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Developer: Blizzard

Platform: PC/Mobile/Tablet

Release Date: 8/10/17

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What is Hearthstone?

Hearthstone is one the first and most popular digital collectible card games. It was created as a spin-off of the popular Warcraft and World of Warcraft game series but has since taken on a life of its own. Hearthstone has set the tone for game design in online games the same way Magic the Gathering has influenced all other physical collectable card games.

Hearthstone is primarily a player against player game, where each player takes turns as they slowly collect mana crystals to play cards in their hand. These cards represent iconic Warcraft monsters, spells, items, and events that can be used to reduce the health of your opponent from 30 to 0. The art style and design is meant to bring out a very casual and relaxed feel. The vary name “Hearthstone” refers to the World of Warcraft item that let you return to the safety of an inn.

Where Magic: the Gathering distinguishes their cards using color to represent various themes and mechanics. Hearthstone cards are primarily divided into groups based on iconic Warcraft heroes and their classes. Players build a deck by selecting a hero and using cards based on that heroes’ class as well as a collection of neutral cards. Each hero also has a unique “hero power” that can be used once a turn to support their style of play. It is this combination of hero based deck building and the steady build up of resources to play cards that makes Hearthstone a lot easier of a game to play than Magic: the Gathering for some family gamers.

What also sets apart Hearthstone and other digital card games from their physical brethren is their free-to-play model of game expansion. Playing games as various heroes initially unlocks cards from that class and completing quests, tasks that require specific actions during a game, reward you with coins that can be used to purchase more packs of cards. While you can use money to purchase additional packs, daily quests and a weekly casual event known as a “Tavern Brawl” provide a steady stream of resources. There is also process for taking extra cards and turning them into a flexible resource for crafting specific cards. There is something satisfying to someone who has played for years with paper card games, to be able to turn a pile of extra cards into that elusive card.

What is Knights of the Frozen Throne?

Knights of the Frozen Throne is the 5th large expansion for Hearthstone. With this expansion comes cards that feature iconic characters and themes from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Arthas the Lich King and his lieutenants of the Icecrown Citadel are available as creatures to summon along with legions of monsters and spells inspired by the treacherous Northrend.

 

Why is the Awesome?

A single player story mode featuring The Lich King himself will be available for all players. The challenge is a series of matches versus computer opponents with special hero cards and decks based on iconic villains of the Icecrown Citadel. Players who conquer this gauntlet of challenges are rewarded with a free legendary card that is a card type unique to this set…

Death Knight Hero Cards

This set features a new set of legendary cards that represent the nine iconic heroes falling under the sway of the Lich King. These cards have an immediate effect when they are played and replace each character’s hero power with an evil, and significantly more powerful, effect. Personally I am excited for the corrupted

Priest hero: Shadow Reaper Anduin

Rarity adjustments geared towards newer players

While announced several weeks ago, this set marks the starting of new features that are geared towards newer players. A legendary card is guaranteed to be opened in the first ten packs of any set purchased, and duplicate legends will never be opened. If a player would open a legendary that a player already has, the game replaces it with a different legendary that the player does not own. These changes were made in response to player feedback on the frustration of opening duplicate legends or very few epic or legendary cards at all.

Lifesteal, a familiar mechanic comes to Hearthstone

Players of Magic: The Gathering and other card games will know this by names like Lifelink and Drain. Cards with Lifesteal heal your hero for as much damage as they deal. This ability is put on creatures and spells, and some death knight hero cards give lifestealing weapons or hero powers. While life gain by itself is not a strong ability, pairing it with a creature or a removal spell can never be a bad thing.

 

Divine Shield and Deathrattle

Two mechanics that are at the core of Hearthstone are getting a large infusion of cards from this set.

Divine Shield is an ability on a minion that prevents all damage from the first time it is attacked or hit by a spell. Not only are there a lot of divine shield minions that have been added, but several paladin cards benefit from divine shield minions going into the fray.

 

 

Deathrattle is an ability that happens when that minion dies, and Knights of the Frozen throne has a lot of creatures that care about when they die. New to the theme are creatures that care when they die and punish opponents who aggressively destroy your creatures.

 

Why should you pick up this game?

Hearthstone, and its recent expansion Knights of the Frozen throne, is a game that is easy to learn and play for computers, tablets and mobile devices. It offers one of the best free to play experiences around and its short games are perfect for gaming opportunities when time is short or physical space is limited. With it being an online only game, it is important to note that chat and social interactions are opt in, which is important for younger family gamers.

