Review of Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is, besides being a game with a stupidly long title that includes a year suffix that makes you think of annualized sports franchises, a surprisingly interesting and entertaining video game conversion of the famous card game.

I picked up the PC version of Magic The Gather... the PC version of "DotP" a few weeks back, after I watched a "WTF" episode from Totalbiscuit about it that sparked my interest. The game looked nice and clean, with mechanics that were easy to understand but looked to have a lot of depth and opportunity for strategy and intricate tactics.

Way back when I was a kid in school I dabbled a tiny little bit in playing Magic, but I was never really grabbed by the game due to its lack of loud animated explosions or women getting nekkid.
Since then I have grown older. and my voracious appetite for undressed females and things going "boom" has been bountifully tended to, which means that I am now in a better position to take in the simpler joys of a card battling game.

It may not look as adrenaline fueled as a game of MW3 but when the cards start to fly things get real intense real fast

DotP offers a few different ways to get your card battles on. You can play through three different campaigns, which pit you against different opponents with different decks of cards. As you pummel these troublesome spell slingers into submission you'll gain access to their decks, thus building up your Magic card arsenal.
The campaigns also present a number of "challenge" scenarios, in which you are tasked with winning a match in a single round from a given position. These challenges start off easy enough for even the most dim witted Harry Potter wannabe to win, but soon you'll be ready to snap your magic wand in frustration as the difficulty ramps up and the puzzles get increasingly fiendish.

New Syndicate Trailer - Unlock the power of "Breach Apps"

The Syndicate trailers are coming in hard and fast as we close in on the February 21 release date of this FPS that is a festival of gun violence and pulling the brain chips out of other people's head.

This one sheds even more light on the co-op mode of Syndicate and also goes into further details about the "breach apps", which will let you disarm enemies, heal friends and other handy stuff (maybe jailbreak an Iphone?)

I like the "Dart overlay" feature, even if it does feel like it's been ripped straight from Batman's "detective mode".

The ability to be able to customize your character as you gain levels seems potentially interesting as well.
As a gamer that has long since given up on the ninja reflexes required to be fighting for top spots in FPS battles, I'd be interested in tailoring my character to be able to support my more competent fighting allies from behind the lines.




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Why Star Wars: The Old Republic is ultimately a disappointment

When Star Wars: The Old Republic came out it was probably the most hyped MMO since World of Warcraft.
A massively popular setting, coupled with a developer that is generally regarded as one of the best at creating compelling RPG experiences, helped set some very high expectations for SWTOR. I was certainly extremely excited to finally get a chance to pick up a lightsaber and carve my way through this latest entry in the MMORPG space.

And yet I find myself disappointed with the end result.

You would think that this should make for a pretty awesome video game

It's now been about one and a half months since I first stepped out of my arrival shuttle on Korriban as a Sith Inquisitor. During that time I have conspired and murdered my way through the ranks of the Sith hierarchy, I've made friends with such unlikely allies as a Force eating alien, a cocky pirate and a fallen Jedi apprentice. The galaxy has trembled before my meteoric rise to power and I've even had time to get me some sweet looking robes!

All in all it was a wild roller coaster ride all the way through my story.
Then my story ended and I found that there was no more track in place for my joyride and, with a sheepish expression that would make Wile E. Coyote proud, I was unceremoniously dumped into the harsh realities of infinite repetition of content.

Quick look of Soul Calibur V up on Giant Bomb - A little Ezio in your calibur of souls

I've never been much of a fighting games fan, but for some reason I've always quite enjoyed the Soul Calibur games ever since I played the original on my Dreamcast console way back in the day.

The Soul Calibur games are something of a "black sheep" in the fighting games genre, as far as I understand it. It's generally viewed as being a bit too simplistic and not terribly well balanced, but it's easy for non-fighting games people to pick up and the fights look great, so that's probably why I'm partial to it.
Also the chance to play a dual sword wielding pirate with a demon blade is pretty nifty.

Soul Calibur V is the latest entry in the series and is coming out today in the US, while us eurotrash peeps will have to wait a few days more.

I saw this quick look of the game over on my favorite video game website, Giant Bomb, so check it out if you're in the market for a casual friendly and great looking fighting game:

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Light Speed Gaming week in review: January 23

It's the end of January 2012 and that means that there's now only 11 months until we can all point and laugh at the ancient Mayans, or until we are all wiped off the face of the planet by some terrible apocalyptic event (I'm personally hoping for dinosaurs with lasers strapped to their heads).

But I'm not going to let the relentless approach of doom and hopelessness stop me from going on with my everyday life (otherwise I would never have made it through high school). If you need proof then you need look no further than the fountain of posts that went up on the site during last week:

Pulse Rifles. When you want to show that special someone how much you care.
About filling them with lead.

The week started off with yet more studies of how to earn money in SWTOR.
As I have a degree in economics I am somewhat obsessed with money so I hope you'll forgive that this is turning into a whole post series for me.
The power of the Force is all good and well, but the Force won't buy you a new speeder, you know!

Next up was another entry in my Sci-Fi Do Want series, this time about the pew-pew greatness that is the Pulse Rifle from Aliens. It's a cool weapon that I feel really combines futuristic sci-fi with a gritty vibe that makes the weapon fit so well into the Aliens universe.

Also making an appearance this week was a look into my fractured psyche, as I explained how using a game subscription service has made me enjoy gaming more, by easing my somewhat gaming compulsive mind.

Finally the week went out with a bang (or a fart, would perhaps be more accurate) with an interview with the developers of "Orc Attack", an upcoming beat-em-up game that pits up to 4 players in the role of a group of highly flatulent orcs against the nasty human hordes.

And that was all that I could pull out of the grey fleshy goodie bag that is my brain.
More content is, as always, incoming at light speed, so stay tuned.



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Exclusive interview with developers of Orc Attack

"Orc Attack" is a game in the vein of Castle Crashers, which lets up to 4 players take the role of a band of gassy Orcs and beat their way through over 20 levels of human bashing goodness. I've had a talk with Igor Rodinski from "Casual Brothers", developers of this upcoming beat- and fart-em-up Orc Attack, which is looking to satisfy all your filthy human killing needs.

Here's a gameplay demo showing the game in action:

Now on to the interview.

Q: Firstly I’d like to ask you to give us a short introduction to Orc Attack. What’s the essence of the game?

A: The essence is, above all, fun, both alone or even better, with your friends.
The story has its fair share of protest against the destruction of the environment. The Orcs use to live wild and free in their homeland, until the humans arrive with their evil machines to exploit the natural resources to the exhaustion, bringing pollution to the land, water and air, and making the Orcs fell terribly sick, suffering severe gastric disorders that will result in extreme flatulence.

Q: The beat-em-up genre has had somewhat of a revival in recent years, especially after the release of Castle Crashers. Can you tell us a little about what your inspiration for Orc Attack has been and how Orc Attack stands out from other beat-em-ups?

A: We can’t deny we love Castle Crashers and that we found some inspiration in it. In fact, we were pretending to catch the spirit of 2D beat’em up classics, bringing them to 3D, something that no one done before, and we think we succeeded thanks to our innovative camera, for Orc Attack stands out from others beat-em ups firstly for been in 3D and for its innovative camera, focusing the action with all four players always on screen sharing the same view.
Secondly, the mass combat allow up to 50 enemies on screen, so the battles looks really spectacular. Of course, there is the difference that in this game you play Orcs against evil human, and, naturally, the use of gases, as farts and burps, to fight the enemies producing explosions and other deadly effects, is also a stand up.