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iOS Gaming October 2013: Wipe that print off your screen, next-gen is already here!

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PittaGAF

Member
Huh. Neat. I guess Hardcore is the way to go then, helps you switch it up.

Hardcore IS the real deal (true to the boardgame and the only mode that let you appreciate the rules and the tactical aspect IMHO) BUT....be aware that the Brutal Tribe expansion is really brutal.

Speaking of skills...yesterday night I capped my Marauder and got what I always thought in more than 200 hours a shitty skill (let you NOT being knocked down at 1 HP for 1 time).
Belive me or not, in the next dungeon I entered, that skill I had NEVER used, saved the life of Crom.
If not for that skill, I'll be crying like a baby now :)
 

MrKayle

Member
kid tripp has potential but imo the game just moves too quickly to be controllable. if it was about 25% slower it would be really playable.
 

ParityBit

Member
Hardcore IS the real deal (true to the boardgame and the only mode that let you appreciate the rules and the tactical aspect IMHO) BUT....be aware that the Brutal Tribe expansion is really brutal.

Speaking of skills...yesterday night I capped my Marauder and got what I always thought in more than 200 hours a shitty skill (let you NOT being knocked down at 1 HP for 1 time).
Belive me or not, in the next dungeon I entered, that skill I had NEVER used, saved the life of Crom.
If not for that skill, I'll be crying like a baby now :)

What does the hardcore mode work? And retiring a character?
 

PittaGAF

Member
What does the hardcore mode work? And retiring a character?

The game has 3 settings: easy, adventurer and hardcore.
Hardcore is adventurer plus permadeath and permanent poison effects (revived characters knocked down when poisoned lose PERMANENTLY 1 point of Strenght).
This changes everything IMHO (besides the obvious risk of losing your heroes).

Retiring a character means he retire a in a village enjoying the gold he earned while adventuring, drinking beer and telling stories to kids :p
You retire a character when you want to substitute him with another fresh one of the same class.
Retiring means basically deleting him and losing him forever.
 

ParityBit

Member
The game has 3 settings: easy, adventurer and hardcore.
Hardcore is adventurer plus permadeath and permanent poison effects (revived characters knocked down when poisoned lose PERMANENTLY 1 point of Strenght).
This changes everything IMHO (besides the obvious risk of losing your heroes).

Retiring a character means he retire a in a village enjoying the gold he earned while adventuring, drinking beer and telling stories to kids :p
You retire a character when you want to substitute him with another fresh one of the same class.
Retiring means basically deleting him and losing him forever.

Okay so what is the point of retiring. And what happens to his stuff?
 

PittaGAF

Member
Okay so what is the point of retiring. And what happens to his stuff?

As I said, you will retire a char when you want to start fresh with a certain class (because you do not like it's skill tree, for example....you can't have 2 same class chars in a party).
You will obviously remove his stuff before doing so (will be lost forever if not).
 

PittaGAF

Member
Empire, the new deck building game meets civilization is really really slick.
I played just two full games, but it's really really well done.
 

ParityBit

Member
As I said, you will retire a char when you want to start fresh with a certain class (because you do not like it's skill tree, for example....you can't have 2 same class chars in a party).
You will obviously remove his stuff before doing so (will be lost forever if not).

I see! I really like this game so far. So for adventurer, there is no penality for death? I left the dungeon (no xp) but I that's it ...

I may drop some $$ for a character or two. If I can pick!
 
Empire, the new deck building game meets civilization is really really slick.
I played just two full games, but it's really really well done.
Someone beat me to it! I was just coming here to post about this. My friend designed it. He also designed 100 Rogues and Auro (not out yet I think) on iOS, although with a different studio. But it's the same designer and he's serious about game design. So anyway I hope people will check it out.

Edit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id675636489?mt=8
 

PittaGAF

Member
I see! I really like this game so far. So for adventurer, there is no penality for death? I left the dungeon (no xp) but I that's it ...

There is no penalty for death in adventurer.
You just get no XP and you lose items you eventually used before failing/retiring from the dungeon.
Plus, poison effects last only for the dungeon, they are not permanent.
Hardcore is the real deal.
 

