Rogue Legacy: Heirs have their uses!

Rogue legacy as the title of the game suggests, is a 'Roguelike' game. This game genre is defined by random level generation, permanent death and generally (but not always) 2-D style tile based environments. If done poorly, this will lead to frustrating and short lived play, due to the perma-death feature. However if done well, a roguelike game will offer hours of fun and a unique sense of progression, albeit with some frustration still.

Considering I have no sunk 80+ hours into Rogue Legacy, it safely falls into the 'good' category for myself. It's unique approch to the perma-death of a character is that you can choose 1 of 3 heirs for the death of your previous character. You earn gold throughout your characters life which can be spent on upgrades which in turn are then passed onto your heirs, these range from base health increases, to access to new weapons and even new classes with unique abilities. As you spent your gold your castle will grow adding more towers with further choices on what to spend your gold on giving you a physical representation of your progression!

When you choose to be succeeded by one of your 3 hiers it's interesting to note that not all heirs are created equal! Not only is each heir assigned a class with their own unique play style but there are smaller traits which can be beneficial or a complete handicap to them (not to mention hilarious). These range from dwarfism making your character tiny, shortsightedness meaning enemies at range appear blurry. A personal favorite is being clumsy meaning any destructible object you touch will explode! so rather than landing on a table over a spike pit safely, if your character is clumsy he will crash straight through it onto the spikes!

Each time you enter the dungeon it will be randomly generated but will have the same rough lay out with the tougher areas being joined to the starting area, I won't go into to much detail as to how as part of the joy of this game is exploring and getting your head around the mechanics. There are some really tough boss fights to which can be incredibly tough to get past considering even reaching them can be exceptionally challenging! Luckily very early on you will get the ability to 'lock' the dungeon down preventing it from randomly spawning again and enabling you to jump straight to the door outside a boss fight.

This game is an incredible amount of fun and considering how often you die very fast paced! if your looking to dip your toe into the roguelegacy genre this is a great place to start! check out Durr's failed attempts in the video below.

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Rogue Hearthstone Deck: K.Q.D

Knives. Quest. Draw.

Knives, Quest, Draw (or K.Q.D for short) is a deck I designed using Miracle rogue as the back bone e.g. Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Thus drawing lots of cards using rogues 0-1 cost cheap cards to keep drawing more cards. There are a few centrepiece combos which I will explain later on, with a rough play guide and complete deck list. At the bottom of this Article you can see the deck in action, although the first game I played was a loss, the 2nd game shows how quickly you can recover with this deck, as long as one of the centrepieces sticks.

Knives: A small but very powerful early game combo is getting a Knife Juggler down who combos well with Elven Archer, Elven Archer will give you 1 targeted shot then your Knife Juggler will throw out 1 random dagger. This combo can be further improved upon by using Shadow Step to bounce your Elven Archer giving her 2 targeted attacks and throwing out 2 knives. Although there is only a single copy of him in the deck, another very valuable combo is using Defias Ringleader to summon 2 creatures, throwing 2 random knives again - you can also Shadow Step him to throw another 2 random knives totalling 4, which is nothing to be sniffed at. The other aspect of knives comes from Fan Of Knives which provides a mild sweep, but when used in conjunction with Preparation will enable you to play 2 cards for 0 and draw 1 card. This will allow you to buff your Questing Adventurer twice! or drawing 3 cards total if a Gadgetzan Auctioneer is in play, all for 0 mana!

Quest: The main damaging combo is Questing Adventurer, he can level up quickly using the rogues access to cheap spells, ideally you’re going to want to play him after your Gadgetzan Auctioneer  however you can play him earlier if you can keep him alive with Conceal. As long as he can survive 1 turn you will often end up with 10/10 under your control or even higher depending on how well you take care of him. He benefits from any card entering the field so using Shadow Step on a creature and re-casting it will count as 2 cards being played and give him +1 +1 for each of these.

Draw: The other centre piece creature in this deck is the Gadgetzan Auctioneer and the main piece in Miracle Rogue, ideally you’re going to want to play him on turn 5 where possible then hide him with Conceal, again fishing for conceal and waiting till turn 6-7 may well be needed to make sure he stays alive. If you manage to keep him alive for 1 turn the next turn your going to be drawing a lot of cards and Ideally looking for the previously mentioned Questing Adventurer getting both of these cards down in play is an exceptionally powerful combo and will snowball very quickly. Another small draw combo is Novice Engineer used in conjunction with Shadow Step allowing you to draw 2 cards for each time she enters the battlefield, If a Gadgetzan Auctioneer is in play this effectively becomes draw 3 cards for 2 mana which is obscene.

