Games

The insanely awesome Windows 8 Action RPG game, Soulcraft, has finally landed on Windows Phone and is available for purchase.  Play through various dungeon quests as an angel with vengeance and fight evil demons back to where they came from.

Soulcraft is developed by small indie game studio, MobileBits, and is one of the more exciting games we have had a chance to play in the Windows Store. Now that that the title is available on my Lumia, I personally fear for my productivity.

Check out the video trailer and Store link after the break...

Microsoft has historically been less than enthusiastic towards free-to-play Xbox 360 games.  They did allow Japanese developer Toylogic to release Happy Wars (a 15-vs-15 multiplayer action game) last year. But here we are one year later and  hardly any free-to-play games have followed it. And yet things are starting to change...

During Microsoft’s E3 Media Briefing, the publisher revealed that popular PC Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO) World of Tanks would receive an exclusive console version called World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition. Console gamers could be forgiven for not knowing this, but Wargaming.net’s World of Tanks is actually one of the largest and most popular MMOs in the world. The 360 port just might prove to be a big deal.

This week we sat down with Microsoft and Wargaming to learn the ins and outs of World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition and then shot a video with Associate Producer Olga Zinoveva as she played a multiplayer match on the E3 2013 show floor. Watch it after the break!

Last year, Windows Phone Central brought you an exclusive interview about a Windows Phone 8 title called Fairway Solitaire from Big Fish Games (and ported by Babaroga). Fairway is actually one of the games that Microsoft used during their Windows Phone 8 reveal event to exemplify how quick and easy porting from iOS to Windows Phone 8 can be. Funny thing is: Fairway Solitaire was slated to be a launch window game for the new mobile OS, but it has actually taken far longer than to port.

As a matter of fact, Big Fish Games has just published Fairway Solitaire for both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 in celebration of E3 2013. The bad news is they published it as an indie title instead of an Xbox game as originally planned. But on the happy side, Fairway plays great and we’ve got an exclusive video in which Big Fish’s Patrick Wylie walks us through the game’s features. Check it out after the break!

If you're new to Windows Phone, every week the Windows Phone Store slashes the pricing on one Xbox game, one app, and one independent gaming titles. Collectively these are your Red Stripe Deals.

This week we have an Xbox title where you try to dominate the world through battle and diplomacy, a weather app that is a one of our personal favorites, and a farming simulator that tests your skills are cultivating and managing crops.

The 2013 E3 is in full swing in downtown Los Angeles. The annual trade show for computer and video games is the largest in the world where major companies like Microsoft and Sony reveal their major games for the coming year. The event is only open to industry insiders and media, but you can live the experience vicariously through us. Check out some photos and video from the Microsoft/Xbox booth at E3. We promise you’ll be green with envy.

Yesterday Windows Phone Central posted exclusive first footage of Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. 3 for Windows Phone 8 in action. We showed you just how the game plays, but we couldn’t talk about the release date. Well, thanks to a little marketplace slip up on Microsoft’s end, it quickly became apparent that N.O.V.A. 3 would be coming out very soon indeed. In fact, it released in India ahead of the rest of the world!

Now we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that N.O.V.A. 3 is this week’s Xbox Windows Phone release. All Windows Phone 8 users with 1 GB RAM devices (cue complaints from 512 MB phone owners and insensitive complaints about the original complaints) can now purchase the game for $6.99 or the regional equivalent thereof.

Yesterday’s E3 2013 press conferences gave us lots of juicy console news and game announcements, but our gaming readers who don’t play consoles didn’t get much to chew on from the conferences. Hey, we haven’t forgotten you guys (or me since I love gaming on my phone). We squeezed in a few meetings yesterday and came away with…

Exclusive first footage of N.O.V.A. 3 in action! That’s right, we played Gameloft’s sci-fi First-Person Shooter for Windows Phone 8 and lived to tell the tale. I actually had a little more time to play than usual, and so we can show you lots of highlights of the first level. Head past the break for the video and more details!

After attending Microsoft’s knock-out Media briefing this morning, Sam Sabri and I enjoyed a quick lunch at Freebird’s with a Windows Phone developer. Then we were off to EA’s E3 2013 Press Conference at the Shrine Auditorium. Now that the conference has wrapped, we follow up with a summary of the conference and the games EA announced – all of them for Xbox One!

The EA press conference was bookended by Peter Moore, the company’s chief operating officer. Moore previously worked for Microsoft on the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles from 2003-2007. Many consider him one of several talented people who were instrumental for the 360’s success. He left in 2007 to head EA Sports but eventually ascended to his current position overseeing multiple EA gaming divisions.