Steve Jobs, the visionary chief executive and co-founder of techonology giant Apple, passed away earlier today at the age of 56, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jobs is credited with turning around the fortunes of Apple with the release of the iMac all-in-one computer. He then went on to revolutionise the music industry with the iPod, and shook up the mobile market with the iPhone – and the introduction of the App. Later he made the tablet computer popular with the iPad.

A statement released by Apple says: ”Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

A message on the Apple website says they have “lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being”.

RIP Steve Jobs 1955-2011

The 3DS false start has caused some to fear the end of dedicated handhelds

Many analysts are claiming the death of the dedicated handheld console way too early. Article after article points out the huge number of smartphone sales and app adoption, and from there leap to the conclusion that this in some way means that there is no future in the dedicated handheld market. I disagree with this position and see that there is room for a strong dedicated handheld offering from the major gaming manufactures. That is not to suggest that I’m blind to the changes taking place in this sector, nor does it mean that I think there will always be a market for dedicated handhelds. I’m open to a world without them eventually, but I would argue it’s way too hard to make that call at present.

So why are ‘experts’ stating that this market is dying? Well clearly there are a ton of smartphones out there, and many are able to play high quality games. However there are five strong reasons why, for the next generation at least, handheld consoles have a role for the serious gamer.

Firstly, if you play games a lot on the move on your phone the batteries cannot cope. This means you’ll find yourself rationing or unable to make phone calls. With their primary purpose being able to make and receive phone calls, it is a major disability when the battery cannot allow such calls to take place. Even emailing a lot can drain the battery on most smartphones, which is why many business people choose to carry a blackberry for email and another phone for calls. Whilst batteries are coming along leaps and bounds, and the CPUs which drive these machines are improving drastically, the extra ‘oomph’ these improvements deliver are fast consumed by the increase in graphical quality and screen fidelity demanded by the consumer, content creator and hardware designer.

Secondly, apart from the Experia Play, all the devices lack credible physical controls. For some forms of games this is not a problem at all, and some have blossomed because of it; but it clearly leaves out a very large number of game genres (especially those adopted by the hardcore) from being experienced in their optimum environment. The hardcore might be a minority term; but it’s a rather large minority who are willing to spend large amounts of money on games and hardware if the content justifies the financial investment (I’ll get onto that in a moment). The hardcore complained about only having one analogue stick on the PSP, so we are hardly excited about having none on the iPhone. Devices that emulate a control stick via the touch screen create a new problem as fast they attempt to solve an existing one. Have you played Street Fighter 4 on the iphone? The controls are not bad, but I can’t for the hell of me see what’s going on as my thumbs are on top of the actual graphics. Now I’m sure some can live with this, but for those that justify this and go out of their way to tell me it’s acceptable, let me pop round to your house when you are watching Avatar in HD and stand in front of your TV wriggling my bottom.

Physical buttons are no fad!

Thirdly, the software ecosystem and dedicated IP offered by the two differing types of devices vary greatly. The smartphone with its app store has allowed a huge amount of content to be generated and sold at amazingly low prices. This is great for the consumer, especially consumers who have never purchased mainstream games before. Additionally, some hardcore gamers also enjoy this content. Apple’s App Store has been good for the genres which were being overlooked on traditional consoles. Additionally, in the case of the latter years of the DS, it has helped make a mockery of the type of software Ubisoft and others were putting out priced at £30 but offering little more than a 79p app. However, this same marketplace is unable to sustain AAA titles, except once in a while. Yes, the iPhone might have its own version of Splinter Cell, but it is a different, cheaper to produce game. Would we have ever seen the iPhone version of Splinter Cell take the lead with regard to design and publishing priority? I can’t imagine such a reality, unless Apple bought Ubisoft and made it an Apple only developer as way of selling more hardware (always a possibility moving forward).

An ecosystem with such low consumer prices cannot offer a return on investment similar to that provided by traditional consoles. Is it easier to make money on the App Store? For sure, in theory, if your app can get noticed. However, is it easy to make hundreds of million of dollars? Not at all.

Will Apple ever own an IP in the world of gaming?

Additionally, Apple do not yet own or publish internally commissioned content. Perhaps one day they might; after all they have bought music software businesses and other developers as a way of capturing other markets. Yet, at present they do not and hence they lack strong IPs, which can drive the sales of hardware. It could be argued that their best IP is the App store itself along with iOS, but that perhaps is not as strong in the long term as Mario, Uncharted, or LittleBigPlanet. An App store can be replicated, but quality IP cannot be (ask Gameloft).

