Cubemen ($1.99 iPad, $1.99 Mac) is a cross between a tower defense game and a realtime shooter. In control of an army of cubed men, you face off against either the game’s artificial intelligence or an army of online faceless foes. It’s one of the few games available in the App Store that has managed to implement multiplayer gaming across different platforms, iOS, Mac and Steam.

Since it is a tower defense game, you are not only in charge of every member of your team, you are also responsible for picking what types of Cubemen will be on your team. With each challenge you and your opponent start out with an empty playing field.  There is a point system that awards you with each kill on the battlefield.  These points are used to purchase additional Cubemen mercenaries for your team.  The more powerful and destructive the Cubemen, the more they cost.  Some have flame throwers, mortars, canons and a laser.  There is even a medic that will heal your players as they get injured.  Once you decide which type of Cubemen you want to deploy, you simply tap the square on the battlefield you want them to defend.

In the game, there are three basic modes of gameplay: Defense, Skirmish and Mayhem. When playing in the single player tower Defense mode, you can further refine your gameplay by selecting one of six ways to play. You can choose the Classic play option, which ends after 20 waves; Limited Players, which limits the number of players you have on the board to eight; Limited Cubes, which limits the number of cubes you play on to 350; Just Rockets, where you can only select rocket Cubemen; the Endless play option, which is Classic with no limits to the waves; and finally Sudden Death, which is also like classic with only one life to lose.  You lose a life each time an enemy player makes it all the way to your base.

The main difference between Skirmish and Mayhem game play modes is that Skirmish is limited to a one-on-one battle, and Mayhem has up to six teams playing at once. Both Skirmish and Mayhem modes can be played offline against the computer, or online against other players. If there are not enough players online, Mayhem mode will fill the remaining slots with computer players.  When you host an online game, you choose the battlefield and whether or not the game is public or private.  You will need to have access to the internet in order to connect with the server and play with other players, even if you are on the same Wi-Fi network.

What sets this tower defense game apart from others, besides the multiplayer aspect, is the fact that the levels are playable in all three dimensions. Each level is comprised of layer upon layer of cubes stacked up one upon the other. Tunnels, caves and even entirely separate floors can exist floating above and below you. On some levels this creates the opportunity for you to sneak past the enemy line, and attack from behind. Just keep in mind it also allows the enemy to do the same.

There are 35 different levels to choose from in Defense mode, 25 in Skirmish, and nine in Mayhem. For Skirmish and Mayhem, it is clear that the levels were created with two and six teams playing against each other.  If you get tired of playing the included levels, you can either make your own level with the level editor, or choose from the hundreds of levels created by other users.  Each level is scored by users that have played the level.  The game even keeps track of the number of times a level has been played to help give you a sense of how well the level was designed.

Despite the low-resolution graphics in three dimensions that are the Cubmen’s world, there is a good amount of customization.  You can switch the colors of your Cubemen and even change the theme of the cubes used to make up the battlefield.  There are different music scores to choose from, some of which are tailored to specific mercenaries like Ricky’s Theme.  In the latest release on the iPad, you can even personalize the faces of the Cubemen on the battlefield by using a photo of your choosing.

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Bastion ($0.99 Universal, $14.99 Mac) is an adventure-based role-playing game where the main character, known as The Kid, unravels what has happened to his world following the Calamity.  In this world you travel from place to place collecting artifacts in an effort to rebuild the Bastion.

From an overhead, slightly angled third-person perspective, you control the movements of The Kid by tapping on the screen where you want him to go. For the most part, attacking enemies is automatic on touch devices as you move closer to them. When using weapons, just single tap on the enemy you want to fight. Weapons that fire, like your bow and handguns, will automatically go off when an enemy is in range.

While attacking your foes is more effortless than challenging, evading an attack is not nearly as easy. You can double tap in a safe direction and The Kid will quickly roll in that direction, dodging any attacks. Buy you have to be careful, as the platform on which you are battling is in the sky: dodge too close to the edge and you will end up falling off. Backtracking and remaining constantly in motion helps keep The Kid in good health.  The important thing to keep in mind is that when you are evading attack, you are not actually attacking your enemies.  So they remain as strong as ever, and just keep following you around attacking you at will.

