been on a silly city building social type of a game kick lately. Used to play a lot of those on FB but I don't hardly ever sit down at my home PC anymore what with the dojo and everything.

Currently going between these four game:
CityVille Hometown : iOS port of the FB game
CityVille Holidaytown : holiday themed version of the other one
Oregon Trail: American Settler : sort of a ripoff of Frontierville from FB, done by Gameloft (who else when you are talking about ripoffs ;) )
Tower Town : this one I like a lot. You build towers in a town that's simply growing from left to right. New citizens have three needs to be happy: 1) a type of apartment they want to move in, 2) a type of shop they want in their tower 3) a decoration they want on their tower. Moving them around to make them happy suits my analytic brain a lot. It's kind of a puzzly game...

I also downloade The Sims FreePlay yesterday but have not fooled around with it too much. It's free btw...

Speaking of The Sims, the newest iOS port, The Sims Medieval is currently free as part of EA's holiday sale. So is NFS Shift I think.

FM

oh and Infinity Blade 2 was released this past week. Also don't have time to play it so will wait on maybe a price cut but oculd also pick it up at full price during the holiday break if I'm bored at some point. ;)

FM

and for those of you interested, Kairosoft's Oh! Edo Towns is currently on sale, down to 1.99$ from 3.99$...

FM

Kairosoft's new iOS release has been announced for December 15th. Venture Towns, which looks to me like a contemporary version of Oh! Edo Towns.

I have to say, I'm extremely disappointed. I really wanted a port of Pocket League Story or even World Cruise Story.

Granted, I'll probably still buy it, but feeling very underwhelmed right now. OET is my least favorite Kairosoft offering.

ChronoTrigger was released today.

No real reviews yet, but initial impressions from Touch Arcade are that they fixed a lot of the interface problems that plagued Final Fantasy Tactics. That's a good thing in my book.

And of course, there is also the new FM...

/tk

Sims FreePlay is actually quite fun. It's a freemium game where you get Sims to move in with you in a town that could accomodate up to 16 Sims. You can farm and such but the interaction between your Sims while doing the different missions they throw at you is what's kinda fun for me.

FM

Aliens versus Humans for your X-Com on your phone fix.

12 Indie Apps for Christmas.

Basically, if you buy any of the 12 games during December, 25% of the sales will go to Child's Play or Doctors Without Borders.

Games for a good cause. :)

/tk

Anybody having problems with being able to buy stuff? I keep pushing the $2.99 button on Venture Towns (it's a 25% off release special) but nothing happens.

...Okay that's really strange. I can browse the app store, look at app pages fine. But I can't download any apps or look at any app ratings. WTF?

I read that the iTunes store is having issues right now. People worldwide have been reporting issues trying to buy stuff.

If I had to guess, this is at least partly to do with the international roll-out of Match. Sadly, I can't really try myself right now, as I'm in London and don't want to pay international prices.

/tk

app store acted quite weird for me yesterday around dinner time. Couldn't download anything nor buy anything as an IAP.

Speaking of IAP, Carcassonne has been updated to have two expansions availalable as IAP: The River is available for 99 cents and Inns & Cathedrals is available for $1.99.

I have bought both and am looking forward to playing games with my friends with them although having never played the boardgame version before, I'm sure I'll go through a lot of trials and errors to find what works well with both these expansions... ;)

FM

The Inns & Cathedrals add-on expansions makes Carcassonne into an even better game, by a serious margin. I suspect it's executed well in the app, and I'd be excited to confirm this.

For those already familiar with the base game, (at least on the boxed level) it adds a number of new tiles (including some new strategically important shapes), adds special road tiles that turn their adjacent roads into double-or-nothing propositions (get zero points if unfinished, but double if finished), and the cathedral tile (I think it's just one) is an all-city tile that similarly raises the stakes for its city -- that becomes a triple-or-nothing proposition (and with the four-city sides in that tile, finishing the city can get daunting).

Much more opportunity for "screwing your rival" with the new tiles, a really good addition to an excellent game.

Thanks, guys. It's still not working, so I'll have to try again later today.

Well crap. Wish I had seen this before 15 minutes ago.

Buying works fine on iTunes - it's the downloading that's not working for me. Not exactly the best combination.

I got them, too. Next game we start, let's use 'em. :) (hint hint feel free to start a new game with me even though our current one is still going)

I picked up Paper Toss 2.0 today. It looks like a sorta-freemium model (it has ads, IAP to get rid of them). Haven't played it yet, though. Got what I think is a cold kicking my keester.

/tk

challenge sent, with both River and Inns & Cathedrals as rules. Let's make a goofy game in which we both learn more than anything else... ;)

FM

I want in on some Carassone action. How do I do that, what do you need to challenge, etc?

Easiest is via Gamecenter. You can challenge me at QcFrogMan or tell me your GC nickname and I'll challenge you to a game.

Email also works.

FM

I'm flasch186...I'm not very good however

No problem, I'm still feeling my way with the new expansions, which I had not even realized I had included in our game... ;)

I'll also start a three player game with you and TK, we could also go 4 with samifan but I don't think he's bought the expansions yet...

