Bubble and Hearth, the breakfast of Paladins

Im opposed to getting myself involved in collectible card games.  Its not that I don't like the games, or that I consider them a massive waste of time, it's that I don't want to get addicted in searching hundreds of cards for a real game changer and suddenly find that it's obsolete the next year I play, while I will also have stack after stack of cards that will do nothing but either create a different deck, which I'm not opposed to, but will create replicas of decks whcih i can't fob off for whatever reason.

However as a digital version, it makes me more interested.  Mixing it in with an IP that I enjoy, that makes me keen.  Lo and Behold, Hearthstone: The Warcraft Collectible Card Game.

Immediately, I knew that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my World of Warcraft career: Warrior.  So I jumped on the opportunity taking the role of 'Garrosh Hellscream', Mr Ivory Shoulders himself.

Since then... i haven't had much success.  But I knock that down to not much experience in deckbuilding.  On practice matches, I just haven't beaten anyone else, and I find that a little embarrassing.  But they're tricky, ya know?  Full of tricks and surprises, they are!  And not to mention the organisation between utility and bloody minions that do X, Y and Z.

The problem with it is that it makes me want to play World of Warcraft.  I had a modicum of love for it, even though I couldn't play it for more than about a month at a time because I found it rather tedious and cold.  It is still one of my favourite fantasy themes out there.

But i can't play it because it's too expensive, and it's a complaint I've had for years.  Ever since it was first announced in fact.  And while I could happily go back to play Warcraft III, I've had my fun with that.  The game has decided to take on a new style of RPG, and I have said several times that I would enjoy them continue with that... with a not so profitable method.

Thats my problem with MMO games.  While I can appreciate that having a subscription means you're supporting the developers to furthur expand said universe, that's not what I see a game as.  It's not a business method, it's an experience.

That was why I was ecstatic when I came across the Business Model page (http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/game/features/business-model/) of Wildstar, which shows a detailed and easy to explain Free-to-play method.

Which quite simply translated means you pay your subscription using IN GAME MONEY.

To be fair, that can potentially be quite a drain on such characters. The potential for players to extort those who want to depend on C.R.E.D.D. (Sounds like it should have a helmet and multi-purpose pistol) will be ridiculous, but I'm sure there is a method in the madness therein.  You also need to find people who are happy to trade real money for in-game benefit, and funny enough it's substantially more expensive than it is to pay for a subscription.

Actually, I'm starting to get a bit disillusioned by it all now.

One day I want to get into Wildstar.  Seriously, it looks like World of Warcraft had wild monkey sex with Ratchet and Clank.  And those are two games that I really like!  Dodgerolling, strafing, attacking, combo-ing, etc etc etc...  I could be a Bilby Gunmage!  That's just awesome!  I can continue to do the Aussie thing in game!

What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, Hearthstone is pretty fun for a Digital CCG that you can either flog money at to get good cards, or just do quests which give you Gold which you can use for gametypes or for more card packs.  And whatever card bloat you have, you can disenchant them into Arcane Dust and make other cards for a cost.  That's pretty nifty.  Too bad you can't do that with Magic the Gathering.  You just make paper mâché houses for tabletop games.

What if Blizzard made a Cow Clicker?

Click for more Minerals

I came across the term Cow Clicker a few years back when someone explained what it actually is, which turned out to be simply a joke from a guy about Social Games like Farmville by making a Social game where all you do is Click a Cow every six hours.  Ironically, it became quite popular.

I've been playing a handful of Cow Clickers similar to Farmville the last few years, starting with Tiny Village, a Stone Age themed town builder where the aim of the game is to build and build and keep going until there just isn't anything else.
After that I found Skylanders: Lost Islands.  Same idea, but with the added feature of being able to use my Skylander Figures to throw into the game.  I would send them on adventures, which were simply just countdowns with rewards of Gold after I had farmed for Energy, which I would then use for buildings that would either give me more money, energy, Kingdom Experience, or Gems which offered exclusive stuff.

I had left it in the capable hands of my mother, who to my knowledge has continued to build upon the villages and islands since.
Since I've moved to USA I hadn't even had an inkling of thought towards such Cow Clickers until one night at my Brother-in-law's house the TV was rambling off in the background while we played Cards Against Humanity with our respective spouses, and an ad came up for Clash of Clans.

It was a bit cute watching a skeleton run and run, dodging explosions and arrows while carrying a comical bomb in it's claws until it reached a rock wall, sat back with a sigh, and let the fuse go out.

Then there was something about Archers and Mr T on a Hog asking if he could join in...  It got me curious, so I downloaded it.  It's for free, so why not?

Only a few weeks have passed and I've levelled myself up a fair bit, thrown troops at enemy fortresses to attain whatever resources I can from them, while keeping my own resources and defences in check, trying out numerous combinations to optimise efficency while I wait for the countdown of structure upgrades allowing me to build more or better units and/or structures.

