A few days ago, Dominion Donald X. Vaccarino [Free] hit the App Store, and since then I've been trying to verify the validity of this port. It seemed pretty shady, and the developer's web site sure didn't help things. After some additional digging, I came across a post by Rio Grande Games' Jay Tummelson over on BoardGameGeek. It turns out that over the years they've given their blessing to a number of developers to release iOS versions of Dominion, provided they agree to remove it once the official version hits the App Store.

What's more interesting though, is that the official licensed version, per this same forum post, is only "a few weeks" away. Even more curious though is that Chillingo currently has a game titled Dominion [$1.99] on the App Store as well. We'll just have to wait and see how the dust settles on all of this. If you're interested in Dominion, I'd snag the free version out now, and if you own Chillingo's Dominion it might not be a bad idea to back up the .ipa just in case there's any hijinks with take-down requests by Rio Grande Games so they can score the "Dominion" title on the App Store.

I hope Rio Grande is serious about this "few weeks" thing, as an official version of Dominion has potential to be awesome.

Not familiar with Ascension? We got your back. Earlier this summer, we reviewed the game and, obviously, explored its fundamentals. Here's an excerpt:

The actual game of Ascension is a somewhat refreshing spin on fantasy-based card games in that instead of building a specific deck that you use in battles, you're building your deck on the fly from game to game. Players start the game with identical basic decks of ten cards consisting of two militia cards which provide the "power" resource and eight apprentice cards which provide the "rune" resource. Using power and runes you're able to interact with a common pool of cards to either acquire new cards for your deck or defeat monster cards. Most actions you do in the game award different amounts of victory points, and at the end of the game, the player with the most victory points wins.

You gotta love it when a sharp game sees the injection of a bunch of new content -- and for a fair price. This expansion is $2.99, so grab it when you can.

That's not to say it's without its problems -- Ubisoft has been chasing down some big-time bugs since the game was released -- but Assassin's Creed Recollection is more than just another coat of paint on the traditional CCG. It takes the formula real time, pitting you and your opponent against the clock as well as each other.

Once you get past the game's peculiar jargon (cards are Memories, decks are Sequences, creatures are Agents, mana is Gold -- it's all very Assassin's Creed), you'll find a CCG with several creative tweaks. Turns are gone, period. Instead, everything is measured by day. You get one new card in your hand each day, and summoning agents takes half a day. You and your opponent do everything simultaneously, something that would get messy in your average CCG but is handled elegantly here.

You see, you aren't playing directly against your opponent, who has no health or tokens to speak of. You're sending your agents out to campaign in regions that dominate the play field. To win, you need to control the majority of those regions at the same time. If one of your agents finishes a campaign in a region without being opposed, you earn that agent's attack power in points. Ten points and you control the region. So off you go, slapping down agents, throwing them in front of your opponent's agents and claiming regions until one of you is victorious.

There's quite a bit more to it -- you can place Sites on each region that earn points every day, and you can also throw down Actions, which are used to interrupt enemies or boost your own cards. And you have to control your income, the amount of gold you earn each day, because every card has a cost and most of those costs are steep. It's a bit complex, but Assassin's Creed Recollections does a great job of walking you through the basics with a thorough tutorial.

Unfortunately, you come out the other side of that tutorial and slam directly into a wall. The first real mission in the single-player campaign pulls exactly no punches, and your default deck is more than a little lackluster. So, in a move that should come as no surprise to CCG players, you'll probably need to buy some boosters.

To Ubisoft's credit, they don't start you off with a paywall. You'll have quite a few credits by the time you emerge from the tutorial, enough to buy quite a few packs if you're thrifty. They don't do such a good job of explaining the difference between the inexpensive Templar packs and the rather pricey Assassin's packs. As it turns out, they give cards from separate pools, and the Assassin's cards are not so much stronger as they are targeted to advanced play styles. So go for the Templar packs at first.

The cards you'll receive from these booster packs are sure to delight any Assassin's Creed fan. They, and the game's story, are largely pulled from Assassin's Creed 2, and they feature plenty of familiar faces. The cards cover everyone from Rosa the thief to Rodrigo Borgia and every Assassin, Templar, courtesan and scholar between. They're separated into factions, and while each of your decks can only contain two factions and the unaffiliated gold cards, you'll collect plenty of each in your booster purchases. You can't currently complete your collection with single-card purchases, but the upcoming Auction House sounds like it will address that problem.

