Cloud gaming has been a huge buzz word for gaming both for PC, console, and in mobile.  The shine of excitement has dulled over the past year despite the rol-lout of the hyped up OnLive cloud gaming system.

On smaller fronts, cloud gaming is slowly growing.  As well as OnLive, there is Apple's iOS 5 introducing the iCloud, and Gaiaki bringing gaming into the cloud.  Their work has laid a lot of the foundation of how cloud gaming is slowly seeping into the mainstream in carefully planned steps.

Riot Games’ Brandon Beck moderated a panel with David Perry (Gaikai), Brian Prince (Microsoft), and David Wilson (GameStop); all of who are working with cloud in different ways.  Their opinions and ideas explain how cloud gaming is affecting the industry right now:

Rock, paper, scissors is an international game.  It’s played everywhere in the world to solve disagreements, make bets with, or just pass the time when you were five years old.

Massive Joe Studios are bringing the game back to iOS on iPhone and iPod Touch.  Massive Joe Studios’ most well known member might be Jeff Matsuda.  Previously a comic book artist, Creative Director on The Batman cartoon, Matsuda is the artistic driving force behind Massive Joe Studios.

I met with CEO/Co-founder Mike Su to talk about Age of Monsters – Rock Paper Scissors; what is planned to be the first game in the created universe of Age of Monsters.

It's been over a decade since Diablo II was released, and it is testament to that game's popularity that there is so much excitement about the Diablo III closed beta and upcoming release in 2012.

Diablo III beta impressions

I played the beta recently, and I think Blizzard has made something that will please fans and newcomers alike. Diablo fans will be right at home with the controls right from the start because there are no big changes. The graphic style is what you would expect from Blizzard, with well defined cartoon-like graphics that are full of detail. It's very atmospheric, and the environment looks great, with some nice touches like crows flying up out trees as you pass.

The beta isn't massively long, but it gives you a taste of how the game has been improved. The general feeling I got was one of smoothness - Diablo III is really slick, and everything just seems to work as it should. The sound is excellent, and visually it manages to be dark enough while keeping everything clear.

Once you've created your Hero, from the usual character classes, you are dropped right into New Tristram, a town that has just suffered a meteor strike that has resulted in the dead rising and attacking. This sets you up on a mission to find Deckhard Cain, who is trapped in the Cathedral.

How to get a Diablo III beta key

If you want to apply for Diablo III beta testing, while nothing is guaranteed, you can sign up for a free Battle.net account, and then follow the instructions here on the official Diablo III site.

As an apology for the connection blackout experienced by BlackBerry users last week, Research in Motion (RIM) has  announced today that it will offer a series of free premium apps to its customers.

As of this Wednesday October 19th, BlackBerry users will be able to download a selection of premium apps, worth more than $100, for free. RIM describes the offer, which runs until 31st December this year, as “an expression of appreciation for their (subscribers) patience during recent service disruptions."

Apps and games that will be available to download from the BlackBerry App World for free include: SIMS 3, Bejeweled, N.O.V.A, Bubble Bash 2, Shazam Encore, Vlingo Plus, and Photo Editor Ultimate.

Remorseful husbands traditionally buy flowers to get back into their wives' good books and it seems multinational corporations are using apps and games to make sure they aren’t thrown out of bed by their customers either.

RIM’s sweetener has echoes of when the PlayStation network fell for several weeks, due to a hacking attack. Sony decided to offer a choice of PS3 games and subscription to its PlayStation Plus service for a month.

I'm not sure that the damage caused by three days without access network on your BlackBerry can be made up for with a bunch of free apps. What do you think?

Spending time at GDC Online 2011 was interesting.  While the conference is much smaller than the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the specific focus on all things online offered a lot of interesting content and new technologies to learn about.

Digital Harmony Games’ introduction of Dragons vs Unicorns might have been my last meeting before I flew back to San Francisco, but it showed off something I have been waiting for in mobile games for a while now.

