The Room Two
£1.99/$2.99
Improving on the award winning original, the more expansive sequel soon draws you into its dark, atmospheric world. Fiendish, multilayered puzzles require lots of poking, prodding and lever pulling.
Monument
Valley £2.99/$3.99
Inspired by MC Escher’s famous ‘impossible reality’ art, this isometric 3D puzzler forces you to think laterally as you visually ‘connect’ pathways so that your character can move between them.
Trainyard
£1.99/$2.99
This classic brain boggler sees you placing tracks to guide trains to colour-coded stations, sometimes needing to merge them or blend their colours. The tougher levels may well end up driving you loco!
World of Goo
£2.99/$4.99
A golden oldie to tax your logic and patience, it has you building bridges and other structures from gooey balls – some with special properties – to get enough of them to each level exit.
Tiny Thief
Free + IAPs
Rovio’s Robin Hood concept sees the eponymous hero stealing treasure from the rich. You’ll definitely need all your cunning to outsmart enemies, solve fiendish puzzles and unlock all the tasty bonus rewards.
Plunder Pirates
Ahoy there me hearties, here be treasure!
Launched on iOS last year, Midoki’s seafaring strategy MMO has finally landed on Android shores. It plays identically and you can even continue your existing iOS game on Android by entering a special code – a nice touch for those who are juggling devices.
Plunder Pirates offers a well-balanced combination of resource building, maritime exploration and good-oldfashioned plundering of rival bases. The early focus is on building up your island base, unlocking new structures and upgrading your defences and attacking capabilities. Key to all of this action is the production of gold and grog, from mines and distilleries respectively.
The third currency in the Plunder Pirates universe is gems; these are more difficult to source, found occasionally while seafaring or earned via certain achievements. Fortunately, while IAP bundles are available to speed up things such as building, the freemium aspect never becomes overbearing. Indeed, you can play the game perfectly happily without ever needing to shell out any of your real gold.
Merrily sailing around the high seas is the other main part of the game. Your ship’s crew is recruited from the tavern; the pirates come in various types and can be trained up in order to give them special powers for when you are in battle. In addition to attacking all of the AI bases on the map, you can act like a real pirate and plunder those of other players to earn gold and grog. You only get three minutes to mount your attack, with a bonus earned for achieving 100% destruction. Naturally, this means that your own base may be targeted by others, so an essential part of the gameplay is to build some serious defences such as cannons, mines and walls.
A friendlier aspect is the guild system, enabling you to team up with other players to chat, gain bonus perks and battle rival guilds in the newly added rumbles. It adds an extra facet to a fun, compulsive experience with a decent amount of strategy. The only slight, but obviously necessary, downside is the inability to play it offline.
Launched on iOS last year, Midoki’s seafaring strategy MMO has finally landed on Android shores. It plays identically and you can even continue your existing iOS game on Android by entering a special code – a nice touch for those who are juggling devices.
Plunder Pirates offers a well-balanced combination of resource building, maritime exploration and good-oldfashioned plundering of rival bases. The early focus is on building up your island base, unlocking new structures and upgrading your defences and attacking capabilities. Key to all of this action is the production of gold and grog, from mines and distilleries respectively.
The third currency in the Plunder Pirates universe is gems; these are more difficult to source, found occasionally while seafaring or earned via certain achievements. Fortunately, while IAP bundles are available to speed up things such as building, the freemium aspect never becomes overbearing. Indeed, you can play the game perfectly happily without ever needing to shell out any of your real gold.
Merrily sailing around the high seas is the other main part of the game. Your ship’s crew is recruited from the tavern; the pirates come in various types and can be trained up in order to give them special powers for when you are in battle. In addition to attacking all of the AI bases on the map, you can act like a real pirate and plunder those of other players to earn gold and grog. You only get three minutes to mount your attack, with a bonus earned for achieving 100% destruction. Naturally, this means that your own base may be targeted by others, so an essential part of the gameplay is to build some serious defences such as cannons, mines and walls.
A friendlier aspect is the guild system, enabling you to team up with other players to chat, gain bonus perks and battle rival guilds in the newly added rumbles. It adds an extra facet to a fun, compulsive experience with a decent amount of strategy. The only slight, but obviously necessary, downside is the inability to play it offline.
Thomas Was Alone
Enjoy this award-winning, striking and unique plat former
Perhaps one of the most memorable and charming games on any platform, Thomas Was Alone began life as a Flash-based browser game back in 2010, before being released for desktop in 2012. How does the mobile version compare? While it looks like a slightly drab block game, this really doesn’t give an accurate representation of how the game plays, or what it’s all about. You control Thomas, a discarded red block AI who is slowly becoming aware of his surroundings and abilities. As the game progresses, you encounter other AIs who each have different abilities and clearly defined personalities.
Thomas can jump, particularly well over distance, and he can fall well too, something that we learn in the introduction thanks to a Douglas Adams-esque narration, provided by comedian Danny Wallace. Taking place within the mainframe where the AIs were stored, the aim of each level is for you to shepherd each AI to the exit, a portal where they will be transported to the next map. Often, negotiating these maps will require some co-operative play, which means switching between AIs to guide them in turn. This is done by tapping the relevant coloured block on its position around the edge of the display, while control of your AIs around the map is achieved by using your thumb to move and jump.
When you’re not chuckling at the narration, you’ll be furrowing your brow trying to find a way to the portal (often level maps reconfigure as you attempt to get around) or admiring the game’s soundtrack, a gentle electric guitar that seems perpetually on the edge of going into heavy thrash mode. Unless gaming eye candy is an absolute must for you, Thomas Was Alone is a superb game.
» Price £3.99/$5.99
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android 4.0
Perhaps one of the most memorable and charming games on any platform, Thomas Was Alone began life as a Flash-based browser game back in 2010, before being released for desktop in 2012. How does the mobile version compare? While it looks like a slightly drab block game, this really doesn’t give an accurate representation of how the game plays, or what it’s all about. You control Thomas, a discarded red block AI who is slowly becoming aware of his surroundings and abilities. As the game progresses, you encounter other AIs who each have different abilities and clearly defined personalities.
