M2011 Predictions

M11 is right around the corner and the spoiler sites are already showing the boxes and intro packs, which means we're just a few short days away from starting to see what this set has to offer.

Before that all happens, as a rookie to these sets, I want to make my own predictions as to what's coming in this set, and what's going away. So here we go:

1. Baneslayer is out

Sorry fanboys, Baneslayer Angel is rotated out of play. For the past year this card has been a staple in any deck that had the word "white" in it. It doesn't matter if it made any sense in the deck. Weenie swarm? Needs Baneslayer. White control? Baneslayer. Blue green control? Better splash some white so you can have a Baneslayer. The price is coming down on these cards as people wait with bated breath to see if it makes the cut or not. Either way, expect to see the price drop in the next month.

2. Nocturnus is out

This one hurts a bit, but Nocturnus is being rotated out, however, Vampires will have a new staple card to help them win games, it may be the Nirkana Revenant we saw from last set, or it may be something new. We'll see soon.

3. Path to Exile is out ... Swords to Plowshares is in

Path to Exile is the current one drop white spell that causes everyone to curse a little bit when they get hit by it. With Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile both leaving our hands this October, Wizards is going to bring back a piece of power on par with Lightning Bolt in M10. Welcome back Swords to Plowshares (or something very close to it). White still does need some form of instant removal, and Path to Exile is keeping games fast by offering land at the cost of a creature. Swords to Plowshares will slow things up a little bit by offering life instead of land. Players are now far less likely to remove their own creatures to find that vital piece of land they need.

4. Introducing your M11 Planeswalkers

Planeswalkers are back, but none of them are new, and they're all from things we've seen recently. Sorin comes back as black's Planeswalker, and Nissa returns as green, despite being in desperate need of a new red planeswalker, Chandra Ablaze comes back disappointing red fans everywhere (watch the next set for the new red planeswalker!). In a stunning surprise, Wizards brings Jace the Mindsculptor back for blue's, and Gideon comes in again for White. The secondary market cries openly and players who haven't gotten to spend their $280 on a set of Jace's will have a second shot at them.

5. Big creatures

Wizards is trying to slow down the current game, and its shown from the previous sets. They want to add a couple turns to the game, and they're making big creatures to be the end game condition. This set drives another nail into the coffin of the fast decks, making Timmy's everywhere rejoice.

There's my predictions for the set. We'll take a look at them in a couple months to see how I did. In the meantime, may all your opening hands have at least two land in them (unless you're playing me).

Darksiders - The Review

I sit here watching the end credits to Darksiders, so I'm fresh off of a high from seeing a lot of WTF moments all at once. This game is undeniably one of the most frustrating games I've played in awhile.

Badass? Yes. Fun? Not so much.

There's three parts to this game (possibly four if I count the credits that are STILL rolling), the combat, the puzzles, and the story. Each one is bad in its own special way.

Combat is lame and lackluster. It wants to be God of War, but can't pull it off. Keeping a combo of more than 20 going is pretty impressive, and if you so much as miss one hit, the meter resets. Enemies are given to you in unoriginal waves. You start off with one type, then they throw something into the mix, then they throw you TWO of the somethings to fight at once, oh my! There's very few ways of regaining health in the game, enemies only give it to you if you're on the verge of death, which leaves you to look for small enemies you can one shot kill, or birds which fly around giving somee health if you can hit them (which is very hard to do without ranged weapons, which you don't have in the beginning). It's often easier to just kill yourself to get back to starting health than it is to try to tough an unexplored area out.

Puzzles are frustratingly placed in the game as a way to extend time. This could have been a forgettable 5 - 7 hour romp, but the backtracking in the Zelda like dungeon environments with no real hints about how to proceed are hair pullingly maddening. A good example is towards the end of the game, weights come down from the ceiling and a door is just out of view. The weights look like elevators, with chains holding onto what could be best described as pointed tops. Using some blocks that also spawn, you're led to believe you need to drop the weights down to act as a counter weight to make one rise, but that never happens. No, instead you need to weight the elevators down so you can jump ON TOP of them and then be lifted up by knocking the weights out of the way. If you miss a jump here, you have to start all over. It doesn't even look like you can get on top of these elevators until you accidentally end up doing so.

Lastly, the story. It doesn't make sense. I hate going into spoilers, but the game asks you to take certain things for granted. It has a bit of a twist revelation that occurs, but it feels pretty weak and an attempt to explain it all out.

