★100x VG Couriers Giveaway★ A hundred Vigilante foxes are for the taking in this exclusive giveaway!Come get yours! http://ift.tt/2ttHSph; http://pic.twitter.com/sZy4pCqiL3
VG vs. LFY #TI7 Qualifier Playoffs #LiveNow http://ift.tt/2t38yue; http://pic.twitter.com/7Bbl5wSbj5
rOtk sends B-God his love and support for #TI7 http://ift.tt/2sjHCJB; http://pic.twitter.com/cBXBLvBpve
VG #Dota2 are in the #TI7 Regional Qualifier playoffs with EHOME.K, LGD and LFY http://pic.twitter.com/m9Fz4O11Dg
VG #Dota2 just defeated iG.V 1-0 in another round of #TI7 Regional Qualifiers. Next game is against LFY http://pic.twitter.com/hFIYGaWcAv
Team VGJ vs. LGD #TI7 Qualifiers http://ift.tt/2sc4NVZ; http://pic.twitter.com/FBaVi8CUKy
VG #Dota2 's #TI7 Qualifying Matches for today, June 28th http://pic.twitter.com/SPQOMoMrpB
VG and VGJ are fighting it out right now in the #TI7 Regional Qualifiers http://ift.tt/2sc4NVZ; http://pic.twitter.com/r62WCJDkze
Team VGJ begin their #TI7 Regional Qualifiers journey, facing LFY in the first BO1 http://ift.tt/2tgpJLJ; http://pic.twitter.com/EBvSmWbW93
VG vs. LGD #TI7 Regional Qualifiers http://ift.tt/2tgpJLJ; http://pic.twitter.com/TCPgjr02M3
Both VG and VGJ start their path in the #TI7 Regional Qualifiers tomorrow! http://pic.twitter.com/q67wOkCSAA
That pic of @REALIcePoseidon inspired me. @Sodapoppintv http://pic.twitter.com/8xdUI7hJfG
Did something special today. If you missed it: PoV marathon with commentary (Special edition stream) on @Twitch http://ift.tt/2t9T4oa;
VG.Ziran #Overwatch #Genji Highlight Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaSw6NJt1bM …
Sincerest apologies to our fans and supporters for not making it to #TheInternational this year. Tough fact, but even tougher competition.
对不起一直以来支持我的粉丝们和小伙伴们，我一直想努力打好，也一直很认真在打，可能真的老了吧，以后可能再打ti也是梦了。。。。好想赢，真的想赢，但是好像只能到这了。。。
We start off fast this week covering the unbelievable amount of news that came out this week, covering a bunch of stuff Supercell is doing, some Hearthstone stuff, and tons more. Of course a ton of great (and not so great) games were also released. We had time to talk about five of them, and those are Final Fantasy XV: Game of War Edition [Free], Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow [Free], Kalimba [$3.99], Flippy Hills [Free], and Swing King and the Temple of Bling [Free].
Don't forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read 'em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below... And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!
As a companion to this audio podcast, we also do a video version of the same show that is exclusive to Patreon which allows you to see us playing the games we're talking about. Backers can view the most recent video episodes of the TouchArcade show by clicking here. Be sure you're logged in to see the latest content. For everyone else who is curious, you can check out our public patreon posts to see older episodes of the video podcast. If you like what you see, consider becoming a TouchArcade Patreon backer.
iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts [Free]
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-313.mp3, 65MB
Two years ago now we launched our Patreon and since then while support from our community has been encouraging, we're still only half way to our goal to get back to firing on all cylinders. As you've likely noticed, there haven't been any new names on the site since Brad Nicholson left quite some time ago, as we're largely treading water trying to stay alive on the incredibly limited resources we have. I personally think third party editorial outlets like TouchArcade are very important to the health of online ecosystems like the App Store, and I believe we provide a significant value to our readers and iOS developers every day. All we're asking for is a value for value exchange, and if you feel you derive any value from reading TouchArcade (or anything from the TouchArcade community), please support our efforts to continue doing what we're doing. Here's all the ways you can do that:
Advertising
If you're an iOS developer looking to raise awareness of your game, advertising on sites like TouchArcade is a great way to reach a hyper-targeted audience of iOS gamers and industry influencers who view the site multiple times a day. We offer options ranging from sponsoring our podcast, advertising on our forums, or even completely re-skinning the site. Apple's editorial featuring games team constantly visits TouchArcade, along with (obviously) our whole staff, so having well-placed ads on a site like TouchArcade can be exponentially more effective at getting word out about your game than paying a PR person (likely way more money) to send us emails. For more information, contact our ad sales manager at ads@toucharcade.com.
Supporting Us on Patreon
Patreon is our primary funding source these days. If you're unfamiliar, you're able to more or less "subscribe" to creators (like us) whose content you value. We offer several different tiers of support, which grant things like cosmetic rewards on our forums, as well as access to a Patreon-only chat channel on our Discord server. All Patreon backers also get a video version of our podcast. Developers who support us on Patreon on the "Indie Developer" tier and above get access to a developer chat on on Discord for direct access to TouchArcade staff (and other developers), along with other developer-exclusive content like a business insights email newsletter, event reports, and more. We're also in the process of working with a few different highly relevant companies for exclusive discounts for Patreon backers, although nothing has been finalized just yet.
