The Player’s Handbook Heroes Set 2 looks very nice and will make a great addition to any collection. I especially like the Genasi Paladin and Human Swordmage due to their versatility as a wide range of classes.
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The game features several different modes of play. The single player campaign mode allows you to test your skills against increasingly difficult Planeswalkers as you unlock new decks to play with. Magic: The Puzzling offers a series of Magic puzzle where you have to figure out how to win in one turn. A co-op campaign allows two people on the same console play a Two-Headed Giant match versus two planeswalkers. You can also play online via Xbox Live in 2-4 player matches. GameplayThey have done a great job of translating the paper and tabletop game to the TV screen and Xbox controller. You can easily flip through your cards pulling your trigger to fly the cards fullscreen and even view card specific rules such as First Strike and Deathtouch, in case you forget, add in the intro tutorial and even Magic newbies will be playing in no time. They have made the gameplay flow very smoothly for a great arcade feel. Certian things like The Stack are disguised as a brief countdown timer when you play card and spells and each section of your turn is followed in order. I enjoy that I can play a quick game in less than 5 minutes without leaving my house at anytime, either against the very capable AI or a human player matched to my level using the Xbox TrueSkill system. The game is instantly accessible to players of every skill level and that is a great accomplishment given the complexity and depth of Magic. The game starts with 2 decks to play with and as you defeat different planeswalkers you will unlock a total of 8 decks. Then everytime you win with a deck you unlock 1 of 17 extra cards that can be added into the default decks. It is not completely a customizable deck building system but gives you a few options to beef up your deck of choice. With downloadable content, I expect to see them release extra decks, extra unlockable cards, and new play environments to customize your play experience. Graphics and SoundThe graphics and interface are very slick and animations are smooth. Spells and effects have subtle animation and sound cues that tell you the state of your cards, such as summoning sickness and tiggered spells. The attack animations are fairly generic as animating every card would have been a nightmare for the developer, but do an adequate job of showing what happens when you attack and defend. Certian spells are given a little extra polish such as Incinerate, which lobs a fireball at your opponents as it burns away their life. The sound effects do a decent job of giving you audio cues as to what is happening and nothing is over the top. The music score is soft and appropriate but will quickly get old once you hear it over and over, thankfully the Xbox allows you to play your own music in game. ConclusionIf you love Magic: The Gathering or are even slightly interested in TCGs, I would wholehearted recommend buying this game. It is a steal at only $10, and you will get plenty of play time out of this title. I have been playing all week and can’t say enough good things about it. The new format for D&D miniatures has been released and the first set we have are Hero miniatures for use with PCs in your game. There are six packs with three heroes each, two male and one female. Each character comes with a card that is a new power for that class. Each pack retails for $10.99 and includes 2 martial hero packs, 2 arcane, 1 divine and 1 primal pack. I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the new set of hero miniatures from Wizards of the Coast for several different reasons. First of all, I would guess that most players are only playing in one game and therefore only need one of the miniatures. That makes it a $10 miniature and you have two extra minis that you may never use. The next big selling point is the power cards. I really like the idea and for some people they are useful, but for anyone who subscribes to D&D Insider and has the Character Builder, all of these powers are in the program. So for me that isn’t a selling point anymore. Second, and I know I might take flak for this from some people, but 1/3 of the figures are female and I don’t think this matches up close to D&D’s demographic. I only have my personal experiences to draw from on this but I also saw a large number of D&D games last year at Gen Con and I would say that out of the 6 games and 36 PCs, only 3 were females players or males playing females. That’s only 8% out of a small section, but even looking around at other tables, there weren’t many female players, maybe 10-15% would be a generous estimate. So when a third of the minis are female, although nice to look at, aren’t a selling point. I understand that WotC needs to be “PC” but maybe 1 female out of two packs would be a better idea. And I’m not just upset because the only dragonborn is female What I do like are the sculpts and paint jobs. They have really brought up the quality. So overall, I would only recommend buying them if you really want a certain character, or want the power cards, or are a completist
So that concludes the D&D miniature previews until the new PHB Heroes set comes out in July and the new monsters set, Legendary Evils (huge creatures!), is released in August.
