Hasta La Gadget!

You might have not realized it, but Angry Birds exists on Facebook. Of course, you were probably too busy pecking away at the game on your iPhone or Android device. In any case, Rovio announced today that they will be launching Angry Birds Friends on iOS and Android, and you’ll be able to challenge your Facebook friends right from your smartphone.

So far, Angry Birds Friends has racked up 60 million installs and around 15 million monthly active users. The game is pretty much the same as the mobile version, only there’s a social aspect involved, where you can challenge your friends. Details are rather scarce at this point, but Rovio says that Facebook integration will be the main talking point in the new game.

Rovio says that the game will be available on both phones and tablets, and players will be able to “challenge their Facebook friends in weekly tournaments for the coveted bronze, silver and gold crown on the levels.” Players will also be able to “gather daily rewards, send and receive gifts of power-ups with your friends and brag about your accomplishments.”

Today’s announcement comes hot on the heels of Rovio’s financial earnings report yesterday, where the company posted a revenue of $200 million for 2012, which is over twice the revenue that Rovio brought in during the previous year. They also profited $71 million for 2012, compared to $45 million in 2011.

Rovio launching Angry Birds Friends on iOS and Android is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When Real Racing 3 launched last month, it took a bit of heat over its new freemium model that Electronic Arts implemented for the first time in the game’s series. While you can get the game for free this time around, you could end up paying a ton of money for in-game upgrades and faster repairs. However, that doesn’t seem to be stopping most gamers.

It turns out that gamers have been spending a combined 14 million hours playing Real Racing 3 since it’s launch late last month. That’s a lot of game time, and more importantly, that’s a lot of batteries drained. According to EA, that’s 25 minutes per person per day on average, give or take a few minutes…or hours.

The game has hundreds of different events that you can compete in, and since launch, gamers have competed in a whopping 350 million races combined, with 25 million races being completed every day. That’s certainly a lot of races, as well as a lot of virtual fuel burned. Then again, we can’t say we’re too surprised anyway.

Currently, Real Racing 3 is the number one free app in the iTunes App Store in 90 countries. The game features “Time-Shifted Multiplayer,” in which gamers can go up against other gamers in the game, but they don’t necessarily have to compete against each other in real time. Instead, the game records your race and uses it for other races as a ghost of sorts.

Thanks, Seth

Real Racing 3 sees 14 million hours of gameplay since launch is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Angry Birds Space just got a new cadet, with Rovio announcing a bit ago that Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist Slash has performed a cover of the game’s theme song, and has also been immortalized with his own guitar-wielding Angry Bird character. You can listen to the cover song, hear what Slash has to say on the matter, and check out his Angry Bird in the video after the jump.

Rovio commissioned the guitarist, who is a self-professed fan of Angry Birds, for a cover of the Space theme song. Those with the newest update for the game will be able to hear the song in Space, but you can also check it out in the video below. The game is available in both the App Store and from Google’s Play Store.

Said Slash, “When Rovio approached me about playing my own take on the Angry Birds theme, it went back and forth a few times where I did the actual Angry Birds theme note-for-note the way it is in the game. Then they asked for something a little bit different, but they weren’t really specific about what they wanted, so I did a few different versions … it was something I would do in hotel rooms between shows.”

He goes on to talk about how he discovered Angry Birds, saying that someone introduced it to him while he was on the road for his first solo record in 2010. He says that he finds the premise of the game hilarious, calling it both addictive and genius, remarking on the physics of Angry Birds and calling himself a big fan.

[via Web Pro News]

Guns N’ Roses’ Slash joins Angry Birds Space, performs theme song cover is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After a successful launch of Real Racing 2 towards the end of 2010, the racing simulator kept gamers’ interest for over two years, and now a third installment is back. However, there are a few changes that make this threequel noteworthy. First of all, the game is now completely free to download, which sounds almost too good to be true, but developer Firemonkey and publisher Electronic Arts have decided to take the freemium route this time around. Plus, there are all new cars and tracks to race your way around. I ended up spending some time with the game, attempting to make my way up to elite status, and there a lot of things I liked about it, but there were also a lot of things that I didn’t like. Let’s break it down now.

