Was at the Khans of Tarkir PreRelease today.

And it rocked. I played Mardu. I was skeptical before as I usually prefer mono-coloured decks and now here we have three coloured ones! But with my clan-specfific booster I was given some nice multi mana lands and a banner (however, I learned in the later matches, that two can already be one too much in a 40 cards deck). I went with my brother and a friend. We had a good time and I came out 9th of 18 in the end. And we spend a lot of time afterwards trading cards with each other because now I have all the sweet multi-lands I need for my Mardu-deck. Can't wait to try this out soon in full strength! 25 Euro was a lot, but I think it was worth it. Hope you enjoyed the prerelease weekend as much as I did.


http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/2h1wey/was_at_the_khans_of_tarkir_prerelease_today/

Reflecting Darksiders 2 on Zelda and Skyrim

Currently playing Darksiders 2 on 360 and enjoying it, despite its flaws which are both technical and game design-wise. Darksiders 2, much like its predecessor, draws heavily from Zelda games, but probably achieves it much more than the first. This is due to the larger overworld and the dungeons that can be freely traversed. Still it remains an empty overworld. It's too small to be big and too big to be small, but worst of all filled with nothing than some random enemies and a few treasure chests. The dungeons are fun so far, including some puzzles that sometimes even take a few minutes to solve. The last Zelda game I played was Twilight Princess, which I must've played 2006-7. Liked this Zelda a lot and I am happy that Darksiders can so well emulate the Zelda dungeon crawl feeling. However, the first half of this year I played Skyrim and this game puts action-adventure-rpgs on a whole different level. Darksiders and Zelda (even Skyward Sword which I played briefly) are nice and fun games for "inbetween" a patientgamer can look forward to. But compared with Skyrim, which is so massive it can be played hundreds of hours and still delivers a fresh experience, they are rather small, limited, linear and lack depth. Do you think the next Zelda game (and I hope there will be two more Darksiders games for the remaining riders) will adapt in the Skyrim direction? Would you even welcome that?

 http://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/2gwgab/reflecting_darksiders_2_on_zelda_and_skyrim/

I just can't motivate myself to watch the movie adapations of books I read.

The imagery in my head, the power of imagination will always be superior to the movie adaptations. For example I read Stephen King's Desperation recently, but can't force myself to watch the movie. Same with Dune. I feel like the simplifications of litetary material turned into movies just can't keep up with the complexity of books.

 http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2gox5b/i_just_cant_motivate_myself_to_watch_the_movie/

Life after Dead Space 3

EDIT: Thanks for your feedback, r/patientgamers. I analyzed your recommendations below and worked them into the list. I now started to play Darksiders II and tried Alan Wake: AN and FC3: BloodDragon as some of you advised I'd be easier to first play something short. Your recommendations were profound and I will consider them when playing through the back log! Yet I wonder how games like NiNoKuni could get such little love and MGS4 not even one. Didn't they stood the test of time? I'll put my feedback into the subreddit once I'm finished with them. ;)

Finished Dead Space 3 today (found it to be good overall, just not as great as 1 and 2) and wondering which game of my backlog to play next. Help me out, your suggestions are very welcome! Keep in mind that I'm mostly a single player. Thanks in advance. The backlog:

Resident Evil Revelations (360)

Gears of War Judgment (360 - already played a few chapters, seems okay, weird narration, not a must play like previous GOWs) (1 recommendation)

Dirt 2 (360 - loved the first one back in the day, Dirt 2 seems to be decent) (1 recommendation)

Fallout: New Vegas (360 - in 20 hours, gave up then as it just didn't click for me like Fallout 3 did) (2 recommendations)

Dishonored (360 - played the first half hour, very promising) (4 recommendations)

Ridge Racer Unbounded (360 - seems pretty bad)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (360 - first one was cool, this one a little outdated nowadays maybe?)

Tomb Raider Collection (360) (1 recommendation)

Resident Evil 6 (360 - played a little, how can RE have become this bad??)

