Friday, 29 August 2014

Can the 3ds Xl still compete?

Nintendo having being in the game for a long time is certainly not one to flog a dead horse, so I'm starting to think of taking the 3ds Xl more seriously with recent announcements in mind.

Having bowed to pressure from younger household members and purchased a 3ds for a birthday present and having looked at reputable print magazines like T3 and Stuff that still rate the dual screen wonder as one of the best games consoles maybe theres more to Nintendo's little guy than I thought.

However I think that it needs a lot more street cred and be less niche to avoid making this house a city of sleep and us just turning back to the Ipad and Android for gaming. The thing is most retailers just stock the more juvenile games for the 3Ds and its darned hard to,find quality adult gaming.

That said the good adult orientated games have to be there, Ninty wouldnt be planning a NEW 3DS XL with Nfc and faster processors if the little console that could didnt have the steam for it.
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Thursday, 28 August 2014

Bubble Blitz Mania

Because it doesn't have to be the greatest game ever to be your go-to game.


I love "casual" puzzle games. I don't really play them in a casual way as I love hunting after every achievement. But once that's done, I keep on playing every now and then. 

A well-designed puzzle is the best way for me to clear my mind yet get my brain into gear, to start the day or to unwind after work. Here's one of my favorite: Bubble Blitz Mania. 

Nothing revolutionary going on here, just a "pop the bubble" / match-3 combo with just enough feature and bonus to keep on playing. Plus a weekly tournament to tickle your competitive side.

Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands of this kind of free games in the App Store or Google Play. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about BBM or any other. So why this one? Well, because I just happen to download it one day and it clicked with me.

And you, what's your go-to game?






Monday, 18 August 2014

Episode by Pocket Gems, a Choose your Own Adventure collection on your phone

Episode by Pocket Gems, a iOS Choose your Own Adventure.Episode presents something of a dilemma to me: on one hand, it reminds me of the old "Choose your Own Adventure" books and I can't help the surge of nostalgia. On the other hand, some of the story lines apparently believe that the only things on any female teen's mind are popularity contests, clothes (to help win those popularity contests), and boys. I can't say that my feminist streak is too happy about that. 

Notice though that only some story lines are like that. Pocket Gems is moving away from those and exploring far more interesting themes, like in HUNTED, basically a "Greatest Game" kind of hunt but with a menagerie of classical monsters.

Also, the different stories available are only the beginning: they launched on in February of this year after all. And it is truly a Choose your Own Adventure collection, because you can add your own: the most welcomed feature on the app is the ability to connect to a specially-made site to write your own novelet and to submit it. This includes learning some basic scripting, but nothing too difficult.

In fact, I personally became aware of this app when they started looking for writers on LinkedIn. They also have a posting on their site. This is not a permanent position, but it can be a way to dip your toe in writing, to get your foot in the door of the game industry, or even simply to supplement a revenue.

As for the user side of this, you can download the free app on iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon. You initially get 2 passes (with one pass unlocking one chapter) and once used up, you have to wait for 4 hours for 2 more. You can also buy more, reasonably priced. Finally, when using the free passes, you have to watch two very short videos before actually reading the chapter. Not too steep for some decent entertainment.

Pocket Gems is betting on the Holy Grail of user-generated content to keep the stories coming and interesting, but is genre-savvy enough to supplement it with paid content. Not a bad way to handle this and I hope it works.



Saturday, 26 July 2014

Mobile Music Sequencer

Yamaha has just had a big push on their mobile music making apps,with some quality sound creation apps recently going free on the app store . Among them is this gem f mobile music creation which will really allow the DJ in you to rock out . Introducing Mobile Music Sequencer.
The name Mobile Music Sequencer tells you exactly what this app does. It allows you to create music through the combination of of a range of patterns and sounds. The composition you create will be melodic and enthralling, giving you a great and robust way to make music. Its not recommended for novices though as it can be a bit heavy handed and complicated, meaning that it’s going to take some time for you to completely understand how it works, and how you can use it, unless you have prior music composition experience.
The app walks you through the step-by-step process of creating your sound, from phrases to sections to the actual song. There are 92 high caliber sounds built within the app to help you, and you can use sound editing tools like filters, EG, and a number of others. There’s a mixer, reverb, chorus, and variations tool, and much more going on if you've got the music sense to access it. Yamaha's music apps are definitely making waves.

Commander The Great War on iPad

This is about as strategic a title as you're ever likely to find on iPad and is immensely meaty,to such an extent that despite not having immense retina graphics to shove around the iPads processor has massive slow down when the fantastic AI has to plot its moves. Commander the Great War is a broad and sweeping campaign as as close to entire World War ,including policy and economics,as you're ever likely to get on iPad.
Users of the TouchArcade forums really sum up the grandeur of this game:
"... $20 for a complete game. There are 5 scenarios you can play, starting from each year of the war, and you can play those from both sides against AI and in mulitiplayer. The multiplayer looks the most interesting, as in Panzer Corps you got individual battles there which were fun, but by their nature kind of fast and frenetic affairs. Playing the entire Great War on iPad against a like minded opponent could be amazing.

You don't need a Panzer Corps style "Grand Campaign" because the 1914 scenario could not be grander in scope. It's day one of the war, covering pretty much every battlefield and frontline in the entire world, all the way until the armistice. While it will always start the same way, the flexibility to change things up seems pretty good. The battle for France and Belgium in my run so far has actually been a war of movement and flanking, with very fluid lines, and it wasn't until the Xmas truce (which ironically saw the heaviest fighting of the entire war in my game) that things started to become more static.

