Few games have generated the amount of hype that Gameloft's N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance [App Store] has, and even fewer have managed to live up to that same hype. NOVA is one of those rare instances where a upcoming game is everything we wanted and more. It's not perfect, but there aren't many games to even compare it to on the platform. NOVA feels like a complete video game experience, something which is quite rare indeed on the landscape of bite sized games that make up the App Store.

In Nova you play as Karl Wardin, an ex-space marine who has been reactivated to investigate some strange alien activity in a futuristic setting where the Earth has depleted its resources and no longer can sustain life, forcing humanity to live on nearby orbiting colonies. Admittedly, the plot isn't anything to write home about and the voice acting ranges from passable to downright cringe-worthy at times– Especially whenever Karl himself speaks. Thankfully, the gameplay itself more than makes up for these shortfalls.

The first series of levels will leave you wandering around on a space ship while you're guided by various characters communicating over the radio. An arrow guides you from objective to objective, and gameplay amounts to simply following this arrow, killing anything that moves, and flipping switches to activate or unlock different objects and areas. Deadspace fans will feel right at home when the game asks you to traverse the hull of the space ship, even going as far as to mention enabling your magnetic boots. What do you do while you're outside the ship? Run from pressurized area to pressurized area while avoiding incoming asteroids of course. (If you haven't played Deadspace, you do exactly this several times throughout the game– The hull is even laid out similarly.)

Eventually after fixing a few different parts of the ship and killing oodles of aliens, you will make your way to the bridge to initiate the self destruct sequence and escape back to your ship. You then fly down to a planet with beautifully rendered lush forests which also happens to be infested by these same (although slightly different colored) aliens. The rest of the game continues in a similar fashion, with different characters telling you where to go and what to do across 13 different levels that take place in five distinctly different environments.

The run and gun action is broken up by mini games, a level where you man the turrent on a warthog-like truck from Halo, and even a couple boss fights. Scattered throughout the levels are locked crates which must be opened by playing a brief mini game where you move different objects around on a grid to solve a puzzle where you're directing a laser beam from its source to the target. None of these are particularly difficult, and depending on how you feel about mini games you will either find these to be enjoyable distractions or just too annoying to bother with. Thankfully, it seems like there is enough ammo dropped by enemies and laying on the ground that the crates are optional but you will be forced to solve a few of these puzzles throughout the game as you "hack" things to progress.

Similar to Halo, your life is measured by a shield meter at the top of the screen which depletes when you take damage and recharges slowly afterwards. Your shield gauge also serves as your oxygen supply when you're in space, and your super abilities also take off a chunk of your shield's power. Super abilities? Oh yes, straight out of Metroid Prime you will slowly gain new abilities such as the ability to freeze enemies, shoot a charged up energy beam, and even run faster with speed boots.

If you've played Modern Combat: Sandstorm [$4.99 / Free], the controls in NOVA will be instantly familiar to you. If not, the game uses a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen for movement, and moving your thumb around the right side of the screen changes your view around. Different buttons frame the screen that do things like fire your weapon, toss a grenade, change weapons, reload, etc. There are two other included control schemes, one where the screen is split in half and moving your left thumb anywhere controls your movement while your right controls your view (essentially just removing the virtual joystick) and another with two virtual joysticks where you tap the screen to fire. I've found the default controls to be fine, although I did spend some time fiddling with the sensitivity.

Another nice feature is the ability to move all of the elements of the game's UI around. I've moved the reload button closer to the fire button because I'm a compulsive reloader in first person shooters, but you can customize it however you want. (Although currently this option only seems available by adjusting your controls mid-game, and not from the main menu.) Strangely enough, even though it seems that Gameloft has put a great deal of thought in to different control options and customizations, the ability to invert the Y-axis of the camera control is notably absent. What will leave you scratching your head even more regarding the lack of invert look is that Modern Combat: Sandstorm, a game which shares a similar engine to NOVA includes Y-axis inversion. You can however flip the screen orientation, something that should make iPod touch users happy.

The performance of the game is phenomenal on the iPhone 3GS with fast load times, high frame rates, and everything else you could ask for in a first person shooter. Meanwhile, reader reports all the way down to the slowest device in the iPod family have been said to be smooth. Even while playing online in NOVA's four player deathmatch mode, which surprisingly enough seems to be working just fine for everyone, a nice change of pace from Gameloft's recently released Modern Combat: Sandstorm multiplayer update.

