Precon Vs Precon

 

It's time for yet another fun Scrolls video! Following the "hard AI challenge" theme, we decided to have a match against each other using the precon decks - the ultimate test of skill!

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Hard AI challenge

This video shows how you can beat the hard AI with the growth precon deck. This is the first video made only by Hurr so please be kind!  

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The apparent issue of video games and violence

If newspapers are anything to go by, games will rot your brain, make you fat and lazy, give you cancer and make you want to kill people. Now we as gamers know that this is simply hysteria, but it seems that the idea that video games could alter your mental state that much is becoming much more mainstream.

In recent incidents such as school shootings, the fact that the perpetrator owned video games seems much more significant than anything else that may have happened in their lives. It seems that games are becoming a scapegoat for these incidents because the media feels that they are an easy target. Even President Obama has requested more research into the effects of videogame violence on young minds.

Many parents now also seem to believe that video games make children more aggressive and more prone to commit violent acts in the future. Yet violence has been around long before video games and we as humans have found difference ways to express it.  For example, children playing with toys such as Action Man, Power Rangers and even water guns are an outlet for it, but these are not considered harmful. Then of course we have music and movies, which are not considered harmful because they are non-interactive.

Looking at games themselves  – when you kill someone in a game, you know there are no real life consequences. You know that person doesn’t really die and you know you won’t really go to prison (unless you’re playing Skyrim or something). I have been gaming and playing violent games since a very young age, and yet I’ve never had any desire to pick up a gun and shoot someone (albeit a little more difficult in the UK).  Which in fact makes me more certain that games are actually being used as a scapegoat for gun control problems.

So is there a solution for this? No, because in my opinion there isn’t a problem. Numerous amount of research has actually shown that videogames REDUCE violence and crime and can actually help with stress relief (which I am personally happy to vouch for). The only thing that needs to change is that parents need to take more responsibility for their childrens behaviour and stop looking for easy answers.


 

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An overshadowed RTS: Battle Realms

Battle Realms is an RTS for PC, set in a fictional feudal Japan where four warring clans vie for dominance. Each clan has it's own unique set of units ranging from deadly dual sword wielding Ronin, to the lotus clans crow spewing hag.

The real treat with Battle Realms is the single player campaign. It follows the hero Kenji, based off your actions in the first mission will determine whether you join the Dragon Clan or Serpent Clan. You are met with a choice defend the peasants from the bandits or put them in their place for not paying their taxes.

After this fork in the road, not only will you be choosing your clan to play but the story will unfold in an entirely different way, some of the maps are the same but will feature different opponents or events.

This was one of the first RTS's that I came across that had 'hero' units leading your army! This was before the days of Warcraft 3 where you had a powerful hero at the head of your army. The combat is fluid and fun, with each unit having it's own unique ability. For example the bandits are able to use glass swords to do immense damage on their next attack, but take damage themselves upon use they break - so it's only 1 time.

There is even the opportunity to catch wild horses you find, so you are able to mount any unit -increasing their combat potential including your heroes!

This RTS was an immense amount of fun but never got the chance to shine as it was over shadowed by Starcraft and Age of Empires at the time.

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Scrolls Tutorial Video

We decided to make a video tutorial for new players, or for those who want to learn some basic tactics. We used the pre-constructed decks in this video as not everyone has a set of every scroll.

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Durr's new addiction: Xcom

This is something I have meaning to write about for some time, but for what ever reasons I have been putting off doing any writing for nearly a month. This afternoon I decided to pull my finger out my ass and crack on with writing about a game I enjoyed beyond belief.

Xcom at it's heart is a turn based strategy game, it uses a system which could easily be done with pen paper, tape measure and dice (warhammer style).  So how can such an old style of game have gripped me so completely? Because none of your brilliant strategy's are guaranteed to work.  The skill in the game comes from reducing the risks your troops take and planning for the worst case scenario constantly. 

At the start of each mission your squad is dropped down in an area and you must traverse the map weather it be a UFO crash site in a forest, or a city center under attack. You must command your team very carefully and traverse each map with due care, if you get it wrong you could be staring down a large group of very pissed off aliens and defeat very quickly.

