45 best Android games

45 best Android games
The best Android games for your phone or tablet

1. Star Wars: Uprising

Free
With Star Wars all the rage the Galaxy needs a new hero in the fight against the Empire. Take part in Sector Battles, create your own character, and play real-time co-op.

2. Despicable Me

Free
If you love those little yellow things you’ll love Minion Rush. Jump, roll, dodge and scramble to collect bananas in this cute runner game.

3. Crossy Road

Free
Why did the chicken cross the road? Never mind that, why didn’t you? We love this hopper game, and so will you.

4. Fallout Shelter

Free
Fallout fans will love Shelter, a mobile game that gives you complete control over your very own Vault, and the citizens that reside in it. Can you keep your Dwellers happy, fed and protected from the dangers of the outside world in this post-apocalyptic adventure?

5. WordBrain

Free
“Even the smartest word game enthusiasts will have a real challenge to complete this game. In fact: only very few have!” That’s all the encouragement we need: the challenge is on to become a word master in this headscratchingly difficult hiddenword
game.

6. Minecraft

Pocket Edition
?4.99
Construction sim with endless possibilities. This infinite box of Legos has the very real potential to eat your life before your eyes.

7. Alphabear

Free
Oh now this is supercute. You spell out words and bears appear. Longer words equal bigger bears and even more cuteness.

8. Spider-Man

Unlimited
Free
Recruit an army of heroes in the Spider-Verse and take on the Sinister Six. This action-packed arcade game will keep you entertained for hours.

9. Clash of Clans

Free
Form the ultimate Clan with your own army of Barbarians, Archers, Hog Riders, Wizards and more, then defend your village and take down the Goblin King.

10. Lego Ninjago

Tournament
Free
Ninjas, it’s time to enter Master Chen’s Tournament of Elements. You must use your training to take on Elemental Masters, and the more you win the stronger you become.

11. Monopoly

?1.49
Who doesn’t love Monopoly? If you answered “me”, go directly to jail. YOU WILL NOT COLLECT ?200.

12. Table Tennis Touch

79p
It’s not a freebie, but stunning graphics make Table Tennis Touch worth the download. Even more so if you like Ping Pong.

13. Sim City Build It

Free
A realistic city-builder that lets you create an environment in which your citizens will thrive, and trade resources with friends online. Just when you think life is going good, real-life challenges will keep you on your toes.

14. Plants vs Zombies 2

Free
Plants vs Zombies is the tower defence game loved by all, and the sequel is much more of the same zombie- and super-plant goodness.

15. First Touch Soccer 2015

Free
There are loads of football games for Android, but if you don’t want to pay a penny First Touch Soccer is a great choice.

16. Walking Dead: Road to Survival
Free
TellTale’s Walking Dead series is not to be missed, but this alternative is a turnbased RPG that focuses on the original comic books over the TV series, and in which your decisions will determine who lives and who dies. Kicking off at Woodbury, can you take on The Governor?

17. The Room Two
?1.99
Physical puzzles in a beautifully-realised 3D world make this somewhat unsettling sequel a joy to play.

18. Lara Croft Go
?3.99
Explore the ruins of an ancient civilisation and face deadly challenges in this turn-based adventure game. More than 75 puzzles are split into five chapters.

19. Bad Piggies
Free
From the makers of Angry Birds, Bad Piggies is an addictive and challenging puzzle game, with some action thrown in to add to the fun.

20. Temple Run 2
Free
A hugely popular runner game for Android, Temple Run 2 sees you navigate perilous terrain as you attempt to escape with the cursed idol. However far you can get, it won’t be far enough.

21. Monument Valley
?2.99
Supremely calming puzzler with innovative perspective-based gameplay. More soothing than an opiate-spiked Horlicks.

22. Jetpack Joyride
Free
Mission-driven progression and a range of crazy gadgets, jetpacks, vehicles, achievements and character customisation add replay value to the simple controls and repetitive nature of Barry Steakfries’ endless journey in Jetpack Joyride.

23. Angry Birds
Free
Just because it’s old doesn’t make it bad: this list would never be complete without this mobile gaming classic.

24. Ridiculous Fishing
?1.99
“A handcrafted game about fishing with guns, chainsaws & toasters.” SOLD.

25. Super Hexagon
?1.99
Frantic shape-based avoidance game. Punishing difficulty set to a rather wonderful electronic score.

26. Threes!
Free
Potently addictive, simple yet full of strategic depth, Threes is based on a set of numbered tiles that you manipulate around a four-by-four board. There are blue ones, and pinky twos, and you jam these into each other to make white threes. Everything else is a multiple of three created by joining two matching white tiles. Two plus one equals three. Three plus three equals six. Six plus six equals 12. You get the picture.

27. Flow Free
Free
Addictive colour matching fun that is equal parts frustration and satisfaction. Attempt to reach the goal in as few moves as possible.

28. Sonic Dash
Free
The lovable blue spikey-haired hedgehog returns in this endless runner game for Android. Dash, jump and spin through levels collecting rings, dodging spikes and ultimately climbing the leader boards.

29. Dumb Ways
To Die 2
Free
Warioware-style mini games abound in this free gigglefest. Fun, quickfire action, with entertaining deaths aplenty.

30. Words With
Friends
Free
Words With Friends is in essence Scrabble, played with friends at your own pace. And you get to show them how much more intelligent you are than them. A no-brainer.

31. Call Of Duty: Heroes
Free
This 3D combat strategy game has you customise your base and train elite forces to wipe out enemies in fierce battle. Plus: create deadly alliances with your friends, competing for in-game rewards.

32. Riptide GP2
?1.59
Rocket-powered hydro jets and futuristic race tracks make Riptide GP2 a fast, fun, and visually stunning racing experience.

33. Cut The Rope: Time Travel
Free
Cut the Rope: Time Travel is a new adventure filled with time-travelling, candycrunching, physicsbased action. Help Om Nom feed his ancestors as you play through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, a Pirate Ship, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Stone Age, Disco Era, Wild West, Asian Dynasty, Industrial Revolution and the Future. Great for kids, too.

34. Beach Buggy Blitz
Free
A fun driving game in which you collect power-ups and performance-boosting upgrades, unlock new vehicles and collect new characters. Awesome fun and great graphics make Beach Buggy Blitz an easy download.

