The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War Review
September 28, 2021 by RSS Feed
If you thought the destruction of the One Ring in the lava of Mount Doom was the only major ordeal in Middle-earth, you’re sorely mistaken.
Set in the Third Age of Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War’s plot sees the ring surfacing in the deserted castle of Dol Guldur. It bestows unrivaled power to dominate Middle-earth, and all the factions are subsequently drawn into a great war.
That’s the starting point for The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War, an ambitious strategy game from NetEase that adds a whole new chapter to The Lord of the Rings saga.
The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War is a tile-based strategy game with city-building at its core. After choosing the material, gem type, and inscription of your own custom ring, you’re assigned a side (good or evil, basically) and set loose in Middle-earth.
NetEase describes The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War as a “geo-strategic seasonal wargame”. The seasonal aspect of that description lies in the fact that your progress has a linear, chapter-based structure, with new chapters unlocking as you complete bundles of missions.
Those missions are designed to guide you through the intricacies of The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War’s gameplay, which falls into two rough categories: city-building and conquest.
City-building involves the usual process of creating and upgrading buildings, recruiting Commanders, conscripting troops, claiming rewards, equipping items, and so on. On top of which there’s a ring feature, which allows you to use the power you accumulate from conquest to level up your ring in skill-tree fashion.
Conquest, meanwhile, involves sending your armies out (you have one army per Commander, and you recruit Commanders with gifts at the tavern) to take tiles.
Empty tiles are the easiest to take, but give you the fewest resources, so you need to keep upgrading your army in order to be powerful enough to take resource-rich mountain, forest, and farm tiles, as well as tiles occupied by mobs and other players.
The Good
The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War is a compelling and refined strategy game in which you need to weigh your options carefully in terms of the tiles you choose to attack and the moves you choose to make.
For instance, if you take on a “terrifying” tile and your army ends up temporarily locked in a draw, you can send another army in to reinforce it - but so can your opponent, so your odds of victory come down to where your secondary army is located, and how powerful it is.
This is just one example of the game’s tactical depth, which sets it apart from most free-to-play mobile strategy games.
The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War gives you plenty to do, as well. In the early game you may find yourself maxed out in terms of the territory you can take, but you can still carry out Mock Battles on conquered tiles for XP, play through the tower-esque Red Book of Westmarch in the tavern, and tend to your army and your city in preparation for the battles ahead.
It’s fairly generous, too. Timers get longer as you level up your buildings, but it doesn’t cost an extortionate amount to expedite these timers with gems and cards. The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War also has a generous idle system, so whenever you boot it up there’s plenty to claim.
And it looks great, with music and visual elements, such as locations and characters, taken straight from the films. The official license and the evidently generous development budget have really made the difference in terms of immersion.
The Bad
Like any free-to-play strategy game, The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War contains a fair amount of grind, bringing your progress to a frustrating halt a few chapters in.
In some ways this is a positive, since it forces you to focus on making the right upgrades so as not to spend any more time than necessary in the purgatory of waiting for timers to finish. But it can also be a drag after the initial burst of progress, not least because the story inevitably slows down too as you struggle to unlock new chapters.
The movement of your armies is also frustratingly slow at times, particularly as it’s often necessary to summon them back to your stronghold after battles for reinforcement and recuperation. For better or worse, The Lords of the Rings: Rise to War is not a fast-moving game.
The verdict
The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War is a surprisingly deep, well-presented mobile strategy game. It’s faithful to its source material, too, both in terms of the characters and locations it brings in from the existing films and the new content it adds to the canon.
The game’s slow pace may prove off-putting for more casual players, but if you’ve been hankering for something approaching a real strategy experience on mobile it’s well worth a look.
8.2
OVERALL
Replayability 8
Game Controls 8
Graphics 8.1
Sound/Music 8.5
Gameplay 8.4
The Lord of the Rings: War
NETEASE INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT PTE. LTD
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Rise of Warlords Review: A Mythological Strategy Game With Some Great Ideas
July 29, 2021 by RSS Feed
Rise of Warlords is an epic, real time strategy game that sees you leading some of the most famous mythological leaders into massive battles. It's all about building up your kingdom, joining forces with other players and working together to dominate a map littered with cities, mountains, rivers and more.
This is a game that demands your attention, that's always throwing new things to do in your general direction. Whether it's upgrading your city, sending out scouting parties to conquer more territory, or defeating your foes, you're always on your toes. And you're always earning new materials, heroes and land as well.