Overall, a good way to look at our Patreon is to think of TouchArcade as a magazine you'd subscribe to. If you used to pick up a copy of GamePro every month for five bucks (back when magazines only cost five bucks), kick us $5 instead. We provide way more content than print magazines ever could, in an infinitely more timely manner. If you'd like to support the site for more than that because we've saved you money over the years by helping you avoid bad games or by highlighting games you wanted when they were on sale... Even better! The way we look at it is that there's nothing more valuable than time, and we work well over a full time schedule to try and save YOU time by not having to sort through the crap on the App Store. If we've provided value to you in any of these ways, please consider giving back to us with your support.
Amazon Prime Members Can Subscribe to Us on Twitch for Free
If you're an Amazon Prime member, you get way more benefits than fast shipping that you might not even be aware of. One of those perks is Twitch Prime. Once you link up your Amazon account with Twitch, aside from a bunch of random gaming-related freebies, you'll also be able to subscribe to one Twitch channel per month for free. We hope you use that free subscription on our Twitch channel. Something to keep in mind with these free Twitch subscriptions is they do not auto-renew. You'll need to manually re-subscribe every month, so if you'd like to go one tiny step further for us, set a recurring reminder on your iPhone's calendar to remember to do this.
Subscribe on Twitch and/or Cheer with Bits
If you're not an Amazon Prime member, you can still subscribe to our Twitch channel, it just costs $4.99. Something to keep in mind with this is the Twitch revenue share is 50/50, so if you just want to support the site and don't really specifically care about Twitch, your dollars go way farther over on Patreon as they take significantly smaller payment processing fees. But, hey, if you just love Twitch and want the perks that come with a subscriber, rock on.
Another thing you can do on Twitch to help us out is cheer us with Bits. It's a new thing Twitch recently added that let you more or less "tip" the active streamer with a Twitch-exclusive currency that gets added to our account which Twitch eventually pays out on. Much like subscriptions, the revenue share on Twitch Bits isn't great, but you can get them for free if you're willing to view some ads on Twitch. Cheering is pretty fun while streaming as there's a whole lot of fanfare when Bits come in, they get added to a tip cup, and Twitch chat gets all excited.
Shop on Amazon Through Our Affiliate Link
If you do a lot of shopping on Amazon, visiting the easy to remember URL http://ift.tt/2pHr7VS and clicking through our link gives us credit as the referral for everything you buy. Amazon then gives us a very tiny percentage of the sale, which they'd otherwise just keep for themselves. They have widely varying commission rates, but everything (short of just buying cash gift cards) awards us something.
Amazon Pantry items are among the highest commissions Amazon pays, so if buy a lot of non-perishables and other home goods on Amazon, clicking our link first would be amazing- It also helps keep the joke alive that TouchArcade is in part supported by toilet paper sales since mobile gamers spend a lot of time playing on the toilet.
One-Time Contributions via PayPal
One thing a lot of people have asked us for is the ability to do one-time payments via PayPal. As part of setting up everything to make our Twitch channel work, we also have a more user-friendly way to do one-time payments. Click here, fill out the form, and it'll toss you over to PayPal to complete your payment. All of your PayPal information remains confidential, so we'll really only know what you fill out on the one-time contribution page. If you want to cover PayPal fees, there's a checkbox for that too. One thing to keep in mind with this is that since this whole thing is built with Twitch in mind, it's outside of all the automated stuff we've built for Patreon. If you don't care about those rewards, rock on. Additionally, if we're streaming when you donate, it'll automatically read your note on stream.
Whitelist TouchArcade on Your Ad Blockers
I know this is a ultra-touchy subject for some people, but if you use an ad blocker, please whitelist the TouchArcade domain. We (to the detriment of our own success) run the site with minimal ads which are manually screened to avoid anything that spawns pop-ups, auto-plays sound, or anything else annoying. We respect our readers, and while we'd be doing tons better if we had full-screen and totally irritating interstitials, I think all that does is encourage more people to block your ads. If you just block everything because you assume all sites these days have in-your-face ads, just try whitelisting us. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And, hell, if you really want to block our ads, just kick us a few bucks in one of these other ways and we'll be square.
Tell Your Friends and/or Share Our Stories on Social Media
If you love TouchArcade, but really just aren't interested in supporting the site financially, you can still do us a solid via word of mouth. If a friend of yours just got a new iPhone, recommend they check out TouchArcade to find some great games to download. Additionally, we go out of our way to produce great long-form content which typically doesn't generate that much search traffic. For instance, Shaun's amazing RPG Reload series, which I think is some of the best content we publish, are among the worst performing articles on the site. If you read something here that you find insightful, or otherwise interesting, please take a moment to encourage your friends to check it out on Twitter or Facebook. You might think one share doesn't mean much, but we can clearly tell the difference in site analytics.
Thanks for Reading
As always, thanks so much to everyone who has supported us over the years. You're the main reason we're still around, and we hope to keep doing what we've been doing for years to come. Hitting our original Patreon goals would allow us to hire more writers, attend more events, refresh the site, and potentially even explore options with our iOS app. We've managed to successfully fight against the tide of needing to run SEO-bait listicles, get involved in sponsored content, and all the other gnarly things web sites are doing to stay alive all because of you.
Thanks everybody!
The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn't necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable "best" thing. Instead, it's more just us picking out the single game out of the week's releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one.