And from the same company I found Boom Beach, which all the same premises except using modern features and everyone placed on islands, attacked from a Gun Boat and Landing Craft, all of which you upgrade over time while defending your own base from the occasional attack, and so on and so forth.

It's a little fun, for a Cow Clicker, because you can be more interactive.  It's fun seeing AI bases and figuring out how to get around the defences while minimising casualties.

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I'm a fan of Blizzard's Warcraft and Starcraft.  And I sit here looking at the games and wondering "What would an X-craft game be like if they reskinned this?"

Could it be as story intensive as either the Starcraft or Warcraft series?  Heck no, it would probably have someone going "Damn you meddling kids" and that's about it.

But the real drawback on this is that the game won't have the same strategy to it as the computer game normally would.  Though I'm sure there are ways around that.

Offline Raid Group

I love Warcraft. I truly do. It's a game that I've admired for years since I had a demo of Warcraft II back when I was a sprog. Orcs have always been my favourite faction. I don't know why, possibly because I don't mind playing the bad guy on occasion, or because I simply liked the aesthetics of them all.

Could also be because I have a distinct hate for Elves. We may never know.

But I've enjoyed the franchise for as long as I can remember. But I haven't been able to play a Warcraft game in a number of years. Why? Because of World of Warcraft.

It's a good game in its own right. It's polished and shiny and hits all the good spots of its long time fans, while changing the style of the game from its traditional Real Time Strategy (slash Strategy RPG by WCIII) to an Action RPG.

Who wouldn't want to play an Orc Grunt? I know I did. So I did. Not straight away though. When the game first released, I didn't have money in high school, let alone a computer that could run it.

Eventually though, I made it into the game and started a Dwarf Paladin to play with my Alliance friends, who wanted to play Elves and Humans. Nancies, the lot of them.

But I still had fun. I ran around with a Giant fuggin hammer and smacked ever living shit out of every poor computer run monster there was. I just couldn't die.

The years went by, and the novelty wore off. I played a couple of the expansions and everything, but now you never even see me consider loading up the game. Not for fear of having to download 20gb of updates for it, though now that I think about it... But because The game has become tedious. I could play it once a week as part of a raid guild, taking on some of the more severe instances of the world amongst a large number of comrades, but I would still get bored. I've gotten into the habit of paying for a month of play and just farting around levelling up whatever character I wanted to play. And also getting used to the new abilities, because they're usually different by that time too.

There's the thing though. It's been almost ten years, and I am tired of WoW. So what about some love for the offline players?

I've been thinking about it for years, an RPG of Warcraft, telling a story between several characters from the Horde and the Alliance, each from different Races and Classes, going through the main events of the World of Warcraft series, and maybe even the entire franchise. Heck, their next expansion sends players entirely back in time, so why not?

One of my favourite RPGs is Final Fantasy IX simply because the game follows the entire cast, not just one and whatever companions he comes across at the time. It splits between them all, even just for a short while. That's how I envision an RPG Story told about Warcraft, flicking between different events a character could have been at, maybe with a couple bits of character substitution.

It's a wonder what the play style would be. Would it be just a rehash of the World of Warcraft System? Or would it be something like a JRPG, or a Tactical RPG? Visually, I couldn't care less if they just got the art style of Warcraft II or III and made a system from those, but it would still have to have features from the original game, like skill trees, and the rage and threat systems.

There's no chance of this happening, I'm aware. They're focused still on WOW and their other games, like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. But one day, it would be cool.

Dear Xbox Avatar

I have been good to you. Made you look any range of dapper, to cool, to just plain nerdy. However I have spent too much money on you. Too much for a pretty little guy who just doesn't do much except represent me in the Xbox-verse, with features that aren't appreciated enough.

Quite frankly, it's a tad disappointing. Knowing that you're wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog hoodie and discovering that Sonic once came in a cartridge almost as big as a DS. Or wearing an Orc mask and a Warcraft Horde shirt while riding a Dire Wolf and throwing a Spear. Or wearing a Nanosuit and shooting across cover with an SMG and pistol. Or wearing your own incorporation of your ex-military corporations uniform, and driving around in a Bandit Truck.

I've spent far too much to have these features, all for no purpose but my own entertainment.The one outfit Im happy to have gotten, and without having to pay, was the Doomguy suit. And I received that by finishing a chapter in Doom II. And it was a Fkn hard chapter too. When faced with a horde (yes, a horde) of Imps you tend to freak out. And then finish shitting your pants when you see the Cyberdemon turn the corner.That's what I call an outfit to be proud of. It means something. You wear it with the pride of a soldier wearing a medal.

Cos frankly, Doom is a game that shows it's age, but nobody gives a Fuck. It's still relevant. I still have a hard time trying to sleep when i hear that patient Imp noise, something akin to a hungry truffle pig.

But having something to wear to show that I overcame those Imps by spamming my BFG, and dodging the Cyberdemon Rockets while making it catch my own?  It gives me a gleam in my heart.

