A Sharp's King of Dragon Pass [$9.99], one of our favorite games about tribal politics, is now 30 percent off for the next three days. The headline gave it away, but A Sharp is doing this in celebration of selling 30,000 copies of the game on the App Store, which is a lot of shipped product for a niche game that usually sits at a very premium price of $9.99.
As we've covered in our extensive review, Dragon Pass is a deep and slow-paced strategy game where your choices actually mean something. Making a successful tribe is hard, but it's an ultimately rewarding task if you've got the patience and smarts.
Anyway, you can grab the game on the cheap for the next couple of days. If you've been wanting to play it on PC, you can swing over to GOG and grab it for $5.99. We like it on iPad the best, if you're wondering.
Unsurprisingly, like anything with even a hint of Minecraft mixed in, Foursaken Media'sBlock Fortress [$0.99] is absolutely ripping up the iTunes charts. Brad and I bumbled around a bit in game for a TA Plays, there's a stupid-huge thread in our forums, and we've even had the developers share some tips. Well, TouchArcade reader and apparent Block Fortress pro-level player who goes by "Giggles Grimm" sent us some of his tips, and we figured we had to share them with the rest of our community. Keep in mind, these tips are a little more advanced with some assumed knowledge that you as a player have spent some time with the game. Trust me, it'll all make sense once you do.
Foursaken Media's recently released Block Fortress [$0.99] has proven once again that the development studio comprised of four brothers are masterful at blending different genre elements into one cohesive package. Their previous releases like Bug Heroes [Free] and Heroes and Castles [$1.99] made a similar point, but Block Fortress takes it to another level.
It's a base defense style game, but built inside a Minecraft-like world of blocks. This actually lets you construct your own fortress around your base and outfit it with various weapons and defenses. Oh, and did I mention that once the waves of enemies start coming after your base, you're dropped into the map in first-person mode to help blast away at the baddies yourself? Because there's that too.
The mashup of genres in Block Fortress seems to be a winning formula so far, as it's currently ripping up the top of the charts and is one of the hottest games in our forums. It also means that it's a complex game, and when you're first starting out learning the ropes can be a daunting task.
With that in mind, we reached out to Foursaken to get some tips and suggestions straight from the people who made the game and understand it inside and out.
The latest update for Ndemic Creation's Plague Inc. [$0.99], which adds the zombie-like Necroa Virus as a new tool for destroying all of humanity, has now gone live in the App Store. As we detailed for you last month, the Necroa Virus seems like your typical everyday deadly plague at first glance, but it actually contains some very interesting behaviors.
One branch of its mutation will turn its hosts into reanimated corpses, and you can actually use this new zombie population and its thirst for human brains to your advantage by directing them to feed on those pesky healthy people of the world. While a normal cure won't do a whole lot against zombies, you will have to watch out for a new group of zombie fighters called Z Com which will try to thwart your infection efforts.
It all sounds extremely awesome, and if you're an official Plague Inc. bad ass and are able to complete the game on brutal difficulty then you can unlock the Necroa Virus content for free. If you're like me and are terrible at this game, but still love it to pieces, you can unlock the Necroa Virus for a $1.99 in-app purchase. And whether you buy the new content or not, this update will give all players some welcome improvements to the user interface, balance and AI tweaks, additional language options, and improved performance on all devices.
Make sure to head over to the App Store to check out the latest update to Plague Inc. and hit up our forums to talk about strategies, get assistance, or just brag about your proficiency in exterminating humanity.
You can now buy a bunch of new features for 2K Games' Civilization Revolution [$2.99 / $6.99 (HD)], if you've got the dough to spare. Today's update has ushered in a weird new in-app purchase scheme that allows you to separately purchase packs of new units and buildings for each of the game's armies. You can also buy a pack of four additional wonders or, if you're feeling froggy, you can buy a competitive multiplayer mode to challenge "up to three" friends.
Each unit and building pack, which covers four specific armies, is 99¢. The Wonders pack is also 99¢. The multiplayer will run you $2.99. There's a bundle option for the armies, if you're wondering, which allows you to grab them all for $3.99.
The patch notes cover what armies are bundled together, so hit those if you're thinking about grabbing an upgrade or two, but not three or four. We're definitely interested in giving the new multiplayer a spin -- this game has been a radical solo experience for a while now, and it'd be nice to see how it plays with friends.
Both the iPad and iPhone version of Civ Rev are now on sale, by the way.
