tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64015540689235298182024-03-05T17:59:47.477-04:00SaikoGekido's Gaming BlogGaming Vlogs, Blogs, Guides, Glitches, Streams, and DreamsSaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-25151198604917565002015-01-30T17:41:00.001-04:002015-01-30T23:04:06.047-04:00Life Is Strange Episode 1: Review<h3>
UPDATE (21:35 January, 30th)</h3>
The devs at DONTNOD Entertainment just pushed a patch out that addresses some of the graphics bugs (and the weird mouse lag issues in the menus). They are also working on some of the other bugs, but props to them for providing a patch so fast after launch. :: <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/games/319630/announcements/detail/116300968907670508" target="_blank">Patch update 30th January 2015 by Square_Jason</a><br />
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<h4>
TL;DR</h4>
<b>+</b> Amazing story (so far) with a logical break for the end of the episode (cliffhanger ofc, but it's a good stopping point)<br />
<b>+ </b>Stylish artistic direction that makes for some really brilliant scenes<br />
<b>+ </b>Relaxing indie soundtrack<br />
<b>+ </b>Short (about 4 hours), but will leave a lasting impression (well worth the $4.99 USD price tag)<br />
<b>+
</b>World and Friends leaderboards for the decisions, so after the story
you can see how many people were scumbags or did the right thing<br />
<b>+ </b>Full of references to obscure pop culture, nerd culture, and photography<br />
<b>+ </b>Squirrels<br />
<b>-
</b>Minor graphics bugs with some textures, lighting, and lip sync (this
review was written the day after release; played it with an old ATI
Radeon 4650 HD, but looks like other people have the same lip sync bugs)<br />
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<h3>
A true story driven adventure game </h3>
The gameplay involves exploring the life of an 18 year old girl who has returned to her home town to enroll in a prestigious school. The player enters Max's life about two weeks into her classes, when she's still shy and hasn't met anyone. She hasn't even contacted her best friend that she left behind when she originally moved to Oregon. After a life changing event, Max finds out she has the power to reverse time and uses it to save the life of a mysterious punk rock girl. From that point on, the story enters a branching path where the player learns to master Max's newfound ability, while being teased about several mysteries around her old town. Some of the mysteries are grande, like what happened to Rachel and who keeps posting missing flyers everywhere? Some of the mysteries are more personal, like what is going to happen when Max figures out that Warren is so obviously crushing on her? The story is full of characters with mysteries that the player will want so desperately to unravel or save in the most optimal way through rewind, they may realize another layer to the story. Everytime the little butterfly appears in the top left and the game explains "There will be consequences for this action", should you rewind?<br />
<br />
Steam Link :: <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/319630/" target="_blank">http://store.steampowered.com/app/319630/ </a>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-2944159700686690472015-01-19T00:46:00.001-04:002015-01-19T16:35:52.908-04:00H1Z1 Air Drops Onto Survival MMO Gamers' Dreams<b>UPDATE (January 19, 2015)</b><br />
I would like to apologize.
