TallGuyCalif's Computer Gaming and Entertainment Site

Tag: iPad

  • Enjoying iPad game Acheron Prime

    In addition to playing LOTRO and STO, I’ve been playing a fun iPad space RPG called Acheron Prime.

    Like Egosoft’s X* games, it’s clear that this game was not created by native English speakers, as the voice acting and spelling are terrible, but, as with the X* games, it doesn’t take much away from the game. (For the two of you who aren’t familiar with regular expressions, X* means games like X2, X3, XTension, etc.)

    In Acheron Prime, you play a space pilot flying in a 3rd person view from just above and behind your ship. In the game, you must fight pirates and mercenaries, mine asteroids (actually, mineral or gas pockets), and trade so you can buy bigger and better ships and equipment. You equip your ship with weapons that do various types of damage, sensors, mining lasers, missiles, salvage or repair drones, exploration drones, and armor plate, in order to handle bigger threats. Then you explore the solar system in order to figure out why you have no memory and what you were trying to do when you were attacked, causing your memory loss.

    The game is pretty, as the image below shows, and it has surprising depth, both in the plot and the side-quests that make you explore and fight.

    IMG_0142

    The controls are very good, and, in my opinion, much better than Galaxy On Fire 2, which had controls that made it hard to hit anything. Here, the stick on the left side controls your ship’s turn, while the large thrust button controls whether you move or stop (yes, there are only those two options). The A, B, and C buttons control weapons or other equipment in your ship. Up to 5 buttons can be enabled, and each has context sensitive rules which allow you to, for example, not fire a missile if the enemy is too close or is very damaged. These rules are pretty flexible, and you can define ones that suit your needs. I use A for most weapons, B for mining, and C for missiles.

    There are a few bugs and issues. The biggest issue/bug is that finger registration is poor in the lists for buying and selling stuff. It is very hard to select the right item. An annoying issue is that the game only saves when you dock at a space station, so if you push the home button to check your mail and the app gets purged from memory, then you lose your progress unless you just docked. That should be fixed in any game for a mobile platform. It is crazy to assume we can always spend the time to get back to the space station to save.

    All in all, it’s a terrific game, and I’m only part way through. I have no idea how far along I am, but I’m level 39 (lower center of the picture) and I’ve seen people in forums that are in the high 60s! So there is a lot of game here, making it a good deal if you like space games. If you like Galaxy on Fire, try this one. Killing targets is actually possible here, though they aren’t always pushovers. I’ve died a few times. Even my battlecruiser has had its shields knocked down before I destroyed the pirates attacking me.

  • Eclectic Game Playing Recently (Pocket Legends, LOTRO, Star Trek Online, and Planetside 2)

    In this case, by Eclectic, I mean random, crazy, no theme or consistency…

    I’ve been very busy recently with work and personal projects, so I haven’t had a lot of time to play games, and when I have had time, it has been in small increments. The exception to this was Fable III, which I wrote about previously. But other gaming times, I needed something comfortable that I could jump into an out of quickly.

    Pocket Legends is perfect for that. I could jump on with the iPad, play for a bit, and jump out. The gameplay hasn’t changed too much since I was on many months ago, but everything seems a little better, with the guilds and the crafting and other features that have been improved. This time, I created a mage character, rather than my old warrior. Mages have the advantage that they can heal themselves and their party members, which is great. While they’re not as tough as warriors and perhaps can’t deal as much damage, they still do pretty well and the ranged attacks help keep them out of trouble a bit. Mages can also do AOE attacks that damage enemies around them and also party buffs and enemy debuffs. I’ll write more about my Pocket Legends experiences at a later date.

    I’ve been given leadership of my Lord of the Rings Online kinship, Thirst for Power, and have created a website to try to build community in the kinship. Unfortunately, there aren’t many players participating these days, so we need to figure out how to revitalize the kinship. I finally took my highest level character, Tallborn, into Rohan, and the changes I’ve seen so far are big steps up. More in another post.

    Sadly, I inherited the leadership of my Star Trek Online fleet, as well. Since I seems to be the only one who signs in, I don’t know how much effort I will put into rebuilding it, but I probably won’t disband it any time soon. At least there are no upkeep fees, unlike in LOTRO where you need to remember to keep paying rent on the kin house (and your personal house).

