Pagoda of Gaming

MTG World Championships

There isn’t really a lot going on in the magicsphere apart from Worlds this weekend in Rome. I’ll be keeping my browser refreshing on THIS page for most of this weekend, especially when the live stream of the top 8 rolls round tomorrow. But there’s already a wealth of knowledge and videos up there now, so I suggest that players go and take a look, even for a glimpse at what magic at the world’s stage looks like.

Star Trek Online

There are two games this past week that keep assaulting the various blogs I visit, and the first is STO. Probably thanks to the redesign of their official site, we’ve been shown a ton of NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE. But the more important news comes in the Open Beta dates, being January 26th – only two weeks before the launch in February. This makes me worried, two weeks isn’t a whole load of time to gleam and fix bugs from the open beta masses. I would like to remind folks that Champions Online also had the two week open beta and in my opinion turned out horribly in the end. So consider me interested, but eternally worried about this game.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

The second would be this game.

Despite all the MW2 I’ve been playing, I can’t help but feel excited for this. The modern warfare (and future warfare) titles of the battlefield series have always been able to define themselves in the crowd of shooters – in my opinion – because of the open environments and vehicular combat that the series is known for. I’ll be pre-ordering this for sure.

Turbo

A half hour movie about futuristic videogames (in this case, a motion sensing virtual reality street fighter) in a blade runner setting. It’s your usual unknown-prodigy/underdog movie with training montages and all the usual trimmings. But it ties all together a lot better than the premise would let on. I don’t really need to sell it when it’s FREE FOR CONSUMPTION and in HD over on Vimeo.

Why The BBC Shouldn’t Cover Videogames 

Videogaiden aside, when it’s things like THIS they decide to report on, someone should really shut them down. Prepare for a facepalm. Basically the story is this: Guy buys 360, gets it chipped, steals more than double the console’s price in software, thinks he won’t get punished for it, then Microsoft locks his console permanently out of XBL and so begins the QQ’s. I’m not sure who’s the bigger idiot, the guy who chipped his console or the BBC for being an epic Troll.

EVE is Pretty

This is the first video of the day, something I picked up from CCP’s video feed. It’s a small glimpse of one corporation’s travels into wormhole space, but what’s really stunning is the visuals in this video. And like many things, makes me want to resub.

1vs100 is Back

The weird free-to-play Xbox Live game show is back, and this time with achievements. Therefore I want to play. It’s got a similar schedule to last time, with live sessions running only once or twice a week and by the books sessions during “primetime”. I’ll be checking it out for sure.

Bioshock 2 Special Edition

The cult of rapture DELIVERS. Do want, very much. Good thing the ‘rents have kept their record player all these years.

Gyromancer

I picked THIS up on Wednesday and gave it a fare share of time. It’s good, some might say great. Basically, it’s Puzzle Quest, with a heavy dose of pokemania. But I couldn’t help but receive a kick in the balls when the game starts penalising for idle turns (meaning rotating a bunch of gems without purpose to there and then complete a set of gems). I found that I have to do it quite a bit to get attacks to go off. At the moment, I’m on the stance that I’m the one who’s doing something wrong, so I will get back to the game, just not right now. It resides in the same place Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend: I will not endeavour to complete it for the time being because it insists that my balls be kicked, and that it is not Modern Warfare 2.

Speaking of MW2…

I’m currently somewhere in the upper-30’s in multiplayer rank, having just unlocked the WA2000, which is one hell of a sniper rifle. I haven’t really put in the time I’ve wanted into Spec. Ops yet, and I will at some point – again, ball kicking. I did however take my first taste of Hardcore mode, which I can see why people love so much. I haven’t quite figured out what kind of load out I should be using yet, though I did have some success with Akimbo P90’s, but I can see myself playing it more in the future.

I found this video on the web too, which is hilarious, though ridden with epic spoilers, as the title self explains.

Assassin’s Creed 2

This poked through my door yesterday, and was all I played last night – to the point that most of my inner monologue is heard English with an Italian accent. It is a very good game, but it has it’s problems, for me it’s the controls that endeavour to kill me. But on the other hand they’ve done so much to the game’s structure over the first, where all the surrounding side activities have some final purpose. It’s an excellent game, no Arkham Asylum, but it deserves attention.

And Everything Else…

So AC 2 really marks the end of the year’s 4th Quarter. There’s nothing coming out in, apart from a personal acquisition of Left 4 Dead once I the whole PayPal hackerry gets sorted out. There’s about 5 weeks left of the year and that really freaking scares me. Presents must be bought - and I look at my bank account and think “with what?”. So allow me some peace to procrastinate, tend to my headache and order in a Chinese supply drop.

