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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Reclusive Scholars of the Night

Well, this isn't what I intended to put up today. Unfortunately, the computer with all my work is still acting up, so I wrote up a quick little bit of info on a Hybrid that hasn't been revealed yet. Hopefully the computer will be working again tomorrow so I can post what I originally wanted to.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; Legends

And here we are, at the last post for Commander! I don't know about you, but I'll be happy to move on from this - as much as I love it, seven posts is a bit much to spend on one thing. And in a few weeks we'll be looking at Magic 2012! That shouldn't take as long because most of the cards will be reprints from M11.

The most important part of any Commander deck, these legends lead your forces into battle. As they are individuals with distinct personalities, a simple look at what schools they belong to won't be sufficient. I will say what schools they use, but I'll go into slightly greater depth than I normally would to look at these cards. There is an article on Daily MTG that talks about the personality and history of the new legends briefly; go here to read it. Go here for a list of all the multicolor legends in Commander.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; Gold

In case you don't know much about Magic: the Gathering (and if so, why are you reading this entry?) cards that require multiple colors to cast are known as Gold cards. Each Commander deck is based around the wedge combinations a color and its two enemies; a color's enemies are the ones that aren't adjacent to it on the color wheel. Besides the Lorwyn and Shadowmoor articles, I've done the Magic Theory series in order around the circle, making it fairly easy to see which colors are enemies.

Of course, that isn't entirely relevant right now. Today I get to look at a bunch of Gold spells to examine what happens when you combine different colors. By their very nature, almost all of these spells will belong to multiple schools, but some of the schools can exist in more colors than I initially said. Therefore, first I'll be looking at the schools and seeing if any can belong to multiple schools. Also, I'm not looking at any of the legendary creatures - they deserve their own post, which will happen tomorrow.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; Green

As I said before, Green was my favorite color when I started playing Magic: the Gathering. My interests have mostly shifted to Red, but I still have a soft spot for Green's big creatures.

I'm not sure if I'm going to look at every multicolor spell or just the legends. You'll find out Monday!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; Red

Finally we're at my favorite color! I haven't looked through the cards yet, but I suspect that we'll find a higher percentage of Chaos magic here than we did in Magic 2011.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; Black

Let's talk about Black magic!

As a note, my schedule for the rest of commander is:

Thursday 6/23: Red
Friday 6/24: Green
Monday 6/27: Multicolor. I may have to split this into two days, depending on how many there are.
Tuesday 6/28 or Wednesday 6/29: Overview/Commanders.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; Blue

You all know the deal by now. Today we'll be looking at the blue spells in Commander. A note: There are a lot of multicolor spells in these decks, and we'll deal with those next week - this is just for the monoblue cards.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Schools of Magic: Commander; White

It's been a while since I've talked about the schools of magic, but last Friday Commander was finally released, and I thought I would look through the cards in this set! If you want to look at all the cards you can find that here, though I won't be doing any of the cards that I've already looked at.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Beautiful Scars of the Past

I feel like the Prismskin need their own post, as their past reveals some of the horrible excesses of the Creators.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Airborne Masters of Light and Shadow

Hey look, I edited the title of yesterday's post! Nothing else changed, so don't worry about it - I just like this type of title more.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Masters of Life and Death

The mightiest warriors and greatest healers, the Lightningkin and Mossmen are the backbone of the remnants of civilization.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Hybrid

The world has been shattered. The Creators warred amongst themselves and shattered the world. Only their creations survive, struggling to live in a deadly world.



Monday, June 13, 2011

Nonhuman Races in fantasy

Intelligent nonhumans have long been common among fantasy settings, but I have to be honest - I don’t like them in most circumstances. Why? Well, you’ll have to hit the jump to find out.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Commander: Zedruu and Riku

And here it is, the last day of previews! If any other Commanders that intrigue me pop up, I’ll do a quick write-up - Ghave, Guru of Spores is looking very interesting, and I can’t wait for him to be revealed!

Starting next week, I’m going to be shifting to one post a day at 6PM. While I have loved doing the two post a day thing, I have started getting worn out thinking up something new every single day, and I want to start refining some of the stuff I’ve written. Therefore, I’m going to be creating an RPG centered around Iroas, with the help of a few friends. Occasionally I will share my progress if I come up with anything neat on the flavor side, but don’t expect anything. I’m also going to try to write for my other blog, Micorkview, on a more regular basis.

Nazarian Information Gathering

The Nazarians are the most secretive group in Iroas, and while almost everybody realizes that they aren’t simply librarians, few know the darkest secrets they hide.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Savra

The lykos have been renamed the savra! Most of the other information already written still applies. If there are any contradictions, assume that the most recent post is correct - this is a good policy in general, but please point out any mistakes I’ve made, and I’ll see if I can correct them.

