Further details of of Project White Rock, the much anticipated N-Gage game, have started to leak out ahead of tonight's event. Pocket Gamer and Develop (who both cite Edge as their source) are reporting that the game is titled Reset Generation and will be available on both N-Gage and on the web. The game is turn based and uses spoofed classic game characters. There's a twist though - these characters and other game assets will be customisable. This brings a user generated content element to the game which should mean it has a longer life cycle that typical mobile games.
The Official N-Gage Blog has informed the world that the next gen N-Gage version of Mile High Pinball will be released "over the next 24 hours, or at the latest, by Monday". People who filled in the N-Gage beta testing survey will get the game for free, but they will have to wait until the 12th of May to get their activation codes. Apparently some people were being naughty and filling in the form with complete gibberish, so Nokia are having to check each submitted form manually to make sure it contains real feedback.
Nokia-owned file-sharing site MOSH has just announced that it's releasing 'over 800' games for free at sg.mosh.nokia.mobi - 'free' in this case meaning 'sponsored', which in turn means that each of the (Java) games have one or more adverts inserted into their startup and closedown routines. Some ad examples below. The games themselves are in some cases quite old and originate from aggregator Greystripe.
Now that all the beta-testing games have been re-released, we can look forward to completely new titles on the N-Gage platform. But which one are you most looking forward to? Click here to let us know in our latest survey...
Returning to an old theme but with fresh eyes, Ewan approves of the new strategies for marketing N-Gage, worries a little over the FIFA 08 giveaway and then suggests a different N-Gage giveaway of his own.
Over on our sister site All About N-Gage, Ewan has reviewed FIFA 08, pronouncing it great for both novices and footie fanatics, praising the crisp graphics and training touches in particular. The only downside was thought to be the lack of multi-player options. (Tzer2 adds: Most of Europe can still get FIFA08 for N-Gage absolutely free from Nokia's N-Gage Play website.)
These N-Gage promotions seem to be appearing thick and fast! This one is very simple and easy to enter though: just play any Gameloft N-Gage game (Asphalt 3, Brain Challenge, Block Breaker Deluxe) on your N-Gage phone (currently N81, N82, N95 and variants) and upload at least one score to the Arena before the 18th of May 2008. Everyone who does this is automatically entered into a draw for a range of prizes.
Nokia are giving away FIFA08 for N-Gage-compatible phones absolutely free to a limited number of people in Europe (we don't know the exact figure but it's in the thousands at least). It's on a first-come-first-served basis, so the quicker you act the more likely you are to get the game free. The most reliable way of getting the game free is to install the FIFA08 demo directly on your phone in the N-Gage application, then go to the special N-Gage Play site (play.n-gage.com) on your computer's browser to get the activation link sent to your N-Gage phone as a text message. When the message arrives, just click on its link to activate the game. UPDATE:If you couldn't get it activated on the mobile site, try again through the PC site!(via Symbian Web Blog)
The official N-Gage blog has reported that Space Impact: Kappa Base is now available in final version from the onboard N-Gage client. Go play! See also All About N-Gage's review. (Tzer2 adds: If you're having trouble getting SI:KB to appear in your phone's showroom, click here to see how to fix this problem.)
The official N-Gage blog has announced that third party publisher Gameloft will be answering your questions at a future event. You can submit the questions by posting in the reply section of this N-Gage blog post. Questions can cover anything, including their current games and future plans for supporting N-Gage, or you can ask about other mobile platforms as well.
System Rush is still just about the most impressive game you can run up on your N-Gage-compatible smartphone. But has it evolved much from what was effectively a 3D demo on Nseries handsets for the last two years? How does it stand up as a game? Pretty well, as it turns out. Read more in Ewan's rather positive review of System Rush Evolution.
