Warbands: Bushido

Review: Warbands: Bushido

October 2, 2017 Zac Belado 4

iOS Universal, PC/Mac/Linux • Warbands: Bushido is a digital miniatures skirmish game from Russian developers Red Unit Studios aiming to bring the experience of tabletop minis gaming to digital. All the cards, dice, and miniatures without all the messy assembly and painting. The game is set in the later Warring States, or Sengoku, period of Japan’s 16th century and allows you to build warbands of varying sizes taking on all comers in PvP gameplay. Warbands had a rather difficult Early Access release on Steam which I, thankfully, missed.  They appear to have weathered those initial difficulties, however, and have added a Mac and mobile release to the Warbands: Bushido stable. Make no mistake though, this is still an unfinished product. Playable and very fun but still not a done deal.

Short Cuts: Trackless

September 19, 2017 Alex Connolly 2

PC/Mac/Linux • INTRODUCE Capped off 12 East Games’ Trackless some days ago. Still thinking about 12 East Games‘ Trackless today. Surely a very good sign. CONTINUE

Fantastic point-and-click adventure, Thimbleweed Park, arrives on iOS

September 19, 2017 David Neumann 0

iOS Universal, PC/Mac/Linux • You’re probably sick and tired of me talking about Thimbleweed Park around these parts, but I know a lot of our readers are mobile gamers first and foremost, so I also know many of you have probably ignored my earlier praises of the game. You’re probably also aware that the previous sentence is an abomination of word structure and nearly, but not quite, a run-on sentence. That sentence wasn’t much better. Shorter, but not better. What I’m trying to say is, mobile gamers can now experience the joy I’ve had playing Thimbleweed Park because it’s currently on the App Store.

Steam Screen Shot

Review: Minos Strategos

September 18, 2017 Zac Belado 3

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • Art is cheap, at least when it comes to mobile games. You know this is true because even the most crap-filled freemium abomination is filled to the bevel with the most precisely crafted artwork. Pretty pixels are the aluminum siding of mobile gaming. Consequently, a good game is often not even particularly about the visuals but about the way the developer creates a tension between the tactical options available to the player and the desired game outcome. That and timers. We must always have timers. The reason this is important is that one of the latest titles to make its way to mobile, Minos Strategos by Brett Lowey of Militia fame, is not a particularly ground-breaking game in terms of visuals and also has some surprisingly poor UI choices. Combined, these make Minos Strategos troublesome at first but are, ultimately, a slight blemish on what is a very good abstract strategy game.

Minos Strategos has come to iOS/Android

September 11, 2017 David Neumann 17

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • Minos Strategos is an abstract digital board game that traces its roots to a physical board game from none other than Through the Ages designer, Vlaada Chvátil. The game is called Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends and is one of the very few Vlaada creations I haven’t played. That’s because it’s a two-player, head-to-head battle game which, in my home, are less likely than Monopoly to hit the table. Luckily, Minos Strategos has an AI to play against so I don’t have to rely on my kids and, better yet, it’s now on mobile, so I can play on my phone.

Sentinels adding a little variety all through autumn

September 6, 2017 David Neumann 1

iOS Universal, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • I’ve been noticing a lot of people on social media decrying the end of summer and whining that autumn is nearly upon us. These people are morons. Autumn is the best goddamned season of the entire year and I’ll fight anyone who claims summer is all that. Can you wear flannel while eating chili in front of a roaring fire in summer? Hell no! Autumn wins. If I had a mic drop gif, this is where I’d put it. Handelabra is on my side, and are doing their darndest to make autumn even better. Starting last night, their Fall of the Variants event began and we can expect new, free Sentinels of the Multiverse goodness every week through December.

Furries rejoice! Armello is finally coming to the App Store

September 5, 2017 David Neumann 13

iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • Does anyone here remember that first Armello trailer and how gaga Owen went over it? Okay, I’ll admit we all went a bit gaga over it. After all, it was a theatrical-quality trailer promising an original board game with all sorts of cool mechanisms that would be tough to pull off on a tabletop. On top of that you play as an anthropomorphic animal, making the furry inside each of us cry out in joy. The PC/Mac version of Armello released just over 2 years ago and, since then, talk of the promised iPad version has been virtually nonexistent. In fact, I was talking with Brad from 164 at Gen Con about Armello and if it would ever come to mobile and we both thought they were only focusing on the desktop and consoles. Guess we should have chatted at PAX instead because at that con Armello was being played on an iPhone.

In case you forgot, War of the Chosen comes to XCOM 2 later tonight

August 28, 2017 David Neumann 2

PC/Mac/Linux • While there have been some fantastic PC ports showing up on our iPads over the past few years–including Firaxis‘ own XCOM: Enemy Unknown–the chances of us seeing XCOM 2 on our tablets is hovering right around 0%. So, you’ll need a PC or Mac to delve back into the XCOM world, but it’s more than worth it. XCOM 2 was one of the best experiences I ever had on my laptop and, later today, it’s slated to get even better. The first major add-on for XCOM 2, War of the Chosen, is unlocking tonight and everything about it sounds amazing.

There’s a new sheriff in town, West of Loathing lands on Steam

August 10, 2017 David Neumann 2

PC/Mac/Linux, iOS (coming in 2017) • As a kid I had no use for the Old West. Immersed in things like D&D, Tolkien, and Dragonlance, the Old West seemed like a boring, dusty place filled with images and stories that just didn’t push my buttons. As an adult, I stumbled onto the Deadlands RPG, and all the possibilities and adventure of the Old West suddenly made sense to me. These days, my favorite TV show of all time is Deadwood and I didn’t miss an episode of last year’s Westworld. Thus, when I heard about West of Loathing, I was excited. An RPG set in the untamed West that would, eventually, be coming to iOS? Sign me up! Then I saw the screenshots, and had to wonder what the hell was going on.

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