#we can explore the technical side of spaceship flight | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

waynekelton · 5 years ago

Text

The Best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS

In the age of the always-online freemium mobile experience, sometimes it's nice to know that there are quality strategy games out there that you can play offline. Maybe Grandma's wi-fi isn't up to the job, or maybe you just don't have any internet. Are you on a Bus? A Plane?

Whatever the case, there comes a time when you need a strategy game that's a real feast--but at a table set for one. Luckily, there are a large number of mobile games with great offline experiences in 2018, on both iOS and Android.

What are the best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS?

Bad North

Star Traders: Frontiers

Rebel Inc.

Doorkickers

Frozen Synapse Prime

Tharsis

Ticket to Ride

XCOM: Enemy Within

Battle of Wesnoth

Bad North

Bad North is a self-styled 'micro' or 'minimalist' real-time strategy game that's been a big hit on PC and Switch, and is finally available on mobile. It works perfectly even when you're not connected to data or wifi, which makes it a no-brainer for this last. Technically, we've played this the most on Airplanes but since it's a game primarily about short-bursts of activity, it's also suited for played on the bus.

Essentially you're in charge of a small army of units that you must use to defend a succession of islands from Viking invaders. Islands are connected together in a randomised and procedurally generated chain, and once you've completed one it unlocks the the next in line. You have to try and keep up forward momentum because if you lag behind you may be overtaken and you lose. Along the way you can find items and more units to command, but the islands get harder to defend.

Star Traders: Frontiers

This is technically more RPG than strategy, but it's a cracking solitaire game that gives you a wide open sandbox to explore as captain of your own space-shop. Trade and take on 'quests' as you strive to make a name for yourself in a dangerous universe, with both turn-based squad battles (JRPG style) and turn-based ship combat which will put your vessel and your crew to the test. You can customise your character and your crew as much as you like, levelling them up along specific career paths that can make you a hard-as-nails combat vessel, or a stealthy smuggler looking to maximise profit. The game has lots of story vignettes to pull you through, from standard quest systems, to larger multi-part stories and era-defining events that you can help shape, or not. Regardless, this is a living sandbox that will progress with or without your help.

What makes this a good 'offline' game though is the fact that not only does it not require an internet connection, but the game will remember your state if you find yourself having to close down the app unexpectedly, even in the middle of a battle. Plenty of save slots as well for all you scummers out there. The icing on the cake is that the developers are always pushing out updates, so there's near weekly fresh content being dropped into the game. Read our review to find out more.

Rebel Inc.

Just like its predecessor Plague Inc., Rebel Inc. is an excellent drop-in/drop-out game that allows you to pause the action and come back to it at a later date. This real-time strategy experience puts you in the shows of a newly appointed administrator of a troubled region recovering from a recent war (evoking memories of the recent War in Afghanistan, specifically). You must spend your budget wisely on government improvements and initiatives to help the population rebuild and to win support.

Unlike Plague, however, you can't just sit back and wait for the people to love you - the enemies vanquished in the recent war haven't gone away, and soon insurgent forces will start popping up on the map trying to try and take over by force. You then enter a different game entirely - one of tactical placement. By marshalling local or coalition forces, you must drive out the insurgents from the major population centres and corner them so that they have nowhere to run. Do well and they'll eventually ask for peace but the longer the linger, the quicker your reputation declines and if it reaches zero, you lose.

Doorkickers

Doorkickers makes a great bite-sized tactical treat. Each mission is a puzzle that you solve by drawing lines for your squad of police officers to follow. First you plan, then you can pause the game at any time to modify your strategy. The encounters are over as quickly as a real tactical breach would be, which means if you screwed up and got your officers fragged you can try again almost immediately. You can pass a mission with minimal requirements, but casualties and mistakes will carry over to the next level. While there's not much story here, there is a gradual progression of unlockable gear and skills and new, more challenging missions. At the same time, you're free to take on any one of several campaigns at the same time. Get stuck and you can just try a different one.

Frozen Synapse Prime

This is another great tactical game that works well with a touch interface. Set in a futuristic city with cyborg commandos that can be controlled remotely, Frozen Synapse breaks turns out of a real-time battle by pausing every few seconds for both sides to issue new orders. The orders play out simultaneously, so the core mechanic is predicting what your opponent is going to do next.

While Frozen Synapse is extra great with a human partner to second-guess, it also has a very cool single-player campaign with a pretty interesting post-cyberpunk story-line. This also features quite a variety of mission types, smart AI, and satisfying progression. On iOS, you'll also be able to get the original, with hip minimalist graphics. On Android, you've got the Prime remake, which is essentially the same game but with more realistic visuals.

Iron Marines

This mission-based RTS will take a little more commitment, but the rewards are worth it. From veteran developers Ironhide, creators of the mega-hit Kingdom Rush, is a polished, neon-colored gem of a mobile strategy game. It's your basic space marines vs aliens set against highly improbable but beautiful alien landscapes. Your commander has MOBA-like hero abilities that will help you face a variety of mission types and enemies, and the game can get pretty tough later in the campaign. Read our Iron Marines review for more.

Tharsis

The fact that this game is iPad only (for now) doesn't stop it being an excellent solo turn-based strategy experience. Inspired by dice-rolling board game design, this is a survival/disaster management game where you must try and get as many of your crew to Mars as you can as the spaceship that's carrying you there slowly falls apart around you. Each turn represents a week aboard the failing Iktomi, in which the crew have to repair various system failures or suffer the consequences. These consequences include a faulty life support system damaging the crews’ health or a severe fire destroying the ship’s hull and bringing an abrupt end to your mission.

The solo nature of this game means that it's an excellent one for those longer-haul journeys, although the caveat is it may not be as battery friendly as others in this section. Still, the thought of being forced to resort to cannibalism to keep your crew alive can sometimes be too compelling to ignore, battery be damned. Read our review for more.

