Sinopsis Fast Five (2011)

Sinopsis Fast Five (2011)
Kedekatan Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) dengan Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) dan Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) membuat mantan polisi ini memilih menyeberang jalur. Saat Brian memutuskan untuk meloloskan Dominic dari tahanan maka artinya ia menempatkan dirinya sebagai buronan juga.

Bertiga mereka kemudian mengumpulkan pembalap-pembalap lain untuk menuntaskan misi terakhir mereka. Satu-satunya cara untuk membersihkan nama mereka adalah dengan memburu Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), pebisnis licik yang menginginkan Brian, Dominic dan Mia mati. Sayangnya usaha ini bukanlah usaha yang mudah karena ada orang yang ternyata tetap gigih memburu mereka semua.

Agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) tak pernah gagal dalam menjalankan tugasnya dan kali ini pun ia tak ingin gagal menangkap Dominic, Brian dan Mia. Didukung oleh tim yang tangguh, Luke Hobbs mulai mengobrak-abrik Brazil untuk memburu para pembalap liar ini. Saat buruan makin dekat, Luke Hobbs mulai ragu. Ia makin tak bisa membedakan mana yang jahat dan mana yang baik. Kini ia hanya bisa mengandalkan isntingnya saja dalam menuntaskan kasus ini.

GTA V Mulai Menampakkan Diri?

Jakarta - Seri terbaru Grand Theft Auto (GTA) mulai menampakan diri. Game besutan Rockstar itu konon sudah mulai bisa dipesan pada salah satu toko penjualan game online terbesar di Inggris.

Sudah cukup lama Rockstar digosipkan sedang mengembangkan GTA V, bahkan game ini sempat diprediksi akan dipamerkan pada ajang Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Juni 2011 lalu. Namun ternyata meleset.

Kabar mencengangkan datang dari toko online, Gamestation. Toko online penjual game terbesar di Inggris itu sudah membuka pre-order untuk pembelian GTA V versi Xbox 360, demikian yang dikutip detikINET dari gamerzine, Jumat (15/7/2011).

Tak hanya hanya Gamestation. GameStop, penjual game asal Jerman pun melakukan hal serupa. Tapi sayangnya hingga kini Rockstar belum memberikan klarifikasi mengenai keberadaan GTA V, baik jadwal perilisannya ataupun pemesanan yang dilakukan kedua toko tersebut.

Yu-gi-oh Forbidden memories

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F.A.C.E.S.

A young girl with unusual paranormal powers finds herself having to use them to escape from a sinister facility.
Updated Jul 21, 2011, 3:37pm
In the over-crowded world of the hidden object game, there are hidden object games (meh) and then there are Hidden Object Games (wahoo!). Though on the surface, games in the genre might seem easy to make—just toss a load of random things together so people can sort through them—the difference between a great hidden object game and a so-so one comes down to clever design, skillful story construction and loving attention to detail. Lucky for us, the people at Vogat Games are experts at making the former variety and F.A.C.E.S. is a stellar example.
The game takes place in a fairly familiar (for hidden object adventures) setting: a creepy asylum. In this frightening facility, sadistic scientists experiment on people with extraordinary talents, psychically crippling them or using their talents for unseemly ends. The young heroine in F.A.C.E.S. is lured to the asylum by fear of her incredible ability to transport herself to other locations via photograph, and by false advertisements promising to help people like her. Once there, she realizes her terrible mistake as hospital staff lock her in a room and only let her out to perform various burglaries for them. She also realizes that within the asylum's twisted system, her days are numbered. Desperate to get out, she's unexpectedly assisted by a mysterious apparition that encourages her to use her powers to escape.

As mentioned before, the asylum is well-trod territory for hidden object games but few games take such spectacular advantage of the setting. From the first five minutes to the last, F.A.C.E.S. is an incredibly beautiful and atmospheric game. As you move among five equally creepy floors full of locked doors and ominous warnings, you're treated to some of the most carefully-crafted environments and hidden object scenes you'll ever see. As you progress through the game and unlock more custom environments, your mind will be officially blown when you consider the sheer effort it must have taken to create them. This commitment to visual excellence persists throughout the game and into the Bonus Chapter which offers up even more completely new locations chock-full of beautifully conceived and executed details.
A lesser game might have tried to let great graphics do all the heavy lifting but F.A.C.E.S. pays equal attention to its puzzles and plotline. That's not to say that every puzzle in the game is something you've never seen before, but it does mean that Vogat's gone to great lengths to customize each puzzle to fit the game's clinical context. While most of the puzzles are solved by either common sense or a few minutes of trial and error, there are enough genuine head-scratchers to keep the experts happy. If you're something of a hidden object novice though, and the more difficult puzzles get the best of you, don't worry—a handy Skip button and built in strategy guide are there to keep you moving.

