Most folks are probably at least aware of Shamus Young’s DM of the Ringsseries. It was the only web comic I’ve ever religiously checked every day, on the off chance the creator was feeling kind and had put up an extra comic. DMotR has long since finished, but Shamus is still out there blogging on various gaming topics.
Shamus started playing World of Warcraft about a month ago, and has been having the same growing pains many of us rookies did in our younger levels. But since Shamus is something of a name in the pen-and-paper gaming Internet circuit, it’s interesting to see what he has to say in his review of WoW.
His first complaint is about low drop rates for quest items — yeah, the eyeless Murlocs of Westfall spring to my mind. Most of the other issues are pretty familiar (bag space,respawns, res sickness). But one that did really stick out for me was a complaint about the in-game day/night cycle. Shamus would prefer a four-hour cycle to Azeroth’s day, so that he could actually see the change. I think it’s a fair point, even if we have heard it before. So, Shamus’s list doesn’t really bring a brand new light to how we view Azeroth, but it’s still an interesting read.
We were so angry with the Writer’s Guild of America strike back when it was messing up Lost, 24 and Ugly Betty…The Daily Show. Now though, we in the video game industry (and appreciators of it) are reaping the rewards with a lot of upcoming games’ scripts having come from the pens of some very talented folk. The latest example is Aliens: Colonial Marines, which Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford recently told ShackNews was being written by Battlestar Galactica’s Bradley Thompson and David Weddle.
Does that mean we can expect the aliens to [insert BSG fan service gag here] or a head marine voiced by [some BSG actor guy goes here]? Also, does it mean that Justin should watch Battlestar if he’s going to be posting about it? Yes. Yes it does.
Tipster Pzychotix has uncovered some new class changes in the latest round of patch notes, and some of them are doozies:
For Druids, the Lifebloom healing coefficient has been reduced. It’ll be interesting to see how much. Rolling Lifeblooms have been the healing method of choice for most discerning trees, but if the nerf is severe enough, perhaps we’ll see some return to Regrowth and Healing Touch. In other changes, Feral Druids are heading further and further to side of agility, with Nurturing Instinct now increasing your healing spells by up to 100% of your agility, and increasing your healing recieved by 20% of your attack power while in Cat Form. This seems like it may make Cat Druids at least a bit less squishy in PvP, if they’re paired with a healer or can find a spare second to duck out of the fray and heal themselves.
Chastise, the spell that replaced Fear Ward for Dwarves and Draenei, has been changed. Now instead of a 2 second disorient, it will provide a 2 second root. In some ways, it is a bit of a nerf since now those affected can still keep attacking, but it will also allow the priest to keep attacking and shouldn’t, in theory, break immediately on a DoT tick or stray AE damage like Chastise did.
Tremor Totem will pulse every 3 seconds now, down from 4, for Shamans. We’ll see how much difference a second makes, but it should at least give a slightly lower chance that a feared ally will run out of range of the totem before it pulses. However, Elemental Shamans will have a harder time chaining Nature’s Swiftness and Elemental Mastery for massive damage, as the two now share a 10 second cooldown.
The Rogue Improved Backstab talent is now renamed Puncturing Wounds, and will increase critical strike chance with Mutilate by 15% at the highest rank as well as increasing Backstab critical strike chance by 30%.
In non-class news, you’ll now not have to deal with a cooldown in transmuting Arcanite.
Edit: One more change that’s been rumored in the past but is now official is that Paladin Turn Undead will be renamed Turn Evil and work against Demons. Felhounds may not make quite the meal of Holy Paladins that they did before.
The changes haven’t actually made it to the Test Server themselves at last check, but since the patch notes are updated, we can probably expect them to go in soon. We’ll be interested to see what the classes themselves think of these, and we’ll be on the lookout for more progressive changes as testing continues. Stay tuned!
Day three and our the final lookg at our collection of people embracing nerd culture to the fullest extent. We’re continually impressed by what we’ve seen here so far with the cosplayers, in both selection and execution. And don’t forget, if you come without a costume, you can always make one out of whatever they’re handing out. Be sure to keep checking out our general PAX 2008 showfloor gallery, which shows you every square foot of what PAX was all about.
Well, the first shaky-cam video anyway. The folks over at Capcom Digital have posted a cell phone video of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix being played by a pair of employees. It’s a classic Ken vs. Ryu match, and even with though it’s low quality footage, it looks like the game is coming along nicely. In short, it’s Street Fighter alright. Capcom Digital notes that this is the remix mode, in which characters have received a few tweaks, though only hardcore players are likely to notice them. Also, note the (optional) remixed music in the background. There really isn’t that much more to say, as the whole HD part is sort of the most important piece of the puzzle. Without a high resolution video, all of that is lost. Still, footage is footage. Enjoy.
