Still playing Hearthstone. Probably the only person I know who plays Hearthstone... *sigh*
Also, Smash on 3DS is a lot of fun. Love Lil Mac, Bowser, Mario/Dr. Mario.
I play Hearthstone, I just don't try very hard.
I'm nowhere near competitive level, but I love watching pro-Hearthstone and making some strong decks. Still love Arena too. But I think the way the game has evolved and has such a devoted fanbase, it's hard for a new person to play even casual mode these days.
Still playing Hearthstone. Probably the only person I know who plays Hearthstone... *sigh*
Also, Smash on 3DS is a lot of fun. Love Lil Mac, Bowser, Mario/Dr. Mario.
I play Hearthstone, I just don't try very hard.
I'm nowhere near competitive level, but I love watching pro-Hearthstone and making some strong decks. Still love Arena too. But I think the way the game has evolved and has such a devoted fanbase, it's hard for a new person to play even casual mode these days.
I am super casual at this game, playing it once every month or so and can still beat people, I've never bought a pack and have mostly default decks. Obviously I still run into people with cards that are just better but often they don't know how to play their decks.
Well, my Minecraft campaign is coming along. I got a chicken coop, a cow and sheep farm, a couple of wheat fields, and a steady supply of wood, a couple of sugar cane stalks etc. So farming is mighty fine and I have extended my house quite a bit as well.
However, after digging myself halfway through a mountain and into several caves, I have a grand total of four diamonds. I immedaitely spent three of them on a pickaxe to mine some of the obsidian I made in a session sometime last week by redirecting a stream into a pool of lava. However, I really want another diamond so I can craft an enchanting table.
Ended my session today after I found a gigantic cavesystem and explored it halfway in when it ended in a giant underground gulch, like 25 or more blocks deep.
Bought Wasteland 2 a couple weeks ago. Finally got around to playing some today. It's pretty good. They more or less gave Fallout an X-COM battle system. Story is fairly interesting so far. They do a good job of offering a lot of different ways to approach obstacles so even if you don't have the right skills you can probably get through the situation.
Also I made my crew NWA
Eazy E has leader and charisma skills, Ice Cube is snipers, MC Ren is the medic/heavy weps. Dr. Dre was lock picking, safes, and computers but I got a lady from the last place I went who has a really high computers skill so now I'm mostly focusing him on designated lockpicker and possibly in the future the energy weapons guy.
Borderlands Pre-Sequel is pretty much more BL fun but in space with Aussies. I love the Australian voice acting along with the naming conventions of places and other various Aussie lingo. It's delightful.
I'm playing Athena, Gladiator class. I'm only level 10. Originally was going down the Ceraunic Storm tree, but that's better down the road. I went into Phalanx instead, especially with Vanguard to help heal.
Love laser weapons. Pew! Pew!
Also, since Moxxi recently revealed she has a son, I'm thinking it's Scooter.
For solo play, I plan on messing around with Clap Trap. That should be fun.
Edit: Also still playing Destiny. I can already see how the game lacks content vs. traditional MMOs. With BL, I will more than likely play less of this, but go to it every now and then.
Also back into the crack of Animal Crossing New Leaf. Almost a year of not playing and I stupidly did not have the Beauty Town Ordinance into effect. All those hybrid flowers, gone. Oh well. Just casual playing and trying to finish up collecting all the bugs, fish, and deep sea creatures. The bugs will be the hardest to finish up.
I tried going for over a million points in HHA, but that's seems like a pipe dream. Also to visit people, requires a wifi spot and I don't get that when I'm playing during my commute.
My other main goal: get a peppy village in my town so they can suggest fairy tale themed public works.
So yeah, I caved and went ahead and picked up a used 3DSXL for fairly cheap. Pogeymans really aren't my thing right now (1) and I'm still debating on picking up Smash (2) and Animal Crossing, but I did grab a copy of Fantasy Life.
