I think it’s universally accepted that everyone enjoys a good treasure hunt. As a child they were a staple of birthday parties and Easter celebrations, and now you can get all the excitement of a treasure hunt from your iPhone with a new app. The Chancellor’s Gold promises four months of prize-finding fun with each month providing a different set of clues to help you track down the next big prize.

You are provided with photographic clues to a certain location in London (narrowed down by developer Interactive Places Ltd to a certain area or theme) and then asked to discover the answer to a riddle in that small area. When you’ve solved a clue, you’ll get a letter of the alphabet, and in the end you’ll have seven letters that will make up the answer to the final riddle.

The prizes on offer are one ounce Gold Britannia’s, each worth around £1,000/$1,600 each. The final prize, in August, is five of these, worth around £5,000 in total.

Whether you’re in it for the prize, or just want a day of fun around London, this is a great use of the iPhone, and well worth a try. If you’re not based in London, that’s not a problem. All you need is an internet connection and a keen eye for details; you can solve all the questions with a few good searches online.

You can download the app now from iTunes and give it a try for £1.19. If you enjoy it let us know!

When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released in 2007, it was clear that the First Person Shooter genre had been redefined by one of the most amazing games of the generation. And naturally, there were instantly a huge number of similarly-titled cash-ins which hoped to take a slice of the interest that surrounded the game.

Of course, I’m not saying that this was the case with Gameloft, but as you boot up Modern Combat 2, it’s difficult not to be reminded of home console best-seller. Mission loading screens have a near identical look and feel, the cut-scenes before the mission begins are told from a first person perspective with team mates talking to you, and when you are dropped into the actual levels, you can look down the sights of your gun in way not unlike Modern Warfare.

You’d be forgiven for thinking this was a Call of Duty screenshot from a low-res version of the game.

However, this isn’t a bad thing. Oh no. Rather than taking a popular game, copying it poorly and selling it well above its value, Gameloft have spent time on this. The controls feel solid, and are entirely customisable to match whatever set-up you like. You can move buttons to where you want them on the screen and use a number control schemes to find your perfect match. While there will always be problems when playing FPSs on an iPad due to the weight, the amount of tweaking that can be done to Modern Combat 2 alleviates this problem rather well.

The graphics are also incredibly pleasing on the eye. While they are, of course, around the level of a PS2 game from back in the day, they look great on iPad, and the number of animations on show is really impressive. Everything looks smooth and moves well, and we can’t think of an occasion where something went majorly wrong and ruined the illusion. Bullet casings fly out of your weapon, blood flies out of enemies when you hit them, and when you get a one-hit headshot the action slows down and zooms in to show the bullet hitting home. It’s pretty gruesome, but as a reward for a great shot it’s a nice addition.

Hitting an opponent well will cause a mini cut-scene where you see his death in gory slow-motion.

The story is standard fare for this type of game – protecting a car in dusty Middle-Eastern roads, capturing the leader of a terrorist cell, and storming an off-shore oil platform base. All cutscenes are told from that first-person perspective, and the animation is surprisingly good. Facial expressions look great and textures are clean enough, and in motion the whole thing moves brilliantly. The nature of the story, as with the COD series, will have you jetting all over the world to a wide variety of locations, meaning you’re unlikely to become bored. There’s a good mix of corridor shoot-outs and open spaces, and the missions vary from sniping to stealth.

Poor Private Barklon. How was he to know that he was kicking down an explosive door?

Weapons-wise we were impressed. We expected a limited number of guns, with most feeling the same to shoot. Instead, you get a huge range of rifles, shotguns, pistols and sub-machine guns, and for the most part they all have an individual feeling so you will almost certainly have a favourite by the end of the game. The down-the-sights view also works well, with more advanced weapons really benefitting from the extra precision, while guns like the AK-47 jump and kick to stop you getting any accuracy if you fire more than a single shot. It adds a little tactical thought to proceedings, and you’ll want to think carefully about what weapons you pick up, as you can only carry two. The button to actually activate the down-the-sights view is a little difficult to reach in its default position, but again, it can be moved to a more comfortable position.

Man, that looks painful. Cutscenes are pretty impressive, graphically.