The single-player campaign, which has you winding your way through fair Italia as an inexperienced Templar, will take skilled players a couple hours, and CCG newbies a fair bit more. It has limited replayability since you can't continuously earn extra credits or experience by replaying old missions. At that point, if not before, you'll need to move into multiplayer, where you can stomp friends and strangers alike.

Overall, I'm more than satisfied with the core game. The rest of the trappings are a bit less impressive. The out-of-game interface is governed by a confusing mix of swipes and taps, which is compounded by a lack of responsiveness in certain menus. Miss the fact that you can access the menu at any point by swiping down with two fingers (mentioned once and otherwise never indicated) and you may end up wondering why there's no way to pause or forfeit a match. There are Game Center achievements, several of them, specifically for buying credits with IAP.

More damningly, there seem to be issues with the purchase of booster packs. If the Ubisoft servers are down when you buy a booster, you may not be able to open it until they're back up. According to some folks in our discussion thread, this may sometimes result in lost cards, though we haven't been able to confirm the problem. I'm sure the server check-in cuts down on cheating, but it also cuts down on players' ability to access the content they've purchased. Add to that a crash bug effecting existing players that was introduced in the current patch and I grow wary of recommending this game before these issues are ironed out, though a just-released patch looks to address some of this. Also, the game is currently on sale for 99¢, which might make it a worthwhile deal for putting up with some bumps in the road during post-release updating.

If you're a CCG lover who also happens to be a fan of Assassin's Creed, though, Recollection really is worth a look. It doesn't add much to the mythos, but it makes great use of the IP. As a bonus, the short film Embers is included, along with a gallery of concept art for Uplay users. But Assassin's Creed Recollection isn't just for fanboys -- it's a genuinely engaging card game with a surprising depth of strategy. Hopefully Ubisoft will be prompt in fixing the bugs, but the core game is intact in the meantime. Just go easy on the IAP.

Developed by Finnish Kyy Games, Cabals has all the necessary hallmarks of the genre: exceptional artwork, warring factions, creatures to summon, resources to manage, booster packs - you name it, they've got it.

The world of Cabals: The Card Game is a familiar one. It's our own, after all. The key players here are the Cabals, secret societies comprised of witches and steam punk magicians, of Russians and alchemists and faerie pigs. As is often the case with anything eldritch in nature, these Cabals don't get along too well. This, obviously enough, is where you come in. You're one of the vanguards and you will fight for the glory of your faction. Or something like that.

One thing I really liked about Kyy Games' new title is the exceedingly robust cross-platform online gameplay that it provides. I know, I know. This isn't anything new, per se. We've had cross-platform games for ages. But bear with me. Most games have limitations. With Cabals, things are a little different. Not only will you be able to take on players on the iOS platform, you'll also be able to challenge everyone from Mac Users to Android-wielding associates. In short, if it runs Unity, it will run Cabals and it will run it beautifully. (Facebook and Windows 7 versions are apparently in the works too.)

So, we've got kick-ass online services and a delightful urban-fantasy setting checked. What else has Kyy Games brought to the table? A lot, I would say. Cabals: The Card Game is a somewhat nontraditional take on the idea. More a TCG/board game hybrid than anything else, Cabals will not have you safely seated on your side of the metaphorical table as you work on whittling your opponent's health down to zero. No, sir. Things are much different here.

In Cabals, you're going to have to either storm the Stronghold (it's usually the tile furthest away from your own and marked with a little castle-like symbol) or acquire 60 Domination points (this usually entails conquering approximately sixty tiles) in order to win. Your choice. Just be forewarned - it's not as easy as it sounds. Units can only be brought into play through your Stronghold or a 'deployment location' that you control. Does that mean you should rush towards those hot spots? Not really. It depends on your playstyle. Can you afford risking the possibility of being flanked? Can you control your opponent's wanton expansion in the mean time? What about your Stronghold? Do you worry about it or do you charge for the other guy's Stronghold first?

But before you get into all of that, you had better damn well make sure you have enough resources at your disposal first. Do you finance spells or units? Do you go for quality or quantity? And if that wasn't enough to worry about, you're also going to have to take positioning into account as it is far too easy to maneuver yourself into a corner should you be careless.

As for the rest of it, it's all pretty straightforward. Movement is accomplished by dragging and dropping a unit onto an adjacent square. Combat is performed when two units are within range (and by dragging and dropping one onto another). Damage is determined by the power that a unit has and occasionally by certain special attributes. Spells work pretty much the same way as units - their individual effects can be found on the cards themselves.