The rich story line begins with The Kid waking up on a rock floating in the sky. One of the central characters of the story is also the narrator, and keeps The Kid on track fulfilling various objectives in the game.  As The Kid walks around, the world around him magically forms, with rocks, dirt, buildings all starting to come together in a surreal fashion with each and every step. It is truly a unique and fascinating way to keep you wondering what is around the next corner. Eventually, you start discovering fragments know as Cores that can be used to reconstruct the Bastion.

The Bastion is located at the center of The Kid’s world and is used as a portal to navigate around various levels of the game. This is also where you can build a home base tailored to your needs as a warrior. The ongoing quest within the game is to collect Cores, which in turn are used to rebuild the Bastion to its former glory. You also collect the blocks to construct other useful buildings, each with its own unique craft. With each level you pass, you always return to the Bastion to upgrade your weapons, use a core to build a new facility, or just pass through to the next challenge.

You can control what weapons you use by switching out at the Arsenal, one of the buildings you must construct located at the Bastion. Each weapon is upgradable at the Forge, another reconstructed building, with various materials you find along the way. These reconstructed buildings are utilized to enhance game play and build on your character’s abilities.  Not only do you choose what abilities and weapons to upgrade, you also choose the order in which you construct the buildings that are used to provide the upgrades.  This helps tailor the game to your unique strengths as a gamer.  There are even special proving ground levels for each weapon type that have challenges unique to each weapon. Achieve each challenge’s goal and you will unlock upgrades for that weapon.

On your iOS devices, gameplay is synced via iCloud so you don’t lose your progress when switching devices. When playing the Mac version of the game, your gameplay is not synced via iCloud. Controlling the Kid is also a very different experience. You move and attack using the keyboard and mouse. The story, graphics and soundtrack are the same across all devices, and are what truly make this a great game to play any weekend on all of Apple’s platforms.

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Bike Baron ($1.99 Universal, $4.99 Mac) is a motorcycle based platform game where you navigate through an obstacle course designed to throw you off your game.  Surprisingly addictive, with several thousands of courses to master, this game is virtually endless.

In Bike Baron, you maneuver the bike by utilizing two controls simultaneously. By leaning the Baron forward and backward using the two arrow buttons on the left side of the screen, you help keep the bike balanced and level. By pressing the red stop and green go button on the right side of the screen, you control how fast or how slow the bike will go. There is a setting to swap the controls for those among us that like to throttle up and down with our left hands.  To jump over obstacles, you speed up the ramp by holding down the green go button.  This helps thrust the bike higher into the air. By leaning forward and backward, you can perform forward and backward flips, and more importantly, control how precisely the bike lands on the next platform. The better the landing, the better you are situated to take on the next obstacle on the course.

Each course is composed of assorted track pieces laid out from left to right. The length of each course and the amount of time it takes to complete each course varies. Some courses are designed for faster speeds in order to make long jumps, perform numerous flips and beat the clock. Other courses are designed for more exacting control as you must navigate over rough terrain, dodge low-hanging obstacles, and perform exacting aerobatics to land perfectly perched on a small landing platform.  This constant variation of “hurry up and stop” is what keeps you on your toes and makes the game fun to play.

Parts of the track are designed to break away seconds after touching them or tip over after being gently tapped. Tap too hard and you may crash instead. Other elements are introduced throughout the game like exploding cans, bombs and the occasional pumpkin.  Knowing exactly how to navigate through each course can take some time to figure out.  At times, you find yourself memorizing a series of carefully timed taps on each of the four controls to navigate a particular obstacle. There are checkpoints along each course, so you don’t have to start over completely when you do crash.

The courses are divided into four main categories, easy, medium, hard and extreme. You unlock additional “Joker Baron” courses in each category by achieving a perfect score and earning all three stars on each of the earlier courses.  At the end of each course, you are awarded three stars for completing that course’s objectives.  Sometimes you must collect all of the stars on a course to ear a star, other times you must perform a certain number of forward and backward flips to earn a star.  Earning stars becomes important, as they are used as a sort of in-game currency that unlock the next course you want to move on to.

If you find that the supplied courses are too easy, or even too hard, you can always design your own course.  Creating and sharing a custom course of your own is easy. You have access to building materials that are used throughout the game. This includes rocket packs for when extra speed is required, checkpoints at gas pumps to keep things moving along, and of course exploding barrels and other randomly placed obstacles to make completing your custom-built course more challenging.  Once you have finished, you give it a name and share it online for others to try.  You can download and try other courses as well.  The best user-created courses are selected and made part of the “official” game in upcoming releases.

