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'Endless' series crosses one million copies sold
The "Endless" series of games reached over one million copies sold, Iceberg Interactive announced. The series consists of three games, Dungeon of the Endless, Endless Legend and Endless Space, and the trio combined to sell 1.2 million units to date. All three games were created by Amplitude Studios, the latest being October's Dungeon of the Endless, a retro-styled roguelike for PC and Mac. Amplitude kicked the series off with Endless Space in 2012, a 4X space strategy game that served as a precursor to Endless Legend, which launched in September. Those that pick up the $20 Crystal Pack for Dungeon of the Endless on Steam receive an additional playable faction for Endless Space's Disharmony expansion as well as extra unit skins for Endless Legend. [Image: Iceberg Interactive]
Elvenar brings city building to a fantasy world
Pristine worlds and virgin landscapes are an affront to sentient sensibilities, which is why the call is going out to colonize the world of Elvenar. Today, InnoGames announced that it is working on a new city building game, this one to be set in a fantasy world. Players in Elvenar will get to choose between Elves and Humans, after which they will get cracking on building a city to honor that race. Like other InnoGames titles, Elvenar will have not only a building component, but trade and battle ones as well. Elvenar is planning on a January 2015 closed beta test for the PC. Mobile editions of the game are also planned, although they will be coming later. Players can pre-register on the official site right now. [Source: InnoGames press release]
Endless Legend gets modding tools in new add-on
The team at Amplitude Studios is having a busy week, having just launched Dungeon of the Endless in full on Steam a few days ago. Now, it's offering a "Shades of Alteration" add-on for another game in its strategy series, Endless Legend. The free DLC adds a Halloween-themed quest to the 4X fantasy-strategy game called "A Tale from the Dark Season," which rewards players with an undiscolsed prize. The update also introduces modding tools to the game, allowing players to create and tweak a number of game elements to their content. Players will be able to add new faction traits, items, skills, city improvements, technology and quests to Endless Legend, as well as adding or changing resources, text and 2D assets in the strategy game using the new mod tools. Endless Legend launched on Steam in September after its near five-month stay on Early Access. The game's Classic Pack is available on PC or Mac for $35, whereas the $45 Emperor Pack adds bonus in-game items. [Image: Iceberg Interactive]
Heroes & Generals adds map, weapons, limited army resources
Heroes & Generals has updated with a new skirmish map, new weapons, a new battle briefing screen, a new messaging system, and more. The Village Skirmish map is located in rural France and boasts a chateau, a small farm, and a sunken ruin as objectives. New weapons include the German P08 pistol and the US M1917 revolver. It's also worth noting that players who favor the generals side of Heroes & Generals shooter/strategy gameplay will now have to "play smarter," according to developer Reto-Moto. This is because the new Spaatz update has introduced limited army resources for both factions. Reto-Moto has released a new Spaatz videolog, which you can watch after the break. [Source: Reto-Moto press release]
Uber axes Human Resources Kickstarter campaign
Planetary Annihilation developer Uber Entertainment canceled its Kickstarter campaign for Human Resources, the developer's human-harvesting, apocalyptic real-time strategy game. "Every Kickstarter prediction model is showing that we will come up woefully short of our goal," the developer wrote in an update on its funding page, adding that it can't continue spending time and money on a project that won't get funded. "One thing is for sure, Human Resources, as pitched in this Kickstarter, is over. But we adore the world of Human Resources and will endeavor to do what we can to bring it to life in some form." The developer raised $384,358 of its $1.4 million goal on the funding platform. The lofty goal would have been difficult for any aspiring developer to overcome; just four of the 341 Kickstarter games tracked in our one-year Crowdfund Bookie research series earned that much money in their campaigns. Even the $844,127 hauled in by Harmonix for Amplitude in May was an anomaly in a funding space that scarcely supports big-budget projects like it once did. Human Resources was planned to end in two weeks on Tuesday, November 4. [Image: Uber Entertainment]