35. Machinarium
?3.99
Josef the robot is on a mission to save girlfriend Berta from the Blackcap Brotherhood in this award-winning adventure game.

36. Hitman GO
?3.99
Agent 47’s latest outing is a quasi-board game that plays like the leadup to a game of Cluedo. Initially odd, but ultimately rewarding.

37. Marvel Contest of Champions
Free
If you love your superheroes and fighting games then you’ll love Contest of Champions. Level up characters and build your own team of champions in this graphically stunning fighter game.

38. Thomas Was Alone
?3.99
Satisfying special gameplay takes second place to the compelling writing and characterization. You’ll never care more about a bunch of squares.

39. Badland
Free
Gorgeous sidescrolling, jump-based platformer, and winner of three awards. Worth downloading for the stunning visuals alone.

40. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
?3.99
Rockstar has retooled its genre-defining franchise for Android, and you can pick up GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas for criminally good gaming wherever you go.

41. Criminal Case
Free
Are you ready to test your detective skills? This is a hidden object game with an actual storyline: investigate crime scenes for clues and help the Police of Grimsborough crack murder cases.

42. Modern Combat 5 Blackout
Free
Gameloft’s answer to Call of Duty on the PC or consoles, Modern Combat 5: Blackout is a meaty game which includes both singleand multiplayer modes.

43. Goat Simulator
?3.99
What started out as an Internet joke has now landed on Android. Play as a goat and wreck as much stuff as possible in this fantastic mess of a game.

44. Crazy Taxi City Rush
Free
Crazy Taxi City Rush rewards you for insane driving as you race around doing whatever it takes to get your passengers to their destination on time.

45. You Must Build A Boat
?1.99
Sequel to 10000000, this builds on the original tile-matching puzzle meets running game with a boat. You have to build it, assemble a crew, and explore whatever dungeons you pass as you float down river.

10 best free games for your phone or tablet

10 best free games for your phone or tablet
We compile 10 of the most popular titles for phones and tablets running Google’s mobile operating system

1. Hill Climb Racing:

Hill Climb Racing may look basic, but what it lacks in eye-popping graphics it makes up for in pure addiction. To start you get a jeep, one level, an accelerator and a brake, but you’ll quickly unlock more cars and levels. Coins – used to upgrade cars and buy new items – are collected by driving over them, reaching checkpoints and performing flips. You’ll find yourself coming back again and again to get further, an upgrade, a new car or level.

2. Temple Run 2:

Temple Run is the cr?me de la cr?me of endless runners and the second version is not only better than the original, but free. Temple Run 2 combines easy controls with a simple objective and a graphically stunning design. You’ll be jumping, dodging and sliding to beat your friends and unlock achievements and new characters. You might not escape with the precious idol, but you’ll defi nitely have fun trying.

3. Bad Piggies:

The first Angry Birds to put the evil green pigs in the spotlight is Bad Piggies, and we love it. Getting your pig (or pigs), from A to B might sound simple, but you’ve got do it by building an increasingly complex contraption out of available parts. Various objectives and the desire to win three stars will keep you coming back for more. Probably the most fun is the sandbox levels, which let you build almost anything you want from a vast inventory of parts.

4. Plants vs Zombies 2:

The original Plants vs Zombies was a smash-hit and the sequel is a must-have for any Android gamer. This exceptional tower defence game expands on the original, while taking you in new directions. A level structure takes you through themed worlds, complete with new objectives to complete. As you would expect, there are new plants with which to get to grips and, although inapp purchases make an appearance,
you can ignore them.

5. Cut the Rope:

A classic mobile game available in various editions, Cut the Rope has superb level design and makes great use of a touchscreen. Physics-based gameplay lets you interact with many di fferent objects as you try and try again to win three stars in each level. There’s loads of levels to keep you going – and keep you coming back for more. And let’s not forget how adorable is the main character Om Nom.

6. Real Racing 3:

If you find Hill Climb Racing too basic, and have a spare gig of storage on your device, check out Real Racing 3. You’ll be blown away by its highly detailed graphics. Real Racing 3 features real cars, tracks and people. Time Shifted Multiplayer lets you compete against friends, even if they’re o ine. A good selection of race types includes cup races, eliminations, endurance challenges and drag races. All this and, amazingly, it’s free to download.

7. Triple Town:

Bringing an innovative concept to puzzle games, Triple Town is a great free download and the kind of game you can pick up at any time. The idea is to build the best city you can, and this is done by combining three items to form a better one. Bushes become trees, trees become huts and so on. Some cute but pesky bears will get in the way of your progress. We’re also big fans of the gorgeous and charming graphics and animations.

8. Tetris Blitz:

This is no ordinary version of Tetris. In Blitz you get just two minutes in which to score as many points as you can. A Frenzy mode adds a fresh element to this classic game. Rather than moving around blocks, you simply tap on the screen where you want them to go. This removes some of the skill, but is in keeping with the game’s fast-paced nature. Although Tetris Blitz tries to tempt you to buy power-ups, you can get high scores without opening your wallet.

9. Candy Crush Saga:

Topping the games charts since its release, you’ve probably heard of Candy Crush Saga. It’s a variation on the classic match-three puzzler, whereby gems are swapped with sweets and other tasty treats. The ease with which you can continue your game on multiple devices is a huge plus point. Objectives must be completed before you can progress through the seemingly never-ending supply of levels. In-app purchases are avoidable, but irritating.

10. New Star Soccer:

This footie game puts you in the boots of a penniless up-and-coming footballer. You have to complete flick-based challenges, such as passing, shooting and timing interceptions. The better you get the more money you earn, allowing you to buy vehicles, clothes, property... and a whole string of girlfriends. The more you train your player the better you get. So while you start your career at Torquay United, you can flick your way to the World Cup.

