I'm a fan of traditional stick shooter + wave games. There's something with anticipating what's coming next, and the classic arcade feel of enemy hordes attacking you that I find satisfying. RED. is a new game from Knife Media in Cape Town, South Africa. It runs for $2.99 with a free trial, but that $2.99 is for both the Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 versions. Buy once, buy everywhere. Shout-out for Windows universal apps!

RED. has some impressive 2D/3D graphics, comic book design and one hell of a sense of humor. Toss in some gratuitous gore, and I'll buy it.

The game is described thusly:

"Rick Steele as he battles an invasion of mutants in the city. Using a variety of powerups, abilities and weapons, he will need to fend off hordes of disgusting and furious creatures dead set on consuming everything and everyone in their sight."

Did I mention Rick Steele is a big red cube? Perhaps there's some logic in there, but I don't care. RED. plays like a typical dual-stick shooter, and it's quite a lot of fun to play. The graphics are powered by the UNITY engine, so you should be impressed. The game has powerups and a neat panel-driven story to keep the game interesting.

The Windows 8 version plays well on my Surface Pro 3, but note that on-screen controls are not yet available. Knife Media told me they were adding those on-screen controls for Windows 8 devices "ASAP." That's good for all of you 8-inch tablet players out there who'll want to grab this on the go.

Currently, there's no account needed for RED. but that also means there's no syncing between Phone and PC versions. Perhaps Knife Media will add that so your scores and progress will carry over.

As I said above, the game is $2.99, which gets it for you on both the Phone and PC/Tablet. There's also a free trial, and it is available for 512 MB devices, meaning they nailed everything to make you guys happy.

Check out my hands on video above and give it a spin. Let me know if you enjoy it in comments!

• Download RED. for Windows Phone 8
• Download RED. for Windows 8.1

Disney Checkout Challenge is a game that tests how fast you can checkout grocery items. It's a fast-paced game where you will climb from "Checker-in-Training" to "Checkout Chairman" based on your barcode scanning skills. The game will also allow you to compete for the highest scores.

Priced at $0.99, here are some of the objected for the Windows Phone 8 game:

• Complete objectives to "level up" and unlock unique groceries with greater value!
• Scan quickly to activate "Frenzy" and use tapping to scan items lightning fast!
• Sign the high score list with your signature – for that extra personal touch!
• Look out for unique Disney items featuring your favorite characters!

While you're scanning barcodes, be on the lookout for special Disney characters as well.

Download the game and let us know what you think of this deceptively simple supermarket challenge.

• $0.99 - Download now

Thanks, Hicham, for the tip!

Blues Bowling is a Windows Phone bowling game that was released a few months ago and caught our attention with its 3D graphics and blues soundtrack. Plus I'm a fan of bowling games.

Blues Bowling has single and multi-player games, simple controls and an online leaderboard to let you brag about your high scores (so far nobody has bowled a perfect score). If bowling games are your cup of tea, Blues Bowling is a Windows Phone game worth a try.

Menu Options

Blues Bowling's menu is straightforward with options to play a single player game, a multi-player game (up to three players), access the settings (sound/music) and view the online leaderboard. You can customize your player name as you launch a single player game.

Single player games can be played solo or against a virtual opponent. The multi-player game is played in 'pass and play' fashion.

Game Play

Game play follows suit with your traditional game of ten-pin bowling. Prior to the start of a game, you will need to choose your bowling ball. Blues Bowling has twelve options that range from a flaming ball to a leopard print ball.

Once a ball is chosen, on-screen directions will appear that illustrates you can slide your ball left or right to set up the initial position. When you have your bowling ball in the right position, swipe up at the screen to roll your ball down the lane. The faster the swipe, the faster the roll.

One nice feature of Blues Bowling is the ability to spin your bowling ball to make it curve. After you've tossed the bowling ball down the lane, you can swipe left or right on the screen to create a spin that will curve your ball in the corresponding direction.

Overall Impression

Bowling games can be a fun way to pass the time and Blues Bowling has potential. Game play lacks replays and other animations that increase the delay between rolls. Graphics are well drawn-up and I like the bluesy theme.

The game is ad-supported but not in an obstructive manner. I wouldn't mind seeing an in-app purchase option to get rid of them though. Another plus for Blues Bowling is that the game is available for low-memory devices.

The game physics are decent but there isn't a lot of pin action (pins bouncing off the bowling ball and each other). Another area that could use a little fine-tuning is with the sounds the pins make. They sound more like bamboo wind chimes than pins exploding off the bowling ball. A little more bass might do the trick.

While there is room for improvement, Blues Bowling isn't a bad option to consider for your Windows Phone gaming library.

• Blues Bowling - Windows Phone 8 - Free - Store Link

ID@Xbox is Microsoft's indie publishing program for Xbox One. Participating independent developers can publish their games directly to Xbox One with a greater degree of freedom than they would be afforded on Xbox 360, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. ID@Xbox is great for gamers too because it allows a steady stream of downloadable games to be released across a variety of genres.

Yesterday we published a full review of Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition, but that's only one of four ID@Xbox games released this week! Zombie Driver: Ultimate Edition from Exor Studios, R.B.I. Baseball 14 from MLB and Majesco, and Contrast from Compulsion Games have all been freshly released as well. The number of new games is overwhelming, but we've got detailed impressions and hands on videos to help you decide what to play.

Zombie Driver: Ultimate Edition

Last year we interviewed the developers of Zombie Driver HD for Xbox 360 and ran a little contest in celebration of the game. Since then, the XBLA version's publisher went out of business and forced that version to be delisted. Sad news… But now Exor Studios can self-publish the new and improved version on Xbox One, so Xbox gamers need not miss out any more.

Zombie Driver is a top-down driving game similar to Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2, only with a level-based structure and much more combat thrown into the mix. Players get to drive a number of vehicles, from taxis to buses to bulldozers across a zombie-infested city while completing objectives for a shadowy military organization.

Much of the game's fun comes from plowing through huge hordes of zombies of all shapes and sizes. But players also get several guns with which to blast the undead back into oblivion, including flamethrowers and rocket launchers. The gameplay doesn't vary too much, but there are several different kinds of levels and some challenging fights against gigantic mutated bosses.

The Ultimate Edition includes all of the content from the XBLA game, including the endless Slaughter mode and very challenging Blood Race mode. Whereas the 360 game suffered from various technical issues, the Xbox One version runs at 60 frames per second with twice the number of zombies per level and many new graphical effects. It also includes all previously released DLC, new car skins, and both "retro" and static camera options.

I wish Exor had finally added online multiplayer (the only obvious feature Zombie Driver lacks) to this release. Still, this really is the best version of Zombie Driver to date. If driving over countless thousands of zombies in an overhead perspective sounds fun to you, then grab your keys and get the Ultimate Edition today.

• Zombie Driver: Ultimate Edition – Xbox One – 1.63 GB – $14.99 – Xbox.com Store Link

R.B.I. Baseball 14

Like Another World, RBI (as I'll shorten it) is a blast from the past. RBI enjoyed great popularity on the 8-bit NES console, where it was the first baseball game to feature actual licensed player names. It spawned several sequels, the last of which graced the ill-fated Sega 32X (a Genesis/Mega Drive add-on) in 1995.

Nine years later, we have RBI Baseball 14 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, Playstation consoles, and non-Windows Phone mobile platforms. The new RBI comes from the MLB themselves and thus features all 30 Major League teams and their players. It draws inspiration directly from the original game, even starting out with the same chiptune music before moving into a slightly modernized presentation.

