Pokemon Sun and Moon Unused Walking Animations Uncovered

Back in 2009, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver contained the technology to allow Pokemon to follow player characters around the overworld, and to be used for puzzle solving. That technology was seemingly lost to time, given that every Pokemon game released since has lacked the feature.

However, it looks like developer Game Freak has been working on reintroducing the feature, based on a series of Tweets from user @KazoWAR, reported Kotaku’s Patricia Hernandez.

Having delved into the game files, KazoWAR and others have found unused low-poly meshes and animations that depict many Pokemon simply idling and walking – animations that are not used in the battles found in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

At this stage it isn’t clear why the follow feature wasn’t included in Pokemon Sun and Moon, despite the presence of the assets within the game files. Assumedly it was simply an issue of time, priority, or performance. Or, perhaps they were built in preparation for its inclusion in the rumored third version of the game coming to Nintendo Switch?

Given that sales for this latest Pokemon title have skyrocketed, here’s hoping more time can be given to including following Pokemon in future titles.

Source : tripeaks card games

Space Hulk: Deathwing Gets a New 17 Minute Gameplay Trailer

AS STATED PREVIOUSLY, VENGEANCE GUIDES OUR WEAPONS.

Space Hulk: Deathwing is an upcoming first-person-shooter from Streum On Studio, which promises to put players into the huge Terminator power-armor of a Dark Angels Librarian.

The 17-minute chunk of gameplay footage released this week shows the player delving into the cramped and creaking corridors of a Space Hulk, teeming with Genestealers and various other enemies from Warhammer 40k lore.

This early gameplay footage looks great, though it’s not without its faults. The ambient chatter from the player character and his pair of squadmates is repetitive and limited, and the locations shown in the trailer don’t show much variety, though that does make sense in fiction if the entire game is set on the remains of a destroyed and infested starship.

Fans of the series will recognize the iconic armor and weapons available to the player, as well as a brace of Psyker powers employed by the Librarian.

Source : solitaire scorpion

Watch Dishonored 2 Speedrunner Beat Game in 32 Minutes

It took me two hours to beat the first mission.

Dishonored 2 lets you play the game however you want to, whether that's killing every enemy in sight or stealthily slipping by them unnoticed. For speedrunner Voetiem, however, it's to get through the game as quickly as possible, and he's done so in just over 30 minutes.

As PC Gamer reports, Voetiem's run lasts for about 38 minutes, but without load times, it brings their total down to 32 minutes and 17 seconds. According to Speedrun.com, it's also a world record, with the next fastest time being 35 minutes and 59 seconds. You can check out the full run for yourself in the video below.

As for the strategies, Voetiem employs several that are quite funny to watch. It's already the type of game that benefits from hilarious moments of physics and AI clashing, but some of the ways Voetiem proceeds through the game's chapters are pure gold. It's definitely worth a watch.

Dishonored 2 received a score of 8/10 in GameSpot's review. Critic Scott Butterworth concluded, "Dishonored 2 might lack challenge in its later levels, but the basic tools are a joy to play with regardless. And with two characters and two basic play styles to choose from--both of which noticeably impact the story and the world as you go--there's a lot of longevity to be wrung from the campaign."

Source : Freecell 

World of Final Fantasy Review

World of Final Fantasy feels like a game that celebrates the series’ massive legacy while also making it friendlier to a younger audience. Unfortunately, it stumbles in a few key places, making it more of an awkward mixer than the all-encompassing RPG party players might be anticipating.

Things don't exactly get off to a rollicking start. After a cryptic initial cutscene, you’re treated to a too-long set of introductory cinematics that offer little in the way of actual introduction. You meet fraternal twins Lann and Reynn, who apparently have been living a normal life in a city working at a coffee shop--until a mysterious woman and a strange creature give them surprising news. The twins learn that they--and their mother--were once important figures in a world named Grymoire filled with monsters and tiny people known as Lilikin. It’s a pretty head-scratching introduction--and not in a good way. It doesn’t help that Enna vanishes while calling herself “god.” The duo are left with Tama as their guide, who has a speech the-pattern that will very quickly start to drive you the-bonkers.

When the twins get to Grymoire, they discover they can change from tiny to normal size to get around and interact with the populace. They also can “imprism” the Mirage monsters that roam Grymoire, turning them into battling companions. Bad things are afoot in Grymoire, however--a group of armor-clad figures called the Bahamutian Army have annexed numerous territories in the realm under the guise of benevolence, though their true goal is to enact a complex prophecy involving plenty of good old fashioned chaos and destruction.

Grymoire is a beautiful place filled with otherworldly environments that, combined with the cute monsters that lurk within, capture a whimsical, storybook feel. When they’re not traversing the wilderness, Lann and Reynn wind up in towns based on locations from previous Final Fantasy games, such as Nibelheim from Final Fantasy VII. It’s here that the duo will usually encounter familiar (but cuter) Final Fantasy characters who harbor the souls of “champions” and use their abilities to help Lann and Reynn defeat the Bahamutian Army’s evil machinations.

Despite its chibi-sized Final Fantasy heroes and focus on monster collecting, you won't be summoning an army of adorable Final Fantasy characters to do battle for you. Most of your battling companions are of the monstrous variety--you can only summon famous Final Fantasy characters to battle after dealing and accruing enough damage, and only after meeting them in the story and acquiring their Champion Medal. They don’t show up for long--they just unleash a special attack and then peace out, acting much like summoned monsters would in a traditional Final Fantasy game.

That isn’t to say that combat is a completely by-the-numbers affair. Lann and Reynn can have up to four monsters accompany them in fights. Every monster is assigned a size--small, medium, or large--and you can “stack” the twins and monsters into a cute critter column to fight with. Stacks offer a lot of benefits: characters in a stack pool their health, ability points, attack and defense power, skills, and elemental resistances together to create a powerful entity that can withstand heavy hits and deal more damage than the characters would individually--at the cost of the turns each individual character would get in battle.

