weekend spoils!

Well, I failed in getting anything Magic the Gathering related, instead I ended up purchasing a new phone namely a Samsung Galaxy S5 and it's an hell of a upgrade over my old Samsung Galaxy S2 that's for sure! More on that later.

I also ended up joint purchasing a new television for my girlfriend as her old CRT tv was about to die and well... I couldn't hook up my gaming consoles to it either... so it's a win win situation.  Tomorrow I will head to the gaming store and see what Magic the Gathering spoils I can dig up in lieu of Journey into the Nyx  being that it hasn't released yet.

Stay tuned!

Long Weekend? Spend on Magic the Gathering

Tis another long weekend here in Australia and I'll be off to my neighbouring city to visit my long suffering girlfriend and visit the local gaming shop to stock up on Magic The Gathering items.  Unfortunately Journey into the Nyx won't be out by the time I get there, so I'll more than likely just pick up a few booster packs from Theros/Born of the Gods and try and finish off this Mono Blue deck I am trying to build...

A small update on my Aggro Mono Black Deck - I have acquired Erebos, God of the Dead to throw in there somewhere... interesting times, any opinions on Erebos?

Once Journey into the Nyx comes out however, I'll more than likely just pick up a Fat Pack, or if some of my Magic the Gathering friends would split a booster box with me that'd be great!, haha.

What kind of Mono Blue?  I haven't decided yet, but was quite impressed with the Fire Surge Magic 2014 Intro Deck (that I mentioned in brief here) so that I may add a bit of Red spice in there for good measure.
Yes, I do realise it was only an Intro deck, but I rarely play Blue or Red for that matter, but how it measured up to a Devotion Black Blue decks astounded me.

I also hopefully want to get back to the 2nd hand/pawn stores as well and try and find me some retro gear, there has to be some somewhere!  If not, I've hatched a plan to strip out a PS2, Nintendo Wii and possibly a PS1 and combine them in one enclosure, I have a frame made up out of angle iron ready to go but just need to find the time to actually figure out how it's all going to go together.

Check back often for updates, with photos, of course...

Fire Surge Magic 2014 Intro Deck

Ok, Tuesday nights are now becoming a staple night of playing Magic the Gathering with my friends, so I should be updating this blog with Magic info more often now (yay!)

Tonight I played and played my Mono Black Aggro deck (correct me if I am wrong please) which can be found here.  I found I am thinking of adding Read The Bones to it to add a scry 2 feature to add some more control to my draw, especially if I am getting a shitty draw, and possibly add 2 more Pharikas Cure to counteract the 2 life lost using Read The Bones.  Anyways!

I recently bought another Intro Deck, this in particular as the title suggests Fire Surge Magic 2014 Core Set Intro Deck.  Red/Blue being its colours and it really surprised me as it come into its own against a Blue/Black devotion deck.  I won't go into too much detail but if I had played a Chandra's Outrage appropriately I would not lost by one life as that's what it came down too.  I elected to do deal three damage to a two toughness creature, rather than dole out that extra one damage to the player thus losing me the game.

That's all I wanted to say, if you're new to Magic the Gathering, (like me) pickup the Magic 2014 Fire Surge Intro Deck, I picked it up discounted as the new Magic the Gathering stuff is gearing up to be released and I really like it as an intro deck.

Hearthstone Basick Build - Mage

 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

Magic Basic Build.

This build is great for new players, who haven't acquired or bought many cards or just for the casual player who'd like to start out with a solid deck early on.  This basic mage build is a good all rounder and can handle most situations. E.g. Removal with Polymorph, Flamestrike.  Ranged damage with Fireball, card draw with Novice Engineer, Gnomish Inventor + Arcane Intellect. And a little bit of aggro with the Elven Archer and Gurubashi Berserker (The Gurubashi Berserker can also be set off by your hero power too)

An alternative could be to trade out the Chillwind Yeti for an Ogre Magi.
You get +1 spell damage for 1 health.

Five Tips for Battlefield 4

Hello everyone,

I am here today to give you a few simple tips in surviving Battlefield 4. If you play in Hard Core mode this especially applies to you (and Hard Core mode is the only mode I play these days)

Tip #1 - Communicate with your team!

I don't mean to your whole team, but at least your Teamspeak friends and no I don't mean just general banter talking about how much alcohol you drank on Friday night either. Work together in spotting enemies and giving good descriptions of there whereabouts, what their kit is, any scope glints in the distance etc. You hear a chopper or vehicle nearby, report it to your squad! this will ensure your survival percentage goes up by at least %20... well... maybe...

Tip #2 - Have a plan!

In Battlefield 4 Conquest mode, decide before hand what squad is controlling which capture points. There is no point in running back and fourth to points that are spread from arse hole to breakfast, you become easy cannon fodder for the enemy by making these long distance hikes. Just control two or three points nearby and cap them as they become uncapped or defend them if they are all capped and remain vigilante , your enemy will become discouraged and move on to the next point in which you follow them and mow them down as they move on.

Tip #3 - Don't be a hemorrhoid!

You're moving on to the next objective, don't bunch together like dingle berries! fan out but not so far you find yourself on your own and in the sights of an enemy sniper. e.g. one person take the high road, the other the low road. One to go around a building whilst the other goes inside and refer to Tip #1 and communicate! This way you have more eyes spread over the objective and have a better chance of catching your enemy off guard even if your team mate catches some bullets in the process and dies. You'll then have the chance to cap your mates killers whilst they reload or tea bag your dead friend. Vengeance is sweet!


