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[rkn]

For those that haven't figured out Star Command yet, someone else mentioned the only winning strategy, group 4 red shirts including your captain in a central area, away from the usual areas that get blown up, ie bridge, engine room (on the starter ship anyway), along with a healer, and just stay there. have a couple of engineers roaming to put out fires (mostly to stop all the slowdown and lag) and to use as fodder. At this point, once you can manage this, the game is basically a matter of getting good at the mini game.

Kind of disappointed, lots of pointless controls, such as panning to the other ship, for what reason I don't know. Odd choice to mix in 'high res' art with pixel art, makes the game feel rushed. Overall it was addicting enough for me to play it through, but game could have used a bit more time I think.

 

[Vince51]

Any kind soul care to send me a code?

Use TunnelBear: http://www.tunnelbear.com/download/

 

[Giard]

Well damn, wanted to play Minigore 2 and Ace Patrol... both don't work on my 3GS it seems

 

[toddhunter]

Some new games lost in the last few days / Sorcery-gasm / Star Command goodbad/good? excitement:

NORTH & SOUTH - The Game (Pocket Edition) wat, this came out April 30th.

If you have been holding off on North & South since launch then there is some good news. It is now on sale! Glad they waited three days to drop the price, waiting only two would have been rude.

 

[Mike Works]

Someone linked to Mini Ninja a day or so ago. It's free and it's actually quite fun. Nice art style and more to do than just run and jump (it's a sidescrolling endless runner).

 

[RedShift]

Could I get a Star Command impression from someone who has absolutely zero history with, knowledge of, or stake in the game? I'd not even heard of it until a week ago. But the style and concept sounds great to me.

If I have no strict expectations going in, and I just want a fun game, will this game scratch my itch?

(For the record, I do fucking love FTL. I just wasn't sitting around waiting for a portable FTL or anything like that, so I'm not worried if this isn't that.)

I'd never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago, and I'm enjoying it.

I'm replaying the campaign now with the bigger ship where you can build grenades and turrets, it's pretty cool. It's not the amazing game it was apparently hyped to be, but you'll get a couple of quids worth of fun out of it.

 

[krYlon]

As good as Sorcery is, there are a few improvements I've asked for:

1) A contents page for the spellbook with links to each spell
2) A link to the spellbook when you choose to cast a spell. At the moment you have to exit the spell screen, open the spellbook and then go back in if you want to check what a spell does.
3) In horizontal mode the spellbook does not fit the screen, nor do some of the other screens.
4) A monster compendium would be nice, and would encourage multiple playthroughs if beating a monster added it to your collection. You could make a collection reminiscent of Out of the Pit.

As an aside, Fighting Fantasy books like Out of the Pit, Titan and Sorcery highly influenced a guy called Hidetaka Miyazaki to make a couple of games by the name of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.
Fans of those games should really check Sorcery out even if it's just for the John Blanche illustrations.

 

[DodgerSan]

As good as Sorcery is, there are a few improvements I've asked for:

1) A contents page for the spellbook with links to each spell
2) A link to the spellbook when you choose to cast a spell. At the moment you have to exit the spell screen, open the spellbook and then go back in if you want to check what a spell does.
3) In horizontal mode the spellbook does not fit the screen, nor do some of the other screens.
4) A monster compendium would be nice, and would encourage multiple playthroughs if beating a monster added it to your collection. You could make a collection reminiscent of Out of the Pit.

As an aside, Fighting Fantasy books like Out of the Pit, Titan and Sorcery highly influenced a guy called Hidetaka Miyazaki to make a couple of games by the name of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls.
Fans of those games should really check Sorcery out even if it's just for the John Blanche illustrations.

I think the spirit of the game (it certainly was in the printed book) is that you're supposed to memorise the spells, like a 'real' wizard would. Linking to the book kind of misses the point.

That's why some of the spells are so similar, it's to represent you getting flustered under pressure and making mistakes.

 

[krYlon]

I think the spirit of the game (it certainly was in the printed book) is that you're supposed to memorise the spells, like a 'real' wizard would. Linking to the book kind of misses the point.

That's why some of the spells are so similar, it's to represent you getting flustered under pressure and making mistakes.

But in the book, all the spells were at the back weren't they? There may not have been a contents page, but it was much easier to flick to the back of the book, and keep your thumb on the current reference. It's pretty clunky on the app. It streamlines most things, but certainly not this.

I dont know, its been quite a while since I read the books, so it may not have been like that.

Edit: Also, you could argue that being able to rewind at any moment in the story would be against the spirit of the book and would be seen as cheating, same with being able to replay fights. The app makes the whole experience much more accessible. So why not the spell casting?

