Back to the Future Episode 4 [$6.99] is available on the App Store. At this point, these write-ups are turning into reports as opposed to reviews. I’m OK with that. The first serial laid the foundation for all the future episodes mechanically and functionally. A review would be weird when there’s nothing evaluative to say without regurgitating previous musings.

In other words, if you’re new to Back to the Future read our review of the first episode.

Episode 4 kicks off right after the events of its predecessor. In the course of the game, however, you will travel back to 1931, which means there’s a... pseudo-new environment to explore and interact with. The beginning of this specific episode in contrast with others does deal heavily with the dialogue wheel, so if you like the characters, this should be in your wheelhouse. If not... well, there’s a lot of find, manipulate, and “use” convention.

I have a couple of thoughts coming out of Episode 4. Wouldn’t it be great if there were decisions you could make that branched out the plot in interesting ways? Wouldn’t it also be cool if these ‘choices’ carried that impact from episode to episode? Telltale never does this, but I think I’d be more invested in the series if it revolved around my actions.

Also, I’m tiring of this engine. Native app or not, these games run much, much slower than their PC and Macintosh counterparts. I understand the graphical sacrifice, but why doesn’t the lack of textures, lighting and other effects mean we get a snappier game? I think there’s some good work that can be done in the future with other series.

The next episode in the series will be the last. I don’t have a hard date for its release, but I would imagine that it hits next month. I’ll keep you in the loop.

The last time I discussed the Back to the Future series, I noted that I’ve hit a creative wall of sorts in terms of coverage. The initial two episodes hit all the same notes that the third episode does, so it’s hard to find something meaningful and fun to share. Of course, I’m also couching this in the opinion that every episode is well produced and their respective new, or even reproduced, mechanics are sharp and solid.

If you missed out on the first episode [Free] though, now is the time to grab it. It’s free on the App Store until June 31, 2011. You have the entire month to push “download” and grab what is, easily, one of the coolest modern adventure games out there.

If the fact that it’s free isn’t enough to convince you to give it a download, go ahead and check out our review for it. Overall, it’s an ambitious beginning to a serial that treats its source material with the proper reverence. It might lean on a more casual-level of skill, but it’s still fun to play.

In other Back to the Future news, Episode 4 [$6.99] is now out on the App Store. We will, of course, continue our coverage of the series so look forward to our impressions down the road. Now, push “download” already. Jeesh.

UPDATE: For whatever reason, the first episode of Back to the Future is now back at $6.99. The press releases all mention that the game will be free until July 31st, so they might have potentially jumped the gun on setting it free. Either way, we're trying to get to the bottom of things.

UPDATE 2: Aaaaand it's free again.

Here's a fact that might not be entirely too surprising: People are hungry for World of Warcraft. Seriously, I still know people who spend hours upon hours a day and have been playing with the same fervor since it was released in 2004. Also, tickets for Blizzcon, Blizzard's yearly almost entirelyWoW-centric convention, sell out within seconds of going up for sale. So, really, Gameloft couldn't have picked a better game to clone with Order & Chaos [$6.99], especially judging by the fact that the company just announced that they've managed to make $1,000,000 in the first 20 days that it was available on the App Store.

In addition, there's also an update on the way which fill add some new quests, the ability to migrate characters between servers, and separate chat channels for each language. After that, future updates are planned which will include things like new dungeons and PvP arenas. Something tells me that with the kind of cash Order & Chaos is making, Gameloft will be supporting it very well.

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I’m nearing the point where it’s impossible to say something of significance about the Back to the Future series. The third episode, which just released in the US App Store for $6.99, is a definite follow-up to the previous two. It takes no sudden turns. This is still an adventure title with a stellar cast, solid production values, and a casual-leaning curve.

I felt some fatigue with the last release specifically, but I couldn’t attribute it to a specific design element. And while I didn’t rush to the App Store for Episode 3, I did actually get drawn into the experience this time around. I think the reason for this lies somewhere in the more exciting tone and setting in this one.

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Ah, the thrill of riddling aliens with bullets. It never gets old, ever. Fortunately for us, EA is hip to this universal truth. In an effort to deliver more bullets-against-alien-flesh action in Dead Space [$6.99 / HD], the publisher has just pushed out a brand new update that does just that in a new mode called “Survival.” It has also added a fresh pulse rifle with a heavy twist that can be purchased with in-game credits or even via the in-game store.

Survival mode, in a nutshell, is a “Horde” mode that pits you against an “all-out rush” of Necromorphs. It’s also a convenient way to collect more in-game credits that can be used for all sorts of stuff in the game, including the brand new “Heavy Pulse Rifle.”