I'm about four hours in and I'm taking it slow, having only really tried two jobs so far (3). The game's general pattern thus far seems to be "Story Chunk, Free exploration chunk that lasts until you decide to go force the next story chunk". You can change jobs at any time during an exploration section, which is cool, but the non-combat job I tried tended to feel a bit grindy in some of the tasks to raise its levels (4). I'm quickly finding out that the side tasks you can pick up from the villagers pretty much require you to jump around between jobs, as some of the fetch quests require things that you can't initially buy in the stores or find laying around town. Anyone else thinking about picking this one up?
1) At least not until the next game drops - I hate getting in on something late in the game's life cycle. 2) Played the demo, enjoyed it, but still not sure about being able to play long sessions on the hand-held and I'm considering getting an ergonomic case for it 3) Paladin and Miner, and getting ready to try a third, maybe woodcutter or fishing. 4) e.g.: "mine 50 nodes" for the miner job. You end up doing the "run between areas" thing to cycle through the nodes as they respawn, which is what ate up most of my time playing yesterday.
As for Smash, I actually really like the controls. When the Wii U version drops, I'll probably use my 3DS rather than a GC controller.
I was considering picking up Fantasy Life but decided on Animal Crossing for now at least, I may pick it up later. Have you played Rune Factory and if so does Fantasy Life compare favorably?
My main issue with the controls on Smash are the same problem I have with the DS series of hand-held systems in general. I'm a big guy. I have huge paws. I find it awkward to support the system while playing without my hands turning into cramped claws while playing for extended sessions. Switching to an XL has definitely helped that, but I still find the ergonomics of the system to be less-than-optimal for me when I'm playing for more than an hour or so at a shot.
As far as the comparison to Rune Factory goes, I haven't played any games in that series yet, so I can't really give a yea or nay on similarities. I'll definitely report back on FL once I have another couple hours under my belt.
As for Smash, some of the difficulty might be mitigated by the customizable controls. In my case I set everything to the main for buttons and R so I don't have to keep a finger on L, and it's a lot more comfortable. I've never really had a problem with my hands being too big though so no idea if that would help for you.
As for Smash, some of the difficulty might be mitigated by the customizable controls. In my case I set everything to the main for buttons and R so I don't have to keep a finger on L, and it's a lot more comfortable. I've never really had a problem with my hands being too big though so no idea if that would help for you.
I might have to look into that. I'm looking at future purchases and planning on buying most of my games in physical form if I can swing it, that way when I upgrade it'll be less of a pain in the ass to transfer my stuff to the new unit. Smash might be on the radar in the next month or so.
On a FL note, I've found that you can make use of crafting and gathering skills while in a different job, so long as you have the proper tool equipped as a secondary item. I don't think you gain anything toward that skill's ranks while doing it (e.g. mining out ore nodes while in Blacksmith mode doesn't raise your mining skills, but it will count toward completing tasks for that job when you switch back to it), but it'll make resource gathering for the crafting jobs a lot easier. I think after I get Blacksmith up to Apprentice level I'm going to go back through the other gathering jobs until I get them up to Apprentice and then jump back into some of the crafting before progressing further in the story.
If you guys haven't had a chance, I highly recommend you take Dungeoun of the Endless out for a spin. It is the best rogue-like RTSwP Dungeoncrawler I've ever played.
(While I admit that it is the only one I've ever seen, it is still quite good).
Game look like a lot of fun. I'm going to hold off I getting it though. Folks are having issues with the game not saving properly and many other game bug issues apparently.
Turns out I was wrong about Fantasy Life with regards to using off-class gathering and crafting skills while in a different class. Anything you do while in a main class (e.g. crafting metal ingots like a blacksmith while in Mercenary mode, making alchemist potions while in Wizard mode) will still count toward that off-class's quests and skills. You just can't turn in the class-specific quests and get credit for them until you switch back to that class. Fortunately you can fast-travel back to the guild shop and switch to the other class, then port back to the class's master trainer to turn them in.