I'm already seeing ways to try different strategies on future runs. There's a natural clash of infantry at the beginning, and just pushing for land/holding on while mobilising for war is going to be the focus of the first few months. I've been investing in fighters as once I get to upgrade them from recon units to attackers I reckon I could dominate the skies while the Central Powers play catchup. My Russians pretty much ignored the Austro-Hungarian border and moved en masse towards the German Baltic ports. Could have played a delaying action on that front, built up a transport fleet and invaded Turkey across the Black Sea. Kind of interested to see if that would have been viable.

For anyone curious about the game, RiothouseLP on YouTube did an excellent Let's Play series of the PC edition as both sides. It's a good way to have a quick look at how the game plays. Sold me on the game while I was waiting for release."

If you want to go deeper here is the PDF link for the Commander the Great War Manual : 

Thursday, 24 July 2014

How to get featured on Apple's AppStore

Three simple rules seem to be the foundation of being featured,we're going to take this snippet of information from Inkle’s Jon Ingold regarding the delayed 80 Days Interactive Fiction game:. “We’ve been asked by Apple to move the release day back to next Thursday, the 31st,” he said. “So we are of course doing that."

Now it seems that 80 Days has the requested delay because Apple wishes to feature it in a prminent position in the AppStore. Inkle knows how much great marketing this will bring and how it will far offset the lost revenue from a week's publishing delay. 

So let's look at the three rules that this game can teach us about being featured:
1. Reputation. Inkle is as solid as they come with excellent game book adaptations like Sorcery! Still riding high in the charts. They're a hirs you can back and are certainly not going to turn out mediocrity.

2. Uniqueness. 80 Days is something new. An adaptative work of fiction based on Jules Verne's historical IP before the phrase intellectual property even existed. The playability is going to turn the idea of game books on its head, and the story is artfully stitched together to blend the original and some fascinating neo science pseudo steam punk ideas.

3. Hype. Excellent prior efforts have given Inkle a dedicated following. They're known for taking fan boy mythos from D and D style Choose Your Own Adventure Lore and brilliantly appifying it. The following is already there and mere nostalgia alone will set the forums,Twitter and suchlike ablaze with comments,longing,critiquing and speculation. These efforts get people who already are sold on the content many decades ago talking,and Inkle follows steps one and two above to deliver class.

Simplistic rules to follow,but with masses of effort needed to bring something like this to fruition. That's why Inkle enjoys the backing of the Appstore,what can you do with your budgets then?

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

Curse of Naxxramas European Release Date

If you're a European Hearthstone Player than you truly are cursed because while our American cousins are busy slaying in the crypts of the single player first wing of Hearthstone you'll have another whole day to wait for the Hearthstone expansion.
The first of the wings , and this one at least for free, is due to release on 23 July for Europe.
As of this minute the Arachnid quarter has gone live as the Blizzard maintenance has been complete, who will be the first in the world to slay  Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, and Maexxna and add the Hearthstone boss cards to their collection. Sorry Europe it wont be you! Take consolation that companies like Jim Shore might one day stock Hearthstone collectibles.

Monday, 21 July 2014

Blood Types in Japanese Games

Ever wondered why so many Japanese games list a character's blood type alongside their other vital statistics? 

Some people in Japan believe your ABO blood type governs your personality. The concept was born in the early 20th century and popularised in the 1970s by a book by journalist Masahiko Nomi. He called the idea "blood type humanics".

This pseudo science has crept into many facets of Japanese modern mytho-lore and is a sure fire ice breaker during speed dating, for deciding on types of diets and it turns out for finding out what character traits video game characters have too!

Monday, 7 July 2014

Guitar Amps for IOS 6

Line 6 has been on the forefront of guitar amps for a while,being a strong forerunner of built in effects for ages. Innovation and striving has occurred again with a plethora of exciting developments including Bluetooth streaming and iOS app controls into its new Amplifi 75 and 150. For learning new riffs or chilling to the tunes. Android, iOS, Mac and PC gadgets are all compatible.Line 6's Amplifi Remote iOS app toggles every dial from an iPhone or iPad. A cloud-based community is used for various functions including sharing and rating tones in addition to storing amp, pedal and effects presets.
 Amplifi is available in either 150 or 75 watts. Throw in a prs se 245 to really see this baby rock. The 150 houses a 12-inch Celestion speaker as part of its five-speaker stereo setup while the 75 packs an 8-inch "custom speaker." Line 6 says that this arrangement offers a "truly immersive guitar experience" that's never sounded so "wide and spacious." Both units offer wet/dry effects to boost said sound quality, tap tempo/tuner, four onboard presets and USB connectivity. If that's up your musical street the pair are priced at $400 and $500 respectively, and both are available now from guitar retailers. 

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is here!

Finally Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is released for iOS.
The long awaited mobile successor to the original JSlayer has been eagerly anticipated for awhile now,the premium price of £10.00 and some pennies should see a solid graphically diverse hunt-em-up on your iPad. 

MONSTER HUNTER FREEDOM UNITE for iOS

       iOS Universal

*No Hidden Costs*
No additional fees after download!
*For a list of compatible devices, please see the "Compatibility" section below.

The world’s most exciting hunting action game, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, is now available for iOS! Whether you’re a rookie or veteran hunter, intuitive touch controls will help you tackle the biggest, baddest monsters out there. Let the hunt begin!

There are so many ways to progress through Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for iOS. With a multitude of quests to complete, you can choose to tackle something new, or go back and replay a quest you’ve already cleared with new weapons and tactics. How you play the game is really up to you!