In review of what I have written, this was a hastily put together
reaction piece that is lacking in information, both about the H1Z1 air
drop situation and my own personal opinions. Before I sat down to write,
I had already written three extensive comments on Reddit in response to
the situation. A lot of information on my opinion, especially about
whether or not the air drops can be considered "pay to win", was
contained in those comments. When it was time to write this article, I
had already written the heck out of the topic and was exasperated by the
negative responses. I feel that resulted in a substandard article
lacking in content and context. For a more thorough description of the H1Z1 controversy, I recommend <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdjvahRHdAg#t=07m55s" target="_blank">Totalbiscuit's Content Patch #189</a>. If you would like to read my initial comments on the H1Z1 situation, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/2slh9c/shit_storm_right_now_happening_right_now_at_rh1z1/cnqr4zc" target="_blank">here is my lowest rated Reddit comment ever defending SOE's air drop idea and attempting to establish a difference between it and pay to win</a>, and here is <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/comments/2slbmc/airdrops/cnqnojh" target="_blank">attempt #2</a>, and <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/2slh9c/shit_storm_right_now_happening_right_now_at_rh1z1/cnqrd9o" target="_blank">attempt #3</a>. You may notice a difference in the stance I took on air drops from the article below. There are a couple of ways to view the problem, but my main concern on Reddit was trying to battle the idea that a randomly placed supply crate is pay to win, because allowing that idea to win could set a dangerous precedent for games when it comes to experimenting with their marketplace. It seemed like the majority in vocal opposition to the air drops had this idea that an in game marketplace should only <i>ever </i>sell cosmetic items. Imagine World of Warcraft decided to add a world raid boss or event to the Blizzard store. Pay $40 and a server wide message exclaims "[insertPlayerName] knows not what he has done! An Old God rises from the depths below." The Old God is a challenging fight, on par with the most difficult raids that currently exist, and the end loot is amazing. Does it fit the old model of purchasing items and weaponry? Essentially, it's like the air drop in H1Z1. In H1Z1, a server message is sent out, the drop falls, and then zombies spawn around the drop. The main problem, and difference, is that World of Warcraft is an old, finished, stable(ish) game and H1Z1 is a game in its infancy. The drops don't offer a challenge because they aren't finished testing them. Unfortunately, because they opted for the Early Access program instead of using alpha and beta testers, and they accepted in game purchases, they had this coming. They should have waited a bit before dropping this bombshell on their fans. The original article is below, but, again, I'm sorry that it isn't up to my standards. Please watch the video by Totalbiscuit, linked above, for a better explanation of the H1Z1 events.<br />
<br />
<br />
As someone who occassionally gets into beta tests and alphas to scout ahead of the pack, I noticed that those opportunities started drying up when people started literally paying to test a game, Early Access. There are a million reasons why that is silly for the consumer to do, but it's also silly for the company to do, and here <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/295110/" target="_blank">H1Z1</a> is a perfect example.<br />
<br />
The air drop thing is a big issue to consumers, bigger than it should be. To the developers, this was their alpha testing phase. Things aren't going to work right, fine. The whole purpose is to work out the kinks before release. In most Early Access games where there are kinks (see DayZ for the past, what, 5 years?) people have come to accept it, so why not this time?<br />
<br />
<b>Early Access + In Game Marketplace = Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy???</b><br />
<br />
There are a lot of people mad about the devs going back on their word about paid for weapon drops and how it ruins the survival part of their <i>survival</i> MMO. This isn't the first time that an Early Access game has had a game breaking bug, and it isn't the first one to employ a marketplace, but it is the first majorly anticipated game to accept <i>$20-$40 USD</i> to purchase an untested feature. A feature that goes against the genre of the game.<br />
<br />
