Friday Night Magic - Abzan Lifegain - Duels 2015 Multiplayer

Hey everyone,

This week's FNM is going to be Abzan Lifegain! We're playing a deck made of white, green and black cards full of (obviously) life gain, a little bit of ramp, a bit of graveyard recursion, some removal, and of course a few big fatties.

The idea is to accelerate with Satyr Wayfinder to get as many lands as possible into play. In the meantime, a few creatures in the bin will not be great; but will be useful with Seance. We want to get Angelic Accord out as soon as possible to start playing our life gain cards, which will net us a minimum of 4 life each turn (just enough to make a 4/4 angel). Mid to late game cards like Rune-Scarred Demon (who helps us fetch for cards we didn't draw) and Griselbrand (no introduction needed) will keep our enemies' minions at bay while Doubling Season doubles the tokens produced by Seance and Angelic Accord.

This is undoubtedly a snow ball deck which means it gets stupid and out of control very fast. Do you see a pattern here? I love decks that draw a lot of hate, do a lot of crazy things, and finish big. Maybe it's something of a hobby of mine.

I already play Azami and Nekusar in EDH. Considering I've lost all my friends to table flips, I figured I'd have nothing to lose ;)

Keep an eye on this post and the channel for the next episode of Friday Night Magic, coming February 27 @ 6pm EST. If you haven't yet, make sure to follow the blog and subscribe on YouTube to get the latest updates and content.

Welcome to the Nexus!

Hey everyone,

Well it's official. I've managed to secure a spot in the Heroes of the Storm beta. And what a beta it is. In the short amount of time I've had the pleasure of playing this game, I can tell you I am very impressed. If there are any early access developers reading this, this is the kind of quality you should strive for when releasing games still in development.

Of course this means there will be new Let's Play content on the channel, so make sure to keep your eyes on that. I'll be playing a variety of heroes and on a multitude of maps; and give you some of my insight and thoughts about the game.

I'm so happy to be able to share this game experience with you, even though there is a fair share of information already out about this title. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy my point of view and have fun watching/reading about the game play and the many different Heroes of the Storm.

If you want to get in on the action, pick up the Founder's Pack here. It includes:

• Beta Access
• 2,500 Gold
• Diablo, Raynor & Tyrande (permanently unlocked heroes)
• 3 Unique Skins (One for each hero)
• Golden Cyber Wolf Mount

If you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss a thing. Keep an eye out on the blog as well for all the latest news and info, don't miss your weekly fix on Mondays and share your thoughts with other gamers in the comments section on either site.

As always make sure to hit that thumbs up if you liked what you saw, share, follow, and enjoy all the content!

See you in the storm,


Scaryspikes

Weekly Fix #1

Hello everyone, 

And welcome to your weekly fix for February 23, 2015. Since we're starting with one article each week, it made sense to cover all the latest happenings in the gaming industry for the week in a cumulative and predictable way. If there's something you'd like to see added (such a discussion piece with a topic for each week for instance) leave your comments below!

Let's get started. 

The Order: 1886 Falls Short of the Hype

The Order:1886 has you battling an ancient enemy with futuristic (for the period) weapons in a Victroain-Esque London as a member of an elite unit of Knights known as The Order. 

Leading up tot he release of the game on next-gen consoles, the amount of hype surrounding the game was staggering. Trailers, blog posts, and reactions from viewers and spectators in anticipation of the game were flooding the interwebs. 

Although it turned out that this title would push the new consoles farther than (probably) any other game has pushed them this generation in terms of shear graphical fidelity; it fell very short of all the hype it had generated prior to its release in a variety of areas. 

Achieving a mere 65 on metacritic, some people cited that the game was extremely short (4-6 hours in the campaign), had very uninteresting narrative and character development, and basically felt as a showpiece to demonstrate the capability of the two powerhouses that we know as the next generation consoles. Personally, I will not slander nor praise the game as I have not yet had the opportunity to play it; but logic dictates that such a mass of people agreeing on something are probably not entirely out of their minds.

Star Citizen Reaches over $73 Million in Funding

Star Citizen, a long awaited space simulator for the PC has now reached well over $73 million in funding from people around the world. Making it the most successful kickstarter/public funding project ever in the history of...history.

At its inception, Chris Roberts, the game's creator, hoped it would achieve $100 million some day. It seems that his vision is finally starting to look like a very possible reality. 

Star Citizen is supposed to make you feel like a colonist in space, having to do all the things you already do in real life. Work, fight, survive, and so much more. There are a variety of vessels available in Star Citizen, each meant to fill a different role and appeal to almost every play style. 

