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New Releases for The Week of Foil Cards and Vampire Sneakers

New Releases for The Week of Foil Cards and Vampire Sneakers

CB CB Droege 26 Jun, 2013 at 1:53pm ET Article published in Gaming

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 manages to completely miss the point of being a Duel of the Planeswalkers game. A new Duels of the Planeswalkers game has been released every year for the last few years, and the point is this: Play some Magic the Gathering without having to worry about the parts of the IRL game that make it tough to play casually; specifically: buying booster packs and assembling decks. Don’t get me wrong—that activity is at the core of Magic the Gathering, and the real game just wouldn’t be the same without it—but it makes it so that folks with more money to buy cards and time to research and build decks are more likely to win, making the game a poor one for occasional players. Thus the beauty of Duels of the Planeswalkers: players would play this version of Magic with pre-constructed decks only. One could earn a sideboard for each deck, and switch it up a little, but, for the most part, the whole point was that everyone is on a roughly level playing field with these premades.

So, what is the big new feature Wizards of the Coast has added to Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014? The ability to buy booster packs and build decks from them. Not sure why I thought this franchise would somehow stick to its original premise. I feel a bit dumb that this managed to surprise me.

The first stealth-based FPS I’ve seen in years that made me say, “I don’t think I’m even going to give that one a shot” is DARK. In this game you play as Ezio, except it’s the future and you’re a vampire. Mesmerise some people and eat them to regain health! Leap from the shadows and fail to be seen in a mirror! Teleport around, cast spells, and do a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t really suit the gameplay genre! Yawn and try to cash in on the current vampire craze! I don’t think that there is much crossover between the audiences for stealth games and fans of Twilight, but at least it’s not another World War II game.

Following is a full list of this week’s announced North American releases:

Windows

  • Company of Heroes 2
  • DARK
  • Deadpool
  • Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within
  • Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014
  • Ride to Hell: Retribution

WiiU

  • Game & Wario

3DS

  • LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval’s Journey
  • Xbox 360
  • Deadpool
  • Kinect Sports Gems: Boxing Fight
  • Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014
  • Ride to Hell: Retribution
  • Spartacus Legends
  • The History Channel: Great Battles – Medieval

PS3

  • Deadpool
  • Pool Nation
  • Ride to Hell: Retribution
  • Spartacus Legends

Vita

  • LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval’s Journey

 

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Comments

  1. BHHammy
    5 Jul 2013 ~ 8:56am BHHammy @CB - Did a bit of research on the DOTP2014, and the assertion about the cards isn't entirely accurate. The only Booster Packs you mess with are in Sealed Deck mode.

    Sealed Deck matches are when you're given a certain number of booster packs, and you are meant to immediately build a deck on the spot with the cards you unpackage. It's customizable in the vein that you're restricted only to those cards you've drawn to work with, but within those cards, you're free to build your deck how you please.

    That's it's own separate game mode, however. In the entire rest of the game itself, the way the deckbuilding goes is entirely unchanged from its base formula in the previous games - pre-set decks that you fight matches for and unlock select cards for.

    On a personal note though- hearing that they added Slivers to the game finally is a bit disheartening. Yeah, totally looking forward to two out of every three matches being against a damn Sliver deck. Urgh.
  2. CB
    5 Jul 2013 ~ 2:06pm CB That's good to know. Interesting that the promo stuff doesn't make that more clear; I was fully prepared to never even try the game because of the booster packs thing.
  3. midga
    5 Jul 2013 ~ 3:31pm midga Weren't slivers a thing like fifteen years ago or something? I thought the game had moved on to new horrible ideas...
  4. BHHammy
    5 Jul 2013 ~ 7:23pm BHHammy @midga - Seriously. When I was still in high school, at least 3/5ths of the folks that played were either maining a Sliver deck, or had one on backup. It's a good part of the reason I didn't stay in magic that long when I picked it up. And my friends would insist time and time again that Magic had more variety and I just dropped it.
  5. midga
    7 Jul 2013 ~ 6:30pm midga @BHHammy My group all thought they ruined the game, so we didn't play with them.

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