In 2010, Jerry Holkins, aka Tycho, posted chapters for what he hoped would become the third installment of Penny Arcade’s steampunk RPG game series, but then much to the dismay of fans, not much else was heard of about the game.

Cut to 2012 and not only does the game have a developer, indie devs Zeboyd games, but it should be released sometime this summer. I got a chance to sit in on the panel where the game’s creators, plus Holkins himself, discussed how the game resurfaced and came to be.

What is obviously different right from the start in On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is the SNES-style art and graphics. The previous two games looked a bit more like one of Mike Krahulik’s comics, but this third game is less comic, more Final Fantasy. The battle system and dialogue boxes are reminiscent of all my favorite RPGs growing up, but combined with the snarky, sometimes foul dialogue always present in the Penny Arcade games, it’s more like an R-rated version of Dragon Warrior.

During the Q&A portion of the panel, fans asked a lot about the other apparent difference in On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, which is the absence of a customizable protagonist. In this third installment, players take on a party of Gabriel, Tycho, and Ann. The developers mentioned that they may wrap up the story of the previous protagonist, but you won’t be able to play as him. However, there will be enemies in tiny hats, and tiny hats make everything funnier, so it all balances out.

On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 will be available this summer on PC, Mac, Xbox, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android.

You may have heard of a little game called Call of Duty: Black Ops. In fact, before the more recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, it was the best selling first person shooter game of all time on the XBox 360, PS3 and PC.

But what if you didn’t have and XBox or were on the road and wanted to play it on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch? Well, up until today you were out of luck. Fortunately, your luck is changing . . . for the better.

That’s right kids today Activision has released Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Here’s all the scoop from the official press release:

Adapted from Treyarch’s best-selling console hit, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and built specifically for Apple mobile devices, Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies delivers a Zombies experience never before seen on mobile along with 50 levels of cult-favorite Dead-Ops Arcade, providing the ultimate undead challenge for fans of Call of Duty’s signature Zombies mode. Featuring Voice Chat for a true Call of Duty style multiplayer experience, the title allows gamers to play solo or join a team of up to four to take down hordes of zombies.

Ok music creation fans who don’t have iPads, your time has come. That’s right, Apple has today official dropped the Garage Band app for iPhone and iPod Touch.

As you probably know, prior to today, it was only available for OS X-running Macs and on the iPad. But no more. Now you can compose the next great song while sitting in the waiting room of your doctor’s office or on the toilet. Just be sure to use headphones . . and wash your hands.

“GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller said. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.”

GarageBand is available in iTunes for $4.99 to new users or for free to those who already own the app on an iPad. It is supported by the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the third and fourth-generation iPod touch. Click through for the full press release from Apple.

It’s another great day for those of you currently using Googles new Google+ service and also Apple’s iPad or iPod Touch. Why? Because it’s the day Google has finally released an update for the app for iOS and made it work with not only the iPhone but the iPad and iPod Touch too.

The new version of the app not only works with all iOS devices it also adds Huddle settings and aggregated circle add notifications, a nice couple of improvements. If you recall, Google first launched Google+ on Android and then a few weeks later for the iPhone. At that point, iPad and iPod Touch users were left wanting. No more.

If you haven’t had a chance to try Google+ yet, see if you can convince one of your friends already using it to send you an invite. Or, if you really want one, drop us a note in the comments and we’ll see what we can do.

If you’re already rocking Google+ and want to get the new, updated app, head on over to the iTunes Store. Oh, as a special bonus, we can also confirm that this version of the Google+ app now works with a certain Beta version of iOS that’s coming soon. But please, don’t tell Apple we said so.

If you’re one of the people who like to make sure you’re friends know where you are and what you’re doing as much as possible, you’re probably already using Foursquare. If you’re also n iOS user, then today is your lucky day. Well, actually yesterday. Why?

Foursquare released a new version of its iOS client on Tuesday with a number of changes and enhancements. Among the changes are a new Check In button that will allow users to check into locations faster, a new Explore tab that will help users find local specials easier, and a faster check-in process.

Of course, being the early adopters we are around here, we installed the new app immediately. It definitely seemed improved and only took a few minutes to get used to the new layout and features. The user interface also feels noticeably quicker.

Also, in related news, Foursquare announced it has surpassed 10,000,000 users. That’s “M” as in Million. Nice work Foursquare team.

To get Foursquare 3.2, hit up the iTunes App Store.

If you’re an Android-powered device user and have been jealous of all your iPhone and iPad using friends who get to watch Netflix content on their devices, be jealous no longer. Netflix finally announced that its Android application is now available and ready for you to download in the Android Market.

However, as great as that news is for Android users, there’s one thing that may dampen the excitement. The app is only supported on “select phones that have the requisite playback support.” All is not lost, however, as Netflix says it will add supported devices to its list over time.

As you probably already know, the video streaming service is currently available on Windows Phone and iOS devices, but what was the holdup for Android? “Because the platform has evolved so rapidly, there are some significant challenges associated with developing a streaming video application for this ecosystem,” Netflix product team member Roma De said.

“One of these challenges is the lack of standard streaming playback features that the Netflix application can use to gain penetration across all available Android phones. In the absence of standardization, we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can support playback.”

I guess that makes sense. See, Apple owning the entire widget and making developers adhere to a strict set of rules might not be a bad thing after all. At least iOS users get cool apps first, at least in most cases.

Netflix for Android currently runs on the HTC Incredible, Nexus One, and EVO 4G with Android 2.2 installed. It’s also supported on the Nexus S and Nexus One with Android 2.3 installed.