Ticket to Ride

A must have feature of any modern digital board game must be pass-and-play. It brings these apps closer to their physical counter-part and allows them to actually fill the niche they were designed for, albeit at the potential expense of sales as close-knit groups or couples only end up buying one version of the app between them. Ticket to Ride is an extremely popular, mainstream boardgame, although we can quibble over its definition of 'strategy' if you like. Still, it's combination of set collection and the tactical placement of your trains makes for a very compelling game - do you go the easiest route, or the longest? do you focus on your tickets, or try to subvert other player's routes? Do you place those trains now, or pick up those cards you desperately need?

Regardless, as an app and as an offline experience, it's well above par. The base purchase gets you the USA map, but most of the series' spin-offs and expansions are available to purchase via IAPs. IF you wait for a sale, you could easily stock up on options and you'll find yourself with a great shared experience to tide you through those long flights. You can even fit in a game with two people and two AI in an hour-long domestic flight, so if you're looking for a quintessential offline experience for two or more people, look no further than Ticket to Ride.

XCOM: Enemy Within

Likewise, the mobile port of XCOM is rightly lauded as one of the few PC-quality experiences to be had on a tablet. Not only did this standalone expansion of the original ground-breaking remake Enemy Unknown polish off all the rough edges of its original, it added great new wrinkles to the classic core gameplay. You still get a massive open-ended campaign with tactical turn-based missions, but now you have a much more interesting storyline that has your soldiers questioning whether they have gazed too long into the abyss to still be considered human.

Battle of Wesnoth

For a different sort of grand experience, try the venerable Battle for Wesnoth, an open-source project fifteen years in the making. It's a grand strategy game with a Tolkienesque fantasy theme. There's a massive variety of units in six highly distinct factions, plus different historical ages that change the balance. Its sixteen (!!) lengthy and story-based campaigns will keep you busy for a long long time. The complexity of the interface means this is one for the tablet, and the free Android version is a bit jankier than the more polished (and paid) iOS version.

Other iOS & Android Offline Strategy Games

Civilization VI

Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion

Slay

Templar Battleforce Elite

Aliens vs Humans

What would your favourite offline strategy games be for mobile? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