Raise an army in Rise of Rome
Commanding armies, building a city, and employing strategies to complete a variety of quests are a big part of the action in Rise of Rome. On the quest to create a strong roman empire, players can upgrade their city for defense and upgrade their army to be able to conquer more territory. Rise of Rome is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 5.0 or later. In Rise of Rome players are lord of their own city and are trying to defeat enemies in historical battle locations like Assyria or Sparta. The game features characters based off of real life commanders like Rameses II or Caesar. Players must manage resources in their city along while balancing military strategies and upgrading the city. Some of the buildings in the city affect what level of gear their military can use, while other buildings affect more routine activities like tax collection. You can level up each building using one of the currencies in the game, copper. Players can use copper in Rise of Rome to afford a lot of different items from building upgrades to weapons. Upgrading a building like the bank allows players to store more copper for use in projects later. However, you cannot upgrade any building more than the level of city hall. For example, if city hall is level three, you cannot have a blacksmith building of level four. Players can choose to take their armies and go to war with others to conquer territory. In some successful campaigns, the conquered army's leader may join a player's army. Players can provide these leaders who join their team with strong armor, weapons, and other upgrades which strengthen player's strategies. The wait time for upgrading increases the more you play during the game's day cycle, which encourages players to be strategic with what construction, war, and research projects they perform. Rise of Rome does offer in-app purchases so players can afford upgrades that cost in game gold or if they need more VIP points. However, if players are resourceful, they can use copper to keep building up their city and continue playing without needing to resort to in app purchases. There are a lot of quests to accomplish each time you play, however, some of the gameplay feels repetitive and this leads players to stay in the game less time than they could otherwise. This is especially apparent with the way the game sort of punishes players for staying in the game past completing some battles and upgrading a few times. A few drawbacks to the overall experience of Rise of Rome are that there is a bug that happens for iOS 8 users that causes layout problems when logging in. It can sometimes be confusing to know what to do next or how to win tough battles, and that you have to log in to Facebook or Game Center to start playing. Having to log into either Facebook or Game Center before the game even starts is annoying as players don't know if they will like the game before logging in. Rise of Rome is free on the App Store and recommended for players who enjoy strategy games that require a balance between building up defenses and commanding armies.
Wakfu lands on Steam, nixes subs
The unique tactical MMO Wakfu is getting sort of a re-launch today with a debut on Steam. This "new and revamped" version of the game will feature a new beginner experience and completely eliminate subscriptions. The studio is selling booster packs as one of the ways to make ends meet. Ankama COO Olivier Comte celebrated the release: "We are proud to bring Wakfu on Steam and give the opportunity to more and more players to discover this universe. We are starting with English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Thai players, but more will follow soon." [Source: Ankama press release]
Endless Legend exits Steam Early Access on September 18
Endless Legend will exit Early Access and launch in full on Steam on September 18, Iceberg Interactive announced. The 4X strategy game entered its alpha phase on the PC distribution platform in April, receiving new factions, "fully functional" multiplayer and other updates in July. The game's soundtrack is also available at a name-your-price rate on Bandcamp, courtesy of Game Audio Factory. Endless Legend is currently 10 percent off ($31.49) while still in its beta state. Buying in to the Founder Pack ($40.49) grants players some assorted bonus goods, including half-off Steam coupons for Amplitude Studios' Endless Space and Endless Space Disharmony. One of the developer's other games, Dungeon of the Endless, was among a list of games confirmed for Xbox One at Gamescom last month. Come to think of it, we're pretty sure there's a pattern to Amplitude Studios' recent naming conventions. [Image: Iceberg Interactive]