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Release Date: Graphics Pack Fall 2017, Better Together Update Summer 2017

Developer: Mojang

Platform:  Xbox, Xbox X, Switch, Mobile (iOs and Android), Windows 10, and VR
Minecraft had two big announcements in their video revealed for E3.  First, they are putting out a “Better Together” update.  This was revealed in the first portion of their trailer which opens with one of the Minecraft landscapes with the words “Coming this Summer” in pixelated letters.  The camera zooms forward and the next landscape has the words “Community Marketplace”.  What Minecraft is revealing with this trailer is that this summer Minecraft will be available for Crossplay as the game is being unified.  Now gamers can play across several consoles and platforms.  These include;  Xbox, Xbox X, Switch, Mobile (iOs and Android), Windows 10, and VR. Unfortunately, it appears the PlayStation 4 is not a console that will be included in the crossplay program.

The second announcement is revealed in the trailer as the camera zooms into a tunnel and the screen goes dark.  A moment later the camera emerges in the Minecraft world, with a vastly different look.  Coming this fall there will be DLC called the Minecraft Super Duper Graphics Pack which will be available on Xbox One, and Windows 10.  This DLC brings Minecraft into 4k, and while the pixelated aesthetic of Minecraft remain, the visual elements of the game are significantly upgraded.  The way they are incorporating the quintessential Minecraft look while integrating 4K is accomplished with lighting and shadowing.  The sky alone in the first look at the Super Duper Graphics Pack demonstrates the change.  Sunlight is streaming through a light fog over the ground while clouds above maintain their pixelated shape.  The trees below still look pixelated, but they are much smaller squares and have a more refined look.  As the camera and the characters move there is a significant amount of shadowing that go along also giving the game a vastly different and richer look.  With the level of detail, to get the most out of the Minecraft Super Duper Graphics Pack, you would need to have an Xbox One or a higher quality computer that is equipped for this level of graphics.  For those gamers who are ready to change up the Minecraft aesthetic, and have the 4K level computer or Xbox One, this is the perfect DLC.

 

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Ubongo by Thames and Kosmos is the most recent board game to join the cavalcade of other games to be released as an app for iOS and Android.

We received an announcement stating that the app’s developer will celebrate the launch by making it absolutely free for a limited time.

The announcement read as follows:

“For a limited time only (April 28-30), the Ubongo game app, created by award-winning board game and educational toy manufacturer Thames & Kosmos, will be available for free download on both iTunes and Google Play app stores. With more than 2.5 million games sold worldwide, Ubongo is a fast-paced, addictive and easy-to-learn geometric puzzle game where players race against the timer and against each other to solve a puzzle of interlocking shapes. The faster you solve the puzzle, the more gems you get, and the player with the most valuable gem treasure after nine rounds of puzzle solving wins the game! The companion app features more than 400 engaging puzzles to solve as well.”

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I posted a warning about Roblox earlier last week. I’ve received a lot of feedback about that warning.  As always, some of that feedback was positive and some of it was negative. There was one core commonality between the different pieces of feedback that I received: a lot of people don’t really understand what Roblox is.

A lot of people refer to Roblox like it is a singular game. This is where comparisons to things like Minecraft are made. The truth is, however, that Roblox is a bit more complicated than that. It is a web based service that allows people to create games using a standard set of Roblox assets and resources. Subscribers can then publish the games that they create and then earn real world money based on their game’s performance. This makes the service less of a game and more of a platform like YouTube.

The potential for this to be a fun and enriching experience is there. There are a lot of kids who are interested in learning how to design games and the Roblox tools are a great way to get started. They are straight forward (relatively) and easy to use. I also don’t know a kid who wouldn’t be interested in the chance to earn some cash for their playtime.

These creative tools have resulted in a lot of very cool games. There are games published on the service that are about post-apocalyptic survival, Pokemon, Role-Playing being part of a high school, and all sorts of other interesting things. Unfortunately, these tools can also be abused and result in things like Shower Simulator.

What does all of this mean though? Well, at its most basic level, this means that when your kids are “playing  Roblox” they aren’t just playing Roblox.  They are using Roblox to play any number of the hundreds of different games that have been created on the service. They may all look similar thanks to the fact that they share a common toolset. But, they may be completely different games with different target audiences and different pools of players in them.

My warning was criticized for being alarmist, and that might be fair criticism. But, I disagree that it was not warranted. I spent an hour playing some fairly innocent games before I saw things that I simply cannot unsee. With that said, I am not demanding that all parents immediately delete the game and ban their children from playing it forever. What I am advocating is that parents should be aware of the kinds of games their children play on the service and teach them how to be safe digital citizens.

It really is as simple as that. Roblox has a huge amount of potential, but it is hard to take advantage of when there is so much risk of exposure to undesirable content and behavior.

