It’s a pretty busy week here at PT towers – not only did we kick off voting for our GOTY Awards, but we’ve also begun the look-out for a new Editor (and Staff Writer) to lead Pocket Tactics into the future. Not to mention some reviews, news and other features, and it’s been a well-rounded time in the world of mobile games.

Next week we’ve got reviews of recently released games going up (Space Grunts 2, for sure), as well as some experimental Black Desert Mobile coverage (see below) and more typical features. During the Xmas/New Year period content will be a bit lighter, but I’ve got some retrospectives and of course we’ll share the GOTY results.

Meanwhile, in Mobile land…

New iOS & Android Games

Yellow & Yangtze (iOS & Android)

Another board game release this week, this time it’s Dire Wolf Digital’s adaptation of this Reiner Knizia classic set during the Warring States period of China. It’s predominantly a tile-placement game, where you must place pieces of different types in order to develop your realm and compete with the other players. We’ve got Matt hard at work on a review, so expect to hear more from us on this over the next week or so.

Black Desert Mobile (iOS & Android)

The popular Free-to-Play MMORPG Black Desert Online has come to mobile. In the post-World of Warcraft landscape MMOs can have a hard time finding their audience, but Black Desert has managed it surprisingly well. The combat mechanics make it more like an Action-RPG than a true mmo, and are quite fluid, and the majority of the game content is playable for free – it’s mainly cosmetic items that carry most of the micro-transactions.

I played this for a bit on PC, so coming to the mobile version is a bit of a surreal experience – the game certainly looks quite similar on my Google Pixel 3XL, so the developers have done a great job making the game look pretty. UI is quite busy, but that’s to be expected, and controls come in the form of a virtual joystick for movement, and buttons to trigger combat abilities. There’s a lot of auto-pathing and movement options to take advantage of, and the game throws a lot of information at you quite quickly, so the new-player experience is kind of weird.

The Last Remnant (iOS & Android)

Hats off to TouchArcade for spotting this one as I wasn’t expecting this to appear anytime soon, but Square Enix have stealth released the Remastered version of The Last Remnant. I remember reviewing this on the Xbox 360 ages ago. It was… ok? I think? I know people speak quite fondly of it in general. It’s a JRPG through-and-through.

The mobile version is quite pricey ($20) and has a large install size (8.5GB in total!), and it also requires iOS 13 or above. We don’t currently have a review planned for this one but if I can get code, might be worth looking at. RPGs of this calibre don’t often come to mobile.

Dragon Castle (iOS & Android)

I’d personally not heard of this game before prior to the developers reach out to me; Dragon Castle is a Mahjong-inspired table-top game that’s been brought to digital platforms by Studio Clangore, the same people behind the digital port of Potion Explosion. We’ve got Matt Thrower doing a review for us, so in the meantime check out the trailer…

Machinaero (iOS)

A quick shout-out to this one as it’s been on our radar for a while and has finally been released into the wild. It’s a 2D game about building different types of machines and testing them to explore the game world, from gliders to space ships. There’s at least 50 types of blocks you can use for your inventions, and the game boasts realistic simulations such as wind and temperature.

App Updates & News

Cosmic Frontline AR has just received a major update, which adds a new game mode and the ability to play without AR. It also redesigns the maps, and balances difficulty, with better graphics and new tutorials. Dick reviewed it for us earlier this year, so I had him take a look at the update. While he didn’t think it warranted any special attention, he was impressed by the changes and if this had been the state at launch, he commented that the game would have gotten a slightly higher score.

War Tortoise 2 is a thing, apparently. And that’s about the only thing I can say about it because even after having watched the trailer, I have no idea what’s going on (third-person rails shooter, by the looks of things).

It’s been ages since we looked at a decent Word game, and this one caught my eye because it blends word puzzles with strategy mechanics. Hexicon is currently available to try for free via Testflight and Google Play Early Access, and involves players fighting for board control via word-smithing. There is a central objective that gives points, and then the boards reset, with the first to 16 points being the winner. Seems quite deep and complex, so might try this one out for ourselves.

Also worth noting that Terraforming Mars did receive a major update after launch, which fixed things like notifications for multiplayer matches. Since it was released while Matt was working on his review we folded it into the main article, but we’re aware that the state of the game just after launch wasn’t great.

