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How Pokémon GO Can Be Improved & Community Day Afterthoughts

Other features are welcomed in these pandemic times (and for winter), but it seems the increased range to touch gyms for raiding is deceased. I have to get slightly closer than stay far away. I feel an extra bump is better. Anything within a one block radius makes more sense than to tighten up.

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Updated: Jan 28th, 2021

Pokémon GO is off to a good start this new year. I’m playing a lot more because the first Community Day with Machop and triple stardust for every critter caught is exactly what I wanted. Toss on a Star Piece, and I was swimming in powder after playing for the full five hours. Hopefully, these types of triple offerings will pop up a touch more often.

But as for the augmented reality part of this game, I still keep the camera off. The feature still struggles with knowing the difference between three-dimensional objects, a wall and the floor. It’d be cool to see a Pikachu around the corner, and the player has to slightly chase after it in order to catch, but the various surface detection algorithms don’t work that way. This feature was supposed to roll out late last year, according to engadget, but it seems very little progress has been made. I’ve tested the option on an iPad Mini 5 and Samsung S20 FE. On both, the critter thought the curtain was a flat horizon surface–whoops!

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Weekend Recap: Comic-Con@Home vs Pokemon GO Fest 2020! The Result…

Between Comic Con and NIantic’s event, to say which is better is tough fans of everything, every where can’t do it all at once.

Between Pokemon GO Fest (Home Edition) and Comic-Con2020@Home, this weekend was certainly packed with a lot of nerdy delights to do. With the latter, one could participate in online gaming of various sorts–including teaming up with players in PoGO for remote raids–check out virtual panels or shop.

Believe it or not, I took part in both.

Niantic’s revised plans for their celebration of their flagship game was good. Saturday was better than Sunday. With rotating habitats coming to you instead of you wandering the city with a face mask on is an excellent plan. Players can play for a few hours or go nuts during both days! Sadly, nobody is going to get anything good by couch surfing this game; hundos, shinies and legendaries aren’t going to be in abundance by playing at home. Instead, players have to wander the neighbourhood to maximize their gains. The timed research tasks were not too difficult, and can be done within 3-4 hours.

Day two was a disappointment. There were no more habitats, and everything was just piled into one huge mega eight hour D&D quest where walking and searching is required for those who braved the elements–especially for those hunters wanting a shiny Gible.

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PvP Changes in Pokemon GO & My Wish for What’s Next

Pokemon GO Banner Still

Pokémon Go has finally become the game that it should have been when it first released. The latest update includes an improved player versus player experience where opponents can fight each other on the net in league play. It’s tennis at its core, where you send out your best Pokemon to trade blows until one is down (of the three matches). The combat interface is the same. The rewards are slightly better. Sadly, the experience is very buggy. Rewards don’t show up unless you restart this module of the game. To enter this mode, players must walk 5km per entry to play five rounds for a max of 15 per day. The official wording is ambiguous to say if distance gained through adventure sync will allow joining too.

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With Team Rocket Leaders, Pokémon GO is Worth Returning To

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Anyone waffling on whether returning to play Niantic Lab’s Pokémon GO will find the latest add-ons worthwhile. The latest updates finally give players a sense of dealing with threats as Ash did in the anime. Unlike the comedy antics of Jessie and James of Team Rocket, the brutes in the augmented reality game are not easy to defeat. If there’s ever a time to create a motivation to keep on playing, it’s to find and grind those weaker pocket monsters into candies to power up the better ones.

The previous add-on’s were window-dressing. They offered no substance. The player vs player option was very lacklustre because all that mattered was who had the fastest finger (and virtual creature with the best move set) to defeat opponents. The higher level raids simply depended on being on a local Discord group to coordinate just for the sake of candies and bragging. Even finding more of your favourite critter with the current radar can be tedious. I’m still waiting for an improved version to filter results than to see if rare Pokémon are nearby.
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Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, 9¾ Weeks Later…

Pokemon Go

After more than a month of playing Niantic/Port Key Game’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the addiction is real. Searching for missing fragments of various foundables makes me feel like I’m going through the Deathly Hallows experience. I’m reminded of when Potter, Granger and Weasley were looking for the horcruxes containing parts of Voldemort’s soul. The only difference is these people and objects are not intentionally splitting themselves apart. Paywall problems aside, I want my fantastic beasts whole.

This game is essentially about collecting pieces to a jigsaw puzzle where players have little control of finding the final segment. Unless a radar is put into the game, finding that last deoxy will be difficult. Alternatively, players can use Discord to report where Ron Weasley’s right ear went. This game is all about exploring and hoping that final fragment is nearby–either in the wild or hidden in a fortress.

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The Good, Bad, and the Ugly with Harry Potter Wizards Unite

Unless players want to pay real-world money to increase their energy reserves and storage space, that’s all most players can do until more parts of Harry Potter Wizards Unite are unlocked.

Harry Potter Wizards Unite Promo Card After playing Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite for a little more than a week, I find it’s a slightly different game than Pokémon GO. Instead of catching them all, it’s finding lost objects to send back to the owners and collecting ingredients to make potions. Doing both is very important in this game. The experience is not as much about expanding the universe J. K. Rowling created and I don’t recall hearing about her endorsing or approving the story behind this product.

The basics of what the Harry Potter universe is about is there. You are part of his team and join fellow magi to prevent the muggles (normals) from discovering this world. This game requires at least half an hour to an hour a day to accomplish the daily tasks for the in-game rewards. Missing a day won’t hurt. When players want free coins to spend, the game is still about grinding for them than creating an authentic franchise and augmented reality (AR) experience.

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