The iPhone app store can be a large and confusing place, but you all know this. I am very picky with iPhone games not because of price but because I have to ask myself "am I actually going to play this?". For most games the answer is no. Beyond a few minutes messing around, most games are usually deleted and I won't even go near games like the Call of Duty Nazi Zombies that tries to emulate a console game. I hate to admit but one game I have gone to over and over again is Mafia Wars. I can't exactly explain why but if you played it long enough to get hooked you know what I mean. That sort of quick to pick up, not too complicated game is just what I look for to always be something to occupy a few minutes and always be able to come back and progress. Developer New Toy along with Ngmoco have a new app coming to the iPhone that blends a very watered down Sim City and Farmville of Facebook fame into my new iPhone addiction.

You start as a 'ruler' of your new kingdom, with your castle at a modest size and your lands clear, green and ready to be populated. Through a quick and painless tutorial you learn the gist o the game. Build farms, plant crops, harvest to earn money then plant more and earn enough to build shops houses and roads across your land and also expand your territory. You start off with a limited number of farms but through leveling you are able to create more to increase production. Each crop has a different value for gold and XP, also time it takes to be ready for harvest. Crops can range from a few minutes to harvest to hours to a day. This is perfect to fit anyone's play style and assumes that you can spend as much time or as little in the game as you'd like and never really get too far behind. Your crops can spoil if you leave them for too long but that's okay because you can set each individual field to send a push notification when its ready to be harvested.

Once you have enough gold you can start you populate your city. Houses will bring you a small amount of income and XP every few hours other businesses all have different pay outs and xp bonuses. you can tie your kingdom together with roads and trees and why not throw some flowers in while your at it. There really is no wrong way to set up your kingdom. A bonus to being able to create unique kingdoms is being able to check out your friends kingdoms. Unfortunately I have no friends so my world is ruled by me and me alone...just the way I like it. But if I do decide to let some pleb into my domain we could view each others kingdoms and buy goods from each others businesses which can be beneficial to both wealth and XP. Other than the possible trading of goods between friends, I don't see much use for businesses other than looking good in your town and adding some new adorable little villagers. Yes each shop generates some income and XP but for most, the time to generate and the small amount of coin and xp they produce don't justify it more than just looks.

New Toy and Ngmoco seem to have plans to continue support for the game in terms of adding content like buildings and other items as well as possibly tweaking complaints as I stated earlier. We Rule will be free to download but like with Mafia Wars and other games from Ngmoco there will be paid in game bonuses. In We Rule you will be able to buy mojo. Mojo can make your crops grow instantly so in a way its like instant cash. You do get a small amount just for leveling and as someone who is a rather high level I can say you don't need to buy mojo to progress easily but I admittedly would buy some mojo here and again I imagine.

This obviously is a buy since the app is free but also a buy because I would buy some mojo, maybe not the $30 case but a $5 flask wouldn't hurt. Make sure to check out We Rule when it ships in more countries, the damn Canadians have first dibs though. Oh and if your nice I'll let you in my kingdom.

As the medium of video games mature we will start to see more finely crafted stories, characters, and control schemes. Heavy Rain takes a big step forward toward seeing that future. Heavy Rain takes just about any control style your familiar with a throws it out the window, that doesn't always help the game but it does provide an unquestionably "fresh" experience.

The way you interface with Heavy Rain is something that can be very polarizing. The game is usually at a fixed camera angle and to walk around the environment you have to hold down the R2 button to move forward then the analog stick to change direction. An interesting choice that I don't see adds anything to game play that would have been taken away by allowing you to move forward and change direction both with the analog stick.

Most of your actions are based around movements of the right analog stick. Opening a drawer has you flicking the stick and turning a bit clockwise. Those turns can change between different actions and most relate well to what action is actually taking place. An action scene could have you using almost every button the the controller. Flicking the stick, alternating face and trigger buttons can really work your fingers into a knot. Some of the more complex actions like climbing a hill could have you holding down a number of buttons all over the pad to the point where I almost thought I had to take off my socks just to hit them all correctly.

Heavy Rain is a adventure game at heart but you wont be spending 30 plus hours in the world exploring every nook and cranny. The pacing of the game has you always moving forward. Although you can do some pretty mundane things like take a shower or brush your teeth, these are all thing you feel like you should be doing and not some distraction as the core story waits in the background. There are a lot of interactions (like brushing your teeth) that are optional. You could do a whole set of actions different from a friend but even if you decide to try one or two they keep you engaged in the story and help with some character development.

The reason this game exists is for the story and unlike most video games its actually very good. Part Se7en, part TV police procedural, Heavy Rain is all about tracking down a killer. You switch between 4 playable characters all connected to the mysterious Origami Killers murders. A divorced dad, a FBI profiler, a insomniac news writer and worn down private detective round out the cast of motion and voice captured digital actors. I felt the story was well done and had me guessing to the end. I never doubted too much the motivations of any of the characters and that made some choices and actions made though out the story more engaging. The script as well written and voice acted very well. The french accents of some of the characters slipped through at times but over all great performances.

If you think Heavy Rain is "art" your probably wearing a tie and don't even work in an office environment. This is not art what this is, is a quality murder mystery taking video games that one step forward in a much needed, much more cinematic direction. As a game this might not be for everyone. But certainly anyone interested in a interesting mystery should give this a try.