RBI 14 offers two basic modes of play: Exhibition and Season. Exhibition allows one or two local players to engage in a single game. You can adjust the number of innings, switch between "home" and "road" positions, and choose from three uniforms per team (one of which must be unlocked in Season mode). The single-player Season mode lets you choose from a full season (up to 162 games) or the shorter Post Season.

One advantage RBI has over retail baseball games is how easy it is to learn. Batting works just like it did in the original: slide around to adjust your position (which looks silly due to the lack of animation) and then use one button to hit or another to bunt. You can also view pitcher info, steal a base, or substitute a batter. Pitching is even simpler, with one button for pitching and another to pick off base runners. The actual fielding stinks due to a low camera and bad player auto-selection, but you can turn on fielding assists to make it less painful.

Although RBI's simplicity works its favor for lapsed sports gamers, the actual presentation still needs some work. The graphics are aggressively plain and simplistic, while the field's dull colors making everything look uglier than it needs to be. The lack of opening ceremony and camera effects don't do any favors for a sport that many consider to be dull to begin with (but at least it has cinematic home run animations).

More modes such as a Home Run Derby minigame would have been nice as well. I would bemoan the lack of online multiplayer, but the MLB has discreetly announced that feature will be coming in a future update. Let's hope it really does.

Presentation and modes aside, RBI 14's real crime on Xbox One is its price. Would you pay twenty bucks for such a small and homely game when you could get the beautiful Outlast for the same price or Contrast for five dollars less? But RBI is the only baseball game in town on our new console, and it does scratch the nostalgia itch a bit. Just don't expect a grand slam from this one.

• R.B.I. Baseball 14 – Xbox One – 1.12 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
• R.B.I. Baseball 14 – Xbox 360 – 975 MB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link

Contrast

Finally, Contrast has just launched on Xbox One after arriving on Xbox 360 and other platforms last year. And of all this week's ID@Xbox releases, Contrast is my pick for the prettiest. It packs a beautiful art style, unparalleled shadow effects, and catchy lyrical songs.

Players control Dawn, who happens to be the imaginary friend of a troubled girl named Didi. Young Didi's parents have recently separated, and her mom is often forced to leave her home alone while she heads off to work. An emotional setup, but the really intriguing aspect of Contrast's world is that Didi and Dawn are the only three dimensional characters in it. Didi's parents and everyone else appear solely as living, talking shadows.

Shadows factor into the gameplay, as well. Normally Dawn can move about in a fully 3D environment. But she also has the power to become a shadow herself. This lets her stick to walls and engage in 2D platforming challenges, such as climbing an object's shadow in order to reach a ledge in the three-dimensional world. The "shadow jumping" is a fascinating and unique mechanic.

Previous versions of Contrast received some critical backlash for technical issues and sometimes underwhelming puzzle design. But Canadian studio Compulsion has improved on the technical aspects for the Xbox One version, improving the shadow physics and cutting the bugs way down. Considering what a gorgeous and inventive 3D platformer/adventure game this is, Xbox One gamers owe it to themselves to give it a fresh look.

• Contrast – Xbox One – 2 GB – $14.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
• Contrast – Xbox 360 – 974 MB – $14.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
• Contrast MP3 soundtrack – 16 songs – $5.99 – Amazon Link

It's not an easy being an Xbox game for Windows platforms. First you have to go through a difficult pitching process just to make it into the portfolio. If by some miracle Microsoft actually approves you for Xbox status, you then enter the equally unpleasant certification process. And once you finally make it to market, you'll probably just get pulled from the Store by Microsoft at some point. You're an endangered species, son.

That's what happened to Zombies!!! for Windows Phone back in September of last year. The game was delisted for having in-app purchases, and then returned in November without Xbox features. The Windows 8 version managed to keep its Xbox features for a time… But now that time has ended. Microsoft recently chose to stop publishing the Xbox Windows 8 version of Zombies. And so developer Babaroga has republished the game as a universal app (but without Xbox features). Zombies!!! has come back to life, you might say.

Getting to know your Zombies!!!

Zombies!!! (now called Zombies!!! Board Game on Windows 8 and RT) is a faithful adaptation of the original board game. In the default game mode, 2-5 human or AI players take turns placing board tiles that will form the zombie-infested city. Each player must then try to escape with his or her life while simultaneously doing whatever it takes to slow down the other players. They'll also have to kill their share of the walking dead.

Whenever a player runs into a zombie (controlled by the AI or other players), a battle ensues. Players must roll a four or higher in order to avoid taking damage. Carrying a weapon (which you mostly get from playing weapon cards inside of specific buildings) adds one or more points to your roll, increasing the chance of coming away unscathed. You can also elect to use one of your precious bullets to boost your roll, though ammunition tends to come in scarce quantities. All told, combat provides an enjoyable mix of chance and strategy.

The Windows Phone and Windows 8 Zombies!!! games support single-player and pass-and-play multi-player. Single-player is more fun than you might expect thanks to the Survival Horror mode, which pits a sole human survivor against the entire city of zombies. Kill them with extreme prejudice (everyone knows they deserve it) or reach the helicopter to win. Winning a Survival Horror game can be quite challenging since so many zombies infest the town (over 100!) and bullets can be spent awfully quickly.

Universal Zombies!!!

It's a total drag that Xbox-enabled versions of Zombies!!! no longer exist. The Windows 8 and RT version was one of the very few Windows games with Xbox avatar support. Players could choose to play as their avatars instead of the standard Zombies!!! survivors. Zombies!!! was also pretty much the only avatar game with actual killing, as Microsoft usually restricted the level of violence in avatar-enabled games.

The republished versions of Zombies!!! for Windows Phone and Windows 8 lack avatars (never present on the phone game) and Xbox Live Achievements. But they do bring some cool bonuses to the table. They're a little gorier (I believe) like the iOS version now that avatar restrictions are gone. And Zombies!!! is now a universal app, so you can buy it on your phone or tablet/PC and get the other version for no additional charge.

Zombies!!! is one of the most interesting board games available on Windows platforms, and we still recommend it – Xbox Achievements or no. Maybe Microsoft doesn't want you to earn Achievements from playing Zombies!!!, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't play it.

The delisting of the Xbox Windows 8 version of Zombies!!! is part of recent trend. Other Xbox Windows 8 games have been disappearing too. We're still checking into the specifics with our sources and will update you guys if things pan out.

• Zombies!!! – Windows Phone 7 and 8 (universal app) – 19 MB – $4.99 – Store Link
• Zombies!!! Board Game – Windows 8 and RT (universal app) – 244 MB – $4.99 – Store Link

Recently, we've been pointing out games and apps from iOS and Android that have been making their way to Windows Phone Store. It's not often that we see things first on our favorite platform. Here's a promising title that Windows Phone users get to try out first.

The Veil (theveilgame.com) is an episodic adventure game that has just been released. You control a submarine and navigate through icy caverns. There are voiceovers that help you to understand the underlying story and mystery. Head past the break to watch the official game trailer.

Features

• Rich, immersive environments to explore and discover.
• Dynamic ambient soundtrack by award-winning Wrench (Unmechanical) combined with audio design by Power-Up Audio (Towerfall).
• 15-25 minute chapter format is perfect for short play sessions on the bus or on break.
• Relaxing, story-focused gameplay organically woven into a beautiful underwater world.

The Veil is highly focused on storytelling. The game mechanics is very simple. Press and hold anywhere on the screen to guide the submarine. The idea comes from the Canadian Northwest Passage and the ships that vanished there - some of which were never found.

Wayward develops The Veil. The game studio is based in Vancouver, Canada with a background working in the Theatre, which explains the importance of storytelling in their games. In February 2013, the developers received funding from Microsoft and Nokia's AppCampus program.

