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Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap of new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games that you can start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know in the comments section if you have any suggestions for next week’s post.

Description : Move units freely around a grid-based map to flank the enemy, striking from both sides in a pincer attack. A myriad of richly distinctive and diverse foes will confront you on a variety of battle maps. Prevail against them to gradually unravel the mysteries of this strange new world.

Description : Doggins is a quiet little adventure game about a terrier, time travel and a villainous monocled squirrel. Explore the moon, sniff some things and unravel a plot to sabotage the history of human invention.

Description : Atomic+ is a simple, fast-paced action game where you avoid bullets and survive for the longest time while collecting squares to achieve the highest score. The game features four different control modes (auto, manual, full, full+) with two different difficulties (normal, hardcore).

Description : Cricket Captain has been hailed as the best cricket management simulation ever created, and with one of the most exciting cricket seasons for a decade in prospect, it’s about time you took control.

Description : Conquer through battle and reclaim the land you once called home! Craft Units from each tower to build a strategic army. Command your units in Real Time and assist them in battle with your magic spells

Description : Sentinel’s award-winning strategy gameplay expands explosively as the interstellar war moves to a mysterious alien world. Deploy devastating new towers and technology against an enemy that’s smarter and more deadly than ever before. Battle across vast landscapes and earn a wealth of upgrades as you explore the mystery of the Dark Star.

Description : Charge into battle on distant planets and lead your troops to victory in this action-packed combat strategy game! Build a base, recruit an unstoppable force and challenge players across the Star Wars universe in Star Wars™: Commander!

Description : Yes Chef follows the story of a young apprentice named Cherry, with dreams of becoming the greatest chef in the world. With your help, Cherry must travel the globe in search of mouth-watering recipes for her very own restaurant!

Description : Take down your foes with slashes, sword throws and chain trips to complete quests for gear and glory.

Description : Race fast and free as Cars characters with nitro-charged arcade racing! Then go build your own 3D Radiator Springs, home of Lightning and his buddies. Watch it go from a humble town to a thriving city!

Android has always been the most adventurous mobile operating system. It’s constantly evolving and Google is always changing different aspects of it. This year’s release of Android L includes one of the biggest overhauls to the OS that we’ve ever seen. Everything from the runtime to the design scheme is changing. With all of those changes, Google made the wise move of allowing nerds and developers alike to try out Android L on Nexus devices before pushing it to mass market.

I’ve had the privilege of using Android L on my Nexus 7 since last night. As such, I thought that I’d share my first impressions of it, both for those who have it and those who don’t. Let’s get right into it.

Google made a big point of Material Design at Google I/O. The truth is, Android L doesn’t look as radically different as you might think. There are differences, sure, but the majority of things are the same. The homescreen has no major changes, nor does the app drawer. The settings have changed to adopt Material Design, as has the Calculator app. None of the other apps (aside from the dialer on phones) have changed their design, which makes the change seem much lot smaller. This should change over time, though, as more apps switch from Holo to Material Design.

The notification tray is one area that received a major redesign. No longer are there two trays for alerts and quick settings. Now there’s one unified notification tray that’s home to both notifications and quick settings. This is how it works: drag down from the top of the screen to see your notifications, and then drag down on that notification tray to view your quick settings. There’s also a button to go directly into Settings.

There are couple of major flaws with this system. One: to open quick settings, you now have perform at least two swipes – sometimes more, because it’s finicky – to get to your quick settings. While you’re in those quick settings, you also can’t act on any of the notifications that are quite visible directly below the quick settings. To access the notifications, you have to manually close quick settings and then tap on the notification. It’s a bit too much of a hassle and is something that I sincerely hope Google changes before launching Android L to the public.

The lock screen has been due for a refresh, and with Android L it’s finally received one. Notifications are now front and center, with quick access to them straight from the lock screen. Notifications are also expandable on the lock screen, just like in the notification tray. To unlock your device, you simply swipe up. You can also swipe to the left to open the camera, and on phones, swipe to the right to open the dialer. It looks busier than the previous lock screen, but it works well.

Project Volta is Google’s push for better battery life in Android. As of yet, we haven’t seen this. In fact, battery life has been worse than on KitKat. Since this is a preview build, though, we’re going to let this slide because are plenty of other bugs to squash. By the final release, we expect this to be ironed out.

Android L adds in lots of new animations and features. To compensate, Google has switched the default runtime to ART, promising faster performance. However, performance has been a mixed bag so far. Some things, such as scrolling and animations, are noticeably faster and smoother, but others aren’t quite as refined. The new multitasking view stutters whenever you try to use it. At times, the notification tray will also stutter or randomly flick back up even without a screen touch. All of this is normal for a preview build, but I hope that Google is working hard to fix the problems.

As we’d expect from a preview build with a new runtime, app compatibility is varied. Some apps support Android L just fine, but others don’t. Some of the big name apps that don’t work include Twitter, Dropbox, Bible and Google Docs. There are others that are are having issues, and it’ll take a bit of time for developers to get their apps working with this new version of Android. In the meantime, it’s important to remember that this is still a beta OS and that these issues are to be expected.

For a beta build, the Android L Developer Preview isn’t too bad. It has some quirks and there are some things that we’d like to see changed, but for the most part, it works and is filled with potential. The best thing for Google to do is to listen to user feedback, take into account what all of us using Android L are noticing and then work on fixing those issues. If you don’t have the Android L Developer Preview, don’t stress it; you’ll get the fully working version in the fall and you won’t have to deal with all the bugs.

If you do have the Android L Developer Preview, drop a comment letting us know how you’re enjoying it!