King of Dragon Pass [$9.99] originates from what I consider to be on the tail end of the golden age of PC gaming, where developers focused more on depth and originality instead of texture resolution and polygon count. In fact, King of Dragon Pass is a fantastically extreme example of this as there's no polygons to speak of, and the graphics only really consist of a assortment of hand-drawn illustrations to accompany whatever event is taking place at the time. I think the easiest way to describe what the game is all about is to call it a largely text-based menu-driven mash up of a Civilization game and a Choose Your Own Adventure book. If you're the kind of person who requires flashy graphics, fast action, rock-bottom pricing, and online multiplayer, stop reading now. This is not the game for you. If, however, you can barely even fathom a more glorious conglomeration than Civilization and Choose Your Own Adventure, prepare to absolutely lose yourself in King of Dragon Pass.

The game is set in the fantasy world of Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford, and used in several other traditional roleplaying games, literary works, and even a board game. The universe was originally imagined in 1966, and is chock-full of things which have since become standard in fantasy-based worlds. The people of Glorantha are the pawns of an array of both new and old gods who offer various benefits in exchange for worship. Magic and supernatural occurrences play an important role in the world, and aside from the typical races found in most fantasy worlds like elves, dwarves, etc, Glorantha is also home to strange humanoid hybrids such as anthropomorphic ducks and scorpion-men.

It's in this world where your clan will settle. The game begins with a brief history of your clan, which goes all the way back to the "Godtime" where gods and people lived side by side. This part of the game plays very similarly to a Choose Your Own Adventure book, with the game tossing a hefty amount of backstory at you while offering you choices along the way where you decide things like your clan's main deity, how you feel about dragons, how much land you're going to take up, and other things like that. The cool part about this, which persists through the rest of the game, is that there's no wrong answers to any of these questions. You never hit a point where one decision you made caused the game to end, instead, the decisions you make have consequences, and a main part of King of Dragon Pass is how you deal with those consequences� But more on that later.

After you establish your clan's history, you come up with a name (mine have all been fart-centric) and decide if your clan is going to be peaceful, balanced, or focus on war. From there, you decide on either a normal or hard difficulty, with the main difference here being what your clan starts with. On normal, you're dropped into a reasonably well equipped settlement with existing trading partners and allies. Alternatively, on hard mode, the game basically treats your clan like you just wandered to a plot of land and decided to make it your home.

From there you can choose one of two victory conditions in either "short" or "long" games. In a short game, you win by forming a tribe with neighboring clans, getting one of your clan members elected to be the tribal king, and hold that position for ten years. In a long game, you'll need to take this one massive step further in convincing other tribes to form a kingdom, and lead one of your clan members' ascension to the position of King of Dragon Pass.

Accomplishing these goals is ridiculously difficult, and requires a serious understanding of the game's mechanics. King of Dragon Pass comes with a huge in-game manual (huge for an iOS game, anyway) which I seriously recommend reading cover to cover. The depth of the game leads to various systems which you'd never utilize or fully understand otherwise, which was the source of every single frustration of mine with the game initially. There's a small tutorial which helps you get started, but I think the best tutorial would have just been a huge button that says "No, really, read the manual."

These various mechanics involve everything you can imagine that would go into managing a fledgling clan trying to make it in the world. You'll need to keep an eye on your clan's population, the number of people filling various roles in your clan, and how many of them are sick or injured. Everyone in your clan has to eat, which requires either successful farming, or trading with nearby clans. Also, a clan without wealth can't really be taken seriously by other clans when forming alliances or trade agreements, so you also need to keep up your production of goods and establish trade routes to keep the economy flowing.

Exploring is also important to find new clans to engage with, who might not always be friendly… Which is where your clan's defensive and offensive capabilities come in. As I've played, I've chosen to take a defensive stance and really only attack when provoked, but you could just as easily be a warring tribe and let your proverbial fists do the talking when it comes to negotiating and taking what you want from other clans. There's so many more little ins and outs that I can barely even summarize them all, even after spending nearly a week with the game now I feel like I'm still finding new ways to approach challenges.

These random challenges are what initially attracted us to the game. They happen quite often, and always keep you on your toes. These random occurrences could be something like a surprise raid from a feuding clan. If you've got a force ready to fight, you could take them head on, or if you're vulnerable because you've sent most of your warriors to accompany a particularly valuable trade caravan you might opt to focus on evasive maneuvers and survival.