Tip #4 - Play your role!

Playing Assualt? Throw your medic kits out often!
Playing Support? Throw your ammo bags out often!
Playing Engineer? Work in with the Support player in your squad and be a human death conjurer!
Playing Recon? Scout out, report, actually do recon work! not just camp and annoy the shit out of everyone!

Tip#5 - KDR is not everything!

This one is simple... PLAY THE OBJECTIVE! Your kill death ratio means nothing to no one except your self, in other words no one else gives a shit how many times you've lived and not died.
Max it out too far on the Kill count side and you could end being wrongfully associated with using hacks.
Play the objective and reap the rewards of top scoring, top squad and actually winning the round on occasion.

Run Through - Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master Part Three has been uploaded!

Magic the Gathering Aggro Mono Black Deck

Hello All, I've now pulled apart my deck and had it inspected and now has morphed into an aggressive deck, below you'll find what I had originally and what I changed it out with.  I've battled with this deck three times, winning the first two rounds and losing the last.  Not a bad result but more and testing has to be conducted!

Creatures - x18

REMOVED - 4x Forsaken Drifters - Zombie - 4 drop

4x Servant of Tymaret - Zombie - 3 drop 1/3
Inspired - Whenever Servant of Tymaret becomes untapped each opponent loses 1 life, you gain life equal to the life lost this way.  3 drop: Regenerate.

4x - Insatiable Harpy - 4drop - 2/2
Flying and Lifelink

1x - Mogis's Maruader - 3 drop - 2/2
When Mogis Marauder enters the battlefield, up to X target creatures each gain intimidate and haste until end of turn, where X is your devotion to black.

2x - Felhide Brawler - Minotaur - 2 drop - 2/2
Felhide Brawler can't block unless you control another minotaur.

2x - Warchanter of Mogis - Minotaur - 5 drop
Inspired - Whenever Warchanter of the Mogis becomes untapped, target creature you control gains intimidate until end of turn.

2x - Marshmist Titan - Giant - 7 drop - 4/5
Marshmist Titan cost X less to cast, where X is your devotion to black)

REMOVED - 1x - Felhide Minotaur - Minotaur - 3 drop

1x - Sengir Vampire - Vampire - 5 drop - 4/4
Flying - Whenever a creature is dealt damage by Sengir Vampire this dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Sengir Vampire

REMOVED - 1x Eater of Hope - Demon - 7 drop

2x - Tormented Hero - Human Warrior - 1 drop - 2/1
Tormented Hero enters the battlefield tapped
Heroic - Whenever you cast a spell that targets Tormented Hero, each opponent loses 1 life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

REMOVED - 1x Disciple of Phenax - Human Cleric - 4 drop

Enchantment Creature - x7

REMOVED - 2x - Nyxborn Eidolon - Spirit - 2 drop

1x - Night Howler - Horror 0/0
Bestow 4 - Nighthowler and enchanted creature each +X/+X, where X is the number of creature cards in all graveyards.

2x - Cavern Lampad - Nymph - 4 drop - 2/2
Bestow 6 - Intimidate, Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has intimidate.

2x - Baleful Eidolon - Spirit - 2 drop - 1/1
Bestow 5 - Deathtouch - Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has deathtouch.

1x - Spiteful Returned - Zombie - 2 drop - 1/1
Bestow 4 - Whenever spiteful returned or enchanted creature attacks, defending player loses 2 life.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1

1x - Archetype of Finality - Gorgon - 6 drop - 2/3
Creatures you control have Deathtouch.  Creatures your opponent control lose deathtouch and can't have or gain deathtouch.

Sorcery - x5

4x - Asphyxiate - 4 drop
Destroy target untapped creature.

REMOVED - 1x Sip of Hemlock - 6 drop

1x - Gild - 4 drop
Exile target creature. Put a colourless artifact token named Gold onto the battlefield.  It has "sacrifice this artifcate: Add one mana of any colour to your mana pool"

REMOVED - 1x March of the Returned - 4 drop

Enchantment - Aura - x1

REMOVED - 2x Weight of the Underworld - 4 drop

1x - Claim of Erebos - 2 drop
Enchant creature - Enchanted creature has "drop 2 and tap: target player loses 2 life"

Instant - x5

REMOVED - 2x - Eye Gouge - 1 drop
REMOVED - 1x - Wring Flesh - 1 drop

3x - Cutthroat Maneuver
Up to two target creatures each get  +1/+1 and gain lifelink til the end of turn.

2x - Pharikas Curse - 2 drop (added one)
Pharika's Curse deals 2 damage to target creature and you gain 2 life.

Lands - x24
24x Swamp Lands

Noob MTG Mono Black Deck Build

Here we go at building a limited mono black deck from fifty six black cards from the Theros and Born of the Gods sets.  I am yet to test this out against anyone as I only threw this together not long ago. I will test it out shortly and submit a battle report here to let you all know how it went.

The deck in its current state -

60 Cards Total -

I have one Night Howler (not used currently), used in conjunction with the Forsaken Drifters penchant for expanding your graveyard, it could be potentially be a last ditch game changer, if you're lucky to not throw out Night Howler in the process. To somehow control this, the March of the Returned sorcery card can return up to 2 cards from your graveyard back to your hand. So maybe get some more Night Howlers and March of the Returned sorcery cards to maximise your potential for a game ending Night Howler or two.