GALLERY OF PUZZLE GAMES

GALLERY OF PUZZLE GAMES
Kami

Kami is a familiar concept, requiring you to tap at squares of a patterned grid to make them one uniform colour. The paper texture of the squares and origami like folding animation as they change hue, make it a fun brainteaser.
? Price: Free

The Room 2
At the other end of the spectrum to Kami, The Room 2 is both devilishly difficult and rendered in photo realistic graphics. Dark and mysterious, this point-and-click adventure is full of puzzles that will require hours to master.
? Price: ?1.99/$2.99

Cut the Rope 2
Don’t be fooled by the bubblegum bright colour scheme and cartoon graphics, this sequel is very smart. Ramping up the physics based puzzles, there’s a lot to consider in helping Om Nom reach his candy.

? Price: Free

Strata
Your goal in Strata is to layer ribbons over a grid and ensure the top layer matches the colours of the grid below. A smooth learning curve helps, but there is no denying this minimalist game is a mind-bending monster to conquer.

? Price: ?1.86/$2.99

Hitman GO
The console game franchise has been reinvented as a villainous version of Cluedo. This approach was great for simplifying the controls for mobile, without sacrifi cing the complexity of the puzzles or the elegant in-game visuals.
? Price: ?2.99/$4.99

Monument Valley
Full of impossible architecture that doesn’t go anywhere, Monument Valley is like an interactive version of M.C. Escher’s surreal paintings. Your job is to figure out which objects to move around so the heroine can move on.
? Price: ?2.49/$3.99

SWORD COAST LEGENDS

SWORD COAST LEGENDS
Real-time roleplaying in AD&D’s best-loved universe.

Video game RPGs started as digital representations of pen and paper roleplaying games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness and, of course, Dungeons & Dragons. Up until now, they’ve got most things right – the setting, the lore, the magic, the characters. But what they’ve almost never managed is the implicit collaboration of tabletop roleplaying – that balance that’s struck between players and DM, something that’s part joint storytelling and part adversarial battle.

That’s part of the aim of the new fiveplayer AD&D RPG, Sword Coast Legends, according toDan Tudge, producer and the president of developer n-space. “The DM’s there to provide a challenge for the players but he’s not there to grief the players. That said, there certainly are adversarial DMs and you definitely have the opportunity to play that way if that’s the way the party choose to play.”

The SwordCoast is that region of Forgotten Realms’ Faer?n that includes Baldur’s Gate, Luskan, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter and Waterdeep. Like the Hinterlands in Dragon Age, it’s meant to be a fertile area with a frontier feel, overrun by monsters, and has been the setting for most of the AD&D RPGs: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale 1&2, D&D Online, and the many NeverwinterNights from1991 onwards.

“There are iconic locations that we enjoyed visiting within those video games that we want to revisit,” Tudge says. “And we’re not able to get to all of them in this first iteration, obviously, but we certainly plan to continue the adventures long after release and make sure that we visit all the areas that we’d love to go to.” What the main campaign will be, Tudge isn’t saying yet, but the focus will be on storytelling through recruitable party characters: Tudge mentions Alistair, Morrigan and Minsc as inspirations.

The game has two modes. The first is a dungeon crawl, a quick adventure with your party in a singleplayer campaign, where you control all four characters and can pause the action to give orders. The second mode is the five-player Dungeon Master campaign mode, where the DM can pre-build a campaign offline (though you will be able to start a campaign with no faffing, if you wish) and all four characters are roleplayed by your pals.

Both share the same tools, as Tudge explains. “A DM can do everything he wants within the dungeon. He can change encounters, spawn creatures, control creatures, promote creatures, demote creatures to help out the party if they’re having a bit of trouble. He can set traps, create puzzles in the dungeon. Pretty much anything and everything that a DM does in a regular pen and paper, tabletop game.” Watching a video of the Dungeon Master scattering his monsters into a battle, it looks straightforward enough to play in realtime.

In that same video, the UI and design takes more from Dragon Age: Origins, D&D Online and Neverwinter Nights than from the Infinity Engine games. That reflects a proportion of the heritage of the team: Tudge and a couple of other key developers have worked on many BioWare games (as far back as the original Baldur’s Gate in lead programmer Ross Gardner’s case), and spent three years on Dragon Age: Origins. Yet while n-space itself has been around for over 20 years, it mainly produced licensed products or DS games. Collaborator Digital Extremes has an equally limited experience of tactical RPGs. It’s an unusual party for an RPG, to say the least. Players will be able to create their own heroes, choosing from five races – human, dwarf, elf, half-elf and halfling – and six classes – fighter, paladin, cleric, mage, ranger and rogue. Players don’t select an alignment, however, as the team felt this unnecessary. As Tudge puts it, your choices “not just within the story but within your interactions with the other characters and the consequences of those – that’s really living your true alignment.”

There are also fixes to perceived flaws in earlier games. For a start, Legends uses the most recent, 5th edition D&D ruleset, rather than the baffling earlier editions found in BioWare’s games. Tudge has been playing D&D since 1979. “For me I think fifth is the first time that they’ve really captured that original set of rules. [It’s] very reminiscent of the original AD&D and those older, earlier classic western RPGs. ”

Ease of use is paramount, soTHACOand its kin have been thrown down a well. Additionally, wizards areno longer glass cannons, obliged to fire off a couple of huge spells in combat and then run away.Now they can all use can trips – small repeatable spells like Ray of Frost – alongside their traditionally overpowered spells.Combine that with the flexibility of associating weapon types with races, and you can customise classes a lot more than before. Sword Coast Legends is being released as a full price game later this year,with DLC content to follow.Tudge and his team have a lot of history to live up to–both in and out of Faer?n.

Dan Griliopoulos

Land of the Pharaohs

Land of the Pharaohs
The start of the Assassins

2013 saw the release of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and it brought a lot of freshness to the franchise. See, up until that point, Assassin’s Creed had started treading familiar territory a little too much. The original game was something of a breath of fresh air when it first arrived, despite complaints about repetitive game play.

The second game – arguably the best in the franchise – took the series to fantastic new heights, spawning two great expansions as well. But by the time the third title came out, things were feeling a little stale. It didn’t help that, until the release of Assassin’s Creed: Unity (with its many, many bugs and issues) Assassin’s Creed 3, despite a strong story and a whole new setting, was considered by a great many to be the series’ lowest point. It lacked the depth of the second game, and the uniqueness of the first.