Explorers could stumble across a potentially powerful set of runes, but how you choose to deal with them could potentially result in upsetting your clan, the gods, and other things down the road. Refugees from other clans can seek admittance to your clan, and you can decide whether to greet them as equals, or take them as slaves. These random events can be completely ridiculous too� The best example I've seen of this is a ghost that potentially comes to haunt your settlement. Among other options, you can pursue legal action… And depending on how you've structured your clan and the strengths of your leaders, it can work.

What I like most about King of Dragon Pass is the seemingly infinite possibilities that the game has. The previously mentioned random occurrences are drawn from a pool of around 500, but none really ever have a "right" or a "wrong" answer. As you role-play your particular clan and play to its strengths, you could see the same problem pop up in future games, but the way it's dealt with and the outcome could be substantially different. Similarly, the simulation engine that powers the whole thing seems to completely embrace the whole "there's no wrong way" philosophy that permeates the entire game.

Success, it seems, comes from really playing the game making decisions as if you actually were a part of your clan. Just because there's not necessarily a right or wrong way to do things doesn't mean that your approach can't fail. In fact, you'll likely fail quite a bit as you get a handle on the game… But, understanding why you failed, and consulting the manual to learn what you could have potentially done differently to better manage the events that ultimately lead to your clan's demise is ridiculously rewarding.

Similarly, the flexibility of King of Dragon Pass doesn't make it an easy game either, even on the easy difficulty level. I think it most reminds me of playing a fairly realistic flight simulator in that you can realize your plane is going down, and you know you need to pull up, but there's also all these other buttons and switches that need to be hit at the right time and in the right order to make what seems like a simple maneuver actually transpire properly.

In King of Dragon Pass terms, you could have a random occurrence that suddenly leads to a disease outbreak amongst your farmers. The more time your farmers spend in bed sick, the less time they spend producing food for your clan. "Heal the farmers" seems like the obvious answer, just like pulling up in a flight simulator, but it's not that simple. To heal via magical means, you'll need to sacrifice to gods. If you're already low on resources, sacrificing even more can make the situation much worse. Alternatively, you could send out warriors to raid a nearby tribe to steal supplies from them, but the raid could fail, or worse yet, you could over-extend yourself and be defenseless if you get raided while your warriors are out on their raid. You could attempt to go out trading for food, but your caravan could be ambushed or not result in enough food anyway.

It's weighing all these options and executing the best potential course of events based on an entire dashboard of information on your clan has made what I initially thought was just a silly Choose Your Own Adventure style game into one of the most in-depth and strategic gameplay experiences I've had so far on my iPhone. I'm not sure how I'll ever tire of it either, as the replay value is through the roof because of how much variance there is in every different clan and every situation.

My only complaint with the game is that I wish it was for the iPad. The interface feels cramped at times, there's some weird text scrolling issues that wouldn't exist on a larger screen, but most of all� Games like this that I want to spend hours on end playing are just flat out more enjoyable on the iPad compared to hunching over your phone. There may be light at the end of the tunnel though, as the developers seem to be receptive of the idea and want to see how iPhone sales go first, but aren't ready to commit to anything yet other than bug fixes to the small-screen version.

Hopefully I've done a good enough job here explaining what this game is all about, as I think if you understand what King of Dragon Pass actually is, and you want it, there's no way that you won't love it. We try to avoid pricing discussion in our reviews, but I think in this case the $9.99 price point is totally appropriate. This is a deep game, and definitely targeted at a niche audience. That price point will make people stop and research what the game is before buying, then feel much more inclined to actually get invested and learn the game instead of tossing it aside like most of the other totally disposable 99� titles flooding the App Store.

I've had an absolutely fantastic time playing King of Dragon Pass. Its slow pace makes it a perfect mobile game. Nothing in it is real time, making it totally conducive to just open the game up, send a trade caravan off, then come back to it later without any negative consequences. Cultivating a successful tribe is totally rewarding, and the random occurrences always keep you on your toes so it never seems like you can just fall into a comfortable successful groove where your clan is just on cruise control. I'd love it for my iPad, but either way, I can't get enough of King of Dragon Pass.

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

A lot of people have learned a lot from id Software's classics, which are available in open source form all over the Internet. Even the iOS versions of DOOM Classic [$6.99] and Wolfenstein 3D [$1.99] have been floating around available for anyone to take a look at and tinker with if they so choose. If you're one of those people, you'll like this bit of news: Bethesda has released the open source code for these two games in their latest iterations. You can download DOOM Classic open source here and Wolfenstein 3D here and check out what went into the big-time updates that hit both games just as Quake-Con kicked off earlier this summer.