Creatures - x19

4x Forsaken Drifters - Zombie - 4 drop(tricky one, when they die they take four cards from the top of your library with them)

4x Servant of Tymaret - Zombie - 3 drop

2x Felhide Brawler - Minotaur - 2 drop

2x Warchanter of Mogis - Minotaur - 5 drop

2x Marshmist Titan - Giant - 7 drop

1x Felhide Minotaur - Minotaur - 3 drop

1x Sengir Vampire - Vampire - 5 drop

1x Eater of Hope - Demon - 7 drop

1x Tormented Hero - Human Warrior - 1 drop

1x Disciple of Phenax - Human Cleric - 4 drop


Enchantment Creature - x4

2x Nyxborn Eidolon - Spirit - 2 drop

1x Spiteful Returned - Zombie - 2 drop

1x Archetype of Finality - Gorgon - 6 drop


Sorcery - x7

4x Asphyxiate - 4 drop

1x Sip of Hemlock - 6 drop

1x Gild - 4 drop

1x March of the Returned - 4 drop


Enchantment - Aura - x3

2x Weight of the Underworld - 4 drop

1x Claim of Erebos - 2 drop


Instant - x4

2x Eye Gouge - 1 drop

1x Wring Flesh - 1 drop

1x Pharikas Curse - 2 drop


Lands - x23

23x Swamp Lands


--Unused Cards--


1x Night Howler

1x Blood Bairn

1x Loathsome Catoblepas

1x Champion of Stray Souls

1x Minotaur Abomination

1x Rescue of the Underworld

1x Keepsake Gorgon

2x Sanguinmancy

3x Returned Centaur

1x Grisly Transformation

1x Necrobite

1x Shrivel

1x Asphyxiate

2x Forsaken Drifters

Link to the original Squidoo lense

This weekend haul!

Hello everyone,

I have returned from a massive weekend of hunting around 2nd hand shops and came up empty handed in finding an Nintendo Entertainment System to convert into a PC.  After finally giving in I went to the local games store and picked up this lot to dry my tears with.

Magic the Gathering Born of the Gods Fat Pack, Battle the Horde solitaire deck, matte black protective sleeves. some spare D20's and my awesome girlfriend got me for our Anniversary a Magic The Gathering hand made blue / black deck box!

Truly Epic!

So I didn't come up empty handed after all!, thanks for reading and will get another post on what I got in the Born of the Gods Fat Pack!

Retro Hunting Long Weekend!

Greetings all,

I am on a four day weekend this weekend and will be travelling to my neighbouring city and have convinced my other half that we should do some 2nd hand shop snooping as well as charity shop snooping as well.  'For what?' you ask? For some retro gaming gear; that's right!  I am on the look out for any old NES consoles working or not working as the not working one I will donate to making something like this...

That there is a PC tucked inside an NES and I really want to build one.  Check my previous post for more details about the pictured Stealthbot NES here.  In my journey I'll keep a look out for anything else that is retro or just damn cool and try not to bore the missus out of her brain too much.

Killing Floor Office Romp Video

Latest gameplay footage of yours truly in Killing Floor, some epic gory moments were had whilst online with a team of strangers, certainly excellent fun.  If you don't own Killing Floor I'd suggest you buy it and get your friends to as well.  Because the Killing Floor six player co-op is undeniably awesome.  Playing it with randoms on your team is cool as well and more often than not they aren't dickheads... in my experience and compared to other games of the same nature.

View the Killing Floor Office Romp here

Definitely not an ordinary day in the office

Dual Titans in one card

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has announced the GTX Titan Z and is set to be a monster of a card, built up of two Gpus based on the Kepler technology and 12GB of dedicated frame buffer memory.  This card will attempting to grab the market share in the next generation 5k and multi-monitor gaming market and most probably a hefty market share of your bank account too.

With two GK110 chips, TITAN Z is powered by a total of 5,760 processing cores, or 2,880 cores per GPU. 

- See more at: Nvidia's blog page

I am surprised he can lift it up with one arm

It will be interesting to see the real world statistics on such a card as Nvidia are claiming it to run 'cool and quiet' also the power draw is another factor to take into consideration.  Will it be worth Bit coin mining with the GTX Z Titan?, or has AMD captured and run off with that market already hence the focus on 5k and multi-monitor gaming.

As they say, only time will tell.

Stealthbot - A Nintendo Home Entertainment PC

More than meets the eye

I came across this little gem in the Reddit gaming sub forum and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull on how cool this really is.  Inside is an actual functioning PC and to be honest I really want one!

Here are its current specs.

• Intel i3 2120
• 6GB Laptop Ram
• 16GB MASATA SSD
• 500GB 2.5" Laptop Drive
• Dell 90W Laptop Power Brick

With those specs it's perfect for a home entertainment PC that's for sure. Read here for more details

Battlefield 4 you never cease to amaze

So, Battlefield 4 Naval Strike dlc was supposed to drop in our Origin accounts today for the Premium players, I said 'was'... meaning that it's gone to shit... again.

Far out brussel sprout!, you shell out over $100.00 AUD for a bloody game and you virtually get a virtual cluster fuck of non sense. Below is the excerpt from the article posted on the battlelog forum.

