Stephen Fry voices Einstein in a game that launched on iOS recently. Einstein on Time is the first in a children’s educational app series—Human Heroes—centered on history’s greatest minds. From the philosophers of ancient Greece, to the giants of science, renowned artists, composers, mathematicians, authors and architects – these inspirational characters are brought back to life in a futuristic theatrical setting to perform a captivating live-show experience covering their life and their famous discoveries.In addition to the educational value of the subjects covered in each individual app, the series aims to develop a deep-lasting bond between the user and these intellectual champions so that they become life-long role models for children. Created by edtech startup KalamTech and in collaboration with education experts, the app blends computer generated animations, latest gamification techniques and interactive storytelling to bring a fresh kind of learning experience to the next generation.App Store: US$3.99
Command & Conquer: Rivals PVP launches on the App Store. Lead your army to victory in The War for Tiberium. Battle to dominate your enemy with Commanders from the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod. Customize your army with a unique commander, infantry units, and vehicles. Conquer opponents in one-on-one battles and strategically direct your forces to earn every victory. In this war, control is power. The strategy behind your skills determines victory or defeat. Choose a Commander to lead your forces – each holds powerful abilities that can influence your approach and turn the tide of battle. Create winning combinations of infantry, tanks, aircraft, and high-tech behemoths. Customize your army to align with your Commander’s unique abilities, then unleash formidable weapons and vehicles in all-out war. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)
Ocmo is an award winning ninja rope platformer that challenges even hardcore gamers. Fluid movement, physics based gameplay and tight controls create unique sense of freedom and flow. Survive the 80 dangerous levels including secrets and boss fights. Set new records and share speedrunning videos. Swing with tentacles through the levels using momentum to your advantage. Eat rabbits and discover the world. You are the monster of the forest. Features: Lots of dying, ragdoll rabbits, physics-based eating, unique and precise controls, hard to master, well crafted and diverse level design, loads of depth, designed for speedrunning, online leaderboards, beautiful world with a small but dark story to discover, and more. App Store: Ocmo – Free (usually US$4.99)
In this episode, Bryan Chaffin ask if Apple’s rumored next iPad Pro is the Mac replacement long predicted. They also discuss what went wrong with Apple TV gaming, and the pros and cons and cons and cons of iPhone driver’s licenses. They sneak some Anki Vector love in there, too.
Civilization VI on an iPhone? Really, it boggles my mind that Civ VI can played on an iPad, but Aspyr announced Thursday that it’s now available for iPhone, too. What these “phones” we carry with us everywhere can do is really something else. In any event, Civ VI for iPhone is free download—the free version lets you play 60 turns, enough to see if you’re going to like it. You can unlock the full game for $23.99 as an in-app purchase. It’s a hybrid app, too, so if you already bought it for iPad, you can download it on iPhone.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a popular turn-based game and part of the Civilization game series. The company behind the game—Aspyr Media—recently reengineered the game to make it available for the iPad. And now it’s available for the iPhone as well. To celebrate the game is 60% off at US$23.99, when it’s normally US$59.99. Download now and play your first 60 turns for free. Purchase the full game to build an empire that stands the test of time. Civilization VI requires iOS 11 and an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, iPhone 8 or 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, or any iPad Pro. The game offers new ways to interact with your world, expand your empire across the map, advance your culture, and compete against history’s greatest leaders to build a civilization that will stand the test of time. Play as one of 20 historical leaders including Roosevelt (America) and Victoria (England).
A cool app called World Creator combines gameplay from the popular app 2048 with a SimCity-like building simulator game. Choose various historical personages as your hero, build your city in 2048 style, meanwhile cast unique skills to attack or disturb opponents, crash their cities and become the champion. Witness opponents’ construction progress in realtime, collect vairous skins of the heroes, fight with other players in different styles, and upgrade your heroes, enhance skill power, overwhelm your opponents in the battlefield. Spring to winter, sunrise to sunset, day to night, enjoy the view of your civilization in construction from every angle. App Store: World Creator! – Free
With macOS Mojave now in developer beta, many will want to try it out as soon as the public beta is released. There are some ways to do this with care and caution and still have fun.
Hey Mac gamers, Aspyr Media has Command & Conquer: Generals Deluxe Edition for Mac on sale for $5, which is now downloading on own Mac even now. That’s right, I took the time to buy it before alerting you, because what if it turned out to be a mistake and the price went up!?! 😱 But for reals, who doesn’t love Command & Conquer? Unfortunately, it’s a single player game these days because Apple has mostly abandoned Game Center, but it’s a great (though old) single player game, so giddy up! This version includes Command & Conquer: Generals and the Zero Hour expansion.
The grand prize for the sweepstakes are tickets to attend the premiere of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in Los Angeles this December, as well as a private tour of Lucasfilm in San Francisco.
Just like Nintendo is resurrecting the NES Mini and SNES Mini, so too is Atari bringing back its own gaming console. Design-wise, the Ataribox takes design inspiration from the Atari 2600. One model has the familiar black and wood design, while the other has black with red accents. Both have the raised back and ribbing, with glass and wood finishes for the front. The rest of the specs are all modern. The Ataribox will come with an HDMI port, four USB ports, and SD card expansion slots, which may hint that Atari will allow sideloading. More detailed internals haven’t been released yet, but Atari promises to stuff it full of “modern internal specs” to support “current gaming content.” Pricing and release date information haven’t been released either, and Atari says they want to “get this right” before they make any more announcements.
Nostalgic gamers rejoice, for Nintendo is bringing back its classic console as the mini Super NES Classic console system. It will come with 21 games like Super Mario World, F-ZERO, Final Fantasy III, Earthbound, Super Mario Kart, and Star Fox 2, which was previously unreleased. Nintendo will launch the mini SNES Classic Edition on September 29th for US$79.99. Just like the NES Classic, it will have an HDMI port so you can hook it up directly to your TV. Hopefully Nintendo learned its lesson when it released the NES Classic, which was hard to come by because of limited stock and was discontinued earlier this year. When September finally comes around, it wouldn’t be surprising if the SNES Classic is quickly sold out.
[Update: I checked with Kalypso on Mac support, and unfortunately the company said Railway Empire won’t be coming for the Mac. Despite being released on Steam—and Linux for crying out loud—there’s no Mac version planned. The original reports of it coming to the Mac were blamed on an error in the press release.] Yeah, I went through two keyboards trying to write this post. They kept shorting out from all the drool. It’s this new game, Railway Empire, which is being teased with the not-subtle tagline, “All Aboard Railway Tycoons!” It looks amazing. It looks like it picks up where Railroad Tycoon and Railroads left off, but bigger and more detailed. Players can invest in 300 technologies. There are 40 different trains “modeled in extraordinary detail.” Players will also have to manage work forces and can conduct raids and industrial espionage against rivals. Zzzzt! Dangit. There went another keyboard…in any event, it’s scheduled for release in the 1st quarter of 2018 for Mac, PC, Xbox, PS4, and Linux. Watch the amazing trailer below.
