French iPhone blog iPhon.fr recently managed to snag a hands-on of Gameloft's upcoming Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard. Yesterday we posted the game's trailer, along with the announcement of the release date which just so happens to be next Thursday.

I would have loved to see some of the co-op in action, as the game comes packed with three player online co-op as well as ten player online multiplayer. Regardless, it's cool to see the game in action and only serves to further point out how difficult it's going to be to choose which two friends of mine I want to blast through the game in co-op mode with first.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard is a first person shooter set in the Tom Clancy universe. The Rainbow Six series of games historically have been fairly awesome and packed with tight urban squad-based combat, so I'm really hopeful for this one.

It's crazy what we're starting to see on mobile devices as the performance gap closes more and more with each iteration of mobile technology. Back in the day when I was playing EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, and other ancient (by today's standards) MMORPG's, I never thought I'd be playing something that looked even remotely similar on my phone. Enter World of Midgard, an MMORPG based on the Unity engine that looks surprisingly similar to those very same 3D classic MMORPG's.

It's still way too early to pass any kind of judgement on this game, but the few YouTube videos that have been uploaded look awfully promising, and the developers seem very excited about the project. For instance, take a look at this fully narrated video on one of the game's dungeons:

Details are vague right now, but forum user Elevas30 compiled an array of responses from the developers to various YouTube comments on our forums. They expect to release the game in about four months, and it initially will come packed with four classes: Fighters, clerics, rogues, and mages. Among other details they've mentioned that all classes will be able to heal and resurrect party members. The game is also slated to be free.

I'm not entirely sure how excited to get about World of Midgard, especially considering the crazy balance issues that will almost surely arise from every class being able to resurrect and heal. Either way, I love that iOS and mobile devices have come so far. If a small team of indie developers few people have ever heard of are building ambitious projects like this, just imagine what would be possible in the future.

For more information and videos from the game, swing by our forums.

Head's up: the puzzle game we called a "true App Store gem," Helsing's Fire [.99 / HD / Lite], just got a huge, free update. Version 1.4 sees a new campaign based in a place called "The Frozen North," and a new villain called "The Ice Queen." It also mixes things up a bit by giving you a new partner, two new survival arenas, and even some new mirrors to bounce light and tonics off of. That's quite a bit, eh?

As of right now, Helsing's Fire for iPhone and iPod Touch is sitting at the typical 99-cent App Store price point. If you've been thinking about jumping in, don't fret. As our review states:

… Helsing's Fire is even better than I expected. Dark gothic creatures wrapped up in amusing sequences of Victorian dialogue and, not to be forgotten, that excellent light and shadow puzzle mechanic. It's one of the most unique games I've ever played and is a true App Store gem. Surely only a creature of darkness would let this one slip by them.

That's big praise for a unique puzzle game that challenges you with the enormous task of taking down everyone's favorite blood sapper, Dracula. And while I'd never say our word isn't a big deal, I've got to point out that Helsing's Fire is good enough to be an IGF award winner. The game took home the "Best Mobile Game" IGF award at the 13th annual event.

Oh, here's a cool one. Hacker alias "Reign Design" started up an awesome thread in our message board awhile back designed to get developers to show off their "Before and After" images. This gist is this: in the thread, you post a concept, sketch, or proof of concept image of a game, and then you post a shot of the realized version. If you've been following games design for a bit, you already know what to expect � rousing and dramatic differences between the images.

One of the more dramatic differences can be spotted in the first page. Hacker alias "Boovie" posted a prototype build of Archibald's Adventures [$3.99] and then the final game.

Here's some subtlety for. User "qwiboo" posted a shot of Aqua Globs Evolution [$.99 / Lite] in beta and then in its final form:

And here's a big improvement, too. User "Kikekun" shared his mock-up of Pro Zombie Soccer [$.99 / HD / Lite] �and then the final version:

Hopefully, by viewing this, you'll see why a lot of us media types are so afraid of proof of concept kind of stuff. These posts demonstrate what can change between mock-up and final build, both visually and mechanically. Anywho, if you've got some time to spare and like this stuff, swing over to the thread � there's a lot of great stuff in there.

Last week we met with the guys from Owlchemy Labs who are responsible for the highly controversial physics game Smuggle Truck. We've already posted about the controversy as well as the playable web demo, but this was the first time we actually saw it running on an iOS device.

Check out the game running on an iPad:

Owlchemy Labs plans on submitting Smuggle Truck to Apple for approval sometime around the 15th. They're using Unity for the game engine, which is allowing them to have a surprising amount of cross-platform compatibility. Once its all said and done, levels created in the level editor seen in the video will be playable across all platforms. What platforms are those? Well, Owlchemy is planning a release on the iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC, and potentially even distributing the game via Steam.