That being said, the game itself is still a bit grind-y if you're wanting to play as all the "Lives" (read: Classes) in the game. Some of the class quests are dead simple and you knock them out in passing while traveling from point A to point B or while exploring the new area that just opened up, and other ones are an uphill climb to get them done, just because of the way the quest is written. The Wizard quest of "kill ten enemies with your charged shot from your wand while using a specific magic type" comes to mind. You end up having to do that for all the separate forms of the elemental attack magic, so you're going to have to get the kill-shot on enemies with a charged blast 30 times. The magic plinks you do as your base attack do such tiny amounts of damage you end up having to kite enemies all over the map to keep from taking hits while knocking the mobs down low enough to finish them off with the charged shot.
All things being equal, I'm still enjoying the game, I'm just digging certain sections of it more than others.
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is out. Going nuts with it. Love all the upgrades, new items, new art style, and new enemies. They really gave it a sweet polish so you get more out of it other than playing Isaac again and again.
Small Complaints: Not a real fan of the new music. Danny B still provided the work and it's still atmospherically creepy, but not as catchy and powerful as the original. Plus, enemies that are pure black like spiders and flies can be a real pain when on a black floor causing some frustrating damage.
Playing Heartstone and I'm finally feeling like I'm winning quite regularly. My favourite classes are the priest and the shaman but my priest wins more regularly. I use the Prophet Velen with a mind blast as my finisher!
Not sure about this new expansion... A lot of the cards they've showcased look like they pump that random number machine more than usual!
No friends on my friend list yet so if anyone plays and fancies a casual game in Europe I'm TeeGuy.
Playing Heartstone and I'm finally feeling like I'm winning quite regularly. My favourite classes are the priest and the shaman but my priest wins more regularly. I use the Prophet Velen with a mind blast as my finisher!
Not sure about this new expansion... A lot of the cards they've showcased look like they pump that random number machine more than usual!
No friends on my friend list yet so if anyone plays and fancies a casual game in Europe I'm TeeGuy.
Very nice. I don't know if you keep up with competitive players, but look up a player named Zetalot. He always climbs to Rank 1 Legend with nothing but Priest decks including Prophet Valen, Control, and Deathrattle types.
I'm a bit concerned over the amount of RNG with the new expansion too, but there are a good amount of regular cards that look incredible like Robo Cub, Explosive Sheep, Auto-Barber, and Shrinkmeister. There's a lot of debate if Hearthstone could suffer from the same ordeal of Power Creep like in Pokemon: TCG or Yu-Gi-Oh, but the developers keep their ears to the ground to really see what is too powerful or what is desperate for synergy. Even weaker cards still have value in a way thanks to modes like the Arena or Naxx's Single Player.
Very nice. I don't know if you keep up with competitive players, but look up a player named Zetalot. He always climbs to Rank 1 Legend with nothing but Priest decks including Prophet Valen, Control, and Deathrattle types.
I looked him up and the first result was from July. My deck is very similar to that one with only 4 cards being different!
I mostly play casual doing the daily quests but I was thinking it might be time to make it to arena. I'm not committed enough to get super serious about the ranks.
Very nice. I don't know if you keep up with competitive players, but look up a player named Zetalot. He always climbs to Rank 1 Legend with nothing but Priest decks including Prophet Valen, Control, and Deathrattle types.
I looked him up and the first result was from July. My deck is very similar to that one with only 4 cards being different!
I mostly play casual doing the daily quests but I was thinking it might be time to make it to arena. I'm not committed enough to get super serious about the ranks.
Arena is so random and funny, it is literally gambling with your fake gold but you can often luck out just by drawing those 1 or 2 cards that you needed when you were drafting.
Playing Heartstone and I'm finally feeling like I'm winning quite regularly. My favourite classes are the priest and the shaman but my priest wins more regularly. I use the Prophet Velen with a mind blast as my finisher!