0 notes

netunleashed-blog · 6 years ago

Text

40 best PC games: the must-play titles you can't afford to miss

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=15147 40 best PC games: the must-play titles you can't afford to miss - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=15147 Now that people can actually afford the best graphics cards again, we can’t think of a better time to dive into the best PC games. Perhaps you’ve heard all the hype around Far Cry 5 and World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth and you want to see what all the fuss is about. So, let this be your introduction.We took the liberty of gathering 40 of the best PC games we’ve played over the years – you really need to try all of these fantastic titles out for yourself. Even if a few of the best PC games will require a keyboard and mouse, many of the best PC games can be played with a controller, if that’s more your style. You should also keep in mind that many of the games on this list are also available on Xbox One, PS4 or even Nintendo Switch – just in case you haven’t joined the PC gaming movement yet.If you’re a newcomer to PC gaming, we’d like to extend you a warm welcome. As we intend to demonstrate with this list, PC gamers don’t need to be the elitist gatekeepers we’re unfortunately stereotyped to be. We here at TechRadar believe in inclusivity – so that’s why we ranked the best PC games you can play today – so anyone can get in on the magic. Gabe Carey and Bill Thomas have also contributed to this article If you ask someone who was building PCs in the early 2010s, they’ll likely tell you the premier game to benchmark your new gaming rig with was either Metro 2033 or Metro: Last Light. And, if you missed out on those exciting times, you’re in luck, as this PC-centric shooter series will be pushing yet another generation of PCs when Metro Exodus launches later this year – and we’re expecting to see exactly when at E3 2018 next month.Forgoing the cramped metro tunnels of the first two titles, Metro Exodus will instead focus on the surface, offering players large areas to explore – without sacrificing the tension that the previous games’ linearity allowed. This game is sure to be one of the most beautiful games when it eventually launches. Unfortunately, it was just pushed back to 2019, so we’ll have to wait just a bit longer to get our hands on it.Expected: 2019 Beautiful visuals? Check. Huge explorable world? Check. Enthralling combat? Duh. The Witcher 3 stands tall as one of the most ambitious open world RPGs to date, combining Skyrim’s unrestrained grandiosity with Grand Theft Auto 5’s scale. While it’s been criticised for its inventory system and not quite matching the graphics shown in its promo materials, it’s so ambitious and jam-packed with detail that the package more than lives up to the hype. Huge, beautiful and an absolute time-sink, The Witcher 3 isn’t just the best PC game, it’s one of the best games period. Dragon Age: Inquisition, while not perfect, places you in the midst of a huge, vibrant world on a much larger scale than past Dragon Age titles. Packed with hours of engrossing story and a wealth of side content, Dragon Age: Inquisition brings the series to an open world setting in a smart and compelling way. If you want an idea of what this game is like, take the Elder Scrolls and combine it with Baldur’s Gate, and you have a pretty good idea. Inspired by, and made from the same developers as, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone is easy to learn, but hard to master. Like it’s big MMO sibling, Hearthstone combines classes, characters and a bit of random fortune when pitting you against either AI or online opponents. Stick with it and you’ll not just get rewarded by improved skill, but by in-game rewards as well. Keep in mind that while its accessibility is addictive, you shouldn’t expect to be a world-class Hearthstone champion overnight. Practice makes perfect, after all. Read: Hearthstone arrives on iPad, but it is better on tablet or PC? Although it's arguably not as difficult as previous entries in the series, From Software's Dark Souls 3 takes everything you like about the Souls series and combines it with elements found in Bloodborne, the developer's more recent game for PS4.We’re not going to lie – Dark Souls 3 isn’t easy. It still takes skill and, more importantly, patience to master its complex combat system, but it plays fair too, inviting more casual gamers to take part in its bleak, fantastical world. Plus, on the bright side, it brings remarkably better PC optimization than that of the first game. And, now that you can pick up Dark Souls: Remastered and see where this apocalyptic series got its start – there’s never been a better time to link the first flame. Pillars of Eternity is a sprawling RPG in the vein of Baldaur's Gate or Icewind Dale that combines highly detailed technical combat with hundreds of hours of gameplay. It has refreshingly low system requirements on the PC but still looks incredible thanks to its simple but effective art style, which harks back to those aforementioned isometric fantasy RPGs of the 2000s. But it's not all about nostalgia: Pillars of Eternity has enough interesting characters, baddies and clever writing to make it a modern classic of its own. Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most anticipated console ports to ever hit the PC. You probably didn't need telling twice to head back into Los Santos's hugely detailed and interactive world, but it's 10 times more fun with the PC's richer graphics and smooth 60 frames per second gameplay. After you’ve completed its 30-hour campaign, there’s an overflow of post-game content to enjoy here. Most recently that includes The Doomsday Heist in GTA Online and even a radio station hosted by Frank Ocean. BioShock is a first-person shooter that takes concepts from Ayn Rand's Atlast Shrugged and tosses them underseas. To be exact, BioShock takes place in an underwater city called Rapture, free from government regulation, designed for artists and entrepreneurs to thrive. Of course, not all goes well in a city where the residents have all the power and, well, stop what you're doing and play it right now if you haven't already.You're in for one of the great games if you play BioShock, one that balances story elements with horror nigh-perfectly. There's a remastered version out there now, too, which is free of charge if you own the original. Set 15 years after the events of the first Alien film from 1979, Alien: Isolation is the suspense-packed game that fans of the franchise have been crying out for. Playing the role of Amanda Ripley, daughter of Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley, your mission is to track down and recover the flight recorder of the Nostromo spacecraft from the first Alien film which has been located aboard the Sevastopol space station. First and foremost a stealth game, Isolation ramps up the tension by providing you with minimal weaponry. Its excellent graphics shine on high-end PCs and clever AI helps ramp up the dread, leaving you to quiver when turning every corner. Read: How the tech of Alien Isolation will scare you back into the 1970s If nothing else, Overwatch breaks the norm of gray-ish cover shooters competitive gaming year after year. Its bright, vibrant colors are complemented by likeable characters, each decorated with their own interesting backstories which, although they aren’t present in the game, make for fun web comics nevertheless. Overwatch is also a technical feat in that it can run smoothly even on older PCs. What’s more, the PC version is cheaper than on consoles, so long as you don’t opt for the Origins Edition. That goes without mentioning its astounding community of players. By now, there’s no excuse to sign into your Battle.net account and take every character – from Ana to Zenyatta – for a test run in Overwatch today. Even if it came out almost 6 years ago, Counter-Strike Global Offensive is still a fantastic update to a timeless classic that continues to thrive thanks to its vast online communities – it’s truly one of the best PC games. Global Offensive is a well-rounded tactical shooter that builds on the simple Terrorists vs Counter-Terrorists gameplay of Counter-Strike 1.6, by updating classic maps such as Italy and Dust – while also adding new modes in Arms Race and Demolition. Simpler than Battlefield, but more complex than Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a shooter for those who like to think – if only just a little bit. Read: 9 games that are far better on PC than consoles In a lot of ways, Far Cry 5 is the ultimate Far Cry game – combining all of the elements that has made the series successful, while cutting a lot of the fat (including the towers, thank god). And while on its own it doesn't do anything entirely new, it perfects the Far Cry formula to a point where Far Cry 5 is one of the best open world First Person Shooters you can play in 2018.After a very heavy and intense intro, you’re dumped in the middle of rural Montana and given the task of dismantling the local cult. But, that quickly fades into the background as a myriad of activities – from hunting down aliens to taking out outposts – ultimately become your focus. But it’s precisely this focus on playing your own way that makes Far Cry 5 so special. FTL (Faster Than Light) puts you command of running a spaceship and looking after its crew. Featuring a complex game mechanism that involves maintaining weapons, engines, shields and other areas, in addition to tactical combat, FTL can get extremely in-depth over time. Whether you're ordering your crew to quite literally put out fires on deck in the heat of battle, or are navigating through asteroid fields, FTL is as much about long-term progression and satisfaction as it is quick fixes. Don't let its indie stylings fool you: this is game with untold depth and scary levels of addictiveness. A 90s classic brought back to life (unlike its main protagonist), Grim