A Plethora of Games

Scrolls (PC Beta) $20

Out of all the games I played yesterday this was the one I played more than any and the game I kept wanting to go back and play. It's from Mojang who created MineCraft, but he went in a total opposite direction for this game. It's a collectible card game mixed with the strategic combat of the Heroes of Might and Magic games. These two elements combined really make for a fun and addicting game. The game is in beta, much like Minecraft, where the game is functional and they will keep adding updates over time. It's very stable, I never had an issue while playing and never lost a connection after 8 online matches.

The rules are pretty simple and the tutorial does a good job of introducing you to the rules and of course there is a ton of depth once you learn the basics. It's kind of similar to Magic except the game board is made up of 5 lanes where you place your units and at the end of each lane there are totems and to win you have to destroy 3 out of the 5 totems. Each unit has an attack and health stat, the health stat does reduce each time a unit takes damage, and there is also a cooldown timer stat that is used to limit when a unit can attack. The lane system is the unique feature and what really drew me into the game. I loved the combat of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and this feels a lot like this.

There isn't a campaign mode, I'm not sure if one is planned, but there are trials and quick matches you can play against the AI which is actually very good. The main draw is playing online which they have unranked and ranked matches. You earn gold by playing either the AI or multiplayer, but you do have to be connected to the server for cheating reasons. Gold is used to get more cards, you can pay to buy shards which you can use to buy cards as well, but I've found you can earn enough gold without that and get cards at a decent rate.

I played a couple of matches against the AI, but played the majority online and even though I never won a match I had a blast. If you are into CCG's or strategy games then you need to pick this up you won't be disappointed. It's a game that I'm wanted to play as I write this which is very unusual for me.

State of Decay(XBLA) $20

The game is supposedly coming to the PC, but I couldn't wait and went ahead and purchased the game yesterday. It's a single player zombie survival game that has some neat ideas and deadly zombies. The game is telling a story so it's more focused instead of a total sandbox game where you make your own fun. The goal is to survive, but you aren't alone, you find other survivors and try to setup a small community. The community has needs like food and medicine and you have to go out and search for these items in the world. I'm a little torn on this aspect of the game, I kind of like the feeling of being alone in this world, but having others around adds some cool features that you wouldn't have otherwise. The game is permadeath so if you die that character is dead, you are able to control any member of your community, which I had to do thanks to a leaper zombie.

I like the way the zombies react in the game, you can hide from them if you crouch and stay out of there line of sight, they kind of let you know when they sense you so you do have time to react and run away. When you search for items there is a sound meter and if you search faster the noise is louder and that will attract zombies around that location so you do have to be aware of your surroundings. You are able to board up windows, like in Call of Duty Zombies, which they will knock down over time, they will also come through windows if you aren't careful. There are guns but most of the time you want to use a melee weapon and if you can sneak up from behind you can one hit kill. There are zombie hoards that you have to be weary about.

So far the game has been really fun and probably the best zombie survival game I have played, The game
doesn't have any multiplayer which is a bummer. The game also has some jank, it's not as bad as Dayz, zombies will clip through some walls and the graphics aren't the best, but once you start playing this doesn't matter. It's just fun.

Scurvy Scallywags (iPad) ($1)

This is a match 3 game by Ron Gilbert who made the Monkey Island games and it's awesome. I usually get bored with match 3 games but they have included some RPG aspects that make the game addicting. The story is cool and the cut scenes are funny, the game overall has a nice look to it. There is more strategy in the actual matching than other games of this type. Your character is on the board itself along with enemies you fight so you are trying to move your character around the area and collect items as well. You have skills you upgrade and ships you can build so there is a lot going on in the game and it's these extra things that keep me interested. Worth the purchase.

Marvel Heroes

Sean and I tried this out last night and it's a decent Diablo clone with Marvel heroes. The graphics are awesome, the cut scenes between missions look like real cartoons, they are nicely done. The characters in game look great and you can easily tell each super hero. The game is f2p and you can play with 6 set characters, they aren't the best ones so if you want those you have to purchase them and the prices are very steep. I think it's $20 for a character, to open up all the character it's like $285 which is insane. We played with the default characters, Hawkeye and Storm, I did find a token to open up Daredevil, he wasn't that fun. Hawkeye had some cool powers but it's basically Diablo game play so it did get repetitive after awhile. We did get to fight against the Green Goblin and Doc Ock. If you like comic books you will probably love the game as they have almost all the characters from the comics and the story seemed interesting.


E3 is next week so there will be a ton of new game announcements and more details on the new systems. Should be a fun week.
The Xbone will require a check in to the servers every 24 hours or you won't be able to play a game, very disappointing.