Tag: 12.99 »

Todat 2K and Firaxis Games have announced the iOS version of their fantastic alien-blasting strategy game, XCOM: Enemy Within. This enhanced edition of XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes with a ton of new content including new gear, story, classes, maps, and gameplay.

Now you can add new facilities to your base, such as the slightly creepy Genetics Lab that allows you to mess around with your soldiers' biology and the Cybernetics Lab where you can convert your soldiers into giant mechanical supermen. You're going to need them, too. The alien forces have a new ally amongst the humans. A shadowy organization called EXALT is working against humanity - you'll want to infiltrate their inner workings and take them down before they have us all bowing to our new alien overlords.

Enemy Within also has new multiplayer maps, units, and abilities. Gang up on those aliens in one-on-one, turn-based matches.

Unfortunately the app is only compatible with iPad 3, iPad mini 2, iPhone 5 and up. It WILL NOT be able to run on earlier generations of iOS hardware.

You'll be able to download XCOM: Enemy Within from the App Store for $12.99 tomorrow.

Imangi Studios and National Geographic Kids have partnered together to turn the Temple Run series into an informative and exciting book called Temple Run: Race Through Time to Unlock Secrets of Ancient Worlds. They have also created a new character for Temple Run 2, Maria Selva, based off the protagonist in the book.

“The goal of this partnership is to get students excited about reading and learning,” said Walter Devins, director of licensing at Imangi Studios. “Teaming up with National Geographic is an amazing way to let our fans discover some of the awe-inspiring locations throughout the world that have influenced Temple Run.”

You can purchase the book for $12.99 on the National Geographic site, and download Temple Run 2 for free on the App Store.

 

The feature-laden personal organizer that is Pocket Informant Pro has received even more features by way of a new update just in time for iOS 7.

The most immediately noticeable change will be the new look. Now it's all flat and design-y! It also saves filters now, for some much easier finding/assigning. The "Today View" will also display estimated travel time to your destination complete with searchable location, although this particular option is iOS 7 only.

You can check out the list below for the full rundown, but it's looking mighty nice!

NEW - Fully updated for iOS 7! Built to take advantage of the new look & feel of iOS 7. Additionally, PI also supports iOS 7's new background fetching to keep your data more up-to-date.
NEW - The Today View now shows an estimated travel time to the next appointment with a searchable location (iOS 7 only). With 1 tap, you can be taken to the map with driving directions.
NEW - Intelligent Location Autocomplete: As you type in the location of a task or event, PI now offers suggestions based on map searches, addresses in your contacts and locations you've bookmarked in PI.
NEW - Saved Filters: If you frequently toggle between different "sets" of calendars (like a work set and a personal set), then this is for you. You can now save different calendar filters, then simply tap-and-hold the "hamburger button" to quickly switch between your saved filters
NEW - When you're using a physical keyboard, our rich text editor now supports standard keyboard shortcuts for bold (cmd-b), italics (cmd-i), underline (cmd-u), numbered list (cmd-1), unordered list (cmd-2), pick font (cmd-t), center (cmd--), indent (cmd-right), outdent (cmd-left)
NEW - New inline icon picker in task and event editors

-PI now requires iOS 6.1 or better
-Several performance improvements throughout the app
-Tab Bar Mode Switching is now in settings instead of swiping from the edge of the tab bar (this is to play nicely with iOS 7's new control center)
-Backup Manager now automatically removes older backups (it only preserves the last 7 backups)
-Improvements to PI Online sync
-Checklist items now use the color of their main parent checklist task
-Starred tasks now show star even if you aren't showing the entire icon view
-Improvements to the Notes editor, voice notes and notes syncing

Pocket Informant Pro is a super powerful information manager app with a ton of built in features, along with several that can be purchased as add-ons, increasing the functionality in specific ways.

Now, however, the app's developer has added Evernote support, with a host of ways to integrate your Evernote reminders and other notes right into Pocket Informant Pro. The concept is to bring together everything about your day into one place, and let you customize every part of the app to make it individually useful to you.

Sounds good to me!

Evernote Integration also includes:
* Rich Text Notes
* Lists
* Styles
* Evernote Reminders and todos
* Stacks
* PDFs
* Word Documents
* Images
* Attachments
* Support for Evernote "linked notebooks"

I just finished reading Will Luton's new book, Free-to-Play: Making Money From Games You Give Away. It's a $12.99 purchase in the iBooks store, making it a better deal than, say, the current paperback version, at $21.38 over on Amazon.

The book is a healthy roundup of what makes free-to-play (F2P) games tick, with sections on the economics, gameplay, monetization, marketing, and analytics--the underpinnings of any successful free-to-play game on any app store.

The examples he uses within the book are Farmville, naturally, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Bejeweled Blitz. In this way, Luton is able to illustrate his points with concrete examples from real world games that use the principles within.

