We've been kind of going crazy with Infinity Blade news lately, but it's hard to not get excited for the first real game to come to the iOS platform that utilizes Unreal Engine 3 technology. Sure, Epic Citadel [Free] is an excellent display of the power of the platform, but it's little more than a tech demo. MTV Multiplayer also had some time with Chair creative director Donald Mustard and they were able to get even more details regarding just what we can expect of the game.

Mustard confirms that the castle in Infinity Blade is in fact different from the one found in Epic Citadel, and went on to discuss the sword fighting nature of the game:

Mustard's goal with "Infinity Blade is to "make a real sword fighting game. A game where it's not just mashing buttons or pressing A to unleash an attack." On the iPhone and iPad, Mustard and his team found an ideal platform for the concept. "It'd be perfect to use this touch screen to where, basically, I swipe on the screen, and I've got this dude who swipes with me. We can actually make a sword fighting game where, if an attack is coming in at a funky angle, I can swipe my sword into it and parry the attack away."

He then goes on to describe Infinity Blade as "a blend between 'Karateka,' 'Dragon's Lair,' 'Punch-Out,' with a whole bunch of other 'Chair-ness' thrown into it." We'll be able to explore the castle for loot in between battles, and while we knew there was going to be free post-launch updates, I don't think anyone expected the amount that they're planning which Donald Mustard is describing as "like a constant stream of free content," citing games like Pocket God and Doodle Jump as examples of how well updating works.

If you're as excited as we are about Infinity Blade, be sure to read the full interview and if you haven't already, take a look at the trailer we posted earlier today.

[via MTV Multiplayer]

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The Baseball Superstars series has come quite a long way on the iPhone. The original Baseball Superstars [$2.99 / Lite] was released in late 2008� It was a fairly obvious port from Gamevil's cell phone version of the game, complete with stretched graphics, mediocre virtual controls, and not much else. When we caught up with Gamevil at the following GDC, they previewed an update that fixed pretty much everything that initially made us take a pass on reviewing the game when it was first released. With improved graphics, and a more sensible difficulty level, Baseball Superstars quickly became one of my favorite iPhone games.

It wasn't much of a surprise to me when Baseball Superstars 2010 [$2.99 / Lite / HD] was released that we liked it just as much, if not more. Our review reflected the various refinements that Gamevil made to the series which only made the experience even better and the game even more difficult to put down. Baseball Superstars 2011 [$4.99] was just released, and as you may have guessed by now, it's even better than the last.

If you've never heard of this game series, here's the gist: Gamevil has made the perfect baseball game for those of us who normally don't care at all about baseball games. Sports games typically don't do too much for me, and the closer they get to the "simulation" side of the spectrum, the less I'm interested in them. Gamevil takes things to the complete opposite end of that scale with Baseball Superstars via the integration of equally ridiculous super batters and pitchers, RPG elements, and tons of items to boost the aspects of your player's performance.

All this fun stuff takes place in "My League" mode where you choose whether you want to play as a batter or pitcher, then you just grind away batting and pitching in baseball game after baseball game. Between these games you're given the opportunity to train your player by sending him off to participate in various training drills, and you can buy things like bats, helmets, and other items which all provide some form of benefit. These are bought either with the money your character earns playing (Their salary increases as they get better as well.) or via G Points which are slowly earned by playing but can be bought in large quantities via an IAP. Also, interestingly enough, these G Points can be sent to other players through an in-game mail system of sorts… So if you've got an excess of G Points and want to help out a friend who just got the game, you can send them up to 30,000 a day.

While "My League" mode only has you in charge of a single player, season mode has you looking after an entire team in addition to the overall appeal of your stadium. When graduating to season mode, there's even more training options, and you're able to trade players, hire coaches, and upgrade the various components of your home stadium. It's all really fun, and all the silly player training and stadium tweaking really keeps you playing, providing great goals along the way such as just needing to play a few more games to buy an awesome new scoreboard for your team. In fact, the RPG elements of Baseball Superstars make it really hard to put down, because there's a seemingly never-ending supply of upgrades that are just a few games away.

Once you're happy with your team, you can take them online and battle other teams in versus mode. This is all asynchronous, and it's basically the same as playing an exhibition game except you're playing against the stats of another player's team. This was introduced in last year's Baseball Superstars, and it's just as cool in this year's iteration. The game modes don't stop there though, there's also a home run derby mode and a mission mode. 28 missions are included initially, and there's a "download missions" option to get even more. These missions include things like just simply landing a successful bunt to hitting a grand slam. The previously mentioned G Points are awarded for any completed missions.

