I’m not a huge fan of most Blizzard titles, but I did play the hell (sorry) out of Diablo I/II and tried the free Starter Edition (a.k.a. playable demo) of Diablo III when it became available. Unfortunately I found it rather boring, and I was put off by Blizzard’s open contempt for people who wanted … Continue reading “Hearthstone & Diablo III”
Category: Games
Game design, news & reviews
Cubist Lords of Waterdeep
Playdek’s latest iOS board game adaptation is Lords of Waterdeep, a worker placement game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The board game itself is quite recent, published in March 2012 – click “Product Details” to download the original PDF rules. There was some apprehension regarding the fairly simple design that shares very little … Continue reading “Cubist Lords of Waterdeep”
Fall Patch for Civ5 Brave New World
Firaxis has just released patch version 1.0.3.142 for Sid Meier’s Civilization V, or rather for Brave New World since most changes are specific to that expansion. I’ve updated my own Civ5 Patch Notes accordingly, this time with extensive reordering and reformatting since the official post was somewhat disorganized. Firaxis also published the Scrambled Continents Map … Continue reading “Fall Patch for Civ5 Brave New World”
Small World 2 Review
Small World is a strategy game about territory control, similar in concept to Risk yet quite different in execution. The 2009 board game was designed by Days of Wonder, most famous for the Ticket to Ride series. In the evolution of board games, Small World’s closest relative is not classic 1959 Risk itself but rather … Continue reading “Small World 2 Review”
Space Hulk Returns
Space Hulk has recently arrived on Steam, with an iOS version soon to follow. This isn’t the first electronic adaptation of the classic 1998 board game, but unlike the 1993–95 versions it’s an almost literal translation of the board game, of the kind you often see on iOS but very rarely on Windows. Specifically, Space … Continue reading “Space Hulk Returns”
Freemium & Premium on iOS
Stuart Hall conducted an interesting App Store Experiment. He created a fitness aid, 7 Minute Workout, and initially put it on the iOS app store without any fanfare. Version 1.1 added social sharing, and Hall sent out e-mails to ten top review sites – none of which even bothered to install the app. Version 1.2 … Continue reading “Freemium & Premium on iOS”
Civilization V: Brave New World
Brave New World, the second expansion to Sid Meier’s Civilization V, is finally upon us. I was quite fond of the original game and its first expansion, Gods & Kings, so I was very much looking forward to this one. Unfortunately I’m somewhat disappointed, as I’ll explain below. But first, here’s a rundown of information … Continue reading “Civilization V: Brave New World”
Civilization V prepares for Brave New World
Sid Meier’s Civilization V has received a big new patch in preparation for the upcoming second expansion, Brave New World. The full change list for version 1.0.3.18 has already been posted on the 2K Games Forums, and I’ve updated my consolidated patch notes accordingly. Theoretically, the big news in this patch is the introduction of … Continue reading “Civilization V prepares for Brave New World”
Eclipse: New Dawn for Strategy Games
Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy is Big Daddy Creations’ recent iOS port of the popular 2011 board game. Thematically, Eclipse is a space 4X game and insofar resembles many PC classics of that genre, most famously Master of Orion by SimTex. Mechanically, however, Eclipse is a Euro-style board game, and that’s where things get … Continue reading “Eclipse: New Dawn for Strategy Games”
Zen Pinball & Pinball FX2
Zen Studios makes digital pinball games for a variety of platforms, marketed as Zen Pinball on Apple iOS and Sony PlayStation 3 & Vita, and Pinball FX2 on Xbox 360 and lately Steam for Windows. The popular series boasts numerous licensed Marvel Comics and Star Wars tables. Within the realm of digital pinball, Zen hews … Continue reading “Zen Pinball & Pinball FX2”