Survival MMO's are supposed to create a near impossible scenario for the player to overcome. If there was a zombie apocalypse, how screwed or prepared would you be? The type of people that like to answer that question are the type of people that would like to play a good wholesome survival MMO. And PVPers. Broken mess that DayZ is, it wouldn't have been anything if it wasn't for the hilarious PVP videos made by popular streamers like <a href="http://www.destiny.gg/" target="_blank">Destiny</a> of StarCraft II and Planetary Annihilation fame.<br />
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<br />
Air drops do not fit into this mold. Not as a paid for transaction. As a server event, if the drops happen regularly at specific drop points, like in a real disaster, it would fit the setting better. And if they didn't drop guns and ammunition, that would be great! Seriously, who puts together a care package that includes food, water, and whatever random gun they have lying around? I know it's the zombie apocalypse, but that's exactly why people shouldn't be handed guns. In every zombie apocalypse movie, someone gets a gun that shouldn't have had a gun, and they start murdering people (living people). A big point, and part of the tension in those stories, is managing the weapons and making sure they don't fall into the wrong hands. In response to the outcry, the devs have lowered the spawn rate of guns in the drops and down a few other patches to how they work. To that point, the devs have said that they are going to continue tweaking the current model of air drops with no significant change as to how they function, possibly until they drive away every last consumer and their game forever festers as another example of a failure of the Early Access systemSaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-83465949128857091762014-10-24T14:23:00.001-03:002014-10-25T01:21:22.284-03:00League of Legends Hexakill TutorialHexakill is a new game mode available for a limited time as part of <a href="http://promo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/harrowing-2014/" target="_blank">The Harrowing</a> event in League of Legends. It uses the 3v3 map, Twisted Treeline, and doubles the amount of players to a 6v6. Chaos ensues. <br />
<h3>
Champions with an Advantage</h3>
There are many champions that are good in the original 3v3 form of Twisted Treeline, but this section focuses on the champions that get a little more oomph out of having more targets available.<br />
<h4>
List of Champions with Abilities that Benefit from Multiple Champions</h4>
These champions have abilities with multipliers based on the number of champion targets available. Not listed here are champions who have abilities that are capped at certain amounts (more on that later). Edit for Clarity: The increase in most cases is usually a very small amount, but relevant enough to mention. For example, Wukong gains a max of 8 more armor than usual from his passive. Poppy, however, gets complete immunity from 5 targets instead of 4 for a medium duration, which is rather exceptional.<br />
<ul>
<li>Galio</li>
<li>Irelia</li>
<li>Jarvan IV</li>
<li>Maokai</li>
<li>Poppy</li>
<li>Wukong</li>
</ul>
<h4>
List of Champions with Resets</h4>
These champions have abilities that reset when enemies are killed. They benefit heavily from additional Champion targets, if they get the kill or assist. Edit for New Information: After many matches, the following champions have proven to be deciding factors in getting closest to achieving a Hexakill. (A runner up, without resets, would be a Twisted Fate that my team chased in a straight line through the jungle and he kited them to death. Good times!)<br />
<ul>
<li>Akali</li>
<li>Darius</li>
<li>Katarina</li>
<li>Karma</li>
<li>Kha'Zix</li>
<li>Master Yi</li>
<li>Tristana</li>
</ul>
<h3>
Champions with a Disadvantage</h3>
These champions have abilities that are balanced around the 5v5 Summoner's Rift map. Their ultimates are capped and are <strike>much</strike> less effective with more Champions to hit. Edit for Clarity: The following champions are at a theoretical technical disadvantage. In practice, having more targets grouped more closely together in the claustrophobic passageways of the Twisted Treeline can actually cause their ults to benefit more (except Fiora sans Tiamat).<br />
<ul>
<li>Evelynn </li>
<li>Brand</li>
<li>Fiora</li>
<li>Swain</li>
<li>Kennen</li>
</ul>
A notable exception to this is Irelia, who has a target cap on her passive, but 40% tenacity is still godly.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Items</h3>
There are many different items on the Twisted Treeline. None of them were changed for Hexakill. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the major changes.<br />
<ul>
<li>Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass are replaced by Wooglet's Witchcap</li>
<li>Infinity Edge is replaced by Lord Van Damm's Pillager</li>
<li>Bloodthirster is replaced by Sanguine Blade</li>
</ul>
Additionally there are many more items with a vision ability available. The Active on the items reveals a large nearby area that you target, including invisible enemies and enemies hiding in brush. They also upgrade to reveal enemy traps, like Teemo Shrooms. <br />