Much like the Madden games, and other yearly sports series, Gamevil's Baseball Superstars 2011 is the same basic game with a number of tweaks, additions, and other changes. If you want to get your feet wet, the best place to start is the lite version of Baseball Superstars 2010. It will give you a great idea of what to expect of 2011, as the core arcade style baseball gameplay hasn't really changed at all aside from a new camera angle for batting. Once Baseball Superstars 2009 got updated, I couldn't put it down. Baseball Superstars 2010 was even better, and Baseball Superstars 2011 is better yet.

RPG elements provide a great goal to keep players who aren't normally in to playing sports games interested, and the core gameplay is likely competent enough to make hardcore baseball fans happy. (As long as you're OK with players wearing tiger heads for helmets batting with sledgehammers.) If you're the kind of person who can get way too involved in any game that offers bars to fill and other types of RPG style progression, you'll likely really enjoy Baseball Superstars 2011. Just be warned, once you get sucked in the game is almost impossible to put down. You'll find yourself playing "just one more game" for hours.

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Chair released a brief trailer for Infinity Blade this morning. Formerly known as Project Sword, Infinity Blade was initially unveiled at the September keynote. Recently, all kinds of details have been pouring out, and they even announced that this Unreal Engine-powered game will be available for the holidays.

Check out the trailer:

It will be interesting to see how the game actually plays, and how deep the RPG elements go. From the looks of the trailer, Infinity Blade is an entirely swipe controlled fighting game that allows you to upgrade the gear your character is equipped with. I really can't wait to see this game running on the Retina Display.

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The newest offering from Blacksmith Games, who have previously brought Plushed [99�/Lite] and�Boostball [99�] to the App Store, is a physics puzzler called Floop [99�]. In Floop, the goal is to launch an acorn into a squirrel's mouth using the least amount of tries as possible. Making this task more difficult are the many hazards and obstacles contained in the 50 cleverly designed levels. Floop is a game that seems so simplistic on the outside but contains quite a bit of complexity, mostly due to the interesting physics engine, and is wrapped up in the kind of visually pleasing package that we would expect from Blacksmith Games.

The mechanics in Floop are really easy to grasp. Each level begins with your acorn sitting at one spot in the level and a squirrel with a gaping maw at another. Touching the acorn and dragging away from it brings up a line that shows the trajectory the acorn will travel. Once you're satisfied with where the line is pointing, letting your finger off the screen sends the acorn flying. You'll earn up to 3 stars on each level based on the amount of launches it takes to get the acorn into the squirrel's hungry mouth. The 50 levels are divided across 4 different themes, with your total amount of launches for each theme tracked through Game Center leaderboards.

As you collect stars, you'll be able to spend them on unlocking two additional creatures to use in the game. One is a mouse which replaces the acorn with a block of cheese, and the other is an ape with a banana. Part of what makes Floop so much fun is the different behavior of each of these objects. The acorn has an odd shape and is bottom heavy, making for some crazy bounces. The block of cheese is a perfect square, with nice flat sides that can be used to your advantage. The banana has the weirdest shape of all, as it's elongated and can bounce in ways you would never expect, kind of like a football. These factors add some variety to the simplistic core gameplay of Floop. In addition to the 3 stars, each level also tracks what object you've used to complete it which adds a lot of replayability.

The physics system in Floop will either strike you as being fun or frustrating. It's extremely floaty and unpredictable, which ensures that each attempt at completing a level feels different from one another, but it can also be annoying at times. Sometimes it can take many retries just to get past a certain level, and others you will beat just with one launch because you had an incredibly lucky bounce right into the creature's mouth. Overall I think the random nature of the physics is fine, but will most likely bother you at some point. Also, the touch recognition when trying to launch can sometimes be unresponsive, and there are areas in each level where your object can get stuck, forcing you to restart.

The control mechanism is actually a bit different than what is shown in this video, but it still gives you a good idea at what kind of gameplay Floop has to offer:

These are pretty minor complaints though, and for the most part Floop really is a lot of fun. The Game Center integration with leaderboards and achievements had me hooked on trying to complete each level with the least amount of launches as possible. The graphics are cute and colorful, though unfortunately not enhanced for Retina Display devices, and I really like the assortment of animals that bring different elements to the gameplay. Floop starts out fairly easy, but the difficulty ramps up nicely and it's quite challenging to complete the later stages, let alone getting 3 stars on them. Players in our forums are really enjoying the game as well, and I would recommend Floop if you're in the market for a new physics puzzler with a slightly unpredictable nature and a good amount of content.

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