There's an interesting story, plenty of intriguing characters to meet and loads more besides. Throw in realistic terrain that can block your advances if you're not careful, reactive real time battles and you're left with an in-depth midcore multiplayer RTS with kingdom building chops that's going to keep you playing for a good long while.
The Good
Rise of Warlords eases you into its mechanics with no small amount of skill. Quests and challenges push you to learn what everything does, allowing you to master everything before things get too tricky. The learning curve is paced just right - you'll gather new information as you fight, build and conquer.
The game looks great too, and the tap controls work really well. While there might be some depth here, you never feel overwhelmed by complexity. Any resources you need you can earn by playing as well, meaning you're always in a position to build and expand without having to worry about buying extra materials.
And unlike in a lot of other games, playing with others here is going to be the key to your success. Joining a league and sharing strength and resources is super important instead of just an afterthought. It adds a neat social aspect to the experience that's going to keep you jumping back in for more.
The game deals with combat in some interesting ways as well. Your troops can be attacked when they're heading back to your city, and you can withdraw them from engagements too. Everything on the map is important and you need to make sure you're paying attention to any potential obstacles.
The Bad
There are a few niggles here, although nothing that should serve as too much of a black mark against Rise of Warlords. Perhaps the most annoying of them all are the translation and grammar errors that sometimes pop up. They're never terrible, but they can be a little jarring, unfortunately.
Fans of more traditional RTS games might find the whole experience a little too hands-off as well. The battles in particular play out without much input, which some might find a little too distancing. Anyone more familiar with modern mobile RTS experiences shouldn't be too upset, though.
The verdict
Rise of Warlords is a game that's going to get under your skin if you let it. It's well put together for the most part, it throws some interesting ideas on top of a familiar foundation - the different terrain being a key example - and creates something that feels fresh and pretty darn unique at the same time.
It's certainly an experience that rewards players who are willing to put the time in, and joining together with other active warlords is going to open things up even more. It might not quite have the meat on its bones that some might expect from a traditional RTS, but there's a decent level of depth here all the same.
If you're looking for an engaging, engrossing and entertaining midcore strategy game that's always got something new for you to do, then Rise of Warlords is well worth checking out. You can find it on the App Store and Google Play.
8.1
OVERALL
Replayability 8.5
Game Controls 8
Sound/Music 8
Gameplay 8.2
Graphics 7.9
Rise of Warlords - RoW
Wuhan Feiyouyun Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.
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pCloud Review
June 14, 2021 by RSS Feed
pCloud has chosen a tough line of work. Pitching itself as the leading alternative to Dropbox, it’s in competition not only with that longstanding tech industry giant but with Google, Apple, and Microsoft, all of whom offer broadly the same service as pCloud for free.
That service, of course, is cloud storage. Google gives you 15GB, Microsoft gives you 5GB, and Apple gives you 5GB too. Dropbox, meanwhile, gives you just 2GB. So it’s great that pCloud stacks up favourably to these rivals.
It gives you a generous 10GB of free storage - though to unlock it all you need to jump through a few hoops.
And it comes with a range of reasonably priced paid options. At the time of writing an annual 500GB subscription is $47.88, down 20% from its advertised price of $59.88. A 2TB plan, meanwhile, is $95.88, down from $119.88.
There’s a 2TB family plan, too, and a business plan that comes with a free trial and bespoke pricing depending on the number of users. pCloud is accessible via a number of platforms. Our focus is the mobile app.
That service, of course, is cloud storage. Google gives you 15GB, Microsoft gives you 5GB, and Apple gives you 5GB too. Dropbox, meanwhile, gives you just 2GB. So it’s great that pCloud stacks up favourably to these rivals.
It gives you a generous 10GB of free storage - though to unlock it all you need to jump through a few hoops.
And it comes with a range of reasonably priced paid options. At the time of writing an annual 500GB subscription is $47.88, down 20% from its advertised price of $59.88. A 2TB plan, meanwhile, is $95.88, down from $119.88.
There’s a 2TB family plan, too, and a business plan that comes with a free trial and bespoke pricing depending on the number of users. pCloud is accessible via a number of platforms. Our focus is the mobile app.
The Good
One of pCloud’s main advantages over its competitors is the option to pay a flat, one-time fee for lifetime access. These are the most generously discounted rates, too, with a lifetime 500GB plan costing $175 and a 2TB costing $350.