Not sure about this new expansion... A lot of the cards they've showcased look like they pump that random number machine more than usual!
No friends on my friend list yet so if anyone plays and fancies a casual game in Europe I'm TeeGuy.
Very nice. I don't know if you keep up with competitive players, but look up a player named Zetalot. He always climbs to Rank 1 Legend with nothing but Priest decks including Prophet Valen, Control, and Deathrattle types.
I'm a bit concerned over the amount of RNG with the new expansion too, but there are a good amount of regular cards that look incredible like Robo Cub, Explosive Sheep, Auto-Barber, and Shrinkmeister. There's a lot of debate if Hearthstone could suffer from the same ordeal of Power Creep like in Pokemon: TCG or Yu-Gi-Oh, but the developers keep their ears to the ground to really see what is too powerful or what is desperate for synergy. Even weaker cards still have value in a way thanks to modes like the Arena or Naxx's Single Player.
It's funny how people are concerned about the random effects of individual cards in Hearthstone. You know what's random? HEARTHSTONE. It's the most random customizable card game I've ever seen. You only get a 30 card deck with at most 2 copies of a single card. On top of that, there are no tutors. Against an opponent of equal skill and an even deck matchup, you may as well just flip a coin for the win.
I used to complain in Hearthstone that I would lose a game because I didn't have the particular card that I wanted to put in my deck. I've finally reached a point where I don't have every card in the game, but I have every card for the deck I'm playing. That's Secret Mage by the way.
I pretty much only lose games because of the extreme luck of card draw. Turn 7, I need Flamestrike. I have 2 in my deck. I don't draw it even though I got 3 extra draws from "let the pain speak to me". If I had Flamestrike, I would have won the game. Instead, I lose with a full hand of crap that won't save me. GG.
I also lose on really bad initial draws. There are a TON of cards in my deck that cost 2 to play. I like to start the game with at least one of them. If I have the coin, I'd like to have two of them. Sometimes I'll draw a whole bunch of expensive cards in my starting hand, even though I don't have that many of them. Then I mulligan and get the same cards back. I play the game anyway, just in case I win, but I basically have no chance. I just accept the loss when it comes. I have lost 100% of the games when I had a bad draw.
The random effects on the cards in Hearthstone are no big deal. All of them can be mitigated. Take my boy Ragnaros for example. He is crazy random! But you know what? You mitigate his randomness. If you play him when the opponent has a board full of minions, you are a fool unless the roll of the die was your only chance to win. The proper way to play him is to put him out after a board clear. Then he always does 8 damage right to your opponent's face.
Hunter has a card that hits two random minions. Obviously you only play it when your opponent has exactly two minions! Warrior has Brawl. You obviously play that when your opponent has a lot of minions, and you have very few. Every random card in the game can be controlled by setting up for it and playing it properly. I have no issue with randomness on any card they have "printed" or spoiled.
If you really want to remove luck in Hearthstone you should be advocating for larger decks, more copies of individual cards per deck, tutor cards, and increasing the starting hand size. If you see these things added, you will see a huge development in the game as a competitive enterprise as the skill cap goes way way up. The gap between strong and weak players will become immense.
And if luck really bothers you, then play Netrunner instead. Yes, it is still a random card game, but it has plenty of tutors and other luck mitigation cards. If you play properly, the randomness will rarely fuck you. It's extremely rare to hear any Netrunner player complain about anything luck related.
Extra: I also lose to Hunters that play the card that removes secrets. It's pretty much a hard counter since my deck is entirely secret based. That's just a bad matchup, and happens in any customizable game.
Comments
However, after digging myself halfway through a mountain and into several caves, I have a grand total of four diamonds. I immedaitely spent three of them on a pickaxe to mine some of the obsidian I made in a session sometime last week by redirecting a stream into a pool of lava. However, I really want another diamond so I can craft an enchanting table.
