Mom? Dad? When did you guys get in a game?

The traditional RTS doesn't translate well to iOS devices, but that's not discouraging Gameloft. The studio has announced StarFront Collision, a seemingly classical three-race RTS that features a deep, 20-mission Campaign mode and an up-to-four person competitive online mode. This is in addition to a Skirmish mode, a cinematic flair, and supposedly solid controls.

Gameloft likes to pay tribute and it's doing so here once again. StarFront is drawing its inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft, a worldwide RTS success that has kept many a nerd locked in his bedroom / cave for days and days on end. (Diamond League is only a few billion CPMs away, right nerds-in-hiding? Right.)

And that's all we really know about the game, despite the fact that it's launching next month. You can get your first look at the cinematic part of the game by watching the above. By doing so, you'll also be able to play spot the likeness with us. Oh, found one! Those bugs look like the Zerg! What did I just win? Nothing? Jeesh. What kind of website is this?

Back in October, Master Eli told you that Halfbrick Studios' Age of Zombies [$2.99] was a solid dual stick shooter, definitely worth its asking price. Eli doesn't lie; His words are worth their weight in Silver Dragoons. Now, we wouldn't normally throw disbelievers of Eli's Gospel bones, but today is as good of a day as any. Age of Zombies now has a Lite version on the App Store, which will allow you to play the game and evaluate it for free, if that review didn't do it for you for whatever reason.

Take note that this Lite version only showcases the first full chapter in the game, a prehistoric-themed romp. In it, you'll meet the "legendary" zombie T-Rex and even be able to unlock a level of the game's "Survival Mode," in addition to being able to upload your scores and earn Achievements.

In celebration of this release, creator Halfbrick Studios is handing out a little something special to owners of the actual game. Upon downloading the Lite version, you'll receive a bonus unlock code that, when used in the full version of the game, unlocks a "Hoverboard" similar to that one in those popular movies.

Word that Rovio Mobile was stuffing its yuletide Angry Birds update into its Halloween version of the game [$.99, HD] struck us as odd. Sure, Halloween is a "seasonal" offering, but these two holidays are complete opposites.

This thought must have occurred to Rovio as well because the update, which does indeed add several new snow-laden levels to the game, adds more than just Christmas cheer: It also rebrands the Halloween to "Angry Birds: Seasons," killing the current confusion and thereby nipping all future hullabaloo in the bud.

The Christmas-themed episodes are packed within the App under the heading "Season's Greetings," while the Halloween stuff has been moved to another episode called "Trick Or Treat." Angry Birds Halloween is still $.99 for the iPhone and iPod, while the HD version for the iPad remains at $1.99.

Having spent a few minutes with "Season's Greetings," we can say that we fully endorse Rovio's attempt to get us in the seasonal mood. One note: in an attempt to manufacture a dramatic build to Christmas day, only one level Christmas level is unlocked per day. There's 25 total, but these are all free after initial purchase of the app, so there's no use complaining.

What's taking the guys behind Carcassonne [$4.99] so long to update the app with universal support? Creating and then implementing new UI ain't easy. But rest assured, the update will hit in 2010 as planned. In fact, it'll hit later this month.

In a new blog post, the crew lightly details some of the work that has been done and even shares some exciting new screenshots of the new, bigger, and enhanced UI elements we'll be fiddling with in the coming days. (And fiddle we will; this game flat-out rocks.)

"After being busy working out details, new designs and user interfaces, we are ready to commit to a release of the iPad update in December," the post reads. "So in a short while you’ll be able to enjoy Carcassonne on the big screen and we will start working on expansions and adding Game Center support."

Here's a sampling of what's being shown:

As you may have caught in the above, after this update is complete and available, the studio will be turning its eyes to updates and Game Center support. Add-on content is something even board-based fans of the title have been receiving for years, so there's a deep pool of content to pick from. Bring it on!