What really impressed us, though, was the multiplayer area of the game. You can play over the internet with random people, or on local Wifi or bluetooth if you want to play with your friends. Up to ten people can play in a game and there are five available maps offering close-quarters and open-space warfare. There are four game modes included – a standard deathmatch and team deathmatch, a Capture the Flag mode, as well as a Defuse the Bomb set-up. As you play you gain experience for kills and assists(unsurprisingly in a similar way to COD: Modern Warfare). As you gain experience you will level up, unlocking new Kill Signatures and a whole range of new weapons. You can change weapon in the armoury after you die – what’s great is that some work better on certain levels but perform poorly on others, meaning you have to think about your choice.

Multiplayer is an absolute blast with your mates, with effects like this really adding to the atmosphere.

We’ve had a blast on this game in multiplayer mode. Lunchtimes in the office were once relatively quiet, but now are filled with cries of rage and victory. It’s a great laugh, and we’ve had no problems with lag at all. There were a few glitches with rejoining the game after death, but a quick Press-Home-and-reopen-app system quickly got us back in without too much hassle. It’s a shame that this mars an otherwise excellent multiplayer experience, but it’s not enough to stop us from playing it every day.

Pros:
Fantastic Graphics, customisable controls and stunning multiplayer action make this a game to remember

Cons:
Slight thumb pain after extended periods of play, some small problems connecting to games in multiplayer

Verdict

Now this is a great idea. Why limit the abilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch accelerometer and gyroscope to the small screen when you can make a game that simply uses the device as a controller? Downloading this 59p/99c app gives you control of the game over at http://kijjaa.com/air/. Simply put the code displayed on the page into your iPhone and you’re away.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The control scheme is extremely easy to get used to, waving your hands around to move your ship is intuitive and the two large ‘fire’ buttons are difficult to miss. What did surprise us was the vibrate feedback that kicked in when we were killed, as we just didn’t expect such a game to include neat little touches like that. It’s still pretty basic, but there are promises of Game Centre support, new enemies, new bonuses and Achievements to be unlocked.

The potential of the game is the most astounding thing, though. It shows just what can be done with a combination of touch screen and gyroscope as a game controller. If Apple were to integrate a game section into Apple TV, they would have a ready-built controller with adaptable button configuration, an excellent motion-control scheme and vibrate feedback, which to me is pretty exciting. Here’s to the future.

Here is a quick tip for anyone looking for a great free iPhone app today. Mirrors Edge is a very cool platformer with a difference; Use taps and swipes to control Destiny as she makes her way across the rooftops of the city. There are a host of cool gestures to learn so that you can keep her at full pace while avoiding a raft of interesting obstacles. They key to the addictiveness of this game is the sheer pace that you can achieve once you get over the first few obstacles. Then, its all about making sure you keep that momentum up. A great game that we’d happily pay for – made even better by being offered for free – go grab it! HERE

FYI – the iPad app is free too.

Price: £3.99
Developer: Electronic Arts Nederland BV

Category: Games

The Command & Conquer series is one of the best multiplayer franchises around, so it’s somewhat staggering that this otherwise impressive effort lacks any sort of multiplayer mode. It’s been announced in a future update, but it should have been included from the beginning. Still, gripes aside, this is an otherwise impressive effort and, while it lacks the depth and skill of the home computer forms, fans will still be impressed with its slick presentation, great visuals and varied play. Sadly there’s a lack of strategy in Red Alert. While there are plenty of different troops and vehicles, the inability to build bases and the general shortness of the campaigns makes Red Alert’s £3.99 price tag quite steep.

Longevity: 7.4
Fun Factor: 8.0

Practicality: 5.0

Value For Money: 5.0

Kung Fu Verdict:  6.6

We have a natter with Frederico Machuca, a 22-year-old developer who lives in Curitbia, Brazil. He produced Human Invasion using iPhone app creation tool GameSalad that was covered by iPKF (link) in September this year.

IPKF: Why did you decide to use GameSalad?

FM: I have always been a huge fan of videogames. And at some point when I was a kid I decided that I definitely wanted to work in the industry. So I started studying 3D. I never was the programmer kind of guy and the closest I got to it was making some games with ActionScript2 on Flash six or seven years ago. Since I work closer to the visual part of any creation, I needed something easy and functional to make the bridge between my creations and the complex numbers and codes of game programming. I accidentally found GameSalad’s website about 8 months ago. It was a great experience – you can create a playable game prototype in a couple of hours.

IPKF: How easy is it for a novice?