However, we are delaying the launch of Battlefield 4 Naval Strike on PC. We’ve detected an issue and it needs to be solved. Quality is our number one priority and we will not release Battlefield 4 Naval Strike on PC until we feel it meets the highest quality level possible. We are also working on a larger update to release alongside Battlefield 4 Naval Strike on PC that will address the issue of Tablet Commander not working correctly. Once we have a confirmed date for PC, we’ll be sure to update those players on our official channels. We appreciate your patience and look forward to seeing everyone on the Battlefield.

Here is the original post on Battleog forum.


Lets dissect this shall we?

• we are delaying the launch of Battlefield 4 Naval Strike on PC. We’ve detected an issue and it needs to be solved.
  Are you serious? you've detected an issue right before its about to be released, what does this actually mean? You were putting the final touches on Naval Strike and thought 'you know what, I might actually play test this to see if it's actually fit for purpose'.  Explain this to me.

• Quality is our number one priority and we will not release Battlefield Naval Strike on PC until we feel it meets the highest quality level possible.
  This is getting very hard to believe, as maybe this should have been the announcement right before Battlefield 4 was about to release last year.  It's like you're putting a band aid over a severed artery, you make it look like you're doing something, but the blood will just keep pumping til you drown, the body dies or you actually get serious and fix it properly.
  So far the 'body dying' scenario is winning out on this one.

• We are also working on a larger update to release alongside Battlefield 4 Naval Strike on PC that will address the issue of Tablet Commander not working correctly.
  Fuck the Tablet Commander!, scrap the Commander Mode altogether, it's woeful and does nothing but detract from the experience.  Yeah!, yeeha!, lets play Battlfield 4 on my fucking tablet!... maybe I will since the actual First Person Shooter element on Battlefield is a jarring experience to begin with.  Seriously, get rid of the Commander Mode, problem solved and more time can be spent fixing the actual game.

• Once we have a confirmed date for PC, we’ll be sure to update those players on our official channels. We appreciate your patience and look forward to seeing everyone on the Battlefield.
  You're losing me Dice, EA, whoever is calling the shots... you're losing me.  Battlefield 3 was my go to game the last couple of years just because it's scale was epic and captured something very special from when I was young lad growing up thinking how awesome games would be in the future.  Now, we've got a game with a broken back and hasn't recovered you are effectively putting your fingers in the holes of a sinking ship and it's filling fast...
  
  I was at least a little excited about this dropping tonight, but utter lunacy of the reasons given to why Naval Strike is delayed is beyond ludicrous and has annoyed me enough to blog about it rather than roll my eyes and play something else.
  
  DICE, EA, PULL YOUR HEAD IN!
  
  

Run Through Shinobi III part Two has now been uploaded!

Thanks for waiting patiently you lot, the video has arrived! View it here!

If you are so inclined you can view part one of the Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master here

Here is the previous blog post for Run Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master

Shinobi III: Return Of The Ninja Master

Run Through Shinobi III Part Two video upload

Hello everyone,

Part two of the Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master will be uploaded later on today (tonight, where ever you are!). This series is all about how far I can get in Shinobi III til I run out of lives and continues, I am playing it on PC rather than a Sega Genesis, this version of Shinobi is from the Sega Genesis/Megadrive classics I obtained through a Humble Bundle a week or so ago. You'll be pleased to know that no save states were used in the making of the Run Through of Shinobi III. It'll be full of derp moments and on the fly commentary, fueled by coffee as I tend to retro game extremely late at night (who doesn't?)

Anways, Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master classic game that I rate highly, fun and addictive and can't stress enough that if you don't own it... you're really missing out on some cool retro arcade action!

UPDATE - View the video here!

You like Magic The Gathering? Watch Top Decking.

I've discovered a nice web series called Top Decking from the Webisodes network.  The show revolves around a handful of characters working in a Magic The Gathering store.  It has a nice smattering of cliches, rivalries, stereotypes and Magic The Gathering game play throughout to keep it fresh and interesting.

Excellent writing and superb acting makes Top Decking, to me exceptionally addictive show.  Ten minute episodes make the show really accessible and bit size to consume just about any time of day whilst at work on your phone or at home when in between doing laundry loads (or what ever it is you do at home).  The added bonus is it has the element of Magic The Gathering throughout making Top Decking a must watch show for Magic The Gathering players.  Hell it even touches upon League of Legends and you'll may also notice some other Youtube Celebrities amongst the cast.

Magic The Gathering is awesome, Top Decking is superb I suggest you check it out!

Youtube - Top Decking playlist
Host Site - Webisodes Network

This Thursday to purchase more MTG cards?

Greetings All,

I quick update, I am off to my nearest city Wednesday night to visit my lovely girlfriend and also to put my car into the mechanics. It seems to be cheaper to travel 250 kilometers to get my differential rebuilt in the neighbouring city than it is to get it rebuilt locally. A saving of near $600.00 AUD will be made including fuel costs, absolute and utter madness... but enough of that.

This is the real update. I intend on visiting the local game store and getting some more Magic The Gathering cards... or perhaps a box set? will I get skinned alive by significant other, or will I get her to come round and play a round of Magic with me and get her hooked? I've already given her my Nintendo DS to play, downward spiral? or angelic ascension? which reminds me, I haven't played a round of Ascension in ages!

oh, and my youtube channel is up! with heaps of gaming, Magic and other content coming soon!

<--- Click here to subscribe!


Regards,
Ausmetal.

Weekend roundup

Weekend just gone was a good one, I finished editing my Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master 'run through' series which will be uploaded on Youtube in a 5 part series over the coming weeks.

