Hurr & Durr play Magic the Gathering

Hurr and Durr play Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

We go head to head in a best 2/3 match - who will win? Hurr with her sharp mind and ability to rapidly learn new games? Or Durr, a seasoned magic player? Watch and find out! The other 2 games will be uploaded this evening for your viewing pleasure.

Check our 'Other Videos' section to find out!

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Hurr’s top 3 videogame crimes

 

Quick Time Events (QTEs)

I don’t think there is anything more annoying and cheap than “press X to not die”. I think QTEs are a lazy way of being able to say that you have 'interactive' cutscenes. And QTEs don’t just happen in cutscenes, some games even design their gameplay around them. I’m not going to be cheap and include Heavy Rain in this, because let’s face it, that's more of an interactive movie.
 

Dante’s Inferno and God of War for example, rely heavily on QTEs (especially boss fights) - they are spread throughout the game like a nasty STD.  And not all of them are the kind you can memorize, sometimes they are completely random, making the entire experience completely unbearable.

 

 

 

 

 

Resident Evil 4 is another QTE culprit, some bosses require fast QTE input otherwise you will just have to do it again and again. I’ve never before met anyone who said, “You know what games need more of? Quick time events!” – and yet they are constantly being rammed down our throats.

Unskippable Cutscenes

This is something which really really annoys me, especially when the unskippable cutscene is between a save point and a boss – meaning that if you die a lot you have to watch it over and over again. I don’t see the purpose of unskippable cutscenes, how is forcing someone to watch a cutscene a benefit at all?

Surely it should be up to the player (you know the person who paid for the game) to decide if they want to watch the cutscene or not. And isn’t it simply lazy to make someone watch a bad cutscene, than to make a good cutscene that they will want to watch anyway.

 

 

 

This also totally doesn’t take into account people who complete games more than once – for example to play through as another character. Mass Effect 2 is one of those games, if you make a new character you will be made to watch the opening sequence yet again (and Miranda's ass does not make up for this).

Bad Voice Acting

If you have ever played Star Ocean: The Last Hope International, then you will know what the epitome of bad voice acting is. Ok that was quite a bold statement, but you would understand why I say that if you have ever heard the character Lymle say “’kay” (it makes your ears want to bleed).
 

 

I think some developers think that having voice actors automatically means that the game is somehow enhanced. But there are some games which have been almost unplayable due to bad voice actors. Games that spring to mind include Deus Ex: Human Revolution, every resident evil game ever made and that god-awful laughing scene in Final Fantasy X. My favourite voice actor is definitely David Hayter; how could you not love that husky voice?

Although I do feel that voice actors are not entirely to blame, but bad writing has a part to play in this too. Had Square Enix not felt the need to create the typical happy-go-lucky bimbo in every game, then I probably wouldn’t find them so annoying.

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Grandia: a hidden gem

I first came across this amazing game in a video preview contained on one of the official Playstation magazine demo disks. That's right back in the good old days where you bought a magazine for £5 and got a good 5-10 game demos to play and a fair few videos. I was around 12 and having only Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon as my anime influences, I found I was infatuated with the art style of this game.

Upon finally purchasing this game I was shocked when in the first 10 minutes of play I discovered voice acting! Not only was this incredibly rare for a PS1 game, but the voice acting wasn't bad either! A real treat for me to hear the first sentence uttered in the game to contain the word 'bastards' as well (swearing in a game - my word).

The icing on the cake for me was this game actually had an incredible combat system! I wish Iwas joking but the combat system alone kept me coming back for more with this game. It was a lot more fun and involved than the final fantasy 7 combat system that i had tried out previously. You have the ability to interrupt what ever your enemy is doing through the use of a well timed 'critical' or you could do more damage but let them attack by doing a 'combo' You are even able to combine your attacks with other party members for powerful combo moves!

All in all this game was an immense amount of fun and although I haven't mentioned it yet the story is truly heart warming and has some decent character development. I highly advise if you haven't played this game yet you go back and give it  ago.

