The trailer finally launched yesterday afternoon, and the rumour mill has been working overtime ever since.

The distinctive ‘Vinewood’ sign atop a hillside was depicted clearly in the trailer, leading many websites and blogs to report, quite understandably, that GTA 5 would be returning to the fictional state of Los Santos, first seen in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

And with the location locked down, attentions turned to the rest of the footage – where things began to get interesting.

A number of seemingly familiar faces appear; the trailer appears to be narrated by none other than GTA 3’s Claude, and at one point a homeless man can be seen holding a sign requesting food, who bears a remarkable resemblance to GTA 4’s Niko Bellic (pictured above).

As ever with these guestimations, though, there’s often more than one interpretation. The older gentlemen proposed to be Claude could also be GTA: Vice City’s Tommy Vercetti. Comparing the two in the screenshot (pictured right, IGN) it’s easy to sway either way at this point.

Arguments have been pitched for and against the return of Vercetti’s character, with the principle dispute surrounding the voice used. That said, people change and perhaps the same voice actor, Ray Liotta, couldn’t be sourced, or perhaps he rejected the role himself. It’s still too early to say, quite frankly.

In older news, HHGS reported back in May that Christopher Bellard, aka C.J. from GTA: San Andreas, may be working on GTA 5. Quite how his character may feature remains to be seen, but EuroGamer would have you believe that GTA 5 will feature three playable protagonists: C.J, Vercetti and Bellic. So there’s that.

Also, desperate fans have even gone as far as to dissect individual frames, in the hope of discovering extra information. One such instance has already been circulated by NeoGAF where it has been suggested that the release date features in a scene concerning the sale of a house (see below). 2405 can be seen on the road, which has been speculated to represent a 24th May 2012 release.

Rockstar are yet to release a press release, rendering all of the above entirely speculation at this point. And until such a time, perhaps it’s best to watch the trailer for yourself and come to your own conclusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkkoHAzjnUs

Initially, Type Hard appears scarily reminiscent of those shoddy touch-typing tests seen online. Persevere, though, and you’ll be rewarded by gameplay that’s actually tense, fun and addictive, alongside harbouring a hidden competitive edge.

But for your sake, I hope you’ve donned those gloves of +5 typing speed, as Type Hard is a race against the clock. If you’re not quick enough, it’s game over.

Accuracy and consistency are big players in this race. Press the wrong key when spelling a word and you’ll increase the meter in the bottom right of the screen. Break the flow, take too long to clear the screen, or allow your words per minute to drop significantly, and the meter will increase further. As expected, a full meter equals game over.

A relatively simple visual style has been adopted here, and gameplay focuses on what closely resembles a LAN event; blocky, humanoid figures crowd together to formulate a new word, the arrival of which is punctuated by flashing lights and a claxon sound, Type Hard all the while bombarding your ears with a backdrop of throbbing techno beats. It’s thoroughly immersive yet distracting at the same time, helping to ramp up the difficulty somewhat.

After three levels, you’ll encounter a boss, who must be defeated through a combination of defence and timely attacks using words, of course. The boss in question (often a pixellated duck) will fire a combination of random letters at you, which you must repel before they hit the screen, by typing them in order. After a handful of successful block-shots, you’ll then be presented with an attack-word, which will cause damage to the enemy should you be able to type it quickly enough. You’ll win after a few successful attacks, at which point you’ll be presented with your final score.

Points are awarded mid-game for each correct spelling, and can accumulate further through the use of a combo system. It makes sense, then, that Type Hard’s competitive edge stems from global leaderboards, encouraging the player to better their previous score, creating an artificial replayability in the process.

If that’s not your thing, though, there’s also the ‘endless mode’, which incorporates survival style gameplay.

As an indie title, Type Hard is available for free. It was also developed in Britain, avoiding the all too common Americanised spellings, that plague other games of this nature. Given the simple gameplay mechanics, it’s also ideal as a pick-up-and-play title. There’s the hidden benefit of improving your touch-typing skills, too.