Commander: Kaalia and Nin

Another day, another complete lack of legends on Daily MTG. But never fear, it’s MTGCommander.net to the rescue, with another trip to the visual spoiler for the second card!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Commander: Damia and Skullbriar

Once again, we only have one preview on Daily MTG, though it is a legend this time. Unfortunately, I can’t find any other sites previewing legends today, so we’ll going back to the visual spoiler. So, prepare to get some wild speculation about Damia, Sage of Stone and Skullbriar, the Walking Grave.

The Thirian Tribes

Soon after Thirio ascended, his followers splintered into a number of groups led by his closest allies and friends. These tribes spread throughout the lands on the very edge of civilization, following the example of their totem animals to survive. Today they are a loose alliance of nomadic tribes, fighting amongst themselves frequently but banding together when faced with an outside threat.

The Thirians are the only ones who ever come into contact with the lykoi. There are occasional temporary truces, but it always ends in violence.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Commander: Animar, Basandra and Ruhan

First off, I'd like to apologize for missing this morning's post. My brain just sort of shut off last night after I had written yesterday's post on The Mimeoplasm and Tariel. I'll see if I can post something extra this week to make up for it. On to Commander stuff!

Well, this is awkward. Only one preview card today, and it’s not even a legend! So, instead I’ll look at some of the other revealed legends. In fact, today let’s look at the first two legends on their visual spoiler: Animar, Soul of Elements and Basandra, Battle Seraph.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Commander: Tariel and the Mimeoplasm

It’s the Commander preview week on Daily MTG! That means that almost every day will be previewing two new legendary creatures, and every day will have at least one. Therefore, I’ll be doing my best to craft a world around each of them. Don’t expect a full write-up, certainly not on the scale of Iroas, Aquas or Tyranix, but I’ll do as much as my immediate inspiration will give me.

Ravdos

I thought up a few more ideas for magic items, so that’s what you get today! I’m sure you were anticipating something on the lykos, but I’m still figuring out what they’re like, so you’ll have to wait! As a side note, the magical items now have the placeholder name of “ravdos,” the Greek word for wand. Hit the jump to see three common ravdoi and three rare ravdoi!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

WWE All Stars

When I was younger I loved wrestling. They all just seemed larger than life, and I was invested in all the storylines and characters in the WWF. Of course, when the WCW came along I jumped ship, mostly because it was what my best friend watched; he knew Billy Kidman. There, I learned to love lucha libre style wrestling, though Sting was by far my favorite wrestler. Of course, I still watched WWF from time to time - mostly for Mick Foley and Undertaker. I was never a huge fan of Stone Cold or The Rock. And then, around the time that WCW was bought by WWF, I lost interest. Then along came WWE All Stars; a game that combines an excellent roster with an exaggerated art style. What isn’t to like about that?


WWE All Stars came out earlier this year on every console that has even a little life in it (PS2? Seriously?) As far as I can tell, wrestling fans loved it, while everyone else completely ignored it. This is kind of sad, because it’s not a wrestling game: it’s a 3D fighting game. The gameplay and visuals are intended to replicate what you thought wrestling looked like as a kid, and at that they succeed quite well.

The controls are easy to pick up and will be familiar to anyone who has played a wrestling game in the past. There are buttons for light and strong strikes and grapples, while the right bumper acts as both a block and counter button; the left bumper is supposedly for countering grapples, but I never used it. Left trigger is for getting in and out of the ring, climbing the turnbuckle and pinning your opponenets, while the right trigger is for running. Pretty simple stuff, really. It’s when you start combining all the buttons that it gets fun, as there is a simple combo system in place, including limited air juggling, while the fact that almost every move can be countered makes everything feel very dynamic.

There are three meters to keep track of - health, special and finisher. As your health goes down, you’re more likely to be stunned by powerful moves, it is easier to pin you and the opponent has an easier time escaping the cage in cage matches. The special meter fills as you successfully attack the opponent and is split into three sections; one full section is used to fuel one of your special moves, which are triggered by pressing either B+Y or A+Y. Every wrestler has two or more special moves, depending on where you are in relation to your opponent. These are all the actual signature moves of the wrestles cranked up to eleven; The Undertaker jumps five feet up holding his opponent for the choke slam, Ultimate Warrior throws the opponent roughly ten feet, and so on. The special meter also drains as you run, so you can’t just run everywhere. The finisher meter, also filled when you hit your opponent, allows you to perform (surprise!) your wrestler’s finisher when it is full. All of these do a ton of damage and, if you hit an opponent with no health, instantly win you the game. They are, once again, simply the wrestler’s finishing moves cranked up to eleven, with some good slow motion effects thrown in. For the record, my favorite finisher is Macho Man’s flying elbow drop or Rey Mysterio’s 619, neither of which needed to be exaggerated all that much.