Thomas can jump, particularly well over distance, and he can fall well too, something that we learn in the introduction thanks to a Douglas Adams-esque narration, provided by comedian Danny Wallace. Taking place within the mainframe where the AIs were stored, the aim of each level is for you to shepherd each AI to the exit, a portal where they will be transported to the next map. Often, negotiating these maps will require some co-operative play, which means switching between AIs to guide them in turn. This is done by tapping the relevant coloured block on its position around the edge of the display, while control of your AIs around the map is achieved by using your thumb to move and jump.
When you’re not chuckling at the narration, you’ll be furrowing your brow trying to find a way to the portal (often level maps reconfigure as you attempt to get around) or admiring the game’s soundtrack, a gentle electric guitar that seems perpetually on the edge of going into heavy thrash mode. Unless gaming eye candy is an absolute must for you, Thomas Was Alone is a superb game.
» Price £3.99/$5.99
» Designed for Phone and tablet
» Requires Android 4.0
WORLD OF WARCRAFT WARLORDS OF DRAENOR
The MMO juggernaut rolls on, without changing direction.
World of Warcraft is nine years old. If you want to take a moment to let that sink in, that’s perfectly understandable. It has remained the biggest subscription-based MMO in the world throughout that period: it’s still huge, even if the prevailing narrative surrounding it is of an empire in gradual decline. 7.6 million players doesn’t really feel like decline: more like erosion, in the sense that a mountain erodes. Warlords of Draenor is the first of a new kind of expansion for World of Warcraft. It’s leaner, in some senses, than the expansions that have come before. It adds a new continent – the orc homeworld of Draenor, predestruction – and new features, plus tweaks to raids, the UI, and the game engine, but no new classes or races.
On the surface, it appears more considered and modest than Cataclysm or Wrath of the Lich King – and, in returning the focus to the orcs, it’s less of a tonal departure than Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard are gearing up production on World of Warcraft with a view to putting out boxed expansions every year – rather than every 18 months-ish as it was before. They talk about having plans for the WoW expansion after this one, and the one after that, and the one after that: a salvo of erosion-slaying magic bullets loaded in a revolver, with Warlords of Draenor sitting ready in the first chamber.
At least, that’s how Warcraft boss Chris Metzen put it, announcing the expansion at Blizzcon. I asked WoW producer John Lagrave about it later – how possible is it, in reality, to plan for the needs of a gaming community that far in advance?
“Let me continue the analogy,” he says. “First we have to build the bullet – and we’re building a bullet for a gun we don’t know the calibre of yet, so there’s a lot of give and take. We have a plan for Warlords of Draenor – that’s in the chamber and is being fired. For the next expansion, we’re in talks about it. We focus, initially, on the story we’re going to tell. Once we’ve got that, we try to figure out a sentence or two about what the ‘vibe’ is. What’s going to be engaging? What’s going to be fun? What is interesting about it?”
Warlords of Draenor is intended to recapture the feel of orcs-and-humans-era Warcraft, and to reintroduce the characters and conflicts that fans have followed for decades but that recent WoW acolytes might have missed among the panda warriors and world-consuming dragons. It’s a time-travel story, and the Draenor it features is one that has been referenced but never actually presented in a Warcraft game. It’s the same place as The Burning Crusade’s Outland, but this isn’t a Cataclysm-style overhaul: it’s a full alternative take on the planet with entirely new zones to explore.
As players, our dimension-skipping adventure will be prompted by the escape of rogue horde warchief Garrosh Hellscream following his arrest at the conclusion of the ‘Siege of Orgrimmar’ update. Chasing his dream of an all-orc horde to a new extreme, he binds himself to a mysterious time-travelling ally and journeys to Draenor before the orcs became corrupted and invaded Azeroth. There, he stops the orcs from drinking demonic blood and, in its place, gives them loads of technology from the future and sets about building his own portal to Azeroth. So give a little, take a little, then.
Both factions have an interest in stopping Garrosh’s ‘Iron Horde’, and that leads them to Draenor. An initial ‘suicide mission’ tutorial experience will take the Alliance and the Horde to Tanaan Jungle – formerly Hellfire Peninsula. After that, the Alliance will help defend a Draenei temple in Shadowmoon Valley, a temperate zone of rolling hills trapped in perpetual night. The Horde head to Frostfire Ridge – roughly where the Blade’s Edge Mountains will eventually be – to help the Frostwolf Clan defeat some local ogres.
The Frostwolf Clan in this case is led by Thrall’s dad, Durotan, and the sequence I played through involved helping both of them lay siege to an ogre fortress – at which point, through Pandaria-style phasing, it transitioned into being the Horde base of operations on Draenor.
Blizzard have had a lot of experience bending and twisting the WoW engine into new shapes, and their work here displays the same inventiveness and attention to detail that marked out the best bits of Wrath of the Lich King. Post-conquest, the player is asked to free some orc scouts from a nearby ogre village. The path takes you back out of the ogre fortress, pushing through a crowd of Warcraft-style peons carrying stones and lumber back up the hill. It’s a nice little nod to the past, and it made me smile.
You’ll have to take the long way around, by the way: flying mounts are disabled in Draenor until some point post-launch. The journey to the new level cap of 100 will be made on foot.
In addition to seven new PvE zones, Warlords of Draenor will add seven dungeons – three at max level – as well as two raids with sixteen bosses between them. Blizzard are also taking a pass at Upper Blackrock Spire as part of their programme of classic dungeon reboots, and there’ll be a new set of world bosses too. There will also be a full PvP zone on Draenor, called Ashran. It’s intended to recapture the old days of World of Warcraft battlegrounds – the skirmishes over Alterac Valley that took days to resolve. Combatants will be drawn in from multiple servers using the cross-realm technology also used to fill out parties in the dungeon finder.
