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We're streaming live on Mobcrush right now. There's a couple different ways you can watch the stream, and they all work equally well and it's really just a matter of personal preference as to which method you prefer. The easiest way to watch is just watching the embedded player right here on TouchArcade. In the interest of being polite, we mute the audio. If you're somewhere you can listen, be sure to turn it back up- the controls for that are in the lower right corner of the video stream. Alternatively, if you're on a mobile device, visit mobcrush.com/beta and download the free Mobcrush app. (It's in beta, so you'll need to agree to have it installed on your device.) From there, search for TouchArcade. If you follow us, you'll get alerts when we're streaming. Last, but not least, you can visit our channel directly in your browser at mobcrush.com/toucharcade. Oh, and if you want to participate in chat, you'll need to register over on Mobcrush first...

349391_largerIf what you love about our podcast is random discussions about things related to the mobile industry, you're going to love this episode. We got an obscene amount of email from listeners and readers this week, and we go through all of it. It takes most of the episode, but we hit on things like the history of the App Store, ancient rumors of a "premium" App Store, how weirdly irrelevant the new iPod touch feels, and much, much more. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the show this week with your emails, iTunes reviews, and other random feedback. It means the world to us.

If you want to be heard on an episode of The TouchArcade Show, don't forget to shoot us emails with any questions, feedback, or anything else relevant or irrelevant to podcast@toucharcade.com. We read 'em all, and love decoding messages written entirely in emoji. As always, you can listen to us with the links below... And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and/or drop us a review in iTunes. Much appreciated!

 

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Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-216.mp3, 71.3MB


This week's episode of The TouchArcade Show is sponsored by…

Earthcore: Shattered Elements - Epic Card Battle Game (TCG), Free - It’s the next big thing in digital card games! Earthcore: Shattered Elements brings new ideas to the table with unique battle mechanics and revolutionary Card Crafting.

In Earthcore, players can create powerful heroes with special abilities and game-changing spells. There are literally thousands of cards to discover and employ during battles in the thrilling single-player campaign and challenging multiplayer modes.

With infinite tactical opportunities, Earthcore: Shattered Elements takes card battling to a new and exciting realm. Download it for free from the App Store.

..




TouchArcade Game of the Week: 'Operation Dracula'

The idea behind the TouchArcade Game of the Week is that every Friday afternoon we post the one game that came out this week that we think is worth giving a special nod to. Now, before anyone goes over-thinking this, it doesn't necessarily mean our Game of the Week pick is the highest scoring game in a review, the game with the best graphics, or really any other quantifiable "best" thing. Instead, it's more just us picking out the single game out of the week's releases that we think is the most noteworthy, surprising, interesting, or really any other hard to describe quality that makes it worth having if you were just going to pick up one...

Games Workshop is no stranger to iOS. You could be forgiven if you thought that they were just cranking out one app after the other with little forethought. Much like the army, however, there is the right way, the wrong way, and the Games Workshop way to make a game. Warhammer: Arcane Magic [$9.99] definitely follows the GW script and if you like some of the other titles they have put out, especially the gold standard Warhammer Quest [$4.99], I think you'll like this one...

In September of last year, developer Chasing Carrots released their humorous space simulation game Cosmonautica [$6.99] onto Steam Early Access. It had been in development for more than a year prior to that, and spent all that time in Early Access getting fine-tuned based on player feedback. We reported back in May that the game was shooting for release in late June and that it would be heading to mobile at the same time. Today the day has finally arrived that Cosmonautica is officially out of Early Access, and along with that the game has arrived on iOS. Check out the launch trailer to get an idea of what Cosmonautica is all about...

Nitrome Teases Mysterious New Game, 'Beneath the Lighthouse'

Nitrome's been on a game-releasing roll lately, with their interesting take on the auto-runner Vault [Free] seeing release recently. But while they're making a lot of games with whimsy and arcade flavor, they seem interested in branching out a bit. That's at least what the trailer for Beneath the Lighthouse seems to indicate, a more atmospheric experience from Nitrome, perhaps? The teaser isn't saying much, but it's more than enough to have me intrigued:..

