Pretty much the obvious house rule - I like the game setup enough that I will probably give this a go at some point, but I don't really expect it to be fun or rewarding. Frustrating, as the game is constructed very well.

What I think the game really would benefit from is what it's missing from Monopoly -- the palpable sense of anxiety when a player enters a "trouble zone" (or an opportunity zone, I suppose). I love the notion of investing in the ability to alter your landing spots -- that's a great addition -- but whether it's the computerized pace, the lack of compelling colors/visuals, or just the lack of bundled properties -- I never feel that way. Occasionally, I look ahead and mutter that I hope I spin a 3 to get a new car -- but it's rarely a major investment, and without that, the game will always be lacking to me.

It took me a while but after playing the maps (esp NYC) so many times, I can anticipate the trouble spots - not only the high basic rents but the big built up ones as well. I had a NYC game recently where there were 5 mid-town properties in a row (around the Chrysler building) where the ai had $100+k rents. That was a deadly zone that I was lucky to avoid and it did knock me out eventually. There were no choices I could make to prevent that just lucky or unlucky die rolls, which makes for a roller coaster game but pretty much lacking in skills needed.

The War on Terror Game is free right now: War on Terror for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store

It's an interesting Risk type game. I don't think the AI is very difficult and there's no pass'n'play mode (just single player)...however, it was entertaining for about an hour for my first game. Especially for free.

Keep them coming.. just received my ipad mini. Going to check out:

The Room
Beat Sneak Bandit
Mikey Shorts
Blast A Way
Catch 22
Spin Up

Someone here must play bike race? If you do hit me up, looking to get as many races as I can.

I've been getting into Great Big War Game, which I picked up recently for $0.99. It is IGN's 2012 Strategy Game of the Year and here's part of a review that talks about what it's like a little bit:

Played The Room last night.. fantastic puzzle game.

I generally agree although I feel ripped off that it's not even a complete game.

Can't disagree here.

Anyone play Battle of the Bulge?

So tempted to but what I read the game lacks a lot of replay value. Doesn't seem many think it's worth the price tag despite people being a huge fan of the game.

Bill Abner had a nice writeup about it and calls it his #1 iOS game of the year.

We have like $180 worth of iTunes gift cards, so I'm going to check it out. Heck, $10 seems like peanuts to the $60 per game I spent my Gamestop giftcards on. :)

Dungeon Story is a decent little time waster.

I have it and like it a lot. Very professionally produced. If you like fairly simple war / area control board games, I'd recommend it.

The replay value depends on whether you are willing to play multiplayer (either asynchronous or hot seat). Playing solitaire against the AI (which is well done IMO) can get a bit old just because the map is somewhat limited. So after a while you can anticipate the AI moves. Playing multiplayer, you never know what you're going to come up against.

My brother in law was playing it a lot over Christmas. What IS it, anyway?

/tk

Let's play sometime.

Bucc - I played the lite version on my android and the first 3 missions were very easy. I won on the first try on hard difficulty. Do the missions get more difficult?

It is kind of like excite bike meets words with friends. The game is great. Just about everyone that I am friends with is playing around here. It is a very simple, yet very fun game. Your turn take only a couple of minutes.

henry296, good question, I don't know yet as I am on the third mission myself. I would think these are tutorial-like missions.

i'm your huckleberry

just added you on GC.

I think I can only invite you through email or Facebook.

mutter vile evil things. /mutter

PM sent

Just discovered Plague over the holiday, really fun addictive game. Currently stuck on fungus. tried a bunch of different combos and nothing works so far, they keep curing it. I think I spend my DNA points to fast, need to be more patient.

I finally got around to start the 4th mission and it appears to be much harder. You start off with 3 Grenadiers surrounded by 11 enemy units with no barracks or oil derricks under your control (thus, no income). You have 3 combat units plus 3 engineers some distance away on the other side of the enemy lines. Looks like that's all I got to hold off the opponent, which unlike the earlier missions, these will be attacking and not standing around. But you'll never know how it plays out.

Has Big Win Basketball (or football) been brought up in this thread yet? I've been playing the basketball one quite a bit lately. There is a 'friends' trophy and I was wondering if FOFC ever got into this?

I think the Hockey and Soccer game were played a bit when they came out.

i've seen them come up in advertisements but i haven't downloaded them as of yet.

FIFA 13 on the ipad mini is one fantastic game! Stayed up until 2am playing that one last night.

Mission 4 took about 2 hours to do and mission 5 a little less. Before going on to other 45 missions, I'm going to start over and play on Hard.

FWIW, I play Trade Mania about 4 times a week and got it to where I would lose about half the time. Not being able to avoid the huge tax hits and enormous rents can wipe out $2m very quickly. I also won a game where the opponent had $2m to my $50k.

Is there a career option or simply exhibition games? How are the controls?

