I feel like I've said it a million times by now, and probably most recently (and most publicly) discussed the idea in a recent episode of the TouchArcade show where we got on the subject of how your iPad is basically as powerful (if not more so) than the PC's we played "classic" MMO's on a decade ago. So, where the heck are the shared experience MMO clients that let me take my game with me regardless of where I am or what client I'm connected with?! Sure, there's a couple of them (Spacetime Studios is particularly killing it.) but nowhere near as many as you'd think there'd be. The just-released Vendetta Online [$0.99 (HD)] seems like it's just what the doctor ordered.

It's a huge-scale space MMO that's giving me some serious Freelancer vibes, which is definitely a good thing. The payment model is cool too, as your initial 99¢ download gets your access to the game for a month, then after that it's just another dollar a month if you want to keep playing. That seems super-low risk, and really agreeable if you want to keep playing.

Oh, and there's even a "Player Contribution Corps," per the iTunes description, where you can directly contribute to content that gets added to the game if you become a hardcore member of the community. Getting started on a new MMO is intimidating, that's for sure, but this one is tickling all the right places for me and I'm stoked to spend some time with it. For more info on the game, check out the official web site which has downloads links for the Mac, Windows, and Linux clients as well as the thread on our forums.

When Growtopia first popped up on our radar at the beginning of this month, we thought it looked pretty darn cool. It looked like one of those 2D Minecraft-y games that seem to be all the rage lately, and we were excited to try it out. Well as of today Growtopia [Free] is officially in the App Store courtesy of a collaboration between developers Robinson Technologies and Hamumu Software. After spending just a short amount of time with Growtopia I have to say it's completely awesome so far.

Growtopia is an online only game, meaning you connect to its servers and create or join a world with other players. From here you can "mine" the blocks in a world to discover different items and seeds, which are the basis of creating everything in the game. Each type of seed grows a specific item, but seeds can be spliced together and combined to grow a huge variety of things. This is basically the "crafting" of the game.

And that's kind of the gist of things. You cruise around to different worlds, mining and planting seeds to grow items, and generally just building cool things and interacting with the other players in the game. It's really fun, even more so than I thought it would be. There is a 'TouchArcade' world that seems to be the pretty popular and active.

With online games like this that take place in persistent worlds where everyone can interact, you'll no doubt get some people trying to destroy things and generally make life tough for everyone else. In Growtopia you can avoid this issue by purchasing locks that allow you to rope off a portion of the world or even an entire world itself so that only you or anyone you designate can access it.

You buy things in the in-game store using gems that are discovered through mining or that can be purchased in packs of IAP. The game feels pretty generous so far in doling out gems naturally, but if you do decide to splurge on an IAP pack these are also very generous, giving you a ton of gems for the price. You can also earn free gems through TapJoy, if you're into that sort of thing.

Besides the privacy locks you can buy other cool things in the store like clothing items, seeds, environmental items like doors and signs, and an increased inventory so you can carry around more stuff.

I've really just scratched the surface of Growtopia, and I'm looking forward to spending some more time playing around in the game. It's free to download and try, and you don't even have to sign up for an account or anything to play online, though you can if you wish. It's free to do so and allows you to transfer your progress between devices.

There's an active Growtopia discussion going on in our forums, and there's a Seed Recipe Wiki page that will show you the types of things you can grow in the game if you need a bit of guidance. The game is free, so definitely worth the download to give it a look.

It was way back in April of this year that we first took a look at an ambitious online multiplayer 2D sandbox game called Deepworld [Free], and at long last the game has found its way into the App Store.

Deepworld takes that whole Minecraft thing - building a world out of various kinds of blocks and crafting items using resources that you discover in that world - and puts it in 2D side-scrolling form, like Junk Jack [$2.99] or Terraria. Oh, it's also steampunk-themed, and has this cool hand-drawn art style that really sets it apart visually from similar titles.

In Deepworld, you're able to connect to a variety of different kinds of worlds online and work with others in real-time to build, mine, battle enemies, or do pretty much whatever you want. The initial download of Deepworld is free, and gives you limited access to the available online worlds, and caps your character's experience level. For a $4.99 in-app purchase you can unlock the entire game, which allows your character to fully progress and gives you access to all the premium worlds as well as the ability to create your own private worlds. You'll also get access to a ton of exclusive loot that's only for players of the full game.

The free version of Deepworld should give you a pretty good idea of whether or not you'll want to unlock the full version. Deepworld is also available on the Mac, and players can play cross-platform across the Mac and iOS versions. It's iPad only for now, but there are plans to bring it to the iPhone in the future. Check out this latest trailer to get a taste of what Deepworld is all about.