Characters in a stack can also combine certain skills and turn them into more powerful techniques. For example, if two stacked characters have water magic, you’ll get access to a higher-level water spell. Enemies can also stack up for similar benefits, so sometimes you’ll want to use attacks that can topple a stack of characters. When a stack collapses, everyone in the tower winds up stunned for a turn, giving you free rein to smack them around. Naturally, your towers are just as vulnerable to collapsing, so you need to be careful when you see signs of wobbling.

Of course, before you can stack up critters like a pile of pancakes, you’ll need to capture them. While many monsters become catchable after a few simple attacks, others require very specific actions before you can imprism them: You may have to hit them with a particular status ailment, give them an item, or use a particular style of attack. While this helps make the game’s monster-catching element a bit more dynamic, it can be extremely annoying in practice. You may run into some one-time-encounter monster in the field, only to discover that you don't have the skills in your current party necessary to capture them. You can't run from these fights, nor can you swap out monsters in battle, leaving you no choice but to beat the rare monster normally and cry over the missed opportunity.

That’s only one of a pile of little annoyances that drag down the World of Final Fantasy experience. The battles, even at max speed, move at a glacial pace, making it almost necessary to hold R1 to fast forward through them at all times (and tiring your index finger in the process). Every monster has a “Mirage Board” similar to the Sphere Grid and Crystarium from Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XIII, respectively; these unlock various skills and abilities by using points earned from leveling up. These kinds of skill-up grids work nicely in role-playing games with limited character sets, but they become a royal pain to manage when you’re juggling numerous creatures in and out of your party. Most monsters in the game have alternate forms that you can access when they reach a certain level, but these variations don’t retain many of the skills of their previous incarnations, and the new forms have their own Mirage Boards to futz around with.

Dungeons tend to be very linear (and they’re less fun to explore than they are to look at), and you’ll sometimes come to a puzzle or obstacle that requires a specific monster skill or set of properties in order to progress. If you don’t have the right monsters in your current party you must either use an expensive item or go back to a teleport/save point to swap in the correct monsters or capture some new beasts with the properties you need (and perhaps grind them up to unlock the necessary skill to progress).

At least there’s some reward for suffering through these aggravations: The dialogue and character writing are both incredibly charming, filled with lots of peppy exchanges between the twins and the assorted NPCs they encounter (the aforementioned Tama excepted). A little bit into the game, you get the ability to participate in various character vignettes starring the Final Fantasy characters.These segments are ridiculously adorable and tons of fun to watch. The further I advanced in World of Final Fantasy, the more it felt like I was just playing to see the little interactions among the twins and the other characters--the overarching story, exploration, and monster collecting didn’t interest me nearly as much as seeing which Final Fantasy character I might encounter next. The game is ultimately worse when it stops being cute and goofy and tries to tell a serious story.

Unfortunately, you have to put up with a fair amount of frustration and filler before you get to enjoy the best of what World of Final Fantasy has to offer, namely charming writing and Final Fantasy fan service. If you’re willing to put up with some of the game’s mundane sequences, you’ll get some enjoyment out of it, but if you’re not a Final Fantasy fanatic, the magic in these moments may be lost altogether.

The Silver Case Review

If Suda 51 represents one of a scant few auteur game designers, The Silver Case, finally released on Western shores in this remastered form, is basically his student film, a statement of intent and trajectory rather than its own cohesive masterwork. As such, The Silver Case has a few of the elements that fans have come to recognize in a legitimate "Suda 51 Joint", but those elements are obscured by convoluted point-and-click gameplay, and a story that meanders, rants, and rambles getting where it needs to go.

The overarching narrative involves the return of an infamous serial killer named Kamui Uehara to a futuristic Japanese city known as the 24 Wards--and the efforts of a small investigative team to take him down. The game features two scenarios: In the first, Transmitter, you play as a mute detective who is somehow spared by the killer Kamui on the night he first reappears. In the other scenario, Placebo, you take on the role of a freelance reporter whose tale runs parallel to the first mode, as you sort through the mess after the cops are done.

The Silver Case's gameplay uses bog-standard adventure game mechanics. You can walk around your environment from one specified point to another by just turning, looking, and pushing up on the keyboard/gamepad. Once at a specific point, noted with a technicolor star indicator, you can use the Check option to get more details or activate the next scene. Some moments and puzzles require special tools in the Implements menu, but these moments are rare. For the most part, you're basically just following the dialogue around a room to get to the next scene. It's always when it's least expected or necessary that the game finally cottons to the fact that you might want to play it, and then it has the player knocking on doors, asking witnesses questions, wandering aimlessly around an environment to find the trigger for the next scene, or, in some cases, solving tricky little ciphers to open a door. Still, you can go long stretches without ever getting a button tap in. Some scenes literally have the protagonist walk two steps ahead, then trigger a long dialogue that may not let up for 10 minutes.

The game is framed like episodes of a television show, with each taking maybe an hour and a half to two hours to complete each--assuming you don't get tripped up by an obtuse puzzle or have to re-check every door and contact point looking for the one action prompt you missed; or assuming you don’t get confused by the controls altogether, where just getting to the point of moving forward through the first-person space is a three-step process instead of just pressing forward. The same goes for looking up, down, investigating an object, or talking to someone in the room, all which involve an overly convoluted, clunky menu.

Even if you gain some sort of finesse with the controls, the game's length remains a sticking point due to some terrible pacing and difficulty parsing new story details. Bad controls in a '90s point-and-click adventure can be tolerated if the stories are well paced and brilliantly executed, but each Silver Case episode is padded with filler. Every detective seems to have a philosophical ramble on every small decision they have to make in the field, and none of these characters are interesting or layered enough to make this stuff compelling. Most fall into the category of thinking that their job is dumb, and anybody putting in effort is a loser.

