iOS Universal, Android • Asmodee Digital is back on the App Store this week with a quick-playing, two-player card game called Jaipur. I know that it will be a hard sell to pull you away from Race for the Galaxy, but let me give it a try… GO BUY JAIPUR!
PC, Mac, iOS, Android • I’ve never played Pixel Tactics from Level 99 Games due to the fact that the tabletop card-battler is two-player only. Two player games became an endangered species at my house the minute we decided to have more than one kid. Lucky for me, Level 99 is bringing the game to both laptops and mobile later this year, so I’ll be able to finally give it a go without ignoring one of my kids. Instead, I can now ignore them all.
iOS, Android • When I first saw the news about Mordheim: Warband Skirmish this morning over at Pocket Gamer, I was excited. Other than Talisman, has Games Workshop done a mobile title not set in the Warhammer universe? Then I read the article and saw words like Skaven and realized my Warhammer ignorance was showing. Mordheim is set firmly within the Warhammer universe, just not the 40K one.
iOS, Android, PC, Mac • While I don’t consider myself a huge Warhammer 40K fan (I like the ambience, but have no idea what the hell is going on), I do, much to everyone’s chagrin, enjoy Talisman. Thus, Talisman: Horus Heresy has a spot on my iPad and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Much like it’s fantasy-themed predecessor, Nomad Games is making sure T:HH stays fresh by routinely adding more content. Today we get two new warlords to add to your stable of armor clad goons.
iOS, Android, PC, Mac • It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the Hearthstone bandwagon. I know it’s got polish on top of its polish and that, as far as digital CCGs go, it’s still a pretty great game. Still, there’s something that drove me away. I think it was the bloat of expansion after expansion and the focus on esports that made me feel like casual play wasn’t really something Hearthstone did well anymore. I just don’t have enough time to research a game in order to play it well. Also, I have Race for the Galaxy now, thank you very much. Still, it’s a big money maker for Blizzard and, as such, they keep showing it love. In a few weeks it will be getting a major update that adds a couple of new features that might make it easier for old farts like me to get back into it.
iOS, Android, PC, Mac • Star Realms is one of those cardboard-to-digital ports that everyone seems to love. Even if deck-building isn’t your favorite mechanism, Star Realms just does everything so right that you feel the need to keep it installed on your iPad. Games can be played quickly, the entire game is remarkably cheap without any boosters to constantly buy, and it just feels like it was made for digital from the get-go. That said, it’s about to feel a lot different. The Star Realms you know and love is getting a complete makeover, and it’s coming on Wednesday.
iOS, Android, PC, Mac • I’ve mentioned my love of Ancient Egypt in the past, with some of my Favorite.Games.Ever being Pharaoh from Impressions and Children of the Nile from Tilted Mill (neither of which have been ported to Mac or mobile, sadly). I know I’m not alone, as Egyptian history continues to be a mainstay of movies, games, and books. While I’m happy that Tom Cruise is getting work, I’m not sure a CGI-filled action film is what I’m looking for. What I really want is the ability to live there, build and grow. There hasn’t been a good civ builder in Egypt since Children of the Nile, but Clarus Victoria is hoping to change that with their latest, Predynastic Egypt.
iOS, Android • If you’re one of those weirdos people that usually find gamebooks or interactive fiction to be a bit too dry, you need to give Cubus Games‘ stuff a go. I kind of fell in love with them after reading Heavy Metal Thunder which somehow managed to be more badass than the title required it to be. It took the usual gamebook conventions and mashed them up with beautiful 80’s-90’s-style action-schlock. You weren’t just an antihero, you were an antihero who makes Max Rockatansky look like a measly War Boy. You kill while spouting one liners and pretty much do whatever the hell you want, and it’s pretty great. That’s not the only great gamebook they’ve churned out, however. HMT had great sequels and they even had a book set in the Mayan civilization. Their latest book is coming in June and it, too, looks like a doozy.
iOS, Android, PC/Mac • One of our favorite gamebook creators back in our Pocket Tactics days were the fine folks over at Choice of Games. Their gamebooks appear spartan, lacking any illustrations, but are actually deeper than just about every other piece of interactive fiction out there. This comes from their spreadsheet-like approach to tracking your choices and adjusting your character as you proceed through the story. It also comes from the fact that many of their gamebooks tell epic, sweeping stories rather than focusing on a single quest or adventure. Their latest isn’t any different.
iOS, Android, PC/Mac, Console • While it’s sad to think that we won’t be getting any more Sorcery! titles from the mad geniuses at inkle Studios, it’s comforting to know that we’re getting something. Heaven’s Vault is their upcoming title and I say “something” because we really don’t know much about what the hell Heaven’s Vault actually is. A few screens of a woman and her robot looking over a desolate landscape is all we have to go on. That and the fact that Raymond Chandler and Gene Wolfe were mentioned as inspiration. That’s all they really had to say, but they keep throwing more info at us anyway.