And rest assured, you will want to keep moving because F.A.C.E.S.' story's a real doozy. Although the game contains no voiceover and relies solely on text to carry the dialog, it's still great at imparting a sense of suspense and danger through the use of medical records and casually sadistic notes left lying around by hospital staff. It also offers an ending more well thought out than that of many other hidden object adventures, an ending both satisfying (well, if the real ending found at the end of the Bonus Chapter is taken into account) and open-ended enough to leave room for a sequel.
Aside from great art, story and puzzle design, F.A.C.E.S. also does a great job of conveying atmosphere through sound. The game's music, characterized by a combination of piano and electronic elements, is alternately melancholy and urgent and both are augmented by the periodic addition of eerie, childlike laughter and terrifying screams.
Here's where normally I would say something negative about the game but honestly, aside from its employment of a somewhat overused setting, there's really nothing negative to say about F.A.C.E.S. In beauty, skillful design and sheer entertainment value, it's the antithesis of the lazily or hastily-made hidden object game. Every inch and every minute of it exhibits a level of care and craftsmanship found only in the top five-to-ten percentile of hidden object games, making it worth several of its mediocre cohorts. If you're a fan of the hidden object adventure, don't miss this game. You'll kick yourself if you do.

Pocket RPG's arrows, melee, and magic get ready to invade the App Store

Combining twitch action dual-stick style gameplay with the classic hack’n’slash formula of games like Gauntlet and Torchlight, Crescent Moon Games’ upcoming Pocket RPG is gearing up to take the App Store by storm.
Developed by Tasty Poison Games, Pocket RPG has been described by its creators as “a stripped down action RPG shooter, hack 'n slash, rogue-like.” Gameplay will consist of players exploring dungeons and other environments riddled with enemies, which they’ll need to navigate in order to find the exit. Along the way they’ll slay monsters, pick up loot, and lay waste to the environment around them.

What sets Pocket RPG apart from similar games on iOS devices is the promise of totally randomized dungeons, which should offer near-infinite replayability. After selecting from the melee-heavy Blade Master, the magic-heavy Battle Mage, or the range-based Dark Ranger, players will be able to spend 20 or 30 minutes exploring each randomized dungeon before reaching completion.
Pocket RPG’s Dungeons will feature more than just an endless wave of low-level monsters, too. Crescent Moon Games’ tells us that you’ll encounter bosses in these dungeons, complete with their own minions.
In addition to the dual-stick gameplay mechanic, combat will feature elemental attacks, magic, and special moves. Players will also be able to equip items that will change their stats and attack types, and unlock other goodies along the way.




Pocket RPG is set to debut on the iPad this February, but iPhone owners can expect a universal update to follow that will let them get in on the action too.

Army of Frogs is a hoppin' good time

I’m not sure if you could excite my board gaming brain any more effectively than when I’d read into the pedigree of Army of Frogs. Developed by Big Daddy Creations as a follow-up to their wonderfully implemented iOS version of Neuroshima Hex, and designed by John Yanni who created Hive which is a near classic for my wife and I, I was instantly interested in hearing what Army of Frogs was all about.
Army of Frogs is a hex based tile laying game where each person is in control of 10 colored frogs that all connect as they’re added to form an island. Your goal is to get 8 of your frogs on the board connected to each other by jumping and moving them around. If you’ve played Hive, you’ll get the sense of familiarity from this even though the games are very different. It’s more of an inspiration really.