This, of course, is one of the hallmarks of Suda 51's work: apathetic heroes treating a completely insane, terrifying scenario as a nuisance keeping them from a good nap. The main issue with The Silver Case, however, is that--some bizarre minor details aside--the scenarios here are grounded in reality more than anything Suda made afterward. The usual fuzzy logic and unnatural human interactions that add to the “playable dreamscape” feeling of most of his games is an ill fit here. These are plausible scenarios, worked on by implausible characters.

When the game does get to the business of actually presenting the gory details of each case, it fares better. The overarching narrative of the Kamui case is the glowing red seed of abstract madness that has come to define Suda's work, and the horrors presented whenever the plot progresses are chilling and effective. Some of the other scenarios, including a hilariously dated (yet sadly, still prescient) case based around cyberbullying are just dead-weight slogs to get through. Others, however, such as a case that revolves around a man held for ransom while his businesses are completely dismantled by a mute terrorist, are breezy and captivating-- that one employs a beautiful black-and-white noir-ish art style.

The Placebo scenario as a whole gets some points for having an active, talkative, interesting protagonist to tag along with. Even the good cases are sometimes hard to get a solid grasp on, however, and the fact that so many different art styles--CG, anime, live action, still manga panels--are employed willy-nilly to tell the tales doesn't help. While some of the varieties in art direction are compelling, there are often too many to get a firm grasp on what the game aims for as a whole. For this remaster, Suda enlisted his longtime collaborator Akira Yamaoka to help remix the score, and while the music by itself is a fun, jazzy throwback most of the time, it, too, flies in the face of whatever of import is happening onscreen.

More than anything, The Silver Case is more interesting in the context of Suda 51's career than it is as a standalone game. It shows an ambitious floating of new ideas past the player, and much of how the story is presented would later find a more welcome home when surrounded by much weirder, wilder worlds. Stranded in the framework of a police procedural, however, the game fails its best concepts. The Silver Case's unusual take on human conversations, its indecision about whether it wants to be just a visual novel or an adventure game where the player is a full participant, and its lack of focus in tying up any sort of cohesive plot, all add up to a mess of a game.

Company of Heroes Turns 10 With a $10-for-Everything Humble Bundle

Get a whole bunch of WWII RTS action for a few bucks.

The Company of Heroes series turns 10 years old this year, and to celebrate, a Humble Bundle is available right now that gets you most of what the franchise has to offer.

By paying at least a dollar, you can get the original game and its expansion packs, as well as one of the armies from Company of Heroes 2 (which can be played as a standalone version of CoH 2). Beating the average, which is a paltry $4.39 as of this writing, gets you the full version of Company of Heroes 2, as well as an additional army for it and some mission packs.

Bump your price up to at least $10, and you then get even more CoH 2 content, including the very fun British Forces army and the Ardennes Assault campaign. There's also an exclusive shirt available for $30, which also gets you everything included.

You can see the full list of what's in the Humble Bundle below. As always, you can choose to allocate your money between Sega, Humble, and several different charities: Code Club, Special Effect, WDC (Vancouver Orcas), and WaterAid.

Pay $1 or more:

• Company of Heroes
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
• Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor
• Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies - Oberkommando West

Pay more than the average:

• Company of Heroes 2
• Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies - US Forces
• Company of Heroes 2: Case Blue Mission Pack
• Company of Heroes 2: Southern Fronts Mission Pack
• Company of Heroes 2: Victory at Stalingrad Mission Pack
• Company of Heroes 2 soundtrack
• Everything above

Pay $10 or more:

• Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces
• Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault
• Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault - Fox Company Rangers
• Company of Heroes 2 Humble-exclusive skins pack
• Company of Heroes digital art book

Epic Card Game Review

Epic

• Developer: White Wizard Games
• Format: Card Game
• Playing Time: 20-30 Minutes
• MSRP: $15.00

If you play Magic: the Gathering, imagine playing in a sealed tournament where every card in the set is as strong as the Power 9. That’s Epic in a nutshell.   For those of you who have no idea what I just said, let me explain.

Epic is a card game that plays kind of like a beginner’s version of Magic: the Gathering. A lot of the complexity has been stripped away, leaving players with a straightforward slugfest. There is only one resource to worry about: gold. At the start of each turn, the turn player loses any gold he or she had, then generates one gold to spend on a card. In simplified terms, this means that you get one gold per turn and you can’t save it for a bigger play later. Some cards have a cost of zero and are free to play, but most of the impressive ones cost a gold.

Now, when I say impressive, I mean it. After all, if you only get to spend one gold per turn, you’d better spend it on something good. What you get out of this one gold can range from destroying all Champions (creatures) on the field, giving all of your Champions a power boost, giving one of your Champions a major boost, or summoning any of a wide array of absurdly powerful Champions to your side of the field. The first time I played, my reaction to almost every card that I saw was, “Wow, that’s totally broken.”

Playing this game really does feel epic. When at any given time you might be holding three different cards that could each devastate your opponent’s army, or you’re looking at a combo that’s going to take away half of your opponent’s life points in one go, you feel like you’re on top of the world. Just remember, the other guy has cards that are just as powerful as yours. During my first game I came to realize that when everything is overpowered, nothing is.

What I’m trying to say is, despite the crazy abilities of each individual card, it all balances out pretty well.

Despite how much I’m comparing this to a well known trading card game, it should be noted that Epic itself is not a trading card game. It’s what is called a living card game, meaning that new sets do come out to expand the card pool, but the packs are not randomized. As with Netrunner or Malifaux, when you buy a pack, you know exactly what you’re getting. No trading involved.

There are a couple of other major differences between Epic and Magic as well, differences that go beyond how it’s played and seemingly into what the game itself is meant to be. Epic, overall, seems geared to a more casual audience than Magic. This shows in the fact that the packs are not randomized, which means that even the most hardcore player can only spend so much money before running out of new things to get. It also shows in the rules.

