Space Engineers 2.0c Update

Greetings engineers and welcome to another progress report from my corner of the universe! Keen still has us (mostly) in a bug squash phase so no planets to speak of yet. They did however do something special, you see this week was the 100th update to the game and they didn't want 100 to just be some bug post. So they gave us something... special.

Boom Boom Football

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boom-boom-football/id910208432?mt=8
Free, 96mb download, universal, gamecenter enabled, online required.

Ok, honestly I can admit this. I never thought I would ever play any sports game beyond golf. And yet here I am, five days after this one released I'm still enjoying it immensely. Go figure.

The "Hey Siri" Apple Event Recap

I spent the last two odd hours hanging out on macrumors.com's live blog news feed of this event, they rock. What follows is what I learned from the event. (thanks to macrumors.com for doing this coverage you guys are top notch!)

iPad PRO
. Screen size is the size of the air 2's screen + bezel
. 2732x2048 resolution
. a9x processor
. 4:3 ratio
. 10hr battery life
. four speakers, ipad adjusts volume source based on how device is held
. 1.57lbs (.03 heavier than original ipad)
. .9mm thicker than air
. processor self throttles back based on your activities to extend battery life

A day in the life of Mad Max

Sandstorm, check. Lots of loot, check. Sniper fire, check. Mortar fire, check. Clearing an entire enemy base, check. Win!

Not AFK again!

... just knee deep in the wastelands of Mad Max game on my PC....

Amazing game :)

No weekly release as I only picked up one game that turns out came out like 6 months ago in canada and has every form of freemium all wrapped up beneath a fantastic looking gameplay experience.. and throttles it unfortunately.

Ahh well.

Real Racing 3: Nascar!

Real Racing 3
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-racing-3/id556164008?mt=8
Free, 855mb download, gamecenter enabled, universal.

Another left turn! Yee haw! And another left turn!

:)

• Choose a team – Race alongside racing legends like Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart then drive your team to victory!
• Federated Auto Parts 400 - Race on the famous Richmond International Raceway.
• Become a Sprint Cup Champion - Master the art of drafting and slingshot passing before taking on a full grid of tactical high pressure rivals!
• Asterion’s Charge - Ahmed is also looking for a driver to settle a score between a rival party of Hypercars with the Asterion LPI 910-4! Find out more at the Dubai Autodrome.

Federated Auto Parts 400 is live now. Choose from four official real world race teams and over 7 days complete the series to receive the car free. Once done with the first car, choose another one and go again. Its completely possible to end up with all four cars free!

Also a new chapter is present in career mode, its all about nascar.

Also there is a new Lamborghini in game and two of the end game chapter race series have had this new car filtered in to them.

Drafting is alot of fun and nothing more fun than the Richmond international raceway with forty cars on track.

Very good update :)

Oh and note : Kotter still works fine in this update. If you don't know what Kotter is, go to myrealracing.club and wander the forms, you'll find it :)

Space Engineers

Hey everyone, progress report in SE here! Woo! We've kinda taken a break from the dedicated server. The software keen has out right now for dedicated servers is quirky, buggy and hit or miss. Really long loading times, etc. Frustrating. The two folks on my server with me both have their own single player games running on the side so I decided to fire one up of my own.

Went with a easy start, survival with oxygen enabled.

Weekly Release Roundup

Seven games this week survived initial scroll through. Five made it as far as app store link. One was deleted after 20 minutes or so of play. Rarely, pocket gamer AND itunes feature page both pretty much mirror toucharcade so no hidden gems (unless they show up Thursday or Friday night).

Starting today I'll be providing links to the game post for each game over on toucharcade, good people and an active forum community -thumbs up- I've also disabled (pretty sure...) comments on the blog. Only ones ever using it were hack/cheater/crack linkers anyways heh. Go to toucharcade for the community :)

The following four are still on my ipad and to some extent or another I managed to enjoy every single one of them.

Divinity: Original Sin 2

I can already see myself kicking my friends in the backside.

