After my second time playing M:TG with my deck I've come a second conclusion - I still suck. I played 2 games with a co-worker today (same Shards of Alara red deck). He played with a scratch-built deck he threw together from leftover cards.
After one game where I was quite easily trampled... my opponent was convinced I had way too many Lands in my deck. However, I counted everything out and the 2:1 Creature-to-Lands ratio was indeed respected. Again I had fallen victim to bad suffling and had drawn too many Lands in my first game. And this was AFTER a mulligan off the draw.
In my second game, things turned out somewhat better. In fact, it was almost perfect on the draws. I started with a series of smaller creatures. Played several cards that allowed cheap-shots at the opponent (deal a damage by tapping a card). I even had several 1/1 tokens in play before busting out a Devour creature that resulted in 8/8 stats. And of course, by sacrificing all those smaller creatures, Hissing Iguana also dealt a bunch of damage for the turn.
Unfortunately, that was where my luck ended. My oppoenent (playing a white/blue deck) used Chump blocks and preventative magics to cut down on my combat effectiveness. It was only a matter of time before he attacked en masse, chipping away at my life counter down to zero.
This is where my biggest problem with gaming factors in: I find for gaming, I generally have a lot of bad luck. Either bad draws and shuffles in CCGs. Or just bad dice-rolls in table-top war-gaming. Hmm... just need to play the odds and continue until I win a few matches.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Reaction: Vitasoy Red Bean
The human senses have psychological expectations due to our previous experiences. And when those expectations are fooled, we tend to react in two ways: shock... and maybe disgust.
I don't know what I was thinking when I purchased a 6-pack of Red Bean soy bean drink. I've been a huge fan of Vitasoy ever since I was little. It's a fine-filtered soy-milk - more filtered that western soy milk so it doesn't have that "grit" texture. It is, indeed, much like drinking normal cow's milk.
So that's the first built-in expectation... a Vitasoy product should taste... well, relatively bland and just a hint of sweetness.
I also know that Red Bean is supposed to be sweet and have a certain pasty texture (because... well, the Chinese name for red-bean dessert translates literally as "red bean sand."). So the sensation of tasting such a taste but in fluid form is a little strange.
But finally, there is an ultimately disturbing shock to the system: The packaging for Red Bean soy Bean Drink is a cheerful red and pink on white motif. And western life has taught me many things: one of which is that anything in red should taste sour-sweet like strawberries. This is doubly true if it is a milk-product - a milk-like product packaged in red should be a strawberry shake!
The end result, I will allow my brother's knee-jerk reaction to speak in concise summary: "Gah! Disgusting!" (he later thought it tasted alright once he got over the initial shock).
All at once, one's expectations of a red-white boxed drink with a milk-like content is suddenly confronted with such an incongruous taste. It's just too weird for words. There is nothing else on the face of this planet that can describe the feeling. It would be like biting in a piece of fried chicken and finding out it tastes like chocolate... and had the consistency of cheese.
But for the taste itself... Red Bean Soy Bean Drink actually does taste like Red Bean. This is probably because there really is authentic red bean powder in the mixture. But the presentation of the product is just so unusual that it's still unnerving even after I've finished off the 6-pack.
I don't know what I was thinking when I purchased a 6-pack of Red Bean soy bean drink. I've been a huge fan of Vitasoy ever since I was little. It's a fine-filtered soy-milk - more filtered that western soy milk so it doesn't have that "grit" texture. It is, indeed, much like drinking normal cow's milk.So that's the first built-in expectation... a Vitasoy product should taste... well, relatively bland and just a hint of sweetness.
I also know that Red Bean is supposed to be sweet and have a certain pasty texture (because... well, the Chinese name for red-bean dessert translates literally as "red bean sand."). So the sensation of tasting such a taste but in fluid form is a little strange.
But finally, there is an ultimately disturbing shock to the system: The packaging for Red Bean soy Bean Drink is a cheerful red and pink on white motif. And western life has taught me many things: one of which is that anything in red should taste sour-sweet like strawberries. This is doubly true if it is a milk-product - a milk-like product packaged in red should be a strawberry shake!