Leave a comment below if you want to come to one or both. Sometimes great things can be simple, very simple. The proof of this is Grow, an indie game series by Eyezmaze. All the Grow games are all based on one simple premise, you start with a blank world, every turn you can add something to that world, and every turn everything previously existing in the world “level ups” and becomes bigger, or better in some way. The trick to solving the puzzle of Grow is to have everything in your world at its highest possible level; which then becomes a simple matter of adding things in the right order. What complicates the whole matter and wherein lies the genius of the game is the fact that the objects interact with each other when they are added. So while one object might just upgrade over time, another object might require something else to be added to “level it up.” Conversely, an object might destroy another if it is added too early or at the wrong time. This cause and effect style of gaming ends up being real fun and considering Eyezmaze has animations for all of the different combinations(even for the completely wrong combinations) you’ll be tempted to replay the game again and again tell you solve the puzzle. Even then you might play on still just to see the hilarious results of the mismatches. Like the gameplay, the animation is incredibly simple but very effective. The little people that inhabit and live in your little world are truly a joy to watch and see them react to your new additions and the ever evolving landscape. I am a hug fan of back issue bins. To me there is nothing better than diving into two dozen or more dusty long boxes, picking through the comics, ogling the covers and looking for something that just jumps out and bites me in eyes. It’s also fun to go hunting for that last issue that will complete your set or hoping to find that bit of gold that may have slipped through the cracks at your local comic book shop. To that end, I thought it would be fun to dig through my own boxes and find a rare gem to share each week with the rest of you. The only requirement? The book had to be at least a year old and not collected into any kind of trade paperback. That way, if you like what you see here, you too can go on that same quest as I once did, digging through the long boxes like Allan Quatermain looking for gold in King Solomon’s Mines, seeking out your own hidden treasure.
Fearless – written by Mark Sable and David Roth with art from PJ Holden Fearless is the story of one Adam Rygert, a millionaire with more than a few dark secrets to his credit. The first being that he is the armored Vigilante known by the name of Fear. The second being that he suffers from crippling anxiety and the only way he can do what he does as Fear is through a cocktail of various chemicals and antidepressants: an anti-fear drug that Adam is now addicted to. When Lionel, the creator of the drug, disappears along with the cylinder used to manufacture it, Adam is forced to use what little reserves he has of the drug and confront the Gasparian crime family and rescue his mentor. When Adam finds Lionel, he is forced to face the young upstart Victor Gasparian, Jr. and the dark secrets that the young crime lord knows about both Lionel and the drug. Victor uses an old family heirloom of great power to literally become untouchable and best Fear. It’s then when his real plans come to light-to give the drug away to public for free, allowing them to become addicted, and then take it away-making himself infinitely powerful in the ensuing chaos. Can Adam confront his fear without the help of the drug and his armor? What will happen when everyone’s secrets are brought out into the light? Fearless is a great story about the nature of our fears, the power they can have over someone, and what it takes to move past them. It’s a story about the monsters that lurk in our past, the specters that hover in our present, and perhaps the hope of freedom that exists in the future. Mark Sable and David Roth’s story is both interesting at the same time that it is heart-breaking. Their dialogue and pacing is fantastic. With the help of the stylish art of PJ Holden, the story blazes quickly to a satisfying conclusion. I was a huge fan of this four issue mini-series published by Image Comics when it was first released and upon reading it again I can’t help but hope that we will see these characters again. Fearless earns a strong recommendation from me and a well deserved 8 out of 10 fanboys. Be back here next week when I again reach into the back issue bin. Until then, good hunting! Before Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw became an internet celebrity with his gaming review show, Zero Punctuation, he was an indie game designer. While he made several series during his bout as a game maker, his most famous and by far best was his quadrilogy known as The Chzo Mythos. These 2D point n’ click adventures showcase Ben’s incredible knack for story telling, atmosphere, and horror. Do not be fooled by his low-bit drawings, by the third game he masters the use of sound and timing to create a truly scary game with very limited resources.
5 Days A Stranger
7 Days A Skeptic
Trilby’s Notes |
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Wizards of the Coast and Stainless Games released Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers on the Xbox 360 arcade this week and I have been playing it nonstop. It offers a great Magic experience for the extremely decent price $10, less than 4 booster packs.
Wizards of the Coast have release all of the preview images of the entire Dangerous Delve monster miniatures and I have to say I am quite impressed so far. The sculpts and paint jobs seemed to be top notch although I’ll have to see how the actual product stands up to the images. A favorite is the Bloodrager Troll, who has had weapons and metal grafted into his body ala Wolverine. It will be nice to have at least one of the miniatures visible in each pack and it seems the visible one is always pretty nice looking. These monsters are instantly playable in your game with the included stat card, no need to look up the stats in the monster manual.
Open invitation to anyone interested in seeing the new Star Trek movie Friday afternoon and them playing some games later. I plan to go to the 4:20 showing of Star Trek. We will play some board games, minis, and TCGs.
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