Gaming

Commentary and reviews on games and gaming of all types.

A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

COMMENT: Upper Deck’s X-Men Blunder

The latest expansion for the Upper Deck Vs. TCG, X-Men, has been out for about a week now. I've been on the fence about putting any money down for it since day one, mainly due to the fact that I'm not a huge fan of X-Men. I have to admit, though, I could have been persuaded; easily persuaded. When Upper Deck revealed the Mutant Trait addition to the character cards, that really piqued my interest. If it weren't for the Blizzard of 2006, I would have been at the Sneak Preview Tournament a few weeks back, but it wasn't meant…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Vs. CARD OF THE WEEK: Lady Vic (DOR-134)

Take two friends who love comics. Add a superhero-themed collectible card game. Sprinkle a dash of competitiveness, and a lump of testosterone. The result? Weekly matches that turn friends into nemeses.This is not your typical "card of the week" column. Every web site dedicated to CCGs has been there and done that. This column is all about our competition, though. Dan and I usually play two games of Vs. a week, and every Sunday, we'll feature the card that we think most influenced the outcome of the matches we played the preceding week, and the metagaming lessons we learned in…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

On the Shelves: 12/7/05

Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month!It's the home stretch for 2005! My weekly look at select comic books being released tomorrow, 12/7/05. The full shipping is list available at ComicList.[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]AIT/PLANETLAR Demo Collection TPB, $19.95Not to beat a dead horse but... [kick]AMAZE INK (SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS) Vaistron #2, $2.95Andrew Dabb is a very sick man, but the first issue, which I was sure wasn't…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

COMMENT: Cosmic Spider-Man is Broken!

This past March, my sporadic co-blogger Dan did a write-up on the [new at the time] Marvel Knights expansion set to Upper Deck's Vs. System, the trading card game that lets you pit superheroes and supervillians against each other, Magic-style. I'd never played, but owned a few of the random cards that had been distributed with Wizard magazine back when I still bought it, and was mildly intrigued. I swore to resist the temptation, though, remembering it was Dan who, years earlier, had introduced me to Pokémon which sucked my wallet dry for about a year before I finally restricted…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Retro: Forgotten Realms #1-4

As an unashamed, born again player of Dungeons & Dungeons, I was excited by last month's official announcement that Devil's Due was on the verge of "acquir[ing] the license to the entire D&D® library." While I've enjoyed some of the D&D-based novels TSR/Wizards of the Coast has published over the years, too many of them have been bland, formulaic marketing promotions for their latest gaming supplements or campaign setting, and I hadn't picked up a comic book version in...well, ever, actually.My return to D&D two years ago coincided with my return to comic books, and it was at my first…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Politics of Video Games

Trust Omar to find the good stuff. Bloglines is the shiznit!

Not only can I monitor the blogs I read regularly from one place – a la LiveJournal’s Friends list, without the creepy “Friend me” angle – but it lets me monitor other blog-like sites I check regularly, including Wizards’ D&D pages, Craigslist-ings, Snopes.com and my new fave, XBox sites!

Speaking of, this just in:

Def Jam Redefined

Vendetta II gets a new name.

April 30, 2004 – Electronics Arts has announced that their hip-hop battle title Def Jam Vendetta II has been renamed Def Jam: Fight For NY. Featuring more than 40 personalities and artists from the hip-hop world, Def Jam: Fight For NY will include Busta Rhymes, Carmen Electra, Lil’ Kim, Ludacris, Method Man, Redman, Sean Paul, Slick Rick, Snoop Dogg, and many more who are willing to beat the stuffing out of each other.

Great! Wonder if it will include an unlockable NYPD Rap Intelligence Unit to monitor the fighting? Maybe Benjamin Brafman or Murray Richman to defend them in court? Perhaps cut scenes of Tupac being shot up in a lobby, or Jam Master Jay in a recording studio?

I can’t believe this is the same company that publishes my beloved Madden football! Looks like I’ll be switching over to ESPN NFL 2005.

(more…)

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

President Forever 2004

President Forever 2004 is the perfect computer sim for political junkies. I bought the full version last week (only $12, well worth it!) and have run through six campaigns so far with Dubya kicking my ass all but once. He beat Kerry twice, paired up with Edwards and then Gephardt, neither of whom helped carry their home states. He beat Kucinich twice, with Edwards and then Clark, again with neither VP delivering their home states. Kucinich's default setup is oddly to the right of the real deal. Not drastically, but subtly enough to illustrate the annoying nuances of politics that…

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