Playing online requires both WiFi and a Gameloft Live account. Registering for Gameloft Live is easy, and once you're online you will have the option to play deathmatch or look at the worldwide leaderboards of players with the most points and kills. When creating a deathmatch game, available options include choosing one of the five maps, as well as enabling or disabling weapon stay and aim assist. Games can be set with a time limit or a frag limit, and both can be set to none to play for as long as you'd like.

When joining a game, you're thrown in to a lobby which lists available games that have open slots for you to join. Those of you waiting for an Eliminate "killer" will be disappointed to discover that currently there doesn't seem to be any random matchmaking, or the ability to have friends-only private matches. All you can do is create a game and hope that three of your friends join it before other people do.

Despite its limitations, online multiplayer (as well as local bluetooth/WiFi multiplayer) is a lot of fun and performs surprisingly well. I haven't come across any lag or connection issues, and so far it just works– Although the true test of NOVA multiplayer will be how well it holds up once players start getting good at the game and scrutinizing the weapon balance. It's too early to say how large the online community will get and what kind of staying power NOVA's online presence will have, but it seems quite enjoyable right now.

If you're a fan of first person shooters, or any of the previously mentioned console classics that NOVA is obviously inspired by, then you too will also likely really enjoy NOVA. It's one of the most ambitious iPhone games I've played so far, and despite the questionable originality of the game I've really got to hand it to Gameloft for creating such an amazing iPhone experience.

App Store Link: N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, $6.99

The highly anticipated sci-fi action first person shooter N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance [App Store] was released mere moments ago much to the excitement of forum members in the NOVA thread. With a single player campaign that reportedly takes around 8 hours to finish, four player online multiplayer, and online leaderboards tracking performance both in game and (apparently coming soon) on the NOVA web site, NOVA does not disappoint.

We'll have a review out shortly, in the meantime, check out the thread in our forums, with posts regarding the American release starting here.

App Store Link: N.O.V.A. – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance, $6.99

When Driver [App Store] was originally released for the Playstation and PC way back in 1999, it was heralded by critics as a genuinely fun, challenging racing game. With the intense cop-chases, gang-centric story, and open-world exploration, Driver could be most easily described as "Grand Theft Auto without the on-foot parts." Flash forward to 2009, and Gameloft has just released their updated version of the game for the iPhone and iPod Touch via the App Store. Are slightly improved graphics, the addition of a much more tolerable difficulty level, and well-thought-out controls enough to make Driver a viable purchase for gamers, even 10 years later?

In Driver, you play as Tanner, a detective from New York who has been assigned a dangerous task: going undercover with the gangs that make up the criminal underbelly of New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. The "Undercover" mode serves as the single player campaign in the game and consists of about 40 missions. Missions do a good job of providing some decent variety in their structure; one minute you'll be attempting to keep up with a speedboat as it makes for an island hideout, the next you'll find yourself ramming into restaurants with the goal of busting up their glass fronts.

Driver isn't all about the story mode. There are numerous minigames, referred to as "Driving Games," on the game's main menu. In "Pursuit" you'll be tasked with chasing down another vehicle and dealing enough damage to take them out as quickly as possible. In "Getaway" you'll switch roles, attempting to evade and lose the trail of the police. Other minigames failed to catch my interest, like "Cross Town Checkpoint" or "Trailblazer", the latter of which involves randomly driving around knocking down 100 traffic cones.

Despite the weak first half of the "Driving Games" list, the second half of the minigame collection is much better and includes several fun games, my favorite of which being "Survival" mode. In Survival, players are brutally attacked by an unending legion of cop cars. The utmost skill in evasion techniques will be required in order to even stand a chance at lasting over a minute in this mode, and it makes for an extremely compacted session of what I consider to be the best parts of Driver. I also loved "Dirt Track" (a rally-style time trial game) and "Carnage" (an extremely fun mode that's very similar to the "crash" mode in the Burnout series).

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Yet another one of the Gameloft games we previewed in Paris was released this afternoon, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X [App Store] is an air combat game that takes place in the somewhat expansive Ghost Recon game universe. Featuring complete voice-overs, 13 missions, 26 planes, and local multiplayer, H.A.W.X. can easily fly with the existing competition on the platform.

Much like Driver, so far the version of H.A.W.X. available on the App Store seems identical to what Gameloft showed us a few weeks ago.