As a refresher, both games were turned into Universal support apps complete with Retina Display support. Also, both games saw a UI overhaul, some music tweaks, and other assorted technical brush-ups, including bug fixes.

If your'e the developer type, I'd imagine there's something cool to learn here, or hey, if you're just starting out, I can't think of code better than John Carmack's to take a gander at. Plus, it's free! Everyone loves free.

[Via Bethblog]

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

Plants vs. Zombies [$2.99 / HD] for the iPhone just received a little more feature parity with its cousins on other platforms and a touch of free-to-play to boot. Creator PopCap Games has just added in a total of nine new mini-games to experience in-between your bouts with the undead. Each mini-game comes bundled in packs of three, all three of which you can buy through Crazy Dave for 50,000 coins respectively.

In a fun twist that I'm sure certain crowds are going to love, the studio is allowing users to spend $.99 three times in exchange for oodles (read: 100,000) of in-game coins. Naturally, you can exchange these coins in return for these packs � or presumably whatever else you want, including new plants or slots � from the in-game shop that Crazy Dave runs.

Here's the listing of the new mini-games. "Beghouled Twist" is certainly the most interesting of the bunch, as it apes Bejeweled [$.99], one of the most electrifying match-three games on the market.

Game Pack #3

• Walnut Bowling 2: Knock 'em dead in this killer twist to an old favorite sport.
• Seeing Stars: Unravel the mystery of the star-shaped pattern.
• Bobsled Bonanza: Melt the ice and defeat bobsledders and Zombonis in this frosty battle.

Game Pack #4

• Invisi-Ghoul: Test your prowess to take on invisible zombies.
• Last Stand: Not your average day at the pool!
• ZomBotany 2: Hybrid zombies sport plant heads and abilities to up the challenge ante.

Game Pack #5

• Beghouled Twist: An homage to Bejeweled Twist™, this mash-up requires match-3 skill.
• Pogo Party: Crash the pogo party of your roof!
• Zombie Nimble Zombie Quick: Get ready to move faster than ever!

Just so we're on the same page, Plants vs. Zombies is a crazy successful and equally as awesome tower defense game. You can check out our original and glowing review here. Buy this thing already!

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

Big news on the Max Payne front: the third title in the series � which has been teased for what feels like centuries � is hitting the PC and consoles in March 2012, according to the game's publisher Rockstar Games. Also, a mobile version of the original Max Payne has been announced. It's slated to hit unspecified platforms and will support "connectivity" to Rockstar Games' Social Club, features similar to "its PC counterparts," HD resolution, and support for �wired controllers.

The boilerplate about this mobile version is buried underneath a ton of promises and hyperbole from the publisher about Max Payne 3. It's ridiculously vague, which makes us think that Max Payne HD for mobile is going to be targeted at beefed up Android devices that may or may not have been announced yet. Still, considering the reach of the App Store, it's hard to believe that an iOS version isn't in the works.

The original Max Payne was a cool, satisfying third-person character action game with one of the neatest and most regurgitated hooks this side of jumping: Bullet-Time. In the game, you could slow down the action with an over-dramatic dive and take out enemies at your leisure.

It's hard to tell considering the information that we're working with if the mobile versions will see new content or lose anything in the translation, but regardless it'll be neat for fresh faces to see where it all began for Max. As an old fan, I'm pretty stoked, too.

[Via Gamertag Radio]

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

It takes a special kind of game to pull off surviving exclusively through tilt controls. That goes double for games that attempt to do it and are only available on the iPad. Sure, the iPad's accelerometer has got to be used for something, but some folks (and rightfully so) find the idea of having to tilt your tablet every which way just to play a game to be a bit daunting. Pod Odyssey [$2.99] is the latest attempt at a tilt-controlled iPad exclusive. While its controls aren't perfect, there's certainly enough here for an enjoyable experience with some caveats.

Pod Odyssey isn't a game with a particularly engrossing story. In fact, all you know is that you're piloting a ship (that looks strangely like a squid) that is exploring various alien planets in labyrinth-like levels. The game gives off an abstract Lunar Lander sort of vibe. Each level has a primary and secondary objective, and your goal is to successfully complete both without dying (i.e. running out of energy for your ship). Standing in your way is a variety of structures that shoot projectiles at your ship. Those projectiles are anything from dumb missiles to land (space?) mines to heat seeking bombs that attempt to follow you.