These picks might be controversial, and that's OK. If you disagree with what we've chosen, let's try to use the comments of these articles to have conversations about what game is your game of the week and why.
Without further ado…
Genre mashups are a tricky thing. Sometimes you take elements from two different genres and combine them into something truly unique, providing a fresh experience even for hardcore fans of the genres you're combining. Other times, you mash together concepts that don't complement each other and don't gel well, leaving a hunking mess that doesn't please anybody. Developer Nathan Meunier imagined replacing the fast-reactions needed to deploy missiles and protect your base from attacks in the arcade classic Missile Command with turn-based, strategic card-based gameplay, and fortunately for us his creation Missile Cards [$2.99] is one of those mashups that produced something really special.
There are 3 types of cards in Missile Cards: Hazard cards, defense cards, and utility cards. Your main base is flanked by smaller sub-bases and they're all situated on the left of the screen. This area is gridded, and attacks rain down towards your base one square at a time in turn-based fashion. On the right side of the screen you have your card deck, 4 spots for playing your cards, and a conveyor belt thing that moves cards from the deck across a second row of 4 spaces with the 4th space being the "activate" space of sorts. When a hazard card reaches this spot it appears on the grid and begins its journey towards your base. When a non-hazard card reaches that 4th space it gets shuffled back into the deck.
You have AP points which accumulate with each turn and dictate which types of cards you're able to play at any given time. This is where the strategy comes into play. Should you put some defense cards in play early so you can build up their AP cost and they'll be ready to play when you need them? Or will doing that allow too much time for the hazards to rain down on your bases. Your sub-bases can be destroyed once without it ending the game, and even sacrificing one of your own sub-bases can be used as a strategy at times. There really is a ton of layers to the game, and as you play you can unlock new cards and upgrade the various bases/decks in the game meaning the variety and strategy will only intensify the more time you spend with Missile Cards.
All that said, this is a very difficult game. Be ready for that. The tutorial doesn't automatically happen when you first start, so be sure to hit the "How To Play" button and run through the brief tutorial to get your bearings. Then play a game on your own, and then go back and play the tutorial again. Trust me, it helps. Eventually everything clicks, but don't be surprised if you get your butt handed to you in your first few games. It gets better, I promise, and it's totally worth investing the time to understand the game fully. Just don't let it scare you off at first. I wish all mashup games were as fantastic as Missile Cards, and I hope this one does well on mobile (it first launched on desktop) so that Nathan Meunier can bring some of his other card game ideas mentioned in the game's forum thread to our devices in the future.
Clash Royale has been inspiring other developers to bring real-time midcore strategy games onto the App Store, and is has inspired Simultronics' upcoming Siege: Titan Wars as well. As the developers point out in our Upcoming Games forum thread, they wanted to make something that builds on the core concepts of Clash Royale but sets itself apart in a few ways. One is the more classic fantasy style, but, more importantly, is the way Siege has you deploying big group of troops rather than individual units. Those armies are often led by Titans, which I'm sure will easily sweep those puny little soldiers to the side.
The game is currently in soft launch, which you can download from here if you have an account in those stores. Global launch should be coming soon, and hopefully Siege: Titan Wars will offer a fun take on the Clash Royale formula.
As we wrote about a few months back, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books are coming to mobile with the name Fighting Fantasy Legends and will be developed by Nomad Games. Now, we have a gameplay trailer that shows off more about the game. The trailer shows off the game's maps, interface, and, of course, the battle screen, which includes a ton of dice throwing and a prayer to the RNG gods. The game will apparently let you experience the events of three Fighting Fantasy books, which is great for those who've already experienced the physical version of Fighting Fantasy.
This card based role playing game is hoping to put a new spin on the already familiar adventures of the Fighting Fantasy books by having you explore the continent of Allansia, all the while collecting cards and powering up your dice. Expect the game to come to iOS and Android this summer, and in the meantime, visit our forum page for more.
Our forum readers had been anxiously waiting for the mobile version of the classic Torchlight game to hit the mobile platform, but then some feedback from earlier betas tempered everyone's expectations quite a bit since it seemed to steer away from the classic game and into more mobile-friendly directions. Now you can check Torchlight: The Legend Continues yourselves, if you have a Philippines App Store account, since the game has just soft launched there.
Torchlight: The Legend Continues brings a ton of skills that you can combine in a number of ways and switch to different combined skills on the go. It also brings an emphasis on randomness, which the developers see as coming directly from the Diablo and Torchlight series. Random monsters, random monster skills, random hidden rooms, and all the other random elements should help with replayability. Check out our forum thread for more info, and go here to download the game. If you don't have a Philippines account, use our guide to make one.
THIS IS YOUR ABSOLUTE LAST CHANCE TO ENTER! WINNER DRAWN IN A FEW HOURS! GO GO GO! https://twitter.com/Northern_EA/status/864637426349875201 …
Clash Royale's [Free] Summer of 2v2 is here everyone, even though we aren't in July yet. Still, the first 2v2 Challenge has started today, so get ready to play with a random person because, as Supercell has stated, the game doesn't have the UI necessary to allow for you to play 2v2 with a friend of Clanmate. And, as you would expect, reddit is full of people complaining about the random part of the challenge. Tomorrow, we will officially have the 2v2 Quick Match available for the whole month.
