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.

The last PS2 game..again

A while ago I reported that the last game for the PS2 went on sale, FIFA 14.

Now, I have to do it again. The last games for the PS2 and PSP have been released, and its another football game, PES 2014.

Not the best ending for a console, but goes to show that even after 13 years after the PS2 was released, (and 8 for the PSP), that there is still a demand for games on both systems.

Are the possible gems for the futute collectors? Who knows.

What is: Retron 5

Hyperkin's new system, Retron 5, is due to hit the stores in December, but what actually is it?

A five slot games console, able to play games from 9 classic systems. (NES, SNES, Genesis, Famicom, Game Boy Advance, Super Famicom, Mega Drive, Game Boy Color and Game Boy)

The system also has a save functionality, something that will really be beneficial for some games, as well as letting you have quick 10 minute blasts without having to start from the same place everytime.

Also, a massive benefit is that these are going to be reigon unlocked, allowing to play American, European and  Japanese games, boosting already a massive libray of games.

A games console that will tidy up your retro games space, just one set of wires needed.

Price pointed around £90 for the UK release, I
will most definatly be getting one of these. I will then display all my old consoles, and use the Retron 5 for gaming.

Console Review: At Games Mega Drive

Let me say these little Mega Drives are fantastic value, even without their party piece.

Loaded onto a rom in these are 20 classic Mega Drive games, From Golden Axe to Streets of Rage, and Alex Kidd to Altered Beast.

Coming with two wireless controllers aswell, allowing for instant multiplayer, this is a great deal. But the party piece I mentioned? You can play actual Mega Drive games on this. And Genesis. Yes, that slot is not just for show, that will actually take games and let you play them.

Build wise, it feels solid enough, but nothing to write home about. The controllers are ok and feel substancial size wise, but there really is no weight to them. However, on the front of the console, there are two controller ports, so if you prefer orginal controllers you can use these here too.

It runs off emulation, but so far I have not seen any problems. I'm sure not all games will work on this, Virtua Racer comes to mind. But out of the huge amount of games available, theres still plenty of variety.

But the biggest bonus? These will easily hook up to your new TV. So you can have a Mega Drive downstairs in the living room, its wireless and can play most games.

Total win.

GTA: Online - A few days in

Just a few thoughts that I have had whilst playing GTA: Online.

Apart from all the server issues that plagued the beginning, I am really enjoying the online aspect of the game, and really I don't feel that I have scratched even the surface. 10 hours in, and I have not played many missions, less than 10. This is due to me just going on rampages around the map, and trying to work out where things are, like how to get the fighter jet.

I really like the social interactions. I was snooping around Fort Zacundo, when out of nowhere a helicopter appeared, and landed next to me. So I go in, and we flew to the fort, where we both tried to get a jet. That failed, and we spawned next to each other, and went to get another helicopter. We tried this a few times, and I was great. We made our own mission within the universe, and spent an hour trying to accomplish it.

I cannot wait to get into this with some people from my friends list, because this will be a real blast, and I don't know where it will go. Hopefully I will look in to the missions soon, but as long as there are people to shoot at and stores to rob, I am not to bothered about these.

With time to come, I can see this getting better and better, and when the servers are sorted out properly, this could be the game millions are playing for years to come.

Latest N64 additions

Got this little lot from eBay today... for the total of £17!

Not a bad haul, as RetroCollect (www.retrocollect.com) lists some of these as uncommon. As you can see, some of these are the last games to come to the system, admittedly sports games, but still for £17 posted I will not be complaining!

That brings the N64 collection to 31 now.

Outrun 2006 - PS2

This is my all time favourite racing game, ever.
The music, the visuals, the speed it all moves at. The best bit? Your driving a Ferrari at top speed through America with your (virtual) girlfriend by your side.
I can get lost in this game for hours. The basic premise is that this is a time attack game, you strive to drive faster and shave those seconds off your time. With multiple routes, and different missions you have to complete, this will keep you coming back for more.
As usual the musical score is beautiful, Sega really pulled all the stops out to match the old school tunes here. Even better, remix versions of the old tunes are to be unlocked aswell.
This is my perfect game. You should play this game.

FIFA 14... On the PlayStation 2

Allegedly the last game to be released on the PS2, FIFA 14 see's it release in the UK.

Available at amazon for around £19, who exactly is going to buy this? From looking around the internet, it only has updated rosters and kits, not not a massive jump in gameplay.

I don't see many people buying this, and coupled with its limited run, I can see this becoming a real rarity in years to come.

And that is the reason why I am going to get a few copies for myself.

A new James Pond game!?

That's right. We now have a chance to relive those childhood memories all over again with a new game.
Currently on Kickstarter, funding for the new James Pond game looks like it going well. Get over there and show your support!

My retro game collection

As it stands now, I have 110 retro games in my collection.

What do I consider retro? Anything before (and including) the Ps2. In the picture there are some DS games and pc games, but I don't count them in the number. Heres some stats for the collection from Retrocollect.com, a cool website that allows you to easily track the games that you have:

PS2 1.2% complete
PS1 1.8% complete
N64 7.9% complete
Mega Drive 2.8% complete
Dreamcast 3.2% complete
Gameboy 1.3% complete
NES 0.8% complete

For a complete list of games I have, follow this link:

My Game Collection (will direct you to Retrocollect.com)

I have a way to go, but I don't really want to specialize at the moment, I'm having way to much fun playing games!

Megaman 2

The iconic title screen

I have only just found the Megaman franchise.  Sure I knew about the games over the years, but never really played them.

I was looking on the 3ds store, and bought Megaman 2 on a whim. And boy, am I glad that I did.

I'm not going to go in depth on the game mechanics or anything here, because that has been documented many, many times around the internet, I just want to have a quick talk on the impact that this game has had on me, now.

So first things, this is a hard game. But it makes you learn, and you get better quickley. And when you think that you have a part mastered, something else comes along and the difficulty goes up.

One thing this game has tought me is how easy new games are. They hold your hand and walk you through levels and help you out. This does nothing of the sort, and even goes as far as trying to make you give up. Although I have to say, if you do die in the game, its YOUR fault. You simply were not good enough. Get better.

I think this mentality needs to come back into modern games (but that is a whole other discussion)

Get these games to play now. I think they will be even better that you remembered, and if you have never played a Megaman game, you are going to be in for a treat. No games I have played in the last 10 years even come close to the challenge that this series gives gamers.

I love this game. And I have Megaman 10 to do, and the original Megman 4 for the NES in the post winging its way to me. I'm going to busy the next few weeks I can tell.