Sometimes, a laborious dance worthy of the grandmasters of chess and sometimes, a mad rush for control, Cabals is easy to grasp and surprisingly deep for something that can, at times, feel like a distilled version of the genre. It currently operates on a freemium model so you're going to have to spend some real world cash to purchase more cards. Fortunately, you won't get assaulted by constant demands to spend money so that's always a plus. As an added bonus, the amount of influence points (which is their name for in-game currency) that you receive when you register yourself is actually fairly hefty so chances are, if you're going to make this a casual experience, you'll probably never find yourself reaching for your wallet.

Apple just pulled Texas Hold'em from the App Store, which was the only game they ever released for iOS devices. If you've got a copy of the .ipa laying around, it's probably a good idea to back it up somewhere if you at all care about keeping it. If you're into reading tea leaves with every minor move Apple makes, this could signal them withdrawing entirely from first-party iOS game development. Although, you could really argue that they've already been withdrawn anyway.

If you're curious what Texas Hold'em was all about, Apple's web site for the game is still online, although don't expect it to be there for long.

Assassin's Creed

IGN recently got their hands on with Assassin's Creed Recollection and are reporting that it features several mechanics from other collectible card games, but fiddles with pacing by introducing a "looping timeline" as seen in, say, Lumines. Cards apparently have the power to attack players or seize a territory, so that's how the action part of the game works, at least.

Ubisoft is still tossing out phrases like "deep tactical gameplay" and "challenging political battles" in regards to what Recollection will offers, but we're not sure how it's going to execute on these promises. We'd look to the new trailer to see what's up, but Ubisoft is still in full-blast mystery mode for its November-bound game.

Regardless of the lack of intel, this continues to be something our all-seeing eye is keyed in on. Assassin's Creed fans should definitely stay with Recollections, too, as it'll deliver collectible assets from all the games, as well as reconnect you with characters and "memories" from Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed 2.

[Via IGN]

Poker Pals is not a regular poker game. There's no chips in the middle of the table, no antes and no calling, raising or bluffing. This is actually poker redesigned as a board-game and it resembles a mixture of poker and Scrabble, which works really well. It's reminiscent of Sword and Poker 2 [$3.99 / Free], which also presented poker as a board-game, but included RPG elements.

The idea is to lay down poker hands, like a three-of-a-kind, straight, flush, etc. But as in Scrabble, you can only play your cards if they interconnect with one or more existing card(s) on the board. In Scrabble, if your tiles form two new words, you score points for them both, and Poker Pals works in the same way. So when you slam down a full-house, you might also intersect with existing cards, forming a pair and a straight at the same time, scoring combo-points for all three, which is super satisfying.

The points range from a lowly pair (10 points) to a royal flush (90 points), plus a 10-point bonus for each card you placed. Although a pair of threes scores the same as a pair of kings, as it's based on the hand type, not the face value. Anything less than a pair doesn't score. It would be even better if the face value of cards was taken into account when scoring, as occurs in real poker.

In the four corners of the board, there are wildcard jokers. If you place your cards against these, the joker defaults to the most valuable card for your current hand. For example, if you have two aces it might become an ace, giving you a three of a kind. The game continues until the 7x7 play-field is fully populated with cards, at which point the highest scoring player wins. And the games are often close and exciting.

The game modes include single player (against the computer AI, with 3 difficulty levels), online multiplayer, which includes an option to play a random online opponent. There's also a "pass and play" option for sharing the device with your family at home, although you should probably let them complete the in-game tutorial first.

The free lite version contains all of the game modes, but you're limited to three simultaneous games in progress. If a fourth person invites you to play, they must wait for one of your three active games to end. However, once upgraded, you can play unlimited simultaneous games as well as freeing yourself of in-game ads and unlocking a higher single-player difficulty level.

Leaderboards and achievements are handled by Crystal, with Game Center also storing the achievements, except a bug is currently stopping the Game Center achievements from appearing correctly. Overall I've been having a fantastic time with Poker Pals, I just wish it were a little less cumbersome to switch between existing games and it really needs in-game chat functionality.

Poker Pals delivers a fun interpretation of poker, with desirable asynchronous play and random match-ups for people without many online friends. It has a high replay value and should come with a warning about time-consumtion, due to the constant, but pleasurable interruptions when it's your turn. After trying the free version initially, upgrading to remove the ads was an absolute no-brainer.

