Final Fantasy XIII-2 Opening Released!
Bad Blood TCG Review
Bad Blood TCG is a simple, accessible trading card game on mobile
Bad Blood pits humans, werewolves and vampires against in each other in direct card combat. Each card has up to three base statistics: attack power, health and a number that determines when it can enter battle. Cards in battle are paired up vertically to fight, with only special abilities (as described on the card) reaching other cards. Each side takes turns attacking from left to right (as you, the player, views the field) until they run out of cards in play. Victory is determined when a side runs out of overall health or there are no cards left, whichever comes first.
There’s a lengthy campaign through multiple dungeons, online play against other humans, and one-off battles and dungeon runs offline. As much game as there is to play, there’s no tutorial or help section. When you first launch the game after installing it, you’re taken directly to a battle that’s already been set up, and you watch it all happen with zero interaction other than confirming that you read something. It’s very disconcerting, because what you don’t realize is how little you actually do interact with this game, especially when the most “gamey” part is taking place.
Once you choose the cards that make up your deck, and which deck or decks will do battle, the game then takes over and plays out the battle on its own. At first this very much turned me off, but I kept playing and eventually it didn’t really bother me. I actually liked watching things unfold, but it does take some of the emotional involvement away from the results. Whether you win or lose is not much up to you. Even if you send exactly the same selection into the same battle, the results might be completely different based on what order the cards are dealt. While this might sound like a detriment to the game, it’s actually something that kept me playing when I might have put other games down.
Bad Blood is a free-to-download, microtransaction-supported app. You gain experience and gold as you go that can be used at the in-game shop to buy more decks and campaigns. I found that I never needed to spend real-life money to buy more gold since the cards that I was rewarded were generally good enough to win me most of the battles. You can also remove the in-game ads for a small charge via in-app purchase. Gold costs anywhere from £0.69 for 1,000 to £29.99 for 100,000.
I found myself surprised at how much I enjoyed my time with Bad Blood. Considering that I don’t have a given affinity for trading card games already, I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d want to play this. Though some of you who are more experienced with this type of game might find it pedestrian, Bad Blood gets all the basics of a mobile game correct. Quite frankly, it’s about as addictive as anything I’ve ever played on my phone.
Bad Blood TCG is available exclusively on Android. Get it Here
Final Fantasy XIII Players Get A Special Item When Starting XIII-2
Final Fantasy XIII-2 will have at least two bonuses for fans that played the previous game. When you start Final Fantasy XIII-2, the game will show a series of narrated digest scenes that let players know what the characters have been up to. Producer Yoshinori Kitase also revealed Final Fantasy XIII save data will also unlock a special item. Kitase wouldn’t reveal what the gift is, but said it would be something handy that would not break game balance.
In the interview, Kitase discussed the Historia Crux system, which lets players travel through time. The development team implemented this feature so Final Fantasy XIII-2 would feel less linear than XIII. While you can travel to the future, you won’t be able to revisit Lightning’s journey during or before Final Fantasy XIII. The events of XIII caused time paradoxes, which allow Serah and Noel to travel through time. Kitase explained your actions affect the future. It is possible to change what happens in the game by making changes in the past. After completing Final Fantasy XIII-2 players will be able to replay any time period with their party fully powered up.
Kitase commented that Final Fantasy XIII-2 fits on one disc because the game uses real time rendering and less pre-rendered movies. This change also allowed the team to display different clothes and equipment during event scenes. He says load times should be short and if players want to lessen them they can install the game on Xbox 360. Since the interview was conducted on Xbox.com, Kitase did not say if the PlayStation 3 version would have an install option too.
Skyrim reaches nearly 250,000 concurrent Steam users on day one, topples MW3
Skyrim’s kind of a big deal. Seeing as you’ve probably heard it mentioned more than the word “the” in the past 24 hours, I doubt that comes as a Tamriel-sized surprise to you. That said, at this point, even my cold, jaded soul can’t help but say damn.
According to Steam’s tracker, Skyrim’s rocketed to 231,593 players (as of writing) during its first 24 hours. For reference, Modern Warfare 3′s currently in distant second at 78,161. That’s sort of, you know, insane. It’s probably also a record number of people concurrently falling to their knees, gazing up into the falling rain, and cursing a single interface designer’s name.
DC Universe Gets a Boost of 1 Million New Players
The free-to-play model seems to be working for SOE.
“In just one week alone, 1 million new players have joined DCUO with a 50/50 split between PC and PS3," said Lorin Jameson, Executive Director of Development, SOE Austin. While no numbers were given for the player base before the switch, 1 million players is quite a large number. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI boasts a player base that hovers around that mark, for example. Jameson went on to compare DCUO to Free Realms and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, two games that have done very well for SOE.
"Our business model philosophy of Free to Play Your Way makes DCUO accessible to every type of player so they can choose to play the game in a way that suits them best,” said Jameson. “ We have a lot of exciting things coming up for players to enjoy in the game and are thrilled at the initial enthusiasm for the game's free-to-play transition."
The Adventure is coming to an end...
Hello Adventurers,
We are very sad to announce that LEGO Universe will be closing on Janurary 31, 2012. This was a very difficult decision to make, but unfortunately LEGO Universe has not been able to attract the number of members needed to keep the game open.
We are thankful to have had the opportunity to share this adventure wiith an amazing community of players. We hope you will continue to enjoy LEGO Universe for the last few months. As a thank you, if you are a paying subscriber on December 31, 2011, we will provide you the full game for the final month for free. Click here for the details.
Again, we want to thank the fantastic community of players who made LEGO Universe such a vibrant, fun and creative experience.
(You can discuss this article on the message boards)
Sincerely,
The LEGO Universe Team
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 EUROPEAN BOX ART RELEASED
Square Enix France has released the European cover art of Final Fantasy XIII-2! So it looks like Europe will has the traditional cover like Japan does too, but a bit bigger version of it.