You’ll embark on quests with numerous objectives, from gathering items to slaying monsters. If you’re successful, you’ll reap the spoils, which you can use to create and enhance weapons and armor. Once you’ve buffed up your character, you’ll be ready to take on even bigger quests!

Game Features
・Simple Controls
The controls have been designed so you can intuitively perform complicated actions at the touch of a button! 

・Convenient Functions
A number of functions are included to assist you while you hunt, such as the ‘target camera,’ which keeps monsters in your sights, and the ‘pop-up icon,’ which indicates things you can interact with.

・Improved Graphics
The game’s graphics have been optimized for iOS devices. Just wait until you see all of the beautiful environments for you to hunt in!

・Online Play
You can go hunting with up to 4 players over Wi-Fi. When you run into a quest that’s just too much for you to handle by yourself, call on your friends to join the hunt!
*Online (co-op) play is not supported over mobile data connections such as 3G.
*To get the best co-op gameplay experience, make sure you have a strong Wi-Fi connection.
*You must be signed in to Game Center to play online (co-op).

・MFi Game Controller Support
Use the MFi Game Controller to get the best hunting experience!
*The MFi Game Controller is not compatible with iPhone 4s or iPad (3rd Gen).

Compatibility

・iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPod Touch (5th Gen 32GB/64GB with Back Camera), iPad Air, iPad Mini (2nd Gen) with iOS 6 - iOS 7.1.
・iPad (3rd Gen), iPad (4th Gen), iPad Mini (1st Gen) with iOS 6.1.3 - iOS 7.1.

*Performance on an OS or device not listed above is not guaranteed.
*This title does not support the iPhone 4, iPod Touch (4th Gen), iPod Touch (5th Gen 16 GB), iPad (1st Gen), or iPad 2.
*It is possible to download this title to an iPhone 4, but performance is not guaranteed.

*Deleting this game from your device will erase the game’s save data.


How is World of Tanks Blitz different to WoT?

World of Tanks Blitz is a sirprisingly good mobile version of the original WoT and a very good balanced shooter/tank simulator for iPad. Veterans of WoT thinking of going mobile will be wondering how the mobile WoT Blitz differs from its bigger sibling. Here are the fundamental differences a WoT player will face when playing Blitz:
  • Crews are abstracted out. Your tanks still have a crew skill rating, but rather than individual tankers in the loader, radio operator, etc positions, there’s a single skill rating for the entire tank’s crew. Crew management is much less involved.
  • There’s no SPGs, and the tech trees are narrower. Popular tanks missing from WoT Blitz include KV-2 and Hellcats. Due to smaller maps  there’s no artillery at all, because the teams are only 7-men strong with maps in Blitz not having the size to justify indirect artillery fire.
  • No France, China, Britain, or Japan yet. WoT Blitz has launched with the three most popular tank lines, and there hasn’t been a peep yet on when we can expect the other four. It’s almost certainly in the works for a future update, thoughmaps are very small
  • Suspensions aren’t as important. In PC WoT, you often need to upgrade the suspension on your tank in order to be able to mount heavier guns and turrets. In Blitz: every suspension supports the same amount of weight, and the only performance distance is traverse speed. You might want to prioritise suspensions in turret-less tank destroyers, but otherwise you may as well save them for after you’ve upgraded your engines and guns. There’s also no radios in Blitz, presumably because the maps are so small that radio range became irrelevant.
  • No France, China, Britain, or Japan yet. Four more nations are hopefully planned for a future update,at least you can play the 3 top tank nations in the meantime.

Saturday, 14 June 2014

Productivity and app development

Apple knows a thing or two about apps , development and marketing. Thats why IOS 8 is going to bring a lot of features that make your lengthily developed apps a lot easier to find and improve your bottom line. Known features of IOS 8 will be app previews for starters. Borrowing a trick from Google Play consumers will soon be able to view a clip of an app before downloading, giving a much better idea of whether money should be invested. Discoverability will also be highlighted by Apple's big 8, but the manner in which that will occur is still undisclosed.

In effect what Apple is saying is that ten billion plus download app store is a treasure trove, a huge and intricate gold mine of unmined riches, some of which might never be discovered. Now, more than ever developers have got to take things seriously, be very business like in their approaches and seperate creativity from the bottom line.

 That's not to say that creativity and uniqueness is not still paramount, make a gem and hopefully sooner than later it will be discovered. But " hopefully" is not good business sense. The likes of Zynga, Chillingo et al are not the big money spinners that they are because of a cross your fingers and hope attitude

Monday, 9 June 2014

Minecraft PE Update 0.9.0

A massive update is due to hit Minecraft PE soon.
Minecraft Pocket Edition 0.9.0 will be updated with:

unlimited worlds. In the pocket edition.
What are the new blocks in Minecraft PE?

There's loads more new blocks on the way. Granite, Emerald, Cocoa, Monster Egg, Waterlily, and loads more.
New Mobs too
The new mobs include Slimes, Endermen, Wolves, Mooshrooms, and Silverfish. 
New Biomes
Deserts, forests, jungles, and savannahs are just a few of the new area types that you'll be able to explore.
new environmental features like sand, spikes, lakes, pumpkins, and jungle trees.

