Trevor

Oceanhorn gets its first sale, $4.99 now. Closest we'll get to Zelda if all the perfect score reviews are true.

Supermallet

Anyone playing Marvel Contest of Champions? It's a fighting game that seems a little more balanced than Marvel Puzzle Quest has been.

davidh777

I did finally get the Kingdom Rush freebie after about a dozen tries. It kept feeding me the same codes, and I punched in anything that looked new. I went ahead and got the ipad version while I was at it, and that was a little quicker. Thanks again for posting the deal.

Shagrath

I've been playing for the past couple days. Seems like a nice little diversion, and seems fairly balanced at least so far.

I'm sure as time goes on, it will hit that paywall, but for the time being, you can have fun and make good progress without putting in any funds.

Gooter

It's pretty good, having fun so far. Especially since I'm burned out on MPQ. At least I still get to mess with super heroes.

I have no idea which heroes to level up though. I only have 1*'s right now. Wolverine, Spidey, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther

Trevor

Lots of good freebies today. I had about ten to mention but forget all but Kingdom Rush, so maybe just fire up Appshopper or Touch Arcade if you're an iOS gamer.

davidh777

Not sure what you had in mind, but I found this list and all appear to be free.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2015/01/s...-australia-day

fujishig

I've been playing Marvel Contest of Champions for a week or so. I think I'm almost out.

The fighting game itself, as probably can be expected from a mobile game, gets old fast.
It's all dependent on luck drawing a 3* or 4* (and truth be told, I haven't drawn one yet, though I did buy the 3* Deadpool). Once you have that, you can grind for experience, but until then, you're stuck.

The weekly events are a complete grind. They tempt you with a 3*/4*, but you need to have a lot of characters, then play a ton to rank. So basically the only way to get the 3* reward is to have all the 2*s, then fight matches in groups of three until you run out of characters, wait for the refresh, then repeat. If you don't have a lot of characters, I don't think you'll get a high enough rank.

In these events, you often get a bonus for a win streak. What happens, though, is that they make the matches progressively harder and harder, and you can only see one opponent when you're choosing a team to compete against. So eventually you're going to lose, and it doesn't matter how much you've ranked up your character, because the match up will always take your level into consideration. Leveling seems like it's only for the "PvE" section of the game, where the levels are static.

I hate the third level specials. They seem like automatic hits; not even something like Injustice where you have to be close to the other character or whatever, it doesn't matter where you are or if you're blocking, you're going to sit through the animation and take a chunk off your life.

You can't really give this game to your kids because of the insipid live chat that's always happening. Ugh.

It's still early enough in the game, and I did spend money on it so i'll play more, but anyone have differing opinions?

Gooter

No, that's pretty much spot on.... my biggest gripes = fighting mechanics get old, fast and PvP is a mucho grind fest. I tried for one event to place as high as I could. I'd play almost as fast as my guys would heal. I placed around 35,000th. Never again. I sunk around $10 into this game too.

Supermallet

I agree with the criticisms. I actually managed to get six three star characters within a few weeks, but it started to feel like a chore grinding through all the PvP. And eventually I had such a big roster that it took me over an hour to get through a full set of PvP matches.

All of that, plus the fact that running it on my 6 Plus caused the phone to heat up significantly, and all sorts of freezes that would cause me to restart and lose matches I was winning, convinced me to delete it.

I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it.

HN

Duet Game is currently free; normally $2.99. Great game!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duet...634235735?mt=8

davidh777

Yeah, the link I posted above includes the following. I was on my phone at the time so I didn't type everything out.

Framed
Fruit Ninja
Train Conductor
Duet
Time Surfer
Bonza Word Puzzle
Earn to Die 2
True Skate
Little Moments
Quick Math Jr.
The Whole Pantry

mhg83

Anyone on here play Trivia Crack? I like it a lot. Been playing a few weeks now. But now I'm close to deleting the app. incoming rant;

I was playing earlier today when It was my first turn. I'm on a winning streak. Obtained 3 characters I was doing great. I then get a message "You cannot win more than three characters on your first turn. The other player will have a turn." WTF?! So the game punishes me for doing good??? That's bullshit!

davidh777

Yeah, I think I lost my first game and have won every one since. I did get that same message once, but I don't really have a problem with letting my opponent take a turn. Looking at it from the other side, where's the fun in someone starting a game with you then wiping you out before you even get to play?

xmiyux

I'm a QuizUp fan.

Mythology is my favorite category.

Trevor

I played Trivia Crack for a day or three, realized it was going to become like real crack, and deleted it.

But I have a new addiction now. Heroes of Might and Magic III is now on iOS. It's nearly perfect. I've probably played more HOMM in my life than I've slept, the ultimate 'one more turn' game.

taffer

The Civilization series is the ultimate "one more turn" game, but I do agree that Heroes of Might and Magic is a very close second runner up.

I have heard that the HoMMIII HD remaster on iOS doesn't include the expansion packs however. They will probably get included later as DLC or in-app purchases.

Trevor

Apparently the expansion source code was lost back in the New World bankruptcy or whatever it was days. It could be reverse engineered but that would be super pricey. I don't know, some online people are saying its a lie/conspiracy and they will magically find it and sell us DLC if they make money on this port. But some are saying the excuse sounds legit.

And yes, it sort of sucks to not have the fantastic expansions, but it comes with ~80 maps so it's a great value imho.

Some people are rating it poorly because they're stupid and don't look at the built-in tutorial that explains the move/attack controls. They're not perfect, but very easy and intuitive after a bit of practice. Given that the PC version had different features for left click, right click, and mouseover; I think they've done a great job on the new touchscreen controls.

Michael Corvin

Trivia Crack was good for a week or so. It's similar to Draw Something in that you hit it so hard that you're burnt out in two weeks.

fujishig

Baldur's Gate Enhanced is on sale. I've heard some bad things about the controls, but anyone have it?

taffer

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are the best RPGs of all time. I replay them often. I have no idea how they would work on a tablet though. They are definitely designed for mouse + keyboard controls.

edstein

I have BG for iPad and it's just not meant to be played on tablets. I'd say skip it.

Trevor

Lots of highly rated new freebies.

Frozen Synapse iPhone and iPad versions
Gunship X
Duet Game
Sentinel 4 - newest in a popular tower defense series
Abyss: The Wraths of Eden - hidden object game

fujishig

Ok, Marvel's Clash of Champions now has alliances. They also made it so that there's at least a guaranteed 3* (and a 2*) when you finish each PvE story. Any interest in an alliance here? The main draw I think is sending help to your alliance partners and earning "loyalty" points that allow you to buy a new kind of crystal. Yes that sounds insane to anyone not playing the game.

Groucho

You might try starting a thread over in Video Game Talk. There's still a good group playing Marvel Puzzle Quest.