From our preview:

The environments you fly over look amazingly realistic, as Gameloft utilized high resolution satellite imagery to build and texture the environments.

Levels range from Washington DC, to Rio de Janeiro, and even Chicago– And as a native of the Chicago area, it was amazingly cool to fly over Soldier Field, then follow the various highways while dropping bombs. The satellite imagery is detailed enough that if you're familiar with the locales you're flying over, you can easily pick out landmarks, streets, and other locations.

Each of the planes comes with their own unique cockpit view along with different strengths and weaknesses. At the start of each level, the game suggests the best plane to use, but you can use any plane on any level– Which can substantially increase the difficulty if you're dog fighting with a bomber, for instance.

I suppose comparisons between H.A.W.X. and Namco's recently released Ace Combat Xi (which we already reviewed) are somewhat inevitable, especially with how close to each other the games were released. Here is my take on the games so far:

Both are highly competent aerial combat arcade-style games, and each of them come from popular game series– Although Ace Combat likely has more fans than the Tom Clancy game universe. Actually flying your jet in each game feels great, but H.A.W.X. does fall behind in the HUD department. In Ace Combat, your screen is loaded with various widgets and instruments that at least in opinion really add to the atmosphere of the whole experience. Your screen in H.A.W.X. is fairly barren, and there isn't even an artificial horizon.

Where H.A.W.X. flips on the afterburners and pulls ahead of Ace Combat is in the included content department. The initial load-out in H.A.W.X. includes twice as many missions and planes, which are all unlocked by playing the game instead of via 99¢ microtransactions (as in Ace Combat). Also, H.A.W.X. has four player local deathmatch and team deathmatch multiplayer.

H.A.W.X. seems to be winning the immediate battle, but there's something in both games for fans of the genre to enjoy. With so few competent dog fighting games on the App Store, both H.A.W.X. and Ace Combat Xi are worth considering.

App Store Link: Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., $6.99

In what will likely be the first of many Gameloft games released this month, Driver [App Store] appeared out of nowhere this evening. Originally previewed at the Gameloft press event in Paris a few weeks ago, Driver is a nearly complete port of the 1999 PC and Playstation game with only very minor omissions. (Notably the original's extensive instant replay editing system.) The graphics have been revamped, the interface has been completely re-worked to be finger-friendly, but otherwise the game is the same as the original.

In Driver, you play as an underground NYPD detective who was chosen by the force for his impressive driving skills to infiltrate the filthy underbelly of four in-game cities. You will be tasked with a series of missions that will have you racing around the city, evading the police, and generally doing most of the things you do in Grand Theft Auto games without the ability to ever get out of your car.

The final version of the game available on the App Store seems absolutely identical to what we saw in Paris. If you've grown tired of the snack-sized game experiences that seem so widespread on the App Store (Not that that's a bad thing, those are some of my favorite games.) then Driver is just what the doctor ordered.

Driver is a complete game with four massive real-world cities to drive through, and multiple endings. The original game was very well received, and aside from improvements to the graphics and tweaks to the interface, the iPhone port seems even better than the game I remember spending so much time with in the late 90's.

I have to commend Gameloft for the great job they've done with this game, and I think I speak for iPhone gamers everywhere when I say I hope Gameloft continues to port more of these classic video games. If you like objective-based driving games, running from the cops, and getting air– Look no further than Driver.

App Store Link: Driver, $6.99

Developers Russ Menapace and Josh Presseisen have been hard at work following the release of their open-world 3D RPG Ravensword: The Fallen King [App Store]. The 1.1 update which features some new content and bug fixes has already been submitted, and hopefully will be available sometime soon.

For players who have completed the main quest of Ravensword, two secret areas have been added for you to find and explore: The Forest of Lamneth and the Dungeon of Lamneth. Each area is host to an array of even tougher enemies, including the new "Uber Ogre" which is said to be on par with the "Mega Troll". The "Uber Ogre" is a level 60 baddie that gamers will likely have to put their heads together in the Ravensword thread to formulate a strategy to bring him down.

Additional magical items have been added such as a lightning rune which you can use to zap enemies and an Amulet of Mana which allows unlimited use of magical runes. The catch? It just so happens that the lightning rune was lost in the Forest of Lamneth somewhere and the previously mentioned "Uber Ogre" is wearing the Amulet of Mana.

