which as mentioned in our review looked incredible but was somewhat lacking in the gameplay department... So let's cross our collective fingers that this isn't the case here.

I heard you guys like gameplay videos. Well here are a ton. Gameloft had a ridiculous amount of games to show off at E3, and all of these games are scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2011. Of course no pricing was discussed (except for Let's Golf 3 which will be free) but we can likely assume these games will all be priced in line with Gameloft's fairly predictable pricing schemes.

March of Heroes - Gameloft's first Unreal Engine 3 game is a first person shooter that basically plays like all of their other first person shooters with a bit more eye candy thanks to the new and improved engine. Oddly enough, the engine switch alone doesn't make the game look that much better. Polygon counts seem low, and almost out of place compared to the nice shadows generated by the game engine.

Some levels are environmental-focused, check out this underwater portion:

BackStab - I'm not exactly sure what to think of this. It seems like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Assassin's Creed, which could be a very good thing if you like both franchises and would love to see them mushed together in to one game.

9mm - This linear adventure game is highly inspired by Max Payne, complete with an over-the-top bullet time mechanic. Unfortunately, the color palette of the game is rather dark so the quality of the hands-on video isn't the greatest.

Let's Golf 3 - I've had a great time with all the Let's Golf games, and I expect the third installment to be no different. This time around, Gameloft will be dabbling in the free to play world. Hopefully we don't hit a pay wall too early.

Block Breaker 3 Unlimited - A crazy block breaking game with power-ups, multiple areas for blocks to be broken on each level, and channels you can shoot your ball into to transfer between them. This was a lot of fun.

Silent Ops - Gameloft seems to be re-using a lot of its Splinter Cell gameplay with this pseudo-sequel. The game has a very similar look and feel to it, including the fairly dark color palette that my camera didn't capture so well under the E3 lighting.

At GDC in 2009, OnLive was originally unveiled with an incredible amount of entirely reasonable skepticism. The prospect of a service that removed the high-end gaming console and/or PC from the equation and instead did all the heavy lifting in a remote datacenter before streaming your game in HD via the internet was difficult to imagine at the time. Hell, when you stop and think about it, it's still hard to imagine today.

It's here though, and after a quick signup you can be on your way to effortlessly streaming a (as of this writing) collection of 100 different PC and console games. In fact, if you're still at all skeptical about OnLive, I highly encourage you to give it a spin. You'll be inside of a game in less than five minutes, and you can see for yourself just how well it works. The only real requirement is an internet connection that allows you to ping under 80ms to the OnLive servers and enough bandwidth to receive a HD stream. If you've got that, you're good to go.

Currently, only the OnLive Viewer is available for the iPad, but in the not too distant future we'll be able to play the entire OnLive catalog on the iPad. Players will be able to choose between a less-than-ideal set of virtual controls, or purchasing a bluetooth controller to pair with the iPad. I got a chance to fiddle with both today, and while the on-screen controls are functional, the controller is definitely the way to go.

Check out how it all works in the following video:

The folks are OnLive aren't ready to commit to release dates, controller cost, and other details, but it's said to be coming "soon" and the controller is going to be "reasonably priced." Since the whole OnLive Micro Console currently sells for $99, and has been given away for free with a few pre-order promotions, I'd find it hard to believe that the iPad-friendly controller would cost any more than $50-- But that's pure speculation on my part.

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier today, it feels like this changes everything. I couldn't believe how well the whole setup worked, and with Apple's new HDMI adapter, plugging your iOS device into your TV via HDMI to play a game in HD resolutions streamed from the internet just feels like the future. The iOS OnLive client even has support for touch and gesture-based controls, it's just up for developers to build games around them.

What an incredible time to be alive.

Perfection is a strong word, but Capcom isn’t shying from using it when describing Street Fighter 4: Volt, a fleshed out iPod Touch and iPhone sequel to the original Street Fighter 4 [$4.99]. Volt will feature a cast of 18 characters, and will see the addition of Wi-Fi competitive play, which was something its predecessor lacked. It’ll also, according to Capcom, offer “perfected” action with a control feature set reminiscent of the original game.

Of those 18 characters, four will be new to iPhone and iPod Touch series: Balrog, Vega, and Cody will make their debut alongside a “mystery character.” If I were a betting man, I’d bet that this mystery dude is one of the four new cast members of Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition -- Yun, Yang, Evil Ryu, or Oni.

