Grand Theft Auto III for Android actually is quite awesome. It runs on most newer dual-core phones, supports Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and even plays nice with all the Tegra 2 and quad-core Tegra 3 tablets available. The graphics are stellar and just to confirm that check out my GTAIII hands-on.

Until today GTA III for Android has been $4.99 in the Play Store but for Memorial Day they’ve lowered it to just a dollar. You’ll want to grab this game and enjoy it all weekend long. Running from police as I’ve done in the photo above (or to them). If Grand Theft Auto isn’t your type of game it appears all the Indie developers have teamed up this week too, and have almost 60 Android games on sale. It is called the Because We May Game Sale. Get GTA III right now for Android and have some fun in Liberty City.

[via Play Store]

The Diablo III Server Checker does just what it says. It’s a free app that simply checks the up or down status of your favorite Battle.net server, without you having to manually check it via the website or simply starting up your game and guessing. For dedicated players, the state of the play server could mean the difference between spending the night vanquishing hordes of evil revenants and (gasp!) going out and meeting real people. We kid, we kid.

Naturally, the app includes a home screen widget, for the demon slayer who can only spare half a second of time in the walk between the office and the car. The developer notes that the app relies on Blizzard’s reports for its status, and those aren’t always up-to-the-minute accurate. Have fun, players – and watch out for those guys who explode into snakes.

[via DroidGamers]

You can’t play Will Smith, and you won’t be smacking any reporters either, but the game sure looks pretty awesome from my limited time playing it. Honestly the controls aren’t the best and the feel and play reminds me a lot of The Sims, but the graphics are cool and hey, it’s free. Here’s what you can expect from the all new MIB III from Gameloft for Android.

CREATE AND MANAGE YOUR OWN MIB AGENCY
• Train your agents and assign them to missions
• Access a wide range of MIB weapons and gadgets like the Neuralyzer, the Deatomizer and the infamous Noisy Cricket.
• Build dozens of different rooms to upgrade your weapons and develop your agency.

TAKE DOWN ENEMIES IN 1969 & 2012 NEW YORK
• Travel in time to fight aliens in different areas of New York including Brooklyn, Times Square, and Central Park
• Utilize your agent’s futuristic weapons and equipment
• Meet dozens of aliens faithfully inspired by the Men in Black universe

ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN THE AGENCY
• Invite your friends from Gameloft LIVE! & Facebook to play
• Ask for your friends’ help during fights to defeat powerful aliens
• Visit your friends’ headquarters and get rewarded for lending a hand

After the initial download the game only needs about 68 MB of additional download space for the game, so it isn’t much compared to many. The game is a freemium title so it’s free to play, but users can make in-app purchases for weapons and the further advance into the world of the Men in Black. Like most titles from Gameloft not all devices are supported but at least it’s available in the Play Store instead of their own site only.

Check out the new MIB III game today and drop us a few comments below letting us know what you think.

A good way to explain it would be part aggregator, part app discovery, all based on personal preferences. Once you make an account or sign in with Facebook it categorizes and indexes all your installed apps, and if you share it with Facebook it will do the same with your friends and match app and game similarities. From there you’ll get highly personalized recommendations for everything from games, apps, tablet apps, apps for men/women, new games, even root specific apps.

Above you can see the games it recommends, with a check mark next to what I’ve already got installed. Then once you select a game it gives you a breakdown of downloads, relevance, and gender to make sure it suits your needs. Once connected with friends you’ll see who else has it downloaded, and you even look up similar apps. Basically this is a huge index of tons and tons of games and apps for Android. No longer will you miss that popular fun new game because you didn’t see it in the flooding pages of the Google Play Store. Everything is neatly presented to you — all personalized to your needs, wants, and interests.

The app does have a few bugs where app preview screenshots are blurry, and I didn’t dig too deep into the security aspects either with how it collects all of this data so for those worried about that you might want to take a closer look. If you’d like a way to get personalized app recommendations I’d recommend you give Appreciate a try.

[via Google Play Store]

With more and more phones being updated to Android 4.0 ICS Temple Run needed a quick update to solve some compatibility issues and ensure optimal performance and today’s update brings just that. If your new ICS build on the HTC Sensation, or Galaxy S II has been having issues you should give Temple Run another try today.