I became personally invested in the game about a year ago. Unfortunately over the period of a month or so, I didn't feel like the game would be for me and contacted the developer to retract my funding. I had purchased a ship for around $125, which included a business style hanger. Unfortunately at this time there were very few modules available to actually fly through, so the game because very monotonous for me and I decided it wasn't for me. 

Clearly this decision was made prior to the release of the game, which is still a far ways away. However, it is with this decision that I realized I only wanted to invest in games that have already reached a certain milestone, and seen some level of success. As with some games out there (such as Rust) development in early access can suddenly become non-existent and the people who invested their hard earned money feel deceived and ripped off. 

Either way, I am excited and eager to see what Star Citizen will be able to achieve once it can be considered a finished AAA title. 

$185 of Games - Pay What You Want!

Well it's no surprise that the Humble Bundle seems to be getting more generous each and every time. This time, up for grabs is the second Square Enix bundle which includes Hitman: Absolution, Supreme Commander 2 and Hitman: Go. 

If you decide to pay above the average of $7.49, you can also get games like Thief, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Deus Ex: Human Evolution Director's Cut and more!

And if all that wasn't enough, you will also get Tomb Raider and Sleeping dogs if you pay $15 or more. 

Even if you decide to pay more than $15 you are still getting an amazing assortment of mostly awesome games for dirt dirt cheap. If saving money wasn't good enough, you also get to decide how much of the money you pay goes to a variety of different charities, the Humble Bundle itself, and the developers who made these great games. 

This is honestly a great way to help others while helping yourself, and had I not owned most of these games already, I would have been picking up the bundle myself. Here's to many more awesome bundles in the future!

Well that's going to do it for this week's fix. Make sure to follow the blog and subscribe on YouTube for more great gaming content. And make sure to come back every Monday (and throughout the week too!) to GET YOUR FIX. 

Friday Night Magic - Selesnya Tokens - Duels 2015 Multiplayer

Hey everyone,

Keep an eye out on the channel - the next episode of Friday Night Magic is coming up! This deck is all about making lots of little guys, making them monstrous, and shipping the team.

If you took part in the discussion on the channel, you may have known by now that there was a delay in getting the video out on time due to some technical issues.

However, as of the writing of this article, the video is being processed by YouTube and optimized for your viewing pleasure!

Please be sure to thumbs up, share, and subscribe if you haven't already for weekly content here on the blog and on the YouTube channel as well. There are over 250 subscribers and growing so a big thank you for those who have already subscribed!

Keep an eye on this post for an embedded version of the video; however, for best viewing experience it's recommended you watch it on the channel in glorious 1080p 60fps!

Thanks again for reading and watching!!

Scaryspikes

The Hunt Evolved - Part III

There are four game modes in Evolve offering quick play and evacuation sub-modes. Quick play allows single match play while evacuation is a longer game with a series of matches in which the winning team of the previous round gets a slight advantage in the next round.

Hunt: The hunters must track and hunt down the monster before it can destroy the power relay. The monster must reach its final evolution in order to be able to accomplish this feat; however, the monster can choose to instead eat all the humans instead.

Next mode pits the hunters and monster against each other as above with the exception that there are now six randomly spawned monster eggs on the map. It's the monster's duty to protect them and the hunters must destroy all eggs before the time is up. The monster has the liberty of being able to destroy one of the eggs to spawn a minion to help it.

Defend pits a fully evolved monster and several minions against the hunters who are in a desperate struggle to protect the generators powering a refueling station that will allow them to escape on their ship. The monster must in turn sabotage these generators to prevent that from happening.

Although multiplayer is a mainstay in Evolve's strategy as a teamwork oriented game, players are able to play any of these game modes against AI bots to hone their skills and become better hunters, or monsters.

I'm personally very excited about this title and can't wait to go on a hunt of my own :) If you like what you saw here, or have any comments or ideas, please let me know in the comments below. If seeing more of Evolve is something you'd like, please let me know as well so that I can continue to release more content that you enjoy.

Please make sure to follow this blog for all the latest and to subscribe to the YouTube channel. Your support means a great deal to me and continuously inspires me to produce more great content for you.

Thanks so much for reading!


Scaryspikes

The Hunt Evolved - Part II

Did someone ring the dinner bell?

And now for what you've been waiting for. The monsters. They look deliciously evil, wouldn't you agree? As a monster, you hunt your prey. The humans. But you need to grow stronger before you can give them the boss fight they've been waiting for. You too have to hunt. To eat. To evolve.

