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iOS Gaming Dec/Jan: GET

Matt Frost

Member
But my point is being an "iOS gamer" such as yourself, I find it somewhat hypocritical that you can call certain games not "real" games and certain gamers not "real" gamers when I'm sure you would agree iOS gaming itself has a stigma to overcome and certain elements of GAF would claim you yourself are not a "real" gamer and that the iOS games you play are not "real" games.

Tap here, tap there, wait, collect coins, tap again IS NOT A GAME AT ALL. Games range from Arkanoid or Tetris to The Elder Scrolls saga. Not Clash of Clans or godus. Collect coins, IAP and such things dont make it a game, makes it a camouflaged slot machine tactics. Something to hook the player with a meaningless cover. I been playing games for 30 years now and I pretty much know the term. And games.
 

Matt Frost

Member
I agree with you on that one. But it's a new category of gamers "The Hardcore Social Gamers" as I like to call them. They can overlap with the actual console/pc hardcore gamers but they are mostly focused on playing mobile games (well that's how I see "whales" anyways.)

Hardcore social gamers, interesting term, interesting term.
 

Matt Frost

Member
Sorry. Conflated you and Matt Frost.

Need my afternoon coffee.

Please dont conflate me (had to look it in a dictionary) with Bronxsta, he has been playing games since a few years, he doesnt have any background as we hardcore gamers do. I been playing games almost since their inception, I seen how they evolved over time, and yes, I can perfectly separate them. I am tired of people calling things with wrong names. Tap and wait to collect coins ARE NOT GAMES AT ALL. They are something else. If people confuse those terms, we are screwed. So screwed. Those are casual games, then are gamers, and then hardcore gamers. Then there is Electronic Arts. We have to have more terms to explain this even better.
 

Matt Frost

Member
I was peeved about Candy Crush getting a perfect score, but that was because of the nature of what a perfect score indicates and because of the copy and paste nature of those games. Not because it was F2P or because I didn't believe it to be a "real game"

In fact, I commented on this very page about how I disliked the dividing and dismissive attitude of demeaning individuals because what kind of games they play. Games are for everyone to enjoy, to appeal to a vast array of tastes. Just as one can watch schlock b-movie films and indie dramas and blockblockers and enjoy them all, one can enjoy all manner of video games, from an obscure text adventure to CoD and Journey or a F2P Match-3

The copy and paste nature of those games are something to be debated, discussed, since most games inherits the things from the last one. Half-Life took something from Quake, and CoD from Half-Life and so on. Its how the game abuses people hooking them at first then unveiling themselves as slot machine tactics. They know we have weaknesses and they target them. That is disgusting and the reason we are going downhill is most of human aspects. There is not longer a concern for your well being, they predate on that and they now exclusively care for their pockets. Electronic Arts is going this way, but there are really passionate developers that make games because THEY LOVE THEM, not because they want to get rich out of it.

Categorizing is not demeaning anything at all. Why cant we have tags? Where I live they are not demeaning. Casual, regular and hardcore. How is that demeaning?
 

Matt Frost

Member
Games were originally made for the player to have fun and escape reality. That is/was the basic premise. The principle. But if a game starts asking you for more money to enjoy them, they loose the game category and become slot machine tactics things. They are not games, they are money grabbers that target our insecurities and weaknesses, not our fun. THERE IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE TWO AND SOME PEOPLE DONT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND IT. Take a moment, and revise those concepts. You know I am right.
 

Matt Frost

Member
If a game starts asking for money, is the same as abusing the player, because

A) Casuals dont really know much about that
B) They are insecure
C) They feel weak

So assholes that just think about themselves and how to get rich predate on those players, because they know they are weak, not caring about but themselves. THAT IS WRONG ON ALL LEVELS.
 

