Skip to main content

Game of the Week: Quarrel

"Wouldn't you prefer a good game of chess?"

Long before there was an internet, people were playing chess with each other through the mail. Long before a bunch of MIT hackers made two spaceships move around an oscilloscope screen hooked up to a PDP-1 mainframe, we were gathering around kitchen tables to play games with and against each other on boards or bits of paper. Without these antecedents, video games wouldn't exist in any recognisable form.

It's what games are. In 1962, after getting one spaceship working on that PDP-1, the first thing Steve Russell and co. added to Spacewar was a second player. Even such highly evolved concepts as massively multiplayer online worlds have existed since the Multi User Dungeons of the mid-seventies. And yet, weirdly, connected multiplayer gaming still feels like it's in its infancy.

There are so many game types and play-styles that are underused or virtually unexplored. Meanwhile, publishers desperate to add value and fend off a rapacious pre-owned market are crowbarring online modes into every property they have, regardless of suitability, and causing all kinds of growing pains.

This week, I've been really enjoying Hero Academy on iPhone. As Chris pointed out in our Hero Academy review, this turn-based tactical battler is something of a work in progress, but it already stands out from the crowd for a simple reason. It melds a gamer's game type with a method of delivery popularised by casual and social games like Words With Friends (a game whose online implementation was so brilliant that it took Scrabble's market and walked away with it, right under the brand's nose).

We really need a better word for this play-style than "asynchronous": it's multiplayer gaming where you'll have several matches on the go at any one time, and can take your turns when you feel like it. We need it because we're going to be using whatever that word is an awful lot from now on.

Hero Academy: Let's get asynchronised, baby.

This style of play has always been hovering around in the background of video gaming - most recently in the fantastic tactical PC game Frozen Synapse and the intriguing vision of social racing in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. But the ubiquity of smartphones, the perfect match of their form with these games' function, and the ease of connecting with friends through social networks, now puts this type of play right back in the same context it inhabited in the chess-by-mail days. You use regular communication tools to play, you play at your own convenience, and you do it as a way of staying in touch.

In this context, playing games with others is a seamless part of daily life. So much so that it's been possible to release Hero Academy without even including the option to play it on your own against the computer, unthinkable for most strategy games. It's going to be really exciting to see how this new/old way to play can revive old genres and spread the gospel of player-versus-player.

Meanwhile, this week's major boxed release, Resident Evil: Revelations on 3DS, has a relatively elegant solution to adding multiplayer fun to a traditionally single-player thrill. Co-op has been the obvious answer for some time now, but the various Horde rip-offs and bespoke scenarios still end up feeling like vestigial limbs for die-hard solo gamers. Revelations' Raid mode smartly focuses on tried-and-true hooks that work equally well in single- or multiplayer: score-attack, levelling, loot. It might still sully the fiction a bit, but there's no doubt that everyone buying this game is getting a good deal extra bang for their buck, however they want to play it.

Indeed, for our reviewer Rich Stanton, Raid was enough to elevate a lukewarm entry in the series to a solid recommendation. "The challenge and persistence, along with the ability to take in whatever tools you need from a soon-burgeoning inventory, make Raid a worthy replacement for [Mercenaries], one of the best bonus modes in gaming," Rich wrote in our Resident Evil: Revelations review.

"Resident Evil: Revelations is gorgeous, huge, and offers the most fully-featured online co-op experience on 3DS. The single-player isn't quite the survival horror comeback Capcom promised but, with its brilliant take on score attack, Raid mode ensures Revelations delivers at least once on its title."

Raid is a multiplayer extension we weren't really looking for, but were glad to find. Our game of the week, however, presented a mode we'd been waiting for for months.

Quarrel

In contrast to Hero Academy, Denki's ingenious mix of tactical board game and quick-draw anagram-off appeared on phones last year in single-player form only, despite the design begging for a competitive mode. A canny implementation of computer opponents ensured it still shone, but it was a puzzling omission.

In fact, the mobile version of Quarrel was a port born of desperation. Denki had always intended the game for Xbox Live Arcade - but after years banging its fists fruitlessly on the door to Microsoft's walled garden, the Dundee outfit was driven onto a more open platform. As Wes reported last year, you can't get on XBLA without the support of a publisher or of Microsoft itself - and every publisher, Microsoft Studios presumably included, turned Quarrel down. Multiple times.

The result? The excellent Xbox 360 game you can download and play for the first time this week has been finished for two years.