Wakfu heads to Steam on September 18th
If you've lamented the fact that Steam currently has a distinct lack of isometric tactical-ish MMORPGs available at the moment, you'll be happy to know that Wakfu is heading to the platform on September 18th. The game is currently in closed testing until September 16th, with no character wipes planned between now and the launch. Closed beta players will receive a special reward in the form of an item inspired by Valve's properties. A thread has been created for the developers to share places where keys are available, for those who want to get in on the Steam testing before it's too late. If you'd rather just wait a little bit until the launch on the 18th, that works too. [Source: Ankama press release]
Prison Defense: when good defense games go bad
Prison Defense is a strategic defense game reminiscent of Plants vs. Zombies except with police and prisoners. You play as the police trying to keep prisoners from escaping in 40 levels. Each level is set up in a similar way, there are a number of cages set up on the floor, players tap each crate to uncover either an enemy or a weapon. Players must then take a weapon they uncover and set it up on one side of the floor so it will be used against the enemies making their way from the right side of the floor. Since the enemies don't show up until after you open a cage with an enemy in it, you have a better chance of winning if you can get a weapon set up early but this is hard to do. Prison Defense is compatible with iPads running iOS 6.0. Prison Defense features different enemy types from a basic light damage enemy to a heavy tank. This adds some variety to the gameplay as you have to tailor your strategy based on the type of enemy you are facing. However, this does not make the gameplay that much more interesting as you are still doing the same things as you were before with the less damaging enemies because even though you try putting the shotgun characters behind the bigger prisoners to damage them more. It feels more like luck if you are actually successful with this strategy when you don't know what is in each cage and how much health the enemies have left. In the first 10 levels the difficulty quickly changes from very easy to extremely hard. The addition of new enemy types creates another challenge for players. They have to be very quick about their actions. Also, if they place a weapon in the wrong place the game is very punishing. Players can loss the level just by mistakenly placing one weapon in the wrong row. Each level can be played in three different modes: normal, plus, and hard. The animations of the characters feels slow in the normal mode and players can be waiting for the game to end as they watch a prisoner escape by slowly walking to the wall. The plus mode gives players a scenario they have to play through. This can include such completing the level in a certain amount of time or in fast forward, which alleviates some of the slow gameplay. This mode was one of the more fun modes as it offers a challenge that is still enjoyable and players feel accomplished when they complete the scenario. Hard mode doesn't feel very different from the normal mode, the enemies seem a little stronger, but since the normal mode is already hard usually, the difficulty feels very similar. The crates in Prison Defense are meant to give players a challenge by making them quickly open another crate that hopefully holds a weapon to use against the enemies, however, some of the crates are dangerous and contain TNT. The TNT doesn't seem to fit in very much with the gameplay as it hurts only your characters and not the prisoners. This makes the game extremely difficult if you have a great strategic defense set up and you happen to open the crate that destroys this defense. There is no way to get back that defense if you have opened up all the other crates with weapons in them and usually means the prisoners will escape. Sometimes the weapons in the cages you uncover disappear after a short period of time when you haven't gotten to set them up somewhere. One last downside of Prison Defense is that occasionally you will see a full screen ad that pops up after winning a level. This distracts from the gameplay and it is really easy to accidentally tap on the ad as you are expecting the button to continue. Prison Defense is free on the App Store and has some similarities to Plants vs. Zombies which shows throughout the game. Some of the levels are too hard for most players to enjoy and it lacks the entertainment value of a humorous theme and gameplay. I do not recommended bothering with Prison Defense.