Apparently there was also a major bug where Temple Run was using low-res, low DPI textures and graphics for higher end HD and high DPI devices that was causing graphics to suffer. Now all high resolution phones should be seeing the best and prettiest graphics available. I don’t know about you guys but the game seems to look great on my Transformer Prime, but if the graphics just got better I’m all for it. As usual Imangi states the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements. If you’ve been having issues hit the Play link below and give this addicting game another try.

Temple Run Link

We got our first look at the all new episode II back at Mobile World Congress but SEGA has worked extremely close with the folks from NVIDIA to make Sonic 4 Ep II on Tegra 3 devices the best version yet. With enhanced graphics, realistic lighting and effects, crazy cool physics and more I’m loving it already. It’s available starting today at the NVIDIA Tegrazone.com and in the Google Play Store starting at $6.99 for Tegra 3 devices. For now this only includes the few Tegra 3 devices but more are coming soon. Check out the hands-on gameplay below:

As you can see from my video (and terrible gaming skills) the graphics are pretty amazing and as close to console quality graphics as we’ve seen on mobile devices. This is basically a full-fledged Sonic experience from SEGA and NVIDIA. The textures have been taken up a few notches that you won’t experience on other Android devices, or on the iPhone, and the lighting and sharp edges are just purdy.

With water running, flowers and butterflies flying in the wind and Sonic and his sidekick Tails hanging out you’ll totally want to give this game a try. Nicely SEGA has also added multiplayer support. You can now play as the famous blue hedgehog while a friend joins you as Tails and you don’t even have to share one screen, as long as you both have Bluetooth enabled Tegra 3 devices.

Just like Episode I the gameplay is extremely smooth, realistic, and fun. The Tegra 3 makes sure the game runs as smooth as butter and without a hitch. Sadly just like the original the controls can only be described as “floaty” and not nearly as tight as I’d like. I had a hard time controlling my little blue friend and a dedicated game controller would make this awesome. Get the Transformer Prime and the Logitech gamepad and you’ll be playing console-quality Sonic in no time flat though.

I’ll be streaming this to my HDTV later tonight and using the motion controls to see how things go and will be sure to update with additional thoughts. So far I love it and shows that old classics like SEGA and Sonic can still rock for mobile devices, as long as the controls are worth using.

Check out all the pictures from the gallery below, then hit the Tegra Zone and Play Store links above and get started today for $6.99. SEGA’s also announced that a Tegra 2 and regular Android devices version will be available in early June and you can learn more from sonicthehedgehog4.com

Shown on screen during the Galaxy S III announcement (although I never saw it) was the image shown above. The first official teaser image for the follow up to the best racing game for Android. Asphalt 7: Heat we can expect even better graphics, intense races, and possibly a Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit style game with the “heat” on your tail as you race through the streets.

We have no details at this time on a release date, cars, tracks, levels or anything else other than the teaser image posted above. With Gameloft showing this off for the first time along side Samsung at the Galaxy S III event most likely it will launch as an exclusive on the device, and hopefully arrive in the Google Play store sometime in June. That’s all we know until Gameloft sheds more details.

With Asphalt 7, N.O.V.A. 3, and Men in Black all coming within the next month or so from Gameloft this looks to be a fun-filled summer for mobile gamers.

The video from @Gameloft is short and sweet, and hints that the game is coming to Android and iOS soon, but after giving us a glimpse of some actual in-game footage they proceed to tell us “what you have just seen is NOT the Men in Black 3 game by Gameloft, this is just an experiment.” Pretty cool preview although the game looks a bit like the Sims if you ask me.

The Men In Black game for Android will be a freemium title. Meaning it will be free to download and play but users can also make in-game purchases to go farther, unlock levels, or buy guns and such. From the few screenshots I was able to snatch and post below you can clearly see power-ups and share to social network features — all of which will probably earn you gold to buy more weapons.

The Men in Black 3 game for Android by Gameloft will be available May 25th, the same day as the blockbuster title hits theaters nationwide. I wonder if this will actually be what the game looks like. Who is excited for the movie? And if so will you also play the game?

