Civilization VI announces its next DLC civ, Australia, led by World War II Prime Minister John Curtis. This alone would be exciting news, but there’s more! Details of the next major Civ VI patch have arrived, and the focus is on multiplayer and modding!
Monthly Archives: February 2017
Neverwinter – Cloaked Ascendancy Launch Trailer
Four mages ripped from the Cloak Tower during the Spellplague has returned to unleash havoc in Neverwinter. Expect your journey to take you into revamped high-tier Spellplague Caverns dungeons where you’ll do battle with Gyrion and his mages for the future of Neverwinter!
Hype Train: Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space!?
One of the most interesting games I discovered [and some of the coolest devs, no lie], was Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space!? which is in the Holy Potatoes line alongside Holy Potatoes! A weapon shop!? Only it’s a turn-based strategy RPG in space. Think Faster Than Light, in the same vein as its a Roguelike space-exploration title, but with a strong Starch-based economy, hilarious characters, and turned all the way up to 11! The end-goal of the game will always be the same, the main characters stay the same, but your supporting cast, places you go, items you acquire, and events will be different. Exploration is the name of the game, but you can’t just take your time: Time is definitely a factor here, as The Eclipse, a massive starship piloted by a suspiciously familiar . . . Maybe like a particular Red Comet from a certain Mecha franchise? Hmm. . .But the point is, that you can’t just explore everything. You have to consider what is most important, probably what is closest to your target before moving on. The game is set in two simple but important phases: The crew phase, and the exploration phase.
Crew Phase is an isometric view where you drag-and-drop upgrades to your ship and crew. The names/faces of the crew will always be different, but their roles on the ship and what kinds of weapons they can equip. You can upgrade your ship with ways to lower fatigue of your crew, new weapons, better equipment, the power to hold more people on your combat crew. After you’ve spent some time doing that, you’ll explore a planet! Your ship does have limited fuel, and if you’re low you can come back to the Stardock and resupply. But each time you leave a place to go to a place, it takes away from your time until The Eclipse catches up. When you explore a planet, you encounter a variety of situations. You might help someone with their groceries, fight another battleship, find some money, encounter a box that has money or a bomb in it, it could be anything! These situations are excellently written, randomly given to you, and the rewards are generally worth it. New crew members, weapons, money, experience. . . All behind a hilarious, and definitely in-character way. That’s the thing I love about this game, is while it’s insanely challenging, and always different, so it’s not like you can plan, it’s fun. Entertaining, well written, tons of pop-culture references that make me laugh.
Do not fight The Eclipse. I made the mistake of ignoring my timer just once. Each shot from it does 9999 damage; you will not win. Except maybe at the end of the game. But a few hours in? No, you stay the Hell away from it. Speaking of combat though, each ship has certain amounts of weapons/slots on it, which can be targeted, as well as the hull of the ship. Blowing this stuff up will spell victory. You have shields, which you can focus on any of the spots on your ship, but not the entire ship, at least not that I’ve found. You have special abilities, which you can use to your advantage as well. It’s a turn-based game though, so you can take your time, consider what the enemy might do, and how you need to act. Though I did not play FTL, I have it! But I do love the Holy Potatoes franchise, and the Starch Economy. It shows us the paradise we could all have if we just loved potatoes a bit more.
I can see them; I can see the enemy: 5/5 Hype Train Exploded
I absolutely love this game. I can’t wait to have more time to really settle in and enjoy it and get farther. It’s clever, adorably, hilariously written, the change from real-time to turn-based is a welcome addition. I enjoy that it’s going to be different every single time I play, despite it having a regular storyline that I’m ultimately following. And it doesn’t have perma-death, which I appreciate. If I want that, I’ll play Fire Emblem or something. You lose weapons when they’re destroyed, which can suck, but hey, you can always go and get more! It’s bright, fun, while still maintaining length and challenge, for which it has no shortage of. The game’s hard, but also fun. Anyone of any experience level of roguelike/strategy games can play this and enjoy it, and it will fill you with laughter and frustration, in equal measures. I cannot say how much I enjoy this game enough. Is it without flaw? Of course not. As a fair amount of this game is random, you’re sure to hit low points, or not get what you need from a planet, waste fuel, and try to travel back to dock, only to run out of time. Stuff like that is bound to happen. But the game is fun regardless, and that’s the real important part.
