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[vagabondarts]

A little late to the party but...

iOS7 Game Center is trash:
- It's ugly as shit.
- They removed daily/weekly leaderboards.
- The achievement notifications take up 1/4 of the screen.

It's as if the person who designed the app doesn't even know what video games are.

I like everything about ios7 except the safari and settings icons and game center. Game Center design is nasty and doesn't fit with every other part of the OS design.
Looks like a cheap no name design on wrapping paper at party city or something. Hideous.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

I did not like Pocket Trains at all initially but it's growing on me a bit. Seems like it is not balanced well.. they offer you a lot of bux, but it really requires you to use them a LOT if you want to continually play. A bit unfortunate, but not surprising. I am level 5 now and have 4 train lines. My train from Berlin to Budapest to Istanbul is called the Turkey Trotter. :lol

Very, very disappointed with the achievements in it though. They were super lazy with them.. stat tracking in general is REALLY weak on this one in comparison to Pocket Planes for instance.

Does anyone know if the Jobs ever refresh? It doesn't seem like it..

I have seen it refresh once... but it just seemed to happen randomly. I had a train waiting in a station for ages and the cargo didn't refresh

I haven't named my trains yet, but what I miss about Planes in this game is you can't customise the look. I made some really cool themed planes but you can't even change the colours, just the routes.

I've just got the first part to a national express train. It goes 100mph. 5 more to collect. Chu chu!!

Fuel takes a while to go back up when you're out and wanting to play more.

 

[Shalashaska161]

Device backups in iCloud/iTunes retain save games/settings of any apps you keep installed. Saves are removed once the app is removed unless the app has iCloud documents support in which case it will remain in your cloud.

So if I do a full backup onto my computer, the save file will remain on my computer only as long as I keep the app on my phone? Kind of annoying, I'm not too keen on looking after each save file individually.

 

[Tunesmith]

So if I do a full backup onto my computer, the save file will remain on my computer only as long as I keep the app on my phone? Kind of annoying, I'm not too keen on looking after each save file individually.

Unfortunately yes, look into iFunBox (see FAQ section in #2 post of this thread) as an alternative.

 

[Tunesmith]

Double posting just for the sake of separating my posts

added to OP:



• Take countless quests and uncover the secrets of Wilderness
• Level up your character with skills of your choice
• Hundreds of swords, armor and accessories to equip
• Play all sides and make your own decisions

Also mined some quick impressions from More_Badass, Wunder and chickdigger802 for the OP.

Lastly I also flung these into the Game Update section, continuing the 'tradition' of highlighting updates for these two games from last month.

 

[Meier]

I have seen it refresh once... but it just seemed to happen randomly. I had a train waiting in a station for ages and the cargo didn't refresh

I haven't named my trains yet, but what I miss about Planes in this game is you can't customise the look. I made some really cool themed planes but you can't even change the colours, just the routes.

I've just got the first part to a national express train. It goes 100mph. 5 more to collect. Chu chu!!

Fuel takes a while to go back up when you're out and wanting to play more.

Bummer about the job refresh. Have one train sitting in Milan and the only cargo on the whole line is a 1 car (9 gold) load to Munich with nothing for Berlin. Meh!

Yeah, that's what I am most disappointed about (the fuel refresh times). Seems like they really want you to use bux quite a bit to continually play. I did get my first carbon steamer and it has more fuel and 12 cars which is really awesome. Didn't know that crates could be on the journey screen too -- I'll have to try and watch those more often I think.

 

[chickdigger802]

curious how yall are doing your railroads. stupid dublin and glasgow splitting off like that. There also doesn't seem to be any sort of layaway bonus in this... this barebones game just makes me wanna play more pocket planes again.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Bummer about the job refresh. Have one train sitting in Milan and the only cargo on the whole line is a 1 car (9 gold) load to Munich with nothing for Berlin. Meh!

Yeah, that's what I am most disappointed about (the fuel refresh times). Seems like they really want you to use bux quite a bit to continually play. I did get my first carbon steamer and it has more fuel and 12 cars which is really awesome. Didn't know that crates could be on the journey screen too -- I'll have to try and watch those more often I think.

They are quite rare like the bux, but I've had about 3 so far.

We must create an OT for this...