Game modes are pretty standard - there are the 1v1, Triple Threat, Fatal Four Way, Handicap and Tag Team matches all of which can be done under Extreme Rules, and all but 1v1 can have elimination rules. 1v1 also has the option of cage matches, and all Tag Team matches are using Tornado Tag rules; no tagging necessary, all wrestlers are always in the ring. These are all fun, though the weapons hardly come into play during the Extreme Rules, and I wish there was some more variation. It would be nice to have a ladder or table match, and I would love for there to be options for a Royal Rumble. Still, it is adequate.

The primary single player mode is the Path of Champions. There are three of these; Superstar, Tag and Legend, and each have entertaining cut scenes where the final boss taunts you - Randy Orton, Degeneration X or The Undertaker. The cut scenes, which are modeled after the promos wrestlers do, have good voice work and fit the characters involved very well. The Undertaker’s in particular has the always amusing Paul Bearer, while Degeneration X display some awareness of the fact that they are in a videogame. Randy Orton is a bit boring, but I think that’s just how he is.

However, the best single player mode is definitely Fantasy Warfare, which pairs up the superstars and legends and has you play out the match. In addition to being how you unlock wrestlers (Kane is locked at the beginning? Blasphemy) they edited together live footage as an intro to each match. Most of the pairings are fairly easy to grasp - Andre the Giant vs. Big Show, Mr. Perfect vs. The Miz and Sgt. Slaughter vs. Jack Swagger are pretty obvious if you know the characters - while some of the pairings are surprisingly well done. In particular, Stone Cold vs. CM Punk as a battle of lifestyles is inspired, and the video is fantastically edited to make it seem like they were actually having a feud. There are a few disappointing ones - Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio makes sense, but they’ve wrestled so often it’s pointless, and Jake “the Snake” Roberts would be better matched against someone who is just as untrustworthy instead of Randy Orton, who would be the perfect match for Goldberg if he was in the game. I liked the Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker match the least, because all they did was recycle the feud that led to Shawn’s last match at Wrestlemania, and it just felt lazy all around. Overall, this is definitely a good mode, and the matches are surprisingly fun.

I can’t really say much about online - I played one match, and the person I was facing disconnected when I was about to win. It seemed a bit laggy, though it’s hard to tell if that’s because my internet is terrible. My biggest problem with it is that they don’t use the common sense fix of the person who disconnects getting a loss, which leads to leaderboards that don’t mean anything.

I saved my favorite part of wrestling game for last: character creation! Sadly, this is one of the areas where this game lags behind. The clothing options are alright, and you can manipulate the body shape in plenty of ways, but you can’t customize your moveset. Instead, you simply choose a pre-existing wrestler’s moves, and then add a finisher (most of which have to be unlocked by playing a lot of matches with that wrestler). You can also choose an Entrance, but the generic themes are mostly disappointing and you have to unlock every single other theme by playing as the wrestler in question. It just gets tedious after a while. This seems to be a huge step back, as the wrestling games I was playing on the N64 had a more comprehensive character creation system.

Overall, this is a very good game. The announcer’s suck, as they always do, and the character creation is extremely limited (which didn’t stop me from making six wrestlers…) but the gameplay and overall presentation is top notch. If you’re a wrestling fan, this is a must-buy. Anyone else should at least rent it, as it might surprise you.

8/10
: Small flaws, but well worth your time and money.

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Psaria

An ancient and proud people, the psaria claim to be the first intelligent beings in the world, and they have the power to back it up.

The Champions of The Order

As seen in Alive, there is more to the hierarchy of The Order than has been revealed so far. Today we'll briefly look at some of the insights revealed in that story.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

The Walker

It is said that mankind was not always the dominant race on Iroas. There were other races - the aquatic psaria and the savage lykos, among others. Humans were oppressed, and there didn’t seem to be any hope for freedom. Then the Walker appeared.

Aquas Art: Vampires

Wow, all this art is making writing this way easier! Tom drew the vampires of Aquas, and they're different than I had planned (again, this is a good thing!) Hit the jump!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Alive (Short Story)

Presenting: Jalen Cor, novice chronicler from Caliastor. He is a promising young blue mage, on track to become one of the Eyes of The Order.

A quick note: this is set on Tyranix, which is what planeswalkers call the world. However, those who live on the plane know it as Ordren, though they rarely use that word as talking about The Order is generally sufficient. The other plane featured is Acharu, which is the plane that won that Plane Creation Contest.

Aquas Art: The Balena

Hey look, our second bit of art! This one comes from my lovely lady, who also has a blog, though I don't have a link to it right now - she hasn't shared it with me yet for some reason. This is more of a rough draft than yesterday's Akula art, but there a bunch of things to think about in it.