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'Gwent: The Witcher Card Game' finally arrives on Android
At long last, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game has made its way to Android after it debuted on iOS back in October. The Android release arrived almost a year to the day after CD Projekt Red announced it was working on smartphone versions of the free-to-play title.
The massive 'Gwent' overhaul comes home October 23rd
Netflix casting its Geralt for the upcoming show based on The Witcher isn't the only reason fans of the fantasy franchise have to be excited. Developer CD Projekt Red has announced a release date for spin-off digital card-game, Gwent: October 23rd on the DRM-free GOG store. Come the end of next month, the game will finally exit beta (after debuting in June 2016) and when it does, it'll arrive with its revamped single-player campaign, "Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales." The developer has said this narrative will have stronger ties to the Witcher universe than the previous single-player mode.
Valve's pay-to-play 'Dota' card game will be released November 28th
Valve's next title Artifact, a trading-card game, will be released November 28th. Digital trading card games like Gwent from Witcher developer CDProjekt Red and Hearthstone from Blizzard have been doing surprisingly well lately. That's probably somewhat because they're free to play. Artifact, based on Valve's free-to-play MOBA, Dota 2 will not be. Instead, a pair of 54-card starter decks and ten 12-card booster packs will set you back $20, according to Ars Technica.
PlayTable combines blockchain and board games for peak nerdery
Whether they're taking over a section of your local Target or dominating the list of Kickstarter's highest grossing projects, board games are booming right now. And, while traditional board games still have their place, plenty of companies are trying their hands at augmenting tabletop play with websites and apps, or building products that incorporate physical pieces into video games. Blok.Party's PlayTable takes all of that a step further by building a giant tablet to serve as the game board and letting users create their own RFID-enabled pieces that incorporate blockchain tech for a truly personalized gaming experience.
Valve reveals 'Artifact,' the official 'Dota' card game
Tonight, during Valve's "The International" Dota 2 esports tournament the company announced it's making a spinoff card game associated with its popular MOBA. Other than its name, Artifact, a brief teaser trailer and a release window of 2018, we didn't get any details, but Dota fans have been dreaming up Hearthstone-like card game iterations for years, so it should be well-received by the community when it drops. Former Double Fine developer Brad Muir (Iron Brigade, Massive Chalice) revealed he's been working on the project "for a while now" but that's all we know.
Harmonix and Hasbro's new card game mashes up hit music
The heyday of music games may have passed, but that hasn't stopped Harmonix from experimenting with new ways for you to experience your favorite tunes. Sure, there's a new Rock Band coming to VR, but for those who prefer something a bit more old school, the company's developing a new card game with toy company Hasbro. Dropmix is a music-mixing game about outscoring your opponent, building an awesome song collection and creating the dopest beats.
Sony's Project Field brings card games to life
From Skylanders to Amiibo, "Toys to life" have been a pretty lucrative way for video game companies to make money. Sony has been more-or-less absent from the field, but today it's announcing something not too dissimilar: Project Field.
'Hearthstone' update brings drastic changes to the card game
Hearthstone is undergoing some changes in the interest of keeping the digital-trading-card game fresh. But in introducing the "Whispers of the Old Gods" -- expansion out on the 26th -- developer Blizzard is tweaking a bunch of cards and, based on the 5,000-plus comment Reddit thread, this isn't exactly for the better. Fan favorite cards like Molten Giant have gotten a casting cost increase up to 25 from 20, while the Knife Juggler card has had its attack decreased by a point.
Popular card game 'Apples to Apples' takes its deck of laughs to iOS
Enjoy the hilarity of making silly comparisons in Mattel's Apples to Apples card game? Well, you can now play it on iOS devices too -- and not have to futz with a handful of cards. For the uninitiated, the game centers on players selecting the card from their hand that they think best describes the clue card played by the judge. The judge then selects the winner for the round. What's more, the role of judge rotates from player to player, so there's a bit of strategy involved. And yes, plenty of potential for inappropriate jokes. In addition to playing solo, you can challenge up to five friends in real time. There's also a selection of themed decks to choose from, covering topics like animals, dessert, geography and more. If you're looking to give it a shot, the game is available for iPad and iPhone via iTunes now.
