You’ve been tapping mana and slinging summons and “Artifacts” since 1993. You’ve spent hundreds, nay, thousands of dollars creating the perfect deck. You’ve rocked opponents in your local shop and perhaps even traveled to a convention center to compete and win. You don’t need a rulebook. Hell, you’re the person answering questions. You’re a Magic: The Gathering veteran and you’re probably wondering what the upcoming Xbox LIVE Arcade release Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers has in store for you.
In a nugget, I was told today that Duels of the Planeswalkers has essentially four things to offer Magic nerds: complex decks, 40 to 50 hours worth of play, solid AI, and puzzles.
“[There’s] 40 to 50 hours of content that’s not available anywhere else,” senior brand director Aaron Goolsbey told me via phone. “The decks that we constructed, they get increasingly more complex. The AI is the best AI that we’ve ever produced for Magic, so if you can’t find a friend to play with you can always play against the Duels’ AI. It’s spectacular.”
Senior business manager Worth Wollpert expanded on Goolsbey’s comment, mentioning the return of “old-style” puzzles. Hit the break for it.
“I’ll expand on that,” Wollpert said. “We have a bunch of achievements on XBLA. We have challenges and puzzles that experienced players are going to love. They’re similar to the -- I don’t know if you’re familiar with the old-style Duelists puzzles -- where you’re dropped into a situation and you have to figure your way out of if or get to a specific endpoint within a few moves. They’re a little bit like chess puzzles. The co-op modes online are also really going to be great for entrenched players. We have two-headed giant so that you can play four-player Magic online with your buddies. There’s a ton of stuff for advanced players.”
Of course, there will also be downloadable content. Watch out for the rest of our interview tomorrow and get an idea of what to expect if you plan to purchase
Duels of the Planeswalkers.
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Contest:
11:12 PM on 06.17.2009
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Ugh... XBLA will not let me buy it, marketplace is still bugged...
I was delighted to see the Duelist-style challenges return and this is certainly the prettiest game of Magic I've ever played. My only big disappointment so far is how limited I am at the start of the game. You're tossed into the game with an abysmal green "big creature" deck, which is easily my least favorite type of deck to play. After the first game I figured out how to switch to a red deck, which was significantly better, but I really want to be able to build my own decks to fit my play style (blue with a splash of black, please!).
I hope they release a Vintage/Type 1 set one day. I would love to be able to build absurd combo decks and see what types of turn 1 kills people can come up with. Particularly, I'd love to play with Necropotence, Moxen, and Force of Wills again. I need to stop this before I nerd out more than I already have.
This is seriously stupid and I hope to god they can patch it or something if enough people complain about it (and I'm sure a lot of people will). I was willing to live with all the other limitations of this game, but this is just a little too far.
I really like the coop and how they kept the 1 v 1 v 1 v 1.
Since thats the main type of magic I play
Another addition I would like to see: booster drafts. Especially if you don't have to buy virtual packs--the cards are just one-time use for that tournament.
I tried all day yesterday to d/l Magic (I was off work), and the d/l didn't actually work until I was going to bed. And now I've got crap to do all day today. And then I'm going to be traveling for about the next month. Gah!
I used to be an old Magic lover and I just couldn't get into Culdcept.