True real-time cross platform gaming

Attending Playdom’s session with Steve Meretzky and Dave Rohrl led me to two distinct discoveries.

One: There is no magical formula for social games. Two: Most of them have a limited lifespan.

The pair discussed ten trends in the session, they highlighted a lot of the evolution of the genre as a whole and named specific titles.

When I was contacted and asked to meet Chris Ulm, I didn’t really know much about Chris or Appy Entertainment. My meeting him at the end of day two of GDC Online 2011 was a bit of a last minute thing.

But I am glad to have met him.

His history is epic, especially for a fan of comics and games. He was the Editor in Chief at Malibu Comics and the Ultraverse. Malibu published the first Image Comics. He was part of the sale of Malibu to Marvel Comics. He’s been in the gaming industry on the console side during the days of PlayStation 2 and Xbox, working for and creating his own development companies.

Now he makes mobile games with Appy Entertainment as CEO, being one of the early developers and publishers with the launch of the App Store. He also admits he rambles, but is honest in his opinions and insights.

Appy Entertainment is primarily an iOS developer and publisher.

There are so many apps for kids on the App Store that it makes choosing the best one for your little angels a bit of a challenge. There are plenty of apps and games that are great for shutting children up on a long journey, yet much less that actually inspire, educate and encourage creativity in youngsters.

I’ve hand-picked a selection from the cream of the App Store: six original, innovative apps that encourage children to think creatively, as well as being a lot of fun. In general, these applications are designed for over threes, but they can be enjoyed by bigger kids as well. In fact, I defy you not to pick up and play with these once your little ones have gone off to bed!

Toca Hair Salon

If your child has aspirations of being a hairdresser, or even if they just like dressing up games, Toca Hair Salon is not to be missed. This excellent interactive app lets children run their own hair salon. They can cut, comb, blow-dry and tint the hair of six different customers to make weird and wonderful hair styles.

The presentation of Toca Hair Salon is a cut above. The fun characters include a dog, a lion and some human customers (or should that be ‘victims’?) You simply choose a tool, then use it to change the hair by running your finger along the head. It’s really addictive, and as you‘ll see from this 5-year-old’s video review of Toca Hair Salon, kids can’t get enough of it!

For ages: 3 & up Price: $2.59 Compatible with: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

Farmville creator Zynga has unleashed its latest bid to suck all of the hours out of your day with the release of Mafia Wars 2.

The original game was a phenomenon I really couldn't understand, and a big part of why I disliked Facebook gaming so much. So it pains me to say that Mafia Wars 2 actually looks like Zynga has invested a lot in its development. It takes the cartoon style of Farmville to make a kind of cutesy but bloody gangster world, and while it's pretty cheesy and stereotyped, the much improved graphics and animations at least give it the appearance of a game!

After a really quick look at it, it seems that the basic game mechanics are pretty similar to Zynga's other games. The improved presentation means you will get something nicer to look at, which is at least some compensation for the hopeless mouse-clicking addiction you'll find yourself in. It would be great to hear from Mafia Wars fans if this sequel lives up to their expectations!

Ace of Spades is a free beta game that Call of Duty-style multiplayer shooting with Minecraft visuals and features. Currently in beta at version 0.60, despite missing a proper game interface, Ace of Spades is a surprisingly playable PC game.

To play quickly, simply download and install the game, then go to the Ace of Spades/play page, choose a server and the game should launch. You can only change your user name by opening the game's folder (click Windows Start button, then All Programs, then Ace of Spades), opening the Configuration file, then replacing the word 'DEUCE' with your chosen word and saving. There are a ton of other hints, tips and importantly controls at the Ace of Spades Wiki.

Environments vary, from randomly spawned worlds, to ones designed by players. All can be mined and built on during battle, which makes for some interesting ideas. The map I played above was two bases separated by an enormous plateau, that had tunnels and chasms carved through it, with fighting taking place all over the place. It's really compelling and I highly recommend it. You'll be hard pushed to find something this good for free!