This initial version of The Veil includes the first chapter and a prologue mini-chapter. There are going to be four chapters in total. As you navigate the submarine, you'll hear several voices, which helps build up the story. If you don't care much about the story, the game becomes boring really quick. The submarine moves very slowly and it gets very frustrating when you reach a dead end, requiring you to turn around.

The Veil is a free download from the Windows Phone Store. Are you interested in this kind of story-driven games? Go download it now and let us know what you think in the comments!

Alpha Wave is an arcade styled Windows Phone game that reminds me of a cross between Galaga and Asteroids. Think of it as a version of Impossible Shoota that has less movement and more graphic punch.

Alpha Wave has three levels of difficulty, three gaming arenas and over sixty-five waves of enemies and dangers to destroy. Add twenty-four gaming achievements and there is plenty of gaming involved to help you kill time. Alpha Wave is a fast paced, eye appealing, fun game to add to your Windows Phone gaming library.

Game Setup - Throwing everything at you but the kitchen sink

The premise of Alpha Wave is that you are piloting a space ship that must survive wave after wave of asteroids, enemy ships, mines, and other dangers that are hurtling towards you. You have asteroids of all shapes and sizes that explode into smaller asteroids, space ships that shoot back, space ships that drop bonus items and bosses that are rather stubborn. The only thing missing is a few kitchen sinks being tossed at you.

The main menu for Alpha Wave has options to jump into game play, access gaming options, view the local leaderboard, check out your gaming achievements and exit the game. You also have buttons to follow the game over on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Alpha Wave's settings cover turning on/off the game's sound and music, choosing the graphics quality and turning on/off the game's vibration feature. Load times are somewhat timely with Alpha Wave and if they become painfully slow, consider dialing down the graphics level. The high quality graphics adds a good bit of detail to the game screen but if you opt for the low quality, Alpha Wave looks rather nice.

I like the vibration feature in that it alerts you when space rocks or enemy fire hits your ship. The game is rather intense at times and without the vibration alert, you may not realize your ship is taking on damage.

Alpha Wave's game play has three difficulty levels (easy, normal and hard) with three gaming arenas that include Stonewall, Black hole and Darkstar. The three arenas delivers a slight variety of dangers to destroy and a change in outer space scenery.

Prior to each game, Alpha Wave presents you with a help section that you can scroll through either to refresh your memory or skip by tapping the Start button. The help section does a good job covering game mechanics, specialty weapons and weapons power-ups.

Game Play - Blink and you may get blown up

Two words describes Alpha Wave's game play (one if you prefer hyphens) - fast paced. Objects will enter the gaming screen from the top and both sides. Things start out slow with single asteroids you have to blast then they progressively pick up speed and volume.

The layout of the gaming screen has your vital stats running across the top of the screen that includes your ship's health, score, wave number, any points multipliers and your consecutive hit counts. The more consecutive targets you hit, the greater your points multiplier.

Weapons control is automatic and you move your ship from side to side with two, on-screen directional buttons. About midway up the sides of the screen are two specialty weapons. The super bomb destroys everything on the screen in a single blast. The hyper mode gives your ship's weapons a shot of adrenaline to blast everything on the screen into space dust. Both specialty weapons essentially wipes the screen of enemies just with two different styles. The nice thing about these specialty weapons is that while they are single use, they will recharge with time.

There are a handful of power-ups that fall from enemy ships as they are destroyed. They include three different weapon styles and a health power-up that will repair some of your ship's damage.

Overall Impression

Alpha Wave is a fast paced, intense, challenging, eye-appealing Windows Phone game. It is well suited for killing short bits of time or can hold up to longer gaming sessions.

The only complaint I can lodge against the game's performance is that load times are noticeably slow. Granted the graphic quality is probably the culprit and if it gets too bad, you can dial things down to shorten this delay a bit. It is not an issue where you can cook a pot of spaghetti while the game loads and on the plus side, the game looks so good it is worth the wait.

While Alpha Wave is an attractive Windows Phone game, the deal killer may be the lack of a trial version. It shouldn't be too difficult to restrict a trial version to one gaming mode and cap game play at a certain point level. I think Alpha Wave is worth the price of admission but why developers refuse to offer a trial version is still a mystery.

Alpha Wave is available for low-memory devices such as the Lumia 520 and load times are on par with the 1GB+ devices; a little on the slow side but not agonizingly so.

While I would have liked to have seen a trial version, the bottom line is that Alpha Wave is an enjoyable arcade styled game for Windows Phone.

• Alpha Wave - Windows Phone 8 - $1.29 - Store Link

The Ingenious Machine is a Windows Phone puzzle game that is very reminiscent of the old board game Mouse Trap. Instead of designing a contraption from assorted gadgets to capture a mouse, with The Ingenious Machine you are building a device that will guide a ball across the screen to trigger a light switch.

The game has strong potential but is hindered by a difficult user-interface. The minimal graphics and animations have appeal, the concept is challenging but tiny gaming controls and odd game piece selection can be very frustrating. It is best to take advantage of the trial version before taking the plunge with The Ingenious Machine.

Game Setup - Building a better mouse trap

The Ingenious Machine has a wide range of gadgets that are all at your disposal to use in building your contraption. The gadgets include gears, conveyor belts, explosives, magnets, weights, fans, lasers and more.

The main menu is modest with options to start the game or view the tutorial. The tutorial does a decent job of covering game mechanics and objectives. I would have liked to have seen a listing of the gadgets or examples of them in action but they aren't too difficult to figure out.

Game play is multi-level but The Ingenious Machine lacks a level map to let you jump back into game play where you left off. In other words, if you fail a level you have to start at the beginning. Which isn't the most ideal of situations.

Again, the goal is to build a contraption that will guide your ball across the screen to hit a light switch. You begin the game with a blank drawing page with the ball suspended at the top of the screen and the light switch is in the opposite side of the screen. As you advance through the levels of play, obstacles will be added to the drawing board that you will need to navigate around or blow up to get to the light switch.

Game Play

The game screen has two on-screen controls. One to abandon ship and quit the game and the other to drop the ball, which changes to a reset button should you need to tweak your gadget placements.

Speaking of which, the gadgets are generated by tapping the screen and dragging them into place. To switch between gadgets you will need to tap and hold the screen with one finger and tap the screen with a second finger. This isn't a bad system for switching gadget choices but your first finger blocks your view of the gadget. Until you get used to all the gadgets, this can be rather annoying.

Oh… did I mention there is a time limit involved? You have to build your contraption and successfully turn on the light in under two minutes. Two minutes sounds like a lot of time but when you have to select and place your gadgets, test your ball drops and adjust accordingly those two minute fly by rather quickly.

Your score for each level takes the number of tries it takes to complete the puzzle and the more creative the machine, the higher your score. And the machines can be rather creative.

Overall Impression

I really liked the concept behind The Ingenious Machine but it shoots itself in the foot with a not-so-friendly user interface. The button tiles to quit the game and drop the ball/reset the game are really small and difficult to press. This can cause you seconds on the clock, that could be used to re-position your gadgets.

The game also needs a better means of switching from gadget to gadget. I don't mind the two finger approach but have the gadget displayed somewhere on the screen other than from beneath your finger. The mechanics seem to work better with the Windows 8 version but then again, you are working from a larger screen.

Lastly, the game really needs a level map. The Ingenious Machine has twenty-five gaming levels and it would be extremely depressing to reach level twenty-four, fail the level and have to start the game over from level one. If not a level map, give players three attempts at a level before knocking them to the ground level.

The Ingenious Machine isn't a bad game; it just needs a little renovation to help it be more user friendly and shine. As is, I would recommend giving the trial version a go before investing in the full game.

