TouchArcade is reporting that Settlers of Catan will be hitting the iPhone/iPod Touch market, developed by Exozet Games.

This summer the official version of the board game classic “The Settlers of Catan” will be released for Apple’s iPhone. The game is being developed by Exozet Games in collaboration with Catan designer Klaus Teuber, and published by United Soft Media. More informations and screenshots will follow soon!

The Xbox Live Arcade version was done by Big Huge Games under Teuber’s direction as well; hopefully, the XBLA version’s cunning AI will make the transition to the iPhone.

(Thanks, Kotaku.)

Merscom has announced the up coming release of Bomb Squad: NY for the PC. The goal of the game is to protect NY from the rash of bomb threats, but players won’t have to do it alone. Players will be teaming with a live hero from 9/11, Detective Steve Lanoce and his bomb sniffing dog, Duke.

Players take on the role of the NY Bomb Squad. You are the newest member of the team and have to help the elite bomb squad track down terrorists threatening NY. Find bombs and deactivate them before it is too late, trust your instincts and  Duke’s trained nose. In the process of finding the bombs and deactivating them, players will be able to upgrade Duke’s K9 skills. Players have to work as a team with their dog to solve the bomb threats and save NY.

Bomb Squad: NY sounds like an interesting game, but will people like it? 9/11 is a touchy topic and I wonder if it is still too soon to be stopping terrorists from targetting NY. The game has a good message and is not poking fun, but are people at that point yet?

Read the rest of this entry »

The Terminator is a shooter style game of the iPhone/iPod Touch. The player has to work their way through six different stages in Story Mode. Six stages may not seem like a lot, but the stages are pretty long and tough.

The stages each have different objectives, but the over all objective is to save John Conner and return the time machine. The level goals usually involve killing everyone in the level and collecting certain items. The enemies will come running at you and you need to shoot them down by controlling your character’s gun. The character can run and maneuver to shoot, but the actual shooting happens automatically.

The controls take a bit to get use to. There are two on screen joysticks at the bottom of the screen. Players touch the joystick in a circular motion to get the character to move and aim his gun. I have not played any other shooter style games on the iPhone/iPod Touch, but the control scheme was difficult for me to get use to. Not sure if the control scheme is common amoung shooter games. Players will need to use two hands to get the character to move and shoot.

The Terminator will be a fun game for shooter fans. There is plenty of shooter action to keep you busy. The story takes place before the Terminator movies and gives players a glimpse at life before the Terminator movie. If you are shooter fan, check out The Terminator.

Squash The $treet is a way for all of the angry people to seek revenge on the people in the Financial Institutions that have ruined their lives. The game requires that players squash bankers and CEOs of companies. The companies are all financial companies. The game offers a way for people to take out their frustration, in a legal way, on the financial companies. Squash The $treet is an action game available for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Players get money for each CEO, fraudster, associate and intern they squash. Players get the biggest amount of money for squashing the fraudsters. Players squash the people by tapping the iPhone/iPod Touch screen. Once the villains have been tapped they explode in a bloody dot on the screen and more come out to take their place. Players will not gain money for the villains that escape.

There are planes and limos waiting to carry away the evil financial people. If the financial people can make it into the get away transportation, they will be free to escape and the player will lose money at the end of the round. The money is your life. When your money gets to zero the game is done and players will have to start back at the beginning.

Squash The $treet takes a stab at being funny in an economic down time. There are probably a good amount of people that would like to squash the CEO of one of the major failed financial institutions and now they can take out their frustrations in a virtual sense. This game probably isn’t for everyone. It gets repetitive with squashing the same people over and over, but the levels do get faster and faster. It gets harder to squash all of the financial weenies.

If you are frustrated with the Financial companies and want a way to release your frustration or you like squashing action titles for the iPhone/iPod Touch, check out Squash The $treet.

Browser-based games are beginning to grow so sophisticated that they resemble less casual games and more the cool PlayStation One and PC titles gamers enjoyed a while ago; Battlefield Heroes and Quake III: Arena are prime examples. Burnin’ Rubber 3 is another, available at Shockwave.com.

Burnin’ Rubber 3 is an arcade racer that anyone familiar with Burnout or Twisted Metal will instantly feel at home with. The premise is simple: you do a series of races and matches, buying upgrades and weaponry as you go along. There are several racing modes to choose from from simple races and elimination modes to combat oriented competitions in which you blow up opponents or simply the world to gain points.  The better you do, the more cash you earn, and the better the vehicles you can afford and upgrade. The races are quick and snappy, perfect for a 10 minute break from work or some lunchtime fun.

What makes Burnin’ Rubber 3 special is the overall high production value. Even though the game is browser-based and free, you don’t feel like you’re playing some cheap knock off. Rather, you feel like you’ve pirated a classic racer. The graphics are very well done, and the game has a polished sheen to it. The only quibble is the keyboard-based control which makes driving somewhat clunky; racing games need analog controls to deal with the subtlety of vehicle driving.

Burnin’ Rubber 3 is free to play, but in order to play multiplayer games, upload high scores or win prizes, one must join the Shockwave Club ($2.95/mo minimum); fortunately, the Club involves all of Shockwave’s flash games. You can try the game out free of charge here. Check it out – it’s a real winner.