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Batman is my all time favorite superhero, which I’m sure I’m not alone in this. It has been a long time since I played a Batman video game that felt like it captured what I consider the Dark Knights defining aspects. I played Batman: Arkham Asylum with high hopes; does it deliver?
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InFamous is an interesting PS3 exclusive in which you play a Cole MacGrath, a delivery guy who ends up destroying a huge chunk of the city and gaining incredible powers of electricity. Developed with a “comic book” feel, the story hinges on your decisions between good and evil. What path would you choose? Find out if its a question worth asking.
Lets take a look back at one of the best games of yesteryears. Bioshock came with a great vision from the mind of Ken Levine, who is the father of one of my all time favorite games, System Shock 2. Bioshock features the underwater city of Rapture in its waning hours after a catastrophic conflict. I had high hopes for Bioshock and I’d like to share my thoughts.
With my local prerelease tournament came a long day of Magic the Gathering. Nearly a case of boosters were opened and, aside from a stack of twelve packs that weren’t opened at the store, no priceless treasures were found. What we did find was a very fun format. With participation growing, I was able to play in the main Sealed event and a draft side event. Woo hoo!
With my sealed pool, I managed to pull some good cards but had no real support in those colors. I was thoroughly excited to see Emeria, the Sky Ruin and World Queller, but my supporting cast was limited to a Journey To Nowhere and a Shepherd of the Lost. I pulled a Hideous End and a Malakir Bloodwitch in black, and a smattering of decent red and green cards. The deck I built was not the deck I should have played, but the enamor of playing Emeria, the Sky Ruin was too much and warped my deck accordingly.
After losing to the Hedron Crab deck, I moved on to the Draft side event, pulling a very awesome UR Tempo deck using a pair of Living Tsunamis and bounce spells on the blue side and burn on the Spire Barrage on the red side. After losing to Allies played by the same player who played Hedron Crabs in the sealed portion, I called it a night. No “Priceless Treasures” were pulled during the night, but Zendikar Limited was a blast.
My next foray into Zendikar began with FNM for the new art Browbeat. I wasn’t sure what to play in the new Standard but I knew I wanted to play with a lot of Zendikards, so I borrowed Dave Meeson’s Tribal Thriftiness list and came up with this:
"Mono-Black Control, inspired by Dave Meeson"
I wanted to run four Mind Sludge main, but out of all my Zendikar, I only had one and couldn’t find three others at my local shop. So three is what I ran. The Guul Draz Specters were meant to be Malakir Bloodwitches, but same story; I had two, the shop had none. I wanted to run Black Knight in the sideboard, but decided to run Vampire Hexmage instead. I trounced through four rounds facing the creature decks I figured would be there, but lost finals to a Mono-White Enchantment deck running Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne. Black Knights were looking much better. I think I would have won if I had more proc-white creatures and discard. Both games were very close until he got to six mana and could Martial Coup the board. I really miss Hymn to Tourach as I was tempted to run Mind Rot but just couldn’t do it. I may test around with a heavier discard sweet and possible a light splash to get some Enchantment and Artifact destruction, but I had a lot of fun and Mind Sludge is VERY powerful.
Ever since Magic 2010 made it’s appearance, I’ve been tinkering with my current favorite deck, Jund Mana Ramp. The loss of Treetop Village concerned me as it was one of the decks most surprising tools. Well, I hadn’t had a chance to try it out, as I’ve been drafting mostly, but finally a standard event rolled and I was ready to give it a shot. Here is what I sleeved up:
"M10 Jund Mana Ramp"
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Round one I got a bye. Yea.
Round two I played a Haunting Echoes deck. Something I noticed in this match was my threat density is lower than I like since I no longer had Treetop Village serving double duty. After a very long game one in which I didn’t draw into my mana acceleration early, I finally drew a couple Broodmate Dragons while she dug for Haunting Echoes to rip my deck apart. Game two I sided in two Mind Shatters and the Makeshift Mannequin for a Garruk and the Shriekmaws. This game was won on Broodmate Dragons into lethal Banefire.
Round three I played against Faeries. Cloudthresher and Volcanic Fallout are still very good in this matchup, and my fortuitous draws allowed me to 1 (accelerate), 2 (sweep), and 3 (bomb) both games quickly. Game two I sided in two Mind Shatters for two Shriekmaws, but they weren’t needed. When they must counter everything you do, you just overwhelm them.