"Quarrel is still the horribly compelling single-player game it's always been on mobiles, with an extra dollop of polish and a few new tantalising game modes for the console release - and all for the laughable sum of 400 Microsoft Points," wrote John in our Xbox Quarrel review. "It's with the addition of ranked online multiplayer, though, that Quarrel's finally evolved into the sedentary StarCraft for the pipe-smoking gamer that it always promised to be."

Thank heavens publisher UTV Ignition eventually consented to rescue it from limbo. But how did it end up there? According to Denki's Colin Andersion, the most frequent excuse offered by reluctant publishers was: "People don't buy word games."

Tell that to social gaming giant Zynga, which liked Words With Friends' figures so much that it bought the developer, Newtoy, for $50 million. Not coincidentally, both Newtoy and Hero Academy creator Robot Entertainment are offshoots of the great strategy game studio Ensemble, of Age of Empires fame, which Microsoft shut down in 2009.

It seems we still have a lot to learn from those upstarts in social gaming - even if they learned it all from us in the first place.

Read this next

seductrice.net
universo-virtual.com
buytrendz.net
thisforall.net
benchpressgains.com
qthzb.com
mindhunter9.com
dwjqp1.com
secure-signup.net
ahaayy.com
tressesindia.com
puresybian.com
krpano-chs.com
cre8workshop.com
hdkino.org
peixun021.com
qz786.com
utahperformingartscenter.org
worldqrmconference.com
shangyuwh.com
eejssdfsdfdfjsd.com
playminecraftfreeonline.com
trekvietnamtour.com
your-business-articles.com
essaywritingservice10.com
hindusamaaj.com
joggingvideo.com
wandercoups.com
wormblaster.net
tongchengchuyange0004.com
internetknowing.com
breachurch.com
peachesnginburlesque.com
dataarchitectoo.com
clientfunnelformula.com
30pps.com
cherylroll.com
ks2252.com
prowp.net
webmanicura.com
sofietsshotel.com
facetorch.com
nylawyerreview.com
apapromotions.com
shareparelli.com
goeaglepointe.com
thegreenmanpubphuket.com
karotorossian.com
publicsensor.com
taiwandefence.com
epcsur.com
southstills.com
tvtv98.com
thewellington-hotel.com
bccaipiao.com
colectoresindustrialesgs.com
shenanddcg.com
capriartfilmfestival.com
replicabreitlingsale.com
thaiamarinnewtoncorner.com
gkmcww.com
mbnkbj.com
andrewbrennandesign.com
cod54.com
luobinzhang.com
faithfirst.net
zjyc28.com
tongchengjinyeyouyue0004.com
nhuan6.com
kftz5k.com
oldgardensflowers.com
lightupthefloor.com
bahamamamas-stjohns.com
ly2818.com
905onthebay.com
fonemenu.com
notanothermovie.com
ukrainehighclassescort.com
meincmagazine.com
av-5858.com
yallerdawg.com
donkeythemovie.com
corporatehospitalitygroup.com
boboyy88.com
miteinander-lernen.com
dannayconsulting.com
officialtomsshoesoutletstore.com
forsale-amoxil-amoxicillin.net
generictadalafil-canada.net
guitarlessonseastlondon.com
lesliesrestaurants.com
mattyno9.com
nri-homeloans.com
rtgvisas-qatar.com
salbutamolventolinonline.net
sportsinjuries.info
wedsna.com
rgkntk.com
bkkmarketplace.com
zxqcwx.com
breakupprogram.com
boxcardc.com
unblockyoutubeindonesia.com
fabulousbookmark.com
beat-the.com
guatemala-sailfishing-vacations-charters.com
magie-marketing.com
kingstonliteracy.com
guitaraffinity.com
eurelookinggoodapparel.com
howtolosecheekfat.net
marioncma.org
oliviadavismusic.com
shantelcampbellrealestate.com
shopleborn13.com
topindiafree.com
v-visitors.net
djjky.com
053hh.com
originbluei.com
baucishotel.com
33kkn.com
intrinsiqresearch.com
mariaescort-kiev.com
mymaguk.com
sponsored4u.com
crimsonclass.com
bataillenavale.com
searchtile.com
ze-stribrnych-struh.com
zenithalhype.com
modalpkv.com
bouisset-lafforgue.com
useupload.com
37r.net
autoankauf-muenster.com
bantinbongda.net
bilgius.com
