Free-to-Play: What's good?

[chronovore]

Hex is legit, I King Tiered

Which Hex game, specifically?

[magus]

Hex is legit, I King Tiered

Which Hex game, specifically?

this hex game

http://hextcg.com/

it's basicaly MTG but it comes with dungeons,raid and characters who level up (which gives you passive or active power like warriors get free extra burns for example,one of the champions is a humanoid mushroom with the ability to call 5 mushroom brothers who all sports different style of mustache's) dungeons come with loot that power up your cards,some of them power up your cards in super OP manners,for example there is one card that gives you 1 mana for every creature you have and a piece of equipment that gives it an over-run sort of like effect... there is another card that has a random chance to kill every creature on the field but there is a piece of equipment that makes it work so that it effects CARDS IN THE DECK! there is another card that improves your unit and spell when played... but a piece of equipment makes it so that it works even before you draw it and so on

i want to play this so bad :'(

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Translated:

HEX is a deck-building focused TCG with a strong emphasis on digital-only card effects and regular-expression style deck manipulation. (i.e. cards that create cards in your deck, cards that modify other cards, cards that evolve). It supports PVE (dungeons/raids), PVP, and multiple tournament formats.

It's from very smart ex-Blizzard, current WoW TCG folks who have given a lot of time, thought, and money into putting this together even pre-Kickstarter.

It's a GREAT Kickstarter campaign with excellent rewards that kickstart the community.

24 hours left to donate.

[etiolate]

Patched and logged into Rift since previous players get early access to the F2P. The shop isn't up yet and I am curious to see how many points I get for having subbed before.

Right now, I have no restrictions. I have access to the expansion content and the new souls from the expansion.

As for the game itself, it plays a lot like WoW but with more talent trees and features that WoW doesn't have. I would like to try out Dimensions, but I haven't run across them yet. I am just now entering into the new expansion area after doing the starter quests for that.  Feels really weird after GW2. A screen full of actionbars.

[chronovore]

Spartacus: Legends - a free-to-play fighter (with loot drops) on XBLA is out.

I played just a little. Fighting the AI is kind of fun, and there is an attempt to differentiate itself from other fighters, though I'm not sure yet how deep it is. I was excited until I took it online, at which point the net code proved to be unplayably laggy.

Online, I had one queued fight, which was evenly matched; the next was a Quick Match, which apparently doesn't take level-balance into consideration-- my gladiator was slaughtered outright by a vastly higher-level player. So it requires silver coins to revive him. Gold coins appear to be the not-free currency, though I may have gained a couple of those by leveling up or something.

It's from Kung Fu Factory, you all remember them; they're the ones who made Supremacy MMA and Hello Kitty Seasons.

[The Sceneman]

How homoerotic is it?

[chronovore]

Not nearly enough, to be honest. There are tremendous opportunities, not just as a Spartacus game, but from a former MMA developer to boot, there should be so many homoerotic moments, it could make Cho-Aniki look like DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball.

[The Sceneman]

All I ask for, is a game with sweaty greek warriors wrestling with each other, with realistic testicle physics underneath their battle loincloths. Is this too much to ask for?

[chronovore]

Oh, it has the man-meat and skimpy loincloths. Not sure about separate bones for the bone.

[thisismyusername]

Hex is legit, I King Tiered

Isn't it also created by one of the Magic: the Gathering planners?

I kinda want to play whatever card-game that one is by simply because of the pedigree and to see his ideas so I can twitter bitch them at Wizards to copy kinda in their online client. :/

[Human Snorenado]

Hex is legit, I King Tiered

Isn't it also created by one of the Magic: the Gathering planners?

I kinda want to play whatever card-game that one is by simply because of the pedigree and to see his ideas so I can twitter bitch them at Wizards to copy kinda in their online client. :/

As far as I know, Hex is just Cryptozoic (WoW tcg dudes) and not any MtG r&d vets.  I could be wrong. 

As someone who makes their living off of mtgo cards and has experienced the shittiness of the new beta client, I can tell you that you're wasting your breath

[thisismyusername]

I know there's one that's being created by one of the R&D dudes to be completely computer based. And I kinda want to point that to Wizards as a "see, an Un- set based in online could work if you did it."

