The best board games for Android
What are the best board games for Android?
Board games have been experiencing a renaissance in recent years, and it doesn’t take a lot of digging in the Google Play Store to see it reflected on Android as well. If you’re having trouble getting everybody together under one roof or just don’t have any more shelf space for another box, pick up your Android phone or tablet to grab these fantastic board games.
We’ve put together the very best board games for Android for the consideration of long-time board game fans.It’s worth noting in advance that a vast majority of the Android board games on our list employ in-app purchases for expansions, and thanks to their established physical counterparts, they tend to be well-balanced and lots of fun.
- Ticket to Ride
- Catan
- Ascension
- Carcassonne
- Shelter Free
- Monopoly: Here and Now World Edition
- Sea Battle 2
- Mahjong: Beautiful Orient
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride gets players to build sprawling rail empires by gathering colored cars to connect cities. Every turn, a player gets to either pick two cars, claim a line by spending cars, or take on a new ticket, which challenges players to connect two cities before the first player runs out of cars. The farther these two cities are, the more victory points they’re worth, plus the player with the longest line gets an additional victory point bonus.
On the whole, Ticket to Ride is a fine combination of competition and construction. The in-app purchase grants you access to a new bundle of maps and boards, all of which are totally worth the price.
Download Ticket to Ride ($6.99 with in-app purchases)
Catan
Catan is not just a classic board game; it is the classic board game. Players harvest resources and connect their villages by roads, accumulating victory points along the way. It doesn’t sound like much, but between the inter-player trading (or scheming) and the cramped real estate, Catan can be a very tense game. Players also use their harvested resources to purchase cards which can provide them with useful resources. Pass-and-play multiplayer is available, as well as many of the original game’s expansions.
For a tense game of wheeling and dealing, check out Catan.
Download Catan ($3.99)
Ascension
Ascension is a well-established fantasy card game. Players dynamically build their deck over the course of gameplay, and attempt to acquire the most victory points from a limited pool. When the pool is empty, the points are tallied up. Gathering these honor points is done by building a force with sword and sorcery, acquiring constructs, slaying a constantly-shifting selection of monsters on the board, and recruiting new heroes to your cause. There are expansions and promo packs which introduce new cards to the set as well.
Ascension’s fast and fluid gameplay are bound to catch the attention of even occasional board gamers.
Download Ascension(Free with in-app purchases)
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a tile-based kingdom-building game in which players each take turns trying to complete roads, cities, and cloisters. Each turn, players also drop a limited number of their meeple onto those landmarks in an attempt to claim points once the feature has been completed. If you can’t fully enclose a city or finish a road by the end of the game, you can still get a few points. A handful of expansions are also available through in-app purchases.
Carcassonne is a polished adaptation of a classic board game. If you haven’t tried it yet, now is the time.
Download Carcassonne ($4.99)
Shelter Free
Shelter Free combines deck building card games and castle defence strategy. You wake up to find that the world is overrun with zombies and you have to continuously fight them off in order to make your way out of the danger zone. You move through hazards, seeking cards to build and strengthen your deck, and duelling with zombies who have equally powerful card decks.
The graphic novel artwork style is enough to keep you coming back for more gameplay, but the storyline and intense card battles will keep you hooked for sure.
Download Shelter Free (Free with in-app purchases)
Monopoly: Here and Now World Edition
It’s not a real board game collection until Monopoly shows up, but this isn’t the Monopoly you grew up playing. Sure, you roll the dice and move your chosen token around the board, but the newer version of Monopoly uses famous landmarks (like the Eiffel Tower) for tokens, and you land in Istanbul instead of on Park Avenue. You can opt to join a live multiplayer game online or create your own custom game with a combination of computer-generated opponents and real people.
It’s easy, it’s fun, and if you can’t remember the last time to took out a Monopoly board, it’s time to get this one downloaded.