"This is where the trolling comes in. While Vincke’s co-worker from Larian was running around, doing deeds for a quest, Vincke decided to mess with him. First, he dribbled some poison into an otherwise perfectly normal-looking health potion and slotted it into his frenemy’s inventory. Then he put the town guards on high alert for illegal contraband, noting that he could easily acquire some and put that into his alleged ally’s inventory as well. The other Larian-er, playing a dwarf, was already number one on the guards’ suspect list due to the town’s history of racism against dwarves.
Later, he got into a battle with some mercenaries, and that’s when Vincke chose to strike. He gleefully ran to join the turn-based battle, dagger aimed right for his ally’s back. First, he attacked his friend directly, turning him into a screaming tangle of flailing limbs, beard, and fire. Then his friend went to drink the potion and, well, you can probably guess what happened next. It’s some Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck shit. Sometimes friends, sometimes foes, but you can expect a hefty dose of comedic slapstick regardless."

http://kotaku.com/what-i-saw-of-divinity-original-sin-2-1726655377

Hit Kickstarter, reached full funding in a matter of hours and apparently folks co-oping this one will be able to screw with eachother...

Mad Max

Mad Max

Releases 31st of this month.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/234140/

God I hope this is as good as it looks!

Wednesday Release Roundup pt4

Ok, last four games and then the entire last month will be caught up... note to self, don't ignore the blog for a whole month again. Eesh.

RPG Tears Revolude
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rpg-tears-revolude/id998792021?mt=8
3.99usd, 70mb download, gamecenter enabled, universal.

Wednesday Release Roundup pt3

Continuing game catch up, here's pt3. Note, I'm going to stop calling it "Wednesday Release Roundup" once I catch myself up. It suggests a deadline for me making these posts. New name will be "Weekly Release Roundup" or somesuch. I'm also feeling settled in on the good art of rambling so expect there to be more content from these posts heh.

On to the games!

Loot & Legends
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/loot-legends/id935089574?mt=8
Free, 73mb download, no gamecenter, iPad only.

Wednesday Release Roundup pt2

Round two... go!

Final Fantasy VII
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final-fantasy-vii/id1021566244?mt=8
15.99usd, 1.63gig download, no gamecenter, universal.

No introduction neccessary, the rpg that took rpg's to the next level is finally FINALLY on our tablets and phones. Cloud support enabled between devices. A no random encounter toggle for when you need to get to a save point fast... or just don't feel like encountering anything. A cheat that max level / max stat / max currencies the game. Combine that with no random encounters and old school players who played this to death in their youth and just want to relive the story can do so. Out of combat movement is much faster now. On screen controls, mifi controller enabled and air play friendly. You can literally link your device to your apple tv, link your controller to your device and enjoy this game in your living room if you so desire.

Played it to death, hardly touched the ps1 version, or never experienced it at all. Do yourself a favor and do so.

For me, this wasn't my favorite by far but it puts hope on my radar. Square has no more excuses regarding bringing 8 and 9 to us next :)

Wednesday Release Roundup

Very... very expensive week. My apple email suggests in excess of 30 dollars worth of gameplay here. This list is more than just this week, obviously I've been distracted elsewhere again lately so I'm just going to run down anything thats interested me lately and is still on my tablet.

Demon's Rise
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/demons-rise/id951205464?mt=8
2.99usd, 420mb download, universal.

Turn based Tactical RPG. Feels like Hunters, and both Warhammer titles love child. Plenty of potential here, little rough around the edges but nothing game breaking. RPG elements include spells, torches, pickaxes, minotaur, elves, dwarves and whatnot. Leveling up improves stats, gear is found on levels. Lots of heroes to choose from when making your party, looks like they left room for more as well.

Space Engineers, 3.0 progress

Amazing really how out of control my creative side gets when I let it run amok heheh. This ship has considerably changed design at least four times yesterday. Most of the plan is ironed out in my head though so thats... a plus. Assuming I don't think up some new idea again.

Here we go :

Why I need dx11 in my life!

Space Engineers has basic support for dx11 though its currently HIGHLY unoptimized. That said, there's nothing stopping a person from turning it on an drooling all over their space ships.

Space Engineers 2.0c Final

2.0b... I've different ideas in mind for that one. 2.0b will maintain the same build as 2.0, with separable sections of it. More to come on that.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=483022221

Introducing 2.0c, Light Carrier Exploration Cruiser. Capable of 2k meter jumps, power grid fully sufficient to recharge drives in between use. Fully self sufficient with refining and production abilities. The Neck was nearly doubled in size and strengthened with additional heavy armor arms. Engineers at Paigelore Industries took the body of a second 2.0 class and attached it to an existing 2.0, using the new front end as a hangar bay Additional vertical large thrusters have been added as well as two more breaking thrusters.