In addition to that, we'll have a 2v2 Draft Challenge on July 7th, a 2v2 Overtime Challenge July 14th, a 2v2 Double Elixir Draft Challenge July 21st, and a 2v2 Special Event July 28th. Enjoy your 2v2 matches.
That pic of @REALIcePoseidon inspired me. @Sodapoppintv http://pic.twitter.com/8xdUI7hJfG
Did something special today. If you missed it: PoV marathon with commentary (Special edition stream) on @Twitch http://ift.tt/2t9T4oa;
If there's one genre that's really missing from mobile is real-time grand strategy games of the Paradox kind. Realpolitiks is a game hoping to fill in that void next month. The game has been on Steam for a while and has mixed reviews, but PC player expectations for these kinds of games are usually different from those of mobile players. This "streamlined" real-time grand strategy game lets you rule any country you want and deal with and territorial disputes, economic issues, international affairs, and—of course—military conflicts. You'll have to also deal with unexpected events and global crises, like the EU collapsing or the Islamic State expanding.
The game uses three main political systems—democracy, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism—to emulate the world, and lets you pick one of those paths for your country. The game will be coming out for iOS and Android in July, and it will have all the features of the PC version but a different, more mobile-friendly interface.
The Hearthstone [Free] developer Q&A is over, and while there was some interesting info regarding balancing the game, the information most will be interested in is that the next expansion is coming in August. Ben Brode is apparently super excited about the upcoming expansion, although we don't have any more details or hints on the theme. We will know all that on July 6th, when the developers will officially announce the next expansion. Expect this expansion to feel different than previous ones because it will be the first expansion-adventure hybrid in the history of the game, since we are officially moving away from Adventures in the future.
According to Mike Donais, they wanted to make the meta change more substantially, and for that they needed to be adding more cards every time. At the same time, they know Adventures and single-player content in general is one of the players' favorite thing and is great for setting up the scene. So, the August expansion will be a combination of the two in the form of free missions that will act as mini-Adventures, and those will be free for all players.
Most games we play are filled with tension and—more often than not—violent themes. While there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion, it's always nice to have different types of experiences as well, and that's where a game like Lotus comes in. Lotus is a game about growing flowers to their full potential and creating a beautiful garden. In order to do so, you'll need to get help from magical creatures of the land in order to grow that garden and achieve true enlightenment.
Lotus will be coming to phones and tablets later this summer, and it should come with robust multiplayer. I'm glad to see a game like Lotus come to mobile, and I think it's going to look really pretty, especially on tablets.
One of the oldest and best RPG series on mobile just keeps on getting better as today the HD version of The Quest - Hero of Lukomorye [$2.99] arrived in the App Store. As we explained when the previous expansion Thor's Hammer [$2.99] arrived early this month, the game known simply as The Quest [$7.99] in the App Store is actually the HD remake of the original The Quest, which has been renamed to The Quest Classic [$4.99]. The Quest Classic has been around for ages, even before smartphones, and has had numerous expansions released for it, both by original developer Redshift and many by 3rd party developer Zarista Games. The five part Hero of Lukomorye is the work of Zarista and was one of the earliest and one of the biggest expansions, coming right on the heels of Redshift's own Islands of Ice and Fire [$3.99], which is also available as an HD version as of September of last year.
Aside from the entirely new Thor's Hammer expansion that released earlier this month, it looks like Redshift and Zarista might be following the same order of release as the original expansions. Or at the very least I'm guessing we'll be getting the rest of the Hero of Lukomorye expansion in the near future. Redshift had previously stated that there were no plans to release any of the existing expansions from The Quest Classic as HD versions due to being so busy working on the highly-anticipated The Quest 2. However, it looks like they've found a happy medium between working on both new and old, along with Zarista's help, as evidenced by the HD expansions released thus far. It's possible we won't see ALL of the previous expansions HD-ified, but as long as they do keep on coming I'll keep on buying them! So if by some chance you've already finished the main The Quest game, AND Islands of Ice and Fire, AND Thor's Hammer, well, here's something new for you to chew on with the first entry in the Hero of Lukomorye series, and you can find discussion on this latest expansion in our forums. Oh, and if you want to know what we thought of the main The Quest HD remake, be sure to read our full review (Spoiler: We loved it).
If you read our review, you're likely fully aware of how much we love Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money [Free]. The game strikes a fantastic balance between just being an all-around great idle clicker while packing in an unbelievable amount of Trailer Park Boys fan service. This means the game by itself is a super-competent clicker that'd be fun for non-fans, but just gets elevated to a whole new levels for those who love the IP the game is based on. Anyway, they're kicking off a new event this weekend, just for Randy: Cheeseburger Picnic.
To coincide with Canada Day and the 4th of July, the boys of Sunnyvale are cookin' up cheeseburgers. The grand prize for participating in the event is Bubble's cat, Gary Laser-eyes. Oh, and hashcoins are on sale so if you want to get a bit of a boost in the game, you can now do that for cheaper.
I've been trying to talk the guys at East Side Games to add my dog to the game as an unlockable, so fingers crossed on that. After season 11 of the show, dachshunds are now part of the Sunnyvale universe, so it makes sense. Anyway, get to grillin' those cheeseburgers. A man's gotta eat.