I did another run through playing Killing Floor, which I haven't picked up in ages and had a blast doing so. I have footage of the event edited up and nearly ready for upload by mid week. There are some tidy plays in the vid that's for sure.

I didn't purchase any games this weekend, my latest purchases from last week were Dragon Age Ultimate Edition (PC) and a spare deck slot in Magic 2014(PC). Dragon Age had 75% off or something ridiculous like that, so I'll be offloading my Xbox360 version, anyone interested, let me know.

Which brings me toooooooo

That I may do up a list of games and what not that I'll be selling soon, PS3, Xbox360, boardgames etc. But will have to decide whether I'll list on ebay or do a private listing.

Will keep you posted!
Thanks for reading!

Ausmetal.

Run Through - Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master for Sega Genesis

Hey all,

First video up of a five part series on how far I can get in Shinobi III Return of the Ninja Master.  Please check it out and give me some feed back, or just like and subscribe, that would be much appreciated.

Run Through - SEGA Genesis & Mega Drive Classics

As you may or may not know I recently purchased the Sega Humble Bundle and in that bundle were quite a few gems.  Medieval II: Total War, Company of Heroes, Renegade Ops, Hell Yeah and a few others... however! What did catch my eye was the 10 Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games that came with it all and what you got in it was Altered Beast, Vector Man, Golden Axe 1, 2 & 3,  Echo the motherfucking Dolphin, Gain Ground, Crack Down, Comix Zone and last but not least Shinobi IIIL Returrn of the Ninja Master.

I have not played many of those games before, apart from Golden many years ago in my childhood.  I never owned anything Sega either, I was always a Nintendo kid through and through.  Anyway, I have decided to play through these games as they were intended without the use of save states etc to see how far I could get and do a live commentary to capture some frustration and triumph.  It's not a lets play more like a Lets Play and see how far I can get before smashing the monitor.

I am using a PS3 controller with windows drivers and I am not using the save state feature included with the bundled Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games, how hard can it be?  Will find out soon, as I have footage of my first play through recorded and the results will be uploaded shortly.  First game off the rank is Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master...
... much excite.

UPDATE - Permalink to blog post click here http://dualdaggers.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-far-can-i-get-in-shinobi-iii-return.html
UPDATE - Or go here to view it direct on Youtube! http://youtu.be/WwfLuKV3Ol8

Magic 2014 - Sealed Play - Red/Green Test Deck part 2

The card list is as follows.

• Red - Striking Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Green - Predatory Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Red - Blur Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Green - Fog - Instant
• Green - Deadly Recluse - Creature
• Green - Plummet - Instant
• Red - Regathan Fire Cat - Creature
• Green - Advocate of the Beast - Creature
• Green - Oaken Form - Sorcery
• Red - Slaughter Cry - Instant
• Red - Moltern Birth - Sorcery
• Red - Firewing Phoenix - Creature
• Red - Marauding Maulhorn - Creature Beast
• Green - Rumbling Baloth - Creature Beast
• Red - Awaking the Ancient - Enchantment Aura
• Red - Bonebreaker Giant - Creature
• Red - Cleaver Riot - Sorcery
• Red - Turn to Slag - Sorcery
• Green - Enlarge - Sorcery
• Green - Yavimaya Wurm - Creature

Magic 2014 - Sealed Play - Red/Green test deck part 1

Greetings all,

I have been playing around with Magic 2014 on PC in the Sealed Play component of the game.  I have built a 40 card Red/Green deck and been playing around with it, it's not flash by any stretch of the imagination but I am having some varied degrees of success.

The card list is as follows.

• Red - Striking Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Green - Predatory Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Red - Blur Sliver x 2 - Creature
• Green - Fog - Instant
• Green - Deadly Recluse - Creature
• Green - Plummet - Instant
• Red - Regathan Fire Cat - Creature
• Green - Advocate of the Beast - Creature
• Green - Oaken Form - Sorcery
• Red - Slaughter Cry - Instant
• Red - Moltern Birth - Sorcery
• Red - Firewing Phoenix - Creature
• Red - Marauding Maulhorn - Creature Beast
• Green - Rumbling Baloth - Creature Beast
• Red - Awaking the Ancient - Enchantment Aura
• Red - Bonebreaker Giant - Creature
• Red - Cleaver Riot - Sorcery
• Red - Turn to Slag - Sorcery
• Green - Enlarge - Sorcery
• Green - Yavimaya Wurm - Creature

Three picks for under 20 dollars - Steam Specials - 22 of March 2014

If you are looking for a couple of titles to add to your Steam collection, then read on!

Pay Day 2 and Killing Floor are really online only titles and best played with friends, especially Pay Day 2 as it can get quite frustrating with other randoms that join your team.  Duke Nukem 3D & Shadow Warrior bundle are great as they are single player classic FPS shooters from the 90's.  Though they are a little dated however there humour and level design are timeless, well worth the pie and a can of coke price they are asking for!.

Duke Nukem 3D & Shadow Warrior bundle 

75% off was $14.99 now $3.74USD  (Offer ends in just over 24 hours)
Classic FPS shooters using the Build Engine.

Pay Day 2

67% off was $29.99 now $9.99USD  (Offer ends on the 25th of March 2014)
4 player co-op FPS Bank Heist Simulator, extremely fun with 3 other friends.