Fandango Remastered is a successful attempt at reviving one of the PC's best adventure games of all time. Combining writing that matches the funniest dark comedies with clever puzzles and a still-impressive art style, Grim Fandango was the most entertaining work of art to take place in a Mexican setting for years until Breaking Bad came along. Now with updated graphics, sound and better controls, Manna Calavera's adventure has never looked so good. Read: Grim Fandango is headed to the PS4 and Vita Six years after its initial release, Skyrim is going as strong as ever thanks to a vast selection of mods and high-resolution texture packs. Even if you're only interested in playing the vanilla version of the RPG, it offers more than 100 hours of gameplay.Throw in three action packs DLC expansion packs (Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn), and it lasts even longer. That Skyrim has been compared to graphically superior but similar RPG blockbuster The Witcher 3 is testament to its enduring popularity. Step into Skyrim and you too can be an adventurer - just try not to take an arrow in the knee. Read: 9 games that are far better on PC than consoles If you’re anything like us, and you secretly pine for the days of ultra-fast arena shooters, you’re going to absolutely love Quake Champions. Unlike a lot of new games in ancient series, the DNA of Quake is left completely intact in Champions. You’re dumped into a relatively small map with a ton of verticality and armed with completely bonkers weaponry. And, there’s no battle royale or any other kind of trendy game modes here – it’s deathmatch all the way, baby. Much in the same way that Id Software mastered the reboot of Doom and brought it to a modern audience, Quake Champions is a nostalgic shooter that still manages to feel fresh in 2018. The kicker? If you act fast, you can score it for free on Steam ahead of its full release. Read: Is the MMORPG on the verge of extinction? The phrase "build it, and they will come" literally rings true when it comes to Minecraft, the survival-based sandbox RPG that has now been purchased more than 100 million times since its conception in 2009. In it, you can create your own worlds using resources you find in the wild or explore worlds created by other players online. In Minecraft, you can either limit yourself to the numerous tools and blocks provided by the developer, Mojang, or you can install mods to truly capitalize on your investment. What’s more, come 2018, you’ll be able to take part in the Super Duper Graphics Pack, an optional piece of DLC that adds more realistic lighting effects and textures to an already fantastic product. The Orange Box may be showing its age, but it remains a must-play collection of games - particularly for FPS fans. Half-Life 2, technically still the most recent game in Valve's franchise (excluding its Episode 1 and 2 add-ons), remains a modern masterpiece and is famed for being the first game to intelligently apply physics to its puzzles and combat set-pieces.The collection's other titles aren't too shabby either: Portal takes gravity-based puzzles to the extreme by equipping the player with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (also known as the Portal Gun), which places two portals for objects to pass through, while Team Fortress 2 continues to go from strength-to-strength thanks to the introduction of custom gear and well-balanced team combat. Read: 9 games that are far better on PC than consoles Sometimes a game that’s been out for 10 years becomes temporarily free on Origin and you just have to play it. Dead Space is one of those games. A survival horror game by definition, this acclaimed piece of science fiction stars a fittingly named Isaac Clarke, whose name itself is a combination of the famous sci-fi authors Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Told from an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, Dead Space is a rescue mission story, wherein you (as Isaac) are tasked with investigating a mining ship mysteriously full of alien virus-infected dead bodies. All the while, you’ll have to stay on top of upgrading your futuristic ‘RIG’ suit too. Id Software's Doom was a phenomena for PC gamers in the 90s. The crudely rendered first-person shooter series was as controversial as it was beloved, largely thanks to its cutting-edge depictions of gore and violence that only a computer could deliver. Parents be damned, the franchise has made a comeback in 2016 with a fresh restart, appropriately titled Doom. Although the multiplayer might not appeal to shooter fans regardless of age, the single player campaign will pit you against demons in Hell for a lengthy experience that's as bloody as it is satisfying. If Forza Horizon 3 is the racing game for newcomers to racing games, Asetto Corsa is the game for the grizzled experts. Its obtuse handling and insane difficulty straight from the get go makes it a toss up for one of the most realistic racing simulators of all time. And, even if you can get it on consoles, unlike Project Cars, this is a game that was developed for PC first. Everything about this game, from its demanding career mode to its deep seated driving mechanics – which basically require a racing wheel accessory – make it a joy for die-hard petrolheads, even if its difficulty curve is often just backbreaking. Read: Why realistic PC racer Project Cars is the torque of the town Modelled after the 1984 game Elite, Elite: Dangerous is one of the most ambitious space sims around. Featuring an in-game galaxy based on the real Milky Way (how's 400 billion stars for depth?), the ultimate goal is to advance your rankings to Elite status by levelling up combat, trading and exploration.Starting out with a rickety ship and 1,000 credits in your space suit's back pocket, you'll need to turn to piracy, trading, exploring, mining or bounty hunting to rise through the intergalactic ranks. Doing so takes time and requires serious graft, but the experience provides a level of satisfaction that few other titles can match. And then there's the Oculus Rift... From developer Playdead, the same team that devised the acclaimed (and platform ubiquitous) Limbo, comes another eerie tale. Like Limbo, Inside follows another nameless boy in a bleak world that's apparently out to get you. Only, this time, there's at least a few shades of color to keep you from complete despair. It's not clear why, but the mute protagonist in Inside is being chased down by what appears to a group of shadowy men.Nothing is explained in either spoken dialogue or text, so for the most part you're on your own when it comes to figuring out the story. Nonetheless, Inside is bound to be an instant classic; although, revealing anything about it would inch into spoiler territory. Want more games like this? Check out our best indie games list Described as "achingly beautiful" by Unity Engine boss John Riccitiello, Ori and the Blind Forest borrows its game mechanics from old-school 2D games such as Metroid and Castlevania while adding a modern twist. If any word can describe Ori's atmospheric world, it's alive. You'll have to think fast and use new abilities gained along the way to bash, stop and manoeuvre your way through its gorgeous locations, and with no automatic saving system or easy difficulty level, it's no walk in the park. As satisfying to master as it is to look at, Ori and the Blind Forest will re-open your eyes to what 2D games still have to offer. Unity CEO argues games are at, wants Jurassic Park in VR Grow Home is an experimental PC platformer that looks like an "indie" game but is in fact the latest release from Rayman developer Ubisoft. Similarly charming thanks to its distinctive 3D art style, you play as BUD, the game's robot protagonist, whose main job is harvest seeds and grow a beanstalk-like 'Star Plant' by grabbing its branches and connecting them to nearby floating islands in the sky.There's a fair bit of trial-and-error involved, and while having to climb all the way back up again after a fall is frustrating, grabbing a passing vine at the last minute by the tips of your fingers can be equally as exhilarating. The ability to move BUD's arms and legs independently helps put you in control - just try not to get them tangled up. Because you will - a lot. Unity CEO argues games are at, wants Jurassic Park in VR A 2D exploration game set on a boat can't be that creepy, right? Wrong. More gothic than a Cradle of Filth concert, Sunless Sea throws all manners of joyless themes your way: death, insanity and cannibalism to name a few. Sailing from port-to-port in the monster-filled underworld of Fallen London, you'll have to manage fuel and supplies while battling sentient icebergs, Zee-beasts and other water-dwelling nasties to remain afloat. Top-notch writing gives Sunless Sea an absorbing storyline that's up there with history's best text-based adventures. Already familiar to millions before they've played a played a second of it, Rocket League turns the age old game of football (or soccer, depending) on its head. Played with rocket-propelled cars in futuristic low-gravity environments, the aim is simple: knock the ball into the opposing team's goal. Doing so is harder said than done because there could be up to three cars on the opposing team trying to steal the ball off you - or ram you into submission - at any one time. Gorgeous to look, simple to learn but difficult to master, Rocket League is the surprise smash hit of 2015 - and a wonderfully addictive one at that.Read: 8 real-life footballers in Rocket League: which one are you? As inevitable as sandals in summer, Blizzard finally launched its first MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game in June. Featuring a ton of characters from Blizzard games such as Warcraft, World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm sees two teams of five attempt to destroy the other's base. When not sounding out enemy units to destroy, its expansive maps give you room to take on secondary