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Apple held their annual iPhone announcement event on September 7th. They made all of the expected announcements and said all of the expected things. For the most part, it was uneventful to the point of being boring. Until they decided to trot out Shigero Miyamoto from Nintendo. That is when things started to get interesting.

He was there to help announce, and begin the hype campaign, for the first true Nintendo game for mobile: Super Mario Run.

Super Mario Run will be coming to iOS first later this year and is the first Mario game ever build from the ground up for mobile. There have been all sorts of (illegal) ways to get Mario games onto Android phones before, but this will truly be a first.

Run is designed to be played in portrait mode and with one hand only. Mario runs from left to right automatically and players control him by tapping to jump. Short taps on the screen will result in little hope and longer touches will result in a bigger jump.

Not Your Mama’s Endless Runner

That might sound like your average, run-of-the-mill endless runner, but it is actually quite different. The biggest reason is that the levels aren’t random. There are worlds and stages just like in a regular Mario game on a console. This opens up a lot of space for Nintendo to have people competing against their friends for high scores in specifically designed levels.

Nintendo also indicated that there will be a mode in the game where players will be able to spend virtual currency to build up their own Mushroom Kingdom. (My kids can’t wait for that part.)

You can go to the Super Mario Run page on the iOS App Store right now. This gives you the option to be notified when the game comes out sometime this December. Nintendo has confirmed that the game will have a free demo and then a premium price for the whole app (thus eliminating freemium nonsense), but they have not told us what the final price would be.

What do you think? Are you going to download this one? Sound off!

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Pokemon Go! is a game that has already taken the world by storm. It is impossible to go anywhere without seeing dozens of people playing the game. They are everywhere from parks, to shopping centers, to their neighborhoods.  Its popularity, however, is not indicative of the finished product. The reality is that Pokemon Go! has been released as a “minimally viable product. ” That means that is includes the smallest number of working features possible in order to sell it. 

Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go!, has a lot of work ahead of themselves.  The game has attracted a large audience. In order to maintain that audience it is important that they continue to add new features. This will help keep people excited and engaged.

We polled our audience and reflected on what features we wanted to see included to the game as it continues to develop. Take a look below and check out our list of some of the requested features. 

Trading

We already know this feature is coming. We just hope that it comes soon. This will give a lot more opportunities for gathering Pokemon and would give players a chance to use teamwork help complete their collections.

There are reports out there that this feature is going to include NFC (near field communication).  But, we really don’t know all of the details outside of the fact that it is on the way.

Battling

One of the key components of the Pokemon franchise is the idea of two trainers battling it out with their Pokemon collections. This combat  happens at gyms in Pokemon Go!,  but we don’t think there are enough opportunities to battle friends or to even battle in the wild.

Our hope is that Niantic will provide opportunities to have the battle experience outside of the gym environment either with NPC controlled Pokemon trainers that wander the map, or with friends locally.  This can use some of the same technology as the trading mentioned above if they don’t want to deal with the logistics of friends lists. But, honestly, we know they are smart people, they can figure it out.

Leveling

One problem that a lot of younger gamers have is that they don’t have the ability to level their Pokemon easily.  We hope that Niantic adds some alternative routes to increase each player’s Pokemon.  Some suggestions from our audience included things like earning XP for a given Pokemon by tracking walking distance or being able to ship Pokemon to Professor Willow for dust in lieu of candy.

Social

A healthy portion of our audience requested the ability to have more interaction with people that they deem as “friends.”  They wanted to be able to challenge their friends to combat or to other competitions.  There’s already some light social elements because everyone can join one of the three teams. Some people feel that the game is still an isolating experience (at least within their own phone)  and are hoping that they can make a more  social experience.

Accessibility

One member of our audience is actually color blind and mentioned that some of the coloring in the game specifically regarding the rings that represent difficulty for capturing Pokemon or difficult for them to see our hope is that they make the game slightly more accessible over time by implementing different colors to accommodate the color blind.

What Pokemon Go features are you looking for? Sound off in the comments and let us know!

 

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Pokémon GO has been out for a little less than a week. To say that the game has had an extraordinary impact on daily life is not an exaggeration. The app has been the number one downloaded app in both the iPhone’s App store and in the Android’s Google Play store since the day after it launched. It’s currently installed more than Tinder and is getting more usage than SnapChat and Instagram. Many statistics show that it is approaching the worldwide daily usage of Twitter.