Those looking to seek revenge Max Payne style, only on their Android phones and tablets will have to play another day. Last week Rockstar Games took to Twitter answering questions and stating that the game would be available this week. Then followed up saying it will be released this week “or so” and now we know it was the latter part of that statement that was accurate.

Rockstar Games is busy making sure their newest game for Android, the popular shooter for Xbox and PS2 will run absolutely amazing on mobile devices, especially Android. We are hearing they’ll even be supporting the Transformer Prime and its Tegra 3 quad-core processor and will have graphical tweaks for the devices that can handle the improved graphics — just like the update to GTA III.

It appears to still be delayed another few days because it’s not available on the Google Play Store and Rockstar hasn’t made any announcement or comments over on Twitter. We’ve reached out for launch info and will update when we hear more details or a possible release date.

Don’t get me wrong, this comes as no surprise as the original always had a “halo feel” to it if you know what I mean — and that was a good thing. The original trailer released earlier this week (linked to below) had a striking resemblance to EA’s Crysis, and now this multiplayer video shows even more of their “inspirations”. This game is shaping up to be one awesome shooter for mobile gamers, that is for sure. Check out that Warthog with its top-mounted gun and all.

You may or may not like the similarities to Crysis, Halo, and other shooter games but there’s only so much you can do with this style of game. Right? Obviously I wish they’d be a bit more creative but I’ll be buying the game on release day that is for sure. As long as it’s compatible with Android 4.0 and the Galaxy Nexus of course. Something that isn’t ever guaranteed with Gameloft. I’m still more excited for Crysis 3 but this will probably be one of the best mobile games of the year from what we’ve seen thus far. Oh and look at that, capture the flag shown nicely in the video too.

Will you be buying or playing N.O.V.A. 3 when it’s released later this month?

I first saw this story on our sister site SlashGear this morning, and figured I’d see what the Android Community thought of the situation. This morning EA Mobile started sending out a message to those who’ve purchased and played their popular Rock band game saying this: “Dear Rockers, On May 31st, ROCK BAND will no longer be playable on your device. Thanks for rocking out with us!”

Basically the game has made them TONS of money over the past two years since being released on iOS, and they’ve since came out with newer and better games and are now leaving the original in the dust. Apparently they’ll be shutting down the servers and users will no longer have access to the music required to play the game — and the app will most likely disappear from the app store. Thankfully on Android I have Titanium Backup, or Astro App backup and can save these types of apps from shady developers for later use, even though that won’t help the server side.

The Consumerist, in their last annual awards show awarded EA Sports for being The Worst Company in America. Whether I agree with that or not, this is a pretty bad situation. I love their games, I love Madden on Xbox and Android, I love Crysis, but this story made me pretty angry. We never get updates for our apps to begin with, and now if they start pulling them at will I have a feeling they’ll be in for a world of hurt.

Basically what this all comes down to is you don’t own your apps or games on Android or iOS, you are licensed to use them until the developer says otherwise. I think I’ll be uninstalling Madden 12 right about now and probably won’t pay for 2013 either.

Thoughts on the situation? Can you imagine if everyone who paid for Angry Birds suddenly couldn’t play?

Zen Pinball THD is available for Tegra-powered devices as a free game, and then users can add additional tables should they choose. Fantastic Four was my favorite out of the bunch and today they are all on sale in celebration of Marvel’s Avengers movie. Those are Fantastic Four, Wolverine, and Thor for all under a dollar.

All three levels will be on sale until May 7th for only $0.99 and then will increase back to the original $1.99 so you better hurry. Zen Pinball has some of the best graphics for this type of game, and the interaction is simply awesome. The hands-on video above should give you a better idea of what to expect. The Pinball fans around won’t wanna miss this deal.

Get Zen Pinball today for free on the Google Play Store or the Tegra Zone, then get your favorite Marvel themed tables and have some fun.