Games based on popular or cult classic movies don’t always deliver the goods and often seem more like a cheap grab for cash than an actual attempt at creating a good game. However, there are sometimes exceptions. One of those exceptions is the new game Army of Darkness: Defense game from Backflip Studios and MGM Studios.

Army of Darkness: Defense is a mobile castle defense game designed as a homage to Sam Raimi’s 1992 classic film and takes place during the pivotal castle scene from the movie where Ash and his allies defend the powerful Necronomicon within Lord Arthur’s fortress from the onslaught of the Deadites.

In the game you take on the role of the chiseled chin, one-liner-spouting Ash while summoning familiar troops, spells and weapons from the movie to help in the defense. Gameplay features include over 150 direct lines of dialogue from Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, and beautifully animated graphics using the well-known “Granny 3D” engine.

Army of Darkness: Defense gives Ash the ability to call upon a wide variety of allies to help preserve the Necronomicon including swordsmen, armored knights, archers and more. In addition to the originally composed sound and music, the app also features many of the famous characters from the movie including Arthur, Henry, Sheila, the Wiseman, Evil Ash, and more.

Check out some screens from the game after the jump. Pick up your copy of Army of Darkness: Defense now in the iTunes App Store for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.

Even when they make dumb mistakes (which doesn’t happen often) Apple is pretty quick to try and fix them. Or, at the very least they offer an explanation. In the case of the recent location tracking issue, they’re doing both.

According to a source that informed BGR, Apple isn’t wasting any time fixing the location tracking issue in the iPhone and other iOS devices. Apparently, it is going to be done via an iOS update within the next two weeks or even sooner.

The update will be known as iOS version 4.3.3 and will address the following:

• The device will no longer back up the location database to iTunes
• The size of the location database will be reduced
• The location database will be deleted entirely when Location Services are turned off
• Battery life improvements
• iPod bug fixes

Looks good. Let’s hope this takes care of the public outcry over location security and privacy for this issue. Really, I’ll be happy if the update just gives me back the battery life I seem to have lost with the last one.

Whatever your thought on the relative merits of Twitter and the power of the Internets, one thing is for certain, over at Twitter HQ, if the public says something sucks, they listen. At least in this case.

In case you haven’t been keeping up, here’s the background. A few weeks ago Twitter released an update to its popular App for iOS devices. Most of the time updates bring needed features and bug fixes and are met with a generally positive response from the users at large.

Not this time. Instead, the update featured one big new thing: QuickBar. According to Twitter, the QuickBar “was originally conceived to help users discover what’s happening in the broader world beyond people they already follow.”

It didn’t really do that. What it did do was ignite a storm of protest on Twitter and elsewhere decrying that the QuickBar, and its intrusive nature, had to go. Well folks, Twitter has listened and as of the latest update released late yesterday, the QuickBar is officially gone.

So, fire up iTunes or go to the App store on your iOS devices, get the latest update and be rid of the QuickBar forever — or at least until Twitter decides to put it back again.

As expected, Apple late yesterday released the latest version of its operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, collectively known as iOS. This update brings the version of iOS to 4.3.

Important additions with this update include Apple’s new Personal Hotspot feature, which is now available on GSM versions of the iPhone 4. Previously, it had only been available to customers using Verizon’s CDMA iPhone. In addition, now available in iOS is AirPlay support for third-party apps.

This update is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, Apple TV and the third and fourth-generation iPod touch models. For full details on the update, head over to Apple’s website. If you do update, let us know how it goes in the comments.

As of yet, this update isn’t available for the Verizon iPhone 4. However, we expect that to drop in the next few days. At least we hope so or a few members of the staff are going to be a little cranky.

The competition between location-based social networking applications just heated up even more with the announcement by Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, via his blog, that an updated version of his company’s software is now available to iOS and Android users. As frequent users of this application, we couldn’t be happier here at The Flickcast offices.

Focusing on discovery, encouragement, and loyalty, Foursquare 3.0 rolls out several new features. For example, through the new “Explore” tab, users can input what it is they are looking for, getting recommendations from the app based on what’s around and where friends have visited.

In addition, the app features a revamped leader board which the company hopes will further encourage users to explore their world. According to Crowley: “You’ll see that we’ve replaced our old leader board (and its simple points system and Sunday night reset) with a sliding 7-day barometer of you and your friends.” “Check-ins now trigger points for dozens of different types of actions.”

Loyalty comes in the form of merchants additional ways to reward “swarms, groups of friends, regulars, newbies, or everyone.” Merchants will get their hands on these features later this week.

Even though many people prefer to read comics printed on paper that hasn’t stopped Marvel from having an iPad Application on which fans can read many of their favorite comics. This week some new comics come to that device for your reading pleasure.

Some of the ones we’re most interested include Ender’s Game: War of Gifts, Loki #3, X-Men: Messiah Complex #1-13 and the free comic New Mutants #1. You can find the Marvel Comics App either at the company’s website or directly at iTunes. Check out the list (and some cool cover art) below.

Digital Comics On-Sale:

AVENGERS VS. PET AVENGERS #3

BLACK WIDOW #7

ORSON SCOTT CARD’S ENDER’S GAME: WAR OF GIFTS

(Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game: War of Gifts Special #1, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game: Mazer in Prison #1, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game: Recruiting Valentine #1, and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game: The League War #1)

IRON MAN: RAPTURE #3

LOKI #3

MARVEL 1602: NEW WORLD

(Marvel 1602: New World #1-5)

NEW MUTANTS VOL. 1: RETURN OF LEGION

(New Mutants #1-5)