Download Monopoly Here and Now (free with in-app purchases)
Sea Battle 2
Don’t let anyone sink your battleship! This reimagining of the classic game lets you play against an AI, a random online opponent, or the person sitting next to you. It goes beyond mere battleships to include planes, radar, mines, submarines, and all the while you’re climbing the ranks from a lowly recruit to an admired admiral. Name your proud fleet, watch your scores on the global leaderboard, and use the in-app chat feature to discuss strategy.
The old-school graph paper design will take you right back to playing sneaky Battleship rounds during junior high study hall.
Download Sea Battle 2 (Free with in-app purchases)
Mahjong: Beautiful Orient
The 20 boards of Mahjong: Beautiful Orient feature beautiful backgrounds and a lovely soundtrack to listen to while you master Mahjong. The premise of the game is simple enough: match two tiles to remove them from the board. The boards increase in complexity as you advance, and you need to attain a preset minimum score to move on (not so simple now). Speed, accuracy, and a sharp eye are your must-have Mahjong tools.
If you love board games but you’d just rather play solo, Mahjong: Beautiful Orient is the game for you.
Download Mahjong Beautiful Orient (Free with in-app purchases)
Your favorite Android board games?
Those are our picks, but there’s a lot of great games in the Google Play Store. Leave a comment with your favorite board game or board adaptations for Android!
The Minecraft movie has a release date, coming in 3D and to IMAX
Minecraft diehards can rejoice! Their movie is just three years away.
Mojang has announced an official release date for the game series’ first feature film. The developer studio, which Microsoft acquired in 2014 for $2.5 billion, said its Warner Bros-produced Minecraft movie will hit cinemas worldwide on 24 May 2019. It’ll be available in 3D and IMAX. The adaptation is now under construction, with Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) attached to direct.
Producers Roy Lee (Lego Movie) and Jill Messick (Mean Girls) are also behind the property. We still don’t know much about the film’s plot, or anything really. An IMDb page only states that it is a feature film based on the popular video game. That said, in February, Lee hinted the filmmakers and game designers were collaborating. He emphasised Mojang was very involved in the development:
“So [Mojang] know everything is going to be in the movie that can give us insight into future updates, so we can put things into the movie around the same time they relaunch newer versions of the game and at the same time, potentially taking ideas from the movie and putting them into the game. So, I don’t know exactly what things are going into the game, but they know exactly what’s going into the movie.”
In 2014, Mojang announced that the original PC version of its open-ended sandbox game reached 100 million registered users. But how many people have actually paid for a copy of the game on PC? According to the game’s website, more than 23.7 million copies have been sold.
Here’s when that ‘Minecraft’ movie is finally coming out
Been waiting on pins and needles for news regarding the upcoming Minecraft movie? The good news is there’s actually one big piece of news: a release date. The bad news? You’re going to be waiting a few years still until you can feast your eyes on it.
The official Mojang blog had a concrete release date for the film today: May 24, 2019. It’ll release in 3D and IMAX, but that’s just about all we know about the movie at this time. Vu Bui, COO of Mojang, notes that it does seem like quite a long time away, but it “just so happens to be the right amount of time to make it completely awesome” while promising “loads more” will be shared soon.
Minecraft continues to be a tour-de-force, with the newly-launched Battle mini game a success and Minecraft Realms, the paid multiplayer server hosting service out there in the wild for players being introduced for mobile players.
What could a movie version of Minecraft bring? We’ll have to wait a few Memorial Day holidays to see.
Source: Mojang
Facebook Slideshow livens up your photos and videos
It’s easy to post a ton of photos from your weekend adventures to Facebook, but let’s face it: there are only so many people willing to flip through your photos one at a time. Facebook might just have a way to spice things up, though. It’s trotting out a Slideshow feature that turns your photos and videos into themed clips that will be easier to watch. All you need to do to get one is take five or more photos or videos in 24 hours — Facebook will create an initial clip all on its own. After that, it’s a matter of customizing the slideshow by adding or removing shots and choosing the theme. The feature is only reaching iOS users this week, but it’ll be a big help if it gets friends to check out your vacation gallery.
