Review: Duels of the Planeswalkers on PC and new Xpac on XBLA
- Thread starter Greg Tito
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Yes.
YES.
OH GOD YES.
This news is better than sex.
For me at least. I've wanted to play Magic online for ages now but couldn't afford the software, etc. Now that I have some money and a Steam account, I'll be able to play my Red/White deck of rape against other players, hopefully ones that can actually beat me.
YES.
OH GOD YES.
This news is better than sex.
For me at least. I've wanted to play Magic online for ages now but couldn't afford the software, etc. Now that I have some money and a Steam account, I'll be able to play my Red/White deck of rape against other players, hopefully ones that can actually beat me.
Make sure you read the reviews - this isn't that kind of Magic game. The decks are all prefab, with some limited customization. It's a lot of fun, and a good deal at $10, but not what you're looking for.RagnorakTres said:
If you want to play Magic at that level online, you want to play Magic: The Gathering Online [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/digital/MagicOnline.aspx]. That's where you get into the full deck customization, tournaments, etc.
I thought the pre-fab decks were the ones you bought? Because that's the deck I use most of the time, I don't remember the block, but it was an out of the box one. I have a second deck that I'm learning to build with and I'm just about to start tearing the boxed one apart to get at some of the really good cards in it.Virgil said:
If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but I thought that's what the out-of-the-box decks were, the "decks" that the Planeswalkers (or else natural forces, like with the Slivers) used in the books.
I never understood why they would do all this work to make all these pretty cards, animations and program in all the card effects and not let you customize it all. That is the heart of Magic: The Gathering.Virgil said:
Back in High school (and early college) I would spend entire afternoons constructing and testing out decks to try for that evening's magic mini-tourney with my buddies.
Duels of the Planeswalkers gives you very specific preconstructed decks. You can unlock them through the single player campaign, and they all have 20 or so cards that you have to unlock by playing the decks. You unlock one card with every win, and you can sideboard any number of the unlocked cards (but not any from the original deck). The game will balance your land around the number/type of cards you have.
I was a bit upset about it at first, but almost all of the decks are pretty decent. My main gripe was not being able to remove color specific cards (like Terror) when I wasn't playing against that color.
The expansions all add more cards to unlock for the original decks as well. Along with more challenges, and it seemed some of the old challenges got a second level which added a multi-turn challenge.
Also, I believe you can purchase real versions of all or almost all of the decks used in the game. Including the vampire decks from the second expansion, which is a ridiculous overpowered deck.
(Oh yeah, you can turn off the attack animations in the Xbox version as well. My main annoyance is you can't speed up the AI turn when it has almost nothing to do but still manages to "think" for 30 seconds in each phase - and when it decides to auto-skip to attack phase without letting me equip artifacts first if I don't have any other playable cards.)
I was a bit upset about it at first, but almost all of the decks are pretty decent. My main gripe was not being able to remove color specific cards (like Terror) when I wasn't playing against that color.
The expansions all add more cards to unlock for the original decks as well. Along with more challenges, and it seemed some of the old challenges got a second level which added a multi-turn challenge.
Also, I believe you can purchase real versions of all or almost all of the decks used in the game. Including the vampire decks from the second expansion, which is a ridiculous overpowered deck.
(Oh yeah, you can turn off the attack animations in the Xbox version as well. My main annoyance is you can't speed up the AI turn when it has almost nothing to do but still manages to "think" for 30 seconds in each phase - and when it decides to auto-skip to attack phase without letting me equip artifacts first if I don't have any other playable cards.)
Well its nice looking and with some supposed depth, but currently as far as MTG games go, there is wonderful opensource fanbase project called MTG Forge which at least allow syou to build own decks and has over 3k cards implemented, only gripe really is AI.
But well, gonna play DotP anyways, i just love those cards.
But well, gonna play DotP anyways, i just love those cards.
However, if you can't find a local group to play with our you don't fancy forking out a load of money on cards, it a decent enough substitue.ItsAPaul said:
*Cough*you can turn combat animations off on the XBL version too*Cough*
Sorry, but I get annoyed when reviews say things that are patently wrong.
That being said, I think that the game lends itself to PC more then XBL simply from the UI stand point. A controller works best for actions games; when you have to use the analog stick to select things in a 3D environment (or even a 2D) it becomes a hassle.
Sorry, but I get annoyed when reviews say things that are patently wrong.
That being said, I think that the game lends itself to PC more then XBL simply from the UI stand point. A controller works best for actions games; when you have to use the analog stick to select things in a 3D environment (or even a 2D) it becomes a hassle.
You can turn off the attack animations for XBLA version too.
Just saying.
Good review, none the less.
Just saying.
Good review, none the less.
Ugh, fuck this game. No deck creation? Seriously? I expected "customize your own deck" to mean actually, y'know, make your own deck. Why else would I play magic? This selection is laughable. I was hoping to get an MTG game that allowed me to play for a fair ammount of money and actually focus on deck creation from a tactical rather than financial point of view, but this is just silly.
I wouldn't have objected to paying a fair ammount of cash, but isn't there any intermediate solution where I can sacrifice the ownership of real cards in exchange for reasonable prices while retaining actual deck creation?
I don't give a shit if the decks are good or not, they can be the greatest decks conceivable, I still wouldn't feel any accomplishment because I'd be playing with a deck someone else came up with. I'd like to fight with something of my own creation.
Also:
I wouldn't have objected to paying a fair ammount of cash, but isn't there any intermediate solution where I can sacrifice the ownership of real cards in exchange for reasonable prices while retaining actual deck creation?
I don't give a shit if the decks are good or not, they can be the greatest decks conceivable, I still wouldn't feel any accomplishment because I'd be playing with a deck someone else came up with. I'd like to fight with something of my own creation.
Also:
Yes it is too much. For one, I don't want cards for just one deck, I want to be able to make several, fiddle with them, try decks that are maybe more fun than actually brutally effective, and I certainly don't want to have to juggle any sort of financial schemes in order to maintain a hobby. I just want to play the damn game.ItsAPaul said:
Everyone's already mentioned you can turn off the battle animations on the XBL version too, so I'll skip that and also point out that you don't play against Bolas' Eons of Evil deck in the original campaign. The final boss in the original is Tezzeret and his artifact thing. Bolas is the final boss of the first expansion, which came free with the Steam version of the game.
I dunno about you guys, but I never liked Planeshift as an expansion. Sure the artwork was good, but story-wise and gameplay wise I liked Mirrodin and Darksteel better. Champions of Kamigawa is maybe a second.....but the idea of Mirrodin was cool.
Uhh... you can turn off the combat animations in the xbox version, too.
And I've never had any difficulty controlling it on the xbox version. It's not like the controls are bad, they're just different.
And I've never had any difficulty controlling it on the xbox version. It's not like the controls are bad, they're just different.
Why not just make a pc game that lets you make full use of a cycle/expansion/whatever you wanna call it, for that price of say 200$? I might be willing to pay that kind of money (okay maybe more 100-150), except it might make people question why the hell they're paying several times the amount they'd fork over for an MMO on a game that can barely call itself 2D.
This game hasn't rekindled my interest in MTG, it makes me wanna go back to Guild Wars. This thing isn't a Magic game, it's a god-damn trial you have to pay for.
This game hasn't rekindled my interest in MTG, it makes me wanna go back to Guild Wars. This thing isn't a Magic game, it's a god-damn trial you have to pay for.