Flunkie

Banned
I've finally got a coop partner to show me the light in terms of Terraria's addictiveness goes. Started playing on PC, he showed me the ropes (I've always just started off digging from the start, not exploring or anything, and didn't really know what my goals were), and now I can't stop playing. When I'm away from my PC, I'm playing on my iPad or phone. Wowowow
 

PittaGAF

Member
Someone beat me to it! I was just coming here to post about this. My friend designed it. He also designed 100 Rogues and Auro (not out yet I think) on iOS, although with a different studio. But it's the same designer and he's serious about game design. So anyway I hope people will check it out.

Edit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id675636489?mt=8

As a NON Civilization fan (too much micromanagement for me between real tactical choices) I must say I'm really digging the game.

First, it's super polished, with a strong tutorial that rivals the best imho (best= Carcassonne and Lost Cities).
Second the game is really an elegant packed sized mix of different concepts, developed very very well: from the 3 cities max to the chess like fights, mixed up with deck building concepts.

I'm really digging the art used too...tell your friend he did an awesome job....very mobile friendly too.

Two things I'm not that sure, from a personal point of view:

1) As it is now it's a bit of a roguelike game....you fight for the score and the lenght of your empire...death is inevitable.
PERSONALLY I must be motivated a bit more...so I would like something like a campaign, or a mode where you actually CAN defeat the purple corruption.

2) While I understand it would require some changes....the fighting part and the 3 cities limit that contains the lenght of a game, could be adapted to an AWESOME async mode.
I bet it would be KILLER.

I'm a Warhammer Quest addict....even if I have some great games to play like Infinity Blade 3, Shadowrun Returns and many others....Empire was the only one that I played besides WHQ this week end....must mean something.
 

Nyx

Member
My GF wanted to see a romantic comedy on tv on Saturday so I thought I would start up a new company in Game Dev Story, it was awhile ago I played that.

Next thing I know is my GF telling me she wants to go to bed, the movie was already over for 2 hours lol.

Damn addicting still, even though it’s the 4th company or something I started up in the game.
 

SteveWD40

Member
Echoing Pitta's comments, it's very well polished (fully voiced tutorial is a nice touch), the art is great, including the card art and it feels solid to play, I like that it runs portrait as well, always welcome on the mini.

All in all, recommended.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
I played a little more of it too, and even though I still probably have significantly worse characters than you ToxicAdam, as I haven't moved out of the prologue chapter, I gave the venom tournament a shot to see what PVP was like, and it's not that bad actually.

Regardless of if you rank high or not, there's a ton of easy to get prizes (covers, gold, crystals, etc) for winning a few matches, in addition to winning 100+ crystals for each match. And since you can pick your battles and see your opponents ahead of the match along with the level of their heroes, you don't have to play matches you have no chance of winning, just avoid matches with opponents who have heroes that out-level yours. I tried a battle against an ironman 10 levels over mine, and it wasn't pretty, along with a wolverine that had a pretty sick passive I had no answer for. After that, I just stuck to fighting against level 1-5 heroes, and had no issues. I only played a couple matches, which was enough to get a free venom cover, probably 500 crystals, and one or two other things, not bad.

The shield training is setup the same way, except no countdown to a prize. Since it's just the same AI fighting in PVP as the rest of the game, it's actually fun, and plays like the regular game only you can try your heroes against other teams for prizes.
 

Nyx

Member
Noticed this popping up on the touch arcade forums:

OFFICE STORY

Try to turn a small garage start-up into a large company. Take strategic decisions, buy tables and table plants, hire and train people. Fulfill their wishes! Create mobile applications!

From the very beginning of the game you dive into the world of mobile development, where during the game you will get access to the analogues of modern mobile platforms. As in life, the market state is dynamic and constantly changing. New platforms come and old ones go. They just can't withstand the competition.

GAME FEATURES:

▶ 12 cities of the world
▶ The international labor market,
▶ The rich set of goals and objectives
▶ MyOS, Roboid, eyeOS, Doors and more
▶ The global result table
▶ The ability to share a screenshot of the game.

▶ Develop the best application:

To create a real hit isn't an easy task! You must take into account trends and popularity of platforms. You need to assemble a team of motivated professionals, to create a comfortable environment for its employees, and to earn an impeccable reputation.

▶ Conquer the World:

As the game progresses you can move to a new city and country. Each location has its own labor market with its ethnic composition, professional level, and the cost of the employees. In some cities you can meet industry stars. However, as a rule, they are expensive and want a huge salary.