Flick Knights is flicktastic fun
Flick Knights is a turn-based strategy game where you play against others online or in local play. The goal of Flick Knights is to flick your characters into the opposing team's characters to cause enough damage to flick them out of the arena and clear a path to their target button which you can flick one of your characters into to score a point. The first team to drain the other team's vat of liquid at their base wins. Flick Knights is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 6.0 or later. In Flick Knights, players create their own team by giving it a name, team uniform, characters, and team colors. Flick Knights features an array of different characters to include in your team, each with their own unique attack, strengths, and weaknesses. You can upgrade each character using coins received in the game. You can even buy new characters to include in your team using coins or gems. This helps keep the game feeling customizable and adds to the fun of building a custom team. There is a short registration process at the beginning of the game which requires an email address before you can make your team and play online. This is a minor annoyance but it is a very short process done in a rather unobtrusive way and makes sense for the online nature of the game. After registering and making a team, players can choose to either play an asynchronous match, live match, or a local match. The asynchronous matches are turn based with other online players and have a 48 hour turn limit which means players may be waiting awhile for the other player to make their move before they can continue playing. I was not able to do any of the live matches because the server did not find anyone for me to play against after numerous times of trying to connect which is a little disappointing as I was really looking forward to this type of gameplay. It is inteded to be a match against a live opponent with timed turns. The local matches are a lot of fun as you can play against someone next to you on the same device. My suggestion for the matches is that it would be really nice if there was a bot mode that you could practice in. It can be hard to keep playing this game if you can't find someone to play with and I ended up playing local matches against myself which is fun to a point but it takes away the random nature of the game. The human element of the gameplay, waiting to see where the other player puts their team members, what strategy they employ, is really cool and it is reminiscent of a chess match. Like in chess, you have to balance defending your base, the queen, and attacking the opponent's base, their queen. There is a lot of room for trying out new strategies and you have to keep on your toes because an opponent could get past your team and score easily if you don't consider what their next moves may be. Another feature that would help in the matches would be if in local play you got to pick your own team to play as and customize the members of that team. Currently, the teams are blue vs. red and the team members are randomized. It would be interesting if each player got to choose a certain character to play as that they might not have yet to test out if they want to get that character later. Flick Knights is a exceptionally fun turn-based strategy game that incorporates a lot of interesting characters, team customization options, and a strong reliance on being agile in strategies which creates an enjoyable experience that keeps players coming back. Flick Knights is free on the App Store and definitely recommended for those who love online multiplayer games.
Manning or Brady? Peterson or McCoy? You decide with the new NFL app
Millions of Americans anxiously await September 4th. That's when the National Football League kicks off its 2014 schedule and begins a four-month journey of joy and anguish for Fantasy Football players. So now is the time to prepare and get ready for the months ahead. The NFL has launched the latest version of its NFL Fantasy Football-Official NFL.com Fantasy Football App which is a free download for both the iPhone and iPad. It requires iOS version 7. This latest version offers lots of player information, statistics, injury reports, trends, and analysis. In addition, new features include Game Center where you can view in-season matchups, and a quick place to find NFL scores and information on any additional leagues where you are participating. Two other new features show up in this version, a 24/7 Draft Lobby that allows you to join and draft whenever you want and 24/7 Mock Drafts to provide you with the chance to practice your draft strategy. I found that setting up a new league and entering my team were easily accomplished using the app on my iPhone, however you are not allowed to edit the league settings from the app. For that you have to go to the NFL fantasy web page, find your team, and then make changes in the league settings such as rosters, scoring, trades, waivers, etc. According to the site's support staff, more management tools will be added to the app in the coming months. Once you sign up and register your team, NFL.com sends you an email with a link to your league's web page where the settings are easily changed. Once you have set up the league, it's time to get others to join you and hold your player draft. The app supports live standard draft and auction drafts. In the auction drafts team managers have a set amount of money and bid on specific players in each round. Additionally, the app allows for Autopick drafts. Each team manager can preset his or her rankings of players and the website will pick players for that team based on those rankings. The app allows you to use a variety of social media sites to send out invitations and updates including Yahoo!, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others. So there should not be any problem keeping team managers informed and up to date. The NFL app is just one of many similar fantasy football management apps. Others include Yahoo, ESPN, Rotowire, Footballguys, and CBS. The Rotowire and Footballguys apps cost US$4.99 while the others are free. All offer similar information and features including drafting choices, player stats and projections, injury updates, and the opportunity to set up your own league or join others. So if you already are part of a fantasy league you can check out the NFL.com Fantasy Football app to see if it's better than what your league currently uses or if new to the fantasy football world download the app and get started. Remember just two weeks to go before the season begins.