Round four I played against Blightning Beatdown, a scary matchup to me as I don’t like getting hit with Blightning. Game one I went down in flames; I was in single digit life before I had four mana. Game two I took out Cloudthreshers for Primal Command, one Garruk for Makeshift and opened a hand of Forest, Fire-lit Thicket, Rampant Growth, Primal Command, Primal Command, Broodmate Dragon, and Kitchen Finks. Within four turns I had five mana and two Kitchen Finks. I proceeded to bury him with Primal Plow Under Angel’s Mercy Commands until I finished him with Kitchen Finks. Game three followed the same pattern only he was mana screwed from black.
Round five I faced the illustrious Time Sieve combo. Game one I was on the draw and looking at a hand of Savage Lands, Forest, Rootbound Crag, Rampant Growth, Rampant Growth, Banefire, Banefire. The ridiculous amount of acceleration I drew into from his Jace allowed me to EOT Cloudthresher, attack into Banefire for twelve while 3/4 of my library was Jace-ultimated into my graveyard. Game two I removed said Cloudthreshers, Terminates, Lavalanches, Garruk Wildspeakers, and Shriekmaws for Primal Commands, Filigree Fractures, Pithing Needles, Makeshift Mannequin, and two Mind Shatters. I opened up with Pithing Needle on Time Sieve, then bidded my time as I hit and missed with Fractures and Commands through counters. When I finally amassed enough mana to drop Broodmate Dragon, Path to Exile bought him another turn in which he drew Tezzeret the Seeker and Time Warp. I looked at my double Banefire and decided to roll into game three.
Game three for all the marbles. After much shuffling and banter, we opened our grips and began again much the same as game two, with Pithing Needle on Sieve and double Howling Mine. I drew all the right cards as he lost tempo to a Primal Commanded Borderpost, two Fractured Borderposts, and Kitchen Finks working in early damage. As he struggled to get to enough mana to EOT Cryptic and Open the Vaults, I Banefired him and took it home.
So chalk victory up to Primal Command, the decks MVP by far. I do not think I would have made it to the final table without, nor do I think I could have won it all. The deck needs some more tinkering for sure, but I’m not sure if I want to worry too much about it with Zendikar on the horizon, taking some key cards with it. As for now, I would love to fit Primal Command main deck, cutting Garruk and probably Lavalanche. If you love Broodmate Dragon and Banefire, give it a whirl at your next FNM.
The Monkey Island series has always been one of my favorites; I fondly remember playing The Secret of Monkey Island for the first time in the computer lab at school. I don’t know who installed it on that particular PC, but I made sure to be the first one in the lab to nab it before anyone else.
Since then I have been keeping up with the series. I really enjoy the humor, puzzles, and point & click interface. When I was waiting for the next Monkey Island game to come out, I would pick up some other great Lucas Arts games such as Sam and Max Hit the Road, The Day of The Tentacle, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. If you have not had a chance to play these games, you really should pick them up now. If you have trouble playing the games, the ScummVM engine might help.
But enough reminiscing, on to the review! I picked up the game on Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft “Nixon Bucks” Points (10$). I chose the Xbox platform instead of the PC or iPhone because I wanted to play this game with my kids. Having played the game many times, I wanted a fresh perspective for this review. I wanted them to experience an adventure point-and-click game and show them that games can be great without having to blow something up every 30 seconds. The cool thing about this game is that it’s built on the old engine. When you want to see the old “jaggy lines” version (as my kids called it), you can switch over at any point in the game.
For being a game that’s almost 20 years old, it really held up well. My kids were actually involved in the story, laughed at the cheesy jokes, and even asked to play the sequel (even though it has not been remade yet and has “jaggy lines”). The game has revamped graphics, voice acting from the cast of The Curse of Monkey Island, and a new soundtrack. It even has a hint system built-in so you don’t have to stop playing to look up hints. If you can make it through the game without looking up hints on the XBLA version, you get an achievement.
I recommend you buy this game. The only complaint I had was that I already bought the game on floppy discs, then the re-released version on CD-ROM with an additional soundtrack, then once again on the LucasArts Classics Adventure Pack. I complained, but I really don’t know a fair way to verify that I already purchased 3 copies of the game…I am just being cheap :).
My son is at the age where he is really starting to enjoy Mickey Mouse, especially the Mickey Mouse Club House. After seeing many episodes I started thinking about the relationships this cartoon is portraying; What if this existed in real life…
The one that really gets me is the combo of Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto. Lets review. Mickey is best friends with a mentally challenged dog who can walk upright and talk named Goofy. At the same time, Mickey has a pet dog, Pluto, that does not talk but is twice as smart as his best friend, Goofy. Did I mention that Pluto and Goofy are the same breed of dog? So lets apply this to real life:
I have two friends that look very similar, one is a little slow but I like him, Rob, none the less. I have a second friend, Bob, that is very smart but does not speak, mostly grunts to tell me what he wants. Rob and I walk and talk while I drag Bob along with a leash on his hands and knees. Just another normal day in the land of Disney!