I played around with a beta version of Deepworld not too long ago and found it to be an incredibly interesting title. All the aspects of exploration and discovery that you'd expect from a sandbox title are present, and the whole steampunk thing makes for a nice variety of items and decorations to adorn the world with. Plus it's pretty cool to be zipping around in Deepworld and run across other people online for some multiplayer shenanigans. I'm beginning to dip into the release version now, which just went online worldwide last week.

If you're an iPad owner I'd definitely recommend checking out the free portion of Deepworld. It can be quite daunting at first but there are some nice tutorials on developer Bytebin's YouTube channel and in-game, and you can always stop by our forums to get some help from fellow gamers and the developers themselves.

UPDATE: This is awkward. Moments ago we got an email from Travis Baldree, President of Runic Games, who gave us the heads up that every asset they've come across in the game so far is lifted directly from Torchlight. We'd usually catch stuff like this, but unfortunately Torchlight is amongst the bazillion Steam games I own and haven't played yet. The good news is, if you thought this game looked cool, Torchlight is available on Steam for the Mac and PC for $8.99 as part of Steam's massive summer sale. That's 40% off for those of you playing along at home. -Eli

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Even if you just poke around on our message board, you've probably seen Armed Heroes. It is another incredibly ambitious MMO for iPhone and iPad brimming features we usually see in MMOs on PC, including robust loot and crafting systems, as well as skill trees, PVP, and an expansive main quest. Armed Heroes was supposed to hit this June, but after the studio behind the project discovered some bugs, its US date moved to July. However, it is now available on the Canadian App Store, so go nuts if you've got access.

The list of stuff you can do in Armed Heroes is exhaustive, and it's quite a looker to boot. The below trailer shows off some flashy stuff, and taking this at face, it looks like Heroes has a chance to deliver on its ambition. We'll keep you in the loop as we explore the game and let you know how it stands up.

When I look back on my life as a gamer, there are two ages: Before Ultima Online and after Ultima Online. I've attempted to explain why Ultima Online was so incredible, and really, I've never been able to fully do it. It's something that other UO players totally get, in that there was just something so... magical about the first year of the game's existence. The concept of the mass-market MMORPG was still so new that no one really knew what to do. The chaos that ensued, in a world where you could do nearly anything, was remarkable.

Anyway, I could wax poetic over how amazing Ultima Online was for eternity, but that's not the point of this post. IGN scored some details on an upcoming free to play Ultima game titled, Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar.

IGN's Anthony Gallegos explains:

Ultima Forever is a throwback to classic Ultima games, with mechanics grounded in Ultima IV. Starting as either a fighter or a mage (a druid and paladin class are coming later), your hero sets out on a quest to become the Avatar, a person who embodies what are known as the eight Virtues. Using a Baldur's Gate-like isometric perspective, you'll guide your hero either alone or with friends through hours and hours of quests, battling it out with monsters and making hard choices until your character embodies the virtues and reaches the end-game dungeons. Once you beat it, becoming the Avatar, you then start a new game plus, playing through all the content again on an even harder setting.

My personal excitement doesn't stop there. The article makes comparisons to Diablo, but it's also going to be totally cross platform, allowing you to team up with players regardless of whether they're playing on their PC or iPad. It sounds like the free to play model is pretty sweet too, hinging entirely on cosmetic upgrades and boosts to get you through the game faster instead of ever hitting any sort of pay wall.

You can sign up for the closed beta on the Ultima Forever web site, which I've already done with the quickness. If I can, ahem, "PK scrubs at the Brit' x-roads" all day on my iPad, well, we may have ourselves a serious productivity problem around here at TouchArcade.

Corp Por!

[via IGN]

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was roll over and check to see if anyone had invaded my corner of the universe. Before I brushed my teeth, I queued technologies to research. At lunch, I sent my probes across the galaxy in the hopes of finding mineral-rich planets that would nourish my growing empire the way strange-tasting goulash was nourishing my body. I had to be prepared. It was still early, but soon there would be people looking to circumvent my attempts to create a few black holes.

Empire of the Eclipse is huge. You've probably heard that word used in conjunction with this subscription-based strategy-MMO many, many times before but that's because that's the only adjective that really fits. Designed to be played over the course of weeks or months, each game in Empire of the Eclipse [Free] is capable of supporting hundreds of power-hungry players, all of whom will be laboring to achieve their respective 'win' criteria before anyone else can succeed at theirs.

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TouchArcade Rating:

Zarksoft's ambitious sci-fi MMO-meets-strategy game, Empire of the Eclipse [Free], is now out and available on the App Store. We bring you this release update for two reasons: (a) we figure we owe you an official heads up after not mentioning the game's impending release in our weekly new releases post and (b) Glenn needs some people to play with.