This update also adds “Nightmare” difficulty, a fascinating way to play if you’re not into regenerating health or dumb enemies. As if that wasn’t enough, the update adds chapter select functionality to the game, meaning you can re-live your harrowing experiences as much as you feel necessary.

That’s some big deal stuff for an awesome game. If you haven’t checked out Dead Space yet, you’re crazy. Seriously. Give our review a read and click “buy."

Ticket to Ride [$6.99] is a board game turned digital. It has no great pits to leap across, caves to plumb for loot, or monsters to bludgeon. It is, without a doubt, a traditional game that requires the old-fashioned stuff: deduction, tactics, and skill. It isn’t for people who want flash and glam; rather, it’s for people who can appreciate sharp, boiled-down design that presents compelling challenges without the mess.

Straight up: Ticket to Ride is good on the iPad, just as it’s always been good as a board game. The things the digitization brings to the table is the streamlining of setup -- the end game counting of points, the piece setting, and the shuffling of cards -- and online play against or with friends or even random dudes.

It’s not shocking, but it’s still weird how sterile Ticket to Ride is from a visual design standpoint. I can count the number of animations and UI elements on my fingers. The focus here is on the game itself, as it should be. But while it’s nice to not have to deal with clutter, the thriftiness also highlights the questionable decisions.

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The first major content update to Order & Chaos Online [$6.99] is coming down the pipe, so says a new thread on the World of Warcraft-like MMO’s official message board.

Details on the complete patch and its eventual release are still cloudy, but we do know a number of key fixes, tweaks, and enhancements that it’ll package in. Foremost, expect to see a number of new quests in “the last two high-level regions” and a new teleport in the Greenmont region of world. Also, forget about killing dudes in cemeteries -- with the arrival of this patch, these zones are to become hands-off, non-PVP areas.

Of course, there’s more. The ever descriptive “additional content and ... fixes” has been promised and game creator Gameloft is still teasing new dungeon, PVP arena, and level cap add-ons.

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Back in December 2010, Telltale Games released the first episode of its Monkey Island 'Tales' [$6.99] series on the iPad. No further releases have seen the light of day since, but it’s not like the studio doesn’t want to push the rest of the games out -- it still does.

At least, up until this April the studio was making its intentions clear. In an official forum posting, Telltale staff member Alan Johnson said more Monkey Island episodes, as well as Back to the Future, were in the pipe. BTTF Episode 2 [$6.99] released last month on the iPad.

Other staff members backed him up in this thread, stating that other, later Tales episodes have been ported to the iPad and are now in some sort of testing phase.

It was a concern of more than a few MI fans after the release of the first Tales game that Telltale would abandon the series. It’s a valid thought; the studio has since admitted to dropping the Sam & Max [$6.99] and Wallace & Gromit [$6.99] series’ ports after their initial debut on the App Store. I think you could argue that MI clicks more with the iPad adventure crowd, though.

Interestingly, a wrench appears to have been thrown into initial release plans. In February, Telltale said the second episode of the Tales series would hit in March 2010. It didn’t. Nor have the rest of the four episodes been released this month as was said they would.

Perhaps it’s not all the studio’s fault -- when confirming that the episodes would indeed see releases in 2011, Telltale senior vice president of marketing Steve Allison told Joystiq that that releases “all depends on the Apple process."

I’ve independently asked Telltale what the deal is. And while I’d appreciate candor, I suspect I’ll get something similar to what Pocket Gamer did when reaching out to Alan Johnson:

“We’re planning to release the remaining four episodes of Monkey Island and the complete series of Back to the Future on iPad, but [we have] no announcements to make at this time in terms of a release schedule,” Johnson told the site.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it all comes down to bandwidth. If you didn’t know, Telltale has become quite the busy bee of late. The studio plans to unveil its Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead, and its King’s Quest series at E3 this June 7. That’s, like, a lot of games.

[Via Sir Awesome's TA forum thread, thanks!]

Cashing in on the success of an IP like Gameloft does with its regurgitated, oftentimes hobbled re-imaginings is a double-edged sword; the studio profits based on established interest, but there are expectations and legacies that it has to keep in check in order to continue to make dough. For example, with its follow-up to its Halo homage, NOVA 2 [$6.99 / HD], Gameloft has to fulfill the promise of post-release content much like Bungie did with the actual series.

Good thing Gameloft has. In the game’s latest update that just hit this afternoon, three new competitive maps have been added -- Floating Rocks, Aquarius Beach, and Icy Bridge are the names and, well, you don’t need much more description than that. I suppose I should note that Gameloft notes that each of these maps has a confrontation focus. Floating Rocks is for close-range, Aquarius is mid-range, and Icy Bridge is for massive battles.