The current structure of WoW PvP is being revised. Blizzard regard the current system as too deterministic, leading players towards fixed rewards through a long grind – they want to shake it up, and they’re approaching the problem from multiple angles. PvP matches will now grant random rewards on completion, from bind-on-equip items to rare PvP equipment and bonus Honor. The idea is to surprise players with rewards they weren’t expecting, to lead people towards upgrade paths they might not have considered by adding a degree of chance. The other approach to freshening Player vs Player is the exact opposite. Warlords of Draenor will introduce Trials of the Gladiator, new arena combat events where players use standard, balanced gear – creating a competition that is entirely about skill.
On the PvE side, raid sizes are being reworked – again – to create a more accessible experience. Raids will be available in Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic difficulties for any number of players between 10 and 25, their encounters scaling on the fly to match the number of friends you bring. If someone drops out, you won’t need to wait for a replacement. The best rewards, however, will be available to guilds who crack raid encounters on ‘Mythic’ difficulty, which will be balanced for – and require – 20 players. It seems like a smart compromise between the needs of the hardcore set and weekend warriors who just want a chance to see dungeons they’d previously been locked out of.
Blizzard walk a thin line between giving their community what they want and telling them what they need – but they seem to walk it confidently, at least in Warlords of Draenor’s case.
“We want you to stay engaged in the game and not become dispassionate about it,” says John Lagrave. “We have our own internal testing sessions, and I’ll tell you – the session for our Blizzcon build was brutal. We’re very critical, and there’s lots of things that we will be doing and changing from our own criticism – plus what we get from the community. It’s a constant process.”
Some of the biggest cheers I heard at Blizzcon were for Warlords of Draenor features that seem innocuous from the outside. WoW’s inventory is being updated, so that you’ll be able to easily set filters for your bags and sort them quickly.
Collectible items such as heirlooms, toys and tabards are becoming part of the collections system – as opposed to taking up bank space – and quest items will no longer go into your inventory at all. You’ll be able to craft using materials that are in your bank, Guild Wars 2-style. These quality-of-life improvements will likely shave off millions of hours busywork across the breadth of WoW’s audience.
No one feature received an outpouring of approval quite like the update to character models, however. Vanilla WoW’s original races are all getting upgraded with more detailed models, high-res textures, and new animations that include facial expressions for emotes. Blizzard are recording new voice work, too, so expect to hear a bunch of new variations on “ungh!” and “I can’t cast that now!” The Burning Crusade races are set to be updated shortly after the expansion launches.
World of Warcraft is also, at long last, getting a form of player housing. You’ll be able to create and manage a garrison on Draenor that works a little bit like a base in the original strategy games. You’ll pick from plots of land, and build and upgrade structures that provide game-widebenefits. You might build crafting buildings that give you limited access to professions that you don’t otherwise have, or buffs that you take with you into the wider world.
Garrisons will also act as the basis for a new kind of daily quest. Through your town’s inn you’ll build up a party of NPC adventurers who can be sent on adventures that take hours of real time to complete.
They’ll have their own traits and levelling paths, and sending the right people on the right jobs will yield rewards such as exclusive items, mounts and randomised chests. It’s a substantial extension of the Tillers’ farm system from Mists of Pandaria, with much further-reaching implications for your daily life within the game – and for your free time. It’s also equivalent to Pet Battling, in that it’s an addition to an expansion that looks a bit like a nonsequitur on the surface, but which will probably end up being the most strikingly new-feeling addition for players who have had almost a decade to get used to the game it’s attached to.
Your garrison will be a part of the open world, separated from those of other players using – again – seamless phasing. If you want to invite a friend over, that’ll be possible – but it’s unclear at this stage whether or not it’ll be possible to discover other people’s towns or followers in a more informal manner.
Every purchase of Warlords of Draenor will, additionally, give you an accountbound token that lets you boost any character you like to level 90. It’s a measure that Blizzard are taking to give new or returning players a chance to skip straight to the new stuff, but it’s likely to be possible with veterans too. Haven’t finished a full set of max-level alts yet? You just got one for free. These insta-90s will start with a set of equipment and some consumables appropriate to their level.
I imagine that some dedicated players will feel their investment has been cheapened by letting total newbies skip nine years’ worth of content, but it’s a pragmatic move by Blizzard and there’s a good chance it’ll be the last little push required by those of us who are at any point only a few clicks from resubscribing. Blizzard make changes like this from a position of authority: even after all this time, World of Warcraft is the game to beat – and even when a new contender improves on this or that system, its like can be replicated within WoW – and improved upon – in no time at all. This expansion modernises the game across the board.
Warlords of Draenor strikes me as an attempt to level the playing field in anticipation of the future. It’s varied, certainly, but safe in the sense that it in no way reaches deep into the crust of the game to find something new. Even its narrative moves backwards rather than forwards to find something fresh to present to fans. At its most radical, the expansion rethinks systems like raiding without ultimately changing the purpose they’ve always served. Lapsed players and dedicated fans alike might have expected something a little more dramatic, this long into the game’s life – but then again, perhaps it’s not a surprise. Blizzard are still sitting at the top of the mountain, and they’ve got no reason to shake the foundations.
Chris Thursten
World of Warcraft is nine years old. If you want to take a moment to let that sink in, that’s perfectly understandable. It has remained the biggest subscription-based MMO in the world throughout that period: it’s still huge, even if the prevailing narrative surrounding it is of an empire in gradual decline. 7.6 million players doesn’t really feel like decline: more like erosion, in the sense that a mountain erodes. Warlords of Draenor is the first of a new kind of expansion for World of Warcraft. It’s leaner, in some senses, than the expansions that have come before. It adds a new continent – the orc homeworld of Draenor, predestruction – and new features, plus tweaks to raids, the UI, and the game engine, but no new classes or races.
On the surface, it appears more considered and modest than Cataclysm or Wrath of the Lich King – and, in returning the focus to the orcs, it’s less of a tonal departure than Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard are gearing up production on World of Warcraft with a view to putting out boxed expansions every year – rather than every 18 months-ish as it was before. They talk about having plans for the WoW expansion after this one, and the one after that, and the one after that: a salvo of erosion-slaying magic bullets loaded in a revolver, with Warlords of Draenor sitting ready in the first chamber.
