Tech Cruch is reporting that Electronic Arts is about to acquire casual games giant Popcap Games for a cool $1 billion, which would exceed EA’s market cap by over 13%. If true, this would be EA’s definitive entry into the casual games market, a field they broke into 7 years ago.

Despite consuming a significant chunk of EA’s reserves. buying Popcap would bring them IPs such as Bejeweled, Plants Vs. Zombies, Peggle, Zuma and Bookworm.

We’ll keep an eye on this deal as it happens.

PlayStation US Blog has announced a new abstract racer for PlayStation Network on the PS3 called Dyad, which is a weird melding of Rez and Wipeout.

Dyad is an abstract racing game that has influences in many genres including racing games, fighting games, puzzle games and classic arcade shooters. According to the blog, it does away with the traditional racing game mechanics of break and accelerate and replaces them with puzzle-like mechanics. You must interact with your enemies in unique and varying ways in order to gain speed.

The developer, Shawn McGrath, revealed that his team had been hard at work on Dyad for the past three years. The game runs at 60fps at 1080p.

Telltale Games has announced that Puzzle Agent 2, the Graham Annable styled Professor Layton-meets-Fargo adventure game, will be available for purchase digitally on June 30.

Puzzle Agent 2 picks up after FBI Agent Nelson Tethers “solved” the Scoggins Eraser Factory case. However, with factory foreman Isaac Davner missing and the “Hidden People” mystery largely unsolved, troubled Agent Tethers goes rogue and ventures back to the eerie town of Scoggins, Minnesota to solve the biggest case of his career.

The first Puzzle Agent (review) received some praise for its spooky atmosphere, but was criticized for the lack of difficulty of its puzzles. At PAX East, we were assured that the puzzles in the sequel would be more challenging and inventive.

The game will be available from both Telltale Games directly and from Steam. The game will be 10% off on preorder, and will also be sold on iPad and iPhone.

Zoë Mode Entertainment has announced the release of Chime Super Deluxe on the PlayStation Network. The game has been released exclusively on the PlayStation network. The goal of the game is cover different boards with rectangles. Sounds like a simple game, but the rectangles have to be made out of different shaped objects.

As the player is creating the rectangles on the boards, music notes are forming. Once the board is complete, the player will have created a unique song. The song will play in the background as the player is solving the puzzles. The game features music from Sabrepulse, Plaid, Shlomo, Nathan McCree and Joe Hogan.

If you own a PlayStation 3 and enjoy puzzle games, check out Chime Super Deluxe on the Playstation Network.

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Tap Tap Bar is a time management type game for the iPhone or iPod Touch. The game has an alcohol theme and requires players to serve drinks to the customers. Customers come in and want certain drinks. The drinks are displayed as little pictures next to the customer’s picture. Players have to select the drinks the customer wants and deliver them to the customer.

The drinks are on the side of the screen and the player has to select the drink from the side of the screen by touching the drink. The customer could want three drinks at once, which means the player has to touch all three drinks and then touch the customer to deliver the drinks. The customers have money by their pictures to indicate how happy they are with the service.

The drinks are randomly placed on the screen so it is possible to have a customer asking for a drink that is not on the screen. If this happens, the player has to shake the phone or iPod to place new drinks on the side of the screen. Each time a drink is used a new drink will fill its place.

The game is free to play, but if the player wants more than one level, they must purchase the full version from within the game.

Over all, Tap Tap Bar is fun and entertaining. The levels can be challenging to deliver all of the drinks without losing customers. The drink selection is random, which makes some levels easier than others. If you happen to get a good drink mix, the player can breeze through the level. If you are looking for an entertaining time management/puzzle game for your iDevice, check out Tap Tap Bar in the Apple App Store.