Zero Punctuation is a weekly comedic minimalist animated review show that got its starts all the way back in mid-2007 as a pair of YouTube videos on The Darkness and Fable. Like all good YouTube videos, it quickly went viral and not long after that Escapist Magazine started publishing the videos and has ever since. In the console and PC gaming world, Zero Punctuation is wildly popular, with Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw usually targeting whatever happens to be the popular new release that week. This week, he set his sights on iPhone gaming. Specifically, Angry Birds [99¢ / HD], Cut the Rope [99¢], Fruit Ninja [99¢ / HD] and Doodle God [99¢].

Fair warning, the video does have some cursing in it, which may or may not be work safe depending on how strict your office environment is.

If you liked this one, there are tons of other Zero Punctuation videos worth checking out. I'd list some personal favorites, but honestly, there are just too many.

Looking back on this last year, it's pretty crazy how much has changed since the last time we posted about Blacksmith Games' Appvent Calendar. This time last year, the free game phenomenon was practically unheard of. Following the success of the original Appvent Calendar, a silly amount of copycat sites have since sprung up. The main difference between the Appvent Calendar and these competing sites is that the Appvent Calendar had great games available for free as a one-time holiday promotion, versus many free app site which seemingly exclusively feature games that were designed to be free with ads, in-app purchases, and other things. We've been told to expect the same high caliber of freebies again this year, with a new free game released every day much like a regular holiday advent calendar.

Today's freebie is Time Geeks: Find All! [Free], a hidden object game of sorts that we liked quite a bit in our review. Especially while it's free, there's no reason not to download this game. (Unless of course you already have it.) If you own an iPad, Time Geeks: Find All! HD [99¢] is also available, although it isn't free.

It's probably a good idea to bookmark the Appvent Calendar, as they'll have new freebies every day. And of course, you can always use AppShopper to find all the games that have dropped to free instead of lurking around the slew of free app sites every day as well.

Faithful followers of TouchArcade know this song and dance all too well by now. It seems that the cool thing to do is to set the release date of your game to a Thursday. This means that as soon as Thursday crosses the international date line, games become available in New Zealand. They then slowly filter out to the rest of the international App Store markets as it becomes Thursday for other people, until finally showing up in the US App Store at 11:00 PM EST Wednesday night. This creates a few awesome phenomenons such as everyone cluttering up every game thread with anticipation waiting for things to appear in their neck of the woods, and us having little to do on Monday and Tuesday, but I digress.

This week's haul of releases isn't anywhere near as huge as I was expecting, but we've heard from several developers that today was the last day to submit a game to have it approved before the end of the year. Next week will be insane with the release of Infinity Blade, and the first onslaught of pre-holiday approvals. We've already got a thread in our forum with some people estimating they'll be spending $100+ this month on iPhone games that's worth checking out if you want to get yourself hyped up for future releases.

Rockband Reloaded, $4.99 - Even more Rockband action. This time around you'll be able to sing along as well. Reloaded comes with 29 "free" songs, and additional songs available via in-app purchase.

Backbreaker 2: Vengeance, $2.99 - Similar to the previous Backbreaker, players run down the field attempting to avoid being tacked. A new game mode turns the tables and has you doing the tackling, and new obstacles have been implemented that you must jump over.

Hooga, 99¢ - A caveman platformer that reminds us a lot of Bonk's Adventure. It comes with a bunch of weapons, power-ups, and other goodies. If the controls work well, it should be really fun.

Miro: Color The World!, 99¢ - A physics-powered rolling game. From the looks of it, you're timed by how quickly you can roll around an object to color the world (as the title hints). 25 levels and online leaderboards are included.

Plant Tycoon, Free - I'm not really sure what to think about this game, as I dumped hours of my life in to it on my Palm Treo. It was a great game, with tons of history, which really has my scratching my head as to why it's free. Hopefully it's not laden with consumable DLC required for progression.

Kosmo Spin, 99¢ - The art style of this game is dripping with charm, and the game itself is packed with various objectives and achievements which hopefully will keep the seemingly basic gameplay fresh.