Sales

Black Friday seems like such a long time ago now, but so long ago that decent sales haven’t been sparse. Still, found a few interesting ones crop-up you might like to check out:

Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

This week at Bungie, a new Season is upon us.

Season of Dawn has finally come. Osiris calls upon you to combat the remnants of the Red Legion and prevent them from creating an alternate reality where they are victorious. Guardians are swarming Mercury and the Sundial in an effort to fix time itself. Obelisks revealed themselves on Mars and the Tangled Shore, bringing new Bounties to complete for sweet loot.

We are two days into the new Season with much more on the horizon. A legend needs saving, and additional obelisks will become available on alternate destinations next week.

Not only is this a change in Seasons, but an opportunity for your arsenal to evolve. New Exotic Catalysts are in the wild, granting benefits to a few Exotics you know and love. New Legendary weapons have been introduced, some packing new perks to give you an edge in combat. Keep an eye out for Vorpal Weapon, granting you additional damage against bosses, vehicles, and Guardians with their Super active. We’ve already had a few players ask if the Boss Spec weapon mod stacks, to which we say… go find out!

Three new Exotics have also been introduced to Destiny 2 for owners of Shadowkeep.

Hunter: The Bombardiers

Parting Gift: Dodging leaves behind an explosive that detonates after a short delay, damaging enemies around it.

Warlock: Promethium Spur

Embers of Light: While Daybreak is active, defeating combatants or Guardians creates a Healing and Empowering Rift at their location.

Titan: Severance Enclosure

Spheromatik Trigger: Defeating a Guardian with a melee attack or a combatant with a finisher unleashes a damaging explosion.

Dawn of the Dawning

Along with the cold weather, Eva Levante is returning to the Tower. The Dawning is all about keeping warm though, as you’ll be asked to bake cookies for your favorite (and less than favorite) vendors in our solar system.

All of Eva’s ingredients and cookies return from last year’s event. We also added new ingredients and recipes and made some improvements to the baking process. For each batch of cookies delivered, you’ll gain progress towards bounties and rewards for some Seasonal cheer.

This year, Eva has a new SMG for you to bake: the Cold Front. Additionally, if you missed out on the perfect roll for the Machine Gun Avalanche last year, it’s your time to shine. Both weapons will be available to earn throughout the entire event.

Weekly and repeatable Dawning bounties also grant Bright dust, giving you more sources of this currency for new items on the Eververse storefront.

One item will be Silver only: The Perfect Ten finisher.

In Case You Missed It

Did you find yourself in a mad dash to finish your Season of the Undying Triumphs and forget to pick up a few of your Season track rewards? We have good news! We created a new portal on the Seasons page that grants access to your Season Pass rewards track. Any items you earned will be available to claim, even if a season has ended.

Steps for success:

A New Dawn

A funny thing happened on the way to Dawn. With the added functionality of mod stacking in Armor 2.0, players were quick to find an interesting combination that could fully recharge a super in a single dodge. Player Support was quickly on the case.

This is their report.

From this page, players can learn how to get started with this new Season, as well as find out vital information and known issues relevant to Season of Dawn.

Holiday Treats

Next week, The Dawning returns for all players in Destiny 2. Just like Festival of the Lost, New Light players will need to ensure they meet the following requirements before they can participate in The Dawning festivities:

Can we Just Call it a Tie?

Two creations were brought to my attention this week, both of which could win a “Movie of the Week” with no issue… if they were released on different weeks. We had studio-wide conversations over who should be given the winning title. It was a pretty tight call, but there can only be one.

Movie of the Week: Moon’s Haunted

Honorable Mention: Awaken

This is your second to last TWAB of the year. Holidays are on approach, and the blog will be taking a short hibernation as we ring in the New Year. But don’t worry, we’ll still have many people in-house, making sure things are running smoothly and ensuring you won’t encounter any unexpected issues while baking your Dawning cookies. Network Operations, Player Support, Community, and more will be at the ready to lend a helping hand.

See you again next week. It’s almost time to get that bread.

Cheers,

-Dmg04

If you’ve always dreamt of getting your foot in the door and working for your favourite video game company, Nintendo of America has a selection of internships open for applications on its careers website.

As noted on reddit by user Jeezy1296, the 14 available positions are predominantly at the firm’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, although a couple of marketing positions are also available in Redwood City, California.

