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Zeit 2 and random zombie deals on Xbox Live next week
Ubisoft's time-traveling shmup, Zeit 2, is the lone game listed in Major Nelson's latest list of upcoming Xbox Live Arcade releases. If that doesn't quite sate your gaming appetite, Live is also throwing a random "Back from the Dead" promotion by cutting the price of Zombie Apocalypse and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai to 400 Points ($5) each. Plants vs. Zombies will continue the promotion the following week by going on sale for 800 Points ($10). Next week will also discount "more than 25 pieces" of DLC from Activision, including Call of Duty map packs, Guitar Hero songs and Arcade games. EA will get its chance starting January 18, with an equally vague promise of "one-time savings" on EA "content." For the full schedule of Xbox Live releases, check past the break.
The best iOS apps I used in 2010
After looking back over Mac and Mac/iOS hybrid apps, it's time to look at the best iOS apps of 2010. As before, this list comes from my particular experience over the past year with these apps. 1) iCab Mobile (US$1.99, universal) is a replacement for mobile Safari. While it is hindered by the fact that iOS doesn't have anywhere to set a "default browser," and therefore most URLs that you open from the Springboard or email/Twitter/etc... will open in Safari, iCab offers plenty of features that make it worth the effort. It is the first app on my dock, and I much prefer it over Safari. Although it uses the same rendering engine as Safari, it comes with a host of features that Safari doesn't have. iCab Mobile will let you download files, which you can either offload to your computer later or upload to Dropbox from right within the app. Tap and hold an image, and you can save it right to your Dropbox. iCab on the iPad also does "real" tabs, with a visible tab present (it will auto-hide when not needed, if you want). You can set it to open links in new tabs, or open only links to different domains in new tabs. It has content filtering built-in, as well as module support for things like Instapaper, viewing HTML source or even downloading videos from YouTube. It also has a forms manager and a kiosk mode, and as Mike pointed out in November it supports VGA mirroring for presentation use. Web browsing is one of the primary uses of my iPad, and iCab Mobile is well worth the minimal asking price. Find out more at iCab Mobile's website. See the rest of my choices below.
Apple reveals 2010's most popular iOS games
Do not adjust your computer monitors, friends -- you might think they're acting up, considering how many times the words "Angry Birds" are about to be repeated after the jump. It's not a deja vu-like glitch in the Matrix; Rovio's poultry-flinging casual game made its way into nearly every category of Apple's recently released rankings for the most popular iOS games of the year. These lists are split into the most downloaded free apps, top selling paid apps and top grossing paid apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad -- check them all out after the jump. Unfortunately, these lists are ranked alphabetically instead of by actual downloads, but considering some of the repeated victors include Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled 2+ Blitz and Words with Friends, we think we can accurately fudge the numbers: They were all downloaded a spajillion times.
December XBLA deal: Buy two games, get 400 MS Points free
In yet another Xbox Live Arcade deal, Microsoft is now offering a free batch of 400 MS Points for purchasing two qualifying XBLA games. Don't run off downloading games just yet though, because you'll need to head over to the Xbox Live Events page and download the Arcade Offer gamer picture to register for the giveaway first (the direct link to the gamer picture is currently broken, but it's the first one listed on the events page). Once that's done, snag two of the games listed after the break (including favorites like Limbo, Lara Croft, Monday Night Combat, Super Meat Boy and more). Within four weeks, the free points will be added to registered Live accounts automatically or sent as redemption code via email. If you're planning to pick up any of the eligible games, you might as well get some free points too, right? The promotion ends December 20, so get to it. [Thanks, Grand Kerfuffle]
Yes, another set of Amazon game deals today
Amazon refuses to stop tempting us with awesome deals, hosting an all-video-game Gold Box today -- including some popular discounts that came over the crazy weekend, revisited. The deal of the day is Just Dance 2 for $25.99, representing the perfect opportunity for you to pick it up as a gift for someone else. (Yeah, that's the ticket!) Lightning deals include Plants vs. Zombies for $13.99 on Xbox 360, and several deals that have yet to be named specifically. We've got "guesses" after the break courtesy of Thrifty Nerd. We say "guesses" because, as repeat deals, it's not too hard to figure them out. Likely highlights include discounts on the DSi XL, PS3, and Vanquish. In addition, there's another whole list of "family-friendly" discounts today for day 2 of Amazon's "17 Days of Deals." [Thanks, Noah]
Live Stream: How to get the Singing Sunflower pet
Choose My Adventure is on a hiatus as we discuss its future and wait for Cataclysm to arrive. In its place today, I am going to be streaming my strategy for beating the Plants vs. Zombies minigame in Hillsbrad Foothills. I will take you through step by step from getting to the quest through to getting your pet. I will also be answering questions as we go, so please join us in the chat after the break. Update: The stream is now over. You can click on the above screenshot for the video replay. Stay tuned for a full text guide to accompany the video soon.