There are four monsters to choose from, each with three unique stages of evolution. Only through satisfying your insatiable appetite for flesh and blood will your carnivorous man hunting beast be ready to stalk his ultimate prey. One of the most common ways is to stalk other predators. Other beasts of the land. It's a kill or be killed world, and you need to kill to get stronger. Shear is full of smaller monsters that will act as sustainable and help you become the monster you always wanted to be.

Over the lips, past the gums, look out tummy, here they come. (Yes, that was a blood reference.)

The Goliath is a formidable melee monstrosity with a slew of tricks up his sleeve.

• Charge let's you charge forward at your enemies, knocking them down.
• Fire breath toasts your victims in molten flame so they're crispy on the outside and yet so gooey on the inside.
• Leap smash hurls you into the air, landing with shear tectonic force, dealing damage to anyone caught in the area.
• Rock throw hurls a giant chunk of earth at unsuspecting prey and makes you look like the tank from Left 4 Dead 2 in the process. Epic.

Release...The Kraken! Other than being a great spiced rum that I enjoy with coke on a regular basis (stop judging me!) he's a ferocious flying beast who harnesses the power of lightning itself.

• Banshee mines are like those cool proximity mines from Goldeneye 007 (those were the best proximity mines, ever.) They home in and explode on nearby enemies.
• Vortex pushes out a wave of pure force, knocking back enemies. 
• Aftershock emits an electrostatic burst which chains electrical bolts between nearby enemies.
• Lightning strike unleashes a large blast that damages enemies at a designated area of effect.

The Wraith is like a trickster rogue, except more like a trickster rogue on crack. He's the sneaky melee type, often striking when you least expect it.

• Abduction makes you rush towards a given enemy, grabbing them and promptly returning to the cast location.
• Decoy creates a clone of your monster while also cloaking your real self. Used strategically in both offensive and defensive situations.
• Supernova detonates a massive explosion that damages enemies within its blast radius and also buffs the wraith's damage and attack speed for a short time.
• Warp blast teleports you to a destination before going boom. 

The Behemoth (not of the craterhoof variety) is Evolve's largest monster. It's so large in fact that it cannot jump. It can climb walls and curls itself into a ball while moving to gain momentum. The name of this monster was down to a vote by the community, and behemoth won.

• Lava bombs are lobbed into the fray and break into smaller pieces (kind of like stinger grenades) when they land. The smaller pieces burn the area around the landing site, doing damage to any enemies caught in their radius. 
• Rock wall creates a massive semi-circular wall which either closes in around the humans and locks them in with behemoth, or locks them out in a bid to shake off some of the damage they are dealing to the monster. 
• Tongue grab is like a glorified Scorpion's Spear (except behemoth doesn't yell "GET OVER HERE!") which attaches to an enemy and pulls him/her into melee range.
• Fissure fractures the earth around behemoth, sending out a shockwave that stuns and damages anything in its path.

Stay tuned for Part III on Friday!

Tips & Tricks - Magic 2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers

When I play Duels 2015, I run into a lot of folks that aren't familiar with the basic settings of the game as well as newer players who tend to make common Magic mistakes.

This video is designed to help you get to know the basic settings in Magic 2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers and also to give you a few basic gameplay tips. This is more for newer players but a refresher never hurts.

Hopefully this will alleviate some confusion and improve your game in one fell swoop!

If you liked this video, please hit the thumbs up and subscribe buttons and follow me on the channel and the blog for all the latest Magic and other gaming content.

Basic Tips & Tricks Overview:

• Get to know your settings menu.

• Turn off tips/hints if you're a more experienced player.

• Turn off (either or all) Anti-Aliasing, Shadows & Foils for better performance if you need to.

• If you play online, do everyone a favor by turning off your combat animations. Your opponents will thank you, and you'll save a bunch of time you could have used to play another game.

• Sort your hand by whichever variable makes you a more efficient player.

• Turning off simplified targeting allows you to target yourself or your permanents with your own abilities and spells and allows for some really cool combat tricks! This is for more advanced players. 

• Turn off hold priority to avoid having to click on a button to skip your main phases. 

• Turn off order blockers automatically. When you block an opponent's creatures, YOU get to decide which creatures get blocked first. This can give you a tactical or strategic advantage, and allows you to decide which creatures to pick off. If you have this option enabled, the game will do this for you; often, ending in unfavorable combat outcomes. 

• Keep always use optional abilities and auto resolution on. Optional abilities are cards that say "you may draw a card", and so on. Whenever you may draw a card, you probably should, and so you should leave this on to reduce micromanagement. Auto resolve resolves basic abilities automatically as they take place (usually abilities of your permanents which are favorable). Keeping this on also saves you time in manually resolving each ability.