Earlier this afternoon, Joseph and I spent some time with Beastie Bay [Free], the latest game from the simulation gurus over at Kairosoft. This is oversimplifying it, but Beastie Bay is sorta like what would happen if Sim City met Pokemon. In the game, you're tasked with collecting and beating up monsters while also building up a profitable and resource rich village that supports your pocket monster habit.
I'm pretty sure this is our longest TA Plays ever, and mainly that's because we spend a ton of time going over all the different mechanics. There's crafting, there's upgrading, there's collecting, there's exploring, dungeon-diving, looting, training -- it's nuts. Give the video a look, if you're curious:
Nineties-era 16-bit gamers who spent time in front of an Atari ST or Amiga might recall a rather unique and atmospheric first-person 3D game with an ominous premise. Archipelagos places you hovering above a chain of islands, once inhabited by a mysterious race known as the Ancients. Long dead at the hands of the Visitors, another race of their own creation, the Ancients' blood soaked into the land, poisoning it and bringing forth the twisted, writhing trees that crawl across the islands. And, standing as evidence of the dominion of the Visitors is a lone monolith and the smaller stones spread about the landscape from which it draws power to keep the Ancients at bay.
Archipelagos is a strategy puzzle game developed by Paul Carruthers of Astral Software and released in 1989 to critical acclaim, receiving an 84% rating in Amiga/ST Format, and a 92% from The One magazine. Original developer Carruthers, who also created Mortal Kombat, Batman Forever, and T2: The Arcade Game for the Sega Genesis, has just released a remake of his 1989 classic, Archipelagos [$0.99], here 24 years later, for iOS (Universal) as well as the BlackBerry Playbook / 10 (with an Android version on the way) under the Anthill Games label.
The other game we saw here at the Paradox Con was Leviathan Warships, and it's really a toss up as to whether I'm more excited for this or Magicka. Where Magicka takes a more silly and casual approach to things, Leviathan Warships is strategy on top of strategy, and totally built around cross-platform asynchronous multiplayer. The dream Paradox is selling is a strategy game that's entirely platform agnostic and seamless between whatever device you're playing it on. Naval war battles you can play on your PC, then just walk away and pick up exactly where you left off on your iPad. It's been done to some extent before in different games, but this whole "play the same game everywhere" thing so many developers are working towards is really exciting to me.
I think the best way to describe the way Leviathan Warships works is by looking at a game like tabletop Warhammer. You start by building your fleet (of course you can use pre-built ones, but, come on) and there are multiple point values allowed depending on whether you're building for a small, medium, or large battle. There are multiple types of ships, each with their own point values, and each of those ships have mounting points to add offensive and defensive capabilities. These guns (or defensive measures) also all have their own point values. This immediately caused the part of my brain that makes Warhammer so appealing to start going crazy.
Once you've got your fleet, you're thrown into multiplayer battles with up to four people. The game is played ten seconds at a time, with everyone choosing where their ships will move, what direction they'll (eventually) face, and which weapons or abilities will fire. Everyone locks in their selections, the battle progresses ten seconds, and you do it again. It's awesome how it works out, as it's totally turn based but it almost feels real time with the way all the ships interact with each other at once. I could imagine games potentially taking forever if someone is being slow about locking in their moves, but, like other similar asynchronous titles, you can run multiple games at once so there's always some action taking place.
The strategy of these battles is just awesome once you begin to get a grasp of how the game works. For instance, one particular strategy (of a nearly infinite pool) could involve investing most of your fleet points on just creating a long range massive battleship with loads of strong artillery. The catch is, while anything that's in firing range of that ship will undoubtedly be annihilated, that ship isn't capable of seeing where it needs to shoot by itself because its artillery is so long range.
That's where scout ships come in, so you'd have a few very fast moving and cheap (point-wise) ships that you use to locate the enemy ships to then target them with your giant warship that's securely hidden behind an island in the corner of the map. It's not that easy though, as the animation of the incoming artillery barrage makes it apparent the vague direction where that shot is coming from. For this strategy to work, you'd need to kill the enemy ships before they find your gunship, as the drawback of ultra-long range weaponry is that it has a massive minimum firing distance. The same gun that in an ideal situation might be able to take down a ship in a few shots is rendered completely ineffective if someone is able to charge up inside of whatever the naval equivalent of "melee range" would be.
Of course there's a counter for this as well, as you could save a few ships behind that could act as interceptors with close range weaponry, but do you have enough points for that? This is what makes Warhammer so amazing to me in that yeah, you can have some ridiculously powerful unit, but everything has drawbacks. If this jargon is going over your head, think of it this way: The Death Star can destroy planets, but one exposed exhaust port is all it takes...