On your turn, you’ll have two frogs to choose from to put on the board (neither of them need be your color – it’s random each turn). The first thing you’ll do on your turn is move one of your colored frogs on the board if you’re able, and then you’ll place a new frog onto the island. Since you’re not always in control of where your frogs get placed, it’s an ever changing game of trying to jump frogs around to link them all together to win. What I love about this is that you spend a good amount of turns placing frogs for your opponents, so you want to try and put them in the toughest places possible to slow them all down.
When you really boil it down, Army of Frogs is an abstract tile game with the frogs pasted on top, so don’t let the theme scare you off if you don’t like the theme. They chose frogs to represent the game pieces, but it could’ve been anything. Again, similar to Hive in a way.
The iOS version of the game is pretty slick, which should not surprise you if you’ve played the fantastic Neuroshima Hex game on iPad. It would seem that Big Daddy Creations is no one trick pony. Menus and instructions are clearly given, and the interface is easy to understand and use. The colors even seem well suited to colorblind players, which is something developers seem to be addressing more and more often lately.
The app can handle up to 4 players either, AI based or pass-n-play local multiplayer. Luckily if you want to take it online to play you can do that too, with asynchronous games running against online opponents. Personally I’m a big fan of the 6 different AI “opponents” that play to different levels and with different strategies. That really helps vary it up for me, since I play a lot of solo games.


It was amazing how quickly the layout of the island changed as the game progressed, and while having a plan is utterly necessary to get your frogs clumped together, those plans are also quickly thrown out as all your opponents scuttles each others’ best laid ones. There’s a fun chaotic nature to it all, and the lack of special units or powers ups actually lends to the game’s appeal. Keep it simple and fun.
Army of Frogs is leagues away from Big Daddy Creations’ previous iOS game, but it proves the developer has chops in the “bring board games to the digital” space. Clean interface and menu design, engaging gameplay and a wealth of multiplayer options make sure you’ll always have someone to play against. With Army of Frogs, Big Daddy Creations is now solidly on my radar. I can’t wait to see what they release next.

Ant Raid

If you were partying with your friends and all of a sudden someone came along and sprayed the room with a noxious chemical turning your friends into evil, mindless zombies, what would you do? Gang up on your friends and beat them into oblivion, of course! Well in Ant Raid, that’s what you’re up to. Thankfully, beating up your monstrous ex-friends has never been more fun.
A combination of tower defense and arcade twitch game, Ant Raid follows the story of an ant colony whose friends have been infected by some sort of virus after being sprayed. The story is told with fun, colorful videos peppered throughout the game, and provides a good motivation for moving forward.

The first thing you’ll notice in Ant Raid is its personality. This game is right up there with Angry Birds or Cut the Rope in terms of having a recognizable group of characters, as well as a theme song that will get stuck in your head for hours afterwards. The whole game is as beautiful and colorful as the opening, with lush, detailed environments and quirky, fun characters throughout.
But gameplay is king in Ant Raid. Each level has a different goal depending upon the scenario. At first it’s all about sending your troops to defeat enemies before your home base gets damaged. Soon after though, you’ll have other tasks to finish in order to earn a three-star rating. These include rescuing fallen comrades, picking up sticks to raise an alarm flag to a certain height, or playing a modified game of Whack-a-Mole. All of this is happening simultaneously, making for fun if, frenetic times.
To defeat enemies, you’ll have to grab some of your ants and send them to the enemy you want to defeat. The larger the baddie, the more ants you’ll need to send. Some of them will make life more difficult, such as snails that knock out your troops upon their defeat (which means you’ll need to send in some active troops to rescue them) or a worm who will shake off your troops, causing them to either die or fall back.
Color plays a role as well. Blue enemies have very high defensive ratings, taking longer to kill. Red enemies are more aggressive and move quickly. The neat part is that, upon defeating an enemy of this color, your ants absorb their power. Defeat enough like-colored enemies and your ants take on those characteristics. Blue ants will be strong, while red ants will slaughter anything in their path and move like lightning. If you play well, you can combine those powers and have golden ants for a level.
On top of that, defeating regular enemies builds a third “Hand of God” gauge. Fill this gauge, and you can activate a mini-game where you tap to defeat enemies as the titular Hand of God. All while trying to gather resources, defend the base, or recover comrades.


Ant Raid has some serious staying power, too. The main game has 60 levels, plus two more unlockable modes (an endurance mode and a scenario challenge mode where you can earn even more stars). And thanks to Game Center, Ant Raid features a long list of achievements well worth working towards. It’s nice to see this much effort put into it.
In fact the only real problem with Ant Raid happens in later levels. As the enemies start attacking faster and in greater numbers, having to scroll around the level can be a bit of a pain. The ability to zoom out and see the whole map at a glance would be most welcome.
But only one small dent in an otherwise flawless gaming experience isn’t going to ruin anything in a major way. Ant Raid is a fun, quirky and beautiful title well worth owning. If you’ve got an iPad, the HD graphics are really a treat. So go ahead and beat your former friends into oblivion! Ant Raid is definitely worth both your time and money.

Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock makes like a vampire and sucks

Pop quiz, hotshot: what do vampires do? They suck, of course. And what does the new hidden object horror game Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock do? You guessed it: it sucks.
Normally I like to begin a review by focusing on a game's strengths, the aspects of it that are most likely to be well-received by players of all stripes, and so I shall do that here to the best of my ability by saying that Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock is almost certainly not the worst hidden object game you will ever play. To be fair, it's not even all that terribly awful. It's just blandly, generically bad: silly, tedious, eminently forgettable and, given all the other hidden object games out there that don't suck, really not worth the bother.

To the game's credit, there's at least one moment that's pretty creepy. You'll know it when you see it, believe me, and I'm not going spoil the surprise for. It happens relatively early - within the first of roughly three hours of play time, maybe four if you like to take it slow - and it promises some legitimate, Salem's Lot-style chills ahead. Sadly, that one creep-out on its own is not worth the price of admission and it's all downhill from there, as the game fails to deliver on that early potential.
Welcome to Hell Lock is, technically, a hidden object adventure, but the vast majority of the adventuring consists of a simple, sequential series of "find object, use object" maneuvers. Puzzles and mini-games are very few and far-between, and tend to be frustrating despite their obvious simplicity because they're also rather obtuse. One such "game" requires the use of a magnetic crane to move an obstacle blocking an entrance. The crane is about as complicated as a preschooler's Tonka Toy; the trick is figuring out what specific part of the obstacle the magnet needs to attach to and because there's absolutely no indication given, you're liable to spend minutes just waving the thing back and forth until something clicks. A "skip" option is available and although it's irritating being forced to throw in the towel not because a puzzle is too tough but because it's so poorly designed, in this game I would advise that you not be afraid to use it.
It's hidden object scenes that are the game's raison d'être, but while they're plentiful, they're not particularly good. The game's visuals are decent but tend to be a little on the muddy side, which may be appropriate for the dark subject matter but isn't especially conducive to enjoyable hidden object searching. Not that the HOG scenes are very difficult. Quite the opposite, in fact. Welcome to Hell Lock is one of the easier hidden object games I've played, for two reasons: one, the hidden object scenes are used repeatedly, with all the same objects in all the same places every time, and two, the objects you're required to find tend to be the same from scene to scene. You'll be looking for the same mix of stuff - pliers, daggers, jewelry cases and ropes are popular - from the first hidden object search to the last.
Making things worse is the way each word in the list of items glows green when the cursor is near it. The closer the cursor is to an item, the brighter its description glows, and it's no exaggeration when I say that I found a substantial number of the objects in the game by simply moving the cursor around on the screen while keeping an eye on the object list. There's no way to stop the glowing short of covering the bottom bit of your monitor with duct tape, and assuming you don't want to do that, you really can't avoid that helping hand. The net result is that gamers who want any kind of meaningful hidden object challenge are bound to be disappointed.

The cleverest thing about Welcome to Hell Lock is the way it uses virtual photographs instead of a map to assist with navigation. Pictures of each of the game's locations are added to a photo album as you visit them, and to travel directly from one spot to another you simply click on its photo. It even ensures that you know where to go (and reduces the aforementioned low difficulty even further) by tagging each photo that has an active hidden object scene or other activity.
The downside to that is that you can easily spend the whole game traveling via the photo album, bouncing randomly from location to location as you're directed, with no feeling of a cohesive narrative unfolding before you. You're just flipping randomly through a half-dozen pages of a virtual picture book, clicking where you're told, working through a half-baked hidden object search or "use item on..." puzzle, and then returning to the album to find the next waiting activity. Repeat ad nauseum until it's finally over.
If that doesn't sound like much fun to you, there's a pretty good reason. It's not. Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock is an all-around disappointment in pretty much every way. The graphics and music are unremarkable, the story is nonsense (even for a hidden object game) and worst of all, it's just dull and uninteresting. Even the connection to vampires is tenuous at best; I'm no fan of sullen, angsty undead hipsters but at least they show up in their games. And when a game is bad enough to make you feel a twinge of nostalgia for that sort of faux-Twilight drivel, well, there's only one way to put it: it sucks.