At least, that’s how Warcraft boss Chris Metzen put it, announcing the expansion at Blizzcon. I asked WoW producer John Lagrave about it later – how possible is it, in reality, to plan for the needs of a gaming community that far in advance?
“Let me continue the analogy,” he says. “First we have to build the bullet – and we’re building a bullet for a gun we don’t know the calibre of yet, so there’s a lot of give and take. We have a plan for Warlords of Draenor – that’s in the chamber and is being fired. For the next expansion, we’re in talks about it. We focus, initially, on the story we’re going to tell. Once we’ve got that, we try to figure out a sentence or two about what the ‘vibe’ is. What’s going to be engaging? What’s going to be fun? What is interesting about it?”
Warlords of Draenor is intended to recapture the feel of orcs-and-humans-era Warcraft, and to reintroduce the characters and conflicts that fans have followed for decades but that recent WoW acolytes might have missed among the panda warriors and world-consuming dragons. It’s a time-travel story, and the Draenor it features is one that has been referenced but never actually presented in a Warcraft game. It’s the same place as The Burning Crusade’s Outland, but this isn’t a Cataclysm-style overhaul: it’s a full alternative take on the planet with entirely new zones to explore.
As players, our dimension-skipping adventure will be prompted by the escape of rogue horde warchief Garrosh Hellscream following his arrest at the conclusion of the ‘Siege of Orgrimmar’ update. Chasing his dream of an all-orc horde to a new extreme, he binds himself to a mysterious time-travelling ally and journeys to Draenor before the orcs became corrupted and invaded Azeroth. There, he stops the orcs from drinking demonic blood and, in its place, gives them loads of technology from the future and sets about building his own portal to Azeroth. So give a little, take a little, then.
Both factions have an interest in stopping Garrosh’s ‘Iron Horde’, and that leads them to Draenor. An initial ‘suicide mission’ tutorial experience will take the Alliance and the Horde to Tanaan Jungle – formerly Hellfire Peninsula. After that, the Alliance will help defend a Draenei temple in Shadowmoon Valley, a temperate zone of rolling hills trapped in perpetual night. The Horde head to Frostfire Ridge – roughly where the Blade’s Edge Mountains will eventually be – to help the Frostwolf Clan defeat some local ogres.
The Frostwolf Clan in this case is led by Thrall’s dad, Durotan, and the sequence I played through involved helping both of them lay siege to an ogre fortress – at which point, through Pandaria-style phasing, it transitioned into being the Horde base of operations on Draenor.
Blizzard have had a lot of experience bending and twisting the WoW engine into new shapes, and their work here displays the same inventiveness and attention to detail that marked out the best bits of Wrath of the Lich King. Post-conquest, the player is asked to free some orc scouts from a nearby ogre village. The path takes you back out of the ogre fortress, pushing through a crowd of Warcraft-style peons carrying stones and lumber back up the hill. It’s a nice little nod to the past, and it made me smile.
You’ll have to take the long way around, by the way: flying mounts are disabled in Draenor until some point post-launch. The journey to the new level cap of 100 will be made on foot.
In addition to seven new PvE zones, Warlords of Draenor will add seven dungeons – three at max level – as well as two raids with sixteen bosses between them. Blizzard are also taking a pass at Upper Blackrock Spire as part of their programme of classic dungeon reboots, and there’ll be a new set of world bosses too. There will also be a full PvP zone on Draenor, called Ashran. It’s intended to recapture the old days of World of Warcraft battlegrounds – the skirmishes over Alterac Valley that took days to resolve. Combatants will be drawn in from multiple servers using the cross-realm technology also used to fill out parties in the dungeon finder.
The current structure of WoW PvP is being revised. Blizzard regard the current system as too deterministic, leading players towards fixed rewards through a long grind – they want to shake it up, and they’re approaching the problem from multiple angles. PvP matches will now grant random rewards on completion, from bind-on-equip items to rare PvP equipment and bonus Honor. The idea is to surprise players with rewards they weren’t expecting, to lead people towards upgrade paths they might not have considered by adding a degree of chance. The other approach to freshening Player vs Player is the exact opposite. Warlords of Draenor will introduce Trials of the Gladiator, new arena combat events where players use standard, balanced gear – creating a competition that is entirely about skill.
On the PvE side, raid sizes are being reworked – again – to create a more accessible experience. Raids will be available in Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic difficulties for any number of players between 10 and 25, their encounters scaling on the fly to match the number of friends you bring. If someone drops out, you won’t need to wait for a replacement. The best rewards, however, will be available to guilds who crack raid encounters on ‘Mythic’ difficulty, which will be balanced for – and require – 20 players. It seems like a smart compromise between the needs of the hardcore set and weekend warriors who just want a chance to see dungeons they’d previously been locked out of.
Blizzard walk a thin line between giving their community what they want and telling them what they need – but they seem to walk it confidently, at least in Warlords of Draenor’s case.
“We want you to stay engaged in the game and not become dispassionate about it,” says John Lagrave. “We have our own internal testing sessions, and I’ll tell you – the session for our Blizzcon build was brutal. We’re very critical, and there’s lots of things that we will be doing and changing from our own criticism – plus what we get from the community. It’s a constant process.”
Some of the biggest cheers I heard at Blizzcon were for Warlords of Draenor features that seem innocuous from the outside. WoW’s inventory is being updated, so that you’ll be able to easily set filters for your bags and sort them quickly.
Collectible items such as heirlooms, toys and tabards are becoming part of the collections system – as opposed to taking up bank space – and quest items will no longer go into your inventory at all. You’ll be able to craft using materials that are in your bank, Guild Wars 2-style. These quality-of-life improvements will likely shave off millions of hours busywork across the breadth of WoW’s audience.
No one feature received an outpouring of approval quite like the update to character models, however. Vanilla WoW’s original races are all getting upgraded with more detailed models, high-res textures, and new animations that include facial expressions for emotes. Blizzard are recording new voice work, too, so expect to hear a bunch of new variations on “ungh!” and “I can’t cast that now!” The Burning Crusade races are set to be updated shortly after the expansion launches.
