Unfortunately, early impressions of the game aren't pretty. Well actually that's not quite accurate, as the one thing that everyone can seem to agree on is that Battlefield 3: Aftershock's visuals are indeed quite pretty. However, it doesn't seem to contain any of the previously promised features or modes. There is no single player to speak of (only online multiplayer), no "Horde-like" wave mode, and there is a paltry 3 different weapons to choose from (4 if you count the knife).

I might not mind an online multiplayer only game, but so far the actual online performance is underwhelming. It takes forever to match with someone, and even when you do the match that follows lags to the point of it being completely unplayable. I'm almost certain this is just due to the game being new and there not really being a decent pool of people to play against yet, but what should I do while waiting for the lobbies to fill out? There's no single player component to speak of, and not even a local multiplayer option.

However, the most baffling thing about Aftershock is its pay model. The game is free and comes with the online multiplayer mode, and that's it. There does not seem to be anything more to buy in the game (yet at least), and there are ads in the menu screens which it does not appear you can pay to disable. Apparently the game is sponsored by 'Act of Valor' (you know, that movie that uses real Navy Seals as the stars) and if you watch an in-game trailer for it you can unlock an additional weapon.

So, that's really what I don't get about Battlefield 3: Aftershock. It feels strange that EA would relegate the mobile version of one of their biggest franchises to an advergame for an upcoming movie. The lack of modes makes it feel woefully incomplete, and all I can really think is that there's a ton of new content waiting in the wings to be released as future updates or in-app purchases. If not, then Battlefield 3: Aftershock stands as a considerable step down from 2010's Battlefield Bad Company 2 [$2.99/HD], which itself was fairly average.

Battlefield 3: Aftershock doesn't seem to be in international markets just yet, but if you're in the US you can give it a try for free if you're curious and can spare a few hundred MB of space, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the game's thread in our forums.

Star Warfare: Alien Invasion

The single player campaign includes five maps, each with six levels of increasing difficulty to unlock (30 levels in total). A progress bar indicates how many of the enemies have spawned and if you survive to the end, your reward is currency to spend in an in-game store. The sixth level of each map is a "survival" level.

In multiplayer mode, you can team with up to three players online (via Game Center) to engage in a co-op boss battle, or to play co-op on a map you've already unlocked. The incentive for fighting bosses is that you earn greater amounts of gold. Unfortunately, these bosses are not accessible in single player mode, although you can set-up a 1 player room online if you want. Playing co-op with teammates makes the boss battles easier, and so does upgrading via single player mode first since the gear you earn in single player mode is also available in multiplayer.

This is a dual stick shooter, with the left stick for movement, the right for aiming and shooting - and there's no option to change this, although you can tweak sensitivity. The dual sticks are located one third of the way up the screen on each side and can't be repositioned. To look around, or turn around, you swipe the background with your finger. You can also use the right (fire) stick to turn, but that's slower and wastes bullets.

There are 26 weapons to unlock and purchase, including assault rifle, shotgun, laser gun and machine guns. The heavier weapons, like grenade launchers, decrease your speed while other powerful weapons like the RPG consume more energy. Each weapon has power, fire-rate and energy attributes and can be upgraded through 8 levels.

The catch is that some items are purchased with money earned in-game, but other weapons and bags (including the cooler ones) are purchased using a raw material named "mytheril" which seems to only be available through in-app purchases or for getting bonuses for playing online regularly. But aside from this premium currency, even the weapons sold for regular in-game currency get very expensive, making the weapon upgrading more difficult than it feels like it should be.

Also, If you run out of bullets, you end up running around the level unable to do anything as there's currently no melee attack or ammo pick-ups. You just have to die or quit, having wasted the remainder of your bullets, which is frustrating, although the developers advise they may possibly introduce a weapon with no ammo cost. The in-game store also sells space suit parts (helmet, chest, hands and legs) which can improve your hit points, power and speed. Other available items include first aid items, forcefields and the ability to revive after death.