When I heard that the team that created one of my favorite Xbox games, Crimson Skies, was developing a new arcade style flight game for the Xbox 360 needless to say I was exited. As previews for the game were released I was feeling pretty mixed. The location for the game was interesting and seemed bland at first and the story did not seem as enthralling as the alternate reality 1930s of Crimson Skies. None the less I still had an open mind and high hopes for a new game in a genre that usually doesn't catch my eye.

Unfortunately Dark Void failed me, not in all respects and not the ways I expected. Coming from the Crimson Skies team I was at least expecting some fun, intense arcade flight combat. Sadly after the first few encounters the flight combat sections of the game felt like a chore. The actual act of flying felt natural and could of been enjoyable but what breaks the whole experience is the awful level design. Most times you are held to a small area of combat which really just has you constantly doing the maneuver to turn around and try to get your sights the enemy before having to turn around again. That is really the gist of the air combat, there is also ground combat that is no more than a typical third person shooter. None of the weapons feel enjoyable so I mostly stuck to the human rifle for the whole game. Before the game was released they hyped the jet pack being able to make the battlefield more vertical allowing you to hover over enemies. Again, sadly the hovering around and trying to shoot is very unwieldily and ends up being useless and getting you killed.

What did keep me playing was the really unique art direction and interesting story. Let me be clear however, when I say story I am referring to the universe and the lore of Dark Void. Other than that, the characters motivations and actions are ridiculous and dialogue is lacking. The art direction was interesting although did get repetitive. The sky boxes and sun glare really give you the feeling of flight. If the flight combat sequences were better designed and didn't get painful for me to play toward the end I could recommend this as rental just to check out the story that is potentially becoming a movie but that is not the case. You can easily skip this one and not miss much enjoyment. Hey Airtight, get on a Crimson Skies sequel!

Dante's Inferno has repeatedly been compared to the God of War series. But to fully imagine what Dante's Inferno would be like, I would imagine playing God of War then imagine playing God of War with the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket screaming at you the whole time. Meaning, this game does not let up and pacing is not even in Dante's vocabulary. Being that the Divine Comedy, a poem from which Dante's Inferno is based on, was not part of my high school english curriculum I may be missing out on a few key plot points. But really who cares about plot, bring on the blood and tits!

Dante's Inferno is intense if nothing else. I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not, if it is it wouldn't be coming from my fingers that suffered a considerable beating during the roughly 7 hours it took to complete the game. It feels as if you are constantly smashing on some button to disembowel a enemy or lop off their heads. Even in the scarce moments of no blood shed they manage to make you slam on one the the face buttons. Simply opening health or mana stations has you pounding away on the B button. Not only that you frequently have to kill doors to open them. Let me repeat that in case it wasn't clear. You have to KILL doors to open them. I never got any good reason that you would need to do so, I'm sure just asking wouldn't hurt but such is the mentality of this game.

Exhausting as it was I was still drawn to play more. A few more hours would have been a different story seeing as repetition does set in fairly early on. There are a decent amount of variety in the enemy types though, mashing or learning one good combo always gets the job done just about every time. This game crams atmosphere down your throat. The gluttony stage has you fighting disgustingly obese monsters throwing up at you, and that's only one example. Babies with knife hands, large lumbering demons, the undead and annoying flying creatures are all thrown at you with no orderly method about them.

Dante's Inferno was enjoyable on a purely mindless level. Taking this game too seriously would make the cheap deaths and the shallow plot far too frustrating. If just some good old fashion demon slaughtering is what your into then this game should be sufficient for a long weekend. I would say if your slightly interested a rental wouldn't be a bad choice but if you had to choose between this and lets say Bioshock 2 or Mass Effect 2 I would stick with the latter. 

The original Mass Effect was a great example of story telling in video games. Unfortunately the vehicle for delivery was a bit clunky. Control problems, graphical and interface issues kept it from being truly amazing. This go around BioWare has really heard the cries from the community and tuned up or stripped out elements that kept Mass Effect from reaching it's full potential.

After protecting the citadel you are roaming the galaxy on a mission to wipe out the rest of the Geth. After Shepard's ship is attacked by a mysterious foe, you are left for dead after your last heroic action saves your crew. Cerberus, a pro human corporation led by the "illusive man" recovers Shepard's body and informs him of the threat to human colonies. You either begrudgingly or willing take up the illusive man's task. Assembling an elite team to save the galaxy one more time.

The general formula from the original Mass Effect returns. So you are taking some time on your ship to chat with characters then finding new planets, landing then going on a mission. The shooting mechanics are now greatly improved and parallel some of the better third person shooters on the market. The cover mechanic requires you to press a button now, an improvement over the "suction" method in Mass Effect 1. There still are minor issues I find with taking cover but nothing to break the game or get you killed. Your inventory is now almost nonexistent. You are given just a handful of weapons but they can be upgraded multiple times, same rules apply to the armor. That all makes for a less micromanaged experience and gives you more time to go on missions, talk to NPCs and explore new worlds.

I'm my opinion the greatest improvement in Mass Effect 2 is the new conversation system. In the original your conversations were very stationary. You stood face to face with the other person and stayed there until the dialogue was over. In Mass 2 the characters move around the environment realistically as you talk. It is the best implementation of the video game medium for storytelling to date.

I am not the completionist type of gamer by a long shot, but Mass Effect 2 kept me going until every inch of the galaxy was explored. Much in the same way I can't quit watching a movie before the very end. Mass Effect feels like a labor of love and is a great example of story telling in games. If an hour to dollar ratio matters to you for your game purchase then you'll be satisfied with the 40-50 hour experience not including the promised free DLC. Even if you don't scour every corner of the galaxy you are still in for a fun ride and a amazing game experience.