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Hotline Miami: 'Do you like hurting people?'

Hotline Miami

This is one of the few games that has really made me sit down and think about my actions, and my personal involvements in the acts I commit. The 'acts' in Hotline Miami, are gratuitous, blood drenched, high octane feats of psychotic violence. Within the first 3 minutes of playing the first level, you will have smashed some guys brains out on the floor, then caved the next guy's head in with a bat while he is taking a piss.

The game's story is where it really hit home for me. It reminded me a lot of David Lynch's style of story telling where in you're never quite sure what is going on and any theories you may make tend to be quickly dashed. The characters you encounter are even presented in a cryptic way in the form of 3 people wearing animal masks.

However a question asked very early on which made me take my hands away from the keyboard and mouse was simply 'Do you like hurting other people?' A simple sentence but very sobering after leaving a room filled with gore and blood drenched corpses and I had to admit I did just have fun...

The gore and violence is enough to turn even the hardest of stomachs at times, with acts such as knocking someone down with a punch then taking a drill to their skull, or dumping a pan of boiling water over someone. But if you can stomach the violence and have some patience with the Nintendo hard difficulty this game is a lot of fun.

Special mention has to be made to the brutal soundtrack which matches the tone and pitch of this frantic flurry of violence perfectly.

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My experience of tilting in Scrolls

Imagine this. You are in a game of Scrolls, you have a decent set of cards in your hand and are about to make your move. You position your units and cast your spells, when a chat message pops up, “LOL WHY DID YOU DO THAT”. The scenario I have just described is commonly referred to as tilting, when your opponent tries to put you off in order to secure an easy victory.

The intended results of tilting are to frustrate and annoy you, causing you to play more aggressively or make moves without thinking. They can then use this to their advantage and capitalize on your mistakes. Meaning that the win is more a reflection of how much of a troll they are, rather than their actual skill at the game.

My first experience of tilting happened in one of my early games against an actual player, just after they used Quake to wipe the field. Now unfortunately for them, I had already learned to hold back for Quake and was able to recover much faster than they could and won the game (despite him taking 2 idols “LIKE A BOSS”). They then proceeded to demand a rematch, which I gladly accepted (yes there is something rather satisfying about beating someone who has been trash talking you) and I continued to beat them into the ground.

Players who attempt to use tilting will never succeed at Scrolls; the best advice you can get will come from the community – and no one wants to help someone who plays dirty. When I’m in a game with a player who is clearly inexperienced, I generally try to offer some advice on how they can improve and cards they may want to use in their deck.

I have also found that more often than not, tilting will have the reverse affect. In a recent game I made a major misplay, and my opponent responded by calling me a retard. At first I was a little shocked, as I generally haven’t experienced this in Scrolls. But it also made me think twice as hard on my next turns and is probably the reason why I won that game.

As with all online multiplayer games, trash talk is to be expected – and as Scrolls becomes more popular, it becomes more likely that you will encounter this first hand. In the future I would like to see an option to disable the chat function entirely. In the meantime however, my advice to anyone who experiences tilting is to not let it get to you. Most of the time they are doing it because they know they are losing. So your best bet is to ignore them, focus on the game and wallow in the sweet revenge of wiping the floor with their face (which will of course – only infuriate them more).

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Do moral choice systems work?

A majority of moral choice systems have three fundamental choices;  the good option, the bad option and the “I don’t give a fuck” option. This usually ends up giving you either of two endings; the holy saint or the Satan worshipper. Moral choice systems are pretty useless if that’s the only purpose they serve, it doesn’t really add any depth to the game, and doesn’t provide a viable role playing experience.

When I first played Fallout 3 and arrived in Megaton, I accidentally got the sheriff of the town killed – in front of his own child. I have never felt like a more terrible person in my life, and that’s how a moral choice system should make you feel. Fallout New Vegas was a step up for the series in terms of moral choices; both good and bad actions were accounted for.