You see, the handheld is to the videogames industry, what the Cinema is to the film industry. The movie industry needs cinema and to an extent huge HDTVs. The experience of seeing a film on such a large screen with amazing sound is unique and consumers love it. Hence movie studios are able to invest in quality IP that makes the most of the cinema experience and justifies the high price of the tickets demanded of consumers. In turn, the dedicated handheld with its physical controls and larger, or double screen viewing experience is a perfect stage for major games such as Ocarina of Time or Uncharted, which would not see the light of day on a smart phone.

Fourth reason; whilst on paper many of the devices can provide superb graphics, many are often behind the curve in contrast to the dedicated consoles. This is because with the case of the PlayStation hardware it launches well ahead of the curve and it’s only near the end of its life that phone based hardware really catches up. It can be argued that this differential is fast reducing, however, as the smartphone has to always be running phone, messaging and other services; in reality, they can never truly throw their full processing weight behind running a game. This is why even the 3DS graphics look great compared to phones, which are technically more powerful – just compare Resident Evil Mercenaries on the 3DS to the ios version.

Fifth, the price of smart phones, or at least the ones that can really rival dedicated handhelds, are very high. If bought out of contract they can cost close to £500 (iPhone) and the iPad price is £400-£600. The iPad is often mentioned as a handheld and even home based console competitor. Let’s remember a PS3 costs around £250 and does so much more – it’s a daft claim to argue they are in the same space in reality. The PS Vita in comparison is looking at being £280 at launch, with the 3DS already selling new for around £170. The argument goes, that the software for the 3DS and PS devices are much more, but see point three above – it’s not a like-for-like comparison and the hardcore market knows and understands this. That’s why they still buy Call of Duty every Christmas for £40 as well as Angry Birds. The hardcore perceive them as two distinct offerings.

It'll do everything you know, like a tablet, except it's aimed at serious gamers...

The 3DS has had a dismal launch but if the price stabilises around £150 by Christmas, then with a strong boxed retail line up and with a good range of £2-£8 content on its excellent eShop there is no reason why this won’t be a platform which performs excellently over the next 3-5 years, appealing to old and young alike.

The PS Vita could end up being the tablet for game lovers. It is clear that for many hardcore gamers the iPad is too large, too expensive and lacks physical inputs. If the Vita also has amazing (and flash enabled) browsing, full media capabilities, perhaps even ebooks, then it could end up being perceived as the gamers tablet of choice. It’s not by chance that Sony have moved away from the small screen format of the PSP Go, and decided on a screen large enough for a quality web experience, but more portable and manageable than that of the iPad. It’s also no surprise that the device might offer compatibility with the Android market, offering the best of both worlds from an app perspective.

Will we still be playing on dedicated handhelds in 15 years? Even I don’t want to look that far ahead, but if gamers still want physical controls, AAA content and as long as there between 50-200 million of them worldwide then this will be enough to justify companies existing to provide a solution to that demand with dedicated hardware. For the immediate future though, expect to see 3DS consoles and PS Vitas on birthday and holiday season gift lists for the next 5 years.

Angry Birds has been a HUGE success. It's no fad, there will be other similar successes, but that doesn't mean that this form of gaming will replace hardcore titles. However, the game can also exist on the 3DS and PS Vita and add value to their entertainment offer.

It does everything. Except connect.......

If there was a month where those of us at the ‘cutting edge’ of gadget land needed reminding that we are still in the early days of the digital content revolution, it was April 2011. First Amazon’s hosting service went down, disrupting a number of high profile services based on it; and as I write this, we are still without a PlayStation Network.

In time there will be a further disclosure from Sony as to what happened, but due to security concerns it will never be the full picture. What we already know is that an individual – or a group of people – have hacked into the system. Potentially a lot of user info was taken, or perhaps none at all; it might have all been for show to demonstrate it could be done. However, as most of us will never know for sure, we all now have a short term headache of watching credit statements (something we should be doing anyway) and changing any other accounts which use the same email and password such as Amazon, Facebook, and other web or phone services.