The author believes that free-to-play games are a win/win proposition, letting developers quickly and inexpensively release games that have a chance of making some money, and letting players who wouldn't typically touch a $60 console "gamers' game" experience fun for no money down. It's a delightful ideal, and I hope most, if not all, developers take it to heart: free-to-play games should be good games first, and monetization engines second. Luton continues to make this point throughout the book, though the message tends to get lost in the discussion of variable reward schedules (the same type of reinforcement schedule slot-machines are built on) and how to analyze key performance indicators.

As a non-developer, I did get lost within the many industry acronyms and other such jargon, but Luton does a good job of helping the novice reader get through it all. The title is clear: this is a book on making games that make money, and the information between the front cover and end flap is focused on that part of game making.

The level of depth and detail that Luton brings to the explanation of how free-to-play games work is astonishing. While the gameplay section, for example, tends to focus on player retention, play sessions, and triggers to keep your players coming back rather than actual game mechanics, it's an interesting read nonetheless. I've definitely increased my understanding of what a complex achievement successful free-to-play games have attained.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who develops games for iOS or other mobile platforms, as well as readers and writers who want to get a better grasp on the breakout phenomenon of the free-to-play genre. Luton has created a fantastic resource, here.

The book Free-toPlay: Making Money From Games You Give Away, by Will Luton, can currently be found on the iBooks store for $12.99.

Medical students don't always have access to cadavers, certainly not when outside of the classroom. This is a relief to many of us, but it's far from practical for those students trying to study the human body. Anatomy & Physiology REVEALED aims to solve that problem.

Available for the iPad, Anatomy & Physiology REVEALED makes it possible to practice on a virtual cadaver, accurately replicating the cadaver dissection experience.

Five modules are available within the app, allowing for access to the skeletal and muscular systems, nervous system, cardiovascular, lymphatic and respiratory systems, digestive, urinary, reproductive and endocrine systems. There's also room for body orientation, tissues, cells and chemistry.

Many different interactive slides, as well as detailed imagery, videos and animations ensure that this is a comprehensive package for medical students, along with a quiz facility. There's even pronunciation tips for difficult to pronounce terms.

Anatomy & Physiology REVEALED might not be the cheapest of apps, costing $12.99 plus the same price again for extra modules, but for medical students, it should prove very valuable in giving them the extra edge in their studies.

Law and Order: Legacies

is keeping on with the episodes that they're releasing in their series based on the long-running television franchise, with episode six now available. In this episode, players help Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach's famous character) and Rey Curtis solve a case from 1999, where someone is murdered at a prep school. However, as they investigate the case, a conspiracy comes unraveled, as another crime at the school being covered up by parents and staff comes close to being discovered by the two detectives. As well, the victim has connection to the overarching Preppy Jogger case that the individual episodes are connected to.

This penultimate episode is available now for $2.99, with the final episode promised next month that could help bring resolution to the Preppy Jogger case. As well, for those who want to get a discount on the series, a multi-pack that includes all the episodes is available for $12.99. As well, by downloading the universal app for free, players can check out the complete episode one at no charge.

To get it out of the way: The Proposal is not an app for proposing marriage, though it would be convenient with Valentine’s Day here. No, The Proposal is an app for a different kind of proposals – business proposals. This lets sales professionals access their proposal information directly on their iPad, in order easily make their business proposals. GPS data can be used to automatically add the user’s current address. Image locos can be added directly from the iPad or the web. Tax info can be added, along with detailed written proposals, with preset options available. This also means that proposals can be easily and quickly modified when being pitched to other clients. Proposals can be saved and exported with iTunes, saved as PDFs, printed directly form the app, or emailed directly to clients. The app also supports importing price lists as Excel spreadsheets either by being loaded into iTunes, or by being imported in from Dropbox. This versatile app for sales professionals is available now.

Planning a wedding? It's a stressful business as well as immensely exciting. Take some of the stress out of it by using an app like the newly released Wedding Planner for iPad.

Wedding Planner for iPad is an extensive app that covers all the important elements of planning such a huge event well.

Attractively laid out, Wedding Planner for iPad offers a budget planning facility, guest list planning, a To-Do list for quick consultation, a tracker for Vendor bookings and notes section. Further functionality comes in the form of a color scheme chooser and even a thank you helper list so the user can keep track of who has helped them in their efforts.

It's all done in a very appealing manner that fits into the wedding style. With everything placed in one convenient app, it's bound to take some of the stress out of organizing the momentous occasion.

Wedding Planner for iPad is out now, priced at $12.99.

UPDATE: Edge has just announced via the Newsstand app that the October 2011 issue is now free to download. Head over to the App Store, download the free Edge app, and then download the free back issue today.

Having been a long time subscriber to Edge Magazine, I'm pretty excited to see it be one of the first titles to reach Newsstand.

Available through the app, Edge Magazine promises the same fantastic experience as before. Famous for its intelligent writing and in-depth looks at everything gaming related from reviews to unearthing the latest in the world of game development, Edge Magazine makes for a fascinating read for gaming fans. It's a mature change of pace from glossier magazines but never fails to intrigue.

The Newsstand edition offers enhanced online content with extra insight, related content and screenshot galleries. Linked to the website, if there's anything that can add to the reader's enjoyment on the website, the app lets the user know.

