Tag: Hearthstone

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Blog

Things to Do in Omaha When You’re…a Gamer

catalystI have been thinking of ways to inject myself into the Omaha gaming community which has been difficult because being a gamer means that I like spending time alone playing games. I have been going to Catalyst: A Weekly Social Gaming Meet-up at Portal LAN Arcade on 84th Street. Nerdtron, a local gaming group, is behind organizing Catalyst. Nerdtron is run by my buddy Cay who is forever working tirelessly to make nerd-dom more bearable in Omaha.

The event aims to get people together and do what they love – game. There is some emphasis on eSports at the event, which appealed to me, because I play Dota 2, while most of the other gamers were playing League of Legends, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm I did find a couple of Dota compatriots.

cybacThe coolest thing about the event is that Portal LAN Arcade really just feels like a Japanese Manga cafe.  I loved going to Manga cafe’s in Japan. I always felt like I was at home. I didn’t need to try and be someone else. The biggest asset of playing games, for many people, is by playing a character you can be a different version of yourself – you can be the person you want to be instead of who you are.

Playing at Portal Lan Arcade is a welcoming experience with a bunch of networked PCs in one section of the building and console game in a separate section. They have a small selection of drinks and snacks at the front counter. The prices for admission are pretty fair in my opinion.

Since winter is coming around the corner, I really need a weekly event to keep me from going stir crazy during these awful winter months in Omaha. I think going to Portal LAN Arcade will keep me from becoming too much of a hermit. Come out of the darkness and join me at Portal LAN Arcade next Friday!

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xXx-Naxxramas-xXx420 joins Hearthstone

promo image for curse of naxxrama

promo image for curse of naxxramaNaxxramas? Really? Blizzard tends to get a little bit up it’s own ass when it comes to names.

Today at PAX East Blizzard announced Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure, a single player Adventure Mode for Blizzard’s super popular game Hearthstone. Naxxramas sounds like a screen name one would see in Call of Duty.

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Podcast

OWR Games Podcast: Episode 02

Rising sun Kumamon

Green OWR Games logo with black boarder around the edgeOnce again we are join by our intrepid idiots Paul Smith (@sopachuco13) and Rodrigo Carballo (@naco402) to talk about games. Rodrigo catches us up on his progress with Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and The Last of Us. Paul talks a bit about why Nintendo characters have no voice and Kumamon.

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Blog

Hearthstone vs. Magic: The definitive battle

Beta Screen
It says Warcraft right there in the name, that's all you need to know.
Beta Screen
It says Warcraft right there in the name, that’s all you need to know.

Like many of you, I have finally gotten into the Hearthstone beta. I waited for months to finally get my invite to the beta. The wait was that much more excruciating because my nephew already had his invite and was well on his way to Hearthstone supremacy. In the last few weeks I have played 15 – 20 hours of Hearthstone, I have most of it’s quirks under my belt. I usually make a couple of stupid mistakes every session that I play. Some of those mistakes end up causing me the match, but sometimes I am so far ahead that it would be near impossible to lose.

Magic the Gathering video game
Look at how many options there are on that table.

The beginning of a Hearthstone match is so much slower than the beginning of a match of Magic: The Gathering. I think that the tit-for-tat gameplay of Hearthstone does not mesh well with my more defensive play style.

Hearthstone seems like a game where you must always kill off the other character because once you don’t have any creatures on the table and your opponent has two or more; it is over.

M:TG seems, to me, to have more chances to come back from a deficit. I like that kind of game play. I love having a game where I am down 3 to 20 and I get a couple of good spells and a good creature and I come back to take the win with my piddly three point still holding strong.

Yesterday, I had one of the most frustrating games of Hearthstone, ever. I pulled three cards at the beginning costing; 5, 6, and 5 gems. Of course, I threw them back into the pile, only to have the same fucking cards come back out of the deck into my hand.

I really think that Hearthstone needs a system like M:TG has in videogame form; get a couple of chances to pull cards from the deck if you keep on getting shitty cards. M:TG even has a penalty system where if you pull too many times you can’t pull as many cards each following chance.

I also like the mana system that M:TG has instead of the generic gem system that Hearthstone implements. I like to be able to control my cards to more of an extent than Hearthstone has allowed.

Now, I will be the first to admit that many of my problems could be caused by the scarce number of cards that I have unlocked; none of my characters are over level 16. I am sure that I will unlock unique cards that will help my end game and I know that I will also unlock more of my favorite cards to help my chances of picking up those cards that I have become attached to.

Hearthstone key
Blizzard took note of how many people enjoyed Valve’s key system, so they borrowed it.

Hearthstone is still a young game and Magic has been around for 20 years or so. I have all the confidence that Blizzard will continue tweaking the gameplay to suit it’s style of game. I know that a lot of people are in love with Hearthstone and I may have a minority opinion of the game. I would like to like Hearthstone, but I will always have Magic to keep me satiated in case Hearthstone never captures me.