In the book you would need to refer to the spells to make sure you would take off the right stamina, I doubt anyone would actually memorise and trust they have taken off the right stamina without checking, as well as memorising all the items needed for spells.
If the app wants you to memorise then why even give you the option of exiting the spell screen and let you look at the book?

 

[Enco]

Star Command is a good game that's going to get crucified (not entirely unfairly) based on the sky-high expectations.

In a vacuum, it's good. In reality, it's disappointing.

This.

It's not the free roam game I expected but its still a brilliant story based game. Easily me of the better games on iOS.

Very polished with great music and a nice art style. It's not perfect and I'm only an hour in but for the price it's more than a good deal.

 

[DodgerSan]

But in the book, all the spells were at the back weren't they? There may not have been a contents page, but it was much easier to flick to the back of the book, and keep your thumb on the current reference. It's pretty clunky on the app. It streamlines most things, but certainly not this.

I dont know, its been quite a while since I read the books, so it may not have been like that.

Edit: Also, you could argue that being able to rewind at any moment in the story would be against the spirit of the book and would be seen as cheating, same with being able to replay fights. The app makes the whole experience much more accessible. So why not the spell casting?

In the book you would need to refer to the spells to make sure you would take off the right stamina, I doubt anyone would actually memorise and trust they have taken off the right stamina without checking, as well as memorising all the items needed for spells.
If the app wants you to memorise then why even give you the option of exiting the spell screen and let you look at the book?

I don't know if there were different versions, but mine was a separate book slipcased with the first adventure.

 

[INTERNET]

Someone mentioned Space Agency a few pages back, thanks! It's really, really great, except for when it's total bullshit! The analogy that pops into my head is Splinter Cell - lots of delicate maneuvering that you then do over again because you timed something barely wrong or a button press didn't go as you planned. Whether this sounds good or bad to you is probably a good indicator of whether you'll like Space Agency!

 

[Naix]

As someone who's been waiting Star Command for ages, yeah I'm disappointed. But all in all, it's not a bad game. I'm having fun with it, even if it's far from what I was expecting. Lovely soundtrack too.

Still waiting for a decent FTL clone on iOS.

 

[WanderingWind]

I wasn't waiting for or anticipating Star Command much at all, and I still think it's about half of game. I don't buy into the "good for iOS" train of thought, all I ask is for the game to accomplish something entertaining, balanced and worth it's price. You spent far too much time waiting for things to happen for this to be very entertaining, the balance is easily the worst thing about it - but the visuals and the music, at least, keep it from being terrible all around. I think it's a pretty terrible game that just happens be be wrapped up in a very nice package. If I were to give it a letter grade, it'd be a D+/C-

Just my two cents after devoting some time with it.

 

[heringer]

So, what about Eclipse? This game needs more impressions. Lets forget a little the disappointment Star Command is.

 

[AstroLad]

So, what about Eclipse? This game needs more impressions. Lets forget a little the disappointment Star Command is.

A faithful and clever interpretation of an incredible game. I've been playing it nonstop since it came out. Only downside is you are limited to five simultaneous async games, but the async works great if you are up against people who take at least a couple games a day.

 

[Flunkie]

A faithful and clever interpretation of an incredible game. I've been playing it nonstop since it came out. Only downside is you are limited to five simultaneous async games, but the async works great if you are up against people who take at least a couple games a day.

Sold.

Also, GolfStar might be compelling if I could actually play it without it crashing on startup. And if I do get in a game, it crashes after 1 hole usually. On both iPhone 4S and iPad 3.

 

[heringer]

A faithful and clever interpretation of an incredible game. I've been playing it nonstop since it came out. Only downside is you are limited to five simultaneous async games, but the async works great if you are up against people who take at least a couple games a day.

Sounds great! How about performance? I heard it chugs on iPad 2...

 

[dr3upmushroom]

I'm glad I hadn't followed Star Command's development before playing it, I remember sort of vaguely hearing about it and thinking it sounded cool and bought it on a whim after seeing people excited about it in this thread and I thought it was pretty great.

It's simple and there's some odd balance choices (even with my ship fully upgraded it seemed like most ships wiped my shields in one hit) and the token system is sort of bizarre (I hate systems that incentivize sitting around waiting for a bar to fill, and when abilities already have cool down timers I don't see why they also need to require tokens), but the first play through was really fun.

I just started a play through with a bigger ship and I'm kind of losing interest. In another example of the balancing issues, it seems like in most fights I can just keep my weapons manned and run away from enemies until I wipe out the other ship and then wipe out the enemies that have boarded me at my leisure. Still, it was fun while it lasted and if the concept seems at all interesting to you, skipping it because people who hyped themselves up are disappointed it isn't perfect is ridiculous.

That said, I'll admit that I haven't played FTL, so it may help my enjoyment that I'm not comparing Star Command to that. How is FTL different? I'm really curious to play it now but don't own anything I can play it on at the moment. Is an iOS port planned?

