Ditto’s Current Games – Dec 17th

Here I am, back with another THRILLING blog about the games I’m playing and what I’m doing… and this week we’ve got some great new stuff in my older games, and a new game that has rocked my furry orange world… I think many of my Wizard 101 friends will agree, too.

Wizard 101
As always I start with that game which is nearest and dearest to my heart, Wizard 101. Of course as people know, I have made it to MooShu, and it is SO nice!! It finally feels appropriate to be riding a Koi mount through the lush green landscape, surrounded by gentle streams and tranquil settings. I absolutely LOVE it here, and so does Madame Jasmine!

I haven’t tried gardening yet – I will, I promise, but right now it’s more about exploring the wonders of Mooshu, since it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything but grimy old Marleybone..

LOTRO
I jumped into LOTRO ‘for a couple minutes’ this week to check out the winter festival they’ve been promoting. ‘A couple minutes’ ended up being about four hours! My jaw dropped…. I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest. Their winter festival is in a complete instance, a beautiful snow-covered village with lit trees and dancing revelers and really interesting quests, with many layers of interaction. There is one quest line that has you rousting a bunch of what are essentially homeless people off the streets, but then you’re given an opportunity to have a change of heart and donate a bunch of festival tokens to these same poor unfortunate souls. I don’t know what happens after that, but it’s wonderful!

LOTRO does continue to impress – it’s still a little overwhelming at times, but the game is just so pretty, and the quests are really immersive and fun.

The Game of the Week
Zynga’s ‘WarStorm’

OK, I promised myself as soon as I joined Facebook that I wouldn’t fall into the ‘Zynga’ trap of Farmville and Frontierville and Mafia Wars and all those other mindless Zynga games.
I failed.

WarStorm is a new Zynga game based around your standard collectible card game, similar to Magic the Gathering. There are different ‘armies’ – Human, Elf, Undead, etc… and there are specific cards for each, and you create ‘squads’ – basically small decks featuring a leader, some infantry, and some ‘special forces’ type cards that have special triggered abilities. There are also artifacts and spells you can add to your deck if your leader/general has the space for them. There’s a lot of complexity, but not TOO much.
Combat is standard CCG combat – random cards drawn, cards have a ‘cost’ in turns until they can enter the field of battle. You win if you get your opponent down to zero life, or if they run out of cards, so multiple strategies are possible. By winning battles, you gain silver and you gain control of lands that produce silver. With silver you can buy more cards – single cards, faction booster packs or even pre-made squads. You can also spend real money for these as well, but I haven’t had to (yet)
So far, I’m really hooked on this one, though I’m still just starting out. It’s detailed enough and challenging enough to keep you hooked, but not really frustrating and there doesn’t seem to be any PvP ganking like in Backyard Monsters. Nothing worse than logging into your casual Facebook game and seeing your entire yard in ruins because somebody decided to attack you eleven times in a row while you were asleep…

That’s all for this week – see you in The Spiral!!
PLOX!!