 

[Meier]

Here is my map thus far.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Nice. I have a line running from London to Moscow, via Amsterdam, Berlin and Minsk with my Carbon Steamer. It's a nice journey.

There's a complete lack of stats compared to Planes as well. Like you can't see which route/train is making the $$$.

What level are you? I'm nearing level 6 and I completed one of the events in Paris. Looks like you have one in Istanbul there.

 

[Meier]

Nice. I have a line running from London to Moscow, via Amsterdam, Berlin and Minsk with my Carbon Steamer. It's a nice journey.

There's a complete lack of stats compared to Planes as well. Like you can't see which route/train is making the $$$.

Sounds like a nice journey!

Yeah, they were pretty lazy on that (delivery analytics) in this.. hopefully it's added at a later time. I am not expecting that to happen though given how lax they were on the achievements. With Planes, achievements were tied to delivery distance, number of deliveries, etc. but this time they didn't even bother so I don't expect them to add it in at a later date. I wonder if the devs ever check here these days..

 

[chickdigger802]

game definitely feels half assed. the fuel thing doesn't help. while the main problem with pocket planes is that you pretty much need to spend 20% of your day on it, the fuel stuff here makes me forget about the game for the whole day lol.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Sounds like a nice journey!

Yeah, they were pretty lazy on that in this.. hopefully it's added at a later time. I am not expecting that to happen though given how lax they were on the achievements. With Planes, achievements were tied to delivery distance, number of deliveries, etc. but this time they didn't even bother so I don't expect them to add it in at a later date. I wonder if the devs ever check here these days..

Yeah they visited rather often when Planes was out. There was a really nice GAF community going on too.

One of my trains just blew

Had to pay some coins (400 odd) to repair.

 

[chickdigger802]

damn 2 of my trains blew in 30mins. each requiring a grand to fix.

yeah... think im done with this.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

Damn harsh. Mine wasn't very expensive to fix, though money isn't too much of a problem.

 

[ChackanKun]

Need more feedback about Shadow Run!!!!

 

[Gaaraz]

Finally got around to playing Ravenmark, I'm only 3 missions in but am sadly finding it really dull... I used to love SRPGs but am really struggling to get into this, it just feels unnecessarily fiddly at times and the battles really drag, I find myself making a move then just putting the iPad down for a minute or so.

 

[PFD]

This, of course, assumes no jailbreak funny business, in which case all bets are off.

I can confirm that iTunes backups will work even when going from a jailbroken device to a stock one. The only time they haven't worked for me is when moving to a device with a lower iOS version. iTunes will just refuse to restore from backup, saying it's from a newer OS.

 

[supahkiwi]

Has the game "battle cats" gone from the app store? Can't find it!

 

[Card Boy]

So Day-oos X: The Fall is $2.99. Not sure if i should wait for a PC/Console release.

 

[More_Badass]

I think Boson X should get an OP mention. Surprisingly I'm liking the IOS version more than PC version, the touchscreen controls are very good

I posted impressions earlier but here are some more from the TA forum:

Bought it. Played it. Love it. Nuff said.

It is funny though, I tried the PC version first, but when you play the iOS version, you really get more of the Super Hexagon vibe. Not sure which came first but the melding of the SH style circular patterns with platforming and runner elements is ingenious. Think it's actually more addictive than SH.

That said I suck at it so far (and pretty much do with SH too). Only got through the first level so far. So not too concerned with content...it's going to keep me busy for a while.

There really isn't much to say about this game after lavishing praise upon it. It possesses a sleek minimalist design and distills the essence of the lane runner into a colorful hexagonal space. Gameplay progresses through a series of meticulous platform jumps and well-timed lane changes. You really can't ask for much more. The design is reminiscent in some ways to the old rComplex game, but much more successfully implemented.

 

[vagabondarts]

So I'm really into pocket trains....

Initially you think you are going to be forced to buy bux because of how it's set up in pocket planes.

the more I play the more I realize you are never forced to buy them and they are metered out in larger amounts than in Pocket Planes.

I'm a train nerd too so I really like organizing my routes and dropping off cargo at the end of one line and picking it up on another, etc.