While you could, of course, look through and construct your ideal deck out of the cards you have, that’s actually not how the rulebook says to do it. You’ll find that game setup involves giving each player a deck of 30 random (yes, random!) cards, and going from there. This random deckbuilding makes Epic quick to start and accessible for new players, since they don’t need to worry about making a deck for themselves before they get started. According to White Wizard Games’s website, Epic is meant to simulate the experience of going to a draft or sealed tournament without the need to pay $10-$30 each time. That should also make it clear how important it is that each card is strong enough to stand on its own, yet balanced with all of the other cards. Luckily, White Wizard Games has done an excellent job of that.

As I mentioned, there is also an option for “constructed,” where you build a deck using your Epic collection to play against others who have done the same thing.

I’ve said it in other articles, but let me reiterate that “casual” does not mean “bad.”

On the subject of unusual rules, there’s one more thing I need to point out. Any card game veteran knows that running out of cards in your deck means that you lose. In fact, most games have entire decks and strategies that are devoted to burning through your opponent’s cards until they have to draw and can’t, making them lose by deckout. In Epic, when you’re supposed to draw and can’t, you win. Weird, right?

This actually works very well in Epic, as a lot of cards give you the choice to use their effect or draw two more cards. It seems to be a balancing mechanic, since the randomized decks mean you won’t always have a use for an effect like “Your Good champions get +2 attack this turn.” It also serves to put the game on a timer, since life totals and control of the field tend to swing wildly. It’s possible that you’ll end the game in a few turns, but on the other hand it’s possible that you and your opponent will get stuck in a deadlock. In that case, Epic’s “draw to win” mechanic gives you another path to victory.

At a glance, Epic definitely seems like Baby’s First Magic. However, it makes a lot more sense once you realize the intention behind it. Epic is meant to be a cheap and easily accessible game that gives the experience of a more traditional trading card game, but without the need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to stay competitive. They’ve done a good job of creating something that is easy to start, fun to play, and fairly well balanced even when playing with randomized decks. With an entry point of just $15, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new card game.

Spider Solitaire Collection Free

Description

Play a free beautiful collection of Spider solitaire game variations, including: 

- Spider 

- Spider One Suit 

- Spider Two Suits 

- Scorpion

Features

• Smooth fluid and advanced animations
•  Many beautiful card sets, card backs and backgrounds to choose from
•  Deal animation and winning animation
•  Single click or single touch for touch screens to auto move cards
•  Autoplay on/off option
•  Unlimited undo and redo features
•  Statistics tracking
•  Save game progress
•  Hints will show you possible moves

Magic Cards Solitaire Review: As Pleasant as a Pinch of Fairy Dust

I played Magic Cards Solitaire at a weird juncture in my life. I’ve been pouring hours into Pocket Card Jockey, a Nintendo 3DS game that combines solitaire with horse racing, of all things. It’s kind of amazing how many weird directions game developers take solitaire in.

But that’s not a bad thing. The world-famous solo card game is compelling on its own, so there’s no harm in adding bells and whistles. In fact, even though I played Magic Cards Solitaire while still standing in the shadow of Pocket Card Jockey, I was impressed at how different the experiences are. Pocket Card Jockey rewards speed, accuracy, and quick thinking. Magic Cards Solitaire encourages forethought and relaxation. Both experiences are pretty cool in their own ways.

Both games even add a little narrative to their card-slinging action, because why the heck not. In Magic Cards Solitaire, a wizard’s apprentice befriends a fairy who falls out of one of his spellbooks. He has to gather up enough magic to send her back into the book, and to gather that magic, he has to play a lot of cards.

(Yeah, it’s weird – but in Pocket Card Jockey, you literally die and are only returned to life as part of a deal with God to race horses and play solitaire. By comparison, “A fairy just fell out of your book” seems as normal as pancakes on Sunday morning.)

Magic Cards Solitaire’s version of its titular game is a bit simpler than what you might be used to from Windows Solitaire. Cards are laid out in various formations, and a stack is laid below them with its top card flipped over. You need to select a card that’s higher or lower than that flipped card, and the selected card then becomes the next stack card. For instance, if you start a game with a flipped-over 5, you need to search out a 6 or a 4 in the cards laid out above. If you find a 4, then you need to find a 3 or another 5.

Ideally, you want to make long chains, which result in point multipliers. If a chain is broken because you need to flip over another card on your stack, your multiplier resets. Since clearing a level is often dependent on your score, you want to keep chains going for as long as possible. Using a hint or undoing a bad move will also reset your multiplier.

Magic Cards Solitaire is simple at its core, but it throws in a few twists to make your time with it a little more challenging. Odd formations limit how many cards you can use at once, and “overgrown” cards can’t be used until certain conditions are met, e.g. clearing all the other cards off the board.

These interesting gameplay quirks are one reason to choose Magic Cards Solitaire over one of countless free solitaire games available on the web (or built into your computer), but the game’s ambiance is another reason.Magic Cards Solitaire is a relaxing game that doesn’t rush you. Its woodsy graphics are soothing, and its gentle music is likewise calming. It’s a nice game to wind down with at the end of the day.

Magic Cards Solitaire doesn’t offer any big surprises, but it doesn’t need to. It sets out to offer a good, solid game of solitaire, and it does just that. While it’d be nice to have more versions of solitaire on tap (Spider, Freecell, etc), what’s here is well-built and enjoyable. Shuffle away.

Play Freecell Solitaire card games online for free

On the Free solitaire game, Free freecell game maybe is the most popular card game. Minions people all over the world play freecell but they don’t really know origin of Freecell they’re playing and who is created Freecell.

• The history of Freecell card game

FreeCell is a card game which is solved, in the majority of cases by strategy. It is played with one deck of cards – 52 cards in total which are all shown to the player throughout the game.

There are some types of Freecell Solitaire card games you can choose to play free online:

• Freecell Green Felt
• Eight off Solitaire – Freecell Type
• Baker’s Game
• Baker’s Game King Only

The game of FreeCell was created by Paul Alfille whilst he was a medical student, and is a variation of an earlier game called Baker’s Game. Alfille didn’t invent FreeCell on computer, he actually used cards to work out the game moves.