<br />
<u>There are no wards.</u><br />
<h3>
The Map</h3>
The size of the map is much smaller than Summoner's Rift, and even Dominion's Crystal Scar. The size allows travel between lanes with greater speed, but all paths are through the jungle. Since wards are not available, control of the jungle can be a major turning point.<br />
Walls are also much thicker in many areas of the map, meaning they can't be jumped or flashed over as easily. Usually, the tips of a thick wall can be flashed over if aiming at an angle, but it is risky business. The back of each minion pit can also be flashed over.<br />
Edit for Additional Information: There is a larger amount of space between the turrets than in Summoner's Rift. This can make ambushes especially deadly and escapes more difficult. If trying to use flash to escape, remember the above information about the walls and how close you will need to be for the flash to be successful. Also, keep that in mind for ganking ;)<br />
<h3>
Vilemaw </h3>
Vilemaw can be taken down much more quickly by 6 people than by 3 in order to take advantage of her buff and gold. There is nothing different about her for Hexakill, but here is a quick rundown. <br />
Instead of Baron Nashor, there is Vilemaw. Vilemaw has a lot of HP and 4 different abilities: a normal attack, an AOE close range smash, a long range fissure attack, and a web attack that pulls all Champions in the pit to the center. Additionally, she has a passive that strips armor and magic resist with every attack.<br />
Vilemaw does have a pattern. Like the Baron, she will focus the closest target. If the closest target is far away, she will Fissure or Web. Sometimes, she will also fissure if Champions stand in a line. Whoever is tanking Vilemaw needs to stand close, and whoever doesn't want to get hit needs to stand anywhere but behind the Tank.<br />
When Vilemaw is slain, she will give your entire team a buff called Crest of Crushing Wrath which grants cooldown reduction, attack speed, and some health and mana regeneration.<br />
<h3>
GLHF</h3>
SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-15485443397838343312014-10-08T12:04:00.001-03:002014-10-08T12:34:04.253-03:00Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha Final Phase ImpressionsAfter a week of expected maintenance, <a href="http://blizzard.com/" target="_blank">Blizzard </a>has successfully launched the final phase of the <a href="http://battle.net/heroes//" target="_blank">Heroes of the Storm</a> Technical Alpha.<br />
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<h3>
What Changed?</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
There were a few small bug fixes but two very major, very important changes were implemented.<br />
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<h4>
Accounts Reset</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
All Technical Alpha accounts had their gold refunded and purchases refunded to their Battle.net account balances. All levels gained during the previous technical alpha were lost, both hero levels and account levels. However, Blizzard has stated that this is the last reset of the Alpha, meaning all future purchases and levels gained will carry over into the finished game.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Server Regions</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
Previously, the Technical Alpha took place on a server under heavy load to stress test and work out any problems that could happen from server load. After months of testing, they had the Technical Alpha server running stable enough that they could proceed to set up the regional servers.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The Good and the Bad</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
<h4>
Technical Alpha Headstart and Hero Levels</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<b>The Good</b><br />
Technical Alpha players have a lot to teach new players.<br />
<b>The Bad</b><br />
Technical Alpha players are going to absolutely murder new players when the game goes full launch.<br />
<br />