Concluding with Jim Lee’s take on Lara Croft, “A Complicated Woman,” the first season of Gametap’s animated “ReVisioned” series is now available in its entirety on the download service. Aside from the rather annoying use of a backslash in the title, the show’s first ten-episode stint was marked by several interpretations of the Tomb Raider heroine from artists such as Peter Chung, Michael Stackpole and Warren Ellis.
Gametap has also announced a partnership with The Hero Initiative — a non-profit organization helping out comic book creators — that will see a second six-episode season of ReVisioned released in December. The focus is to be placed on the “golden age” of Activision, with stylized takes on Kaboom, Pressure Cooker and Pitfall promised from writers like Mark Waid (Flash, Kingdom Come, Legion of Superheroes), John Ostrander (X-Men, Punisher, Star Wars Republic) and Paul Jenkins (Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Civil War: Front Line).
A couple of days ago the European WoW site updated their Wrath of the Lich King page with a couple of new screenshots. If you’re like me, any chance to devour new information about the expansion is welcome. You can see the first new shot at the top of this article and I’ve included the second below.
The first shot looks like a different angle of an area we’ve seen in previous pictures. There doesn’t seem to be a lot we can glean from this photo, but you can see a Forsaken town in the far distance. If I had to guess from the terrain, I’d wager that we’re looking at one of the starter zones, the Howling Fjord. What do you think? See anything I’m missing?
The second shot contains some unknown architecture. While it looks similar to the top of Utgarde Keep, it is different enough to still warrant speculation. What do you think we’re looking at here?
There’s nothing “quick” about having to register three unique IDs to play the Metal Gear Online beta. But, assuming most would-be participants have already got a PlayStation Network account, the real pre-game obstacle has been the Konami ID and its supplementary Game ID. Since the beta (with its laggard update patch) was released for download last Wednesday, the Konami ID registration site has been a case study in how not to prepare for a traffic spike. Thankfully, the site is now back online with a temporary “quick registration” option for those of you eager to push past the bureaucracies and land in some actual gameplay, um, rather, return to the waiting room…
You probably heard about that cool, new World Event that just started today. It’s not related to Hallow’s End, although it seems thematically perfect, doesn’t it? It’s really all part of the Arthas’ plan to invade Azeroth, and I have to say that being part of the Lich King’s army isn’t at all bad…
First, you have to get infected. This is easy to do as there are Conspicuous Crates all over — I clicked on some from Booty Bay — which will give you a 10 minute debuff called ‘You’re Infected!’. The only way to cure the debuff is to be in the vicinity of an Argent Healer [EDIT: It can be cured by Paladins, Priests, and Shamans, too. Those killjoys!], who will heal you automatically with several yards. If you want to serve the Lich King, stay away from the major cities until you get turned. If you don’t get cured within 10 minutes, you will, like me, turn into a zombie!
[UPDATE: If you transform into a zombie, you will need to keep on killing things. Otherwise, you will constantly lose health until you die and return to your normal state. The ability Bite! is a passive effect that happens whenever you attack, so you’ll constantly need to keep attacking. This prevents zombies from traveling very far without killing.]
When you turn into a zombie, you’ll get a whole bunch of unique abilities. The first is Mangle!, which is your basic melee attack on a 3 second cooldown. It’s fairly weak, but the best part of the ability is that it seems to shave minutes off infections. Attacking players or NPCs will infect them, so be ready to spread the plague. Players and NPCs that die with infections will transform into zombies immediately, as will players whose infections run the course naturally or through zombie attacks. With a little cooperation, you’ll soon have a zombie army of your own!
Using their internal Microsoft distribution list the crew over at Channel 10 wrangled up some of the Halo 3 dev team’s best Halo 3 advice and posted a few tips and tricks on how to be a better gamer. The dev’s advice spans the strategy spectrum of “duh, that’s obvious” to “hmm, never thought about that” so beginners and l33t gamers alike should learn something from their insider knowledge. Really, we can nearly guarantee that you’ll be able to pick up a thing or two to add to your Halo 3 pwnage arsenal. Oh, and we totally agree with Jay that “when driving the warthog in combat situation, NEVER STOP.” Truer words have never been spoken.
Most folks are probably at least aware of Shamus Young’s DM of the Rings series. It was the only web comic I’ve ever religiously checked every day, on the off chance the creator was feeling kind and had put up an extra comic. DMotR has long since finished, but Shamus is still out there blogging on various gaming topics.
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