objectives such as finding skulls or unlocking special siege units to help your team.Accessible to newcomers while packing plenty of depth, Heroes' finely balanced gameplay mechanics, shorter matches (compared to League of Legends) and ability-based levelling system make it a refreshing alternative to established MOBA titles and a fine game in its own right. Metal Gear Solid V, the last Metal Game which will be helmed by Hideo Kojima after his forceful ejection from Konami, is a hugely ambitious title. Its massive open world setting allows you to tackle missions using stealth, but you’re still able to go in guns blazing if you prefer – though you won’t get as good a score.Taking place nine years after the events of Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain’s story unravels through its main missions and more than 100 Side Ops tasks. The action is interspersed with beautiful cutscenes, and while you sometimes have to decode annoying pseudo-military babble to figure out what’s happening, TPP’s fast pacing and beautiful Afghanistan and African settings make sure the game never feels like a chore. A gripping horror game in the vein of Amnesia: The Dark Descent (it's from the same developer), SOMA has its fair share of "NOPE!" moments. But it's not really about jump scares; the game's most compelling aspect is its philosophical story arc, which unravels as you encounter a series of confused robots. Suffering from existential stress, the decaying machines believe they are human.The tension builds as you venture deeper into the underwater research facility that you wake up aboard, avoiding murderous creatures, solving clever puzzles and checking voice memos to unravel the mystery. Expertly weaving elements of survival and psychological Sci-Fi horror, SOMA is a little less action packed than Alien: Isolation but engages more of the old grey matter. If that's what you're looking for in a fright-fest, SOMA doesn't disappoint. if you think you've learnt a thing or two about prison life watching films like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption over the years, cuff-em-up Prison Architect lets you put your knowledge to the test. Playing as wardens, you're tasked with keeping prisoners in check, preventing riots from boiling over and foiling The Great Escape-style plots. And yes: it does involve sending men to the electric chair. Gnarly. Alternatively, a second mode called Escape lets you unleash your inner Bronson by hatching a plot to lead your fellow inmates to freedom. (Until you get arrested again, anyway.) Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide was one of the best PC games for anyone who loves playing the best PC games with friends. And, we’re delighted to say that Warhammer: Vermintide 2 takes the deep co-operative gameplay of the original and improves on it in every conceivable way.Although it technically allows you to form complex strategies with your teammates, the action often turns into chaos, where the only way you can survive is mindlessly bashing at enemies until you, and your teammates (preferably), are the only things left standing. And, because Vermintide 2 adds a wide range of Orc enemies on top of the familiar Skaven enemies, you’ll never run out of things to hack to pieces. It's official: Fallout 4 has lived up to the hype. Despite feeling a little bit like Fallout 3 but with nicer graphics at times, its tighter shooting, in-depth crafting system and well-thought out story make it a wholly more enticing affair.As the Sole Survivor (the first fully-voiced protagonist in the Fallout series) in Boston's post-apocalypse wasteland, you'll take on Feral Ghouls, Raiders, Syths and Bloodbugs and more with high-powered weaponry that includes the Fat Man mini nuke cannon and the fusion cell-powered Laser Musket. Fallout 4: the good, the bad and the ugly of the Boston Wastelands If the Call of Duty series is the poison that dumbed down the FPS genre with its run-and-gun gameplay, then Rainbow Six: Siege is the antidote. Working as a team to out-wit the enemy, Siege plays out like a thinking man (or woman's) Counter-Strike that doesn't simply encourage cooperation if you want to win - it requires it.When you're not peering down your gun's iron sights, you'll be laying traps, scouting ahead using drones, strategising with your teammates and building walls that could keep a herd of demented bulls at bay. While Siege's heavy reliance on tactical team-based gameplay can prove its biggest weakness if you're hoisted into a server with a particularly uncooperative bunch, when it does click, it provides a level of satisfaction rarely found in online multiplayer games. "Console port" is no longer a dirty phrase thanks to efforts like Rise of the Tomb Raider, which gets the treatment it deserves on PC. Featuring stunning and varied locations, exciting combat and effective stealth mechanics, Lara's epic outing often feels movie-like in its execution and scope.Crystal Dynamics has kept the soul of the original games intact too – there's pistols aplenty, amazing architecture and angry animals that would quite like to gobble you up – meaning you'll never get bored once you've soaked up Siberia's amazing architecture. If you're into adventures, it's easily one of the best PC games around. Imagine a survival-based shooter where every match starts with your avatar being ejected from a cargo plane alongside 99 other players with no weapons or items. That’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, or at least the solo, free for all mode. After spending the early minutes of the game digging for resources, you’ll soon be forced to reckon with your own mortality as the body count ticker at the top of the screen descends into desolation.Abbreviated PUBG, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is based on another “last man standing” game released back in 2013: PlayerUnknown’s Battle Royale. It doesn’t require a copy of Arma III or H1Z1 to run, but you’ll need to keep your wits about you. There’s no respawning in PUBG, so it’s less about the precision of your aim as it is about your ability to scavenge quickly for weapons, first aid kits and clothing. Picking up immediately after the events of Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will inevitably be heralded as a classic. For some, it’s the punishing old-school gunplay that’s to thank for this. Even on the default difficulty, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will have you fretting for your life. Yet, for others, story reigns supreme. And, if The New Colossus serves as an interactive showcase for anything, it’s story, the most interesting parts of which are told through flashbacks. We won’t go as far as to spoil the plot, but what we will say is that B.J. Blazkowicz’s motives become a lot clearer in this iteration of Wolfenstein, not that he needs to justify killing Nazis. Originally created as an entry to the 7 Day FPS Challenge, Superhot's Polish developers were inspired by a top-down game called Time4Cat where time only moves when the player does. They took this concept one step further and turned it into a FPS. Falling somewhere between Portal and Max Payne, nifty reflexes, patience and an eye for puzzle solving is required.The aim is to defeat a finite number of enemies by dodging bullets and returning a few yourself. The game is now available to buy and download on Steam, but you can head back to where it all began by playing the flash version of Superhot online for free. You'll need the Unity Web Player plugin which is currently not supported by Chrome. X-Com 2 is one addictive game, and we still can't put it down. Following up from 2012's XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which reimagined the 1994 cult classic UFO: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 has delivered everything we wanted in a sequel. Bigger, deeper, faster and even easier on the eyes, the turn-based tactics game takes place 20 years after its predecessor.It pits you in control of the Avenger, a converted alien ship that serves as your mobile base of operations used to devise strategy and execute fight plans against otherworldly enemies. With a greater focus of stealth, more intelligent alien AI and deeper customization options, XCOM 2 is bound to end up one of our games of the year. Anyone familiar with World of Warcraft knows that it's among the most successful and influential massively multiplayer online role-playing games (or MMORPGs) of all-time. Comprising nearly 14 years of content, with over thousands of hours just waiting to be invested, there are few better games to spend your money on than World of Warcraft.With Battle For Azeroth, the all-new expansion pack, players will be able to explore two new continents – Kul Tiras for Alliance players and Zandalar for the Horde. Blizzard has kept the leveling system from Legion, as well, meaning you can tackle the new zones in any order you feel like. This will of course come with all the new raids and dungeons we’ve grown accustomed to over the years and a storyline that will see the two playable factions at each other's’ throats in a major way. From PlatinumGames and Square Enix, Nier: Automata is a sequel to the 2010 cult classic Nier, which itself is a spin-off of the Drakengard series. Technically an action role-playing game, Nier: Automata’s most gripping quality is that it never truly adheres to one particular genre. At times, it’s a 2.5D platformer and, at others, it’s a twin-stick shooter. It’s unpredictable and a breath of fresh air when compared to other PC games out on the market.The story centers around a femme android by the name of 2B who is aided by a survey android called 9S, or Nines. With many questions being asked along the way, both of these characters are tasked with extricating Earth from alien machines that have engulfed the planet. Just be conscious of how you play because not only does Nier: Automata feature different endings, but with each new path comes vastly different gameplay. Source link