    I also started playing Planetside 2, a new MMOFPS (Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter). It is fun, because you can play one of 5 or 6 classes, like medic, engineer, scout, etc., and can drop in and out at will, so no long-term commitments, unlike raids in LOTRO or other MMORPGs, which can last for hours and hours. It is a persistent world where 3 factions compete to capture regions and gain the advantage. The sides are well matched, so there is no innate advantage between them. Planetside 2 is annoying, because you will die a lot. Many higher level players have way better gear than you and they will use it to kill you. Often. Over and over again. Also, figuring out who your enemy is can be tough. I have been playing as one of the purple uniform guys, and sometimes it takes a bit to figure out if they guy in front of you is purple or blue, at which point, you die because you took too long. Annoying, though I presume it will get better with practice. I haven’t been back to Planetside 2 for a few days, because it seemed so futile, but I will almost surely go back. Unless Hawken is as good as it looks…

  • Great iPad games on sale! Civ Rev and Pirates

    I just noticed that a couple of very fun iPad games are on sale for $1 so check them out in the iTunes store! I don’t know how long the sale lasts, so check that the price hasn’t gone back up.

    First is Civ Rev, an iPad version of Civilization Revolution that was released for consoles. It is a simplified version of Civilization, but maintains the elements of exploration, managing cities and resources (though tends to be more forgiving that Civilization games normally are), research for new technologies, and, of course, conquering your rivals. I had foot surgery last weekend and had to keep my foot elevated, so I couldn’t play PC games. I enjoyed a couple of games of Civ Rev – it’s a fun and engaging game that is well worth getting!

    The other game of interest is Sid Meier’s Pirates. I first played this game on PC years ago, and it was fun, but then I got it for PSP and was totally enthralled. I haven’t played the iPad version, but if it is even close to the PSP one, it is great. This is a pirate game, full of ship battles, exploration, land skirmishes, treasure hunting, diplomacy, and dancing. Yes, I said dancing. There is a nifty dancing mini-game in which you must impress the Governors’ daughters in order to gain favor and eventually find one or two to marry! It sounds corny, but it’s quite a challenge towards the end of the game, and pretty fun. The game is clever and fun, so check it out!

  • iPad/iPhone Best App voting

    A website called BestAppEver is having votes for the best iOS app in many categories.

    If you have some favorite apps, cast your vote at:
    http://bestappever.com/vote/

    I have cast my votes for outstanding games, such as the amazing Pocket Legends and the delightful Pocket Frogs! If you’re not playing those two, give them a look!

  • Too many games!

    Gosh, it’s a real problem that I have too many games to play and not enough time. Lord of the Rings Online had a recent update that fixed Lore Masters a bit and made positive changes to crafting. I’m really enjoying LOTRO!

    But now, Star Trek Online has put out the Season 3 update, so I need to check that out, perhaps with a new character, as they too claim to have improved crafting, among other things.

    I haven’t even had time to get back to Alan Wake for a week now, let alone Pocket Legends, Pocket Frogs, Dragon Age DLC, and all the other games that appeal to me. And I haven’t turned on either PS3 in over a month! Well, perhaps I’ll get some time over the holidays!

  • On “Freemium” Games

    I’ve been playing a lot of “freemium” games lately and have had some thoughts on them. A freemium game is free to play, but builds in mechanisms for the user to pay real money for premium features or goodies. Some of my favorite freemium games include Pocket Legends, Lord of the Rings Online, Pocket Frogs, and ElementZ HD.  In all these cases, the game is free to download and play and you don’t have to put any money in to have fun. There are other games that are very money grubbing and annoying about needing money to play well. Examples of that include GodFinger for iPhone and pretty much all the “farm” and “kingdom” games on iPhone and iPad. In these money-grubbing games, the grind would be made easier if you just had more mojo or power or whatever valuable stuff, and the game maker would be happy to sell you some. In most cases, you can earn mojo or power or gold, but at a pretty lousy rate. I’ll discuss premium features of the games I like in turn below.

    Some games, like Pocket Frogs, are freemium, but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment one bit. In Pocket Frogs, the consumables are coins, stamps, and potions, each of which can be bought in the store for real money. The good news is that if you play the game “right,” meaning you play to earn experience to rise in level, you spend a bit of time out in the pond with your frogs gaining experience. In the pond, you occasionally come across gifts, most of which are a few coins, a stamp or two, some potions, or another frog. Sometimes, however, you hit a red gift that has 300 coins or a new habitat (usually worth a lot. Never buy habitats — you’ll get all you can use in the pond.). So if you have a modicum of patience and like taming the frogs in the pond, which I do because it is relaxing, then you can play the game without ever putting in a penny. While I really like this model and this game, it may not be making too much money for the game devs.

