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A Gaming Life
Star Realms App Update – Colony Wars
One of the best card game implementations for digital boardgames has to be the Star Realms app. This 2-player card game has you trying to reduce your opponent to zero Authority (sort of like a teenager does to his parents) meanwhile buying more ships and bases in order to do even more damage to your opponent (or buy stronger cards).
Like many deck-builder games, it has a row of cards you can purchase with the cards in your hand, which you add to your deck to make it stronger.
I won’t bore you with the details, however.
What I will bore you with is that there is a huge update coming on Wednesday, May 17 that you need to be aware of.
Wait, that didn’t come out right…
This update will not only herald the release of the first stand-alone expansion for Star Realms, (called Colony Wars), but it will also be a major update to the app itself.
This was announced on their blog on Friday and it looks really cool.
The graphics will be updated, new music added, it will actually look like a modern app (not that it didn’t before, but it will look even more modern) with glitzy gloss (which you can turn off if you find it a battery drain or just, you know, annoying).
More importantly, though, they’ll be adding one-tap zooming for your cards. I love this app, but one of the most annoying things in it is that, unlike almost every other card-game adaptation that I’m familiar with, you have to hold the card to zoom it, rather than double tap (or even just tap once).
That will finally be fixed with this update.
There are also fancier updates coming that you can read about on the blog, including changes to the real-time games (which I never really play).
But it’s not just an app update. Colony Wars itself does look very cool. It’s a standalone expansion, so you can play with just it or you can add it to the base game and all of your other mini-expansions that you’ve been using. New cards with some brand-spanking new abilities (including some that will go right to your hand when you buy them).
I’m really looking forward to this one.
One thing to be aware of, though. I can’t emphasize this enough, so I’m going to capitalize it.
MAKE SURE YOU’VE FINISHED YOUR ONLINE GAMES WITH OPPONENTS BEFORE UPDATING
Yes, all of the changes made in the app will make it so that your current online games will be gone. They have a big banner in the game to warn you of this (it just came up this morning) so hopefully nobody will be caught unawares.
The Colony Wars expansion will be available for $4.99 US.
The app itself is free, but to play online or to do more than the first couple of chapters of the solo campaign is $4.99 US as well.
Expansions range from $1.99 to $3.99.
You really should get it. Can’t comment on how good Colony Wars will be, but I am looking forward to it. It’s a Day 1 download for me.
Go here for how to download on your favorite platform.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 