Astral Masters is a fantasy-themed trading card game (TCG). In other words, it's something like Magic: The Gathering, albeit simpler. It has two big things going for it: First, the interface is slick. Unlike some digital TCGs that try to replicate the tabletop TCG experience too closely, it's easy to figure out what each card does and how to deploy it effectively. Second is the price--a mere $20. Magic Online charges you by the card, and your cost can accumulate pretty rapidly; many other TCGs also have a "boosterpack" or subscription model. For a reasonably low, fixed price, you can play Astral Masters forever.

Engaging TCG-Like Computer Game

Bellatorus is obviously inspired by trading card games (TCGs) like Magic: The Gathering, but it isn't a -trading- card game exactly; you get all the cards with the game (and can download more from the developer's site) and edit decks with the provided editing utility--then play out games, either against remote opponents or an AI.

In other words, all the cards are available to you at all times, and you don't have to pay for more.

Unlike Magic, Bellatorus doesn't have land cards. Instead, the three resources in the game (crosses, skulls, and lumber) are produced by three different kinds of workers (priests, liches, and workers). You can hire more workers on any turn (up to 3 of a single type), but of course lose your opportunity to play a card on that turn if you do. In addition, each type of worker requires a building for support (churches, graveyard, or lumber mills)--each supports 5 workers of the same type--and building a new building takes a turn. And you can spend a turn "working" to produce resources. One nice fillip; you can discard a card for a replacement on a turn you spending hiring, building, or working, so if you have no useful card to play right now, you can do something else helpful.

Ants Long For Combat, Too

Magnant is a charming little indie real-time strategy game in which you control a colony of intelligent, technologically sophisticated ants waging battle against other ant colonies and the evil bees and beetles. It has all the usual RTS tropes--resource extraction, building construction, and real-time combat--as well as a pretty cool version of online play.

It has one innovative and unique aspect, too; virtual "cards" let you build special units or buildings. They're earned through play, and as with a trading card game (like Magic: The Gathering), you never know what cards your opponents will deploy when you play online--which creates a greater degree of variety. Your carefully-planned strategy may be upended or need to adapt quickly when an opponent deploys a special unit you hadn't anticipated.

Pretty neat.

A Little History

SpiritWars premiered in 1998 on WON.net, Sierra's now defunct online game service, and when WON was purchased by the Flipside network and was merged into their casual game service, Randy Chase, the developer, decided to keep it going, running it himself. The game's enthusiastic fans followed him off the service, and have kept it going ever since. Now in version 3.0, it's been iterartively developed over the years until it now contains a veritable wealth of different 'spirits' and maps, and has become a highly polished, smooth-playing game. This is, of course, one of the advantages of this kind of online game; it gets better with age and polish.

It's Delightful, It's De-Lovely, It's... Pretty Damn Strange

The Noks is about the weirdest game I've seen this year. I'm tempted to call it "indescribable," except we need to describe it, eh?

Partly, it's a game of collectibles. There are several hundred "Noks" in the world at present, and the developers plan to add more over time. You can think of Noks as something like, say, Magic: The Gathering cards, except that they aren't cards. They're animated 3D avatars with backstories. Some of them sing songs or perform music. And most have something to tell you about the game itself, or the backstory of the Noks universe. To understand that universe, you'll need to collect--well maybe not "them all," but lots of them.

Quick Soloplay TCG

Most conventional computer or video games are designed to keep you playing and hooked for long hours at a time.

Some of our games take a different approach: They're designed to give you a complete, satisfying gameplay experience in a half hour or less. Strange Adventures in Infinite Space is one. Voyager is another.

The first time you play Voyager, you may wonder what the game is about, because you'll click through a few encounters, maybe play a mini-game or two, lose miserably, and wonder why anyone should care. That's the nature of games like this; sometimes you're just screwed by the luck of the draw, but its no big deal, because all you do is start the next game.

And then, you'll become involved in a Magic: The Gathering-like card-game duel, and find yourself at the edge of your seat as you try to play your cards optimally and figure out to win... and realize what this game really has to offer.