Aside from the missions, you have to manage your base as well, your research team will torture interrogate captured aliens to learn new technologies form them. Once these technologies have been discovered your engineering team will construct them for your troops, albeit at a cost. Everything costs money, do you upgrade your troops as quickly as possible? Or provide more satellite coverage to the nations providing you money? If you don't protect the nations funding you they will pull funding, to many country's withdraw and it's game over. It's one hell of a tight rope to walk between keeping your base running and keeping your troops alive in the field.

It's very difficult to try and put how much fun Xcom can be into words, the story is quite bare-bone, but this isn't what you will remember about the game. The stories come from YOUR PERSONAL experience, for example one of my rookies took a shot at a certain alien that causes 'Intimidate' forcing them to take a 'Will' test and failing. This rookie in a state of panic turns and blasts my favorite corporal in the face with a shot-gun killing him out right. That's right Gaunts Aldenhai 87 kills 38 missions, killed in combat... by one of my own fucking rookies shitting themselves, a truly inglorious death. I laugh about it now but at the time? I was mad as fuck.

All in all Xcom for me is an amazing game and one I will keep coming back to time and time again I am only sorry I missed the original back in the day.

 (I always thought xcom was a spaceship flight simulator - how wrong I was)

I have also recorded myself playing Xcom, you can find the video here:

Durr Failing at Xcom

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3 cost or lower Scrolls challenge!

In this challenge we only use Scrolls which cost 3 or lower, we also have to use 2 resources. We played a best 2/3...who will be victorious?!

(note: Durr totally ragequit lost his connection in the last game which is why it crashes out at the end)

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1 Cost Deck Screen Shots

Below are the decks lists we were running for our 1 cost deck match-up.

Hurr's deck was vastly superiour in my absent mindedness I seemed to forget about copper automatom.

Hurrs (Grumpcat) Deck:

Durrs(Rastien): Deck

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Hurr & Durr's 1 cost Scrolls challenge

In this video we set ourselves a challenge of only using 1 cost cards, and we had to use all 3 resources. This challenge really put our deck building skills to the test! 

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Scrolls Screenshots Pre 2013

My Current Energy Deck
02/12/2012

 Energy Deck
28/11/2012

The Current Graphic User Interface Of Scrolls
28/11/2012

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Durr Plays XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Well I had disappeared for a few weeks mainly due to having an operation and dealing with the shittyness that is Christmas and avoiding people like the plague!

But one of the main culprits was XCOM a single player game. A single player game hasn't gripped me and sucked me in like XCOM in a long time. In the video below I am trying to begin a 'Classic Ironman' campaign. In this mode the difficulty is severely stepped up and there is no save and go back when things go bad. When your favorite solider dies HE STAYS DEAD.

Seems I had some free DLC turned on which explains some of the randomness with damage I was doing! lesson learnt.

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Hurr & Durr Play Duels of The Planeswalkers 2013

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

Hurr an Durr go head to head at Magic the Gathering in the latest PC version of the game Hurr has little experience with MTG and has only been playing a week, Durr has played magic to a tournament standard but who will win in this best 2/3?

Game 1/3

Game 2/3

Game 3/3

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Hurr & Durr Play Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 Survivor Mode

We decided to do some survivor mode on Left 4 Dead 2 and have made 3 attempts to see how long we can last it out, as it turns out not very long!

Attempt 1/3

Attempt 2/3

Attempt 3/3

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Hurr & Durr Play Portal 2

Portal 2

Hurr & Durr take on one of the challenges in Portal 2 - could have gone better! Watching it back, we made some pretty silly mistakes! Hope you enjoy.

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Grump Cat faces off against Tinfox

Grump Cat faces off against Tinfox

In this video Grump Cat throws down with Tinfox in a close fought game.

More videos from Tinfox can be found on his YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/t000000x6 

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Deck building with p0w3rtrigger

Gareth from p0w3rtriggers ranked experience

Gareth from YouTube channel p0w3rtrigger, is gradually constructing Scrolls videos and teaching himself how to play the game. Here is one of this first few games he has played and recorded. For those who haven't seen much of Scrolls, this video will give you an excellent idea of how games are played out.

If you are interested in any more of the videos he has done (or just like the sound of his voice) his YouTube profile can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/p0w3rtrigger

Deck building with p0w3rtrigger

Here is a video with me going through a deck with Gareth trying to get the most out of his cards. I also discuss a few key basics with him and general card knowledge.