The family plan, meanwhile, currently costs $500. That’s 2TB of storage for up to five users - or, to put it another way, $100 each for a lifetime of storage and other premium features. Not bad.
In most other respects, pCloud does exactly what you’d expect in a competent cloud storage service. Through a simple, unglamorous, no-fuss interface you can upload, store, access, and share anything from music to documents.
pCloud lets you either share password-protected links for collaborative access, or request files directly to a folder. It lets you backup your local folders to the cloud in real-time, too, including your camera roll, and you can backup from other clouds.
For media files, pCloud comes with its own media player, but you can also choose to open files in the software you have on your phone, as well as renaming, exporting, and so on. There’s a useful sorting mechanism where you can file music by name, artist, and album too.
While some tools, such as video editing, are not supported by pCloud, the app still provides these services as menu options and opens the relevant programs on your phone if you choose them.
Another of pCloud’s distinguishing features is its Crypto folder. This has nothing to do with cryptocurrency, but rather with encryption. If you’re a paying customer, you can upload your files to a Zero Knowledge encrypted platform.
pCloud also lets you access previous versions of files. By default you get 15 days’ worth with the free version and 30 with the paid one, but you can extend this period by up to a year for an additional fee. The desktop pCloud Drive also has a full suite of options such as syncing and backing up data, which compliments the app.
The Bad
Inevitably, the biggest downside with pCloud is that it’s not OneDrive, iCloud, or Google Drive. This may seem like a facetious point, but the fact is that much of the appeal of these cloud storage solutions is that they integrate seamlessly with your software platform of choice. In terms of UI, it’s also a bit less elegant than its more established rivals, though no less functional.
Another mild irritation is that the mobile app is missing some useful bits of functionality, such as the ability to review file versions and upload items from your Google Drive. However pCloud has constantly been updated and upgraded since it was launched, so we’d imagine these nitpicks will be ironed out soon enough.
Overall
pCloud is a solid cloud storage solution in a sector dominated by absolute giants. Competition doesn’t come much bigger than Google, Apple, and Microsoft, not to mention established players like Dropbox.
To stand out, pCloud had to bring something new to the table, and it has. Its Crypto folder is a unique draw for anyone in search of an extra layer of privacy, while its generous free version, lifetime subscriptions, and attractive subscription prices make it a real competitor.
There are niggles, and for most casual users the cloud storage capacity and features they already have through their Google, Microsoft, and Apple accounts is likely to be more than enough.
But if you’re in the market for (a lot) more capacity, a lifetime subscription, and added privacy, pCloud might be the cloud for you. You can find the app on both the App Store and Google Play.
8.5
OVERALL
Lasting appeal 9
Does it well 9.2
iPhone Integration 8.5
User Interface 8
Is engaging 8
pCloud - Cloud Storage
PCLOUD LTD
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Rickle Review
June 11, 2021 by RSS Feed
Some games are supposed to consume your life, monopolising your consciousness and transporting you to parallel dimensions full of wonder and intrigue. Not Rickle.
Rickle sits at the exact opposite end of the spectrum. This hyper-casual mobile game involves making a pile of stones, and that’s about it.
Rickle is a tower-building game. It sees you trying to build the tallest stack that you can out of slabs that fly in from the left and right. To place these slabs on your tower you just need to tap the screen.
The aim is to place each slab flush with the one below, but Rickle is a game of attrition. Sooner or later you’ll falter, placing a slab too early or too late. This leaves an overhang, which gets chopped off, diminishing your tower and making the next placement harder.
You’re chasing two carrots in Rickle: your own high score, which is always displayed in the top-right of the screen, and the next world.
To help you keep each attempt alive you’ve got three consumable power-ups: one that automatically places a slab flush with the top of the tower, one that slows the incoming slabs down for a spell to make it easier for you to place them, and one that resets the incoming slabs to full size.
These power-ups are consumable but totally free. You buy more with the gems you earn through gameplay, and by watching videos. Rickle is refreshingly IAP-free.
The Good
While it’s not spectacular in technical terms, Rickle looks stylish and slick in an understated sort of way. It’s text-free, too, making it both universally accessible, if slightly confusing for the first few minutes.
And it’s a quietly addictive little casual game. There’s satisfaction to be found in building the highest tower you can and unlocking new worlds, though the dynamic shifts as you work your way through the game and the intervals between new worlds grow larger.
The number of points you need to unlock worlds increases exponentially, but the number of points you earn per attempt stays pretty much the same, creating ever-expanding deserts of progress where all you can do is inch forward one slab at a time.