How are you making a living off MtGO though? Running a bot that takes event tickets and then take those event tickets toward Mythic Rares and then repeat the process or something?

[Human Snorenado]

I know there's one that's being created by one of the R&D dudes to be completely computer based. And I kinda want to point that to Wizards as a "see, an Un- set based in online could work if you did it."

How are you making a living off MtGO though? Running a bot that takes event tickets and then take those event tickets toward Mythic Rares and then repeat the process or something?

I work for the largest 3rd party singles reseller.

And this is probably the game you're thinking of, as it is completely online only.  Un sets tho    Except for the lands

[thisismyusername]

Hey, Un-sets are fun even if impractical in normal play. I'd kill for an online only version for casual playing when I want to play Magic but don't want to think. 

[Stoney Mason]

Firefall is now in open beta.

[chronovore]

I thought I'd have upgraded by now, but no.

This also means their Founders program has closed, I take it?

[etiolate]

What is your machine like chrono?

[chronovore]

It's a doo-doo Gateway mini-tower. Integrated graphics and minimal RAM. It wouldn't take much to improve it; I just need to drag it over to the local PC shop, since I can't stand monkeying around inside them these days.

[Stoney Mason]

This also means their Founders program has closed, I take it?

Yep

[Stoney Mason]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/WSOP-Full-House-Pro/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584112b9

Free to Play poker game on xbox live. World Series of Poker Full House Pro.


It's basically a free to play reskinned version of Full House Poker. Plays extremely similar to that game although the frame rate seems to be worse for some reason. It's fun enough for a free poker game. I played for like an hour tonight. Hopefully they add something like Texas Heat where they can do big style tournaments. That was fun in that game.

[CajoleJuice]

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/WSOP-Full-House-Pro/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584112b9

Free to Play poker game on xbox live. World Series of Poker Full House Pro.


It's basically a free to play reskinned version of Full House Poker. Plays extremely similar to that game although the frame rate seems to be worse for some reason. It's fun enough for a free poker game. I played for like an hour tonight. Hopefully they add something like Texas Heat where they can do big style tournaments. That was fun in that game.

sweet, gonna check this out

edit: played a tourney to start out with. got 2nd. yea boi

[Stoney Mason]

Hawken gets an update. At some point I should really try this game.


edit. Apparently this will be a week later.

Greetings pilots!

We have an update regarding the deployment of HAWKEN: Ascension that was originally scheduled for September 5.

We've recently discovered some brand new issues that are preventing the patch from meeting our quality standards. In light of this, we have decided to adjust our target release date of HAWKEN: Ascension to Tuesday, September 10. This will allow us to fix these problems and perform more stress testing.

[Stoney Mason]

That Hawken update finally came out today.

[chronovore]

That game looks pretty great. Is that the one where they only have a very few devs, and mainly just worked to their strengths and collective experience?

[Stoney Mason]

This is now up on Steam and PS 3 I assume.

I have no idea if its shit or not.

[Stoney Mason]

Been dabbling a little in Solforge. Free to play card game now on Steam and IOS.

I like it. It's not initially overly complex which is generally a turn off to me in these kind of games but it has a good deal of depth in the deck building and how early you can play your good cards as they level up when they die. I'm not a card game nerd so I can't really speak to the finer aspects of the genre but I've enjoyed what I've played so far. Game currently doesn't have a ranked matchmaking system so adding that in would do wonders. Doesn't have the bells and whistles of a bigger budget card games but I enjoy it when I play.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/232450/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/solforge/id582493858?mt=8

[magus]

ehy stoney
try card hunter
www.cardhunter.com

[Stoney Mason]

I'll give it a try.

[Stoney Mason]

ehy stoney
try card hunter
www.cardhunter.com

Played for some this morning. This seems legit fun. It's a very simple tactical RPG but the card mechanic bit and loot aspect is clever and makes it feel fresh. I guess there is a multiplayer component to it but honestly it seems more appealing as a single player campaign game. It also has an aesthetic old D&D feel which is mainly just there for the vibe but its nice. I will definitely beat the campaign.

[magus]

i've already finished all adventure that are level 7 or less,the AI for opponent wizard is so freaking annoying!

