Apple’s iOS Developer News is letting developers know how to set up Game Center achievements and leaderboard categories:

You can now set up metadata for your Game Center Achievements and Leaderboard Categories in iTunes Connect. Setting up these elements will allow you to test the full capabilities of Game Center for your app in the sandbox environment.

Apple announced Game Center way back in early April but instead of shipping it in June with iOS 4, they said it would be coming “later this year”. The basic idea is to give “Xbox live” style social networking to iOS devices like iPhone and iPad.

For example, Chad challenges me to the latest hot FPS. I get a Game Center notification but since I don’t have the game, it asks me if I want to get it and then automagically handles the download, and since it knows Chad and I are friends, gives me a grenade launcher and sets me after him. Then it shows all our other friends how Georgia sniped me just as I was about to blow him up. Dang.

Though it’s obviously game-centric, there are rumors Apple could extend features to other apps as well.

[iOS Developer News]

Let’s hope “later” comes as soon as possible.

Game Center slowly coming to life? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Football season is fast approaching and why not prepare for the upcoming season by checking out the newly released Madden 2011 for not only the iPhone but on the iPad as well. The iPhone version will run you $7.99 while the iPad version is a bit steeper at $12.99. Yes, these two are pricier than we’d like to see but this is EA’s cream of the crop and has been for many years so it was to be expected. If you are not in a hurry to pick these up, simply wait a few weeks and it’s very possible you will soon see the prices come down.

The game itself contains some pretty great graphics for a portable device but also has some killer features carried over from the console versions as well.

• TDC (“Total Defensive Control”) makes playing defense pure fun. Press the TDC button to pause the action, position your defensive players, and feel the thrill of delivering game-changing hits like never before.

• GameFlow lets you to choose your play without having to go back into the playbook. Stay on the move with more streamlined gameplay.

• Match up all 32 NFL teams featuring updated rosters and nearly 2,000 real players.

• This season, get more gameplay depth with Hot Routes Everywhere. Now draw up Hot Routes for passing, running, and defense. Even save your best (or craziest!) routes as audibles.

EA also states that multiplayer will be coming in a soon to be released update for the iPad version.

[Via TUAW]

Madden 2011 released into App Store for iPhone and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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I was excited to see that Let’s Golf 2 just appeared in the App Store! I am not a golfer in real life, but I enjoy a good golf game every once in a while. Let’s jump right in and see what this new version has to offer.

Let’s Golf 2 is not meant as a real golf simulation like a Tiger Woods Golf. Instead, you are greeted with cute, often funny characters in outlandish environments that are beautiful and colorful. This does not mean that the levels are easy, in fact they become quite challenging later in the game (how can that be a par 4, impossible!)

There are several new characters to select. But in the beginning of the game, you one have two to choose from; Vincent and Jane. As you progress through the levels, you unlock a lot of customizations including clothes, hair, golf balls and clubs. A fun addition is the new Skill for each character. I am using Jade for example and her power is “Power of Charm”. This move is useful when putting as no matter how hard you hit the ball when putting, you can use her power to stop it anywhere on the green. The character powers, once used, have to replenish over time and can’t be used again and again without replenishing; use your characters power wisely.

Single Player has a few different modes to choose from; Instant Play where you play across three random holes from a variety of courses. Career where you complete against other virtual players for the trophy. Challenge where you play a series of “challenges” and score the highest points. Free Hole where you can setup the course you would like to play. As you play courses you earn points and medals that go towards unlocking courses and character customizations as well as increasing your character’s abilities.

Multiplayer uses Gameloft Live for online play, but you can also play locally with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Once online you can create or join a room and view the leaderboard. The game is a blast online as you complete in matches against a competitor from around the world.

Gameplay in Let’s Golf 2 is really straight forward. You can tap on the course map on the left of the screen to view where the ball is going and tap left or right on the screen to adjust or use the zoom controls to pan away form the action for a big picture of the course. You have the option of changing your clubs as well, but I have found for the most part the AI does a good enough job that I don’t have to change clubs too often, I can typically control the outcome of my swing by adjusting the strength I am swinging. Swinging your club is accomplished by tapping the golf ball on the right to start swinging and then tapping it again to center the swing for angle and strength. One feature that is missing is some sort of advanced club swinging mechanic. These swinging moves are typically accomplished by swiping your finger in a direction and letting go at the strength you want. Alas, this feature is not available that I have been able to find it.

