jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2753 Posts

On this eve of The Whispers Of The Old Gods expansion launch I take a look back at the cards that will be rotating out of the new Standard game mode. First up I say goodbye and good riddance to some of my most disliked cards. Finally I round things off nearly shedding a tear for some of my most loved Naxxramas cards. It's a bittersweet time because the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion looks so great yet we are losing so many fun cards. I guess we will always have Wild!


Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins is Nintendo's latest Shigeru Miyamoto and Production IG and WIT Studios Anime collaboration. It's a fun and goofy 14 minute film that sets the stage for the newly released Star Fox Zero on Wii U. The short picks up after the original Star Fox game seeing Andross defeated and his eventual return. The animation style is very lush and inviting and this video proves that Nintendo should actually produce a Mario, Zelda or Star Fox cartoon series. One scene has the iconic ARWing's flying over a lake that harkens back to the X-Wings blasting over the same scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Battle Begins ends on a bit of a mysterious note that I imagine will be revealed in the game itself or a future Anime, something I would look forward to seeing.


Bethesda released a new video showcasing a few details of it's new digital card game Elder Scrolls Legends. Taking inspiration from Magic The Gathering and Hearthstone, Elder Scrolls Legends changes things up by introducing game lanes and damage runes. These mechanics are interesting and I am really curious to see the game in action. I am not the biggest Elder Scrolls fan but as a Magic and Hearthstone fan I am interested to get Bethesda's take on it.

You can sign up for the Elder Scrolls: Legends beta and I have the link below if you are interested in signing up. When the Elder Scrolls: Legends comes it will launch on the PC and iPad. Like Hearthstone, Elder Scrolls: Legends will be free to play and offer a pay component for packs and Arena play and will also allow them to be earned in game.

After the absolute crazy success of Hearthstone many large game studios want a slice of the digital card game pie. I've heard rumors of Riot Games developing a digital card game and I wouldn't be surprised if EA and Valve released one sooner or later.

https://account.bethesda.net/en/settings/beta/tesl/signup


Hearthstone Lead Designer Ben Brode and commentator Frodan hosted a Twitch live stream earlier today where they played a couple matches with the new Whispers of the Old Gods card set. If you are interested in seeing Old Cards decks in action the stream is a must watch. All of the decks they played with were incredible fun to see and I am really interested to see how the game changes with so many new and crazy cards in play.

So Much Evil For Free

During the Old Gods launch on April 26th players will get 3 free packs for signing in as well as the free Old God Legendary C'Thun and two support minions. Today Blizzard also revealed that you will get a new quest that will give you 5 free packs when you get 2 Standard Mode wins. After you beat the 2 standard mode wins quest you will get another quest where you can win 5 packs for another 7 Standard Mode wins. It's nice Blizzard is giving people a very apt starting Legendary card and this many free packs to help out brand new players and help level the field a bit.

You can flip through the recently revealed Whispers of the Old Gods cards on Hearthstone's Facebook page and the full list on Reddit.

https://www.facebook.com/Hearthstone/photos_stream
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/4a031p/the_god_ol_prerelease_reveal_chart_all_currently/
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20063483/whispers-of-the-old-gods-say-c%E2%80%99thun-three-times-fast-3-16-2016


CryZENx is a YouTuber that is reimagining classic games in the new Unreal 4 engine and the results are beautiful. The Unreal 4 engine is capable of producing incredible games and it's really fun to consider how amazing a PC Zelda game could be in with a modern graphical toolset behind it. CryZENx release a couple other Ocarina videos showcasing Zora's falls and the Temple of Time and you can watch them both below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owbnvee4JLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSeLdQASixE


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We've know Blizzard is going to release changes to Classic cards to accommodate the new Standard and Wild formats of Whispers of the Old Gods. Today they dropped the deets on all the nerfs and I am going to talk about a couple I find interesting.

"There’s a simple guiding principle that underlies each of the changes you’re about to see: New card releases should have an impact on Standard and enrich Wild, to make sure that Hearthstone is always as dynamic, fresh, and fun as it can be."

Silence and Removal Minons Get The Bat

Blizzard swung the nerf bat at a bunch of minions that have silence and removal abilities starting with the Keeper of The Grove. Keeper of the Grove now only has 2 health making it less of a Druid auto-include. They continued making a change to Ironbeak Owl increasing it's cost to 3 from 2. Ironbeak Owl is still one of the most useful minions I recommend people craft when they start the game. At 3 mana it's less great but I don't think this means it's gone for good merely we may see more people running Spellbreaker. Another change many saw coming was a nerf to Big Game Hunter. Blizzards change to BGH was to increase it's mana cost from 3 to 5 which is a very large change. This allows BGH to start competing with class removal yet it doesn't have the effect of removing it from the game entirely. It's less of a drastic tempo swing now and I don't think it will leave the game but it will see much less play.