So why don't games do that more? If you complete a game that offers an Xbox Avatar costume for you to purchase in the marketplace, why not reward the player with it?  Finish Xcom: Enemy Unknown on Easy, you get Xcom basic armour and a Pistol, Normal you also get Carapace Armour and a Laser Rifle, Hard you also get Titan Armour and a Heavy Plasma Cannon, and Impossible you get Psi Armour with an Animation of them casting Psionic Rift.  Heck, eliminate Exalt and you receive their operative outfit and weapon.

That's another thing.  I want to use my Avatar in game.  I've seen a handful of games that do use them, such as World for Keflings where you're a Giant and order your diminuitive minions around and build a Medieval Town for them to reside and work in, but could I find something a bit more... standard?  No.  I couldn't join in an MMO of Xbox Avatars to find myself shooting my way through a series of waves of Xbox Exclusive All star bad guys, could I.

No, he just sits there with little potential taken up by third party developers.  Microsoft couldn't just make an MMO using these Avatars, something they automatically subscribe to with their Xbox Live Subscription, could they.  Where a group of friends in contact with each other, with nothing to do on a Saturday night because they're bored with Halo or Borderlands, but still want to put in the effort of playing a game together.  No.  Those poor sods will have to make do with what they've got.

One day though.  One day.  Xbox All-Stars MMO, using your very own Avatar.  Recreate extreme demo scenes in games like Gears of War or Fable or whatever racing game they have an exclusive on.  Things like that.  Maybe not those specifically, but you get the idea.
It's an idea though, and that may be all it'll ever be.  But damnit, I want to see my Orc mask get some face time in a game, not just when I flick between screens on the dashboard.

Globe of Conflict Design – Disaster

You know? If you put that into Acronym, you get GoCD. Go Card. I see a pattern emerging.

Yes, I am back into WoW. It's been a good... two years?... since I majorly got into WoW. Last time was around Xmas time again, and for a whole week I just went ahead and played my little heart out and got myself to 79. Since then, it hasn't been too... appealing.

But secretly, I have been waiting for Cataclysm to happen. The world gets a change and it's all for the better. The game before was wide spread, and it would take such a long time just to get to level 20. You were proud to get to 20! But now after a few nights, I got to level 25 and the quests just haven't stopped. Half the game is played FOR you by travelling to destinations for you, especially if they're across the map.

This is a good idea. And to top of it off, you get your first mount at level 20. This is awesome. That's old hat, I know, but this is still awesome because it gets those quests done a little quicker. Not to mention, if you're levelling through dungeons, then you've got a quick way of getting to the dungeons. Especially for higher levels since you can just fly around now!

The worst, and what I believe to be the stupidest, thing I've had happen in WoW was quite a while ago when I was running up a new character and I was about level 35 and going through Scarlet Monastary, going off to take on the bigger bosses to get some gear. We killed off the pair of them, as hard as it was, and it came to picking up the special gear they had dropped.

Now for those who don't know, there's a Need/Greed system that the game opts for rare items. You click on Need if you do actually Need it, and Greed if you don't need it. Then when everyone's done, the computer does an automatic % roll to see who gets it, highest number wins. If there's anyone who Needs it, they roll off and the Greed people don't get a chance. It's a group effort as well to say if you need the item or not.

Now this is usually aimed at small dungeon crawls, when there's about 5 people in the party. It'll end up being a easy discussion and you can always run the dungeon again almost straight afterwards and try again. And if you don't get it? Well you were only going to keep that weapon for 5 or 10 levels before you found something better.

At raid level, the Raid Leader can set the system to only give an item to a particular person at his/her discretion. Before it was integrated into the game, the system was that everyone cancelled the Need/Greed and just discuss it. There was no control and some people would just nick it anyway. So now that the Raid Leader has control, it's a new ball game.

This wasn't the case. We weren't in a raid. And the Party Leader didn't turn on the Leader's discretion system (It has a name, fucked if I remember what it is). So out of habit, I rolled Greed. I figured the priest would roll Need and get priority, and he'd need it more than me because it was somewhat designed for him.

But everyone opted out. They wanted to discuss who got the item, and when I won the roll (Because I was the only one rolling), they kicked up a huge stink about how I was being inappropriate and how they were going to spread word about how I was rude to other players. I tried explaining to them that they should've just rolled Need, but nooo, they couldn't do that. That'd just be silly. So they buggered off, /ignored me and I turned off my computer. It was late anyway.

Otherwise it's been fun. And now in this reformed world, I'm doing the Protection Warrior again and enjoying every moment of it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Azshara has been remade into an awesome early-levellng zone and includes a Goblin Rocket Road!

Oh my little Orc with a Weapon and Shield. How much fun we shall have.

Battle Dot Net

Blizzard Entertainment are well known in the gaming world as an extremely successful gaming company. They have 3 series of games that are still selling well even after an entire decade. World of Warcraft is one of their most played games these days, being a very vast MMO with some wonderful aspects and a continually expanding world.