Players in the technical alpha had a head start in personal experience with the game, and now they will have a clear headstart in levels and heroes acquired in the game. The hero leveling system locks the use of abilities on heroes until a certain level is reached with that hero. Heroes unlock all of their abilities after about 4 games. However, during those 4 games, they are playing as a handicapped version of that hero. There has been a lot of debate about the purpose of the leveling system and whether it is fair to handicap new players off the bat. An argument for the system is that it prevents new players from feeling overwhelmed by choices and presents them with a specific build path for a hero before opening up the whole kit. An argument against the system is that it unnecessarily handicaps the player in a team based game, and thus handicaps the team. Other arguments against the system include: it affects heroes purchased with real money, 4 games is an arbitrary amount to have to play, and the order in which talents unlock does not make sense on some heroes. In the end, the personal experience will matter more than the levels when it comes to technical alpha players having a headstart, and the level issue is more of a fundamental game design decision that may be changed before release.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Server Regions!</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<b>The Good</b><br />
Lower latency and more communication between players.<br />
<b>The Bad</b><br />
People switching regions can more easily disrupt matches.<br />
<br />
If you have ever played a game with people who do not speak your language, you know how important it is to have proper server regions. When setup right, players are matched with people similar enough in culture that they can communicate more clearly with each other and work together more easily. If you have played a lot of <a href="http://blog.dota2.com/" target="_blank">DotA2</a>, you know that server regions don't always work out that way. It is too early to tell if Blizzard has it set up in such a way that people from other regions aren't forced to switch regions to get a better queue.<br />
<h3>
More Information</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
Official Blizzard Post :: <a href="http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/16204865/technical-alpha-is-back-online-10-7-2014" target="_blank">Technical Alpha is Back Online!</a><br />
<br />
<h3>
Shameless YouTube Plug</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
I am currently uploading Part 7 of my Clive Barker's Undying playthrough. Check it out on my channel :: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/SaikoGekido" target="_blank">SaikoGekido Gaming</a>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-26293589559093282442014-07-26T13:30:00.000-03:002014-07-26T13:30:08.725-03:00Sonic Boom E3 Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/LA74s799uaY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
I grew up with Sonic. I watched both of the cartoons, the super serious
one with freedom fighters versus Robuttnik and the super cartoony one
that I remember every time I see a chilli dog. As soon as Sonic started
talking in this trailer, it reminded me of the cartoons. Which is no
surprise, since they are working on a cartoon to release alongside it,
and because <a href="http://brbent.com/" target="_blank">Big Red Button Entertainment</a> was founded by one of the lead
art directors from Naughty Dog, <a href="http://www.bobrafei.com/" target="_blank">Bob Rafei</a>. You can really see the resemblance to past works in <a href="http://arcadesushi.com/sega-reveals-new-sonic-boom-characters/" target="_blank">these character character concepts released on Arcade Sushi</a>. Having wrote that, there is an issue I have with the new look for
Knuckles. When I picture Knuckles, I think of a laid back trickster who
is heavily implied to have themes related to Jamaica. They changed him
over the years to be more like a treasure hunter, with Rogue as his
foil, but now he has massive, continent sized pectorals. In my prejudice
mind, the first reaction to him is that he looks like a dumb, angry
meat head, as is often the case when considering how people with
prominently displayed muscles are portrayed via television tropes. The
other concern I have is the gameplay. People are parroting "watch out,
Sonic 06", but I'm getting more of a Shadow the Hedgehog vibe from this.
Shadow was an okay game, except that the level design was terrible. You
would go fast until you reached a point where going fast was no longer
an option and you had to shoot enemies. The enemies weren't as
interesting as going fast, making every time you were stopped an
annoying, similar to the feeling of being stuck in traffic. The trailer
was short, so it isn't fair to critique the gameplay, but there were
fighting segments and going fast segments. The pacing of those will be
key.<br /><br />It will be interesting to see what happens in this story and find out
how the characters have changed in personality, but there are some
legitimate concerns. <a href="http://www.sonicthehedgehog.com/en/sonic-boom/" target="_blank">Sonic Boom</a> is set to release on the WiiU and Nintendo 3DS in November 2014.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-34347783882835065772014-03-29T12:26:00.001-03:002014-03-30T16:18:55.060-03:00WildStar Beta: Testing Customer Service<div>
