What are you playing?

I love Civ Rev, and the first one was a very faithful adaptation of its console counterpart for the mobile platform. But the only real reason to get the second is if it’s cheaper than 1. They are very, very similar.

Does 1 still work? I don’t think it’s on the App Store. I may have bought it years ago; I’ll have to go through my purchases and check.

Hmm, good question. I bought it years ago so I am not sure if it is still out there. Appocalypse might have ended it.

Civ Rev 1 was a victim of the Appocalypse…

Well then I definitely recommend Civ Rev 2.

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Thanks, guys. I think I’m going to grab it for the trip.

Seeking my last tidbit of advice before I start my summer travels:

Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic or Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for an iPhone 6+?

Classic with addons- design your own coasters. Also offline

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Probably gonna be out of town this weekend and thus not playing much, but I fired up Dark Souls 2, finally, and I’m actually enjoying it quite a bit. These games’ atmosphere just clicks with me so hard.

Jurassic Park Evolution

I recently wrote about my love/hate relationship with tycoon games in a Stately Scrying, but I bought Jurassic Park Evolution because I love the theme and I knew my boy would love watching me play - and helping with some dino decisions.

So far, I’m loving it. I’m not far in, but now that I understand the systems, by first park is beginning to thrive, though as Dr. Malcolm predicted, there is still chaos from time to time.

The vibe that I get from Evolution is a little bit Anno, a little bit Motorsport Manager. This isn’t a tycoon game in the vein of Rolercoaster Tycoon where advancement is primarily through money, which leads to more rides, which leads to more money, etc. instead, there is a research system where you need to spend money in different areas of research to unlock new buildings and features. Many of your projects, therefore, have prerequisite buildings or research. In a way, there is a bit of an RTS element to the game.

The game also has three general divisions (science, entertainment, and security) from which you will constantly be receiving missions, which serve to help guide your progress. This means there is always something specific to do. It also leads to a bit of a balancing act, as each division will give you certain upgrades, but you can’t focus on everything at once. I was immediately reminded of Motorsport Manager and the multiple upgrade paths that force toy to decide where to prioritize your money and time.

Reviews for Evolution are all over the board with much praise and much scorn. Those who are unhappy with it seem to want more depth; in Evolution, for example, you can’t check in with individual guests, you can’t change the speed or even pause, etc. I personally couldn’t care less as the game gives me a slight RTS vibe and doesn’t lose me in all the minutiae. And it isn’t as if the game is shallow - the research trees, the genetic modifications, and even the dinosaurs themselves offer plenty of depth for me.

The highlight of the game, of course, is the dinosaurs. They look great and they do seem to have personality. I had a blast when I build a new pen and put a carnotaurus in it. I later released a triceratops and as the gate was opening to let the trike in, my carnotaurus snuck through the trees then made a bolt for the gate. He didn’t get out, but I immediately knew he would be trouble. I also idiotically put the trike in the same pen, thinking that because they could defend themselves, they could co-exist. Instead, they killed each other and I was genuinely sad that my sneaky little carnivore didn’t last much more than a month.

So far, I’m very pleased. If I were a number crunching min/maxer who devours charts and graphs for dinner, maybe I would find the game lacking, but it has hooked me more than other tycoon games on personality alone.

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Bf 110 G-2 familiarization:

Still working my way through IL-2 Moscow’s Ten Days of Autumn campaign. Things are not looking so great from inside this particular Bf-109 cockpit.

Believe it or not this is a screen from Wh40k Inquisitor: Martyr (The ship’s name is Martyr) and not from Battlefleet Gothic Armada (2).
Way to win me over…I am such a sucker for Wh40k Space Vessels…

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Has anyone played Shadowverse? I assumed it was just f2p garbage, but I’ve recently read some good tings about it that consider it one of the quality CCGs on ios. I’m just curious what the Stately crowd feels about the game.

I can’t actually play it. Something about profile corruption caused me to be locked out as it’s attached to my GC profile.

I’ve heard good things, too … but I can’t get past the art. That whole style is just not my thing.

Plus, I’ve sold my soul to make a run at legend rank in ES: Legends. No time for anything else that flips cards.

If you play S’Verse, be sure to give us your impressions.

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I think I may give it a go in this coming week. I don’t know how valuable my opinions are, though - I think M:TG is still the best CCG ever, Eternal is the best CCG app, Hearthstone is rather bad, and Pokémon is better than most people give it credit for.

On a whim I started up a new dynamic career in Il-2 Battle of Stalingrad as a Stuka pilot. The missions in the scripted campaign are nice and bite-sized: 10 minutes to half an hour. In contrast, this simple mission to bomb a river crossing lasted almost an hour.

Dieter Sommer, my randomly generated pilot (Iron Man mode, baby):

Flying in formation on the way to the target:

While dropping my bomb on a machinegun emplacement, I took a fuel tank hit. Stuka in trouble:

I made it home, but only thanks to our escort, as some Soviets jumped our flight on the way home, and my ship was in no shape to make evasive maneuvers, as it was pulling very hard to the right thanks to the unbalanced fuel weight. I made it back on the ground…barely.

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I wish there were an IL game on the PS4.

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I am completely terrified of hex and counter war games. My brain fries just looking at them. I’m not up for the challenge of learning their complexities, and I feel like I haven’t poured over enough historical battle plans to be very competitive.

All that said, Carrier Battles on iOS intrigues me because it can help enforce the rules that I don’t understand. Does anyone have any opinions on the game?