Matt Frost

Member
I am starting to realize is not your fault guys, its mine. I am going to break it to you:

The rich and powerful dont want you to know much. If you did, they wouldn't live as they do now. They have to keep things as they are. Too much information, and people would realize what is going on. That is why they keep you entertained with mayor events and consumerism. Soccer, football, anything like that, you name it. And anything that opposed them become obstacles, but they are not only rich and powerful, they are smart. They did the thinking, and any position of power became their target, either removing them or buying them out. Its capitalism as its best. We wouldn't have this life is if wasn't like that. This is why the system is so corrupt, to keep them as they are. That is why they make so many school funding cuts, they dont want people to think by themselves, they want to have us as sheep's. Lambs to the slaughter.
 
To me, hardcore gamer is someone who plays 200 hours of Oblivion, 200 of FallOut 3, 1000 hours in Modern Warfare 2, 1500 hours of Battlefield 3, 1000 hours on Battlefield 4 300 hours of Diablo 3, every single strategy game there is, and so on. Casuals playing Clash of Clans for a long stretch doesnt make them hardcore by any means, makes them casual gamers that spend some time here and there on those games. Much less any match-3 game or something like that. And mobile games can be discussed if they even enter that realm.

And those games you mentioned have slot machine tactics, hooking the player as if they were playing those things but camouflaged as games. They are not real games, no hardcore gamer would ever play those. I think you got that term completely wrong.

I know this is meant to be your bona fides, but this is a genuinely terrifying admission to make in public. All that time, gone. I try not to think about how much time I spend gaming.

Anyway, hello iOS GAF! Is it me or does Game of Thrones make my iPad feel like it's going to set fire?

edit: and there's nothing wrong with Freemium, I spent a lot of time on Farmville back in the day and it's an excellent game. Trials Frontiers was brilliant too.
 

Flunkie

Banned
Eli banned me from posting in comments because I was calling TA out for not giving credit to PocketGamer for the third game in a row even after he acknowledged the PG promotion, lol.

Doug dug is great though. Refreshing that you have to take physics into account, so many of these games have magic leviatating dirt, very challenging and cerebral game. Just wish there was a tutorial as to what holds up and exactly how the physics work. Haven't quite figured it out to a T yet.
 

Anilones

Member
Eli banned me from posting in comments because I was calling TA out for not giving credit to PocketGamer for the third game in a row even after he acknowledged the PG promotion, lol.

I'm fully expecting a ban for myself shortly, as well as quite a few of the commentators in the Doug Dug post.
 

flowsnake

Member
Oh weird, Hoplite has music and sound effects. I guess it probably got those around when the graphics updated. I had been playing on Android for a year or so and I guess never turned them on. I...don't think they work well, but never mind.
 

awp69

Member
Eli banned me from posting in comments because I was calling TA out for not giving credit to PocketGamer for the third game in a row even after he acknowledged the PG promotion, lol.

Doug dug is great though. Refreshing that you have to take physics into account, so many of these games have magic leviatating dirt, very challenging and cerebral game. Just wish there was a tutorial as to what holds up and exactly how the physics work. Haven't quite figured it out to a T yet.

I'm fully expecting a ban for myself shortly, as well as quite a few of the commentators in the Doug Dug post.

Welcome to the club guys. Freedom of speech is not one a right on Touch Arcade - forums, comments or otherwise.
 
I know this is meant to be your bona fides, but this is a genuinely terrifying admission to make in public. All that time, gone. I try not to think about how much time I spend gaming.

Anyway, hello iOS GAF! Is it me or does Game of Thrones make my iPad feel like it's going to set fire?

edit: and there's nothing wrong with Freemium, I spent a lot of time on Farmville back in the day and it's an excellent game. Trials Frontiers was brilliant too.
Welcome to IOS GAF! Always nice to see new names here.

Haven't played GoT yet. XCOM did turn my iPhone into an effective hand warmer though.

I liked Frontier's visuals and tight controls, but I felt it was too easy to be called a Trials game and the endless cycle of "Collect these parts to get these parts" plus the timers really turned me off the game. Bike Baron is the closest thing to Trials on IOS as far as I'm concerned
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
You dont know the term, stop saying that. I know several hardcore gamers who wont spend a cent on freemium games at all (Godus, Clash of Clans, Warframe, ....) What you know as hardcore, isnt. Trust me.