And other improvements...improved and tweaked caves, new AI, and bug fixes

Friday, 6 June 2014

Maximising your business leads

Once the fundamentally difficult work of securing a lead is complete many businesses fail to capitilise on the bread and butter of their future sales and leads are either left dangling or horribly mismanaged. Effective lead distribution and routing should be a cornerstone of any customer orientated business, fortunately if you are fantastic at getting leads but the project management of utilising them effectively still eludes you excellent help can be found in the form of  SugarCRM Leads Distribution and Routing exist to make development and customer management very simple. Now this especially applies if you're going for a sales slant, whether that be app or website supported. Be sure to look up SugarCrm's new lead distribution and routing connector. 
Before the transition from lead to client can take place effective pairing between the lead and the agent must occur. SugarCrm has a modular system that allows this to take place in a friendly, hassle free and productive manner. The modular system has various ways of bringing this distribution and routing to fruition:
    Fundamental simplicity is inherent in the basic transaction"A newly logged lead it is “pushed” to a sales person and if a set of criteria are met it can be “pulled” by a sales person, out of the pool of available leads."
The modular system lets users find the best method for their uses for dealing with leads. Some of the available models, all centred around logical rules, include:

 Round Robin – (Push Distribution)– leads are routed to the sales agents one at a time according to a number of rules.

 Blind Pull – The available leads are all in a pool from which sales agents just pick the next available lead, none of the lead information being shown to them , an excellent way of bringing the lead transition about and a definite way for your agents to diversify their skillsets.

Geographical,time and work based criteria are just some of the rule data used to manage a very intelligent and indispensible lead distribution and routing program.


Friday, 30 May 2014

Peter Whalens's Dream Quest Guide

If you love IPad strategy games,as we increasingly d these days, you'll be starting to hear about the phenomena that is Peter Whalen's Dream Quest. Standing head and shoulders above even polished efforts such as Xcom Enemy Unknown and Hearthstone. DreamQuest looks like a hastily cobbled together effort made with over the counter bargain budget photo shop graphics. Don't let this fool you though as this is possibly the best IOS strategy game bar none. So deep is this card dealing rogue like that this Dream Quest guide could necessarily run for many pages. 

We've gone right to source for this one and what we have here is the  Dream Quest  Developers very own hints,tips and tactics for his game.

Peter Whalen's Dream Quest Guide

  • Think,carefully about your deck.Adding a bad card is worse than not adding a card at all.
  • Look for synergies,cards that work well together.  One good way to do that is to find a card you like and build around it.  Good examples include Strike, Piety, Electrocute, or Sword.
  • Cards that are narrow in the scope of the power that they give are cheaper than cards that are more general and often more powerful as well.  Wrath of God, Mimic, and Colossus Smash are all good examples.
  • Don’t waste weak monsters.  Defensive classes can use low level monsters to heal and everyone can use them to reset cooldowns.  Try alternating strong monsters with easy ones to best make use of your cooldown abilities.
  • The Dream Quest bosses are tough and a lot of thought is needed to take them down.Always have everything up going in and, if you know what the boss does, try to buy cards that are specifically good in that matchup.
  • Your deck is dependent on your run – try not to go in with a specific plan and tailor your strategy to what you see.
The Ooze doesn't want to hurt you -- he's just trying to raise the roof.

Getting Started in a Dream Quest

 Each class has very different play styles, so find the one that suits you best.

  • Spend your achievement points on passives first.  They mostly come from the “Kill 5 goblin”-style achievements.  The dragon one is particularly hard to get naturally and has a useful bonus.
  • Health is probably one of the most important stats. At the beginning, health is one of the best things you can get, whether from the first talent, a level-up reward, or from the Lemonade Stand.

  • Dram Quest after a Level 2
  •  First and foremost, make your deck powerful.  You should always be able to answer the question “What’s my plan?”  Whenever you pick up a card, make sure it plays well with the plan.
  • Make sure your deck is not just a one (card) trick pony.  Entirely defensive or entirely offensive decks have a tough time surviving.  Make sure you can deal multiple elements of damage or convert your damage into piercing.
  • Learn which monsters are easy and hard for your deck type.  Wraiths and ghouls, for example, are easy for defensive decks and very hard for offensive ones, while water elementals or Akami stormcallers are the opposite.
The Samurai hated those drapes.

The Classes in Dream Quest

Some specifics for the base classes.  This is not a comprehensive list of archetypes, some I don’t list as well as some hybrid archetypes that play differently – these are just some common ones.

Thief:

  • First and foremost, look for things to smooth out your deck.  Circle and Protean are very important pickups.  In the same vein, it’s important to get a second base action as early as possible, whether from a level-up or from a shop.
  • There are two primary archetypes – Backstab and Strike.
    • The backstab deck likes lots and lots of action cards of various types, especially free ones (cards that don’t cost actions and draw you a card).  Cards like Swiftness, Alacrity, and Jab are the heart of this deck.  You don’t need too many base actions since you’re spending your gold on Swiftnesses and Alacrities and going through your deck very fast.  Good later cards include Preparation (to double the damage of your finisher) and Dice (a double-strength Backstab).
    • The Strike deck relies on a couple of high level Strike cards to do most of the damage.  It needs lots of base actions, as a rule at least enough to play the highest level of Strike.  Deletes are very important for this deck – you just want to play your Strikes.  Also, Desperate Strike, Mimic, or other cards that copy the Strikes at a lower action cost are phenomenal.  Later upgrades are mostly ways to take advantage of your large base action count – Coup de Grace and Darting Daggers are two examples that directly convert actions into damage.
  • Thieves have a very hard time with physical resistant monsters.  Try to pick up an elemental slash card on the first floor or a Pierce on the second to combat them.  Since you go through your deck very quickly, just one (or possibly two) is often enough.