Ended my session today after I found a gigantic cavesystem and explored it halfway in when it ended in a giant underground gulch, like 25 or more blocks deep.
Also I made my crew NWA
Eazy E has leader and charisma skills, Ice Cube is snipers, MC Ren is the medic/heavy weps. Dr. Dre was lock picking, safes, and computers but I got a lady from the last place I went who has a really high computers skill so now I'm mostly focusing him on designated lockpicker and possibly in the future the energy weapons guy.
I'm playing Athena, Gladiator class. I'm only level 10. Originally was going down the Ceraunic Storm tree, but that's better down the road. I went into Phalanx instead, especially with Vanguard to help heal.
Love laser weapons. Pew! Pew!
Also, since Moxxi recently revealed she has a son, I'm thinking it's Scooter.
For solo play, I plan on messing around with Clap Trap. That should be fun.
Edit: Also still playing Destiny. I can already see how the game lacks content vs. traditional MMOs. With BL, I will more than likely play less of this, but go to it every now and then.
Also back into the crack of Animal Crossing New Leaf. Almost a year of not playing and I stupidly did not have the Beauty Town Ordinance into effect. All those hybrid flowers, gone. Oh well. Just casual playing and trying to finish up collecting all the bugs, fish, and deep sea creatures. The bugs will be the hardest to finish up.
I tried going for over a million points in HHA, but that's seems like a pipe dream. Also to visit people, requires a wifi spot and I don't get that when I'm playing during my commute.
My other main goal: get a peppy village in my town so they can suggest fairy tale themed public works.
I'm about four hours in and I'm taking it slow, having only really tried two jobs so far (3). The game's general pattern thus far seems to be "Story Chunk, Free exploration chunk that lasts until you decide to go force the next story chunk". You can change jobs at any time during an exploration section, which is cool, but the non-combat job I tried tended to feel a bit grindy in some of the tasks to raise its levels (4). I'm quickly finding out that the side tasks you can pick up from the villagers pretty much require you to jump around between jobs, as some of the fetch quests require things that you can't initially buy in the stores or find laying around town. Anyone else thinking about picking this one up?
1) At least not until the next game drops - I hate getting in on something late in the game's life cycle.
2) Played the demo, enjoyed it, but still not sure about being able to play long sessions on the hand-held and I'm considering getting an ergonomic case for it
3) Paladin and Miner, and getting ready to try a third, maybe woodcutter or fishing.
4) e.g.: "mine 50 nodes" for the miner job. You end up doing the "run between areas" thing to cycle through the nodes as they respawn, which is what ate up most of my time playing yesterday.
I was considering picking up Fantasy Life but decided on Animal Crossing for now at least, I may pick it up later. Have you played Rune Factory and if so does Fantasy Life compare favorably?
As far as the comparison to Rune Factory goes, I haven't played any games in that series yet, so I can't really give a yea or nay on similarities. I'll definitely report back on FL once I have another couple hours under my belt.
On a FL note, I've found that you can make use of crafting and gathering skills while in a different job, so long as you have the proper tool equipped as a secondary item. I don't think you gain anything toward that skill's ranks while doing it (e.g. mining out ore nodes while in Blacksmith mode doesn't raise your mining skills, but it will count toward completing tasks for that job when you switch back to it), but it'll make resource gathering for the crafting jobs a lot easier. I think after I get Blacksmith up to Apprentice level I'm going to go back through the other gathering jobs until I get them up to Apprentice and then jump back into some of the crafting before progressing further in the story.
(While I admit that it is the only one I've ever seen, it is still quite good).
It should be a fail of my day but I played it till 5am one night.
That being said, the game itself is still a bit grind-y if you're wanting to play as all the "Lives" (read: Classes) in the game. Some of the class quests are dead simple and you knock them out in passing while traveling from point A to point B or while exploring the new area that just opened up, and other ones are an uphill climb to get them done, just because of the way the quest is written. The Wizard quest of "kill ten enemies with your charged shot from your wand while using a specific magic type" comes to mind. You end up having to do that for all the separate forms of the elemental attack magic, so you're going to have to get the kill-shot on enemies with a charged blast 30 times. The magic plinks you do as your base attack do such tiny amounts of damage you end up having to kite enemies all over the map to keep from taking hits while knocking the mobs down low enough to finish them off with the charged shot.
