What a week, huh? Yeah. Well, here we are, at the end of it, at the very least, and now looking toward the future. So how about some video games to take our minds off things for the weekend? This week we’ve got some fun shooters, some beat ‘em up action, and a digital spin on a classic trading card game.
Play it on: iOS, Android Current goal: Not play Pokémon TCG Pocket I’ve raved and ranted about so much that’s wrong with Pokémon’s latest version of its long-running card game, a mobile app that’s designed from the ground up to hook children and adults alike into dopamine-delivering loops, before cutting it all off unless you pay up. I hate it for that. It makes me angry, properly angry, to see this company of all companies messing with its loyal audience.
But it’s open on my phone as I type this. I wish I could just openly state “I’ve spent no money!” but the truth is I spent like $3 because I wanted/needed to see how it all worked, when writing about it, and through the depths of my journalistic integrity have lost the claim. But I’m not going to spend any more.
Not because I’m not getting enjoyment from the battles (I genuinely am), but because it just feels so icky. If the Premium Pass hadn’t proven to be so spectacularly terrible, I’d advocate for that as the sensible way to put money into the game. But it is spectacularly terrible that’s not in consideration.
(And, again, grimly, I’ll allow my two-week free trial to tick over into a p.