Warrior

  • Use Smash liberally.  Knowing which monsters are around and what bonuses there are will let you plan a route that optimizes your cooldowns.
  • Lean heavily on double strike (your level 3 cooldown).  Copying a card is very powerful; early it is mostly used to copy an elemental slash, but late it can copy a powerful equipment or something else even more devastating.  Similarly, it’s important to have something excellent to copy, so you’re often better taking a single expensive card than a couple of cheaper ones.
  • The two primary warrior archetypes are epitomized by Colossus Smash and Slash.
    • Colossus Smash decks try to find particularly powerful cards to use with double strike while avoiding action cards.  On floor 1, lean mostly on health and deletes and let the doubled Colossus Smash carry you through.  On floor 2, Holy Strike, Pierce, and especially Wrath of God are very strong.  Finding utility in attack cards is important to these decks.
    • Slash decks rely on maximizing the Sword by getting as many triggers as possible.  On floor 1, picking up another Sword, Slashes, and some elemental strikes is helpful.  Scimitars and Gauss’ Hourglass are also great.  These decks can also play some action cards, though they’d like as few as possible since action cards can’t trigger the Sword.  The real payoff for these decks comes from the floor 3 Cruel talent, as well as cards that weaken your opponent, causing them to take additional physical damage from each source which makes the sword triggers enormously powerful.
Know when to hold 'em.

Priest

  • Priest decks need a careful balance.  Since you’re likely to go through your deck quickly, you need to have your mana costs balanced against the amount of mana you generate.  Similarly, you need to make sure that your offense and defense are both reasonable – a little more offense can often take pressure off an overtaxed defense.
  • Priests have the most in-combat decisions of any of the base classes, so it’s important to understand your enemy and decide early on in the fight whether you want to make it long or short.
  • Priests archetypes have more of a gradient than other classes, generally based on how mana hungry you want your deck to be.
    • Mana-hungry priests need high level mana cards.  Consider using your first talent to upgrade the Mana 1 that you start with.  Good spells include Haste and Bless early and powerful finishers like Absorb Vis late
    • Mana-light priests generally spend their gold on action cards instead.  Wisdom can power most of your early spells like Heal or Mind Sear.  Early game deck thinners like Inner Strength are great, as are defensive cards like Extract and Curse of Weakness.  These decks tend to play most of their cards each turn (or at least see most of their cards each turn) which allows cumulative effects like Curse of Weakness to be very powerful

Wizard

  • Wizard decks are usually focused on one or two particular elements.
  • Lightning decks are very mana hungry – Mana Surge is a very high priority and mana management in general is the most important thing here.  Lightning decks can often have only one or two kill spells (Electrocutes) and rely on just building up a huge mana pool to fuel them.
  • Fire decks like having lots of base mana to smooth out draws where you find your powerful spells before your mana cards.  Focus less on making sure that your deck is mana-neutral and more on making sure you can cast one volley of spells which will hopefully be enough.  Mana Swell (or any spell doubler) is fantastic in fire decks since it allows you to deal enormous damage while conserving mana.
  • Frost spells provide excellent support for the other elements and can also form a viable deck on their own.  For a mostly frost deck, consider taking cards like Charm and Bewitch to interrupt the cards that aren’t already being shut down by your freeze.
  • Earth decks are helped by having excellent defenses.  Earth plays very well with frost since poison spells are by far the most damaging if allowed to run their course.  As a result, you can spend more of your gold on other cards and rely on fewer spells.
  • Consider taking Flee as the Wizard.  A good strategy is to fight a high level monster, flee if your opening hand isn’t very strong (or doesn’t just kill them), and then fight a low level monster to reset your cooldown and try again.  Since good wizard hands are so much better than bad wizard hands, you can often defeat someone otherwise far beyond your capabilities this way.  In essence, Flee allows you to take a mulligan if you don’t like your starting hand.

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

How to get Curse of Naxxramas

Wildly popular Hearthstone is soon to get the Curse of Naxxramas update adding great new cards and innovative boss fights to acquire them. Internet speculation,mainly from Chinese Hearthstone forums is currently leaking pinch of salt type rumours as to how much Curse of Naxxramas costs:

It's rumoured the expansion will be sold in "wings" much like how the actual Naxxramas in World of Warcraft was laid out. Apparently Hearthstone currency will be used for purchasing the upgrade with the first one being free, the next will be 500g or $9, the next will be 1,000g or $18, and so on until unlocking the Frostwyrm Lair for 2,000g and $36.

This seems ludicrously overpriced and more than likely they will be sold for 500g or $9 a piece. The way Hearthpwn interprets this unlocking, all of the expansion content will cost you 5,000g or the equivalent of $90.

Past  Blizzard expansion pricing has launched expansions for their games in the $40 range. 2,000g total for everything OR the equivalent of roughly $36 makes more sense than $90 and 5,000g.


Friday, 25 April 2014

Building the best Hearthstone Deck


Loot Hoarder

The best Common Hearthstone Cards

Loot Hoarder (Common)

Loot Hoarder is my favorite early card to play. This Neutral only costs 2 mana. His modest 2 attack and weak 1 health may not seem that great, but he gives you an extra card when dies. Having more cards than your opponent is an excellent Hearthstone battle winning strategy. More cards means more options.

As soon as you play the Loot Hoarder, something good is bound to happen. In the best case, you’ll do a little damage to the enemy hero or destroy a minion and then get a card. In the worst case, your opponent will waste a Silence ability on it. That means you won’t get your extra card, but that’s also one less Silence that could potentially ruin one of your later threats.

