Twilight Struggle Digital
Since we like to encourage more board face-to-face interactions, we normally do not highlight or write much about digital version of boardgames (be it iPad or online). However recently GMT has announced it’s digital Windows PC (only) edition of it’s hugely popular game (and currently No. 1 in BGG) TWILIGHT STRUGGLE is ready to ship and that piqued my interest.

What’s GMT P500 and how does it work?

Game Features of the Digital Edition (from GMT’s website):

• This is a computer game for Windows PC that faithfully recreates the Twilight Struggle boardgame. All of the cards, rules, and gameplay options are included. Winning strategies for the boardgame will work just as well here (well, except for those times when the AI is truly evil!)
• The game allows for both solo play against a computer AI as well as Internet Play versus a live opponent.
• You can Save and Resume games in progress.
• The User Interface is designed with an auto zoom feature that allows you to use the mousewheel to quickly pan and precisely zoom in to an area of interest or back out to see the big picture.
• The game’s operations system is visual and easy to use, allowing card play to be allocated and completed with only mouseclicks –  to choose the card, how to use the card, and the location(s) you want to use the card.
• Adding and subtracting Influence is accomplished quickly and easily by clicking the top or bottom of the number area in each country.
• Current region scores can be inspected by hovering the mouse over region score areas.
• Countries eligible for influence placement, coup and realignment are highlighted when selecting the respective options, but before a decision is made
• Card Effects, blocked events, discards, removed cards, early/mid/late war cards can all be viewed at any time.
• A card tray provides an easy summary of held cards, including their Ops value, faction and event playability.
• Real-time chat window for PvP play.
• Map automatically zooms to affected countries during play.
• Game play options include use of Optional cards, Tournament Play, and Chinese Civil War.

This game will be available only via Digital Download, and only direct from the GMT website.  The game will not be sold through any third parties or other online distribution networks. So if you are looking to get this, pls order direct thru this GMT page (link here). It’s currently on-sale at USD30 (retail USD49).

Minimum System Requirements:

• Operating System: Windows XP SP3/ Windows Vista SP2/ Windows 7 (silent on Windows 8 compatibility, best you check first if you are on Win8)
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 150MB Free

But if you still prefer the tactile feeling of playing with the board version of TWILIGHT STRUGGLE, you can still get a copy from our webstore (below). J

Links

• GMT Twilight Struggle Digital
• Boardgamegeek Twilight Struggle
• Boardgamecafe.net Discussion on Twilight Struggle Digital
• Buy from Boardgamecafe Webstore – Twilight Struggle

IOS Battle of the Bulge
A good gamer buddy of mine, ayheng has also introduced me to what he called the future of wargames, Shenandoah Studio’s Battle of the Bulge on the IOS platform.

He’s already actively playing this game and if you are game to get an opponent, search for him on his Apple ID: ayheng @ Gmail. I’ll hope to write about this game once I’ve had the time to dive into it. J

Meantime check out some of the links for the Battle of the Bulge, and do join our discussion here
http://community.boardgamecafe.net/index.php?/topic/4221-ios-battle-of-the-bulge/

For your info, Shenandoah is now offering a free lite version of this game, and selling the paid game at promo price of USD6.99. There’s no better time than now!

Links

• Shenandoah Studio’s Blog
• Get Battle of the Bulge on iTunes