I have made mention in the past about wanting to play Starcraft II, one of their planned releases within the next 6 months (Which may ruin any New Years Resolutions I may secretly have this year). I've been keeping track of their efforts and one thing that stuck with me is the login system.

One thing that each of the games have in common is their networking server: Battle.Net. A server system that allows players to connect to other players easily and also update their game if need be. Blizzard have taken the system to another level now and have made plans for Battle.net to become a Social Network, allowing someone playing a Starcraft II campaign to talk to someone playing a World of Warcraft PVP match, who is also talking to a Diablo III player who is taking on a boss with a few friends.

You can also just take it to the web and create and upload Starcraft II maps for everyone to rate and enjoy. Screenshots from your favourite moments in World of Warcraft or Diablo III can be tossed up and attributed to your account, which will say what game you're playing at the time so they could join you then and there.

World of Warcraft has already begun the implementation by connecting your WoW account to a Battle.net account, now allowing "Cross-realm, cross-faction and cross-game chat". Starcraft II benefits alot from it because not only can you easily set up multiplayer matches, you can also organise multiplayer campaigns!

So Gaming as a Social Network? Players can log into Battle.net and check out peoples profiles and say to themselves “Wow, look at the scores on that player” or “Love the kit on that warrior”. The only recurring pattern between accounts is that every third or fourth player will have a naked Night Elf or Blood Elf that they use to /dance on the fountain outside the Stormwind Bank.

Always with the fucking Elves. Is nothing sacred these days?

It isn't exactly a novel idea, what with Steam being around for enough years, but it's still a nifty little aspect for the millions of Blizzard gamers, as I'll call them now, to keep in contact with others. When there's need for a dungeon to be raided in World of Warcraft while someone else is playing Starcraft, you can ask them to join up without having to go through various different other sources, like Facebook or even picking up the telephone, or even just hoping that they might get a telepathic message saying “I should play Wow and join such-and-such on a dungeon raid of Dead Mines...”

So recently I have been tempted to get back into World of Warcraft. While it may be a rather repetitive game, it is still entertaining. Dungeon diving is really entertaining, especially if you're a Warrior. The role of a Warrior is generally to keep the attention of the opponents. If it's one opponent it's very easy, generally. Not always, considering that single target would probably be a boss who has a large variety of special abilities that will constantly change the course of the fight.

But up until that point, you have to deal with massive hordes of minions that will overwhelm you unless your party works properly to keep you alive while you keep everyone's attention, keep up threat as it's termed, and other classes deal the majority of damage to the minions. Always note: Keep threat off of your healer.

It's fun. A close combat class designed for DPS (Damage per second, for those playing at home), like a Retribution Paladin or a Rogue in general or a Fury Warrior or a Feral Druid, receive a lot of fun since they're a primary source of damage, while keeping themselves alive through the hope of “I'm being ignored, but I'm still shoving this pointy/hammery bit up your bum.”

Returning to World of Warcraft is tempting though since Jubs is playing at the moment and he wants someone competent enough to understand and do their job correctly, and a warrior is something that he won't knock back. All I'll have to do is change my race and faction (Going from Orc to... Draenai I reckon) and start playing with him.

The downside is that with World of Warcraft, I tend to get really into it for a little while and then drop it and don't pick it back up for a very long while. Last time I played was the middle of last year, and then the Xmas before that for a solid week (I was on holidays too).

The other problem that presents itself is my social plan. Tuesday nights I go to Fastbreak to play games; Thursday nights I go to Humphs to play games with Kel and Co.; Friday nights I go to Dungeons and Dragons with my mates; Sundays I'm usually busy with going to Monsterpocalypse tournaments or going to the movies with Mum; Otherwise there's talking with Jen about our writing, throwing back and forth ideas and thoughts. Then there's always the Online Blokenstein Bloodbowl League that Kel and Co. are tempting to start again which I've been invited to join. Then there's my New Years Resolution of doing my 75pt Man of War Army.

With so much to do, the majority of which is difficult to mix with World of Warcraft, I think I might stay out of it for now. I'll probably give it a good crack when Cataclysm comes out, which is thankfully a long way off from being released. Shit, Starcraft II is going to take up what spare time I have when it gets released!

The next 8 months are going to be entertaining. Sorry to Jubs who won't receive my competency.

"He's an Ideas man"

Brimming with ideas, I am.
Brimming I say, like a pot on boil with too much broil.

Over the past... year?... I have made up Iron Kingdoms Diorama ideas.
A few people know about this, as I posted one up on Defiant Gaming not too long ago.
But wait. THERE'S MORE!
So I've posted them up on the net.

I was bored, okay?

One of my favourites is one I thought up for Spenny for his Heartkids events: Mammoth.
The figure is Beast-09, but with a Marauders head and weapons, standing in the gateway of an Orphanage, a stone Archway overgrown with vines, defending them from Tharn Ravagers, whom eat hearts.
I thought it was a little clever. Too bad I don't have the motivation (money or ability) to go through with it.