I especially love using the Loot Hoarder in my Paladin deck with the Redemption secret. Redemption brings a killed minion back to life with 1 health, which is perfect for a card that already has 1 health anyway. Using Loot Hoarder and Redemption together can net you two extra cards.

Loot Hoarder costs 40 Dust to craft.

Youthful Brewmaster (Common)

Here’s another valuable 2 mana minion. This Expert common has a great stat distribution at 3 attack and 2 health, making him a threat to some 3 mana cards. But what makes him so effective is his Battlecry; he can return a minion on the board to you hand. So if your opponent injures a valuable unit and you have no way to heal it, you can send it back to your hand and replay it later at full health.

Youthful Brewmaster

I, though, prefer getting a double-dose of a unit’s Battlecry or Charge. So after I, say, deploy a Shattered Stone Cleric (which adds 1 to a minion’s attack and health) or a Defender of Argus (which gives adjacent units’ attack and health a plus 1 bonus and Taunt), I like to play the Youthful Brewmaster, return the card with the cool Battlecry to my hand, and if I have enough mana, play it again that round.

Youthful Brewmaster costs 40 Dust to craft.

Blood Imp (Warlock Common)

the Blood Imp is one of my favorite cards in the Warlock deck (it’s a common expert card). For 1 mana, you get a Stealthed minion (a card that your foe can’t directly target until it makes an attack) with 0 attack and 1 health who gives another random friendly minion +1 health at the end of your turn.

Blood Imp

One of my favorite opening tactics is using the Coin card to gain 1 additional mana and pairing the Blood Imp up with the Flame Imp, giving me a powerful 3/3 minion at the end of my first turn. If the Blood Imp lives long enough, things can quickly spiral out of control for your opponent, who now has to deal with a board full of buffed minions.

Blood Imp costs 40 dust to craft.

. Even if that isn’t the case, Ragnaros can dish out a lot of damage without having to wait a turn to get ready. Just watch out for decks with transformations spells like Hex and Polymorph — they will neutralise him.

The best Rare Hearthstone Cards

Crazed Alchemist (Rare)

A great  low-mana Neutral card. At 2 mana, the Crazed Alchemist already is decent with 2 attack and 2 health. However, this rare card can turn the board to your favor with his Battlecry, which swaps a minion’s attack and health.

He can turn your high life, low attack minions — such as a low-mana Oasis Snapjaw — into a 7 attack powerhouse early in the game. But I prefer to use Crazed Alchemist against my foe’s units.

Crazed Alchemist can instantly render high life, low attack Taunt cards such as Shieldbearer or Mogu’shan Warlord useless, killing Shieldbearer in one stroke and leaving the warlord with just 1 life.

Used offensively, it can cancel a foe’s high attack, low life minion such as a Reckless Rocketer, making them less valuable pieces, especially when your opponent focuses on offense. Crazed Alchemist can even help you remove the Legendary dragon Ysera from the board, turning her intimidating 12 life into 4.

Crazed Alchemist

A good  use for Crazed Alchemist is as a one-shot kill for the Legendary, Nat Pagle. At the end of your foe’s turn, Pagle has a 50 percent chance of drawing a card, so removing him is important. Throw a Crazed Alchemist at him and Pagle, with 0 attack and 4 health, now has 0 health.

Crazed Alchemist costs 100 Dust to craft.

Knife Juggler (Rare)

Another of my favorite cards also costs just 2 mana — the Knife Juggler, a rare Neutral. With 3 attack and 2 health, he’s already a great deal for 2 mana. But it’s his Battlecry that I adore — he throws a 1 damage knife that hits a random enemy unit or hero whenever you summon a minion of your own.

Knife Juggler

I love pairing Knife Juggler with one or two cards with Taunts to protect him on the board and then use cards that summon more than one minion at a time — Unleash the Hounds, Snake Trap, or Savannah Highmane as a Hunter, the Druid’s fireball equivalent Force of Nature, or Neutral cards such as Silver Hand Knight. These cards give the Knife Juggler two or more chances to throw knifes — essentially giving you additional attacks for free.

Knife Juggler costs 100 Dust to craft.

Legendary Hearthstone cards for your deck 

Tirion Fordring (Paladin Legendary)

Tirion is the Paladin-specific Legendary card. He costs 8 mana and has 6 attack and 6 health, but he has other useful bonuses. Want to know what a Hearthstone card taunt ability does? He Taunts, meaning that your opponent has to attack him before any non-Taunting minions or your hero, and has Divine Shield, which protects him from all damage the first time he’s hit.

Tirion Fordring

Best of all, he automatically equips you with a strong weapon upon death, so this card gives you value even after he’s destroyed. Just watch out for decks with silencing or transformation abilities, since those will get rid of all of Tirion’s awesome bonuses.

Tirion costs 1,600 Dust to craft.

Ragnaros the Firelord (Legendary)

Ragnaros is a Legendary card with a high cost of 8 mana, but he’s easily worth it. He has 8 attack and 8 health but can’t directly attack anyone. Instead, he’ll do 8 damage to a random enemy minion or hero at the end of each turn, including the one you used to play him.

Ragnaros the Firelord

Ragnaros works best as a finisher. If your opponent has 8 or less health left and no minions, play this Hearthstone card for an easy win.

Ragnaros costs 1,600 Dust to craft.