The internships cover a host of disciplines including Audio Software Engineering, Build Tools Software Engineering, Analytics and Finance. They’ll take place from May/June to August 2020 and you’ll need to be legally authorised to work in the US if you fancy putting yourself forward.

You’ll also need a solid graduate-level foundation in your chosen field, but if you reckon you’ve got what it takes and fancy spending the summer walking the halls where Reggie once reigned, check out Nintendo of America’s jobs website. And if you’re successful, let us know what it smells like in the building. We’re guessing… lavender, with a hint of nutmeg.

Last night at The Game Awards, Tripwire Interactive announced via a new trailer that Maneater, an open-world and savage shark sim, will be swimming to Switch on 22nd May 2020.

In a world where millions of sharks are killed each year by humans and (according to the trailer above) only five humans succumb to the big toothy fish, it’s about time that Jaws and his buddies got revenge, and it seems they’re doing so in spectacularly bloody fashion.

Self-described as a single-player action-RPG, you’ll be terrorising the waters of the Gulf Coast chomping on whatever or whomever you come across as you evolve constantly into a more efficient killer.

As you can see from the trailer, it’s nothing if not savagely violent – they way Samuel L. Jackson went in classic shark shlockfest Deep Blue Sea seems to be par for the course in Maneater. We remember that film being a fun leave-your-brain-at-the-door movie – we guess we’ll find out if Tripwire can sustain that level for an entire game when the game’s unleashed in May next year.

Woah here she comes… Let us know if you’re keen for Jaws to get his revenge with a chewy little comment below.

If you were playing PC Games in the ’90s, you probably couldn’t wander through a game store without stumbling on one of the many MechWarrior games that dominated the era. Recently, they’ve been missing from store shelves–until this week, with the release of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries on the Epic Game Store.

Today on the GDC Twitch channel, Piranha Games CEO Russ Bullock dropped by to discuss the latest entry in the venerated game series, and break down what it took to bring MechWarrior back to its single-player roots. Bullock was kind enough to break down everything from how the studio scaled up to handle the long development process, to the particular design decisions intended to evoke how the series played in the ’90s.

If you’d like to hear some dev tales from the making of the newest MechWarrior, you can see the full conversation with Bullock in the video above. And for more developer interviews and select GDC talks, be sure to follow the GDC Twitch channel.

Black Survival: Eternal Return – 4th Alpha is Now Available on Steam!

In this free Alpha test, you will fend for yourself and defeat other survivors in unique and exciting top-down Survival Battle Royale gameplay. Become your favorite character and outlast your opponents by combining your wits and strategy with searching and item crafting to become the ultimate survivor.

The Game Awards 2019 News

• The Game Awards Winners Revealed Here
• Goodbye, Project Scarlett, Hello Xbox Series X - Exclusive First Look And Interview
• Game Awards 2019 News: Next-Gen Xbox Series X, Hellblade 2, And More
• Apex Legends Is Getting A Mirage-Themed, Christmas Event Called Holo-Day Bash
• Xbox Series X: Everything We Just Learned About Microsoft's Next-Gen Console
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Game Awards Trailer Focuses On Cloud's Personality

China, the world’s largest smartphone market, has been nothing short of a moving target for Apple. A salvo shots fired by top analysts this week only evidences one thing: the only near-term certainty with Apple and China may be more uncertainty.

Apple store in Hangzhou, China.

Credit Suisse issued a cautionary note on Apple’s iPhone performance in greater China early Thursday morning. In the note, seen by AppleInsider, analyst Matthew Cabral said that checks showed a more than 35% yearly decline in Chinese iPhone shipments in November — trailing far behind a broader Chinese smartphone market that has remained relatively flat over the same period.

In presenting the data, Cabral acknowledged the challenging year-over-year compare Apple faced given vast differences in the timing of its iPhone launches over the past two years and similarly cautioned clients about reading too much into potentially “volatile” monthly data.

Nonetheless, the November drop was the second straight double-digit decline in Chinese iPhone shipments, he said, following on the heels of a 10.3% yearly decline for October. That would imply a more than 7% overall decline in Chinese iPhone shipments since the launch of Apple’s iPhone 11 family, Cabral added, explaining that mix shift towards the lower-priced “iPhone 11” model amongst most the region and a significantly discounted Renminbi may only intensify Apple’s struggles.