Star Warfare: Alien Invasion is a pretty good first-person shooter for a dollar, despite the expensive weapons, emphasis on IAP and need to buy bullets with in-game money. The developers are planning a minor update with new equipment and maps, and a major update with a brand new game mode. If they can also balance out the in-game currency systems in regards to weapon upgrading and ammunition usage, then Star Warfare might be able to extend beyond just being an average to above average shooter.

In early February of this year, we learned that a rogue developer named Daniel Blezek was spending his spare few minutes in-between a full time job and a full time family life toiling away at bringing Bungie's seminal FPS Marathon to Apple's iPad. The port was in progress at the time and looking great, but there was still a bit of uncertainty whether or not a release of Marathon would completely jive with some of the rules of App Store and the open source licensing of the codebase.

Then in June, Bungie sort of shocked everyone by announcing that they had picked up the project and would be officially supporting its release. Just a couple of weeks later, on Bungie Day no less, Marathon 1 [Free] launched for the iPad and we thought it was pretty dang awesome. Perhaps the best part was the choice of business model, as the entirety of Marathon 1 was available for free, with the ability to purchase hi-res assets or a cheat mode as optional IAP. While having the entire first entry in the Marathon trilogy literally at my fingertips was fantastic in its own right, we still couldn't help but wonder if the second and third entries in the series would make it to the App Store too.

Today we know the answer to that, as we've learned that the second game in the trilogy, Marathon 2: Durandal, has already been approved by Apple and will be launching this Thursday (or more specifically Wednesday night) along with the onslaught of other heavy hitting titles slated for release. And, Marathon 2 will be launching with a whole set of new features.

First, it will be a Universal app with full support for Retina Display devices, and actually it uses the same assets as the Xbox Live HD release of the game. There will be Game Center integration with achievements and leaderboards, as well as Joypad [Free] support with specific enhancements for the Fling Joystick controller. Finally, the menu interface throughout the game has been dramatically improved. Want to know the ultra secret special bit of extra news about all this? An update will also hit this week for Marathon 1, adding in all of these same new features from Marathon 2 that I've just discussed.

It looks like Marathon 2: Durandal will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor and launch for free, with in-app purchases available for high-resolution textures, the Master Chief Mode cheat options, and a new custom reticule pack, if you feel like throwing some money to support the effort and snag a few non-essential features. As another exciting tidbit of news, several screens from the final entry in the trilogy, Marathon Infinity, were mixed in amongst those from the first two games. So it sounds like we'll be getting the entire trilogy on iOS before too long. If you had told my fifteen year old self that I'd one day be playing the Marathon trilogy in portable form with all sorts of added features and enhancements, it would have blown my tiny mind.

We will of course be grabbing Marathon 2 just as soon as it's available in the App Store tomorrow evening, and until then you can join in the discussion thread in our forums.

McGyro is a first-person shooter that utilizes your device’s internal gyroscope to aim at bad guys. You play as Sheriff McGyro (originally leading me to hope that this was some kind of Blazing Saddles/MacGyver hybrid; alas, no), a small town Wild West law enforcement officer who can’t handle the idea of killing actual living things, so he envisions them as plywood cutouts instead. (Kind of like when people tell you to imagine the audience is naked before you give a speech, but with more murdering and less nudity.)

While a solid argument could be made for the case of this dude being some kind of sociopath, the good people of his town somehow justified giving him a gun and tossing him out into the world, despite the fact that he sees everyone as potential targets (even busty saloon girls whom he also appears to be romantically interested in, which does not do much for trying to disprove the theory that he is probably a serial killer).

The whole game feels a lot like a real-life shooting gallery. Bad guys pop up left and right and you have to take them down before they shoot you (OK, not quite like a real shooting gallery in that respect). The game throws additional challenges at you the further you go, such as projectile-flinging enemies and progressively faster-moving targets.