At the end of each game he commented that the cards ended up in suits, and it took quite a long time to shuffle them completely as he wasn’t very good at shuffling cards.

Alfille’s main objective in FreeCell was to know how the mathematics worked and the probabilities of achieving a perfect result.

He thought that he wanted to know how many games were winnable – and continues along the lines of – however there is a difference between the number of games which were winnable and the number of games which were actually won!

That of course, is a really interesting point. Just because there is a way of achieving a result, if the player doesn’t correctly process the information given by the cards, he may not win the game, although had he taken a different route an altogether alternative outcome may have been achieved.

The usual game of FreeCell has eight columns – however Alfille played around with variations giving between four and ten columns and between one and ten free cells. Every variant had its own ranking system for dedicated players whose objective was to get the longest winning streaks!

There are many attractive solitaire card games you can play on.

Klondike Solitaire Turn One – Rules

• Game Info
• Decks: 1
• 
  
• Time: Medium
• Redeals: Unlimited Difficulty: Easy
• Type: Klondike Skill: Medium
• Goal

• Move all the cards to the Foundations

• Details
  • Foundation
    • Built up by rank and by suit from Ace to King
    • The top card may be moved
  • Tableau
    • Built down by rank and by alternating color
    • The top card may be moved
    • Complete or partial correctly ranked piles may be moved
    • An empty spot may be filled with a King or a pile starting with a King
  • Stock
    • Click to turn face up and move 1 card to the Waste
    • Click when empty to turn face down and move all cards from the Waste to the Stock
  • Waste
    • The top card may be moved

Klondike Solitaire Review By Editors

Editors’ Review

Solitaire is a popular game, and over the years many variations have sprung up. Klondike is perhaps the most popular version, the one that people tend to learn from grandparents, parents, or the small suite of games that comes with Windows. Despite its simplicity and ubiquity, Klondike Solitaire remains an entertaining card game, and this basic rendition is quite playable, but not particularly impressive.

The program’s interface is plain but attractive, with the cards displayed on a patterned green background. Unlike other versions of solitaire, this program doesn’t allow for any customization of the game’s appearance; users can’t choose from multiple decks of cards or change the background color. In fact, although the graphics are decent and the game is playable, the program lacks many features that are common to even basic versions of solitaire. There is no draw-one option, only draw-three. There is only one style of scoring. Users can’t even double-click on cards to send them to the foundation piles; each card must be dragged and dropped. This version of Klondike Solitaire isn’t bad in a pinch, but even the version of the game that comes with Windows has more features. In fact, the only thing about this game that is the least bit customizable is the music; a cool jazz track can be turned on and off. The program doesn’t have a Help file per se, but it does include brief instructions for playing solitaire.

Klondike Solitaire is free, but it contains advertisements for other games. The program installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users seeking an extremely basic version of solitaire.

Publisher’s Description-
From Novel Games: This is the popular Klondike Solitaire card game. The object of this game is to pile all the cards up in four piles, each pile must have the same suit and must go from A to K. The card can also be piled up temporarily at the bottom, while doing so the cards must be in alternate colours and must be in descending order of consecutive numbers. Only a K can be put on an empty column at the bottom.

Klondike Solitaire overview

Klondike Solitaire is the most popular solitaire card game in the world. It gained fame when Microsoft released their version of Solitaire that came with the Windows Operating System. Most people think of Klondike Solitaire when they think of a solitaire game. In Klondike Solitaire, the player attempts to sort a 52 card deck by suit and in order into four piles of cards known as foundations. Cards can be moved between the columns, or to the foundations. The cards in the columns must be built down (from King to Ace) alternating color. When the player gets stuck he can click on the deck in the top left of the game screen. This will deal 3 cards at a time onto the waste pile.

Three Card Klondike Solitaire – Overview

Three Card Solitaire

Three Card Klondike Solitaire takes the original One Card Klondike Solitaire up a notch. Play this card game when you are looking for more of a solitaire challenge but with the same basic rules!

As you cycle through the deck, three cards are dealt at a time. 3 Card Klondike Solitaire’s goal is exactly the same as the one card version: move all solitaire cards into top slots according to suit (Ace through King). You may build down the tableaus on the solitaire board by placing cards of alternating colors on top of one another in a descending order. In Three Card Klondike Solitaire you are given unlimited passes through the deck, so be sure to cycle through all the cards as much as you need to. Move all the cards into their correct place in the solitaire tableaus to become a Klondike Solitaire Master!

Three Card Solitaire Instructions

• Klondike Solitaire kicked up a notch
• Cycle through three cards at a time
• Remove top solitaire cards in the deck to use those beneath
• Online for free

Breaking Down the World’s Most Popular Poker Variants

Poker is one of the world’s favorite games. The basic rules of the game make it both easy to learn and infinitely customizable. Poker involves a lot of player skill – it’s gambling without relying as much on luck as you do with other casino games.

Poker is now considered a sport, accepted by mainstream audiences to the point that media coverage had to change to reflect renewed interest in the game. Broadcasters like ESPN and The Travel Channel started giving prime air space to poker tournaments and events in the early 2000s.

If you’re new to the game and confused about all the different variants, I have good news for you. It won’t take you long to get acquainted with the different games and rule variations.

A Note on Names

To understand the major variants of poker, start by learning the names of the three basic categories of poker variants:

In stud games, you are dealt a specific number of cards (normally five or seven) and the goal is to form the best possible hand out of those you’re dealt.

In draw games, you are dealt a specific number of cards (normally five or seven) and the goal is to trade some for new cards in order to build a better hand than the one you’re dealt.

In community games, each player gets “hole cards” dealt exclusively to them face down and the goal is to build the best hand they can from a select number of community cards common to all players.