I also like how you don't constantly have to play the game all day. (pocket planes was brutal, tiny tower even more so)

I really hope there are future updates for more stat tracking or customization/engine types.
Anyway, for a free game with IAP in it it's fun. Best train game I've played on ios for sure

 

[Dog Problems]

So Day-oos X: The Fall is $2.99. Not sure if i should wait for a PC/Console release.

Nice. But I may wait for the possible PC version.

 

[PFD]

So Day-oos X: The Fall is $2.99. Not sure if i should wait for a PC/Console release.

It's a fun game. I played it as a stealth game, so shooting controls never bothered me.

 

[Tunesmith]

I think Boson X should get an OP mention. Surprisingly I'm liking the IOS version more than PC version, the touchscreen controls are very good

I posted impressions earlier but here are some more from the TA forum:

Yeah I'll add it today.

 

[FerranMG]

I'm liking Pocket Trains quite a bit too, but I agree that the game feels half assed.
There's plenty of stuff that made the other Nimble Bit games feel polished that are nowhere to be seen: stats, bitbook, decent achievements...

I have one major problem with the game, and it's that when a train loaded with cargo for, say, Paris, arrives to, say, Munich, if you want to unload the cargo, you have to have room left in the yard in Munich. If there's no room left , you can't remove it straight from the train, which sucks.

And one minor problem is that, so far, the game seems to focus too much on micromanaging. My train rides are never longer than 5-7 minutes. So, the only way to make money (at least in the beginning) is to play a lot.

I read in the TouchArcade forums that apparently the jobs are only supposed to refresh once a train leaves a city and gets back in it. That is, there's no refresh timer. In case the jobs refresh while a train is in a city, that's apparently a bug.


I'm liking it so far, but I really hope they update it because there's a lot of room for improvement to make it a really solid game.

 

[Fox1304]

NeoGAF! My old pals. I hope I'm not overstepping the boundaries of our friendship here, but I wanted to let you know that I made an app

It's called Pixel This, and it's a picross app for iOS. I realised that most of the picross games on iOS sucked, and are ugly or expensive or filled with ads or make you pay for hints and all that yucky stuff.

So I made a cool one. It's free (there are some IAPs if you want more puzzles), loads of levels, a cool zoom tool on iPhone (you see everything on iPad), a good tutorial, and more.

Please check it out here and let me know what you think!

It's my first ever app, and my first forary into programming. I coded it on an iPad, also, which is pretty cool. Hopefully it's the first of many

Can you please tell me more about this ? I'd LOVE to be able to do some iOS Coding on iPad.

 

[colinp]

McBacon, it is the epitome of Questionable Ethics to not have the price of the IAPs in the app when I click to buy! What's up with that???

Cool Picross clone though. Some of those pictures are.... Questionable.

 

[PittaGAF]

I've been out of the loop for two weeks so I do not know if it has already been mentioned, but contrary to previous report...AT LAST

FTL on iPad has been confirmed.

Directly from the devs (they mention specifically iPad later in the thread):

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...indie_bundle_9_creators_of_ftl_faster/ccekrmm

(HELL YES, could be soonish too).

I'm reading mixed reports on Shadowrun Returns (good controls but crashes and no sound !?!?!?!?)....I've no time at the moment so I'll stick with IB3 for now...waiting for trusty NeoGAF impressions.

Also...Simogo Device 6 seems to be already been submitted (at least a preliminary version...but it means it's near).

A really nice iOS Autumn approaching.

Ah...I forgot...next week the new Warhammer Quest expansion will be out as iAP, plus, for free, new level cap and cool legendary loot for previous characters.

 

[rakka]

Game center looks like crap now, just like the rest of iOS 7 (bar maybe the new icons). Everything else, mobile safari, settings, all the black/gray on white background with buttons replaced with just fucking text is stupid. And my phone dies about 2-3x faster too. Who would have thought a cartoonier and apparently more simple UI (except its the exact opposite, nearly everything is more fucking complicated) would do that.

Post-steve jobs apple is disappointing

 

[PittaGAF]

I'm reading mixed reports on Shadowrun Returns (good controls but crashes and no sound !?!?!?!?)....I've no time at the moment so I'll stick with IB3 for now...waiting for trusty NeoGAF impressions.

I quote myself...I just read the 'no sound' fix is already in review at Apple and already released on Google Play.
Also...iPad 4 owners seem to have no crashes at all.