You tilt your screen to aim and tap the bottom right of your screen (where your gun is) to shoot. You automatically reload after six shots, but reloading takes a little time and a poorly-timed reload can give the bad guys enough time to get in a few shots before you can take them down. If you lose all of your sheriff badges (which is like health, but more Wild West-y!) before the round is up, you’re finished.

The nice thing about this game is how well thought out it seems. Not many people play first-person shooters for the story, but McGyro has a good one if you’re interested in that sort of thing. The fact that your enemies are all cardboard cutouts means that there’s no blood, and the whole thing has a very light tone, making it appropriate for most ages.

The pacing is just right, and the controls are more or less perfect (though I’m kind of terrible, so sometimes the gyroscope is too much for my bad aim!). You can even turn the gyro off, though I found that it’s difficult to get the hang of the slide and swipe aiming in that mode. With 15 levels, the amount of content feels right for a 99¢ app, and there’s a slot for an as-yet-unreleased multiplayer mode. While it hasn’t been implemented yet, the eventual addition of multiplayer puts this already-solid game in the “glad I purchased” category.

For the uninitiated, Black Ops Zombies is a first person shooter zombie survival game based off of the survival mode found on some console versions of Call of Duty. Zombies is map-based, with each map typically featuring numerous rooms and weapons that must be unlocked in order to provide the player with better weapons and defense. There are some small secondary objectives, but the primary goal of each play through is to simply survive as long as you can. Zombies come at you in waves, and you earn money for each one you take down, giving you the currency needed to unlock everything. There are also power-ups, such as extra ammo or double currency, which can randomly drop from the slain undead.

If you do a side-by-side comparison between Black Ops Zombie and its predecessor, you’ll see a definite upgrade in visual quality and presentation. The graphics look much better, especially on the most recent iOS devices. Even the menu system looks great and offers personality that isn’t normally found in something of that low a priority in game design. Granted, it’s certainly not the best looking game we’ve seen on iOS, but it’s an improvement nonetheless. Surprisingly, I did encounter the occasional slowdown on my 4S, which seemed odd.

One of the most important questions in my book in regards to first person shooters is its controls. Black Ops Zombies adds additional control functions, such as crouching and sprinting into the mix. In addition, Black Ops Zombies brings back the same three control options (joystick, swap, and tilt) from its predecessor. Each one offers some advantage over the other, but I never found any of them to fully satisfy my expectations and not make me feel like I was compensating for playing on a touch screen. Extras such as various difficulties and auto-aim try to alleviate the problem, but it doesn’t fix it all the way. Also there were some questionable design decisions, such as not having a fire button on the screen and forcing the players to double tap to fire. While this may work on paper, I can’t count the amount of times I wasn’t able to fire my gun when I wanted to.

Another design choice I really don’t understand is the limited map selection in Black Ops Zombies.  Basically, as of release, you have access to one map, Kino Der Toten. While it’s certainly a good map, the fact that players only have access to one map at the onset is a little ridiculous. We have confirmation that there is at least one more map coming in a future update to Black Ops Zombies, but until then, expect to get tired of Kino Der Toten until that happens.

Thankfully, some of the potential tedium is addressed with the inclusion of Dead-Ops Arcade mode, a top-down arcade shooter with dual stick controls. The premise is very simple in Dead-Ops: enter rooms, kill zombies, collect weapon upgrades and score enhancing gems, move into next room, repeat. Even still, I had a blast with Dead-Ops and thought it was a perfect game fit for iOS controls. The weapon variety, fast paced gameplay, and nice graphics all work in tandem to create an incredible experience. In fact, with some modifications, it probably could have survived just fine as a standalone release. Still, I appreciate that it was included with Black Ops Zombies, especially with the current lack of map variety.