FM: Its incredibly easy. You really have to open the software and play with it to see what I’m talking about. Of course, having studied a little of Actionscript2 a couple of years ago, makes ‘thinking the game’ a little easier. If I decide to create a walking character, then I drag a few rules together and its done! Now i want to make him have a jetpack? Just add one or two rules to the already existing group of rules. Make him fire some lasers? One or two more rules. And all that in a couple of minutes.

IPKF: Can it produce games for a variety of genres in your opinion?

FM: It has many features already, making it enough to create a few game genres. But it’s a 2D engine, so many 3D-friendly-genres like FPS are a little harder if not impossible to create at the moment. But rememb that the software is still beta 0.6. so there is still a lot of stuff to happen.

IPKF: How does is compare to other packages you have used?

FM: Well, I can only compare it to Flash’s ActionScript2. And I can say, GS is definitely way easier than Flash. But, Flash’s possibilities are way ahead. Its kind of a trade you make. But as future GS updates come up, we all hope that these differences get smaller and smaller.

IPKF: Will you continue to use it?

FM: I hope so! I have some game prototypes already done in GS, one of them uploaded to the website, so everyone could test it online. But still the software lacks features that I really need, in order to make any kind of progress on these prototypes, and turn them into ‘complete’ games. I still feel that GameSalad is at a point where I can make great prototypes in no time but still not a complex, and serious game. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying that simple is bad, but sometimes we need more than that.

To find out more about creating applications with GameSalad and learn more developer secrets, check out issue 76 of iCreate Magazine, on sale 17/12/09. www.icreatemagazine.com

Developer: EA Mobile
Category: Games
Price: £2.99

Proving that when done right, we all have the need!

The most interesting aspect about games being developed for the iPhone is how radically different they can be. One moment you could be playing an app someone made in their bedroom and five minutes later experiencing an entry with a serious amount of polish the PlayStation Portable would be proud of. Of course, injecting a lot of money into a project doesn’t always ensure a perfect product. Need For Speed is evidence of just this.

EA sure knows how to apply that extra sheen to its creations. The visuals and overall presentation present in Undercover are incredible, boasting a level of quality above and beyond what’s expected. It’s easily the title to show off when those who defy the iPhone pipe up… just don’t let them play it.

Need For Speed is certainly not a bad game but it suffers from controls that are slightly too twitchy for their own good. Although the car accelerates automatically, it’s up to you to steer by tilting left and right. There’s certainly enough scope to get comfortable with it, but getting to that level can be a challenge; it’s a little too sensitive. This gets worse when Undercover asks you to drift. To turn the car sideways, it’s necessary to flick the iPhone, signalling you’re ready to glide. The problem is, you’re required to give it such an almighty thrust that it’s not uncommon to lose your in-game bearings and crash. However, as already mentioned, given enough time this becomes less of a frustration; those that get here will find themselves being sucked in thanks to Need For Speed’s style. Races are intense, cars over-the-top and it’s frantic from the off. You’ll have to watch out for the beyond awful cut-scenes and soundtrack, but we highly doubt anyone thinking about purchasing this is doing so for either of those reasons. Not the best racer on the iPhone (that award goes to Real Racing) but a damn fine alternative for those who want to get the most out of the genre.

Longevity: 6.5
Fun Factor: 7.6
Practicality: 5.7
Value For Money: 7.7
Kung Fu Verdict: 7.0

Price: £4.99
Developer: Hudson Entertainment
Category: Games

A classic explodes on to iPhone

If you haven’t heard of Bomberman, then you seriously need to get with it. This game has been around since 1985 and has appeared on almost every console imaginable. Your objective as Bomberman is simple: use your bomb-laying skills to negotiate levels, destroying rocks and enemies as you go. Sadly, the iPhone version is single-player only, and as long-time Bomberman fans will know, the multiplayer mayhem is what it’s all about, as you enjoy endless fun incinerating your friends. Despite this pretty major flaw, the gameplay is easy, the levels are fun and the graphics are good. It’s just a shame that this could have been so much better. Let’s hope Hudson finds a way to get a multiplayer option into this classic game so we can all get together and bomb the bejesus out of each other. A reasonable first effort for porting Bomberman to iPhone, but there’s a long way to go before this game reaches the sublime quality of GameCube’s Bomberman Generation.