So when Black Flag hit shelves and afforded players to take on the pirate life, it made something of a splash. The hero wasn’t the noble Assassin that we had seen three times before, and the focus of the game was somewhat different. It was something of a triumph for a franchise that was becoming long in the tooth far too quickly.

This was perhaps also due to the fact that Assassin’s Creed had become a regular feature in the video game calendar. Other than a gap between the first two games, released in 2007 and 2009 respectively, the series has seen a major release in every year. 2010 brought Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, 2011 Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, 2012 Assassin’s Creed III and 2013 Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. In fact, the trend continued after Black Flag, too; 2014 brought Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and the lamentable Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and 2015 Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. And then, in a surprising move, Ubisoft announced that there would be no game in the franchise in 2016, opting rather to release a remastered version of Assassin’s Creed II.

That two year gap may be important, if trends are to be believed (and considering there was a two year gap before the release of the excellent Assassin’s Creed II). Because this year – two years after the release of Syndicate – Ubisoft have announced Assassin’s Creed: Origins.

Just before E3 2017, rumours started spreading about the game, and that it would be set in Ancient Egypt (a setting many fans have believed would be explored by the franchise sooner or later). And those rumours proved founded in truth - Assassin’s Creed: Origins will take place in Ptolemaic Egypt (a period that lasted from 323BC until 30BC). And it will also explore the origins of the shadowy Assassins, which there has been quite a bit of speculation about.

In Assassin’s Creed: Origins players will take on the role of Bayek, who is a Medjay (basically an Ancient Egyptian paramilitary force who had sweeping policing and protection duties). The players will use Bayek to protect his people from threats, although whether the Templars will be the main bad guys this time around (the order was established in 1129AD) remains to be seen. What we do know, however, is that taking out bad guys in Assassin’s Creed: Origins will be a little different.

Missions will build towards something that has been missing from the franchise – boss fights. And each boss fight will be different, forcing players to consider loadouts and tactics with each and every one, rather than just taking to the mission with their favourite kit. Additionally, mission completion will be freer than before… this time around, targets won’t just stroll around areas where players will expect to find them. Rather, they will have lives, meaning that they will travel between different locations at different times of day.

This means that the player will need to strategies and choose the best time to strike, adding a new level of freedom to mission completion. That, all on its own, is reason to get excited; this freedom will enable players to take advantage of differing conditions, and make each hit their own, rather than being shoe-horned into tighter situations.

Players will also be able to undertake missions at their own pace, which is a good thing when one considers that Assassin’s Creed: Origins offers an entire country to explore. There will be varied environments, ranging from lush, overgrown oases right through to desert landscapes. In addition, players will be able to discover and explore tombs and more, meaning that there is going to be a lot to do in Assassin’s Creed: Origins… just like there was in Black Flag.

And at the core of the action – in addition to great graphics and a number of expected new mechanics – will be an overhauled reactive combat system, as well as a host of new weapons that all have their own characteristics.

It is all rather exciting, particularly for fans of the franchise who have seen chinks appearing in its armour. But possibly one of the most exciting factors is one that is happening behind the scenes… and is the reason why Black Flag has been mentioned so often here. The team behind Assassin’s Creed: Origins is the same team that created Black Flag, an undeniable high point in the franchise’s history. That team brings with it not only the know-how that went into creating Black Flag, complete with its enormous playing area, but also the time that they have put in; Assassin’s Creed: Origins’ development started in 2014, not long after Black Flag was released.

Many Assassin’s Creed fans are suffering from “once bitten, twice shy”. The franchise’s misstep with Unity left a sour taste in many mouths, which many feel Syndicate did not do enough to change. But initial reports for Assassin’s Creed: Origins seem hopeful that the franchise will be aking a long overdue return to the heights achieved by Assassin’s Creed II and Black Flag… all we can do is hope that our upcoming adventures in Ancient Egypt will be what the franchise needs to return to its former glories.

Fallout 4 The Commonwealth needs you

Fallout 4 The Commonwealth needs you
It has been one of the biggest hype-trains in recent history; when Fallout 4 was announced just before E3 2015, people went nuts. And publishers Bethesda played on that, allowing their own promotion engine to be fuelled by the enthusiasm of fans the world over. So when Fallout 4 finally arrived, it is little wonder that a number of people were disappointed by what they got.

Even after all this time, when people should be well aware of how hype often gets out of hand, and when they should know that no game is perfect, they still managed to make themselves believe that Fallout 4 would, somehow, be a game that offered no problems. But by its very nature, Fallout 4 was almost guaranteed to be imperfect; any game as ambitious as this one is bound to have issues to some degree, and Fallout 4 is no different.

People the world over started identifying things that they didn’t like: graphics that were a bit poorer than ere expected, bugs that occasionally lead to hooking up on geometry or seeing odd things like models in strange places, that kind of thing. But it would serve one well, when approaching a game like Fallout 4, that (in the first instance) some truly great games have also had bugs and, most importantly, highlighting individual elements that may leave something to be desired in only truly relevant if these elements ruin the entire experience.

And, quite honestly, in the case of Fallout 4, they do not. You can bitch all you like about the little things that annoy you, but when the game is considered macroscopically (as it should be) there are very few things that might hamper the overall experience, and certainly none that will ruin it. The game begins with the player’s chosen character (created with a robust set of character editing tools) being rushed to Vault 111 in the face of total atomic annihilation. We’re not going into detail here, because spoilers suck… suffice to say that when the character awakens, you find yourself in a very different world, a long time after the bombs fell. After a few short “mandatory” missions that get you into the swing of things, Fallout 4 sort of stands back and says “It’s a great, big world out there… have fun with it”. And so the player begins a massive journey of discovery, in which the central plot plays only a small part. Fallout 4 isn’t about getting from A to B in a narrative; it is about living in a post-apocalyptic world.

To this end, Fallout 4 gives the player every tool it can muster in making the experience as engrossing and complete as possible. From the basic stuff, like character modification through skills and visual elements, and gear modification and improvement, right through to the establishment of settlements, Fallout 4 offers the player an absolute ton of things to do. I found myself spending long sessions tweaking my guns and armour, or fasttravelling between my settlements to make sure that they were properly defended and offered the growing number of residents what they required. I would spend hours constructing buildings in the game’s settlement editor, or hunting through random piles of scrap to find the elusive materials I needed for a particular weapon part. And then I would spend other long sessions exploring the Commonwealth (once called the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the vast setting for this game) and completing missions. Between crafting, tweaking and combat, Fallout 4 has consumed many hours for me, and I still have a ton that I want to get to.