All things being equal, I'm still enjoying the game, I'm just digging certain sections of it more than others.
Small Complaints: Not a real fan of the new music. Danny B still provided the work and it's still atmospherically creepy, but not as catchy and powerful as the original. Plus, enemies that are pure black like spiders and flies can be a real pain when on a black floor causing some frustrating damage.
I have spent more money on Picross e games than I did on Picross DS.
Picross DS was really good.
Not sure about this new expansion... A lot of the cards they've showcased look like they pump that random number machine more than usual!
No friends on my friend list yet so if anyone plays and fancies a casual game in Europe I'm TeeGuy.
I'm a bit concerned over the amount of RNG with the new expansion too, but there are a good amount of regular cards that look incredible like Robo Cub, Explosive Sheep, Auto-Barber, and Shrinkmeister. There's a lot of debate if Hearthstone could suffer from the same ordeal of Power Creep like in Pokemon: TCG or Yu-Gi-Oh, but the developers keep their ears to the ground to really see what is too powerful or what is desperate for synergy. Even weaker cards still have value in a way thanks to modes like the Arena or Naxx's Single Player.
I mostly play casual doing the daily quests but I was thinking it might be time to make it to arena. I'm not committed enough to get super serious about the ranks.
I used to complain in Hearthstone that I would lose a game because I didn't have the particular card that I wanted to put in my deck. I've finally reached a point where I don't have every card in the game, but I have every card for the deck I'm playing. That's Secret Mage by the way.
I pretty much only lose games because of the extreme luck of card draw. Turn 7, I need Flamestrike. I have 2 in my deck. I don't draw it even though I got 3 extra draws from "let the pain speak to me". If I had Flamestrike, I would have won the game. Instead, I lose with a full hand of crap that won't save me. GG.
I also lose on really bad initial draws. There are a TON of cards in my deck that cost 2 to play. I like to start the game with at least one of them. If I have the coin, I'd like to have two of them. Sometimes I'll draw a whole bunch of expensive cards in my starting hand, even though I don't have that many of them. Then I mulligan and get the same cards back. I play the game anyway, just in case I win, but I basically have no chance. I just accept the loss when it comes. I have lost 100% of the games when I had a bad draw.
The random effects on the cards in Hearthstone are no big deal. All of them can be mitigated. Take my boy Ragnaros for example. He is crazy random! But you know what? You mitigate his randomness. If you play him when the opponent has a board full of minions, you are a fool unless the roll of the die was your only chance to win. The proper way to play him is to put him out after a board clear. Then he always does 8 damage right to your opponent's face.
Hunter has a card that hits two random minions. Obviously you only play it when your opponent has exactly two minions! Warrior has Brawl. You obviously play that when your opponent has a lot of minions, and you have very few. Every random card in the game can be controlled by setting up for it and playing it properly. I have no issue with randomness on any card they have "printed" or spoiled.
If you really want to remove luck in Hearthstone you should be advocating for larger decks, more copies of individual cards per deck, tutor cards, and increasing the starting hand size. If you see these things added, you will see a huge development in the game as a competitive enterprise as the skill cap goes way way up. The gap between strong and weak players will become immense.
And if luck really bothers you, then play Netrunner instead. Yes, it is still a random card game, but it has plenty of tutors and other luck mitigation cards. If you play properly, the randomness will rarely fuck you. It's extremely rare to hear any Netrunner player complain about anything luck related.
Extra: I also lose to Hunters that play the card that removes secrets. It's pretty much a hard counter since my deck is entirely secret based. That's just a bad matchup, and happens in any customizable game.