Another of my favourites is The Arcade, which is segregated into three parts (four as soon as I think of what to put in the fourth section).
The first is a Shooting gallery where some of the characters from Iron Kingdoms that use firearms as a preferred weapon are testing their skills on Spin offs of actual games, such as House of the Mechanithralls (House of the Dead).
The scenes in front of them are actually constructed from other IK figures.

The second scene is a Skirmish map.
You know Skirmish, with the paintballs that leave welts on your body large enough to convince people you have cancer.
That. So far, I have Trenchers and Dawnguard. Their melee weapons would be painted like Nerf Bats, because lets face it: People wouldn't be allowed into Skirmish with a sharpened blade. Nerf solves everything.

The third is a little uninspired. It's the "Managers office".
It's just the Butcher of Khardov, with Lola removed (Lola is his weapon), attacking a punching clown, in the midst of a messy room.
Uninspired, but still a little funny.

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Other ideas that I've fiddled around with in my head is a Starcraft/Warcraft custom campaign story.
I have no idea what story I would do, but the desire is there!

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A while ago, I wanted to do a webcomic.
That's right, a webcomic.
I have poor drawing skills however, which in my opinion is a rather large obstacle.

The comic would be a gaming comic, basing a few characters 'Role Playing' in different gaming settings.
The first story would be based on a D&D Campaign idea I have based on Wonder Boy.
The first arc would be Wonderboy in Monster Land, a classic tale of a boy destined to defeat the evil dragon.
The second arc would be Wonder boy III, the Dragons trap. The sequel and continuation to Wonderboy in Monster Land, where after defeating the Dragon, he finds that there is more to the incideous plot and continues his adventures to remove the curse that the Dragon has placed on him.
The third arc is not related to the Wonder Boy games, though. No, the third arc would be based on Ghouls and Ghosts, originally a story of a Knight names Arthur who saves the princess from the god Loki who is sending the world into an Apocalypse.

Since there are more than one character 'Role Playing', there are some slight variations (Such as more than one Wonder Boy). And instead of having to fight the Trickster God, Loki, I thought to have the party fight Tiamat instead. Since they will be fighting dragons through the whole thing, why not fight the Five Headed God of Dragons to finish off the story?
I thought it was a cool idea.
Just having a bit of trouble figuring out what to change the players races to in the WBIII set.

If there's one thing I've learnt as well about D&D is that you can make it "Episodic", something I learnt from Rob. Episodic makes it interesting between levels. You can have one session, with three encounters and role play between, and you would have a good session.

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Changing subject entirely I move onto Monsterpocalypse, a game based on Gigantic Monsters rampaging through a city to defeat their opponent/s.
The game has been around for approx 8 months now (maybe 9) and has had 3 Series: "Rise", "I Chomp NY", and "All Your Base".
The current series, "All Your Base", has taken a different spin on monsters by creating "Morphers": Units that transform into a Monster. For those who don't quite understand, think "Voltron". Or "Devastator" from Transformers.

So as per my own tradition I have my Series 3 Monster to represent my faction through this series.
First season, I swapped between Yasheth and Cthugrosh. Yasheth was the biggest fear because he regained health up the wazoo so he was rather tough to kill.
Second season, I discovered I didn't like Mogroth. So I played Ulgoth for the whole season. Turns out Ulgoth is ridiculously difficult to play against for most monsters as he 'explodes' every time you attack him, and if you're standing next to Ulgoth when he 'explodes' then you suffer damage. Also, his Ultra version deals additional damage on his normal attacks. To top it all off he couldn't be 'Thrown', one of the more common power attacks in the game.
Because he was so brutal I won his Mega form which I play to this day as he is not as brutal as his Ultra version.
Season Three, I field Osheroth, the first Morpher monster of the Faction. Four tentacles, burst through the ground to tear apart and manipulate their enemies in a small variety of ways.