It’s the kind of game that you can spend a good long time playing, with short sessions great for tweaking and crafting, and longer sessions ideal for finding new places, trading and, of course, shooting stuff. And, thanks to the fully open nature of the world, you’ll be spending some of that time running away from enemies you cannot handle just yet, licking your wounds and levelling up before going back to exact a bit of revenge.

While Fallout 4 does give you every tool you need to survive in this world, it doesn’t hold your hand. It doesn’t guide you in any particular direction (the quests feel more like suggestions that compulsions) and it simply lets you get on with doing your thing within the game world.

And that world is massive. While fast-travelling is an option, this place has been created to be explored on foot, either solo or with a trusty companion (although the dog, for example, becomes more of an annoyance before long, so companions are only suggested for the most patient of players). It is a world that is full of surprises and oddity that you’ll never find if you bounce between fast-travel points, and this convenient method of traversing the map is only suggested for completing tedious tasks, like hauling junk back to your base of operations. There are amazing uncharted places and experiences here, and missing out on them would be a crime. Besides, walking is good for you.

None of it ever really seems overwhelming, either. Junk is automatically stripped down to needed parts by settlement workshops, for example. Traders are relatively plentiful (although you won’t find them fast travelling) and can even be set up in your settlements. The skill tree is simple yet expansive, but the lack of level cap means that you’ll more than likely never have to worry about getting to any particular ability at the expense of others. Combat can be daunting at times, but the game gets you feeling like a bad-ass pretty quickly, complete with customisable power armour and a massive arsenal of weapons that you can trim to suit your play style. It feels like the developers made a world for you to live in, on your own terms, rather than giving you a controlled experience. In truth, the only thing that is really overwhelming in Fallout 4 is the sheer scope of what you can do with it… and that’s a good kind of intimidation.

So, yes, the graphics may not be the best we’ve ever seen. The world may have bugs that aren’t mutated mosquitoes, flies and roaches. The companion AI does leave a lot to be desired. But the truth is that these things can be avoided or, at worst, ignored. And when everything is put together, all of these issues, whether in isolation or combined, do very little to hamper an excellent gaming experience. You may find yourself getting annoyed, even to a high degree, at times, but you will keep coming back. Like with Skyrim, Bethesda have managed to create an experience that is so wonderfully immersive with Fallout 4 that you’ll constantly keep coming back to it, bugs and all. It’s single-player only, which may make some people wonder about the longevity of the game, but with the amount that it offers to do, you’ll probably still be playing it long after you’ve set aside the latest cut-and-paste multiplayer FPS title. It’s not a massive step forward for the franchise, but it doesn’t need to be. 

How To play games in Facebook Messenger

How To play games in Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger now has a proper gaming feature called Instant Games. Chris Martin shows how to use it

Following on from the success of its hidden games inside Facebook Messenger such as football keep ups and basketball, the firm has launched a fully-fl edged gaming feature called Instant Games to its chat service. The firm describes it as a new ‘gaming tab’ inside the app that allows you to challenge your friends and family at a number of games. It’s simple enough to play if you follow the steps below, making sure you’ve updated to the latest version in your app store first.

Play games on
• Open or start a conversation (groups included)
• Tap on the game controller icon
• Choose the game you want to play

Games list
With over 1.2bn games of the basketball game played, launching Instant Games is the next logical step. The feature is rolling out in 30 countries on Android 5 or later. Features include score leader boards in-context chat, and group thread conversations. Read: How to send a Facebook message without Facebook Messenger.

If you’re looking for a Facebook Messenger games list, then check out the image below which shows the 17 launch titles from partners such as King, Konami and Bandai Namco. Highlights on the games list include the likes Space Invaders, Puzzle Bobble, Words with Friends: Frenzy and Pac-Man.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT WARLORDS OF DRAENOR

The MMO juggernaut rolls on, without changing direction.

World of Warcraft is nine years old. If you want to take a moment to let that sink in, that’s perfectly understandable. It has remained the biggest subscription-based MMO in the world throughout that period: it’s still huge, even if the prevailing narrative surrounding it is of an empire in gradual decline. 7.6 million players doesn’t really feel like decline: more like erosion, in the sense that a mountain erodes. Warlords of Draenor is the first of a new kind of expansion for World of Warcraft. It’s leaner, in some senses, than the expansions that have come before. It adds a new continent – the orc homeworld of Draenor, predestruction – and new features, plus tweaks to raids, the UI, and the game engine, but no new classes or races.

On the surface, it appears more considered and modest than Cataclysm or Wrath of the Lich King – and, in returning the focus to the orcs, it’s less of a tonal departure than Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard are gearing up production on World of Warcraft with a view to putting out boxed expansions every year – rather than every 18 months-ish as it was before. They talk about having plans for the WoW expansion after this one, and the one after that, and the one after that: a salvo of erosion-slaying magic bullets loaded in a revolver, with Warlords of Draenor sitting ready in the first chamber.

At least, that’s how Warcraft boss Chris Metzen put it, announcing the expansion at Blizzcon. I asked WoW producer John Lagrave about it later – how possible is it, in reality, to plan for the needs of a gaming community that far in advance?

“Let me continue the analogy,” he says. “First we have to build the bullet – and we’re building a bullet for a gun we don’t know the calibre of yet, so there’s a lot of give and take. We have a plan for Warlords of Draenor – that’s in the chamber and is being fired. For the next expansion, we’re in talks about it. We focus, initially, on the story we’re going to tell. Once we’ve got that, we try to figure out a sentence or two about what the ‘vibe’ is. What’s going to be engaging? What’s going to be fun? What is interesting about it?”

Warlords of Draenor is intended to recapture the feel of orcs-and-humans-era Warcraft, and to reintroduce the characters and conflicts that fans have followed for decades but that recent WoW acolytes might have missed among the panda warriors and world-consuming dragons. It’s a time-travel story, and the Draenor it features is one that has been referenced but never actually presented in a Warcraft game. It’s the same place as The Burning Crusade’s Outland, but this isn’t a Cataclysm-style overhaul: it’s a full alternative take on the planet with entirely new zones to explore.