Twitch introduces ‘Cheering’ emotes for tipping streamers
Twitch, the popular game-streaming site, has a funding problem. Not related to the company — it’s owned by Amazon and is just fine — but its streamers. Like on other video platforms, creators are paid based on ad views and subscriptions, and by all accounts not at a very high rate. While popular streamers make a living — helped in part by sponsorship deals and the like — it can be hard for smaller channels to make ends meet. That’s why the sub-economy of donations and tips exists, and today, Twitch is trying to formalize that economy with a new feature it calls “Cheering.”
It all starts with a new Twitch currency called Bits. You can buy Bits “starting at $1.40 for 100,” and then fritter them away while supporting your favorite streamer. A Cheer, to be clear, is an animated chat emote. Typing “Cheer1” will generate a grey bouncing triangle, and cost you 1.4 cents. “Cheer100” brings up a dancing purple diamond, and costs you $1.4. You can Cheer any amount you please (including irregular figures, and the corresponding emotes get larger and larger, up to a “Cheer10000,” a $140 tip represented by a fractured red star. “If channel subscriptions are the equivalent to holding season tickets for your favorite sports team,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, “Cheering is like getting a crowd wave started during the game.”
As well as feeling warm and fuzzy inside, viewers that Cheer will (probably) get visibly thanked. Streamers can make use of third-party integrations from Muxy, TwitchAlerts and others to automatically generate on-screen messages to thank people for their donations, if they please. Given the positive feedback loop that provides, you’d imagine many broadcasters will take advantage of those integrations. Cheerers will also earn “special badges that make them more visible to the community” in chat. Purchasing a Twitch channel subscription has similar in-chat benefits.
At present, only 30 or so big-name streamers are participating in the Cheering program, which is in a “limited beta.” All these streamers are “partners” on Twitch, meaning they can already take advantage of the platform’s monetization features like subscriptions. Many of these channels take donations and the like through PayPal and other services, and this is a clear play to bring tips within the Twitch ecosystem.
There are still some questions to be answered about the program. It’s not obvious how much of the money will go to streamers, and how much Twitch will take as a cut. Twitch never discusses such revenue details publicly, but top-tier streamers have previously said (under anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements) that subscription revenue shares are pegged at 70% for streamers, 30% for Twitch. Given all the beta testers for Cheering represent similarly popular channels, it seems likely that a similar figure is in play here.
It’s also unclear how widespread Twitch wants Cheering to be. It says the feature “will eventually be rolled out on a broader scale as we refine the program based on community feedback,” adding that it’s “always thinking in terms of how to benefit the broader broadcasting community.” But although the vast amount of money will change hands via the massive “partner” channels, Cheering has the potential to be a great way for more niche outfits to make some money for their efforts.
Update: We’ve updated this article to clarify the split between subscription revenue shares.
My pointless quest to achieve perfect retro console fidelity
It all started about four years ago when I came into an old Sega Saturn system from the mid-90s. It was an entire console catalog that I completely skipped over back in the day. I hooked it up to my TV and soon I was knee-deep in classic fighting games like Street Fighter vs X-Men, and shoot-em-ups like Thunderforce V. The low-poly art style was gorgeously retro, but I quickly realized that the image was stretched and distorted on my HDTV. I googled “retro console fidelity” and that’s where it all went wrong.
Without getting too deep into the AV nerd wormhole — and I am certainly no expert on this matter — the short of it is that that old video game consoles were designed in very small resolutions specifically for old CRT televisions. You remember those old bulky beasts that took two grown men to lift? They had actual cathode ray guns inside of them that drew the image on the screen with a spray of electrons. Old consoles (we’re talking pre-PlayStation 2) were designed to make use of this specific process: They relied on CRT-specific features like scanlines (this usually refers to the horizontal black lines that noticeably ran through the image), color bleed between the lines, and interlacing.
