Pure Chess

Aces High | 13:43 - 2 July 2012

Yes, I too must concur with the Axe Man. Chess is the quintessential asynchronous game of choice.

Heck, has no one ever watched (the admittedly awful) Revolver?! Jake (played by one J Statham Esq.) played chess while doing solitary bird for gawd sake. He swapped moves with fellow inmates via scribbles in library books.

There, proved - lock, stock and... Hang on, shall I draw you a picture?!!

Amacmac | 05:35 - 16 June 2012

It's worth pointing out the review has a mistake in stating that there is no local pass and play mode, **there is indeed local multiplayer**. You can play local multiplayer by changing the opponent to "human" in the exhibition mode settings.

ElPrezAU | 03:31 - 8 May 2012

Thank you Axe99, I too raised my eyebrow a significant distance upon reading that particular line.

'Thinking moves ahead' is one of the biggest misunderstandings about chess that laymen to the game have. The more chess you play the more you realise the truth of this.

Good review (as per usual from this site) but yeah, chess heads are all going to take issue with that line.

As Axe99 pointed out, chess is the ultimate asynchronous game and has been played in scenarios where months have passed between exchanges of moves for many many many years.

Axe99 | 23:11 - 4 May 2012

"Finally, and most notably, it turns out that Chess really isn't suited to asynchronous play. Chess is all about thinking a few steps ahead, and so if you have to keep going back to a game after a break it's difficult to keep track of what you're actually doing."

Really?!?!?!?!?

I'm sorry Mike, but you've clearly got no experience with Chess - Chess is one of the most asynchronously played games, if not _the_ most asynchronously played game in the history of our species! And it's worked well for many, many years (people played chess by mail prior to playing by email/internet).

I fully agree that they should have had a live play option as well - very silly that they didn't - but your statement, above, just doesn't hold water. If you're thinking about the game at the depth required, then unless you've got cognitive memory issues, you'll have no trouble remembering where you were at (and the game shows you the last couple of moves when you load up the PBEM game). And if you're not thinking that deeply, then it probably doesn't matter ;).

And, of course, each of the situations in chess is independent from move-to-move. If a rook is on a6, then it doesn't matter that the turn before it came from a5 - it only matters where it is on any particular turn. Unless someone wants to be a victim of their own rigid strategy, they should be able to still see weaknesses in their opponent's position, and strength in theirs, and the best way forward, regardless of how many moves they remember.

Good review other than that, but it sounds like you need to play a game or two more of Chess ;).

Elron | 20:39 - 30 April 2012

I will be picking this game up this week for sure!

jan-link | 13:21 - 28 April 2012

I'm a single-player only and I have downloaded the game on ps vita
this week and I think it's a beautifull game for very little money.
It's made by the same people as hustle king and it shows: very high
production values. 8