Several bugs have been fixed, and in the gameplay tweaks department the tap to target distance has been increased and the swipe sensitivity has been turned up for quicker turning. Adventurers with a keen eye will find treasures hidden around the town area, and the price of the starting dagger has been decreased. Also, Ravensword 1.1 will include an option to flip the screen orientation.

As mentioned previously, the update has already been submitted to the Apple although it's hard to say how they will handle the approval process as we get closer and closer to the year-end holidays– But we can keep our fingers crossed it gets released soon.

App Store Link: Ravensword: The Fallen King, $6.99

Square Enix appears to be dipping its toes into the App Store once again, releasing another title with little fanfare, Hills and Rivers Remain [App Store]. Square Enix has released a light strategy game that is best be described as a Galcon-a-like. Fortunately, it does do enough different that it can be distinguished on its own merits, though it continues to disappoint that a developer of Square Enix's calibre could not bring something to the table that really redefines the platform.

Hills and Rivers Remain wraps the traditional Galcon model in a typical Japanese RPG wrapper, with grandiose story telling, an abundance of dialogue and the typically overly dramatic anime characters that have been a hallmark of Square Enix's franchises. Unfortunately the story in Hills and Rivers Remain isn't its shining point, being loaded to the brim with clichés, uninspired characters, and banter that will likely make one wince more often than not.

The gameplay itself sees you directing your forces around a grid of linked bases, reinforcing the troops at each base and sending them on their way to overwhelm and capture the enemies' bases. Your troop numbers are replenished only when the constantly circulating green frame around the screen depletes, and only at a HQ that you can designate by pressing on an existing base. This summarizes much of the gameplay; frantically selecting the appropriate base to reinforce depending on the enemies' moves and your own strategy, a fact that is compounded when you are faced with more than one enemy.

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Gameloft has released their much anticipated skateboarding game Skater Nation into the App Store this evening. We already had some brief hands on time with the game last week and really enjoyed what we saw of it.

Skater Nation is an open-world skateboarding game which really puts the other skateboarding titles available on the platform to shame when it comes to overall depth and complexity. Obviously inspired by the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series of games, Skater Nation runs inside of a game engine that was described as a "sibling" to the one used in Gangstar to have a completely open city with multiple environments with absolutely no loading time as you travel from place to place.

The city consists of ten highly skater-friendly locales that range from indoor factories to an outdoor skate park, and even a street that was inspired by Lombard Street in San Francisco and two main game modes, you can either freely skate around the city, or progress through a career mode.

Unlockable equipment includes 10 skateboard decks, 10 trucks, and 10 wheel sets, each of which enhance your skater's stats. The game is controlled using a virtual joystick and two buttons which handle all the different moves your skater is capable of. Skater Nation also has a nice replay mode where you can rewind the last 3-4 minutes of gameplay to save replays of cool tricks, jumps, or combos you were able to pull off. These replays can then be uploaded to YouTube.

Early impressions are being collected in our forums.

App Store Link: Skater Nation, $6.99

Apple must have expedited the reapproval of Crescent Moon Games' Ravensword as it appeared in the App Store early this morning for $6.99.

Similar to recent Elder Scrolls games like Morrowind or Oblivion, Ravensword is an open world roleplaying game with both a main quest line to follow and a considerable amount of side-quests. The developers have quoted anywhere between 6-8 hours of gameplay to complete the initial quest without taking side-quests into account.

The Ravensword game world is surprisingly detailed for an iPhone game, and performs remarkably well. Along the way you will equip your character with all kinds of different magical items and slay hordes of enemies as the main quest line slowly reveals your character's mysterious identity.

We'll post our full review shortly.

App Store Link: Ravensword: The Fallen King, $6.99

The Settlers is a real time strategy (RTS) gaming series that has evolved quite a bit over the past two decades. Gameloft’s The Settlers as a standalone game brings a slightly different take on RTS to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform that for the most part delivers, but also bringing a few frustrations along the way including the omission of a freeplay mode. Ultimately, The Settlers is a solid experience and good introduction for newcomers to the series.

As with any typical RTS game, the objective is to build a community, establishing a means of income, develop a powerful military, and expand territories. The Settlers, however, is less about tactical micromanagement and more about strategic planning. In many ways, The Settlers is a game focused on urban planning where the placement and construction of buildings play heavily in your success. Unlike many of today’s RTS games, direct control of individual or groups of units is limited. You literally establish a virtual society where your vision will set it down the path to success or failure. This premise alone makes The Settlers worth considering especially for newcomers to the series.

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