Review: Duels of the Planeswalkers on PC and new Xpac on XBLA

[steeple]

finaly...

i bought a few cards of magic and built a nice deck a couple of years ago, but then the problem came when i realized that im the only one in my area who knows what magic is, let alone have a deck (maybe i havent asked enough people...)

this is the only real chance for me to play this game, since i dont have an xbox and probably never going to get one...

now its saving money time....

 

[Dana22]

You would do better by playing MTG Online Trial for free.

 

[Freyar]

I remember Microprose's "Magic: The Gathering [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic%3A_The_Gathering_%28MicroProse%29]" game from 1997. I even still play that on occasion, though with heavy tweaks it's pretty hard to get running again. I get a little disturbed with how much flashy-ness is in this version, and I kind of miss the RPG-esque gameplay of the old one. However, I suppose this works in the end as a replacement for the "Duel" mode that I tended to gravitate to.

The whole "timer for your chance to interject" thing annoys me on the 360's version. It seemed like it wanted me to wait even if I had nothing I could do against the AI. In a multiplayer game, I could understand forcing the wait (so as not to inadvertently give information about one player's hand away), but with the AI why do I have to wait?

I get very frustrated with the pace and just how slow everything feels by comparison. You know how X-Com: UFO Defense had the quirky, but quick 2D animations, and then you have games like UFO: Aftershock coming up with slower, better looking, but "not right" animations? It's kind of the same problem here. The sounds were better in Microprose's version too. Stupid fairy-like dust noise...

 

[Keava]

There wa

I remember Microprose's "Magic: The Gathering [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic%3A_The_Gathering_%28MicroProse%29]" game from 1997. I even still play that on occasion, though with heavy tweaks it's pretty hard to get running again. I get a little disturbed with how much flashy-ness is in this version, and I kind of miss the RPG-esque gameplay of the old one. However, I suppose this works in the end as a replacement for the "Duel" mode that I tended to gravitate to.

There was fan made updated version of that game, the graphics and all stayed pretty much same but new
cards were added and it works fine even on windows7.

DotP seems like a promo product, thats why it was released first as Xbox Arcade, not a full blown up project that would transfer the full experience of MTG into consoles/PCs. They have MTG Online to cater to the more serious crowd, the downtime being the paid cost of virtual cards equal to real life boosters/decks.
As i said tho, plenty of fanbase projects starting with ManaLink2.0, MTGForge and Octagon that pretty much let you do nearly everything you can in real cardgame.

 

[2fish]

If I cannot build my angel deck I am not interested. As much fun as it would be to go back and play magic I don't think I will be going after this until there is a fully customizable deck.

 

[TazTheTerrible]

They have MTG Online to cater to the more serious crowd, the downtime being the paid cost of virtual cards equal to real life boosters/decks.

That's a pretty big downside. If I pay that much, I'd like to have actual cards to show for it and the reason I quit magic was precisely because I felt it cost way too much that way even for actual cards.

I guess I could check out these fan products if they're any good. I was just hoping for some guarantuee of quality since it was coming from the official source. At least I didn't waste too much money on it.

 

[Keava]

That's a pretty big downside. If I pay that much, I'd like to have actual cards to show for it and the reason I quit magic was precisely because I felt it cost way too much that way even for actual cards.

I guess I could check out these fan products if they're any good. I was just hoping for some guarantuee of quality since it was coming from the official source. At least I didn't waste too much money on it.

As far as i know you are, or at least were able to exchange the virtual set of cards for a printed real counterpart for a fee, but im not sure how exactly it works these days. You could also register for the Online service with full rights by buying a normal starter deck that included registration code. Again, not sure how it is these days.

As for DotP, i played it a little today, its not bad, bit too flashy with all those stops for damage calculations but cant say its not enjoyable. Just really lacks custom deck option and, uh more cards. 300 out of over 3000 is nothing sadly.

The unoficial products are pretty simple in design, but offer pretty much all of actual card gameplay, only real problems is AI, which is pretty tough to code correctly in a game like MTG due to amount of variables, and lack of any advanced graphic UI, but what really more you need than card images ?

 

[Monstrion]

I hoped it will be a way to play magic withnout the need to fork out ridiculous amounts of money for small pieces of paper with some ink on... Clearly the whole game is just an interactive commercial. GG. AI is more lucky than skillful (or maybe just coded to downright cheat) and well ... playing the game only with default decks ... are you kidding?

Who even pays for those cards IRL anymore, I thought they would go full electronic long time ago.