Finally we get to the multiplayer, which really is the main draw for Call of Duty zombie games. Black Ops Zombies brings back four player coop mode and ups the ante with support for voice chat. When you manage to get a game going and everything is smooth, multiplayer simply increases the amount of fun exponentially and is well worth the ticket price. Unfortunately for me, I found the majority of my games to be filled with lag and frame rate jerkiness, even when lowering the detail slider. I know it has something to do with the net code, because as soon as my companions would inevitably drop out, the game would run fine. Lag on its own wouldn't necessarily be a big deal, but when you combine it with the spotty controls, the problems just seem to compound. The included voice chat is nice, but in practice I’d usually end up muting my companions because I would just hear a lot of loud noise and static coming from their end. Dead-Ops multiplayer fared somewhat better, but I still encountered some significant lag, which is disappointing.

World at War Zombies was simply revolutionary for its time and, while Black Ops Zombies certainly improves on nearly every aspect of its predecessor, our expectations of what makes a great game have certainly changed. It’s not enough to simply add a new map and a better visual paintjob and call it a day. Yet, outside of Dead-Ops, that’s the sort of feeling I get while playing Black Ops Zombies. I think this feeling would have been far less prevalent if the game launched with just a bit more content than one map or if multiplayer wasn’t so laggy. In any case, if you were a fan of World at War Zombies, and you’re willing to be patient with content releases, you’ll love this sequel. For others looking for improvements in the general gameplay (or control schemes for that matter), you may want to wait for a content update or two.

This release is named "Fallen Nation" because America is under attack. The enemies are KPR (Korea, Pakistan and Russia), who have declared war on America and invaded US cities, reportedly destroying Chicago. Anyone familiar with the earlier games will find more of the same non-stop action in this military shooter, but Gameloft have extended their previous efforts to ensure this latest release is the best in the series.

Because this game has so much going on, we'll focus primarily on highlighting the new features. If you're not familiar with the earlier games, you might want to read the review links above.

The single player campaign has 13 missions and four levels of difficulty, with combat in different vehicles, settings, and six different countries. There are plenty of cinematic cutscenes between gun-fights to shape the story-line, some of which require swipes when directed. The voice-over acting sounds good considering Gameloft's previous efforts, and the graphics and level of detail in the levels is already being praised as "better than MC2" in the games busy discussion thread.

The highlight for many players will be the expanded multiplayer mode which is available via local WiFi or online via Gameloft Live. It now supports up to 12 players, compared to 10 previously, and delivers six much larger maps, which is more maps than MC2 had at release. Bluetooth multiplayer mode, which was available in MC2, has now been removed. Some users have experienced lag at times, which has caused stuttering graphics, but the general indication is that it's nothing unreasonable.

Seven multiplayer modes are provided. The four MC2 modes are still present (Battle, Team battle, Capture the flag and Defuse the bomb), but now there's also "Manhunt"  where you hold a flag for as long as possible, "Zone control" where you capture and hold locations, and "Destruction" where one team defends multiple devices from an attacking team. Multiplayer mode also has a list of challenges to complete, like achieving a certain number of head-shots, beating each game mode, and achieving the required number of kills with each weapon / attachment.

By killing other players and completing objectives and challenges, you'll gain the experience points (XP) necessary for promotions to higher ranks. This is important because your rank now determines which new weapons, attachments, equipment, and skills are available in the armory.

In multiplayer mode, you can pick one skill per weapon kit. A gun expert loads his weapons quicker, an athlete runs faster while an anatomy scientist heals in half the time. The meanest skill is "One more thing", which drops an incendiary grenade upon death, as a good-bye present to anyone nearby, like the person who shot you.

The expected diverse arsenal of weapons is available, plus equipment like remotely activated C4 explosives, sensors to display position of enemies, radar jammers, mines, and camouflage to avoid satellite scans. However, the process for unlocking weapons has changed, with guns being unlocked progressively once your character reaches certain levels while in-game currency is used to buy ammunition or attachments. That's right, you can now add various attachments to customize your weaponry, like: Red dot sights, thermal scopes, and suppressors, which help you stay invisible on enemies radar while shooting.