Aggro Takes One For The Team

Blizzard wrapped up a whole slew of nerfs that target aggro styled decks and the first hit was to Knife Juggler. Knife Juggler's attack dropped from 3 to 2 which makes it a 2/2 for 2 with the same ability. I don't know if this nerf is enough but it at least allows other 3/2 for 2 minions to compete with it. Blizzard continued the aggro nerf swing with changes to Leper Gnome and Arcane Golem.

If you are interested in reading up on the entire changes check the official post below. Let me know what you think of these changes in the comments, curious to hear what cards you think were fairly treated and what cards were treated to harshly.

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20097355/


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I love the open ecosystem of PC gaming. Buy your games on Steam and GOG and with many new games you can run them on PC, Mac or Linux. The benefits are legion and the ability to play your games where you wish is incredible. I've wanted to buy a gaming handheld for quite some time with the same goals in mind and this year I took the plunge and bought and Android based GPD XD. The XD is a fun system and I use it to play all manner of Android & PC streamed games on a handheld.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2758/my-review-of-the-android-handheld-gpd-xd

GPD recently sent me an email about a crowdfunding campaign for a new device on Indiegogo called the GPD Win. The GPD Win is a full Windows 10 system that includes a full controller, keyboard, 4G RAM, Intel ATOM CPU (1.44GHZ/2.24GHZ), 64G Flash HD, 5.5" 1280x720 display, Intel HD Graphics, Wireless N, micro SD & mini HDMI and 1 USB Mini & USB port that fits in your pocket. It's a surprising amount of computing power for such a small device fully capable of running PC games.

Before Valve launched it's Steam Machines Gabe Newell mentioned Valve looking into handheld gaming and there were reports circulating of a Steam Boy. The GPD Win seems to be the first entry into the handheld PC games world and I imagine we will see other devices in this space that do similar things. The line between gaming handheld and laptop seem to be blurring and I can't wait to see more companies jump in and see what they make.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd-win-intel-z8550-win-10-os-game-console#/

The GPD Win is looking to raise 100k and they went well over their goal and sit at a bit over 400k right now. Clearly there are people interested in a PC handheld and I can't wait to read launch reviews of it.


On the unknown precipice of the new Old Gods expansion I bring you all a new Hearthstone Dailies for Ghosts episode. In this episode I play matches with the heroes I have unlocked in Lady Liadrin and Khadgar.

I unlocked Lady Liadrin by playing WoW to level 20 and Khadgar by donating $5 in Hearthstone to the World Wildlife Fund. This breaks my free to play streak but it was by donating to charity. I don't plan on spending any more money in Hearthstone but i'll break my F2P status for charity now and in the future because it's a good cause.

If you want to donate to the WWF and unlock the new Khadgar hero you can only do so from an iPhone or iPad as it's an Apple exclusive and the ability to buy him ends April 24th.

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20097353/khadgar-comes-to-the-tavern-4-14-2016

If you are interested in reading more on my quest for unlocking Lady Liadrin follow the link below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2876/lady-liadrin-and-the-tale-of-why-i-leveled-my-undead-warlock-snuggybunny-to-level-20


It's official, April 26th is the launch date for the new Hearthstone expansion Whispers of the Old Gods. Save your gold and lock the doors as The Old Gods are coming and corrupting everything in their path!

I am wondering what cards people are interested in picking up?

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20097936


When Diablo III season 5 rolled out I was hooked on it for a week or so. All the changes they had made to the game to that point along with the season bonuses seemed too incredible to pass up. I unlocked a few items and found some legendary recipes and was bummed that might not roll over permanently. As it turns out, a lot of your progress will roll over or transfer to a normal character.

"Those who have played through a few Seasons know there has been no shortage of gold, gear, or Paragon levels to earn. So what happens to all that hard earned progress when a Season ends? In short, you get to keep just about all of it.

Seasonal heroes will be converted to either non-Seasonal Normal or Hardcore mode heroes, as appropriate. There's no need to delete any characters to make room for them; your Seasonal heroes will continue to use the same slot they currently occupy in your roster after the rollover. You’ll also be able to use Season Rebirth to convert any non-seasonal character into a Seasonal, level-one character once the next Season begins.
Gold

Any gold you earn during the Season will transfer to your non-Seasonal heroes.
Paragon Experience.
"

Good news for people that want to keep playing those characters! Blizzard hasn't revealed much about Season 6 yet but if it's anything like 5, there should be some incredible armor sets and pets to unlock!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20077425