Curious Adventure Game 'Barmark' Arrives on Android, iOS Version Coming Next Week

It's hard to believe that it was a year and a half ago that I first came across Barmark, a new point and click adventure game from Swedish developer Stormhatt Studios. The thing that caught my attention about Barmark at the time was just how… strange it was. The music, the visuals, the overall atmosphere. It really looked unique. Even Stormhatt's description of what you did in Barmark was intriguing, as they described it as a game with "no goals, no points and no death." About 6 months later, Stormhatt released a second trailer which attempted to explain further what you did in the game, which it sort of did, but it still left us with a ton of questions. Well, it's been a long time in the works, but Barmark is finally finished and has just been released on Android...

'Angry Birds 2' Review - The Best, and Most Free to Play 'Angry Birds' Yet

'Angry Birds 2' Review - The Best, and Most Free to Play 'Angry Birds' Yet

StarStarStarStarStar
July 31st, 2015 4:52 PM EDT by Eli Hodapp in 5 stars, Free, Reviews
Free Buy Now

The Angry Birds franchise has had a hell of a ride on the App Store. Our involvement started with an email from one of the co-founders of the former-Angry Birds publisher Chillingo on November 26th, 2009 asking if we were interested in an exclusive announcement of their new game. Knowing what a ridiculous worldwide sensation the game has become since then, reading the rest of the email conversation is pretty insane, as we're initially incredibly skeptical of the game and weren't sure if we wanted to agree to posting about Angry Birds without way more information. Fast forward 5 years and 8 months, and such a thing is laughable. While Angry Birds mania has subsided a bit from their hay day of an Angry Bird being featured on nearly every t-shirt sold at Wal-Mart, the series is still going strong and following over three billion downloads across all the Angry Birds games, now seems as good of a time as any to release Angry Birds 2 [Free]...

Oh God, 'Blood Bowl' is Free Right Now

July 31st, 2015 3:30 PM EDT by Carter Dotson in News, Sales
Free Buy Now

If there is one thing that I have learned in my time at TouchArcade, it is this: Blood Bowl [Free (HD)] fans are really, really defensive. Seriously, you call the game esoteric, complicated, and hard to understand if you're not familiar with the game already, and people are at your throat. Do you want to find out if my many haters from the review's comment section are right, or if I'm once again correct? Well, Blood Bowl for iPad is free until August 23rd...

You know that phrase, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me?" I feel like we're on "Fool me like 25 times" and I'm not sure where the shame even lies anymore. Probably still on me, with someone using the Shame Bell [Free] app following me around and shaming me... But, hey, whatever, it's Friday and what would a Friday be without an Apple TV rumor. It's the same basic Apple TV rumor that we've been hearing for years now in that Apple is just about to release a brand new Apple TV that's going to come packed with an Apple TV App Store, and nearly everything else you've ever hoped and dreamed for in your life...

Last week Armor Games shared their most recent take on the match-3 genre. Battle Orbs [Free] is a game that mixes puzzle mechanics with limited 2D adventure elements along the lines of Puzzle Quest 2 [$2.99], Hero Emblems [$3.99] and the recently reviewed Guardian Sword...

I'm always looking to optimize my load out when I travel anywhere, and cutting down on the amount of dumb cables, chargers, and all the other associated crap that takes up too much of your bag space that you need to keep the things you actually want to bring going. Thankfully, with the advent of nearly everything being charged over USB these days, this is a lot easier than it used to be when proprietary wall warts ended up taking up half your backpack...