Your anecdotal evidence and wishful thinking doesn't overcome the reality represented by the research and the data. The people that game the most and play console games the most, spend the more than any other type of gamer on mobile. FACT.


Slot machine tactics is more like games like Godus where you come back every 2 hours to collect coins, or CCS, where you can buy extra lives. That is slot machine tactics

How is doing something and coming back 2 hours later anything like a slot machine? A slot machine is "put something in, get something random out". Like Diablo. Click, click, click on monsters, get a random drop.


Tap here, tap there, wait, collect coins, tap again IS NOT A GAME AT ALL. Games range from Arkanoid or Tetris to The Elder Scrolls saga. Not Clash of Clans or godus. Collect coins, IAP and such things dont make it a game, makes it a camouflaged slot machine tactics. Something to hook the player with a meaningless cover. I been playing games for 30 years now and I pretty much know the term. And games.

Well, this just tells me you have no idea what you are talking about as you obviously haven't even played Clash of Clans for any length of time.

Go read through the Clash of Clans thread here http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=751625 Note the hardcore gamers discussing and sharing defensive, offensive, and min/max strategies.

After you have finished reading the thread, feel free to post in there and tell them that Clash of Clans is not a game and they are not hardcore gamers. With your 30 years of experience you have the chance to save them from their foolishness and set them on the right path again.
 

heringer

Member
I see a lot of mentioning of research and hard data, but could we have a source? Not that I doubt mind you, I'm just interested in reading through a study about that.
 

awp69

Member
Here is some data that was released to the public that is pretty easy to digest

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ders_on_mobile_Men_who_like_console_games.php

I don't see where it says those hardcore gamers are the ones that are most supportive of F2P games. If we're talking about mobile games in general, yeah,I myself spend more on mobile games than I do on console games these days due to time and convenience. But very little of that goes to F2P games unless it's things like unlocks and ad removers.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
I don't see where it says those hardcore gamers are the ones that are most supportive of F2P games.

Mobile game revenues are massively skewed in favour of F2P games (go look at the Top Grossing Games chart and count the number of paid games in the top 100). F2P is where the whales are spending the bulk of their funds.
 

colinp

Banned
You guys are fucking up this thread. PM each other or start a bitchy new thread if you're going to bitch about this nonsense. Let's focus on games, not asinine definitions of hardcore gamers or what Eli had for breakfast.

MattFrost, please do not ever post seven replies in a row again.

Back on topic, glad Hoplite is getting more love. That game really is a gem.

Edit: Also stop trying to bullshit Mario. He's been a regular in this thread since most of you were in diapers. He's put up with more shit and has always handled it gracefully. He's deep in the business. He knows his shit.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
In other news, I downloaded Kingdom Rush Origins at the end of my work day, and ended up stuck playing in my office for a couple of hours. So good.

Once I complete this, is it worth going back to complete the earlier iterations in the series? Or is Origins the best?
 

colinp

Banned
In other news, I downloaded Kingdom Rush Origins at the end of my work day, and ended up stuck playing in my office for a couple of hours. So good.

Once I complete this, is it worth going back to complete the earlier iterations in the series? Or is Origins the best?

Totally worth playing the others if you want more of the same. Might be worthwhile to take a break between iterations, but they're all fantastic.
 

SteveWD40

Member
You guys are fucking up this thread. PM each other or start a bitchy new thread if you're going to bitch about this nonsense. Let's focus on games, not asinine definitions of hardcore gamers or what Eli had for breakfast.

MattFrost, please do not ever post seven replies in a row again.

Agreed, Mods are regulars here so you may want to avoid such spam.

I don't think it's coming out tonight. And I hope so, because it still needs more time in the "soft-launch" oven ;)

Ah right, not seen any impressions.
 
In other news, I downloaded Kingdom Rush Origins at the end of my work day, and ended up stuck playing in my office for a couple of hours. So good.

Once I complete this, is it worth going back to complete the earlier iterations in the series? Or is Origins the best?