    In ElementZ HD, the commodity is “coins.” Certain special buttons that can provide significant advantage cost some number of coins to use, and while coins are occasionally won during the game, the total quickly dwindles if you use those power-ups. Since my wife and I play ElementZ HD for fun rather than trying to always beat the high scores (which we’ll never do), we have lots of coins and never use the power-ups, so again, not the best business model, but a fun game.

    Lord of the Rings Online, however, might have a viable business model. You can have fun without paying a penny, but if you put a little bit of money in, the game will be a lot better. Things you can buy from the LOTRO store include quest packs, more inventory, horse riding skills (and horses), small character upgrades, and potions and such. Some of the items, such as the quest packs, are unlocked for all characters in an account, while specific upgrades are linked to a particular character. The store also has occasional sales, so wait for them to buy things like quest packs, which you will get to later, but probably don’t need just now. I have bought the riding skill, inventory bags, quest packs, and perhaps one minor trait upgrade. You can buy horses in game for 500 gold, once you have the riding skill, but that took me a long time to get as a newbie character (but I did it). The truly lazy can buy horses in the store for somewhere around $8-10. The game awards Turbine Points (the LOTRO store currency) for certain deeds, but it does so at a slow enough rate that plonking down $20 will allow you to have more fun and less frustration (particularly with inventory – buy the bags).

    Since Pocket Legends is an MMORPG on the iPad (and iPhone), it too is made more fun with premium features. The items available for “platinum,” the store’s currency, include weapons and armor, outfits, potions, and quest packs. I bought some armor and a good weapon in the store for just a few platinum (less than 5 total, I think, so less than a dollar’s worth) and it made the game a lot more fun. I played with two others few some levels last night and it was terrific. I was a level 7 warrior, and my compatriots were a level 9 magic user and a level 5 archer, which was a great combination. While I tanked, the magic user healed us and blasted enemies and the archer did ranged damage. With my new armor, I was able to handle more punishment from the zombie hoards and my new weapon kicked butt! I haven’t bought quest packs yet, since I’m just getting started, but will do so soon. I don’t yet know if quest packs are account-wide or character specific, but I assume the weapons and armor from the store are character specific.

    So the bottom line is that putting some money into premium features makes good sense for the freemium MMORPGs, but perhaps less sense for more casual games. In any case, the amount of money needed is fairly small to make noticeable enhancements to the MMORPG games. With each of these 4 games, the feeling that you need to pay money to play is not prevalent and obtrusive, as it is in some other freemium games that I don’t want to play for that reason even if they were fun.

  • Free MMORPGs for all!

    I’ve been enjoying two free-to-play MMORPGs a lot recently. Lord of the Rings Online is a terrific MMORPG for the PC with good combat, skills, and even crafting. I’ve been working on my prospector and jeweler crafting in order to be able to make good stuff for my kinship. I joined a pretty terrific kinship that supports each other and helps those of us that get stuck sometimes. One member loaded me up with good armor and a staff that was way better than what I had collected. I went on a fellowship quest into the Great Barrow with several of my kin yesterday. It’s a good thing. Join LOTRO and find a good kinship.

    I’ve also written about Pocket Legends a bit. It’s an iPad (and iPhone) MMORPG that is easy to pick up and quick to get into the quests and find a group to play with (okay, it’s pretty much automatic, if you let it choose for you). It’s pretty darn cool to play with people from all over the country or world while just tapping away on the iPad. Very nifty!

    Now I see that Champions Online is going to go free-to-play. I’ve heard very good things about CO, but I think I will hold off, since I’ve already got way too many games and not enough time.

    Finally, I’m enjoying Star Trek Online’s weekly episodes. They have some pretty tough ground battles against interesting opponents. I know STO isn’t free, but I already paid for the lifetime membership, so it seems that way to me. It is still a bit annoying with the Cryptic Store where they want you to buy ships and more, but the hustling for money isn’t quite as acute as in Pocket Legends or LOTRO. I did put some money into LOTRO to buy some quest packs and some inventory space, so I’ll have to see if I continue to enjoy Pocket Legends before I put much money into it.