• The Ingenious Machine - Windows Phone 8 - Trial / $1.29 - Store Link
• The Ingenious Machine - Windows 8 - Trial / $1.29 - Store Link

The Xbox One received a ton of new indie game releases this week, including a variety of genres like adventure, sports, and driving. But you know, Windows Phone and Windows 8 have quite an active indie scene as well. This weekend, we're taking a two part look at the indie games of June.

For part one of our indie games roundup, I played a word game called Alpha Pop, puzzle game Dino Tribes, memory skill game Ditto, endless running game Firefly Runner, and a 3D racing game known as Formula Force. Which games belong on your Windows Phone or tablet? Let our impressions and hands-on video help you decide!

Alpha Pop

Looking for a word game alternative to Wordament and Wordament Snap Attack? Alpha Pop, the first Windows Phone game from Monster and Monster (and currently exclusive to our platform) features the same basic mechanic of searching for words within a field of letters. The longer the word and/or the less common the letters that compose it, the more points you get. But the words you find disappear from the board, allowing new letters to drop in and take their place.

The goal is to score as many points as possible before time runs out. The occasional differently colored letters can be a big help with that. Make a word with one of these special letters and a whole row or column will be cleared. Stone letters are less helpful, though. It takes too matches to eliminate the stone from a letter, at which point it can be used like a normal letter.

Alpha Pop is quite a slick game visually, with catchy music to boot. It also has nice features like 16 in-game badges to earn and Facebook leaderboard support. The game is free and supported by ads. If you find the ads distracting, you can opt to pay 99 cents to disable them – always a welcome option.

• Alpha Pop – Windows Phone 8 – 13 MB – Free – Store Link

Dino Tribes

This match-3 puzzle game from Blazing Griffin is an AppCampus winner, and exclusive to Windows Phone for its first three months of release. It starts out with a lengthy intro featuring a bunch of slightly ugly dinosaurs discussing the impending doom of their homeland. Not a bad concept but instead of showing what's happening, we just see the same profile pictures over and over as they engage in a lengthy discussion. Boring!

The game itself initially appears to be another Candy Crush Saga clone. You complete unique levels on a map, each of which has goals like reaching a certain score or finishing in under a set number of moves. Failing costs you a life, which charge up over time. And you can buy boosts with the gold you earn from playing, or opt to buy gold as an in-app purchase. We've seen it all before.

Still, Dino Tribes does a few things differently than the average match-3 game. First, you're matching cute colored dinosaurs instead of jewels. Dinos are way cooler than gems!

Second, instead of just sliding a single piece in order to make matches, you actually slide the entire row or column of pieces. The line sliding mechanic creates unique matching and combo opportunities compared to most games of this ilk.

Dino Tribes boasts a feature I haven't come across before: Nokia Mix Radio support! If you have Nokia Mix Radio installed on your phone, you can stream music from there while you play. If more games start doing that, I might have to break down and install Mix Radio.

On the downside, the game lost my progress at one point, forcing me to start fresh the next time I played. Hopefully the developers can squash that bug and maybe optimize the engine a little more in the future.

• Dino Tribes – Windows Phone 8 – 72 MB – Free – Store Link

Ditto

Blacksmith Software's Ditto is a new spin on the musical memory skill game Simon. The twist? Instead of four round buttons to watch, you have a field of 38 colored squares! You still watch the computer light up an increasingly complex series of buttons, and then attempt to recreate the same pattern. But the vastly increased field of buttons adds a new degree of challenge.

Besides the memory portion of the game, Ditto also offers a Composer mode. Each button on the board makes its own unique tone. Musically-minded individuals can play around with those tones as much as they like without the game rules getting in the way.

That's all there is to Ditto – it's a small and simple game with no in-app purchases or technical flaws to mire the experience.

• Ditto – Windows Phone 8 – 14 MB – Free – Store Link
• Ditto – Windows Phone 8 and RT – 2 MB – Free – Store Link

Firefly Runner

Want to help a good cause? Firefly Runner from UK-based Red Kite Games is a paid game (and a universal app for Windows Phone and Windows 8!). Fifteen percent of the revenue it generates will be donated to the Games Aid and SpecialEffect charities.

It helps that Firefly Runner is actually a pretty good endless runner, as we mentioned in last week's story. This one plays a lot like Jetpack Joyride, but with an anthropomorphic firefly named Switch instead of a jetpack dude. Tapping and holding on the left side of the screen causes your firefly to lift off the ground. Release and he'll drop down.

Unlike most running games, our firefly hero isn't defenseless. Tap anywhere on the right side of the screen and he'll spit cherries at that spot. Cherries will knock out the many villainous insects who get in Serenity's way. But cherries are limited, so you can't just spit them all the time.

Although Firefly Runner doesn't have a shop or endless arsenal of side missions like Jetpack Joyride, it does feature a few goals besides shooting for high scores. Sometimes you'll come across a key. The key allows our hero to rescue some of his friends later in the level. The game also has a rank system in which you level up as you play. It doesn't actually explain the system for some reason, which might leave some players oblivious or confused.

The game itself is fairly pretty, which a good variety of environments and colorful backgrounds filled with multiple layers of parallax scrolling. But I must say: the firefly himself is one ugly bug.

• Firefly Runner – Windows Phone 8 (universal app) – 32 MB – $.99 – Store Link
• Firefly Runner – Windows Phone 8 and RT (universal app) – 32 MB – $.99 – Store Link

Formula Force

The first Windows Phone game from The Pixel Bullies is an AppCampus title, and thus exclusive to Windows Phone for its first 90 days of release. It will also be coming to Windows 8 in the near future.

Formula Force is a 3D arcade-style racing game with a big emphasis on tunnels. You can actually drive on the walls and ceilings if you're careful. That said, the collision mechanics with other cars need some work. We should be able to ram other cars out of the way with style in games like this, but instead such collisions usually do more harm than good.

The meat of the game is a Championship mode in which players race across 10 international tracks – quite a nice variety. Make sure you turn down the engine sound so you can actually hear each track's unique music; the engine is wayyy too loud by default.

Win races to earn money, which can then be spent to unlock new cars and paint jobs. You can also unlock everything right away with a 99 cent in-app purchase, but it's not necessary.

Formula Force is a decent racing game, but kind of rough around the edges. The menus don't use a widescreen aspect ratio, and they're ugly and generic to boot. And in-game, the textures need to be higher resolution to make up for the overly simplistic track geometry. But if you're itching for a racing game with lots of tracks, you might not mind.

• Formula Force – Windows Phone 8 (1 GB of RAM or higher) – 136 MB – $1.99 – Store Link

Come back tomorrow for part two of our indie games roundup!

If you're into traditional tower defense games, then you'll be excited to see Total Defense 3D by DaSuppa is now available for Windows Phone users. Sure, the game came out two years ago on iOS and Android, but the important thing here is the developer is now taking on Windows Phone (they've also brought over Tetdraw, a new twist on the classic Tetris).

Total Defense 3D is what it sounds like, a 3D game where you spend your time placing weapons on a map, taking on the hordes of enemies that come in waves. What makes Total Defense 3D a lot of fun are those 3D graphics, as they're outstanding. Players can also use two-fingers to pinch to zoom, rotate and pan the screen, giving a whole new view of the classic style gameplay.

Total Defense 3D also has something I haven't seen in these types of games yet: Terramorphing. In plain English, that translates to "bomb bridges, destroy monuments, block passages for maximum tactical advantage." You see a big statue? Blow it up and falls into the roadway, causing your enemy to slow down. It's a neat and effective tactic, especially on open maps where multiple entry points exist.

