by Matt | May 3, 2012 | Games
With the concept of “hack-and-slash” dungeon crawlers completely entrenched in gaming lore as a sub-genre to the all-encompassing “RPG” category, and with Diablo 3 and TorchLight 2 right around the corner, I thought I’d take a minute to highlight a little indie game that I’ve become completely addicted to.
Dungeon Defenders, by Trendy Entertainment, is a hybrid Action-RPG and Tower Defense game. Even most non-gamers have played a tower defense game. Desktop Tower Defense, Plants vs Zombies, FieldRunners, Flash Element, Immortal Defense, and GemCraft all fall into that category. It works a little bit like this:
You select one of 4 basic characters (Apprentice, Squire, Huntress and Monk – younger versions of the more familiar “Wizard”, “Knight”, etc) and start off with the ability to use your weapon and put down the most basic of blockade. The enemies enter the level at point A (usually a door) and make their way to point B, your base, or in this case, your “crystal”. The crystals are what you’re defending. With them the monsters can take over, rule the world, etc, the usually good vs. evil sorts of stuff.
So, between point A and point B, it’s your job to stop the monsters. You set up traps, blockades, weapons and all sorts of things in their path to try and kill the monsters before they reach (and destroy) your crystal. For example, my Squire can set up spike blockers, harpoons, and turrets. More in line with the characters persona, my Apprentice (Wizard) can set up fireballs, lightning traps and the like.
As you progress, your characters stats improve, you get new abilities, new traps and new weapons. You get stronger, your traps get stronger, and you can take (and receive) more damage. Also, the enemies frequently drop armor and weapons, which you can also use to improve your character.
What Trendy has done is build a deep RPG like level system, with loot and collecting, on-top of a really fun tower defense mechanic. I’ve always been a fan of the tower defense genre, and Dungeon Defenders scratches all those itches and more.
The graphics, powered by the latest Unreal engine and bright, colorful and very well polished while leaving enough scalability wise to be played on older and slower systems. I can play DD equally well on my new Mac Pro, Macbook, Gaming PC, older PC and there’s even a version for Android/iPhone as well. Thanks to Steam and SteamPlay (cross-platform support), I’m able to do all of the above from a single account, having only bought the game once. Not only that, but it’s incredibly cheap. The entire game is $5. You can also buy add-ons, where I would suspect their real money comes from, for a couple dollars each, consisting of everything from new characters, extra maps, even fun holiday themed stuff and the occasional poke at pop-culture (there’s a Romney vs. Obama addon). The default maps and characters will do you just fine though, as you get at least 30 levels, with 6 levels of difficulty, ensuring a ton of re-playability. If that wasn’t enough, each level also features “survival” mode, which never ends and the monsters just keep getting harder and harder.
For the hardcore players, there’s also TrendyNet, an online only section where players can play “ranked” matches with other players for glory, stats and loot. If online competition isn’t your thing, you can simply play against the computer on your own machine (as I do). Dungeon Defenders is great for killing 20 minutes here and there but can also turn into multi-hour gaming marathons if that’s more your style.
At the end of the day, it’s $5, it’s a ton of fun, it’s a good time waster, and Trendy really hit a homerun with it. The occasional Steam-Sync issues aside, it’s just about as close to a perfect game as you can get for under a Lincoln.
Dungeon Defenders: 94/100
by Matt | May 2, 2012 | Baseball
With the additional cards Derek sent me over the weekend, and a couple spare minutes after dinner, I was able to put together a better list of where I am with Gypsy Queens as a whole. I need 157 124 out of the 300. I’m 7 cards under 50%. I also managed to be 1 card short of a complete (including SPs!) Red Sox set. All I need is the Youkilis SP, which I hope Topher still has and is willing to send me. I also have a complete 2nd team set (not including SPs) and if I mix those back into the master set, I’m actually 2 cards over 50%.
Here’s what I’m missing – red denotes incoming, received are removed:
Updated: 05/08/12
6, 7, 8, 12, 18, 21, 23, 26, 27, 34-38, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48-52, 55, 57-59, 62-64, 66, 67, 72-74, 76, 80, 82, 86, 87, 90, 96, 100, 102-104, 107, 111, 119, 122, 128, 135, 136, 138-141, 143, 145, 149, 159, 152-154, 156-158, 160, 163, 166, 171, 175, 177, 179-181, 183, 187, 194, 196, 198, 203, 205-208, 215, 216, 220, 223, 225, 227, 231, 232, 240, 242-248, 250, 251, 253, 256-258, 260, 262-264, 270, 272-275, 278, 280, 281, 283, 293, 296, 297, 299.
157 124 and counting
*phew*
Anyway, if you’re busting GQ and happen to have a huge pile of dupes, please let me know. I’ll have to see if there’s anything I have for your interests to trade in return. The tradebait is always open for the taking, and at the very least I can probably send you a big pile of base for your favorite team. This might be a lengthy project, which is ok, it’ll give me something to do in the off-season.
by Matt | May 2, 2012 | Baseball
That sounds ominous doesn’t it? Fear not, it’s really just more cards, and a follow up to my last post.
