Monthly Archives: August 2017

Dunk Nation 3×3

Dunk Nation 3×3 is a free-to-play mobile basketball game developed by Halcyon for iOS and Android where players can battle each other in fast paced, arcade style matches of half court street ball. Square off against players from all across the globe and show them your basketball skills. Win matches, earn new outfits, and become just as flashy as your skills in Dunk Nation 3×3!

Features:

Skill Based Gameplay: Learning to master rebound and shot timings is a difficult process, but you will reap the rewards of your efforts in your games when the competition can’t keep up with you.

Career Mode: Play your way through Career Mode by completing different chapters of matches that each have a championship game at the end.

PvP Mode: Take on other players across the globe in real time matches. Improve your rank to get paired with even better allies and go against tougher opponents.

Table Tennis Manager

Table Tennis Manager is a free-to-play sports simulation game developed by Wulfman that can be played in your Internet browser or on compatible Android devices. In Table Tennis Manager players can manage their own table tennis players and a team, engage in tournaments, and carefully handle finances that will help drive their team from the ground up. With a richness in detail and depth, Table Tennis Manager will have you making as many choices as possible for your players. Get out there, start your team, and lead them to victory with your great decision making skills!

Features:

Athletics and Finances: The most successful managers will have to manage their teams both athletically and financially. Hire staff and put your players through training to improve their performance, but don’t break the bank in the process.

Competitions: Enter your team in competitions to improve their status and help them earn sponsors. Sponsors will help fund your team if they are performing well.

Youth Scouting: Keep an eye out for upcoming youth that look promising. Hire a youth scout to watch for any young players that could become great additions to your team.

Throne: Kingdom at War

Throne: Kingdom at War is a free-to-play mobile war strategy game developed by Plarium for iOS and Android where players can walk the life of a city builder and a warlord, creating a powerful Order to demonstrate your power to all other players across the world! There are other eager leaders out there trying to take over the world, so stake your claim on your piece before it all gets taken. Assemble your army of faithful warriors, outfit them with gleaming armor that shows off your strength, and embark on an unforgettable journey for supremacy in the kingdom in Throne: Kingdom at War!

Features:

City Management: Make defensive and offensive structures to keep your city safe and support your armies that are off at war.

Resources: Carefully balance how you spend your resources so you can stabilize your kingdom in terms of offense and defense. Use them to research new technologies that will unlock new buildings and units to create.

Orders: Join an Order of other players, fight alongside each other, and fight for the throne together. A little help can go a long way when the name of the game is war.

CrushMon

CrushMon is an upcoming free-to-play mobile fantasy ARPG developed by Nexon for iOS and Android where players can become a hero and choose from four different cute chibi characters, using them to drive back the forces of evil. With a ton of different game modes to play and over 120 PvE stages to conquer you won’t ever be at a loss for something to do! Who says you can’t be cute while defending the world from evil? Gear your own cute chibi characters, collect pets, fight to grow stronger, and push back evil forces in CrushMon!

Features:

Different Game Modes: Conquer over 120 PvE levels, play in synchronous co-op game modes, take on towers that can be challenged for epic rewards, and prove your strength in PvP battles.

Varying Classes: There are four different gender-locked classes for you to choose from. Ares is a male that uses a sword, Kain is a male that uses a bow, Marin is a female that uses a hammer, and Tyria is a female that uses a magical staff.

Pets: Collect different pets to add to your party that have both active and passive abilities that can help you in battles.

Tangledeep Preview: Rogue-Like Done Right

by Andrew Skelton (Outfoxed)

 

There’s no denying Rogue-lite games have enjoyed a surge of popularity in recent times.  Games like Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells have proved to be invaluable for spreading the love of the genre.  That being said, these games owe their success to their cousin, the Rogue-like.  These turn-based games are much more strategic and slower paced, but can offer just as great, if not greater, challenge to their more action-oriented neighbors.  Enter Tangledeep. A 16-bit rogue-like very much reminiscent of classic Super Nintendo titles such as Secret of Mana, Tangledeep offers that true Rogue-like experience to interested players.  Is it enjoyable, though?  More importantly to many, is it worth a look, given the fact it’s in Early Access?