Play: Blizzard's easy-going collectible card game, Hearthstone
Blizzard's best-known for its RTS franchises and insanely popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, not to mention the Diablo series. With fans of the publisher's prior work kept sated and docile by sequels and expansions, Blizzard's turned some of its attention to other genres, like the early stage MOBA Heroes of the Storm, and the card-based game we're talking about here: Hearthstone. Hear the words "card game," and it's hard not to think of the deep mechanics of Magic: The Gathering that may appear inhospitable to newcomers, like starting to watch LOST half-way through the third series. One of Hearthstone's main strengths, however, is accessibility.
Mojang's Scrolls launches in open beta today, $20 gets you access
Mojang's best known for the indie blockbuster Minecraft, but today heralds the launch of the open beta for its new game, Scrolls. It's been a long time coming, and the title itself was the focus of a courtroom squabble, as much as Notch would've liked to hash out the early roadblock in a rocket-filled arena. While it's admittedly not "feature complete," you can test your card-battling skills in casual and ranked online match-ups. The card trading forum is up and running, as is the in-game store for bolstering your deck using gold earned through triumph, and "shards" purchased with real dough. You can tweak your deck using the builder and 25 trials are available off the bat to school you in strategy. Access to the open beta will cost you $20, £13 or 15 euros, but really, you're buying the full game early, as all future updates will be free to beta adopters. The purchase page isn't live just yet, but it'll be available to download for PC and Mac at some point today. Hit the source link to brush up on the mechanics if you can't wait to attack the trials, or check out the trailer below for a quick fix.
Graeme Devine takes off with Rocket Patrol
Graeme Devine is a veteran game developer (he created The 7th Guest and then worked on Quake 3 and Halo Wars) who's turned his attention to iOS recently, putting together touch-based games meant for gamers of all ages. His latest title, which I got to see at GDC 2013 last week, is a board/card game called Rocket Patrol that runs on Apple's touchscreens. The game involves two players (you can play against the computer or asynchronously online), and has you running a rocket ship across the galaxy, trying to complete your journey before your opponent does. During each turn of the game, you get access to a hand of cards that you can play one from. Distance cards are how you win the game: Each player has a little chart of cards with various distances on them that you need to fill up, so you need to play eight cards of five light years, four of 15 and so on. As you play those cards, the chart fills up, and the first person to fill up their chart sends a rocket all the way across the screen and wins the game. Just racing would be a bit too simple, so Rocket Patrol also has red and green cards of various types. Red cards attack the other player (perhaps by sending them through a warp hole or causing some engine trouble), and then they need to play a green card to fix whatever problem you've given them. Certain green cards match up with certain red cards, so if there's a problem card on your ship, you need exactly the right green card to fix it. That's how the game goes back and forth, with the two players trying to play distance cards in between attacking each other and solving problems they've been attacked with. Devine says he got the idea for a game from an old 1906 automobile board game called Touring, but of course he's translated it to a journey across the stars. Rocket Patrol seems like some good clean fun -- and it's due out sometime this month. It'll be free to play, with some freemium elements in there for in-app purchase. Devine is also working on his very popular Full Deck Solitaire game -- he says the title "by and large is our number one platform," and that the game has reached a whopping 750,000 daily active users so far (with about four million downloads total). He's working on an Android version, thinking about bringing the game to Kindle Fire, and says players have asked for a PC version as well. Devine originally built that game just for his own family to play, so it's fascinating to hear that it's grown so big since its release a while ago.
SolForge preview gets an update, with new decks to play
SolForge is an interesting iOS card game that keeps getting even more intriguing. The game, which is being made by a company called StoneBlade Entertainment (formerly Gary Games, the gang behind the great Ascension), earned a nice chunk of change on Kickstarter a while ago, and then saw a free preview hit the App Store more recently. That free preview has now turned into what's essentially an open beta, however, as StoneBlade has added four starter decks of cards to the game. Those decks are available as an in-app purchase for US$4.99 each, but my guess is that they're really for the Kickstarter crowd. StoneBlade promised some free starter decks to supporters and I'm guessing these are those. But if you want to get in early on the game, they'll be more than happy to take your money. There are also some skins available for purchase, and there are even more features on the way, including the long-awaited deckbuilder and the ability to play in online tournaments. StoneBlade is really building this thing out piece by piece, and it's definitely becoming a more and more impressive venture. Even if you don't want to jump in on the starter decks, the core preview is still available for free.
