A Green Mushroom

Lately I've been picking away at the Hearthstone single player adventures.  They're really fun, especially the newest one with the League of Adventurers.  The single player adventures give a new way to experience the game and they're not afraid to break typical rules.  It's cool to see. After finishing up the normal mode I jumped into the class challenges.  It surprised me to find that these are actually my favorite thing in Hearthstone so far.  You're presented with a match up of a predetermined class vs a boss and given a pre-made deck.  It's everything I want from this game. I like having a balanced playing field where the decks are fun to play against each other.  This mode provides that. It makes me realize how much I just hate the deck construction.  I love piloting a fun deck but I hate spending time trying to create my own decks.  I wish there were more modes in Hearthstone with premade decks.  I know that if there...

  Very baby friendly. With the newborn's crazy schedule I haven't been able to play games as much lately.  I was completely expecting it, and I'm fine with it.  I know her sleep schedule will even out and I'll have more time to myself soon.  This doesn't mean I haven't found any time to play games. A few weeks ago my game of choice was StarCraft 2 multiplayer.  Multiplayer is much more difficult when taking care of a baby, because she could need attention at any time.  Instead, I switched back to single player games that let me pause and save at any point.  That pause button means that I can game and take care of my daughter at the same time.  It's wonderful. I gave in and bought Halo Reach because I wanted a new single player game.  I beat the campaign and I'm going to go back to play through it on Legendary.  I also picked up Civilization V this morning and I'll dive into it this afternoon.  Civ V is a turn based strategy g...

I'm so excited for StarCraft 2!  I can't remember the last time I was this pumped up for a game release.  But Spinks isn't impressed.  She wrote on her experience trying out the StarCraft 2 beta and the reasons she wasn't impressed.  Her points are completely valid.  The beta was entirely multiplayer focused and she says that she lost every game.  I can understand how that would be extremely frustrating.  Because of her post I've decided to talk about some of the other features in StarCraft 2 that might appeal to those who haven't been impressed so far. The single player campaign is made by Blizzard.  I haven't played it yet (no one has) but Blizzard has a great pedigree for story in their real time strategy games.  They have a long history of polishing their games until they shine.  The single player campaign also has a variety of difficulty settings so that everyone can enjoy it, even RTS newbies.  It won't be brutal the way ...

I already posted my co-op review for Splinter Cell Conviction, but I sat down the other day and played through the single player game as well.  Overall, I liked it and I would recommend it to stealth fans.  It is a good game and consistently fun, but I still prefer the co-op campaign. If someone were to ask me to recommend the best stealth game I had ever played I would tell them to check out Batman Arkham Asylum but Splinter Cell Conviction is a close second.  If they asked me to recommend the best stealth co-op game I would most definitely tell them to play Splinter Cell Conviction. But, today I'm talking about the single player campaign. The first thing I noticed - and loved - was the persistent experience across game modes.  All of my experience, weapons, gadgets, and completed challenges from the co-op campaign carried over into my single player campaign automatically.  It was seamless and awesome.  All games with co-op and single player campai...

Bioshock was a great game.  The mood and tone evoked was something magical the first time I experienced it.  I uncovered the city of Rapture slowly and discovered it's mysteries.  One of the most powerful scenes I have encountered in gaming was the meeting with Andrew Ryan in the original Bioshock.  Bioshock was new, innovative, and did all sorts of interesting things in engine without taking away player control. The problem with Bioshock 2 is probably that I have already played Bioshock.  I know Rapture and its secrets.  I have killed these enemies and seen these sights.  Bioshock provided a comprehensive story arc with a solid ending but going back again seems like a ploy to milk the game for more money.  It evokes the same tone and feelings as the original, but I have already felt them and they are much less interesting the second time around. Bioshock 2 is more of the same.  The same game engine.  The same enemies.  The sam...