There are two forms of in-game currency: Blue credits are used to buy or upgrade items in the single player shop, or to unlock items in WiFi multiplayer. Gold credits are used in online multiplayer, to unlock items in the online armory. You can buy additional credits as an In-App Purchase, but this is not really necessary as playing the game can yield the same results without extra cost.

Kill signatures have been added, so you can unlock and choose a message, picture, background and sound to be displayed to your victims after you kill them.  So when your opponents die, they might get a message like: "PWNED!" or "Would you like fries with that?"  along with a flatulence or baby crying sound effect. It's a final slap in the face for your dead opponent.

Gameloft has added rewards for killing sprees this time around as well. In multiplayer mode you can earn "kill-chains" by killing multiple enemies without dying. These kill-chains can be used to buy military support. For example, three kill-chains will get you a satellite scan, showing all hostiles briefly. You can also request air strikes, turret deployments or helicopter / bomber support. With 20 kill-chains, you can obtain the much coveted nuclear missile and drop this WMD to end the conflict in 15 seconds.

There are three different control options, including "Classic Controls" like MC2 (but with a new sliding move by pressing crouch when running), but this set-up is not the default.  You can adjust the sensitivity of the controls, which was handy as I didn't like the default controls at all, finding them too fast and floaty and the sprint button was in an uncomfortable position. Fortunately, there's an option to customize the position of each control individually, although this is hidden away in the pause menu. It's worth taking a few minutes to get the controls right for you.

Your progress and ranking is stored on Gameloft's servers, so even if you delete the game, you can re-install it and resume without needing to start over. This means you can login from another device if the game is installed. And a multiplayer headquarters menu now presents all your stats, leaderboards, challenges, match history, and military support options. Finally, there's now an online armory where you can save your weapon sets (primary, secondary, weapons attachments and extras like equipment or skills). Additional weapon kit slots can be unlocked. This isn't as good as having direct access to all weapons, but it's still nice to have this ability.

A few teething issues have been reported, with some ranks being listed incorrectly / inconsistently or progress being lost altogether. This is a major inconvenience which Gameloft is likely to investigate as a priority. And if you have a hyphen in your Gameloft Live login (as one of our editors does) you may have trouble logging in for online multiplayer, so avoid using dashes if you're signing up.

This Universal game is larger than most and requires additional room for the install process, so gamers all over the world are busy deleting other large games to free up a couple of gigabytes. If you want to play first person shooters on your iOS device, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation is a must-buy game, so start making room for it.  Although, with Gameloft  reportedly committed to releasing frequent updates sooner this time around (in contrast to previous versions), we may have to delete even more games for the future updates.

I've never played Combat Arms, but this Zombies edition sounds like a cooperative survival mode similar to the popular Call of Duty: Zombies [$4.99/HD] that's been a pretty big hit on iOS the past couple of years. The first trailer for the game looks pretty darn impressive, and although it doesn't appear to show any actual gameplay, it does seem that the entire video was rendered using an in-game engine.

Combat Arms: Zombies will first be unveiled in playable form at the G-Star 2011 expo in South Korea on November 10th. The release date is expected sometime shortly after, though nothing specific has been confirmed. We'll of course be keeping our eye out for Combat Arms: Zombies as it gets closer to release, and bring you any new information or media as we get it.

Battlefield 3 Aftershock is a single- and multi-player FPS that will feature a range of battlefield locations around globe. The early demo version I played with was set  in Iraq (only) and the additional play locations have not yet be revealed.

Single player mode, EA explained, is being built around powerful 3D visuals, great gameplay, ragdoll physics and a wave system of enemy attacks designed to provide the best mobile wargame possible -- with an emphasis on mobile. The combat system is built around incoming hordes of enemies -- 150 waves per map -- designed to deliver relentless FPS action that can, on the go, be played just one wave at a time in 3-4 minute sessions.