I can't wait.

Gigaom is running a fantastic editorial about how App Store sensation ngmoco changed its business model from conventional to unconventional, how it was forced to transform or die.

As the story goes, the studio was had a traditional game-making approach � spit out a premium game and move on to another. As time went on, ngmoco discovered that this wasn't a model that it could use to become a million-dollar developer. The rush to the bottom and the volcanic nature of the App Store's charts both aren't conducive to this. So, the studio made the hard and reasonable choice: move to 'freemium.' The thinking was that, in order to become a multi-million dollar company, ngmoco needed to put several games on the charts for around a year � and that's in addition to enticing people to keep paying for the same product over and over.

It worked.

Speaking to Gigaoam: "Games are not built for a fleeting moment in the charts, but are built for an (ongoing) relationship with the customer, " ngmoco CEO Neal Young said. "The longer you can maintain that relationship, the longer the opportunity."

Moving to this model wasn't a hit among the hardcore base � like our own here � but it did score ngmoco a sweet buy-out opportunity from DeNA. End of the story is that ngmoco succeeded in its switch and is flourishing as a developer. Not that this is new information or anything � but it's interesting to see the company reflecting on its own history.

Really, I guess the thing you should take home from this isn't that ngmoco are sell-outs, conceptually and game-wise. Nah, the thing to take home is that ngmoco wanted to be a company that could support itself and, as a result of the App Store climate, freemium was the only way that it could.

Broken or not, the App Store is evolving at a rapid pace, with freemium now becoming the model most big companies are tackling post-ngmoco success. I wonder if we'll still be nodding our heads in understanding at this piece just a few years from now, or if the App Store will oscillate in the opposite direction and will be driven by premium titles instead. We'll just have to wait and see.

While we were out at GDC 2011, TouchArcade attended an EA Mobile media event where a number of titles from both EA Mobile and Chillingo were demonstrated. One of the titles demonstrated under the Chillingo banner was the upcoming Blobster for iPhone and iPad, developed by Divine Robot, who brought us the unusual shooter Eveningstar.

Blobster is a physics-intensive puzzle platformer that puts you in control of a cute little red blob on a mission to clean up the countryside after an unfortunate environmental disaster has littered mother nature with nasty, toxic blobules. It's your task to collect said blobules and solve various puzzles along the way to make it from start to finish and on to the next level.

The game features an impressive physics system, which you'll immediately notice thanks to the undulating fluid surface of your little blob as he moves about the levels by way of both tilt and a swipe-hold-and-release elastic jump mechanic. Actually, Blobster is not always little; the more blobules he absorbs, the larger � and heavier � he becomes, which comes in handy when interacting with certain structures found in the levels.

A number of power-ups can be collected along the way that bestow various enhanced abilities upon your undulating blob. These include the ability to float on water, shrink in size, super jump (10x higher than normal), go zero G, and experience reversed gravity.

Divine Robot's Creative Director Henrik Jonsson took us through the gameplay.

Blobster has a great feel that combines a heavy dose of cute with that satisfying feel of realistic physics to deliver a rather engaging game experience. In just my brief time with the title, I've already developed a craving to start sucking up blobules. I'll have to wait until late April to get started, however.

We'll have more on the rest of the titles we saw at the EA Mobile media event, shortly.

Last week while we were all busy with GDC shenanigans, developer Simogo quietly announced Bumpy Road, the follow-up to their previous iOS title Kosmo Spin [99�]. After being pointed in the direction of the game's trailer (thanks Daniel!), it didn't take long for me to realize that Bumpy Road is shaping up to be something special. It utilizes an interesting control mechanic where you directly change the elevation of the ground using your finger. This enables you to raise and lower a car driving on that ground in order to collect various objects and negotiate the terrain.

It's a unique idea, and one that is easier to understand by watching the following trailer, which also displays the lovely art style of Bumpy Road:

The premise of Bumpy Road will revolve around a family out for a leisurely drive, and the items you collect are actually memories that will tell the story of their lives. According to the information on Simogo's website, it sounds like Bumpy Road will contain an endless mode, a timed mode, and a story mode, but the exact details are unknown. Simogo does promise that it will be a universal app with Retina Display graphics and Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements.

So far people are getting pretty excited for Bumpy Road in the upcoming games thread in our forums, and based on the hints from Simogo in that thread the game could be available as soon as next month. We'll keep a close eye on Bumpy Road and bring you any new information as it becomes available.