Killing Floor

75% off was $19.99 now $4.99USD (Offer ends on the 25th of March 2014)
Co-op FPS Action Survival Horror, bun


All up for less than $20.00USD you are getting some great titles that will remain installed on your PC.

Weekend Roundup - Board gaming + Eldritch Horror

Hello everyone,

I have been a bit quiet as of late, currently studying for two IT certifications CCNA and CompTIA A+.  Just to update my skills and getting into a bit of Cisco switches and routers, a nice thing to add to the resume'. I also run a sandblasting business and the past 2 weeks I've been busy working that also.  In the future I hope to a get a full game of Eldritch Horror (boardgame) in with my gaming group, the last game ended up being abandoned due it running into the 3 hour mark as we ran into a nasty in game surprise that resulted in our party having to complete an objective all over again.  Eldritch Horror is a very brutal game however not as complex as Arkham Horror but still a good bloody time nonetheless.

Will ruin your life and your friends... should you convince them to play it.

The past weekend I had an epic game of Munchkin Deluxe with just the standard cards, my gaming group was not convinced that it would be as good as I claimed it to be... how wrong they were!.  The rule-book not being written in the most logical way, we managed to figure most of it out and had a blast.  I finished dead last (level 3 max!) every time but that was due to me being the arsehole messing with everybody who was fighting a monster, needless to say my pursuits of misery ended up being sewn only for me to reap later on.

A damn good time, especially if you like to step on peoples necks for treasure.

We also managed to squeeze in Ticket To Ride & Dixit.  Ticket To Ride, if you do not own this, do not hesitate to purchase it as even your significant non gamer other will play this along with the whole family; money well spent.  Dixit is in the same category too, interesting game of using beautiful abstract illustrations and your mind to interpret them amongst your friends.  I won't reinvent the wheel so here is the description taken from Board Game Geek.

Rarely a game surprises me, this one did immensely!

"One player is the storyteller for the turn and looks at the images on the 6 cards in her hand. From one of these, she makes up a sentence and says it out loud (without showing the card to the other players).

Each other player selects the card in their hands which best matches the sentence and gives the selected card to the storyteller, without showing it to the others.

The storyteller shuffles her card with all the received cards. All pictures are shown face up and every player has to bet upon which picture was the storyteller's.

If nobody or everybody finds the correct card, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3. Players score 1 point for every vote for their own card.

The game ends when the deck is empty or if a player scores 30 points. In either case, the player with the most points wins the game.

The base game and all expansions have 84 cards each."

Thats enough from me, have a good one all!

World War Z novel - halfway through report.

Hey all,

The World War Z by Max Brooks is fantastic, I am about halfway through it and love how the fictional story is told of world wide devastation by the living dead from many different points of view and the social commentary associated with hitting the mark.

It ranges from a Middle Eastern family escaping something terrifying, but not know what exactly; but are wary of the asylum other countries are offering due to religious conflicts of the past.  American soldiers on the ground know what they face but know the military's tactics & weapons are useless against an undead horde.  Or a little girls account of their family uprooting from the family home to head North to Canada away from the undead plague only to witness and experience changes within themselves and others when winter closes shut it's jaws and bites hard the survivors.

I am only halfway through the novel and I can only describe it as epic.  The scene is set, the theme is thick with the stench of zombies and humanity must undergo a metamorphosis of its own to overcome the staggering armies of the undead.

Australian Highway Speed Limits & 110km/hour zones

Why is it that people get done for speeding?.  From not adhering to the speed posted... And usually in 100km an hour zone, hell I do it, an extra 10km an hour doesn't hurt, doesn't really cut the trip time dramatically, but it makes you feel better nonetheless, also to make up that time lost in the highway purgatory called "roadworks".  Where usually there is a whole lot of nothing going on except for a collection of vehicles and schizophrenic fury.

This brings me to the government privilege of 110km zones and how some motorists treat it like it's forbidden fruit, not unlike a shy yo-yo.  Speeding up and slowing down and then stand all over the brakes that if god forbid, another motorist appears over the hill in front or behind them.  All their courage and tenacity that once flourished in 100km zones is vanquished, leaving some confused and wary of the white and red sign of 110, like it's a cult of the satanic motorist, 110 must appear to be 666 to these people who've heard that if you dabble in the black arts your fingers will get burnt.

Any who, just put your foot on the far right pedal and stop treating these zones as novelty.  They are put there because the stretch of road is boring and anonymous like a shy person is to a strangers party... And if your excuse is because you have kids in the car, either be a parent, take control and restrain them or wake up to yourself as there wont be much of a happy family left having a car accident at anything over 60km an hour. so doing 10 under the speed limit is not going to do much in the way protecting anybody from car bonnet decapitation or internal organs trying to find away out of your bones, sinew and skin upon impact.

Titanfall has dropped, will it hold gamer's attention?

Titanfall just dropped it's load in Australia, a few friends of mine have snaffled it up via pre-orders I am yet to hear their opinion on the game.  The real test is to see if it will have any longevity.  Don't get me wrong, I played the beta which really was more of a demo than anything and it played great, fast, fluid and accurate. A relief from the Battlefield 4 cluster fuck it seems to be cultivating with each patch.

When playing Titanfall beta it only had a few game modes and 2 maps.  That's fine for a beta but now the full version is out and there are a tonne of maps; which is good, but literally only a couple more game modes 5 to be exact which aren't really that exciting and have seen before.  Here they are as follows...