PopCap offering 50% off all its PC and Mac games
Looking to gorge on more than pumpkin pie and turkey this Thanksgiving at your your Aunt Mimi's? PopCap is offering 50 percent off its entire library of PC and Mac games through November 29 -- everything. Gobble gobble!
15 Minutes of Fame: Laura Shigihara, voice of WoW's Singing Sunflower
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. If you haven't yet lost hours (days? a week? ... more?) inside the zany fun of PopCap Games' mind-blowingly addictive Plants vs. Zombies, you owe it to yourself to click over right this minute (we'll wait here, promise) and take a whiff of those zombies on the lawn for free on the web. Wait, another game? Why should a WoW player like you care? Because the irresistible game with the irresistible theme song (above) is coming to Hillsbrad come Cataclysm in a new quest line celebrating the PopCap hit, and the adorable voice of songstress Laura Shigihara follows close behind in a commemorative Singing Sunflower pet. Shigihara, herself a longtime gamer and WoW player, has won the hearts of the WoW Insider staff with her impishly sweet songs -- the latest, last month's light-hearted Blood Elf Druids. My little fourth-grade daughter adores Shigihara; my big, burly coworkers sigh over Shigihara; and I, uh, seem to edit more than my fair share of posts to the beat of an endless zombie march across the lawn. Join us after the break for an exclusive chat with Shigihara herself about World of Warcraft, Plants vs. Zombies, singing sunflowers and more.
iPhone apps on sale for Halloween
Happy Halloween weekend! This is my favorite holiday of the year, not only because it's a fun time for parties during my favorite season, but also because it seems to be an excellent time for developers to put a little something special into their apps -- like put them on sale. There are quite a few sales hitting the App Store this weekend -- Sega has some of their titles on sale again (including Ecco the Dolphin and the great Shining Force), and Namco Bandai is doing the same. You can pick up Bit.Trip Beat and the original Pac Man game for just a buck each, among a few other good deals. PopCap has brought Plants vs. Zombies down to a buck for the holiday, and EA has a "Monster Sale" going on, too, with Wolfenstein RPG, Snood, and more on sale for just one cent less than a buck. All treats, no tricks on this Halloween weekend. There will probably be a few more sales announced before the weekend ends -- we'll try to keep an eye out for them, and let you know when we see them. Want even more quick app sale announcements? Watch our Twitter feed -- we'll often post quick free app and sale app notices there.
Sunflower sings about blood elf druids
It's no secret that we love Laura Shigihara, the composer for Pop Cap's amazing Plants vs. Zombies and now the voice of Cataclysm's singing sunflower pet. Shigihara has stepped into the WoW machinima world with her own original song and video, Blood Elf Druids, an adorable song making a plea to Blizzard for the inclusion of blood elf druids. Shout-outs to Tooga the turtle are pretty obscure, which makes it even more fun. It's adorable, catchy and a great first shot at machinima. There's even a behind-the-scenes video posted here. If this is the quality of song we're getting for the first video, I cannot wait to see what's coming next. An orc ballad, perhaps? I can only hope.