Looking beyond the inconvenience of changing passwords, the damage has the potential to be far deeper. Not only to Sony, but also us, other networks and online providers. I’m a multi-console guy, but not everyone is. If, like many, all you own is a PS3, then this Easter break has been ruined from a gaming perspective. Many games have online components, indeed one of the Easter launches was SOCOM which only has a small singleplayer campaign as it’s primarily an online shooter. Gamers take the online part of the game for granted these days, and talk about communities when discussing the audience attached to them. Well, these communities have had the digital equivalent of house arrest since this started, with the government ruling their digital neighbourhood not giving out any information for days.

People have been unable to purchase new games over PSN, which in turn is hurting developers. Many of the games we have already purchased require you to be online just to load them, even if you don’t plan to use some of the online functionality. So if you do only have that one PS3 console, what can you do at the moment? Well, it’s not a disaster if you consider it sensibly, as you can of course play Blu Ray based, singleplayer games, which in reality is far from a catastrophe in a practical sense. Yet from a psychological perspective it feels claustrophobic as even if we don’t plan to use the online functionality,  it’s reassuring to know that it’s there. When it’s not we feel, as I said earlier, locked in; house bound. We have become so used to the window of online services with our consoles, our phones and now our TVs that when they are removed it feels that part of ‘us’ has been removed too. We lose access to the wider, connected community.

What this means moving forward is worrying. If a TV network stopped broadcasting for a week, people would lose their jobs and in some cases the company would go under. Unless we are suffering a power cut (and we know to blame the energy companies for that) never-ending TV is something we expect, on tap. We had slowly started to expect the same from online content services, whether it be game related or something like YouTube, Netflix or Lovefilm. For those who are supporters of the Onlive concept this should be a huge warning shot across their bows. I’m not totally against the technology, but it does seem that even if it works and is feasible, we are far from being at a point in time where it could be my only console. Based on the PSN fiasco, and not forgetting the short time Amazon was down, I would not want my connection to the ‘community’ being so vulnerable.

Ironically, even though I’m no fan of Nintendo’s timid approach to online services and content, we can now see and appreciate why they have made it much harder to utilise online services on the Wii. This could never have had happened on their system, due to lack of personal details, credit card data and other knowledge bases which both Xbox Live and PSN require to function.

The NGP will be crucial to Sony's plans in 2012, and online functionality is part of it's core appeal. At lot is at stake here....

Of course, despite my fears for losing online services in the future, we should remember that this is not a regular occurrence for Sony, and including all the other services out there this is a very rare event. However, it doesn’t really matter about all the other services if 60% of my content is wrapped up within this network, the one that is down and hence won’t let me open my films and games. It’s also bad timing for Sony, who are now really aggressively pushing PSN and their music and film service onto everything from phones to tablets. After many years languishing behind Apple, they now understand that they must offer a full content ecosystem to support hardware and are making it the centre of their strategy moving forward.

For me things have not been so bad. I’m still mid way on a few singleplayer campaigns on some PS3 games. I’ve also played a lot more Halo Reach multiplayer, and strangely rediscovered my Wii, discovering a few more stars in Galaxy 2 and finding Resi 4 very cheap for my first replay since the Gamecube version (which I also have), in ‘preparation’ for Resi Mercs on the 3DS.

I assume this type of attack could have happened to any company, but one feels that the PSN has been a work in progress for Sony, with it only recently coming up to par with Xbox Live, especially with the addition of PSN Plus services. Hence, it always seemed slower for downloads and less responsive when in the shop – which leads me to wonder if it was just badly designed with flaws invitingly left throughout the backend design.

Either way, when Sony fixes PSN everyone is hoping that they will do it right, as they have a whole industry and culture to protect. This is not just about the PSN, but also about our ability to rely on and join these communities we profess to enjoy being part of so much. Apart from fixing the security aspect, they need to make us see that it’s faster and more robust with better capacity. Additionally everyone needs some post ‘house arrest’ compensation, and Plus users should be offered a free download of whatever they want to the value of £15 minimum. Sony need to demonstrate not just that it’s fixed the issues, but that they are truly aware of what their network means to the consumers who have invested in it. Just saying ‘we’re back and it’s business as normal’ will not be enough if they want to avoid lasting damage to the whole concept of online content and services as part of our daily ‘digital’ lives.

Even Apple want us to put our content on their servers. They will soon launch a cloud music and film service for their desktop devices. How long till Iphones stream their apps?