There are four different character classes with heavy weapons variation (over 50 in all) and a high degree of player customization options. The multi-player game is expected to support matches with up to 10 players and character experience gained in single-player mode will translate over to multi-player, allowing for solo build-sessions between matches.
Battlefield 3 Aftershock is controlled via two on-screen "sticks," movement on the left and aiming on the right. There is also an aim-assist button on the right that helps lock down targeting for those wanting a bit of help with the headshots. A few minutes of gameplay showed an impressive degree of detail and action on the demo iPad's screen. In this early build of the game, there's still room for some shader work, it seemed, but striking visuals are on EA's list of priorities for the final release, so I expect that will get tightened up before release. Even still, as is, it's one of the best looking iOS shooters I've seen.

Battlefield 3 Aftershock will arrive as a universal application (for iPhone and iPad) in late '11 or early '12 and will feature integration with EA's own Origin online network. You can count on a review of the title, closer in.

In fact, the release has hit a few bumps in the road, as a representative from the game's developer Emotional Robots has explained in our forums that an old version of Warm Gun was accidentally loaded up into iTunes Connect and for a good chunk of its international release customers had been unknowingly buying this incomplete early version. Emotional Robots took swift action and have replaced that pre-release build with the proper one, so things should be all good with downloading the correct game going forward. If you happen to be one of those who downloaded the improper version earlier, you might benefit from deleting the game entirely and re-downloading the new version which is up in the App Store right now.

In case you've missed it before, here's the trailer for Warm Gun followed by the trailer for the free Carnival of Bullets single player demo:

As we've said previously, we'll be hopping online in the next few days to dig into the multiplayer-centric gameplay of Warm Gun and will bring you a full review of our findings soon. The reaction to the game in our forums has been decidedly mixed. Some players are having a blast, with the game performing well technically and matches online being mostly lag free. A larger group of players are feeling the opposite of that. Many are complaining of performance issues on their devices, with laggy framerates plaguing both online and offline matches. These issues could be due to Emotional Robots having to make some pretty extensive last minute changes to the game right before release, and they have already committed to addressing all feedback and updating the game frequently to make sure it can be the best that it can be.

While the negative issues are troublesome, they also aren't completely unheard of when dealing with such a technically intensive game like Warm Gun. However, I feel confident in Emotional Robots' pledge to give the game plenty of tender lovin' in the coming weeks. If you find yourself intrigued by Warm Gun but aren't sure how your particular device will handle the load, your best bet is to check out the free Carnival of Bullets to gauge performance.

While the release of that trailer optimistically labeled August as the intended release window, that month promptly came and went with no sign of the game. Emotional Robots did however keep their promise of submitting the game before summer’s end, getting it sent off to Apple on September 22nd. Since then we’ve been waiting to hear of the game’s approval and a proper release date, and now we finally have that.

A representative from Emotional Robots has stated in our forums that Warm Gun has been approved by Apple and is scheduled for release next Tuesday, October 11th to coincide with the release of iOS 5. But that’s not all, as there will actually be two versions of the game launching next week. There will of course be Warm Gun proper, which will focus on the online multiplayer aspect of the game and will initially ship with 5 maps and 4 player classes, with more of each planned for future updates. Here’s another look at the Warm Gun iOS trailer to refresh your memory:

In addition to the full Warm Gun game that will be selling for $4.99, there is also a spinoff of sorts called Warm Gun: Carnival of Bullets. This standalone game will launch for free alongside the full Warm Gun game and will feature some offline single player things to do like mini-games, shooting galleries, and other surprises.

Carnival of Bullets will essentially function as a lite version of the game, allowing you to see how the game looks and how the controls handle before you plunk down the dough on the real thing. But, given its unique environment of an abandoned carnival and a healthy list of different things to do, Carnival of Bullets should be a pretty compelling offering in its own right, especially for free. You can check out the trailer for Warm Gun: Carnival of Bullets right here:

So there you have it, now you have the low-down on all things Warm Gun related. It feels like it’s been an incredibly long journey from when we first heard of Warm Gun until it’s impending release next week. Back in January, it was still somewhat new for developers to be using the Unreal Engine in their games, and just that fact alone made a game noteworthy. Since that time, there have been plenty of Unreal games released (not all of them good, mind you) and the Unity engine has really stepped in and shown that it’s more than capable of showcasing jaw-dropping graphics on par or better than what we’ve seen with Unreal.