Who's Glenn? We don't know him that well, either. But he did write our tips line earlier today asking us to whip up a quick post to bring attention to the title. Glenn is currently battling it out in the game's first live event and says more dudes need to join. So, here you go Glenn. Now our readers know Empire is out and you'd like to play against more people. Say "hi" to Glenn for us if you sign up. Thanks!

FYI: we're working on bringing you a detailed write-up on this release, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to give Glenn a hand before we bring you something substantial. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Glenn has informed TouchArcade that he missed this first live game due to a "slight misunderstanding." HOWEVER, Glenn plans to play in another game that will either start tomorrow or when the "Irkalla" server hits 1370 users.

Sega's Phantasy Star Online 2 won't cost you a dollar -- unless you'd like an item or two. Sega has announced that the upcoming sequel to the everyone's favorite "light" MMO, Phantasy Star Online, will roll with the standard MMO free-to-play model, and charge users for select item transactions from its in-game store. Also, an iOS and Android version has been confirmed. Both are slated to hit at some point in "winter 2012," according to Andriasang.

Keep your expectations in check, though: Sega has said that the phone versions of the game are simpler and will feature "social game elements," on top of a basic character creation mechanism, and controls. These versions will be able to loosely communicate with the PC and Vita versions of the game, but the experiences won't had across these platforms won't be measuring up to each other.

Images via Andriasang.

The available intel on PSO2 still isn't fantastic, as it seems like Sega is keeping its marketing efforts for the game contained to other regions. However, we do know that PSO2 will continue to offer the franchises' specific blend of shooter-meets-brawler combat and offer instanced-based content. Oh, and Mags are totally coming back!

Footage of the Vita version.

 

[via Andriasang]

At an event that was supposed to revolve around World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard producer John Lagrave revealed that the studio is flirting with the idea of taking the still-popular MMO to iPhone. "We won't do it until we think it's decent," Lagrave told Eurogamer in an interview. "But it's interesting and the world is evolving towards that little handheld device." He added that Blizzard would be foolish not to consider a port.

Lagrave pointed out a few key reasons why we haven't seen WOW mobile yet, the main one being that it doesn't have a good idea for it at the moment. As far as fundamental problems are concerned, that strikes us as a pretty big one. Still, it's nice to know that Blizzard is thinking about us phone-shackled folk. If this ever happens, hopefully Blizzard sticks to its guns and offers up with something much more clever than these guys, who put the entire game on iOS via Vollee.

[via Eurogamer]

Gameloft doesn't miss sales opportunities, so it's not much of a surprise to see a very select number of its titles get a price-slashing treatment this week in celebration of Make Kids Fat Night. Starting now and for a 'limited time,' you can save a bunch of dollars on decidedly un-spooky titles like Gameloft Action Pack, its MMO Order & Chaos Online, and Shrek Forever After: the Movie: the Game.

Here's the full list for perusing pleasure:

• Order & Chaos Online - $6.99 → $.99
• Gameloft Action Pack - $4.99 → $.99
• Shrek Forever After: The Game - $4.99 → $.99
• Shrek Forever After: The Game HD - $4.99 → $.99
• Iron Man 2 - $4.99 → $.99
• Iron Man 2 for iPad - $4.99 → $.99
• Driver - $2.99 → $.99
• Skater Nation - $2.99 → $.99

We're not 100-percent behind any of these, but we will note that the Gameloft Action Pack has a total of three decent titles bundled inside of it: Gameloft's answer to God of War, Hero of Sparta, its WWII shooter Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes, and its Mortal Kombat-ish homage, Blades of Fury. You could do worse with your dollar. For example: you could buy candy.

We've heard some rumblings lately about Order & Chaos Online [$6.99] accounts getting hacked, and the attacks were recently confirmed by our pals over at PocketGamer. Order & Chaos, if you're unfamiliar, is Gameloft's fairly blatant riff on World of Warcraft, complete with characters, monsters, and areas that might look a more than a little familiar to anyone who has played WoW before.

Anyway, the cause of this security breach as well as how deep this rabbit hole goes has yet to be revealed, although Gameloft says they're actively investigating. A thread on the official Order & Chaos forum indicates that players of both mobile and Facebook versions of the game have been hacked.

If you've ever played Order & Chaos and you're the kind of person who still uses the same password for everything, it's a good idea to change all your others. While you're at it, check out this New York Times article on creating strong passwords, and maybe even think about getting some password management software. I'm partial to 1Password myself, which basically exists for all platforms you'd ever want to access your passwords on and gracefully keeps all your data in sync via Dropbox.