Darksiders II (360 - absolutely loved the first one and looking forward to this since a long time) (1 recommendation)

LA Noire (360 - played a little, slow pace, not like GTA) (3 recommendations)

Dark Souls ( 360 - played a little, very hard, ugly characters, unique atmosphere, not insta-addicting) (5 recommendations)

GTA IV: Ballad of Gay Tony (360 - in the middle, didn't like it as much as The Lost and The Damned) (1 recommendation)

Borderlands 2 (360 - still need to go through some of the Add Ons)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier (360 - played a few hours campaign with a friend, fun Tom Clancy game)

X-Com Enemy Unknown (360 - stuck in the first alien base, great game)

Assassin's Creed III + Add Ons (360 - loved the ACs with Ezio) (2 recommendations)

Skyrim Legendary (360 - love this game, finished the main story line and still need to go for the add ons)

Diablo 3 (360 - played a little, not as great as Diablo II back in the day) (1 recommendation)

Alan Wake: American Nightmare (360 - liked the original game a lot)

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (360) (4 recommendations)

Need for Speed Most Wanted 2 (360 - the first from 2006 is still my favorite racing game, curious if this one can catch up)

Injustice Gods Among Us (PS3)

Killzone 2 (PS3 - was hyped back in the day, curious) (1 recommendation)

The Last of Us (PS3 - legendary reputation) (2 recommendations)

NiNoKuni (PS3 - played the first three hours, only good JRPG last gen, very nice game) (1 recommendation)

Uncharted 3 (PS3 - played 1 and 2, very entertaining, Drake is cool) (1 recommendation)

God of War Ascension (PS3 - watched a few minutes when my sister played, the focus seems to be on gore, not gameplay)

Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3 - loved MGS1 and 3)

Finished "Children of Dune" and enjoyed it a lot!

Sunday I finished Frank Herbert's third Dune book "Children of Dune" and it kept my imagination working afterwards, indicating what a great read it was. I really like how Dune is such veiled reflection of Arab history. Muad'dib's tragedy as he saw how "his" religion caused billions of people to die in the Jihad. Then his reappearance as the preacher, critizising the cult around his (former) personality. Then the story of his twins and Leto losing his humanity due to becoming one with the Shai Hulud, giving him superpowers and an unnatural long life span. There's many layers and perspectives on Dune: religion, politics, technology, philosophy, etc. Great read and I'm looking forward to the next book!

Favorite Games of PS360 Gen List (by Elder-Geek)

I should do a list like that myself but I need to finish the gen first and that will take some more time.

What's going in the first half of August 2014?

I'm feeling bad about this blog as I am too busy to update it as much as I would love to. Just very briefly:

Read:

I'm reading Dune 3 "Kinder des Wüstenplaneten". I really began to enjoy Frank Herbert's Dune series. It introduces a deep, aristocratic sci-fi universe with the story focussed on what is happening on Dune, the desert planet Arrakis. Paul "Usul Muad'dib" Atreides got the throne as emperor of the known galaxy, leading the Fremen into a jihad, a holy war to conquer the universe. He's not particularly happy about his role as messiah and the billions of dead that result from the conquest, but he has incredibly powers to foresee the future. At the end of book two he's done. Blindly he walks into the desert and vanishes. Book three sees the introduction of his daughter and son: Leto III and Ghanima. Alia and Lady Jessica are also back and there's a conspiracy going on as usal. I highly recommend the Dune series. A sci-fi classic (from the 1960s and 1970s) one should have read.

I bought also some new books at the flea market, among them my first Terry Pratchet novel. Will upload some pics ASAP.

Watch:

I watched several movies in recent times. Among them:

Wacken 3D

- This was nostalgic for me as I was a constant visitor to the world's largest heavy metal festival from 2004 to 2009. Gladly I'll be able to return to the W:O:A next year. Running Wild has already been confirmed.

X-Men: Days of the future Past

- As much as I love Marvel, I'm not too much into X-Men and couldn't recognize every sidekick character. Nonetheless an enjoyable movie with a brilliant Michael Fassbender as Magneto.

Looking forward to see The Expendables 3 and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in the cinema later this month!

Game:

I'm playing a lot of Magic: The Gathering these days, be it as trading card game in real life or on my 360 as Magic 2013 (has been free game of the month some short while ago). Also I began playing Dead Space 3 as I purchased it for cheap 16 Euro new at the loca GameStop). I consider Dead Space 1 and 2 as the best survival horror games of this past gen and as far superior as Resident Evil (every game RE5 onwards has been rather mediocre unless probably the 3DS one with Jill on the ship which I still have here unplayed). With Dead Space 3 I was less optimistic as the demo couldn't convince me too much. But having it played now I can see it's quality, a great beginning, then the necromorph outbreak at the lunar station and now Isaac's back in business in space as I yesterday reached Chapter 4. I'll be excited to continue!

Damn, I guess I'm a lot into sci-fi at the moment.