• Format: iPhone, (version reviewed), iPod Touch, iPad
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Revolution
• Developer: Revolution
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.revolution.co.uk/broken-sword2-ios.php?id=112

The original Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror was released in 1997 on PC and later on the original PlayStation. This Remastered edition on Apple’s hardware follows on from the successful release of Beneath a Steel Sky, and the original Broken Sword on iOS. Indeed Apple’s hardware lends itself very well to the ‘point-and-click’ graphic adventure game genre. So, does the Smoking Mirror update translate as well as previous titles?

How are you going to get out of this, with only a lipstick and a pair of ladies panties?

The Smoking Mirror reunites the original game’s protagonists George Stobbart and his girlfriend Nico Collard, in an adventure that spans several continents and involves a conspiracy surrounding Mayan folklore and a forthcoming eclipse. Basically the enemy of the story is trying to resurrect evil Mayan God Tezcatlipoca, and it’s up to our hero’s to make sure Tezcatlipoca stays trapped in the aforesaid Smoking Mirror.

The gameplay is a classic point-and-click adventure, with the player combining items to solve scenarios that the characters find themselves in. The scriptt is well written, with several memorable characters and plenty of humorous exchanges to lighten the mood. The sleazy General in particular is guaranteed to make you chuckle. The problems that you need to solve to progress are, for the most part, quite clever – and with a bit of thinking you should be able to solve them. There are however a couple that push logical thinking a bit too far, and we required the use of the built-in hints system to progress.

The artwork has been updated for this new Remastered version.

The hints system is a great addition to the game and stops any frustration that might creep in if you get completely stuck. You get four hints which give you clues on what to do next. The first one is subtle, but the final one basically tells you what you need to do. It works really well, and keeps the game flowing whenever you run into a brick wall, and are left trying to combine ladies panties with a poison dart!

While the problem solving is well utilised, we felt that there weren’t many actual puzzles to solve, with only one ‘proper’ one towards the end of the game involving two wheels and some Mayan symbols. This puzzle really tests you, a lot more than the earlier problem scenarios, and even with the hints system can be quite tricky to solve. A couple more of these types of puzzle would have been welcome.

One thing that annoyed on playthrough was that the touch screen controls didn’t work as well as we would’ve liked. There were several instances where we clicked the ‘action’ symbol and nothing happened; this was also prevalent when we pointed to where we wanted our character to walk, and again we were left cursing at our motionless avatar. It’s not a game breaker, and hopefully an app update will remedy this in the near future.

The characters find themselves in all kinds of trouble.

This new Remastered edition brings several enhancements including the hints system and improved graphics with fully animated facial expressions, along with high quality music and a diary. The game also allows you to play the game on other iOS devices, with your game save transferring over via Dropbox. Game Center integration is also included with achievements, which is a nice addition. The all-new interactive digital comic from well respected artist Dave Gibbons is also a nice touch, and is a fitting intro to the main game.

The Smoking Mirror is a great game, with a well crafted plot that keeps you playing, and some unforgettable characters. If you own an Apple iOS device then you really should give it a go. It’s heartening to see these old point-and-click adventures coming alive again on these new touch screen devices, and we hope that Revolution and others are encouraged to create new adventures through their continuing sales success.

Revolution Software have just announced that Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered is now available to download from Apple’s App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The Smoking Mirror is the sequel to the hugely successful Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars.

The graphics have been updated from the original and look stunning

Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered features an exclusive interactive digital comic from Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons, as well as enhancements to the original game that include enhanced graphics and facial expressions, a context-sensitive hint system, and diary. It also comes with Dropbox integration, and a cloud-based save system that will enable players to continue their adventure on iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad simultaneously. The game also includes Game Center compatibility, with a raft of in-game achievements and many other enhancements to the original classic adventure game. Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered is available now for £3.99 on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Research firm EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich talks to Critical Gamer about how the success of Move, Kinect and the 3DS is crucial to the future of their respective companies. We also hear his thoughts on the likelihood of Apple entering the console race, and what next year is likely to hold.

We’ve seen a lot of aggressive hardware price cuts, both online and on the high street. This time of year, of course, is when stores and manufacturers get most competitive; so could we finally be on the brink of seeing one version of the PS3 – consistently the most expensive games console on the market – retailing for £199/$199?