Another twist is the addition of old-style role playing game skills. After each level, you can pick and choose which area you want to level-up on e.g. missiles, guns, etc. Later, you can go back and reallocate those points to change your skill set, giving users fun ways to explore their power. Total Defense 3D additionally has a great soundtrack, three levels of difficulty and three save-slots, letting everyone get in on the action.

Placing of the turrets and weapons can be a bit odd, but all in all, that's the only issue I've encountered in playing the game. Indeed, I can't put Total Defense 3D down. On my Lumia 1520, it powers through those 3D graphics with ease and it looks just stunning on the 1080P display. Everything from the explosions to the tower upgrades feels right to me.

As far as I can tell, the first world, Earth, is free. If you want more, you can drop a $1.99 to unlock three other planets, which are accessible after you complete that campaign. All in all, there are 22 levels advertised, with nine to twelve waves in each level.

Like all graphic-intensive games, Total Defense 3D will tax your GPU on your phone, so expect your phone to get warm. Likewise, you'll probably burn through your battery quickly if you play for an hour, so just be aware.

Don't take my word, go and download and trial the game yourself and give it ago. Or watch my hands on game play and game trailer to get an idea. I'm going to get back to rising up against "the Imperial army and free all the planets in the galaxy system!" because hey, it's Saturday.

• Download Total Defense 3D for Windows Phone 8; $1.99/free trial/38 MB/512 MB supported

Microsoft and Nokia do a lot to inspire indie game development for Windows Phone and Windows 8. Most notably, Nokia's AppCampus program helps train indie developers and fund game development in exchange for timed exclusivity for Windows platforms. As for Microsoft, the big tech giant recently held a Unity Porting Lab in Switzerland that aimed to help Unity developers bring their games from iOS and Android over to brighter shores.

Both programs helped contribute to the lineup of indie games that arrived on Windows Phone and Windows 8 in June. For part two of our indie games roundup, we played Mind: Brain Training, Pigs Can't Fly (newly available on Windows 8!), Pop! Food Factory, and The Quest: Anniversary Edition. Some indie games are better than others, as you'll find out from our impressions and hands-on video!

Mind: Brain Training

If you want to keep your mind brain fresh, you'll need to train it often. This free, ad-supported game from Scottish developer Guerilla Tea Games aims to help. It features three selectable minigames:

• Calculate: A sequence of squares will light up on the screen. The game then quizzes you on how many squares lit up in total.
• Sequence: Here's a memory sequence game like Ditto, but with only twelve buttons to watch and remember. Unlike most games of this type, the sequence doesn't build on the sequence that came before. Each one is completely new, which probably adds to the challenge.
• Eidetic: Quite similar to Calculate, but all of the squares light up at once. You simply need to count them before they disappear.

Players get three lives per mini-game. Make a mistake and you'll lose a life. The game tracks your highest score, providing some incentive to try harder.

All three mini-games utilize the same attractive art style. The screen is always filled with a field of gray squares, each square divided into quarters. The unifying visual theme looks smart and sleek. But the lack of an actual metagame to tie the mini-games together will probably reduce Mind's long-term replay value. Note that I had trouble finding the game in Store searches, so you'll probably want to use our link or QR code!

• Mind: Brain Training – Windows Phone 8 – 7 MB – Free – Store Link
• Mind: Brain Training – Windows Phone 8 and RT – 6 MB – Free – Store Link

Pigs Can't Fly

Last month George reviewed this clever game about a flying pig. This month developer Chillsters released a Windows 8 and RT version, prompting us to give Pigs Can't Fly another look. The game starts out with a darkly humorous introduction in which a bunch of pigs get killed at the slaughterhouse. One of those pigs attempts to fly to heaven on his angel wings, but winds up in the underworld instead.

To escape hell, our player pig will have to fly through 80 challenging levels spread across four different acts. The exit for each level tends to be locked, so the pig will need to find the key before he can get out. As a secondary goal, he can grab any stars found in the level as well. Collect enough of these to unlock amusing skins for the pig.

Various hazards threaten to thwart the winged protagonist such as wall-to-wall spikes, lava, and even monsters. But the real challenge comes from the Flappy Bird-like controls. Tapping the left or right side of the screen makes the pig fly upward in that direction. You have to tap carefully in order to avoid running into things that will cook your bacon.

Pigs Can't Fly is a fun and challenging game... Also a pretty one, except for the lack of parallax scrolling. The backgrounds are completely flat, making them a lot less attractive than they should be. Oh, and Chillsters should make this a universal app. But those issues aside, I'd still call this "SOME PIG."

• Pigs Can't Fly – Windows Phone 8 – 16 MB – $.99 – Store Link
• Pigs Can't Fly – Windows Phone 8 and RT – 16 MB – $1.29 – Store Link

Pop! Food Factory

This game from Blacksmith Software (makers of Ditto) has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, a totally shoddy porting job kills most of the fun. Also the title screen is fairly hideous. But I digress…

Pop! works a bit like Fruit Ninja, but with sweets instead of fruit. A variety of bubble-encased food floats up from the bottom of the screen. Players have to tap the cakes, donuts, and other sweets before they float away. Hitting 3-5 of the same food type in a row gets you bonus points. Missing a sweet or hitting a non-food item like fish bones and toxic beakers will cost a life.

The game includes two modes at launch: Classic and Arcade. Classic goes on until you run out of lives, whereas Arcade lasts for sixty seconds no matter what. The title screen also teases a third mode or feature called Recipes that will presumably come in a future update.

Fun mechanics and tasty food items aside, Pop! runs just plain terribly on Windows Phone. The frame rate slows down the instant more than three items float on-screen, which is most of the time. The score tallying process at the end of the game is excruciatingly slow and can't be skipped. The Windows 8 version seems to run better, but it still doesn't let players skip the score tally.

I don't know how Pop!'s glaring problems slipped through the development process, but they really need to be fixed before I can recommend the game to anyone.

• Pop! Food Factory – Windows Phone 8 – 58 MB – Free – Store Link
• Pop! Food Factory – Windows Phone 8 and RT – 8 MB – Free – Store Link

The Quest: Anniversary Edition

Wikipedia tells us The Quest was the first game developed by Guerilla Tea Games (makers of Mind) back in 2011. This year, Guerilla Tea revisited the title and dubbed it the Anniversary Edition.

Things start out with an amusing introduction starring a knight named Steve. Our hero has been charged by some god or other to find the Holy Grail. Thus the quest begins…

The Quest is an unusual puzzle game. Each level consists of a Rubik's cube-like world on which we find Steve. The goal is simply to reach the exit. Players have to rotate the various sides of the cube in such a way as to create a path that Steve can use to reach the exit. The puzzles start our really easy, but things quickly become more complex. Steve will have to circumvent obstacles and use tools like a boat in order to move from land squares onto water. You'll have to make a lot of twists and turns in order to set Steve on his path!

With three colorful worlds and a total of 72 levels, The Quest has lots of cuboid puzzles for players to solve. Note that this is a universal app for Windows Phone and Windows 8 and a paid game.

Oddly, the Windows Phone version suffers from a bug in which it thinks the paid version is actually a trial (as pictured above). Trying to access the post-trial levels will take you to the Store screen, at which point you have to press Back to return to the game. After that, The Quest recognizes that you've purchased it. An annoying bug, but don't let it deter you from a purchase. I'm sure Guerilla will fix it soon.

• The Quest: Anniversary Edition – Windows Phone 8 (universal app) – 25 MB – $1.29 – Store Link
• The Quest: Anniversary Edition – Windows Phone 8 and RT (universal app) – 23 MB – $1.29 – Store Link

That's all for our June indie games roundup. Be sure to read part one of this series. And don't forget to let us know which of these indie games you're playing on your phone and tablet!

