Sit down boys and girls because it's time for another Ben Brode Hearthstone [Free] rap. After delivering a rousing Journey to Un'Goro rap, Brode couldn't resist repeating the musical feat for the upcoming Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion. This time around, we get to hear the story of Arthas, AKA the Lich King, accompanied by visuals from the good old days. While the rap is pretty funny by itself, it does actually serve a purpose: to fill in the lore details for those who don't know the story of the Lich King. And what better way to deliver lore than with a Brode rap (Brap?). The rap is over 5 minutes long, which goes to show how complex the Lich King's storyline is.
The Frozen Throne update is definitely getting closer (some say it could be just a week away), but there's still plenty of time to catch up on why the Lich King matters to Warcraft fans and why you should be excited to finally see him in Hearthstone. Enjoy the rap video (make sure to switch to 1.5 speed), and here's hoping you get a rap battle soon.
Minecraft's huge Better Together update is getting closer, and today the beta has gone live for Android and Windows 10 (sorry, iOS players, we are out of luck, again). The beta going live is a good sign that we are getting closer to getting some huge new features in the game that should change the way we play. If you are an Android player, you can go here to find out how to access the Better Together beta. It's not complicated, but you do need to own a copy of the game purchased through the Google Play Store. And you should definitely back up your worlds before joining the beta because, well, it's a beta and bad things can happen. Keep in mind that you can jump into the beta and then leave it if you decide you'd rather go back to normal, functioning Minecraft.
If you don't remember what Better Together is bringing to the game, the update will unify mobile, Windows 10, and XBOX One versions and make them all one game, which opens up great opportunities for cross-play shenanigans. We are also getting features like stained glass, fireworks, parrots, banners, armor stands, jukeboxes and music discs, recipe books, and ravines. And community servers are coming to the game as well. There's a long FAQ with more on the latest update that you can read here. Can't wait to get my hands on it.
Niantic got quite a bit of negative publicity after the disastrous Pokemon GO [Free] event in Chicago a week and a bit ago, and it looks like it wants to avoid a repeat of that. So, it announced today that the August 5th and 12th events in Europe will be postponed until a date later this Fall in order to guarantee the best possible gameplay experience. The August 5th events were to take place in Copenhagen and Prague, and the August 12th ones in Stockholm and Amsterdam. The events on August 14th and September 16th remain unaffected, so if you were planning on attending those, you should be good. Niantic (of course) apologizes for postponing these events and directs player questions to its help center. And no compensation will be offered to those who have already made arrangements.
To make up for canceling the events, Niantic will ensure that some Pokemon rarely seen in Europe will be appearing in certain European cities soon. Although the announcement doesn't reveal which cities, I'm pretty sure those affected by the postponement will see some of those Pokemon. Were you planning on attending any of the cancelled events?
We’re getting more teases of new PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds animations.
After developer Bluehole gave us our first look at vaulting, and mantling animations back at E3, the team has now offered up some new combat animations currently in the works.
The two animations represent combat rolls. This move is not something you can currently do in the game, since there’s no dedicated roll button. However, from the looks of it, this animation may play automatically when you hit the deck as you’re moving side-ways.
Unfortunately, PlayerUnknown did not reveal any details about exactly what we’re looking at here, just that they’re being worked on. It would be great if the game actually allowed you to perform a roll to quickly avoid danger.
Until then, we have more exciting items to look forward to in the next few days, such as the first-person mode, FOV slider, and the rest of the features coming to the game with this weeks patch.
Before Bluehole confirmed the official list of notes, many believed this patch would be the one to add the animations revealed at E3, but this is sadly not going to be the case.
Welcome to another Touchstone Tavern, our weekly Hearthstone [Free] roundup of the best stories and videos. As expected, last week was all about the upcoming expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, especially because the community has been trying to keep track with and evaluate all the revealed cards. Most in the community seem to be happy with the cards we've seen so far, and I hope that optimism continues even after the expansion arrives. It does look like Blizzard is starting to figure out the kind of content the community enjoys, so hopefully we'll get the best expansion to date. There's a few weeks to go until that, though, so for now enjoy our weekly roundup.
