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Google Play Games version 2.0 arrives with new features and UI changes

Google Play Games, is the direct-from-Google app that manages the games that a given player is currently enjoying, or has in the past. It’s a place where players can see where they rank on Leader Boards, see what their friends (on Google+) are playing, and cloud save their in-game progress, among other useful features for players and developers alike. As promised during Google I/O, it’s received a bit of an overhaul.

 

The first thing that I noticed was how Google’s now using more of its card-based visual design here. While the old one looked much like Google Play, this one has a more updated feel, with larger cards  under Recent Games with a simpler and more streamlined feel to its presentation of games. Opening the hamburger menu from the left side of the screen is the same, except for the removal of the option labeled as “Shop” which was a link to the home page for the Games section of Google Play. I suspect that this is an effort to streamline things, as the Explore function is still there and continues to contain games that are featured by Google, as well as those that are popular in their own right and another for those that are exclusively multiplayer also keeping a tab. Games can be be installed (and purchased, if applicable) from right within the GPG app.

The settings seem to contain the same notifications (Multipler, Quests, and Requests all having toggles that players can use for notifications) , but now there’s an option for Level up notifications. From what I can gather, achievements that are completed in games that are plugged in to this service will assign a player XP. As the XP builds, your “level” as an overall gamer climbs northward. It will show you a breakdown of how you’ve accrued your XP to date as well, coming from one of five categories: Role Playing, Racing, Arcade, Action, and Adventure. You are then “classed” by the category you have gotten the most points from. For me, I’m a level 11 Role Player, achieving the last level on June 11th.

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