Texas Holdem

Texas holdem was responsible for the explosion of interest in poker in the late 90s and early 2000s. It is still the game of choice for the World Series of Poker and most professional tournaments. Texas holdem is also the standard-bearer for poker in the online world, by far the most popular variant at the world’s biggest Web-based rooms.

This is a community game in which each player is dealt two hole cards and bid as each of five community cards is revealed.

The game involves four betting rounds: one after the hole cards are dealt, again after the first three community cards are revealed (this is called “the flop”), once more after the fourth community card is revealed, and finally after the fifth community card is shown. You can use any five-card combination of your hole cards plus the five community cards as your best-possible hand.

EPIC Card Game, An In-Depth Review

Draft and sealed play are some of the best ways to play a card game. They give you the ultimate freedom to be creative, spontaneous, and strategic all at the same time. The problem with popular TCGs/CCGs is that this mode of playing can often set you back $20-$30 per event due to the cost of using randomized booster packs. So what better way to play these modes than with a game that has it all in one box!

EPIC Card Game (from the creators of Star Realms) is just as its name suggests — epic! You can play draft, sealed, and even constructed decks right out of the box. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the game is now available to purchase at retail with a respectable price tag. So it’s about time to bring you an in-depth look at the game that we’ve been playing obsessively since we got our Kickstarter edition!

Is EPIC Card Game as much fun as a traditional sealed or draft event? Could it even be more fun than Magic: The Gathering?! Read on to find out…

Core-and-Kickstarter-content
EPIC Card Game is a whole TCG/CCG set that lets you play draft, sealed, and tournament style formats right out of a single box.

GAMEPLAY

The best way to describe the gameplay of EPIC Card Game is that it’s Magic: The Gathering on some very high-dose steroids! The cards’ effects are borderline crazy, with many of the four factions in the game having very strong creatures, several board wipes and ways to bring your opponents to tears each turn. This game is more salt-inducing than tier 0 decks in other popular TCGs/CCGs!

EPIC Card Game is, however, not a TCG/CCG. It is an out-of-the-box card game that replicates some of our favorite games by borrowing some of their core mechanics, effects, and modes of play. EPIC does manage to make these elements feel a part of its own mechanics instead of having borrowed them from elsewhere. There is a freshness to the gameplay that has yet to be seen in other traditional TCGs/CCGs, but that’s probably due to how insanely overpowered everything is in EPIC.

In most TCGs you want to play for fun, but to do this, you have to remain somewhat competitive. This means you have to spend a fair amount of money on regular booster packs throughout the year. In EPIC, you can play traditional constructed, draft, and sealed formats hundreds of times in many different deck variations with only the core set.

Board-wipe
You’re going to welcome a board wipe or two in each deck when you consider the insane power levels of most of the Champions!

The core set of 120 unique cards allows for up to four people to play at once and eliminates the scary price tag that would normally be associated with a draft-based game. There will be expansions that add new content, but these are optional purchases that aren’t necessary for out-of-the-box play.

The gameplay itself is simple and highly entertaining. The way the balance of the game can shift from one card to another is truly amazing. There are four factions to choose from which can be mixed easily and freely without restrictions: Evil, Good, Sage, and Wild. Among these factions, the cards are split between Event and Champion card types that form your deck.

In a standard game, each player draws a starting hand that you may mulligan. Each turn then proceeds with players taking turns in playing cards from their hand that they can afford to pay for. There are only two cost tiers in EPIC: 0 (silver) and 1 (gold). You start a turn with 1 gold and you may either use this in your turn or on your opponents’, but cannot store up gold for future turns.

There is no limit to the number of cards you can play in a single turn, as long as you can pay for them. However, it is unlikely you’ll play more than one or two of the 1 cost cards in a single turn. The same can be said for those that cost 0, as there are fewer of these in your deck than cards that cost 1.

Expending-to-attack
To attack or use an ability you rotate your Champion 90º. There are more than just a few similar mechanics at work in EPIC, making this one easy game to pick up and play!

Many of the core mechanics of the gameplay will be familiar to regular TCG/CCG players. Champions suffer from summoning sickness on the turn they are “deploying” (they cannot attack or use abilities but may still block). To use a Champion’s ability you must rotate them 90° and they may not attack or block whilst in this state. Blocking Champions are flipped (turned 180°), but may still use their abilities in this state. If you’re familiar with Magic‘s combat rules, declaring attackers and blockers and so on, they’re identical here.

There are some keywords in the game that make little sense when you read them. This is because the developers have had to tread carefully in order to avoid any infringements on other games. For example, “Tribute” as a keyword does not refer to sacrificing anything, as you might guess — it actually means “when entering the battlefield”. It is best to keep the rule book close by for easy reference so you can understand what your cards do!

To defeat an enemy Champion in battle, you must “break” it. In order to do this, your Champion’s attack must exceed the defense value of the Champion it is battling. Attack and defense values are compared for both Champions during a battle and you may very well lose your own Champion in that battle too. Caution is always advised before rushing headlong into a fight, as the opponent can “chump block” with multiple Champions!

The objective of EPIC is the same as most other TCGs/CCGs — reduce the opponent’s health to zero by using your Champions to strike at them directly (but from a starting value of 30, not the usual 20). Due to the nature of the game, this is far harder than you may think because of all of the insane card effects EPIC has. Most Champions never last more than a couple of turns on the board before they’re broken or banished!

Face-the-wolf-pack
The shift of power balance can happen with a single card. Here the Wild player has gone from a single Champion to five (by creating tokens) with one card. Things get this crazy almost every turn!

DRAFTING, SEALED PLAY, AND MORE…

Many of the strengths of EPIC Card Game lay in the many different ways you can play.

The core set of EPIC Card Game will come with all you need to play the limited formats. These include sealed, pack draft, open draft, and pre-constructed formats. The most basic of these is the pre-constructed format where up to 4 players may take part. Each player takes the pre-constructed 30-card faction deck of their choosing and begins play. Nothing special to be seen here, but it does give you a flavor of the insanity that EPIC has to offer.