Pokémon GO is HUGE. Don’t believe us? Take a walk to a local park and look at the sheer number of kids, teens, and adults wandering around with their phones trying to catch ‘em all. Is there a monument nearby? Check out the crowds surrounding the monument. Check out some local businesses. Do they have signs up offering discounts to Pokémon GO players? Are they asking people to not loiter with the app outside of their storefront? Has your local Police Department put up cautionary notices and posts on their FaceBook page or Twitter account?

Here at EFG, we were aware of Pokémon GO way before it showed up on mainstream media’s radar. We knew it was coming, had a basic idea of how it would work, and were familiar with the company’s first Augmented Reality game called Ingress. We had plenty of time to discuss this game with our family and brainstorm possible safety issues and solutions to those issues. We were lucky enough to put a game plan into place and set up rules and limitations before the game was available. Many families did not have this luxury and have seen both awesome and terrifying things about Pokémon GO on the news/internet. In this article we will address some of the biggest Safety & Security concerns associated with the game and we are going to share our rules and some tips to help keep your family safe while playing this exciting new game.

Below are some of the major headlines we’ve seen regarding Pokémon GO in the last few days. Some of these headlines are pure fiction from gag websites, some are real and documented by mainstream news reports, some are pure speculation, and some are a mix of fact and fiction. We will look at each one individually.

Pokémon GO causes major traffic incident as man stops on highway to catch Pikachu!

False! (Source)

This article is fiction and originated on a fake internet news site, but it was written as a warning of what could potentially happen and has coined the very valuable hashtag #DontPokémonGOandDrive. This should be common sense. Our phones should NEVER be in our hands when we are behind the wheel. We have told our children this many times and they actively police us if they see us pick up our phone. Whatever it is, it can wait. This is a very important topic to discuss with any teens that may be driving as often as you can. Hearing this often can and does save lives.

Child finds dead body searching for Pokémon in river!

True, but overblown. (Source)

This one is mostly true. Though, just to clarify, it wasn’t a young child and the girl was not physically in the river searching for a Pokémon. It was 19 year old out for a walk and she was looking for water type Pokémon so she decided to take a walk on a bridge by a river. She saw a body floating in the water in the distance and called authorities. She was being safe, was not overtly frightened by what she saw, and she continues to play the game and was not discouraged by her gruesome find.

This is a great place to bring up one of our first safety concerns that we discussed with our children. Even though you are playing a game, it is important to be aware of your surroundings. You still need to look up from your phone, look both ways before crossing the street, and follow the same common sense safety techniques you follow on any outing. Niantic even includes warnings within the app to stay alert and aware.

Man/Teen/Black Man shot while trespassing in park/graveyard/church/neighbor’s yard trying to catch a rare Pokémon!

This headline has many variations that have turned up on Twitter and fake news websites. No credible or substantial news source has any documented information about Pokémon GO related shootings. This seems to play on fears from recent US events and headlines and is a form of clickbait. The only credible information similar to this headline seems to come from a few Sheriff’s Offices and Police Departments asking players to be aware of private property regulations and public property hours and asking players not to trespass on local properties.

The idea of trespassing has become a MAJOR concern with Pokémon GO, and we want to make sure we touch on a few key facts. First, the game is DESIGNED so that you do not HAVE to trespass. If you see a Pokémon in a neighbor’s yard, you do not actually have to walk on their property. You have to be in range (generally on a sidewalk or public street in front of the property) and then you can tap on the Pokémon and it will bring the Pokémon up directly in front of you. However, it is good to make your family aware that monuments, parks, public buildings, beaches, and historical landmarks do have typical hours of operation and you need to respect those hours. In most US locations, those hours are dawn till dusk. Please do yourself and fellow gamers alike a favor, and honor those times. Also, before going on Pokémon adventures with your family or allowing your children to go out by themselves in your neighborhood, it is a good idea to discuss the concept of trespassing and also to discuss how certain innocent behaviors may seem suspicious to outside observers.

Pokémon GO a massive front for the government to steal all of your information via Google account!

False! (Source)

This one has less extreme versions on national news networks, in local papers, on conspiracy theory websites and on dozens of technology websites. The basic story is that by logging into our Google accounts and by agreeing to the privacy agreement and acknowledging the fine print legal information at the start of the game, we gave Niantic access to our Google email, our iPhone or Android photo albums, our location histories, and all of our Google account data including Google Docs.

Originally, it appeared to be true and a mistake made by Niantic. Thankfully, tech savvy users picked up on this potential breach of security and notified the game makers who promised to fix it as soon as possible.

Here’s the full statement Niantic provided to The Verge:

“We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. However, Pokémon Go only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information, in line with the data that we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.”

