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Middle-earth: Shadow of War has been in beta for what seems like forever, but in reality, it has only been a few months. In that time I wrote about the ability to pre-register for the game as well as did a hands-on with the beta to find out how it played. Suffice to say, despite Middle-earth: Shadow of War existing as a promotional title to Warner Bros. upcoming AAA console and PC release, it's undoubtedly a free-to-play gacha RPG filled with all of the usual trappings.
Warner Bros. International Enterprises has a mobile version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War that is currently available on the Play Store for pre-registration. Luckily I have gotten my hands on an APK and have sideloaded the game in order to let all of you know how it plays in advance of the title's release.
Trivia Crack Heroes is the latest Trivia Crack game from Etermax. It's a strange mix of simplistic MOBA gameplay and trivia questions. You will be collecting heroes via a loot crate system in order to battle them against live opponents. While the premise may sound appealing, the execution has left me feeling utterly unimpressed, thanks to the clear pay-to-win design.
Rovio Entertainment has been keeping themselves quite busy. Hot off the heels of last month's release of Battle Bay, Rovio has delivered on their promise of a June release for their newest take on the Angry Birds franchise. It is titled Angry Birds Evolution, and this time around you are tasked with collecting over 100 different birds in order to evolve your favorites into the strongest pig crushing team around.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is no stranger to the mobile gaming scene. Two years ago he starred in a Super Bowl commercial for the now popular strategy game Mobile Strike. Schwarzenegger also had his likeness appear in a Glu developed movie tie-in game. Disappointingly, these experiences must have been just the taste he needed of our sweet, sweet in-app purchase fueled market, as there is now a new mobile game bearing his likeness. It is titled Terminator Genisys: Future War, and it is the latest stab at cashing in on the Terminator franchise.
People Magazine and Zynga have teamed up to create the next "with friends" game. It is titled Crosswords With Friends and it is clearly a crossword game that focuses on People Magazine's bread and butter of entertainment, celebrity, and sports news. Each day a different puzzle with a new theme will be pushed to the app. That means you will receive 365 crossword puzzles a year. A lofty challenge indeed!
I am sure everyone here remembers the game Draw Something. It was a Pictionary-like game released on Android in 2012 by the developer OMGPOP. For years I had wondered why Pictionary didn't cash in on the popularity Draw Something had capitalized on. Now I have to question whether it would have been best to leave well enough alone this late in the game.
Card Thief is a new solitaire game from the creator of Card Crawl. Unlike Card Crawl's dungeon crawling themed gameplay, Card Thief is focused more on a stealthy risk/reward mechanic. You will be sneaking around in the shadows and thieving treasure, all while avoiding enemies and traps. This is done in order to compete for the high score in each of the game's four heists.
State of Play Games and Noodlecake Studios have teamed up to bring the BAFTA award winning puzzle adventure game Lumino City to Android. You can pick it up today and it is even on sale. That is right, for its first week the game is launching at the price of $2.99, after which it will go back up to $4.99.
Vector Unit has enjoyed a pretty good reputation on Android for a good while now. Not only have they released some pretty popular titles but they have also gone out of their way to support the Android platform more than most. Things like Play Games achievements, leaderboards, and cloud saving have all been a standard for the studio since their inception. Making sure to provide HID controller and Android TV support is also a big plus for them. When you take all of this into consideration, it is no surprise that they have gone on to perform exceedingly well, and deservedly so. Today we take a look at their latest release MouseBot, a corridor platformer that offers a ton of levels and a whole lot of polish.
I don't know what to think of this one. Of all the Allo features we've discussed so far, many are cool, some are interesting, and few are controversial. But the lack of a cloud save or backup/restore function? I am not on board with that, and I doubt anyone can justify it. But here goes.
Gaming on Android right now is booming, but it's still less than ideal. It's an attractive proposition to play games to go using a device you're already going to have with you, but very few of us keep our phones for as long as we would hold on to a Nintendo 3DS or even an old Game Boy. Sooner than later, we'll be upgrading to a new phone, but before that even happens, many of us will also pick up a new tablet that, if you're reading this blog, will likely ship with Android. What then do we do with those old games we've racked up high scores with on a previous device?
[For Developers] Google I/O 2013 Wrap-Up: The Must-See Sessions For Every Developer
DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!! DEVELOPERS!!! Yeah, ok, I know, the chant has been done to death. But, we at Android Police really do <3 developers. Building
DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!! DEVELOPERS!!! Yeah, ok, I know, the chant has been done to death. But, we at Android Police really do <3 developers. Building great apps is a challenging job and it requires an obscene amount of time. As a developer myself, I know how hard it is to invest an extra hour when I'm already busy writing software, supporting customers, and of course, having a life. Unless you are eager to dive into every last session from Google I/O, all 25 hours of Android-specific content, then you might be wondering which sessions are really worth it for you. Well, I've taken the liberty of watching all of it and have compiled a quick guide so that all of the developers out there might be able to turn 2-3 solid days of cornea-crushing talks into a dense afternoon of unadulterated Android brilliance.