As game executive Bing Gordon famously put it (about) in 2010, "This is the most promiscuous app audience in the history of mankind".
This is the weekly diary of a promiscuous gamer.
1. Epic Empire (Pocket Gems)
Despite the recent rash of decent upgrades, I think I'm getting close to the end game; by which I mean the one big thing I haven't done in Epic Empire yet is Forge a rare item from the Master Blacksmith.
That's because it costs 999 Starstones. However, I've ground out 996 Starstones so by next week I will have forged a rare item. If it's an anti-climax - after all - my hero is now pretty buffed up (level 24), it's likely to be onto the uninstall pile...
2. Dark District (Kabam)
Like Epic Empire, I've been playing Dark District for over two months so I don't think there's much left to see. I still like the clean UI and UX but think that only having "one builder" to upgrade buildings (you have to use hard currency to complete tasks immediately if you want to go faster) is a brave experiment that hasn't worked.
3. Angry Birds Go! (Rovio)
Didn't play for the second week in a row.
4. Adventure Town (Supersolid)
Still enjoying Adventure Town. Will look to see whether it's worth spending money as part of a Special Promiscuous Gamer Diary in future weeks.
5. Galaxy on Fire - Alliances (Fishlabs)
I am slowly getting into Galaxy on Fire - Alliances. I can see it's very deep and tactical, but just haven't put all the pieces together in terms of how my planets - and their resources - link together.
6. Heroes of Honor (Nonstop Games)
I am really enjoying the new mechanics opened up by the Valorium Forge in terms of making and upgrading new items for my heroes.
The only issue with this 'higher resource layer' is you need to use up a lot of the basic resources in order to get even a small amount of the higher resources. I can see how this game would become expensive if I decided to try and become a power player.
7. Dungeon Keeper (EA)
After five weeks of almost daily play, I am finally getting Dungeon Keeper. Granted I did spend $4.99 last week to unlock the third builder, but increasing my potential tasks by 50 percent has opened up the gameplay. Granted, I'm still struggling to work out what all the units do, especially in terms of how to best combine them, but - no lie - I'm actually really beginning to enjoy the experience.
In several subtle ways - digging out instead of building up and progressive spawn points - the game is doing something different in the strategy genre.
8. Fightback (Chillingo)
Didn't play this week.
9. Deadman's Cross (Square Enix)
This is becoming a bit of a grind. Can't complete the second job I've been given. Yawn.
10. Naughty Kitties (Coconut Island)
Didn't play this week, although I did note the new update decreased the amount of in-game advertising.
11. HonorBound (JuiceBox Games)
I haven't spend any money in HonorBound yet, but I have spent some of the hard currency earned. Typically I don't like to do this, but in this case, I'm starting to enjoy the game even though the early progress - notably unlocking a third squad member slot - is heavily geared to either spending cash or gems.
12. Band of Heroes (Mobjoy)
Didn't play this week.
13. Bug Heroes 2 (Forsaken Media) [$0.99]
Still haven't played.
14. ACR Drift (Crooz)
Didn't play this week, not have I downloaded the 742 MB update that's described as "minor bug fixes". What is Crooz on?
15. Battle Quest: Rise of Heroes (DeNA)
Didn't play this week.
Installed #1: Royal Revolt 2 (flaregames)
Excellent sequel that mixes up city-building and tower defence as you level up your buildings and troops, while also building up your tower defences that other players will attack. Of course, you use your own troops to attack other players defences, including controlling your hero character.
This is really well designed, with sparkling 3D graphics and a great sense of humour, and I've already spent $4.99 to get enough currency to unlock the third builder. I expect to be playing Royal Revolt 2 a lot for the next couple of weeks.
Uninstalled #1: Eternity Warriors III (Glu Mobile)
As ever, I enjoyed looking at Glu's monetisation strategies, but found that I got pretty confused in terms of item fusion and evolution in Eternity Warriors III, while the early boss level proved to be hard gate for me i.e. if I wanted to beat the boss, I would have had to spend real money.
Uninstalled #2: RoboCop (Glu Mobile)
Personally, I'm not a fan of first-person shooters on touchscreens (The Drowning excepted). In that context, I thought RoboCop was a good play of a bad hand, but it could only hold my attention so long.
Uninstalled #3: Sky Adventures (Game Insight)
Given Game Insight's reputation of highly monetised games, Sky Adventures was actually pretty nice to play, although after a month or so, the odd cute-fantasy setting and high level of task repetition was finally enough for me.
Uninstalled #4: Glyph Quest (Alexander Trowers)
Nice art style and all, but Glyph Quest wasn't a strong enough concept to slice out a slot of my playing time.
Uninstalled #5: Defenders & Dragons (Glu Mobile)
The third Glu Mobile game uninstalled this week, but not because it was bad. None of them are bad games, but I think in terms of concept and gameplay, Glu's output can tend towards the generic.
Uninstalled #6: Excalibur (R2 Games)
Another Chinese-developed game that won't appeal to western gamers. It's too obviously based on a browser game to complete with native action RPGs.
Weekly recap
Installed: 1
Reinstalled: 0
Uninstalled: 6
In Play: 15
To Be Played: 1
Spending: $4.99 (Royal Revolt 2)
To-date 2014 'Life Time' Value: $16.96