• Auto land should always be off as it allows you to choose exactly how much land to put in your deck. This is important for deck testing and stability, and the number of lands will always change with the archetype of your deck. Keeping this option on allows the game to decide how many lands will be in your deck, often leading to unfavorable numbers.

• Try to play more reactively than proactively, especially if you play a control archetype.

• Only play spells and activate abilities before combat if it BENEFITS you during combat. Otherwise, always do everything in your second main phase. You give away less information and keep your opponents guessing. 

• You can always respond to spells with other spells so long as it's instant and you can pay the mana. If your creature gets countered, you can pause the timer and react with your own counterspell, countering the original counterspell and resolving your creature. 

I may have missed a few, so if you have your own tips and tricks, add them in the comments below!

-Scaryspikes

15,000 Minutes!

Hey everyone,

Scaryspikes here. I was looking through Google Analytics to see the stats for my YouTube channel. I was amazed and astounded when I saw that you have cumulatively watched about 15,000 minutes of my content. There are now 245 subscribers and I have had nearly 50,000 views on the channel.

This might not seem like a lot to many people. Considering how accessible content is online nowadays, these numbers are relatively small. But to me, this is huge. It's a really big deal, and I wanted to take the time to sincerely thank you all very very much.

I will work hard to make this blog and channel the best they can be. With your help, it will be shaped into something everyone can enjoy, something very special.

Thanks again for all of your likes, thumbs up, shares, subscriptions, comments and suggestions.

Cheers,

Scaryspikes

Happy Family Day, Again?

Hey everyone :)

Can't believe it's been a whole year since the last time I've said this, but I want to wish you and yours a very happy family day.

I'll be away spending some time with mine, but will be back tomorrow.

If you haven't already, make sure to check out the new Magic 2015 Grixis Deck on the channel (accessible by just clicking on the YouTube link above) as well as all the other great videos on the channel.

For anyone wondering why there is such a large gap in the videos; I had quite a large hiatus due to a number of life events. The larger of which was having to find new work. Fortunately that's all been alleviated and I can focus on my project again.

Also, I hope you enjoyed part one of my article on Evolve. I split it up into 3 pieces because it was rather quite long. Stay tuned for Part II on Wednesday, and Part III on Friday. Also on Friday; a new episode of Friday Night Magic! So make sure to check that out as well.

Planning on doing some let's play sometime in the middle of my weekly schedule. Let me know what you'd like to see. I'll definitely take that into consideration!

Thanks again to all of you who have stood by me and supported me in the last year, and for everyone who is new and continues to support me today. I wouldn't be doing this without your patronage.

Have a good one guys,


Scaryspikes

The Hunt Evolved - Part I

Hunt together. Or, die alone.

From Turtle Rock - the same people who brought you Left 4 Dead - comes a game of skill, teamwork and predatory superiority. Welcome to Evolve.

Evolve is a first person action game set on the planet shear. It is an epic 4 versus 1 kill or be killed survival experience that has had gamers in anticipation for quite some time. As of February 10, 2015 the game has officially released springing forth a slew of great reviews and resulting in some impressive fanfare.

The premise is pretty simple. Grab three friends. Pick a class. Go hunting. Although it's not as easy as it sounds. You're actually the one being hunted - by a mysterious predator of epic proportions - the fifth player.

To win, you have to be smart. You have to work as a team. And you have to contribute to the gradual cumulative success of the team with unique skills and abilities that are unique to the game's four different human classes: Assault, Trapper, Medic & Support.

Each class offers a choice of three different characters. Each with their own skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Who you pick is entirely up to you and your play style. But I've yet to remember playing a game in recent history where the choice of my character class played such a vital and pivotal role in the ultimate success of my team.

Assault class characters are the meat and potatoes of your team. They're the DPS. The main damage dealers. The guys with the pointiest sticks. They excel at doing damage, and they do it very well. Their class ability is to provide a shield that grants temporary invulnerability.

Trapper class characters do exactly what they sound like. They help their team to track down the monster by a variety of means, such as footprints. (Or paw prints? Who knows. Anything that big can't have "paws" though...can it??) Their class ability allows them to put up a large containment field in which, when caught, the monster is forced to fight in.

Medic class characters assist their team in not dying terrible, horrible, partly mutilated, immensely bloody and untimely deaths. Their class ability is a healing burst, which radiates to all nearby team members and gives them a considerable boost to survivability by increasing their health.

Support class characters support... Well, you get it. Why didn't heavy weapons guy from Team Fortress get a spot in this category? I are disappoint. These are the guys who run around toting automated turrets, homing missile launchers and shield projectors, to name a few toys. They protect and serve their team in an effort to make the team as a whole more efficient in all faucets of the great hunt.