“Don’t hold your breath.” says Divnich. “Unlike the previous generations, the goal this time is to increase the value of the consoles over time. We’ve seen this occur already through the implementation of larger hard-drives, Wi-Fi, and various online services.”

It’s a sharp and perhaps, for consumers, disturbing observation. The Wii came in at a very low price point, but held its value across retail for years; the various SKUs of the PS3 and Xbox 360, while occasionally more affordable, have actually mostly been designed to sustain or even increase the value of the machines. This should perhaps come as no surprise, when you take into consideration the fact that console manufacturers aim to make this generation last longer than the last.

However, “Due to its target market and its technology, Nintendo will always operate on a shorter console cycle. Which isn’t a bad strategy. The problem Sony and Microsoft are having is retro-fitting all these new services/technologies on to their platforms. With Nintendo, they tend to focus more on the “here and now”, which has obviously worked out well for them.”

Could this mean that Nintendo will be first to market with a new console?

Divinch goes on: “Most console cycles last no more than five years, but with us approaching the fifth year of the current and with no end in sight, the success of the Move and Kinect are critical to the success of this elongated cycle.” In other words, if Move and/or Kinect fail, we could see a new console from Sony and/or Microsoft sooner than anticipated.

One thing that he is sure of is that next year will see a focus on expanding online gaming services. “Microsoft’s big focus right now (along with Sony) is trying to create differentiating online services. Look at 2011 to be the year of online services growth.”

On the other hand, Nintendo may be more nervous about the imminent release of their 3DS than they’re letting on…

“For any company, the launch of a new platform is always critical. For a company like Nintendo, where nearly 100% of their revenue is derived from interactive entertainment, failure is simply not an option.”

And finally, when asked about the possibility of Apple bringing a dedicated gaming machine to market, Divinch replied:

“Looking at the current landscape, I do not believe there is any room for another major competitor. Apple will always perform well among casual and hardcore gamers by offering bite sized entertainment snacks, but I just don’t foresee any possibility where Apple becomes a serious contender in the space.”

Jesse Divinch is the Vice President of Analyst Services for EEDAR.

Apple have just released a new firmware update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. iOS 4.1 lets users access the GameCenter app, which appears on the home screen of the device.

GameCenter is Apple’s answer to Xbox Live on mobile devices, and gives users the ability to create friends lists, invite friends to games, compare high scores on leaderboards, and adds achievements to games – much like PS3 Trophies/Xbox Achievements.

At the moment there seem to be very few games that are compatible with the service, but we’re sure there will be a deluge shortly, as developers update their apps.

The iPad is getting the same service in November with iOS 4.2., and you can update your iPhone 4/3GS or iPod Touch from iTunes right now.

Unfortunately not many apps support GameCenter just now.

Believe it or not, this demo is running on the iPhone.

A demo has been released on Apple’s App Store for upcoming release Project Sword, which has been designed by Chair Entertainment, a subsidiary of Epic Games. The demo is called Epic Citadel, and it is quite frankly staggering. The demo takes you on an exploration of a medieval citadel, which is reminiscent of Oblivion or Fable. There isn’t anything else to do, bar wander around, but the Unreal 3 graphics engine is fantastic for the iPhone/iPod Touch, with graphics that look as good as many a PS3 or Xbox 360 game, with some stunning textures and lighting.

Controlling it via the touch screen can still be a little bit clunky, (Come on Apple where’s that gaming cradle with proper buttons that has been touted?) but the tech involved is extremely impressive, and goes to show how far iPhone gaming has come since Angry Birds.

The demo is available for free on the App Store and is well worth downloading. The finished game is released in November on the App Store, and is certainly one to look out for.

I’m an App virgin, which is not to say that I am completely oblivious to the kind of applications available to Apple iPhones, iTouches, iPads, iPencils, iLawnmowers and iRan-out-of-dears, but that as far as hands-on time goes, prior to about two weeks ago I had none.

It has been argued in some corners of the media that Apple products (particularly the iTouch and more recently the iPad) can stand shoulder to shoulder with the PSP and DS as a hand-held gaming platform. That statement had always interested me and with more and more developers seemingly jumping on the ever increasing App bandwagon it was the perfect time to dive in and start getting acquainted.