Stream Reveals Frost Lich Jaina and More
Last week we got to see another one of the Death Knight Heroes, specifically Frost Lich Jaina. The Mage Death Knight costs 9 mana and has 5 armor, and will be all about Elemental decks, since it summons elementals and also gives Elementals in your deck Lifesteal. The stream also revealed many other cards, so it's definitely a good watch. Read our whole story here and watch the stream below.
Analyzing Frost Lich Jaina
This writer takes an early swing at analyzing Frost Lich Jaina. He sees it as Mage's answer to Lord Jaraxxus on the Warlock side. She should work well with Elemental Mage and has plenty of synergies with all kinds of other minions. Secret Mage can also find this card useful because it can use secrets to stick around until Turn 9. The writer believes that the best way to go about defeating Frost Lich Jaina is Freeze Mage or Quest Mage, if the card draws work in your favor. And, of course, you could also go aggressive and try to win before Turn 9.
Card Reveals Will Always Make Players Mad
After days of anticipation, we finally got to see a new card (emphasis on the singular), and even though the reason was some (unannounced at the time) technical issues, players got mad at getting to see only one card after all that anticipation. As the story points out, the question is why all this anger.
He goes into explaining how losing in a game you've put money into results in pent-up anger that, at some point, leads to an explosion of discontent. He also goes into Lifecoach's departure from the game and the fear that his would be the first of many big-name departures from the game. It's an interesting article that examines in depth what most of us feel at one time or another (and, to be fair, not just with Hearthstone). Read it all here.
Hearthstone's Frozen Throne Compared to WoW Lore
If you're into lore, you should read this article because it looks at how the WoW Frozen Throne content has been translated for Hearthstone. There are details about all kinds of characters, and it's definitely a fun read that will get you more into the spirit of the upcoming expansion.
Arthas Is Coming
As lead mission designer Dave Kosak announced in a recent stream, Arthas Menethil is coming to the game, given you can defeat the Lich King with all 9 classes. This Paladin skin won't be for the weak, but it's a fun challenge to have. Kosak also gave us more info on the missions part of the upcoming expansion, including a video of the Lich King showing off his ability to bend the rules. Read the whole story here.
As this story points out, Dreadsteed is about to get nerfed once Frozen Throne releases, so get ready to get some dust back. The nerf will make the card return to the board at the end of the turn rather than the moment it's killed. The reason for the nerf is that the new Defile card would cause an infinite loop with the old Dreadsteed, and we couldn't have those kinds of shenanigans. And since the card will be nerfed, we will be getting full dust like in other similar situations.
It's a Good Thing Cards Are Getting Complicated
After suffering through what has been called "curvestone," players are about to get their hands on more complicated cards this time around, and this writer believes that's for the best. Cards like Fatespinner, Defile, and Corpsetaker will offer more strategic depth and make matches more unpredictable. Therefore, matches should be more fun. Read the whole story here.
Rogue Gets Weapons Augmentation
A common player complaint is that Rogue just doesn't have enough cool weapons, but the upcoming Vampiric Poison spell could make those players a bit happier. The 2-mana card revealed recently gives Lifesteal to your weapon, which might be an interesting boost. Maybe the card will see play if it synergizes well with other upcoming cards, although that remains to be seen.
Frozen Throne Card Review Part 1
As is always the case, the moment we start getting new expansion cards, we get plenty of reviews. This story reviews a ton of new cards, going in-depth on whether they will work or not, what their potential is, and much more. Even if you don't care about card reviews—especially since not all the cards are out yet—articles like this one can teach you how to evaluate cards, a skill that's very useful when trying to build new decks and aren't that much into deckbuilding.