So, a couple weeks ago (as I think I mentioned), the wife’s car broke down. That drained my excess card money and put a stop to most of my card buying, at least for the foreseeable future. The problem with that was that I had bid on… oh.. 40 or so items on eBay literally the day before. They were all 6+ day auctions, so they starting closing last week and I didn’t really have the funds to pay for them. True to my intentions, and because I wanted to maintain a good eBay account, I scraped together enough to cover it all. I actually ended up only winning a couple, but I’m beginning to appreciate them much more than I had a week ago. Admittedly, I had a bit of the eBay fever. That needs to stop, hard and fast. Cold turkey even. So, I’m putting myself on a card diet. For May, I will try to refrain from any card purchases other than already committed to group breaks or trades with fellow collectors. No eBay, no COMC, no sportlots. It’s going to be pretty damn hard, but I think it’s doable. The only things coming out in May are the Olympic set, which I’m sure I can hold off on, Bowman, and Topps Archive which I have zero interest in. Series 2 comes out the first week of June. If I can hold off until then, I’ll be in better shape. Hopefully I can pick up a few freelance jobs between now and then. Anyone need a website worked on, or some photos taken?
Anyway, these are the last cards I bought for the spring (hence the title). I appreciate them far more now that I did when I was bidding on them. I know that seems silly, they are just cardboard, but perspective changes everything.
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by Matt | May 2, 2012 | Baseball
I had neglected to mention this on Monday, and Tuesday was a blur, so here it is Wednesday and you guys are getting a “weekend update”. Yeah, way to stay on top of things Matt. Sheesh. So, Saturday morning I had a photo shoot with a nice couple for an engagement portrait. Everything went well, they loved the photos, and when I came home around lunch time, my mailbox was overflowing with stuff…
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by Matt | May 1, 2012 | Baseball
So, I’ve been thinking about this as a post topic for quite some time. My interests in cards lean primarily towards “the team” but include a good amount of “oooh, shiny” for good measure. Meaning, simply, I’m interested in mostly cheaper, regular cards but if a nifty one comes along for a reasonable price, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it. That’s a wonderful theory, but a good amount of the time the “geek” factor kicks in whenever I (and we, as a whole) see super rare, ultra rookies McAwesome card and start to drool all over the “bid now” button on ebay. I’ve tried very hard to suppress that urge, mostly because I don’t have the money to “scratch that itch” so to speak.
There is an idea though, one subtle enough to not be dismissed entirely, that intrigues me. The idea of being a “Super Collector” for a player. Having that single player’s ultimate collection is an idea too tempting to not contemplate. Like thinking about lottery winnings before you’ve bought your ticket.
But who would you collect? If we’re staying within the realm of realism, there’s a couple points to consider. First, it has to be within your budget. I, and most people, don’t have the financial means to go after a super collection of Albert Pujols. Second, clearly it has to represent your interests. A collection for a team and/or player you hate simply won’t bring you any satisfaction. I will never be a Derek Jeter super collector. Third, and probably controversially, I would argue it needs to be a fairly modern player. Why? Because as hard as you try, there’s only 1 Mickey Mantle rookie card. You’re not going to find a regular version, a chrome version, and auto version, etc. This concept of course feeds the “Topps Monster” into making multiple variations of cards in the first place. It’s a vicious cycle.
No, it has to be someone semi-modern, probably mid-90’s and forward. That way there’s at least multiple cards from multiple companies to chase. There’s no fun in declaring that you have all of Player X’s rookie cards when only 1 exists. You also want it to be someone modern enough to have autographs and relics in the first place, and also someone who potentially still plays, increasing the future availability of more cards.
Personally it’s hard to come up with a list. Red Sox players, clearly, but someone like Pedroia or Ortiz is probably out of my price range. 1/1 or ultra-rare cards would sell for hundreds of dollars for those guys. Also, the relative availability of a rookie card, perhaps with an autograph, is less so with a major star. So, you’re looking for recent breakout players, who are still active, who are “good” by most definitions, who are well represented in cards in general, and who have potential down the road.
My personal choice would be someone like Clay Buchholz or Danny Bard. Not only do I think they’re good pitchers, there’s a good amount of cards available without most of them being insanely priced. Autographs and rookies are easily found, and there’s not decades of older cards to try and track down. But do I want to be a Buchholz super collector? Honestly, no, probably not (although I’m getting kinda close). It is an interesting question to think about though. I know there are plenty of you who do it, be it a Russell Martin, Nolan Ryan or Christian Friedrich collection.
So, what made you pick that player instead of one of your other favorites? Did you already have a bunch of cards and just decided to go for it, or was it a conscience decision from the beginning? What’s the hardest part about a super collection, and what do you do when you only have the super-rare left to find?
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