The Morphers are an interesting concept. They work a lot like Units, however are very dangerous.
Osheroth's tentacles (yes, four tentacles with different painted tips) aren't the most threatening in the game. They have the same stat line, have average health, and have mostly the same abilities each.
Their differences lie in their melee attacks.
The two most dangerous are those with Beat-back and Vampirism. The other two are there for combining attacks and summoning.
The Summoner remains behind, helping with securing buildings and increasing your units on the field.
The Vampire and Beat-backer charge up the front to either deal damage to the monster, or steal back hit points lost. The last guy, who has Fling and Telekinesis, goes where he wants. I find myself securing buildings, most of the time.
A trick I pulled out on The Dick yesterday was one pulled on me not long ago. When you power up and go into your ultra form, you place your ultra overlapping a space one of your morphers were occupying. You then move using one action dice.
When you're in a profitable position, you power down into your Morphers Form using the same spaces that your ultra form occupied.
Aside from the similarity of matching abilities, the morphers each have a Red ability allowing figures adjacent to them gain that ability as well.
So all four have Telekinesis, Siphon, Penetrator and Hit-and-Run. The only two that really matter are Siphon (Steal a Power dice from them) and Penetrator (Lowers their DEF stat). Use summon to bring in a Cthulubite, a new unit that also lowers opponents DEF stat, and then brawl away at them against their DEF-2.
Most monsters come down to about DEF 4 or 5, easy enough for 2 combined attacks to really put the hurt on. Heck, if you're lucky enough to get a Corruptor in there with flank (Another -1 DEF to the enemy) then you can easily make 4 attacks against the monster for a MASSIVE amount of damage.
Back to the original setup: One combined attack to steal back health, siphoning Power dice at the same time, and the other combined attack to throw them into a nearby building, siphoning more Power dice.
Four damage, right there, if you consider the hazard available as well.
This was possible because the Powerup on my monster is Cheap. Probably too cheap. The only thing that Osheroth really has going for him is Annihilate and Radial attack. Sacrifice is a nifty ability if you have units to spare, and Global Telekinesis adds options to your units that you didn't have before unless you fielded taskmasters in your force. Frankly, I rarely have a taskmaster on the field as they are too expensive and hardly worth the effort, and when I do I put their shadow incarnations on at a discounted cost (Summon at 1A-die or a dying Meat Slave at 0A-die, compared to 3A-die) only to act as a distraction.
So with a ultra so cheap I feel a little overpowered since my morphers are really quite powerful, and when I lose my morphers I have an ultra that can clean up what's left.

What should I be afraid of?
Monsters with immunity to buildings or super damage.
Or maybe martians with enough Nuclear hazards around the field. A good example of this is Tharsis-5. He doesn't have Immunity to Super Damage, but he does have immunity to buildings, so hitting him into a building is not going to do much damage unless it is a fire hazard that he can land in.
Monsters with beat-back. This is actually something ALL morphers should be worried about. If you have a morpher aligned with another one of your morphers, they will suffer 3 points of damage from a single beat-back attack (one for the attack and 1 each for collisions). It's a harsh thing.
Multishot is no longer a worry. Multishot has been nerfed to only target units with the additional attacks.
Radial Attack is somewhat of a big danger. If a monster is surrounded by Morphers, they can deal a bucketload of damage. An example is if Osheroth was surrounded by morphers and he did a radial attack, that would be 5 damage to the enemy morpher form. Super damage does not apply to the additional attacks, so 2 to the initial target, and 1 each to the morphers around him. Still, 5 damage is not a easy thing to pull off. It's usually reserved for those situational events and is often worth it since it drops a monster out of form (In most cases).

So this Season of MONSTERPOCALYPSE? Yeah, it's going to be fun.
And if I'm lucky, Erin might get bored one tuesday night, offer a drive wherever and we can chat afterwards. If she's really lucky, I'll be in a complimentive mood.

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On a final note, I'm loving the Horizontal rules.
They do well separating subjects.

Some days, I just want to play Cribbage

Excitement boils inside me like an egg waiting to be chowed down with a Caesar Salad, and skewered using those tiny little forks that cost about $2.50 at any kitchenware store.

Being the nerd that I am, I enjoy a good video game. Recently, I have had no desire to play video games, whether by personal motivation or by social motivation.

Some games look interesting, but not interesting enough to play myself as they seem very monotonous. An example of this is Crackdown. Now, I enjoyed Grand Theft Auto. It's a fun game. However, it became monotonous by ending up as a game that just wanted you to shoot the shit out of everything you could see, and mini-missions that encouraged this. I'm all for video game violence. Nobody actually gets hurt, and I'm not one to be influenced by this sort of inanity. Heck, I played Sonic the Hedgehog a ridiculous amount as a child and teen, and I don't jump on people.

Now, where was I going with the lead to Crackdown? Well, it's that after seeing someone play Crackdown, it seems to be the same deal as GTA. Just a bunch of missions where you hunt people down and things blow up all around you while you try not to get hit yourself and maybe deflect a missile, throwing it into a building, knocking it over onto the car of the target you're hunting, causing them to drive off into the water and because they can't get out of the car, it explodes, killing them.

While the situation is entertaining, it's a rare event. Most likely, you'll run down the vehicle, pick it up and throw it into the water.

Which is not my idea of entertainment, as later on in the game one would come across another mission where a moment of Deja Vu will occur and the same thing will happen again, except maybe more missiles for you to practice your fly kicks.

It's a 'leave your brain at the door' game.

I'll give it credit, however. Within my friends, I generated a good tagline for the game: "Crackdown: It's bullshit and it fucking knows it". This also applies to Prototype, a game of similar lineage of Crackdown with an added twist: Mutations and Cannibalism.

Thats right, Cannibalism. He's not a bad guy. He's not a good guy either. He IS a strange version of a Cannibal.

Leading back to my point, the same shit with a different smell is not my idea of entertainment for extended periods of time.