Build a business of your dreams!

http://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/id717265204?mt=8&affId=1720307

Looks pretty cool actually, but will wait for some reviews before diving in.
 

ToxicAdam

Member
I played a little more of it too, and even though I still probably have significantly worse characters than you ToxicAdam, as I haven't moved out of the prologue chapter, I gave the venom tournament a shot to see what PVP was like, and it's not that bad actually.
.



Yea, I ended up dipping my toes (a lot) into the PVP aspect of it. It's actually pretty essential if you want to earn more purple crystals to level up your characters for the SP campaign. Plus you get a few free cards along the way.

It has the same problems that all F2P PVP games have. At some point, no matter how good you are, you are going to run into people that have spent more/played more than you. They try to remedy this by allowing you to attack people 3 times. The HP of their characters remain static, so you can about whittle anyone down if you wanted to.

--- /// ---


I found out a way to cheese the health timers. In the early levels of the Venom SP chapter, you fight alongside a three-star Spiderman. He has an ability (yellow) that will heal the whole party. He also has a ridiculous amount of HP (800) that can sponge all the damage Venom deals while you are healing up. So, you can bring along your hurt heroes, heal them up and then collect whatever prize you may get in that round and move on to other things. You can whip through it in about 5-9 minutes.

It's pretty important once your characters get more levels/hp as the health timers can become an hour (or more.)



Overall, I'm pretty happy with the game for what it is. It's a nice time waster that isn't annoying with IAP. I actually am having more fun with it than I did with PQ2, which I had to will myself to complete.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Warhammer Quest any good?
 

J0dy77

Member
Anyone keeping up with Marvel Puzzle Quest?

I was pretty hooked all weekend. Really fun game but I think I found the paywall. I'm trying to expand my box past 7 and it requires te coin currency. Are there any consistent ways to earn coin in game?
 

PittaGAF

Member
Played 2 more hours at Empire, finally got the maxed out army, unlocked the shaman hut and started using spells during fights.

Wow! What a nice surprise!!!
The game is really damn good so far!!!

Basically it's the only game since a long time that can distract me a bit from Warhammer Quest Averland expansion.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the game for what it is. It's a nice time waster that isn't annoying with IAP. I actually am having more fun with it than I did with PQ2, which I had to will myself to complete.

Good catch about the healing, tried it and that spiderman hero seems pretty strong, with his 6-cost endless stun, once you get like 24 blue mana, you can keep a single opponent stunned for the whole match it seem by leaving the web tiles around.

I think your health packs regen though like your health, so you don't have to wait for the health timers if they get pretty long, just use a pack and you'll get it back later, but that spiderman healing team up seems fairly effective too if not.

I don't think you run in to stronger people unless you want to in PVP though, there seems to be no penalty for skipping/passing the selected matches until you get an easy one, even if it means passing on ten or more in a row.

I agree about PQ2 being a disappointment, I had high hopes after PQ1, and this does seem better than PQ2. Like Plants vs Zombies 2 though, I'm struggling to see the point of spending any money, they seem to have made a decent time-killer with little IAP hassle. I get crystals faster than I need to use them, and the return on gold seems pointless, so I'm not sure why I'd ever want to spend money.
 

igor

Member
Warhammer Quest any good?

Depends. PitaGAF will tell you this is the best iOS can possibly offer, I bought into the hype and was very disappointed by the barebones campaign, boring dungeons and 3 different enemies during a 7 hour basic game. There are expansions, but that means the game costs more than 5er. I would wait for a sale or something. Getting Hunters which is only 90 cents now is also another idea.
 

ToxicAdam

Member
Anyone keeping up with Marvel Puzzle Quest?

Are there any consistent ways to earn coin in game?

Nothing consistent. But certain single player levels will give you 50 coins as a prize. When you click on a level, it will scroll through the prizes available. You can just keep grinding that level until you get lucky.


Also, you can get some in the PVP ladders, if you accrue so many points, 100 coins are a prize. You missed out on the weekend ladder, but you can still get it in the regular PVP ladder.


Also, if you get an excess of cards, they go into queue. They will have a 7 day timer for which to claim them before they disappear. Pretty fair way to do it.
 

PittaGAF

Member
Depends. PitaGAF will tell you this is the best iOS can possibly offer, I bought into the hype and was very disappointed by the barebones campaign, boring dungeons and 3 different enemies during a 7 hour basic game. There are expansions, but that means the game costs more than 5er. I would wait for a sale or something. Getting Hunters which is only 90 cents now is also another idea.

