PerBlue has launched Parallel Kingdom [App Store] this morning for free. Parallel Kingdom is a location-based role playing game that we’ve previously discussed. The game is a unique in that it uses your geographic location as the game’s landscape:

Parallel Kingdom is a role playing game that uses GPS (or WiFi locate) to overlay the virtual world on top of the real world. In the Age of Exploration, there will be items, creatures, and other players in the world to use and fight with. Enjoy unique creature personalities, items to upgrade, players to chat and team with, and a global player ranking list to see how you compare to your friends.

The first version of the app is being distributed for free.

App Store Link: Parallel Kingdom, Free

PerBlue recently updated their Parallel Kingdom Age of Exploration website, providing updated screenshots as well as a release date: October 31.

A recent blog post by PerBlue CEO Justin Beck tells the latest:

Today we have some exciting news. On October 31st, 2008 the Parallel Kingdom Age of Exploration will be released! This is the first of many ages to come. This age will be a free beta that will run on any iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android Handset device. Parallel Kingdom uses location-based features to place the virtual world over the real world, where you can kill creatures, collect gold, and destroy your friends. We hope you enjoy this age, and look forward to many ages to come.

Parallel Kingdom is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)–or as PerBlue describes it, a mobile multiplayer trans-reality game (MMTRG)–that overlays the real world with a location-based game world, allowing the most humble neighborhood street to host the mightiest of towered citadels that must be breached for loot.  It holds the promise of turning the daily commute into a bold adventure and we expect it to be a hot download when it appears in the App Store.

More screenshots can be seen at the Parallel Kingdom website.

Stay tuned for more information on this title as well as a full review once it makes its debut in the App Store.

Graal Online has released an iPhone version of their Graal Game Client. The game comes in two flavors, a free version called Graal Zone [App Store] and a $5.99 version called Graal Zone+ [App Store]. Graal Zone is described:

Graal Zone is the first massively multiplayer arcade battle game for iPhone/iPod. 

Play alone or with a team and enter battlefield joining hundreds of other player[s] for a unique game play experience.

Both versions claim to offer the use numerous “futuristic weapons” such as laser guns, pistols, grenades to overthrow your enemy. Graal Zone+ offers access to more powerful weapons and the ability to drive vehicles such as hover bikes along with special access to other maps.

The game is a quite spotty at the moment with numerous complaints about poor controls. Your character movement is controlled entirely using the accelerometer. According to lockergnome online levels will open on Friday, but it seems there’s a lot of work to be done.

Graal Zone is available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows so you can try a fuller version on your desktop computer.