Publisher: Bulkypix
Developer: Revo Solutions
Genre: Action
Compatibility: Not available
iTunes Rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: December 17, 2010

Artillery Brigade is a new World War II gun turret game developed by Revo Solutions. It boasts 360 degrees of rotational movement and a slew of other features to keep gameplay engaging and entertaining. My iPhone 3G is notorious for being finicky when trying to run apps that include 3D rendering, so I was interested in seeing how successful this game would be on my phone. This could be a good purchase for you, depending on what device you own; continue reading to find out why.

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Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Genre: Shooter DLC
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Looking to extend your Red Dead Redemption experience? Undead Nightmare offers more than just the same gunplay of the original game. Rockstar gets credit for concentrating on a single-player DLC story extension when so many developers seem to focus on the multiplayer aspects. That is not to say that Undead Nightmare doesn’t offer any such goodies; one of its new multiplayer modes prompted me to turn my back on normal life and camp out in my living room. My legs are numb, my thumbs are raw, bloodied stumps, and I have to sleep with the light on.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: Action Adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Inside everyone’s DNA lie the memories of their ancestors. With the Animus machine from Abstergo Industries, you are able to obtain and record these memories as if they were your own. The only problem is that Abstergo Industries is the modern day form of the Knights Templar, an ancient secret society that wants nothing more than power and control while hiding behind the mask of religion. They use the Animus machine to find ancient artifacts to help them accomplish this. Luckily, there is an order of assassins that are sworn enemies of the corrupt Knights Templar, and want to bring them down. This is where you, the player, comes into the picture.

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Publisher: Namco Games
Developer: Namco Games
Genre: Platformer
iTunes rating: 12+
Release date: Available now

Garters & Ghouls, by Namco Games, is a top-down shooter that fuses zombie-chic with big guns and a somewhat interesting story. If you’ve ever caught yourself daydreaming of undead vixens strutting around graveyards while blasting werewolves with a crossbow, then you’ll want to read the rest of this review. If you’ve ever wondered if a busty zombie could successfully fight the minions of evil with nothing but her sass and a blunderbuss, then you owe it to yourself to read further. But, assuming you’re a normal, productive human being, you’re probably just looking for a good iPhone game, in that case, you should also click below.

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Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar San Diego
Genre: Action adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

If, like me, you grew up on a staple diet of Clint Eastwood westerns you would have received the release of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption with anticipated excitement. The game was released after a sustained media plug and seen as the successor to Rockstar’s earlier Grand Theft Auto series. So is the game worthy of such hype? Slide off your dust covered saddle, hitch up your horse and come sit down by the campfire. Pour yourself a cup of warm coffee and stretch your aching limbs, and I’ll share my buckshot’s worth of opinion.

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Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
Genre: Action RPG
iTunes Rating: 12+
Release date: Available now

If I was less masculine, Braveheart by Gaijin Entertainment might just make me “squee”. However, I’d like to consider myself too manly for fanboy reactions (after all, I carry a Leatherman AND pocket knife). But I think I can properly convey my enthusiasm for this game by telling you to stop whatever you are doing (in addition to reading this review) and go buy Braveheart! At six bucks it would have been worth the money, but at two bucks, it’s a steal. The gameplay mechanics and the depth of play are fantastic for an iOS game.

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Publisher: Launching Pad Games
Developer: Launching Pad Games
Compatibility: iOS 4.0 or later
Genre: Adventure/Puzzle
iTunes Rating: 9+
Release date: Available now

Apparently, developers no longer want to take any risks; games mostly imitate what’s already been done. At least that’s what I thought before I played Scarlett and the Spark of Life by Launching Pad Games. Scarlett is a weird hybrid of choose-your-own-adventure books and games such as Myst. What really caught me off guard was its storytelling element; the dialogue is humorous, and at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Usually when I’m playing a game with the intent to review it, I look for its ability to make me miss the gameplay when I’m away from my phone. But with Scarlett, I found myself looking forward to uncovering the story.

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: BioWare
System requirements (base game): Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Win 7, 1.8 GHz multiple-core CPU, 1 GB RAM (2 GB Vista/Win7), 256 MB graphics card with Pixel Shader 3.0 support, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card, 15 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

The first confrontation with the Collectors and the Reapers has been won, and now Cmdr. Shepard and the crew of the Normandy prepare to hunt down Harbinger and finish the job. But there are parts of the story left unfinished, so developer Bioware has crafted a series of downloadable mission packs to prepare the way for the release of Mass Effect 3, reportedly sometime in 2011. Two of these, Kasumi: Stolen Memory and Lair of the Shadow Broker, help set the stage for the final battles to come.