• Attrition - Team Deathmatch
• Last Titan Standing - Last Man Standing
• Hardpoint - Domination/Conquest
• Capture the Flag
• Pilot Hunter - Kill enemy teams pilots to a predetermined score limit
• Variety mode - All the above mixed together

Add that with virtually no single player campaign, it what seems to be a tacked on effort of campaign scenarios around the multiplayer modes.

For a modded source engine, it looks great, the theme is fantastic and game play is wonderful.  Slick controls anyone who has played Call of Duty multiplayer will be well at home.  Just the lackluster array of game modes is a let down.  To put it simply they are very basic and no real complicated modes to be found and at an asking price of $79.00 from JB Hi Fi. this won't be in my collection for anytime soon.  I've heard it's not modder friendly so it will be test to see if there is any core community around after 6 months or so of gameplay that haven't gone back to Battlefield and/or Call of Duty.

If you are in Australia and want to pick it up cheaper and a physical copy of the game go to DungeonCrawl Titan Fall $61.00.

Me and Magic: The Gathering (A quick look)

I've recently started playing Magic: The Gathering.  A game I had seen advertised back in the day when I used to play Warhammer 40k, but being young I never really had the funds or was in the right location to check it out.  (The dilemmas of a nerdy kid living in a small country town)

So what got me into MTG, Apart from the general interest gained from when I was a kid?  What pushed me over the edge after literally hand over fist with cash (fist over hand?) on board games? This is what did it

The MTG From The Vault Twenty Boxset
Yes that is me :o)

That bloody MTG box set, I had won it over last Xmas via a competition held by Australian Tabletop Gaming Network.  Thus sparking me to embark on a MTG journey and enjoying every minute of it.
What's in the MTG From The Vault Twenty?  20 rare cards such as Jace, The Mind Sculptor apparently worth $120.00 aud on Ebay (the most expensive in this box set).  However, I won't be opening it anytime soon, lets just say I am hoping it will appreciate in value over time.

I haven't played many games and I ended up buying the Magic 2014 game from Steam which helped me along with the rules and nuances of the different coloured decks White, Blue, Black, Red and Green.  White being protection and order, Blue being manipulation and illusion, Black is death and darkness, Red being freedom and impulse, Green is growth and instinct.  Build your decks up purchasing pre-built decks such as Heroes Vs Monsters which give you two playable decks of 60 cards each to get you going straight away for a minimal cost.

Heroes Vs Monsters Duel Decks

You can scour ebay for singles of rare/mythic rare cards to bolster your ranks but be prepared to pay a small fortune for the rarities (some well into the thousands of dollars).  Or you can literally buy hundreds of common cards of multiple colours to build your decks with.  There are intro decks to get you into the fray immediately with a core set of 60 cards and 2 booster packs, booster packs consist of 15 cards at random which if you're lucky may get a rare or mythic rare card.

It really is an easy game to learn and quite a lot of fun, it isn't really an expensive or time consuming hobby as compared to say Warhammer 40k, no assembly or painting required either and easier to find opponents as you could teach the basics in an afternoon.  You can make it as expensive as you like depending on how serious you take it or even make money off it if you get lucky in a few booster pack openings or make some good trades.  Websites such as MTG Price will help you keep track of how much your collection is worth.

All in all, I don't regret stepping into the realm of Magic: The Gathering with rich art work and lore it'll keep me entertained for years to come and possibly retire on my MTG: From the Vault: Twenty box set... dream on dreamer.

Love Letter - Board Game Review

A Board Game Review

Love Letter by Alderac Entertainment Group

Players - 2 to 4 (best with 3 and 4 players)
Playtime - 20 to 30 minutes
Type - Deduction

This is literally the game.
(not pictured. The cool velvet Love Letter game bag)

An extremely portable game powered by 16 cards, yes, 16 cards are what's in this game along with 13 wooden cubes for counters, rule book and reference cards.  The idea of the game is that you are candidate to sweep the princess off of her feet via a letter, a love letter if you will.  To do this you will pass your letter onto the people around her so that they will pass it onto the princess.  You are not the only one so you must strategize and deduce your way on getting your letter to her first.

It's a simple game of 'Pickup one card and play one card' so you will always have a card in your hand.  When you play a card you will follow the rules assigned to that card, for instance if you played a Priest that will enable you to look at one players hand.  However, this can also happen to you and ruin any strategy you may have had.  Once the draw pile has dwindled down to nothing, players will reveal the card in there hand, the player with the highest ranked card wins as this particular person was closest to the princess.  In case of a tie, players discarded cards are counted up and the highest value wins the round.

A very simple game that really shines when 4 players are vying for the princesses heart and that will stop at nothing to get their letter to her. It is a good, solid, filler game that would appeal to most (the theme may put some people off) and could possibly be the gateway game to get your girlfriend into board gaming (fingers crossed hey?)  But I found it really enjoyable due to it's quick play, portability and how fast the rules can be picked up by gamers and non board gamers alike.

I picked up my copy at the The Wicked Goblin for a sum of $16.00

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Things I find in the local newspaper

This one I found late last year.
I'd like to know at what point when this activity was considered a good idea?

Note the time.

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Anonymity, the internet and dickheads

Been thinking today about a few sessions of Counter Strike: GO I played over the weekend and why it's a good idea to have comms turned off all together in any multiplayer game.