Pricing through Newsstand is pretty respectable with individual issues priced at $4.99, a 3 month subscription available for $12.99, 6 months for $21.99 and a 1 year subscription priced at a very reasonable $39.99.

It's a veritable bargain, given the quality of the writing and a must buy for fans.

In late 2009, we first reported the surprising announcement that Mirror's Edge would be receiving an imminent release on the iPhone. Although the game did indeed look very far along, it was soon delayed and went underground for the next few months. Mirror's Edge has now resurfaced, and it has surprised us again by actually being an iPad launch title. Luckily, it was worth the wait.

Mirror's Edge first hit the videogame scene in 2008 as a console game that featured revolutionary first-person, free-runnning gameplay. The game featured a HUD-less interface that smartly used color in the generally white-washed environments to help guide you along. While the game garnered much critical success for its fluid, momentum-based gameplay, and for attempting something new, it wasn't necessarily a hit with regards to sales, and the property's future seemed somewhat in doubt.

Since then, a simple flash game was released based off of Mirror's Edge. As a 2D side-scroller, it successfully captured some of the basic thrills of the console original, and hinted that we hadn't seen the last of Mirror's Edge. With the release of the iPad, we now have the latest riff of the game in our hands, and it sits very comfortably between the fully 3D first-person title and the strictly 2D side-scrolling experiment.

Mirror's Edge for the iPad takes place in the same futuristic dystopia where everything is sanitized and all communications are monitored. Our female protagonist, Faith, is a member of a group of underground messengers known as "runners". As such, Faith has to traverse all manners of dangerous rooftops and city locales to evade the authorities and complete her quest.

When you first start Mirror's Edge for the iPad, you are greeted with the same signature look and familiar theme song from the original. The visuals and overall user interface are very slick and extremely polished, and the music is strong throughout. The game itself sports attractive 3D character models and perilous environments on which Faith catapults herself in 2D side-scrolling fashion.

With all of the aesthetic trappings in place, the game needs to control well in order to capture the action of the original. Using a set of very intuitive touch controls, Mirror's Edge for the iPad does just that. A simple swipe to the left or right sets Faith into motion. An up swipe triggers a jump, and a downward swipe causes Faith to slide. As more difficult sections are encountered, you can perform a wall run by using another, well-timed up swipe during a jump, as well as a roll when attempting to land from a long drop by down-swiping appropriately. There are other wall climbs that can be effortless performed, as well as boost jumps, ramp slides, zip-lining, etc., that all help convey the sense of speed and motion that defines the series. When you can string a number of these moves together, building momentum and flying through the environment like a virtuoso bad-ass, the game really comes together and the sense of movement can be exhilarating.

There are times when the general design of a level or the over-abundance of enemies to fight, which was the Achilles heel of the original, brings the fluidity to a halt. Combat in this game is luckily not the main focus, but it has has been improved upon and is fun when not too many enemies are present. The timing required to pull Faith's attacks is very forgiving, especially due to the slow-motion employed when near an enemy, and you can do such things as a flying drop-kick, a slide-takedown, and a gun disarm. Mirror's Edge for the iPad does away with letting you handle a gun, which is definitely an improvement, as you were very much penalized for doing so in the original game. While the combat isn't terribly obtrusive and it never gets old drop-kicking a guy in the face, it still slows you down enough to put a crimp in your free-running fun.

Faith's story, which is unfortunately told through boring scrolls of text reminiscent of Star Wars, takes you through a total of 14 levels, 2 of which are more-or-less tutorials. You'll be traversing a variety of rooftops, buildings, and sewers, and strewn about the levels are a number of hard to find/reach messenger bags. You can replay the levels to collect these bags as well as earn badges, Mirror's Edge's version of achievements, which then unlock wallpapers, etc.

As you complete all the levels of the game, you unlock Speed Run mode for all of them. You can earn 1-3 stars per level depending on your time, and there is a leaderboard where you can post your times, as well as download another player's ghost to race against. As for multi-player, Mirror's Edge for the iPad has two modes called Race and Rivals. Both of these modes use a split-screen, head-to-head setup. Race Mode lets you compete in a sprint to the finish on any of the game's levels, whereas Rivals Mode has you collecting the most number of messenger bags on any of 4 virtual levels. While a diversion at best, these modes can be fun, especially Race Mode with combat enabled.

While Mirror's Edge for the iPad has its faults, primarily a lamely told story, the occasional confusing level, some unnecessary combat, and a short campaign, it definitely succeeds in being a fun and impressive game. As far as launch titles go, it is one of the best of the bunch because of the intuitive control and signature style. The sense of speed and fluidity of motion that are conveyed when the game is hitting on all cylinders makes for some exciting gameplay. I won't go as far to say that the Mirror's Edge series is a better fit in this 2D style, as it can't convey the immersive qualities of the more finicky, first-person experience, but it works incredibly well as a straightforward action game. When boiled down to these basics, Mirror's Edge on the iPad may be a bit on the short side, but it's long on fun.

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