FFXIV: Stormblood Hype was REAL in Frankfurt
By Jaime Skelton (MissyS), Senior Editor
If you’re a Final Fantasy XIV fan, you’ve probably spent the last few months on the edge of your seat, bubbling with anticipation any time the upcoming expansion, Stormblood, gets mentioned. Expansions are always exciting things: new classes, new areas, new story, new shiny things to collect. But when the game’s developer, Square Enix, knows how to carefully bait and hook their fans through not one but three international fanfests? Well, by the time Frankfurt’s fan fest started the waters were in a foamed frenzy.
Now, if you weren’t up late enough in the States (or early enough in Europe) to watch the keynote live, you missed out on all the fun that the keynote was. To give you a sample of what the emotional rollercoaster was like, here’s how I described those opening five minutes to Jason (Ragachak), my fellow FFXIV nerd on staff:
“Oh, they’re playing the Stormblood cinematic trailer to start off the keynote. NBD, they did that at Tokyo too.”
-proceeds to mostly ignore-
-trailer reaches last ‘end point’ … and then suddenly shifts to a map-
“… wait. WAIT”
“WAIT WHY IS IT GOING TO OTHARD”
“IT JUST WENT UNDERWATER??? TO DOMA??”
“… oh. okay. this is samurai. samurai confirmed. gotcha. what a weird way to do things…”
– few moments pass, and then a new reveal-
“WAIT HOLY SHIT WE’RE GOING TO OTHARD TOO”
You see, we’ve had the original Stormblood trailer for months – one which we all thought was complete. So when that trailer kept going, Square Enix managed to inject a new super level of excitement into FFXIV fans without saying a word.
And then, after Yoshida entered to applause and wearing a samurai outfit, the new reveals started dropping with the thrill of the very first Stormblood keynote. What’s new to be so excited about?
Samurai! Yes, the conspiracy theories that the Spiderman shirt Yoshida wore at the last conference (Sam Raimi – Samu Raimi in Japanese) were correct. Samurai’s also been confirmed as a melee DPS, not a tank – and while there’s battles being waged in forums about whether this was an appropriate choice, the fact remains that the bad-ass katana master is coming to Eorzea soon.
Doma! More importantly, the Warrior of Light won’t just be liberating Ala Mhigo – they’ll also be liberating Doma in Othard. That’s right: the expansion is going to be split between two areas, liberating two cities. Yoshida’s indicated this is meant to be a pretty even 50/50 split, too, so perhaps it will feel like two expansions in one.
Far Eastern Housing! Not only is the new player city in a Far Eastern themed area, but the fourth residential district is also there, with lots of Far Eastern furnishings promised too. Speaking of housing, all furnishing slots are doubling – home decor will reach new levels!
Nods to the past! A ghostly ship graveyard has echoes of FFV all over it, and FFXI fans will notice the presence of the Four Guardians on the map to the east of Othard.
Blitzball! … well, maybe. During a press conference, Yoshida said “… maybe we should make a MMO specific version of Blitzball. . . However on the other hand if we do that we’re going away from the Blitzball everyone knows and is expecting. So we’re trying to figure out how to mix both sides.” But with swimming and diving, the promise is there: an attempt will be made.
And that wraps up the biggest reveals for Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood. There are still more details pending, including an announcement about leveling potions in an upcoming Producer’s Letter. If you’re a lore fiend, there’s a ton of tiny things to over-analyze. There’s new music, new art, and a new story we’ve yet to uncover. But if there’s anything we do know, it’s that Square Enix has us hooked and ready for another amazing expansion.
