To the unintiated, the above image just looks like a random hex party. But to folks who’ve played Neuroshima Hex, it looks like the turn from hell. Imagine trying to parse what’s going to happen in that turn.
Neuroshima Hex is a boardgame in which players take turns laying tiles representing post-apocalyptic armies. The tiles variously shoot, pin, cover, protect, enhance, and trump each other. At some point someone lays down a “go!” tile and then it all falls apart in methodically brutal and spectacular fashion. Well, as spectacular as a mathy but atmospheric tile-laying game can be.
The iPhone port of Neuroshima Hex is great stuff, except that it has a good AI. This is one of those games, like chess, that’s built for AI. AI that is better than you (me), even when it’s not very good. Neuroshima Hex is all about looking at patterns and anticipating how the pieces will interact over several successive moves. Since computers have an unfair advantage in that department, it’s too bad you can’t play Neuroshima Hex against your dumb friends on Gamecenter. Like me.
But all that changes soon. The developers at Big Daddy Creations just announced the long promised (free) multiplayer update has just been submitted to Apple! So if you’re dumber than me — surely there are a few of you out there — hit me up on Gamecenter and we’ll see whose mental capacity to look ahead is smallest.
I was one of those guys who played the Diabo III beta and decided — harumph — I liked Diablo II better. So I played a little Diablo II. I sulked for a bit. I resolved not to overly care about Diablo III.
Now that Diablo III is out, it turns out Blizzard was right and I was wrong.
After the jump, one of us really knows what they’re doingContinue reading →
After Diablo III’s first twelve hours in the wild, I can safely say this online only experience is not your Battlechest’s Diablo! Think of this as the new Diablo. Diablo 2.0, if you will. It’s a whole other thing. And as such, you might need some help.
After the jump, I bring you the wisdom that can only come from first-hand experienceContinue reading →
We’re running low on food. We need more people to man the walls during the occasional zombie attacks. But every time I send someone out for food, we have to spend a tense night hoping the undead loitering outside the walls don’t hit us tonight, hoping they’ll wait until after everyone gets back, hoping the scavengers will return with enough food to buy us a few more days to try to recruit another soldier. And we’ve just spotted a horde three days from our position. So all told, I have bigger problems than the low morale. Yeah, everyone’s unhappy. Tell me something I don’t know.
But morale doesn’t matter until it matters. Then it really matters. Tonight, tempers flared and a fight breaks out. Our most experienced soldier kills the scientist who was researching a cure. At least the food will last a little longer with one less mouth to feed. But in the morning, with a horde only two days out, it will be the beginning of the end. This zombie apocalypse isn’t going to end well. Maybe Rebuild, a deliciously bleak, gratifyingly intricate, and surprisingly story-driven zombie apocalypse strategy game, should have a less optimistic name.
After the jump, they’re coming to get you, [insert name here]Continue reading →
You have to come to Warlock on its own terms rather than holding against it that it looks like Civ V. This isn’t an epic strategy game in the traditional sense of the genre, where you build farms on plains and mines on hills and watch the cities grow accordingly. You will never set your tax rate, manage happiness, choose a government, or finesse diplomacy. Instead, Warlock is armies and spells and that’s pretty much it. It is a throwback to the sleeker fantasy wars of QQP, SSG, and, of course, SSI. If those letters don’t mean anything to you, this is going to be a new kind of strategy game.
I had five or six games going when it happened. As soon as it happened, I had a few options. I could throw my iPhone against the wall, I could take a deep breath and practice the tenets of buddhism taught by zen masters in the far reaches of Tibet, or I could just stop playing Nightfall. The answer was obvious, since iPhones cost several hundred dollars and I’d never actually been to Tibet.
One by one, I went through all my games of Nightfall. Forfeit, forfeit, forfeit, forfeit, forfeit. There. Problem solved.
This week sees the release of some shooter called John Hurt 3 or something. I think we also get a Throne of Games RPG or some such. Whatever. I can’t really see anything past midnight tonight, when Diablo III goes live.
In Dark Shadows, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have done it again! Then this week’s 3×3 takes a look at the writing on the wall: starting at the 38-minute mark, we talk about the best graffiti in movies.
I love a boardgame port that’s unashamed of its roots. Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear — don’t think I don’t hear you snickering at that name — is a World War II tactical tabletop game that isn’t afraid to invoke a touch of Squad Leader’s complexity, but prefers to veer closer to the beer-and-pretzels of a Memoir ’44 match. The port just published by Matrix lets you play with wargaming chits (pictured) instead of the usual 3D low-rent models. Thank you, Matrix! Furthermore, all the rules, stats, and modifiers are at your fingertips with easy tooltips. It even shows you the results of every die roll.