If you own more than one core set you can make a deck of your choosing with a minimum of 60 cards and no more than three of any one card. This is your more traditional approach to a TCG/CCG and one that hardcore fans may want to get into for a competitive environment at your local game store. There are rules you must follow when making your deck and remember, things are likely to get nuts during your match-ups!

Sealed play is a bit like the pre-constructed format except all the cards are shuffled together and then 30 cards are dealt at random to each player. This then forms your deck and you may play this mode with up to 4 players (or up to 8 if using two core sets.) You’ll find that the majority of your cards may not synergize well with one another and that winning will be a lot harder than using a deck with cards that were designed to work together.

What-would-you-draft
Drafting is one of the most fun and creative ways to play EPIC. Though the developers encourage you to come up with more modes of play and share them with the community. Some tough draft choices need to be made with this pack!

Pack Draft is where the real fun of EPIC Card Game begins. Shuffle all of the cards and then deal three 10-card packs to each player. If you’re playing with more than four people you’ll need another core set to accommodate the numbers. Each player then sets aside two of their packs and begins the traditional pick-and-pass of drafting with their first pack. You pass the cards to your left on the first pack, right on the second, and then left again on the third. You’ll have 30 cards at the end of the draft to call your deck. Shuffle them and start playing!

Open Draft (a mode for two players) gives you a little more information to work with as you can see your opponent’s strategy unfold in front of you. Four cards are shown from the top of the deck and then the starting player picks one card, the second player picks two, and the final is given to the first player. You do this over and over again with 60 random cards from the core set until each player has 30 cards.

Epic Cube drafting is even more inspired! You will need three core sets in order to play this mode and a total of 8 players, but the effort is worth the experience. There are special symbols on some of the cards and you’ll be eliminating two of the three copies of these cards. Once you’ve done that you draft packs of 12 until each player has 36 cards at the end of the draft. Once again you need a minimum of 30 cards for a deck and then you can begin the insanity!

Multiplayer games (games with more than two players) have a special rule that allows each player to gain 1 gold to use after their turn has ended (but not 2 if they didn’t use the 1 gold on their turn first). This ensures you can play extra Event or Champion cards with Ambush in order to protect yourself should someone single you out for multiple attacks. The timing of when and if you use this extra gold will be crucial to your survival and, ultimately, your victory.

There are many more ways to play, with each one outlined in the very small and easy to assimilate rule book (and a suggestion of extra modes to be found on the website). The developers even encourage you to make up your own ways of playing and ask you to share these with the community at the official website. How could you not want to invent an ingenious way of playing an epic card game! (…See what I did there?)

Staring down a Zombie army is never a fun prospect. Token-spawning is a specialty of the Evil deck and one you’ll want to exploit!

FINAL THOUGHTS

EPIC Card Game is a TCG/CCG player’s dream come true. Sure, it’s about as nuts as it gets when we’re talking card effects, but we’ve all wanted to play a game of our favorite TCG/CCG using some of the most broken and overpowered cards ever created!

Imagine playing a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! where no card is forbidden or limited. Or even Magic: The Gathering using any card that was ever created (I’m aware this already exists, but it isn’t for the poor!) These modes are often the most chaotic, but the most fun anyone can have in this genre.

EPIC Card Game brings that chaos to an organized play style that is sheer unadulterated fun. The balance of power shifts with each card played and you’ll have to adapt your strategies just as quickly or face inevitable defeat. I’ve never had as much fun playing a pseudo-TCG as I’ve had playing EPIC Card Game! My group actually burst out in laughter so often when playing this game, because each turn felt like hitting each other with several atomic bombs at once.

EPIC Card Game is the insanely overpowered game the collective TCG/CCG world has been waiting for, and it’s all contained in a single box – utter genius! Possibly the best physical card game release of 2015. Do not walk — run and pick up this game at your earliest convenience

Battle For Sularia, An In-Depth Review

Battle For Sularia is a turn-based card game for two or more players. It is set within the story of Sularia, depicting how the megacorps of that world continue to battle for the remnants of a once-proud jewel of a planet. The game was Kickstarted back in July 2015 after raising just under $19,000 for a $15,000 campaign. It shipped in late January and is now available for general purchase via the creator’s web store.

In the far future, corporations will one day have more power and influence than governments, fighting it out for supremacy over resources and people, with the victors obtaining world domination and a power we could only ever dream of.

Battle For Sularia takes us beyond the megacities created by the megacorps and instead shows us the ramifications of such battles — how the fight for ultimate profit and gain fractures a planet so badly that it becomes a shadow of its former glory, limping in the solar system as a barren and gray planet almost incapable of sustaining life.

Is there a market for Battle For Sularia outside of Kickstarter? Read on to find out…

Box-art
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Battle for Sularia was finally shipped in January of 2016. It has many new design concepts that set it apart from any other card gaming system.

GAMEPLAY

One of the core reasons I personally backed Battle For Sularia is because of the theme and the artwork. I’m a huge sucker for sci-fi and the many ways designers invent the future and other worlds in this genre. There are no limits as to where your mind can take you when you create new worlds. Battle For Sularia was created with a rich backstory that sounds like it could be a mirror of our Earth in a few hundred years.

The gameplay also grabbed my interest when I read through the Kickstarter campaign. It borrows a few mechanics and ideas from other games, yet lays them out in a fashion that is all its own. The game feels unique in this respect and playing it feels like nothing else I’ve played before.

The box comes with the first two factions from the story of Sularia: Jotune and Synthien. The Jotune are a more militia-style that excels in flight and teamwork. The Synthien are a more control-based deck that utilizes the shadows to hide their strength and true numbers. Both factions come with 90 cards each in the box, but a deck will contain 60 cards total. This gives room for further deckbuilding outside of the starter decks that the rule book suggests you use for your first few times playing the game.

