In recent months, most of my posts about Hearthstone (that aren't game highlights, of course) have been complaints and criticisms. Today, I'm here to give credit where it's due. Dungeon Run - the new solo content introduced in Kobolds & Catacombs - is damn good!
Disguised Toast is at it again, reporting on what is likely the theme of the next Hearthstone expansion. It seems entirely feasible, considering past early information from previous releases. Un'Goro Crater is a very memorable zone in WoW, so I'm pleased to see it as an upcoming Hearthstone theme.
Space exploration, combat and roleplaying with roguelike elements!
Transcendence is a sci-fi space game where you pilot a ship on a divine mission to reach the galactic core. You can choose from three different starting ships - freighter, yacht or fighter - depending on your playstyle. Beginning at the Sisters of Domina outpost, you're given some basic missions to get acquainted with controls and game mechanics important for your journey.
One of the game's strong points is its variety of options. While your choice of starting ship can affect your success at certain missions, you can always upgrade your ship with an assortment of weapons, armor and devices (and later on purchase entirely different vessels) assuming you have enough credits.
The title has a high amount of replayability as well. In addition to piloting a different class of ship, each new game has some amount of procedural generation to keep things fresh. If that wasn't enough, there's even an array of expansions and mods to provide you with more campaigns. options, content and missions.
I don't have much in the way of negative remarks for this title, but I'll mention what few small gripes I have for sake of disclosure. I couldn't seem to find a reliable way to stop/brake my ship - the period key supposedly does this, but it didn't work for me. Also, a recent update added in-game music, but it seems to only have one song which plays just once, leaving you with the silence of space afterwards. I assume that a patch will likely fix that issue soon enough though, either with more tracks and/or a looping feature.
Those minor issues aside, Transcendence is a great game that provides a plethora of space exploration, combat and trading goodness!
Of the five cards shown, Hungry Dragon seems to have the most overall potential to join constructed decks and Dark Iron Skulker will likely be a great utility minion for rogues. Rend Blackhand feels a little clunky due to its low health for a 7-drop, and sadly will never see play as long as Dr. Boom goes unchecked.
While Blackrock Mountain sounds like a load of fun, I'm not quite as excited about it compared to when Naxx was announced. I still feel a long ways off from getting all the GvG cards I really want, and the constructed meta settled down way too fast for such a large influx to the card pool.
I've already mentioned a number of cards that perhaps seem a little strong in previous posts, but that's only part of the problem. Most of the other cards throughout the Goblins vs Gnomes set feel so sub-par in comparison that they're not worth playing. Who really wants to open a pack and find Hemet Nesingwary as their legend? Looking through the GvG set, it's fairly easy to identify most cards as either 'playable' or 'trash'. There's only a handful of cards that fit the 'situationally good' slot such as Kezan Mystic, which is a shame. This unfortunate mix is why the meta already felt stale about a month after GvG's release. I find it hard to believe that the 31 new cards from the next expansion will do much to keep constructed play fresh for long, which is why my excitement level for Blackrock Mountain isn't as high as it could be.
In other happenings, I just got in to the Spellweaver TCG closed beta. This title looks promising and fits somewhere in between Hearthstone and Magic: the Gathering in terms of complexity and mechanics. I'm interested in seeing how Spellweaver ends up, particularly its cash shop model as it will be free-to-play for everyone once it's ready. If they can establish a fair business model while keeping the cards and effects balanced in-game, Dream Reactor may just have a TCG hit on their hands.
Today Blizzard unveiled the upcoming Hearthstone expansion, titled Goblins vs Gnomes. Unlike Curse of Naxxramas where you unlock wings and fight bosses to obtain cards (known as adventures), players can simply purchase packs of the new set in the shop with gold or real money.
Goblins vs Gnomes will contain over 120 new cards based around crazy mechanical contraptions. There's a new minion type (Mech) and a slew of ridiculous cards, both neutral and class-specific.
Today Blizzard announced some details concerning the upcoming Adventure Mode that's being added to Hearthstone, and it sounds pretty impressive.
"Curse of Naxxramas" will be the first Hearthstone Adventure, based upon the Naxx raid from WoW. When released, all players will have access to the first of five wings of the dungeon (The Arachnid Quarter). Each week after, a new wing will be accessible for purchase with either in-game gold or real money, the amounts of which have yet to be announced.
The rewards for completing each wing include new cards (including a guaranteed new legendary for each wing) themed around the denizens of Naxxramas. There's a lot of neat Deathrattle-based cards along with some others, all of which look pretty exciting.
(All images courtesy of Blizzard)
But wait, there's more! After completing a wing, you can revisit it with each class to attempt special challenges. Completing those challenges earn you new class-specific cards. In addition, as wings unlock over the weeks of this release, the cards from those wings will start showing up in the Arena card pool. Curse of Naxxramas adds 30 new cards to Hearthstone, which is one of the most requested additions to the game.
Personally, I'm really pleased by this announcement. Adventure Mode has been hinted at already, but the amount of content announced today is more than I expected. New cards, multiple wing unlocks, and replayable content all in one package sounds amazing.
With the relative ease of being able to play Hearthstone for free, I've been wondering how Blizzard was going to be able to financially sustain the game in the long-term (other than cosmetic purchases and new cards). This sounds like an interesting option. I'm sure somewhere people are already crying about "new content locked behind a paywall, making the game pay2win", but they're missing an important detail...