The Machine gods behind Google Translate aren't helping us at the moment, but it appears as though the nitty-gritty given at the event begin and end at the genre and the fact that it’ll boast over 50 cards -- a feature that means nothing to us at the moment because the game mechanic hasn’t been shown. Interestingly, Dengeki mentions that Demon’s Score will utilize Unreal Engine 3, so there’s that.

On the off-chance that Square shows off Demon’s Score at the show, we’ll be sure to update this and throw in some footage. As for now, we only have a singular image for you to gawk at. Eyes up, sirs.

[Via Dengeki, Pocket Gamer]

The online mode you’ll see just below is pretty simple. In 100 second timed rounds, you and your bud are tasked with spelling as many words as you can out of an endless set of tiles. As more words are forged, the tiles are removed and the highest score wins.

The other modes are basic solitaire modes designed for challenge as well as learning. In one, you’ll be given 200 titles and an infinite amount of time to come to grips with the game’s mechanic. In another, you’ll get 200 tiles and the aforementioned timer. The last mode is an infinite mode in which you can juice the game for more time after using every fourth letter.

We’re just now getting this into our hands, and will report back to you. If you have faith in Devine like we do, though, this seems like a no-brainer.

The same goes for the ads, which were essentially links to other Gameloft titles. As of this upcoming update, they’ll be removed from the main menu and the loading screen, which were the two places they appeared in the first place.

As for the IAP cards… well, apparently there’s been a misunderstanding on the user end, as you can disable bonus cards before every match. We’ve also been told that the game doesn’t allow you to use bonus cards that other players don’t have access to, which makes a lot of sense from a competitive design standpoint, but has us scratching our heads over the reviews that game has been seeing post-multiplayer update.

As for an ETA on the fixes, we don’t have one yet. We’ve touched base about that and I’d imagine we’ll be able to get that to you at some point in the near future.

Alongside multiplayer and new leaderboards, several new issues introduced via the update are rubbing people the wrong way, and none more than the bug that keeps the game from launching after its updated, which is a pretty rational reason to throw a bad review the game’s way. Unfortunately, when it does work, paid users are now being served ads, which again, is a pretty rational reason to drag the title under the bus since ads weren’t a part of the original deal.

Users are also complaining about IAP cards leading to bad play. Apparently, you can purchase special cards in the game that can be pulled out whenever, including even in multiplayer. If this is the case, well, wow — that’s definitely not good.

On the bright side, it’s hard to believe that Gameloft won’t answer these concerns in some meaningful update down the line. When that’ll be though is anyone’s guess. We've put in a word to the publisher to see and will update if / when we hear back.

You won’t find a multitude of different types of Solitaire in this title. Rather, Solitaire by Backflip only has 1 and 3-card draw. In addition, you can either play with ‘Normal’ or ‘Vegas’ rules (the latter only allowing you to run through the whole deck only once before the game ends). Solitaire also has four different themes, two of which must be unlocked by collecting a certain amount of in-game coins that are earned by making successful card moves and completing a whole game. While the coin amounts for unlocking the themes did seem high, by my calculation you’d have to win approximately 10 games on normal rules in order to earn enough coins for a theme unlock, which seems fair enough to me. Of course, additional coins are available as IAP should you decide you don’t want to play the game.

In addition to unlocking themes, players can use the coins earned while playing Solitaire to unlock a wide variety of ‘prizes.’ The prizes earned are little more than random items from Backflip’s various other games and don’t affect the gameplay in Solitaire at all.  If you’re a fan of Backflip Studio’s other iOS titles, some of the objects you can buy may actually have some meaning for you. If not, at least there are plenty of items to work towards for the collectionists out there.

If unlocking themes and collection items isn’t your fancy, Solitaire by Backflip also allows you to spend coins on a variety of cheats to help in your quest for card-playing domination. Cheats range from taking a peek at the next card in the deck, to being able to move any stack to an empty space on the field. Personally, I don’t understand why anyone would want to cheat at a game of Solitaire, but it certainly does offer some diversity to the playing field.

The only glaring issue I have with Solitaire by Backflip is the frequency of ads throughout the game. Banner ads adorn the gameplay screen and the main menu, with an occasional full screen ad as well. It’s not so much that the ads necessarily detract from the actual gameplay, but just that the majority of them look ugly and out of place when contrasted with the crisp retina-display graphics of the actual game. Thankfully, an IAP exists to eliminate all ads.