World of Warcraft is also, at long last, getting a form of player housing. You’ll be able to create and manage a garrison on Draenor that works a little bit like a base in the original strategy games. You’ll pick from plots of land, and build and upgrade structures that provide game-widebenefits. You might build crafting buildings that give you limited access to professions that you don’t otherwise have, or buffs that you take with you into the wider world.
Garrisons will also act as the basis for a new kind of daily quest. Through your town’s inn you’ll build up a party of NPC adventurers who can be sent on adventures that take hours of real time to complete.
They’ll have their own traits and levelling paths, and sending the right people on the right jobs will yield rewards such as exclusive items, mounts and randomised chests. It’s a substantial extension of the Tillers’ farm system from Mists of Pandaria, with much further-reaching implications for your daily life within the game – and for your free time. It’s also equivalent to Pet Battling, in that it’s an addition to an expansion that looks a bit like a nonsequitur on the surface, but which will probably end up being the most strikingly new-feeling addition for players who have had almost a decade to get used to the game it’s attached to.
Your garrison will be a part of the open world, separated from those of other players using – again – seamless phasing. If you want to invite a friend over, that’ll be possible – but it’s unclear at this stage whether or not it’ll be possible to discover other people’s towns or followers in a more informal manner.
Every purchase of Warlords of Draenor will, additionally, give you an accountbound token that lets you boost any character you like to level 90. It’s a measure that Blizzard are taking to give new or returning players a chance to skip straight to the new stuff, but it’s likely to be possible with veterans too. Haven’t finished a full set of max-level alts yet? You just got one for free. These insta-90s will start with a set of equipment and some consumables appropriate to their level.
I imagine that some dedicated players will feel their investment has been cheapened by letting total newbies skip nine years’ worth of content, but it’s a pragmatic move by Blizzard and there’s a good chance it’ll be the last little push required by those of us who are at any point only a few clicks from resubscribing. Blizzard make changes like this from a position of authority: even after all this time, World of Warcraft is the game to beat – and even when a new contender improves on this or that system, its like can be replicated within WoW – and improved upon – in no time at all. This expansion modernises the game across the board.
Warlords of Draenor strikes me as an attempt to level the playing field in anticipation of the future. It’s varied, certainly, but safe in the sense that it in no way reaches deep into the crust of the game to find something new. Even its narrative moves backwards rather than forwards to find something fresh to present to fans. At its most radical, the expansion rethinks systems like raiding without ultimately changing the purpose they’ve always served. Lapsed players and dedicated fans alike might have expected something a little more dramatic, this long into the game’s life – but then again, perhaps it’s not a surprise. Blizzard are still sitting at the top of the mountain, and they’ve got no reason to shake the foundations.
Chris Thursten
The pros and cons of jailbreaking an iPhone
What is iPhone jailbreaking, and can I jailbreak my
iPhone? Mark Hattersley has all the answers
iPhone jailbreaking. Should you; could you; would
you? It’s the classic three-parter to any conundrum.
Here we’re going to look at iPhone jailbreaking to
answer the three solid questions our readers ask:
• Should I jailbreak my iPhone?
• Can I jailbreak my iPhone?
• How do I jailbreak my iPhone?
First of all: what is jailbreaking? This is the act
of changing the iPhone software to remove any
limitations placed by Apple. The principal limitation
is that software can only be installed from the App
Store. With a jailbroken phone you can install
software from a rival to the App Store,
and also manually using image fi les
downloaded from the internet.
What does Apple say?
Apple is, as you’d imagine, fi rmly
opposed to jailbreaking. It frequently
updates the iOS software to remove any
jailbreak software from the iPhone, and
is constantly updating iOS to prevent
jailbreaking techniques from working.
Part of this is to protect its commercial
interests. Apple runs the software store
so it wants you to keep using
the store. And developers
spend time making software
and want to get paid. But
there are other concerns:
Apple wants the iPhone
system to remain secure on
the whole, and jailbreaking
can threaten that. Apple
identifi es these concerns:
• Security
• Instability
• Shortened battery life
• Unreliable voice and data
• Disruption of services
• Inability to update
What can I do with a jailbroken phone?
The main reason people jailbreak their phones is to
run pirated (copied) software and install it without
paying for the privilege. We’re not here to moralise:
whether you pay for software is up to you. Although
given the amount of free software on the app store,
and the sheer hassle it is to jailbreak an iPhone, we
do rather wonder why people bother.
The other – perhaps more viable – area is to run
apps and services that are not allowed by Apple.
Jailbreaking installed a rival to the Apple Store
called Cydia. This features apps in areas that Apple
bans, such as pornography. But there are also
apps that allow you to perform blocked tasks such
as tethering; apps that have been removed from
the store such as Sparrow. You can also change
the default apps
replacing Maps
with Google Maps
and the default
keyboard with
a version called
Octopus. It’s perfect
for tinkerers.
How do I jailbreak an iPhone?
If you’re interesting in jailbreaking and you typically
install a program on Mac OS X that does it for you.
There are two main options available:
• Evasion
• Redsn0w
At the moment both currently work on iOS 6.0
to 6.1.2, but not for iOS 7.
How does jailbreaking work?
There are many techniques for jailbreaking an
iPhone, and a lot of it depends on the model of
phone you are running, the fi rmware on your
handset and which version of iOS you have.
Typically if you have a brand new iPhone with
a recently released iOS you are going to have
more trouble jailbreaking than an older model that
hasn’t been updated recently.
Is it safe to Jailbreak an iPhone?
Not terrifi cally, no. While your iPhone isn’t going to
blow up in your hand or break the whole internet,
it may not work as well as you’d like. Because you
won’t get software from Apple.
See More Tech tips TECH TIPS
iPhone? Mark Hattersley has all the answers
iPhone jailbreaking. Should you; could you; would
you? It’s the classic three-parter to any conundrum.
