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XCOM: Enemy Unknown now available for iOS
The long-awaited XCOM: Enemy Unknown has finally arrived on the App Store for a premium price of US$19.99. This is Firaxis' turn-based strategy hit from last year (in my opinion, one of the best games of 2012), translated to the iOS platform in full. The controls have been tweaked just a bit to work with the iOS touchscreen, but otherwise this is the full game, featuring a base that you can upgrade at will, soldiers that you can outfit with bleeding-edge technology and terrific turn-based skirmishes against aliens of all kinds. The graphics, I believe, have been slowed down just a bit, and Firaxis does recommend that you use an iPad 4 to play (and they even say to turn off other apps that might take up cycles in the background). So that could be a pain, especially if you have an older device. Still, this is a modern PC game, and we're getting it here in full form on iOS, so it's hard to complain about that. It's nice that this is a full premium release. You spend one price and get all of the game's content with no IAP or freemium twists at all. XCOM is a great game from a company that is well worth supporting.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown invades iOS devices on June 20th
The world is under attack once more, and it's up to your squad of elite, turn-based soldiers to keep humanity safe. We've just gotten word that XCOM: Enemy Unknown is headed to a wide variety of iOS devices come this Thursday, June 20th. Everything from the iPad 2 to the fifth-gen iPod touch is getting a taste of Firaxis' XCOM effort -- should users choose to fork over the $19.99 asking price, that is. Aside from multiplayer (which is coming via free update post-launch), the iOS version is just about the same as its console and PC counterpart -- you build up resources and strike back against the alien menace threatening to tear apart Earth, with the occasional break to torturously study the enemy via "dissection." Whether the enemy is still alive at that point, well, that's a question for your science team. For a full list of supported iOS devices, head below the break. As for Android and Windows Phone 8 support? "We've only announced plans for iOS devices at this time," was all a 2K Games rep would tell us. Not exactly a hard no, but not a confirmation either.
Steam free-play weekend: Civilization 5, Saints Row: The Third
Civilization 5 and Saints Row: The Third are free to play on Steam, starting now and concluding on Sunday, June 9 at 1 p.m. PT. Both games are on sale for 75 percent off, bringing Saints Row: The Third to $10 and Civilization 5 to $7.50. All accompanying DLC is also on sale. Civilization 5, which launched in 2010, is set to receive the Brave New World expansion in July, introducing new civilizations and mechanics to Firaxis' flagship series. Saints Row 4, meanwhile, is due on August 20 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. An elaborate special edition, which includes a dubstep gun, was announced yesterday.
Civilization 5 sends new trailer along trade route
Civilization 5's Brave New World expansion is already full of features that'll make culture-based leaders happy. Here's a quick look at how the game's new trade system will work, with the return of caravans and a legit purpose to the oceans.
Civilization 5: Brave New World enacts policies and ideologies
In addition to the two new civilizations announced this week for Civ 5's Brave New World expansion, Firaxis has also released a trailer with a quick overview of how the game's new policies and ideologies will be enacted as of July 9.
FreeCiv now playable in browsers, including on iOS devices
FreeCiv is one of my favorite open-source projects out there. Civilization is one of my favorite games, and FreeCiv is an open-source version that you can download and play for free. The latest update of the game has added an HTML 5 version, which means that you can now load up and play FreeCiv right in any compatible browser. And that includes mobile Safari, which means you can now navigate to play.freeciv.org on one of your iOS devices, and play the game at will. Pretty excellent. There is no version of FreeCiv in the App Store, unfortunately, though there has been a port to Android just recently. And Civilization Revolution has been available on both iPad and iPhone for a while now -- it's a simpler, more accessible version of the 4X strategy game. Firaxis has just recently stepped up its efforts on iOS, so it's possible that we will see a more full, official version of Civ arrive on the iPhone before too much longer. Or wait -- what if they ported Alpha Centauri? Drool. But until then, FreeCiv will have to do. If you have never had a chance to play, the game manual should help you out.