Plants vs. Zombies DS trailer unearths new minigames
We've planted the first footage of Plants vs. Zombies DS (due January 2011) right here, offering a glimpse of the new minigames: Heat Wave, Homerun Derby, Bomb All Together and a shmup called Air Raid. The DS version also touts new achievements and is, like all things PvZ, unbearably charming.
Handmade Plants vs Zombies figurines are just so precious
Etsy user AnUnclesMonkey recently homebrewed a quartet of Plants vs. Zombies figurines -- all based on living species from the game. Act quickly, and you could even purchase one, including the Torchwood, Kernel Pult, Hypnoshroom or Peashooter (seen here).
The OverAchiever: New feats of strength in Cataclysm
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we discuss the achievements most likely to drive you crazy in Cataclysm. "Wait a minute," you say, in your continuing quest to point out that I am one card shy of a flush. "We've already covered feats of strength." True. But we covered the ones that are becoming feats, most likely in patch 4.0.3. Are you still waiting for the Zulian Tiger to drop? Of course you are. I can't do anything to help you with that right now, so I figured I'd add to your misery by covering all the maddening stuff you'll find in the game later.
148Apps creates an App Hall of Fame
Jeff Scott of 148Apps has finally revealed his App Hall of Fame project -- he started it up about a month ago, and asked a number of personalities around the iPhone/iPad app scene (including yours truly) to nominate and then vote on a few App Store apps, with the eventual goal of inducting them into a Hall of Fame. We made our nominations and voted a little while ago, and the first inductees into the store are now listed on the site: Angry Birds, Flight Control, Doodle Jump, Shazam, Evernote, Plants vs. Zombies, Pandora, Simplenote, the official Twitter app, Instapaper, Homerun Battle 3D, and Fieldrunners. You've probably heard of all of those already, but that's the point: the Hall of Fame aims to honor "the very best mobile applications and games." There will be 12 inductees honored every month going forward, so the collection should grow bigger pretty fast. The nomination process is all done by the selection committee (not the public), but if you want to follow along, you can sign up on the mailing list (and have a chance to win some of the nominees for free every month). It's a fun project -- the App Store has been around long enough now that some super popular apps have risen to the top, and this is a good way to keep track of the absolute cream of the crop over the App Store's whole life. At the same time, I'm sure we'll see some interesting decisions in the months to come, so stay tuned for that.
PopCap canned a cute, turn-based Diablo-type game
Casual game (and class 3 electronic pharmaceutical) developer PopCap apparently had a beta of a RPG that "felt like a turn-based version of Diablo that was very cute." PopCap's creative director, Jason Kapalka, recently told Develop in an interview about this latest threat to global productivity. Thankfully (for humanity), Kapalka explained the game's complexity spiraled "out of control," stopped being casual and was dropped. The game now slumbers in PopCap's "design review" dossier, awaiting the day some adventurous designer solves the mystery of making it casual and unleashes its fury upon the masses. Kapalka expressed that every couple of months PopCap looks back on the game "because it was really fun," but that there are a dozen or so games in the same position. "These games are never 100 percent dead," Kapalka said. Diablo never is. Never.
Plants vs. Zombies becomes a quest in WoW: Cataclysm
Though past team-ups between PopCap Games and World of Warcraft have resulted in full-on in-game ... games, it seems Bilzzard's taking a different approach with the inclusion of Plants vs. Zombies in upcoming WoW expansion Cataclysm: it pared down and recreated PvZ as an in-game quest! Madness!
