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Gameloft boss defends company's clones
Cloning is a hot-button topic, the ethics of which continue to be explored by legislatures, theologians and George Lucas. In the games world, one company is at the forefront of the science: Gameloft. Its experiments -- including the recent Shadow Guardian, a facsimile of Uncharted 2 -- have been praised by some and reviled by others. Gameloft CEO Michel Guillemot says that's okay (and the sales numbers would agree). "The video game industry has always played around a limited number of themes," Guillemot proposed in an interview with IGN. "There is maybe one new idea a year." He further addressed Gameloft's detractors by saying, "The damaging thing is if you do a bad expression of a good idea." Hmmm ... We wonder if Guillemot was thinking about Capcom's MaXplosion when he said that.
New games flood App Store before impending holiday release freeze
The App Store is in constant danger of new release bombardments, sure, but many companies adhere to a regular, weekly bombing run beginning each Wednesday, through the wee hours of the night (UTC), dropping their new iPhone and iPad games on Apple's marketplace while many of us are snoozing. Last night was no exception -- actually, scratch that. It was exceptional! Pending the start of the "iTunes Connect Holiday Shutdown" next Thursday -- a six-day lockout period when developers will be unable to release or update apps, including games -- an army of companies, armed with their big holiday releases (for little iDevices), launched a massive attack on the App Store last night. What began as a few warning shots yesterday grew into a full-on assault, led by Gameloft's crisp clones, NOVA 2 and Shadow Guardian, and Square Enix's surprise (and apparently rushed) port of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Even Sega couldn't resist launching a few more classics in Altered Beast and Sonic Spinball. And what's this ... Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3? Hey, if Street Fighter IV worked ... Pursue our complete list of new release highlights after the break, and then make double-sure "Santa" knows you've been good enough for an iTunes gift card this year.
Another week of big iOS releases: Real Racing 2, World of Goo, lots more
As expected, the App Store has released another round of new apps, and since we're right in the middle of the busy holiday season, there are a ton of great and long-awaited games to play either out today or coming this evening. Telltale has released the first episode of its Tales of Monkey Island series on the iPad, continuing the storyline from the classic game. Gameloft's Uncharted-like Shadow Guardian will be available this evening, as will NOVA 2, the sequel to last year's popular FPS. We saw a preview of both a little while back. Sega is bringing the old Altered Beast game to the App Store, and it's probably just as bad as you remember. Eidos has surprised us with a release of the Xbox Live and PSN title Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, arriving on the App Store for both iPhone and iPad tomorrow. Should be a good one -- reviews were excellent on the previous platforms. Aralon: Sword and Shadow HD is a really impressive fully 3D action RPG to play through, available for $6.99 on the App Store soon. Real Racing 2 is coming out this evening. I got to play an early build, and I can tell you that it's fantastic -- one of the best racing games on the App Store. Riven: The Sequel to Myst arrived on the store last night. Classic adventure title The 7th Guest is now out on iPhone for US $2.99 and iPad for $5.99. World of Goo is also due out on the iPad tonight, and this version is supposed to be one of the best. EA's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is arriving on iOS in a streamlined version, but it's going to be on sale for just 99 cents, so that's nice. Duke Nukem 3D isn't a new game, but it (and the iPad special edition) has gone free recently. A few apps are updating for the holidays: both educational astronomy app Star Walk and destructive worm simulator Super Mega Worm have special Santa-related updates out now. Man oh man, that's a whole lot of great games to play. Most of these apps aren't quite out on the App Store just yet (though some of them are available in New Zealand, where it is already tomorrow), but they should all be live on the US store by 11:00 PM Eastern time.
Shadow Guardian preview: Among thieves
Welcome to "Uncharted" on iPhone. As with so many of Gameloft's games, Shadow Guardian sticks to the script of its inspiration. This is not a homage, but a clone, right down to the smart-mouthed protagonist, facing off against an army of mercenaries in a search for treasure. What Shadow Guardian lacks in originality, it makes up for in production values. This is one of the best looking games I've seen running on an iPhone 4, and it's undoubtedly one of the most complex as well. None of the fundamentals of Uncharted's gameplay has been sacrificed in the basic design's transition to a portable device: You'll be platforming, gunning and punching your way through some impressively large levels, with a fully-voiced story to boot. Shadow Guardian's platforming will be immediately recognizable to Uncharted players, offering the same skill-free approach to leaping and climbing around environments. Like Nathan Drake, the game's main character has super-human hand strength, and the virtual analog stick effectively guides his remarkable acrobatics, which "look" a lot more difficult to perform than in practice.%Gallery-109249%
Gameloft's holiday iOS releases: NOVA 2, Asphalt 6 and Shadow Guardian
Gameloft kindly allowed TUAW to sit in on a preview yesterday of the games it's planning on releasing later this year, and we got to see three new iOS titles. NOVA 2 (seen above) is the sequel to the very popular first-person shooter for iPhone. Asphalt 6: Adrenaline is the latest in Gameloft's high-quality racing series and Shadow Guardian is a brand new IP that borrows a lot from popular action/exploration games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted. After the break, you'll find descriptions of all three titles. They will be available for both iPhone and iPad sometime later on this year. Gameloft is also releasing three more titles this year that we didn't get to see: Dungeon Hunter 2 (which is the sequel to the popular Diablo-style hack-and-slash RPG), and two games called Eternal Legacy and Space Fracture. We'll have more about those games soon, and we'll likely see them live on the App Store before long anyway.
Gameloft announces NOVA 2 and the Uncharted-inspired Shadow Guardian
Mobile games publisher Gameloft is showing no signs of slowing down. The company announced its upcoming slate of iOS games at a press conference in Paris today, including sequels to some of the company's most successful properties, such as Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and NOVA 2, a follow-up to the company's Halo-inspired portable FPS. NOVA 2 adds new weapons and new enemies (with jetpacks!) and will offer multiplayer. Not only does it continue the story of the first game, but will reward players of the original with bonus XP. Perhaps of most interesting title was Gameloft's new IP, Shadow Guardian (pictured above). In typical Gameloft fashion, Shadow Guardian bears more than a little resemblance to other popular console games, notably Uncharted and Tomb Raider: You travel through a variety of locations, from temples to cities, climbing and leaping through the environment in search of treasure. In addition to the requisite puzzle-solving, you'll also be able to shoot your way through waves of enemies, taking cover, blind-firing, and rushing in for melee kills. Yes, you've seen all of this before -- but have you seen it running on an iPhone? All of these games should be available later this month, "before Christmas."
