For a series coming up on three decades of history, I guess it only makes sense it expands into mobile with everything else. During today's Age of Empires New Year, New Age Livestream, Microsoft unveiled Age of Empires Mobile which is coming to both iOS and Android

Developed by TiMi Studios, Age of Empires Mobile brings the classic RTS genre to mobile devices for the first time ever. Featuring several different civilizations including China, Rome, France, and Byzantine, players will be able to choose from over 40 heroes to raise an?? army and conquer others.

Visually Age of Empires Mobile actually looks pretty good. I know mobile graphics have come a long way, but I sort of expected it to just look like Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition but it actually looks better.

Unfortunately, I'm not completely sold on the gameplay. Even though several scenes showed what looked to be pretty similar to authentically classic Age of Empires gameplay that we've come to love over the many years, other scenes showed what looked to be pretty normal markers of current mobile "Pay to Win" trends like a VIP Level, timers (that can be skipped for a cost, I'm sure), and more. Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid. But it worries me to see predatory practices like that in an epic franchise like Age of Empires.

Age of Empires Mobile is currently available for pre-registering on both iOS and Android,

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Unite is celebrating its first year with a heap of new content

It's been one year since the launch of Pokemon Unite, and the team is celebrating. Over the next few weeks, Pokemon Unite is getting new playable Pokemon, cosmetics, and more to celebrate its firs??t anniversary.

The celebration starts next week, with the release of Glaceon, the icy Eevee evolution. Glaceon joins on July?? 21 alongside a challenge, which will let players earn a free Glaceon Unite License.

Two more are expected to join the fray, too. The gigantic?? Buzzwole enters the are??na on August 3. And on August 15, Tyranitar lumbers into battle.

Alongside the new playable Pokemon, a new mode is also debuting. Boss Rush will ha?ve players team up to take on powerful bosses an??d earn rewards. Those who finish with higher scores will earn more. The Boss Rush will be available for three periods of time.

Pokemon Unite Boss Rush windows

• July 21 at 12:00 a.m. PT to July 24 at 4:59 p.m. PT
• July 31 at 5 p.m. PT to August  7 at 4:59 p.m. PT
• August 14 at 5 p.m. PT to August 21 at 4:59 p.m. PT

New duds for the new year

A new Battle Pass season will also start rolling out on July 21. Season 9 will have new rewards and levels to pursue, all for the goal of having the coolest-looking Pokemon on the Pokemon Unite field.

There will also be a festive log-in bonus for the first anniversary of Pokemon Unite. Logging in for five days between July 21 and ??October 12 will net you rewards for each day:

• Day 1: Pikachu and Fashionable Style: Pikachu
• Day 2: Lucario and Concert Style: Lucario
• Day 3: Blastoise and Firefighter Style: Blastoise
• Day 4: Snorlax and Bedtime Style: Snorlax
• Day 5: Sylveon and Checkered Style: Sylveon

With those, plus a festive anniversary reward chain to chase too, seems like a lot of freebies are up for grabs in Pokemon Unite. The first anniversary might be a good time to log back in if you've laps?ed over th?e last year.

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The Unite arena will be filled with holiday cheer, and also snowmen

Pokemon Unite will be celebrating the season from this month into next, and a beefy slew of updates are on the way to make it all happen. Alongside the previously announced Tsareena, Dragonite will also enter Pokemon Unite as a playable Pokemon later this month.

From Dec. 15 through Jan. 16, 2022, players can log on to get special gifts and rewards in Pokemon Unite. ?Of particular interest will be a free Pokemon?: Tsareena's Unite license will be available for free between Dec. 9 and Dec. 31.

Then, on Dec. 20, Dragonite arrives in Pokemon Unite. Both are melee-focused All-Rounders, so congratulations to those holding ou??t for ??some new brawlers to play.

//twitter.com/PokemonUnite/status/146856685?2641206275

If you aren't looking for an All-Ro??under, there's still plenty to do. The Illumination Challenge, running Dec. 15 through Jan. 16, will let you complete missions to light up a holiday tree and earn rewards. Likewise, the Photo Challenge (running Dec. 24 through Jan. 6) will add more challenges and rewards too.