Daily iPad App: Penny Arcade The Game: Gamers vs. Evil is simple but excellent deck-building action
Playdek is a developer that's caught my eye recently. They're the folks behind what I think are the best card games on the App Store, including the great Ascension (which Gary Games, now called StoneBlade Entertainment, actually designed but Playdek brought to iOS), as well as the excellent Nightfall and Summoner Wars. Their latest title is an adaptation of Cryptozoic's deck-building card game based on the Penny Arcade webcomic, and just like the other titles, it's a full-featured, well-made game that feels right at home on the iPad. The game is not the best deck-building game I've ever played. The process, if you've never seen it before, is that you spend some currency cards to buy other cards, which then add in to your deck and unlock various actions and extra currency for you every turn. It's essentially a board game, though you're moving cards around, and Playdek more or less just sticks to digital versions of the analog cards rather than adding a lot of extra digital fluff to the game. But this company is now so familiar with these types of games that the tutorial is great and all of the movement is very intuitive as you play. The added theme of Penny Arcade can be a little off-putting if you don't like the comic or its dark and often gross humor, but the core game itself is solid and fun. Just like all of Playdek's other games, there are multiple options for playing the game itself, and you can play with any number of AI players at various difficulties, or go online to play against other humans. I would like to see a few more cards in the mix, but just like the real-life card game, the proceedings are very expandable, and so you can expect to see some more packs added in the future, probably via in-app purchase. Even with just the included content (available for US$4.99 on the App Store), this is probably one of the most accessible games of this type out there. Try this to see what you think, and if you like it as much as I do, you can move on to a more complicated game like Nightfall, or the very impressive SolForge, set for a release later on this year.
A trio of trailers: Vectrex Regeneration, Baldur's Gate Enhanced and Poker Knight
Well, it happened -- Thanksgiving was last week, Cyber Monday is today and from here on out, we are neck deep in the holiday season. This time of year is particularly busy on the App Store, as various game developers try to get their best products out during the holiday rush, taking advantage of all of those game-hungry users with brand new iDevices. To that end, we've got not one, not two, but three great trailers for upcoming iOS games that we've been waiting for, all ready for you to watch below. Vectrex Regeneration is first -- this is not just a game, but a complete emulator for the old Vectrex video game console. The app includes more than a few old titles (available for in-app purchase, with likely a few freebies to get you interested), and will be out on the App Store later this week. Next up is a new trailer for that Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate that we've been expecting on iOS for a while now. As you can see in the video below, this game will be a very faithful (perhaps too faithful?) recreation of the old Baldur's Gate title, except of course that it'll be running on your iPad instead of a computer. Old-school fans will probably love this one, but we'll have to wait and see if it can grab a new audience later on this month. And finally, I haven't heard of Poker Knight until now, but it's piqued my interest big time with the trailer below. The idea looks like a poker game mixed with some fantasy RPG elements, and there's nothing I like better than a genre-crossing puzzle/RPG concoction like that. Poker Knight is due out some time this month as well, so we'll look for it soon. All three of these look great, and they're just a small sampling of what we're in for from the App Store this coming holiday season.
Daily iPhone App: Summoner Wars is a complicated mix of virtual board and card game
I took a trip down to Tampa Bay, Fla., for my sister's wedding last week, and before I headed for the airport, I loaded up my iPhone and iPad with a few new apps to check out on the way. Honestly, Fieldrunners 2 HD ended up taking most of my gaming time, but Summoner Wars was a very impressive choice as well. Summoner Wars is a complicated, intriguing game that combines tactical strategy, good old fashioned dice rolling and even some deckbuilding card game elements. You're fighting on a board pushing around cards as units. With each turn, you can either use your cards (as spells or actual heroes) in the battle, or save them as mana to summon more units on your next turn. There are plenty of deep strategical choices here that fans of complicated board games will find satisfying. Unfortunately, all of that complexity makes the game tricky to pick up. There is a tutorial, but even it only explains the mechanics of the game, and leaves you to figure out strategies completely on your own. But I appreciated that, especially on a long plane ride where I needed plenty of distraction from the crying baby behind me and the talkative gent across the aisle to my left. Summoner Wars is completely free-to-play, too, so if you want to check it out, you've got no excuses not to. If you like it, you can unlock everything in the game for US$7.99, or pick up individual card decks or card packs individually.