Feel the motion of the ocean

Ultramarines The Movie

The greatest surprise I found this week is actually a little old news from a couple of months ago. Games Workshop is making a Warhammer 40K Movie called “Ultramarines” clearly based on probably the most famous Marine army of them all. I was very confused when I heard the news to begin with, but once you learn that it’s a total CGI movie made by folks who used to make animated features for Lego Products, and that it’ll probably be a straight to Blu-Ray affair, the project suddenly becomes a bit more grounded.

Not to shit on the idea of it, I think it’ll be great. It’s probably better that a small, somewhat independent studio handles it. I doubt the mitts of Hollywood would do any good for the 40K universe, and furthermore, I doubt that that any of Hollywood’s leading men would make very good live action Marneus Calgar.

You can learn a little bit more about the movie HERE, on the official site. But there is currently very little else known about the film other than it is due to come out next year. I hope that it all turns out well, for both fans and creator.

Final Fantasy 13

Officially the creepiest trailer of the week is a new “announcement” trailer for FF13, presented to us by douchebag model actor guy.

Clearly this trailer was not meant for us, the average gamer. Or is it? I wouldn’t be surprised if this is how Square-Enix views the west and decides that this is clearly the best venture. I’m also completely baffled by the whole Leona Lewis thing, Having no idea who this person was and against my better judgement, I typed the name into YouTube… and I did not like what turned up.

I’ve always associated the Final Fantasy franchise as being something that is wholly Japanese, and I’m not sure I like where this obvious western approach is taking the game. Maybe this is a response to the declining interest in the Japanese gaming scene by the rest of the world, though I don’t think infusing western ideals into their games, pop songs or otherwise, is a great idea. They need to innovate and just tighten their shit up. Remember the last game you played out of Japan that had control issues that didn’t drive you up the wall? I don’t. Plus, that guy really creeps me out.

Atleast we can sleep in the knowledge that the european release of the game is happening this coming March 9th. The same day as the american release, so they won’t get the chance to lord it over us this time.

Alan Wake Trailers

I’ll give this a small mention, there is some new gameplay footage of Alan Wake out. But I’d suggest avoidance. I believe the game’s acceptance will hinge on it’s storytelling and overall experience and not what a brief 5 minute gameplay trailer will show you. From what I saw was more of the same as what was seen at last E3.

Yes, I’m Going To Talk About Bloody Magic The Gathering Again

 My lamentations about the lack of expanding the Duels of the Planeswalkers game to other platforms appears to be in vein. Announced a week after the announcement of Magic The Gathering: Tactics, Wizards announced that Duels is going to hit sometime next summer for the PS3 and the PC.

Whilst that’s all very good news, the conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but see some interesting things surrounding this announcement. I can’t help but feel that this is in response to possible negative backlash received from the community to Magic Tactics, also due out next year and also due out on the same platforms as the Duel’s Port.

Summer 2010 is an awful long time to port a game to another platform, assuming that the port has already been in development, if you catch my drift.

But anyway, my in-x-boxxed brethren, I assure you will enjoy Duels of the Planeswalkers, and I may have the chance to enjoy it with you. Assuming you can get over, and hopefully understand, the few shortcomings of the game.

Modern Warfare 2

I can’t not talk about this game. It’s all I’ve been playing since Tuesday. Though I suppose all has been said by pretty much everyone on the internet already. I am in the vast majority that believes this to be a highly potent game of the year contender. Though there are a couple of things that I haven’t seen being said.

I was surprised to learn who was the voice of Captain ‘Soap’ MacTavish, and you would think less of me to learn where I know the actor from. But he did a fantastic job of bringing to life the silent protagonist of the first game (“Modern Warfare”, none of this Call of Duty Number Colon bullshit) . By the end of the game he, and his mid-game spoilerific cohort… well, they reminded me of Solid Snake, the both of them. And I hope that they live long enough to see themselves into the next game whenever that may be. I think they did such a great job of characterisation of those two, I’d be disappointed if they didn’t stick around.

The Multiplayer is as fantastic as the last, even moreso. But I can’t help but miss some of the old Maps from Modern Warfare. Maybe I’m just not so used to them yet, but I haven’t played a map as good as my old personal favourites: Bloc or Overgrown. The new maps seem rather small in comparison, and some of them rather simplified, Wasteland being a clear example.

Maybe… No, with all certainty we’ll see Map Packs in the future. I just hope that they care to throw in some re-envisioned  versions of the old classics.