Sid Meier's Ace Patrol review: Strategy simplified
There's a certain stigma attached to strategy games, where deep systems and mechanics can hoist a sky-high barrier for the uninitiated. Sid Meier's Ace Patrol sidesteps these stigmas, presenting a turn-based experience so simple that even the strategically challenged will be able to play and excel. Designed for iOS devices, Ace Patrol is a dogfighting game set in WWI. With a series of taps, intense air combat is engaged over a battlefield of hexagonal grids. Using these taps, players execute everything from strafing to swooping dives, hard banking, the Immelman turn and other expert maneuvers.%Gallery-188035%
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Mac version not on Steam
Though XCOM: Enemy Unknown Elite Edition arrived on Mac on April 25, one place it didn't launch was Steam. A representative of the Mac version's developer, Feral Interactive, told Joystiq that it "does not release games on Steam." This isn't the only game that Feral has shipped on platforms not owned by Valve, as the developer is credited with creating Mac versions of BioShock 2, Grid and both Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Asylum, among many other games. When asked about whether any games from its catalog would launch on Steam at any point, the representative said they "do not talk about future products." Feral is offering XCOM: Enemy Unknown on the Mac App Store, among other online retailers listed on its site.
Daily iPhone App: Haunted Hollow is frighteningly good
I've been crowing about how great Firaxis' Haunted Hollow is since GDC earlier this year, so odds are that you've probably already seen me telling you once (or more) to go pick it up. But in case the message hasn't gotten through yet: Go pick it up. Firaxis' latest game is just an excellent, well-produced strategy game, something that's casual enough for even kids to pick up and play, and complex enough that strategy nuts like myself will find plenty of depth to play with. Haunted Hollow is a turn-based strategy game, where you build up a haunted house as you play, summon monsters from the various rooms in the house and then send those monsters down into a town to scare houses and fight other monsters. There's an excellent tutorial for the game that will teach you the basics, but just playing should be easy as well: The title uses "fear tokens" for each turn that make it very clear just how many actions you have left to use as you play. The game's various monsters mix things up as well: Some are very good at moving around and scaring townspeople, while others are slower but much stronger at fighting. There's a set of challenges to play through, which will introduce you to all of the game's more advanced strategies and monsters if you like. And perhaps the best thing about Haunted Hollow is its business model. The game is free to play, and you get access to one of the game's houses and its associated monsters for free. If you want, you can buy a few in-app purchase packs to pick up the rest of the various monsters. Or (and this is the best part), you can pay just $7.99 once, and get access to all of the monsters for the game's "season 1" right away. That's a great deal -- this is an excellent, well-built game, and paying just $8 for all of the content (which will run you nearly $20 if you buy it piecemeal) is a nice refreshing option given all of the various in-app purchase scams out there on the App Store. The one thing I think is missing from Haunted Hollow is some sort of out-of-game progression -- unfortunately, while you do level up throughout a match, there's no real progression system to keep you playing from match to match. But that's not a huge complaint, as playing the individual matches are plenty of fun anyway. So I recommend this one without reservation at all: Go download Haunted Hollow for free, and enjoy the great work of Firaxis in one of the best titles of the year so far.
Some excellent new games on the App Store right now
Apple traditionally releases big new apps all together on Thursday, and this week there's an exceptionally good slate of releases arriving, including some games we've been waiting on for a while. As expected, Angry Birds Friends has arrived, and it's a social take on the popular Angry Birds series. You can get it for free. Eclipse is a spectacular (if a little complicated) take on the award-winning board game, available for US$6.99. We'll have more on this one as a Daily iPad App later today. Firaxis' Haunted Hollow is now officially out, and it's just plain great. Free-to-play, deep (but accessible) strategy from one of the best game developers around. This one is a must-download. Wizard Ops Tactics is a free-to-play tactical strategy version of the Wizard Ops shooter that released a while back. The Kickstarter-fueled Star Command is now available for $2.99. It looks good, but the game has gotten some flak for not quite fulfilling all of its promises to Kickstarter backers. The interactive book/RPG that is Steve Jackson's Sorcery! has finally arrived as well. It's a nice bit of nostalgia, and you can grab it for $4.99. There are even more new releases on the App Store, but those are the big ones. Some of those, like Haunted Hollow especially, I've been waiting to play since GDC this year. And now they're all out -- go get 'em!
Firaxis' 'Haunted Hollow' available now on iOS (for real this time)
Firaxis Games' (XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Civilization) free-to-play mobile game Haunted Hollow is available now on the iOS App Store. As we noted last week – when the game accidentally launched the first time – Haunted Hollow takes place over a series of one-on-one, tug-of-war style matches in which players scare the local villagers. Firaxis also has another iOS title ready to fly in with Ace Patrol, a World War I dogfighting tactics game by strategy game guru Sid Meier himself, which will be available May 9 as a free download.