Magic 2013 brings (the Xbox version of) Magic to the iPad
The iPad is ideal for card games -- its size and wonderfully inviting touch screen makes it excellent for representing physical cards on a digital device. That's why, back when the iPad was first introduced, one of the most popular apps was a simple deck of cards, a virtual set of graphics that you could move and slide around the screen as needed. Traditional card games have always been well-represented on the iPad, and collectible card games really shine. As the iPad has matured, we've seen more and more virtual card games arrive, from Hothead's popular Kard Combat to enjoyable titles like Ascension and Shadow Era. For the longest time, however, Wizards of the Coast has declined to bring its monstrously popular collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering, to iOS. There have been popular versions of Magic on both PC (and even in the browser) and on game consoles, but up until this summer, there was no official way to play Magic on iOS. Fans had even released makeshift versions of the title on the App Store at times, all of them crushed by Wizards of the Coast's legal threats. Finally, about a month ago, we got what we'd been waiting for. Magic 2013 is an official version of Magic, the full game playable on the iPad's gorgeous screen, with all of the modern game rules and strategies (mostly) intact. But is this the version we've been waiting for, or is it yet another stopgap to let Wizards exploit the brand on iOS without actually pulling players away from its core physical card game? In short, this is the game you've been looking for if you're a Magic fan. It's as close as you'll get to playing real Magic almost anywhere, and it's plenty effective at imitating the real thing. The biggest drawback of Magic 2013 is that it's basically a port of the popular Duels of the Planeswalkers console series rather than an all-new iOS version, so all of the complaints about that series (that you can't truly build your own decks, and that most of the content is buried in a segmented campaign) are still mostly valid here. But otherwise, this is Magic, and all of the features that you'd hope to find in an official Magic game, including multiplayer online play, unlockable cards, Two-Headed Giant and custom game modes, and any other little extras, are all here for the taking. The base game is free and that is just a tester version. It offers just five levels, and doesn't include any of the larger features or card unlocks. A very reasonable US$9.99 unlocks everything else. While you can buy other cards or packs, the single $9.99 charge will get you most of the Magic you want: A full 30-match campaign, 10 decks to choose from and multiple opponents, including that online mode. There's no problem with content here at all. The digital game obviously isn't as flexible as the offline game (where you can put together your own strategies or play any number of custom rules), but given that Wizard definitely doesn't want to stop selling physical cards, all of the limits here are completely understandable. The biggest issue with Magic 2013 isn't in what it has, but in what it doesn't, and that's an iPad-specific interface. Again, the interface is lifted straight from the console version, which itself was originally designed to work with an Xbox 360 controller. As a result, Magic's digital cards just don't feel as real as they should. You do swipe cards up to play them, but tapping to attack simply moves them into position, and cards tap themselves rather than having you push them to the side. It's mostly an aesthetic argument, but still -- the iPad's screen is so well designed for tactile interaction that it's disappointing the developers didn't take more advantage of it. Wizards is probably leery of investing too much in a brand new version of the game, so hopefully later versions will have a more touchscreen-specific interface. The other issue with porting over from the console version is that games tend to run a little slow. The game moves through each phase with plenty of time for either opponent to jump in and cast spells or play cards, and all of that waiting seems less workable on the iPad's closeup screen. Again, this is the fault of the way the game was designed (and, to a lesser extent, the way Magic works in general), but I can't help but think that if the game was remade completely for the iPad, it would run just a little smoother than it currently does. Once you figure why everything moves as slowly as it does, however (and you'll have no problem doing that if you're an expert Magic player already), there's not a lot of other issues. The cards are clear, colorful and easy to read, and matches work just as they do in real life. The game's graphics are actually a little flashy for Magic, I thought, but they're also well-designed, and the music is pretty good as well. I don't know if this is the ideal version of Magic. Personally, I will probably tend towards playing the game on the Xbox, since that's where this version started and that's what I'm most used to. But we do finally have Magic: The Gathering on the iPad, and it runs as well as you'd want an official Magic app to run, with all of the boxes checked that you'd need. Hopefully, when the next version of the game comes around (Wizards has been releasing both new digital and physical versions on a somewhat annual basis), iOS will get a copy of the game that's been designed just for the excellent touchscreen it's rendered on.