 

[ParityBit]

Nice. But I may wait for the possible PC version.

It's only .... $2.99!

My coffee and Bagel on my drive to work from Duncan Donuts was $4.03 with tax ...

I could have done without the Bagel though

 

[Mr.Ock]

I've been out of the loop for two weeks so I do not know if it has already been mentioned, but contrary to previous report...AT LAST

FTL on iPad has been confirmed.

Directly from the devs (they mention specifically iPad later in the thread):

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...indie_bundle_9_creators_of_ftl_faster/ccekrmm

(HELL YES, could be soonish too).

Fantastic news, you made my day, good sir! FTL is going to be the game for my iPad!

 

[Fuu]

Has the game "battle cats" gone from the app store? Can't find it!

It got an update that put the title in Japanese (にゃんこ大戦&#20105 and made the game exclusive to the Japanese App Store. If you downloaded it previously on your account it should still available under the new title in the purchased tab of the App Store, but the in-game text is entirely in Japanese now too.

 

[Jedeye Sniv]

I've been out of the loop for two weeks so I do not know if it has already been mentioned, but contrary to previous report...AT LAST

FTL on iPad has been confirmed.

Directly from the devs (they mention specifically iPad later in the thread):

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...indie_bundle_9_creators_of_ftl_faster/ccekrmm

(HELL YES, could be soonish too).

I'm reading mixed reports on Shadowrun Returns (good controls but crashes and no sound !?!?!?!?)....I've no time at the moment so I'll stick with IB3 for now...waiting for trusty NeoGAF impressions.

Also...Simogo Device 6 seems to be already been submitted (at least a preliminary version...but it means it's near).

A really nice iOS Autumn approaching.

Ah...I forgot...next week the new Warhammer Quest expansion will be out as iAP, plus, for free, new level cap and cool legendary loot for previous characters.

Back from my ban. FTL on iPad? The gods have answered!

 

[solarus]

Game center looks like crap now, just like the rest of iOS 7 (bar maybe the new icons). Everything else, mobile safari, settings, all the black/gray on white background with buttons replaced with just fucking text is stupid. And my phone dies about 2-3x faster too. Who would have thought a cartoonier and apparently more simple UI (except its the exact opposite, nearly everything is more fucking complicated) would do that.

Post-steve jobs apple is disappointing

Agree with everything, mediocre update.

 

[FlashFlooder]

Can you please tell me more about this ? I'd LOVE to be able to do some iOS Coding on iPad.

There's an app called Codea that lets you code on the iPad, maybe he used that?

Anyway, Pixel This is awesome. You did a great job making it intuitive and easy to play, even on the smaller iPhone screen. More importantly, I love that you give the option to play with penalties for wrong guesses ("classic mode") or to let players make mistakes. I prefer the latter, but most of the picross apps on iOS do classic mode, for whatever reason.

The little touches like the animation while the grid fills in when you start a level shows that you put some thought and polish into it, and it pays off.

Anyway, awesome app. My only nitpick would be that it needs larger grids (is 10x10 the max?), and you need to show the price for the IAP!!! I was ready to buy, and clicked the button but saw no indication of how much it was going to cost, so I had to back out.

 

[Diablohead]

Is deus ex iOS good now? or is there still problems with how the controls feel?

I felt a little burned with the mass effect game, as cool as it looked I could never get into it and the combat felt off.

 

[GWX]

NeoGAF! My old pals. I hope I'm not overstepping the boundaries of our friendship here, but I wanted to let you know that I made an app

It's called Pixel This, and it's a picross app for iOS. I realised that most of the picross games on iOS sucked, and are ugly or expensive or filled with ads or make you pay for hints and all that yucky stuff.

So I made a cool one. It's free (there are some IAPs if you want more puzzles), loads of levels, a cool zoom tool on iPhone (you see everything on iPad), a good tutorial, and more.

Please check it out here and let me know what you think!

It's my first ever app, and my first forary into programming. I coded it on an iPad, also, which is pretty cool. Hopefully it's the first of many

Damn, this is awesome. Most polished iOS Picross app by far! It only needs two things: 25x20 puzzles, Mario's Super Picross style, and iOS controller support, for precision when these big ass puzzles come Will recommend to all my friends with iOS devices for sure!