Sid Meier's Ace Patrol lands on iOS May 9
Sid Meier's next project is an iOS game set in World War I called Ace Patrol, a dogfighting strategy game created by Meier himself. Ace Patrol will launch on the App Store May 9 as a free download. Ace Patrol is comprised of four campaigns – all downloads gain access to the British campaign and multiplayer side; in-app purchase is required to access the other campaigns. Of course, you can also throw some coin down on the typical tactical and cosmetic boosts, like new planes and elaborate paint jobs. Multiplayer pits two squadrons against each other, allowing for either hot-swapping a device or asynchronous matches over Game Center.%Gallery-187246%
Firaxis' Haunted Hollow appears on, disappears from the App Store
There's good news, bad news, and the best news on this one, and I'll give you the good news first. Firaxis' Haunted Hallow appeared on the App Store this morning, which means the game is just about ready for prime time. The free-to-play strategy title was one of my favorite games I got to see at GDC a few months ago. It's a board game, basically, in that you move various monsters around a board trying to claim and conquer space as best you can, though there's a fun house-building mechanic as well, in the way you choose which monsters to summon and fight for you. Firaxis, the creators of Civilization and the recent hit XCOM: Enemy Unknown, are some of the most experienced strategy developers out there, and Haunted Hallow is a free-to-play gift from them straight to the App Store, so it's great to see the game is almost done. The bad news, however, is that while I was writing this post to let you know the game was out, the title has disappeared from the US App Store. It is still available on the New Zealand App Store, so if you want to change your country to download the app from there, you can do that. But presumably this means the app wasn't supposed to be live on the US Store yet, so either there's more testing to be done, or we'll have to wait until this evening, as new App Store titles go official across the world. The best news is that Haunted Hallow is just the beginning. Firaxis has also announced that it's porting XCOM to the iPad in the future, and there are some other, not-yet-announced exciting strategy titles on the way as well. Firaxis has some great things planned for iOS, and this game is only the first. At any rate, Haunted Hallow is almost ready, and that's worth getting excited about. It's free to play (you get a certain number of monsters to start with, and you'll be able to buy more via in-app purchase), so whenever it is ready to download in your region, it'll be a must grab for sure. Update: 2K has confirmed that this was an accidental release. The game will be available worldwide next Thursday, May 2. So we just have a short wait until then!
Firaxis' Haunted Hollow combines monstrous fun with some serious strategy
Hearing that Firaxis Games (the famous studio behind great games like Civilization and XCOM -- which itself is coming to iPad very soon) is making an original game for iOS is very exciting. That game is Haunted Hollow, and I got to see it in action this week at GDC. Lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough have overseen the game's development for about a year. The group hopes to release Haunted Hollow later this spring. The game is surprisingly complicated, and though it definitely follows the Firaxis tradition of very well-crafted and complex strategy games, it also makes you wonder how the typically casual iOS audience will take to it. Miller told me that Haunted Hollow has always had a haunted house vibe to it. He showed off a picture used in the initial pitch, featuring two different haunted houses dangling over the edges of a town in the middle. The game contains online Game Center multiplayer, a pass-and-play mode and a single player vs. AI mode, so the title always pits you as the caretaker of one house against another house-building opponent, with a town of unsuspecting civilians lying in the middle. Each turn tells you which kind of room to build, and provides action points (called "fear points"), with which to perform various actions. Building a room allows you to create monsters, which you can then send with a movement into the town below. You pick up to five monsters to play with per game, and they all are of three types: Scary, "Fighty" or Special. Scary monsters can be used to scare townspeople, and scaring a house wins it to your side, with more fear points coming to you if you can scare a whole block. Fighty monsters can be used to fight and kill other monsters, and Special monsters offer a blend of those, or other different abilities. Ghosts, for example, are very scary but they don't survive long. Werewolves are very fighty, but can't be used to scare very well. Special monsters each have their own abilities: Wendigo can freeze the opponent, and zombies can raise an army to join the battle. As the game progresses, each player claims houses in the town by scaring them with various monsters, and the eventual goal is to claim the whole town for your color. Managing the monsters is fairly deep in terms of strategy, and other mechanics build to further complicate things. The rooms you build onto your house can be doubled up and upgraded, if you build them in the correct layout and order. There are different types of houses to choose from at the beginning of the game, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Scaring people in the town can rile them up into an angry mob, which is a completely neutral unit that can not only kill monsters on either side, but even tear down houses completely, which means not as much territory to conquer. While the graphics on the monsters and houses may be cartoony and colorful, the strategy is definitely not playing around. Miller told me that the game should work for children, but I can't imagine anyone but the very smartest of 7-year-olds really figuring out the mechanics and best strategy. Matches are supposed to last as long as a short game of Civilization Revolution, which means this game will likely be the length (and have the depth) of a fairly serious board game. Still, for strategy junkies like myself, Haunted Hollow sounds terrific. The model may give some gamers pause: The title will be free to play, with only five monsters available for free. Firaxis plans to charge for other monster types, up to 12 different monsters at a rate around US$1.99 per monster. That would make the entire game about $24.99, which isn't a bad price, but which isn't cheap for an iOS title, either. Especially if one of the monsters is unbalanced (not likely with Firaxis at the helm, but still), the model could backfire on them. But Miller did say the team was considering a "pay-once-for-everything" price, so hopefully that will work out right. Outside of the payment model, Haunted Hollow seems like an iOS game that fits perfectly with the great Firaxis tradition and reputation, and a solid entry on the platform for the studio. I'm very excited to dive into its fascinating strategy mechanics when it arrives on the App Store this spring.