Further research revealed that there never really was a breach. But, if you are still concerned with privacy, you can always create a dummy Google account and log in fully incognito. If you want to be even more secure you can either use a spare phone or buy a cheap used one off eBay. Set up your main phone with a VPN, turn it into a Wi-Fi hotspot, and play from your spare phone with your dummy gmail account. This seems a bit extreme, but we are here to provide the information.

Children lured to dangerous situation by armed robbers via in game connection.

Misleading, but true. (Source)

First of all, the people *lured* to the *dangerous area* were not children, they were adults. Second, these incidents occurred at 2am. It is likely safe to assume most young kids won’t be out at that time. Unfortunately, the perpetrators of the attempted robberies were teens who have been caught. The whole thing is actually very sad.

What happened in this situation is scary and unfortunate, but could have been avoided with some common sense safety preparation. In Pokémon GO there is an item called a “Lure Module.” This item can be used at a Poke Stop to lure Pokémon to that specific area. That Lure Module is universal and works for all players in that area, and all players walking near there can see that a Lure has been used and can take advantage of that to catch more Pokémon. The Lure lasts for 30 minutes.

In this situation the robbers dropped the Lure hoping to catch players unaware and rob them. Yes, it was scary. Yes, it was taking advantage of game mechanics to commit a crime and draw people to an area. No, this shouldn’t/won’t happen to you or your children if you have a plan in place. Make sure your children know not to go exploring at night. Make sure your children know to use the buddy system and never walk alone. Make sure your children are aware of their location and the people around them. They shouldn’t randomly walk up to a Poke Stop with a Lure by themselves without first looking around to make sure the area is safe. At this point (a mere week after the game’s release) most police and authority figures know where most of the Poke Stops are in their areas and are policing them to keep them safe during daylight hours.

Finally, it is important to note that at this point in time there is absolutely NO WAY to communicate with other people via the Pokémon GO app.

Thousands injured who were not paying attention while playing the trendy new app Pokémon GO.

Yep, it’s true. If you search Twitter, you can see hundreds of photos of Pokémon GO related injuries. There are images of scraped and bruised up legs, bumped and bruised foreheads, scraped up arms, and even a black eye or two. Obviously the game is dangerous. It must require extreme activities. Right? Nope. These are people who were injured while walking. Yes, just walking. Now, we are not going to call these people clumsy or careless…OK, maybe we are. These injuries are a result of a lack of common sense. Look up from your phone. Pay attention to where you are going. Wear good walking shoes, not flip flops or high heels. Don’t randomly cross streets, wander off the road into brambles, climb tall rocks or jump into lakes or rivers searching for Pokémon.

With each and every one of these headlines, any of these situations could have easily be avoided. Talk to your kids about safety the same way you would if you were going on a hike. Discuss the areas that they are allowed to go. Give them a real world map. As a matter of fact, give them a backpack so they can be like Ash Ketchum or a Boy Scout and always BE PREPARED. Toss a water bottle and a few band aids or maybe a granola bar or two into the backpack along with the map. If you get into this game you may be walking farther and longer than expected. It’s just that fun and engaging.

It is also worth noting that Pokémon Go vibrates when a Pokémon is nearby. This means you can hold your phone in one hand while you walk and just pay attention to the vibrations. This will prevent most of these types of injuries.

Our Pokémon Go Family Rules

  • Pay attention to where you are and where you are walking. Look up and around as soon as you catch a Pokémon. Make sure the area around you is safe.
  • Stranger Danger rules apply. Never EVER approach a Poke Stop with an adult standing alone. It’s not safe for a child to be in an area with a lone adult who is a stranger.
  • An adult out by themselves will never legitimately need a child’s help. Say ‘I’m sorry, I can’t” and offer to get your parents for them or another adult that can help them. Walk away quickly.
  • No matter how innocuous it seems and how innocent it seems, a child should never assume an adult is playing Pokémon GO and offer to assist them.
  • Use the buddy system whenever possible and walk with a parent or friend.
  • Do not go out searching for Pokémon at night and always walk in a well lit area that you’re familiar with.

If you have listened to us speak on our podcast (Engage! A Family Gaming Podcast), joined in our chats on our Engaged Family Gaming Community, or if you have read a lot of our articles, you will be familiar with one of our most popular sayings. Here at EFG we believe that playing games WITH your children is the best gaming experience that you can have. It is more enjoyable for you as a parent and for your child. It is a great bonding experience, a great way to get in some family time, and a perfect way to develop trust and encourage discussions with your child. To that end, we can not think of a better game to enjoy together as a family. But, it is important to have a game plan in place, a clear set of rules and guidelines, and maybe even practice some safety drills before going on your Pokémon GO adventures.