Sentinel 4: Dark Star is a tower defense star
Strategy and upgrades are at the forefront in Sentinel 4: Dark Star, a tower defense game that challenges players to think on their feet in campaigns. There are 26 maps in the game, each with their own interesting challenges. Some of these challenges include limited locations to set turrets up at and other unique strategy requirements. Sentinel 4 is compatible with iOS devices running 5.1.1 or later. There are two modes in Sentinel 4: campaign and endless. Each mode can have one of four difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard, and psycho). Easy mode is a nice introduction to the gameplay and enjoyable for people new to tower defense type games or those just wanting to play a less challenging level. Medium mode is a good intermediate mode and a stepping stone in difficulty between easy and hard. Enemies become stronger in hard mode and this increase in strength seems natural, adding a new challenge. This is especially noticeable if you are replaying a level you recently beat in one of the easier modes. In psycho mode, each enemy is much stronger and they take a lot more hits to be taken down. It is much harder to get a good defense started and also harder to continue building up that defense. Sentinel 4 rewards players with more weapons, upgrades, and enemy types when they continue to beat levels and progress in the storyline. There are four categories for the weapons (turrets, path, sentinel, and stronghold). The turrets are the basic line of defense for your base and they become stronger the further along in the game you get. The next category of weapons is path, these are droids that can be used in the middle of pathways to block enemies from progressing very far without being damaged. Sentinel weapons are used by the sentinel to attack enemies with more powerful blasts and repair structures and turrets. Finally, the stronghold weapons are similar to the sentinel weapons but is usually stronger and takes longer to charge. All of these weapon categories can be upgraded with anything from auto-repair to increased range and duration of attacks. The upgrading in Sentinel 4 is a lot of fun and enhances the gameplay considerable as it makes the strategy more important. Sentinel 4 features stunning visuals and effects as well which accents the gameplay nicely. The way the lava moves is visually interesting and the lighting looks very natural with the setting of the game. Level progression flows very nicely and fits well with the storyline. However, even though the story fit with the gameplay, defending the base seemed more exciting. Each commander you pick has its own special abilities. For example, the Hyperion, which can be unlocked after completing some campaigns, has the ability to convert enemies killed within its range to energy to charge up your Sentinel. You can upgrade each commander's strength, guns, and tech capacities each with their own benefits depending on how you will be using the commander. Depending on what the level's layout and enemy patterns are, you have to be prepared to adapt your strategy and be conservative with your efforts as a lot of the time you will be limited in your resources and have to make tough decisions. When a level has more than one gate protecting the Sentinel, sometimes you have to make the conscious effort to let the first gate fall in order to protect another area that is getting overrun if you only have enough money to build one turret. Building strong but agile strategies is crucial in this game and with so many options for upgrades Sentinel 4 feels more challenging and addictive than some other tower defense games. Sentinel 4: Dark Star is available on the App Store for US$4.99 and I would highly recommend picking up this addictive game.
Wakfu relaunch moves into open beta
Wakfu's continuing with its "relaunch" strategy by fine-tuning its free-to-play offerings and now announcing the start of its open beta program. As of today, anyone can jump into the game to see how the MMO's improved with its new format. Ankama Managing Director and COO Olivier Comte makes the pitch that Wakfu is definitely worth checking out: "As we open the updated world of Wakfu to an even broader set of fans, we will continue to focus on the core and essence of our gameplay –- the players. In addition to a broad range of classes to suit varying tastes, colorful environments and our well-known sense of humor, Wakfu gives players a chance to impact the entire game world through their strategic and even political decisions." [Source: Ankama press release]
Heroes & Generals hosting free veteran weekend
World War II shooter/strategy hybrid Heroes & Generals is celebrating its first 30 days on Steam by hosting a free veteran weekend. Reto-Moto's title is free-to-play, but of course you'll progress faster and probably enjoy yourself more if you pony up for the game's veteran access. Starting Friday, August 8th, you can enjoy said access for free through Monday August 11th. Veteran membership grants a 25 percent XP boost, 50 percent credit and warfund boosts, a 25 percent ribbon XP boost, and more. If you're already a vet, Reto-Moto is adding 72 hours to your membership!