At this point it is probably best to point out that while I used an iPhone for my adventure into Apps, it’s probably only the iTouch that could fall fully into the medium of portable gaming considering the fairer (by comparison) cost to get one. Regardless of which product you choose you’ll still get the same basic object with the same basic capacity for App gaming. There will also be the clause in the user agreement where Steve Jobs is legally allowed to devour your soul to sustain his immortality, but that’s standard in all Apple products.

What first struck me when taking my first steps into the App Store is just how many there are. It’s been constantly reported how many hundreds of thousands of Apps there are and how many millions of downloads there are in a year. Breaking them up into types and then further separating them into paid and free columns helps, but it’s still very daunting.

I took refuge in the search tab first of all and decided to try my luck there. For no good reason I stuck ‘zombie’ into it to see what it found. Turns out there’s a few hundred Apps with something zombie related in the title. Should have known better. The undead get everywhere.

For a little while after that I took to randomly browsing each category in turn just to see what appeared to be the top free and paid Apps in each. In doing so I was exposed to some of the strangest programs I have ever seen. Two off the top of my head include a sex offender radius indicator and one for the ladies that just makes the device vibrate function go off non-stop (double thick screen protector recommended).

What’s also apparent after just a few minutes of looking for Apps is that there appears to be an awful lot of chaff. That’s the politest non-swearing way I could put that. However, the more time I spent browsing Apps the more I began to question just how those ratings and reviews worked. Quite frankly some of the negative reviews read like they had been typed by someone suffering severe head trauma, but conversely some of the five star reviews read like the worst kind of phony testimonials you’d find in a car insurance advert. I also got a hint of competition between similar Apps, though the gaming side didn’t seem quite as badly affected as, say, the financial related Apps.

What I needed was something simple – something that couldn’t be directly manipulated. The top twenty five selling Apps was the best I could hope for and from that I went in search of any games listed in it. There are of course many categories of App and there are some truly useful ones to be had, but gaming is the focus here and as such anything remotely productive has been ignored.

Really, everything prior to this has just been preamble before the main event. What follows is a brief summary of my experience with some gaming Apps and for some (if not all) there are so called ‘Lite’ versions. Apparently the word demo is too lowbrow for your average Apple customer.

There were some familiar names popping up in that top twenty five list. Two that caught my attention were PopCap games, the company that strives towards destroying your life via game addiction (if that isn’t their actual slogan it damn well should be). One of these two games, Peggle, I had already played on PC and was familiar with. The other was also on PC but had never really convinced me to try or buy.

Plants vs. Zombies. It had also appeared in my fun zombie search but I’d brushed over it. I knew of it, knew of the addictive quality present in it as with all PopCap games and as such tried very hard to avoid it. But there it was, staring at me in the top twenty five list just begging me to try the portable version and as a result it became the first game I tried.

DLC might have a lot to do with how good value I think that first purchase was. I’m sick of paying around £5-8 for half an hour of gameplay. Spending £1.59 and even just getting double that would be, in my opinion, a comparatively good deal. The fact I’ve been playing it for at least five hours has made it an astonishingly good deal. If you ignore the sleep deprivation and malnutrition I mean.

Given that Apple favours the single button design, it’s a little disorientating to do everything with your fingers on a touch screen. It’s nothing like using the DS though. In fact, after a few days playing a few games on my phone I went back to my DS and found myself trying to use gentle strokes and presses while playing and was frustrated when nothing registered. PvZ was a good way to ease in though as all you need to do is tap various points around the screen. The more daunting challenges were yet to come.

After successfully enjoying PvZ it was time to branch out a little, to see what the little contraption could really do with a gaming App unique to it that also needed a bit more interaction from my end than a single finger furiously poking at the screen like an animated Pillsbury dough boy was belly dancing on it.

Given that I’m quite fond of RPGs, I picked out a couple of those to try. The two that caught my attention were an exclusive MMO called IMO: The World of Magic and an old school 2D hack and slash called Zenonia. Both these titles presented the problem of getting used to a touch screen D-pad control style.

Holding your device landscape, your left thumb is required to control the software D-pad semi-transparent on screen while your other thumb is for activating skill short cuts or simply hitting the interact/attack button. Now, perhaps it’s just because my thumbs are particularly large and manly, but I did find this very cumbersome at times and often found my character going off in some direction different to what I was trying to make him do. However, once you get used to a very different style of playing it does get a little easier. A little.