Bonus: FFXIV won a Guinness World Record for the longest end credits (ARR), clocking at 1 hour 38 minutes long – thanks to honoring over 32,000 players who played in the original 1.0 – and a world record for the most original music, almost near 400 original songs before Stormblood!
Bubble Witch 3 Saga
Bubble Witch 3 Saga is a free-to-play casual mobile game developed by King for iOS and Android. Stella the Witch is back and she needs your help more now than ever before. The evil Wilbur may look cute at first glance, but make no mistake. He’s full of magical mischief and must be stopped at all costs to keep everyone safe. Help Stella keep everyone safe from the evil Wilbur’s nefarious magic and customize your home to your heart’s content in Bubble Witch 3 Saga.
Features:
Various Objectives: You won’t just be popping bubbles randomly on the screen. Whether you need to rescue owls trapped in them or help a ghost reach the top of the screen you’ll have a variety of objectives to complete.
Power-ups: Collect different power-up bubbles that will help you clear out levels much faster. You won’t regret utilizing them!
House Creation: Purchase upgrades for your home and customize it to your liking. You can even go visit your friends’ homes, get some decoration tips, and earn some pixie dust too!
Shards of Magic
Shards of Magic is a free-to-play mobile fantasy RPG developed by Reality Squared Games for iOS and Android. In Shards of Magic players can assemble their own team of completely unique characters and go on an adventure to acquire the Shards of Magic before the Evil Lord of the Abyss, Dusan, can claim the Shards for himself. Form your team of heroes and fight your way to the Shards of Magic before Dusan can think twice about using them for his own nefarious plans!
Features:
Hero Encounters: Meet other heroes on your quest and recruit them to be part of your team and help diversify your team’s skills.
Tons of Levels: Play through over 350 different stages with changing difficulties for even more replayability!
PvE Content: Take on world bosses, daily quests, and an endless dungeon mode where you can earn some rare loot for your team.
PvP Mode: Fight against other players from all around the world to find out who the strongest adventurers are. What could be better than earning new rewards and your own spot on the leaderboards for all to see?
Hades’ Star
Hades’ Star is a free-to-play mobile sci-fi strategy game developed by Parallel Space Inc. for iOS and Android. The first Scout ships have been sent to the Hades Galaxy to gather information and they returned with the news that greedy Corporations were hoping to hear, that the star system was rich with rare minerals – but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a price to pay for them. The Hades Galaxy is also full of hostile environments, unstable stars, and a completely unknown indigenous race that could cause you trouble at any turn. Hundreds of fleets are already setting up their bases in the new star system on various planets and new ones are arriving daily. There are plenty of rare resources out there right now, but they won’t be there forever! Get out there and claim every bit of the galaxy for yourself that you can in Hades’ Star!
Features:
Colonization: Take planets for your own. Use them as your bases and launch missions from them.
Corporations: Form a Corporation with other players to work together and exploit the galaxy’s resources as a single force, but beware of other Corporations looking to do the same thing.
Supernova Stars: Explore extremely dangerous parts of the galaxy where stars are going supernova to gather extremely rare, untapped resources.
Tabletopia
Tabletopia is a free-to-play virtual tabletop game developed for PC and Mac with upcoming releases on iOS and Android devices where players can choose from a huge selection of individual games to play on a virtual table. Tabletopia completely re-imagines your favorite board games from both past and present, bringing them to life in every way possible while still giving you the freedom of actually playing the game. Why play one tabletop game, when you can have over 300 different tabletop games at the ready?
Features:
Massive Selection: Choose from over 300 different licensed board games to play with your friends or completely random players. The choice is yours!
Automatic Setup: Enjoy completely automatic game setup and avoid the hassle of actually having to set up the board games themselves.
No Game AI: There is no AI driving game actions so players will still need to brush up on the rules to be able to play the board games of their choice.
Tabletopia Inc.
Tabletopia Inc.
Parallel Space Inc.
Parallel Space Inc.