Lastly, the ring itself has been toned a bit for improved less blocky look.

Weekly Release Roundup

New release list, two new games in my stable. Didn't grab any games last week so that's why there was no release then. Both these games are quality, one is a PC port. Both iPad/mini, both fairly hard on the hardware so mini 2 or ipad 4 at minimum for both.

Edit: Three games. One did come out late last week, also a PC port.

This War of Mine
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id982175678?mt=8
9.99usd, gamecenter enabled, no iap, 380mb download.

Space Engineers 2.0b

Work in progress. With the upgrade to 1.0 complete I have found myself staring at 2.0, thinking about 2.0, dreaming up ideas about 2.0, you name it. The works. Now Original model both ships were essentially the same thing, with 2.0 just being bigger. 1.0b is still as originally intended, exploration class cruiser. With afew perks of course. 2.0b is actually taking on a role of its own, Carrier. Not the largest Carrier mind you, but definitely fits the bill while retaining all the production self sufficiency of the original 2.0.

Exterior is largely done though I am pondering weaponization.

Photos follow the break.

Space Engineers 1.0b Final

I'm comfortable in saying my light exploration cruiser is complete... assuming Keen doesn't spark an explosion of inspiration via future update heheh.

Photos follow.

Fallout Shelter Update

Bug fixes, crash fixes, etc, etc. Oh and this update fixes the infinite lunchbox bug. If your one of those playing with this bug, do not update.

Space Engineers, 1.0b

Long, long longggg overdue, yesterdays update added a feature that just gave me all the reason I could need to do some work on my oldest ship, 1.0 (still haven't named her, or 2.0 heh). Jump Drives are Keens way of handling faster flight in a game engine that simply isn't capable of letting us players go as fast as we would like. On the technical side, the game simply teleports our large (large only) class ship from point A to point B. Points A and B can be off GPS coordinates for precise flight or we can simply aim and fire. Its a very cool feature and well thought out. Other players can come so long as their sitting in a chair onboard, other ships cam come so long as they are landing gear of coupled. The ship will not hit anything when coming out of warp, infact the ship will stop about 5k shy. The more drives on a ship, the further you can go though also the more on your ship the longer your ships engines and gyro's will be offline (the drive recharges).

NOTE, jumping beyond the border of a non exploration save will result in the destruction of your ship and you (if in survival mode). Make sure you turn on exploration before using your jump drive!

Well, all that said, screenshots follow the break.

Space Engineers - Jump Drive

-glances at steam thursday update for Space Engineers-

Jump. Drive.

0.0

-starts a long long long overdue upgrade to 1.0-

PS Plus July for Vita

-dusts off vita- You know, I honestly have no idea why I don't play this thing more. Or at all to be honest. Its a fantastic platform and thankfully most developers ignore the rear touch panel or make it completely optional. I have 5 screens worth of games installed, even more not installed. All my installed ones are very well rated around the industry. Dunno what holds me back.

Anyways. Bunch of discounted games for this month, feels like a better offering than in recent months. Three free games too.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/07/01/ps-plus-free-games-for-july-2015/

For starters there's your entire sony lineup for july PS Plus subscribers. Outside the vita I highly recommend you all grab Styx for the ps4, fantastic stealth game with lots and lots of variety that entertains plenty of playstyles. That and Styx himself is a funny as hell snarky little ass heh!

I picked up two of the three free ps vita titles, here's a quick experience.

WoW 6.2 Rundown

I've been running around Tenaan Jungle for about a week and a half now. Admittedly it was initially very intimidating. There's a whole lot of angry everything everywhere, none of it likes you. However once I set about looking around and feeling it out, I'm enjoying it. Its Timeless isle with lots of angry orcs, a lacking presence of panda and even more things to do. What follows is what I've observed so far including my daily routine.

Fallout Shelter Followup

Bethesda announced today that the game has been played an average 70million times a day every day since it released last week. Epic!

Fallout 4 Urge Pacifiers

So. Fallout 4.

-runs around in circles for five minutes-

Due out in less than six months.

-looks around, runs around in circles for five more minutes-

Yea heh, its like that. For just about everybody right now who is a fan. And while its less than six months away, even that six months is going to be hell obviously so I figured I would highlight three iOS games today, all out right now that might just keep the Fallout 4 demon inside you pacified for the moment.