You can download Type Hard, and view the global leaderboards, here.

DRM has never been a popular concept, but gamers often ‘put up’ with it on the grounds that it’s a once-only affair; by which a retail game is ‘activated’ upon its first launch, via the internet, and then remains active indefinitely. After all, the majority of gamers are connected to the internet 24/7, and no-one wants to be branded a pirate, especially when proving otherwise by a one-time activation process is such a simple thing to do.

Many customers bought From Dust on the basis of this one-time activation concept. However, in this instance, they were misled. The game actually requires an active internet connection (to check the game copy is legitimate) each and every time it’s launched. A far cry from the concept of a single, initial registration.

To say that unwitting players were less than impressed by this would be an understatement of gigantic proportions, and rightly so. There’s an age-old argument that legitimate consumers often fare far worse than pirates when it comes to issues of piracy, and DRM is often held up as a shining example of such unbalance.

Although Valve has promised the imminent release of a patch removing the offending DRM code, Ubisoft has still instructed the digital distribution giant to offer refunds through their Steam service, as can be seen from the screenshot below – courtesy of RockPaperShotgun.

It’s all a bit bizarre, and even goes some way towards promoting piracy, in a round-about way. Here, Ubisoft are (inadvertently) offering a new gaming release for free, as there will undoubtedly be a few unscrupulous individuals who, having already played From Dust to death, will request a refund so that they can purchase another title, having already had their fill.

Nonetheless, this is a bold move for Ubisoft to make, particularly as they’ve received similar complaints in the past spanning all manner of other titles. Hopefully future Ubisoft games will launch entirely DRM free as a result, doing away with the seemingly unwritten company policy of launching a game with crippling DRM, only to remove it later following internet-based nerd rage.

Well, we can but hope.

For over a decade, the Counter Strike series has enjoyed largely unrivalled success within the FPS genre. Coupled with worldwide recognition, an impressive feat by any standards, the notable support for the Counter Strike brand is even more impressive when you consider that it began life as a mod for Valve’s hugely popular survival shooter, Half Life, way back in 1999.

Counter Strike: Source, the most popular title within the series, is still played by thousands today. Yet for a game first released in 2004, it’s beginning to show its age. As such, mass speculation regarding the next version of Counter Strike has flooded internet forums and discussion rooms in recent years.

Speculate no more, though, for Valve has recently responded by announcing the launch of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the spiritual sequel to Counter Strike Source, scheduled for an early 2012 release.

From the video below, it looks like in-game graphics received the most attention. However, Valve has promised new maps, new weapons, and the much-anticipated official support for matchmaking and leaderboards.

Interestingly enough, Global Offensive is also pitched for multi-platform support, with the game due for release on Xbox Live, the Playstation Network and of course Steam (for both Windows and Mac). Yet quite how this will work for competitive play remains uncertain, as it has long been suggested that PC gamers have the ‘edge’ in multi-platform situations, e.g. Shadowrun.

Valve has featured in gaming news recently regarding their not yet released free-to-play League of Legends competitor, DOTA 2. A few weeks back, Team Fortress 2 was also made free-to-play via Steam, raising questions about whether Global Offensive will follow suit.

Online poker fans got a bit of good news this week, with the announcement that PokerTracker 4 will be released in 2011. A beta version is also available now, for some users.

Online poker has proven to be a very popular alternative to visiting US casinos in Vegas or Atlantic City, as it enables poker fans to enjoy their favourite game any time of the day or night without the usual hassle, or expense, of travelling to and playing at a traditional poker room.

PokerTracker is celebrating its ten-year anniversary and it’s a must-have for many online poker players, as it enables them to analyzing both their own play and that of their opponents at the virtual tables. It was the first software of its kind when released in 2001, collecting and recording data from each hand that an online poker player completed and making it available later for review.

PokerTracker organizes the data in a variety of ways, letting players see how successful they are from various positions at the table as well as which hands cause them the most trouble, as far as which they lose the most money when playing.