Heroes & Generals on Steam today
Did you know that Heroes & Generals was one of the first titles to ever be Greenlit by the Steam community? Yep, it was, and today developer Reto-Moto is launching the World War II shooter/strategy FPS on Valve's ubiquitous PC platform. But wait, isn't Heroes & Generals a browser game? Well, partly, but Reto-Moto says not to worry. "The browser version will also still be operational and both versions offer the same game and access to the same wars," the firm explains via press release. If you're already an H&G player, you can use your existing account with the new Steam version. Click past the cut to have a look at the Steam launch trailer! [Source: Reto-Moto press release]
Civilization: Beyond Earth enters orbit on October 24
Civilization: Beyond Earth will launch October 24, Firaxis Games announced today. Those that preorder the PC game will receive the Exoplanets Map Pack at launch, which features six maps that were inspired by real exoplanets, such as the Earth-like, forest-filled Kepler 186f, the arid Rigil Khantoris B and Tau Ceti d, a "planet of seas and archipelagos" that has a "wealth of resources." Beyond Earth was first announced at PAX East in April, and breaks free from history by having its roots in space exploration. The game is deemed a spiritual successor to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, as Firaxis Games discussed with Joystiq at E3 last month. It's also inspired by sci-fi authors such as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. [Image: 2K Games]
Age of Empires Online now extinct following server shutdown
The servers for freemium real-time strategy game Age of Empires Online shut down this week. Published by Microsoft, the online RTS entered beta in May 2011 before its full launch that August for Games for Windows Live. Gas Powered Games took over the game's development from Robot Entertainment prior to that in February 2011. It arrived on Steam in March 2012, at which point its daily active users spiked by by more than three times. A since-deleted support article for the game in January tipped off a July 1 closure date of Games for Windows Live. Age of Empires Online was let down easy, as its closure was forecasted nearly one month ago. The developer reset the player-vs-player ranking ladder at the beginning of June and hosted a few events for the game, including a Capital City decoration contest and invitational tournament near the end of the month. The developer capped off its Age of Empires Online send-off with an "End of the World" event yesterday, in which it livestreamed the game's final hours of life. [Image: Gas Powered Games]
Wakfu details boost benefits for free-to-play model [Updated]
Wakfu has always had a free option for players, but the game is saying goodbye to subscriptions altogether with its relaunch, giving all players access to every part of the game from start to finish. Of course, there has to be some way to balance that, since the company running the game will still need to make money. That incentive will take the form of boosts, allowing players to gain bonus experience on their first and subsequent characters. Boosts will be available in several different durations, with the longest duration corresponding to the greatest overall bonus. Players will have improved drop rates, health regeneration, and battle rewards as well. Prices have not yet been announced, but the goal is for the boost days to be affordable. Players with subscriptions will also see their remaining subscription days converted into boost days, allowing everyone currently playing to reap the benefits early. [Update: The team has just posted another chart with all of the veteran rewards that will be distributed to current subbers on July 9th.] [Thanks to Avaera for the tip!]
Humble Weekly strategy style: Sang-froid, Space Hulk, Ironclad
The Humble Weekly Bundle is discounted strategically this time around, featuring Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves, Stronghold Crusader Extreme HD and Cubetractor for any price you want, and then Unity of Command: Stalingrad Campaign, Eador: Masters of the Broken World and Space Hulk for $6 or more. Finally, there's Ironclad Tactics for $9 or more. If you didn't catch that, these are all strategy games. Pay $1 or more and get Steam keys for the applicable games, too. This round of Humble sales benefits the American Red Cross and Child's Play Charity.