After-some-time
After a number of turns, each player’s set-up will look roughly the same. It always seems daunting to make the first attack as there is so much at stake if you lose!

There are a number of zones on the board designated for specific card types. Each zone plays a specific role in your overall strategy and gameplay, with every card being meaningful to the overall outcome of the game. There are two primary resources you’ll need to manage in each of your turns. Influence is used to play Sites, which are like locations, and Sularium, which is used to pay for Combatants (your units). A third resource cost, Threshold, is used through your Influence and is a cost that must be met when playing Tactics and Condition cards.

This is a turn-based game, with players taking their own turns going through the game’s phases to perform specific actions. Your first objective is to obtain enough Influence to begin playing Sites. To gain Influence you play one card from your hand face-down in the Influence zone each turn. You may use any card to fulfill this role, but the most beneficial ones to use are the Tactics and Condition cards as you can still trigger them from the Influence zone at a later time. I love this “resource card becomes a trap card” mechanic — it’s one of my favorite things about the game.

Your Sites provide most of your Sularium generation and also act as barriers between your enemy and a direct attack against you. Each turn you can play as many Sites and Combatants as your resources allow. However, you have to be careful with the amount of Influence you spend in a turn as it isn’t replenished until your following turn. The reason for this is that in order to play your Tactics and Condition cards you will also be using your Influence pool.

Using-Influence-to-activate-Tactics
Using your face-down Tactic cards will use your Influence pool, reducing the resources available for the opponent’s turn. Balancing your resources and activating cards makes this game far more strategic than it first appears.

The game takes a while to build up. It takes some time to build up your rows of Sites and to be able to have enough Combatants to really start putting the hurt on your opponent. The pacing can often feel slow and the thinking times about moves can drag on due to the amount of number crunching you’ll have to do each turn to remember just how much of each resource you have at any given time (if you’re not using trackers of some kind). It’s a very “mathy” game, so be aware of that if you struggle with lots of numbers.

I touched on the artwork earlier and it is truly something to behold, though much of that is wasted due to the small space given to the actual art. The template takes up far too much room, as does much of the effect and flavor text. Even vanilla cards with no effect and only flavor text have the same template as those with longer effects.

Sure, the uniformity is great, but I would have loved to see more of the fantastic artwork on the cards. I might be spoiled by games like Cardfight!! Vanguard which showcases the art in full, as now I find myself squinting at these tiny art boxes in games like this one (and Magic: The Gathering ) and wish they’d really open up the templates more to show off the amazing art.

Basic-Jotune-deck
When you build a custom deck from the 90 cards that are available in the box, you will need to pay attention to the construction points value on each card. You cannot go above 90 points when building your deck of at least 60 cards.

EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE…

Battle For Sularia comes with just two factions in the standard retail box. These factions tell a small part of Sularia’s story and it is through the decks that you enact this story. The basic 60-card decks will get you familiarized with the game’s rules and gameplay fairly quickly. The remaining 30 cards from each faction can then be used for deckbuilding purposes once you’re comfortable with the gameplay.

There are only two rules you must obey when deckbuilding. Your deck must contain no less than 60 cards and you cannot exceed more than 90 points in construction value when building the deck. Construction points are printed on each card between the attack and defense values. Most cards cost one or two points, but there are a few stronger cards that cost more.

There are other rules to obey when playing the game that can be easily missed or forgotten about when in the midst of gameplay. One of these is the Type attribute that restricts the number of how many of a single card you can have in play at any one time. If a card has Type 4, for example, it means that you can have up to four copies of that card in play. Type 1 cards are powerful and having the limitation of one in play makes them feel more unique than anything else you’ll have in play at that time.

Most of your strategies will form as you play. It is hard to begin an early assault as you’ll want to save your Combatants for defense against your opponent’s cards. Using your face-down Tactics and Condition cards will reduce the amount of Influence you have to build more Sites. You should only use these in extreme circumstances or when they can net you a significant advantage. Balancing out all of your resources will be tough at first, but you’ll eventually get used to it.

45-degrees-for-engagement
To use effects and attack, you need to Activate and Engage, respectively. This angles the card at its appropriate angle and allows you to see what cards are engaged or have been activated. These refresh at the start of each of your turns.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Battle For Sularia was an impressive Kickstarter campaign that drew a fair amount of attention. The amount of strategic depth on offer has many layers that will have you engrossed in the gameplay many plays after your first. The basic rule book gives you all you need to get going straight away, though you may find yourself referencing the full rules sooner or later when complex card interactions occur.

The game is touted as a quick game that usually only lasts about 20 minutes. I found this to only be true once you’d played a few times. Initial games will take a lot longer than this as you learn about the different card combinations and strategic moves that your factions can perform. The amount of thinking time dedicated to these strategies takes away some of the player interaction this game boasts about. However, once you’re more accustomed to the game you should be playing at a pace that feels much more interactive.

The delightful artwork is squandered by the overly-spacious card template. I do wish more love was given to the artwork as I have to squint to be able to make out the finer details of a piece. They are easily recognizable when on the board and each piece looks well separated. You’ll know which Combatant and Site is which from just a quick glance over your board, which showcases just how diverse the artwork is.

Jotune-versus-Synthien
The artwork is some of the finest seen in a card game in this genre. Sadly, the card template takes up much of the room and lessens the impact the artwork could have had at selling more units of the game.

The overall presentation is superb and if you’re into the story behind the game then I suggest you check that out on their website. There is plenty to read and a lot more beautiful artwork pieces to discover. If you get into the game you may want to think about picking up one of the glorious playmats that really does some of the artwork more justice than the cards could ever hope to do.

There are plans to expand the game beyond the starting factions and to grow the story of Sularia. More factions mean more decks and the possibility of even more game modes that would easily lengthen the replay value of the game. There is so much untapped potential with Battle For Sularia and if it can keep up the momentum from the successful Kickstarter campaign, there is no reason why this cannot be as successful as other much-loved expandable card games!