Tangledeep Preview ScreenshotFrom the start, you’re presented with three different control options to use: controller, WASD + Mouse, and full keyboard.  Gloriously, you can switch to any of these on the fly at any time; there’s no options menu fiddling here!  Interestingly enough, I found each of the control methods useful for one thing or another.  Controller was definitely the easiest to move around with, WASD + Mouse was my preferred method for combat, and full keyboard was great for skill use.

Most rogue-likes offer standard normal and hardcore modes for players.  Tangledeep is no exception to that, as heroic mode is your standard.  Dying in Heroic mode means you start a brand new character, but all items you’ve deposited in your bank, and the progress you’ve made on your town (more on this later) remain.  Hardcore, of course, means that if you die, everything is lost on that save.  What Tangledeep offers in addition, though, is a third option: Adventure mode.  In this mode, when you die, you’re teleported back to town.  You lose the progress in your current level (no loss in levels though), half of your accumulated job points, and half of your gold.  This makes the game much more like a traditional Japanese RPG in its own right, which may be a much more comforting experience to new players in the genre.

Tangledeep Preview ScreenshotThere are currently nine available classes to choose from, and from what I can tell, they’re all quite unique from each other.  Did I mention every class is unique?  It’s quite refreshing to see such a nice diverse range of skills.  These aren’t your typical classes on the surface either.  Sure, there are some traditional classes available.  Brigands are like rogues, spellshapers are wizards, and paladins are … well, what’s a paladin anyway?  Then you have classes like the floramancer who summons vines to attack her foes, or the husyn that weaves magic with technology to the detriment of her enemies.

That’s not even getting into traits.  You select from two of ten when you create your character, and they can really dictate how that character will play.  The trait system also enables you to really push the envelope of character types, like playing a caster who over time gains more and more health and makes monsters less aggressive, if that fits your style best.  I enjoy games that give you so much choice in how you want to develop your characters.  It also plays strongly towards people who want to min-max every aspect of said character, too.

Tangledeep Preview ScreenshotThe core gameplay takes places in the town and the dungeon.  The town is split up into two sections.  The top section is where you can find your shops, your bank, and your healer.  Also there you can find your class changer.  Once you fulfill certain conditions, you can switch to another class, keeping most of the skills of your original one intact.  This just adds a whole new dimension to character development, which I find completely refreshing in a rogue-like.  The bottom half of the town consists of an Orchard where you can grow new plants that give a variety of effects, and where you can store captured monsters.  Capturing monsters gives you bonuses against that particular monster, and lesser bonuses against other monsters in the same family, so it’s quite useful to capture some of the more common enemies.

The dungeon itself is randomly generated, and each floor has the potential for multiple exits and even secret areas to uncover.  While the goal is obviously to get to the bottom, these side paths often have very useful rewards, though some are also quite dangerous.  Each of the monsters you encounter have their own AI.  Some will charge you when they see you, others flee.  Some even just wander aimlessly and don’t care about you at all.  Also note, you can’t actually defeat everything on a level to clear it, at least so far as I’ve found, as creatures spawn at a decent rate while you explore.

Tangledeep Preview ScreenshotCombat is quite typical to the genre, and that’s not a bad thing.  When you move, the enemies move.  When you attack, the enemies attack (though it does seem your attacks have priority).  Your use of skills is what will really help you succeed. Most skill usage is gated by either stamina, energy, or a cooldown.  Expect to find elite versions of the monsters on some floors too!  Beating these tougher baddies does reward you with more experience, and usually more items.

For an early access title, I feel Tangledeep still offers quite the polished experience.  Having every class be unique certainly helps, because while you’ll probably find yourself dying a lot, the replay value will keep you coming back.  The art style is charming, and really fits the aesthetic the game is trying to achieve.  The simple addition of Adventure mode also means that people who don’t care for the permadeath style of rogue-likes can still find quite a bit of enjoyment.  Frequent updates from the developer also help immensely; every Friday they do a patch roundup detailing the work that’s been done for the game.  With new classes, on the horizon, and a new game plus mode just added at the time of writing, Tangledeep is certainly shaping up to be an excellent game indeed.

Note: A game key was provided for preview purposes.