Have room in your heart (and on your device) for another auto-runner? If you do, the upcoming title by Tama Games and Mutant Games Mars ONE is being published by Fishlabs and is due for release in Q3 of 2015... Which is approaching fast. In the game, you play as an astronaut who crash landed on mars, racing against your oxygen supplies and (hopefully) collecting pieces of your spaceship, Toejam and Earl style, to get back home. The screenshots look pretty rad, provided you're not a member of the surprisingly militant anti-pixelart brigade:..

So, you like Hearthstone [Free], right? Who doesn’t! And how about Puzzle & Dragons [Free]? Maybe? Well, what if I told you there’s a game out right now that combines them? That’s right! Not only can you slap opponents down in vicious turn-based card battles, but you can also upgrade your cards and deal with all kinds of extra free-to-play junk on top of it. It’s true! That game is CROOZ's Card King: Dragon Wars [Free], and you’re either going to love it or hate the very idea of its existence. Let’s dive in!..

Want another example of just how ridiculous the scale of free to play is? Strap in for this one: Kabam's Marvel: Contest of Champions [Free] has crossed the $100,000,000 line of overall gross income. Now, it remains to be seen how much of that $100M has gone in to stoking the freemium fires through user acquisition, advertising campaigns, and similar. Knowing how most of these games work, I'm guessing quite a bit...

RPG Reload File 049 - 'Doom 2 RPG'

Hello, gentle readers, and welcome to the RPG Reload, the weekly feature where we sometimes vanquish demons with toilet water. Each week, we take a look at an RPG from the App Store's past to see how it holds up in the here and now. It's a chance for a deeper dive than our reviews typically allow, giving us the chance to revisit old favorites and reflect on their position in the overall iOS RPG scene. Your only guide on this journey is Shaun, an observer from your own time, who appears in the form of a hologram only you can see and hear. I try to choose a balanced plate of RPGs from week to week in hopes of properly representing this gnarling hydra of a genre, but if you have a particular game you'd like to see me tackle, please let me know about it. You can do that by making a comment below, posting in the Official RPG Reload Club thread in the forums, or tweeting me at @RPGReload...

Give Indiana Jones Some Skates and a Wall Jump, and You'd Have 'Adventure Roller Skates', Coming this Fall

Platformers are just inherently a tough genre when you don't have physical controls. Many developers have nailed the virtual button thing, but that's not ideal for everyone. Another option is to completely remove traditional platforming mechanics so you can distill a platforming game down to something that can be controlled with just a couple of taps. Hence the auto-runner. While auto-runners are generally associated with endless, randomly generated high-scoring games, the mechanic has actually been put to really good use in more traditional-style platforming games. See the Rayman mobile games or the Wind-Up Knight series for just a couple examples off the top of my head. Anyway, the point is that you can create a platforming game that plays nice with a touchscreen without sacrificing the accuracy, timing and skill needed for a really great platformer. That's kind of what was on my mind when I came across the trailer for Adventure Roller Skates. ..

It's really hard to find anything bad to say about Pixelbite's Space Marshals [$4.99]. When it first burst on the scene in January this year, it took the often overdone dual-stick shooter genre to a whole new level by injecting strategy and stealth into the typically "blast everything in sight" nature of the genre. The only real drawback was that the experience didn't last too long, but Pixelbite has been rectifying that in the months since with new content updates. ..

Well I guess this shouldn't really come as a surprise, but Angry Birds 2 [Free], the official proper for-realsies-this-time sequel to the blockbuster mobile hit Angry Birds has already been downloaded over a million times just 12 hours after becoming available. Now, that's impressive and all, but there are a couple of caveats to this particular statistic. ..

League of Legends is basically the biggest game in the world right now. If you haven't heard of it, it's a free to play Mac/PC MOBA which was originally released in 2009, but has been constantly supported and updated since. Most recently, the whole UI was redone, and before that, the main map of the game, Summoner's Rift was totally reworked as well. It's an incredible game, and one that I've spent a silly amount of my life playing with friends. Playing ARAMs with first blood shots is basically the default activity for my local crew. First blood shots, they're a thing, I assure you...

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