And Everything Else

Not that you’ll worry, but if the blog happens to not appear one day, that doesn’t mean that I’ve decided to quit. Some arse hacked my PayPal account a while back and since then I’ve had trouble getting it back into working order and working things out with the PayPal people. It wouldn’t be a problem if people on the internet just accepted Debit cards as openly as Credit Cards, but that’s a rant for another day.

Therefore I’m going to be very late to the Left 4 Dead 2 party, unless some kind soul wants to gift it to me lol.

As for Deck Building Articles and the such, I’m in a state of shuffler’s block. I know what I must build, and it wouldn’t take long to figure it out I’m just never in the mood. Hopefully I’ll get over it soon and get back on a bit a of a schedule.

Next week I’ll get Assassin’s Creed 2, and we’ll see how that goes, currently I’m a bit apprehensive about the game, but I suppose we’ll see soon enough. Otherwise my life will continue the course until we reach the beachhead of the Christmas holidays. The local Tesco already has decorations up – I suppose we’d better brace ourselves and our wallets.

Sleep, and I don’t ever dream

I got the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to sit down with the Firemind Combo deck I proxied up a couple of articles ago. And it wasn’t until the combo pieces were in my hand that I immediately realised the gigantic mistake I made.

Coastal Piracy of course only effects Combat Damage, and not any kind of damage Niv-Mizzet deals with his card drawing ability. So in complete stupidity, and a need to see this sorted, I present to you the following updated decklist for the Firemind Combo deck I originally tested.

I basically switched out the Coastal Piracies for Curiosities, and added another land to make sure there’s enough land to pull off the combo. The deck is somewhat more dangerous to use now, as in a single turn, for complete safety, play Niv, enchant him, then throw on the lightning greaves. That’s Three potential responses from three sorcery speed effects.

As of last article, I’ve actually deconstructed this deck. As I suspected, the combo grew tiresome. If I were to make the whole thing a bit more exciting, I suppose I’d add in some White to the deck. Idyllic Tutor and some Lightning Helix’s would be helpful, or to add an extra card to the combo, A Silence or an Orim’s Chant, so my opponent has a lesser chance of responding.

That’s all I was after covering in today’s article - just really to cover the Accidental miss of a Combat Damage definition. I’ve currently got three decks in the pipeline, though it may take until Christmas to get round to them, especially with all the new games and whatnot going on. Fortunately, the first two decks I’m going to post will be without playtesting, as they are both reader requests. Which reminds me, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to send them via the comments. ‘Nin Out!

and now we’re on a mission

I said I would Blog about MTG a little less, so let this post represent the transition period, because something came up the other day that I’m dying to stoke the flames of, and as a long time consumer of Coastly Wizard goods I feel entitled to prod the situation with an internets stick.

Wizards of the Coast announced on Monday that they’ve been working on, in conjunction with Sony Online Entertainment, a Magic The Gathering based videogame for PS3 and the PC. When WotC makes a videogame, as they have tried many many times in the past, the community gets in an uproar.

Example 1:  Magic The Gathering: Battlegrounds, for the PS2, PC and Xbox was a gigantic piece of shit, leveraging the core of the IP in the slightest. To the unknowing, THIS VIDEO will assure you of such in less than a minute. And THIS video of an in-game cutscene, will only bring your disgust farther.

Example 2: Magic The Gathering: Online, currently still running for the PC. No matter how you look at it, Paying real world money for individual cards is dumb, even moreso when the prices are near equivalent to the physical product. And I say that as a previous partaker. It’s a horrible experience. But also take into account the horrible structure of the UI and the countless bugs still have an overall foothold of the system, and the lack of next to any structure of ranked player matching. Not to mention the problem it has with holding a worldwide metagame.

Duels of the Planeswalkers for XBLA is the most exceptional to the rule, but even it has it’s problems, despite it’s obvious position (obvious to me anyway) in the magic pantheon, and it’s amazingly balanced gameplay, the community still burns with hopes of deck and card customisation more akin to the real game. And for myself, a giant kick in the pants came from the title’s first DLC released a few weeks ago. After having the game finished (and by that I mean I unlocked all the Achievements) for many many months, too many months, they finally get round to releasing new DLC, I go to download only to find that it is only half a megabyte in size. Clearly it was a simple unlock key, and the content I had yearned had been lying dormant all that time on my HDD. I Raged.

But the point is that Duels of the Planeswalkers is very good, and is certainly on the right track if it can deliver more content really damn soon.

It brings to light what the community actually wants from a digital counterpart to the greatest trading card game ever printed. We want to play the game in a balanced pure form, and we want to do so on the cheap. Theoretically, and I think some people would agree, the best way to achieve this is a complete overhaul of MTGO, and placing at most a monthly fee on the price of admission, and place “allowance boosters” inside current booster packs and theme decks. Give players an allowance based on their performance (good and bad) and give them a system of progression within the game, and allow players to build up a personality in the game. Such a beast, I believe, could topple Warcraft.