Singing Sunflower companion pet voiced by Laura Shigihara
If you're a Plants vs. Zombies fan, you are quite familiar with Laura Shigihara, the composer for the PopCap Games plant-a-thon. She is also the voice behind the Plants vs. Zombies theme song. On her blog today, Shigihara confirmed that her voice will be used for the companion pet, the Singing Sunflower, which players receive after completing the Peacebloom versus Ghouls minigame in Hillsbrad. How awesome is that? Besides being fun and kind of novel if you're into PvZ, you get a pretty cool reward for finishing the quest: a "singing sunflower" pet! I actually had no idea this information was public until Hashimoto linked me to TotalHalibut's video earlier tonight... incidentally, I was right in the middle of recording the sunflower's voice when I watched it. ^_^ I am so excited about voicing a WoW-pet because what can I say ... I'm a big nerd. Peacebloom versus Ghouls is a minigame/quest in Hillsbrad that puts the player in charge of Brazie the Botanist's garden of ghoul-destroying plants. If you've played Plants vs. Zombies, you'll feel right at home. Defeat wave after wave of ghouls and you will claim your very own Singing Sunflower companion. These new facts continue to illustrate the intimate and awesome relationship between Blizzard and PopCap, bringing good tidings to gamers who are fans of both excellent companies. Hopefully, more collaborations like this are in store for the future.
XBLA in Brief: Plants vs Zombies, Dance! It's Your Stage
Welcome back, Briefanatics! After a short, Summer of Arcade-induced hiatus, XBLA in Brief is back again to give you a heads up on the latest games to hit Xbox Live Arcade. This week we hail the long-awaited arrival of Plants vs Zombies and ... well, Dance! It's Your Stage is available too. [iTunes] Subscribe to XBLA in Brief directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the XBLA in Brief directly. [RSS] Add the XBLA in Brief feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly. There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and may not have time to download and examine each and every new XBLA game. You've got busy, attractive person stuff to do, after all. Not to worry though, because we've done the work for you, downloading every single trial game and giving you a taste of what to expect. Watch XBLA in Brief every week to see which games deserve a closer look. When you have the time, of course.
PopCap CCO: Facebook gaming's 'golden era' may be at an end
Are you tired of all the Farmville and Mafia Wars clones that plague Facebook? PopCap's chief creative officer Jason Kapalka believes that it won't be long until cheap copycats and their ilk will stop their rapid propagation. "You're definitely in the stage right now in social games where there's a lot of bandwagon jumping, where everyone sees moneymoneymoney and suddenly all these new companies appear," he told GI.biz. "It happened before in mobile, it happened before in casual – in the past it's tended to signal the beginning of the end." Kapalka isn't suggesting that social games as a whole are going to die. Instead, he says it's the end of a "golden era," where the possibilities of the genre seemed limitless. Now that social gaming has taken root, the realities are becoming more evident: the extraordinary amount of competition, harsher restrictions from Facebook, slowing growth and dwindling margins will make it increasingly difficult for new social games to catch on. "Facebook can't go that much faster," Kapalka added. (Of course, Facebook would disagree.) While Facebook and social games factor into PopCap's success so far, Kapalka doesn't seem too concerned about any sluggishness in the sector. The reason? PopCap has its hands in enough places to feel secure. "I feel PopCap's really diversified over the last ten years, we've never been necessarily the biggest company doing Xbox games or mobile games, but we've always been able to keep our hands in all these different areas, and sort of shift as necessary to whichever platforms are doing well." Plants vs. Zombies, for example, will continue its expansion to Xbox this week, and Nintendo DS next year.
This Wednesday: The epic battle of Plants vs. Zombies on XBLA ... plus 'Dance! It's Your Stage'
A friendly reminder that the XBLA ports of Plants vs. Zombies and Dance! It's Your Stage sashay in a shambling manner onto Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. The XBLA version of the flora versus undead tower defense title will cost 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), while that dancing game will be 800 points ($10). The XBLA version of PvZ features co-op and versus multiplayer, along with your very own customizable house. The XBLA version of Dance! It's Your Stage features, um -- did we mention Plants vs. Zombies is coming out this week? %Gallery-98993%