The recently introduced Mac version uses the keyboard for its controls.  You can set which four keys control the bike.  The only thing it appears to be lacking at the moment is Game Center integration and in-app purchases, which allow you to buy additional courses.  Since you have access to the same massive library of user-created courses, this is hardly an issue.  With thousands upon thousands of user-created courses to choose from, this weekend’s choice will definitely keep you occupied.

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Galaxy on Fire 2 ($4.99 Universal, $19.99 Mac) is a third-person, flight-based shooter where you navigate a star fighter in the vast emptiness of space.  It’s the type of game where if the smooth graphics and 3D realism do not amaze you, then the rich and detailed storyline certainly will.

A large portion of the game is spent navigating a space craft from a third-person perspective. To control the variety of different craft in the game, you use a virtual d-pad controller on the left side of the screen.  A tappable fire button on the right side of the screen, as well as other controls, are easy to reach when using the iPad to play. On iOS devices equipped with an accelerometer like the iPhone, you can also elect to use a tilt-based control system where you can tip and turn your device to navigate the spacecraft. The OS X version of the game can be controlled by keyboard, mouse, or an optional gamepad.

On all platforms, you are free to fly anywhere within the vast openness of space.  Another nice feature that works well on all platforms is the ability to save your game’s progress to iCloud.  Since the same saved game is retrievable on all platforms, you can continue playing out the adventure from wherever you choose.

With an almost Buck Rogers-like storyline, the hero of this adventure, Keith T. Maxwell, is thrown across the galaxy some 35 years into the future. The accident that put him so far from home also left him without his now ancient star fighter. All he has to get him safely back home again is his skill as a fighter pilot, which is of course your skill as a fighter pilot. And that is how the story begins. On this epic journey, you can elect to take the most direct course home, or you can deviate from time to time and accept one of many freelance opportunities available in the game.

Being so far from his home planet there are quite a few star systems that you need to cross in order to make it home. Each one of these different systems have has its own unique, story-based challenges. There are space stations orbiting the planets of each system where you start to earn and spend your money.  The in-game commerce system is very easy to get caught up in.  Sometimes you start to think that the side missions are the main part of the game.

Your spacecraft is equipped with mining equipment that you can use to earn a quick buck or two without having to risk your neck fighting against space pirates.  While this is always an option, you find that it can take some time to earn large sums of money.  As you start to frequent the space lounges on each station, you learn that you can earn even more cash by hiring yourself out as a mercenary.

In these space lounges you can meet the most interesting people. The one thing they all seem to have in common is that they all need help: some want cargo delivered, others a security escort, and some just want to fly around the galaxy to see who can shoot down the most enemy space craft.  You reputation in the game is based on what challenges you choose to accept, and how well you do.

Within each station there is also a hangar where you buy and sell items you need and collect along the way. Among these are upgrades you can use on your spacecraft.  From larger weapons, to faster engines and stronger armor, you will find that the upgrades you can purchase for your spacecraft are tailored specifically for the kind of person that wants to be flying in the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

If you so choose, you could end up getting so involved with all of the side missions that you never finish the game and make it home.  You start to look forward to meeting certain individuals in the lounges on each space station.  Whatever path you choose to take, there is definitely enough to keep you occupied for the long holiday weekend.

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Deer Hunter Reloaded (Free Universal, Free Mac) is a first-person, sharp shooting, simulation game that places you on the hunt for big game. As hunting season picks up around the country, this game can be handy when bringing home a trophy catch was not in the cards.

The game starts off right away in the middle of a hunt.  You find yourself holding a weapon ready to take down your first score.  To control your firearm, you use the left side of the screen to drag your finger around to aim. Once you have the target in your sights, you use the fire button on the right hand side of the screen. The game employs a built-in wobble effect that makes aiming realistic and more challenging when your target is further away. You can use a scope mounted to your firearm. The magnification is adjustable depending on what type of scope you are using. To position your shot a little better, you can shuffle the hunter to the right and to the left. This helps move out from behind obstructions that can get in the way of your shot. There are also on-screen controls to switch and reload weapons, as well as toggle between normal sight, magnified scope, night vision and X-ray viewing modes.