brabustermagazine.com
indigrow.org
miicrosofts.net
mysmiletravel.com
selinasims.com
spellcubesapp.com
usa-faction.com
hypoallergenicdogsnames.com
dailyupdatez.com
foodphotographyreviews.com
cricutcom-setup.com
chprowebdesign.com
katyrealty-kanepa.com
tasramar.com
bilgipinari.org
four-am.com
indiarepublicday.com
inquick-enbooks.com
iracmpi.com
kakaschoenen.com
lsm99flash.com
nana1255.com
ngen-niagara.com
technwzs.com
virtualonlinecasino1345.com
wallpapertop.net
casino-natali.com
iprofit-internet.com
denochemexicana.com
eventhalfkg.com
medcon-taiwan.com
life-himawari.com
myriamshomes.com
nightmarevue.com
healthandfitnesslives.com
androidnews-jp.com
allstarsru.com
bestofthebuckeyestate.com
bestofthefirststate.com
bestwireless7.com
britsmile.com
declarationintermittent.com
findhereall.com
jingyou888.com
lsm99deal.com
lsm99galaxy.com
moozatech.com
nuagh.com
patliyo.com
philomenamagikz.net
rckouba.net
saturnunipessoallda.com
tallahasseefrolics.com
thematurehardcore.net
totalenvironment-inthatquietearth.com
velislavakaymakanova.com
vermontenergetic.com
kakakpintar.com
begorgeouslady.com
1800birks4u.com
2wheelstogo.com
6strip4you.com
bigdata-world.net
emailandco.net
gacapal.com
jharpost.com
krishnaastro.com
lsm99credit.com
mascalzonicampani.com
sitemapxml.org
thecityslums.net
topagh.com
flairnetwebdesign.com
rajasthancarservices.com
bangkaeair.com
beneventocoupon.com
noternet.org
oqtive.com
smilebrightrx.com
decollage-etiquette.com
1millionbestdownloads.com
7658.info
bidbass.com
devlopworldtech.com
digitalmarketingrajkot.com
fluginfo.net
naqlafshk.com
passion-decouverte.com
playsirius.com
spacceleratorintl.com
stikyballs.com
top10way.com
yokidsyogurt.com
zszyhl.com
16firthcrescent.com
abogadolaboralistamd.com
apk2wap.com
aromacremeria.com
banparacard.com
bosmanraws.com
businessproviderblog.com
caltonosa.com
calvaryrevivalchurch.org
chastenedsoulwithabrokenheart.com
cheminotsgardcevennes.com
cooksspot.com
cqxzpt.com
deesywig.com
deltacartoonmaps.com
despixelsetdeshommes.com
duocoracaobrasileiro.com
fareshopbd.com
goodpainspills.com
hemendekor.com
kobisitecdn.com
makaigoods.com
mgs1454.com
piccadillyresidences.com
radiolaondafresca.com
rubendorf.com
searchengineimprov.com
sellmyhrvahome.com
shugahouseessentials.com
sonihullquad.com
subtractkilos.com
valeriekelmansky.com
vipasdigitalmarketing.com
voolivrerj.com
zeelonggroup.com
1015southrockhill.com
10x10b.com
111-online-casinos.com
191cb.com
3665arpentunitd.com
aitesonics.com
bag-shokunin.com
brightotech.com
communication-digitale-services.com
covoakland.org
dariaprimapack.com
freefortniteaccountss.com
gatebizglobal.com
global1entertainmentnews.com
greatytene.com
hiroshiwakita.com
iktodaypk.com
jahatsakong.com
meadowbrookgolfgroup.com
newsbharati.net
platinumstudiosdesign.com
slotxogamesplay.com
strikestaruk.com
trucosdefortnite.com
ufabetrune.com
weddedtowhitmore.com
12940brycecanyonunitb.com
1311dietrichoaks.com
2monarchtraceunit303.com
601legendhill.com
850elaine.com
adieusolasomade.com
andora-ke.com
bestslotxogames.com
cannagomcallen.com
endlesslyhot.com
iestpjva.com
ouqprint.com
pwmaplefest.com
qtylmr.com
rb88betting.com
buscadogues.com
1007macfm.com
born-wild.com
growthinvests.com
promocode-casino.com
proyectogalgoargentina.com
wbthompson-art.com
whitemountainwheels.com
7thavehvl.com
developmethis.com
funkydogbowties.com
travelodgegrandjunction.com
gao-town.com
globalmarketsuite.com
blogshippo.com
hdbka.com
proboards67.com
outletonline-michaelkors.com
kalkis-research.com
thuthuatit.net
buckcash.com
hollistercanada.com
docterror.com
asadart.com
vmayke.org
erwincomputers.com
dirimart.org
okkii.com
loteriasdecehegin.com
mountanalog.com
healingtaobritain.com
ttxmonitor.com
nwordpress.com
11bolabonanza.com