Looking forward to getting Sorcery next. I already spent about 15 minutes on a play through, I was killed by a bandit with a blow dart. Felt like a badass controlling some bees with a spell I remembered from the magic tutorial to take their hive.

 

[Flunkie]

Add me on GolfStar: Flunkie. Give me your names too.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Same name on golfstar. No crashes on my ipad3.

 

[AstroLad]

Sounds great! How about performance? I heard it chugs on iPad 2...

Ah that's too bad. Runs great on my iPad 3 fwiw.

The only other caveat here is that this is a heavy game. Once you learn it, it's so damn easy, but even in eurogaming circles it's considered on the heavier end of things. So it takes a couple hours to really learn. But it's totally worth it. I have a couple people in our board-game group that love this game and I'm now quite inspired to play it IRL again.

 

[wihio]

Ah that's too bad. Runs great on my iPad 3 fwiw.

I notice slowdown and jerkiness in some of the animations on my iPad 3. The first and most obvious for me was the end turn slider. It certainly is not smooth, to say the least.

Despite the slowdowns, the game in general is totally playable. I imagine a bit of optimization will be done in some future updates.

 

[Creamium]

Another World dropped in price recently and decided to give it a go considering its classic status. Played it for a bit (in the caves now) and I'm really struggling with the controls. Touch controls like this are ok for games that are not so timing based like Sworcery, but here it's less than ideal. Using the virtual pad is even worse on iPhone.. Anyone else struggle with this or is it something I have to get used to? Maybe it's better to play this on iPad.

 

[toddhunter]

Another World dropped in price recently and decided to give it a go considering its classic status. Played it for a bit (in the caves now) and I'm really struggling with the controls. Touch controls like this are ok for games that are not so timing based like Sworcery, but here it's less than ideal. Using the virtual pad is even worse on iPhone.. Anyone else struggle with this or is it something I have to get used to? Maybe it's better to play this on iPad.

The only bit I really had trouble with was jumping over the worms at the start. You just need to buffer your actions early (rather than trying to time it exactly) and you should have no trouble. But I agree There is a learning curve to get used to the controls.

 

[colinp]

Used Tunnelbear (fantastic) to get the code for Mini Gore 2 and it felt so.... Lifeless. I played but was just going through the motions. What a shame.

 

[Kosh]

I tried Golfstar and it continually crashed during character creation and I just gave up. Also on iPad 3.

 

[AstroLad]

I tried Golfstar and it continually crashed during character creation and I just gave up. Also on iPad 3.

Same for me yesterday.

 

[Dash Kappei]

I've heard terrible things about Zeboyd ports on iOS (Cthulhu and PA3) back at launch, how are they now? Worth it?

 

[FlashFlooder]

I don't get what's so great about GolfStar. I much prefer Tiger Woods, myself.

 

[PFD]

I've heard terrible things about Zeboyd ports on iOS (Cthulhu and PA3) back at launch, how are they now? Worth it?

Cthulhu was rough at first, with awful controls, but now it's very playable IMO. Really fun game.

 

[KingKong]

So I just beat Sorcery! and is it just me or is it really short, especially for $5?

I guess you're supposed to replay it but I don't know how much I'd get out of going left instead of right in places, since what I was doing wasn't that exciting or interesting. Also I got that imp on my shoulder and couldn't use spells for like the last third.

They made a big deal out of the combat but I beat that minotaur thing without any problem just alternating block and strong attack

 

[AstroLad]

I notice slowdown and jerkiness in some of the animations on my iPad 3. The first and most obvious for me was the end turn slider. It certainly is not smooth, to say the least.

Despite the slowdowns, the game in general is totally playable. I imagine a bit of optimization will be done in some future updates.

Yeah you're right. I hadn't really been paying attention but sliding and scrolling around could be smoother. Like you said doesn't really get in the way too much but it's there.

 

[PittaGAF]

FYI, preview of Warhammer Quest (they really played very little, from what I can tell but they do show some cool things).

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Warhammer+Quest/news.asp?c=50622

 

[SmokedMeat]

Used Tunnelbear (fantastic) to get the code for Mini Gore 2 and it felt so.... Lifeless. I played but was just going through the motions. What a shame.

Yeah, gave Mini Gore 2 a shot and found it mindless and tedious. Will probably delete.

 

[thelatestmodel]

I did get quite into Star Command, and ended up finishing the game. However, it only took me about 4 hours and there were quite a few niggles along the way.

Taken on its own, I'd give the game a C+ at best. It's very charming and fun at times, but once you've got all the upgrades and been to all the systems you can really see how thin on content it actually is. The music's great, it looks great, but you can see absolutely everything in a VERY short space of time. It's also got several large bugs in it (e.g. slowdown which seems to be related to where your crew are standing, lots of random crashes).