Had Columbus not bumped into the Americas about 500 years ago the world would be a very different place. For starters, Gameloft wouldn’t be running a fantastic sale on some their best iOS games this weekend.

To celebrate Columbus Day weekend, Gameloft is giving you the chance to discover some of its top premium titles for just 99 cents each. Games included in this promotion include Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus, 9mm, Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden, Eternal Legacy, and (aptly), The Settlers (pictured above).

Visit the Gameloft blog to find out more about the deals on these pioneering games.

We didn't see the iPhone 5 yesterday, but if you were watching Apple’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ event closely then you will have witnessed an awesome demo of the upcoming Infinity Blade 2. Epic Games’ stunning-looking new slasher isn’t out until December 1st, but to keep you going until then the developer has released an update to the current Infinity Blade.

Version 1.4 of Infinity Blade includes Content Pack 4, which adds a whole bunch of new rings, swords, shields and helmets. You’ll need them too, because the new “fierce and deadly” RookBane enemy is not someone you want to tackle unprepared!

The other big annual face off has started with EA's Battlefield 3 landing the first punch against Activision's Modern Warfare 3. Today PC gamers can download and play the open beta for Battlefield 3, which features the map 'Operation Métro' and game mode 'Rush'. It's 16 versus 16 online multiplayer, and you will certainly need a powerful machine to get the most out of the game. You have to use EA's downloader Origin, and it's a hefty 3.9 gigabytes.

We'll post our full reflections soon, but my first impressions are excellent. The graphics are simply stunning, movement is more realistic than ever before and the sound is excellent and dynamic. As is always the case with Battlefield, it seems well balanced, but takes some time to get into.

Newbies will be bewildered, and probably get shot a lot. You have to invest time in learning the map, which is pretty big, and until you do, other players will punish you for popping your head out in the wrong place! Take a look at our preview here. Do you think Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be able to match this?

FIFA 12 comes out this Friday, so it’s time to start thinking about which soccer game you’ll be investing in this season. That means only one thing - it's time for our annual post comparing FIFA with Pro Evolution Soccer!

Since PES 2012 isn’t released until October 14 in some places, the temptation will be to splash out on EA’s title this week and not bother with Pro Evo, or just to stick it on your holiday gift list. But what if EA has tweaked the excellent FIFA 11 too much and ruined it? What if PES 2012 makes the leap and recaptures the magic of those enchanting previous generation versions?

My advice is to go and download the demo versions of both FIFA 12 and PES 2012 before you make any purchasing decisions. Give each a few hours workout and draw your own conclusions. That’s what I did, and here’s my verdict:

Gameplay

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012

Pro Evo has been accused of losing its way in recent versions - a pal of mine now calls it “No Evo”! It’s fair to say that PES has struggled to make the jump to the next generation of consoles, while FIFA positively embraced the new possibilities.

PES 2012, however, as with the previous version, sees the magic of the glory days (I’m talking Pro Evo 3 through to 7) slowly returning. PES 2012 is fast, fluid and fun to play. The game engine gives you a real sense of freedom: there are always plenty of options when attacking, passes can be weighted to perfection, and shooting is a joy to behold.

Pro Evo 2012 adds a new off-the-ball control system, which allows you to unlock even more new attacking opportunities. A run down the wing is now a journey into a world of possibilities, as you can take control of any other attacker, drifting into space to receive a pass or pulling a defender out of position to create space for the player on the ball. Granted, controlling players off the ball (done using the second analog stick) is disorientating at first, but you’ll soon start to love it.

A couple years ago, the mobile market only really had two types of apps and games: free or paid. Now users are presented with free, free with ads, free with in-app purchases, paid, paid with free updates, and paid with paid updates among others.

That difference has created a new industry. BulkyPix's, COO and VP of Sales and Marketing, Vincent Dondaine answered some questions about development, games, and commerce.