Overall, Darksiders borrows heavily from some other great games (God of War, Zelda ... Portal..) but doesn't ever really capture the magic of any of them. I can't really recommend that anybody else slog through this one. There's better ways to spend 10 - 15 hours of your time than going through a 5 - 7 hour game that artificially stretches itself with frustrating puzzles, ho hum combat, and forcing you to repeat every area in the game (seriously).

Slow Couple of Weeks

It's been a slow couple of weeks of gaming around here, with not a whole lot going on. Friends are playing Splinter Cell: Conviction, I'm trying to tough out Darksiders (which has gone from bad God of War rip off to decent Zelda type game to OMGWTF is this crap) and spend some time with the new Magic The Gathering Xbox expansion, and we're all kinda looking forward to E3 and GenCon later this year.

What's GenCon? If you're a table top gamer of any sort, be it RPG, Card, or Board Gamer, you should know this already. GenCon is one of the biggest table top gaming convention in the US, taking place in Indianapolis, usually in the beginning of August. I've been to this convention nearly every year for the past 15 years, and is easily a must go to.

If you're strictly a video gamer, this place does have some floor space dedicated to console and computer gaming, and has tournaments and such, but doesn't do it anywhere near the level of say a Penny Arcade Expo or the sorts. Every so often we'll get something interesting there, like I was able to see a live demo of Dragon Age Origins about 2 years ago (when they hadn't even announced that it was going to be on consoles, just strictly PC), but if you're at all interested in branching out to new games, this is the place.

This blog will be reporting from GenCon 2010 this year and participating in some events as well as looking for the next big table top game. Keep tabs on us in August to see what's going on on the table top side of things.

If you're interested in attending GenCon, head over to their site www.gencon.com and get yourself registered and see if you can still find some hotel space. We'll see you there in August.

Milestone Hit

I've hit the 30 Year Old Gamer mark, and survived.

It was when it hit me back that was the problem...

I kid. The whole thing was actually pretty mellow. I accepted I was going to be 30 some months ago when I first started the blog. I came up with the idea on my way home from work one night. A blog where I could review games from the point of view of a 30 year old that has other things going on in their lives besides gaming, and maybe even share some of those experiences to help others.

So many times at work I've asked somebody what they thought about a new release, or even one from months ago, and they would have no idea that the game was out, or they knew everybody was playing it, but didn't have time because they had kids or a house to keep up with, or whatever completely valid reason that they had. The point is that I never really understood how somebody could be like that until I became somebody like that.

This is one of my favorite PVPonline comics, please don't be mad at me for posting it Scott, here's a link to you, even!

Alright, enough about all of this. Here's what's on my gaming plate right now:

Darksiders - After I figured out that it wasn't a God of War clone, it was a Zelda clone, I began to enjoy it much much more. Hopefully will get a review of this up once I'm done with it.

3D Dot Game Heroes - This doesn't come out until tomorrow, but it's on my list of games I really want to play.

Magic The Gathering - I'm trying to figure out what direction to go in with my decks. I've got a few ideas running, but haven't settled on anything yet.

Super Mario Bros Wii - The game I go take a break with when I can't handle a night of Darksiders. So far I don't feel the exploration that I got from Super Mario World, the closest good game that I can compare it to.

Iphone Games - I'm wondering why I even have a PSP or Gameboy anymore with the number of free games I can get from various sites for my phone. This week I spent a lot of time on Fly, Kiwi, Fly! and Underworlds.

Alright, that's enough for tonight. I'll have more updates this week. Oh, and a thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday over the weekend. It's good to see some fans out there.

The Final Countdown

In one week I'll be hitting that 30 year old gamer mark. I've created this blog to embrace that fact, and to share my experiences with others, to maybe also cope with hitting the big three-oh, and even try to help some others who are also hitting this mark (virtually all of my friends are hitting 30 this year).



It hasn't been easy getting to this point. Thankfully we live in a society that has come to accept gaming (particularly video gaming) as the norm. That's allowed older gamers to enjoy the mature titles that we do such as your Heavy Rains and your Gods of War. The quality and production value that goes into these games is amazing and give us amazing experiences to go with them.


At the same time as my generation is beginning to take over, I see the next generation of gamers growing up in a technological paradise. I was playing at a Magic tournament today, and a kid half my age whipped out his Iphone to take a call. I just got my Iphone a couple months ago. And the games! I marveled with delight at how Empire Strikes Back played on my Atari 2600 while this generation is being handed graphical marvels like Metal Gear Solid 4 (a game already two years old!).


I sound like an old man. In any case, join me here in one week to finish off this Final Countdown to 30. Maybe if we all go through it together, it won't hit any of us quite so hard.

I know it doesn't fit. Totally worth it.