Just releasing a game with shiny graphics no longer cuts the mustard, as everyone is quite aware that iOS devices are capable of some truly impressive visuals. No, nowadays your game needs substance beyond just eye candy, and we’ll be eager to see how Warm Gun measures up to this task when it hits next Tuesday.

This information comes courtesy of the Gameloft twitter account, mere moments ago:

With that out of the way, maybe it's the custom designed tin foil hat I'm wearing right now, but something seems a little fishy about this announcement. First off, Gameloft's Twitter is notoriously meticulous when it comes to capitalizing things, even to the point of capitalizing "GALAXY" in "Samsung GALAXY," using all the proper periods in "N.O.V.A." instead of just typing "NOVA" like the rest of the world, and more. Secondly, the link they're linking to is just their generic Facebook page which contains no information on the matter.

So is this a prank, hoax, publicity stunt, or a little of the three? Who knows. I was looking forward to Gameloft throwing their hat into the proverbial Unreal Engine ring, so this is a bit of a bummer if it's actually true.

Update: Well, it turns out my tinfoil hat was reading tea leaves again, something it really loves to do. Gameloft's Facebook was just updated with this snippet:

Hi everyone, we know we have a big community of FPS fans here... so we are very sorry to announce that we will not be releasing March of Heroes.

Our developers will be focusing on developing various awesome games in the months to come and working on making them even better. Fans of March of Heroes should definitely look forward to the powerful Modern Combat 3. We are however, not cancelling our work on the Unreal Engine! We are expecting to release these games starting 2012.

So, I suppose, now is the time for rampant speculation as to why it was cancelled instead of just released as-is. The version I saw at E3 seemed very complete.

What really made Puppet War: FPS so much fun was the juxtaposition of the sugary sweet characters and scenery set against such violent gameplay. The variety of weapons was also quite fantastic, featuring things like a mop and wrench that you’d expect a janitor to have handy, right on up to wackier items like a plunger crossbow and razor sharp katana sword. The gameplay itself was good too, featuring solid FPS controls and nearly endless replay value.

A couple of months after release, Puppet War: FPS received its first meaty update which added a Survival mode, a completely brand new map and several map variants, and new Zombie and Ninja puppets to blast the stuffing out of. Things have been a bit quiet on the Puppet War front since then, but this latest 2.0 update blows even that last huge update out of the water with all its new content.

Some of this new content comes at a small price, though, as Episode 2 of Puppet War: FPS is available as a 99¢ in-app purchase. What you get in Episode 2 is 10 new weapons including a flamethrower, grenade launcher, and sniper rifle; 3 brand new maps (2 of which have nighttime variants) featuring locations around the TV studio like the lobby, corridor, and parking garage; 4 new puppets including vampires and magicians; and new boss battles featuring Fluffy from the no longer available lite version of the game and a brand new boss named Smiley the Creepy Clown who will most likely give me nightmares.

Not all of the new stuff is part of the paid add-on, though. Current owners of Puppet War: FPS will also have access to a new perks system which can give your character special abilities during play, and you’ll have the ability to upgrade every weapon in the game. Also, the Fluffy boss fight and the Xmas-themed Survival map have been added to the game. Finally, Game Center support has been added for leaderboards and achievements. All of these additions are free for both Episodes of the game.

Puppet War: FPS has remained one of my favorite shooters since its release. I had long ago gotten my money’s worth in enjoyment from the title, and sort of figured the developers were done updating it. I was more than pleasantly surprised to see such a giant new update for the game, as were many players in our forums. If you haven’t given Puppet War: FPS a try yet, it’s definitely one worth checking out.

It seems Modern Combat 3 will fall in line with the other entries in the series and feature online multiplayer, this time with 12 players and six different game modes spread over six maps. They've also told IGN there will be "frequent updates," so it will be interesting to see if Modern Combat 3 sees better post-launch support than previous iterations.