I really enjoy Let’s Golf 2, but there is one issue that really bugs me. The framerate/accuracy of your club swings is not spot on. Depending on the course I often find that I have to touch the swinging meter ahead of when I plan to swing in order to assure accuracy. This is really frustrating sometimes as golf is a game that focuses on the smaller number of strokes in a game and I often find that through no mistake of my own, I miss a swing or calculate the incorrect swinging strength because of this flaw.

Don’t let my previous statement sway you from getting this game. Granted, the timing of some swings can be frustrating but the online play coupled with many characters and unlockables makes for a fantastic golf game.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Colorful graphics
• Diverse courses
• Unlockable characters
• Unlockable character customizations
• Online and local wireless play
• Many different types of golf games to play

Cons

• Framerate can be slow at times
• Easy to miscalculate swing due to input latency

Let’s Golf 2 for iPad- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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And the iOS4 app updates just keep on coming. We’re finding more and more by the day. Whether it’s adding support for the iPhone 4’s awesome retina display or taking advantage of new APIs within iOS4, we’re still watching for them. Here’s the ones we found this time around, and as always, if you see any we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments!

Readdle

Readdle is an incredibly easy to use app that allows you to not only view all kinds of files right on your iPhone, but also allows you to manage and save attachments. It’s one of the better apps we’ve found to handle documents, not to mention reasonably priced. Not only did Readdle’s newest update add multitasking support, it also adds support for USB file transfer through iTunes. Better yet, you can now save attachments via the Mail app.

[iTunes Link]

WeeMee Avatar Creator

WeeMee is an incredibly cool app that allows you to create your own avatars on the fly.  (I bet all of you could have guessed who the above avatar was without a name attached!) It’s a great time killer and an awesome way to express yourself on Twitter or whatever social medium you choose. This update fixed a couple bugs found in their initial iOS4 update. It also adds tons of in-app purchases to choose from. If you decide to check it out, let us know!

[iTunes Link]

Wolfram Alpha

If you need a hardcore math application that can handle any formula or calculation you throw at it, Wolfram Alpha is definitely for you. Leanna reviewed this app a while back and had good things to say about it. I don’t know nearly as much about math as she does, so coming from her, you know it’s decent. I use this app for easy to semi-complicated formulas and it’s always performed incredibly well. This update adds support for the iPhone 4’s retina display as well as optimized images. It also adds multitasking support for fast app switching.

[iTunes Link]

Trism

Trism is a long time favorite on the iPhone platform. It was released not long after the app store initially launched and it’s still a favorite of mine. It takes a newer approach on puzzle games like Tetris. This version of Trism adds HD puzzle pieces to support the iPhone 4’s retina display.  So if you’re in the mood for a game that never gets old and never ends, Trism is definitely a great time killer at a great price.

[iTunes Link]

Reel Director

Reel Director was here before iMovie for iPhone 4, and unlike Apple’s offering it supports not only older iPhone models but iPod touch and iPad as well. That’s right, it’s a universal binary and the latest update includes:

• Import music from iPod music library (iOS 4 only)
• Support iPhone 4 retina display
• Upload to YouTube within app
• Improved HD video quality on iPhone 4
• Improved photo render quality

[iTunes link]

iOS4 Apps Updated: Readdle, WeeMee Avatar Creator, Wolfram Alpha, Trism, Reel Director is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple has added a Genius tab to the iPad version of the App Store. Tap the tab, agree to the terms of service, and Apple will upload an (anonymized) list of all your apps and games, compare them to lists of millions of other (also anonymized) users, and recommend other apps and games you may be interested in.

So if the what’s new and what’s hot sections just don’t strike your fancy, if the top selling, grossing, and free stuff has lost its charm, if the categories are just impossible to sort through, give the Genius tab a try.

