Just in time for Halloween comes word of an official Evil Dead game coming to the App Store. For those that don't know, Evil Dead is a campy 80s horror movie directed by Sam Raimi (yes, the director of the Spider-Man movies) that follows a group of college kids as they spend the weekend in a remote cabin in the Tennessee woods. They accidentally unleash demons into the world by using The Book of the Dead, and all manner of Hell breaks loose. Main character Ash (the "King of All B-Movies" Bruce Campbell) spends all night fending off his friends as they each become infected with evil spirits. Evil Dead has become a cult classic horror film in the nearly 30 years since it was released.

We literally have no details about the upcoming game, but are impressed with how faithfully the game represents the original film in this trailer:

We're eager to find out any more information about this Evil Dead game that is coming to our iOS devices, but so far the developers are remaining hush about any specifics. What's interesting is that the trailer seems to use the actual audio directly from the movie itself, and what is shown closely mimics the events in the movie as well (though with Nintendo Mii-like characters). Also, this comes after the announcement of an Army of Darkness (the third movie in the Evil Dead trilogy) iOS game coming next year, but it doesn't appear that the two games are related aside from subject matter. We'll bring you any more news on this game as we get it, and until then I'll just pop in my Evil Dead Necronomicon Edition DVD and patiently wait.

Id Software's Rage is high up on my list of games I can't wait to play. It's going to be released on the PC and home consoles on September 3rd, 2011, and spinoff game for iOS devices is also in the works that is coming this November. The Bethesda Blog posted a developer diary of sorts by John Carmack today which is filled with some great technical details and newly revealed information on their upcoming Rage-based iOS game, Mutant Bash TV.

Starting things out, John admits that mobile development at Id hasn't been on the top of the priority list, and it wasn't until the end of July that he even started writing the engine that would power the iPhone game. (We saw the results at QuakeCon.) In the post, Carmack also reveals that while with this engine it's technically possible to compile the full-blown PC/console version of Rage for the iPhone, he describes it as a "hopelessly bad idea," citing inappropriate performance tradeoffs and control differences.

He admits what they do have is fun, and unlike anything else available for the iOS. After seeing the success of Myst, which is a 700MB download, that became their target file size for the "standard definition" version of the game. The "high definition" version for the iPad and iPhone 4 will be twice that size. Carmack then goes on to explain that the full version of Rage weighs in at an incredible 20GB. Even more surprising, this game is going to launch at 99� for the standard version, and $1.99 for the HD. Carmack thinks "people will be very happy with the value."

But what is this game going to be all about? John explains in detail:

The little slice of RAGE that we decided to build the iPhone product around is "Mutant Bash TV", a post apocalyptic combat game show in the RAGE wasteland. This is the perfect setup for a quintessential first person shooter game play experience � you pick your targets, aim your shots, time your reloads, dodge the bad guys, and try and make it through to the end of the level with a better score than last time. Beyond basic survival, there are pickups, head shots, and hit streak multipliers to add more options to the gameplay, and there is a broad range of skill levels available from keep-hitting-fire-and-you-should-make-it to almost-impossible.

A large goal of the project has been to make sure that the levels can be replayed many times. The key is making the gamplay itself the rewarding aspect, rather than story progression, character development, or any kind of surprises. Many of the elements that made Doom Resurrection good the first time you played it hurt the replayability, for instance. RAGE iOS is all action, all the time. I have played the game dozens of times, and testing it is still fun instead of a chore.

Carmack has built his life around making games that are not only technically impressive and beautiful, but also tons of fun to play. If gameplay is in fact the rewarding part of Mutant Bash TV, I can't wait to give it a try. This all is making the end of November seem even more far away.

Gamevil has had a streak of hits with their Baseball Superstars series of games. We really liked Baseball Superstars 2010 [$2.99 / Free / HD] in our review, and the 2009 edition was great as well. The games combine arcade style baseball with RPG elements, creating an experience that is not only fun for fans of sports, but impossible to put down for those of us who like filling experience bars. Baseball Superstars 2011 is on the verge of being released, and Gamevil released the following two videos in preparation:

First, the ridiculous trailer:

…And a gameplay video:

I seriously cannot wait for this game.

Glu's Gun Bros [Free] plays a lot like a typical dual stick shooter in that you're armed to the teeth with weaponry and need to survive in a battle against wave after wave of various baddies. Competition is getting tough in the dual stick shooter section of the App Store, with plenty of fantastic options to choose from, but Gun Bros offers a few features that makes it stand out from the pack. First off, it's free to download and monetized via in-game adds and optional in-app purchases for equipment upgrades. Also, instead of playing by yourself, you play with a computer controlled bro who assists you in slaughtering everything that moves.

It gets even cooler though. Utilizing Game Center, you can import your friends' characters in to your game which then substitutes your secondary bro with their bro. It's still computer controlled, but both you and your friend get all kinds of bonuses for helping each other's bros out.

Playing the game awards experience and xplodium which is then refined in to coins at the end of the level. Utilizing these coins and optional war bucks which you buy with real money, you can upgrade to 30 different types of guns and 50 different types of armor. Some items are only able to be purchased with war bucks, but if you're willing to grind up coins, you can still have a great time in Gun Bros without paying for anything.

If you're in to dual stick shooters, you need to give Gun Bros a try. It looks great on the Retina Display of the iPhone 4, and like any free to play game you can either go crazy with in-app purchases, or just play the game without paying anything. Either way, the Game Center bro sharing system is really cool, making Gun Bros worth checking out for that feature alone regardless of how you feel about freemium games.