Out Tonight: Sid Meier’s Starships, Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager and Card Crawl

The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.

Tonight isn’t only the biggest release night of 2015, it’s also the mobile app equivalent of Celebrity Deathmatch. On one hand we have space opera, and the other hard sci-fi. Let’s start with our first competitor, Sid Meier.

Sid Meier’s Starships is the latest from the acclaimed developer, this one set in the same universe as Civilization: Beyond Earth. It’s a bit of a Civilization game, but also has tactical combat and quests. It has a cool “shore leave” mechanic, where you get to keep doing stuff on your turn but your crew will continue to get less and less effective until you give them shore leave, and then your opponents get their chance.

Not sure I really need to say much more about this one. It’s Sid Meier with an original 4X game that you can have on your iPad. If you’re still not convinced, go read Owen’s preview. I’m still angry that he’s had a chance to give this one a try already.

There doesn’t appear to be any links available for this one yet, but we know it will be $15 when it does hit the App Store either tonight or tomorrow.

Head after the break to see who’s in the other corner.

Sid’s main competitor tonight is none other than the astronaut with the coolest name, Buzz Aldrin. Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager puts you in the shoes of the Director of either the US or Soviet space program in the 1950’s and tasks you with beating the other side to the moon. Well, that’s just one of the campaigns. The other one puts you in charge of the fictional Global Space Administration, which gives you access to all countries’ spacecraft while having to meet budget and do whatever else it is that directors of such administrations do. There is also a sandbox mode if you just want to play around and shoot off rockets, and who doesn’t?

Of course, Buzz Aldrin was present during development to make sure the science made sense, so we’re talking about some pretty hard sci-fi, here. Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager will be available tonight for $10 and for iPad and Android tablets.

Last on the list is Card Crawl, a little dungeon-crawler card game that I’ve had the pleasure of toying around with since last week. Card Crawl consists of a deck of 54 cards, 49 of which are the same every game you play. The other five cards are powers that you can mix and match within the deck, but only after you unlock them. You start with five powers, and will slowly unlock other ones that make you wonder how you managed without them.

Card Crawl is a very fun game, but don’t go into this thinking you’re getting a dungeon crawl. The theme is there, but this game more closely resembles Klondike or Free Cell than Thunderstone. That’s not a bad thing, there’s something relaxing about thinking your way through a solitaire puzzle that, due to randomness, might not be solvable. You can also churn through a game really quickly, easily in under 5 minutes.

You play for gold, but you only get to keep your gold if you manage to go through all 54 cards. Don’t be alarmed by the in-app currency, though. It’s only used to unlock cards, and earning the gold by making your way through the dungeon is satisfying rather than feeling like a grind. My official review should be up by the end of the week.

Card Crawl is for iOS Universal and will run you a Jefferson.

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Joke/pun goes here: World of Dungeons coming to mobile

Even “In Development” would be a better title.

Dear Herocraft,

Earlier today I received an email detailing your latest game, World of Dungeons. I just wanted to inform you that, when I read that title in the subject line, my eyes rolled back into my skull and I lost all interest in your game. Seriously? World of Dungeons? Is it really a world of dungeons? How does that work, exactly? There are no structures anywhere in your entire little fictional world that are above ground? Either you’ve completely given up or have transferred the naming duties at HeroCraft to a hamster confined to a Ouija board. No, actually, abpqre-YES-dr45-GOODBYE is a more evocative name than World of Dungeons, so said hamster is clearly overqualified for this position.

Yes, I know your game features tactical combat, several different classes to choose from, and loot and more loot. I even realize its a roguelike, which I’m usually a big fan of. I’m just not sure I can post about a game with such a generic, boring title. Seriously, what’s next? A sci-fi civilization type game that you’ll simply call “Starships”? Who would buy that?

And don’t think that just because you attached a trailer to this email that I will post it after the break.

Sincerely,

Dave “I posted a trailer after the break” Neumann

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Tales for two: Tales From the Borderlands episode 2 gets trailer

Okay. Picture The Road Warrior, but it’s wacky and fun! Whaddya think?

I picked up Telltale Games‘ last great adventure series, A Wolf Among Us, right after episode three. Playing through three straight episodes and then having to wait for episodes four and five to release was almost as bad as waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish a book. Nope, not doing that again. So, here I am to tell you about Tales from the Borderlands, a series that I have yet to download, and won’t until all five episodes have been released.