Here we’re going to look at iPhone jailbreaking to
answer the three solid questions our readers ask:
• Should I jailbreak my iPhone?
• Can I jailbreak my iPhone?
• How do I jailbreak my iPhone?
First of all: what is jailbreaking? This is the act
of changing the iPhone software to remove any
limitations placed by Apple. The principal limitation
is that software can only be installed from the App
Store. With a jailbroken phone you can install
software from a rival to the App Store,
and also manually using image fi les
downloaded from the internet.
What does Apple say?
Apple is, as you’d imagine, fi rmly
opposed to jailbreaking. It frequently
updates the iOS software to remove any
jailbreak software from the iPhone, and
is constantly updating iOS to prevent
jailbreaking techniques from working.
Part of this is to protect its commercial
interests. Apple runs the software store
so it wants you to keep using
the store. And developers
spend time making software
and want to get paid. But
there are other concerns:
Apple wants the iPhone
system to remain secure on
the whole, and jailbreaking
can threaten that. Apple
identifi es these concerns:
• Security
• Instability
• Shortened battery life
• Unreliable voice and data
• Disruption of services
• Inability to update
What can I do with a jailbroken phone?
The main reason people jailbreak their phones is to
run pirated (copied) software and install it without
paying for the privilege. We’re not here to moralise:
whether you pay for software is up to you. Although
given the amount of free software on the app store,
and the sheer hassle it is to jailbreak an iPhone, we
do rather wonder why people bother.
The other – perhaps more viable – area is to run
apps and services that are not allowed by Apple.
Jailbreaking installed a rival to the Apple Store
called Cydia. This features apps in areas that Apple
bans, such as pornography. But there are also
apps that allow you to perform blocked tasks such
as tethering; apps that have been removed from
the store such as Sparrow. You can also change
the default apps
replacing Maps
with Google Maps
and the default
keyboard with
a version called
Octopus. It’s perfect
for tinkerers.
How do I jailbreak an iPhone?
If you’re interesting in jailbreaking and you typically
install a program on Mac OS X that does it for you.
There are two main options available:
• Evasion
• Redsn0w
At the moment both currently work on iOS 6.0
to 6.1.2, but not for iOS 7.
How does jailbreaking work?
There are many techniques for jailbreaking an
iPhone, and a lot of it depends on the model of
phone you are running, the fi rmware on your
handset and which version of iOS you have.
Typically if you have a brand new iPhone with
a recently released iOS you are going to have
more trouble jailbreaking than an older model that
hasn’t been updated recently.
Is it safe to Jailbreak an iPhone?
Not terrifi cally, no. While your iPhone isn’t going to
blow up in your hand or break the whole internet,
it may not work as well as you’d like. Because you
won’t get software from Apple.
See More Tech tips TECH TIPS
How To Fix an iPad that won’t charge
Follow these tips to power up your iPad
iPads that refuse to charge, or charge very slowly
– like non-charging iPhones – are a sadly common
cause of irritation among Apple customers. Before
long the battery will be empty and you’ll be stuck
with the world’s most expensive chopping board.
This isn’t a problem that’s unique to Apple
products, in fact: for various reasons the charging
port and cable are almost always a weak point on
tablets and smartphones. Your iPad’s Lightning
port (or 30-pin port, if you’ve got an iPad 3 or
earlier) is open to the air and therefore vulnerable
to dust and detritus getting inside and clogging
up the connections; the bit just behind the head
of the charging cable is constantly getting twisted
and bent and often frays. And this all assumes
that there are no problems with the plug (or even
your power outlet), and that the iPad’s battery
unit is still performing properly – neither of which
are safe assumptions.
In this article we walk you through a range of
troubleshooting tips that will help you establish what
is causing your iPad to charge slowly or refuse to
charge at all, and offer solutions that will fix many
of these issues either permanently or temporarily. If
all else fails, we explain your consumer rights, and
proffer some advice about getting Apple to step in
and repair malfunctioning device for you.
The basics
Don’t be embarrassed if you’ve dropped a howler:
we’ve all been there. Let’s check the absolute
basics. Make sure the cable is plugged firmly and
fully into the iPad, that the USB end is plugged
firmly into the plug attachment, and that the plug is
plugged firmly into the wall outlet. (If you’re charging
via a Mac rather than through a wall plug, jump
to the next step.) Make sure the power outlet is
switched on. Yes, I know.
Charging via a Mac
If you’re charging via a Mac, it’s worth stressing
first of all that charging via a Mac is always slower
than charging via a power outlet – it simply can’t
output the same wattage – and in some cases you’ll
struggle to see much increase at all.
The iPad may warn you if the Mac isn’t able to
charge it (in the past we’ve occasionally seen a
message saying ‘Not charging’ in the status bar at
the top of the iPad’s screen), but in our experience
that often doesn’t happen: sometimes the charging
icon appears yet the percentage doesn’t increase,
or does so at a glacial rate. In fact, we’re starting to
suspect that the ‘Not charging’ status message has
been removed from iOS.
If you’re charging via a MacBook, make sure the
MacBook itself is plugged in: depending on the
settings you’ve selected, there may be problems
if the laptop is trying to preserve battery power.
And whichever Mac you’re using, be sure to plug
into the Mac itself rather than a USB-connected
keyboard or similar.
As in the previous step, make sure that the USB
end is attached firmly to the Mac. Similarly, make
sure the Mac is switched on and awake. Technically,
you should be able to charge from a sleeping Mac
as long as it was awake when you plugged your
iDevice in – if it then goes to sleep the charging
should continue. But let’s play it safe here.
Stop using the iPad!
Are you using your iPad at the same time as
charging it? Bear in mind that any charge you
gain will be set against the loss incurred through
working the processor and screen. Processorintensive
apps are particularly heavy burdens for
the iPad to bear; games with high-end graphics
(such as the insanely brilliant Legend of Grimrock,
pictured) quickly blitz a battery.