Essentially in Real Racing 3, you buy cars and compete in events until you beat the game. There’s also “Driver Level,” in which you are awarded a certain amount of experience points after every race that go towards being an expert driver. I don’t really pay a lot of attention to that, since my only goal is raise as much money as I can so I can buy a new car and race in more events. You rely on “R$” currency and coins to get you through the game. The coins are there so that you can basically buy your way out of having to wait on various things, which I’ll describe here soon.

You might have heard about “Time-Shifted Multiplayer” before. It’s a new feature in Real Racing 3 where you play against real people in every event. Granted, you’re not all playing each other at the same time (hence the “Time-Shifted” name), but the other racers are essentially AI-controlled players that have completed in the event in the past. It’s similar to racing a ghost, but the ghost is AI-controlled and will respond to your movements in the race. It’s a pretty neat feature, and it’s more enjoyable this way knowing that you’re not just racing against the computer.

There are numerous types of races to choose from, including cup races, top-speed challenges, drag races, sprints, and eliminations. There also tons of new tracks and cars, including real tracks like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Mount Panorama, as well as fake tracks that exist in real locations, such as Melbourne. As for controls, it’s nothing that we haven’t experienced before with Real Racing 2 — tilting your mobile device steers the car, and tapping on the screen is the brake. You can also change camera angles, which includes a cockpit view if you really want a realistic experience.

As for graphics, they’re not bad, but also not great. There’s absolutely zero anti-aliasing, which makes the game a pixelated nightmare, and scenery could be a bit better, especially in Mount Panorama, where you can get a good look out at the horizon. The mountains in the background look pretty horrible, and it makes you feel you traveled back in time to the late 90s. However, I can’t be too harsh on the graphics. For a mobile game on a smartphone, the game looks pretty incredible.

As for the freemium model in Real Racing 3, this is where things can get a bit controversial. Since the game is free, Firemonkey and EA rely on the in-app purchases of coins to make revenue. Whenever your car needs servicing or you upgrade parts, you have to wait a few minutes for them to complete, sometimes up to 10 minutes. Of course, you can speed the process up by spending a couple of coins, but once you’re all out, you have to buy more if you don’t want to wait for things to finish. Essentially, Firemonkey and EA are counting on your impatience in order to make money with this game, and my guess is that they’ll make a fortune.

You can buy more coins starting at $1.99 for 10 of them, and you can also buy more in-game currency for buying cars and upgrades starting at $1.99 for R$50,000. And considering that Real Racing 2 only cost $4.99, you can end up spending way more in Real Racing 3. However, if patience is your virtue, then you probably won’t have a problem with the game, but if you’re the type of person who wants upgrades now and wants your oil change and tire rotation right this second, prepare to spend a ton of money on the game.

Real Racing 3 for iOS Review is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Rovio isn’t slowing down its development of new games, and it’s latest project is a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation Studio to launch a new game based on the upcoming movie The Croods. The game is set to launch on March 14, just two day before Rovio’s Angry Birds Toons will be premiering, and will be releasing one week before the theatrical release of the movie.

Rovio and DreamWorks will be launching the new mobile game on iOS and Android, and will also be releasing an exclusive short animated clip to go along with the game. The game take place during the fictional “Croodaceous period,” and it features the Croods “breaking out of the Stone Age with the use of a new r-evolutionary tool: the IDEA!”

The movie will release in theaters on March 22, and it stars Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, and Emma Stone. Reynolds starred in The Green Lantern and Stone starred in The Amazing Spider-Man. The Croods is about “the world’s first family” as they embark on a journey and discover an incredible new world outside their cave that’s filled with different creatures.

The teaser trailer above shows us a short animated clip promoting the new game. It features the Croods going after what looks to be a fruit hanging from a tree, although we’re not exactly sure what it is. We do see a bit of actual gameplay towards the end of the teaser, but only for a split second before an angry fist come in to smash the smartphone and tablet screens.

Rovio and DreamWorks launching The Croods on March 14 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.