Krisse gets to grips with Lost In The Pyramid and finds a game in which corners have been cut at every opportunity and in which much of the gameplay seems, well, random... Here's the review of the S60 3rd Edition version, but it's also available for UIQ 3.
Attila reviews Handy Converter, perhaps the perfect currency conversion utility for smartphones. He was looking at the S60 3rd Edition version, but it's also available for Series 60 and all UIQ platforms...
Ikona, one of the big cheeses over at the N-Gage Arena, posted to the N-Gage Blog recently about an unannounced (first party?) game codenamed Project White Rock for Nokia's next gen gaming platform. Details were scarce, but it's being produced by Scott Foe, who produced the N-Gage's biggest hit Pocket Kingdom (which was the world's first mobile MMO). White Rock also appears to involve RedLynx, the Finnish developers who produced the N-Gage's most critically acclaimed game, Pathway To Glory, and another acclaimed title called High Seize. Ikona hinted that White Rock might be released for the PC as well as N-Gage.
Nokia’s SNAP system always developers easy access to features that a mobile multiplayer game would need – identify, server, high score tables, and more esoteric functions (think of it as a bit like the Nokia Arena on steroids). To aid this, they’ve announced a two part testing program for ‘mobile connected games;’ a self-testing process coupled with a final external Testing House final certification. SNAP mobile will run on the N-Gage Platform, but also on regular S60 and S40 devices from Nokia, and this is an obvious move to stop poorly implemented games having a negative impression on the new market.
Nokia has issued a press release today revealing some of the first 3rd Party games due on the Next Gen N-Gage gaming platform: Asphalt 3, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Brain Challenge, Midnight Pool and FIFA 2008. Also, publishers Indiagames and THQ Wireless have now officially announced their support for the platform, joining Gameloft, EA and Glu Mobile. Nokia's Gregg Sauter is due to give a speech at the Game Developers Conference later today in San Francisco, where he will presumably give more details on this and other Next Gen gaming matters.
Krisse reviews this top flight S60 game and finds beautifully rendered scenes, great music, a good plot and a unique interface. Will anything spoil the idyll?
According to a report on Pocket Gamer, a secret workshop for American and Asian publishers and developers on Nokia's next gen gaming platform was held in Santa Monica last week. Perhaps most notable in the article is the incredible list of publishers that apparently attended the event: Disney, Sega, Sony, Universal, Square Enix, Capcom, THQ, Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, EA, Tecmo, Namco and Vivendi. The article also claims 3rd party publishers just got their development kits in January, which could suit a Summer launch and Xmas advertising push fairly well (old generation N-Gage titles usually took 6 - 12 months to make). These revelations seem to confirm what All About Symbian exclusively revealed last October. Another event will apparently be held in Madrid next week for European publishers and devs.
If you're into trivia, pub quizzes or fact finding, note that my free Trivopaedia (... a trivia enecyclopaedia) has had a huge update and is now up to v2.2, with over 300 entries. It runs inside (the also free) Mobipocket Reader for all Symbian OS-powered smartphones. Comments welcome!
According to GamesIndustry.biz, British game publisher Eidos has apparently just done a deal with Nokia to provide "embedded Tomb Raider games on N-series handsets". The phrase implies games built into handsets, rather than sold on Nokia's Next Gen games platform, and it's also unclear which models will contain the games. Rather encouragingly, Eidos went on to say "There's a real market there, it's no flash in the pan - particularly when you see some of the newer handsets, and how good content looks on those." (Story spotted by mathias_szil on the N-Gage Arena boards)
After a number of disappointing game titles recently, I'm pleased to announce reviews of a couple of real crackers. Ewan is delighted by STPuzzles for UIQ 3 smartphones (like his new consort, the W950i), while krisse is utterly blown away by K-Rally for S60 3rd Edition (also available for S60 1st/2nd/N-Gage, coming soon on UIQ3). Enjoy.
AAS chief Rafe Blandford weighs in with his official predictions and challenges for 2007, along with an assessment of what he got right and wrong from last year's predictions piece. Essential reading for anyone in the industry or who is interested in where the Symbian OS world is going. Plus, a bonus preview of the front cover of Symbian magazine, Dec 2007...
