iOS Universal, Android • If Through the Ages is a little too much, or you just need your 4X fix without burning your gray matter, Battle of Polytopia is there. Yes, this little, free game is everything you want in a 4X civ-builder, distilled down to a 10 minute playtime. It also keeps getting bigger with more and more civilizations added to the mix. Last night a new civilization arrived, the Quetzali tribe.
iOS Universal, PC/Mac/Linux • With everyone already hip-deep into Warhammer Quest 2, I’d like to remind you there is life outside of the dungeon. For example, I dropped the kids off at school this morning and then went home and fell asleep on the couch. Can’t do that in WHQ2! While meeting my wife for lunch, I ran over a couple traffic cones in a construction area and dragged them under my minivan for about 2.5 miles. Not only did it make my minivan-driving self look cool, but you can’t do that in WHQ2! I also downloaded a new game from the App Store, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander. That’s something we can all do, but you can’t do it in WHQ2!
iOS Universal • Loaded up with Ny-Quil and Ambien, I attempted to go to bed well before my normal sleepy time last night in an effort to kill the virus currently treating my lungs as a waterpark. Twenty minutes later a tweet popped up on my phone announcing that Warhammer Quest 2 had arrived on the App Store. I tried–I swear I tried–to stay awake and play the hell out of it, but the drugs won and I managed to almost complete the intro/tutorial dungeon before blacking out. I know, this is probably the saddest story you’ve heard all week. Sorry to bring the room down. On a positive note, Warhammer Quest 2 is out and you should be playing it.
iOS Universal • Need to kill about 12 hours while you wait for a certain something to arrive on the App Store? I feel ya. You could fill a bit of that time with Underhand, but if you’re in more of a puzzle mood, how’s about giving Returner 77 a go?
iOS Universal • Since the release of Card Crawl a few years back, the Solitaire Card Game With A Cool Theme That Makes It Cooler Than Your Standard Card GameTM genre has really taken off. Tinytouchtales by themselves have released both Card Thief and Miracle Merchant, but there have been others as well, such as Guild of Dungeoneering and others that I can’t remember, not to mention that this opener is already getting a bit long in the tooth. Underhand is the latest game to arrive in the genre but, unfortunately, feels less like Card Crawl and more like the unholy love child of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books and Groundhog Day.
It’s been a busy few weeks for the folks at Handelabra. First, their baseball dice-roller, Bottom of the 9th, heads to Steam and then they celebrated the third anniversary of Sentinels of the Multiverse‘s release with a massive sale. Little did we know that the biggest news from Handelabra was yet to come. They’ve teamed up with Asmadi Games and are bringing card game One Deck Dungeon to our laptops (and, hopefully, touchscreens).
Tabletop • Games Workshop has been in the business of creating miniatures and games for more than 30 years. Earlier in their history, when this writer was much less grey, the company was known for creating a wide series of miniatures board games that served as entry points into their Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy universes. Some were great fun, while others were wild, crazy and unbalanced (and still a bit fun). Nevertheless, the company took efforts to attract gamers into their orbit and keep them there. GW underwent a change in focus for many years, purging almost all of those gems from their catalogue and putting their time and money solely into miniature games. It seems there has been a change at Games Workshop, however, and they’ve been quietly releasing a series of miniatures board games for the last few years. Many of these were not priced to appeal to mainstream gamers, focusing on the GW fanbase instead. With their latest miniatures board game, Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, however, GW is taking a direct aim at competing with the mainstream products from their main competitors, Fantasy Flight and Cool Mini or Not.
PC/Mac/Linux • Over the weekend our intrepid reporter, Zac, mentioned a title he’d been playing called Dungeons 3. Having never heard of either Dungeons or Dungeons 2, I assumed that this was the first game in a series but Realmforge added a “3” to the title to make it seem more seasoned. My assumption turned out to be incorrect, however, and there is a Dungeons and Dungeons 2, further confirming that I’m an utter dunce. Jumping into Dungeons 3 this weekend made me a little upset that I only discovered the series now. I’ve wanted a new Dungeon Keeper for ages, and it’s been there, under my nose, all along.
PC/Mac • While I try to stay on top of all the digital board game happenings out there, I do tend to miss some. Okay, more than some. This one’s not my fault, though. Having never heard of developer BKOM Studios before today, I had no idea they were in the digital board game biz. Thankfully, a reader over at BGG tipped me off that not only are they making board games, but they’ve translated one of the most anticipated dungeon crawlers out there: Tomb of Annihilation.
iOS Universal, Android • Have you heard of Through the Ages? It’s a little card game from Czech Games Edition that we kind of like. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s nearly perfect and I’m still playing (and losing) about 5 concurrent games at all times. Notice I said “nearly” perfect. CGE is aware that the game has a few issues and today released an update to help fix a few of them.