 

[OneEightZero]

Pixel This is great. But I don't like not knowing how much the extra packs are before putting my App Store password in.

 

[SnakeXs]

How fast/reliable are iCloud saves? Pocket Trains is the first game I'm really playing between two devices rapidly, and the kinda game where losing even minutes of progress can kinda suck.

 

[Kinyou]

game definitely feels half assed. the fuel thing doesn't help. while the main problem with pocket planes is that you pretty much need to spend 20% of your day on it, the fuel stuff here makes me forget about the game for the whole day lol.

Besides the fuel shenanigans I have to say that I like it more than pocket planes. Overall there not as much flimsy micro management going on. (at least not yet)

 

[vagabondarts]

I think I've hit the paywall for pocket trains at level 8.

It's becoming increasingly frustrating (instead of fun and puzzling like it was at first.)

I can't afford to upgrade stations to dock train cars and I can't afford new lines to ease the burden and all the jobs produce little income. When I do hit a big job, the engines break and so I have to repair them using all the cash I had accrued.

It's getting frustrating but I'll press on and experiment through the weekend and see if it gets better

Also, Pixel This is a lot of fun!

 

[KenOD]

I've been out of the loop for two weeks so I do not know if it has already been mentioned, but contrary to previous report...AT LAST

FTL on iPad has been confirmed.

Directly from the devs (they mention specifically iPad later in the thread):

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...indie_bundle_9_creators_of_ftl_faster/ccekrmm.

Finally. It just makes such perfect sense I knew it had to happen eventually.

 

[igor]

Is deus ex iOS good now? or is there still problems with how the controls feel?

I felt a little burned with the mass effect game, as cool as it looked I could never get into it and the combat felt off.

The controls are IMO more or less perfect and i didn't really like Mass Effect on iOS. Well I can't tell how it plays gun blazing through the game but sneaking around and all that Is well done. I wouldn't wait for the console/PC version. What is so impressive about the fall is the fact it's a proper Deus Ex on iOS - I'm not saying it's a bad game otherwise but the game's shortcomings would be much more noticeable on bigger platforms. For 3 euro it's worth checking out.

 

[ced]

FTL on iPad has been confirmed.

Directly from the devs (they mention specifically iPad later in the thread):

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...indie_bundle_9_creators_of_ftl_faster/ccekrmm

Sweet been wanting to play this.

 

[chickdigger802]

Besides the fuel shenanigans I have to say that I like it more than pocket planes. Overall there not as much flimsy micro management going on. (at least not yet)

well the whole way to get new trains is through a gambling 'gachapon' machine that requires the premium currency

At least bux seem easy to get atm, but i can see down the line when you need 20 of 1 train part to make the good stuff... yep things gonna get funky.

 

[vagabondarts]

My initial love of pocket trains is increasingly becoming frustrated hatred.
If it doesn't get better I'm not going to continue playing.
I am almost at a point where I can't do anything unless I buy either bux or coins to continue. All my trains are stuck with their cargo, unable to offset them in any docks (because I can't afford them) so I end up driving around aimlessly hoping to juggle train cars around.

Aaargh!

Pocket Planes was never this blatantly riddled with IAP.
You could at least play the game

EDIT- discovered that any railcar in the holding yard can be deleted at no cost via a big red x in the corner. How I missed this I have no idea. I'll see if this make the game playable again.
"Oh you're waiting for submarine cars from London? Yeah I don't know what happened to them, sorry"

 

[Kinyou]

well the whole way to get new trains is through a gambling 'gachapon' machine that requires the premium currency

At least bux seem easy to get atm, but i can see down the line when you need 20 of 1 train part to make the good stuff... yep things gonna get funky.

That's indeed a bit annoying. Also just found a train that requires 12 parts.

 

[Diablohead]

The controls are IMO more or less perfect and i didn't really like Mass Effect on iOS. Well I can't tell how it plays gun blazing through the game but sneaking around and all that Is well done. I wouldn't wait for the console/PC version. What is so impressive about the fall is the fact it's a proper Deus Ex on iOS - I'm not saying it's a bad game otherwise but the game's shortcomings would be much more noticeable on bigger platforms. For 3 euro it's worth checking out.

Wanted to buy it anyway but you made the deal sound even better.