Then come back here and let me know just how smart the newly enabled iPad Genius was for you.

(My results so far: it recommended Fruit Ninja based on Angry Birds, Tetris based on Flight Control, iTeleport based on Brushes, Osfooha based on Twitterrific — which is interesting because I already own all of those I just don’t have them installed currently).

[Thanks @ltaylor5311]

App Store Genius now serving up iPad recommendations is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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We Farm for iPad is a real-time farming game by ngmoco. If you’re familiar with We Rule, We Farm is very similar except that your are building a farm instead of kingdom.

As with most ngmoco games, you must have a plus+ account to play. If you don’t have one already, signing up is simple. When you first start playing We Farm, the game takes you through a little tutorial which is pretty helpful.

The goal of We Farm is to raise money and build your farm. You raise money by growing crops, raising animals, and receiving and placing orders with friends. Almost everything you do yields experience points. As you level, more items are available for purchase; higher level buildings will output more money. You will also be able to upgrade your farm as you level which gives you more space and gives you a nicer looking farmhouse. You can also turn on notifications to alert you when certain tasks are complete. However, they do not work for me. I’ve asked around and apparently I’m the only with this problem.

There are two currencies used in We Farm. The first is gold and is what you make doing various farm tasks and buying items. The other is Gro. This is used to instantly complete tasks like growing crops, building buildings, fulfilling an order, raising animals, and increasing your animals’ happiness. You earn Gro every time you level and is also available as an in-app purchase.

My biggest complaint of We Farm is animal raising. To make your animal happy, you have to periodically “pet” it. Each pet increases the animal’s happiness by 5%. The happier your animal is, the better chance he has of winning a prize at the fair. Once you win a prize, your pen/coop/pasture becomes available for your friends to place orders at. This means you make a lot more money from it. The problem is that if you have an animal that takes 2 hours to raise, you must come back every 6 minutes during that 2 hour period to get the happiness to 100%. This is an unrealistic expectation in my eyes. Of course, you can get around this by using Gro, but We Farm doesn’t provide enough Gro to use it on all animals before needing to spend real money. However, the happier your animal is, the less Gro it takes to bring him to 100% happiness, so my strategy is to pet my animals as much as I can, then use grow at the end to bring it to 100%.

Another small complaint I have is that there isn’t a way to quickly return to your own farm when visiting someone else’s farm. I’d like to a small icon to tap in the corner of all farms that quickly takes to your farm.

All in all, I enjoy playing We Farm. However, you must like time management games to have fun with this one. I have been impressed with the performance of the app; it runs smoothly, I’ve never received a memory error (a common problem with We Rule), nor has it ever crashed. So if you’re a fan of these types of games, check out We Farm – it’s free!

Screenshots after the break!

[Free - iTunes link]

Pros

• Good performance
• Fun
• Easy to tailor around how much you want to play

Cons

• Can’t quickly return to your farm when visiting someone else’s farm.
• Animal petting requirement for a ribbon is unreasonable
• Push notifications not working (for me)

We Farm for iPad – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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As part of their constant tweaking of all things App Store, Apple has added a section to the on-device (i.e. on iPhone or iPod touch) App Store that’s called “try before you buy”.

Here’s the deal, on the Featured tab, under New, there are series of 4 banners at the top. If you’re in the US, the bottom right one now says Free on App Store. Tap on it and you get a list of New and Noteworthy, Try Before You Buy, and Our Favorites.

Tap on Try Before You Buy and you get a listing of free or lite versions of popular apps you can sort by Featured, Popular, and Release Date.

So, it’s not like the Android Marketplace where you can sample any app and get a refund if you hate it; it’s really just the same content repackaged in a new way. However, the new packaging will probably be helpful to users looking for just those kind of free, sample apps.

Note: I’m not seeing it in the Canadian App Store yet.

[9to5Mac, image via Engadget]

iPhone App Store gains “Try Before You Buy”. Sort of. is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Kaboom’s Paratrooper is simple in theory — tap the plane to drop the paratrooper, tilt your iPhone or iPod touch to direct them to the landing spot. And right there is where every casual gaming fan knows the addiction starts and the mayhem begins.