The end result, I will allow my brother's knee-jerk reaction to speak in concise summary: "Gah! Disgusting!" (he later thought it tasted alright once he got over the initial shock).
All at once, one's expectations of a red-white boxed drink with a milk-like content is suddenly confronted with such an incongruous taste. It's just too weird for words. There is nothing else on the face of this planet that can describe the feeling. It would be like biting in a piece of fried chicken and finding out it tastes like chocolate... and had the consistency of cheese.
But for the taste itself... Red Bean Soy Bean Drink actually does taste like Red Bean. This is probably because there really is authentic red bean powder in the mixture. But the presentation of the product is just so unusual that it's still unnerving even after I've finished off the 6-pack.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Confessions of a Magic n00b 1.5
Labels:
gaming,
Magic: The Gathering
So after reflecting a bit on my first Magic: The Gathering experience, here are my observations about both the game, and my gut reactions.
I can see how it's so popular: it's base mechanics are simple. In fact, the reason why it seemed daunting to begin with is just that Wizards of the Coast just kept growing the darn thing with new keywords, card types, new rules and banning unbalanced cards. In fact, one could say WotC was a victim of its success. They just keep churning out cards with reckless abandon. Which means... well not every card is going to be particularly user-friendly. That is, more than one card in my collection is "up for debate" when it hits the table... heated arguments ensue...
Next up... I picked a horrible jumping-on point. Shards of Alara is not particularly newbie-friendly. The intro-packs come in 3-colour decks. That's 3 colours of Mana to keep track of - plus the "colourless" variety from certain special Lands. Maybe I should have looked for a Core set after all.
Anyway, I wonder if seasoned vets get this: in both games I squeezed into my lunch break today, I felt as though I wasn't drawing good cards. The first game I was dreadfully short on Lands for Mana. But I had plenty of good Creatures I couldn't play. Second game was the opposite with plenty of Mana to play every turn but nothing particularly good to play to the table. In all my experience with CCGs, this is a common thing that frequently happens to me despite my attempts at smart deck-building. How do other players test their decks just once and then start tweaking it again? I sure can't - the odds are simply against playing a great game the first time!
Anyway, can't wait to try it again soon.
I can see how it's so popular: it's base mechanics are simple. In fact, the reason why it seemed daunting to begin with is just that Wizards of the Coast just kept growing the darn thing with new keywords, card types, new rules and banning unbalanced cards. In fact, one could say WotC was a victim of its success. They just keep churning out cards with reckless abandon. Which means... well not every card is going to be particularly user-friendly. That is, more than one card in my collection is "up for debate" when it hits the table... heated arguments ensue...
Next up... I picked a horrible jumping-on point. Shards of Alara is not particularly newbie-friendly. The intro-packs come in 3-colour decks. That's 3 colours of Mana to keep track of - plus the "colourless" variety from certain special Lands. Maybe I should have looked for a Core set after all.
Anyway, I wonder if seasoned vets get this: in both games I squeezed into my lunch break today, I felt as though I wasn't drawing good cards. The first game I was dreadfully short on Lands for Mana. But I had plenty of good Creatures I couldn't play. Second game was the opposite with plenty of Mana to play every turn but nothing particularly good to play to the table. In all my experience with CCGs, this is a common thing that frequently happens to me despite my attempts at smart deck-building. How do other players test their decks just once and then start tweaking it again? I sure can't - the odds are simply against playing a great game the first time!
Anyway, can't wait to try it again soon.
Confessions of a Magic n00b 1
Labels:
gaming,
Magic: The Gathering
I don't know what triggered this. Recently Weirdguy and I decided we wanted to play Magic: The Gathering. He's old hand while I'm novice (but have experience with other CCG).
I hit the official web site to check what the most current set was available. Reasoning that I wasn't going to invest in the Core set that is probably on its way out, I picked up an Intro Pack for the current expansion "Shards of Alara" (I chose Red Mana ...because I happen to like that colour). Weirdguy chose White Mana. As is my trademark, I went nuts spending much more than is necessary (meaning, for the same number of cards, I managed to spend twice as much than Weirdguy)...