There is a career option, haven't started yet, getting used to the controls.

Speaking of the controls, they are really pretty nice, at least with the ipad mini, virtual joystick on the left and buttons on the right.

I am on a HUGE soccer kick right now, just purchased FM 13 and I'm engrossed. In fact, I actually understand most of it, unlike the pc counterpart. :)

I love my xbox, but I can see the handheld market really booming as games are much cheaper and easier to jump in and out of.

Just downloaded HeadCoach football. It's like uno type game but football style. It is buggy right now, but hopefully with some updates this game could be really fun. Best of all its free.

Here is their website, looks like it could be a fun game!

http://www.headcoachfootball.com/

Playing some more with the game. It is a really fun game, minus a few bugs. I'm surprised it is free.

For anyone who likes card building type games, Playdek has all of their IoS stuff on sell in the apple store for 99 cents this weekend it appears. This includes in game purchases of add on packs or bundles too.

Ascencion, Penny arcade, Fluxx, Nightfall, Food Fight, Can't Stop and Summon War (I think thats it and I am not forgetting anything).

Some pretty good deals in there if you like some of these (including the everything bundle in Summoner Wars which is normally $8.99 for only 99 cents)

angry birds rio seems to be free at the moment.

Temple Run 2 :)

I downloaded this game tonight. I played for a few minutes before my son started asking to play. So I give him the phone and he buys an in app purchase for 39.99!!!

That's why you only do itunes cards and leave your credit cards out of it. :)

You can block in app purchases in ios

Let's hope you'll become the king of Rio!

Rio was the first Angry Birds version I played (even finishing it all) and after playing some of the other versions (like the original and Seasons), I liked Rio a whole lot better. Rio made better use of gravity and placement better than many of the Seasons ones.

One more post about GBWG. I started over to play on Hard and when playing Mission 5 last night, I got beat badly. I approached the final area apparently with too few units and they all got wiped out and any new units I built, got wiped out quickly too. Probably did that one a little too aggressively and will start that mission over and shouldn't have any problems adjusting my tactics. Just goes to show that it does get harder. My brother, who recommended the game, has played into the 20s and said it got too hard that he had to go down a difficulty level.

Two apps I've found...interesting...lately.

First is Pixel Defenders Puzzle. It's kinda a match-3 game, but it's also a strategy-ish game. I can't really describe it properly. TouchArcade has some gameplay footage, should you want to check it out. Basically, you have a target you're trying to defend (a person that moves around the board on their own, one block at a time). You match-3 to build either a defender or BETTER defender (match 3 blocks to make 1 level-1 defender; match 3 level-1 defenders to make a level-2 defender; match 3 level-2 defenders to make a level-3 defender). Each time you place a tile, you get "action points" (well, fractions of action points). Each action point allows your defenders to attack the wave of baddies trying to attack your target. It's kinda fun...but I always forget which is the level 1 or the level 2 and stuff, so I keep mis-placing my tiles. I think if I played more regularly I'd remember more. Anyway, it's 99 cents and I've gotten 99 cents of entertainment out of it. It was updated today for GC support and stuff, too... TouchArcade info, in case you're interested...

TUAW pointed me to the "Official Crock-Pot Recipes" app today. If you have a slow-cooker and want recipes, the app is $3.99. I bought it, it looks pretty good. It's like the official book, but it's searchable (filters such as ingredients, difficulty, calories...). There are add-ons that can be purchased...but I think from what I've seen so far, it would end up cheaper than the actual print book. And it apparently has some interfaces that can be used with voice only, so if you're in the kitchen trying to use it...anyway, if you like to use a slowcooker (and I do), it seems like it might be useful...

/tk

Been playing a lot of Dungelot over the weekend. It's a "rogue" type game where you flip tiles over on a board and explore a dungeon's multiple levels.

I second both recommendation for Pixel Defenders Puzzle and Dungelot.

gameplay for PDP is a lot similar to Triple Town if that means anything to anybody. Fun game.

Like law90026, I have been playing a lot of Dungelot since Friday. VERY simple gameplay of the rogue type but quite fun. Hope they do put in a way to save games though as I can see games getting too long before you die that you can't always play it on one sitting and it sucks when the games resets between playing sessions and you restart progress on your game... But otherwise a very fun game that was first selling for 1.99 but is now down to 99 cents for the time being.

FM

This is my future brother-in-law's app. I'm not sure if anyone here would make use of it, but if nothing else it's a free time waster.

Mental Math Cards:
App Shopper: Mental Math Cards (Education)

Thanks for posting about Dungelot, fantastic time waster!

*shakes fist* at you and FM.

I blame staying up way too late 2 days in a row on you.

/tk

I'm laughing uncontrollably at the fact that you are blaming me while quoting someone else's post.....

:devil:

FM