0 notes

ntrending · 7 years ago

Text

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Launch Was a Joyful Success

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/spacexs-falcon-heavy-launch-was-a-joyful-success/

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Launch Was a Joyful Success

Patience was in short supply during the leg-jiggling, finger-tapping, tension-filled hours before the launch of the Falcon Heavy, which would, if successful, become the most powerful operational rocket on the planet. From thousands of miles away viewers obsessively checked Twitter for live updates from the hundreds of reporters and thousands of visitors who showed up to witness history.

The knotted insides of space enthusiasts clenched tighter as the launch slipped from 1:30 to 2:20, to 2:50, then came 3:15. Fast-moving winds had stirred the blue skies and the upper atmosphere above the rocket sitting on launchpad 39A. The countdown clock stopped, along with the hearts of people who had been waiting seven years for this moment—when Elon Musk introduced the idea of the Falcon Heavy to the world in 2011.

This afternoon, winds in the upper atmosphere were blowing at speeds 20 percent higher than the acceptable level for rockets of this kind to take off safely. Anxiety levels rose as time dribbled out of the 2.5 hour launch window. Then, the countdown clock restarted and a new launch time was set for 3:45.

They started fueling up, adding purified kerosene known as RP-1 to the rocket. Spirits and hopes rose once again as the engineers poured liquid oxygen into the Falcon Heavy, a vote of confidence that the rocket would launch today.

Hundreds of thousands of people tuned into the live webcast long before it went live, patiently awaiting the first glimpse of the Falcon Heavy. In the end, 2.3 million people tuned in to watch the big event.

Then, there it was, surrounded by a cloud of vented oxygen. The weather held. No technical errors arose. It was five minutes to launch, then 30 seconds, then, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1…flame and fire roared along with the crowd, and the most powerful rocket in operation today was on its way up, burning its path in the sky.

The scene was breathtaking, but could the rocket stick the landing? As the Falcon Heavy approached the darkness at the edge of our atmosphere, cheers arose once again as two Falcon cores on the sides broke cleanly away from the center core, pivoting back towards two landing pads on Cape Canaveral. Shortly afterwards, the last segment of the first stage separated, and headed back towards a drone ship. Landing the rockets carefully, instead of smashing them into the ocean makes it more likely that they can be reused on another flight.