Having played, and loved, A Wolf Among Us, I can tell you that it is definitely something you should check out if you’re interested in well-written, well voice-acted, and clever adventure games that don’t lean on the standard adventure tropes such as finding obscure items and illogical puzzles. No, Telltale’s games are all about an intricate story, and the gameplay pushes it along to its inevitable episode ending cliffhanger.

Episode 1 for Tales From the Borderlands appeared in December and follows the stories of a con woman and a company man and their trails across the world of Pandora after the events of Borderlands 2. Episode 2 is coming next week, and Telltale has released a new trailer for it today. The second episode is titled Atlas Mugged, which should make you want to download this game even more.

Check out the trailer after the break, but beware of spoilers from Chapter 1. That said, after watching this, I really can’t wait for all 5 episodes to release so I can get my hands on it.

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Deathwing and a prayer: Blackrock Mountain expansion coming to Hearthstone

So, this is why dragons were a type.

Let’s get the bad Hearthstone news out of the way first: Hearthstone is still coming to iPhone and Android phones, but not for “a couple months”. Now, we’re talking about Blizzard here, so when they say “a couple months” that’s actually much better than their usual “when it’s done”. So, even the bad news today isn’t so bad.

The good news, however, is pretty fantastic. Blackrock Mountain is the latest expansion for Hearthstone and it’s coming in April. Similar to last summer’s Curse of Naxxramas, this expansion will focus on PvE content and feature 5 wings that are released one per week. Each wing will cost 700 gold or $7, but that price can be reduced if you buy the expansion as a bundle instead of wing by wing. Also similar to Naxxramas, this expansion will include class challenges for each class and will feature a Heroic mode with super tough bosses once the regular bosses are defeated. At the end of finishing all 5 wings, you’ll have 31 new cards added to your deck.

While the expansion is launching in April, you can preorder it starting on March 19 which will get you a special card back.

Check out the trailer after the break.

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Out Tonight: Vietnam ’65, Pixel Heroes, Twilight’s Last Gleaming and more…

Remember when Owen compared the graphics to mini-golf? That was a long time ago.

Vietnam ’65 has the distinction of being the App Store’s version of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, with the difference being that Vietnam ’65 is releasing today whereas Terry Gilliam’s pet project isn’t scheduled to release until next year. Since last summer, Vietnam ’65 has been submitted to the App Store with a scheduled release date, and then pulled before its release while a new publisher was sought. Eventually, Slitherine took the reins, updated the graphics and, finally, tonight we’ll see the fruit of their labor.

Vietnam ’65 is a different kind of war game, one in which you need to control not only the strategic aspects of fighting a war, but also the political aspects and trying to keep the locals on your side. It looks pretty nice, too. Vietnam ’65 will be for iPad, but I can’t find a link so I’m not sure of a price. Guess we’ll find out tonight.

More of what we can expect on tonight’s App Store after the break.

Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic has one of the greatest trailers ever. Or it might be one of the worst. I don’t know, but I can’t stop watching it. That said, actual information about the game is pretty light. Who cares, though. I’m going to go watch it again.

Egad, that was fun. Anyway, back to Pixel Heroes. This is a rogue like RPG in which you build a party of characters from over 30 different classes. When a character dies, however, they’re gone for good. Sounds a bit like an 8-bit version of Darkest Dungeon, with a sense of humor and without the over-the-top narration. It’s been available on Steam for awhile now, with good reviews, so this is one that will definitely be getting picked up. It will be available for iOS Universal and should run somewhere in the $5-$7 range (it’s $9 NZD).

Twilight’s Last Gleaming is the digital port of Decision Games board game of the same name. TLG puts you in the shoes of the Americans or British during the pivotal battles of the War of 1812. There are 5 tutorial missions and 10 regular missions which you can play as either side. The game offers a ton of different troop classes from infantry to British rocket units. Give the trailer a watch; there’s something about the look of this game that intrigues me. Everything is sharp and crisp and it just looks better than most of the hex war games I’ve seen. Then again, it could just be me. I’m on my 2nd pot of coffee. Since lunch.

Twilight’s Last Gleaming is coming out for iPad and costs $10.

RAD Boarding isn’t normally the kind of game we would talk about here at Pocket Tactics; it looks to be an endless runner in the same vein as Tiny Wings. That said, watch this trailer. Sure, the game might not be our cuppa tea, but can you resist that shredding guitar? Did I mention the giant bear? Seriously, give the trailer a look and then try to not download RAD Boarding at midnight. It appears to be both free and radical, so why not?

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