As players, our dimension-skipping adventure will be prompted by the escape of rogue horde warchief Garrosh Hellscream following his arrest at the conclusion of the ‘Siege of Orgrimmar’ update. Chasing his dream of an all-orc horde to a new extreme, he binds himself to a mysterious time-travelling ally and journeys to Draenor before the orcs became corrupted and invaded Azeroth. There, he stops the orcs from drinking demonic blood and, in its place, gives them loads of technology from the future and sets about building his own portal to Azeroth. So give a little, take a little, then.

Both factions have an interest in stopping Garrosh’s ‘Iron Horde’, and that leads them to Draenor. An initial ‘suicide mission’ tutorial experience will take the Alliance and the Horde to Tanaan Jungle – formerly Hellfire Peninsula. After that, the Alliance will help defend a Draenei temple in Shadowmoon Valley, a temperate zone of rolling hills trapped in perpetual night. The Horde head to Frostfire Ridge – roughly where the Blade’s Edge Mountains will eventually be – to help the Frostwolf Clan defeat some local ogres.

The Frostwolf Clan in this case is led by Thrall’s dad, Durotan, and the sequence I played through involved helping both of them lay siege to an ogre fortress – at which point, through Pandaria-style phasing, it transitioned into being the Horde base of operations on Draenor.

Blizzard have had a lot of experience bending and twisting the WoW engine into new shapes, and their work here displays the same inventiveness and attention to detail that marked out the best bits of Wrath of the Lich King. Post-conquest, the player is asked to free some orc scouts from a nearby ogre village. The path takes you back out of the ogre fortress, pushing through a crowd of Warcraft-style peons carrying stones and lumber back up the hill. It’s a nice little nod to the past, and it made me smile.

You’ll have to take the long way around, by the way: flying mounts are disabled in Draenor until some point post-launch. The journey to the new level cap of 100 will be made on foot.

In addition to seven new PvE zones, Warlords of Draenor will add seven dungeons – three at max level – as well as two raids with sixteen bosses between them. Blizzard are also taking a pass at Upper Blackrock Spire as part of their programme of classic dungeon reboots, and there’ll be a new set of world bosses too. There will also be a full PvP zone on Draenor, called Ashran. It’s intended to recapture the old days of World of Warcraft battlegrounds – the skirmishes over Alterac Valley that took days to resolve. Combatants will be drawn in from multiple servers using the cross-realm technology also used to fill out parties in the dungeon finder.

The current structure of WoW PvP is being revised. Blizzard regard the current system as too deterministic, leading players towards fixed rewards through a long grind – they want to shake it up, and they’re approaching the problem from multiple angles. PvP matches will now grant random rewards on completion, from bind-on-equip items to rare PvP equipment and bonus Honor. The idea is to surprise players with rewards they weren’t expecting, to lead people towards upgrade paths they might not have considered by adding a degree of chance. The other approach to freshening Player vs Player is the exact opposite. Warlords of Draenor will introduce Trials of the Gladiator, new arena combat events where players use standard, balanced gear – creating a competition that is entirely about skill.

On the PvE side, raid sizes are being reworked – again – to create a more accessible experience. Raids will be available in Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic difficulties for any number of players between 10 and 25, their encounters scaling on the fly to match the number of friends you bring. If someone drops out, you won’t need to wait for a replacement. The best rewards, however, will be available to guilds who crack raid encounters on ‘Mythic’ difficulty, which will be balanced for – and require – 20 players. It seems like a smart compromise between the needs of the hardcore set and weekend warriors who just want a chance to see dungeons they’d previously been locked out of.

Blizzard walk a thin line between giving their community what they want and telling them what they need – but they seem to walk it confidently, at least in Warlords of Draenor’s case.

“We want you to stay engaged in the game and not become dispassionate about it,” says John Lagrave. “We have our own internal testing sessions, and I’ll tell you – the session for our Blizzcon build was brutal. We’re very critical, and there’s lots of things that we will be doing and changing from our own criticism – plus what we get from the community. It’s a constant process.”

Some of the biggest cheers I heard at Blizzcon were for Warlords of Draenor features that seem innocuous from the outside. WoW’s inventory is being updated, so that you’ll be able to easily set filters for your bags and sort them quickly.

Collectible items such as heirlooms, toys and tabards are becoming part of the collections system – as opposed to taking up bank space – and quest items will no longer go into your inventory at all. You’ll be able to craft using materials that are in your bank, Guild Wars 2-style. These quality-of-life improvements will likely shave off millions of hours busywork across the breadth of WoW’s audience.

No one feature received an outpouring of approval quite like the update to character models, however. Vanilla WoW’s original races are all getting upgraded with more detailed models, high-res textures, and new animations that include facial expressions for emotes. Blizzard are recording new voice work, too, so expect to hear a bunch of new variations on “ungh!” and “I can’t cast that now!” The Burning Crusade races are set to be updated shortly after the expansion launches.

World of Warcraft is also, at long last, getting a form of player housing. You’ll be able to create and manage a garrison on Draenor that works a little bit like a base in the original strategy games. You’ll pick from plots of land, and build and upgrade structures that provide game-widebenefits. You might build crafting buildings that give you limited access to professions that you don’t otherwise have, or buffs that you take with you into the wider world.

Garrisons will also act as the basis for a new kind of daily quest. Through your town’s inn  you’ll build up a party of NPC adventurers who can be sent on adventures that take hours of real time to complete.

They’ll have their own traits and levelling paths, and sending the right people on the right jobs will yield rewards such as exclusive items, mounts and randomised chests. It’s a substantial extension of the Tillers’ farm system from Mists of Pandaria, with much further-reaching implications for your daily life within the game – and for your free time. It’s also equivalent to Pet Battling, in that it’s an addition to an expansion that looks a bit like a nonsequitur on the surface, but which will probably end up being the most strikingly new-feeling addition for players who have had almost a decade to get used to the game it’s attached to.

