This Week in Games, Oct. 26 - 30

Your weekly wrap-up of casual, social and video gaming news. Got a news tip? Send it to robin@funtank.com! 

Game Releases

Our crossword/paint by numbers brainteaser, Picma, launched this week! We've shaved a few years off our life by trying to crack the image in each of the game's 100+ puzzles. Have you played yet? 

Move over Guitar Hero, DJ Hero's arrived. The newest game to feature a plastic peripheral, DJ Hero lets you live out your record-spinning party-rocking dreams -- with 80 mashup songs and a turntable, the only thing we're missing is a pair of gigantic headphones to clutch while we're bobbing our heads to the beat. 

The last episode of Grand Theft Auto IV has arrived on the Xbox Live Marketplace and retail stores. The Ballad of Gay Tony extends the storyline of the main game, following new protagonist Luis Lopez as he navigates the glitz and glamour of Liberty City. Among other things, the expansion features base-jumping and tank-driving. Yeah, it's pretty cool. 

Racing devotees got Forza Motorsport 3 this week, a driving game featuring hyper-realistic cars, tons of customization and a built-in video editor. Decals, tuned setups and videos created can also be downloaded and shared (even sold!) with the game's storefront. Earning money by creating content for a popular 360 game? Sounds like our life goal!

News

Mashable's Open Web Awards are now open for nomations! You know who could use a nomination? Candystand for the 'Most Creative Use of Facebook Connect' category! You can vote once a day -- so please do!

You might be trick-or-treating tomorrow night, but what will you do during the day? Games.com and Gamezebo's Halloween casual game roundups might just be the thing to tie you over. 

Changes are coming to Facebook which may change the way social gamers are notified of activities in and around games such as Mafia Wars, Farmville and Pet Society. The social network's messaging system will be used for communication between users (invitations to games, gifts, etc) while email will be used for interactions between application developers and users. Games will also get their own section on a redesigned homepage. 

Preview: Clockwords Prelude on Candystand.com

Clear your schedules next week - Monday's new game release is going to be a gigantic timesink (we should know - less work got done at Candystand this week precisely because of this game). Clockwords: Prelude is coming to the site, and it's seriously addictive.

Clockwords is part typing game, part tower defense -- you'll need to type as many words as possible to defeat enemy spiders coming to steal your secrets (the story's a little bizarre, but we went with it). Using letters in the chamber will increase the damage you deal. After each level, you'll also have the chance to 'transmute' letters so they are worth more damage each time you use them. 

And like all new Candystand games, you'll be able to earn and show off a brand new gold/silver/bronzeTrophy for doing well. 

"I can just type any random word? This sounds easy."

That's what we thought too, until we realized that coming up with long words on the fly is far more difficult than it initially looks. At one point, six of us were gathered around a computer yelling words/themes out ("Types of Diseases!" "Dinosaurs!" "Members of the Village People!") -- quite a sight to behold. 

Check out the video below for a quick peek at the game before it launches on our site on Monday. 

Candystand Guests on AOL Games' Weekly Podcast!

You may or may not know, but before I came over to Candystand this month, I was an assistant editor for AOL Games' casual/social games blog and co-hosted their weekly podcast, the AOL Gameshow. The team was gracious enough to invite me back as a guest last week, where we talked about a wide variety of games and I was able to plug some of our popular titles including Electric Box and Tennis Stars Cup. 

Check out the video below, and let us know what you think! With any luck, we'll be invited back to record with them again soon.

Preview: Picma on Candystand

Our new game launching tomorrow: Picma! It's a classic puzzle game known by many other names (Picross, Paint by Numbers, Japanese Crosswords, etc) with a simple premise: complete the image in each grid by filling in the correct squares. The number of squares in each row/column is indicated on the side of the grid (it's like the answer to the puzzle is already there... except it's not actually that easy!). Check out the screens below to get a taste of the game.

   

We'll be launching Picma live on the site tomorrow morning, so make sure you check back and play! Like all of our new games, you'll be able to win tickets and a gold/silver/bronze trophy for playing, too. Here's what they new trophies look like: 

New Blog Coming Soon!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week - we're hard at work on the brand new Candystand blog! Here's what you'll find when we relaunch in a few weeks:

• More previews of upcoming games - videos, screens and details about the newest free flash games to join the Candystand lineup.
• News - we'll be rounding up the most important flash, online and casual gaming news relevant to you.
• Easier commenting - we'll be implementing a new comment system that lets you leave hassle-free comments with almost any type of login.
• Cleaner design - we cleaned up a few areas for you to find our blog content more easily.

And last but not least...

• Labs! - we won't be fully rolling out this feature for a few weeks, but prepare to have your mind blown when it does! We'll be setting up brand new games right on the blog for you to test out - the best ones will be brought over to the main Candystand site, where they'll be integrated into your profiles and potentially include Trophies and Tickets, too! We're super excited about this new feature and hope to bring you dozens of fresh new games in the coming weeks.

The image up top is a quick wireframe peek at what we're working on.