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iPhone Game and App Roundup
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Rage HD to get some updates. TV/VGA Support!
We just heard that John Carmack himself has sumbitted the 1.1 update of Rage to the App Store. And there is a lot of updates, fans of this game are in for a treat. Find out all the gory details.
Firstly:
- Full Game Center support is coming, specifically, 58 achievements and 13 different online leaderboards.
- Gyroscope controls have been added for devices that are equipped with gyroscopes
- Directional damage indication has been implemented so you can see what side you're being attacked on.
- There's also a whole host of bug fixes and tweaks such as changing the location of the pause button to prevent hitting it accidentally.
It gets better though. Two new game modes have been implemented.
- Mirror Mode, which flips the levels for a slight variation in gameplay.
- Museum Mode has been added which strips all objects and creatures while allowing the player to look through each level, pausing when they see fit to look around.
The best update we are looking forward to?
RAGE is also going to support secondary display output at 480p via the Apple component cable and 720p via the Apple VGA cable. We've seen this before with some games, but none that are as graphically advanced as RAGE.
We can't wait to give this a try. The update will be free for those who purchased 1.0. Expect this stuff to hit the App store just after Christmas.
Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light
If you are even remotely interested in games or movies, you would be familiar with the Tomb Raider series. The game is getting continued on iOS and both iPad and iPhone versions.
Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light will be hitting the North American App Store for $6.99 (iPhone) and $9.99 (iPad).
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on the iPhone retains a lot of its downloadable console counterpart. It's got a top-down view, combines platforming and twin-stick shooting, and even has online co-op multiplayer through Game Center. One player will control Lara with her grappling hook, while the other controls an Aztec warrior named Toltek, who has a supply of golden spears.
There will be a two-player co-op mode included over both WiFi and Bluetooth. For those familiar with the game and hoping that the DLC from the XBLA/PSN versions would make it to the iOS version.
While the game is fully playable in single-player mode, it looks like having a second player will allow for some interesting co-op moves. Toltek can throw spears to create steps for Lara, and he can also use his shield to give Lara a vertical boost.
There are basic kinds of levels among the 10 that will be in the game. There are open "exploration spaces" where you'll have to solve puzzles by moving through a few different environments, more linear tombs like the spiders' lair, and high-pressure chase sequences where you'll be forced to keep moving.
Lara's first iPhone game looks very encouraging. The downloadable title it's based on seems like great source material, as the original Tomb Raider games are probably a little too complex to fit on an iPhone. With co-op play, this could be yet another worthwhile purchase in a month of great games.
Word Lens for iPhone is the future of translation, now.
There is a new translation App for the iPhone, and it's getting a lot of attention across the web. Why? It only translates from Spanish-to-English. But the way in which it works, and how you interface with it - is truly remarkable.
What the app does is take the image stream from the iPhone's camera, apply real-time image processing and pattern recognition tricks to it, and it then "plays" with any text it finds in the scene before displaying it on the iPhone's screen.
Not impressed by the description? Think again: Quest Visual, the company behind it, calls it a "real time translating app" and begs you to "turn your iPhone into the dictionary of the future--now!" The exclamation point may be warranted. Because what Word Lens does to text held before iPhone's cam, conjures thoughts of the best sci-fi movies.
The app comes with a toy option that lets you reverse words it recognizes in the scene, or delete them altogether, but you can pay to download a Spanish-to-English translation package that instantly turns the words on, say, a menu, into text you can understand.
See what we mean? When Word Lens gets its act together, beefs up the pattern recognition so it can cope with odd fonts and adds in English-to-French, French-to-English, Portuguese, Russian, and so on... the app's powers could be, quite literally, world-changing. Were he still with us, the creator of the famed fictional "babel fish" universal translator, Douglas Adams, would be having kittens right about now, and not only because he was an avowed Apple fan--this app is like the textual equivalent of that clever little fish.
Amazing, isn't it? This is the kind of technology that was science fiction - not long ago.
We know smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, and that they've already changed the world in small ways (pub quizzes, for one, just aren't the same any more), but Word Lens is one strong hint that the world as we know it is really, really changing. In the future, you may never again stare in confusion at a sign, menu or parking ticket in a foreign language. Our multi-lingual world just got the app it deserves.
See it in action - on YouTube.
Sony Playstation official iPhone App
PlayStation devotees around the world will be able to explore all things PlayStation using Sony's official iOS application.
Running on iOS 4 or later, the app has already been released in selected European countries. The app will roll out to other countries soon.
In version 1.0 you’ll be able to:
The app also includes news feeds with information on the latest and greatest games and hardware involving the PlayStation 3, PSP and Playstation 2. The app also provides information from Sony's European PlayStation.Blog website, which also announced the iPhone app release.
Of course there are also social networking features, so users of the app can communicate with friends and share items with Facebook, Twitter or email accounts. The app is free on iTunes in the listed countries, and will be coming to the US and other countries soon. Sony has not announced a North American release date as of yet.
Sony is already planning to expand on the features contained in version 1.0, with more countries and languages and a fully interactive PlayStation.Blog area that will let users comment directly to the blog. Sony expects some added features in the PlayStation app to release early next year. Although there are many PlayStation-related apps currently in the Apple App Store, this is the first time Sony has developed an official mobile application dedicated to their gaming platform.
We’re hoping they will ad some kind of function for your iPhone to be able to integrate with the PS3 via Bluetooth – but we are thinking this is unlikely, as they are planning to release their own PSP / Phone combination – which is much more likely to connect to the PS3. Image of the leaked Playstation phone below.
Tell us what you would like to see on the Playstation App for iPhone, in the comments below.
We would like to see you be able to the use iPhone as a remote for the PS3, especially for typing. Typing is a real pain with the DualShock controller.
More info on the official Playstation Blog.
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