PokerTracker also lets users keep tabs on their opponents, not only showing how aggressively or passively they play, or how often they bluff, but enabling users to pull that data directly to the online tables when they play online, with the stats super-imposed on the table via a heads-up display (HUD). This is an area where PokerTracker 4 will provide a big improvement, as the HUD engine has been rebuilt for smoother performance, as well as adding new options to display and use stats in a variety of ways.

PokerTracker works with both download and no download casinos, with most major online poker sites supported. While it won’t magically improve your poker game by itself, it does give players the tools they need to analyze how they’re playing and make any changes necessary to boost their profitability.

At nearly $90 (approx. £55) for the full version, it’s not the cheapest piece of software on the market, but it can pay for itself in just a few big pots at the poker tables that you might win because of it, making it a necessary tool for many online poker players.

The game spans all four movies across twenty levels, including the most recent in the series, ‘On Stranger Tides’. You are taken through all the major plot points, meeting familiar faces and experiencing reimagined block-built lands. The story is retold using comical cutscenes. They offer laugh-out-loud moments for fans of the series, though if you have never seen the films, don’t expect to understand the story.

The main aim in the levels is to solve puzzles, collect items and defeat enemies so you can progress to the next area. The puzzles range from rebuilding objects, to finding items, and rescuing friends. This is done with the help of over 70 characters, each with different skills and abilities. The most common of all is of course Jack Sparrow, who comes equipped with a compass, used to find hidden items and collectables in each level. Another major character is Will Turner who has the ability to throw axes and hit targets or enemies in hard-to-reach places. Female characters such as Elizabeth Swann are able to double jump, and reach areas that are otherwise inaccessible.  Other characters have the ability to fix broken machines, dig up hidden items, pull large objects and open special doors and locks. There are also a wide variety of weapons between characters, including swords, guns, bombs and whips. You can even pick up tridents which can be located around various levels.

Pretty much everything in the environment is destructible, and exploration is highly encouraged. As expected, there is a large amount of collectables to discover and purchase using the studs you gain. These can be collected during the story, but a lot of the hidden secrets require players to return to a level in free-play. Players can also ride a number of animals, including pigs, horses and crabs, which can interact with environmental objects as well. Level design is very clever, and ranges from very linear ships, to free-roam towns. Even when you think you have discovered everywhere in a level, the chances are you haven’t. There a tonnes of hidden nooks and crannies, each hiding collectables. A completionist will have many hours of fun discovering them all.

The game features drop in and out local co-op play, and it can be very entertaining to explore with a friend. Though there is no difference in the levels themselves, it can quicken up collectable and stud gathering. It’s a shame that online co-op, which has been seen in other Lego titles, is not supported.

The game graphics are an improvement from past Lego instalments. Characters and objects look sharp, and the world is vibrant and colourful. The level of detail in the non-Lego materials is stunning. The rainforest, seabed, cavern and beach environments wouldn’t look out of place in a non-Lego game. There are some really great animations too, especially in the fight sequences. The music is taken straight from the movies, and who can argue with that? There are some great tracks which complement the environments perfectly.

Though Lego Pirates provides a very entertaining experience, there are a few flaws that can be incredibly frustrating at times. Firstly, there is an excessive amount of bugs. On at least three occasions I had to restart a level (and one time my Xbox) because a character did not spawn, or an NPC got stuck in the environment. The AI isn’t the smartest either. Sometimes I found that my character would be pushed off a ledge, or blocked from passing by NPC’s. These issues are not huge, just annoying.

On top of this, you may find that some of the puzzles are incredibly frustrating and the solutions very obscure. I often found myself scouting the same area in a level for upwards of twenty minutes just to find one item so I could continue.  There is very little direction, and where there is it is usually in obvious places where you don’t need it anyway. Some people may like that challenge, but I’m sure many won’t. It would have been nice to see a hint function built into the game to aid struggling players.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean will be enjoyed by fans of the Lego series. It adds a new setting to the series, but still manages to keep the Lego charm that so many people love. The gameplay is fun to play solo or co-operatively, and collectables will keep you playing for hours.

