The initial buildup for One Night in Karazhan was mixed; on the one hand, players were excited to receive some new cards and freshen up the meta. On the other hand, the cards that were revealed before the launch… well, they turned out to be unusual or straight out bad (we’re looking at you, Purify).
ios
Review: Card City Nights
If you’re like me, you’re probably tired of all of the free-to-play digital CCGs out there today; they’re often similar and almost indistinguishable from the others, and when they’re not those, they’re completely broken. It’s rare to find a CCG that’s unique and fun anymore. Besides that, it’s often frustrating going against other players online because everyone else is better than you.
Enter Card City Nights.
Stack
This is part of the #FreeGameFriday series, where we find free games for you to play every Friday.
I was on the Google Play store late one night, browsing and seeing what the latest games are. I had seen Stack on the list a couple of times recently, so I decided to download it and give it a go.
Reaction: Hearthstone: One Night in Karazhan!
Late Thursday night, Blizzard announced their next upcoming Adventure, One Night in Karazhan. It’s a four-wing adventure that takes place during a party over the course of one night in the magical tower of Karazhan.
Lyne
Oftentimes, it’s nice to have a simple, casual game to play with the other ones. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing huge games, especially large, open-world RPGs. But there are times when I simply can’t play those because I’m away from my computer or I don’t have a lot of time. I keep a handful of games on my phone for those moments.
Lyne is one of those games.
Pulse
I got this one back in one of the Humble Bundles from forever ago. I’ve played it a little bit in the past, but since getting my new phone, I got to play it all the way through recently.
Pulse is a rhythm game where you tap dots in time with music. The dots spin around circles that take up most of the game viewport, with each circle representing a beat in the song. There are twenty-six songs in total, split into five sections that are four to six songs long.
Essentially, it’s a kind of like a mobile Guitar Hero with electronic music.
Let’s start with the pros:
The game is simple and pleasant to look at. The colors that appear in the menus and the game board are bright, and there are decent particle effects for successful note taps that fit with the theme of the song. On top of that, the soundtrack is fantastic (albeit short), with some appearances by familiar artists such as Jim Guthrie and A_Rival.
And… that’s pretty much where the pros stop.
The gameplay, while simple, is far from satisfying. Difficulty in the songs ranges from “so easy I could take a nap” to “OMGOSH WHAT THE CRAP”. Right in the middle of the song. On top of that, some note taps required two or three fingers to successfully hit, which was difficult on my phone. The game is available for tablet devices, though, so maybe my experience would have been a little bit better on one of those?
On top of this, the game gave me no sense of satisfaction throughout my play time. All of the songs come unlocked out of the box, so you could theoretically start from the last song and work your way backwards if you want. On top of that, the game doesn’t give any penalties if you “fail” a level. Even then, the threshold for “completing” a level in this game is often so low, you most likely won’t ever fail a level. Here’s an example from my gameplay:
The 67% is my score on the level. The 15% is the threshold for “passing” the level, though that is the only real indication that you’ve passed or failed the level. There is no “you failed!” screen, no disappointing sound effects. Nothing. Conversely, there’s also no real acknowledgement of your achievements aside from the “New Record!” notice on the ending screen for each song. The game doesn’t even acknowledge when you’ve finished every level; no “Congratulations!” screen or notice. Nothing.
Essentially, the game started off as a good idea, but never progressed beyond that. The concept could have been expanded on… a lot. So, unfortunately, I’m going to have to recommend that you don’t buy this game. I wouldn’t even recommend getting the soundtrack; the songs are as short as they are in the game, and they aren’t quite as enjoyable without the gameplay element missing. Also, the songs by Jim Guthrie, A_Rival, and the other guest artists don’t appear on the soundtrack, which is a disappointment.
Go buy Monument Valley instead.
Price: $3-$4
Platforms: Android, iOS
Why Pokémon GO is Awesome
I know, I know. You’re probably about done seeing posts about Pokémon GO, between seeing news about it, and Facebook friends playing it to the point of obsession, and the whole team rivalry, and everything else that’s attached to it.
Please hear me out, though.
Monument Valley: Forgotten Shores DLC
This is a beautiful follow-up expansion to the base game, Monument Valley (which I reviewed earlier this week).
Monument Valley
I was searching the Amazon Underground store when I found this little game called Monument Valley. I had seen it mentioned on the internet before, but never looked into it. I figured this would be my chance to try it.
First Impressions: Pokemon GO
As I’m sure you heard, Pokemon GO released last week. While everyone else is out catching virtual creatures and writing how-tos and reviews, we thought we’d put our two cents in. Here’s what a couple of us think:
Screenshot by Court Fongheiser
Gerty: After a few days of playing Pokemon GO I honestly have just a few things to say on it.
The first thing being that the servers are absolutely dreadful, about 90% of the time I couldn’t even really manage to do anything with the game because the servers where in a constant state of just being down all together.
The game also is not without it’s bugs, on multiple occasions while i played if i came across a Spearow and tried to capture it, during the capture animation the game would consistently bug out and Freeze on me. On top of that I know a few friends who have had issues because their phones are a year old, one issue being that the Pokemon wouldn’t even appear after the encounter, and not being able to even select one to encounter.
All that being said the game itself is very simple, and easy to understand after a little bit of playing it, while I wish there was just a tiny bit more customization for your trainers, I personally have been having a fairly good time going off on walks and seeing what I can find.
Screenshot by Josh F.
Josh: I’m surprised at how fun it is. Sure, veterans of the series might find some of the changes to the standard Pokemon formula to be a little dizzying, but honestly, those changes are for the better. The game encourages exploration and socialization, something that society is severely lacking nowadays. While walking around town and exploring other areas, I found items/buildings that I had no idea existed. And, yeah, I caught quite a few just in my living room, but I had the most fun when I went out exploring (and saw other people doing exactly what I was doing!).
It’s not perfect, but I hope with a few updates (trades between other trainers?), it’ll be a game that lasts a long time.
Gamer's Elegy 