Wednesday Release Roundup

Alright, back on schedule. Oh hey very important. Toucharcade.Com is experiencing financial pains folks, the advertising just isn't paying the bills anymore and whatnot. If you'd like to help keep the number one absolute best site on the Internet for us iOS gamers alive and well, hit up their site and check out their Patron page. A little goes a hell of a long way and we definitely do NOT want to see what our gaming scene is like if we lose TA and find ourselves looking to appshopper and apples app store splash page for releases.

Another note, don't expect this post on Wednesdays anymore. I'm at work when the games release and have tightened my bandwidth allowance because at&t are greedy asshats. So no more downloading games at work Wednesday nights. Will do my best to get this post out Thursday/Friday morning from now on.

On to the Wednesday releases that I picked up.

Fallout Shelter

I am a FAN of the Fallout series, dating all the way back to the turn based originals. Works for me that my hopeful return to active duty on this blog starts with the latest Fallout game from Bethesda. No?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fallout-shelter/id991153141?mt=8
Free, Universal, 200mb download, Gamecenter enabled, No internet required, Optional IAP.

April Release catch up!

Well ok I'm like 10 missions away from finishing GTA5's main story but I'm a bit burnt out so lets talk about something else. Well not something else, here's the games I picked up each week since my last post! Benefit to me missing almost two weeks? Several games I picked up I ended up deleting so this post will be the ones who are still around keeping me entertained.

Ys Chronicles 1
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id962713931?mt=8
Action RPG port from the pc / psp1 way back originally released in 2000. Heavy Japanese RPG here :)
4.99, gamecenter enabled, no internet connection required. No IAP.

GTA 5 PC

-points at title of post-

Gonna be busy for awhile. My asus g750 32gig ram 880m nvidia runs the game almost at max heh.

-peels out being chased by mexican cartel and police-

Corridor Z

Corridor Z by Mass Creation Sp. z o. o.
https://appsto.re/us/cIo34.i

Endless runner in reverse.

Spirit Lords

Spirit Lords by Kabam
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spirit-lords/id828502449?mt=8

This title slipped under pretty much every ones radar Wednesday night and just showed up featured on apple's splash page. What is it? A mmo-lite rpg hack'n'slash with a unique control scheme that works surprisingly well!

Marvel Mighty Heroes

Marvel Mighty Heroes by DeNA Corp.
https://appsto.re/us/q_c65.i

Online only co-op brawler. Stages are designed for quick break moments, the longest I've seen so far are 2 minutes. Smack things, defend things, win.

Weekly Recommendations

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the ever rare ever elusive... Premium release week. All have premium price tags, two (devious and crawlers) have optional iap. None have a online requirement. All have game enter achievements. Enjoy :)

Sorry for the lack of updates last week, was in a rut of sorts. There were quality games released, I'll fit them in over the next few days. o7

Weekly Recommendations

Good game release list this week, two thumbs up!

Hell Gate
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hell-gate/id917957714?mt=8
Free, Universal, 124mb download, no Gamecenter.

Top down action rpg. Tap and hero runs in that direction, slashes everything in his path. Abilities to learn and level up, great to collect and combine, level ups to be had. Translated from Japanese so it's hit and miss, but I find such translations a,using to be honest heh. Free, iap options and a energy bar is present but the game seems quite friendly with giving you iap currency.

Tutorial annoyed me, couldn't by pass it and when the damn game asked me to rate it tapping no or yes conflicted with tutorial which would only let me tap my backpack that I couldn't tap because of the rate me button heh. Ahh well. Decent enough game so far, online required.

Stormblades
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stormblades/id961615948?mt=8
Free, Universal, 148mb download, no Gamecenter.

Infinity Blade genre with improved/simplified combat controls. Stage based, no downtime/exploration in between fights. Purchase/upgrade system present but you will only be working with your weapons.

Fantastic graphics and controls are very forgiving. I LOVE the way enemy armor chips away as you hit it making opponents more susceptible to your hits. Online optional, your trophy count counts towards a world wide ranking system if you do have Internet.

Stan Lee's Hero Command
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stan-lees-hero-command/id941294589?mt=8
Free, Universal, 249mb download, no Gamecenter.