A few other notable cards in this deck are Bloodmage Thalanos who provides a bit more draw and spell power to help with all the damaging spells packed. Leeroy Jenkins to help drop opponents when combined with Sinister Strike or Cold Blood you are suddenly able to burst out 9-10 damage which is often enough to finish off a weakened foe. Eviscerate is also noteworthy as removal to help keep your creatures safe but can also double up as a bit more burst damage ideally though you’re going to be looking to use this for removal purposes. 

Single cards, there is currently  a single copy of Sinister Strike and Cold Blood which strikes a better balance of damage and flexibility Cold Blood requiring you to combo and Sinister Strike being useful for setting up a combo or even finishing off an opponent or draw should a Gadgetzan Auctioneer be in play.  There is also a single copy of Sap, I was initially running 2 but found this to clog the hand, sap is great for removing blockers in your attacking creatures way in the late game but a dead draw early on. Again I found 2 copies of Defias Ring Leader to not work as well with my deck late game but they are handy nut draw early game pressure or when combed with 1 of the 2 Knife Jugglers in the deck.

Ideally I’d like to have a copy of Edwin Vancleef in place of my Defias Ringleader but still lacking the dust/luck required to obtain him but if you access to him I highly advise slotting him in over Defias Ringleader.

Hearthpwn Link
Deck List Below: 

• 1x Bloodmage Thalnos
• 1x Leeroy Jenkins
• 2x Preparation 
• 2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
• 2x Knife Juggler
• 2x Questing Adventurer
• 2x Cold Blood
• 2x Conceal
• 1x Defias Ringleader
• 2x Eviscerate
• 2x Shadowstep
• 2x Elven Archer 
• 2x Fan of Knives
• 2x Shiv 
• 2x Backstab
• 2x Novice Engineer
• 1x Sap  

K.Q.D In Action:

   

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Defying a 21st century business model: why Wii U is not Wii 2.0

 

 

 

Written by @anujitkaur of thewonderwound.blogspot.co.uk

The Wii’s initial success owes so much to the simplicity of the console and the engineering that went into it, that we recognise it as a phenomenal landmark within gaming and technology. However, it is this same success that has created the bar, a bar too high, a bar that all other consoles are measured by.

Despite all the technological advances that surround us, we recognise that we are in a ‘reinvent and tweak’ culture. A tablet is launched, bugs are fixed, tweaks are added, and a new version lands. A smartphone is launched, bugs are fixes, tweaks are added, and a new version lands. An application is launched... And it goes on and on. The model is replicated all around us, and partnered with the ‘wants firsts, needs second’ attitude many adopt, the updated phones, tablets, programmes, and applications, continue to sell.

So, what happened with the Wii U? Let’s not sugar-coat it, it tanked. Yes, it is early days and knowing Nintendo, the brand that bought gaming back to life in the late eighties, a future comeback is anticipated. But, shares have plummeted, stars fell to earth, Ganondorf conquered Hyrule. The Wii was the clear winner of the last generation console war, triumphing over the Xbox 360 and PS3, so reason follows that the Wii U would continue the legacy. But, and one kicks themselves here, Nintendo did such a bang up job the first time round, that this isn’t Wii round two, it is the launch of something completely different. And this is where we take a step back.

Remember that engineering I spoke about a little earlier? It is bloody brilliant. The motion control was excellent, and the software reliable. It hardly fails. The design was clean and tight – a small console, about three DVD covers thick. An easy user interface for casual gamers to explore. First party games, allowing adults who played Nintendo as children to play those same games, those same characters with their own children, shaping future generations of gamers. Simplicity, reliability, nostalgia. Check, check, and check. It seems that Nintendo got it so right the first time round (and Nintendo fan Sheldon Cooper would agree despite believing right and wrong are not subject to gradation), that the launch, fix, tweak, launch 2.0 model becomes redundant. It is considered something new.

The console will recover from a weak launch. There is a nostalgia attached to the Nintendo brand that encourages older gamers to gravitate towards it, and the simplicity accommodates casual gamers, widening the audience demographic. It is a shame that the newer console is standing as a new product against improved consoles – improvements allude to a better experience as it is built upon something that has already launched, but it will do fine. It is not Wii 2.0, it is another product perfected by Nintendo to mark the latest console war.

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