Mind you, the comment about Sonic the Hedgehog as a child probably had something to do with it. I became uncannily good in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and while I'm a little rusty at the moment it still shows that I know most of the neccessary tricks and tidbits for completing the game.

So, in search of a game to entertain me, I recently bought a couple of games from EB the other week: Stalker, Shadow of Chernobyl, and Stormrise.

I bought Stalker because I have been in the mood for a First Person Shooter. Unfortunately, this hasn't had the same effect that I was hoping. I began play and after completing a mission or two, I became disinterested.

It is a Role Play game. Unfortunately, I'm not one for playing Role Play games these days. While this does provide a desire to actually use my intelligence to complete a mission, it is not the same receptors flashing away in my brain that I'm desiring.

Which leads me to play Stormrise, a Real Time Strategy game.

I enjoy a good RTS. I bought Warcraft III and Starcraft, along with their expansions, a long time ago because they are good RTS games. I've really enjoyed them, yet have grown a little tired of them. I've gotten into the habit of playing Dota on Warcraft III and not much compells me to play Starcraft at the moment.
I do patiently await Starcraft II. As mentioned, I do enjoy Starcraft, its world and its story. So I nibble on the little treats that are the rumours and Question batches taken from the development team, and the Battle Reports that I download and convert to play on my PSP.

Returning to Stormrise however, it requires Vista or later to play.

My beast of a computer, aptly named "Beast-09" by its builder, The Dick, coincidentally also a Warmachine Reference, still only runs on Windows XP.

What kind of developer makes a demand of it's player base to use an unpopular and dysfunctional Operating System just to play a game? Microsoft. The same company that knows that this OS is extremely buggy, and are halfway through development of the next OS Generation, "Windows 7".

This disappointed me.

Unfortunately, I can't return the games at full price, as it has been over a week. I may just trade it in for a new copy of Frozen throne, as my old copy has disappeared from the face of the earth, leaving me with a plastic Case with a near useless CD-key. I say Near useless as while the CD-key is valid, I receive another CD-key with the new copy.

A long time ago, I played Dawn of War as well. It was the same genre with a few little tweaks, mostly the currency and reinforcement options. The Currency format may have been done before, where you claim points on a map to increase your rate of requisition, then hold them off from your opponents as they batter against your forces. To keep the battle large and continuous, they have the reinforcement, where you spend requisition to add more members to your units over a small build time. Orks enjoy this because if you have more WAAAUGH! the faster they reinforce and the more they overwhelm the opponent.

Continuing on, I have bought Dawn of War 2. A similar system where you collect your points across a map to gain Requisition and Power to upgrade and spawn units. It was good. The single-player kept me entertained through its duration, although was a little monotonous with it's end missions where my squads were close to invulnerable with their Terminator Armour, Rally! ability used when someone is on low health, and Thunderhammers being able to tear apart a heavily armoured enemy in a few swings. Carnifex's, Killa Kans and Wraithlords have no chance of surviving when they are released onto the world.

A video game that is either in development, or soon to be released, I'm not entirely sure honestly, is Splinter Cell: Conviction. I have played the majority of the previous Console titles. I enjoyed them immensely, with Double Agent being quite well favoured. The meticulous execution of espionage in a variety of interesting settings really sets the game high in my favourites list.

The next addition to the series seems to kick it up a notch, speeding up the processes of the game for the player rather than sitting and waiting for a particular trigger to finish before moving on, repeating this process through the better part of the game. While triggers are still an occurrence, reflexes will be on demand more often.

But, that is for the future. For now, the only similarity I can find to this without repeating the previous games is to play World of Warcraft, playing a Rogue.

This is a game that grasps Monotony and expels it into an interesting spiderweb that will splatter across your face and leave a strangely salty taste in your mouth.

Now, I imagine that quite a few people are lacking a bit of iron in their diets, so I can't entirely blame them for the fact that it has taken over their lives. Anemia is a serious problem. But, I have reached close to the characters level limit with one character. I feel like calling myself Snowball Sally sometimes when I think about it. To make things a little more hypocritical, I've begun playing again with a friend. Mind you, I've started at a bad time as my schedule is rather cramped with birthday parties and other gaming events, but will be clear eventually, I'm sure.

Steering away from my occasional fetishes, we move onto the more fast paced games. Returning to the same developers of Splinter Cell, I present Rainbow Six. To date, I have only played the Las Vegas versions. These games are very entertaining with their fast paced action and Teamplay. While the computers are insufficiently intelligent to compliment your own skill, they do provide a good enough distraction here and there for you to take out your opponents. Overall, it keeps the mind at a rise and fall reminiscent of a drive through Brisbane's suburbs.

A few games match this. Gears of War and Army of Two come to mind. Both games that play a third person, cover-interactive style of shoot-em-up with a fast paced sense of mind.
Very entertaining games that had me enthralled all the way through. While Army of Two did lack that little bit of UMPH, a term I use for something inexplicable that reels in the barramundi of interest, it did still have its entertaining moments.