Another Quick Battle ma??p will also arrive, similar to the pumpkin-flinging Halloween event. In the Snowball Battle in Shivre City, you'll be able to snowball othe?r Pokemon to turn them into snowmen. (Snow-Pokemon? Snow-mon?) It sounds a little frustrating, but Delibirds will also appear in the arena, rewarding special one-time battle items to use. Plus, Avalugg gets replaced by the legendary bird Articuno.

There are also a bunch of log-in gifts you can read about on the Pokemon Unite blog here too. Basically, it sounds like there are a lot of reasons to be logging onto Pokemon Unite for the holiday season. You ?know, aside from avoidi??ng family time or something.

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Celebrate 2021 with 4042 Aeos Tickets

'Tis the season to be giving, and TiMi Studio Group is giving away a ton of Aeos Tickets in Pokemon Unite. Right now, you can log in and score two free batches of 2,??021 Aeos Tickets for a limited time.

Shared on the Pokemon Unite Twitter account today, players can log into Pokemon Unite and get a free batch of 2,021 Aeos Tickets between now and Dec. 31. You can claim Aeos Tickets once a day on two separate days, so you can accumulate a total of 4,042 Aeos Tickets overall, just for logging in. It's all in celebration of Pokemon Unite winning the Google Play "Best of 2021" Users?' Choice Award in multiple regions.

//twi??tter.com/PokemonUnite/status/1466120434168975360

With more Pokemon arriving and seasons bringing in plenty of new cosmetics, a few extra tickets is a pretty good deal. Plus, over 4,000 tickets is a whole lot of Item Enhancers. Time to boost up whatever items you didn't already max out from the previous Item Enhancer surge.

I've been pretty surprised at the amount of support still rolling out for Pokemon Unite as the months have rolled on. Granted, Pokemon Unite was already pretty enjoyable at launch. But little updates like this give me a decent reason to take a Halo break and log back in. All the while, I'm? still crossing my fingers for an Umbreon or Arcanine addition to the game.

Pokemon Unite is currently available for Nintendo Switch and? mobile ?devices.

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The archer flies into battle

The next Pokemon arriving in the Unite arena is set to land next week. Decidueye joins the lineup of Pokemon Unite on Nov. 19, 2021.

After being teased and leaked earlier this week, the Pokemon Unite Twitter account officially confirmed the addition today.

//twitter.com/PokemonU??nite/status/1459144194966966279

The Arrow Quill Pokemon first appeared as the final evolution of Rowlet, a Starter Pokemon in Pokemon Sun and Moon. It's likely that Decidueye will, like other Starter Pokemon, evolve up from Rowlet during the course of a Unite match.

From the short overview shown above, Decidueye seems like what you'd expect: a ranged character with an evasive, poking playstyle, constantly peppering opponents with quills. The design of Decidueye in Pokemon Unite reminds me a bit of the League of Legends character Xayah, honestly.

The new Pokemon will debut next week, and continues to build up on the lineup of Pokemon Unite. Since launch, the roster's included new and old Pokemon, from Blastoise and Blissey to Mamoswine and Greedent. God, Greedent. That little squirrel was the bane of my Pokemon Unite existence for a solid week.

It's surprising that the next Pokemon joining the lineup isn't from the upcoming Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, given those games launch on the same day. Feels a bit like a missed opportunity, but considering the pace at which Unite has been adding Pokemo??n, the??re's certainly still a window for more Gen 4 to land in.

Pokemon Unite is currently available on both mobile platforms and Nintendo Swi??tch.

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Government prepares microscope

Holding company Tencent, alongside developer TiMi Studio, has announced a brand new, open-world RPG set within the universe of phenomenally popular mobile title Honor of Kings. Neither a launch date nor platform??s were reveale??d.

Honor of Kings: World will be a global release and will see the high-fantasy kingdoms and characters of the mobile game transition into a huge action-RPG adventure. Sci-Fi writer Liu Cixin �recognized in China for best-selling novels such as The Three-Body Problem �has been brought on board to pen the title's story and events. While little information was revealed, Tencent did release a teaser trailer, which you can ch??eck out below.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHDl2VyLZ8

Honor of Kings /Wángzhě Róngyào, which first launched on mobile in 2015 as League of Kings (before Riot Games lawyers came a-callin') is one of the most popular, most played, and most lucrative mobile games ever developed. The card-battle title was the first mobile game ever to hit 100 million players, and is one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, with no sign of slowing down anytime in the near? future. Adapting its characters and world to a mainline RPG is practically a no-brainer, with the ensuing release all but guaranteed success given the community's f?ervent love of the franchise.