This is as close as we’ll be getting to Crysis or Call of Duty on Android for a while to come if you ask me. The graphics look stunning and gameplay does too. The “Nano suit” does remind me a bit of Crysis 2, and that isn’t a bad thing. From the limited view we’ve seen so far this looks to be Gameloft’s best yet. Check out the video:

It looks like the new N.O.V.A. will be bringing us to the streets of NYC along with better graphics, faster gameplay, and some intense battles. I’m hoping for some slightly improved controls although this one is worth getting a wireless Logitech gamepad controller to play with. According to the video it will be available this month and we are hearing Gameloft will be showing it off next week in San Francisco. Stay tuned as this will probably be available within the next 2 weeks.

They are calling this a “survival comedy” game and that is exactly what it is. Your skills will be tested as you try to escape the zombies, all while having fun at the same time. This is almost like Left 4 Dead meets castle defense meets physics-based games such as Angry Birds. It really is a unique and fun experience and has raving reviews so far for Android.

Once purchased for $0.99 (ad-free unlike iOS) you’ll be required to download an additional 55MB or so of game data for the impressive graphics used in the game, but that is to be expected with a game of this level. The touch controls should be very intuitive although some reports in the Play Store say they’ve been glitching out every few levels and users need to restart the game — so hopefully that gets fixed.

This is zombie demolition as its finest. Players will slash, swipe, and tap their way through hordes of zombies and Zynga’s provided over 30 specials or upgrades. Things like wrecking balls to crash through waves of enemies, liquid nitrogen and more. Then you have multiple playing modes including a Endless Siege Mode where the zombies will as last as long as you and your fingers can.

Get it today in the Play Store via the link below and let us know what you think. Finally, a game from Zynga that isn’t Words with Friends or Scramble.

Zombie Smash Link

The reports are coming out of VG 24/7 although we are hearing some high-level Android developers were tweeting with Nintendo folks recently and that has stirred up the rumors too. This seems far-fetched to say the least but if those tweets ever make it to the public eye we could be in for a treat.

Whether the Wii U would be completely based off of Android, or just have some parts integrated into the device is unknown. We could see Nintendo take the same approach that RIM has done with their Playbook and try to get Android apps and games working on the game console, but that is pure speculation. Nintendo hasn’t been much of a supporter of Android, iOS, or mobile gaming at all other than their own products, so I’m taking this with a huge grain of salt. Other non-Android rumors mention a dashboard similar to Xbox and PS3 with multiple options like NetFlix, YouTube and the rest of the goods. Then some rumors about an impressive version of Metroid will be released too, but we’ll leave that to the non Android sites.

Thoughts? Would the Wii U running on Android interest you? Or would you buy it if Nintendo offered Google Play Store support for Android apps and games?

According to @RockstarGames Twitter the Android version has been delayed as they continue to work out a few outstanding issues and they expect the game to launch fully sometime “in the next week or so.” Then a later tweet confirmed a couple of last minute tests and changes were made to make the game become available on as many Android devices as possible.

RockStar Games has already released the amazingly fun Grand Theft Auto III for Android, and later updated it with full Tegra 3 support. Hopefully when the awesome shooter Max Payne lands for Android next week (or so) it will have full support for a variety of phones, including powerful Tegra 3 devices like the Transformer Prime or the HTC One X.

Hopefully the wait won’t be long and it will be here next Thursday instead of today, we’ll update as soon as we hear more details.

Developed by Phosphor Games Studio based in Chicago, on top of the Unreal Engine 3, and optimized for NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 this game truly comes to life. Available on iOS and Android starting today for free we’ve given it a hands-on look and have plenty of scary screenshots below. The THD Tegra 3 optimized version has all those extra effects, textures, and shadowing that takes advantage of the 4-PLUS-1 cores in the T3 and offers an unrivaled console-quality gaming experience that the iOS version can’t match.

The game is actually quite stunning for a mobile device like our favorite, the Transformer Prime or the HTC One X. To explain things Dark Meadow is a first-person, horror/action/adventure game where players fight to escape a dark fairytale world filled with fantastical creatures bent on destroying them. You never know when a giant creature is going to jump out and ruin your day, or what lays ahead down the dark gloomy spiderweb-filled halls.