Daily iPad App: Fairway Solitaire
Big Fish Games has been producing Mac and PC titles for a while, and we've chronicled a few of their iOS outings here on TUAW. The company has long tried to bring its own flavor of casual gaming to iOS with some success (mostly in hidden object games). Today, I can say this about Fairway Solitaire: It's the best Big Fish Games title I've ever played. The company knows how to build great content into its titles, and Fairway Solitaire is a fine example. There are many levels to play through, and the graphics and sounds are big, bright, and colorful. But the kicker here is gameplay. Most Big Fish games use one core mechanic (like finding hidden objects), but Fairway Solitaire somehow makes it endlessly satisfying to match cards in a pile. Part of the fun is the pairing of solitaire and golf. The idea is to clear the board, leaving as few cards as possible. Your score translates to golf holes, so you must determine how to best clear the board for the lowest score. The golf mechanic isn't perfect. For example, clearing many cards in a row builds a sand trap, which helps you hit a bonus shot. That's odd. There's also a cute gopher character that seems thrown in. I presume because someone at Big Fish believes every game needs a cute character. Or is a fan of Caddyshack. One of Fairway Solitaire's stranger features eventually grew on me. The game's running joke as it were features golf-style commentary. Two unseen characters make jokes when you don't play for a while, or start off a certain hole with a little bit of fun. At first, I found it distracting, but the characters have grown on me (more than the gopher ever did). In short, despite my issues with Big Fish's sensibilities, Fairway Solitaire is a great title, especially on the iPad's big bright screen. It's a free download with several courses to play through. Additional content is available via in-app purchase. I'm glad to see Big Fish come through with a quality hit and feel certain we'll see more big games from them in the future.
Daily iPhone App: Brawl
Ben Brode is a game designer at Blizzard Entertainment who has created an iOS card game called Brawl (we're still waiting for iOS games from Blizzard, by the way). Brawl is actually based on a real card game, and unlike most turn-based card games, this one's played in real time (similar to Spoons, if you've ever played that one, in that you simply lay down cards as fast as you can). The basic idea is that you pile up cards of a certain color as you pull them off of a bigger deck, and then you can claim or cancel "bases" laid out on a field. The game can be a little tough to get the hang of (though there's a pretty solid tutorial to play through), but after you get it, it's pretty simple to play. It's also tough to master, however. There are a few different decks to play with, and while they may seem similar at first, there's actually a lot of strategy in choosing to either block a base or clear it out at the right time. It's a fun mix of cards and fighting games, and of course playing the game on iOS makes for a nice representation of the action. There's local and online Game Center multiplayer support, and while the game comes with three decks, you can buy more via an in-app purchase. The art's 2D and simple, but it looks great, and the game runs well -- just as solid as you'd expect from someone with Blizzard experience. Brawl's available right now as a universal version for free, and the other decks in the game can be picked up for $1.99 each.
CPU Wars and c-Jump: the nerdiest card and board games ever
Board games and card games are kind of dorky to begin with. And there are plenty of titles out there that hold a special place in the heart of the nerd (just ask one about Settlers of Catan). But, there is a line, a line which even the nerdiest amongst us might not care to cross. For example, c-Jump -- a board game that teaches the basics of programming. Some of the spaces you'll land on in the course of your journey down the mountain include "goto jump;" and "switch (x) {". Then there's CPU Wars, for the three people out there that think Magic: The Gathering is too mainstream. In this card battle game you pit CPUs from throughout history against each other and attempt to collect all your adversary's processors. You can order c-Jump through ThinkGeek for $25 and pledge cash to CPU Wars over at Kickstarter. You'll find a video of the card game after the break.