Another slight issue was thrown up regarding menus, with some featuring very small writing and very small areas to tap on to upgrade points or move to another sub menu. These aren’t particularly down to the fault of the games or those who made them as they are working with a single small screen that needs to fit a lot onto it.

What was nice to see was how alive and vibrant the colours were. It might not be a huge screen but it certainly is high quality and for a typical RPG colour is very important. While IMO was very basic (you can’t expect more than that considering it’s free), Zenonia provides an excellent example of the kind of atmosphere the little rectangle can produce – even if I am adamant that it must have been made in a slightly newer version of RPG Maker 2000.

Further exploration into the games available also led me to the special release of The Secret of Monkey Island. Before trying it, I’d have figured it would be a very simple process to transfer an old school point and click style over to a touch screen. Where the first MI complicates things slightly is the old SCUMM interface and as a result a pointer you need to trail around the screen had to be used. This is very, very cumbersome at first and doesn’t feel smooth at all when you want to do some quick movements or interactions. The re-recorded dialogue is crisp, clear and a welcomed addition though, as is the slightly updated art.

As we reach the end of my little adventure into the world of gaming Apps there are a few honourable mentions that I’d like to throw in, as well as recapping the ones I have mentioned.

1. Plants vs. Zombies (£1.79): Defend against huge hordes of undead with various types of killer plant with the help of your neighbour, Crazy Dave. It’s more fun than it sounds. Apparently the portable version is quite scaled back additions wise compared to the more costly PC version.

2. IMO The World of Magic (Free): Free to play MMO, seems popular judging by how many people are running about. There is the option to pay in order to get some bonus items, access to certain features and to remove adverts.

3. Zenonia (£1.79): 2D slasher with RPG elements, very old school in its look and approach but surprisingly fun. Simple enough plot though – worked out ‘the twist’ purely from what was in the demo. There is also a Zenonia 2 available which is a re-working of the first that builds and improves upon it (most noticeably with easier to read and navigate menus).

4. The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition (£4.99): Probably still better off playing it on PC or similar, but for those of you without the option this would be a great way to play one of the best point and click games ever made.

5. Angry Birds (£0.59): Green pigs have stolen the eggs of some birds, which has naturally made them quite annoyed. With the birds ready and waiting inside a slingshot all you need to do is use your finger to aim and pull, in order to launch suicide attacks on forts made out of stone, glass and wood to kill the pigs hiding within.

6. Zen Bound (£1.79): Bizarrely peaceful addition to the Zen series where you move an object of some kind around in order to tie a rope on every surface while listening to some relaxing music.

7. ZombieSmash (£0.59): Grab zombies and smash them with your finger. A great way to get out some pent up aggression, but may also make others observing you believe that you are writing the angriest text message ever conceived.

8. Chaos Rings (£7.49): A late addition to this list, but important as it is an exclusive RPG by SquareEnix specifically for the App gaming market. Whether it’s worth the costly (by comparison) price to get I don’t know yet, but from what I’ve seen so far it may be substantial enough to warrant more than a one sentence recap or review, and is a good example of a large company taking notice of this format.

There are of course millions more Apps and I’m sure there are plenty of games I haven’t found yet that are as good as or better than some examples I’ve listed here. That’s part of the fun, I suppose. If ploughing through all the chaff to find the gems can be considered fun anyway. Throughout, though, it is hard not to fight the feeling that perhaps it all comes across as a short lived gimmick no matter what game you find for it and that the ‘proper’ hand-held platforms will always hold more value to a gamer. Big names might be paying attention to it, but with App prices being so low compared to other gaming formats I can’t see it being a big money spinner either.

To end with I’d just like to point out that it occurred to me while writing this that I would have had a far easier time navigating the App lists had I just used iTunes instead of committing myself to only using the actual device. Still, that would just be making it too easy wouldn’t it?

Apple have just unveiled their new OS 4.0 for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. In amongst the 100 new features, like the addition of multi-tasking and the ability to group Apps into folders, they have announced GameCenter. This new feature adds Xbox Live or PSN-style features to the handheld devices, with the addition of friends lists, achievements, leaderboards, and multiplayer invites. IGN reported the news earlier.

After the news that Apple have patented a cradle for the iPhone, that includes a gaming D-pad and buttons, this is welcome news for gamers, and will surely show that Apple really do mean business in the gaming sphere. No further information was revealed in the announcement.

The new OS will be released in the summer for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and in the Autumn for the iPad.