One of our favorite games right now on Windows Phone is Pako. We've shown you the initial version just a few days ago, and now an update has just been released. The latest version 1.0.1.5 adds a new level and a new car, while fixing the annoying bug that covers up your name when typing it for recording high scores. Check out the short video after the break showing the new level, Suburbia.

If you haven't played Pako yet, the idea is to escape enemy vehicles as long as possible before you crash or the chasers catch you. Your car is always accelerating. The new car on Suburbia has faster acceleration in addition to the bright orange paint. What we like about this new car is that we can drift more often. Here's a quick tip. Drifting helps slow you down. Since there are no brakes in this game, drift as much as you can to reduce speed.

Pako is a free download from the Windows Phone Store. It's on our favorite platform first, before heading over to iOS and Android very soon. Our best time so far on the new stage is about 40 seconds. Try it out and see if you can beat it.

Thanks, Daniel, for the tip!

Toca Boca is gaming studio that makes digital toys for kids that are designed to let the kids play, have fun and learn a little along the way. Toys in the sense that you can play the game without worrying about scores or time limits. The only restriction is with your child's imagination.

Toca Boca has released two of their toys in the Windows Phone and Windows Stores that allow your children to tap into their creativity and imagination in the kitchen and beauty salon. Both games or toys have plenty of features, child friendly interfaces and nice graphics.

Toca Boca has seen plenty of success over on iOS and Android platforms and Toca Kitchen was a Parents Choice Awards Gold Winner in 2012. These two titles may not land on everyone's Windows Phone or Windows 8 device but they are two good titles to add to your Windows Phone Kid's Corner.

Plus being Hidden Gems, if you leave a comment below you will automatically qualify to win a new Windows Phone or tablet.

Both Toca Boca titles are available in both the Windows Phone and Windows Store, which are essentially identical with only slight differences in layout. We'll split things up with this review focusing on Toca Kitchen for Windows 8 and Toca Hair Salon 2 for Windows Phone 8.

Toca Kitchen

Toca Kitchen is a creativity toy that lets your child explore the kitchen without making too much of a mess. You have a refrigerator full of ingredients and shelves full of kitchen equipment to prepare culinary delights for one of four colorful characters.

The main menu for Toca Kitchen has options to jump into game play and a link for parents to view the about screen. You also have a settings cog (side menu bar on Windows 8) where you can mute the sound and switch to a vegetarian menu (no meat or fish in the refrigerator). Before hitting the kitchen, you will need to choose which of the four characters you'll be cooking for. You have a boy, girl, cat and a cow that you can cook for.

Cooking is easy, just pick/tap on an ingredient from the refrigerator (accessible by swiping right) and it will be placed on your dinner guests plate. You can either let your dinner guest eat the item raw or prepare it with one of the many kitchen items that are accessible by swiping to the right of the screen. Just tap/drag your food item to the kitchen item you want to use.

Ingredients include broccoli, carrots, steak, fish, eggs, hot dogs, pears, lemons and more. You even have a bundle of hay in the refrigerator for the cow to enjoy. Kitchen equipment includes a pan to fry your items on, a blender, a pot of boiling water, a microwave and a cutting board. Items can be prepared in a traditional sense (pan frying a steak) or more on the creative side (microwaving and blending a pair). There are over 180 different ways to prepare a meal.

Whatever the method, when you are through cooking an item, tap on the character icon (upper corner of the screen) to plate your food. When you have the meal complete, just tap and drag the item from the plate to the mouth of your dinner guest. As they eat, your dinner guest will react accordingly to how good your kitchen skills are.

The educational side of things comes into play with asking your children questions about their own eating preferences as well as some of the reactions the characters have. Some will refuse to eat certain items or get more excited over other items. Toca Kitchen gives your child a chance to play and you the opportunity to teach.

Toca Kitchen is available for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices through the links below.

Toca Hair Salon 2

While Toca Kitchen will let your child explore the kitchen without making too much of a mess, Toca Hair Salon 2 will let them experiment with hair styling without traumatizing anyone.

Toca Hair Salon 2's menu is also on the simplistic side with options to jump into game play, access the parent's section (about screen) and access the game's settings. Hair Salon 2's settings include options to turn on/off the sound and save photo clips to your Pictures Hub (more on this in a minute).

You can style one of six characters and your salon has seven stations (just swipe at the bottom of the screen to move from station to station). The seven stations, from left to right, include:

• Accessories: Here is where you can fit your subject with a nice assortment of hats, eyeglasses, and what I believe are earrings.
• More Accessories: This next station includes bow ties, chokers or bands, earrings, and buttons.
• Photo Studio: Care to preserve your beauty creation? Tap the clipboard to change your backdrop and tap the Polaroid camera to snap a glamour shot. You can tweak the settings to save your snapshot in your Windows Phone Pictures Hub.

• Hair Cutting Station: Here is where you can cut, shave and comb your guest's hair. If you take a little too much off the top, don't worry. A 'grow-back' potion is at the left side of the screen that will miraculously grow your guest's hair back.
• Styling Station: Two curling irons and a crimper are available in this station.
• Color and Highlights: Want to add purple highlights? Or go all out and dye your guest's hair pink?
• Wash and Dry Station: Does your guest need a shampoo? Here you can give their hair a bubbly cleaning and either towel dry their hair or crank up the hair dryer.

The user interface is simple and very kid friendly. Just tap on the item you want to use and tap on your guest to apply. Accessories need to be tapped and dragged to their destination. If you have second thought on an accessory, just tap on it to remove it.

The only downside I can see with Hair Salon 2's layout is that there is no way to remove any dye you apply to your guest's hair. Otherwise, it is a fun creativity toy.

As with Toca Kitchen, the educational opportunities with Toca Hair Salon 2 is with the discussions you have with your children about the game. How would your child like their hair styled? What's a good look for a party or for going to work?

Toca Hair Salon 2 is available for both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices through the links below.

Overall Impressions

Toca Boca has done an admirable job of developing two games that let your children tap into their creativity and learn a few things along the way. Both titles can come in handy while on the road, waiting for a table at the restaurant or other times when you have time to kill. On top of providing an opportunity for your children to tap into their imagination, both Toca toys provides parents with the opportunity to discussion life lessons with their children. Lessons that range from food preferences to hair style tastes.

Graphics are good, interface very kid friendly and overall if you have younger children these two Hidden Gems are worth looking into. The biggest downside to these titles is that only the Windows 8 versions have trial versions. Until the Windows Phone versions receive a trial version, we recommend using the Windows 8 trial versions to get a feel for things before buying.

• Toca Kitchen - Windows Phone 8 - $2.99 - Store Link
• Toca Kitchen - Windows 8 - Trial / $2.99 - Store Link

• Toca Hair Salon 2 - Windows Phone 8 - $2.99 - Store Link
• Toca Hair Salon 2 - Windows 8 - Trial / $2.99 - Store Link

Rival Knights is a new jousting game released for Windows Phone that brings jousting and immersive graphics to the small screen. The game is well done with 3D graphics and dynamic camera angles in a breathtaking environment where players "battle ruthless foes and rival clans across 5 leagues to seize their castle and thrones."

The game also adds a multiplayer dimension so you can challenge others through an asynchronous game play. In the game, you can unlock 120 mounts, lances, armors, helms, and other items. You can also upgrade your armor at the Blacksmith to gain an edge and use temporary boosts.

• Free - Download now

Are you into Rival Knights' medieval jousting? What do you think of this game?

Windows Phone is a unique operating system, both in terms of function and the community. One undervalued aspect not found on other competing platforms it 'trial mode' for apps and games. Microsoft has even made the process relatively easy for developers in apps (although games can be trickier). Intrinsically, trial modes are commonplace on Windows Phone, and it befits developers to implement the feature if they want good ratings.