The direction your ships are facing is also important as guns are very specifically mounted on each side of ships. This once again invokes the whole army building aspect of the game, as you could load a ship in a way that it could have both long range and short range weaponry on all sides, or load one side up for a massive canon barrage before turning your ship to its other side for short range attacks.
These are just my impressions after playing the game for maybe fifteen minutes. I haven't even scratched the surface of what's possible, and it seems like a title with mechanics like Leviathan Warships could have a really long tail of developer support as they could add new ship types, maps, and weapon mechanics for eternity. Leviathan Warships is coming soon, and I can't wait to spend more time with it.
Like Magicka, Paradox captured some footage of the iPad version of Leviathan Wars for us. It's without context, but it's a little easier to tell what's going on. Hold on to your butts, as we're going to TA Plays Leviathan Warships proper as soon as we can get a build of it.
Heroes and Castles [$1.99], Foursaken Media's visceral blend of 3rd-person action and castle defense, is already getting a huge content update, the studio has revealed.
First up is a brand new Siege mode that flips the script on the regular game and has you playing as the Evil forces trying to assault and take down the castle's defenses. This leads right into a new competitive multiplayer mode, where one player is Good and defends the castle and the other is Evil and tries to break through the defense.
This new competitive multiplayer mode will complement the current cooperative game style, and it sounds like a ton of fun. The Evil faction will come with four new classes of hero as well as their own unique economy system.
There are two new heroes coming to Heroes and Castles too. One is the Elven Ranger, which you can see below, and the other will be a Mage character. The current heroes will also be getting alternate skins, one of which you can also see below for the Knight.
On top of all the new content, Heroes and Castles is also getting a ton of all around fixes, but specifically in the area of making the cooperative and endless modes more stable. If you're curious to hear more on Heroes and Castles, then check out our review of the game or our forums for discussion from the community. This latest update has already been submitted so look for it to hit within a week or two.
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes [$4.99] is one of those games I just can't get enough of. I've picked it up on three different platforms so far, and through them all there's been one constant: it offers an excellent blend of strategy, puzzles and roleplaying. It's more than worth playing, be it on PSN or XBLA, on Nintendo DS, or on Steam. iPad, too—aside from a few big bugs. iPhone, on the other hand? Not so much. Asynchronous multiplayer is a wonderful addition, but it comes at a cost.
Clash of Heroes takes a touch too much squinting on the small screen, but I could live with that if it weren't for the frustrating controls. This is a game that's likely to make most people feel uncomfortably fat fingered. You can zoom in on the action, which helps, but then you can't see the enemy team. The iPad, even the Mini, fares so much better it may as well be a different game. In fact, it probably ought to be - the iPhone version would benefit from a complete overhaul.
It's that time of week again when the deluge of new releases finally land on the US App Store. It looks like a pretty decent week based on what's in our weekly Coming Tonight post, and all those games are now available with the links provided there. As we usually do, we're highlighting what is the most noteworthy release of the bunch and this week that game is Might & Magic Clash of Heroes [$4.99].
Clash of Heroes is a match-3 RPG hybrid in the loosest sense, and is wrapped in a massive single-player story-driven campaign. Typical RPG tropes are at play as you follow along with a ragtag group of young heroes as they try to save the world from certain doom.
Battles are centered around the matching style gameplay, and as we've talked about previously in our preview coverage of Clash of Heroes, this is the game's biggest strength. There are layers upon layers of depth to the fight strategies and mechanics, and while the story and presentation are key components if Clash of Heroes was nothing but battling I wouldn't complain one bit.
That's sort of what the multiplayer is there for, though. You can play against AI opponents, battle real-life friends locally, or take on the competition online in asynchronous bouts. The single-player campaign in Clash of Heroes should keep you busy for quite a long time, but the multiplayer options are what really give it long-term legs.
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes originally launched as a Nintendo DS title back in 2009, and was re-released and enhanced in HD for home consoles in 2011. The iOS game is based on the HD release, and because of that the file is nearly a full 2 gigs, so just a heads up. Other than that it appears to be a fairly decent touchscreen translation of an absolutely phenomenal original game, so check out our forums for more early impressions and watch this space for more on Clash of Heroes in the near future.
Ndemic Creations' Plague Inc. [$0.99] is one of those games I never imagined would hook me like it has. It's a strategy title that sees you unleashing a plague on the world and then managing how best to make it spread and annihilate the human population before scientists are able to wise up and find a cure for it.
