The best games to download while traveling for Thanksgiving: Talking Tech podcast

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

More:Daily news, true crime, and more USA TODAY podcasts

Hey listeners, it's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. It's Thanksgiving Eve. We're one day away from getting to enjoy our favorite foods, maybe sit back and watch football day if you're a football fan. Maybe you just enjoy the Thanksgiving day parade that happens in the morning. Whatever it is, we're one day away from all that. Now, for some of you, you are probably traveling for Thanksgiving, which maybe mean a few hours in the car or time spent at the airport. Wherever it is, you're going to want to find some ways to pass the time as you're waiting to get to your destination, not to mention when you travel back home.

My colleague Mark Saltzman writes about this in a column that you can read on Tech.USAToday.com. It's called, "Got A Long Thanksgiving Trek Ahead Of You? Download These Mobile Games To Pass The Time." He breaks down a few mobile games that are available on the iPhone and iPad, through the App Store or on Android devices through Google Play. We'll break them down for you here. Maybe that's something you want to pop on your iPhone or Android phone if say you still haven't made your trip yet, or if you're thinking maybe I need some distractions on the way back, I sat too long in the car, or I was waiting too long in the airport, I need something to kill time in between.

So let's break some of that down here. The first on Mark's list is Farmville 3. It's 2021 and I'm talking about Farmville. I'm shocked myself because this is the game I still remember from way back in the days of early Facebook, but it is still around. It's been around for 12 years. It's been downloaded more than 700 million times. I think a lot of people have heard of it at this point. So what's different or the same, or what's going on with Farmville?

So in Farmville 3, you get to do stuff like breed animals. You get to harvest what they produce. So if you're raising sheep, you get wool, chicken, eggs. You know the drill. And then you'll trade or sell those goods to complete orders for customers and you'll basically turn your farm into this really big business. It's basically like the Sims only you're doing a ton of farming.

The other cool option to this too, is you can join someone else playing Farmville 3 online, and you can compete in these cooperative events to unlock new animals and special items. So a lot of fun stuff there. I still can't believe I'm talking about Farmville right now, even though it's been out as long as it has, but there you go. Still popular, still out there. If you have an itch for Farmville, Farmville 3 is the way to go.

Another game that Mark recommends is Pikmin Bloom, which is based on the popular Pikmin franchise for Nintendo. You'll remember it was originally released 20 years ago for the GameCube. It challenged gamers to help an ill-fated spaceman find the spaceship pieces before his life support system runs out. And you're basically managing these tiny little plant- like creatures called pikmin. It is being developed by Niantic. If you haven't heard of them, you have likely heard of probably their biggest hit so far, which is Pokemon Go, which was a massive hit five years ago and a lot of people still play today. So they definitely have a really good history with mobile games. And if you're a big fan of Pikmin, if you remember it from the GameCube era, another great option.

Now keep in mind, the one thing that's going to be interesting with this game is how much of it is based on online. Obviously, there's going to be a little bit of augmented-reality involved. So just something to keep in mind. It might not be one of those games where say, you're on a plane and you don't really have access to your phone or wifi, you might not be able to play it. But definitely a good one if say, you're in the car, you're on a road trip.

Another game that is mentioned by Mark is called Collect 'Em All. The goal is to make the longest chains possible of these same colored adjacent balls. So you'll do things like drag your finger across, up, down, diagonally. And you're trying to pull together balls of different colors, red, blue, what have you. Feels like it's got a little bit of a Candy Crush vibe to it. If you're big on those type of games and you're really big on Candy Crush, this feels like it's along the same vein. So that's something else worth considering.

We'll throw one more game in there. NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition. It's available if you have Apple Arcade, which costs 4.99 a month, and it's available on iPhone, iPad, which are basically the main devices you're going to bring with you on the road anyway. It's essentially a mobile version of the console game. So you're playing five-on-five basketball, you can play online against other players. There's a blacktop version so you can play three-on-three on blacktop. There's also a quick match. Again, play online. You can just play really quick games. There's also different modes like a GM mode and a head coach mode, where you're managing a franchise. You'll trade players, you'll sign free agents, you do all that stuff. Again, a lot like the console version of the game, it's just that it's all on your phone.

Mark says the touchscreen controls are tight and responsive. I haven't had a chance to play the game, but that's the one thing for me that I am curious about is I have always found that the games where they try to incorporate a thumb stick on the screen, just don't work as well. It just feels really weird trying to manipulate that thumb screen. But Mark stands by it. He said it works really well. I'm kind of curious about it myself so I think I might have to check it out. I've been a big fan of NBA 2K on consoles so it looks like this might be something to check out.

If you want to read more of Mark's story, learn more about these games and learn about any other kind of ways to pass the time as you're traveling this Thanksgiving, be sure to go to Tech.USAToday.com.

Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, or show ideas? Any tech distractions or things that you do while you're traveling to help pass the time? Let me know on Twitter. I'm @BrettMolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. And don't forget, we have a newsletter as well. It hits your inbox every Thursday. Be sure to subscribe at newsletters.USAToday.com. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.