So when you plug one of these systems into a modern HDTV, the signal has to be treated and interpreted for your big shiny flat panel. The TV must upscale the pixels and deinterlace the signal — not to mention it has no cathode tubes, so there would be no scanlines, which means no color bleed. Plus, there’s a resolution problem. A Super Nintendo, for example, outputs at 256 x 254; a 4KTV is 3,840 x 2,160. That means if you plugged one into a 4K set, the signal would need to be expanded by inserting several million useless pixels into it.
On top of all of this, CRTs are in a square rectangular 4:3 format, while modern TVs have a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, which means your game will also appear stretched and distorted. Taking all of this into account, the image resulting from plugging an old console into a modern TV is a far cry from what the console intended to produce. An old Sega Saturn, or Super Nintendo, or NES, or any console before the HD generation, is going to look pretty ugly on a modern screen.
If you’re like me and you’ve come this far into the retro fidelity wormhole to learn about stuff like “interlacing,” then you’re probably going to do something about it. The most sensible and economical thing to do is buy a scaler — a device that sits between your console and your modern television and handles all of that tricky business of translating the signal. The Framemeister XRGB-mini is probably the most popular.
While a scaler can get the job done for most people, the image it transmits is only an emulation and an approximation of what the signal would look like on a CRT. In other words, the scanlines would not be real, and so a scaler could never deliver the image that the consoles intended. To achieve actual honest-to-God retro fidelity, you’re going to need to get your hands on a genuine cathode-ray tube monitor. My quest was born.
XRGB-mini Framemeister upscaler
JunkerHQ.net
Shopping around, I soon realized that some of the best CRTs ever made — specialist devices once far out of reach price wise — were now readily obtainable. So I set my sights on acquiring a Sony BVM — a high-end RGB monitor that was most frequently used in broadcast stations and editing bays. Getting one of these bad boys would not only satisfy in the myriad output issues associated with older consoles plugged into new TVs, but it would also be an RGB-input monitor, which means it would display the crispest colors from your old consoles. For the purist — which, to my horror, I realized was me — this was a far better option than a scaler.
I put the Sony BVM20F1 in my sights. It’s a 20-inch monitor that clocks in at almost 70 pounds. It originally retailed north of $12,000 (yes, that’s right), but they now run between $120 and $200 — if you can find one. I scoured eBay for weeks, but the few BVMs I could find were pick-up only (shipping a 70-pound hunk of equipment is expensive and onerous). I found many possible compromises. In particular there seemed to be a lot of similar, but smaller Sony RGB monitors going up for auction around me. But they were only 8 or 12 inches and intended for use as medical imaging equipment.
While there’s certainly something charming in the ridiculous notion of playing Super Mario on a 8-inch screen that had 10,000 hours of displaying sonograms under its belt, I decided to hold out for the real deal. After several weeks of fruitless searching, I failed to turn up anything affordable. Obtaining these old monitors was harder than it seemed. Years passed, and this quest went on the backburner.
But then I moved to Los Angeles. I suddenly realized that I was in the broadcasting monitor capital of America. A quick look on Craigslist took me to a storage unit in Studio City, where an aging video editor hauled out two RGB behemoths for me to check out. I hoisted them out of their travel cases to discover two Sony PVM20s. Not the BVM holy grail I had been searching for, but these were a close second (the main differences between the PVM and BVM are in the types of formats the monitors support natively). I bought both PVMs for $100 together — a steal — thinking that I could sell the second to another foolish person like myself and maybe even cover my costs and somehow justify this whole mad endeavor.
So, finally, after several years with the goal of perfect retro fidelity hanging over my head, I had myself a glorious RGB box complete with scanlines. Imagine my dismay, then, when I got home and realized I needed a set of custom cables to rig my old consoles up with RGB output that would connect to the weird specialist BNC connections on the back of the monitor. So another six weeks passed as I hunted down the RGB cables that had to be custom-built for the Saturn and the SNES and shipped from the United Kingdom. And yet, they still needed BNC adapters. These were shipped in from Hong Kong. So about two months after I burdened my home with a 70-pound monitor that every guest asked befuddled questions about, I could finally — finally — experience the glorious RGB scanline-infused signal that I had longed for all these many years.
I hooked up my Sega Saturn and basked in the glory. The monitor turned on with a satisfying hum as the cathode ray guns warmed up. The screen glowed with a buzz of static electricity that was fuzzy to touch. I played an hour or so of old fighting games and shoot-em-ups. The Darkstalkers sprites were gorgeous; their animations popped. Radiant Silvergun was, um, radiant. The colors, carried over RGB signals that separated the reds, greens and blues, were vibrant and alive. These games looked magnificent, better than I could have ever experienced them back in the day because I would never have had access to such an expensive monitor. They were simply the best they were ever going to look.
But the glow faded fast. After a couple of weeks of dabbling with the equipment and various games and consoles, my attention drifted. I sold one of the monitors to an artist who was making an installation. The other got boxed up and put in the basement. I had seen Sonic the Hedgehog in its most pixel-perfect incarnation, and yet I felt empty inside.
Searching for retro fidelity, I realized, was not merely about making old games achieve an objectively “perfect” gold standard of visuals. At the end of the day, even on the best hardware you can obtain, it all becomes subjective anyway. Dive deep into retro gaming forums like Shmups and you’ll find that at a certain level, it is just a matter of preference.
No, this quest was always about something more personal. Old video game consoles — and old CRT televisions, for that matter — exert an emotional pull on many of us. These devices created the images that we grew up with. They were charmingly imperfect, and elegant in their solution to technical problems. These images are attached to memories; to our sense of identity. Recreating them as we think we remember them has become a time-consuming, burdensome endeavor — and as the tech ages and disappears, it will become increasingly difficult and also more expensive. It’s not that the games themselves will go away. There will always be plenty of ways to play them, but what we will be playing will always be a mere emulation. It will be, like our memory, simulations of images that were once magical — beautiful in their imperfections — but are now gone forever.
‘Mass Effect Andromeda’ novels tie into the full video game saga
Literary pop culture powerhouse Titan Books will publish four new novels in the Mass Effect universe between August 2016 and March 2018, as outlined in its 2016 Fiction Rights Guide. The books line up with the release of Mass Effect Andromeda in March 2017, but they’ll tie into the entire Mass Effect series, serving as prequels and sequels to some events in the games.
“They will focus on key characters and answer the many questions fans have been asking,” Titan writes.
The first novel, Mass Effect: Andromeda Initiative, is written by The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms author and three-time Hugo Award nominee NK Jemisin. The final novel will be penned by Mac Walters, creative director of the Mass Effect franchise.
Titan is also publishing a trilogy of novels based on the Dishonored series between July 2016 and June 2017. All three books are written by sci-fi author Adam Christopher and the first installment is called The Corroded Man. Dishonored 2, the sequel to 2012’s Dishonored, will hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on November 11th.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is also getting a tie-in novel from Titan and developer Eidos Montreal, dubbed Deus Ex: Black Light. The book bridges the events of the previous game, Human Revolution, with Mankind Divided. The game is set to land on August 23rd and Black Light will hit bookshelves that same month. It’s written by New York Times bestseller (and previous Deus Ex novelization star) James Swallow, who’s also authored books in the Doctor Who, Star Trek and Warhammer 40,000 universes.
Via: Polygon
Source: Titan Books
Microsoft sued for $10,000 after unwanted Windows 10 upgrade
Microsoft’s pushy and occasionally misleading Windows 10 update process has had some tangible backlash. According to the Seattle Times, a small business owner from California has successfully sued Microsoft for $10,000 in “compensation for lost wages and the cost of a new computer” after an unwanted and unauthorized update allegedly left her primary work PC slow, crash-prone and unusable.