Origins is my favorite, and it's also by far the easiest of the three (those two may be related). I prefer the advanced towers in vanilla KR over Frontiers, but all three games are fantastic. Plus, they've added a good half-dozen stages in each game for free since their original release.
 

JCho133

Member
This looks reeeeeeeeeaaaaally good. From the developers of Repulze and the Reckless Racing series.

Get ready for some heavy hero action!

Space Marshals is a Sci-fi Wild West adventure taking place in outer space! This tactical top-down shooter puts you in the shoes of specialist Burton in his hunt for dangerous fugitives after a disastrous prison break.

Space Marshals is all about a premium tactical combat experience. Use stealth, gadgets, cunning and/or excessive violence to complete your objectives in a wild west inspired future.


Key Features
  • Tactical top-down shooter
  • Episodic storyline in three chapters – chapter one out now!
  • Gorgeous stylistic HD graphics rendered in Retina resolution (full Retina not supported on iPad 3)
  • Optimized for iOS 8 and Metal graphics!
  • Wide range of weapons and gear
  • Performance based mission rewards
  • Multiple factions to fight with or against – or pitch against each other
  • Dual stick controls with a set of different options
  • iCloud save game support
  • GameCenter achievements

YouTube: video


Source: http://plusapp.ru/announcements-of-...hals-priklyucheniya-s-elementami-stealth.html

APPLE LAUNCH JANUARY 8th 2015
 
Played some Sneaky Sneaky and while I really like the art style and the game controls well, I feel like the game is too easy. It's too forgiving, for a stealth game at least. There's no real consequences for being spotted, no extra motivation to remain unseen. Die and you simply start in the same room. You can acquire a near endless amount of arrows to attack enemies from a distance. You can upgrade yourself with more health and more damage, making early enemies a non-issue.

Now that said, I prefer ghosting levels and old school Splinter Cell over Batman and Blacklist so those probably won't be issues for everyone. The actual game is pretty good, a nice blend of puzzle and action, real time and turn based gameplay. Enemies move in patterns that you can learn to avoid, and if you're spotted, your enemies get three turns to attack. The different enemy abilities mixed with the strategic nature of the game makes Sneaky Sneaky feel more like a puzzle game than a straight-up stealth title. The colorful cute visuals definitely give the game a nice presentation.

There's also a very slight Metroid-esque elements in that you can return to early levels with new equipment you unlock to open previously inaccessible areas. But to be clear, it's not a Metroidvania; the game is separate levels.

If there's one flaw, it's the enemies with random routes. It totally throws a wrench into the methodical puzzle nature of the game. Waiting and watching to time your movements to avoid patrols is a key and rewarding part of stealth games; waiting for the random chance of an enemy to move and having no way to know where they're go next just ruins that element
 

awp69

Member
Played some Sneaky Sneaky and while I really like the art style and the game controls well, I feel like the game is too easy. It's too forgiving, for a stealth game at least. There's no real consequences for being spotted, no extra motivation to remain unseen. Die and you simply start in the same room. You can acquire a near endless amount of arrows to attack enemies from a distance. You can upgrade yourself with more health and more damage, making early enemies a non-issue.

Now that said, I prefer ghosting levels and old school Splinter Cell over Batman and Blacklist so those probably won't be issues for everyone. The actual game is pretty good, a nice blend of puzzle and action, real time and turn based gameplay. Enemies move in patterns that you can learn to avoid, and if you're spotted, your enemies get three turns to attack. The different enemy abilities mixed with the strategic nature of the game makes Sneaky Sneaky feel more like a puzzle game than a straight-up stealth title. The colorful cute visuals definitely give the game a nice presentation.

There's also a very slight Metroid-esque elements in that you can return to early levels with new equipment you unlock to open previously inaccessible areas. But to be clear, it's not a Metroidvania; the game is separate levels.

If there's one flaw, it's the enemies with random routes. It totally throws a wrench into the methodical puzzle nature of the game. Waiting and watching to time your movements to avoid patrols is a key and rewarding part of stealth games; waiting for the random chance of an enemy to move and having no way to know where they're go next just ruins that element

Hmm..not sure about that one. I've also got a fair share of stealth games that I need to go back to and play or finish.

