Drync and Wine Log Pro

I like Wine! So I need a good app to track my wine, let’s chat about what I have been using:

Wine Log Pro

I’ve been using this for years. It was renamed not that long ago for the next app I’m going to blog about shortly. It allows you to search their database (or enter your own wine if you can’t find it) and very nicely write down everything about it: A public and private description, year, style, rating and do you want\own\drink it yet, etc.

It’s search function was slow, but I’ve used this for a while and it has worked well for me.

Now it has been replaced and I don’t like it.

Drync

So the last app was called Drync but it was renamed and the name given to this app.

It’s a nicer interface to be sure, but the focus of the app seems to be selling you wine instead of tracking it. There are some tracking features to be sure, but the nice thing about the last app is that I could track what was currently in my wine cellar so I knew what I might need if I’m out at the store. Heh, maybe that’s why they took it away.

Anyway, it’s free to me since I brought the first app and I downloaded and quickly removed it. Yes it does import my wine reviews, but a lot of the tracking features I cared about are gone.

Here’s a hint to Drync LLC, if you take away features from your app, you are going to tick someone off. It’s just a few little things that would have been easy for you to add. Should have been easy.

So I guess this is more of me b*tching. Sorry about that. Guess I’ll look for another app.

Werewolf iOS Reviews

I love Werewolf. If you haven’t played, it’s a great party game. To quote BoardGameGeek if you haven’t played:

Werewolf takes place in a small village which is hunted by werewolves.

Each player is secretly assigned a role – Werewolf, Villager, or Seer (a special Villager). There is also a Moderator player who controls the flow of the game.

The game alternates between night and day phases. At night, the Werewolves secretly choose a Villager to kill. Also, the Seer (if still alive) asks whether another player is a Werewolf or not. During the day, the Villager who was killed is revealed and is out of the game. The remaining Villagers then vote on the player they suspect is a Werewolf. That player reveals his/her role and is out of the game.

Werewolves win when there are an equal number of Villagers and Werewolves. Villagers win when they have killed all Werewolves. Werewolf is a social game that requires no equipment to play, and can accommodate almost any large group of players.

Now, I have young kids and have tried to play this game with them and their friends with various degrees of success. The problem is, to play people have to cover their eyes during different parts of the game and you just can’t trust kids to do that and that messes up the game.

But I’ve found having an app run it makes all the difference. 🙂 However, everything I’ve used so far has had it pluses and minuses. Here is the two best I’ve found so far:

Werewolf

Good:

• Standard rules and the interface is well done.
• Has other roles like the Seer, Vigilante, Protector and Lovers.
• The app handles the voting and the night time perfectly.  Villagers have to guess who they think a wolf is at night for fun.  This gives everyone something to do at night and doesn’t single out the special characters.  Nice touch.

Bad:

• There is only one, but it is big: You MUST pick players off of your contact list.

This is a major pain in the butt. If someone isn’t in your contact list, you have to jump out and add them. This slows down starting a game quite a bit. Enough so, that I’m looking for another app when I want to toss a game together quickly.

This app has not been touched since 2009, so I don’t think changes are going to happen soon.

Werewolf – Curse of Pandora

Good:

• Everyone enters there name on the fly.  Good for a quick game.
• Nice art.

Bad:

• Non-standard Programming: No back buttons to move between screens and using dails for some of the functions seems off.
• No rules with the game and the rules it does use are not what I call standard.  For example, there is not a day and night voting phase.  Just one hidden voting phase where everyone votes for who their team kills.  Seems odd to me that the village vote would be private.
• Items and more roles exist than the first game.  That’s nice, but more control is needed for this option.
• Not fully sure the seer is working.  I need to play with this game a bit more to see how it’s being handled.

Well, the guy does have blog and did update the app in 2011. Maybe it will improve.  It has the feel of someone’s first project.

Which one to get? Well, I have both depending on what I run into, but the first app is a lot closer. ‘Pandora’ needs an overhaul for the serious Werewolf player.

If I had an Mac, this would be my first coding project.

Waiting for the Money Pit (Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino)

Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino

So Dominion is an excellent card game. It plays 2-4 players and up to 6 players if you buy some of the expansions. Here is a Tom Vasel’s review of it:

It takes a little bit to setup it up, but it’s a lot of fun and once you know the cards, the game can play quick (30 mins or less).

Now what about this app for Dominion? Well, if you read this thread you will see that this app is only a free app that will be pulled once the developers release the full app.

So when you look at the app, you can see why the app is a little ‘rough around the edges’ when you play it. No developer is going to put a lot of time into an app that’s going to get pulled. That said, it works well and allows 2 player multiplayer. It’s a great time filler right now when you have 5-10 mins to kill.

That said, Rio Grande Games said back in January that the official version of the game will be out in a few weeks. That was back in Jan 2012 and I’m still waiting.

Look, I understand as a developer, that deadlines can get missed, but missed by 4 months shouldn’t happen if the game is going to be out ‘in a few weeks’. Get this app done so I can give you my money please. 🙂

Until then, try and enjoy the free version.

Are you Ready for Ragnarok?

Yggdrasil

Is that a nice looking image or what?

Yggdrasil is a board game that I reviewed here. It is a nice multiplayer co-op game (i.e. The players work together to beat the game).

Now it’s out for IPad. The graphics are great just like the game itself and it plays really well. There are some unlockable characters, which is also cool.

The only downside to the game is the game is only ‘pass and play’, no playing over the internet yet. I hope that will change. It’s a little pricey at $6, but for board game fans it’s easily worth it. If they allow internet play it’s a Home Run. For now, it’s a solid triple and I’m sure to be playing it for hours.

Here is a repost to Tom Vasel’s review of the boardgame.

Skylanders Cloud Patrol

Skylanders Cloud Patrol

This is not board game, but it’s enough fun that I have to post it.

Skylanders is a great game that works cross platform with the Wii, Xbox360, PS3, Web Site, 3DS and IPad. The main game plays on the Wii, Xbox360 and PS3. The game itself is your basic 3 person shooter. What makes the game unique, is you are given with the game mini game characters to play in the game. These characters can level up and that information is stored on the mini, allowing you to transport your character to other people’s houses with its info intact. You can also buy new characters (which for awhile have been selling like hot cakes). These characters can also be used for the other Platforms. I’m going to focus on the IPad game, but here is the into for the main game.

In the IDevice game, it’s a straight shooter game with plenty of power ups and characters that you can unlock and upgrade. For those characters you brought for the other games, you can unlock those for free. Here is a video for it.

As you can see, it looks great and kid friendly. Lots of great sounds to go with it and I don’t know another IDevice game like it.

Cost of the game $.99. It’s a steal. The last video really shows everything about it, so I’ll stop here. It’s a lot of fun and if you are looking to shoot something this will easily scratch that itch.