Durr's favourite scroll: Iron Whip

Currently my favourite card in scrolls has to be Iron Whip, it's versatile and low cost. Whilst a very new card, being one of the recently released energy cards, it can really pull it's weight.

The general usage I find for it early game is the 1 poke damage, useful for removing memorials and Sister Of The Fox. By removing these 2 early on you can slow a growth deck down significantly by removing targets for an early Fertile Soil.

The reason I take Iron Whip over Shock in my deck is late game Shock becomes a bit useless 2 damage can often be entirely negligible  However decreasing a friendly units countdown by 1 and increasing their attack by 1 is amazing. Using this on a unit such as an Iron Ogre when the enemy isn't expecting it can lead to victories.

Lastly, this card when combined with a Copper Automaton means you can get 5 hasted damage on the field, which in itself is nasty and can deal with those pesky Great Wolfs and Kinfolk Veterans  But if you manage to get a Magma Pack on this speedy bugger, you're looking at 10 damage - AKA smash an idol in 1 turn.

Cost: 2 Energy

Type: Spell

Ability: Target unit takes 1 damage.

It's attack is increased by 1 until end of turn

and Countdown decreased by 1.

Rarity: Uncommon (supposedly)

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Hurr's top 5 Sega Megadrive games

 

 

5. The Lion King

 

 

Possibly one of the most infuriating games I have ever played, although this was probably easy compared to the likes of Ecco the Dolphin. The Lion King is a solid example of when games based on movies were actually good. The game itself is a platform game, with Simba as the main character (with Timon and Pumba available in bonus levels). The most difficult, and the most fun part of the game for me was the Stampede level where you have to jump carefully and avoid getting trampled to death.

 

The Stampede

 

 

 

4. Jungle Strike

 

You get to control a helicopter and blow stuff up – what more incentive do you need to play this game ? There was also an element of strategy involved, as you had to complete various missions. For example if you choose a heavy weapon, you will be able to carry less and so you must decide on the most  suitable option for that particular mission. You can also pick up power ups, fuel and ammo – which I found to be one of the most fiddly parts of the games. If fuel runs out then you will crash and maybe fling your controller somewhere..

 

3. Streets of Rage 2

 

If you didn’t have streets of rage in your Sega collection, then you were missing out big time! One of the most fun co-op games I have ever played. In the game you have the basic punch, kick and throw - then there are multiple weapons you can pick up including knifes, pipes and bottles. The special power up for each player allows you to call in a police car which fires a huge rocket, damaging all enemies. Although it was annoying trying to avoid punching your teammate in the face rather than the enemies, playing with someone else definitely made the game a more enjoyable experience.

 

2. Golden Axe

 

 

 

 

This game remains one of my favourite co-op games ever made. The game is a hack and slash style, with a simple aim to kill Death Adder and all his minions. Your primary weapon is melee, but you can also use spells dropped by little drawfs looking things (don’t know what they’re actually supposed to be) which you can also kick to get a health chicken from. There are also several minions which you can knock off a mount and take it for yourself which gives you a wider attack range.

 

My favourite element of the game was the map itself and the various levels. The village you work your way through is on the back of a giant turtle, which takes you across the sea and then to a giant eagle which you fly to the castle. The game also had some impressive boss fights which were also hard as nails. The story isn’t much to write home about, but the gameplay more than makes up for it.

 

 

1. Sunset Riders

 

 

The most shocking moment of my life was when Durr told me he had never heard of Sunset Riders (seriously- what the fuck?). I could not believe that someone could have not heard of this AMAZING game. Ok so I’ve gone into fanboy mode a bit, but let me tell you why this game has earned its rightful place in my number one spot. Sunset Riders is a wild west shooter, where the player can control one of four cowboy bounty hunters. Your aim is take down the notorious criminals in the west and claim the rewards.

 

Your gun has unlimited ammo and you can jump between levels and shoot in all directions, and if you get a silver badge power up – you can dual wield ! The second power up Gold Badge allows your gun to fire continuously –and both power ups can be used together for ultimate decimation. It’s also quite competitive as if you are playing co-op, it’s the player who deals the most damage to the boss who will claim the bounty for themselves. Overall, it’s a great fast-paced co-op game and in my opinion one of the best shooters available on the Sega mega drive.

 

 

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Rocket Knight Adventures, an amazing platformer few had heard of

One of my favorite games from my childhood was a title called Rocket Knight Adventures and still sticks fondly in my memory. Funnily enough though I never owned a copy of the game! It used to be my go to rental game in the golden age of rentals where as a child you could spend up to an hour just deciding what game to rent!.

The reason I loved this game at the tender age of 10 was it was such a breath of fresh air compared to the standard platformers i had been fed in the form of Sonic and Mario. I love these 2 as much as the next person but when your game collection is so small you tend to run them into the ground.

