With everything around the world in quarantine, home entertainment is an essential tool to keep sane and keep the cabin fever away. Who wouldn’t want to catch up on series and gaming backlogs with all the time we now have?
Unfortunately, as with most upcoming products today, the entertainment industry is falling under a wave of postponements and cancellations. We aren’t getting some of our expected shows and games on time.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, gaming market research firm DFC Intelligence is predicting a delay in the previously planned launch in a new report. If either console still launches this year, the firm expects a constraint in initial supply. Either way, don’t expect to hold a new home console this year.
Both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X are set to revolutionize the gaming industry, pushing the sector beyond its current limits. Both consoles will come with 8K resolution support, ray tracing, and SSD storage. Unfortunately, we’ll likely have to wait longer for either console.
With the world at a standstill, home entertainment is getting a temporary boost in sales and popularity. In the gaming world, the Nintendo Switch has blazed through households across the world, especially following the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Sensing the opportunity, Nintendo has revealed more upcoming blockbuster titles when gamers finally tire of their deserted islands.
In a surprise Nintendo Direct presentation today, Nintendo has announced Switch ports for various games on other consoles.
In particular, a good chunk of the new titles comes from 2K Games. On May 29, 2K Games will release Switch ports for Bioshock: The Collection, the Borderlands Legendary Collection, and the XCOM 2 Collection. Prior to the announcement, 2K has already made a mark by bringing its popular NBA 2K series to the console. With the new titles, all we’re missing is Borderlands 3.
Additionally, Nintendo has announced other titles coming later this year. Burnout Paradise Remastered, a fairly recent remaster of the classic racing game, will launch sometime this year. Catherine: Full Body, a former exclusive to Sony, will launch on July 7. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition will launch on May 29.
Finally, a couple of classic Star Wars games are finally getting Switch ports. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is available already on the Switch store. Meanwhile, Star Wars Episode I: Racer will launch sometime this year.
Besides the new ports, Nintendo has launch a new exclusive game called Good Job! The puzzle game takes players to a virtual office, solving puzzles as you climb the corporate ladder. If you miss your office already, this might be the perfect game for you. The game is already available now.
Rounding out this massive launch event, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is releasing a new fighter this June: the fighters from Arms.
The Madrid Police in Spain arrested a 77-year-old for roaming in the city. Why was he out on the streets? He wanted to catch all the Pokémons because there are no competing players around. This would have been okay at any other time but we’re all currently dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic.
Risking your life for a virtual game is not only foolish but also ignorant. Global casualty count stands at more than 21,000 and we’ll be reaching half-a-million infected victims in the next 24 hours.
It’s understandable that you’re frustrated being home all the time due to a city-wide lockdown or recommendation from authorities to practice quarantine. Humans are social animals and social distancing is something we’re just not accustomed to. We’ve already recommended some premium games like Alto’s Adventure that are free-to-play now.
However, we urge our readers to refrain from playing games that require you to go outdoors. A classic example would be Pokémon Go. The popular game is known for its sensational launch a couple of years ago and some fans are still stuck to it like adhesive glue. And, I understand the craze and love for the game.
Stay indoors
In times like these, nobody should be venturing out, unless it’s absolutely necessary. Necessary here means grocery and medicine runs. It doesn’t mean you wander the streets to catch a rare Pokemon. You may be successful in catching the Pokemon, but there are fair chances Coronavirus will also excel in infecting you.
Every day we’re covering at least a handful of articles that are at the intersection of technology and Coronavirus pandemic. The virus has spread across the globe and authorities are scrambling to educate people about its risks. Engineers are working round the clock to create awareness websites, chatbots, and even using AI to detect the disease with ease.
It’s the perfect time to disconnect. Maybe it isn’t because you want to; maybe it’s having an unreliable connection, hiding from work-from-home tasks, or you’re just about done with the internet for a while. Whatever it is, we all need a little dissociation from the hell the world has recently let loose.
Here are 10 free-to-play mobile games to hopefully help you get through this rough patch.
In Cover Fire, you lead a squad through sieged cities, deserts, and fields. You get prompted missions and encounter (surprise, surprise) enemies. Fundamental mechanics are to cover and fire which earns this game a slow clap for making it the name of the game. See what I did there. The game manages to maintain simple mechanics and controls while keeping some of the fun from playing an online FPS (first-person shooter). For people who like playing Call of Duty Mobile but don’t have a stable connection, fear not! This is a really good game that scratches the itch.