This is a first person game with almost a Silent Hill or PC’s F.E.A.R type gameplay and environments. You must collect coins or gather gems to increase shields, buy stronger and larger swords, and get powerful crossbows to handle any enemy the darkness presents. Phosphor Games has added power-ups, level-ups, and you can even purchase more coins if you’re not the type that wants to journey down every hallway and enter rooms in search of gold. They do have some in-game ads which I’m not a fan of, but those ads get you coins and gems for further upgrading your arsenal of weapons. Not to mention is a part of the free-to-play strategy. Having this level of graphics, being enhanced for Tegra devices, and being free-to-play makes this a must-see game.

I won’t say how long, but after a few casual minutes of gameplay I was greeted with a huge monster and I almost dropped my tablet, so play on with caution and be prepared to fight at all times. The screenshots really don’t do this game justice and you’ll have to try it for yourself. The power of the Tegra 3 allows the foliage and plants to come to life and sway in the wind, water leaks and drops from the ceilings, and scenes come alive unlike most games available for mobile.

Gameplay is awesome and extremely immersive as you wait for the next moment to happen. The on-screen controls are smooth and fluid and nothing impairs the view on the screen, you just slide your finger to move. As mentioned above the graphics are stellar. The amount of textures and special effects floating around is impressive to say the least. Look at the screenshots of the flowers and wall textures below for an idea of what I mean. I’ve played about an hour so far and am loving it. I have a feeling this might be one of those mobile games with a truly epic ending (haha Mass Effect 3 fans). If you want a thrilling game for Android, this is it! After installation be prepared to wait about 15 minutes to download the additional content and unpack the game files, and expect Dark Meadows to take almost an entire GB of storage from your device. A WiFi connection is strongly recommended.

Without further ado I’ll let you check out the rest of the pictures and screenshots from the gallery below. Then head to the two links provided below to enjoy Dark Meadow: The Pact yourself. Currently only available on Tegra 3 Android devices the developers will release a standard version for the rest of Android in the coming weeks. As a reminder free-to-play means you can fully enjoy and complete the game for free, but they’ve added in game purchases should the user choose to take that route.

Dark Meadow Google Play Link
Dark Meadow Tegra Zone

NOVA has been extremely popular and is still one of my favorite first person shooters for Android. The controls are excellent, and same goes for the gameplay and graphics. A nice mix of Halo and Gears of War is what NOVA could be considered if you ask me. Without further interruption check out the awesome new video trailer provided today from Gameloft.

We don’t have any details at this point as the preview trailer was just released earlier today. According to Gameloft this will be their next big blockbuster release (hopefully in time for summer) and will be available on Android and iOS. Hopefully they release it at the same time for both platforms, that has been a common practice as of late. I can’t wait to see more from Gameloft as this looks to be one of their best yet.

Who’s excited?

It’s has that old school feel, with hints of classic New Orleans Jazz and takes you back to where the music all began. If you are also a Jazz fan you’ll want to download this purely for the awesome soundtrack. This isn’t your typical platformer either as they have all kinds of different elements and cut-scenes too.

You’ll be able to use your famous and great sounding trumpet playing skills to actually freeze time, which helps you overcome challenging enemies you’ll face throughout your musical journey in New Orleans. You can share results with Facebook and Twitter and the game even follows the real life story of Louis Armstrong, and his journey to becoming a Jazz legend. This game might not be for everyone but it’s still fun if you’re not a Jazz fan, and the graphics are awesome. Available starting today get it from the link below for Android.

Jazz Google Play Link

[via PocketGamer]

First off and one of the most requested features was comments. Just like Words with Friends you can now post comments and chat with players while you draw. Laugh about how terrible your drawing skills are, just don’t give any hints. Then OMGPOP included a one-click undo last move button, so you can easily erase an entire stroke or line, without trying to be precise with the eraser.

That isn’t all either. We now have pull to refresh where you simply slide down just like Facebook, Twitter and other apps to instantly refresh the game, and they’ve also included push notifications. This way you’ll know it’s your turn instantly — not just when you launch the game. Sadly it isn’t all good news though. Obviously the free version has some sort of ads included, but after this update I’ve been greeted with long, 10 second video ads for Verizon and other things since updating. That is a bummer but then again that’s why we have a paid version too.

The new changes are awesome and you can enjoy them right now by hitting the download link below.

Draw Something Link