Warcraft (2016)

The arrival of the orcs.

With their world dying (possibly because of a Blizzard fiasco), the orcs step through a magic portal to invade the world of Azeroth, but not if Lothar (Travis Fimmel) has anything to say about it! It is much more than a simple blue versus green story though, and the action sequences and CGI are absolutely top notch. If anything, it's the pacing which throws us all across the vistas of Azeroth which seems a bit rushed,.

How are opposing sides always color coded?

As someone who isn't familiar with Warcraft lore I can't compare it for accuracy/continuity so I can only credit it as a stand alone movie which I enjoyed quite a lot. Definitely recommended for fantasy action fans in the same boat as me (no Warcraft knowledge), I give it three and a half griffons out of five.

Hearthstone (Beta): Put your heart in the cards Yugi!

 The wars in Azeroth are over. Now they just play cards.

Juris gave me a beta key to this game a month back and I can see how it can become addictive. This online World of Warcraft themed CCG (collectable card game) is pretty easy to get into but will take pretty long to master, basically because you won't have all the awesome cards in your stable at the get go - You need to earn your way up. In the beginning playing against the NPC serves as a good extended tutorial while you unlock the various starter decks but after that you will need to go and face random opponents in Play mode who have a similar rank to yours. Despite it being pretty much a game board with slight decorative variants, there's not really much to look at other than the cards. That said, the graphics are pretty good regardless and the little touch of having the classic Warcraft (RTS) music and sounds to the game really add to the flavour for me.

There are still daily quests to do, believe it or not - despite it being a card game - though I imagine your main goal would be to reach Rank 1. There is no storyline to follow and no vast "multiplayer" beyond you and your opponent. In that regard it is a bit like chess, though you don't know what pieces your opponent has and it is quite likely they have things that can wipe you out really easily later on. Some people even just pay for better pieces I'd imagine. There is ofcourse, Arena mode which requires in-game gold to join (which you gain doing quests) where you and your foe build a quasi random deck each time to try even the battlefield. Winning enough matches (without losing 3 times) can give you better cards for your normal deck.

So... I guess it's like pokemon chess then, because you've got to catch them all? Anywho, if you like CCGs then this should probably be on your watch list. If you like WoW then maybe this will be on your watch list, but I suspect you should play WoW instead. Or go to that place where they're playing Hearthstone in WoW, then play Hearthstone like a true roleplayer. Haha! As a stand alone game it is pretty good. The very restricted chat options between opponents (unless they are on each others friend lists) is a good idea too. I'm guessing there are still some balance issues which is why it remains in Beta but otherwise it is a pretty complete game. I give it 3.5 out of 5 happy dwarves which isn't bad considering a) it's in beta, b) I don't like CCGs and c) I'm not into WoW.

For those who already play Hearthstone, Cogitationes Astalnaris has a list of recent nerfs you may want to check out.

Where to Next?

My brothers and I recently finished Diablo 3 (finally) and of all the enemies it was Belial, the half-way mark boss, that caused us the most trouble. Everything else pretty much got curb-stomped, the titular main baddie included. So what's next outside of Guildwars 2 where all the heroes will ignore Scarlet's threat to Tyria to return to the wacky world of the Super Adventure Box (I know I will) and the slow progress of Neverwinter Online's Fury of the Feywild (it decided to let me log in again)?

I'm not that bad, honest!

Well, there are rumors that World of Warcraft may be going F2P - if that's true then the guild would probably check out Azeroth if given the chance. Funny reading angry subscription players posting on their forums "Well, if it goes F2P I'll stop giving them money!" Yeah. That's the point. Whether WoW actually makes the switch is another matter. Also was somewhat interested in trying Granado Espada out upon stumbling on some of its awesome music again but caught myself thinking do I really need another MMO (which I'd probably play solo) right now? Instead I am just hunting down all the tracks to listen to.

What else am I looking forward to then? The Thief reboot for sure (which looks a lot like Dishonored), and to a lesser extent the next game in the Witcher series. I didn't actually play the first two but I watched my brother go through them and it was cool. Lastly I was introduced to some D&D cosplaying silliness which I found to be rather entertaining and funny: The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. Worth a look especially if you are or were a pen and paper RPG player. :)