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Diary of a Promiscuous Gamer: Dark District, Angry Birds Go and Heroes of Dragon Age catch my eye

This guy will play anything with a pulse

Diary of a Promiscuous Gamer: Dark District, Angry Birds Go and Heroes of Dragon Age catch my eye
As game executive Bing Gordon famously put it (about) in 2010, "This is the most promiscuous app audience in the history of mankind".

So this is the weekly diary of a promiscuous gamer, which this week is particularly promiscuous as I try to catch up with the Christmas rush.

1. Clash of Clans (Supercell)

Nothing of significance happened, although I do like the new Santa Strike defense trap.

2. Samurai Siege (Space Ape)

Compared to Clash, what I find interesting about this game is how early it gets you into an Alliance, and how generous it is with resources. That said, my base is very lopsided and I'm not really very bothered about battles.

3. Friendly Fire (Red Robot)

Attacked some guy in Germany and got mullered. Not happy. Also find it incredibly difficult to find the 'build tanks' button. UI is not this game's strong point.

4. QuizUp/ (Plain Vanilla)

Didn't play this week.

5. Fast & Furious 6: The Game (Kabam)

Played the Daily Races.

6. Tank Nation (Wormhole Games)

Unlocked a Fire Splasher gun and bought a Plasma Gunsaw gun with the gems hard currency. Still stuck on level 12. This game is rockhard.

7. Galaxy Factions (Coco)

Still not joined an Alliance. Upgraded some buildings.

8. Battle Command! (Spacetime Studios)

Finally starting to enjoy this game a bit more, although don't it really ranks, even as a 'Clash of the Clones'.



9. CSR Classics (NaturalMotion)

Did the Daily Races. Was offered a green Jaguar E-Type - which has its own special game mode - for $4.99. Nope.

10. Epic Empire (Pocket Gems)

Playing but still not really understanding this game.

11. Heroes & Havoc (Mobage)

As with a lot of Mobage games, this game has a lot of short-time game loops, which mean you either spend a lot of hard currency/or don't play it for very long. It's the latter for me.

12. Clumsy Ninja (NaturalMotion)

Not sure how if adding the game-style missions really adds to the experience but the character of the Clumsy Ninja is surprising engaging, and as you'd expect from NaturalMotion, the biomechanics simulation is excellent.

Installed #1: Gun Zombie 2 (Glu Mobile)

Very low quality touchscreen first-person shooter. Immediately uninstalled.

Installed #2: Dark District (Kabam)

This sci-fi take on Clash of Clans isn't as showy as Galaxy Factions - it's in 3D but not with a 3D camera - but it has very clean UI and UX (see below) and Kabam has also streamlined some of the gameplay. Am interested to see what this is like.



Installed #3: Heroes of Dragon Age (EA)

Taking card-battling mechanics into 3D, this game impresses in terms of its graphics and hero characters. As with such games, I'm not entirely convinced I know what's going on in terms of deck formation etc yet, but am playing this a lot.

Installed #4: Angry Birds Go (Rovio)

Yes, it's not Mario Kart, but the Exient-developed Go is an excellent downhill racer. I really like the per character energy system too.



Installed #5: Swords & Spells (Xyrality)

German MMORGP specialist Xyrality comes up with another solid gameplay experience, which is similar and different enough to other games in the genre to make it interesting.

Installed #6: Lawless (Mobage)

I hate lightgun games.

Installed #7: Shadow Slayer (Z2)

This is an attempt to do something different in the city-building action genre (see below), with a decent RPG narrative with a single playable character, but just not quite honed enough.



Uninstalled #1 Thor: The Dark World (Gameloft)

An over-the-top 3D brawler that demonstrates Gameloft's ability to make high-end mobile game, even if the experience quickly becomes rather repetitive and lacking in nuance. The 1.4GB download size isn't an advantage, either.

Uninstalled #2 OMG TD! (Yodo1)

A nice fixed path tower defence game that takes its theme from classic Greek gods. Aside from this, it doesn't do much different from any other tower defence game, however.

Uninstalled #3 Elemental Kingdom (Arc)

Chinese card-battling online game that's not quite refined enough for western tastes.

Uninstalled #4: Gun Zombie 2 (Glu Mobile)

See Installed #1

Uninstalled #5: Lawless (Mobage)

See Installed #6

Uninstalled #6: Shadow Slayer (Z2)

See Installed #7

Weekly recapInstalled: 7

Uninstalled: 6

In Play: 16

To Be Played: 0

Spending: 0

To-date 2013 'Life Time' Value: $99.99

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.