Single player sounds like it's basically what you'd expect: 13 levels of fast-paced military-centric combat with voiceovers and battle locations ranging from Los Angeles to Russia. Controls sound like they'll be similar to other Gameloft first person shooters. What I'm curious of is whether this is a Unity or an Unreal Engine game, not that it really matters either way, but we haven't seen much yet from Gameloft's announcement of their future utilization of Unreal Engine 3.

[via IGN]

At first glance, Silent Ops looks to take a lot of its inspiration from the popular Splinter Cell series --there’s a lot of sneaking into buildings, a lot of silenced weapons, and a lot of double-crossing.  Take a closer look, however, and you’ll quickly see that any comparison to an actual stealth title is only skin deep. While you may be doing quite a bit of sneaking, your cover is almost always blown every time you take a shot at the opposition, silenced weapon or not. In addition, the whole ‘sneaking’ mechanic is just poorly done, as not only is the cover system poorly implemented, but once you’re spotted, you’re basically in guns blazing mode for the rest of the level.

Not that getting spotted makes the game any harder. The AI in Silent Ops is atrocious. I lost count how many times I’ve seen several enemies just stare at me for seconds on end while I took my time reloading in front of them and then proceeding to empty my clip.  In fact, the only threat I ever encountered was running out of bullets. Not to worry, however, as when that happened I would simply just run up to a group of enemies and they would immediately put their guns away and face me in hand-to-hand combat, each taking their turn in an organized, civilized fashion.

The whole combat system is just bizarre and not done very well. Other gameplay elements include simplistic quick time events as well as a few sniping sections that worked as well as they could within the context of the rest of the game.  Overall Silent Ops' gameplay, like its aged graphics system, just seems to be lackluster.

In addition to the single-player mode, which takes place across seven different levels (coupled with three separate difficulty levels), Silent Ops also features a barebones multiplayer mode. Players can create or join servers with up to 12 total combatants. Stat tracking does exist, but is restricted to games played, total deaths, and total kills. Admittedly, multiplayer was a much more enjoyable experience than the single player mode, but that’s mostly due to the fact that you’re playing against other live players and has nothing to do with anything that the game actually offers.

As iOS has matured as a gaming platform, games in the style of the typical first or third person shooter have become readily available. In this day and age, there’s no reason to flock to a new one just because it fits in this mold, but that’s the impression I get with Silent Ops. There are far more better titles than this one, some even published by Gameloft itself. I’d suggest you stick with one of those other alternatives, and stay away from this game.

Here’s something I wish I had on-hand when Phosphor Games and its partners announced its FPS-slash-horror game, The Dark Meadow: an actual web site that you can go to and then see videos and images of the game in action. I’ll let that beef slide though, now that there is an actual web site and it happens to be so handy. After gazing at the newly released teaser trailer and the images, I feel like I know the game a little better and that’s always a plus, for good or bad.

In this case, it’s for the better. The Dark Meadow has a wonderfully moody look, which will do wonders for its horror underpinnings. I’m still not so sure on how the marriage of long-range combat and Infinity Blade-inspired [$5.99] melee action has been implemented, buy hey, I guess you can’t have it all early in a marketing cycle no matter how much you stomp your feet.

One thing we didn’t know last time we covered The Dark Meadow was how it would manage movement in the world. Turns outs, Phosphor will be using nodes to help guide the player, similar to how Chair implemented movement in Infinity Blade, I’d imagine. I can hear you groaning from here already. Stop it. It’s not that bad, especially since there will be some sort of open-ish exploration element.

Dark Meadow is scheduled for a release this month. Wait, what? Neat! We'll of course have more from the title as soon as we can get our greasy but relatively germ-free hands on the game. There is a thread in our forums where you can get in on some Dark Meadow discussion, and keep your eyes peeled towards the App Store for the game to drop sometime in the next several weeks.