HoundmasterBasic cards for your deck

Houndmaster (Hunter Basic)

 Houndmaster, a Hunter minion that gives a friendly beast +2/+2 and Taunt.The downside is that you must have plenty of beasts in your deck for the Houndmaster to be effective, but the Houndmaster is also a formidable minion on its own. Plus, it’s a great counter to the Mage’s Polymorph spell.

You earn Houndmaster by increasing your Hunter class level.

Northshire ClerifNorthshire Cleric (Priest Basic)

A good strategy to use if playing as a Priest is to load up your deck with Northshire Clerics, who grant an extra card every time you heal a minion. The Priest’s special ability lets you heal 2 points of damage in exchange for 2 mana at any time, so if you put out a few Northshire Clerics, you can quickly end up with a larger hand and more attack options. However, the Northshire Cleric isn’t too tough, so it’s good to double its health with Divine Spirit so that you can keep drawing more cards.

You earn Northshire Cleric by increasing your Priest class level.

Mind ControlMind Control (Priest Basic)

The most devastating late-game card is the Priest’s Mind Control spell, which uses all 10 of your mana but takes over an enemy minion. It’s satisfying to watch your enemy build up one unstoppable minion, like a rare dragon, only to make it switch sides when it’s your turn. This is a card that can single-handedly turn the direction of a match, so be sure to use it wisely.

You earn Mind Control by increasing your Priest class level.

Monday, 14 April 2014

Junk Jack X Guide

Guide To Junk Jack X

Junk Jack X is a Minecraft alike game played in 2d that is very reminiscent of Terraria,but also super addictive and very much in need of a walkthrough! 


Junk Jack X: The beginning and overview
How many worlds(dimensions) in Junk Jack ?5 different dimensions.
How many crafting recipes: over 750 crafting recipes. The plethora of things continues with 1600 treasures, 350 peaceable items and over 150 different mobs!
How to start playing Junk Jack
When you first launch the game, you will notice that there are four main buttons: new game, multiplayer, shop and options. It is recommended that you first go into options and edit your settings to allow a more comfortable gaming experience!

The gameplay side button contains a list of very useful toggle able settings, such as peaceful (no hostile mobs will spawn), continues time (time will continue will crafting and using addons), hold to break and simple craft. If your game is lagging, go into the Graphics section and click the “Safe texture load”, “lower sky GFX” and “Lower Graphics” buttons, your game should run more smoothly now! 

The shop contains a list of IAPs that can be purchased. None of these IAPs are necessary but some may want to buy these IAPs. Some of the IAPs drop items, some are solely for texture changing and some are very useful. If you do not want to find all of the crafting recipes, it is recommended that you should purchase the “Full Craft book”. 
Free IAP's!
The Pixbits Shirt and Tiny Jack are free!

Creating your player and world

Now that you are familiar with the options and shop, it is time to create your character and worlds! Tap the “New Game” icon. It will transfer you to the player creator interface. Here you can customize your player. Some customizable features include gender, shoe color, shirt color, short color, skin tone and hair style. You are also able to edit your player name! Beware than once your player is created, you will not be able to edit it. The only way to edit it is to delete it via the “Misc” option in the options menu, however if you delete your player, your inventory will be deleted! Now that you have a player, it is time to create your world! You are able to store an unlimited amount of worlds and you are also able to re-name the world to your liking. It is recommended that you create an Adventure world for your main adventure.
How to use the UI in Junk Jack X

Once you have generated your world, you will spawn in your first Junk Jack X world! You will notice that there are some buttons. Your hot slot is on the right hand side of the screen and it should contain your most important items. When you die, your hot slot items will remain with you. The pause button is on the top left on the screen, along with how many hearts you have. The inventory icon is on the bottom left. The 6 * 6 grid is your inventory. The trash and magnify icon are used to delete and view the names of items. There are also two more buttons to the right. The one on the right is the crafting button, you tap it to view your crafting grid. The button next to it is your player info. Here, you can place armor, ammo and trinkets into your player. If you tap the down arrow, you will be able to see your player’s stats. Your player name is also visible at the top. The button next to the inventory icon is the craft book icon, once tapped it will display all of the crafting recipes you have discovered. Each category contains different types of crafts. The categories are divided into which addon is required to create an item. Addons are required to craft more advanced items, craft and addon, place it down and tap on it and then you will be able to craft more advanced items. There Is also a tutorial button that gives you information on the features of JJX, refer to it in case you are confused or stuck! The hand category contains all items you can create without any addons. 

Where to start

You are in your JJX world, at night time, hostile creatures will spawn and attempt to kill you. Hostile mobs only spawn in the darkness! So light up your house! The first thing you should do is to start chopping down tress, smashing crates along the surface, killing every animal you see and mining as much cobblestone. So first chop down some trees, the more wood the better! Now, create a wooden axe along with a wooden pickaxe. Both recipes can be found in the bare hands category in the in game JJX tutorial. Continue chopping down tress with the axe and mine some stone with a pickaxe! Once you have collected some stone, create some stone tools, such as swords, axes, pickaxes and shovels. Now try to find some coal! Now create some torches and start building a shelter. You can create a simple dirt or wooden one above ground, or dig underground and make a small underground base!

Make sure you fully light up your base, otherwise hostile mobs will spawn in your base! Now that you have a base, you will be safe during the night. Avoid staying out at night initially or the mobs will have ya! Now, create a workbench. The workbench will be used to create other addons. You will most likely not be able to craft a bed as you will need to create an iron bar. Congratulations! It is now nighttime and you are safe in your base!