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Pokémon Go is taking the world by storm. It was developed in partnership between Niantic (The people behind the augmented reality game Ingress) and Gamefreak (The people who make Pokémon video games). When it was announced a year ago it had a lot of potential. Pokémon is a well loved brand that is popular now AND old enough to have nostalgic players hungry to recapture the glory days of their youth.

The game itself can be difficult to describe. It is an augmented reality game. This means that is a game that layers game mechanics onto real world locations. In the case of Pokémon Go, this means using Google Maps data and dropping Pokémon all over the map for us to find. The difference is that we can’t just go there in a game, we have to walk their or drive there ourselves.

A lot of parents have been caught off guard by the game’s release. As a result we are publishing this guide to help parents understand what the game is and the basics of playing it. We will follow up with additional content including an FAQ and a deeper strategy discussion to help people play the game at any level they choose. Take a look below and be sure to share this with any of your bewildered friends.

 

What is Pokémon Go?Catch Pokemon in Pokemon go

It’s a hot new app developed by Niantic labs (makers of Ingress) that is being played by kids and adults alike all over the world. It’s making headlines everywhere, and here at EFG, we’ve got all of the details.

At it’s core, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality app playable ONLY on your phone. It uses the camera on your phone along with your phone’s GPS features.  As you walk various places, the GPS places your avatar on a map and you can discover Pokémon in the world around you.  You get to be a Pokémon trainer and catch Pokémon. The app also interacts with the map by bringing you to landmarks such as parks, historical sites, municipal buildings, churches, etc. that are Poké Stops where you can get free goodies to aid you in your endeavors to catch ‘em all!  There are even gyms where you can test your Pokémon trainer skills and have a Pokémon battle.

But, all of these cool features are based on the idea that you KEEP MOVING.  If you don’t walk, you quickly become unable to advance in the game. It’s designed to get people outdoors and moving.

How do I get started?

After downloading the app and FULLY CHARGING (more on that later) your device, you can go ahead and load up the game. You need a Google account or you need to sign up for a Pokémon Trainer Club account to log in.  Once you log in, you start by immediately choosing a Trainer avatar to represent you on the map. You can customize gender, skin tone, hair and eye color and basic clothing.  After you choose your avatar, you are introduced to Professor Willow. He will explain some very basic info about the game and ask you to choose your first Pokémon. The Pokémon that you can choose from are Squirtle(water type), Bulbasaur(grass type), and Charmander(fire type).  Anyone familiar with the earliest incarnation of Pokémon will immediately recognize these little guys.  That’s all there is to starting the game.

How do I play?

 

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When you start, your screen will look like a grid of unmarked roads.  If you look closely, you will recognize the map as the area that you are physically standing at. You may see rustling grass (marking Pokémon in the area), and local landmarks disguised as Poké Stops and Pokémon Gyms. As you move in the real world, your avatar does too. Pokémon will pop up on the map with a small vibration as you walk along. If you tap on the Pokémon that appears, you can attempt to capture it.

You will also see your avatar icon on the bottom left of the screen. You can tap on this to view your character’s level and achievements. In the center of your screen you will see a Pokéball. Tapping on this Pokéball will bring up other items such as your backpack, your Pokédex, your personal Pokémon inventory,  and the settings and tips for playing the game. On the bottom right of your screen you will see a grey or white rectangle with nearby Pokémon in it. You can tap it to expand it and see what else is nearby.

Once you’ve found a Pokémon, it’s time to throw a Poké Ball to try and capture it. You “throw” in game by touching and holding your Poké Ball. When you do this a glowing ring that shrinks and expands will appear around the Pokémon. When the ring gets to its smallest, you want to swipe your Poké Ball directly toward the creature and release your finger.  You want to aim towards hitting the Pokémon on the head. If you have successfully captured the Pokémon the ball will shake a few times and it will say “Gotcha”. If you are unsuccessful, the Pokémon will jump out of the ball after one or two shakes.

A note on the rings around the Pokémon: if the ring is green, it means the Pokémon is friendly and easier to catch. As you get farther into the game, it gets harder to catch Pokémon.  If the ring is yellow or red, you know this match will be a challenge. Don’t worry though, the game provides ways to make it so you can still catch plenty of those cute creatures.

More than one player can catch the same Pokémon; if you and another person see the same Pokémon on your screen, you can both capture it. There is no need to race each other to be the first to catch it.