:p
Yeah imho it's a masterpiece (on any platform) but I totallay understand and support different opinions...I refrained to answer directly because was already pretty clear and didn't want to annoy others...but...

I lost count after 200 hours of how many hours I put in this...I love the tactical challenges posed by last expansion.
It's a great adaptation of an awesome boardgame (my all time favorite), since the last update it's superb imho.
It's a dungeon crawling boardgame with very simple rules and a D6 system that inteconnects a lot expecially at higher levels, forcing you to hard choices and 'getting out the most' from what you have, counting in a big dose of luck and the randomness of dices.

BUT...and I think this is where some disappiont could come, it's NOT a RPG (more like the father of RPGs).
So if you are lookig for dialogues, convoluted quests atc...you WILL be disappointed.

It's fisrt and foremost a dungeon crawler: get inside a randomized dungeons, take the loot, exit alive.
Rinse and repeat, levelling up, finding new cool loot,...and so on.
In the background there is a story that is developing, in the pure Games Workshop tradition, among different quests/campaigns that seems very disconnected at first.

Hardcore is the only way to play imho, the permadeath force you to really understand the rules (very simple, but to be effective and not die every turn you must know very well all your opportunities even before moving the first character) and it's the only mode true to the boardgame (adventurer mode, the normal one, is just a cakewalk...can't imagine what the easy mode is).

It's also one of the best looking game too, imho.

Being a Games Workshop franchise, I doubt it will be put on sale soon (or ever).

I do not know if this is valid just for the bare game (seems yes) but since the last update difficulty has been turned up a lot, and this is where the game really shines (I'm reading a lot of people complaining that it is too hard, but imho it's now just perfect...and still easier than the orginal boardgame).
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Depends. PitaGAF will tell you this is the best iOS can possibly offer, I bought into the hype and was very disappointed by the barebones campaign, boring dungeons and 3 different enemies during a 7 hour basic game. There are expansions, but that means the game costs more than 5er. I would wait for a sale or something. Getting Hunters which is only 90 cents now is also another idea.
Aight man, thanks!

And thanks PittaGAF for the detailed impressions!
 
Found a pretty cool under-the-radar release. It's not the kind of game that'll make waves on the app charts but it's fun and probably wouldn't get much attention otherwise. So:

Spout - $0.99
Trailer
What is this game anyway? To remain simple this a retro procedurally generated arcade game. The minimalist style is kind of intended as this game is inspired by a game I used to play on gp32/gp2x (who remembers those handhelds? ). Basically the goal is to go as high as possible without touching any ground. The twist is the environment is destroyable with the particles that come out of the ship so you can make your own way through the level.

Every ‘level’ is passed when you pass the black line, then the difficulty (ie. the density of the grey blocks) increases. Controls are easy as well: rotate left, rotate right, throttle. Sorry it's virtual buttons which is not ideal but still quite playable.

screen1136x1136.jpeg
screen1136x1136.jpeg

My thoughts:
Picked this up. Reminds me of like an endless Lunar Lander in that you have to control your thrust to successfully maneuver around and through increasingly tight spaces. Plus the environmental destruction is cool. It's not the deepest game but it controls well and the particle effects are pretty entertaining. IMO it's a game I could see myself coming back to often when I have time to kill. The destructible environments do add some strategy in choosing the optimal path to maneuver and you definitely have to control your momentum and thrust once the environments get more densely populated
 

colinp

Banned
I just saw that Dungeon Keeper is coming to iOS!...as a F2P? Fuck. Got my hopes up for nothing.

Yeah... :/

Empire is fun but eh I'm not 100% feeling it yet. Beautifully polished but just feels a bit... Empty? Not sure I can explain it.

I find combat to be more frustration than fun, too.
 
Played 2 more hours at Empire, finally got the maxed out army, unlocked the shaman hut and started using spells during fights.

Wow! What a nice surprise!!!
The game is really damn good so far!!!