There looks like there were a good amount of releases between yesterday, today and a few coming tonight. Kind of hard to weed through. Anything in particular looking good? That Destructomundo looked like it could have been good, but was pulled (accidental release, apparently).

Might check out that Scrolls game from the Minecraft devs (out on Android tomorrow, iOS probably in January). Know there's a PC demo. Hoping for an Android demo as well as I'm not big into card games but this one does look interesting.
 

SiDCrAzY

Member
Really surprised by Doug Dug. It didn't look like much, which is why I didn't buy it, however it is so much fun and addictive.

Good stuff.
 

SuperPac

Member
Maybe there are some Rick and Morty fans in this here iOS thread, eh? Adult Swim Games is releasing a game on iOS called "Jerry's Game" tonight at 11 pm EST in the US. It is, yes, based upon the balloon-popping app Jerry is seen playing in Rick and Morty Episode 9, Something Ricked This Way Comes.

If you don't know the show, I'm not sure what you'll think of the game.

I have put 5 codes in here - quote to reveal them.



Redeem either in the App Store app on your phone (scroll to the bottom of "Featured", hit the button labeled "Redeem", and paste it in) or on iTunes via the App Store Redeem Code link.

It's a free app with ONE in-app purchase, totally optional, that unlocks everything in the game right away, turns off pop-up ads and gives you a LOT of the in-game currency (enough to last you a good long time).

jerrys.jpeg
 

Flunkie

Banned
After playing a lot of Garden Warfare on PS4 these past few days, I downloaded PvZ 2 and I've been having a lot of fun with it. Definitely cool seeing the same characters in both games.

And I've taken my frustrations to Twitter to vent about TA in hopes of reaching more people. My followers don't seem to care lol. Join my fight against TA!

https://twitter.com/flunkie/status/542737521562488832

edit: and there's nothing wrong with Freemium, I spent a lot of time on Farmville back in the day and it's an excellent game. Trials Frontiers was brilliant too.
Hehehehe you'll fit in well here, kid. At least with me.

Muhahahahaha
 

JCho133

Member
There's also a very slight Metroid-esque elements in that you can return to early levels with new equipment you unlock to open previously inaccessible areas. But to be clear, it's not a Metroidvania; the game is separate levels.

My excitement was dropped down a staircase
 

RustyO

Member
Once I complete this, is it worth going back to complete the earlier iterations in the series? Or is Origins the best?

Haven't played Origins yet, but yes, both og KR and KR:Frontiers are great, and highly recommneded. Just avoid getting burnt out?
 
edit: and there's nothing wrong with Freemium, I spent a lot of time on Farmville back in the day and it's an excellent game. Trials Frontiers was brilliant too.

Trials Frontiers is a game with brilliant core gameplay and fun levels that is ruined after a few hours by its payment model. With the amount of levels and challenges in the game, I'd have easily been willing to pay a solid $15-20 for this game (or whatever the console one sold for).

Even with the "fuel" mechanics (which you can get around by changing the clock on your device) I was enjoying the game for a few hours up until you need to start collecting higher level items that can only be collected by spinning a wheel and HOPING you luck out and get the item you need. Then you need to get a ton of them in order to get the higher level item which means you need to play a level sometimes dozens of times. Even if you get good at the wheel spinning to get what you want most of the time, you still need to grind to an excessive level.

I even DID pay money for this game early on because I was enjoying it so much, probably around $15. There were some sales that got me a good amount of gems, gold, and skins that I felt it was worth my money. But once the levels started to get actually challenging, and the bike upgrades started to cost ridiculous amounts of high level parts, money, and real life time, I ran out of gems (which are very very difficult to get in-game) and money and the only way to continue was to grind the same levels I'd played dozens and dozens of times already.

I agree that freemium games and IAPs can work if done right, but Trials Frontiers is not one of them. I actually think Plants vs. Zombies 2 does it very well. Totally free to play through all of the levels without needing to grind to level up, rely on luck, or build up money and they've continued to add additional worlds and plants to the game. It has some powers that require money, but you do earn it in-game at an OK pace to use them in a pinch.
 
