Legends of Runeterra

Just registered to get early access to the new upcoming League of Legends CCG, Legends of Runeterra. It looks pretty nice from what I can see, with its hybrid take kind of between Magic The Gathering and Hearthstone.

Riot already gave details regarding the game's economy and it's very F2P friendly. The game's most powerful card won't be your credit card! That's cool too.

They couldn't wish for better timing to announce such a game. Just look at the state of Hearthstone and Blizzard Entertainment right now, in light of the blitzchung PR disaster. What a train wreck.

Will Riot succeed where Valve failed? Will this be the Hearthstone-killer?

To be continued...

Konami Puzzle Collection

I've been having some fun recently with this little game: Konami Puzzle Collection.

It's a collection of roughly 500 sprite puzzles related to all the Konami franchises.

Check it out in the Play Store:
Konami Puzzle Collection - Play Store

Why I'm Retiring From Factorio

Factorio, what a game! Some people say it's like crack, but I've never tried crack so I can't tell. After playing less than 50 hours, I decided some time ago it was enough of that crazy addicting game.  That being said, Factorio is one of the most creative and fun games I've ever played. If you thought Minecraft was addicting, think again...

It's like a drug...

Factorio is the most addictive game I've ever played. The "One last thing..." factor is brutal here. There's always one little detail, one little thing you can optimise to make things run smoother, then another little one... Oh and that one too... Then it's 1AM and you're working tomorrow. Oops!

Factorio is the only game that has ever kept me awake at night. Not because I'd play all night long... But because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'd literally close my eyes in bed and see conveyor belts. I'd fall asleep thinking of belts. I'd wake up thinking of belts.

Too long, never ends...

Starting a new game will require you several hours of fooling around, until you get your factory to somewhat work on its own. The early game phase is pretty long and pretty repetitive from one game to another.

Then you get builder robots. Automated defenses. Automated trains. Sleep deprivation. Depression. ...Oh wait, kinda went off track here. Pun intended.

Worse than that, even when you're done and launched the satellite, it's not over. I already hear you saying "Oh, why bother start a new game when I can optimize my current one and launch X rockets / Y minutes!". Screw that!

And don't get me started on nuclear power, I didn't even have the courage to fiddle with it!

I wish Factorio a long life, but it'll be without me.

Mobile Legends: Adventure

After playing AFK Arena for about a week, I stumbled upon Mobile Legends: Adventure and figured I'd post a short review of that game too. It's mostly the same game as AFK Arena, but way more polished. Everything is perfectly streamlined for an optimal experience. All your daily tasks are relevant and make sense, the UI is super easy to use and has you racing through all the menus you have to work with seamlessly.

I like how it's easy to manage your heroes and keep them fully upgraded and geared-up at all times. They're all easily recognizable and don't all look the same.

The battles can be accelerated quite a bit, so things go fast. At all times you're able to see which heroes do what and fix your lineup accordingly. Secret tip: It seems the battle goes even faster if you disable high-frequency mode in the options. 

The drop rates are very good. It's easy to acquire heroes, useful gear and all the different currencies found in the game. Each single battle will give you something. The grind is pretty soft, I think it's a bit more F2P-friendly than AFK Arena.

The relevant game modes are all present. The tower, the arena, the labyrinth, the time portal. It's so much fun, I wish there were even more modes. Apparently a new one is coming in an upcoming update. Let's wait and see.

All in all, I prefer MLA to AFK Arena. It feels more polished and seems to be a better, more generous and more balanced game. It's my favorite hero collector / idle game yet. Nothing feels redundant or pointless. It's fun.

Check it out for yourself:
Mobile Legends: Adventure - Google Play Store

AFK Arena

Discovered this game entirely by accident while browsing the Google Play Store. It's pretty cool and very F2P friendly.

The combat can be automated and made faster after only a short time. After a few days, I hit several super high level bosses that took me several days to beat. Pretty challenging, but not too grindy yet.

All in all, you get all the interesting Gacha elements that type of games usually provides you with. The tower, the arena, the tavern, the labyrinth, etc. All those elements integrate well with one another and do not feel needlessly grindy. It's always fun to receive those rewards and combine things together to enhanced them. :)

The game could use a few QOL improvements IMHO.

For instance, why dispatch heroes manually for the tavern bounties? Mobile Legend: Adventures does that automatically for you. The same goes for the library, why dispatch each single hero manually?

Also, the way heroes are sorted in the Heroes screen doesn't consider regular heroes VS heroes improved through the Resonating Crystal. Because of that, you find yourself switching to the next hero in order to level it up, only to notice it's a blessed hero from the resonating crystal. Level up current Hero. Next Hero, can't level that one up. Next hero, oh, same thing. Next, oh, I can level that one up. Next... When you think about it, AFK Arena isn't the only game with that issue...

AFK Arena is a lot of fun and will keep you entertained a few minutes every day. That's what an AFK game is for isn't it? It does everything it has to and it does it right.

You can install the game from the Play Store:
AFK Arena - Google Play Store

Native Instruments A61

Returned my MPK Mini earlier this week, as I kinda reached the limit of what I could do with it. 25 keys / 2 octaves is a pretty short range of notes after all. It quickly became a problem after a few weeks of learning.

I almost bought the Native Instruments A49, but settled instead for the 61 keys version because why not. 5 full octaves and a pretty sweet mod-wheel. That mod-wheel will be a lot better than the MPK Mini's knobs and joystick. It also seems to come with several interesting libraries and tools, should be interesting.

It will hopefully integrate well with Reaper and Kontakt. :)

Akai MPK mini Mk2

Ordered this baby on Amazon last week, can't wait to give it a try with Reaper and a few cool VSTs I got my hands on!

Lemmings Game on Android

Found this game by accident on the Google Play store. It's pretty cool!

Lemmings | Google Play

Have fun!

What Playing Hearthstone Often Feels Like

When it comes to playing Hearthstone, the grind can become pretty intense sometimes. Especially when you consider how cheap the reward system is when you're playing for free. Here's a quote I found on Reddit that sums it up very well:

It (Hearthstone) felt like a I had a job and my payment was .1 packs/3 wins.

Yup, that's pretty accurate.

How Most People Feel About Artifact

As of March 2019, Artifact is kind of a no man's land, with its player counts dropping under 300 now and then. You read it well, under 300.

A recent post on Reddit sums up pretty well how a lot of people feel about the game right now:

I’m still here, I liked the game and wanted it to succeed, but at this point watching its descent into total, complete, undeniable failure is far more entertaining than the game ever was.

Amen.

Long Time No See

Almost didn't post in a year now...

I decided to revamp things a little, after almost switching to Write.as. Pretty neat product if you ask me, but I didn't feel like paying $60/year for a personal blog I almost don't use right now. Maybe I'm cheap...

Instead, I kind of copied their overall look and feel. Saved me $60.

See you around!