APP SALE: Sci-Fi Game ‘Implosion’ is Free, Down From $10

A sci-fi game called Implosion just went on sale for free, down from its usual price of US$9.99. Twenty years after the fall of Earth, the remnants of the Human race are once again faced with extinction. The time has come to justify our existence. A mysterious life form known as the XADA squares off against humanity’s last weapon – the War-Mech series III battle suit. Features: Stunning console-quality graphics, first-class voice acting and Hollywood-grade audio production. Full orchestral scores masterfully mixed by Grammy Award winner and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy engineer, John Kurlander.

Behind the Design of ‘Sky: Children of the Light’ Game

“Sky: Children of the Light” is an iOS game with some beautiful visuals. Apple shared the story behind the design in its latest developer update.

Early on, it was clear that Sky would be an ambitious title for Chen and the creative team. This would be their first game for a mobile device, the first that relied on touch instead of console controllers, and their first attempt at an online multiplayer experience — one that celebrated connection over conflict. The team ultimately worked for seven years before bringing Sky to life, with more than 70 people contributing to the game over its creative development.

Starting Today Get ’Magic: The Gathering Arena’ on Mac

Starting today, gamers can download “Magic: The Gathering Arena” on Mac through the Epic Games Store.

Our macOS release will feature full cross-platform support in parity with our Windows client, including the upcoming release of Core Set 2021. New and current players will find the same cards, formats, events, play queues, and features on macOS as they can on Windows.

Ubisoft Sues Apple Over ‘Rainbow Six: Siege’ Copyright

Ubisoft is suing Apple and Google over a Chinese game it calls “a near carbon copy” of its game Rainbow Six: Siege.’

It says it has raised the issue with both Apple and Google, which both take a cut of sales on their respective app stores.

“But rather than take any measures to stop or curtail the infringement… Google and Apple instead decided that it would be more profitable to collect their revenue share from AF2 and continue their unlawful distribution,” Ubisoft says in its court filing.

Do they expect the App Store review team to be able to spot copyright  infringement related to a company that is definitely not their own company, Apple?

Crusader Kings III Release Date on Macs Set for September 1

Paradox Development Studio announced the Crusader Kings III release date today. It comes to Mac, Linux, and Windows on September 1.

The new title focuses more on your ruling family’s personality, complete with character lifestyles and traits (acting against them can lead to stress or even breakdowns), earning Renown to boost your reputation and inducing Dread to keep people in line. Dynasties can split into individual houses, blackmail is an option, skilled fighters can become knights, and you can set Tenets and Doctrines for religions that deviate from the original.

This Coral Game Helps You Train NASA Supercomputer ‘Pleiades’

NASA recently launched a game for iOS called NeMO-NET. In the game, players set forth with their ship Nautilus to scan the ocean floor. You identify and classify different types of corals, earn badges for completing missions, and watch educational videos about sea life. The data from the game is used to train NASA’s supercomputer called Pleiades, located at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. The goal is for Pleiades to recognize corals from various scientific instruments so that the agency can map corals across the world. App Store: Free

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection Arrives June 5

Electronic Arts is releasing a Command & Conquer remastered collection on June 5. It features Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert along with their three expansion packs: Covert Ops, Counterstrike, and The Aftermath. They provide a reveal trailer on YouTube. The graphics are in a higher resolution to match modern device screens, up to 4K resolution. Some aspect of gameplay has been changed, but it’s otherwise faithful to the original games. I remember playing Red Alert and liked it, so I look forward to the remastered version It will be available for PC via Steam and Origin.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that it would be released for PC and Mac. It will be available only for Windows.

Atari’s Missile Command Heads to iOS This Spring

2020 is the 40th anniversary of Missile Command and Atari is bringing it to iOS sometime this spring.

Missile Command: Recharged maintains the same perspective of the original game, in which missile silos battle incoming rockets to protect civilian structures. Recharged uses a neon-colored visual design, a la classic arcade game re-imaginings like Pac Man Championship Edition and Space Invaders Extreme. Gameplay has been remixed, with power-ups, an upgrade system, and an augmented reality mode that projects gameplay onto a “virtual arcade cabinet.”

Stardew Valley 1.4 Update Finally Available for iOS

Long awaited by mobile gamers, the huge Stardew Valley 1.4 update is finally available for iOS and iPadOS. There are new 14 heart events for every spouse, a new late-game building upgrade in town, Fish Ponds for farming, over 60 new items, 24 hairstyles, 181 shirts, and other new clothing items, or create your own clothes with the Tailoring skill, sheds can be upgraded, 14 new music tracks, transfer save files on PC to mobile, and various Quality of Life improvements.

Steam Game Terraforming Mars Heads to iOS

Terraforming Mars, a Steam game that was previously only available for PCs, has made its way to iOS. It’s a strategy game in which players try to terraform Mars to make it habitable. You play as a corporation, and each one has a different specialization, like metal, heavy industry, financier, biotech, or energy. You work together with other corporations in the terraforming process, and compete to get points based on your contributions. You can play solo with AI opponents or online with humans. It requires a minimum of iOS 10 to download. App Store: US$8.99

‘Settlers of Catan’ Could be Niantic’s Next AR Game

Niantic has had two popular AR games on its hands in the form of Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. What possibly be next? Maybe Settlers of Catan.

Late last month, the company behind Catan said during a board games conference in Germany that it was working on a “upcoming massively multiplayer location based game” (albeit with no mention of Niantic). Called Catan: World Explorers, they noted that it “transforms the entire Earth into one giant game of CATAN”.