Civilization 5: Brave New World launches in July, XCOM units playable
The Civilization 5: Brave New World expansion has been given a launch date of July 9 for North America, July 12 internationally.During today's Firaxis PAX East panel, the team also announced that the game will feature XCOM squads as late-game units. The units are paratroopers who can drop in 40 units away (delivered by Skyranger), the standard is 9. Would you expect any less from the elite squad of humanity's last hope?%Gallery-182905%
XCOM: Enemy Unknown on Mac April 25
XCOM: Enemy Unknown for Mac just received a release date of April 25 at PAX East.Announced earlier this month, the Mac version is the "elite edition," which includes the Slingshot and Elite Solidier downloadable content packs, as well as the second wave update.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown announced for iOS
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was just announced for iPad and iPhone during a PAX East panel."It is a straight port. We have not made any gameplay exceptions," XCOM: Enemy Unknown Lead Designer Jake Solomon told us. "You play the exact same game [as on PC or consoles], it's just now fully playable on an iPhone or an iPad."Asked about the game's pricing, Solomon wouldn't give specifics, saying, "It's going to be priced appropriately for what it is. It's going to be a premium price point. It is the game. It is the full game."In case you're looking for a definition of "premium" on iOS, expect to be more than $1 and probably push the limits like The Walking Dead does at $15.The game should be out by summer. We've been told it will not include the Slingshot pack downloadable content, however the Elite Soldier DLC will be included. Meanwhile, the free Second Wave update has not yet been ruled out.
Seen@PAX East: A tactical poster for your time
Hanging at the 2K booth at PAX East is an inspirational poster of marketing, featuring the characters from Firaxis' Civilization and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. If you're at the show, you can pick up the poster at the "Strategy Masterminds Mega Panel - Behind the Scenes at Firaxis Games" panel. The panel features the team of Firaxis showing off "never-before-seen footage" and teasing "big reveals" at 4:30PM.
Firaxis bringing Haunted Hollow to iOS
Firaxis is one of my favorite game developers -- they're the group behind the Civ series as well as the recent (and excellent) XCOM: Enemy Unknown reboot. Today, they've surprise-announced a game called Haunted Hollow, which is coming to iOS later on this spring. As you'd imagine from Firaxis, it's a strategy game, but it's a little more colorful and fun than Civ or XCOM -- you'll be building up a mansion full of monsters, trying to scare townspeople and slowly take over the town you're in. Each monster can be powered up, and there are even some multiplayer modes, either over Game Center or with pass-and-play. It sounds really great. The game will be available for free from the App Store, with the title supported by microtransactions (probably for currency, though extra themes and architecture are mentioned as well). We'll watch out for a release, and let you know when we spot the game available for download.
Civilization 5 enters 'Brave New World' with expansion pack this summer
History can't be stopped and neither can developer Firaxis' Civilization 5 expansion packs, with "Brave New World" arriving this summer for Mac and PC. This is the second "massive expansion" for the strategy game, following last year's excellent "Gods & Kings," which added religion and espionage to the mix. Brave New World's big features are trade networks and ideology."Right at the beginning there are trade routes," Firaxis producer Dennis Shirk told us. "Caravans go back and forth in trade routes. Barbarians can attack them spawning more barbarians. Other players can attack to disrupt trade during wartime." Players will also have a button to easily display an overlay of trade routes in the game.Another major addition to gameplay is that when the industrial and modern eras roll around, ideology comes into play. "We just wanted to have that culture game be as engaging as the military victory," said Shirk. "Before it was just a really passive game style."Ideology will be used to enhance the experience of the cultural victory. Per usual, there will be more wonders and scenarios. We'll learn more about this latest expansion next week at PAX East.%Gallery-182905%
