Theme Park coming to iPhone, iPad this year: Get your tickets ready

Here's a piece of news from this year's gamescom convention that I'm genuinely excited about: Theme Park (you know, the classic mid-90's amusement park simulator) is coming to iPhone and iPad later this year! The game is being rebuilt from the ground up and will be released by Electronic Arts as a freemium (free-to-play) title with some premium extras.

Digital Spy has captured some details about the new game, which will allow you to build new rides and attractions with their construction (and profit intake) taking place in real time. You'll have a "Park Rank" that serves as your level, with new rides being unlocked as you level up, or you can use a premium currency (we suspect they'll be called "Tickets") to unlock items and complete other tasks without waiting.

Similar to a city-builder, Theme Park will allow you to expand your amusement park by purchasing additional plots of land, and will then let you style the entire park in a number of themes: pirate, futuristic, and natural/organic being just a few of the announced examples.

While you'll eventually be able to let your park earn money over time without interaction, you can also use your device's touch controls to interact with items like the bouncy castle (by poking it) or the swinging ship by flicking the ship with your finger. To add more flair to the game, EA will use its many franchises such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Dead Space to inspire new rides or perhaps even themed areas in your park that will be available to build or otherwise purchase. We can only imagine that those sorts of items would cost premium currency, but a girl can hope for a free dragon statue, right?

As more news launches about Theme Park (including any details about its assumed social features), we'll make sure to let you know. For now, I'll just keep myself busy with my other versions of Theme Park while dreaming of new park ideas for this one!

[Source and Image Credit: Digital Spy]

Are you excited about Theme Park for iPhone / iPad? What sorts of rides or themes do you hope EA adds to the games? Are there other EA games you'd like to see integrated into an amusement park?

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes moves the franchise to the free-to-play arena

Electronic Arts has announced a new installment in the Warhammer Online franchise that brings the series into the free-to-play landscape. Under their Play4Free heading, BioWare and Electronic Arts have announced Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes at Gamescom, which will launch sometime this fall.

Taking the PvP (Player vs Player) arena combat from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Wrath of Heroes will allow players to mix and match the game's many heroes, forming combinations that best fit each player's style and each individual encounter you may face.

With the main focus being on the PvP Arenas, you'll find plenty of them when the game launches. For one, you can enter into three-team combat of up to 18 players (six players per team), as players are separated between three different races. We'd assume that at some point, you'll be able to use real money to better outfit your characters, or perhaps even purchase new heroes, but for now, all we've been told is that the game will be free to play and that you can sign up for access into the game's beta on its official website.

We can't promise that everything in Warhammer: Wrath of Heroes will be free, but if you're like me, you're up for trying anything "free" at least once. We'll make sure to let you know when you'll have that chance later this year.

Are you a big Warhammer Online fan? Will you try to get your friends to play this new game with you now that the experience will technically be free?