It’s pretty obvious that Backflip Studios positioned Solitaire as a sort of free gateway to the rest of their titles. However, if you look past this, you’ll discover a game with well-done visuals and a system in place that at least keeps you coming back. The ad placement (and quality) definitely serves as distraction to the rest of the game, but they can easily be removed if you decide it’s worth playing for the long haul. Just don’t go into Solitaire expecting it to be anything more than it is, and you should have a decent time.

For those who aren't on the latest, greatest hardware, it also has nearly everything else you could ask for in a Hold'em app: sixteen AI players to compete against, up to four-player multiplayer through Game Center, eight tables with a range of buy-ins and a lot more. There are some rough spots in the interface, but the core experience is great.

The video functionality is awesome. I haven't played a game that makes this kind of use of the iPad 2's front-facing camera before, and I'm impressed with how well it works. The video quality is limited by the hardware, of course, but it's more than sufficient for keeping an eye on your opponents and chatting freely. Since this review was written before release we only had the chance to test it with two players, which worked without a hitch, but the game supports it for up to four players, which sounds super cool. The experience is like playing face to face with friends, and it makes things so much more fun. On the other hand, if being on camera sounds like the worst thing ever, the game offers granular control for who you want to see and who's allowed to see you -- if anyone.

If you'd prefer to go solo, you'll be happy to know that there's a great mix of AI opponents in the game. According to GRL Games, each of the opponents has a unique personality, and they also model their behavior from your play style to improve over time. It's a bit hard to actually see the nuances of that at work, but I can say from experience that the different AI players feel distinct from each other, and they're all fairly convincing. They won't play stupidly, but some play more aggressively than others, and some like to bluff when they can. Most of them are quite cautious, though, and tend to fold on a dime. Still, while it can't replace the intensity of playing with other people, the AI certainly puts up a good fight.

For players who find the game a bit too challenging, there are plenty of opportunities to keep from busting out. The game will bail you out if you run too low, and each day you can take a spin on the slot machine for a chance at bonus winnings to keep the cash flowing. If you need a big influx of cash because you want to hit one of the higher-end tables, you can also buy chips with real money. If you're good for cash but need a little assistance in taking down the AI, Full Deck Hold'Em offers free, sponsored powerups that let you stack the odds just a tiny bit in your favor.

Though the game starts you off with a $200 buy in and $10 bet limits, you can work your way up to no limits tables and eventually a $20 million buy in for the big spenders. You can also rank on the Biggest Hand leaderboard and collect Game Center achievements for beating the AI, winning with specific hands and winning or losing big. It's enough to keep the biggest Hold'em fans busy for a long time.

Early on, however, don't be surprised if you have some trouble with the game's interface. It's largely lacking the little considerations that help players orient themselves. A more obvious turn indicator would be nice, for instance, and with such a big screen to play with, it's strange that the betting controls are jammed into the lower right corner. It would also be nice to be able to see how much you're betting, even in limit games -- especially since new players may not immediately understand how betting differs when there are limits. There's a lot going on in Full Deck Hold'Em, and a little hand holding really wouldn't hurt.

But those things are fixable, and according to the developer we should see improvements to the interface in the first update. The big stuff is all in place, with AI that's up to a challenge and online multiplayer that's made even better with video chat. If you have even a basic understanding of how to play Texas Hold'em, you won't have any trouble digging deep into Full Deck Hold'Em -- and if you don't, I'm sure the sharks kind people in our discussion thread will be happy to help you out.

Hilariously, its super elaborate in the visual department. As you’ll see, you can drop in pictures for your pals, and watch the action unfold on a virtual table. I’d imagine you’ll see a good bit of promotional content, too, if that lower right-hand corner is indicative of future plans.

Just thought I’d point this out to you if you’re into Poker. I’d imagine that a lot of App Store hounds are, so this should gain a lot steam.

Tomorrow, the Full Deck family of card games will get its third entry: Full Deck Hold'Em. We've had our hands on an early copy of the game, and aside from being an all-around awesome iPad-powered poker experience, the iPad 2 video chat functionality is just awesome. You can see a glimpse of how it works in the following video:

We'll have a full review of the game when it's released tomorrow night, but in the meantime, I hope the video chat implementation in Full Deck Hold'Em spurs similar integration in other online games. It makes playing with friends so much more fun, compared to say, just taking your turn in Words With Friends where there's little to no interaction beyond just dropping some tiles on the board.