Hasta La Gadget!

Windows Phone devices may not have caught up to the popularity of iOS and Android just yet, but developers aren’t ignoring the platform by any means. Case in point: Gameloft just released its newest racing game, Asphalt 7: Heat, into the Windows Phone Store, where Windows Phone 8 users can play the game on their Microsoft-driven device.

Gameloft says that Asphalt 7: Heat is the first of 12 games that the developer will be bringing over to the Windows Phone platform, and it’s the “first real-time multiplayer experience optimized to take advantage of the Xbox ecosystem and services.” Windows Phone gamers will be able to grab the game for just $0.99.

With the game’s multiplayer, gamers can take on up to five Xbox friends and even attempt to get their names on the Xbox Leaderboards, and make their way through unique Xbox Achievements. Currently, Asphalt 7: Heat is available for the Nokia Lumia 920, 820, 928, 822, HTC 8C, and Samsung Ativ Odisey. In the coming weeks, the game will be made available for the Nokia Lumia 620, 720, 520, HTC 8S and Huawei Ascend W1.

Gameloft also took the time today to detail the games that they will be bringing to Windows Phone in the near future, Asphalt 7: Heat already being one of them. The other 11 consisting of The Amazing Spider-Man, NOVA 3, The Dark Knight Rises, Order & Chaos Online, Kingdoms and Lords, UNO & Friends, Ice Age Village, Real Football 2013, Six Guns, Shark Dash, and Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour.

Asphalt 7: Heat races its way to Windows Phone is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The much anticipated sequel to the ever-popular Real Racing 2 has been released on iOS. Real Racing 3 is EA’s newest mobile title developed by the newly-founded Firemonkey Studio. The game features real cars, real tracks, and real locations for you to get your hands dirty with, and the best part of all is that the game is a free download.

Since Real Racing 3 is free to play, there are obviously some limitations on what you can do. The game uses time-based freemium mechanics like we’ve seen in other free-to-play mobile games. For repairs, upgrades, and additional vehicle unlocks, you have to wait a certain amount of time unless you choose to speed things up by purchasing and using gold coins.

Obviously, this has raised a lot of controversy amongst Real Racing fanatics. In the past, Real Racing games have cost between $5-$7, which would obviously unlock all features and give you no limitations or restrictions. However, with this new freemium model, avid gamers could end up paying more than that if they want to get rid of those limitations.

Either way, Real Racing 3 comes with some nifty features, including a new multiplayer mode called Time-Shifted Multiplayer, where two players can race each other, but not necessarily at the same time. It’s a neat concept and one we haven’t quite seen before. And course, you can’t beat the scenery of the dozens of real tracks and locations.

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

Remember the fun, social drawing game Draw Something? It was released a year ago and became the number one social game within a month or so. If you were like a lot of people, though, you probably played for a bit and then ultimately deleted the app after a week. However, it seems the game has been a huge hit for a whole year now, because Zynga is reporting that the game has garnered 100 million downloads in its year of existence.

Over the last year in Draw Something, 11 billion drawings have been made, with players spending over 28,000 combined years playing the game. The most popular object drawn? A pizza, which has been drawn 22 million times, beating out 11 million drawings of Lady Gaga. Furthermore, there have been five marriage proposals within the game and two breakups, proving that a game can find you love, as well as tear apart fragile hearts.

In total, there are players from 190 countries around the world, with the game hitting #1 at some point in 84 of those countries. At the game’s peak, 3,000 drawings per second were sent, and the most drawings ever by a single player was 36,752, confirming that at least someone playing Draw Something didn’t have too much of a life.

Zynga didn’t say how many active users it currently has compared to the first few months after the game was launched, but it probably isn’t that great. Back in May, after the game had been out for a few months, it was reported that Draw Something lost five million players within a month, and it would be difficult to believe if the game somehow gained those kinds of numbers back later in the year.

Zynga’s Draw Something garners 100 million downloads in first year is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Infinity Blade, the popular sword slinger fantasy third-person game, is now free in the iTunes App Store for the first time ever. While it may seem like a Valentine’s Day special, the app was merely just chosen by Apple as its free App of the Week, a promotion series that the company started not too long ago. The app is available for free from now until February 21.

Infinity Blade is normally priced at $5.99, so it’s definitely a good deal if you’ve ever wanted to try the game out but were never willing to shell out that much for it. It’s compatible for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, so any iOS user can get in on the fun and start slaying all those bad guys.

The game released in December of 2010 and acted as a flagship game of sorts for the iPhone, with Apple using it to show off the graphics of the then-just-released iPhone 4. While the game is now over two years and even has a sequel out, the original Infinity Blade is still considered an impressive specimen compared to today’s standards.

Overall, it’s one of the most popular games ever to hit the iTunes App Store. It was also the first iPhone game to use the Unreal Engine 3 technology that absolutely set the bar for graphics in mobile games. Infinity Blade has received almost 65,000 five-star ratings in the App Store, so it has no doubt seen its fair share of usage.

Infinity Blade free for first time ever, sale ends February 21 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Here’s something we weren’t expecting, at least not this soon. Terry Cavanagh, the developer behind VVVVVV and Super Hexagon, has brought his newest creation to BlackBerry’s newest platform. In other words, Super Hexagon is now available from BlackBerry World for BlackBerry 10 devices (only the BlackBerry Z10 at this point).

Cavanagh said that a BlackBerry 10 port actually wasn’t something he had originally lined up, but a friend who helped port the game to Android wanted to do the same for BlackBerry 10, as he maintains the unofficial Blackberry port of openFrameworks. Cavanagh had no qualms of porting the game to yet another device and decided to give it a shot.

Cavanagh also says that a BlackBerry tablet version of the game (read: PlayBook) may come along eventually, but there’s no guarantees. In the meantime, Z10 owners in the UK and Canada can grab the game for $2.99. Users in the US will sadly have to wait until March to get their hands on a new Z10, but that’s just right around the corner.

If you’re not familiar with Super Hexagon, it’s essentially an action game that has you guiding a small cursor through gaps that appear randomly from six sides (hence “Hexagon”), but you have to act quick, since the barriers come at you pretty fast. Just like with VVVVVV, the game is meant to be an incredible challenge. It’s currently available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and of course, BlackBerry 10.

Super Hexagon makes its way to BlackBerry 10 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.