1.  The pre pubescent, entitled know it all barking orders with his high pitch whiny voice and getting upset as no one is paying him any attention. Devolves into a frenzy of abuse as some others on the server cannot help but to bait the kid into a more frenzied reaction. Prompting a door kicking by his Mum telling the kid she will 'throw that infernal machine out the window' if he keeps it up.

2. The apparent grizzled veteran of a particular game does the same as the pre pubescent, but has a larger vocabulary; but less frontal lobe capacity to understand what they are actually saying to anyone, leading them down the path of 'I'm capturing this point, go somewhere else, hurr durr' or random 'ptfo' messages via text.

3. Fantasy land man is the guy who probably gets bullied or is just a pushover in the real world. Working a menial job because he possesses no intestinal fortitude to confront his problems thus wallows in self loathing and pity.  However, give him an adsl connection and a headset and we have Fuckwit Man! Huzz zaaah!! This guy will berate you and call you out by username and abuse you and switch teams just to team kill you. All this while telling the whole server he is better than anyone else.

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Saw this on Welcome to the Internet Facebook page and had to share.

Talking about Razer Deathadder Black Edition 3.5g (or the non-fairy edition)

Greetings all,


Just a quick post to talk about my current gaming mouse, as you may have deduced from the title it is indeed a Razer Deathadder Black Edition 3.5g and it is indeed a non-fairy edition as well. "But what do you mean, 'non-fairy edition?'" What I mean is that it has no obnoxious led lights on it, that pulsate, strobe or remain static and it also is the edition with out the rubber grips on the where the thumb and ring finger sit, because as I said it is the Non-Fairy Edition.

Before I purchased the Razer Deathadder Black Edition, my previous being a Razer Naga yes, I used to play World of Warcraft. (it seems like WoW is like a foreskin, you either had it or still got it)
So I thought; why not get another Razer mouse, I don't do MMO's anymore so why not purchase a basic mouse. I conducted some research and found people were giving it quite good reviews all round but complaining that its matte finish was slippery and for some reason some particular users where having trouble picking the mouse up in between their thumb and ring fingers, thus giving it a lesser rating. All I am saying is if you can't pick this particular mouse up between your thumb and ring finger without it slipping, you've got bigger problems than worrying about grip technology on computer peripheral hardware.

How do I find the mouse? Fantastic, does everything I need it to do from Counter Strike to cursor placement in blogging text forms. With Razer's Synapse software behind it you can re program mice the buttons in which there are 4, 5 if you include the mouse wheel which is also clickable and two others are found where your thumb would go, making weapon switching easier on the fly.  Being 3.5g, you guessed it, it has 3500dpi which can be altered, again in the Synapse 2.0 software.

Bottom line is, you want an inexpensive gaming/general use mouse without any sort extra bullshit gimmicks that Razer usually have in spades... then this mouse is for you.

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Pre-ordering video games, should we do it?

Hello everyone,

I am writing this on the basis of most AAA titles these days exclaiming that you should preorder there great new game and not miss out. Not sure what you're going to miss out on apart from playing the game earlier than if you bought it later, perhaps miss out on playing it with your friends on day one launch?... meh. What am I getting at here?, Battlefield 4. I rarely preorder anything as sometimes it's just not worth it, unless you're a collector and have to have a special boxed edition to grace your shelves, I'll happily wait til after the fact to get the game.

Battlefield 4 had me so excited like a 10 year old boy going to a friends birthday party, I could hear all the banter between friends, smell all the party pies, sausage rolls, tomato sauce, cold coke, sweets and cake... especially cake... only to be taken back of the mower shed and molested by said friends shady uncle on the proviso of even better sweets that were somehow back behind the shed. And like Battlefield 4 and its botched launch and numerous patches of "closing one door, opening three hundred others" it has left me feeling the same way... confused, angry and cold.

All the signs of an epic title were there, its predecessor Battlfield 3 absolutely rocked even though it had its relatively small problems, gimmicky as hell Levelution, FrostFUGGINbite3!, new weapons, assignments and the list goes on... say no more, you had my money upon announcement of the new game. It certainly seemed like EA had such a hard-on for money that all of the blood literally left there brain to pump up a voracious cash boner to get this game out as soon as possible and poor old DICE just had to follow suit or as the saying goes "shape up, or ship out". This has hurt gamers no doubt, I surmise this has hurt EA/DICES' bottom line (speculation of course, compared to say a fully functioning release they would've had to make more money right? good vs bad publicity and all that.) and just going by apparent court cases that EA are facing, they have not been fully upfront with the true on the state of the game to investors which can only really point to them not being truthful across the board on anything, but we knew that already didn't we?.

So, is it really worth preordering anything? If there is going to be day one DLC packaged as some wanky special edition with a tin case that you'll never look at again. Then comes the premium content which includes all the expansions and you get them 2 weeks earlier plus priority queuing for servers just to get you in for the hard sell. By the end of the day you've shelled out $120.00 plus bucks for a broken game and promises of it getting better... so no, it's not really worth it.

What does it mean? It all means drek if the spine of the game is broken which Battlefield 4 currently is and it's sad... it doesn't stop me from playing it, it just stops me from playing the absolute fucking hell out of it and enjoying it immensely. Rather, I play a few sessions and get the shits with it and do something else.

This brings me to Titanfall dropping very soon, did I play the beta? yes. Did I enjoy the beta? yes. Have I pre ordered it? No.

Because once bitten, twice shy.

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