According to Pod Odyssey's iTunes description, its controls are so easy "a six-year old can play." Assumedly, that depiction is referring to the game's accelerometer based controls. Controlling your space pod is as easy as tilting left or right for directional controls, while tilting forward and back raise and lower the pod's altitude. In addition to movement controls, you can tap the left side of the screen to raise a damage shield, while hitting the right side of the screen launches an EMP which slows down obstacles. Overall, the accelerometer controls are well done and offer enough precision in order to navigate through the smallest of passages with a steady hand.

My only lasting gripe about Pod Odyssey's controls is the fact that you will need to continually calibrate your game whenever you shift into a different position while playing. This isn't a problem solely with Pod Odyssey � this issue exists with most games that require precise accelerometer controls. Still, it would have been nice to have some sort of alternative control scheme in case you didn't feel like tilting your iPad in order to play. However, once you do get the controls calibrated, Pod Odyssey becomes pretty easy to navigate.

It's a good thing Pod Odyssey's controls are well done, because you're going to need every bit of skill in order to successfully complete every mission and secondary objective. I thought Pod Odyssey did a great job balancing its difficulty curve. The first third of the missions are spent introducing the various enemies and tools available for use, while the rest of them slowly ramp up both the general difficulty of each level as well as the secondary objectives. The last third of Pod Odyssey definitely turns up the difficulty and requires many runs in order to fully complete each level. However, I was never overtly frustrated with the difficulty � an important point for games such as this.

My most favorite thing about Pod Odyssey is its overall presentation. Both the music and graphics do a great job adding to the ambience and creating a feeling that you really are lost on a distance planet.� It combines that sort of surreal feeling you get when you're playing a game with no real objectives, but then manages to successfully incorporate action sequences and goals on top of it.

Despite its strengths, I think Pod Odyssey does suffer from a lack of variety in both level design and enemies. As the levels progress and get harder, you aren't really introduced to new challenges. Rather, you get the same obstacles thrown at you, but in greater quantity. Sure, the difficulty is there, but it can definitely become bland towards the end. Also, Pod Odyssey only features 27 levels, which means that even if you don't mind some monotony, your experience isn't going to last very long.

Regardless of these gripes, Pod Odyssey is a solid arcade-style maze crawler that gets a lot of the basics correct. If you're looking for a challenging (but short) game to test your precise reflexes, and you don't mind putting the accelerometer in your iPad to good use, give Pod Odyssey a try.

<!-- PHP 5.x -->

In further BMX-related news this morning, those handsome Swedish chaps from Illusion Labs have gone and made their multitouch masterpiece Touchgrind BMX [$4.99] Universal in a brand new update. Touchgrind BMX launched back in May and we liked it a whole bunch in our review. It retained the same impressive technological aspects of the original Touchgrind [$4.99/HD] with its 3D visuals and smart use of multitouch, but offered a much more varied set of levels to perform your tricks and a much more favorable behind the back camera angle.

The Touchgrind BMX berry only became more plump and juicy with updates that we detailed when we sat down with Illusion Labs at WWDC this year, namely proper Retina Display visuals and TV-Out support. Now you can add Universal iPad support to that list as well, and this is actually the very first Universal game from Illusion Labs. I wouldn't mind seeing this trend continue.

Like the iPad version of the original Touchgrind, Touchgrind BMX isn't just blown up to fit the larger size of the iPad screen. Since your fingers remain the same size no matter how big the screen is, then the bike models on the iPad need to remain pretty much the same size as their iPhone counterparts. This means that the game can be played in landscape orientation on the iPad without any compromises, and in fact, this opens up a whole new wide angle that lets you see way more of the environment. Check out the two screenshots below from each version of the game to see the drastic difference:

Other than the expanded gameplay angle, everything appears to be pretty much the same with Touchgrind BMX on the iPad. It feels great having a large surface to use for the multitouch gestures, and I definitely don't feel like I'm blocking the action as much which I occasionally feel with the iPhone version. Best of all the Universal update is free for existing owners, which means there's no separate HD version to worry about. Shame you can't sync your progress between devices though, but I guess you can't have everything.

If you're a Touchgrind BMX'er with an iPad then definitely grab this latest update, as I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with just how great the game feels on the larger screen.

<!-- PHP 5.x -->