Gears of War did fantastically, keeping things interesting through the whole campaign. And, to top off the ice cream with a cherry, the sequel included an new cooperative option: Horde.

The basis of Horde is that you are a squad of humans taking on waves of Locust that become harder and harder to kill. While the enemies are somewhat set depending on what level you have, with generally easy enemies to start and then increasing to much more difficult enemies at level 10, they increase the difficulty of these enemies with simple things such as increasing damage, and health. It had kept myself and friends entertained for weeks, trying to reach the coveted level 50 where we were confident that enemies were near impossible to defeat and would kill you just by saying "CRUSH". Stupid Maulers.

Continuing through the first person Genre, another game that does enthrall me is Halo.

While being the Love Child of the Xbox franchise, it does stand as a very entertaining game with its setting and occasional aspects of gameplay.

There are only a few aspects that the games really lack, in my opinion.

Halo 1 and 2 suffered from repetitive level scenes. Whilst advancing, your sense of Deja Vu is only shattered by the enemies present in the area. Halo 2 did not suffer as much as the first, but lacked the UMPH.
Halo 3, truly the masterpiece of the set, only lacked from a short campaign. After returning home from EBGame's midnight release of Halo 3, cackling away with excitement with Aaron, we arrived home to play until the dawn with an only complaint that the flood levels were... Dissatisfying. Being that they were the final levels, it was a let down, but still very entertaining.

Which leads me to it's next addition to the family: ODST. ODST's are also known as HellJumpers due to their reckless and life risking entry into combat, dropping from orbit in specially designed pods to land in the midst of combat to disrupt aspects of the battlefield for quick missions.

The scene is different. You, of course, are an ODST. But you have been set off course, and have to make your way back to your squadron. This, to me, implied that it will have to be much more sneaky, maybe more like Splinter Cell. And with the setting of the Halo Universe, it would be very entertaining for an ODST to snap the neck of a Jackal that was in the wrong place, and the player would have to interact with cover alot more.

This is half true. The player will have to be sneaky. The player will have to interact with cover much more, however not with the ease of Splinter Cell, or even Gears of War.

No, the game is relatively much the same.

I'll still play, when it is released, but I may not be as enthralled as I would with my dreamt alternative.

So where does that leave me?

It leaves me waiting for the future. Starcraft II, Halo ODST, Army of Two: the 40th Day, Splinter Cell: Conviction... All very exciting, which is the aforementioned Egg.

What do i do in the mean time? I have World of Warcraft. Yes, it'll pass the time. But I won't be satisfied.
So what SHOULD I be doing? Painting. Painting my models for Gencon 09, in September. Only a few months away!

I play table top games. Warmachine and Hordes, specifically. I enjoy these games. The setting is entertaining, the system is interesting, and currently it works to be a fantastic mental stimulus.

I have lost quite a lot of interest in playing. My models are there, and they are collecting dust because I simply don't want to play. Heck, Vassal is on my computer and I don't even want to play that.

I will still attend the tournament events, of course. The only problem with that is that there haven't been any.
The regular get together I haven't attended due to a little bit of motivation, and a very disrupted sleep pattern. I still get myself into trouble for staying late at Fastbreak of a Tuesday night and waking up like a Zombie, so Wednesday Night I am a little apprehensive to attend.

Blind Pig is set at a good time. Fortnightly from the first Saturday of the month.

I don't attend because, frankly, if I can't wake up early enough to get there before the Sausages are on the BBQ, then it's not worth it. It's nothing against the players there, by far. I enjoy their company. They're all really good people. I'm just lazy.

But I have a mission for the next 2.5 months: Paint my Army of Skorne.

Where I was going with this blog, which has wasted the better part of todays worktime, I have no idea. But I have vented. I want Starcraft II now, to play in peace, to dabble in the intricacies of the Map Editor, and to get into an exciting game.

Update: Oh, yes, I do remember where I was going.

The intrigue that the mentioned games had is now, mostly, lost. I still have the hankering on the odd occasion to play them, but these new games coming out have me excited and anticipating their arrival, as they bring some of my favourite things and expand on them.

But, Time is still going. And I have no idea whether I can get the game any sooner. The game I look forward to most is Starcraft II. While it not only expands on the previous game, it also adds features in Warcraft III such as 3d graphics, and hero aspects. The hero aspect of Warcraft III was a very entertaining thing, because it added more character to the game.

Not to mention, it brought out DOTA. Dota, for those who are unaware, is a Hero-based melee map, where 5 players on each side choose a hero and then level up their characters, buying equipment to power themselves up, and eventually make their way to the opponents prized structure and destroy it, all the while defending their own prized structure. Three pathways, each with a set of 3 defensive towers, lead to these structures. It is one of the more popular Warcraft III: Frozen Throne maps, and is fully supported by the Blizzard Development Team.

Well, time will tell when the game is released.