[Stoney Mason]

My only issue is I wish the game was on ipad. I would prefer to play it in bed/couch versus sitting at a computer.

[magus]

done with level 8 adventure's,the last one features a fight against a wizard (who's actualy a "wishful thinking" version of the DM complete with maidens at his knee) with a huge hp pool and an annoying wide range of spell but he has a trait where he fucks up if he's near someone so the whole strategy boils down to hide from his view and then bum rush him everytime he draws that trait card

what i'm saying is that this is really good and i'm ashamed that the only one who wanted to give it a chance was stoney

[archie4208]

I'm playing it too.   

It's pretty good.

[chronovore]

I'm going to give it a chance, too.

[chronovore]

Age of Empires Online to close forever:
http://www.trueachievements.com/n14728/age-of-empires-online-shutdown-confirmed-detailed.htm

Sadly, I only got into this earlier this year, and was about to buy the Celts civilization for the 'cheevos, now that it will run on my slightly-improved PC. However, the DLC purchase functions have been turned off.  :'(

[magus]

still playing card hunter and got up to level 13 adventures,i think i'm starting to get to the point where your character start getting gold power token which opens a lot more choice's (i've been dumping all my power orb into weapons anyway... deck full of chop's and mighty hack = pure bliss)

[chronovore]

Opened a new thread for Ascend: Hand of Kul, from Toy Soldiers developer, Signal:
http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=40879.0

[Stoney Mason]

Played a bit of Ghost Recon online. It was pretty fun. Played with my nephew. It's a near future slower tactical based 3rd person cover shooter with three classes. Each class has two special abilties, one you have to activate and the other passive. The maps tend to be small and full of chokepoints but it suits the cover based nature of the game. The game does have a tiered weapon system which is somewhat pay to win. You can earn and gets drops on some of the better weapons but its not the best way to handle that stuff in my opinion because the high tier guns seem absolutely better than the lower tier guns. I haven't played enough to really see if the matchmaking does a good job of slotting you against people of your own skill level and weapon tier level. I do like how teambased it is however.

[archie4208]

I started playing Warframe again.

It's pretty grindy and tedious, but it's downright relaxing after losing 5 in a row in Dota.   :'(

[magus]

the alpha for hex starts tomorrow,creepy,bork,you know what to do

[bork]

the alpha for hex starts tomorrow,creepy,bork,you know what to do

 

[magus]

the alpha for hex starts tomorrow,creepy,bork,you know what to do

 

didn't you back it? i remember you said you did,i want impressions!

[bork]

the alpha for hex starts tomorrow,creepy,bork,you know what to do

 

didn't you back it? i remember you said you did,i want impressions!

[magus]

looking at the page back seems i got confused and i was actualy thinking of howard

whoops?

[Stoney Mason]

Tried Warface as its f2p now in North America. Browser game.

The versus multiplayer is shit. You'd have to be a maniac to put any time into it.

The other side of it is a very average co-op mission thing where you can go on up to 5 player missions killing things. It's average. If you were playing the mission by yourself they would be utterly terrible but co-op makes anything almost tolerable.

Avoid the game in general not that I think anybody was hot to play it.

[Rufus]

Tried Warface as its f2p now in North America. Browser game.

[Sho Nuff]

Tried Warface. Ugh.

[chronovore]

Crap, that's a friend's game. I'm sad to hear it's not great. My rig will choke on anything newer than 3 years old though, so it wasn't going to be on my list anyway.  :'(

[chronovore]

Harmonix has mad a rhythm-based runner. It's not bad.

[The Sceneman]

I have an massive erection for Pocket Trains currently, but I am a Nimblebit fan

[a slime appears]

Sadly, it's not very good, either.  Tons of better runners, even for free.

Yeah, I played it yesterday and I have to agree. It's super bare-bones and sometimes a bit hard too read at the higher difficulties with everyone swaying and bouncing around.

[Stoney Mason]

Nosgoth. Haven't actually tried it yet but will probably this week when I get some free time.

[Stoney Mason]

My first game of Nosgoth. Game seems pretty damn fun. I had no clue what I was doing (and I had time telling my teammates apart from the enemy so I shot my team a shitload. Fortunately no friendly fire) and was not exactly sure what some of my keybinds were since I'm left handed but still had fun. I think I just like asymmetrical shooters alot. Not sure how much depth the game has nor how good or bad the free 2 play model is but I'll definitely put some more time into as it seemed like a blast.