You want to hit the X. You need to hit that X. Things get more complicated quickly, of course. Obstacles build up. They’re paratroopers after all, not sky divers. So don’t be surprised when you start having to leap — and land — into the middle of a paper-art war zone. (Yeah, paper-art. Awesome.)

Kaboom’s Paratrooper originally gained its well-deserved fame on Palm webOS, and Palm has a great article up about the app and it’s transition beyond webOS. (Hard to imagine Apple doing likewise, so kudos there.) Hard hard was it to port?

“The process has been straightforward,” Rob Bredow says. “We were able to re-use most of the code and just wrapped our webOS sprite library in a sprite library designed for the iPhone. All the logic stayed the same.”

Games have historically been among the most platform friendly of fare, with many being ported from iPhone to webOS or Android, so nice to see it can go both ways.

If you check out Kaboom’s Paratroopers for iPhone, let us know what you think.

[webOS: behind the apps, iTunes link]

Kaboom’s Paratrooper lands on the iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Plunderland is Apple’s App of the Week this week. Does it deserve it? Yes and no. Developer JohnnyTwoShoes has made a solid effort to bring pillaging across the sea in the hands of eager gamers.

The premise of Plunderland is you are a ghost with pirates that sail across the sea to attack and sink enemy ships, pillage tribes people and take money from their monuments then make it to the next port. Sounds fun? Well, get used to it because that is what you do over, and over, and over again with little variety. Call me a stinker, but I don’t see the allure with this game.

Sure, the water physics are nice. You tilt the iPhone left or right to make your boat move in that direction. When there is a storm, etc, the water behaves in a more erratic manor, making maneuvering more difficult. Once you are on the high seas, you come across your enemy; the British warships. You have a couple ways to take them out. First is to use your ships cannon. You have a nifty way of angling the cannon to shoot your targets, just move your finger along the bottom and you will get a reticule via a line that helps your aiming. Release your finger and you fire your cannonballs. Second, you can use the enemies cannonballs against themselves. Before the enemy launches an attack, the cannon will puff smoke, that is your cue to ready your finger and deflect the cannonball back upon the enemy ship and with luck, split it in two!

I know, I make it sound exhilarating, and it is the first two or three times you do it. Sadly, Plunderland does little to keep your attention. Future attacks add blimps and more, but the fun is gone by that point. The attacking villagers is a simple “tap, tap. tap” on the totems to get money and fling some villagers around in an effort to extract some more dough. Again… zzzz…

There is nice upgrade system though, you can upgrade your ship, cannons and bowsprits by earning said money above. The game has excellent promise. The controls, physics and graphical style all lend them selves to a success. However, the bland  I really, really wanted to like this game, being highlighted on Apple’s App Store, but alas, mateys, I just can’t bring myself to recommend this lack-luster treasure.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

UPDATE: I had a delightful Twitter chat with the developers. I explained that I had played 50% thorough the game and became unchallenged with the levels and objectives. They understood and are looking at a way to unlock the more exciting and complex levels earlier for more “hardcore” gamers. I also said that when I find the time to complete the game 100%, I would update this review to include my findings. I am hopeful that by the time I do this, they will have some new content available. You can follow the developer on Twitter here.

Pros

• Great graphics
• Solid frame-rate
• Good physics engine
• Upgrade system

Cons

• Very, very, very repetitive
• Takes a while to become a challenge (the end of the second chapter)

Plunderland for iPhone- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• If you are waiting for a jailbreak for iPhone 4 what is the number one thing you are looking to get out of it?

• Wondering why Apple chose to use glass for the back of the iPhone 4? So are a lot of our other members in this thread.

• Last week Apple allowed all iPhone 4 owners the chance to select a free case. Which did you choose?

• If you’d like to discuss all of the latest and greatest iPhone and iPod touch games and apps this is the place to do it – iPhone Apps and Games forum.

See you in the forums!

Jailbreak iPhone 4, Glass back, Free case, iPhone/iPod touch games and apps – From the Forums is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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