The Intro pack is like a traditional "Starter Deck." However, unlike a semi-random starter, the Intro Pack has pre-selected cards. But the fixed cards only make up a majority of the deck. The set comes with a fully random booster pack. The set contains a rules and strategy sheets specific to this series. Last but not least, the pack includes a single premium foil card for those of us who like collectibility.
Also in my shopping basket: a metal tin to store my new cards, a life-counter to keep track of our stats when we play, and protective sleeves (the premium sort with artwork on one side)... And of course, just for the variety, two more boosters to try my luck.
I sorted the additional cards into 2 piles: a trading pile (cards with Mana requirements that do not fit my deck) and a pile of keepers that will serve as a side-board. Then... so armed, I was ready to challenge Weirdguy on during our next lunch break.
Stay tuned for my thoughts after my first attempt at playing...
I hit the official web site to check what the most current set was available. Reasoning that I wasn't going to invest in the Core set that is probably on its way out, I picked up an Intro Pack for the current expansion "Shards of Alara" (I chose Red Mana ...because I happen to like that colour). Weirdguy chose White Mana. As is my trademark, I went nuts spending much more than is necessary (meaning, for the same number of cards, I managed to spend twice as much than Weirdguy)...The Intro pack is like a traditional "Starter Deck." However, unlike a semi-random starter, the Intro Pack has pre-selected cards. But the fixed cards only make up a majority of the deck. The set comes with a fully random booster pack. The set contains a rules and strategy sheets specific to this series. Last but not least, the pack includes a single premium foil card for those of us who like collectibility.
Also in my shopping basket: a metal tin to store my new cards, a life-counter to keep track of our stats when we play, and protective sleeves (the premium sort with artwork on one side)... And of course, just for the variety, two more boosters to try my luck.
I sorted the additional cards into 2 piles: a trading pile (cards with Mana requirements that do not fit my deck) and a pile of keepers that will serve as a side-board. Then... so armed, I was ready to challenge Weirdguy on during our next lunch break.
Stay tuned for my thoughts after my first attempt at playing...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Reaction: Dawn of War 2 beta
Relic rewarded their faithful (well, those of us who decided to buy their rather shitty final expansion to the 2004 hit Dawn of War) with early access to Dawn of War 2 as a closed beta (it becomes an open beta next week for the general public. You need to activate your Soulstorm CD-key on Steam to download the new beta.
Funny thing: Steam apparently does not differentiate between disc-based versions and Steam-based versions of Soulstorm because once I "activated" it, it added Soulstorm to my Uninstalled list (because I had not downloaded it through Steam).
First thing's first... the beta seems stuck at it's default resolution. I tried to up it to my laptop's 1440x900 resolution, but all that did was shrink the image a-la-old-school-DOS-mode game.
Secondly, I was a little surprised to find the beta to be multiplayer-only. That is, it forced me to activate a Windows Live account. Don't let the names fool you: it's an Xbox Live account. It's free. But you will get a "gamertag" if you don't already have Xbox Live. Sign in with your usual Windows Live email though - just like you would with Live Messenger.
In the Multiplayer menu, you have a choice to auto-match (which didn't seem to work for me) or manually join a game (or host one) as usual. There are slim pickings at the moment as the demo only has a few maps to choose from. And games are 1-on-1 or Team-Matches.
Once in the game I was quickly lost. In my limited exposure, I did recognize a few Company of Heroes elements (you don't reinforce your squads anymore). But since I didn't play CoH, that limited knowledge didn't help much. There's also no emphasis on building up a base... and I couldn't find a builder-unit. Instead, either you capture a victory point or you don't. You can also capture a power point and build that up (by clicking an Activate icon in that point's menu). But other than that, I didn't see how I could increase my requisition rate. So for one of the pitched battles, I just kept using up my requisition to constantly revive my Force Commander.
It'll take a few more rounds to get the hang of this. The disappointing thing is simply that I feel like a fish out of water. But this is a beta, not a demo. I remember the first DoW demo back in 2003 left such an impression on me (it was actually a full tutorial plus a demo level against an AI) that I couldn't wait to play the full game. This time around, I feel as though I can afford to wait because I'm not sure what it is I'm getting myself into. If not a tutorial, then I wish there were a single-player mode I could use to poke around the menu system and gameplay mechanics before being a total n00b with strangers online.