Library of the Revealed Frozen Throne Cards
If you want to keep track of all the Frozen Throne cards as they get revealed, head over to HearthHead's library. It's updated constantly and will help you keep on top of the deluge of reveals. We've had a ton of cards revealed in the last few days, so it's definitely hard to keep track of them all, especially since the reveals are coming from all kinds of sources. Check out the card library here.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer Bluehole is making some changes to how player data is being reported on the game’s leaderboards.
For starters, no server data will be recorded from now until tomorrow, August 1, effectively turning everything into unranked mode.
Another reset will take place tomorrow, erasing all data recorded since the previous reset. In fact, this is what’s going to happen every month going forward. At the start of every month, and after 24 hours of non-ranked play, a new season will start until the following month.
This is done to help the developer test new ranking algorithms and implement elo-based changes. Elo is ranking system that uses a specific set of parameters to identify player skill and match them with others who are slightly better.
Don’t fret, though, as all older data is being backed up and saved. There’s currently no way for players to view this data, but Bluehole said it’ll implement the ability to browse historical records soon.
Leaderboards will begin recording data once again beginning 7pm PT, 2am GMT, 3am BST, on August 1. The studio made it sound like future seasons of the game will be longer than one month.
PUBG’s next big patch isn’t far off. It releases on August 3, and it’s poised to be one of its most feature-rich thus far.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It's time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. I think someone must have stuck a broomstick in the update machine last week, because we got quite a few more interesting ones than we've been getting lately. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself using AppShopper or by participating in the TouchArcade forums, but this weekly summary is here to fill in the things you might have missed. Let's dig in!
Nimian Legends : BrightRidge HD, $1.99 Wow, this one got two updates last week. Hey, have you all played Nimian Legends yet? You really should, it's quite nifty. Anyway, these updates add a bunch of things to the game, including an expanded day/night cycle, improved quality settings, fireworks, falling damage, and more. The updates also included an assortment of bug fixes and other minor improvements. Seriously, it's only a couple of bucks, give it a go.
MARVEL Avengers Academy, Free Wheel of Tiny Co, turn turn turn, is your latest event cool or a burn? After a surprisingly enjoyable event based on Spider-Man Homecoming, Avengers Academy is on to the next thing. The Armor Wars event is a sort-of mini-event to fill in the gap until Defenders hits Netflix. It pits Tony Stark against the Crimson Dynamo, and it includes a lot of Iron Man odds and ends. Riri Williams is here as a premium character, and Young Avenger Iron Lad joins his compatriots who have already been added in previous events. Whiplash and the Darren Cross version of Yellowjacket are also recruitable, and a few very lucky players will be able to get some Hulkbuster armor for Stark. But how is the event itself? Well, Sky-Cycles. D'oh.
TypeShift, Free The next of TypeShift's promised monthly updates is here, and while it lacks much in the way of sizzle, I'm sure fans of the game will be happy with it anyway. There are two new clue puzzle packs you can buy via IAP, giving you more of the crosswords-style fun to master. This update also adds sorting options for the pack list, which is a timely addition given the increasingly large assortment of them to scroll through. More content for those who want it, plus a UI addition for everyone. Isn't that what updates are all about? Wait, where are the bug fixes? And performance improvements? WHERE ARE THEY?
Phoenix II, Free At long last, Phoenix 2's anniversary update is here! Let's see what's in the box, friends. Phew, a lot. So, the highlights include new Ultimate Upgrades for all Auras and Zen modes, Ultimate Upgrades for all weapons, a new ship interface, reworked weapon types, three new ships, updates to the game engine itself, a bevy of balance changes, and yes, bug fixes! If you're using an iPhone 7 or an iPad Pro, you're going to see some serious... stuff with this updated engine. For everyone else, you certainly can't sneeze at all of that new content. I mean, you can. I'm not the sneeze police. But you ought not to. At any rate, this is the coveted UMMSMotW award winner this week. Nice work, Firi Games.