But sometimes that’s not enough. Consider how often disgruntled gamers accuse computers of cheating the die rolls, usually because they remember that time they needed to roll a three or higher on 2D6 and, hey, snake-eyes? What the…? What are the odds? The computer must be cheating!
Conflict of Heroes has an answer to that. If you can angle your webcam in such a way to look down at a pair of rolled dice — actual, real-world, tabletop, analog dice, preferably white with black pips — you can tell the game to determine every die roll by referring to the dice rolled under the webcam. If your reaction to this rather adorable solution is ‘Well, hey, why don’t you just play the tabletop version instead?’, then I’m kicking you out of the boardgaming nerd club.
Ubisoft, the company that hired Frag Dolls and Jenny “vaccinations will make your kids retarded!” McCarthy to promote their games, has hired Ice-T’s wife. She makes observations like the following about Ghost Recon: Future Soldier:
When you’re on this game, and you’re pointing, and you’re shooting, you really feel like you’re at war.
One of the best tower defense games you can play on any platform — let me repeat that, since I want to make it clear I’m putting this side by side with personal favorites like Toy Soldiers: Cold War, Unstoppable Gorg, Dungeon Defenders, and Immortal Defense — one of the best tower defense games you can play on any platform is Defender Chronicles on the iPhone. It balances neatly the moment-to-moment tower defense gameplay with a long gratifying RPG progression. If you sank as much time into Defender Chronicles as I did, leveling up the General and Melwen, you’ll probably recognize them in that goofy panel up there, which the developers at Gimka whipped up by way of announcement. And, to be fair, I mainly recognize Melwen because her face yells at me from the Defender Chronicles icon every time I boot up my iPhone. It’s a little odd to see her serenely washing a cup, or whatever she’s supposed to be doing.
The sequel will include two new heroes alongside the General and Melwen, some new units, and a whole new RPG progression system to unlock unique artifacts, all of which is geared towards beating the harder difficulty levels to progress the RPG stuff farther. It’s a vicious circle. Did I say “vicious”? I meant “delicious”. There are a few details here that will only make sense to hardcore players, but the bottom line is that it looks like Defender Chronicles II is mostly the same tower defense gameplay, but with a lot more RPG tying it all together.
Defenders Chronicles II will be out for the iPhone on May 24.
Like a thief in the night, Storm of Souls has appeared as an in-app purchase for Ascension. This sequel/expansion is a new set of cards for Ascension, the current nonpareil of deck building games. Storm of Souls addresses some balance issues in the basic game, adds some cool new gameplay concepts, and gives Eric Sabee all new canvases for his unique artwork.
Since the iPhone and tabletop versions are functionally identical, you can read my review for more specifics. New rules for events and trophies place greater demands on the screen real estate, but it’s handled as well as can be expected, even on the teensy iPhone’s screen. Ironically, it’s a bit easier to play Storm of Souls on the computer, with usable cards highlighted and a helpful end-of-turn nag reminding you when you’ve missed something. The add-on also adds Gamecenter achievements that recognize feats like defeating Samael with Adayu (called “don’t mind if Adayu”), collecting one of every trophy monster (as if!), and getting both Umbral blades into play (like I need another reason to want to make this happen).
You shouldn’t be in any rush into Storm of Souls if you’re new to Ascension. But once you’re ready to wrap your head around something more complicated, more demanding, and ultimately more satisfying, Storm of Souls is just what Master Dartha ordered.
In the kingdom of Circlandia, the powerful circles used their might to intervene among the warring squares and triangles. Although an uneasy peace reigned for centuries, the kingdom prospered. Young triangles were raised and educated side-by-side with young squares. It looked as if ancient hatreds would be forgotten. But then one day the evil wizard Derounded invoked the diabolical rite of Fertang, summoning into the kingdom four tiles of unimaginable power. In the mad rush to control the tiles of power, the kingdom split into two warring factions, one worshipping the blue gods of Skyforce Olympus, the other in the service of Fell Reddite Imps. Who would prevail?
Okay, none of that stuff is in Fertang. Except for the name Fertang.
This week, we welcome Dan Archibald, the guy responsible for the wonderfully creepy iPhone game, Pandemic 2.5. Look out, Kate Winslet! Dan talks about the game’s evolution, viral spread, and prognosis. We also discuss Warlock: Master of the Arcane, Starfarer, Portal 2, and the Bioshock Infinity delay. And Tom finally supports a Kickstarter project!