However, this system was entirely broken if you suddenly decide to change factions. If you decide you’ve had enough of Cesar’s bullshit and decapitate him, the whole story-line you have been working for is failed. Bioshock is another game which doesn’t handle moral choices well; either kill little girls, or don’t. This again, leads to either a good or bad ending.

So what games have implemented moral choice systems well? Bioware seems to be the first developer that comes to mind when you think about moral choices. In Dragon Age, you are often put in a situation where you have the choice between helping a friend do something wrong, or betraying and them and getting a reward from someone else.

Helping the friend can  lead to more problems for you, or cause someone to suddenly despise you. But betraying your friend will affect your relationship with them. Overall, I liked how moral choices were handled in Dragon Age, this is probably because the characters were likable and I actually cared if something bad were to happen to them.

In Mass Effect 2 we all know the major choice you have to make at the end of the game, but this has very little impact on Mass Effect 3 at all. Overall, I found the choices in Mass Effect were pretty black and white.

Throughout the game you can decide to be good “Paragon” or bad “Renegade”, and in some conversations an icon will pop up indicating that you can do a sudden good or bad action. For example, I was having a chat with a journalist, pressed R2 for the Renegade option, and punched her in the face. This didn’t affect the storyline, but was overall a lot of fun.

The moral choice system in Dishonored is rather different, in the sense that you don’t choose an option in a conversation. If you decide to reap chaos throughout the city, you will see the effects of it. Your actions directly impact your environment and force you to see the consequences of your killing spree.

However, there are still a choice of endings, which are impacted by how many people you kill. This directly affects your style of play, and isn’t an effective moral choice system – but rather a cheap way of making you complete the game twice.

So what can be done to improve moral choice systems? Well firstly, developers need to stop the good, bad, or neutral conversation options - they simply don’t add enough depth. Choices should be more unclear if they are good or bad, not just “hello” and “fuck off”. Secondly, your choices should have consequences which you actually experience.

I’m not saying that you should have to go to the funerals of every poor soul you have killed, but if a game forces you to make a moral choice they should be more committed to it. For it to work the game needs to have unique choices, with unique consequences. There should also be no “karma points” or saint meter constantly tracking your actions. And no visual effects on your character either (yes Fable I’m looking at you).

Finally, the most important aspect of it all is the script. No game can have a successful moral choice system without decent writing. However this is where most games are lacking, as they are just not broad enough to comprehend that not everyone is either good or evil.

Overall, I have enjoyed playing games where I have to make moral choices, even if they haven’t had a great impact on the story. But in future I hope that they can be improved and provide us with a more realistic role playing experience.

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Action priority for new players

Action priority, by this I mean the most productive order in which to do things in your turn. We have all done it while playing Scrolls, drawn into a card we can really use but have already moved our units, or cast a spell and spent our resources, then draw into something which would have been far better for the situation. What I plan to try and outline with this post is what is the most optimal sequence to do things in your turn.

1. Decide what to sacrifice, you should be sacrificing every turn, unless you have what you believe to be a perfect hand for the situation drawing an extra 2 cards at the cost of another is generally better and can keep you in the game. It's never good to go into "Top Deck" mode where you must rely on the next card you draw.

2. If you are even thinking of using any cards which let you draw more cards, do it before you do anything else. Don't move your creatures!

3.After you are done drawing look at the available options to you; think through the best use of the cards in hand and the state of the field. Work out if you need to move your creatures, and where, to get the most out of them. Just sit and observe the field.

4. Move your creatures into position.

5. Cast your spells and end your turn.

So to break it down into some more straight forward steps:

1. Sacrifice.

2. Draw cards.

3. Observe & think.

4. Move creatures.

5. Cast Spells

Whilst by no means this is THE way to make the most out of your turn, for new players following this hopefully you will be able to reduce the amount of mistakes you make. As any of the higher ranked players will tell you, all it takes is 1! That's right! JUST 1 misplay or creature out of position, and you can lose the game.