Taken as the result of a 2-year Kickstarter project, I'd say it's rather disappointing.

 

[Mario]

Taken as the result of a 2-year Kickstarter project, I'd say it's rather disappointing.

I think a lot of Kickstarters are going to be disappointing backers. So many of them have novice game developers that are being overly ambitious and aren't asking for anywhere near enough money to adequately fund their projects.

 

[SteveWD40]

FYI, preview of Warhammer Quest (they really played very little, from what I can tell but they do show some cool things).

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Warhammer+Quest/news.asp?c=50622

 

[MThanded]

I did get quite into Star Command, and ended up finishing the game. However, it only took me about 4 hours and there were quite a few niggles along the way.

Taken on its own, I'd give the game a C+ at best. It's very charming and fun at times, but once you've got all the upgrades and been to all the systems you can really see how thin on content it actually is. The music's great, it looks great, but you can see absolutely everything in a VERY short space of time. It's also got several large bugs in it (e.g. slowdown which seems to be related to where your crew are standing, lots of random crashes).

Taken as the result of a 2-year Kickstarter project, I'd say it's rather disappointing.

Expect this to happen more often. People will make a lot of claims to sell themselves on kickstarter. No guarantee they can deliver.

Unrelated:

I am pretty hype about Ace Patrol. Man watched this video on ign. The async play is going to be amazing http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/05/01/ace-patrol-developer-demo

 

[PittaGAF]

LOL, I love that gif!!!

Describes me perfectly when playing too

It won't be long....this week, according to their facebook page, they should post a video too, hilighting the most asked things by their FB followers (many of them, it must be said, have absolutely no clue about the original boardgame that this digital interpretation aim to replicate).

 

[AstroLad]

For those playing Eclipse, they just bumped the limit of concurrent async games from 5 to 10. Absolutely perfect since 5 was irking me but I'd never want to manage more than 10 so I'm all set now. (And this also leaves slots for random live games as well, which is really nice.)

 

[Creamium]

I didn't know that much about Another World before playing it, and it very much reminded me of Heart of Darkness, one of my all time favorites. It wasn't surprising to see they were directed by the same guy. I do think HoD is the better game though. I hope they make a high res version of that someday.

 

[GDJustin]

Star Command's New Game+ isn't a gimmick at all. You can build "large" rooms that let Engineers build defense turrets, your tactical officers can get grenades, etc etc.

It doesn't make up for all the game's sins, but it is a pleasant surprise.

 

[Pachimari]

Have you guys seen Sid Meier's Ace Patrol? The visual style looks interesting.

 

[Megasoum]

Have you guys seen Sid Meier's Ace Patrol? The visual style looks interesting.

I played a lot over the week-end, great game!

My only problem with it is that it's very easy to hit the wrong "button". Happened to me a LOT.... I always have to zoom in everytime to make sure I hit the right now. Not gamebreaking but still annoying.

 

[WanderingWind]

LOL, I love that gif!!!

Describes me perfectly when playing too

It won't be long....this week, according to their facebook page, they should post a video too, hilighting the most asked things by their FB followers (many of them, it must be said, have absolutely no clue about the original boardgame that this digital interpretation aim to replicate).

I dunno if you work for them or what, but yeah, WHQ is the only game I know about that I want on iOS. If you do, you could go ahead and tell the parties responsible that I will personally buy 35 copies of a Space Marine sequel with a New Game + and 100 copies of Dawn of War 3 that plays more like DoW1 than 2. Also, a clone of that latter imaginary game in the regular Warhammer universe.

 

[MoGamesXNA]

I am pretty hype about Ace Patrol. Man watched this video on ign. The async play is going to be amazing http://www.ign.com/videos/2013/05/01/ace-patrol-developer-demo

Same. Cheers for the link. I hadn't actually seen any gameplay footage. A WW1 turn based strategy game by Sid Meier is the perfect combination. I was a huge fan of the Ancient Art of War in the Skies back in the day and have been waiting for something similar since.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

King Cashing 2 is 33% off at the mo down to £1.49

First one was really good.

 

[PittaGAF]

I dunno if you work for them or what, but yeah, WHQ is the only game I know about that I want on iOS. If you do, you could go ahead and tell the parties responsible that I will personally buy 35 copies of a Space Marine sequel with a New Game + and 100 copies of Dawn of War 3 that plays more like DoW1 than 2. Also, a clone of that latter imaginary game in the regular Warhammer universe.

I don't work for them and honestly I do not know the games you mention

I just happen to be in the beta test group.

 

[Mike Works]

I'll post this one last time since the girlfriend and I are having a blast with it: Mini Ninjas is an endless runner done very, very right. It's free. Give it a shot.