In the games mission mode, you are presented with ever-increasing challenges. Shoot more animals within a specified time period, kill certain animals by taking them down with a certain type of shot, and even bring down larger animals with a single shot.  Larger animals will require multiple shots or a more powerful weapon. Missions are spread out across different types of terrain and times of day.  The terrain will separate you from the animals by introducing obstacles like brush, trees and large boulders. For night missions, you will employ infrared goggles. On occasion, there will  even be a big game challenge mixed into the missions where certain hard-to-catch animals will be spotted.  At the end of each mission you are awarded a cash prize, and if you happen to score the animal posted in the big game challenge, the cash reward will be even higher.

There is also stampede mode that will prove to be a bit more of a speed challenge. This mode can help your skill in certain missions when multiple shots are required.  Unlike missions where animals will attack you when they get angry, the stampede will not attack. The other important difference with stampede mode is that it does not take any energy on the part of the hunter like the mission mode does. Each mission requires a certain amount of energy before you can start, and you can either purchase additional energy in the store, or allow your energy to increase naturally over time. You can also increase you energy by advancing a level with the experience you gain from playing in stampede mode.  If you happen to be playing when one of your GameCenter friends are playing, you will be be placed in a sort of competition mode where your scores will be compared to one another as you advance thorough each progressive level of the stampede.

You are in charge of equipping yourself.  Hunting gear is not cheap. Each weapon has its own specs and can be specialized through upgrades.  There are some unique items for sale in the store that can help enhance gameplay as well. For example, you can purchase a mating call utility that will help bring the game to you.

Overall the game’s 3D graphics and realistic sound effects make this an authentic hunting simulation game.  The missions are challenging and the implementation of an X-ray mode helps teach you where to shoot for each type of animal you are hunting.  If you find that you just cannot make it outdoors this hunting season, this game can at least bring a simulated hunt indoors.

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AirAttack ($0.99 iPhone, $0.99 iPad, $0.99 Mac) brings old-school arcade-style gaming into the modern handheld age with a top-down air combat shooter you can touch.  What really sets this game apart from others in this genre is it stunning 2D-graphics and assortment of responsive gameplay controls.

On the iOS version of the game, there are four basic ways to control your aircraft on the screen. The two touch-based controls on the screen are more natural on the iPad. The first of these touch controls allows you to move the aircraft by placing your finger directly on top of the plane. If you feel like this obstructs your view of the action, there is also a relative touch control that will allow you to maneuver the plane from a distance. As you drag your finger across the screen on one side of the battlefield, the aircraft will shadow you movements on the other. There is also and a virtual d-pad as well and a gyro-based tilt control that seems to work better when playing on an iPhone and projecting the action onto an Apple TV via AirPlay.

For OS X players, you can use either the keyboard or the mouse to control the aircraft. With the latest update from Art In Games on the Mac App Store, you can even plug in your favorite USB gamepad controller and use it throughout the game. If you happen to have turned your iPad into a mini retro arcade cabinet game, AirAttack is one of the games that supports both the iCade Core and the original iCade from ThinkGeek. About the only game controller not supported is a collection of little plastic war planes that could be used as a stylus sliding back and forth on the iPad’s touch screen.

As each level progresses, your continuous fire cannon strikes down your opponents vehicles on land, sea and in the air. You do have manual control of bombs that can be dropped on enemy targets. When each targets or enemy craft is destroyed, additional points, power ups and in-game cash are scattered in the air in the form of stars and coins for you to pick up. The cash can then be used at various in-air checkpoints where you can land and purchase additional weapons, upgrades, shields, and even an extra life.

There are three difficulty settings that keep the game interesting by challenging your ability to stay alive.  While you do find yourself searching for patterns in the enemy’s attack formations to avoid being struck down, the patterns are random enough throughout the game to keep you on your toes.  For instance, there are times when the stream of fire stays on a given trajectory, and there are other times when guided missiles follow you for a period of time or you encounter planes that seem to hover before you then dart right at you when you were not expecting it.  Just when you think you have the enemy figured out, things seem to change.