In that sense, Rickle has more in common with Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity than, say, Rising Sushi - a fact underlined by the Sunflower Race that developer Polyworks Games is running this summer, which comes with a cash prize.
Outside the gameplay, Rickle lets you help make the world a slightly better place.
How? A portion of the revenue from Rickle goes to three environmental charities: the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Environmental Working Group.
We won’t give you the spiel on what these charities do, as you can find that info on Google in your own time. Suffice it to say that they all advocate for a safer, cleaner, more sustainable planet.
The Bad
While we’re totally down with Rickle’s charitable mission, and we’re onboard with its distinctive gameplay arc that emphasises long-term progress over the usual smash-and-grab casual gaming hijinks, there’s no getting away from the fact that it can be a little bit bland.
Most tower-building games contain an element of physics. It’s fun to build a tower, but it’s more fun if that tower lists and teeters, and if misplaced blocks dangle perilously, like the bus in The Italian Job.
Plugging away at the goal of winning a race is what makes Rickle appealing after a while. The basic block-stacking mechanic is fine, but it’s a tad too monotonous to hold your interest for long. Fortunately updates seem to be on their way to help mix things up and keep you playing. You can check out the game for yourself via the App Store and Google Play, and there’s an official site as well.
Overall
Rickle is a decent casual game with solid presentation and an admirable philanthropic mission. It’s worth a look in a block-stacking genre that is perhaps a bit overcrowded.
8.0
OVERALL
Game Controls 8.1
Graphics 8.1
Sound/Music 8
Gameplay 8
Replayability 7.8
Rickle
Polyworks Games LLC
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Mango Languages Puts Language Mastery in Reach
May 04, 2021 by RSS Feed
Reviewed by Jimbo
Mango Languages is an incredibly capable mobile and browser solution for mastering the basics of a new language. With over 50 languages covered, the world is at your fingertips.
This comprehensive offering comes from Creative Empire LLC, and features vocabulary, spelling and conversational skills for over 50 different languages at very reasonable costs.
There’s a lot to love there, and, naturally, our iPhone app review of Mango Languages will let you know just what to look for.
Features: 
I don’t think we’ve ever seen a language app with as much raw language information along with a bona fide educational strategy tucked inside and at such an attractive price (free to download but ongoing training requires a subscription, more on this below).
Mango Languages gives users ample practice with vocabulary lessons, drills, repetitive audible pronunciation for each word, spelling and flashcard games to increase learning retention, and even an awesome visual representation of each word to help engrain them in your brain.
Along with using native speakers to insure you hear the proper pronunciation, there are also informational nuggets that help to understand the cultural setting in which the language exists.
There are well over 60 different languages to choose from with many offered with more than one “flavor”. Arabic, for example, is covered with 4 variations: Egyptian, Iraqi, Levantine, and Modern Standard. With Spanish you can opt for Castilian or Latin American.
By breaking words down in categories, it’s easy to practice commonly used terms with the app, such as conversational phrases, numbers or colors. It also features an extremely useful searchable dictionary, so if you’re ever in a language pinch this app could come to the rescue right quick.
There are also over 20 English courses for non-native speakers focused on the most popular non-English languages.
Functionality: 
Mango Languages iPhone App
For the first round of word learning and in-app quizzing, Mango Languages delivered admirably.
Each lesson takes you slowly from a point of competency that you left in the previous lesson to the next slightly higher degree of capability
We especially like how your language knowledge is reviewed in subsequent lessons. The design of the pedagogy never assumes that you remember everything from prior lessons. This is great since you may skip some days in between and need that bit of refresher.
The progression of vocabulary and grammar is easy, smooth and clearly well understood by the app developers to make learning your next language as easy as possible. But don’t be fooled into thinking that means it’s easy to learn a new language. It’s not. But the right program can help a lot.
Unfortunately, the lessons are not associated with a compendium of vocabulary words so you can easily drill what you’ve learned to date.
This feature is in beta and we hope it is fully released soon.
Overall Value:
In our opinion Mango Languages is an awesome app for learning the basics and beyond of a new language.
This also applies to polishing existing skills, especially when it comes to spelling and writing in the new tongue.
Downloading Mango Languages costs nothing, nada, zip and you get to try your first lesson at no cost. That’s a heck of a deal, folks, especially when you consider the methodology and the enormous wealth of the information available via this app.
Mango Languages iPhone app requires iOS 12.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
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