In Rocket Knight you play as Knight mouse armed with a Jet Pack and a sword that shoots what can only be described as flaming hoops. Now this in itself sounds fun! to use the jet pack you merely had to hold down your attack button to let it charge then hold the d-pad in the direction you wanted to charge at/fly.  You could also perform this move in the air to fling yourself across impassable terrain, or power slide across the ground with your sword out in front.

The boss's in this game were a lot bigger compared to what we had seen in similar transformer. From a robotic caterpillar busting through walls to the giant armored gun train.... with  FRIGGIN ARMS. Yes I have soft sport for Outlaw Star if you have seen the anime you will understand.

All in all this game was a lot of fun at £3 for a weeks rental back then! a complete bargain in my opinion my only regret is that I never owned this amazing game.

For those of you who loved this game as much as I did please check out this remake campaign these guys are working for! Hurr an Durr wish them luck in their cause and we hope you readers do as well.

I want a Rocket Knight Remake!

If the link doesn't work please copy and paste the following URL:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Remake-Rocket-Knight-Adventures/196471850395146?fref=ts

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Hurr’s experience of the online community as a female gamer

Although I believe that gamers in general are over the whole “there are no girls on the internet” drivel, there still seems to be a depressing amount of animosity towards female gamers.  I’d never before seen a reason to purposefully hide my gender, and I never understood why some people think it would affect my ability to play games. My first experience with online gaming was with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (yes I know this probably wasn’t the best place to start); and as I used to play with friends a mic was needed.

A majority of games were uneventful, although I’m not sure if that’s down to the community, or the fact that not many people who play on PS3 use a mic at all. However, when the harassment did start – it was pretty agonising. It ranged from friend requests, to messages asking if I wanted to see a picture of various uh body parts, to the usual unoriginal sexist insults.

“Is your boyfriend playing for you?” “Can you make me a sandwich?” “Are you hot?” “Show me your tits”, the list really goes on. It started off pretty funny, but eventually it just became a nuisance.  I ended up automatically putting everyone except my friends on mute before the game starts, regardless of whether they spoke or not. If anyone sent me a message, I’d reply back saying that my name is Steve and I have a massive package.

Now that I have moved to the “PC Master Race” I was more hopeful that we could all just get over the fact that I have a vagina. My steam username was the same that I use on forums “Girl With One Eye” – which is taken from my favourite Florence and the Machine song. While playing Left 4 Dead 2 it didn’t take long for the insults to start rolling in. One incident stuck with me in particular – “So I guess it’s true that girls can’t play games” (sigh). I was also being kicked from games before they even started just because of my username; I ended up changing it just so I could play in peace.

So what has my experience taught me? Well there are assholes everywhere, and they will insult you for any reason they can possibly think of. If you are not a girl you are a “noob” or a “homo” or whatever else they come up with. I want to make clear though, that I still have a lot of faith in the gaming community as a whole. On forums such as The Escapist, female gamers are a large part of the community and while there are still some assholes with a superior attitude, this is just something that all gamers have to live with.

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Why Quake is Hurr's favourite scroll

Quake - the ultimate double edged sword. When I first encountered this card, I absolutely despised it. Admittedly that was only because it was a complete ball-ache once I had placed my units all perfectly on the field, only to have them wiped out in one move and my opponent taunting me with “LOLQUAKE”.

I soon discovered however that Quake can be dealt with if you plan carefully. Keeping an eye on your enemies ramp is key, as soon as they reach 7 I know it’s going to be quake time. There are several ways to avoid being wiped out – the first is to hold out. Don’t put all your units down as soon as you can, place a few units carefully and keep the rest in your hand. Maintain a steady ramp so you can make a quick recovery.

The second option is to make your units fat, Crowne of Strength, Bear Paw or anything that reduces damage/increases health. You can also reduce their units health below 5 to decrease the chance of them wanting to use Quake – cards such as Thunder Surge and Frost Wind work well.

Once I built my own growth deck (after sticking to order for a while) I was so used to avoiding Quake that I had learned the perfect time to use it in order to screw the other guy over. I baited my enemies with kinfolk and wolves, forcing them to place more units. Once my small units had done some damage and were picked off, my enemy had a field full of units which are easily wiped out with Quake.

I guess it’s the cat and mouse game between players that make Quake such an interesting card; you have to take your own units as well as your enemies into consideration. And if the other player is also running Quake, you have to decide if you want to use it before or after they do.

Overall, I think Quake can be a powerful card if used correctly. I’ve seen a few players use quake, causing their own untimely demise (e.g waking stones only take 1 damage) and I admit to have forgotten about Potion of Resistance (a costly mistake - thanks Durr!). It is certainly a must have for all growth decks and I will be interested to see if order or energy will have any similar mass removal cards introduced in the future.

  Cost: 7 Growth

Type: Spell

Ability: Deal 4 damage to all units.

Lore: Even the bravest get scared when even the ground beneath them attacks.