    By the way, I saw a tweet that said the closed beta for the Android version of Pocket Legends has started, so it will be available to even non-Apple folks. Of course the lack of consistency in the hardware (resolution, speed, etc.) may make the UI more challenging, but I’m glad they’re making the effort.

  • More Pocket Legends

    Though I have managed to fix my gaming PC’s power supply, I’ve been playing a bit more Pocket Legends, the iPad and iPhone MMORPG, because it is fun. I’m also posting some pictures so you can see how good it looks on the iPad screen (though for some reason, the less-than-helpful WordPress iPad app resized the images to 640×480 when I selected the “Large” size – apparently they’re still living in 1987 when 640×480 was respectable, though not good).

    In the first picture, I’m in my zombie costume having talked to Halloween Hal and being told I need a costume to participate in the Halloween activities. Isn’t the zombie costume a costume? Apparently not, as old Hal wants me to buy a costume in the store for 5 platinum, which is tough, since I don’t have any platinum pieces and not too many gold either. So that’s a bummer.

    So I gave up on Halloween and went back to my quests, which are more fun anyway. The great thing about Pocket Legends is that it is very easy to get to your quests. In the quest description, there’s a button to take you there. So I zapped back to the dungeon to find some things and kill a particularly nasty zombie. As you can see from the image below, there were 3 other players there, and we all worked together to beat the quests. It was somewhat hard, because the tough zombie was really difficult and wiped us all out once or twice, but we finished the quest and got through.

    Playing with a group is good, and this was a good group (you can see from the chat in the image below that one of my compatriots thought so as well). We had a couple fighters, an archer, and a magic user, which is a great mix. Having a magic user is key, because they can do group heals, which is essential with the fast zombies. You can see my health is low, so I needed the healing help.

    Pocket Legends is good fun and well worth a look on both iPad and iPhone. I’m thinking of trying a magic user character next time…

  • Pocket Legends

    Because my main gaming PC is still down for the count because of power supply problems, I started playing Pocket Legends on the iPad. This is a pretty interesting MMORPG that looks very good on iPad (and is playable on iPhone too). The user interface is very simple, with a tap to designate a target, a tap to commence attack, and other tap buttons to for special powers or attacks. Swiping sideways rotates the camera view (I would like to be able to reverse the direction, as it seems a bit unintuitive the way it is, but there doesn’t seems to be an option).

    I started as a warrior, which is usually the safe way to go. I had armor, a sword, and shield to start. After a few cakewalk solo training missions, the game puts you in a town where other players gather. Once you get a quest, you can transport to the start of the quest. The first quest started off really easy, but the difficulty level got brutal, as some very tough and fast zombies appeared. Luckily, other players are around to help thin the enemy, but they are all at different stages of the mission, so may have different goals, so player groups tend not to be coordinated. A few levels in, even though I had better gear, I was regularly being wiped by zombie hoards. I stopped there, so I don’t know if it gets better. I do know that I saw magic users doing huge damage and healing, so perhaps that would be a better way to go. I will have to revisit it.

    In short, if you are interested in an easy-to-pick-up MMORPG that looks good on iPad (and iPhone), try Pocket Legends. It’s free and really nifty.

    As an update, I just checked out PL on the iPhone. The same character is accessible there, since it’s in the cloud. Since the screen is so much smaller, navigation is done by a virtual joystick, but otherwise, chat and actions are available. Kinda cool, but I think I’ll stick to the iPad version and its larger screen size.

  • ElementZ HD iPad game

    Elementz is a fun iPad match the objects game. I got it for free, but I don’t know if it is still free. As with all of these games, match 3 objects in a row and they disappear. When these balls disappear, they make a particularly satisfying crashing noise and have a nice falling away animation, a frame of which is shown below.

    This one is special, because if you match 4 balls in a row, one remains, but is powered up. If you can match the powered up one, you get a special elemental burst that takes out a lot of nearby balls. The “elementZ” are fire, water, wind, electricity, earth (yes, a clod of dirt is this elemental burst), and plants. You can see a frame from a flower burst below and a fire burst below that. The music is pleasant and relaxing. Overall, a fun, easy, and compelling game. In fact, the worst thing I can say about it is that I hate the stupid name with the “Z” at the end.