Purchasing access to a new wing doesn't give you new cards automatically (at least from the description in the announcement). You still have to complete it and the challenges for each class. Even if that proves to be simple, it doesn't mean that the cards rewarded will be so powerful that they ruin the game for everyone else. Baron Rivendare seems to be the most abusive of the preview cards (just imagine him alongside Cairne, Sylvannus, Harvest Golem, or even Loot Hoarder), but we don't have all the information just yet. Overall, Curse of Naxxramas looks like a welcome addition to Hearthstone, and I can't wait to try it.
Blizzcon is underway and as expected, there's some news on what we'll see next for World of Warcraft. Here's the announcement trailer:
First things first, this is NOT the full cinematic expansion trailer you may be expecting. That will most assuredly come along at some point in the future. This video is really just a teaser to announce some of the new features being toted for the expansion.
Considering that some features announced for previous expansions still aren't implemented, it may be premature to comment on these... but I'm going to anyway.
Level cap 100
Nothing unexpected here - it was going to either be 95 or 100, not a huge difference either way.
Updated character models/skins
Already announced. Personally not too excited here, though some feel this is necessary.
Level 90 Upgrade
You can make one character instantly level 90 and experience the new content right away. This has it's uses for a quick high-level alt, and possibly even a poor man's realm transfer, so I'm not totally unopposed. Sadly, this looks like it will be instantly abused by gold sellers to farm easier than ever before. I'm also guessing that this will become a purchasable service down the road, because people like instant gratification.
Garrisons
Build your own fortress with tons of bells and whistles. This looks to be Blizzard's answer to the often-requested player housing in WoW. The biggest surprise here is they will exist in the open world. While I vastly prefer the idea of that, I'm unsure of how well it will work in practice. Previous attempts at open world player structures haven't fared well, so it's a gutsy decision by Blizzard. Here's to hoping it works well.
Questing System
Lots of buzz words here like "refined and flexible" with little to explain what that means. Quests can now reward random rare or epic loot, which might be okay. One of my biggest complaints about WoW is that it has a huge world that people can mostly ignore if they choose (get to level 10, set hearth to capital, queue LFD and never look back), and the chance at better rewards for questing may alleviate that.
A "New" World
This all takes place on Draenor, which is now known as Outland. Time travel is obviously a major theme of the expansion, and it sounds like someone is attempting to mess with past events (a repeating theme in WoW already). I have mixed feelings here. Seeing the original Draenor sounds pretty cool, but time travel can easily create lore inconsistencies. Speaking of lore, the actual reason as to why this is happening in the past is still unknown. That's intentional so as to generate speculation, which keeps people talking about it.
Not Mentioned in the Video
Level scaling and number squish. I can see not talking about the impending squish, because while necessary at some point, most players won't like it (mah big nmbrz r gon, wtf blizz). Scaling players/instances to match the other is a great feature used by a number of games, and helps to strengthen player cooperation. They're both coming to WoW at some point, perhaps before this expansion is even released (which may actually be the reason they're not part of the trailer).
Final Thoughts
Some are going to see Draenor and immediately think, "oh boy, a return to TBC! That must mean things are going to be like old times!" only to have their hopes quickly dashed. Face it, that style of play is never coming back to WoW (for better or for worse).
The announced features are a bit of a mixed bag, and I'm sure many are wondering if new races/classes/professions are even going to be added. It's still too early to tell, but I'd think if they were certain on adding any of these it would've been in the announcement. Warlords of Draenor seems more about improving what's already in-game, with garrisons being the major new feature.
That said, I don't see anything that makes me want to return yet. Garrisons would've been nice when more of my friends were playing - it's a great idea for current subscribers, though (which is an important demographic to please).
Perhaps the focus isn't to necessarily bring in new or returning players, but to keep the current ones happy. WoW may be past it's peak, but with millions of active accounts it's still very far from dead. At this point, I think the numbers have pretty much stabilized and Blizzard is left with a strong title that continues to be their major source of revenue. From this standpoint, it only makes sense to add engaging content that keeps those players entertained.
The 5.4 Siege of Orgimmar patch was released for World of Warcraft, and players flocked to the opportunity to give ol' Garrosh what for. Here's the cinematics for both Alliance and Horde victories. You'll notice they are similar, but contain important differences.
The new warchief ended up pretty much as expected and as many people were hoping for. As much as I like Thrall, I think it's best that he's not the Horde leader again. He's grown very powerful over the years, and is basically a living legend in the game now.
So, where does WoW go from here? If rumors end up true (and they're looking good so far), the next expansion will likely be named "The Dark Below", which is possibly a reference to the kraken that takes away Neptulon (and is in league with the Old God N'Zoth). It's probable that the expansion will revolve around the plots of the Old Gods, especially since Garrosh was using some of their power.
Speaking of power, I understand that Garrosh can drop BoA weapons that scale from player levels 90-100. Not only is BoA gear (especially for future levels of play) a new thing for raid bosses to drop, but it also hints that level 100 is on the horizon for players. Either your weapon will still be "good" for two 5-level expansions (including through all the raid content - not likely), or one 10-level expansion (up to the end-game raids - which is much more likely).
This hints greatly at a large expansion coming, possibly large enough to include both Old Gods' schemes as well as the return of the Burning Legion (another vastly rumored expansion theme, with grounds for plausibility in-game in several ways). If this ends up the case, the lore will be great. I can only hope the gameplay becomes challenging again...