On a related note, here's a status update on my Warhammer 40k army:
As you can see, I did indeed finish that Terminus pattern Land Raider after all. And the Drop-Pod is finished and painted. Still need to finish paint detail on several of troops (you can see on the far right of the photo that the Terminator team is simply spray-painted white for now).
Funny thing: Steam apparently does not differentiate between disc-based versions and Steam-based versions of Soulstorm because once I "activated" it, it added Soulstorm to my Uninstalled list (because I had not downloaded it through Steam).
First thing's first... the beta seems stuck at it's default resolution. I tried to up it to my laptop's 1440x900 resolution, but all that did was shrink the image a-la-old-school-DOS-mode game.
Secondly, I was a little surprised to find the beta to be multiplayer-only. That is, it forced me to activate a Windows Live account. Don't let the names fool you: it's an Xbox Live account. It's free. But you will get a "gamertag" if you don't already have Xbox Live. Sign in with your usual Windows Live email though - just like you would with Live Messenger.
In the Multiplayer menu, you have a choice to auto-match (which didn't seem to work for me) or manually join a game (or host one) as usual. There are slim pickings at the moment as the demo only has a few maps to choose from. And games are 1-on-1 or Team-Matches.
Once in the game I was quickly lost. In my limited exposure, I did recognize a few Company of Heroes elements (you don't reinforce your squads anymore). But since I didn't play CoH, that limited knowledge didn't help much. There's also no emphasis on building up a base... and I couldn't find a builder-unit. Instead, either you capture a victory point or you don't. You can also capture a power point and build that up (by clicking an Activate icon in that point's menu). But other than that, I didn't see how I could increase my requisition rate. So for one of the pitched battles, I just kept using up my requisition to constantly revive my Force Commander.
It'll take a few more rounds to get the hang of this. The disappointing thing is simply that I feel like a fish out of water. But this is a beta, not a demo. I remember the first DoW demo back in 2003 left such an impression on me (it was actually a full tutorial plus a demo level against an AI) that I couldn't wait to play the full game. This time around, I feel as though I can afford to wait because I'm not sure what it is I'm getting myself into. If not a tutorial, then I wish there were a single-player mode I could use to poke around the menu system and gameplay mechanics before being a total n00b with strangers online.
On a related note, here's a status update on my Warhammer 40k army:
As you can see, I did indeed finish that Terminus pattern Land Raider after all. And the Drop-Pod is finished and painted. Still need to finish paint detail on several of troops (you can see on the far right of the photo that the Terminator team is simply spray-painted white for now).
Friday, January 16, 2009
List of stuff to watch
Labels:
watching
I watched the Quebec drama C.R.A.Z.Y. over the weekend; it was a disc
loaned to me over 5 months ago.
loaned to me over 5 months ago.
Not counting the backlog of video files on my harddrives, this is a list
of stuff that is in my backlog and/or currently being watched every
evening when I'm at home.
Slapshot (loaned to me at least 2 months ago)
Robot Chicken Season 3 (loaned to me this week)
Constantine (rented, copied ...then set aside)
Disgaea Vol.2 (same as above)
You're Under Arrest Mini-Specials (see above)
Macross Vol.6 and 7 (bought months ago and still shrink-wrapped).
Gurren Lagaan Vol.2 (started this then set aside).
Stargate SG-1 Season 4 (I'm on the 2nd disc).
Stargate Atlantis Season 2 (I'm on the 4th disc).
Stargate is kind of a funny thing for me - it's sort of like when I
collected all of Babylon 5 all in rapid-fire succession after getting
hooked on the reruns on cable. In this case, I've been attempting to
watch everything in order (except of course, Atlantis doesn't take place
until late into SG-1's continuity). And I've also watched the movies as
they came out on BD. I watched Ark of Truth last night - essentially a
series-finale several seasons and whole story-arcs ahead of my schedule.
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