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My most anticipated games of 2013

Bioshock Infinite

 

Release Date: 26 March 2013

Platform(s): Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC

The next instalment of the Bioshock series, which has already been the subject of much controversy due to the covers art work (seriously, get over it). The game takes a whole new direction and is set in 1912, where you control former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt. You are sent to the flying city of Columbia to rescue Elizabeth, who has been held captive there for the last twelve years.

Gameplay-wise, Bioshock Infiniate is a first-person shooter with RPG elements. You move around the environment using a grappling hook and a series of railways in your attempt to find Elizabeth. Plasmids and Tonics have been replaced with Vigors and Gears, which will grant powers and increase your strength.

Once you find Elizabeth, she will be controlled by an AI and will her actions will depend on the situation. She may stay out of battle, or use her powers to help you. However, using her powers causes her pain and this ‘moral choice’ is similar to sacrificing or harvesting the little sisters.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Release Date: 01 Febuary 2013 (was delayed by 2 weeks)

Platform(s): Playstation 3, (DS version in Japan only)

This game was developed by anime masters Studio Ghibli – need I say more? The story follows a young boy known as Oliver who is trying to bring his mother back from the dead (it’s a lot less creepier than it sounds). Throughout his journey he acquires magical skills to become strong enough to defeat the White Witch.

I actually was luckily enough to have a play of this at the Eurogamer Expo (UK based expo) and was blown away. The game is a turn based RPG where you can control several small Pokémon looking companions, as well as your characters. These can be used to implement various tactics such as shielding your characters and blocking particular attacks.

I think most RPG and Studio Ghibli fans are eagerly awaiting the release of this game, and although it has been delayed by 2 weeks, when it does launch there will be a free gift to download with it, a free companion.

The Last of Us

Release Date: 07 May 2013

Platform(s): Playstation 3

A survival game from Uncharted developers Naughty Dog. You must survive an apocalypse which is brought on by a modern plague. The two main characters are Joel (an adult) and Ellie (a teenage girl).

You take control of Joel throughout the game, and Ellie is controlled by an AI. Naughty Dog have announced that much of the gameplay will be focused around dealing with other survivors who are desperately trying to stay alive by stealing weapons and provisions. It has also been confirmed that The Last of Us will have multiplayer, however this will not feature a co-op campaign.

While not much else is known about this game at the moment, the trailer has certainly been impressive and early videos suggest that this has the premise to be an amazing game. I just hope that it doesn’t go down the same tedious route that Dead Island (or should I say Dead Boring) did.

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My Game of The Year 2012

 

 

This year has been a rather disappointing year for gaming, and up until recently, Mass Effect 3 had my vote for GOTY. However, after picking up The Walking Dead for £10 on Steam – I have never found a game more deserving of this title. The Walking Dead is a point and click adventure game, which in theory really shouldn’t work – but somehow Telltale Games have managed to form a masterpiece.

It has been a while since a game has managed to bring me so close to tears, and has had me literally on the edge of my seat in a mad panic as I try to avoid having my face eaten. There are a number of major choices you have to make in the game, which will impact how your story plays out.

This was a really refreshing change to the moral choice systems we are all used to, knowing that each action you take could have potentially disastrous outcomes. You usually have three or four options when you say something, and it seemed more ambiguous than the usual good or evil options. This perfectly demonstrates that in some situations, there is no right or wrong answer – and you can only go on your gut instincts.

 

The story was surprisingly deeper than I was expecting. I was often shocked at the amount of brutality the game showed, and they didn’t seem to hold back on showing what life would be like if it were overrun with the living dead. I think I was most surprised to see child zombies, probably because there were so few in The Walking Dead TV series.

There are also some pretty horrific gore moments, and even though they have adopted a more comic art style – it didn’t make it any less stomach turning. Most of the gameplay is simple enough, there are a few puzzles to solve in the game but nothing too challenging. Although there is not much in the way of gameplay, the story immerses you so much so that you don’t even notice – or care.

 

The Walking Dead is truly an amazing experience and deserves a lot more attention. I can’t help but feel that The Walking Dead is how Heavy Rain was supposed turn out. Either way, thank you Telltale games for making my GOTY 2012.

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