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Publisher: Namco Games
Developer: Namco Bandai Games
Genre: Puzzle
iTunes Rating: 4+
Release date: Available now

Mr. Driller isn’t a new game, but thanks to its success on multiple platforms it was released as an iOS title by Namco Games. Originally, the game was to be developed as Dig Dug 3 but was pushed aside by other titles that were in development. Eventually, Mr. Driller was noticed by Namco executives and after an arcade release, and releases on multiple consoles, it has made its way to the iOS platform. It features an addictive combination of matching colors and puzzle solving with the added pressure of a constantly dwindling supply of oxygen. If you are hasty in how you drill the blocks, you’ll find yourself either out of oxygen or smashed between two blocks. If you enjoy these types of games, this could be your next favorite puzzle game.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Genre: Shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Call of Duty games have been around for awhile. Until recently you’d have to have been living on a deserted island to not hear about them. Games in the series are known for being highly rated and wildly entertaining. Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, is the most recent one to hit store shelves and digital download queues. Can this entry in the famous series live up to the hype?

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Family/Party
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

In our text-crazed world, family game nights have become a faded relic of the past. Sure, a walk through your local Toys R’ Us will yield ample evidence that the board games we grew up with as kids are still enjoying shelf life. But they’re usually busted out for special occasions, and even then, Rock Band and Dance Central often command the living-room stage. So game developers look to the ever-popular digital playground to breathe new life into those golden oldies, presenting us with compelling new reasons to gather around the tube and get our game on. It’s this strategy which EA employs in Monopoly Streets.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Eurocom
Genre: First Person Shooter
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

The cult of Goldeneye is a strange one. For all intents, the original N64 version never should have succeeded. It was a licensed game, released a year too late because of development issues on a misunderstood platform that was using cartridges when the industry had moved on to disc-based media. In those tween years of video gaming, shooters were the bastion of the PC world, which looked down upon every sophomoric attempt made for the lower-class home console crowd. But Nintendo held a wild card in Rare, a British-based third-party developer that shared the Big N’s commitment to exhaustive quality control and expert game design. Both houses were dedicated to releasing products only when they had been fine-tuned towards one unwavering goal – providing a fun gameplay experience. And like Mario Kart before it, Rare’s Goldeneye 007 pushed sales of extra controllers like few other games, with a compelling four-player split-screen multiplayer mode that offered the next best alternative to a home-based LAN party. More than a decade later, Activision hopes to celebrate this nostalgia by bringing James Bond back to the company that first gave him that coveted license for virtual kills.

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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Racing
Rating: Everyone
Release Date: Available now

In that past age when Nintendo ruled the console roost, Sega arguably held sway over the arcade. While Nintendo busted its mojo to create real magic through their Mario series, Sega was demonstrating that they could also work real wizardry through their arcade circuitry, churning out bright, colorful entertainments that screamed loud and clear from across a crowded bowling alley, compelling players to drop one more quarter. And while arcades never morphed into the bizarre futurescapes teased by Tron, Sega’s legacy lived long as gamers waxed nostalgic for that impressive series of addictive amusements that dominated the tail end of the 1990s. Their Dreamcast might have proven the last gasp for these games, but now that current console owners have virtual storefronts at their finger tips, Sega has a new pipeline to bring that arcade experience back home. It’s time to take Crazy Taxi for a spin again.

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Publisher: Atari
Developer: Vitamin G Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, Intel Core2Duo E4300 or AMD Athlon X2 3800+ or faster CPU, 1 GB RAM, ATI Radeon X1650/NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c, 1 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Genre: Casual
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

My life is dominated by stressors. My line of work is stressful. Money problems are stressful. However, developer Vitamin G Studios’ The Undergarden is not stressful. In fact, it has the exact opposite affect on my chi. At first, when I heard about the “casual Zen” genre, I had mental images of bamboo stalks waving in gentle breezes while cherub-esque figures giggled and played games of chase. Then, before playing The Undergarden, I watched a few videos of the gameplay and realized that Vitamin G might be onto something unique and refreshing.

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Harmonix
Genre: Music
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

The music-game genre has come a long way since that first Guitar Hero was released for the Playstation 2 in 2005. But every step of the way, musical purists have always complained that a player’s time would be better spent learning a real instrument instead of its plastic counterpart. Developer Harmonix has answered this complaint with Rock Band 3, which boasts the ability to teach you how to play, provided you have the desire (and the cash) to add yet another set of instruments to your collection.

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