The announcement of Honor of Kings: World comes at a highly turbulent time for the Chinese gaming industry. China's government has taken extremely stringent steps toward regulating every aspect of the business �from content, themes, and development, to the marketing, sales, and even playtime of the games themselves. Honor of Kings is frequently in the government's crosshairs, as much for its compelling nature and monetization options as it is for its sexy cast of chara??cters and use of Chinese folklore, which ministers believe is ?corrupting the nation on a financial, intellectual, and moral level.

Honor of Kings: World will no doubt face similar scrutiny during its development and?? launch cycle.

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Get a free squirrel by completing tasks and logging in

The Halloween Festival has kicked off in Pokemon Unite, adding a new currency and turning the main screen into a fiendishly festive landing page. But it isn't just about costumes and candy, as Pokemon Unite players can also pick up a free Greedent license this week if they save up their pumpki??ns.

As announced on the Pokemon Unite Twitter, Greedent is one of the rewards available during the Halloween Festival. It's also the newest Pokemon in Pokemon Unite as ?of this writing, so it seems like a good opportunity to bo??lster your roster with some new 'mons.

//twitter.??com/PokemonUnite/status/1450601?504583217154

You can earn a license for Greedent (a.k.a. the ability to pick Greedent) by trading in pumpkins. The new pumpkin currency is part of the Halloween event, and you earn it by either playing and winning games in the spooky new stadium variant or through daily log-i??ns during the event.

TiMi Studios also notes that for the upcoming Festival, not all players will b?e able to obtain all rewards by event's end. So while there are a few different cosmetic rewa??rds alongside Greedent, you might want to save your pumpkins until you know exactly what you want.

Greedent's playstyle sounds fairly unique for the Defender class. He uses belly flops and berries, and overall, isn't quite what you'd expect when put up alongside other beefy Defenders like Blast??oise or Snorlax. But as a Defender player myself, I welcome?? the newcomer to the fold, and will definitely be saving up to add some variety to my rotation.

The Halloween Festival has also kicked off, with the aforementioned Mer Stadium variant and a bunch of new cosmetics for both Pokemon and their Trainers. Hopefully ther?e are some scary Ghost Pokemon set to arrive soon too, just to really round out the October atmosphere.

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Egg on  your team with the latest Supporter

Support players get a new Pokemon to add to the rotation this week. The Pokemon Unite team has ?confirmed that Blissey will be the next Pokemon coming to the battle arena.

Blissey joins the matches this Wednesday, Aug. 18. Playing as a Supporter Pokemon, Blissey's abilities look to center arou??nd buffing and healing their teammates. Its Unite Move, Bliss Assistance, will let it dash to an allied Pokemon and protect it from at??tacks.

//twitter.com/PokemonUnite/?status/1427253815?720386570

Pokemon Unite is currently available on Nintendo Switch, with a mobile launch planned for sometime in September. It's overall a pretty interesting take on the MOBA formula, mixing the familiarity of Pokemon with the crushing highs and lows of a MOBA match. Some have derided its microtransaction scheme though, as leveling up held items ??does give you a bit of an advantage over those still working on enhancing them.

For me, I'm probably saving my coins on this one. Blissey certainly sounds interesting, as adding more Pokemon to the Supporter role will hopefully add a little more variety there. I usually only see Eldegosse??s and a few Mr. Mime players, and the one or two rare Wigglytuff players who absolutely annihilate the opposition.

As a Defender player though, I'm holding out for the next Pokemon for that category, Blastoise. They were confirmed as coming to Pokemon Unite back in June, but so far both Gardev??oir and the mystery mark, Bliss??ey, have launched before them.

So my watch continues, as I wait for my large water-cannon-toting turtle to make their way to my Unite matches. I can still make do with Snorlax and Slowbro just fine for now, though. We'll see what Blissey brings to the table when they land in Pokemon Unite on Aug. 18.