The teaser trailer revealed during E3 shows a lot of the in-game action, but it doesn’t do a great job at expressing that the touch controls can be customized, just like they can be in Street Fighter 4. Neat!

Looking good, right? No word on price, but Capcom has confirmed that launch will be soon -- the game should be available on the App Store this July.

Will Wright, the visionary behind The Sims franchise and the creator of Spore, is getting back into games design with his new studio, Super Fun Club. At E3, Wright revealed that this new title, which is ‘likely’ to hit tablets, smartphones, and Facebook according to UK news site Eurogamer, is based on science fiction author Bruce Sterling’s “Maneki Neko.”

"He describes a karmic computer that's keeping a balance of payments between different people, and causing them to interact with each other in interesting ways to improve their lives even though they're strangers," Wright told Eurogamer in an interview. "They earn karmic points that are redeemed by having somebody else help them."

The game doesn’t have a name yet, but it should be out within a year. Wright said as much on the record, kinda, as he explained his thoughts on how the conventional development model is morphing into one that demands quick production as opposed to slow, two-year cycles.

The Maneki Neko is a Japanese sculpture of a cat with its paw raised to the air. In the short story of the same name, this gesture is some sort of sign of a secretive AI-based gift economy. Talk about a wild premise for a game, right?

Wright is an inventive guy with a lot of off-the-wall game ideas and thoughts -- this one included. It’ll be neat to see him on phones and tablets since these are part of a handful of platforms that allow for this next level type of craziness without significant financial repercussions. I’m excited to see what he can do, too.

[Via Eurogamer]

Next week is going to be insane. WWDC. and E3 are both taking place at the same time. If you're a gamer, there's going to be so much news to take in next week that it might take two weeks to read it all.

If you're a developer, there are two ways you can contact me to set up a meeting at either event if you haven't already:

1. Solve this CAPTCHA to get my Google Talk name (which is also my email address, hence the anti-spam captcha) and shoot me an instant message. I'll be around all day and most of the weekend, and able to get you booked into a meeting slot and collect all pertinent pieces of contact information very quickly.
2. Send an email to tips@toucharcade.com with either "E3 2011 Meeting" or "WWDC 2011 Meeting" in the subject line so I can filter your message properly. Include what days you're going to be at the event in question, contact info, and anything else you feel is relevant to booking a meeting with us.

Scheduling meetings via IM is highly preferable, since I don't need to play email tag! I can't wait to see everyone next week, and while I'm sure that covering two major gaming events in one week will make all of our collective hairs just a little more grey, it will be worth it.

It's hard to believe it's already WWDC (and E3) season already. The always-accelerating fast-paced nature of the App Store (and mobile devices in general) have made this year absolutely fly by. Anyway, if you're unfamiliar, WWDC is Apple's event which falls around the same time every year and is usually kicked off with a keynote address by Steve Jobs. While this event is entirely Apple-centric, E3 is all about video games of all kinds. Unfortunately, these two events fall on the same week this year, which is going to make covering both events pretty tricky, to say the least.

To determine which days I'm going to be spending at which events, I really need developers to get in touch with me! Think of this as an iOS-specific battle of Team Edward versus Team Jacob. Which event corresponds to which Twilight heartthrob I'm not entirely sure of, but it's important you get in touch with me all the same.

There are two ways you can contact me to set up a meeting at either event:

1. Solve this CAPTCHA to get my Google Talk name (which is also my email address, hence the anti-spam captcha) and shoot me an instant message. Assuming I'm around, I'll be able to get you booked into a meeting slot and collect all pertinent pieces of contact information very quickly
2. Send an email to tips@toucharcade.com with either "E3 2011 Meeting" or "WWDC 2011 Meeting" in the subject line so I can filter your message properly. Include what days you're going to be at the event in question, contact info, and anything else you feel is relevant to booking a meeting with us.

I can't wait to see everyone at both events. Also something to keep in mind, I'm local to the Los Angeles area now, so if you're in town for E3 and are going to be staying an extra couple days so we don't necessarily need to meet up specifically during the event, that will help me out considerably to know that!

So which is it, Team Edward or Team Jacob? Which event is which? I'm thinking WWDC is definitely Team Edward, but it's open for debate.