Wonderputt, $0.99 Here's this week's nice example of rising from the grave. Wonderputt was one of the many games that needed an update for 64-bit compatibility. Developer Damp Gnat didn't just stop there, however. They made this once-iPad exclusive title universal, added some new achievements, threw in some new controls to improve how the game plays, and restored retina display functionality for the recent iPads that support it. Since it was iPad-only, I feel like a lot of iOS gamers haven't tried this one out, but you really ought to now. It's a blast.
Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed, Free Watch out, friends. Dynasty Warriors is off of its leash, and it's going to... like... pee on every hydrant. All of them. No hydrant is without sin. So, this little experiment seems to be going well enough for Nexon. They've added a new campaign in their latest update to Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed that continues the Battle of Red Cliff. There's also a new officer skill upgrade item, and new things to buy. Just be careful the game doesn't dig up your flowerbed.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends Heroes of Skyrim, Free Ever since Elder Scrolls Legends launched, we here at TouchArcade Towers have been inundated with letters asking when Bethesda was going to update the shucky-darned thing to support iPhone. We've always had to reply to those letters with a heartfelt SADFACE emoji, but we've gone and fired up the HAPPYFACE and SUNGLASSES emoji machines because the game is now universal. This update also changes some cards and fixes some bugs, things which we do not get letters about but will SUNGLASSES emoji to anyway.
Dawn of Crafting, $2.99 Speaking of games we get a lot of mail about, we've got something like seventeen bags full of letters about Dawn of Crafting, all from the same address. It's pretty weird, but at least it gave us something to do with Carter's old office, now dubbed La Salle des Too Many Freaking Dawn of Crafting Letters. Right, update stuff. Well, it looks like this update has some new surprise game endings, new items, redesigned quests, and some other stuff. I like how every line of the update notes thanks the person who brought the subject to the developer's attention. That's kind of sweet.
Mr. Crab 2, Free You gotta do what? You gotta pinch knees! Ba-da-daaa-da-da. Hello, Mr. Crab. It is summer, you are having a very nice time, I'm sure. Unless you are an Australian crab or a crab from anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case you are probably having a disagreeable winter. Let's pretend it's the former, though. So how do you celebrate this hot weather? With twelve new levels, of course. Just as I used to do in my younger years. Yes, sir. I would finish my school year, loudly announce that it was summer, and suddenly grow twelve new levels. Of what? Oh, friend. Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to.
Oh...Sir! The Insult Simulator, $1.99 I have to say, Oh...Sir! has a pretty odd assortment of guest characters. Serious Sam, H.P. Lovecraft, and now... the Postal Dude? They even got his original voice actor, Rick Hunter, to reprise the role. You'll have to figure out how to unlock him, of course. But now I'm wondering who else is going to show up. Bubsy the Bobcat? Art Carney? The cast of Cheers? Boogerman? Don Cherry? The possibilities are endless here! Actually, that last one would be great. Look into it Vile Monarch, he can't be that expensive. He's Canadian, after all!
Injustice: Gods Among Us, Free Wait, what? The sequel is out and they're still adding stuff to this one? Well, I guess if it's still putting butts in seats, there's no harm in adding the odd character here and there. I can't help but think that effort would be better put towards the rather thin roster of the sequel, but what do I know? Nothing except how to renew a Canadian passport in Japan, friends, and that's hardly relevant here. This update adds Arkham Asylum Killer Croc and the data for a couple of future characters, Arkham Knight Batgirl and Yellow Lantern Hal Jordan. The new multiplayer season character is Flashpoint Aquaman. Have fun!
That about wraps it up for last week's significant updates. I'm sure I've missed some, though, so please feel free to comment below and let everyone know if you think something should be mentioned. As usual, major updates will likely get their own news stories throughout this week, and I'll be back next Monday to summarize and fill in the blanks. Have a great week!