I know that many of our Android readers have been complaining about being left out of the Brawl Stars soft launch party, and rightly so since the game is so much fun. A developer update today sheds light on why we haven't seen an Android beta yet. And, I'm sorry to say, it doesn't seem like Android players will be playing the game any time soon. According to the post, Brawl Stars uses a unique system of local servers, and the only live server right now is in Canada. The nature of an Android APK allows it to spread across the globe very quickly, and that would make it really hard for Android players to play (and hammer the server as well).
The developers are currently improving and testing the game, and they won't be doing an Android or global release until the game is an excellent shape. So, sorry to burst your Android dreams. And do keep in mind that, as we've posted recently, Brawl Stars APK download links are all scams, so avoid them for your safety.
As you probably know by now if you're a Hearthstone [Free] player, Blizzard finally decided to nerf Quest Rogue, and right now the developers are hosting a live stream Q&A to talk more about the game's balance and Un'Goro in general. The hosts are Game Director Ben Brode and Principal Game Designer Mike Donais. If you have questions that you want to ask, you can tweet @PlayHearthstone with the hashtag #QA, post a question below this blog, or post it directly in the Twitch chat.
If for some reason you can't tune in right now (or you've already missed it), you'll be able to watch the full video on the Hearthstone YouTube channel after the Q&A has been completed. Enjoy the stream and feel free to comment below.
Turns out there's more going on this weekend in Canada than poutine donuts at Tim Horton's (for real, I guess that's a thing now), particularly in the arctic tundra of Saskatoon, home of Noodlecake: Two great games are on sale. First off, Super Stickman Golf 3 [Free] is free to download (and really, you could play forever without spending a cent) but this weekend the premium unlock IAP is 99 cents. This IAP removes ads, and gives you unlimited access to the downloadable courses area of the game. Additionally, with the premium unlock you'll have unlimited attempts at the daily races, and can have 25 turn based matches going at one time. Oh, and to further sweeten the deal you'll get 5 card packs.
In other news, The Bug Butcher [$0.99] both got a price drop and an awesome update. Down from $3.99, the game is now just a bucj, and is now playable on the Apple TV as well as getting MFi controller support. If you're on the hunt for another great game to play with a controller, or on your TV, this seems like a great way to spend a buck.
Just make sure you have enough left over for that poutine donut, that thing sounds off the chain.
VG.Ziran #Overwatch #Genji Highlight Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaSw6NJt1bM …
Sincerest apologies to our fans and supporters for not making it to #TheInternational this year. Tough fact, but even tougher competition.
对不起一直以来支持我的粉丝们和小伙伴们，我一直想努力打好，也一直很认真在打，可能真的老了吧，以后可能再打ti也是梦了。。。。好想赢，真的想赢，但是好像只能到这了。。。
While seeing older Steam releases make the transition to the App Store is by no means a rare phenomenon anymore, publishing label tinyBuild has been responsible for some of the more interesting ports to iOS in recent times. Party Hard Go [$0.99] was notable for bringing its eccentric stealth strategy gameplay to the smaller screen, and Punch Club [Free], with its beautiful pixel art aesthetic and numerous updates since its January 2016 launch, remains one of the better simulation games on the App Store to date. Beyond these two standout titles, tinyBuild have amassed a significant catalogue of iOS releases, and today have reduced every single game down to the bargain price of $0.99 for a limited time summer sale. To tempt you further into expanding that backlog even more, here's a full list of the tinyBuild games that are currently on sale:
While the aforementioned two titles are the obvious highlights of the tinyBuild promotion - especially as Party Hard Go has never reached the dollar mark before - I'd also recommend Fearless Fantasy [$0.99] for any RPG fans, and our own Eric Ford shared my sentiments in his review around the game's launch. Furthermore, Spoiler Alert [$0.99] has gone on sale from $0.99 to zero dollars, and the stripped down version of Punch Club: Fights [Free] has always been free to download - however I've included both games in the sales round-up regardless. If I'm honest, the summer sales haven't really heated up on the App Store thus far, so hopefully this tinyBuild promotion is the catalyst for further killer deals as July draws ever closer.
Destiny 2 won’t have random rolls on weapons anymore.
Destiny 2 is going to be shaking up a lot of the familiar things we’ve been used to in Destiny, and we’ve gathered up all of the intel so far for you to peruse at your leisure.
A new tidbit that popped up today involved director Luke Smith telling Mashable that weapon rolls will be a thing of the past.
“There aren’t random rolls on weapons anymore,” Smith said.
“Better Devils is a Crucible hand cannon [in Destiny 2], and what it has on it is what it has on it. Period.”
This may be disappointing news to the loot fiends amongst you. What is there to drive the hunt if there are no real weapon variants?
“How can my second, third, and tenth Better Devils hand cannon be interesting? That’s a question we should be asking and answering as quickly as we can,” he explained.
“We have ideas. While I would like nothing more than to share those ideas with you, we’re up against [a deadline]. I don’t know if they’ll make it for our Sept. 6 [release] date. But we have some ideas that we’re pretty excited about.”
This change is going to give Bungie more flexibility when it comes to implementing tweaks and balances, as each weapon is a standalone item in effect.
“It’s gonna give us more flexibility to do per-item tuning. [That’s] something we haven’t had before because of the way we were building the [first] game.”