Final Score – 8/10

Hours past, and it was only at the point where my stomach grumbled for the umpteenth time, and my mouth was inexcusably dry, that I realised for quite how long I had been lost in this immersive world. But the deep, expansive mines and dungeons beneath Torchlight were addictive; I wanted more, and after a quick food break to sustain myself, I was firmly glued back in the hot seat. More hours passed, and as I continued to delve deeper into the loose storyline, I experienced firsthand the interesting gameplay mechanics that Torchlight has to offer.

You see, Torchlight takes the bread and butter of a dungeon crawler title, and then builds upon it. For example, my faithful canine friend is not only combat effective, but also has the unique ability to double up as an aspiring salesman (or is that salesdog? If so – I’m coining the phrase now!) whom I can dispatch to town burdened with my ill-gotten wares, safe in the knowledge that he will return minutes later, his pockets laden with gold. This is a feature that I never really thought of as essential to Video Games such as this, until Torchlight showed me the error of my ways. With the need to return to town every fifteen minutes now extinguished for good, and also the feverish scouring for town portal scrolls no longer a necessity, the previously difficult decisions surrounding what items to discard in order to create room in my inventory vanished immediately.

And it is for this reason that Torchlight appears, at first glance, to have hit the metaphorical ‘dungeon crawler’ nail firmly on the head.

Given its considerable success though, perhaps what it is most remarkable about Torchlight is how I have only just come to play it. For those of you who have equally spent the past few years under a rock, Torchlight is an unashamedly self publicised and incredibly fresh looking Diablo 2.5. Released back in 2009 to act as a comfortable stop gap between the rapidly ageing Diablo 2, and the perpetually pushed back Diablo 3, Torchlight is fun, approachable and simplistic – and to begin with, there’s nothing wrong with this.

Almost every avenue of this game has been simplified, including the class system. Gone are the ten or so predetermined classes found in the likes of Diablo, and instead they’ve been replaced by a mere three: the stereotypical brutish damage dealer, the ranged based assassin type and the gleefully weak spellcaster. Contrary to my usual preference of shooting things from afar (akin to the ‘ranger’ mentality) this time round I opted for a spellcaster, who I then turned into a badass necromancer chap by the terrifying, fear-mongering name of ‘Frank’. I know, scary huh.

Sadly, for the same reasons I initially liked Frank, it was not long until I began to loathe him. Following the first few hours traversing the intricate network of mines underneath Torchlight town, Frank’s quickly trained skills of summoning were warmly welcomed, and made levelling up a breeze. I’m now a conservative ten hours into the game though, and the small army that Frank can summon with the mere twitch of his little finger and a quick fist bump with God himself, has made my role in this game rather obsolete. I’m not longer required to help contribute to damage, or to mop up the excess foes with a quick spell blast, because my minion horde can do it all – and in half the time, too. Frank, and myself with him, have become little more than spectators to the carnage, unwittingly demoted to the rank of ‘loot collector’ whilst the many summoned forces at work nip from one group of enemies to the other, dispatching them in record time.

And this is a bit of a shame. Perhaps this issue could have been alleviated if I had of chosen a higher difficulty setting than ‘hard’, but I was lured into the false sense of illusion that ‘hard’ would in fact mean ‘hard’ or at least ‘difficult’. I would have even accepted ‘troublesome’, and anyway, somehow I doubt it would have made any noticeable difference. Instead, the very simplistic nature of Torchlight (which I fondly defended a mere three paragraphs ago) quickly became its undoing. Not once, in ten solid hours, did I find myself anywhere close to the grasp of death, and even the use of health potions proved to be an infrequent affair. I did not witness the untimely demise of my pet, either.