Game Features

Poké Stops

Poke Stop in Pokemon Go

Poké Stops are the tall poles with blue cubes on top of them spread out across your map.  These typically coincide with physical landmarks in the real world. You can tap on it to find out exactly what the location is even if you are not in range. When a Poké Stop is within range, the blue cube will transform into a spinning circle. Inside the circle, you’ll see the Poké Stop symbol, the location’s photo, and maybe some historical info. Swipe the disc with the picture on it to spin it, and bubbles with pop up with items like Poké Balls, Poké Eggs, potions, lures, incense and more.

Please note: you can’t activate the Poké Stop to collect items, experience, and Poké Eggs unless you move within a close proximity to the actual landmark. As you increase in levels, you unlock new items to collect. After you visit a Poké Stop, the blue icon will turn purple and you will be unable to access it for at least five minutes.

Teams

pokemon-go-teams

When you reach level five and visit a Gym (Don’t worry we’ll explain that in a bit), you’ll be asked to join one of three color-coded teams:

  • Yellow – Team Instinct – Mascot: Zapdos
  • Blue – Team Mystic – Mascot: Articuno
  • Red – Team Valor – Mascot: Moltres

The teams do not affect the types of Pokémon you encounter, they only affect gym battles. Choosing a team of a specific color is the only way to interact with your friends (so far). You use your color to help take over and level up gyms.  If you possess a gym, you get rewards like Poké Coins and Stardust, which can help you level up and evolve your Pokémon.

Pokémon Gyms

Pokemon Go Gyms

Much like Poké Stops, Gyms are physical landmarks.  You interact with a gym by tapping it and activating it just like a PokéStop. This is where Pokémon battles happen. Players can claim them for their team, or help level up a Gym already claimed for your color to build up its prestige. Trainers can take over an unoccupied Gym and claim it for team Yellow-Instinct, Blue-Mystic, or Red-Valor.  If you encounter a Gym and your team’s color is already in control of it,  you can train your Pokémon in the Gym one at a time.  If the Gym is controlled by another color’s team, you’ll need to battle the Pokémon standing guard to lower its prestige and take over control of the Gym.

Gyms earn prestige when you train your Pokémon in one that your team controls, and lose prestige when opposing teams win battles against the Pokémon left there. As a Gym’s level increases, so does the number of Gym Leaders allowed.

Gym battles are mini-games where the goal is to attack the opposing Pokémon, and dodge their attacks. While battling, you have three options: You can tap the screen to attack, press and hold the screen to initiate a special attack, or swipe left or right to dodge an opponent’s attack. Your goal is to lower the opponent’s Pokémon to zero hit points.

To steal control of a Gym that is already occupied by an opposing color you have to defeat ALL of the Gym Leaders’ Pokémon in it. Beating leaders lowers the Gym’s prestige and it can take multiple attempts to actually take over the whole Gym.

Why do we care?  If you occupy a Gym, you help your team AND earn Poké Coins, too! Every 20-24 hours, you earn 10 Gold Poké Coins and 500 Stardust as reward for staying in the Gym.  You can use these Poké Coins to purchase items in the Shop and the Stardust to level up your Pokémon to make them more powerful.

The Shop

The Shop is where you can purchase items that are necessary to advancing in the game.  You can purchase these items with Poké Coins or with real world money via microtransactions and in app purchases. Items that can be found in The Shop include Poké Balls to capture Pokémon, Incense to lure them, and potions and revives to heal them after Gym battles.  Please note: You don’t ever HAVE to spend real money. You can stock up on most items just by visiting Poké Stops.

Items

  • Incense- lures Pokémon to your location for 30 minutes
  • Potion- Spray type medicine for treating wounds. It restores the HP (health) of 1 Pokémon by 20 points
  • Revive- a medicine that can revive fainted Pokémon. It also restores half of a fainted Pokémon’s maximum HP
  • Lucky Eggs- grant you double experience for 30 minutes
  • Lure Module- draw Pokémon to a PokéStop for 30 minutes. Other nearby players also benefit from the effect. (This is a great way for friends to help each other!)
  • Razz Berries- feed it to a Pokémon, it makes it easier to catch on you next throw (use when Pokémon is circled red or orange)
  • Poké Eggs- which can hatch into new Pokémon with the use of an Egg Incubator (you hatch eggs in the incubator by walking a certain distance listed with each egg)

Advancing in the Game

Upgrading your Pokémon

 

If you want to battle at Gyms you need to have strong Pokémon. The strength of the Pokémon is displayed as CP (combat power). A Pokemon’s Combat Power determines how useful it will be in Gym Battles.

You can increase your Pokémon’s CP by either using the “Power Up” option or the “Evolve” option. Pokémon evolution is a major theme in both the cartoon series and the games. It is no different here in Pokémon Go. Evolving a Pokémon gives it a boost to its CP, health, and changes it’s abilities. It also turns the Pokémon into a new form, giving you access to more entries in your Pokédex. This gives you experience points and helps fill out the Pokédex to make you one step closer to catching them all!