Charging via a Mac in particular (see previous
step) is almost always a dead loss if you have the
iPad’s screen powered on at the same time – a sad
fact we discovered after trying to use an iPad Air 2
as a spare screen at work. Despite being plugged
into the main Mac and only having a (continually
refreshing) web page open, the iPad was always
dead by lunchtime. You’re losing charge quicker
than you’re gaining it.
In other words, try switching the iPad off – at least
power off the screen – and see if that helps.
Check the Lightning port for detritus
Remove the cable from the Lightning port and
take a look at the connector at the bottom of your
device. (We’ll refer to it as the Lightning port for the
remainder of this article, but if you’ve got an iPad 3
or earlier it’ll be the wider 30-pin port – and many of
the same principles apply.)
Make sure the port is free of debris, and give it a
quick blow. If you’re feeling really flash, try using a
compressed air blower.
Are you using the right plug adaptor?
Apple currently sells USB power adaptors in 5W,
12W and (for laptops) 29W ratings. Apple Watches
and iPhones come with 5W chargers, whereas
iPads come with 12W models – but these are
intercompatible, so you can charge up your iPhone
with an iPad charger and vice versa.
But bear in mind that this will affect the charging
speed. Older iPhones can’t benefit from the 12W
charging unit’s extra oomph, but the iPhone 6 and
later will actually charge significantly faster with an
iPad’s 12W adapter that with the 5W one they came
with; and charging your iPad with the lesser 5W unit
will result in a far slower charge.
You can have a look on Apple’s online store to
see what the different units look like, but the wattage
is often labelled clearly on the charging adaptor (see
picture). If not, look for a model number you can
Google, and then label the plug with a spare scrap of
paper and sticky tape so that in future it’ll be easy to
work out if you’re using the adaptor that came with
your iPhone/iPod/Apple Watch by mistake. Dig out
the 12W charger instead.
Waiting, restarting, and resetting
Apple advises owners of non-charging iDevices to
unplug them, then reconnect to power source and
wait for 30 minutes – something which it can’t hurt to
try before we go any further.
If at this point your device still hasn’t shown any
inclination to charge, Apple suggests that you try
to restart it while it’s connected to power. And if
you can’t restart, reset your device. You may then
see an alert when you plug in your device, such as
‘This accessory is not supported by this device’. In
which case you know the problem is the charging
equipment. We’ll try swapping out various parts of
the charging setup in the next step.
Work out which component isn’t working
At this point we look to be headed into the realms
of component failure. But if we’re lucky the part
that is misbehaving may be cheap to replace:
fingers crossed. Set up the iPad, cable and plug
as before – keep everything the same – but this
time, plug into a different power outlet (or into a
different USB port on your Mac). If it starts working,
congratulations! Your power outlet (or USB port) is
broken. Okay, that’s not ideal. If it still won’t charge,
keep everything the same but this time use a spare
charging cable or borrow one from a friend. A new
charging cable is relatively cheap at £15.
Finally, do the same with the plug connector
on the end of the charging cable. A new 12W USB
power adaptor is also £15.
If your cable or power adapter is at fault, it’s
possible you may be able to fix it, although in almost
every case we would strongly advise paying for a
new unit instead – the words ‘amateur repair’ and
‘mains power’ don’t look good when they share
a sentence. But if you wish to consider all your
options, have a look at our article How to fix a
broken iPhone or iPad or iPod charger, and when
you’re safer just buying a new one.
If none of these substitutions work, it’s most likely
your iPad that’s misbehaving. If that’s the case, we
need to get help from the professionals.
Get Apple to fix your iPad
First of all, be prepared for the tedious possibility
that the Apple representative who deals with your
issue will ask you to repeat some or all of the
steps we have outlined previously.
Many of us prefer to speak to an Apple employee
face to face while discussing tech problems, but it
may be inconvenient to get to an Apple Store, or
to make an appointment there. Instead you may
choose to go into the Apple online support program,
but you will most likely be asked to send or take in
your iPhone or iPad for a service, and that point you
just have to sit back and wait for Apple’s diagnosis.
If you’re still in warranty, this should remain
financially painless, but out of warranty we have
heard of people being charged £200 for a repair for
this problem. You may be able to claim for the repair
through any insurance you took out specifically to
cover the iPad, or even a good quality of home and
contents insurance.
If not, consider whether the repair is worth the
cost. Check the latest prices for the model of iPad
(or other brand of tablet) you would choose as a
replacement. Would you have been thinking about
an upgrade soon anyway? At £200 for repair you are
better off buying a replacement. David Price
See more useful tip CABIN KNOWLEDGE
iPads that refuse to charge, or charge very slowly
– like non-charging iPhones – are a sadly common
cause of irritation among Apple customers. Before
long the battery will be empty and you’ll be stuck
with the world’s most expensive chopping board.
This isn’t a problem that’s unique to Apple
products, in fact: for various reasons the charging
port and cable are almost always a weak point on
tablets and smartphones. Your iPad’s Lightning
port (or 30-pin port, if you’ve got an iPad 3 or
earlier) is open to the air and therefore vulnerable
to dust and detritus getting inside and clogging
up the connections; the bit just behind the head
of the charging cable is constantly getting twisted
and bent and often frays. And this all assumes
that there are no problems with the plug (or even
your power outlet), and that the iPad’s battery
unit is still performing properly – neither of which
are safe assumptions.
In this article we walk you through a range of
troubleshooting tips that will help you establish what
is causing your iPad to charge slowly or refuse to
charge at all, and offer solutions that will fix many
of these issues either permanently or temporarily. If
all else fails, we explain your consumer rights, and
proffer some advice about getting Apple to step in
and repair malfunctioning device for you.
The basics
Don’t be embarrassed if you’ve dropped a howler:
we’ve all been there. Let’s check the absolute
basics. Make sure the cable is plugged firmly and
fully into the iPad, that the USB end is plugged
firmly into the plug attachment, and that the plug is
plugged firmly into the wall outlet. (If you’re charging
via a Mac rather than through a wall plug, jump
to the next step.) Make sure the power outlet is
switched on. Yes, I know.