But it doesn’t look like they’re doing that. Magic the Gathering: Tactics is slated for release sometime in the first half of next year, it is described as: “an online, 3D turn-based strategy game played within the rich Magic: The Gathering Multiverse…to transform the best of Magic’s story, strategy and competitive play into a fantastic ‘Tactics’ game experience for current and new Magic fans”. Allow this trailer to revolt you.

Clearly they hired their 3D artist from 1995, Maybe the same guy that made that oh-so memorable T-Rex from that Jurassic Park episode of Sliders. Seeing “Magic in a New Dimension” is a dangerous prospect for developer and especially the consumer. They’re making a game about another game, that is not 100% the original game. I also have no faith in SOE – Their current projects do not speak “quality” to me.

The only thing I can be thankful for is that I already have Duels of the Planeswalkers, but it’s a shame that the PS3 population cant get in on the action aswel. I think I would consider a second purchase it that weren’t the case, just to play with the disturbingly large percentage of people I know that are thrall to that brand and not the other.

It’s not all bad though: A note to PS3 owners, It seems that Braid is finally coming to your shores, PC and 360 owners already know how awesome and utterly beautiful this game is, including myself. I encourage all of you who are late to the party (though late through proxy of platform holder) to check it out. May it imbue emotion on your soul.

Interestingly, a day after the MTG:Tactics announcement, Wizards posts something wildly opposite on the WotC Awesom-ometer. Starting in May of next year, they’ll begin selling “Deck Builder’s Toolkit’s” that contain :4 boosters, 100 basic land and 125 additional random cards, a storage box, and a game guide, for a price that I can calculate as being under £20. Clearly this is aimed at the casual and new player market, a casual fat pack of sorts, and any product that does that for the game is worth an applause. I’ll definitely be picking one up come May.

I was happy to hear that Blizzard is going to add cross-server-band-of-explorering, but I’m even happier to know what else this improvement brings with it. Revamping the current LFG system is an amazing start, but all the trimmings of Pickup Group buffs, instance teleporting, random Daily Dungeon Runs, and an automation of loot Disenchanting sounds like a heavenly experience. The only minor shame is that the cross-realming is bound to battlegroup. That isn’t so great for players like me who aren’t in the best of Battlegroups. But knowing that I’ll have a better chance now of landing a group for even the most under-subscribed of Instances, left behind by the race to the level cap, may very well be enough to draw me back in.

I bought THIS app for my iPhone yesterday, and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, from within a range of feelings from “Feeling like a Rapstar” to “Crying into my Wallet”. In a way, my purchase is Giantbomb’s Fault, but I can’t hold anything against those guys. Maybe the following video will bring some understanding to the situation.

I leave THIS final link out of courtesy – it’s an amazing Live concert recorded in HD for YouTube starring the one and only Nine Inch Nails playing the entirety of The Downward Spiral album, even in the same order as the CD! It’s very enjoyable, I assure you.

Now is the part where I ask for some community help, all negative 34 of you. I’ve got it into my head that I want to get my Gaming PC, also known as the NinPuter, back up to snuff so it’s not getting outperformed by a laptop that was less than half it’s initial price, and so I can play some of the future titles the current NinTop cannot. It should come as no surprise that I’m farthest from any Hardware Mc Dreamy, and could do with a hand. The problem areas are the system’s Graphics Card, RAM (currently only 2GB) and I’d like to get Windows 7 Running on it. THIS is the current Motherboard I’ve got, and should do me fine for this upgrade, as should the rather fast Pentium dual core, and the power supply should work too.

It’s the graphics card I can’t figure out. It’d be great to get some recommendations for this – So I don’t go wasting money and blowing myself up. And what I’ve tried to gleam from the internet so far has been unsatisfactory. I appreciate any help I receive.

This weekend I’ll be left to my own devices as the parents go somewhere, and do…. something. I dunno. All I do know is that I’m going to get myself a whole load of pre-MW2 gaming under my belt this weekend, hopefully finishing Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2 if I can withstand their shortcomings. I’m also further tantalised by Shattered Horizon that just released on Steam this week. Check the video below, and you might see what I’m talking about. It’s style and proposed gameplay leave an impression on me. Shame that it’s hut the shelves less than a week before, well, I’m sure you know… I’ve Pre-ordered by the way. Have you?

You can flambé me now for that Grey’s Anatomy reference. Good Day Sirs.

who’s wearing the trousers