What are your thoughts on the upcoming changes? What kind of weapon variants do you think we’ll see based on what he said? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Fire Emblem Heroes [Free]: you probably know it, you may or may not love it, and I'm certainly running out of ideas for intro paragraphs for it. The game was highlighted as a strong earner in Nintendo's most recent shareholders' meeting, and a quick glance at the charts show that it's hanging on better than Nintendo's previous efforts. Nintendo has done a great job of supporting the game post release, with near-monthly updates that provide new things to do and various improvements based on user feedback. We've just received word of what will be included in the next update, so let's take a look.
The biggest news is the addition of two new modes to the story map battles. Chain Challenge has you completing a series of battles, rewarding you with feathers for Normal and Hard completion and orbs for beating them on Lunatic difficulty. The other new mode is Squad Assault, and like Chain Challenge, it has you completing a series of consecutive battles. The difference is that in this mode, your units will be captured after each battle, forcing you to field a new squad. Hope your roster runs deep!
The update will also make some balance adjustments to the recently-added Tempest Trials mode. In addition, the amount of experience you receive has been tweaked ever so slightly to give you more for your punch. There are a couple of UI adjustments, as well. The first is that you can now sort your heroes by up to three different parameters simultaneously, allowing you more flexibility in finding the right characters for the task at hand. The developer have also added a note on Summoning screens to show you when any given Focus expires. That way, you don't have to go digging to know when the latest banner will go bye-bye.
Aside from the 1.5 update, the other big news is that a new Summoning Focus starts today. Titled Ylissean Summer, it gives you the chance to score some limited-edition versions of a few characters. Tiki from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, and Fire Emblem Awakening is sporting a watermelon or three as she shows off her new swimsuit. The female version of tactician Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening hasn't quite gotten rid of the robe look, but is definitely wearing something that allows her to, er, breathe a bit more. Balancing things out for those who like the hunks of Fire Emblem Awakening are Gaius and Frederick, both beach- and battle-ready in their finest trunks. As usual, there's a new Paralogue story chapter to play through for the event as well.
All in all, it looks like it's going to be a busy summer for those who are still enjoying Fire Emblem Heroes. New modes, new characters, new events, and plenty of sensible improvements show that Nintendo is really taking this game seriously. It will be interesting to see if they can find similar success with the upcoming Animal Crossing mobile game. My hunch is that they will.
No thanks, Noctis.
A few weeks ago at E3 I got to see a Final Fantasy 15 spin-off game for mobile, and honestly it really impressed me. It was a heartfelt little presentation that’s the antithesis of much of E3. Rather than a massive 4K screen, I was given a presentation by the director of the game on his laptop. It was just me, him, a translator and a PR person. It was an intimate session, a lovely bit of calm in the chaos of E3, and he was really, really passionate.
I left wanting to play that game, Kings Knight. That’s not the game I mention in the headline. Kings Knight is an interesting game that’s a remake of a classic NES Square game that exists in the world of FF15 as a phone game. You see protagonist Noctis and his friends play it in downtime from their HD, console-based adventure, and soon you can do the same on your phone. It looked decent.
I wanted to mention how I liked the look of Kings Knight at the top to prove there is good stuff going on inside the FF15 series on mobile, because, well…
That’s one side of the ‘FF15 Universe’ coin, but the other is uglier and best shown in the newly released Final Fantasy 15: A New Empire. It’s a cynical, ugly game, and as far as I’m concerned it’s one that actually does the Final Fantasy brand a great discredit.
“The game gives you a lot to do up front free of charge and hits you with a request to drop it a five star review early on. Pretty quickly, however, the well runs dry. That’s when you’re asked to fork over money.”
A New Empire is from the makers of Game of War (that one with Kate Upton and Mariah Carey in the ads) and Mobile Strike (the one with Arnie in the ads). If the celebrity endorsements don’t drive it home, these games make a tremendous amount of money, turning over something like a billion dollars a year. This, no doubt, is why Square has signed the deal and the rights to create a FF game over to these guys – they have good stats.
The stats are so good because the developer, MZ (formally Machine Zone) has perfected the art of free-to-play, pay-to-win milking. The cycle is simple: the game gives you a lot to do up front free of charge and hits you with a request to drop it a five star review early on. Pretty quickly, however, the well runs dry. That’s when you’re asked to fork over money, and it works, creating a great balance between good reviews (A New Empire currently sits at 13,000 five-star reviews and 7500 one-star reviews on Google Play) and revenue. They also market aggressively – several people I know in the Final Fantasy community were offered hundreds of dollars to write about the game, and it’s also currently all over the front pages of both Google Play and the Apple App store.
The long story short is that this tactic works for retaining high level, high-spend players, also known as whales. In 2016 analyst firm Slice Intelligence reported that Game of War’s paying players spent an average of $550 each on the game in 2015, where the mobile free-to-play average is $87. They’re good at this stuff.
A New Empire is essentially a mixture of ideas from both Game of War and Mobile Strike, so in that regard it’s a pretty safe bet – but that also means it isn’t particularly Final Fantasy. It’s a city and army building game with some light combat, but the basic idea is a constant treadmill: you’re always researching new things to build and then building them, but everything takes up resources that eventually disappear. Practically everything also runs on a timer, and the only way to speed things up is to spend some real world cash.
Early indications suggest that like Game of War there won’t be any way to progress in this game at higher levels without dropping real money. This is how they secure that $550 rate, however – by the time you get to that point, many are too deeply invested to stop, so they pay – and pay a lot. The largest single in-game purchase is currently $200. The game does all this while throwing a constant stream of banner ads in your face.