All in all I find this a little odd, considering that in true dungeon crawler style, Torchlight even offers a ‘Hardcore Mode’, which fans of the Diablo series will remember makes the inconvenience of death permanent – i.e. you had better make it a good one, because you only get one take. Yet I suppose in Torchlight’s defence, I only sampled the spellcaster class tree; however I should imagine that the same level of simplicity and a distinct ‘lack of death’ would apply to all the other classes, albeit with more clicking required.

Sadly there are other issues that plague Torchlight, too. For a game that performs amicably well on my laptop, the load times are borderline ridiculous. Perhaps this issue is restricted to my hardware alone, but a brief search in Google would suggest otherwise. There are also numerous bugs that riddle the combat. Summoned minions and foes alike have a nasty tendency to get stuck behind objects, and on more than one occasion I was able to defeat a particularly aggressive boss by standing on a higher level and firing at him mercilessly, as he ran repeatedly at the wall trying to reach me via the most direct route. Although initially humorous, issues like this are more of a pressing matter when combined with the sheer difficulty associated with actually dying in this game, and between the two I am now fairly certain that I could never willingly allow my character to do so. Not once, not ever. And this is a problem for me, because the risk associated with failure makes point-and-click based action-rpg’s appealing and addictive. Without the potential for death, I am merely a willing participant to little more than an interactive film, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not what I expected, certainly not what I signed up for and clearly not what the developers had in mind either.

I also felt an overwhelming urge to blast through this game at full speed. Despite offering a sprawling network of mines, dungeons and (on the odd occasion) portals to explore, something about Torchlight focussed my attention towards blitzing through the levels. I barely stopped for long enough to pick up the abundance of loot that littered the floor, let alone to discover an alternative pathway to the finish, and I no doubt missed out on a great deal of extra content by acting in this fashion. However I don’t feel wholly responsible, as Torchlight’s simplistic nature and relatively infrequent presentation of fresh quests does not lend itself willingly to exploration. Instead this notion is replaced with the hopes of future quests, once you’ve pressed a little deeper, and this unpleasant mistake in the rather important delivery of fresh content within an RPG could be attributed to the lack of a detailed storyline. As mentioned previously, the background surrounding the town of Torchlight is loose at best, and in all honesty even though I’m a number of hours into the game, I’ve still no real understanding as to why I’m doing all this. Who created this large vertical network of caves? And why am I here?

The choice to go action heaving and storyline light though is a surprisingly good fit nonetheless. I only pondered the answers to my previous questions for a moment, before shrugging and returning to the action. I don’t know the true meaning behind my activities in Torchlight, and something tells me that I never will, but that’s okay. I don’t need to know in order to have fun or to feel like I’m enjoying myself – and this is a refreshing break from the Diablo mould, which forces a storyline down your throat so far that you begin to gag in retaliation.

Torchlight is a game that evidently doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is refreshing in part, yet it is this over-casual nature that ultimately lets the game down. Intelligent AI, a wider range of quests to help further inspire dungeon exploration and a little fine tuning on the ‘easy-mode’ wouldn’t go a miss here – and it is for these reasons that this game does not achieve the classic dungeon crawler status that it ultimately deserved.

Torchlight is fun though, despite these flaws, and for the price you could do far worse.

In keeping with its browser based sibling, The Zombie Wars for iOS drops you feet first into a cube-crafted battlefield, riddled with the rampaging undead and a dwindling supply of ammunition to boot. The only way to survive is to run, shoot and barricade your way to victory, and even then you’ll need a heavy dose of luck too. It’s the sheer difficulty of this game once you excel past the first few levels that’ll keep you glued to your iPhone for hours, and before you realise: your iPhone battery will be flat, you’ll be inexcusably hungry and you won’t have showered for days. Alright, fine. I’m embellishing a little, but seriously – this is a fairly good game!

Zombie titles on iOS have been a little lacklustre recently, but mercifully The Zombie Wars marks a return to form. As opposed to spending the majority of your time navigating a mall and rescuing others, yes I’m looking directly at you Dead Rising, Boxhead have opted to keep things simple. Instead, all you will find here are big weapons, even bigger sound effects and mindless zombie annihilation. There’s no set goal in The Zombie Wars; the only objective you have is to survive as long as you can, presumably so that you can judge your final scores with your mates to discover who has seen the least sunlight since you all started competing. That’s about it really.

Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the process.

In The Zombie Wars, enemies wander endlessly onto the map from the four sides, and when heartlessly dispatched will often drop upgrades including; new weaponry, health packs and even automated turrets, which can be used to quickly cut through the advancing undead. The quick removal of enemies will improve your multiplier, which in turn will rapidly increase your score, demonstrating that it pays to work fast in this game. Barricades are also dropped in abundance, which you can use to build yourself a small fortress. Zombies being the not so smart, brain-dead abominations that they are would rather destroy your temporary housing that wander down that pathway to the centre you included, and so I wouldn’t worry too much about walling yourself in entirely. They don’t last long either, barricades, yet when combined with automated turrets this can be a game winning combination and can help to rack up your score very swiftly.

The Zombie Wars is controlled via a pair of large virtual joysticks – the left dedicated to movement, and the right to shooting. Boxhead haven’t exactly reinvented the wheel here, but it’s a darn sight better than some, and the oversized nature of these sticks matches the overly fast paced environment of the game, as your fingers will need to move rapidly across the touch screen to successfully repel wave after wave of undead nasties. Finally, a developer has willingly catered to a gamer that doesn’t possess the fingers of a pianist, with pinheads for fingertips – unlike Resident Evil, which takes an already difficult task like landing a headshot, and then makes it borderline impossible due to the small size of the virtual buttons; almost reducing me to virtual tears in the process.

Considering The Zombie Wars was originally released in 2009, the Graphics of this now slightly dated iOS title are rather good. Although a far cry from Infinity Blade which has become the Crysis of iOS graphical benchmarking, they’re not bad, even hedging towards quite satisfactory. Reasonable is probably a nice term to use here. Models in this game are made up of blocks, in a similar style to Minecraft, which is a sensible choice for a top down shooter, and helps to keep the in-game graphics looking as if they are 3D, as opposed to being drawn onto a moving background (which you’ll find in games such as CS2D). It would appear that iOS games have reached a plateau as far as the graphics to performance balance goes, and particularly for a smaller developer, Boxhead have done well.

In-game background music is non-existent unfortunately, though Boxhead have been kind enough to allowed gamers to play their own music during the game – something that I feel is sorely missing from many other iOS titles. Although lacking in backing track, The Zombie Wars does include some rather powerful weaponry sound effects. Each weapon packs a punch, and genuinely sounds as if it is doing some severe damage to the advancing zombie horde, which is always nice.

Three levels feature in this game, yet disappointingly they do not differ a great deal. That being said, Boxhead have vowed to release a slew of updates in the future, at least one of which will presumably be a map pack. Also, Boxhead have recently released a weapons update, almost doubling the available arsenal to include Uzi’s, Grenades, Rockets and even Airstrikes, so I guess this isn’t all bad, and you’re still getting a great deal of bang for your buck.

A few oddities feature in this iOS title though. For one, each level you play will be littered with these demonic fire breathing creatures, who are clearly not zombies, yet you should apparently drop them with a shotgun blast, no questions asked. This is a little odd in a game that predominantly features Zombies, and even refers to the aforementioned undead in the title, however I’ll forgive Boxhead for their indiscretion here, as there had to be some increase in difficulty between the levels, and I guess the devil is a pretty substantial (if not incorrect) foe. Furthermore, and perhaps a more pressing matter, the use of grenades is rather poor. Instead of being thrown, they simply spawn a pre-determined distance in front of you, which is incredibly annoying as there is no way (except through trial and error) to predict at which point you need to deploy one for maximum effect. Yet as mentioned previously, these issues are rather small in relation to the numerous positives that feature in this game though, and so I guess I can afford to be a little forgiving.