Charging via a Mac
If you’re charging via a Mac, it’s worth stressing
first of all that charging via a Mac is always slower
than charging via a power outlet – it simply can’t
output the same wattage – and in some cases you’ll
struggle to see much increase at all.
The iPad may warn you if the Mac isn’t able to
charge it (in the past we’ve occasionally seen a
message saying ‘Not charging’ in the status bar at
the top of the iPad’s screen), but in our experience
that often doesn’t happen: sometimes the charging
icon appears yet the percentage doesn’t increase,
or does so at a glacial rate. In fact, we’re starting to
suspect that the ‘Not charging’ status message has
been removed from iOS.
If you’re charging via a MacBook, make sure the
MacBook itself is plugged in: depending on the
settings you’ve selected, there may be problems
if the laptop is trying to preserve battery power.
And whichever Mac you’re using, be sure to plug
into the Mac itself rather than a USB-connected
keyboard or similar.
As in the previous step, make sure that the USB
end is attached firmly to the Mac. Similarly, make
sure the Mac is switched on and awake. Technically,
you should be able to charge from a sleeping Mac
as long as it was awake when you plugged your
iDevice in – if it then goes to sleep the charging
should continue. But let’s play it safe here.
Stop using the iPad!
Are you using your iPad at the same time as
charging it? Bear in mind that any charge you
gain will be set against the loss incurred through
working the processor and screen. Processorintensive
apps are particularly heavy burdens for
the iPad to bear; games with high-end graphics
(such as the insanely brilliant Legend of Grimrock,
pictured) quickly blitz a battery.
Charging via a Mac in particular (see previous
step) is almost always a dead loss if you have the
iPad’s screen powered on at the same time – a sad
fact we discovered after trying to use an iPad Air 2
as a spare screen at work. Despite being plugged
into the main Mac and only having a (continually
refreshing) web page open, the iPad was always
dead by lunchtime. You’re losing charge quicker
than you’re gaining it.
In other words, try switching the iPad off – at least
power off the screen – and see if that helps.
Check the Lightning port for detritus
Remove the cable from the Lightning port and
take a look at the connector at the bottom of your
device. (We’ll refer to it as the Lightning port for the
remainder of this article, but if you’ve got an iPad 3
or earlier it’ll be the wider 30-pin port – and many of
the same principles apply.)
Make sure the port is free of debris, and give it a
quick blow. If you’re feeling really flash, try using a
compressed air blower.
Are you using the right plug adaptor?
Apple currently sells USB power adaptors in 5W,
12W and (for laptops) 29W ratings. Apple Watches
and iPhones come with 5W chargers, whereas
iPads come with 12W models – but these are
intercompatible, so you can charge up your iPhone
with an iPad charger and vice versa.
But bear in mind that this will affect the charging
speed. Older iPhones can’t benefit from the 12W
charging unit’s extra oomph, but the iPhone 6 and
later will actually charge significantly faster with an
iPad’s 12W adapter that with the 5W one they came
with; and charging your iPad with the lesser 5W unit
will result in a far slower charge.
You can have a look on Apple’s online store to
see what the different units look like, but the wattage
is often labelled clearly on the charging adaptor (see
picture). If not, look for a model number you can
Google, and then label the plug with a spare scrap of
paper and sticky tape so that in future it’ll be easy to
work out if you’re using the adaptor that came with
your iPhone/iPod/Apple Watch by mistake. Dig out
the 12W charger instead.
Waiting, restarting, and resetting
Apple advises owners of non-charging iDevices to
unplug them, then reconnect to power source and
wait for 30 minutes – something which it can’t hurt to
try before we go any further.
If at this point your device still hasn’t shown any
inclination to charge, Apple suggests that you try
to restart it while it’s connected to power. And if
you can’t restart, reset your device. You may then
see an alert when you plug in your device, such as
‘This accessory is not supported by this device’. In
which case you know the problem is the charging
equipment. We’ll try swapping out various parts of
the charging setup in the next step.
Work out which component isn’t working
At this point we look to be headed into the realms
of component failure. But if we’re lucky the part
that is misbehaving may be cheap to replace:
fingers crossed. Set up the iPad, cable and plug
as before – keep everything the same – but this
time, plug into a different power outlet (or into a
different USB port on your Mac). If it starts working,
congratulations! Your power outlet (or USB port) is
broken. Okay, that’s not ideal. If it still won’t charge,
keep everything the same but this time use a spare
charging cable or borrow one from a friend. A new
charging cable is relatively cheap at £15.
Finally, do the same with the plug connector
on the end of the charging cable. A new 12W USB
power adaptor is also £15.
If your cable or power adapter is at fault, it’s
possible you may be able to fix it, although in almost
every case we would strongly advise paying for a
new unit instead – the words ‘amateur repair’ and
‘mains power’ don’t look good when they share
a sentence. But if you wish to consider all your
options, have a look at our article How to fix a
broken iPhone or iPad or iPod charger, and when
you’re safer just buying a new one.
If none of these substitutions work, it’s most likely
your iPad that’s misbehaving. If that’s the case, we
need to get help from the professionals.
Get Apple to fix your iPad
First of all, be prepared for the tedious possibility
that the Apple representative who deals with your
issue will ask you to repeat some or all of the
steps we have outlined previously.
Many of us prefer to speak to an Apple employee
face to face while discussing tech problems, but it
may be inconvenient to get to an Apple Store, or
to make an appointment there. Instead you may
choose to go into the Apple online support program,
but you will most likely be asked to send or take in
your iPhone or iPad for a service, and that point you
just have to sit back and wait for Apple’s diagnosis.
If you’re still in warranty, this should remain
financially painless, but out of warranty we have
heard of people being charged £200 for a repair for
this problem. You may be able to claim for the repair
through any insurance you took out specifically to
cover the iPad, or even a good quality of home and
contents insurance.
If not, consider whether the repair is worth the
cost. Check the latest prices for the model of iPad
(or other brand of tablet) you would choose as a
replacement. Would you have been thinking about
an upgrade soon anyway? At £200 for repair you are
better off buying a replacement. David Price
See more useful tip CABIN KNOWLEDGE
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