GSA Windows Phone Update - 22/2/12 - 28/2/12

Welcome one and all and a busy old update for you all this week. We've got DOTW, new releases, game related news and the next in our series of free no-Xbox Live titles reviewed. So let's get stuck in and make a start

New Release

Splinter Cell: Conviction HD - £3.99

The benchmark of action stealth games on console is available for the first time on W7 phones.
**Slide to play: “Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction looks and plays great, and it's rare that we see such a sophisticated stealth game on this platform.”
Unleash the ferocious skills of renegade agent Sam Fisher.
Play as Sam Fisher, a highly skilled Special Forces operative and fight a corrupted secret agency to get your daughter back. Follow a trail of intrigue that leads from Iraq to a high-security building in Washington. Run, jump, fight, and shoot using a handgun, shotgun, AK47 and bazooka, or maintain stealth by improvising with nearby objects. You are now a renegade spy agent; you don't follow any orders except for your own rules of engagement!

ASTONISHING ENVIRONMENTS AND GRAPHICS
- Go through 11 levels set in 8 different locations from Malta to the White House.
- Discover an exclusive level on the banks of the Potomac River.
- Experience fully polished 3D graphics with an amazing depth of view.

ADVANCED STEALTH GAMEPLAY
- The Mark & Execute feature allows you to mark multiple targets then quickly eliminate them all at once.
- The Last Known Position indicates where your enemies think you are, allowing you to outflank and eliminate them.
- Get behind enemies without being noticed and kill them in one hit!
- Projected texts inform you of objectives and guide you through the level.
- Get Sam behind cover to hide and dodge enemy fire.

CONSTANT ACTION THROUGHOUT THE GAME
- Beat your opponents in stunning hand-to-hand combat and interrogate enemies to get crucial information.
- Experience a frantic rail-shooting sequence on a speeding boat.
- Use a wide range of weapons and gadgets to get rid of your enemies. Pistols, sonar goggles and camera grenades are at your disposal!

Deal of the Week

Orbital - £1.49

Orbital is the addicting and challenging puzzle game to spend every free minute on. Three thrilling game modes combined with an absolutely addicting gameplay will grant you the ultimate challenge. Test your skill and ability to survive as long as possible and reach for rank one on the leader board! Because in this one-thumb experience you’ll have but one target: Destroy as many orbs as possible and shoot yourself into the Orbital Olympus. Get your hands on this puzzle game and you will never want to miss it again.

Shoot the orbs onto the playing field and watch them grow until they hit an obstacle and use the following orbs to destroy it. Hit every orb three times until it bursts into space and grants you one point to your highscore. Destroy as many orbs as you can but beware: The space on the playing field is limited so think hard about where you put the next one!

Three game modes will challenge you with addictive gameplay. Just play your game and try to destroy as many orbs in Pure mode, or get your orbs distracted by a gravitation field around them in Gravity mode. Your shots will be distracted by gravitation so be careful when you target! The Supernova mode will allow you to perform awesome combos when your orbs damage the surrounding ones with a shock wave as they burst into space.

But it’s not only about reaching the highest score! Fulfill the special tasks to unlock Achievements or try to get on top of the Xbox LIVE Leader board.

News

It seems Microsoft are not abating on their release schedule for WP7 games as the recent Must Have Games promo starts to end a whole bunch of new games have been announced with some popular favourites among them.

Carcassone - For those who haven't heard of the original game or the XBLA version this is a board game where you place tiles to build cities and roads and the player with the most points wins. The game is to also include the "River 2" expansion and online MP which should hopefully replace the GSA current fave of Chess in Logic Games!!

GeoDefense Swarm - The follow up to the popular GeoDefense the main difference being the playing grid is now made of Hexagons rather than the straight lines of the original.

Gerbil Physics - Originally an XBLIG this has now been ported to WP7 as full Xbox Live title. In a similar style to Implode!, the idea of the game is to knock over the gerbils by placing bombs smartly around them.

Pinball FX 2 - Yep that's right, the popular Pinball franchise is coming to WP7 and with DLC tables too it would seem. NOw you can get your pinball fix on the go as well which I know a number of you will be ecstatic about!!

Shoot1up - Something the WP7 has been lacking, well gaming in general, is the old fashioned Shmup but it looks like its going to arrive in the shape of this, again, XBLIG being given a WP7 Xbox Live status.

Wordament - It's a freebie ad-supported title which seems like a MMO version of Boggle!! Undoubtedly I can see some rivalry building between forum members on this one!!

There is also mention of Age of Zombies and Tamagotchi but I could find very little information about them. But there should be plenty to look forward to for the next few months. As ever when I get more information I'll share with you guys! It is good to see that Microsoft are actually supporting XBLIG but not in the way many would have expected with this regular number of ports to WP7 Xbox Live titles.

Review

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Dragon's Blade by Nate Monster

Dragon's Blade brings back the classic console RPG experience, similar to the original Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Lufia and others. If you liked the console RPGs of the 80s and 90s, you'll love Dragon's Blade for your phone. Create your custom party from unique 7 classes including: Warrior, Templar, Thief, Juggernaut, Archer, Cleric and Sorcerer. Level up, improve your stats, engage in exciting turn based combat, cast spells, and discover weapons and armor while exploring a huge, colorful world with dangerous dungeons and unforgiving bosses.

Online play has been added in v1.9, allowing you to chat with others playing and interact with them. Online play is completely optional and allows you to:
- Chat with other players in your area.
- View other players and what they are doing.
- Receive stat bonuses while playing near other players online.

Update 1.9:
- Online Play has been added.
- Blackjack issues have been fixed.
- An issue causing buttons to stop appearing during very long battles has been fixed.

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(if you prefer to play without advertisements, a paid version is also available in the marketplace)

Now depending on how old a gamer you are or even how big an RPG fan you may well recognise what game this takes a heavy influence from. I speak of the classic Final Fantasy on the NES. And to be fair this is a game which is worthy of the comparison. From the very start the character selection brought back memories of FF. You can choose from seven different class types with your usual choices and once you've chosen a class for each of your four characters and optionally named them, your ready to begin.

The game screen is very reminiscent of the old NES RPG's as well with its open world map with separate maps for towns, so anyone familiar with these older games will be right at home. In a similar manner the difficulty of the game heralds back to the NES area, you won't be running off too fast through the game or you'll be cut down mercilessly by tough enemies. Grinding is the way to go in this game and it will take you some time to move through the areas, though a handy warp item allows quick return to towns to revive, stock up and buy new equipment easily.

Best of all is this game is being fully supported by its developer still, with a recent online chat option added allowing you to communicate with other players in nearby areas as well as plans to expand the world. Already there are two main global maps with several towns and dungeons in each, so combined with the grinding gameplay this will last you a fair while. The only downside of this game is that if your not a fan of old-school RPG's you may not enjoy due to its need for grinding. However for any fan of old-school RPG's this is an essential purchase and will help you pass many an hour

Score: 8/10


Well, thats all from me this week, I've already got some more titles lined up for the next few weeks so expect more free gaming fun soon. Until next week though, catch you on the flipside!!

Some potentially awesome games coming up there.

Nice one Tenlo

thanks Tenlo.

I need too find out if Orbital is an easy max as stated before cannot fit anymore impossible games on my phone!

I love and hate bejewelled for this very reason! impossible and random!

I've been finding Orbital pretty tricky, but checking on TA seems to point to it being fairly easy for most players. Maybe trial it and see how you get on? It is quite addictive once you get into it.