The only major concern I have with The Zombie Wars is that much of the content that features on the iPhone port, is available for free through a web browser. However, due to the incredibly addictive nature of this game, and the fact that the iOS version allows you to take your addiction with you at all times, I doubt this will be too much of a problem. Dedicated gamers and fans of Sean Cooper’s work alike will no doubt purchase without a second thought. As for the rest of you – try the browser version first, and then we’ll see.

EDIT: Boxhead have recently released a ‘lite’ version of the game, allowing you to try before you buy. You can download said version here. Boxhead have certainly hit the nail on the head.

Closing Comments: Simple in concept, retro in nature, The Zombie Wars is a brilliant port of the most popular online flash game to date.

Score – 8/10

Review copy provided by publisher

Playing the game for the first time, my experience has been great, enjoyable and thoroughly addictive. In Boxhead, you take control of ‘Jon Bambo’, and his vast arsenal of weapons. Looking down from a birds-eye perspective, your task is to survive the waves of zombies that are coming at you from all sides. Killing them results in you earning points. The further you progress through the game, the more powerful and deadly the weapons available to you become. Rockets, miniguns and even airstrikes feature in this game, offering a vast choice of weaponry. To make Boxhead available to everyone, there are varying levels of difficulty (Beginner, Intermediate and Nightmare) and also three different locations to choose from.

The controls in the game are superb; simple, yet effective. The screen is not overcrowded, and you’ll rarely find yourself mistakenly performing an undesired action. The gun menu is easy-to-access and ammo counters and health bars are displayed in obvious positions. However, one thing that you will find annoying in the game (but is very hard to avoid whilst developing) is that every time you want to shoot an enemy, you have to line yourself up perfectly, which can prove to be rather temperamental at times. The sounds that feature in this title are equally nothing special. They have fairly realistic sounding weapon effects, but no music features in the game, which is unfortunate.

The graphics of the game are basic, yet effective. Don’t expect any beautiful cut scenes or realistic 3D graphics and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of this title. Oddly, the ‘blocky’ characters add some humour to what would have been an otherwise dull world. It would have been nice to see more variety in enemies and environments however, and this might have shown an increase in the lifespan of the game.

Though the game has no multiplayer, it does have online leaderboards, although these are relatively useless. Most players will get nowhere near the high scores that feature, and it would have been wiser to implement a ‘friends only’ leader board through GameCenter.

When you pause the game, you do not just see a simple “Paused” screen. Instead you see a very detailed statistic analysis of you game progression, including upgrades, game facts (feet travelled, total kills) and all time facts (levels and kills). I think this is a neat touch.

In conclusion, Boxhead is a great game. It’s fun, addictive, and contains zombies and big guns. That kind of combination can’t go wrong! It has a reasonable price tag, but don’t expect it’s lifespan to be as long as Angry Birds. Essentially, after you have played around an hour, you have encountered everything you will with the game. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but some players may find themselves bored.

Score – 7/10

In the past, there have been numerous attempts at re-designing and mixing mainstream genres, and many games have been successful at doing so. Unfortunately, many others haven’t, and Dungeon Defenders: First Wave is one such game. Just the second App on iOS to use the Unreal Engine, Dungeon Defenders: First Wave, developed by Trendy Entertainment, attempts to creating a hybrid of a tower defence game, a hack’n'slash and even a couple of RPG elements thrown in for good measure, yet sadly it doesn’t quite live up to the hype.

The main aim of this game is to protect your Eternia Crystal from being destroyed by goblins, orcs, ogres and other nasty fantasy foes that constantly assault your base. You do this by building towers to attack enemies, and by attacking enemies yourself via your character’s special abilities. Mana is used as a form of currency within the game, which is an original and rather remarkable feature for an RPG.

There are four characters in the game (Apprentice, Monk, Huntress and Squire), each with different abilities, specialities and towers. As you kill enemies and complete waves and levels, your character gains experience which allows them to level up, much like a standard RPG. You can then unlock skill points which you can spend on increasing your characters stats, or your towers. The game has a local mode, and an online or LAN multiplayer co-op mode.