FM

I have the expansions FM. :)

Good to know. Already got too many games going but we'll play with them in our next game. :)

FM

Jetpack Joyride is free today (19 December) via the Free App A Day promotion.

Definitely worth the 99 cents I paid for it. Even better at free!!!!

/tk

Bejeweled is free if you go to this link: Incompatible Browser | Facebook

Save $.99 just for liking on facebook.

Thanks for the heads up. Fun little time waster even though the farthest I've gotten is 2200 meters.

My best is 4899m. I'm kind of annoyed at that, since I've been trying to get all the achievements. The only one I have left is the one to go 5 km. I'm also trying to earn enough money to get all the jetpacks and stuff.

One nice/cool thing about the game is that the developer (Halfbrick) makes updates pretty often (at least, so far). Apparently I've spent 18 hours and 46 seconds playing this game (wow...a lot of that is on lunch break or in doctor's offices). Well worth my 99 cents.

/tk

EA and Gameloft are doing their big Holiday sale thing. Just picked up Real Racing 2 for 99 cents, its lowest price ever. Dang it’s such a great looking and smooth game…

That Tigris and Euphrates game that Quiksand posted about a page back or so is also on sale, down to $3.99 from $5.99. Yeah, such a big deal, a $2 cut on price but still $2 off is two more little 99 cents game you can buy ;)

Anybody ever gave Tigris and Euphrates a shot, or has played the tabletop version of the game. I’m also interested about hearing how it plays as an online multiplayer game from someone who’s tried it. More precisely, does it play similar to how Carcassonne plays?

Speaking of Carcassonne, the expansions have rekindled my interest for the game. They sure do make it into quite a different game.

FM

FrogMan, I've played a fair deal of Tigris & Euphrates online multiplayer, never actually played it in person. I find it's a good deal of fun, though I've got my butt whooped by regular players so I clearly don't have a tight strategy down.

And the playing in asynchronous, i.e. you play then wait for the other to play his turn and you get notifief when he's done so?

FM

I'm not sure about the iPad version, FM, I've just played on Web sites. I may check it outfor 2.99 though.

anyone play Parallel Kingdoms:Age of Thrones on the ipod/iphone or android? If so I'd love to get a FOFC kingdom going on there.

ok, thanks for saying. I'm thinking it plays just like Carcassonne which is something I could like. Just don't have the time to sit down and play a game in one shot like the quickplay version in Carcassonne where the game matches you with someone you don't know but you have to play the game to the end in one sitting...

FM

what kind of game is it, any fun?

FM

Which expansion should I get first so I can play with you guys alongside our regular games?

I'd say the Inns & Cathedrals one if you want to get only one. The River expansion only adds to the start of the game while the Inns & Cathedrals expansion makes significant changes throughout the whole game. Anybody starting a game can decide which expansions are in effect.

The River is available for 99 cents while Inns & Cathedrals is $1.99.

You can read about both expansions on the Carcassonne blog:
Carcassonne App | Expansion details

FM

okay, read a bit about it, kind of a location based MMORPG, isn't it? And how would an FOFC kingdom work with us spread out all over the place?

FM

It appears to be free, so I'll give it a try.

LogMeIn which is normally 29.99 is free right now.

Cool. Checking it out.

You basically use feathers to travel but you have a hometown then a fictional kingdom. The kingdom is free to travel to so it can be set up anywhere, usually near lots of open land so you can expand it easier without attacking others. However if we were pretty powerful we could do whatever too I supose.

My referral code is jjuorr. Which gives me food when you sign up and level up which I'd gladley half with you too. (food is needed to level up)

My player name is my same FOFC name


And it's free too

Logmein - nice find!

How does an App go from $29.99 to free? Then again, who cares ... I'm in. This is the one that lets you play FOF on your ipad right?

Yes

Downloaded it, and will move it to my phone later. What's the difference between this version and Pro?

For what it's worth, the free product from LogMeIn is apparently a somewhat different product than the $30 LogMeIn Ignition app that I and others here use. I'm getting my mom to pick it up for her iPad, and it's not the same thing. Can't tell the differences yet,, and I still vouch for the service overall, but this might be a stripped-down version to encourage people toward the pro software upgrade, I'm thinking. Just FYI.

Yeah, I looked at it and it didn't sound the same as you guys described. Looks like it's a basic free app with a yearly subscrption for the advanced features.

If you guys want an app to log in to your PC remotely, pick up the Splashtop Desktop app. It does the same things as LogMeIn but costs far less and works well.

Started it's own thread so as to not thread jack here, but basically your kingdom can be anywhere and you get to "travel" to the kingdom for free. Any other travel costs feathers that you either find in the game or buy using the game gold.

Food and extras are the only thing that cost real money, but even those you can "buy" with the free gold in the game.

Everyone could still have their own home location (Canada, Japan, Arizona, New York etc) but still be apart of the same Kingdom (which would be set up somewhere in the real world as well)

For anyone else interested in finding good iOS board games, check out iPad Board Games | Your guide to the best iPad and iPhone board gaming experiences iPad Board Games.