Edgeworld is like Global Warfare, but in space

It's hard not to get a sense of deja vu upon booting up a new game developed by Kabam, as each game tends to play much like the last, albeit with a few tweaks and a new theme. Edgeworld largely follows this trend, playing out a lot like a sci-fi version of Global Warfare. But it manages to improve on its predecessors thanks to a much improved, and much more engaging, new combat mode.
Edgeworld takes place on a hostile alien world where no one seems to be able to get along. Different factions have staked claim on small plots of land, and you're just the latest. An empty square surrounded by alien wilderness serves as your base, and it won't be long before it's full of all sorts of technology: from research labs and resource producing mines and refineries, to defensive turrets and barracks for training soldiers. Since everybody seems to want to fight everybody in Edgeworld, keeping your base well protected is vital.

Things play out for the most part the same way they do in other Kabam-developed games. You'll build functional buildings and collect resources and train troops, all of which takes real-world time to complete. It takes a while for Edgeworld to get going, but eventually you'll find there's quite a bit to do. You can also, of course, attack other bases and steal their resources. Initially you'll be limited to computer-controlled bases, but after a brief grace period you can attack other players as well. And they can attack you.
The one aspect of Edgeworld that really stands out, though, is the combat. You no longer simply send troops to a base and wait for them to return, hoping for good news. Now you actually have much more say in the battle. You can scout any base to check out its defenses and see what resources it has, and then you have the option to attack. And here you'll be able to amass your own team of soldiers and deploy them where ever you deem strategically best. There's a wide range of units to research and train, and how and where you decide to deploy them actually has a strong impact on how the battle will turn out. And the simple fact of being able to watch the combat makes you feel that much more involved.
It also makes base building a much more strategic aspect of the game. How you decide to lay out your base, and where you decide to place your defensive turrets, has a big impact on how successful other players will be when attacking your base. There's a nice balance between having to solidify your defenses, while at the same time constantly improving your military might.

Edgeworld also looks great, as is the norm with Kabam games. The artwork is detailed and beautiful and even the menus look slick, fitting in quite well with the sci-fi theme. There's even some nice animation to the various buildings on your base that really helps bring the world to life.
It may be very similar to past Kabam strategy games, but Edgeworld manages to evolve the formula with engaging new combat that really makes you feel more involved in what's possibly the most important aspect of the game overall. And if the themes of games like Glory of Rome or Samurai Dynasty haven't grabbed you, there's a good chance that Edgeworld's sci-fi universe will suck you right in.

Six games to get you through the NBA and NFL lockouts

With both the NBA and NFL currently embroiled in labor disputes and the upcoming basketball and football seasons potentially shortened or even cancelled due to lockouts, there's a good chance that sports fans will need something else to occupy their brains. Thankfully there are plenty of video games that should help. Which ever sport you follow, and which ever platform you're playing on, there's a game that can fill up that void that would otherwise be filled with ESPN.
NBA Jam - There's no better way to remember just how fun basketball can be than by spending a few minutes with NBA Jam. The recent iOS remake of the legendary arcade game offers up the same goofy, over-the-top, two-on-two action that made the series famous, and manages to squeeze it all onto a device that can fit in your pocket.
NBA Dynasty - If you're more of the management type, Playdom's NBA-licensed Facebook release lets you build up a team filled with the best players in the league. And not just current players, but players from every era. You can have Steve Nash feeding the ball to Wilt Chamberlain, or Kobe Bryant teaming up with Bill Russell. The possibilities are virtually endless, as is the gameplay: because unlike most Facebook games, there's no limits on how long you can play NBA Dynasty in any given session.
NBA Legend - Also on Facebook, this game from Lionside lets you create your own player and then build them up into an NBA superstar. You act as trainer, manager, and even agent as you bring a young player of your own creation from obscurity to superstardom.
Madden NFL Superstars - If football's your game, EA's Madden series is now on Facebook, and the social game lets you manage your very own NFL franchise. You create a club, draft some players, build up a stadium, all in the hopes of earning money and winning the Super Bowl.
Madden NFL 11 - For a more standard Madden experience, the iOS version of the game brings a console-style experience to your phone, complete with 3D graphics. You pick the plays, you control the players, and you determine whether or not the Green Bay Packers will repeat as league champions.
Tecmo Bowl Throwback - For something a little more retro, there's always Tecmo Bowl. No, it doesn't sport an NFL license and all the teams you know and love (and hate). But it does have incredibly easy to understand gameplay, which makes it the ideal choice for more casual football fans.
And hey, remember, there are always other sports! You can try to get into hockey with Icebreaker Hockey or soccer with FIFA Superstars, or even shoot a few rounds of pool in Pool Live Tour.

