Hello, welcome to our latest Pocket Gamer Weekly recap.
This is a chance for you to see what various members of the Pocket Gamer team are planning to play this weekend, and will hopefully give you an idea of some of the weird and wonderful things we get up to when we’re not there so you can keep up to date with the latest news and tips. Heck, you might even find a fresh game to play.
Shaun Walton
Staff writer
I’m constantly jumping between games and this weekend is no exception! On the mobile side, Lingsha will be released in Honkai: Star Rail next week and I need her on my Super Break team, so I’ll be getting passes there. Between the weird Rocket League Sideswipe game, I’ve been wanting to get back into it lately, great fun.
Saturday night was raid night for my FFXIV FC and somehow I stumbled upon the Raid Leader role. It was a lot of fun and not as stressful as I expected. Additionally, I have once again succumbed to the call of space and recently re-launched Starfield. There are lots of updates including a fresh buggy which is awesome.
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Deputy and editor for special projects
This week I’m going to check out Athena Crisis, Null Games’ version of XCOM and Advance Wars. I’m leaning more towards a mobile strategy at the moment, and Athena Crisis’ cheerful pixel art appeals to me. If you’re also interested but not quite sold, you can play the browser demo on the site official game website. Thank you Shaun for pointing this out.
Off my cell phone, and not at all six years delayed to the party, I started playing Red Dead Redemption 2. So far, I have mixed reviews. The vocal performances, the story, and the incredible attention to detail keep me going, but the gameplay is kind of… just okay. I appreciate that they shoot more realistically, but moving Arthur Morgan makes it feel like I’m fighting a boat, and that’s not all that fun.
Then Sullivan
Editor-in-Chief
For me it’s Balatro.
Jimbo and I will burn cards and invoke a mix of planets and tarot cards, all while clowning around. I was lucky enough to gain access to it a few days before launch and I’m already making great progress in building my collection and unlocks.
Balatro is absolutely perfect for mobile devices, in fact this may be its final form. Touchscreen controls are a natural fit for anything card-related, and much like Windows with Spider Solitaire, Hearts, etc., card games have never really moved away from mobile devices since their inception as a platform.
I love that the game has come to mobile devices. There’s a long, long line of fantastic indie roguelikes and run-based games that have made their way to the smaller screen, and the fantastic port of Balatro gives me hope that more people will make that leap and find success here.
Jupiter Hadley
Staff writer
You’d think I’d be playing Pokemon Go this weekend. You’re wrong! Well, not entirely wrong. I’m going to be playing Pokemon Go this weekend, but I’m also playing a lot of other things. I’m currently in Barcelona for Indie Dev Day. I hope to see some mobile games on the floor. I know the creators of Pineapple: A Bittersweet Revenge will be here, so there’s hope.
On the way home I will most likely play Fairy Village, a very cute game where you have to build your own house and decorate it. This is the work of HyperBeard, which always creates games that are not only stunning but also quite fun to play.
Katarzyna Dellosa
Review editor
I’m still under a self-imposed ban on any kind of hardcore button mashing, so luckily I’ll be playing an early build of Pine: A Story of Loss this weekend for an embargoed preview. It was supposed to be really frosty in terms of controls, but I’m already expecting zero cool in terms of feel.
Speaking of which, we talked about some thrilling games in Episode 2 (S2) of our Pocket Gamer Podcast – yes, we have one! Listen on the weekend while waiting for the train or playing your favorite way to kill time on your phone.
Will Swift
Freelance writer
After I was done looking for stupid weapons, I took a more solemn route. Thanks to Dann, I was lucky enough to get a preview of Age Of Empires Mobile which will be available in the market soon. It holds a special place in my heart for me because Age Of Empires (specifically 2) was the first RTS I ever played. This started my love of strategy and helped fuel my love and interest in history (Joan D’Arc, S-tier historical figure, fight with me).
However, from the very beginning, the game was designed to be significantly different from the rest of the series. To put it bluntly, Age Of Empires wasn’t mobilized that way. It’s become a combination of management and strategy similar to Clash Of Clans, and that’s not a bad thing. This makes sense, in a way, because building an empire takes time: you have to gather resources, build buildings, train soldiers, explore territories, sail to parts unknown and hope to draw legendary historical (and fictional) warriors and leaders from the tavern.
This will make it much more accessible as an online and social game with solid graphics, but I guess we’ll have to see how long this mobile empire lasts.
Krystyna Mesesan
Staff writer
After a long time traveling to visit family, I wanted a game that would bring back memories: Stardew Valley. Even though it’s not a fresh game, I always come back to it when I want to relax, and that’s exactly what I want this weekend to be like.
I could spend hours decorating my farm and grinding out the Skull Caves, but since I haven’t had much time to do quests on Rum Island and whatnot, I’ll probably do that too. I started with the Pirate’s Wife quest, and then I’ll most likely end up doing my best to farm dungeons here. Or at least I’ll try. I hear they can be quite unsafe.