Chests + Mining



Mining in Junk Jack X is simple. There are 5 different planets in JJX, as your progress to each new planet, each new planet contains a new, more powerful ore. Find portal pieces and place them in a triangle with a space in the middle to unlock new worlds,there are about fifteen portal pieces per world.The better the ore, the stronger the tool, the more durable the tool and the more slots you get in a chest! These are the types of ores that can be used to craft tools, armor and chests: Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Mithril, Antanium and Titanium. There are also different biomes underground, such as librarys and mineshafts. The deeper you go underground, the more powerful mobs get but the better loot you will find! 

Portals

There are 5 different planets in JJX, Terra, Seth, Alba, Xeno and Magmar. Portal Chests are ONLY found in Adventure mode! If you create a Terra world or a Seth world, you will find NO portal pieces in them! Each planet contains a new ore, new blocks and new mobs! Mobs will become more powerful as your progress! Be careful!

Liquids

There are three different types of liquids in JJX. Water, Lava and Acid. Jack can drown in water and he will take damage if he steps in Lava or acid. These liquids will also damage mobs! Acid is found only in Xeno! Beware that items can be burnt (deleted) if they are thrown into lava. Liquids will also break addons! Make sure you don't mis tap otherwise a liquid will break your chests, ladders, decorations and addons. Be extra careful with lava as it Wil break your addons but then it will delete the addon items! When Jack enters water, a line of bubbles will appear underneath the health bar. They will slowly deplete as you stay underwater. When Jaxk reaches the surface, the bubbles will slowly start to reappear, almost as if Jack is out of breath and is slowly starting to breath again. You can also get certain trinkets that will make you immune to drowning, damage from lava and damage from acid!

Weapons

There are many different types of weapons in Junk Jack X. Some are dropped from mobs, some are craft able. Each weapon has a different damage type; Slash, smash, or stab. Slash does more damage to mobs like zombies and spiders, and the craftable weapon for it is the sword. Stab does more damage to animals and such, and its craftable weapon is the spear. Lastly, smash does more damage to things like skeletons and golems, and its craftable weapon is the maul. Some weapons are dropped from mobs and other weapons require mobs drops, such as the worm sword, ice sword and serpent sword. 

Tools

There are 5 different tools in Junk Jack X. A pickaxe, shovel, axe, hammer and hoe. A pickaxe is used to mine any stone related block, It will be on of your most important tools. A shovel Is used to dig different types of dirt, sand and other 'earth' blocks. An axe is used to chop trees and also to mine any wood related blocks. Hammers are very important. Hammers are used for breaking chests open, breaking furniture, breaking ladders, doors, breaking addons and removing carpet and half blocks. The last tool is a hoe. To use a hoe, tap a dirt block. The dirt block tapped will now become tilled. This means that you are now able to plant plants onto the tilled soil.

Armor

Armour is crucial in JJX. There are many different types of armor: craft able and mob drops. You can craft metal armor, demon armor, raw leather armor, cured leather armor and wooden armor. Regular armor increases damage and attack, increases speed, increases health, makes you immune to certain things and also provided native light. However there are also armor pieces that are dropped in chests and such. These types of armor and not craft able and are only found in chests! Some pieces of armor and only for decoration and some are extremely helpful! Choose what type of armor you want and see If it matches your play style. Some sets of armor dramatically increase your speed, some sets can give you 12 hearts and some can dramatically increase your attack damage. Armor can also provide immunity to fall damage, immunity to drowning, immunity to bomb damage and immunity to lava and acid. 

Trinkets

Trinkets are items that enhance your character. You equip a trinket by placing it in the slot with the star! Trinkets are extremely helpful in JJX, they prove extra hearts, make you immune to fall damage, lava, acid, able to swim longer, give you extra hearts, increase your speed, prevent blast damage and much more! Some trinkets are craftable and some are found underground in chests. They can be crafted with essences and with mob drops. Trinkets can also be enhanced with gems, giving them another feature! 

Enhancing

Encursting allows armour and tools to have special abilities! To encrust an items, consume a Gem by holding it, then tap on which tool/armour piece you want to enchant and voila! You can also enhance trinkets 
Effects on Tools:
Diamond: Increases drop rates
Ruby: Adds more range
Emerald: Increased knockback + randomly mines adjacent blocks
Topaz: Adds more durability
Saphire: Adds light
Amythest: Increases power

Effect on Armor:
Topaz: breathing in liquids
Sapphire: glowing
Ruby: lava immunity
Emerald: acid immunity
Diamond: a slight increase to defenses
Amethyst: a tiny increase to attacks
The update is on the horizon where the much sought after pet ability will be released and who knows you may even be able to get for omega 3 supplements!

Quickstacking

Quickstacking is something that is extremely useful. It allows you to quickly add items in your inventory to the items in a chest or addon. For example, if you have 2 gold ingots and 2 iron ingots in your inventory, and some iron and gold ingots in your chest, if you tap the quickstack button it will automatically add the iron and gold in your inventory to your chests. To use a quickstack, open the chest and tap the little chest icon, next to the magnify button 

Reducing Lag

Junk Jack X was developed for the iPod touch 5gen, iPhone 5, iPad 3 and above. This is why device that were developed before these devices will sometimes lag while playing JJX. To reduce lag, you should first clear your multitasking history to free up memory. If you still lag, you should alter some in game settings, such as: advanced shaders = off, lower sky gfx = on, lower graphics = on, smooth lighting = off. By altering these settings, JJX should run much smoother now. Advanced shaders causes a lot of lag on older devices, so make sure you turn it off.

Many thanks to the Junk Jack forums and its most imminent user.                From whom this JJX guide was adapted.