For other Pokemon news, remember there's a new Pokemon Presents set to air the?? same day Blissey goes ??live, on Aug. 18 at 6 a.m. PT / 9 a.m. ET.

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That bird is both a lifesaver and the bane of my existence

It's been a little over a week since Pokemon Unite went live on the Nintendo Switch, and a lot of people have been jumping on to battle it out in the Poke-MOBA arena.

I've been playing for an as-yet-unknown amount of time and nearing my 100th match mark, and through it all, one thing has become incredibly clear: Zapdos is crucial. The giant Electric-type bird seems key to almost every match I've played, and while that's not an uncommon design choice for the genre, Pokemon Unite's Zapdos feels a little more game-changing ?than most.

Let's backtrack, for the folks at home who haven't played Pokemon Unite. It's a team-versus-team battle arena ga?me, where players control individual Pokem??on trying to collect energy and dunk it into the enemy team's goals, ultimately winning by earning more points than their opponents in the time allotted.

It's a good setup, and one that works to Pokemon Unite's favor. Where other MOBA and MOBA-alikes usually zero-in on base destruction, taking out the Nexus or the Ancient, a score-based system means teams that are ??behind can still feel "in it," and enemy teams have to venture further into uncertain territory—and further away from their own goals—to keep running up the score.

Basing the outcome on score, rather than kills or buildings destroyed, also puts importance on how many points you're pu??tting into the net with each dunk. And this is where Zapdos comes in.

During every 10-minute Pokemon Unite match, many wild Pokemon spawn. Some are just the innocuous small frie??s—the Aipoms and Corphish you chomp through at the start of every match—to larger Pokemon, like Rotom. Zapdos is the big one, spawning in the middle of the arena with just two minutes left on the clock.

Zapdos is a predictably fearsome opponent, often requiring a few (if not all) of your team's play??ers to take down. This leaves your lanes vacant and goals unattended, but the tradeoff is the buff: when a team has the Zapdos buff, they have a short window in which they can dunk instantly, without the usual charge-up that enemies can interrupt.

This, combined with the fact that points double in the home stretch of the game, means massive score swing??s can happen around Zapdos. I've seen, even played on, teams that were struggling for eig??ht minutes straight, only to secure a Zapdos and dunk multiple 100-point dunks to swing the match back in their favor.

I don't inherently dislike this concept, or at least, the idea of having a big objective to fight over apart from the goals in each lane. It's a good way of adding some element of strategy; much like Roshan in Dota 2 adds another tactical element to map control and positi??oning, Zapdos suddenly adds another wrinkle your team needs to keep an e?ye on.

But good lord, the swings are real. They can sometimes feel downright punishing, in how fast they can take a team from behind to ahead. It's resulted in the last two minutes of most of my Pokemon Unite matches revolving solely around Zapdos.

Every Pokemon Unite match I've played out to the two-minute mark ends in a team standoff at the Zapdos pit, as each side cautiously baits and pokes around, o?r just attempts to quickly kill off the bird before the other team can. The fact that Zapdos goes to whichever side lands the killing blow adds another wrinkle; a team can have full control of Zapdos, but one good Venusaur beam or L?ucario Unite move can steal it away.

As Fūnk-é Joseph points out over at Fanbyte, an option to Smite like in League of Legends (an ability that deals a single blast of instant true damage?? to a targeted unit) might add a bit of timing and tension. Or, if the intent is to treat it more like Roshan, create situations where an alternative to Zapdos can be ??viable if the team plays it out right.

As it is now, Pokemon Unite seems to center around t??he big Electric bird. It's the most critical objective to get, and even if you're losing heavily, it can be a method for launching your team back into competition, or even the lead. I did recently win a match against a team that took Zapdos, but that was mostly due to a combination of our outer goals still being up—preventing them from consecutively dunking on us—and their Zapdos kill taking long enough that we respawned fast enough to hold a few back.

I'm interested to see what TiMi does with Zapdos as the game goes on, and how team strategies will evolve around it. The Fluffy Tail item provides one interesting option, in being able to do more damage to a wild Pokemon, but I wonder if Pokemon Unite matches will conti??nue to revolve around Zapdos for the foreseeable f?uture.

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