Tangledeep Screenshots

Total War: Warhammer: Norsca Thoughts

Total War - Warhammer -Selection Screen

I recently had a chance to sit down with the latest faction for Total War: Warhammer, the last faction of Warhammer, before the sequel comes down the pipe: The chaotic Norsca faction, led by Wulfrik the Wanderer.  His name is appropriate because you’re going to do a lot [and I mean a lot] of wandering. Wulfrik’s one of the most badass characters in the whole of Warhammer lore, and I enjoy playing as him. I feel like maybe he wasn’t as strong as he could have been, but on the whole, my army was pretty powerful as a group. One of the things that make the faction interesting is that yes, you do want to raze cities and towns into rubble, you gain bonuses/benefits for it.

Total War - Warhammer - God Monument

When you choose to destroy a town, you can erect a monument to one of the Gods, each giving its own bonus, up to rank three. Do not make the same mistake I did the first couple of times I tried to complete the campaign: You can raze every other enemy city into rubble, and raise a monument, you shouldn’t. You need another town or two to help you create income. The key is having at least two powerful groups of military might, and even if you’re in a debt/losing gold each turn because of it, it’s not the end of the world.

Total War - Warhammer Battle

Your primary source of income is raiding other towns, the richer the better. But you have to figure out where you want these outposts are, a good strategic point to retreat to. Speaking of Gods, one of the most important things is gaining favor with the God of your choice, and sacrificing your Hunts [from the new Hunt quests], building Monuments. You can gain benefits of multiple Gods, that is, until it’s time to focus on just one at 100 points. Each God gives you an incredibly powerful unit, except the Crow. The Crow spreads a plague that your army is immune to. That’s pretty awesome and one of my personal favorites. It’s really an interesting way to play the game, creating far more challenge and a new way for me personally to look at the game. Once you reach level 3 with your God, the scenario’s all but over. It’s a very simple story and not one that has a lot of sub-chapters and things to fool around with. You should decide early which of the Gods you want to worship: the Snake (Slaanesh), the Crow (Nurgle), the Eagle (Tzeentch), or the Hound (Khorne).

Total War - Warhammer -Decisive

The thing I enjoy about Norsca is while I enjoy political intrigue, there is none of that in the Norsca campaign. One of the factions giving you a hard time? Are they trying to horn in on your territory? Destroy them! Build an army, raze their cities, sacrifice them to your Dark Gods. The citizens in your empire prefer Chaos, and the less Chaos in your territory, the angrier they’ll be. So get out there and destroy your foes! The Monstrous Arcanum is your guide to hunting massive monsters, which will definitely feel more like a raid boss than a regular encounter.

Total War - Warhammer - Regiment

Winning those is one of your other primary goals, gaining powerful equipment or units like the Regiments of Renown. There are some incredible units you can unlock as you go, but remember, you can only recruit them once. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. If you have a habit of auto-doing battles when you’re bored, remember that they can die, so you don’t want to let them go to waste. It can be very challenging to juggle your income and the army because your army is the most important thing. I found myself in debt most of my playthrough, but that ended once I’d grab another town, raid them, and pushed my army into glorious combat. Though I had some issues finding/using my own units in the winter battles, in especially hill-dotted areas. Other than that, everything was fantastic.

Total War - Warhammer - Throgg

Your other option is Throgg, the King of the Trolls. I didn’t use Throgg as much because I frankly wasn’t ready for how challenging their scenario is. But despite that, Throgg felt a bit more powerful, and it is incredibly satisfying to destroy weaker armies with the Trolls/Fimir. Wulfrik is more fun to play as a whole, but Throgg has his own obstacles to overcome. He too wants to unite the frozen north under his thumb, and he’s probably wiser than Wulfrik, a hilarious notion for a troll. Throgg is the Wintertooth, able to fell any great champion that comes across his path. If you like pillaging, ruination, and overall destruction and chaos, without all the frustration that comes with the Chaos faction, Norsca is for you.

Total War: Warhammer: Glorious Battle

No matter which Legendary Lord you choose, it’s going to be incredibly fun. The other tribes are not simply going to let you run them roughshod and will fight back, but if you overpower a few of them early, it’s not going to be so rough. You want to get a second army going as soon as it’s convenient, get a few Mammoths when it’s feasible. The units as a whole are a lot of fun, from rage-filled vikings [of course], Skin-Wolves, Mammoths, Hunters. You’re going to want to use the Rage mechanics to your advantage, the longer they’re in combat, the stronger they are. So you want to balance that with other units to protect them, or hit from afar. As a whole, the Norsca update is a fantastic one, and for players that want a little something different, and want to be in a constant state of war and conflict, look no further.