With a ton of different plague types, each with their own modification trees to explore and strategies to utilize, Plague Inc. is a highly satisfying and cerebral affair. Since its original release and our review from mid-2012, the game has been updated extensively adding even more content and strategies to the mix. We even talked with the developer who revealed a ton of interesting facts behind Plague Inc. which turned out to be one of our most popular stories of the year.
Today, Ndemic has sent over the details of the new upcoming update for Plague Inc. which adds a new virus to the game. It's called the Necroa Virus and at first blush seems pretty similar to the other plagues you can unleash in the game in the way it behaves. However, there is one branch of mutation that will enable it to reanimate the humans that it's killed, thus turning them into zombies. From here a whole bunch of cool stuff happens.
A new population category appears, so you're now keeping your eye on who is healthy, infected, dead and who is a zombie. Once zombies are unleashed on the world they'll begin attacking and infecting the healthy humans, and at this point a "cure" doesn't do a whole lot of good. So humanity fights back. A new organization of zombie hunters called Z Com will popup around the world and need to be dealt with if you hope to wipe out humanity. There's also a new mechanic called Active Abilities which will allow you to directly control specific regions of zombies to attack the living population, and even reanimate fallen zombies. The Necroa Virus comes with 5 new genes for additional customization options, as well as new algorithms, evolution options, government responses, events and more that make it feel unlike any other plague before it.
Like the previous Neurax Worm expansion, the Necroa Virus will be available as a $1.99 IAP or unlocked for free if you're able to complete the game on the brutal difficulty. If you can do that, you are good, my friend. The upcoming update will also feature some new things that apply to everyone even if they choose not to get the Necroa Virus. These include new events and achievements, some UI fixes to make the game easier to play, and general tweaks and fixes.
Oh, and since people seem to love hearing about cool Plague Inc. factoids, here's a few on how well the game did in 2012. It was the 15th most popular paid iPhone game and 18th most popular paid iPad game overall for the year, and 76th top grossing game during that same time. And the Neurax Worm expansion pack? That thing was pretty popular too, and has been played over 5 million times since its release last September.
The Necroa Virus update is set to launch sometime next month, so check out the Plague Inc. discussion in our forums and we'll be sure to let you know when it hits.
Rodeo Games's radical turn-based strategy action series, Hunters, is on sale through the weekend. Starting now, you can grab Hunters: Episode One [Free / Free (HD)] for zero bucks and its follow-up, Hunters 2 [$4.99], for 99¢.
These are both lengthy games with additional random mission content thrown in for good measure, so giving a download to either (or both) is kind of a no-brainer from a value proposition standpoint. Quality-wise, these are awesome strategy titles that'll stress your brain while also delivering loads of action.
Rodeo tells us that this sale is "part of the run up" to Warhammer Quest, its Warhammer-based fantasy strategy game that's due out at some point this spring.
Shenandoah Studios' The Battle of the Bulge [$6.99 (HD)] is to the iPad what SSG's fabled Panzer General was to PC gaming in the '90s. Its a game that will make historical strategy diehards swoon, while also being pretty enough, and easy enough to learn, to draw in people who never knew that this was the game they'd been waiting for.
It's even educational, with day-by-day summaries of the historical course of the Axis' last offense and additional materials about the battle presented in an incredibly appealing "magazine" format with historical photos. This is a game that could be taught in a military history class.
There are several things that Battle of the Bulge is not, by design. It's not real time, it's not a multi-mission campaign, it's not a game where you can see every soldier fight and die in 3D animated gore, thank the strategy gods.
The whole roguelike thing can seem kind of intense—the permadeath, particularly. It's all struggle and strife and the near-inevitable fall. It's hard to relax when you know each and every move could be your last, after all. Dungelot [$1.99 / Free] makes the whole formula much simpler.
It's the mythical casual roguelike, in fact. Yes, you will die. You will die often. On the way to those deaths, though, things will be relatively relaxed. Combat is simple. Inventory management is simple. Exploration is a matter of flipping tiles and seeing what's underneath. It's almost perfect for the world of casual mobile games.
"Almost" sounds ominous, but there's only one thing seriously holding Dungelot back right now: there is no save system. Now saving isn't always a roguelike thing, but it's kind of a problem when you switch to another app and your game is gone. Or when there's a crash and your game is gone. Or when… well, you get the picture.
A Sharp's King of Dragon Pass [$9.99], one of our favorite games about tribal politics, is now 30 percent off for the next three days. The headline gave it away, but A Sharp is doing this in celebration of selling 30,000 copies of the game on the App Store, which is a lot of shipped product for a niche game that usually sits at a very premium price of $9.99.