Cabral’s note caused a stir amongst AAPL investors who, also fearing potential complications from a looming tariff deadline, sent shares sliding over 1.5% before reversing course on upbeat trade comments tweeted by President Trump a couple of hours later.

“While early indicators of demand on the iPhone 11 cycle were consistently better-than-expected, sustained softness in China (is an incremental concern, particularly given the increasingly easy [year-over-year] compares,” Cabral wrote. “At this stage, we’re hesitant to extrapolate weak Chinese data points broadly across Apple’s global footprint given our view that structural factors are at play (we see aggressive local competition and a narrower ecosystem advantage in China) and build plans remain largely unchanged, per our Asia team.”

Credit Suisse maintained its “Neutral” rating on AAPL shares with a $221 price target. The firm’s views on Chinese iPhone sales almost immediately came under scrutiny from rivals, with Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani reiterating his firm’s newly established $305 price target and “Outperform” rating. He issued a note to clients urging them to “look past the [Chinese] iPhone noise and focus on several upside catalysts” that he believes will help the iPhone maker post a solid beat to earnings for its current December quarter.

“We think investors appear to be reacting to data-points related to China’s MIIT smartphone data that shows a decline in the month of November,” Daryanani said. He stressed the tough year-over-year compare that Cabal had originally alluded to while presenting his bearish Phone call — the fact that iPhone XR was launched in November 2018, while the iPhone 11 was released in September 2019.

When normalized over three months, Daryanani believes recent Chinese iPhone data “points to a trendline that’s actually up slightly at 3% year-over-year. The Evercore analyst issued a note to clients just one day earlier raising his target on AAPL shares to $305 from $275, vouching his opposing view that iPhone 11 sales will actually surprise to the upside this quarter, outperforming relatively low expectations due in part to $50 price cut between the iPhone XR to the iPhone 11 that “has been particularly well received in China.”

With a population of roughly 1.4 Billion, China and its smartphone market remain a massive, yet thus far elusive target for Apple and international smartphone vendors. Though it has outsold rival Samsung, Apple has only managed to muster up a single-digit share of the overall Chinese smartphone sales. The company is dwarfed by local rivals such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo, who combine to control over 80% of the market.

In a move atypical for the company, Apple earlier this year admitted to overshooting the Chinese market with the iPhone XR and issued a revenue guidance warning, which ultimately saw sales in the region slip nearly 5% year-over-year.

“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the time. “In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac, and iPad.”

Cook added that “while macroeconomic challenges in some markets were a key contributor to this trend, we believe there are other factors broadly impacting our iPhone performance, including consumers adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, US dollar strength-related price increases, and some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements.”

Though Apple may be making strides towards more attractively priced smartphones with the iPhone XR, its struggles to stem the bleeding and remain relevant in emerging markets could not be more relevant at a time where the company’s greatest prospects for revenue growth arguably lie within those same countries. According to a recent Bank of America global smartphone forecast released earlier this week, Apple lost share during the third quarter of the year in every key emerging and major market except for the US, including losses in China, India, and Latin America.

The firm’s Global Research division cited Strategy Analytics data in estimating that Apple currently maintains 12% of the global smartphone market, but just a wavering 5% share in China that’s expected face continued pressure over the next several years.

Just how much of Apple’s near term growth opportunity remains tied to China and its booming smartphone market is likely to remain a hotly contested debate. Of all the analysts who provide coverage of Apple, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty has arguably had her finger closest to pulse when it comes to expectations in China.

“We caution extrapolating China iPhone Data points,” she said Friday, in an apparent jab Credit Suisse’s call. She reiterated her firm’s “Overweight” rating and $296 price target on Apple shares but shared nothing further.

The next time we expect to hear from Apple on how it’s faring in China will be late January 2020, when the company reports results of its current, first fiscal quarter of the new year.

At the close of trading on Friday, Apple stock closed at $275.15, a new all-time high. Notably, the Chinese government and President Trump announced that they agreed in principle for a “phase one” deal to hopefully wind down the trade war. Tariffs expected to commence on December 15 on a wide array of Apple products will not be implemented, and a 15% tariff placed on September 1 will be halved “in phases.”