The two side cores were already veterans at landing, having been used in previous missions. They landed in unison, a dramatic flourish to cap off a successful launch. It was, according to the people gathered around computers at Popular Science “strangely beautiful”, and “like watching synchronized swimmers, but rockets.” In the words of the jubilant SpaceX flight engineer, “The Falcons have landed.”

The remaining Falcon, the center core, headed towards a drone ship just as the video feed of the landing cut off during the descent. As of this writing, the fate of the center core is still unknown.

Now, a cherry-red Tesla roadster, ‘driven’ by a mannequin clad in a SpaceX branded spacesuit is on its way towards Mars orbit, where it will orbit the sun for about a billion years, occasionally getting close to the Red Planet, but likely—hopefully—not close enough to graze its surface.

Starman won’t be totally alone for that time. A tiny model of both the car and Starman will go with him, along with a plaque bearing the names of 6,000 SpaceX employees, and a disc specially designed to hold information even in the hostile environment in space. The data includes specifics on human knowledge, including famed science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.

Currently, SpaceX has a live stream of Starman where you can watch as he orbits Earth:

This was only a test run of the rocket, hence the publicity-seeking payload. But now, an heir to the Saturn V rocket, which carried people to the Moon, exists. The Falcon Heavy isn’t quite as powerful as the Saturn V, but it is operational. NASA discontinued the Saturn V in the 1970s. Since then, the world has gone without a heavy lift rocket, until now. The Falcon Heavy will likely ferry satellites to space, like its smaller Falcon 9 siblings, but it has the potential to go further, pushing us—or at least our proxies—towards the Moon, or Mars, or farther. There is no doubt that it is a heavyweight, but its reign might be short. Other rockets, including SpaceX’s own BFR system, a fully reusable two-part rocket and spaceship system, might soon displace it at the top, and ultimately that might be the one that lands on Mars with earthlings inside it.

But that’s all in the future. And for now, its still an uncertain future. There will be schedule changes, budget changes, and payload changes, and it’s still unclear as to when humans will actually head to the Mars, or back to the moon. More discussions and debates need to be had, and there’s still much more humans need to accomplish in space. This was an exhilarating, silly, and perhaps a bit ostentatious display of what humans can achieve. But it does show how much more we have left to do: There are scientific missions to launch, human outposts to establish, and a whole universe of worlds to explore.

For now, we’re in a spot where we can take a deep breath, watch an empty space suit in a used sports car circling the Earth, and get ready for what comes next.

Written By Mary Beth Griggs

#Space

0 notes

inventedworld · 7 years ago

Text

MISFIRE? Provocations from Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One”

Nobody says being a giant means you’re infallible.

For several years, a hot book from a freshly minted novelist circulated among the swank conference rooms and expensive lunch tables of the media world. After an intense bidding war, Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” was finally on a trajectory to the silver screen, amplified by his own screenplay based on his source material. None other than the great populist himself, Steven Spielberg, would direct.

Cline is no newcomer to the world of storytelling. He has a number of screenwriting credits to his name, and he built a loyal following of geeks and freaks over the years who like the tales he tells. “Ready Player One” put him in a new galaxy, however, rocketing to the top of best seller lists around the country, only to arrive at an even shinier Warner Brothers payday. With Spielberg’s golden touch for fanciful flights of dreamy escape, the project looked like would be the new event movie.

The book and its matching screenplay concern a future struggling in the aftermath of a massive energy crisis. Somehow, despite the lack of reliable power, virtual reality has become a major cultural influence, and the place where we find our neer-do-well protagonist. The plot careens through chance encounters, heroic quests, and inevitable moments of personal discovery in an effort to change the fortunes of the hero.

That’s the book. Reviews were solid; fans loved it—cracker-jacks for those who liked to disappear into escapist narrative.

In movie-production land, however, rumors began to leak: something was not quite right. Pre-production got underway, then principal shooting. Did this make sense? Was this the story that people wanted to see on a big screen? All indications were that this was to be the next “it” movie, a blend of old time adventure and new-fangled futurism, a dystopic expanse that audiences were finally used to seeing (See also: Hunger Games, Divergent, Blade Runner, The Walking Dead, and twenty-ka-zillion other stories about things going badly for humanity). Considering that the story concerned massive multiplayer video games and virtual reality, there seemed to be huge potential for product tie-ins and nostalgic views of the past—which meant multiple target age groups. The trailer to the movie also trades in endless pop culture references, dangling them on screen like fishing lines. Naturally the story also included an adolescent romance designed to attract young males and females, essential if the movie was to be a breakout, mainstream hit.

When something looks like it’s got the formula down, one begins to wonder if there’s a soul inside that formula, or simply a series a cold algorithm built of logical instructions.

When an early teaser emerged onto the internet a few months ago, vague echoes of sad sounding trombones played in the minds of audiences far and wide. Yawn! The trailer looked like Spielberg, and felt like Spielberg, but Spielberg developed his Spielberg-y look and feel in the last quarter of the 20th Century. While there’s no doubt that he’s made terrific movies since then (Lincoln, Bridge of Spies) his older, adolescent groove is not the vibe that generally describes early 21st Century culture. Something seemed amiss, even as all the parts looked like they were in place.

Are we looking at a huge misfire from The Master? Can’t say for sure: the movie hasn’t been released yet. But contemplating the possibility provokes a few important considerations.

First, even great creators can make less-than-ideal choices. Not every single piece of music in Mozart’s massive oeuvre deserves equal opportunity for performance.