From my experience, the skills of all these classes are highly balanced, allowing for tense and immersive game play while also keeping things fair. Take heed though, you will need one of each class to perform optimally and increase your chances of survival and success. Team composition is incredibly important, equally to that of teamwork.

Stay tuned for Part II on Wednesday!

Content Schedule

Hey everyone,

Firstly, please read this. I know some of you can relate.

I wanted to update everyone on the content creation calendar that I've been putting together so far. As I am still getting into the swing of things on the blog and the channel, I'd like to keep it simple at first, and grow with you as demand for content rises and ideas start to arrive in my mailbox about what you all would like to see covered.

With that run on sentence out of the way, here's what it looks like:

Mondays - New Blog Article

I'd like to dedicate Mondays to writing compelling and interesting articles about gaming. At least one per week. Although opinion pieces can be interesting, it is only my opinion and therefore subject to approval or disapproval by my readers. So, I'd rather write something more constructive, like an objective review, or a few pieces of gaming related news. I hope I can count on your help to let me know what you like; because there's no reason to write about things people don't want to read.

So, if you have some ideas of your own as to what you'd like to read about on Mondays at the SSP Gaming blog, please let me know in the comments below!

Tuesday to Thursday - Open 

Middle of the week is open currently with not many things planned. That isn't to say that there won't be any content, just that nothing is scheduled to be posted or uploaded. Maybe we could do a Let's Play once a week? I've heard a lot of things from the Rift community for instance, asking for more info about Rift. I do have quite a lot of games in my steam library that I'd be ready and willing to show off, given there's enough interest.

Also, I am an active Magic the Gathering player (paper Magic, as well as DOTP) and was thinking of doing some live coverage from my EDH events on Wednesday nights. Typically there are about 4-5 participants and the event lasts several games. Is that something you want to see?

Fridays - FNM, Duels 2015

Friday nights are Magic nights. Join me every Friday starting yesterday for a round of exciting online games in Magic 2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers! Scheduled to be uploaded every Friday night/Saturday morning, these short episodes will showcase some of my deck building strategies and what I am able to accomplish with them.

Do you have a deck or strategy that you want me to showcase? Let me know in my channel's discussion page, send me a message, or just comment on a post here or under one of my videos. I'd love to give your ideas a shot.

Weekends - Open

Weekends currently have no scheduled posts or uploads, other than the odd late FNM episode. If you like to chill at home in your PJ's watching YouTube and you're a subscriber, let me know what you'd like to see. Ideas are always welcome.

I'm also going to be doing a piece on myself, as I don't think I've given myself a proper introduction. I want to give you guys an idea as to why I want to do this, and why your support means so much to me. Keep an eye on that in the near future.

If you like what you see, please remember to follow/subscribe, share it, like it, and tell your friends. This is a community focused project. I'm doing it for you, and will continue to do it because I've been getting lots of constructive and positive feedback to keep going. One thing's for sure, I can't do it alone. And as I've said before, your support means a lot to me.

I love gaming, and I  hope I can make this something I do for a long time. Thank you all for helping me do it.

As always, stay classy :)

Scaryspikes

Friday Night Magic - Grixis Control - Duels 2015 Multiplayer

Hey everyone,

Great news! The hunt continues in Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers every Friday night - starting again with last night's exciting FNM multiplayer games with the Grixis Control Deck.

Check it out, leave a thumbs up and a comment, and let me know what you'd like to see in future videos.

As always, please subscribe to the channel as it really helps and is a huge motivation to continue to produce content :)

Thanks for your support - stay classy :)

Scaryspikes

Dying Light Video Review

Hey everyone,

Hoped you enjoyed my first impressions of Dying Light. The full review is now available on the channel, here.

Alternatively, you can watch it right here as well, but it's best viewed in full screen and in HD :)

Thanks so much for watching! Please let me know what you thought about the review, and about the game in the comments below the video. Also, please like the video if you liked it (or dislike if you disliked it) and make sure to subscribe for many more videos and great articles, on the channel and here on the blog respectively.

I'm planning some let's plays for the very near future, as well as many other great videos. I am also co0nsidering getting the FNM series back up and running, so if that's something you'd like to see, let me know!

Thanks again, and stay classy :)


Scaryspikes

Back From Quebec

Hey everyone,

I've been on a skiing trip in Quebec for a few days and just returned recently. Will be coming out with some more content for you shortly :) Including a review of Dying Light on the YouTube channel.

Stay tuned, keep reading, and stay classy!


Cheers,

Scary