GamersGate.com gets an overhaul, adds achievements & more

PC/Mac downloads portal GamersGate has relaunched with a new modern design, improved interface, faster navigation, and new features including:
My Library
A virtual game shelf where you can store and show off your game collection, and any achievements you've earned. The game shelf can be displayed on your public profile so that friends can check out the games in your collection.
Achievements
Perform quests on the site to earn experience points, and eventually trophies that will be displayed in your library.
My Minion
The GamersGate minion is a personalized avatar that follows you around as you browse on the site, and will evolve as you gain experience points. You can choose from five different classes of minion depending on your gaming tastes, and the minion will give you different bonuses, discounts and offers depending on which class you've chosen. For example, the Elf Minion pictured below awards bonuses and discounts when you buy games in the Adventure and RPG genres.

Developers in Love: An Interview with Fenix Fire’s Brian & Anna

Teams of developers get together in all sorts of ways. So do couples. But what happens when the two worlds collide? If you’re names are Brian and Anna, Fenix Fire is what happens. This new development studio, consisting entirely of two industry vets who are deeply in love, are preparing to unleash their first collaborative effort on the world. Their baby if you will. We recently had a chance to chat with the pair about their upcoming game Roboto that’s headed for the iTunes App Store and Android Market.
Everyone loves a good love story. Tell us how you two met.
We met at art school, but it's not as innocent as it sounds. At the time, I was an instructor and Anna was a student in my class. We started dating after Anna finished the class, of which she received an A.
Working with a spouse can present its own unique set of challenges. Are you able to keep work and home life separate? What are the pluses and minuses of becoming business partners with your partner in life?
We bicker all the time about how to improve the game. Even though we work from home we'll call a meeting to talk about Roboto in a very corporate type fashion. These meetings get sidetracked by discussing who's vacuuming and who's doing the dishes mixed in with gameplay decisions, AI behaviors and marketing plans. So I suppose we don't really try to separate the business from our life, it all just fuses together. Oddly enough, as inevitable as this is, we actually like it this way.
Funny enough the pluses are minuses: we can talk about our projects any time of the day and we see each other all the time. There's a very strong incentive to help each other, the better we do helps both of us. There's no room for corporate politics.

Fenix Fire’s upcoming debut title, Roboto, will be hitting the App Store and Android Market soon. It’s something of a love story too. Tell us a little about it.
Roboto is about a clumsy robot boy who suddenly discovers the girl of his dreams right before she blasts off to another galaxy. Determined to ask her out, Roboto hoverboards across worlds in a desperate attempt to find her. Of course, there are many obstacles; enemy bots, falling platforms, gravity switching, laser guided turret guns and giant mechs all stand in his way.
To even the odds of this monumental quest, Roboto has many weapons at his disposal and can even upgrade his armor and hoverboard. In the end, only Roboto's skill will propel him to have a chance in finding and asking out his one true love.
From what little we’ve seen, Roboto seems to be a 2D platformer that mixes a number of familiar mechanics like gravity-flipping, coin-collecting, and subtle 3D elements. What, if anything, inspired the varied gameplay in Roboto?
We turned to classic games for our primary inspiration. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PS1 had this great twist when the top of the screen became the level – it was a great gameplay feature and we always wanted to play off of that. Also, going back even further, the best Mario game ever was Super Mario Bros 2. It was so unique and completely holds up today. The fact that you can pull grass to uproot vegetables and then throw them was awesome, and that really got us thinking about how to tie all the gameplay aspects together in a cohesive, circular fashion.
More than anything else, the Roboto World itself inspired us. The locations we chose for the game really lent itself to some great platforming moments and the fact that it is a robotic world allowed for crazy technology gadgets, like a gravity switching device and the hover board physics.
There seems to be a move amongst mobile game developers lately to shift from an iOS-exclusive focus to a mixed iOS and Android focus. How important is a simultaneous iOS and Android release to you? And why choose this, rather than releasing on a single platform first and then porting later as many developers choose to do?
Using Unity as our middleware allows us to achieve a simultaneous launch.
Gaming couples always seem to have a favourite game that they play together, and I’m sure you two are no exception. When the Fenix Fire team wants to chill out, what do you like to snuggle up and play?
Right now we really like Donkey Kong Country on Wii, which has a great use of theme and gameplay mechanics. Most of the time, however, we play Roboto. Not only to play test, but because even after 8 months of development we really just like to play it.