Your garrison will be a part of the open world, separated from those of other players using – again – seamless phasing. If you want to invite a friend over, that’ll be possible – but it’s unclear at this stage whether or not it’ll be possible to discover other people’s towns or followers in a more informal manner.

Every purchase of Warlords of Draenor will, additionally, give you an accountbound token that lets you boost any character you like to level 90. It’s a measure that Blizzard are taking to give new or returning players a chance to skip straight to the new stuff, but it’s likely to be possible with veterans too. Haven’t finished a full set of max-level alts yet? You just got one for free. These insta-90s will start with a set of equipment and some consumables appropriate to their level.

I imagine that some dedicated players will feel their investment has been cheapened by letting total newbies skip nine years’ worth of content, but it’s a pragmatic move by Blizzard and there’s a good chance it’ll be the last little push required by those of us who are at any point only a few clicks from resubscribing. Blizzard make changes like this from a position of authority: even after all this time, World of Warcraft is the game to beat – and even when a new contender improves on this or that system, its like can be replicated within WoW – and improved upon – in no time at all. This expansion modernises the game across the board.

Warlords of Draenor strikes me as an attempt to level the playing field in anticipation of the future. It’s varied, certainly, but safe in the sense that it in no way reaches deep into the crust of the game to find something new. Even its narrative moves backwards rather than forwards to find something fresh to present to fans. At its most radical, the expansion rethinks systems like raiding without ultimately changing the purpose they’ve always served. Lapsed players and dedicated fans alike might have expected something a little more dramatic, this long into the game’s life – but then again, perhaps it’s not a surprise. Blizzard are still sitting at the top of the mountain, and they’ve got no reason to shake the foundations.
Chris Thursten

10 CREEPY VIDEO GAME URBAN LEGENDS

10 Lovender Town syndrome
In February 1996 Pokemon Red and Green for the Nintendo Gameboy was released in japan to wide acclaim, however not everything about its release was so positive. Allegedly around the same time as the game’ s release, there was a noticeable rise in children committing suicide or falling ill. The legend states that this was caused by the music played in the game when the protagonist reaches Lavender Town. The Lavender Town theme is believed to have featured extremely high frequencies which were only detectable by younger gamers. These frequencies caused headaches, self harm and mental illness in those who played the game, ultimately leading to an estimated 200 children killing themselves. The story concludes by saying that due to the scandal the Lavender Town theme was later changed by developers Nintendo to a lower tone, and in the Western version, the music was changed completely.

9. Squall is dead
Final Fantasy 8 is considered a classic in the long running Japanese franchise, however the plotline is not without rumor. At the end of the first disc, protagonist Squall squared up to the evil Sorceress Edea on a parade float. So far, so Final Fantasy. However during this battle Edea sends a shard of ice flying through the air and into Sqall’s chest, causing him to stumble and fall off the float, ending the duel. Yet when disc two starts up, Squall appears alive and unharmed. The legend goes that everything that happens in the game after this is Squall’s dying brain attempting to process information before it runs cut of oxygen. To add to this theory, the finale features a series of scenes that flash before the player’s eyes. These include blurred out details, the battle with Edea itself and, for a brief moment, an image of Squall with his face missing. The legend states that his brain is close to death and therefore forgetting his own image.

8. Polybius
In 1998 a post on the website coinop.org stated that in 1981 a new, addictive video game was installed in a Portland, Oregon arcade called Polybius. Polybius proved popular, however players soon began complaining of nausea, headaches, and nightmares after spending time playing the game. Soon after the Polybius cabinet was visited by strange men in black who allegedly unknown and unauthorized data gathered from the players. In 2013 the website Skeptoid conducted an investigation into whether Polybius actually existed. They found that while there was no record of any game called Polybius in or around Portland in 1981… …there were two cases of gamers collapsing with headaches and stomach pains on the same day. Ten days later federal agents raided video arcades throughout the Portland area in an attempt to break up a gambling racket operated by arcade owners. To prepare for this operation, undercover agents had indeed investigated arcade machines to try and collect evidence. While Polybius may not be true, the seeds of the legend were based in reality.

7. Morrowind’s mod
Morrowind is the highly popular and critically acclaimed third instalment in the Elder Scrolls franchise, yet that hasn’t stopped people making their own mods for the game. One mod, called Juk1166z.esp, at first appeared to do nothing except corrupt the game. However when run through an MS-DOS emulator the game takes a sinister tone, Major NPCs immediately died, their corpses littering the game. The remaining characters would appear briefly and only say “Watch the sky”. The player’s health would be draining constantly and dungeons would start displaying images from your computer. The mod didn’t just affect the game, it took control of your computer. Finally a long-limbed character called the Assassin would appear, who would hunt the player and shriek in piercing tone. The game screen would slowly become darker and darker until nothing could be seen at all. According to one player who allegedly played the mod he began to dream, and then hallucinate, about the Assassin.

6. Killswitch
A company called Karvina Corp is believed to have released a game called Killswitch in 1989. The game followed the story of Porto, a human woman, and Ghast, an invisible demon, as they attempt to unravel the mystery of the mine they find themselves trapped in. There was a twist however. Once played, the game wiped itself completely, preventing the game from being played ever again. As only 5,000 copies were produced, so the legend goes, this has led to brand new cartridges being extremely valuable. In 2005 Yamamoto Ryuichi bought a copy of the game for $733,000, with the intention of broadcasting the playthrough on YouTube. Yet to date Ryuichi has only posted one two minute long video of himself crying before the character selection screen. The legend suggests that the game sends people mad. However it is most likely false, as the earliest mention of any game from that period called Killswitch… …comes from a now abandoned website called Invisible Games which deals in creepypasta about fictional games.

5. Pokemon block
Pokemon Black was released as a companion to Pokemon White in 2010. However before that there was another Pokemon Black – a far more sinister and twisted version. The legend states that an unnamed man was digging around a flea market in 2005 when he came across a version of Pokemon Red which was pure black. The game played as normal to begin with, with Professor Oak giving you the usual choice of three starter pokemon and a fourth one called Ghost. Ghost was level one and capable of only one attack: Curse. Every battle played the same. The opponent was too scared to move, allowing Ghost to cast “curse”. Once cast the screen would go black and the distorted scream of the defeated pokemon would play. This could even be cast on the trainer themselves, ultimately killing them. If you survived, Ghost would appear at the end and battle you. The screen faded to black and rebooting the Gameboy, the save file would be wiped clean.