The Eternia Crystal which you must protect

While it all sounds good on paper, the most annoying thing about Dungeon Defenders is the way it has been executed. To be quite frank, a lot of the main elements in the game are terrible. Pure and simple. For example, there is no bird’s eye view of the area, which for a tower defence game is rather bizarre. Instead, when you are placing towers, you have to move you character around and attempt to line them up in the correct directions using some of the most awkward camera controls I have ever experienced on an iOS device. Eventually it becomes an unwinnable battle, and you just have to place them in the general direction you initially aimed for, and then cross your fingers as you hope for the best.
Before you even start to play the game, you’ll encounter a major issue too. The tutorial. It is one of the most lengthy and confusing tutorials of this nature that I have ever experienced, and amounts to an incredibly poor way to start the game. In fact, I was so hopelessly lost that I ended up looking elsewhere to source an independent tutorial, just so I could understand how to play the game. Even then you will probably find buttons and features of which you will be left clueless as to their intention or purpose.

The screen can get very cluttered.

The user interface (UI) is equally poor in design. There are too many buttons and functions, and it makes movement incredibly difficult without accidentally activating a spell or entering the build menu. Add on top of this the huge amount of unnecessary pop-ups for items and towers as you pass them, and it’s easy to understand how cluttered the screen can get. It is not common for your character to be hidden behind pop-up menus, and thus I can’t help but wonder why the developers of Dungeon Defenders allowed the screen to get quite so cluttered.

This game also suffers from inexcuseably poor controls. They are extremely difficult to use, and you will often find yourself sending your character away in the opposite direction you mean to. When you are fighting and attacking an enemy, it is incredibly annoying for your character to perform various 180 degree spins when all you had intended was a brief march forward, and you will find you will lose you target during the excessive time it takes to turn back around and realign the camera. This really isn’t great for a game that requires pretty speedy actions in order to repair towers and protect the crystal.

Unfortunately, the multiplayer is equally lack-lustre. Firstly, it’s difficult to join a friend’s game; I tried via GameCenter, and it simply would not let me connect. My friend and I then tried to find each other through the games menu, but the text is so idiotically small, you actually can’t read any usernames or game types, and there is no zoom function. A bizzare User Interface choice, yet compared to the other blinding mistakes Trendy Ent have made with this game, it’s not likely to be a deal breaker.

Even if you decide not to play with friends, and go into matchmaking, don’t expect to have an easier ride. Teamwork is a nightmare. The game is all about strategy, but with four strangers this concept is impossible. You have no idea where your friends are placing their towers or where they will be in battle, making it overly challenging, especially on the harder difficulties.

The multiplayer games list is impossible to read

The graphics and sound are the (few) great achievements of this game. Though the visuals are not quite as sharp as Infinity Blade (the only other Unreal powered game on iOS to date), there is a lot more happening in the environment around you. The vibrant colours work well to avoid the dullness often found in many other dungeon games, and the cartoon animations add to the surroundings and feel of the game. The levels themselves are pretty immersive and designed to a high standard. The sound and music fits the game perfect. Another added bonus is that Dungeon Defenders is a universal app, meaning it can be played on both iPhone and iPad for one price.

To conclude, the concept of Dungeon Defenders is a great one, and sometimes there can be elements of fun found while playing. However, there are just too many problems which have been overlooked, the most basic of all being the user interface and the camera. It makes the game very difficult to play (hindered even further by a bad tutorial), and unless you are an expert tower defence gamer, you will likely put the game down after half an hour, never to pick it up again. The graphics and sounds just do not compensate for the poor gameplay.

What I liked:

• The animated graphics use the Unreal Engine to high capabilities.
• The vibrant colours avoid dullness of the genre.
• The game sounds and music works well.

What I didn’t like:

• The screen becomes incredibly cluttered with useless information and buttons.
• Awful controls make it difficult to move and attack.
• Multiplayer is a nightmare!
• Terrible tutorial.

You can download Dungeon Defenders: First Wave from the App Store for 59p