Tag Archives: iOS

Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms Videogame Teaser Trailer & Art Updates

23 Jul

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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

When considering I have been a playing a lot of Codename Entertainment‘s Crusaders of the Lost Idols lately, the thought of how this fantasy themed side-scroller can become more challenging crossed my mind. The game play is simple: kill monsters for experience points to level up the characters and buy better equipment so they can walk through a dungeon unscathed. The harder part is in how to arrange the party of warriors so the team can dole out the most damage.

I am definitely curious in looking at this Victoria, BC based company’s next game, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. Will it be the same game, or be better? Crusaders on Steam is in beta for a long time, and I suspect that’s because the producers have been testing this version out for some time, before deciding to finally wrap it around a franchise property for wider appeal. This fantasy realm developed by Ed Greenwood is beloved amongst role playing gamers for its rich world, and to see it brought to life (again) in a video game is exciting.

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Video

There’s No Injustice 2 Mobile’s Improved Gameplay!

15 May

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Warner Bros Interactive and DC Entertainment released a mobile edition of Injustice 2 (for Android and iOS) well ahead of the console edition due out May 16th, and I did not get any other work done over the weekend because of it.

The gameplay is familiar, and the story mode kept me engaged for hours, while watching Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series in the background. While the Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter-like mechanics will always be awkward when played on tablet-like surfaces — tapping and swiping for to activate certain moves — but this game does something to improve the momentum of the character’s moves. I find the controls a lot more intuitive to figure out, especially when I’m the type who does not pay attention to the tutorials much.
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Powfolio Wants to Netflix Up the Comic Book World

20 Nov

DavidBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Powfolio is a mobile app for iOS and Android looking to change how people look at comic books. This software has been out since early 2016 and they are making a new push to be known throughout the industry. Back in a different century, when printed versions could be found nearly everywhere, at corner stores and supermarkets, this era is distinguished by being able to find digital content very easily. While some towns may see a few supermarkets carry Archie paperbacks, to find that is very few and far between. CEO David Campiti (pictured top right) of Glass House Graphics (a talent agency / studio of artists who are hired to produce work for comic book companies like Dark Horse) fondly recalls those days when they were far more accessible. Today, the only place these rags can be found are at speciality operations.

“There was a McNamara’s drugstore right up the street from where I lived that carried almost everything, From Marvel, DC, Classics Illustrated, Gold Key, Harvey, Warren … If you name it, they had it,” recalled Campiti. “Skip forward to now, [the distribution of] comics have been shrunk down into a very niche market of 1800 shops scattered across the US. This means an entire generation of children has never held a comic book in their hands.”

As a father who delivered presentations at his young daughter’s school, talking about his job in the comic book industry, he’s seen the result of the times. In today’s digital age, he sees more children tuned to their mobiles than a paper product. As he was handing out free products (Marvel Comic’s X-Men) to the kids, he was astounded to hear one boy say, “You mean there’s a comic book too?”

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There’s a Shoggoth on the Rise, a Review

8 Apr

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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Some clichés can surprisingly work under the right situation. In Shoggoth Rising, an iOS / Android / Windows Mobile arcade game, the danger arrives in a dark and stormy night when the beasts from underneath the sea takes interest in a derelict ship that runs aground. Ned is the only survivor and he’s stranded on a little isle after his ship capsized during a lightning storm. Locked away, high atop a lighthouse tower, there’s very little he can do other than to blast away at everything coming at him. The light is his only shining beacon of hope. Will rescue come? In this game’s case, never!

This arcade game uses what’s classic in games of yore to make gaming endless. When he dies, the game dies. Although this game has been out for a little more than a year, early versions were not all that stable on certain platforms, and this update offers two levels, each of them with 30 stages of play. At the time of this writing, the fifteen stages have been accomplished. When considering how tough each segment becomes, that’s an achievement.
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