Adorable Home is a cute passive simulation mobile game developed by HyperBeard. The game seems to be a tip of the hat to Neko Atsume by Hit-Point Co., Ltd. with cats being the surrounding theme. Adorable Home lives up to its name quite literally with cute creatures visiting your lovely home at random hours of the day; bento boxes for your partner prepped and ready, and of course, your lovely cats! You can decorate your home, prep bento boxes, and play with your cats. Enjoy the calm and passive play.
Dadish is a dad and a radish. His kids have gone missing from his vegetable patch and he’s off to rescue them. You’ll be exploring a quirky world while facing off fast-food foes on your way. This mobile platformer is heavy on the nostalgia with it’s charming pixel design and snarky humor. But out of everything, you’ll be humming away with arguably one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard from a mobile game. Don’t let that fool you though. Stages can get tough to go through which makes this a potentially good mobile game to add for speed runs.
Ever dreamed of settling down to the countryside? Well, you’re in luck. Tsuki Adventure is a relaxing, story-based game filled with charming and adorable animals. You can check in on Tsuki throughout the day, collect and harvest items, and visit locations around the country. This game has stunning design and you’ll need to see it to believe it. The game is charming in how laid back it is while maintaining a good amount of interaction. The one thing that makes this game strikingly good is its storytelling. Every moment in this game is beautiful: from the stunning view, to the stories behind each new friend.
This game will steal your heart away. If you’re looking for another Diner Dash game on mobile, you’ll like this one — but not for the reasons you’ll expect. Hungry Hearts Diner: A Tale of Star-Crossed Souls is such a wonderfully gentle game of a grandmother who keeps cooking for the people who come to her restaurant. You can talk to your customers and have a deeper connection with each customer as they drop by. The soundtrack against the stunning graphics makes this game lovely. You should really give it a go.
Kingdom Rush is a tower defense game developed by Ironhide Game Studio and published by Armor Games. I know this is me being obscenely late to the party, this was first released as a free flash browser game in 2011. The game has since been adapted for both mobile and Steam and has various iterations available. I’ll be straight with you, I’m not a fan of tower defesce games. But there’s something extremely compelling about Kingdom Rush, whether it’s cute art, the Candy Crush style story mode or just the mass of enemies that want to murder you. Either way, I almost didn’t finish this article from playing this game too much.
My Home — Design Dreams is a design simulation game with a twist of a match-three puzzle game. From a flat to a mansion, you can design and decorate everything the way you want. Since staying indoors and needing to reduce all human contact, I was weirdly in the mood for some interior designing. Since that’s impossible to currently achieve. I gave this one a go. It’s a really good game that incentivizes the its match-three puzzle mechanics. If you’re into designing your own home, you’ll have fun playing this one.
If you want a game that’s adorably challenging, I might have the game for you: Cat Bird. It’s a title developed by Rayumi Adventure, an independent studio headed by Ryan Carag. If you like pixel art, you might want to check other titles from the same studio because they’ve developed similarly designed games. This game is fun, adorable, and strangely unsettling when you find out in my review what I sat through.
It’s been out for years and, it’s here for a reason. We can’t just drop the classics on this list. Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play game that let’s you control and build your very own underground vault. It let’s you oversee a thriving community, building it one room at a time. You can explore the wasteland beyond your vault, and protect your inhabitants from incoming dangers from both outside and in. This is the kind of game that you’ll keep coming back to, probably because you’ve just remembered your starving inhabitants. Good for fans of the Fallout series, or if you’re yearning to build your own colony of vault dwellers.
It wouldn’t be fair to drop the classics on this list. If you were playing Tap Tap Revenge when it was released around the early 2000s, Magic Tiles 3 isn’t a far cry. Magic Tiles 3 is a popular piano game that has you tap on black tiles before they reach the bottom of the screen. The game will seem simple at first but, once you get into the groove, it’ll get addictively difficult. Magic Tiles 3 has various quests that let you unlock more songs to try out and play. It even has a battle mode to compete against your friends and other players when you’re online. If you can, download as many songs as you can when you can.
I tried to add as many offline free-to-play mobile games under different genres as I could. Hopefully, you get to find the game to fill your time with something fun on this list. Not everyone has access to stable and reliable connection. Even then, not everyone wants to stay taped to the internet day in and out. So, if you have a good offline free-to-play mobile game to add, let us know!
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