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A couple of weeks ago, we reviewed Elemental Rage from Oniric Games. Taking cues from classic game series such as Metroid, Castlevania, and The Legend of Zelda, Elemental Rage offered up a really enjoyable brand of action platforming. It had solid virtual controls, great looking graphics, and an interesting storyline to follow along with. It may not have been quite as complex as the games that inspired it, and it is a bit on the short side, but was there was a ton of fun and totally worth at least a couple of playthroughs.

If you’ve been mulling around the idea of checking out Elemental Rage, but haven’t quite been able to pull the buy button trigger, then I have some good news for you. Lite versions have been released for both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad versions of the game. The lite version features just the first mission of the game, but will definitely give you a good taste of the controls and gameplay to help you decide if you’re into forking over for the complete game.

If you like any of the previously mentioned games, or just good platforming games in general, then don’t hesitate to give the lite version of Elemental Rage a try. It has turned out to be one of my surprise favorites out of recent releases, and plenty of members in our forums are loving the game as well.

Yesterday I posted some basic details and then followed that up with some additional impressions as I made my way to level 10. At some point during the night, Gameloft threw the switch to make the game available internationally. If you've been anxiously reading our preview coverage and forum thread, download Order & Chaos Online [$6.99] as soon as you can.

And as soon as you do, disable global chat for the love of all things true and decent. To do so, bring up the text entry and instead of tapping the "Global Chat" button to talk in that channel, holdit down until it is blocked. For whatever reason, Gameloft apparently hasn't segregated servers at all, so Global chat is a mishmash of every language under the sun.

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Ever since Gameloft's Order & Chaos Online showed up for download on the Canadian App Store this morning, our forums have gone wild with speculation regarding gameplay, how the IAP works, and everything else. Since the release is Canada-only right now, and the game isn't free, it has left all of our "Canadian" forum members on the outs anxiously awaiting impressions from the few actual Canadians out there. Consider this post a continuation from the one from earlier today, so check that out first if you haven't already.

I decided to play an orc ranger because I wanted to play on the chaos side of things and I've always been partial to ranger-like classes in general. Starting the game, you're inundated with various tips, all of which will be incredibly obvious to anyone who has played an MMORPG before. The early quests, like most (all?) MMORPG's walk you through how the basics of the game works, and the path my orc ranger took involved slaying pigs, killing crabs, and various other low-level kill quests before I decided to go exploring.

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At some point early this morning, Gameloft released their MMORPG Order & Chaos Online on to the Canadian App Store, which seems to be standard operating procedure for a wide-scale "beta" of sorts. Ngmoco and other similar developers all have used the Canadian market to test out how their servers are running and how the game is performing, so it isn't out of the ordinary by any stretch of the imagination to see Gameloft doing something similar.

I've downloaded the game and put around an hour of playtime into it so far, and in the process discovered quite a few of the things we were wondering from the trailers Gameloft previously released. First off, the game isn't freemium which may be a relief for some. It's launching at $6.99, which includes three months worth of subscription to the game. Following that, you can subscribe for a single month for 99¢, three months for $1.99, or six months for $2.99.

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Earlier this month we took a look at Elemental Rage [$4.99] from Oniric Games, a new metroidvania-style platforming game for iOS. Last week, the iPad version Elemental Rage HD [$6.99] was released in the App Store, and yesterday its small screen counterpart became available as well. As far as metroidvania games go, Elemental Rage is just about everything I could ask for. It might not be as complex or expansive as previous entries in this particular genre, but it has sharp graphics, tight controls, wonderfully designed levels, and is a great fit for a mobile game.

Elemental Rage starts out with you playing the young boy Huna who suddenly awakens to find himself on the floor of a strange castle. You quickly learn that an evil sorcerer has sucked the elemental spirits from your planet’s inhabitants, turning them into evil creatures. The last of the planet’s 4 Spirt Guides Talis, the Spirit Guide of Water, has summoned you as the last hope to save the planet. You must battle the many dark creatures and collect the missing elemental spirits spread throughout the castle to once again restore peace to the planet.

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I’ll get this out of the way: if you dug what Telltale Games did with Back to the Future Episode One, you’ll dig what it does with Episode Two, entitled “Get Tannen.” You might even like it more. Telltale mixes up the puzzles and formula much better this time around, providing a snappier, and wholly less dull experience. The catch, though, is that the solutions to what is ailing Marty and Doc feel more obvious this time around.

If you couldn’t get behind the first game, there’s nothing for you here: the title doesn’t appear to strike a narrative chord that the first game didn’t already, and Telltale liberally re-uses a lot of the original’s assets. In this specific episode, you’ll go back to the 1940s and roam many of the same streets and locations. So, if it didn’t hook you, don’t bother.

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