At the end of each level is a boss battle that is quite different form forward-scrolling fights you have gotten familiar with earlier in the level.  These boss battles are not what you would expect to see in areal combat.  This includes encountering the occasional flying saucer, dodging huge boulders being shot from nearby active volcanoes, and gigantic mechanical robot shooting laser beams in all directions.  This weekend give this arcade shooter a try, and see if you have what it takes to complete the arcade mode and unlock the endless challenge that is AirAttack.

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They did it in a very unsubtle manner: The leader of the Horde — Garrosh Hellscream — essentially nuked the Alliance city of Theramore. In the naval battle that followed the new continent of Pandaria was discovered when some ships crashed into it. The Pandaren (a race of bipedal panda bears), for reasons lost to me, aren’t thrilled about being the latest turf battle in the war between the Horde and Alliance.

New races and classes

Pandarens are a new playable race, and also introduced with Mists is a new class, the monk. The monk, as you’d expect, are a melee class that favor punches and kicks for their attacks . Blizzard usually does a good job with the starting area for the race introduced with the expansion, and I feel the Pandarian starting zone is the best yet.

Your job is to research why the turtle you live on is sick and to heal it — yes, I was sober when I wrote that, why? The Pandarian starting zone is called the Wandering Isle, and it is indeed on the back of a roaming turtle. Over time, forests and hills have grown upon its back and the few Pandarian that went on walkabout with it have been living there for over 10,000 years. (Yes, still sober, I promise.)

Mists of Pandaria has an Asian style to it with lots of bamboo buildings, Chinese dragons, and voice acting right out a B-level Kung Fu movie. I found the entire starting zone to be very calm and harmonious. The overall nature of the quest and the peaceful music made the zone a complete blast to play through. There was a nice variety of quests, too. My favorite was when you had to jump from balancing pole to balancing pole and knock other monks off their poles — better than the usual quests that have you kill 10 rats.

I’m not sold on the monk yet. There are two resources to manage during combat (Energy and Chi) and there was a bit of a learning curve to it. From what I’ve read, the overall resource management is very similar to how a rogue plays. I’m also willing to concede that I’ve been playing a hunter since launch, so some old habits may be dying hard.

The meat of the expansion: Pandaria

Cataclysm, the previous WoW expansion, tried something different. Instead of sticking to the old saw of an “undiscovered continent,” Blizzard appended the new zones into the existing continents. At first I found this a fine idea, because, let’s face it, after a handful of “undiscovered continents,” it strains credibility. With Mists, Blizzard drags the “undiscovered continent” story out, and you know what? I like this better. The new areas all in one place allows for a better flow through the story. Also, from what I’ve seen the story is much more upbeat than the depressing plot lines of the last two expansions.

While the quests unfortunately do tend to run the meme of killing 10 of something, what I do appreciate is that Blizzard changed how you earn your quest achievements. Up until now, you’d earn an achievement (very similar to the achievement you’d earn in an Xbox game) for completing, say, 10o quests in an area. With the last expansion, I’d often end up one bleeping quest short of the achieve and have to backtrack to try and out where I missed it. Now, the achievement is earned by finishing story lines in each area. Since the story lines are pretty easy to follow with a clear beginning and end, the achievements are a lot easier to accomplish.

As with most WoW expansions, Mists increases the level cap from 85 to 90. While some brave souls were able to get these five new levels in about 13 hours for the Realm First achieve, from my observation someone taking a more casual approach to this effort will likely spend about 25 hours getting the levels. After, that it’s time for the new raids, crafting skills, and the like. I tend to favor the slower approach myself.

It’s purty, Daddy

Man, this is one great-looking expansion. So far, I haven’t seen any areas that look like a designer imbibed in too many recreational substances. I’m a sucker for Asian architecture to begin with, but Blizzard has created such a soothing, immersive environment that I almost — almost — feel bad about running my motorcycle through the city streets like an out-of-control Goblin Hells Angel. 

Final thoughts

I haven’t gotten too far into Pandaria, but I like what I’m seeing. Since Blizzard is roughly on a two-year expansion release cycle, we’ll be spending a lot of time here. Usually the end boss to an expansion is released about a year or so after the main expansion and Blizzard will be releasing new, free, content updates for the next year and half as they continue to tell the story in Mists.

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I also don’t believe in coincidences. Blizzard will have a Mac client available for their new World of Warcraft expansion available at launch on Sept. 25. It’s a Cider port; not what we’d consider to be a “native” client. At this point, I don’t care — if it doesn’t require an emulator or Boot Camp to run, I’m willing to call it native.