“I had never heard of Windows 10,” Sausalito-based travel agent Teri Goldstein told the Seattle Times. “Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to update.”
While Goldstein appears to be the first user to get an actual monetary award, Windows 7/8 users have been complaining about the update process for nearly as long as the new version has been available. Earlier this year, Microsoft changed the update from “optional” to “recommended” and, perhaps most egregiously, the company also switched the behavior of the ubiquitous red X button so that it actually accepted the upgrade rather than canceling it. For their part, Redmond denied any wrongdoing in the Goldstein case and has offered a new tutorial for disabling the update notifications, although there’s still a chance that doing nothing at all will result in an unwanted update that has already been scheduled without the user opting in.
For others who might be looking for a handout from Microsoft, or just some compensation for their upgrade headaches, it is unclear if the case could lead to more lawsuits. The Seattle Times also reports that Microsoft was planning to appeal the Goldstein ruling, but dropped the case to avoid even more court costs. So, it seems unlikely that the company would continue to put itself at risk of more litigation, even if it does have an ambitious goal of 1 billion Windows 10 users to reach. On the other hand, a lawsuit involving a similarly “optional” operating system update for PlayStation 3 consoles recently ended in a class action settlement and potentially millions of dollars in damages on Sony’s part. So, if anything, tech savvy lawyers could have a field day with this one.
Google brings higher-resolution imagery to Earth and Maps
Every few months or so, Google improves the satellite imagery on services like Earth and Maps. Now, as part of its efforts to keep making the experience better for users, the search giant is going to offer higher-resolution virtual views going forward. You’ll now notice sharper imagery of areas around the world, thanks to the latest data from the Landsat 8 satellite and “new processing techniques” that Google’s implementing.
Based on one of the examples from the company (pictured below), you’re able to tell the difference right away. Everything is less blurry from afar. You can see more places for yourself on Google Earth, or by checking out the satellite option on Google Maps.
A satellite image of New York City on Google Earth. Before (above) and after (below) the update.
Source: Google
SAVFY Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker Review
About SAVFY: SAVFY is the exclusive brand of Elifestore, which sells products ranging from accessories for your smartphone to lifestyle products such as design elements and even nail polish
About Product: The SAVFY Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker has:
- a dock for iDevices
- Bluetooth 4.0
- NFC Pairing
- Auxiliary port for non-bluetooth devices
- Two 5W drivers
- Kickstand
- 6-8 hour battery life
Impressions
Design
This speaker is constructed out of glossy plastic, but is still pretty solid. It rests squarely on any surface, but it has a kickstand in case you notice any instability. The addition of a dock gives it a long, strange shape which doesn’t really scream “portability” to me.The dock claims to work for all devices, but if you have an Android device with capacitive keys, then you will not be able to access any of your keys while your device is docked
Sound Quality
The speaker doesn’t have any volume controls, which makes it not ideal for outdoor use. However, with my device at full volume, there is a great bass response and almost no distortion. There is a microphone for calling, but the call quality is terrible, with the other person coming through loud and distorted and with the caller unable to hear you most of the time.
Battery Life
The speaker touts a 6-8 hour battery life, and I found that to be very accurate. I used it extensively throughout my day(which is usually about 8 AM to 4 PM) and at no point did I ever see that the battery was running low
Connectivity
Pairing the speaker and my device was as easy as tapping the side of the speaker with NFC on. Once the device was connected,I was able to play and pause music with ease and answer calls. The speaker touts a 10M connectivity range, which allows me to listen to music and walk around with my phone while doing the day’s chores.
Conclusion
The SAVFY Bluetooth 4.0 speaker is a lot of speaker for $30(the current price on Amazon). For portability, it is not very ideal, as it has a strange shape and volume that is high, but not high enough. If you would like to purchase it, you can get it on Amazon for $26.99 with coupon code C7IWMEYW until June 30, and the normal price is $29.99.
You can find the official SAVFY Store here
AIVAnet 