Thing is, Matrix doesn't use any online type DRM. So you download a full game installer that you can back up anywhere, and don't need to worry about downloading again.

I DEFINITELY agree that niche strategy publishers need to do a better job of keeping their prices in line with the age of the game. Cheaper older products give potential new customers a nice price point to buy in and see if they like an older game in a series. That's my big criticism with Matrix, HPS Sims, Shrapnel, etc.

Yes, they definitely should lower their prices to attract new players. I play winSPMBT for years now, but if some "kid" sees this and a modern, say fps, game on sale for the same price...It's not that they are not worth it.

About that Magic card game. Does it work like a tabletop game, only with AI filling the players' slots or what?

Okay, but how many people in the FPS market are really going to say "Oh wait, forget that, I want to play this turn based operational hex strategy game instead!" :) I certainly think the market could be opened up a bit more, but it's not like games like Kharkov : Disaster on the Donets or any of the Squad Battles series are ever going to come within a mile of being mainstream hits, regardless of price. Yeah, I'm a bit surprised Armageddon Empires hasn't dropped in price yet. Solium Infernum is still active and being worked on, but AE has been out for years now.

Last Halloween TF2 has a $2.50 sale so if you don't already own it (boggles the mind!) then you might want to hold on to see if there is something similar. 50% off isn't a huge deal anyway as it is one of the games that is regularly discounted during most Steam sales.

Yep, noticed that after. Agreed -- grab it for $10. Unlocking decks is fun anyway. :)

Sorry for the late reply, it seems the GOG forums didn't inform me of your reply (and I though they'd fixed that bug).

Anyhow, I don't get the impression that it's a pre-order offer. The publisher's worded it to suggest that it's available to all owners of XL after release. They make no mention of whether it's a limited offer or whether it's available at any time. So it may just be available during the first few weeks of release. Of course, we won't know for sure until October 14 when 2011 is supposed to be released.

The offer has nothing to do with Valve by the way, it is, as you say, a "good will" gesture by the new publisher of the series.
Either of you able to show a screen shot of the foils? The ones available on the Steam store don't really show them well.

I have none from the DLC, though I think there are a few of those in the expansion decks. I'll check it out at home and see if I can post a screenshot.

Foil conversions basically change the card textures to a mettalic finish. It looks nice, but it isn't worth money, IMO. YMMV.

I'm just curious. I certainly won't be buying the game. The demo saw to that -- it was just far too annoying for me. Perhaps because I don't know what I'm doing, but also because the AI is bloody annoying no matter the difficulty setting =/

Your site does not list the current gog.com promos.

That would be because GOG completely changed how promos are displayed. The result is that I need to recode the backend for identifying and fetching GOG promos. So it'll probably be a week or two before GOG promos are back. Perhaps longer as the D2D sales listings are also in urgent need of attention. And sadly, my time for coding is severely limited =/

Was there a tutorial for it in the demo? I found it incredibly easy to re-learn with the tutorial. I could mentor you if you like. :)

There was a tutorial yeah, but it didn't really explain much -- but bear in mind, I never played the game in it's original form either.

But I'm not sure how mentoring will work. The main cause for my annoyance was playing three games against the same opponent and watching as it constantly got cards it could attack with, while all I got was land. In one hand, I had 18 land cards played before I got my first attack card -- which the opponent laid waste to with "instant" cards while it was still under "summoning sickness" =S

There is a 'mentoring' mode in the game, if you didn't know. I was referring to that.

Your starting hand is incredibly important to how well you fare. An ideal starting hand has at least two lands and at least one card and one creature you can play with two mana or less. Every now and then the game code seems to mess up and stack a ton of land (at the beginning or during a match). 18 is insane, though -- I've never gotten that many and I've played about 40 hours. But you can mulligan your hand until you get something decent. And if you keep getting crappy hands, just restart the match. Keep in mind some decks are 'speed' decks while others take longer to get going but hit harder when they do.

Summoning sickness applies only to creatures -- all creatures except those with haste cannot attack the same turn they are summoned. Instants, sorcery, etc. -- all of these are unaffected by summoning sickness because they are not living things.

I urge you to give the game a chance. It's very rewarding when you get the hang of it. :)

May be, but so far it feels like the game isn't giving me a chance. Perhaps I'll redownload the demo tomorrow and give it another go. But I tend to play games to relax, not to get annoyed with them =S