Hearthstone on iPad! Plus 2 more amazing iOS card games

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on iPad. It's incredible!

I didn't play the PC version of Hearthstone at all, so this is all brand-new to me, and it is stellar.

Now available for iPad, (I hope they'll consider a universal version) Hearthstone is a deck-building strategy game by Blizzard Entertainment set in the World of Warcraft universe. This fast-paced, turn-based game may be compared to Magic: The Gathering, but its closer in style to games like Shadow Era and Solforge. [Magic 2014, Shadow Era, Solforge at the App Store]

While those three are all wonderful games, what Hearthstone has over them is production value. Seemingly nothing has been overlooked; from the table art, card art, characters, voices — all of it is stunning. Selecting a card causes it to hover; as it does, it casts a shadow on the table. When you place a minion card, it changes to a circular token and hits the table with a thump. The griffon on the game board will roar and look up at you if you touch him. These details don't change the mechanics of the game, but they do make the game come alive.

The iPad is perhaps the perfect digital card game platform, and finally, it seems the general public is becoming aware of this. The App Store has a new section called "Card Battle Games," and while some of the titles are freemium junk, there's a handful of hidden gems such as Yomi.

Hopefully Hearthstone will encourage gamers to try these other games. By the way, Solforge is having a 30% off sale until 4/22/14. (I love that game as well — a superb game designed by Gary Games and Richard Garfield, creator of MTG, where cards level up as you use them, becoming increasingly more powerful iterations with enhanced artwork.)

If you love strategy games, give these a try, even if you don't normally play trading card games. The digital format takes away the mess of physical cards and makes the normally arduous process of finding an opponent simple and nearly instantaneous.

As I'm still sort of a Hearthstone and Solforge beginner, I'm not comfortable writing a full review, but as both of these titles are free downloads, I can surely recommend them! Both come with free cards and you can earn more as you play!

Posted with Blogsy

Disability Blues

Tired, and kind of cranky today. Lots of pain. I think my iPad needs to be repaired, the software, anyway... It keeps crashing. Not good, when it's basically your only computer.

I've been enjoying drawing on my iPad with my oStylus DOT (thanks again, Andrew!) — if you have a capacitive touch tablet and draw (or want to) on it, you MUST get the DOT. Now.

My favorite drawing apps are Noteshelf, Infinite Sketchpad, Sketchbook Pro, Brushes, Adobe Ideas, Procreate and Zen Brush. If you do any vector art, Ink Pad is incredible. Adobe Ideas is technically vector as well. Sketch Club is also worth mentioning again.

I saw an advertisement for the new WACOM Intuos5 multi-touch tablets; they look really nice. I've never been good at using those, but they're about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the 12" Cintiq, and perhaps more usable. It has greater sensitivity and multi-touch. That's pretty sweet.

I don't have much to say about other apps today, but here's some game stuff:

I have some Eve of Impact promo codes to distribute! See if you can break past 100K!

• The Witcher 2 is out tomorrow!

• Mass Effect Infiltrator seems to play better, and there's a neat space game called Dangerous worth checking out if you like space sandbox type RPG/sim games.

• Ubisoft added a marketplace to Assassin's Creed Recollection where you can buy and sell memories (cards).

• If you like card games and strategy, check out Shadow Era and Playdek's Food Fight iOS and Nightfall — as well as Ascension (by a different publisher) — but Shadow Era is free (and not the junk kind of freemium, either) and *one of the best CCGs I've ever played. It reminds me of *Magic: The Gathering in my youth when the game was simpler, with fewer cards and strategies.

That's all for now.

I think I need a nap. I'm too tired to go through and link everything. Just use Google.