[Stoney Mason]

Played some more so I can speak slightly more intelligently towards the game.

So its Human versus Vampires. Each side currently has 4 classes although something like this is very much like Team Fortress in that lots of other classes will probably be added down the road. The human have guns and are essentially distance characters. The vampires are up close character lacking guns but having abilities.

The pros:
Game requires teamwork. You have to group up together on both sides and co-ordinate your attacks to a degree. This is not a game where you can rambo it and take on 2 or 3 enemies. You will get killed. And gameplay encourages teamwork organically in this manner rather than necessarily having you give health or ammo like in a battlefield game or something.

Classes seem decently balanced. Having a mix of classes is actually really useful. Some guys are better at crowd control tactics. Some games are better in one on one situations. I like playing the different classes and they actually seem useful.

Game is just fun. This is an opinion thing but viscerally the game is really fun. Especially if the game is close. You just kinda feel like a bad ass when you play and get kills and the teams are unique enough so that playing the vampires versus playing the humans is a completely different experience.

The cons:
Matchmaking is currently shit. It takes a long time and often the teams aren't balanced skill wise. They say they are working on both but this seems like a staple thing that needs to get fixed sooner rather than later.

The main mode seems to be TDM. There is another mode called siege but I can't play it yet until I reach level 10. They are probably trying to keep everybody in the same population pool so matchmaking works better but this a game that begs for some more objective style game modes.

Matches were a bit laggy. Definitely noticeable.


The economy system basically works like this. You initially get 2 of the 4 classes on each side. Every 5th level you get an unlock token to unlock the other classes you don't have. Each game you also earn currency. This currency you can use to buy perks/weapons/skins/etc.

The prices are decently high so it will take you a good while to grind out all the stuff although it seems possible over a very very long stretch. You can just buy access for 10 or 15 dollars and get a good initial selection of the stuff. Not ideal but pretty standard model for this sort of game.

[fizzel]

i played their free weekend, it's a fun game indeed.

[chronovore]

That's a great write-up; thanks, Stoney!

How much of a brute rig is required to run the game? It doesn't look inherently fancy...

[Stoney Mason]

That's a great write-up; thanks, Stoney!

How much of a brute rig is required to run the game? It doesn't look inherently fancy...

Middling I would say. Maybe typical for an unreal engine game. This game should have probably went with the cartoony style like in games like Loadout and TF2 so they could maximize performance on lower end machines. Instead it goes for a realistic approach and while it looks nice enough there are occasionally hitches although I didn't fool around with the video settings very much.

[Stoney Mason]

I'm kinda addicted to Warframe at the moment. 

The Loot Grind is addictive in a way that I haven't found other loot grind games to be in a while. I can't quite figure out why yet. It helps of course that its free.

The game is also improved from back when I last played it last year on the PC. I like that the devs seem committed to it.

[chronovore]

I don't recall anyone else here has been into Ascend: Hand of Kul, but I just happened to go back to it recently. The game's pic is not showing up in my Dashboard, nor does Game Info show any wallpaper or anything. When I looked at TrueAchievements.com's listing for the game, it reads:

Online services for Ascend: Hand of Kul are scheduled for closure on 18 November 2014.
This game has 30 Partly Discontinued/Unobtainable achievements
This Game has been removed from the Xbox LIVE Store

 :'(

The game has only been out for a year, so it will have had about 14 months when it is shut down. I feel sad for the guys at Signal Studio, but the game... really isn't anywhere near as good as Toy Soldiers.

Anyway, if you're into the game and still want to mop up Achievements, you'd better get on it!

[fizzel]

I'm kinda addicted to Warframe at the moment. 

The Loot Grind is addictive in a way that I haven't found other loot grind games to be in a while. I can't quite figure out why yet. It helps of course that its free.

The game is also improved from back when I last played it last year on the PC. I like that the devs seem committed to it.

They're one of the best dev teams i've ever seen. They run a bi weekly livestream where they often show concept footage and are shockingly open when it comes to the Q&A sessions.

Compare that to a shithole company like blizzard where it's like getting blood from a stone.