^^^^
Pretty much. Hating a game simply because it's F2P is just childish. There are so many games that do F2P right, or are just really great games underneath the freemium element. Only One, Quadblast, Jungle Beak, Retry, Sky Force, to name a few. Even if a game's F2P elements are really annoying, I always give credit if the gameplay or visuals are great

After playing a lot of Garden Warfare on PS4 these past few days, I downloaded PvZ 2 and I've been having a lot of fun with it. Definitely cool seeing the same characters in both games.

And I've taken my frustrations to Twitter to vent about TA in hopes of reaching more people. My followers don't seem to care lol. Join my fight against TA!

https://twitter.com/flunkie/status/542737521562488832
It's not really worthy it really. Trust me, I've been in your position.

My excitement was dropped down a staircase
I shouldn't type things on my phone while half-sleep. All those typos :p (I'm a stickler for grammar who even deletes and retypes tweets if I make a mistake)
 

awp69

Member
After the new Lara Croft DSS launched on consoles yesterday, I figured I'd download Guardian of Light, which for some reason I never finished.

Well, I'm kind of pissed. Square Enix updated the iPad only app to Universal and got rid of the iPhone version. So people who got the original iPad version get the update to make it work on iOS 8 free while iPhone users are stuck having to rebuy the the newly updated Universal app.

Nice going Square-Enix! Urgggh....
 

Dalek

Member
Marvel's fighting game "Marvel Contest of Champions" is now available worldwide. I'm downloading now-it seems similar to Injustice.

You unlock characters by earning currency in fighting-you then spend the currency to get a "Crystal" -which contains a random hero. I'm curious if everyone gets the same two starting characters? I got Spider-Man and Hawkeye.

From about 10 minutes of it-I like it, but it has the typical ios Daily login bonuses, recharge stuff-but I don't know how detrimental it is. It looks very addictive to me, and this is very similar to Marvel Puzzle Quest in as far as recruiting/finding rare heroes and then upgrading them.
 
Anyone playing Volt? Got to recommend it again. It's my second time playing it, although I never progressed that far in the PC version because the mouse controls just didn't compliment with gameplay. Not the way touch controls do, since you do things like use multitouch to fire both beams at the same time.

Now that I've gotten further than I did on PC, I can say the game is definitely really great. More puzzle and action aspects than I remembered like dodging missiles and shooting enemies, and elements I hadn't encounter before like portals. Along with the limited energy beams and physics elements, I'd say it's less precision speed runner, more precision action puzzle platformer. Achieving the par times has the same appeal of reaching the slice pars in Icebreaker, figuring how to optimize each energy hook and swing. Definitely recommended
 

awp69

Member
Anyone playing Volt? Got to recommend it again. It's my second time playing it, although I never progressed that far in the PC version because the mouse controls just didn't compliment with gameplay. Not the way touch controls do, since you do things like use multitouch to fire both beams at the same time.

Now that I've gotten further than I did on PC, I can say the game is definitely really great. More puzzle and action aspects than I remembered like dodging missiles and shooting enemies, and elements I hadn't encounter before like portals. Along with the limited energy beams and physics elements, I'd say it's less precision speed runner, more precision action puzzle platformer. Achieving the par times has the same appeal of reaching the slice pars in Icebreaker, figuring how to optimize each energy hook and swing. Definitely recommended

Haven't gotten far but am enjoying it so far. Only thing I don't like is that the timer starts immediately when you enter or go to the next level so you do not have time to react. I find myself having to complete the level with a higher time after being able to look at it first then replaying it to get the par time. Kind of a cheap way to increase difficulty or basically make you almost always have to replay a level.
 

awp69

Member
Tonight's Pocket Gamer Advent Calendar prediction: The Nightmare Cooperative.

Showing as going free at 11 EST and, once again, it got a 9/10 from PG. A little strange to have two rogue likes in the first four offerings, but I'm pretty sure that'll be it. Fantastic game for those that don't have it.

Edit: Auto correct sucks sometimes!
 
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