Pokémon can only be Powered Up or Evolved using two specific items.  These items are called Stardust and Candy.  You earn both of them by capturing Pokemon and by leveling up or completing challenges. Stardust is universal. You can use it for any of your Pokémon. Candy is specific to different species and their evolutions. For example, capturing Caterpies will earn you Caterpie candy that you can use to evolve Caterpies into their various forms (Metapod and Butterfree)

To Upgrade your Pokémon you need to complete the following steps:

From the main screen of the game, tap the Pokéball in the center.

  • Tap on the Pokémon button.
  • Select the Pokémon you wish to level up or evolve.
  • Scroll down to the Power Up or Evolve buttons and select the one you’d like to use. (The cost for each is listed to the right of the button, with your total supply of Stardust and Candy listed above the buttons.)
  • The game will automatically either power up or evolve your creature.

Advancing your Trainer Level

Your Trainer Level advances in multiple ways. The easiest way to advance your trainer level is to catch Pokémon. Every time you catch one you gain XP. You also gain XP by interacting with Poké Stops and Gyms as we discussed above. One of the best ways to advance your Trainer Level is to Evolve your Pokémon. As your Trainer Level advances you can take on more difficult Gym Battles, you may encounter stronger and more rare Pokémon, and you get access to better items from Poké Stops.

 


This is our guide to Pokémon Go so far! Sound off in the comments if you have additional thoughts or if you think we missed anything! We’ll be updating this post regularly and adding even more content to Engaged Family Gaming in the coming weeks!

 

 

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Pixelkin.org. Make sure to check them out when you get a chance!

Square Enix took time on their Twitch channel to give a significant demo of the upcoming mobile game Deus Ex Go. This is the third game in the very successful Go series and one that is being released at a great time considering the upcoming AAA release Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

The goal of the demo was to demonstrate some of the key features of the game and to run through a handful of stages. This is important because the Go series is built around the idea of distilling complex games into their most pure form and then turning them into a sort of digital board game.

Deus Ex Go accomplishes this by being a game focused on stealth. You control Jenson as you take steps on a series of interconnected lines.  There are guards at certain other points on the grid that will become aware of you if you step into their line of site. At that point they will take one step towards you for every step you take in any direction. They will also continue to do so until you step around a corner or leave their line of site.

The goal? Its always to navigate Jenson from the starting point on the grid and survive all the way to some point on the other side of the screen without being caught.  Enemies can only be eliminated if you step onto their space when they aren’t aware of you.

Deus Ex isn’t just about stealth though. This isn’t Thief after all. It also is about augmentations and hacking. Deus Ex Go definitely includes both of those things. There are icons on various points on each level where players can activate a cloaking device that will make Jenson invisible for one turn. Likewise there are icons that will let Jenson hack into turrets and platforms.

The game itself looks pretty amazing and both of its predecessors were great. I’ve got high hopes for this one as well. We’ll check back once the game is released later this year.

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Nintendo held a Q & A for Pokemon Go at the start of their second Treehouse Live @ E3 event. The panel was loaded with people from Nintendo, Gamefreak, Niantic, and even a few of the more active beta testers. The panel lasted for about an hour, where they went over some of the interesting things that they have learned during the beta process.

The first thing they did was clarify and reiterate exactly how the game works. Pokemon Go is a so-called “real world game.” This means that the game uses GPS data gathered from your phone to locate Pokemon that have been spread throughout the world. When you encounter a Pokemon you will be able to use your phone’s touch screen to throw a Pokeball at it. The likelihood that you can capture the Pokemon is based one whether you can actually hit the model of the character in field of play and if you can hit them when a targeting reticle is at the perfect spot in its cycle.

Pokemon in your collection gain experience and ultimately evolve by eating special Pokemon candy. They specifically mentioned that the candy is earned by capturing Pokemon during your travels, but I am pretty certain that you will also be able to spend real world money on it too. This is a free to play mobile game after all.

One item that got a lot of discussion was the Pokemon Go Plus device. It is a red and white device that can be worn as either a pin or a watch. It connects via blue tooth with your Android or iOS device and lets you play the game without taking your phone out of your pocket. The device has an led light in the center that will flash different colors to tell you what is happening. You can actually use the buttons on the Pokemon Go Plus to capture Pokemon without even taking your phone out.

They also let the release window for both the app and the Pokemon Go Plus slip. They will release in July of this year and the device will retail for $34.99.

Keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming for more information as we get closer to release.

 

 

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