While the Mac client is listed as a beta, you will still need to purchase the game. You can either purchase the physical box of the Windows client and use the serial number to activate your account, or you can buy it from the Guild Wars 2 site. Guild Wars 2 is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO). Due to time constraints, I’m not going to give the game a full review – others have gone to exhausting length on this — so this is more of a first impressions post.

The system specs are a little steep (you’ll need a Mac made in the last two years). On my mid-2011 MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM it ran OK at “optimized for best appearance.” If I wasn’t interested in pushing the limits of the client, backing off a few settings would still result in a fantastic-looking game that ran great. The game is beautiful. The original Guild Wars was also fantastic, and the sequel has really stepped it up.

One of the things I really like about the game is how choices you make during character creation as well as choices you make during the game affect the overall storyline you experience. I’m not expecting a totally dynamic story, but rather something along of a “choose your own adventure” book. One nice touch is that most quests have voice acting and cinematic cut scenes. This makes the game seem more like a single-player game. During the cut scene you can choose how your character is going to react.

Another nice convention is that the map is scattered with waypoints you can teleport to. This eliminates time-wasting conventions like running, mounts, and lengthly griffon rides to get to your destination. Instead, you click on where you want to go, pay a pittance, and boom, you’re there. Guild Wars 2 also eschews one of the other MMO conventions: subscription fees. While there is a shop you can spend real money on, it’s limited to cosmetic items, some XP boosts and the like.

In addition to fighting monsters, you can also participate in World vs. World combat (i.e., fight against other players). Traveling to the WvW regions is as easy as clicking on a button in the game menu. Once you’ve arrived, you will fight against other player in the Mists. The WvW events involve hundreds of players, so it’s a good way to for people not used to PvP to get acclimated. There is also PvP where small teams compete.

In my fews days testing the client I’ve been very happy with its stability. It has run fine with no crashes, complaints or glitches. The gigantic time sinks that are MMOs are my preferred poison, and I’m looking forward to playing this one a lot more.

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Lux Delux ($4.99 Universal, $9.99 Mac) is a Risk-like strategy game that was available on Mac OS X long before it became available for iOS. If you are not at first impressed by the number of different game maps you have to choose from, you may be impressed by the level of control you have over the in-game artificial intelligence.

Lux is a board game in which you occupy geographic regions on map. Each territory you own is represented by a number of troops that occupy that territory.  You know which territories are yours by their color. When it is your turn to move, you select your attacking army’s territory first, then select the enemy territory you wish to overtake. Typically the army with the most troops wins the battle.

However, each fight will cost you.  The more you spread out you troops across a map, the fewer troops you have to occupy and defend your territories. There are no board pieces to move around, just colored map regions with numbers on them.  Once you select the territory you want to attack with, tapping and holding down on the territory you are attacking will continue the battle until either you run out of troops or are ultimately victorious. While this simplicity of gameplay does allow for faster turns, it can also get you into trouble if you do not first plan out your route of attack. You could end up in a dead-end with no enemy to attack, forcing you to end your turn and give control over to the enemy.

There are over 800 different maps to choose from. Some are more traditional maps of the world or regions of the world. Others are individual states, cities, or even famous landmarks like a sports arena. As you tend to get familiar with a type of successful strategy on one map, you will find that switching to a different map offers its own unique challenges since each territory on a given map can only be attacked from so many positions.

Having so many maps to choose from helps keep the game interesting.  And if you cannot find any map that you like, you can create your own map with the Mac version of the game.  Sillysoft, the creator of Lux Delux, has a map tutorial wiki dedicated to teaching you how to make an effective game map that others will enjoy playing as well.

Where Lux sets itself apart is in the configuration of the computer-based players’ artificial intelligence. When you are challenging multiple computer opponents, the computer will in effect be playing against itself as well. You can choose to play against five different opponents.

On the iOS version of the game, each opponent can be configured to be easy, medium, hard, “reaper” or random. Keep in mind that the more players there are at the beginning of each game, the more spread out you will all be.

For the Mac version of Lux Delux you have even more options to choose from.  There is even a software developer kit or SDK that you can download if you feel like designing your own artificially intelligent computer opponent.  And just like the database of user-created playable game maps, there is also a database of additional computer opponents to choose from as well.