Recently at Windows Phone Central when we covered the new game Lost Echo from KickBack studio (www.kickback-studios.com), our audience rebuked the $2.99 game due to the lack of a trial. The highly regarded game had come from iOS before it made the jump from to Windows Phone.

KickBack Studio did the right thing though and sincerely engaged with you in comments:

"We are not really familiar with the Windows Phone platform. Is a trial a must have feature? From our perspective, a point and click adventure game like ours isn't really suited to having a trial mode. We can reconsider if the fans disagree."

This foreignness is the crux of the matter. Although Windows Phone users consider trials must-haves, developers coming over from iOS and Android are not as familiar with the persnickety requirements. It is not so much that they opposed, they are just not accustomed consumers demanding the extra feature. After all, iOS customers are used to forking over cash, trials be damned.

KickBack studios have now obliged by that request, and version 1.2.3 is now live in the Store along with a free trial. From the changelog:

• Added Trial.
• Abandoned building door bug fix.
• Minor fixes.
• Minor dialogue changes.

Now that KickBack have upheld their end, how about you give their game a heartfelt chance? In case you missed it, Lost Echo is a new adventure game where you are frantically searching for your girlfriend. The story-driven game is full of puzzles to solve, mini-games to tackle and an impressive 3D environment.

Try the game out and let us know what you think. Moreover, congratulations on getting your voice heard!

• Download Lost Echo for Windows Phone

Thanks, Duncan C., for the tip!

Last week, Microsoft announced that Xbox One users would finally be able to manage their profiles, friends, and more at Xbox.com. As I lamented in our Xbox One console review last year, many basic Xbox Live features such as the ability to view Achievements and view Xbox One-specific profiles have been unavailable through Xbox.com. The omission has always seemed strange because the website has never had trouble supporting the Xbox 360 side of things.

As of this week, Xbox.com now almost fully supports the Xbox One's profile and social features! Users can view their Xbox One profiles, Xbox One friends and favorites, and even their personal game clips through the website. Xbox One Achievements have also been fully viewable since last week. As welcome as the website improvements are, a few basic features remain unsupported. Read on to find out what has improved at Xbox.com and what still needs to be tweaked.

Profile

To see your new and improved Xbox Live profile, follow this link or simply go to Xbox.com, log in, and select Profile from the drop-down menu at the top-right corner of the page.

Your high-definition Xbox One Gamerpic (if you have one) will occupy the top-left half of the new Profile page. Next to it are your GamerScore (try not to develop an unhealthy addiction to this, kids), your Xbox One reputation meter (which differs from Xbox 360 reputation), and several menu options:

• Edit gamertag: Oddly, you can't actually change your Gamertag through this link. It simply leads to a support page that instructs you to change the Gamertag from your Xbox One or Xbox 360 system.
• Customize avatar: This links to the standard Xbox.com avatar editor, completely unchanged. The Xbox One itself has very little avatar immigration. Users can customize high-resolution Gamerpics using the avatar on the console itself but the avatar doesn't show up and animate anywhere in the Xbox One UI.
• Privacy settings: This page actually does have some Xbox One-specific items down at the bottom, past the Xbox 360 settings. The main settings you'll want to consider are the options to share your real name with friends and to share it with friends of friends. If you're worried about your Xbox Live friends knowing your real name, should they really be on your friends list? Anyway, the real name feature is a recent addition to the Xbox One. Good to have access to it through the website as well.

Friends

At right of the main Gamerpic and menu options sits the Friends over view. The overview lists your total number of friends and displays the Gamerpics of six random friends. Those six friends won't necessarily be online or in your Favorites list, limiting the usefulness of showing them in particular. You can also select View All.

The full friends list has received a major upgrade to accommodate the Xbox One's advanced social features. You can choose from three tabs: Friends, Followers (an exclusive Xbox One feature), and Recent players.

On the friends list you'll find several categories:

• Pending Friend Requests on Xbox 360: Friend requests work differently on each console, with the Xbox 360 subject to a 100 friend limit. Thus these requests get segregated from Xbox One requests (followers).
• Favorites: Since the Xbox One has a much larger friend limit than the 360, users can add specific players to their Favorites list. This portion of the website allows you to remove favorites.
• All Friends: The friends list shows all of your friends, whether they come from the Xbox One or 360. Prior to this week's website update, you couldn't see your Xbox One friends on the web list.

Although the website lists a messaging icon next to the names of everyone on the friends list, the icon doesn't seem to function at present. I tried with Chrome and Firefox. Hopefully Microsoft fixes the button soon.

Selecting a friend's name from the list will take you to his or her profile screen, newly revamped to include that user's HD Gamerpic, friends overview, and Gameclips. From there you can actually message that friend. Or select Messages from the drop-down menu at the top-right corner of any page and send messages to anyone on your 360 list. The Messages page has not been revamped yet.

Gameclips

The gameplay videos captured natively on the Xbox One are called Gameclips. Until the recent update, these videos were viewable only through an Xbox One console or by uploading them to OneDrive or Youtube.

Now we can watch Gameclips through Xbox.com itself! From the Profile page you'll find a link of every Gameclip you've ever created (which ends up being way too many if you play Peggle 2 or other games that flagrantly use the feature).

The Gameclip videos play directly in the web browser. They can't be maximized to fill the screen though – a fairly significant oversight. Nor can you delete clips from the website. You'll have to use SmartGlass or the Xbox One console for that.

We can watch other users' Gameclips from the website as well. Simply navigate to a gamer's profile page and you'll find them below that dude or dudette's oversized Gamerpic. Check out my arsenal of Peggle 2 Gameclips right here (requires sign-in).

Achievements

Below Gamerclips sits the user's Achievements overview. It displays the three most recently earned Achievements. If those Achievements came from Xbox One games, clicking on one will lead to its full-sized Achievement image. Non-Xbox One Achievements in the overview don't link to anything.

The Achievements overview also has a View All option, which proves to be a very exciting feature. The new Achievements list displays the box art, Gamerscore, and total number of Achievements earned in any Xbox Live-enabled game. That includes Xbox One, whose Achievements have not been viewable on Xbox.com until now, as well as Xbox 360, Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Games for Windows Live titles.

Selecting an individual game takes you to that game's full Achievements list. Again, any Xbox One Achievement will link to that Achievement's high-definition image. Those images make browsing Xbox One Achievements a lot of fun.

Speaking of improved Achievement viewing, we can also compare Xbox One Achievements with friends now! From any player's profile page, select Compare Games. The website will generate a list of every game you and that user have played, allowing for easy comparisons of game progress. Try comparing your Achievements with mine right here.

Nearly there

It has taken a while, but Xbox.com finally supports most of the important social and profile features that Xbox One users would want. Being able to view our Gameclips and Achievements from a web browser is incredibly handy.

That said, a few key features still don't support Xbox One games. The Recent Activity list, for example, does not include recently played Xbox One titles. The same goes for the Download Queue, unfortunately. Nor can we create or change Xbox One-style Gamerpics from the website or even change our bios and profile information. Finally, Xbox.com searches still don't bring up Xbox One games in the search results.

Luckily, Microsoft has already promised to update the Recent Activity list with Xbox One support. No comment on the other missing features yet. But it's only a matter of time until Xbox.com finally supports Xbox One games inside and out.

In the meantime, if you're an Xbox One user, be sure to follow me and the rest of the Windows Phone Central staff! Use the links below and select Add Friend. Please, no Xbox 360 friend requests.

• Paul Acevedo
• Daniel Rubino
• Sam Sabri
• Mark Guim
• Rich Edmonds
• Abhishek Baxi
• Jay Bennett

Back in May we reviewed Cloud Raiders as a viable alternative to not having Clash of Clans on Windows Phone. Developed by Game Insight, Cloud Raiders is a "competitive raiding game set within a Skylanders-like world of floating islands" with "casual strategic battles, base building, clan support, and unrivaled cross-platform support." The game has nearly 22,000 reviews and a 4.6 average (out of 5) rating on the Store, making it one of the most popular titles available today.

Today, version 0.3.0.401 has gone live on the Store, bringing with a small army of changes and improvements.

Cloud Raiders 3.0 Goblins

• Yikes! Goblins! Prepare your army for the onslaught of a relentless enemy! Goblins are landing in a brand new campaign!
• Dragon Warriors: Hire powerful new troops to fend off your attackers! Build the Dragon Academy and invite these mighty warriors to fight on your behalf!
• Multi-select Walls: We heard you loud and clear! Now you can multi-select wall sections to make rearranging your base even easier! Try out new defense strategies in less time!
• Add the Command Flag to your arsenal: Direct your troops on the battlefield! Turn the tide of battle from rout to glorious victory!
• Give your troops new Boosts for an edge in campaign battles! With tough new enemies flying your way, you're gonna need 'em!
• Now you can change your name to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies! Just visit your profile menu!
• Just say "No" to defeat! Now you can retrain your troops immediately after an unsuccessful raid to jump right back into the action!
• Defense Reward Multipliers! Shut down the enemy in campaign mode to earn awesome bonuses!
• Now your raiders are super smart with a masters degree in kicking butt!
• Bug fixes and stability improvements, like: No more lost progress in PvP raids

From new armies, to new campaigns to improved gameplay, Cloud Raiders has delivered an impressive update. Considering the amount of tips we are receiving on this game, we suggest you go download it right now.

Let us know in comments what you think or read our detailed review for more information. We'll do follow-up article later with our impressions of the new refresh.

Cloud Raiders – Windows Phone 8 – 84 MB – Free – Store Link

Thanks, Hakmi S., and everyone else, for the tips!

The Witcher is a popular series of console games based on the novels of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. In the medieval fantasy world of The Witcher, powerful humans with mutant traits called Witchers seek out and destroy the monsters that threaten humanity's survival. Polish gaming studio CD Projekt RED is currently hard at work developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4.

As the Witcher console games become more well-known and poised to take on the Elder Scrolls series in a fight for role-playing gamers' hearts, the series will also be venturing onto smartphones for the first time. CD Projekt RED has just announced that The Witcher Battle Arena will be coming to iOS, Android, and even Windows Phone and Windows 8 in the fourth quarter of this year. Battle Arena will be a free-to-play MOBA with emphasis on RPG-style progression and fairness to players.

League of Witchers

MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. The genre is extremely popular on PC, with mobile games like Heroes of Order & Chaos and Aerena: Clash of Champions commanding sizable audiences as well. In general, these games consist of two teams of characters (either human-controlled or AI) engaging in fast-paced strategic battles until one side emerges victorious.

The Witcher Battle Arena will adapt the Witcher universe into that mold. Two teams of three characters will do battle in the Arena (not sure whether there will be multiple arenas just yet), fighting to capture and hold three conquest points. CD Projekt RED describes the battles as fast paced and specifically tuned for mobile, with matches lasting ten minutes on average. Players can team up in 3 vs. 3 matches, humans vs. bots, or play solo with and against the AI.

CD Projekt RED has been outspoken against unappealing downloadable content prices in console and PC games. The company has a track record of releasing massive free updates to its Witcher games on PC. And that same ethos of fairness and value will transfer to The Witcher Battle Arena on mobile as well.

"Battle Arena is all about skill and dedication, and we've spent hundreds of hours planning to make it a paragon of fairness in mobile gaming," explains Tadek Zieliński, Creative Analyst at CD Projekt RED.

All content will be unlockable through actual game play (read: grinding), with nothing restricted purely to in-app purchase. MOBAs traditionally allow players access to a rotating cast of characters but charge money to permanently unlock specific characters.

Motley crew of heroes

Seeing as how Battle Arena won't be an action-RPG like previous Witcher games, it falls on the lineup of playable heroes to solidify connection to the series. The Witcher Battle Arena will launch with eight distinctive heroes drawn from Witcher lore:

• Eithne of Brokilon, a Dryad queen
• Philippa Eilhart, a blind sorceress
• The Golem, a golem :)
• Iorveth, elf and leader of the nonhuman terrorist group the Scoia'tael
• Letho of Gulet, a rogue Witcher and the Assassin of Kings
• The Operator, a mysterious masked mage
• Saskia of Aedirn, a dragon who takes the form of a human
• Zoltan Chivay, a dwarven adventurer and friend of Geralt of Rivia

Notably absent from the lineup is Geralt himself, the protagonist of the Witcher novels and role-playing games. But the lineup certainly reflects the variety of characters within the series' world. More characters (and even game modes) will be added in the future.

The Witcher Battle Arena comes from Fuero Games, a new Polish development house. This will be their first game. But with a strong game design, an increasingly beloved franchise, and the support of CD Projekt RED, Battle Arena seems poised to carve a niche of its own in the mobile MOBA arena. The game will arrive on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 8 (tablet and PCs) sometime in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Gameloft is on a tear lately with Windows Phone, publishing many new titles in the last few months. Unfortunately, they have also seemingly ditched any ideas of Xbox LIVE certification, opting instead for direct releases to the Store.

Today, they have a new game on the market dubbed Order & Chaos Duels. The game is a massive 449 MB in size, but it runs on a 512 MB devices like the Lumia 520. The reason it has low memory requirements is because it is not an action game per se, but rather a turn taking card game based off of the ongoing Order & Chaos series, including O&C Online and the new Heroes of Order and Chaos.

From the game description:

"Order & Chaos Duels is a free trading card game (TCG) in a magical fantasy universe that features online mulitplayer battles (PvP). This free multiplayer TCG game will allow you to manage your deck, battle with your deck, play games online and more."

The game is almost 500 MB in size due to the high quality imagery used:

• Nearly 300 gorgeous cards to collect, with all the heroic fantasy-art style of the Order & Chaos games (MMORPG & MOBA)
• Fast & accessible duels on the go with spectacular special magic effects for the cards
• Deep content & strategy with the game mechanics of a traditional trading card game (TCG)
• Epic live and asynchronous online multiplayer games
• Quests & adventures to fight against evil and free the world of Haradon
• Optimize your deck for battle in solo & online multiplayer PvP modes

We are going to go ahead and say this is for the diehard Order & Chaos fans, champions of abbreviations in game descriptions, or those who used to play Magic: the Gathering. Order & Chaos Duels is a free game and with the content it contains, it should keep users busy for some time.

• Download Order & Chaos Duels for Windows Phone 8

Thanks, Lance_WPCentral, for the tip!

Rival Knights has just launched on Windows 8, bringing with it medieval jousting. The game was recently released for Windows Phone and is well-presented with immersive 3D graphics and dynamic camera angles to create a breathtaking environment where players battle ruthless foes and rival clans across 5 leagues to seize their castle and thrones. It's as good as it sounds.

If you thought battling it out on horseback was awesome enough on the smaller screen, just wait until you fire up Rival Knights on your Windows tablet or PC. It's a sweet game and one we strongly recommend to those who favor action focused titles. Players can also unlock 120 mounts, lances, armors, helms, and other items. It's possible to upgrade armor at the Blacksmith to gain an edge and use temporary boosts – who wants to fight on a fair battlefield?

• Download Rival Knights for Windows
• Download Rival Knights for Windows Phone