Action adventure with upgrade system for powers and stats. Fight across stages with various goals, collect purple currency that is spent on stat improvement. Unlocking new powers appears to either come with time as you play or iap currency if your so inclined. Iap currency is awarded via achievements. Currently three heroes to choose from, one free your choice when you launch game for first time. Other two bought with iap currency. Iap currency is really well proportioned to be honest. Energy bar present as well as timers on stat improvements. Dual stick control system, no internet connection required.

Kingdom Tales 2 HD
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id960639511?mt=8
Free, iPad only, 358mb download, Gamecenter enabled.

Kingdom Tales 2
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id960636244?mt=8
Free, iPhone/iPod, 383mb download, Gamecenter enabled.

Plays almost exactly like jack of trades, another game from G5. Fixed maps, roads, clear debris build buildings, upgrade them, collect resources, reach quest goals for each stage, star ratings, etc. various difficulties.

Free to try, 5 bucks unlocks full game, no iap and it isn't universal. Also has difficulties, lowest difficulty removes the traditional stage timer that those jack of trades series had.

Goblin Quest: Escape!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id897517248
Free, Universal, 120mb download, no Gamecenter.

Action Adventure game. The boss of this dungeon has finished building it but wants it fool proof against heroes. You as a lowly goblin are tasked with running his dungeon so he can improve it. Analog controls with no combat what so ever. Full upgrade system for consumable potions and whatnot as well as equipment with permanent benefits. Only iap is the advertisement unlock at 1.99usd. Dual currency but secondary currency is awarded for completing stage goals, or purchasable with standard coin found in every dungeon. All dungeons completely farm able for standard coin.

Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id916585802?mt=8
4.99usd, Universal, 252mb download, Gamecenter enabled.

Single tower, tower defense. Seems entirely gesture based combat so far. Tap targets, finger swipes in simple designs based on spells you want to use. Earn coin from killing bad guys, spend coin on equipment and tower upgrades. Absolutely hilarious story and cut scenes. Not entirely sure I like the double dipping of IAP and premium pricing. Honestly I probably wouldn't have this one on my ipad if I had known how high the iap packages go. On itunes it only goes as high as .99cents. In game iap packs goes as high as 50 dollars.

That said the iap currency seems to be being awarded as stars are earned on stages and things have been unlocking for free periodically as I play. Who knows, could work, will follow up on this one if it doesn't end up deleted.

Revisited : Alien Isolation

Just completed a second play through of this awesome game after taking a break for afew months. This time I used Steam's streaming feature so that my sister who may or may not ever play this game completely through could watch it from across the country. Very cool, she described it as watching a really long movie!

Second play through was just as entertaining as the first but less scary jumping out of my seat action. My first play through I would describe as learning to dance, where every time you step on your partners foot they punch you in the face with their second set of teeth heehee! This second play through was more akin to a waltz. I waltz'ed across stages moving where I need to be and my sister was constantly amazed at the random nature of the ai. Occasionally other survivors would tap in during the alien and mine's dance but that always resulted in screams, cries, random gunfire and the alien rejoining me as soon as possible.

Another thing, I don't like hiding in lockers. If the alien is in the room I hide behind things, slowly move around things to keep Line Of Sight broken for the creature. I don't like hiding in lockers because your pretty much a sardine, if the alien opens the locker, its game over. If I am hiding behind things my flamethrower is a two button tap away and I almost always survive alien misencounters this way. Hiding in lockers is waiting to die. Nuff said.

The developers behind this masterpiece have been signed on for another game, no ones saying if its another alien title or something else. Fingers crossed for more alien awesomeness!

Here's some more random photo's I snagged, their over the course of two play throughs so not exactly in order. I separated them by play through, enjoy :)

First Play Through

Second Play Through
I had certain shots I wanted that I missed the first time, knew where to look this time around heh.

I finally got around to doing the two stand a lone DLCs Crew Expendable and Last Survivor. I REALLY liked Crew Expendable, I always felt that Dallas romp around in the ventilation shafts in the movie felt short like there was move to it that we didn't see and you definitely see it all in this DLC. Plus what happens in the last 25 seconds of the DLC, something that never occurred to me but makes complete sense looking back. Ash is an asshole.

The second DLC Last Survivor, didn't enjoy that one quite as much. Lots of little discrepancies between the movie and the DLC though as I understand it this isn't a retelling of what happened, its more akin to a simulator run by the company testing the validity of what Ellen claims happened. Thus the inconsistencies between the film and the dlc.

More Crew Expendable please, and a resolution to what happens at the end of Isolation would rock!

o/