4. Sonic.exe
Everyone knows Sonic the Hedgehog as the bright and colorful Sega mascot but Creepypasta author JC the Hyena had other ideas. The legend went that a man known only as Tom received in the mail a CD from his missing friend Kyle, accompanied by a note telling him to destroy it. Tom played the CD to find a heavily modded version of Sonic the Hedgehog. The blue sea was now an ocean of red blood, the sky was overcast and Sonic himself had glowing red and bleeding eyes. As he played the game further it appeared that Sonic was violently torturing and murdering the inhabitants of the game. Eventually the game began communicating with Tom, asking whether he wanted to play a game of hide and seek and addressing him by name. The more Tome played, the more it became clear that Kyle had been sucked into the game by Sonic… …another victim to be toyed with, tortured and murdered by hedgehog with the demon eyes.

3. Herobrine
First released in 2011, Minecraft has become a global sensation. It has sold over 106 million copies and cost Microsoft $2.5 billion when it was bought in 2014. Yet if a post on 4cham is to be believed, the simple block building game hides a dark and sinister secret. In 2011 a post on the popular online bulletin board mentioned a blank eyed character walking around his single player world and deforesting the map. After his post was deleted from the messageboard a few times, he received a message from a fellow user called Herobrine with one word, “Stop”. It turns out ‘Herobrine’ was the gamertag of the brother of Minecraft’s lead developer Markus Person aka ‘Notch’. When pressed on the issue, he allegedly said he did have a brother, but he had died. Since then people have built and expanded on the legend, insisting there is a character called Herobrine haunting the game.

2. Ben drowned
In 2010 anther 4chan user called Jadusable claimed to own a haunted copy of the classic N64 game Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Jadusable bought what he thought was a brand new game from an elderly gentleman, but when installed into his console he found only a saved game called ‘Ben’. When Jadusable attempted to start a new game, the NPCs continued to call his character Ben. When the saved game was deleted, the NPCs just ignored him altogether. A later post by his alleged former roommate stated that Jadusable was slowly sent mad by this game.

1. Pole luno
Pale Luma is a text based adventure game which required gamers to input commands in order to progress through the story. Yet unlike other text based games, Pale Luma appeared to crash if anything other than the correct command is entered leading many people to dismiss the game as a broken and buggy product. One player however, Michael Nevins, wasn’t going to be put off. After six hours of trial and error, Nevins reportedly go through to a congratulations screen and a set of coordinates. Being nearby Nevins allegedly set off to the park where the coordinates were to investigate. When he dug at the point indicated, he uncovered the decomposing head of Koren Pauisen an eleven year old gril who had gone missing a year and a half before. The developer of Pale Luna was never traced, and the rest of Karen’s body was never found.

Best new Android games of 2016

Lewis Painter showcases the best upcoming games of 2016

Rush Rally 2
Rush Rally 2 is an upcoming racing game for not only Android, but iOS and Apple TV too –  and it boasts some impressive features. First of all, the developers claim that the game will run at 60 frames per second and will feature over 72 tracks across a number of game modes including Rally cross and Rally Championship. There are eight cars available at launch with a plan to add more over time, all featuring realistic physics gathered from “real car telemetry data”. The iOS/Apple TV variants even feature MFi controller support, allowing you to use a gaming controller to play.

The good news is that the developers claim the game is completed, and it’s just a matter of deciding on a launch date. The developers hope that’ll be some time in May, but nothing is confirmed just yet.

Hackers
Hackers, as you’ve probably guessed already, is a game about hacking – don’t worry, you won’t get into trouble with the NSA for this kind of hacking, though. The idea is that you build up your hacking network and then hack your friends and other online players. Though details about gameplay are scarce, the idea is that you have a network, and you have to build up your defences and resources in such a way that you make the core of your network impenetrable to hackers. The game is currently in beta testing, which you can sign up for at tinyurl.com/h85vaac, with a plan to release for Android in the coming months.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends
The Elder Scrolls: Legends was first announced at E3 2015, and while there still isn’t a solid release date in sight, it looks promising. It’s a collectable card game, with gamers collecting cards with stats including agility and strength to be used in battles, although there isn’t much else to go on as Bethesda is being tight?lipped about the whole situation.

Bethesda has recently announced a beta test which should be starting soon, and those interested can sign up at tinyurl.com/hcynze8. The game is set to be available for both PC and Mobile and while we assume this means both iOS and Android, there is no platform confirmation so far. The release date is still unknown, but with E3 2016 fast approaching, we imagine it’ll get some kind of mention then.

Leap of Fate
Leap of Fate is an interesting game already available for PC, but is due to be released on mobile ‘soon’. The game is best known for being hardcore. It may have something to do with the fact that you have one life to survive a journey across a futuristic, slightly cyberpunk looking New York. There’s no health regeneration either, so you’ll probably die quickly and have to start all over again. You can play as one of four characters, all technomages (using science to create the illusion of magic), and there are over one hundred upgrades available over four categories: Mobility, Passive, Attack Skills and Equippable Glyphs. You can find out more about Leap of Fate on its official website at tinyurl.com/j8ghja4. There’s no word on the release date for the mobile companion just yet, but we’ll update this when we know more.

Samurai Rising
Square Enix recently posted a teaser for something called Project: Rising with promises that we’d hear more soon. Well, it turns out that the “more” it was referring to was yet another trailer, although this one included a few more details – the only issue is that it’s in Japanese. A Japanese?speaking writer over at Touch Arcade translated the trailer, and gave us the following insight: “…it’s another free to play social action RPG from the same artist responsible for Bravely Default. The game centralizes around four player co?op, with players taking the role of various Final Fantasy?ish classes.” The video specifically mentions the Dragoon, White Mage and Black Mage classes, so it’s safe to assume that other Final Fantasy?esque jobs will make an appearance in the full game. Samurai Rising looks to be a Japan exclusive game at launch, but we’re holding our breath that it’ll come to UK shores sooner rather than later.