Hopefully this will provide you new guys with the ground works to get the most out of your turn and reduce the mistakes you make to a minimum.

You have 1 minute 30 seconds for your turn, make the most out of it and don't rush into your decisions.

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The problem with modern co-op games

Looking back on co-op games from the Sega megadrive generation, I feel that co-op was much more in depth and actually felt like a part of the game. Nowadays it seems that co-op is almost an add on, in an era where multiplayer is the norm. Co-op gameplay should invovle players working together towards a common goal, whereas multiplayer is more competitive. I just find it hard to accept that multiplayer can be more fun to play with a friend when compared to a decent 2 player game.

Most modern co-op games do not revolve around a 2 player campaign, but rather go for the easier option of online multiplayer. Meaning that if you want to play through the campaign with your friends, you can forget about it. Now I am well aware that there are games out there attempting to address this, but they don’t seem to be able to quite get there.

For example, FEAR3 has great co-op gameplay (although the game itself is rather mediocre) , both players have different abilities and they have to work together to succeed in missions. The “scary” parts of the game are especially fun, particularly when something scary would pop up for one player and not the other (causing you both to shit your pants). However, the campaign was extremely short and the FPS parts of the game felt very repetitive.

I wasn't scared at all....

But it’s not just shooters which have problems with decent co-op gameplay. Let’s now take a look at White Knight Chronicles – an RPG. The co-op in WKC is not a co-op campaign, but a separate online mode where you can complete quests with a friend. However, there is an extremely large catch; you can only unlock new quests by playing the game in single player mode. Meaning that if one of you has gone ahead and unlocked a new quest, your co-op partner will have to do the same. You also have to be a certain level to unlock some quests. This basically means that you might as well play through the whole game single player before you even bother – which to me kind of defeats the purpose of it all.

However, there are a few games which still do co-op gameplay well, Portal 2 is probably one of the best examples. They have a whole separate co-op campaign and actively encourage the 2 players to work together. Left 4 dead 2 is another - you can choose to play online multiplayer, or create a game for friends only and have the other players as AI. Even indie games such as Terraria are managing to incorporate a decent co-op experience. These games have proven that it can be done, so why isn’t it? 

 

Looking back over some of the old school games, a majority of them had a 2 player option. Nowadays, it’s much more difficult to find a game to play co-op – especially if you are playing on a console rather than a PC. For the Sega megadrive there are endless co-op games to choose from, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Street Fighter, Toejam & Earl, Sunset Riders, Contra – Bad Cops, and well the list goes on.

 

I just feel that there seems to be too much focus on milking cash cows rather than actually making a decent co-op experience (and this doesn’t just apply to call of duty). Although it’s not feasible to say that all games should have co-op, I believe that those which do should at least spend time making them as enjoyable as the single player campaign. Perhaps the developers think that all gamers are socially inept and wouldn’t have friends to play with anyway? I remain doubtful about the future of co-op games, so in the meantime I think I’ll stick to Portal 2.

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Scrolls advice for players new to TCGs

 

Having virtually no experience of TCGs myself, diving straight into a game of scrolls really didn’t end well. There is a lot to take in and get to grips with before you can expect to match up to the more experienced players. Below is a step-by-step guide of how I personally improved as a player.

 

Step 1: Choose your deck

 

The pre-constructed decks are there for you to play around with and learn the basics before you have the confidence to build your own deck. Play against the AI using the pre-constructed decks and decide which one suits your style of play more. I personally started with order as I felt it was the easiest to learn as a new player – but you are welcome to choose whatever you like. You are free to create more than one deck, and you can create decks of mixed factions, so don’t feel that you have to stick to the first deck that you make.