The fact the gameplay is different from the FF norm is fine, by the way. One of the best Final Fantasy games ever, Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (no, really), is a city building game. The problem, however, is tone. None of this feels or looks right. Characters talk to you with a generic tone completely disconnected from their personality from the game, the film, the anime and beyond. None of it seems to have anything to do with FF15 other than reuse of art including character renders that hilariously include photoshopped FF13 artwork and renders dating back to when the game was FF Versus 13. If you wanted to see the original design of Noctis in a game, now’s your chance!
The music is there, the characters are there, but this isn’t FF15. It isn’t Final Fantasy either. I think of how those relatively run-of-the-mill Star Wars and Marvel mobile games are so reverential and respectful to their source material, and of how Marvel and LucasFilm reps comb over those games to ensure they fit and I wonder: did anyone at Square give a shit about this feeling like it fits with FF15? Did they care about FF15’s integrity? The signs sadly point to no.
“My point, I suppose, is that Final Fantasy is and should be better than this sort of crap. The series is too storied to be attached to this rubbish.”
My point, I suppose, is that Final Fantasy is and should be better than this sort of crap. The series is too storied to be attached to this rubbish. I don’t really care about how much money Game of War made: at a point a business surely has to look at what makes their brand special and decide where to draw the line. This, presumably, is where there isn’t a Star Wars or Super Mario Bros game like this.
Speaking of Nintendo: Fire Emblem Heroes features the same ‘random chance’ gacha design that’s meant to entice players to open their wallets as many free-to-play games, but it feels fair and respectful even as you progress. Further, it feels true to that series and its identity – and it still made a truck load of money. There are two Final Fantasy games like this as well – the story-focused Brave Exvius and the excellent combat-focused Record Keeper, the latter of which is an external partnership DeNA, the same developer who assisted Nintendo on Fire Emblem Heroes. I play Record Keeper every day, and have for two years – it’s a great little game.
FF15 director Hajime Tabata talked a lot about restoring FF to ‘challenger’ status; about making the series feel like a bold risk-taker again. I feel FF15 succeeded in this despite its imperfections, but the existence of something like this, a partnership that boasts some of the most awful, manipulative pay-to-win design going, makes me worry they’ve forgotten the other defining aspect of Final Fantasy: quality.
Even when the series got it wrong, there was a sense of quality, polish and vision around everything it did. FF was never without heart – something so few outside Nintendo have ever nailed consistently. Generally speaking, traditionally there hasn’t been an iota of cynicism in Final Fantasy. But today, with A New Empire, there is. As a fan, that makes me sad.
All the big, bad Pokemon you can raid against, detailed.
Pokemon Go’s latest update is here, adding a major new feature to the hugely successful mobile game: difficult raid boss Pokemon, which spawn in at Pokemon Gyms and give players of all Pokemon Go teams a good reason to team up to take down mega-powerful bosses.
Raid Bosses can vary greatly in power level and are represented before raid battles kick off by an egg that sits atop your typical Pokemon Go gym. A clock counts down, and when it reaches zero you’ll find it spawns a special, rare Pokemon to fight.
If you need more tips for Pokemon Go including more information on how to catch and evolve a variety of the beasts, be sure to check out the rest of our Pokemon Go guides.
These Pokemon have a ridiculously high Combat Power (CP) ranking. If you beat them, you’ll then be given a variety of rewards including Premier Balls, Rare Candy, Fast TMs, Charge TMs and finally the chance to catch that very raid Pokemon – albeit at a much lower CP rating.
Here we list all the Pokemon that can be caught in raid battles, as well as the type of egg they’ll hatch from plus their maximum potential CP based on numbers crunched by the boffins at Pokemon Go Hub. Eggs are color coded, so you can do some basic preparation before an egg hatches based simply on its color. Some colors of Pokemon egg are more common than others.
On top of that, we cover the most basic and important of tips: what their Pokemon Type is and what Pokemon you should consider to take to fight them based on type strengths and weaknesses. If you need a type refresher, we’ve got just the page for you.
If you see a Pink Raid Egg on top of a gym about to hatch, you can expect one of the following to hatch out of it. Many of these can be tackled solo with a powerful Pokemon team with strong movesets.
If you see a yellow egg these are rarer, and so there are more powerful raid boss Pokemon waiting within. You’ll want to gather your friends for these battles.
While not officially revealed, a peek at the Pokemon Go update files reveals that the top tier of raid boss, five star, is enclosed inside the Dark Egg. When the Dark Egg hatches you’ll find Legendary Pokemon within – Pokemon that fans have wanted to catch for well over a year, since the game launched.
While we know little about them right now, here are the Pokemon that Pokemon Go flags as possible from a legendary raid egg. When Niantic finally unleashes these, you’ll need a legendary raid pass in order to take part in the battle.
You might notice that some legendary Pokemon, such as Mew, are missing from this list. How these will eventually be obtained remains a mystery…
Pokemon Go’s newest battle feature explained in detail. Go in prepared.
Pokemon Go’s much-anticipated raid battles are now live as part of a sweeping set of updates to Pokemon Go including the addition of gym badges, TMs, rare candy, legendary Pokemon and other series staple features.
If you’re after more tips for Pokemon Go be sure to check out the rest of our Pokemon Go guides.