Aveyond: Lord of Twilight Preview

Amaranth Games has started to share some details and screenshots for the next role-playing game in the Aveyond series, Aveyond 3: Lord of Twilight. According to the company's latest newsletter, Aveyond 3 will star Mel, an "ornery thief who steals the wrong heirloom." Mel turns out to be the descendent of the world's most hated sorcerer, which garners her the unwanted attention of a powerful vampire lord.

Luckily for Mel, the vampress Te'ijal and her soul-trapped husband, Galahad, are willing to help her escape the vampire lord and thwart his plans to turn humans into slaves for the undead.

Aveyond 3 is scheduled to launch in May.

Aveyond: Lord of Twilight Review

Shortly before the release of the title everyone was calling Aveyond 3, developer Amaranth Games announced a change of strategy: Instead of the latest game in the Aveyond series being a sprawling 50-hour role-playing adventure like its two predecessors, it would instead be released as several smaller "episodes" offering about 10 hours of playtime each. The first such episode is Aveyond: Lord of Twilight.
Other than the length (and let's face it, 10 hours is still pretty darned impressive - especially by casual game standards) and the fact that a couple of quests carry over into the next game, Lord of Twilight is the same kind of game that Aveyond fans have come to know and love.
The story revolves around Mel, a young orphaned thief whose life changes forever when she discovers she's at the center of an evil prophecy and is being hunted by a ruthless vampire lord. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say it could end very, very badly for humankind.
The 2-D graphical style is typical of other casual RPGs and classics like the early Final Fantasy games. You'll explore various towns and the surrounding countryside, which includes forests, mountains, bog, and even snowy terrain. Along the way you'll talk to people to gain clues and side quests, discover treasure and purchase equipment, and have other like-minded adventurers join your party.
Combat is turn-based, meaning you select an action for your characters to perform (such as attack, defend, or use magic or special skills), and after the actions are carried out, the enemies take their turn, and so on until the battle is won or lost. In other words, strategy's the name of the game, not reflexes. There are no random battles in Lord of Twilight either; all enemies are walking around in plain view, so in most cases you can choose whether you want to engage them or simply try to side-step around them.
If you fall in battle, the game automatically saves your progress so you can resume from where you left off, which is a nice touch.
Lord of Twilight lets you control the game using either the keyboard or the mouse, or a combination of the two - whatever feels most intuitive. Although the game is fairly menu-heavy, it doesn't feel too intimidating. Furthermore, there are three levels of difficulty that allow you to adjust the strength of your party and the enemies you'll face - a nice touch that makes the game accessible to a wider variety of gamer and adds some replay value for those wanting to test their skill on a higher setting.
Like all Aveyond games, this one's graphics are colorful and charming, and its soundtrack is catchy and suitably epic.
My gripes with the game are few. I sometimes felt a bit claustrophobic because the game is organized into a series of connected areas that you must wind your way through to discover new locations, instead of just being able to walk across a zoomed out world map. The handful of times I did emerge into the world map I couldn't actually go anywhere; presumably that will have to wait until future instalments. I also didn't find the in-game overhead map particularly helpful in figuring out which direction to walk in. Granted, you'll eventually unlock teleporters that allow you to travel instantly between towns - for a not insignificant price.
Other than that, there's not much to complain about. Amaranth Games has hit on something wonderful with Aveyond, and I'm impressed not only at how willing the studio is to keep adding small refinements and tweaks to make gameplay even better (such as adding mouse support and an autosave), but how rich the community is by offering maps, downloadable "goodies" and other fun stuff to players.
Like its predecessors, Aveyond: Lord of Twilight is a casual RPG that offers hours of enjoyment. True, it's not quite long or deep as the first games, but if you're worried about whether you're still getting enough bang for your buck, you can put those worries to rest.