The larger, more vital consideration concerns the transformation of culture. Culture always changes, responding to circumstances and styles, events and experiences. These days we live in a more fragmented culture than ever before, with a million nuanced sub-cultures vying for attention and relevance. The internet and the various forms of content it delivers presents strangely singular refractions of the culture to every user. There is no longer big, monolithic culture. Things are more complicated these days. Content delivery has become atomized, thus rendering precisely tailored media experiences and values in ways the modern world has never seen before. While big, mainstream media events still have currency, the range of possibilities have narrowed precisely because there are fewer big tents anymore. Everyone stays inside their own camp more and more, and it’s rare for people to sit next to people they haven’t already identified as members of the right clan.

This is all about tribalism versus trend-spotting. Where minorities, cultural niches, and special interests once had to shoehorn themselves into less specific media experiences, they could project their own identities (at least) into big, fantastical entertainments. There were thought experiments that could be bolted on to mainstream, middle-of-the-road stories. But now in an era where many subcultures are, finally, more free to be themselves (although let’s not pretend: there are still miles to go!) big tent entertainments of the past do not necessarily have the same magnetism for subcultures of the present. Implication of commonality in big corporate entertainments is no longer adequate when people have a much better chance of actually finding commonality simply by typing their tribal self-descriptions into a Google search box.

There’s still more. Ordinary technical competence is no longer enough to confer quality. Movies simply are expected to deliver extraordinary visuals and sound. The democratization of sophisticated tools have enabled mediocre artists to delivery surprisingly polished works, at least superficially. Where stories of fantastic worlds used to capture pop culture attention, they do not necessarily do so anymore. Spaceships and aliens are easy; good stories about them are not. Dystopias used to be all the rage, but hey! Who needs an artificial dystopia these days? Have you spent any time reading the news lately?

We live in a darker time, where white hats and black hats aren't as easy to pick out of fictional crowds as they once were. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, one of Spielberg’s great youthful entertainments, we knew who the bad guys were because they wore Nazi uniforms. A decade later we knew who the bad guys were in Amistad (well intentioned, but not nearly as good) because they were the ones buying and selling slaves at auction. Since then, audiences demand more. While slave traders or their apologists will never have even the smallest measure of acceptability, other stories demand more nuanced presentations.

In the real world today, the most accomplished, most daring American explorers fly to the International Space Station to share months on orbit with Russian colleagues. It’s ironic. The levels of technical, scientific, and interpersonal trust necessary for life and work on ISS are extraordinary and highly complex. Considering the profoundly distrustful animus between our countries—Russia: the country that purportedly tried to sabotage American elections— it’s hard to know what side anyone’s on anywhere. Ethics have all become contextual. They always were, but before atomized modes of information consumption emerged (think Twitter, YouTube, Facebook), broader expressions had to contain more diverse groups. Now we want to see more nuance and texture in our media diets, and because we now can in ways we never could before, all of the media mechanisms we used to think would work….might not!

Ultimately, we we return to “Ready Player One”. Do we believe in the story? Are the promises of endless pop cultural references going to work like one long, self-referential tickle-in-the-ribs? Is it perceptive enough to make use care? Is it good, or is it just showy? Is it cool? We’re going to find out in 2018. It might be a blast. It might be a dud. But one thing we do know for sure is that the maxim attributed to screenwriter William Goldman remains eternally true: “Nobody knows anything.”

@michaelstarobin

facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

#Spielberg #culture #dystopia

0 notes

waynekelton · 5 years ago

Text

The Best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS

Community Suggestions & Hall of Fame

Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion

Slay

Templar Battleforce Elite (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Aliens vs Humans (iOS Universal & Android)

Games for the Bus

Bad North (iOS Universal and Android)

Star Traders: Frontiers (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Rebel Inc. (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Just like its predecessor Plague Inc., Rebel is an excellent drop-in/drop-out game that allows you to pause the action and come back to it at a later date. This real-time strategy experience puts you in the shows of a newly appointed administrator of a troubled region recovering from a recent war (evoking memories of the recent War in Afghanistan, specifically). You must spend your budget wisely on government improvements and initiatives to help the population rebuild and to win support.

Doorkickers (iPad and Android) (Review)

Frozen Synapse Prime (iOS Universal and Android)

Iron Marines (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Games for the Airplane

Tharsis (iPad) (Review)

Ticket to Ride (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (iPhone|iPad & Android)

Lots of old console titles have been ported to mobile, but not many are worth the hassle. Final Fantasy Tactics is the exception. Brought over from the beautiful PSP port with an improved translation, gorgeous cel-shaded cutscenes, and new aspect ratio, the game still has the PlayStation original's RPG-influenced tactics. Most importantly, FFT is the one console port that works brilliantly with touch controls. What makes FFT a great use of your offline time is its mammoth campaign with a rich, mature storyline. There's gameplay here to fill a few months of commutes.

XCOM: Enemy Within (iOS Universal & Android) (Review)

Battle of Wesnoth (iOS Universal and Android)

What would your favourite offline strategy games be for mobile? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

0 notes

waynekelton · 5 years ago

Text

The Best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS

Community Suggestions & Hall of Fame

Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion

Slay

Templar Battleforce Elite (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Aliens vs Humans (iOS Universal & Android)

Games for the Bus

Star Traders: Frontiers (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Rebel Inc. (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Doorkickers (iPad and Android) (Review)

Frozen Synapse Prime (iOS Universal and Android)

Iron Marines (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Games for the Airplane

Tharsis (iPad) (Review)

Ticket to Ride (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (iPhone|iPad & Android)

XCOM: Enemy Within (iOS Universal & Android) (Review)

Battle of Wesnoth (iOS Universal and Android)

What would your favourite offline strategy games be for mobile? Let us know in the comments!

The Best Offline Strategy Games for Android & iOS published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

0 notes