Many of these features have been highly anticipated, but none so much as Raid Battles – multiplayer battles against AI Pokemon that will let you take on very high level Pokemon for special rewards including items that are all new to Pokemon Go and the chance to catch rare Pokemon or even legendary Pokemon for the first time.
This feature set is the largest ever update to Pokemon Go, and we’re really only just scratching the surface of what this feature will eventually involve. We’re here to help, however – so let’s do just that.
The more seasoned video game fans among you might have heard the term ‘raid battle’ before outside of Pokemon Go – the term is typically used around other massive online games such as World of Warcraft to refer to a large-scale boss that multiple players will tackle together. It’s very challenging but also very rewarding content, and the type of thing that many players will do over and over again, completing the raid many times in order to grind for the raid’s special rewards.
In Pokemon Go, raid battles let you tackle super high-level Pokemon – Pokemon with a CP (Combat Power) into the five figure range or quite possibly even higher. This will take multiple players multiple Pokemon even for easier encounters, though raids come in a variety of formats.
Each Pokemon Go raid is rated between one and five – one are the easiest and will feature weaker Pokemon, albeit super powered-up versions of them, such as a mega-CP Magikarp. Most of the raids you’ll see will hover around the 2-4 range, which could range from everything from a beastly Pidgey to a Dragonite. We haven’t seen a five-star raid yet, but we strongly suspect this high rank will suggest legendary Pokemoun encounters.
The raid rating represents not just the Pokemon you’ll face but also the difficulty. The lower the raid ranking the more easily you should be able to tackle the encounter with less Pokemon and less players hitting it at once.
Pokemon Go raid battles each only last a limited time, and you have to spend a raid ticket to gain access to them – more on that below.
Alas, there is a catch to all this. Players that want to take part in raids will need to be a certain level to get raiding – and it’s a level that means you’ll have to be a fairly dedicated or longer-time Pokemon Go player to join.
Right now you’ll need to be at least Trainer Level 20 in order to take part in raids. This has been lowered twice; during beta, players need to be level 35 to participate in Pokemon GO raids, and shortly after the update launched, they needed to be level 25. Level 20, the new requirement, is much more achievable – but still might be out of reach of some of the more casual Pokemon Go players.
If you’re below level 20 you’ll still be able to get to grips with a lot of Pokemon Go’s new features including the reworked gyms, gym badges and so on, and these will help you to level up quickly.
If you need some help getting yourself up to level 20 quickly, we’ve got a page full of Pokemon Go EXP grinding tips to help you out.
Right now, it looks like Niantic is trying to be a little family-friendly with the Pokemon Go raids system: raid battles are only available between 9am and 9pm in yourt local time. Once the sun sets gyms will always remain in their regular form. Basically, there are no Pokemon Go raids at night.
If you’re going out searching for raids at night or if you’re out of the house more frequently after sunset, don’t waste your time searching for raids – you’re only going to see them in the daytime, at least for now. Niantic is aggressive about patching and changing the game, however, so this might well change in time. We’ll see.
Okay, so you want to raid. Here’s how the system works:
While Pokemon Go Gyms are of course allied by team, the raid battles that take place at Pokemon Gyms are suspended for raids. You can team up with players from any other Pokemon Team, even your rivals, to take down Raid Pokemon.
Don’t forget to prepare your Pokemon team for these fights: we have a list of the best moves and movesets, most powerful Pokemon plus details of Pokemon move and type strengths and weaknesses ready to assist.
Raids are a free new feature to access, but actual access to raids is heavily gated, and in order to enter a raid you’ll need to spend what Pokemon Go refers to as a Raid Pass – a special new item that’s limited in the world of Pokemon Go.
Raid tickets / passes will give you access to raid battles and come in two key, different variants – plus a bonus variant that hasn’t yet shown up in the game properly:
Raid passes are used up regardless of if you win the battle or not, so try not to spend them on losing raid battles.
A selection of all-new items are offered as raid battle rewards – and long-time Pokemon series fans will be glad to see many of these favorite items come to Pokemon Go for the first time.
The classic Pokemon item used to level Pokemon up in traditional games returns with a new but similar purpose. Rare candy is one of a few possible raid battle rewards when a battle is won.
Rare candy will act as catch-all candy, working to help evolve any Pokemon you like. The ‘exchange rate’ is 1:1, so 1 Rare Candy could be used on a Pidgey and would count as 1 Pidgey Candy, ideal for leveling up those rare, powerful Pokemon.
The Golden Razz Berry is basically a powered-up version of the regular Pokemon berries. It’ll restore a gym defending Pokemon’s motivation bar to 100% regardless of how low it is. Used on a wild Pokemon, it’ll boost your chances of catching them by a massive 25%.
These items function much as they do in the classic Pokemon games, acting as special items that can teach your Pokemon new moves – ideal for trying to get some of the best moves taught to combat-ready Pokemon.
Technical Machines come in two variants – Fast TMs and Charged TMs – and as we know, Pokemon Go’s moves are all either Fast or Charged in nature. These have a chance to drop as a reward for Raid Battles, but only for trainers over Level 15 for Fast TMs, and Level 25 for Charged TMs. Each Pokemon has a variety of moves they can learn, and the move you get from a TM looks like it will be random.
A new type of Pokeball to go alongside the Poke, Great and Ultra balls. These are a staple of the main games. In Pokemon Go they have the same performance as regular Pokeballs, but have a cool red-and-white look. Premium indeed.