Basically it's the only game since a long time that can distract me a bit from Warhammer Quest Averland expansion.
:D

Really glad there's such a positive response to it here.
 

igor

Member
SKn76Z3.jpg


Holy Shit. Square Enix is said to be releasing Dragon Quest Games on iOS from 1 up till 8th one (pictured) - Exciting times! VIII is easily about 100 hours to finish main story, it's a gigantic game and has some amazing humorous writing and absolutely BEAUTIFUL music. Now if it releases in the west, I'd be VERY happy. I can double dip and pay 16 bucks for this, you will get the value for your money for sure. The fact you can play it vertically kinda sounds good, to be honest you don't need widescreen for this game and it encourages playing on the commute (which I wonder if going to be facilitated with auto-saves as the game is lengthy and you could only save at fixed points).

The only thing I am very concerned with is the game size. Looks pretty much intact, so unless they axe brilliant voice acting (again, writing and sound is something Square Enix never failed delivering on and god bless them for that) the game will be huuuuge. This does not fare well on my always full iPhone 16gb...

Also, Oceanhorn, as the devs just announced on TA is complete, now they just have to polish it! I am curious about this game and it's one of the few releases I was waiting for. September and so far October seems a bit meh for me.

Oceanhorn-iPhone4S-bullshot-small.png
 

SteveWD40

Member
Need GAF impressions.

And devs should stop filling up their preview screens with art - i want to see clear screenshots damnit.

There are some above. It's solid, very well made and plays great. It lacks a bit of depth (more of a roguelike in some ways) but the developer is talking about future content.
 

ParityBit

Member
There is no penalty for death in adventurer.
You just get no XP and you lose items you eventually used before failing/retiring from the dungeon.
Plus, poison effects last only for the dungeon, they are not permanent.
Hardcore is the real deal.

Okay, you sold me. I am going to start a new set of guys on hardcore. I am really enjoying the game a lot.


  • If poison is permanent, how do you get rid of it outside of the dungeons? Spell/item?
  • Any advice on some characters to pick up before I start? Ill dip for a couple of them I think.
 

PittaGAF

Member
Okay, you sold me. I am going to start a new set of guys on hardcore. I am really enjoying the game a lot.


  • If poison is permanent, how do you get rid of it outside of the dungeons? Spell/item?
  • Any advice on some characters to pick up before I start? Ill dip for a couple of them I think.

:)
If you are inexperienced with Warhammer world in general, I would start with the base 4 characters to familiarize with the mechanics and better understand which are the real plus and con of other classes.
I would buy additional chars only if you like a lot the idea of using them (you can always do this later...don't worry...you will die a lot and you will have plenty of opportunities to change the party formation).

As for poison effects...you lose 1 Strenght point (you will soon realize that in the Warhammer world 1 point more can be a life or death difference...this is not a +15 D&D world) if you are knocked down while poisoned and then healed/revived.
You won't ever regain that point...it's permanent (and you can suffer this many times...they stack).
So....be sure to heal your chars BEFORE the risk of being knocked down.
+1 regen rings are PERFECT for this.
Also....STAY AWAY from the Skaven region...they are very well known for using poisoned weapons.

Be aware that even sticking with the four base chars, skill trees are randomized, so they can develop very differently.
Sometimes you will have a strong healer+melee wizard....sometimes a very offensive but weak Mage....and so on.
There are tricks to for choosing directly the skills...but this negate one of the fun essence of the original game (plus part of the strategy is getting out alive with the resources you have...if you could choose everyone would always pick up the best skills, negating part of the challenge).
It must be said that random skill trees brought sooooooo many different favorite classes/skill tree during the years and now with the game: everyone seems to have his favorite combos.

I personally like melee characters with shield and long swords, balanced wizards and one ranged char with ton of arrows.
Even if risky, I tend to prefer loot that grants more attacks than power or thoughness (I'm probably the only one in the world who use the berserk tower shield).
 
Gravity Falls Tower Defense is 69p/.99$ at the mo:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id666432114?mt=8&affId=1860684

Worth a punt, supposed to be canny.


Just to give my initial impressions. It's a little weird. It's a bit like PvZ but with 4 sides and the shack/building to defend in the center. It can be quite hard to manage and gets a bit hectic, as you have 4 sides to defend and have to keeping swapping to each side to defend and see what's coming. It would have been better if it was just one side like PvZ. The defensive items are pretty random/weird objects and you can unlock/buy more with the coins you get off downed enemies. There's also a special attack that refreshes every minute or 2. Though activating this destroys all the monsters on that side, it also destroys your defenses. Seems ok for the price but a little tough to manage.
 
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