Love The Tribez, but wish you had more of it? Consider your wish granted. Game Insight has just announced The Tribez & Castlez, the first spin-off from The Tribez which will send Aurora and the Professor to another world full of magic and medieval wonder in early 2014.The game will still embrace The Tribez city-building ways, but with a fantasy theme rather than a prehistoric one. Dinosaurs are all well and good, but you can expect both dungeons and dragons this time around. And that's not all - Game Insight has told us that players can expect everything from werewolves to Trollums (which I'm assuming is Tribez-speak for trolls OR a delicious nougat-filled candy).No specific release date has been confirmed yet, but when The Tribez & Castlez does come out you can expect to play it on iOS, Android and Facebook.
Huge, HUGE news at Sony's CES keynote today: and it's actually something that can affect us mobile gamers in a sense! Earlier this afternoon, Sony announced a brand new streaming service called PlayStation Now that's set to debut in the summer of 2014, which is said to allow gamers full streaming access to Sony's entire game catalogue on "Internet-connected consumer electronics devices they use every day." Translation: we'll likely be able to stream games like The Last of Us on our smartphone or tablet one day soon.In fact, The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls are confirmed to be two of the first games to receive PS Now support once the subscription-based service launches in full this coming summer (a beta version is also planned to roll out sometime this month). It's also interesting to note that Beyond: Two Souls had experimented a little bit with this kind of thing around its release, with users given the option to control the entire game via a mobile device. Sony also gives the example of a user playing a PS4 game in their living room, and then picking up the action via PS Now on their PS3 system in the bedroom."So there you have it: the full streaming of PS4 games on any number of other non-PS4 devices. While the only confirmed hardware so far to be supporting PS Now includes Sony's own PS4, PS3, and PS Vita systems, in addition to certain models of BRAVIA TV, given the wording of the announcement, I think it's also safe to assume that certain smartphones and tablets will join those ranks in the very near future.
While we've certainly seen a few mobile games that played around with location-based concepts before in the past, there have been very few to go to the same lengths of immersion that form the foundation of Ingress from Google's Niantic Labs. What starts off as a location-based MMO that uses real-world positioning to influence game events quickly becomes a virtual reality event of epic proportions the more you dive into the constraints of Ingress and start unraveling the mystery of the Niantic Project.So to celebrate the past, present, and future of the ambitious mobile project, Niantic Labs has just released a two-part retrospective video series that documents the creation of the location-based experience and gives an enlightening overview of the storyline so far. You can check out both parts of the official documentary "Ingress Report: Ingress Year One" by clicking here and here, respectively.It's a seriously cool video series that everyone should definitely check out: especially if you've never had a chance to play Ingress before, as there's no finer way to bring yourself up to speed on the captivating real-life mobile event. But now we've saved the best (and most interesting) news for last, as Niantic Labs has let it slip that Ingress will also be headed to iPhone in the very near future.It's pretty surprising, don't you think, that a game made by Google is headed directly to a competitor's platform? But we're certainly not complaining, as the more people playing Ingress the better! If you have an Android device right now, you can scoop up the epic and free-to-play location-based experience over on the Google Play Marketplace.
Okay well this is a little embarrassing: we were so caught up in writing all of our "Best of" lists at the end of 2013, that we almost forgot to recognize all of the very best games that came out in December! Well it's a good thing we finally remembered, because December 2013 had a few amazing games in store for us to help end the year on a real high note, and to keep us gaming strong well into the New Year.It seems that a lot of December's best games were all about location, location, location: from a pixelated brewery that you get to manage; to an underground mineshaft that's filled with just as many hidden abilities as addictive gameplay; to an enigmatic "room" that's been known to contain the occasional puzzle or two. And of course, let's not forget the zombie-filled apocalyptic world of our very top pick for last month…"So what games had you glued to a screen this past December? Do you agree with our picks? Are there any other hidden gems that you thought should have made the cut? Then be sure to hit the comments section and guarantee that the last month in gaming will truly be a December to remember (even if it might have taken us a few more days than usual).
Talk about an unfortunate pattern! It was just a few short days ago when we learned that CEO of the Electronic Arts-owned PopCap Games Dave Roberts would be stepping down from the company alongside chief game designer Jason Kapalka. Well now EA has confirmed to GamesIndustry International today that Chillingo founders Chris Byatte and Joe Wee have both left Chillingo, which was acquired by EA for a cool $20 million in 2010.In the years since its creation, the Chillingo name has risen to be one of the most prominent publishers of mobile games in the world. The company first helped mobile powerhouse games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope get off the ground way back in the day, and they continuously help to release wonderful new game experiences on the platform each and every week. Odds are you've probably played more Chillingo-published games than you even realized."There's no word yet on what ultimately prompted the decision for Byatte and Wee to leave the company they started back in 2005, but it certainly doesn't reflect too well on EA to have so many creative founders jump ship after their respective high-stakes acquisitions. This will certainly be a big blow to EA's mobile business, but we'll just have to wait and see what the future for Chillingo holds now.
There's good news and bad news for Hitman fans today, and since I'm more of a "bad news first" kind of guy, let's get that out of the way right now: it looks like the upcoming next-gen Hitman game from Square Enix Montreal has officially been cancelled (insert sad face here). But the good news? The studio is reportedly hard at work on a mobile Hitman game for iOS and Android instead!The news was first relayed from VideoGamer after they noticed a Square Enix Montreal employee's LinkedIn page all but confirmed the cancellation of the next-gen Hitman game. While the same employee's LinkedIn page also mentioned his current work on games for "Tablet devices," another fellow employee's account seems to be much more specific towards the full-fledged mobile Hitman game."As someone who's plugged countless hours into Hitman: Blood Money, I'm just excited to see whatever comes next for Agent 47, whether on mobile or console. In any case, we'll be sure to keep you posted when Square Enix makes an official confirmation on when we might get to take control of the silent mobile assassin.
High Moon is an upcoming turn-based dueling game from QuantumCohort. The game combines science fiction elements into an American Old West setting and has players dueling one another using various magic spells.High Moon has been in development since late last summer. Having originally been planned as a minimalist game using a text interface, QuantumCohort evolved the game to become much more aesthetically pleasing. Inspired by Sword & Sworcery, QuantumCohort emulated the game's visual style, when renovating High Moon's artistic direction.Once High Moon's graphics were set, the game continued to naturally evolve from there.
In July of last year, mystery game, Detective Grimoire, launched its Kickstarter campaign. A month later, the game had collected nearly $30,000, safely above its established goal. Now, SBF Games has launched the game on PC, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. The game's soundtrack is also available for $4.Detective Grimoire is out to solve the murder mystery of a tourist attraction owner, who is rumored to have been slain by the very creature his tourist trap is based upon. Detective Grimoire is a point-and-click game, and SFB Games has integrated that for touchscreen devices.