The lesson here is to keep your dumb friends close and keep your smart friends on a leash!
Now that calls for the Hot Dog Dance!
Even though the Iphone 3.0 software release allows for Push Notification, I am still anxiously awaiting on true push email. As I wait, I devised a way to insure I get my important email pushed to me. Allow me to share my push email work around.
- Forward your email: Build a rule to forward the email you want to be pushed to your phone. If you are like me some email is more important than others. I built a rule in Gmail to forward mail from certain senders to my push address.
- Set up your forwarding address: If you have unlimited texting package you can use one of the following addresses depending on your carrier. Simply place your cell number before the @.
| AT&T | @txt.att.net |
| Boost Mobile | @myboostmobile.com |
| Cingular | @mobile.mycingular.com |
| Helio | @myhelio.com |
| Nextel | @messaging.nextel.com |
| Qwest | @qwestmp.com |
| Sprint | @messaging.sprintpcs.com |
| T-Mobile | @tmomail.net |
| Tracfone | @cingularme.com |
| Verizon | @vtext.com |
| Virgin Mobile | @vmobl.com |
For a FREE method of doing this download the app TEXTFREE Light. This is not only a great way to text for free (limited to 15 texts per day) but ths app allows you to setup a direct email address to be used with Textfree, yourname@textfee.us. Because this app has background push notifications you can set this as your forwarding email and voila! Pushed emails!
Granted you will still have to open your mail app to reply, but you will know when mail arrived instantly!
Enjoy, and let us know how it works out for you.
I placed third at my local M10 prerelease tournament. Magic 2010 is a very exciting set for a Limited format environment. I played a black red deck with only a few bombs, and after four rounds of meticulous play, my deck finally quit on me in the top four; being one sleeve short with none available for purchase, I had to play sleeveless and that always makes shuffling more difficult as the night goes on.
I knew after opening my packs that black was going to be my primary color; between Vinny, Doom Blade, Tendrils of Agony, Consume Spirit, and Rise from the Grave, my most effective removal was there. I didn’t open any real midrange power creatures, so I looked at complementary strategy. The best cards I opened in white were Harm’s Way and White Knight; there were some minor tricks with Glorious Charge and Safe Passage, but I couldn’t commit. In blue, I had Ice Cage, a couple Serpant of the Endless Sea with one Convincing Mirage to go with, and an Illusionary Servant; again, not steller. Green provided a Llanowar Elf, a Stampeding Rhino, and an Entagling Vines. With no Borderland Rangers or Rampant Growth, I didn’t feel comfortable playing the Lurking Predators I opened since I couldn’t get it into play quickly, nor did I have enough good threats to abuse it; ditto on the Elvish Piper I opened. I settled on red since Shivan Dragon is a big, strong threat and I also opened a Lighting Bolt and Goblin Artillery. So off to round one with this list:
"M10 Prerelease"
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If I rebuilt my deck, I would have dropped the Disentomb for another land, probably a Mountain and dropped the Consume Spirit for another dude, like the Warpath Ghoul I opened. The rest of the deck played beautifully. One of the greatest synergies was Child of Night wearing a Whispersilk Cloak and Goblin Artillery. Royal Assassin was the MVP, totally making my Dread Warlocks and Black Knight take it home. I managed to mise my Doom Blade everytime I needed it, ripping it off the top not once or twice but THREE times to kill an Armored Ascended Gaurdian Seraph, a Serra Angel, and an Oakenformed Silvercoat Lion.
If you haven’t played with M10 yet, you should get out there and play. Its a fantastic set and a lot of fun!
Recent Extended event at my MTG Stomping Grounds yielded spectacular results utilizing Ranger of Eos.
Now, anybody who cracked a booster of Shards of Alara and saw this guy and Wild Nacatl didn’t need a large neon sign to tell them that he would be fantastic in an Extended format Zoo build; Ranger Zoo is nothing new, as I think the first article I saw on the deck as I was modifying my Zoo deck was on thestarkingtonpost.com by Bill Stark himself. To get an idea of how I looked at the card, lets have a look at my original build and see how I modified it for Ranger of Eos:
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