Migrating from a single password you use for everything to a password management suite and different passwords for everything will take a little getting used to, but consider this: Once you start doing that, security breaches like this are entirely insignificant. Thanks to 1Password, I use a different password for everything. Order & Chaos getting hacked makes no difference to me, since all anyone would ever be able to access with those login credentials is my character… As opposed to desperately hunting down every login form that you've used your favorite password, "password", for.

Update: I was just reminded that Order & Chaos uses Gameloft's Gameloft Live service for logins, and if that is what was compromised, if you've ever created a Gameloft Live account it might be a good idea to get busy with the password changin' too.

Like most geeks, I've spent some time thinking about the best place to go in case of a zombie apocalypse. My pick is always Costco -- food, weapons and big solid doors all in one place. Since that plan is unlikely to ever have any real world value, I've taken the opportunity to barricade my local big-box against the zombie horde in Please Stay Calm [Free], a new location-based MMO from Massive Damage Inc.

If you've ever played a game like Mafia Wars, you'll have some idea of what to expect in Please Stay Calm. It's similar in design, but it takes place in your neighborhood. The world has been overrun by zombies, and you're a survivor. You'll need to scavenge for resources, build up a safehouse and a good team, and gun down the undead -- and a few of your fellow survivors.

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TouchArcade Rating:

If this review had the same layout as Avalon Wars [Free], here’s how you would get a feel for what the game is like. First, you’d go to the reviewer’s home base screen. For now, ignore the individual game-mechanic analysis buildings titled Combat, Resource Management, Base Building, Troop/Hero Development, and MMO Elements; we’ll come back to those later in the tutorial. To start, simply click on the Review Overview Command Center. Once on the Overview Command Center screen, you’ll select the Review Introduction tab. Choose “Two Paragraphs” as your option from the Review Length sub-menu.

Now, exit the Command Center and scroll over to the Reviewers’ Barracks. Enter the Barracks and select my name from the list of recruited reviewers. Drill down into the Writing Skills menu and click the sub-menu tab for Add New Skill. Spend 30 TAPs (TouchArcade Points) to activate the skill “Analogy Synopsis”. If you lack the necessary TAPs to activate the skill, a modest in-browser purchase will get you more to speed up the process. Now, launch the reviewer and see him crank out a brief overview of the experience of playing Avalon Wars in the style of Avalon Wars.

If you’re still reading at this point, you may just be the kind of person who will love the hell out of this game.

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TouchArcade Rating:

Supermono Studio, the same studio who achievement-ized standard non-game tasks like chores and scrubbing behind your ears in the stupendous Epic Win [$2.99], are close to releasing its next game, Forever Drive.

Forever Drive, if you didn't know, is a futuristic racing game, complete with track building and neat customization elements, sorta like ModNation Racers. The coolest element, on paper at least, is its online, perpetual city. Supermono describes the game as “Outrun-meets-SimCity-in-the-future-online,” if you need some analogues.

Of course, it also dropped some screenshots. There’s probably a great word for this kind of art style, but because my brain doesn't work so great all the time, I’ll just say it looks great (in a TRON kind of way) and let you tell me my business in the comments.

If you’re familiar with this project, you might be wondering why it’s now called Forever Drive instead of "Drive Forever." According to Supermono, there’s a legal reason for the flip. It didn't go into the details in the official blog's latest post, probably because the story would be REALLY boring.

It also didn't discuss release date. We've got in touch and hope to bring you that information and more in the near future.

Gameloft has been posting video podcast on their YouTube channel for quite a while now, and it can be a little hit or miss regarding the amount of interesting tidbits nestled inside. The latest episode, which hit a few days ago, mostly covers E3 and the games they were showing there. Some are already released, and we had our hands all over some of the other ones. Considering all this, the most interesting part of the last podcast is a Facebook game of all things, which should be more than a little familiar to some of you (proper part queued up for your viewing pleasure):

Utilizing the Unity web player plugin, Gameloft has (since this podcast was released) brought Order & Chaos to Facebook. Playing is as simple as downloading the plugin (if you don't have it already) and heading over to the Order & Chaos Facebook page. It's completely free until level 10, and after that you'll need to subscribe. There's a number of payment options ranging from 1 Facebook credit (equal to 10¢) for a day of access, or 30 Facebook credits for six moths.

Unfortunately, Facebook players play on separate servers from mobile players, so you will need to start fresh. Regardless, this is incredibly cool to see Gameloft doing and just goes to show the sheer ubiquity of the Unity engine. It's always neat to see iOS titles hopping platforms, and it will be interesting to see how Order & Chaos does on Facebook since it's basically now a passable World of Warcraft clone that people can play at work in their browser.