Contributor Scott Lufkin, a card carrying Card Hunter fan, will be covering the first week of Blue Manchu’s tactical fantasy combat meets deck-building game, which you can play here. Scott previously wrote our Tactics Ogre game diary, which starts here.
At last year’s Penny Arcade Expo, I saw a demo of an indie game called Card Hunter. The gameplay featured a player moving virtual cardboard units straight out of a boardgame on a tile based landscape lovingly detailed to look like a cardboard map, complete with dice and pencils off to the side. It was called Card Hunter. It was a free to play, browser based game, which at that point I believed was a pox on gaming.
After the break, what changed my mind? Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick have been posting daily updates, which started here, on Diablo III for the Xbox 360. This is their final entry.
Brandon: Okay Tom, let’s take this thing home. It’s been a great week and I’ve learned a lot about Diablo, about you, and about how much you have a crush on Leah. Maybe Deckard can give her away at your wedding. Wait, scratch that.
Tom: Too soon. Don’t you feel like a jerk now?
Brandon: I don’t think my first week with Diablo III would have gone as smoothly or been as enjoyable had you not been there to tell me all of the things that the game didn’t feel the need to. I still think the weapon thing is silly but at the same time, seeing my wizard lady running around with an electric broadsword like she’s Barbarella is something else.
After the jump, taking this thing home indeed Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their sixth and penultimate entry.
Brandon: Tom poked fun at me for not knowing King Leon’s name, but let’s deal with the elephant in the room here, namely the writing in this game.
Tom: Oooh, this should be good. Take it away, Mr. “I’m In It For The Story”!
After the jump, once upon a time in Tristram Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their fifth entry.
Today, Brandon hits level 10 and Tom discovers the situation with legendary items is radically different from the PC version of Diablo III.
After the jump, Leoric is dead and guess who got his ring Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their fourth entry.
Brandon: I had my first setback today as I was repeatedly killed by a trio of giant, spiked beasts while exploring some haunted cathedral. Luckily there’s no penalty for dying other than the metaphysical torment so I just respawned at my corpse and kept hitting them.
Tom: Ah, the halcyon days before level ten! There will be a penalty to your equipment durability shortly. It’s one of Blizzard’s favorite ways to punish you for dying. Basically, a half-hearted lash with a wet noodle. Since the console version of Diablo III doesn’t have an auction house, I can’t imagine there’s much of a money sink in store for us.
After the jump, diamonds on the soles of my shoes…and everywhere else! Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their third entry.
Brandon:Was the PC version this stingy with information for the player? I’m not looking for a JRPG experience where I’m still getting tutorials ten hours into the game, but I feel like there’s a lot of stuff here that Blizzard is assuming the player will just stumble onto.
Tom: I don’t recall the PC version being stingy with information, but that was over a year and a hundred hours of game time ago. So much of this is so familiar to me, which is how it should be. The basic experience of Diabloing is remarkably intact, with only a few exceptions that stands out like a sore thumb for me.
After the jump, sore thumbs Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their second entry.
Brandon: Let’s talk about Ellishandra, my wizard lady.
Tom: That’s a lovely name. I can tell Ni No Kuni has shamed you into thinking up actual fantasy names, like at a Renn Faire or in a George R. R. Malkin book.
Brandon: Diablo III picked my character’s name. I kept backing out of the name screen until I got something I liked. I rarely pick my own name.
Tom: I don’t trust Diablo III to pick my character name, because other people might think I picked it. To show that I’m above caring about fantasy lore, I named my character Arrowchick.
After the jump, can you guess what class she is? Continue reading →
Brandon Cackowski-Schnell and Tom Chick will be posting daily updates on Diablo III for the Xbox 360 over the coming week. This is their first entry.
Tom: I am a sucker for Diablo III. And I’m not ashamed. I can play it merrily without grousing about the auction house or unbalanced character builds or the endgame grind or the storyline or whatever. I’m gladly picking up what Blizzard is putting down. They’ve got my number. That said, I’m not sure I’m ready to take Diablo III into the living room.
Brandon: I’m not playing Diablo III in my living room, so hopefully that doesn’t trash my journalistic integrity. I have a sitting room off of the bedroom on the first floor and — you know what, never mind. Diablo III!
After the jump, where to begin? Continue reading →
Battles in Ni No Kuni are mostly real time. I say mostly because there’s a moment at the beginning of each battle when the game pauses to let you choose your first target. After that, it’s a bit of controlled chaos as familiars attack monsters, monsters attack familiars, and Esther undoubtedly goes down. Oh, Esther. Maybe next time use one of those healing tears on yourself.
After the jump, glims make all the difference. Continue reading →
There’s a moment in the opening hour of Ni No Kuni that places the reality of Oliver’s journey in question. He suffers an unimaginable loss and his tears revive Mr. Drippy, Lord High Lord of the Fairies, who had been conveniently trapped in stuffed animal form all of these years. Shadar cursed Mr. Drippy to remain in doll form, the same Shadar who had taken over Mr. Drippy’s world, the same Shadar who had banished Alicia, Great Sage and soulmate to Oliver’s mom. To go with Mr. Drippy meant a chance for Oliver to not only save Mr. Drippy’s world but also do something about Oliver’s loss. As I watched this, I wondered if this was all real or if this was Oliver’s way of dealing with the tragedy.
After the jump, saying goodbye to Mr. Drippy Continue reading →
Oliver can take part in combat directly, but the majority of the beastie stomping in Ni No Kuni is done via familiars. Familiars are borne of any living thing with a heart, but a heart in the metaphysical, feel-good-summer-of-love sense of the word, not just the literal, beating thing. At the beginning of the game, Oliver gains all of his familiars as story beats but soon Esther can sing songs to serenade creatures who have become so impressed with the beating they just received that they want to join the fun as a familiar. Think Pokemon but without the dog-fighting feel.
After the jump, the most important part Continue reading →
Early on in Ni No Kuni, a JRPG for the Playstation 3, wizard-in-training Oliver and his band of adventuring pals are tasked with completing a set of trials to prove they’re capable of tackling Shadar. Shadar is the Big Bad keeping the world in a perpetual state of brokenheartedness. Seeing how Oliver is the only person willing to take on Shadar, it seems odd that to make him jump through hoops, but this is how wizards have always been evaluated. The Sages aren’t about to let all-encompassing evil get in the way of procedure.
After the jump, find out how wizarding trials break my brain. Continue reading →
I am Sir Judson, the fifth of my name. So many generations of my family have entered this accursed castle, squandering my family’s fortune, and causing only pain and suffering. All has been in the service of opening the large gold door I now stand in front of. The door that is now open. I pray that whatever stands behind this door is worth the toll we have paid to open it.
After the jump, all the secrets — spoiler! — laid bare Continue reading →
I am Lady Useless, the fourth of my name. I am a strange combination of beast and man. Though this is no fault of my own, some call me an abomination. Perhaps that is why my family has forced me to enter this castle, to hide their shame. I am hopeful that if I succeed in my mission, I can restore the reputation of my family, and live on in my family’s memory. I carry my father’s sword, but what good are swords when you can breathe fire?
After the jump, enter the dragon Continue reading →
I am Sir Jimmy, the second of my name. Though many of my family members have perished to the demon Ponce De Leon in the tower above the castle, I have set my sights on challenging the monster. Speaking to the strange “architect” outside the castle, I lock the castle down, knowing that this means I will not have to wait to know my fate. I grudgingly pay Charon his toll and enter the castle. Stepping onto the strange mystical pad inside, I will myself to the room outside Ponce De Leon’s Lair. Steeling myself, I step inside.
After the jump, which one of us will die? Continue reading →