Rarity: Rare

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How Durr successfully created a monster

Before playing scrolls, my only experience with card games was from playing Pokémon as a kid. And even then I was tricked into trading my beloved shiny Chansey card for two standard cards (under the false pretence that it was a better deal). So when Durr told me about scrolls I was a bit sceptical about how I would fair against a seasoned MTG player, but I was up for the challenge all the same.

The first few games were rather intimidating and it took time to get to grips with the field and various strategies (and Durr felt no shame in punishing me for my mistakes). Once I had learned to remember and plan for things like cooldown resets and had created a deck I was comfortable with, I soon began giving my enemies a hard time and eventually winning games.

After only a few weeks I was editing the deck myself and thinking up new and interesting ways to crush my opponents. The best piece of advice I would give to a new player is to learn something from every game you lose. I am by no means an expert now, my ranking is currently 1001 and I have generally stayed clear of ranked from fear of being humiliated. But my confidence is growing with each game and with my new deck (and a bit of training) I feel that I stand a good chance.

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Durr's opinion on the current balance of scrolls (Alpha 0.77)

My thoughts on the current version of scrolls (Alpha 0.77):

I feel that growth as it currently stands is a lot more powerful than order and energy by a long chalk.  You only need look at the top 20 players currently, although I’m not 100% I would say that nearly all of them are running growth, or a variation of growth mixing in with one of the other factions.

Growth has everything the other factions can offer. I will list the main strengths of each faction as I have come to understand, from what I have experienced. I think for growth to be properly balanced, some cards need to be removed or vastly altered to balance it with the other factions. Although providing them with equally powerful cards such as Quake, God Hand and Kinfolk Brave would be another step in the right direction, I am aware that balancing a game like scrolls is a very difficult process.  We are still in alpha and a lot of changes will happen over the course of time, but as I said these are just my thoughts on the current version of the game.

Order:

Strong structures.

Great unit synergy.

Utility low cost spells.

1 turn unit buffs.

Energy:

Reasonably strong removal spells.

Ability for very fast single idol destruction (1 turn)

Decent siege structures with high health.

Growth:

Great endgame (God Hand, Quake)

Great unit synergy Wolves

Powerful low cost units (kinfolk brave)

Good defensive structures

2 sources of global cool down reset (3 if you run mangy wolves and use wolves as your primary creatures)

Decent card draw (fertile soil, sister of the fox)

Fat Units (most units have minimum 2 hp if not more)

Global attack buffs (god hand, crimson bull)

As it stands, growth seems to have the best of what the other factions can offer.  It is common knowledge that growth is by far the strongest of the factions and although we are still in beta, I feel some things wouldn’t hurt to be put down on paper.

A key short coming of energy and order is that they seem to have very weak endgame in comparison to growth. Energy has Iron Ogre, which is a 7 drop fattie with relentless.  But it is quite slow with a cooldown of 3. It also has thunder surge, which is a great spell but dealing only 2 damage feels a little weak, especially with the cost being 6 and most units having +3 HP by the time you can drop it.

Order lacks a good 7 drop, but has the Honourable General, a solid 6 drop creature which is good -but pales in comparison to the growth drops of higher or equal value. It also has the Royal Vanguard, again a solid creature but not as strong when compared to the likes of growth. The Knight Scholar could be good, but a reduction in health and therefore cost would make him a more useful and viable unit. I believe that order needs a more solid 7-8 drop, as the end game order has is substantially weaker when compared to growth or even energy.

Other Suggestions:

I feel a maximum hand size would be a great step forward; mass draw is a bit too powerful at the moment.  Capping the hand size at 5, then at the end of your turn having to sacrifice cards to meet the maximum hand size would be very useful. By capping the hand size, you limit the amount you can drop and therefore decision making becomes more difficult and requires more skill.

Another suggestion would be for another game format, which would be best 2/3 games, in between games you can have  a separate card pool of 10 that you can swap cards in and out of your main deck. For example, when using energy you may not want a Tick Bomb in the main deck - but when you find your opponent is using a lot of structures it would be good to swap out your Shock cards for Tick Bomb. Again by doing this you add another layer to the strategies presented to you and effective use of countering your opponent’s deck and what you have seen so far.

Closing Thoughts:

Scrolls is an amazing game with a lot of potential, the actual user interface is quite tidy, although it could be improved in some areas. For example, displaying the card you have clicked on over the right hand side of the screen can at times make it very challenging to target enemy units. For example using Shock displays the shock card on the right side of the screen, covering the very units I wish to target. Also, when moving the curser, this can often show the other cards in my hand. At the moment I am countering this issue by clicking on the card I wish to use (such as burn), then clicking somewhere away from the field, then clicking on the unit I wish to target. Taking an idea from MTG duels of the planeswalkers, you could zoom in on cards using the middle mouse wheel rather than always displaying a large image of the card on the right of the screen.

I have big hopes for scrolls and with what has been shown to us so far. I believe that there is a lot of potential to have a very active and competitive scene, which I highly look forward to participating in.

Again what I have said here, you are more than welcome to disagree with or challenge me on this is just my thoughts on the current game.

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