Scarlett and the Spark of Life: Scarlett Adventures Episode 1, $2.99 - A episodic point and click adventure game that's promising both an angry princess with a crowbar and a talking horse with a god complex. These types of games have worked very well on the platform, and I'm excited to play through this one.

All of the above links should begin working as soon as the games are available for download in your region except for Rockband Reloaded, as EA typically releases an international version and a US version of their games for some reason. We'll be taking a closer look at these games throughout the day.

Developer Gameloft is holding an Advent Calendar promotion over their Twitter account and will be tweeting a free gift every day until December 25th. Seeing as today is December 1st, it appears that they wanted to start things off with a bang, as today's free gift comes in the form of the iOS port of vehicular mischief game Driver [Free].

Driver is an open world driving game that was originally released on Playstation and PC over a decade ago. It's similar to the 3D Grand Theft Auto games, except you don't ever leave your car, and was considered one of the classics of the time. Gameloft did a marvelous job porting the game to iOS last December, keeping most of the game intact and giving it a slight graphical makeover. We really liked it in our review, and recommended it at its initial price of $6.99. Now that Driver is free for a day, there's no excuse not to pick it up.

If you are hip to the Twitters, then you can follow Gameloft to check out what other kind of freebies will be in store during this month. I wouldn't expect a big name title to drop to free every single day or anything, but it should be worth keeping up with just to see what kind of free stuff you can score. At any rate, a free copy of Driver is a great way to kick off the promotion, and I'd highly suggest downloading the game while you can.

A couple of weeks ago we took a look at a teaser video for GameResort's Downhill Bowling 2 [Free], the sequel to the well-received Downhill Bowling [$2.99/Lite] that launched way back in January of '09. Earlier today, the game was released in the App Store as a free, ad-supported download. Downhill Bowling 2 has just about everything you would want from a sequel if you were a fan of the original game, but also has a few drawbacks that are hard to overlook. Still, it's a fun game that will keep you occupied for quite some time before conquering all it has to offer, and is worth a look.

The core gameplay in Downhill Bowling 2 remains the same as its predecessor. You steer a bowling ball using tilt or touch controls as it barrels down an outdoor course filled with all sorts of interesting obstacles and hazards. Throughout each course there are ten sets of bowling pins which you will need to knock down in between collecting coins, gems, and powerups. When you finally reach the end of the line, your score is tallied up based on how many pins you were able to knock down as well as how much loot you were able to collect.

It's a formula that worked well in the original Downhill Bowling, and comes with some enhancements in this sequel. The biggest addition is that you can now jump with your bowling ball, which allows for some more interesting level designs with various platforms and hazards which must be leapt over as you go. It almost feels like a third-person platformer at times, which is pretty cool. There's also some nice powerups you can grab which help you on your plight, like a rocket that boosts your speed or an item that turns you into a disco ball that doubles your collected points.

The game takes place in three distinct environments – Green Mountain, Wild West, and The Cave. There are 10 levels in Green Mountain, but unfortunately only one level each for the other two areas. It's obvious that GameResort will be adding additional levels to these environments, but it's still kind of a tease to only have one level in them currently. Levels are unlocked using coins that are collected during play, or if you are impatient, you can purchase packs of 1000 coins for a dollar each. The environments are much more lively and detailed than the original game, though sadly are not optimized for Retina Display. You also don't ever seem to gain as much speed in any of the levels as you did in the first game, which is unfortunate but just a minor gripe.

By far the thing I like least about Downhill Bowling 2 is the inability to disable the iAds. I'm all for the ad-supported model, but please give me a way to pay to get rid of them if I choose. GameResort has stated in our forums that they will consider this issue, as well as all other player feedback, for future updates. Aside from that quibble there is a lot to like about Downhill Bowling 2. Twelve well designed levels with Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, and more levels in the pipeline. As a free download, it's definitely worth checking out Downhill Bowling 2, especially if you enjoyed the first.