Step 2: Practice makes perfect

You will lose a lot of games, but take every loss on the chin and remember that even the top ranked players lose games. The most important thing is to learn something from each game. Ask yourself how you could have defended better, did you ignore the middle lane? Did you forget about an enemy’s countdown? Did you make the best use of the cards in your hand? I would advise practising with the AI until you are comfortable with your deck and experiment with the various difficulties. It also doesn’t hurt to talk to the people you play with, ask them how they think you did and if they have any advice they can offer. I’ve found that the Scrolls community is generally very helpful and friendly. You may also want to have a look on the Scrollsguide forum, where some players have posted their decks. This will give you an idea of decks which are working for other people, and will also tell you what you need to watch out for.

 

Step 3: Strategy

Something I need to remind myself of sometimes, is to take your time (yes I know there is a timer) but make the most of every second, don’t make any rash moves. Controlling the middle lane is an extremely useful strategy, which many players utilize. By controlling the middle lane you are forcing your opponent to go top or bottom and making it more difficult for them to position their units in a way which would allow them to take down 3 idols before you do. This is the lane where you want to put a structure, or something with a lot of health. You may also want to race them and take out the middle idol using a combination of low cost cards. For example, a Crossbowman + Focus (maybe blessing of haste). Durr has also provided ways to get in on idols early on in the game – look out for his mono energy post for more details.

You need to constantly be looking out for countdowns – what units are attacking next turn? You also need to take haste and countdown reset cards into account. With energy you want to be careful of Fury – this will reduce all units countdown by 1, and Iron Whip (which can be combined with magma pack) can be deadly. For growth you need to be ready for God Hand and Rally (which could possibly be combined with Crimson bull). Growth also has cards with haste – Ragged Wolves and Kinfolk Veteran. And for order you need to watch out for Honorable Generals, Blessing of Haste and Speed (although Speed is much rarer). Generally when playing against growth you should always be prepared for a sudden rush in, my tactic is to make sure there are as few units on the field as possible – making God Hand/ Rally redundant.

Quake is another card you will need to play around – for some advice on dealing with this, please read my post “Why Quake is Hurr’s favourite Scroll”.  This may all sound a bit daunting, but being prepared for the above will come with time.

 

Step 4: Refine your deck

By now you should have a basic knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. You should be aiming to get the more powerful cards for your deck (for example if you are running a growth deck you are looking for God Hand, Quake, etc) and trading with other players if necessary. Take your time to read each card description carefully and think about how this card could be used against your opponent. Play your new deck against different players, it will take a few games to adjust to a new deck and you may need to change your tactics. For example, I am now using a growth/order deck – this deck is designed in a way that my aim is to out race my opponent.

 

Step 5: Play play play!

The simplest way to learn is to play with more experienced players. You don’t have to take on the ranked top 10 (or you can if you are feeling brave), but playing against someone who is more experienced than you will enable you to see where your deck needs improving. Also playing with someone who runs the same deck as you, will give you ideas on how you could possibly use the same cards/combos in the future.

This is just some basic advice for new players and is not intended to be a complete guide on how to win games (you may want to ask Durr about that). I hope you at least found some of this information useful and if you ever see GrumpCat online - feel free to challenge me !!

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Scrolls Deck Building

Hi all just a quick update so that you can now hear how Durr sounds! In the video section we have now linked p0w3rtriggers video of me discussing deck building with Gareth. I go through making the most out of his cards with the all powerful growth faction.

The link to our video section is found under the 'Scrolls Corner' panel on the top left.

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Scrolls Videos!

We finally have our first Scrolls video linked in the 'Scrolls Corner' video section.
Courtesy of: http://www.youtube.com/user/p0w3rtrigger!

Hopefully we will have more to follow soon, there has been another video made featuring myself and Gareth from p0w3rtrigger, where I go through his deck and try to help him make the most of his available card pool. This video should be fully uploaded and edited towards the early part of next week, and contains useful tips for all those currently deck building growth with a limited pool.

If you would like any deck building advice for scrolls, drop us an email! You can find our address in the about us section.

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