Longevity: 6.8
Fun Factor: 8.2
Practicality: 5.8
Value For Money: 7.3

Kung Fu Verdict: 7.0

Developer: EA Mobile
Category: Games/Simulation
Price: £2.99

It may seem to be wildly optimistic to re-create a highly detailed, PC screen-filling game on a small, portable device, but EA pulls it off. Just.
You can start with either a blank canvas and create the city from scratch, or take up one of two conurbations that are already up and running. It makes sense to check out the tutorial first, because the icons can be anonymous and everything is controlled via them. The first step is creating zones, rather than actual houses, shops and factories. To paraphrase Field Of Dreams, if you zone it, they will come. But it has to be nice, and that means electricity and water supplies, architectural attractions, parks. This isn’t Pyongyang or a Polish slum; you can’t make people live in a dismal, polluted landscape full of high-rises. You can set the housing density per zone, though, to maximise revenue, as indeed this is the grease that keeps the wheels of SimCity life rolling.

When moving around the screen, the content disappears, showing just the zones, which speeds it up. Tapping or pinching zooms in, but as the city gets bigger, it isn’t that responsive. Also, placing buildings or zoning, is manageable on the small screen, but only just. There are overlays to show problem areas, so you’ll spend time zooming in to fix problems or develop areas, and out to check over everything. If your eyesight isn’t great, this isn’t the game for you. There’s definitely that old SimCity pleasure to be had in creating a thriving metropolis, and the inhabitants do have to be kept happy within in it, although at times it can get laborious. If you aren’t a fan then this version won’t convince, otherwise dive in and get those slums built.

Longevity: 8.8
Fun Factor: 7.6
Practicality: 5.5
Value For Money: 7.8

Kung Fu Verdict: 8.0

Developer: Revolution Pocket

Category: Games

Price: £2.99

It says rather a lot about the classic game, Beneath A Steel Sky, that, 15 years on, it is not only fondly remembered but is still able to generate a buzz among gamers. After all, it had long been been thought that the point-and-click adventure genre, to which this game belongs, died some some ago. Today it’s all about high energy first person shooters and 3D adventuring and yet this remastered version of BASS for the iPhone still retains a certain freshness – and that is down to the way in which creative director, Charles Cecil, has approached this PC-to-mobile port. Charles decided to release BASS for free into the public domain on the PC some years ago and so it was vital that this iPhone version contained enough extra material to justify a purchase.

Over the last few years, we have seen many straight ports of older games on the current generation of consoles and, in some cases, we’ve been expected to pay more for the games today than they cost to snap up a couple of decades ago. So when a developer decides to invest more time in bringing their old game up-to-date – hence the addition of the word Remastered – it is to be heartily applauded. The first thing you notice is the brand new animation, produced by Dave Gibbons, the creator of the Watchmen comics. This amazingly stylised intro replaces the comic book which was included in the box of the original and it is highly polished yet kitsch. Well-voiced, poignant and gripping, it fits in well with the style of the game itself, introducing Robert Foster as he is taken from his indigenous Australian tribe by stormtroopers from Union City. One helicopter crash later and Foster is ready to escape with his robot buddy, Joey, and discover exactly what is happening in the process.

That the control system has been overhauled is evident straight away and thankfully Revolution has not gone down a similar path to LucasArts’ control system for The Secret of Monkey Island. It takes just a minute to become acquainted with the control of BASS. By tapping on various parts of the screen, you can discover hotspots and their accompanying actions. So tap on Joey and you will be able to chat to him, tap on a lift and you will have the option to view it or perform an action. A box in the left hand bottom corner shows your inventory and a question mark top right gives you handy hints if you become stuck – dumbing down for today’s audience but it does prevent days of head scratching. The graphics of the game itself are taken straight from the PC game but their stylised look hasn’t dated it too much. Improvements have been made with the audio, however. The voice tracks have been re-sampled and are much clearer than the original which used to suffer in places.

If there is a disappointment, it is that Revolution Software has not given BASS the same sort of treatment it gave to the remastered version of Broken Sword for the DS and Wii. With those games, entire new scenes were added and it brought in the backstory of one of the leading characters. No such tinkering is evident with BASS. What Charles is hoping for, however, is a resurgence of interest in the BASS story that would lead to a brand new sequel being produced. When you consider that it is costing just £2.99 to cast a “vote” for sequel and that for that price you get to relive a 15-year-old classic in the palm of your hand (and maybe even complete it), it’s one of this year’s greatest bargains.

Longevity: 9.0
Fun factor: 9.2
Practicality: 8.9
Value For Money: 9.0

Kung Fu Verdict: 9.0