While multiplayer mode in the iOS version of the game requires you to pass a single iOS device back and forth, the Mac version of multiplayer is a much different experience.  With the Mac version of Lux Delux, you play in an online tournament against other players.  When you start a new game in the Mac version, you can either browse a listing of games already in play that you may want to join, or you can host your own by adding online players rather than computer players before you start.

Sillysoft also maintains quite the elaborate online ranking system that will keep track of your wins and losses over time.  If you find that you enjoy the gameplay of the iOS version of the game, give the Mac version a go.  Think of the iOS version of a traveling training device that prepares you for tournament play on your Mac.  Be sure to take some time this weekend and get familiar with all of the customizable features that make this a great strategy gaming experience.

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Osmos ($2.99 iPhone, $4.99 iPad, $9.99 Mac) is a physics-based puzzle game that obeys Isaac Newton’s laws of motion as well as Henri Dutrochet’s osmosis. As you strive to become the biggest blob on each level, you learn what it takes to absorb or be absorbed.

You start out as a perfectly round blob called a mote, filled with a blue mass of plasma. To move, you tap outside of your round mote, which will expel blue mass in the direction you tap. Your mote will start to move in the opposite direction of the expelled mass.  Once expelled, the mass is no longer under your control.  Due to the conservation of momentum, the relatively small amount of expelled mass moves quickly across the playing field, while your mote begins moving slowly. To change direction you need to expel more mass. The smaller your mote gets, the easier it is to move.  However, smaller motes are also more likely to be absorbed by larger enemy motes filled with red mass.

At the start of each new level, any mote on the playing field that is smaller than you will be filled with a blue mass.  This indicates that it is safe to collide with as you will end up absorbing the smaller mote’s mass. All of those larger than you will be filled with red mass, indicating that a collision will result in your mass being absorbed by the enemy. You can avoid and even stop being absorbed by expelling mass and moving your mote out of harms way. Keep in mind that the more mass you expel, the smaller you get, the faster you will move, and as a result there will be fewer friendly motes and more enemies.

The game seemingly rewards patience, but not indolence. Being too cautious while the other enemy motes are on the move can create hopeless situations where there are no smaller motes to absorb. Enemy motes will continue to bump into one another as well as smaller blue motes, the larger absorbing the mass of the smaller.  Being too aggressive can lead to unwanted collisions with larger motes, causing you to expel more and more mass just to stay alive. Fortunately the game does provide the ability to control time. Swipe the screen from left to right to speed things up, and swipe back from right to left to slow things back down again. This genius ability allows one to move strategically and expel just enough mass to execute on a well thought out strategy, without slowing the game to a boring and intolerable pace.

While the goal of each level is about the same, there are variants that keep things interesting. Some levels start motionless, and the playing field is packed with so many motes that you cannot move without colliding with another. Other levels begin with all of the motes orbiting around a central attractor, each moving at different speeds. And these attractors that resemble the solar center of a galaxy are not the only additional obstacles you need to worry about. There are also ovarium and antimatter objects that see both red and blue motes as mass to be absorbed. Ovarium objects in particular are guided by intelligence, and will single out their prey and expel their own mass to move themselves across the playing field.

There are two main game modes, Odyssey and Arcade. In Odyssey mode you are faced with 27 different levels. The earlier levels start out a little slow, whereas the later levels require more planning. Some levels in Odyssey mode, which start over the with the same initial setup, play out more like a labyrinth game as you need to navigate through densely populated playing fields. Arcade mode allows you to play any at your choice of difficulty.  And in Arcade mode, each game does not begin the exact same way as it does on each level in Odyssey mode.

There is also a new multiplayer mode where you play against an enemy human mote.  As one can expect, the pace of the multiplayer mode is much faster with a lot less planning out of each and every bit of mass expelled.  One of the awesome features of multiplayer mode is that you can set up a handicap when playing against a less-skilled opponent.  Once your handicap is set, the mass you expel will have a lesser effect on your mote’s momentum.  The game even provides a way to send a purchased copy to a friend as a gift.  If the exacting adherence to physics does not impress you then the stunning graphics and subdued original soundtrack of the game will in this long weekend’s top pick.

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• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost