Pool Nation: Best Pool game ever?

So I purchased the Humble weekly sale, mainly to get Trainz 2012, but along with it came Pool Nation. I like a bit of pool down the local pub, so I fired it up and had a go, not expecting much.

What a game. The ball physics seem spot on, and the amount of different style of shots you can do is mind boggling. Swerves, jumps, even off the rim of the table and on top of a ball, the list goes on.

With variations of American pool, 9 ball and 8 ball, games like killer pop up aswell. Theres a satisfying one player, but its multiplayer where this comes into its own. Play hard or go home seems to be the motto here. Fancy shots and people potting everything without missing a shot, its a great experience, and really pushes you to become better fast.

Graphics wise, they are very nice, the best I have seen for this type of game. With some free dlc to come aswell, this will have you entertained for quite some while to come.

The Plan

The Plan is a free to play piece of art that is currently on steam, developed by Krillbite Studios.

A mere 6 minutes long, this game will make you reflect on things in your life. I felt many emotions during just the brief time I was playing this. No triple A game has ever managed to get the whole spectrum in, and I doubt that they ever will.

This game looks beautiful, and sounds fantastic. For free, I highly recommend that you play this just the once.

Humble Bundle 11

Go right now to www.humblebundle.com and pledge your money. The games there are worth every penny you pledge, and give generously because there are some corkers in there.

Comprising of Guacamelee, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, The Swapper, Antichamber and Monaco. The last two are only if you beat the average pledge.

I got this purely for Dust, but the rest are a absolute bonus.

Go there now before they change the offer, and do your bit for charity aswell.

HearthStone Arena Antics 2

So I took a few days off from computers in general, and today I played my first Arena in a while. And I did'nt suck so bad this time.

I got 3/3 this time, and had some memorable matches aswell.

 I took a Warrior all the way, and somehow managed to win the match by just having more health than him as we both ran out of cards. I don't think I will ever quite know how I managed it, as at one point he had 26 health and 14 armour. But I never give up, and there was a definate point where I probably should have conceded. Glad I did'nt.

The draft, I don't know if it was kinder to me this time, or if I have just got better and picking the right cards for the deck. We will find out next time.

And I got a legendary in the card
 pack that I earnt, Bloodmage Thalanos. Not to sure if that fits into my play style at all yet though.

My opening play in HearthStone

On the plays front, I have found that having River Crocolisk and Acidic Swap Creature to be beneficial in all decks. If I go second, I have found that Crocolisk round 1 (with the coin) and either another croc or Acidic round 2 is a very strong opener against people. Croc has 3 health, and is hard to move off the board before turn 3 without using some useful AoE spells. Acidic has the potential to do some early damage, aswell as getting rid of pesky early round weapons that pop up.

They are both in all of my decks at the moment, and I really dont see much more of a better combination at the moment, apart from getting a turn 1 Succubus with the Warlock followed by another one. (but thats just me)

HearthStone Diary: Day 7

After a week of playing now, I feel I have a good grasp of whats going on. I still am really bad at arena however, having lost all my attempts 0/3.

Going into ranked, I got down to rank 19, and now just sitting there. I win one, I lose one. Nothing changes. Hopefully though, I will work out some better decks at the moment. Playing casual, my Mage and Warlock can each go on 6 or seven streaks no problem.

I feel I am getting better, and without getting many extra cards, I feel this is a good thing. I have two Summoning Portals now, so I am going to see if I can work that into my Warlock deck. I'm looking to get some Power Overload cards aswell, I think I am going to have to craft those to get them in.

All in all some good progress this week, and hopefully more to come, and maybe I will get to rank 15? Thats the plan anyway.

HearthStone Arena Antics

So I once again delved into the murky waters of arena.

I truly feel I suck at this mode. However, today I got to pick a Warrior, and I
have had some experiance with this deck. The deck is to the right.

Overall, I think I got a decent draft, with some poor card pulls. I got my usual creatures in the deck, and had some good buff possibilities. The one problem that I saw was the lack of taunt, but that was all the draft gave me. If I had skipped those as they came quite early, there would have been none.

So the games started, and all I got was either spells or high cards in my open hand, and even when discarded, I just got other high cards. (I even discarded molten giant, just to get it back on the turn one pull!)

Other than that, I got very few creatures aswell. Having buffs is ok, but if you cant play them on anything, then no good.

I just got hammered. 0-3 was the total. Oh well, when someone pulls a mountain giant, then next turn plays the card that buffs +1/+1 then taunts it, and power overwhelms twice, so 17 damage in one shot, it doesnt feel too bad.

Next time!

HearthStone Diary: Day 4

So heres how my first 4 days with HearthStone have gone.

Starting out with the mage deck as everyone does, I soon found that playing actual people was a lot harder than I thought that it would be. These people knew the tricks, the cards, and some seemed to know what I was actually going to play. After many defeats, moved on to another deck.

I drafted a Warlock deck, and managed to win a few games, so I took an hour to read every card, and really look into a strategy to build upon. I built a taunt/rush deck, with warlock spells to back them up. And then went 20 for 20 with the deck.

So I went into ranked matches, and got to rank 18, where the game ups a bit here. I am still looking at this deck, and I know what needs to go into it, I just need the resources.

Next up was a fighter deck. Man, them cards are hard to work with. I am about 50% with the deck at the moment, as its very slow, and works on forcing a stalemate until the point the other person has nothing to play and I can slowley whittle them down. Not great, but its there.

Also, I suck at arena. I have only been in twice, but every time 3 easy defeats for the other players. Hopefully I will get to play as either a mage or warlock soon and that might be a different story.

Overall, I can see how I have improved in 4 days, and cannot wait to see what lies ahead on this journey.

Advice for HearthStone Warlocks...

Check you have health before you life tap!

I wish I was recording that match, both of us were emoting the hell out of each other... and I think he forgot to check his health before he Life Tapped. It was not a suicide attempt... just a bad mistake!

HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft

I have gone mad for this game, even though it is still in open beta, this I feel will be one of the games that I play for many years to come.

A collectable card game by Blizzard based on the World of Warcraft universe, with a few twists. Mainly the one where you can craft the cards that you want for your deck, and not have to pay a penny. Of course, this may end up being a bit grindy, but there are also the options to pay for booster packs and melt them down aswell (unless you get the card that you want of course)

I cannot wait for this to get a proper release, and I hope that there will be a proper community that surrounds and embraces this game.

Go and see what I am talking about yourself, and download the game from Blizzard here

I am probably going to do some indepth looks at the cards, decks and strategies in this game rather soon too.