Beta testing is not a free ride into a video game. There is a social responsibility as the gaming pioneer to report back to your peers, and to the company producing the game, with news of your discoveries. It is not about glory and privilege, but service to the community and to future customers. Streaming has made it relatively easy to satisfy community curiosity about the performance and features of a product, but an important part of any product deployment is the infrastructure to handle customer feedback on a mass scale, which can not be so easily streamed. I am going to do my best to illustrate my experience with NCSoft, the creators of WildStar, and their customer service department.</div>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Welcome to the exciting world of WildStar Customer Service</span></h3>
<div>
Yesterday, I received an email.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbJ71ZyE3J-PPRF739BmCQOLjXSOqd3yrodtvR7B8PB7fznIvR0W6fqg8iarqjrHDZoDx0X31SPWcSGiyxKjZjSl4rJMpP4AUosvtU0gldO3HO4ef2699PyJFsWFH1IwvjAcgeta4pAY/s1600/WildStarEmail.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidbJ71ZyE3J-PPRF739BmCQOLjXSOqd3yrodtvR7B8PB7fznIvR0W6fqg8iarqjrHDZoDx0X31SPWcSGiyxKjZjSl4rJMpP4AUosvtU0gldO3HO4ef2699PyJFsWFH1IwvjAcgeta4pAY/s1600/WildStarEmail.png" height="267" width="400" /></a></div>
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Awesome! I had been waiting for months to get my hands on this game. The rumor mill from the closed beta was that it was a "decent WoW clone" with some action elements, like SWTOR was at launch. NCSoft was trying to keep people from getting that idea in there head, because being called a WoW clone can kill an MMO before launch. Personally, I was excited to get a chance to find out the truth. Is WildStar really another "WoW clone", or is there hidden depth under that cartoony exterior?</div>
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Before going into a game, especially a beta, it is important to know the history of the developer. NCSoft has been around for a while. City of Heroes was made by Paragon Studios and NCSoft in 2005, around the same time as their other famous franchise, Guild Wars. City of Heroes had a relatively long run for an MMO. Shortly after the release of Guild Wars 2, City of Heroes was shut down. NCSoft closed the servers and basically told one of their oldest fan communities to deal with it. While I only played a week or two of that game, keep their story in mind while reading the rest of this article.</div>
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Following the instructions in the email, I went to login to my NCSoft account. It took me a little while to remember the password, but I was finally greeted with this message:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpadSxRDaNyq3U4j03xaqQ9ZeIN20aPFCKEIDen-MH0VlfVaBhN0HiMrSbOQ8KnDmV0wP5x6CWeNafg4e5vY9UViJjlqb7S6UjmAfqnLmm6A7AC7du4a738ydd2LYHvzDYXQeGx7qWBe8/s1600/WildStarEmail.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpadSxRDaNyq3U4j03xaqQ9ZeIN20aPFCKEIDen-MH0VlfVaBhN0HiMrSbOQ8KnDmV0wP5x6CWeNafg4e5vY9UViJjlqb7S6UjmAfqnLmm6A7AC7du4a738ydd2LYHvzDYXQeGx7qWBe8/s1600/WildStarEmail.png" height="288" width="400" /></a></div>
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Huh... Well that is interesting, since the last game I remembered playing an NCSoft game was Guild Wars 2 and I had two step verification set up for it. There was the possibility that I had another account with NCSoft, but why would any of them be permanently blocked? Was I hacked? Where was an email about this? I found an email asking me to fill out a survey about NCSoft customer service dealing with this exact issue around 2010. I decide to contact customer service.</div>
<h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Why is a raven like a writing desk?</span></h3>
<div>
The <a href="http://us.ncsoft.com/en/support/" target="_blank">North American Support page</a> is composed of banners of their still active North American games with links to their individual support pages. However, my issue was an NCSoft Account issue, not a game related issue, so going to a specific database would not make sense, right? Wrong. But we will get to that. Poking around the page, looking for a phone number, I discovered something amazing:</div>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">NCSoft does not have a North American customer support line.</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPaxLpz9dLihfB_GIc241r0Kg3_mLjhu266Dwqdv42JGBagz-Cd13xB9laXMK9R5-CtsCmcYLqzkPkqzKxuhSxMaTQvY-H1XZoMkVINjW_I2aCq7NmDw16AQBjLKZUihn-3wAmkxkTEw/s1600/GlobalSupport.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPaxLpz9dLihfB_GIc241r0Kg3_mLjhu266Dwqdv42JGBagz-Cd13xB9laXMK9R5-CtsCmcYLqzkPkqzKxuhSxMaTQvY-H1XZoMkVINjW_I2aCq7NmDw16AQBjLKZUihn-3wAmkxkTEw/s1600/GlobalSupport.png" height="290" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
There is a customer support line for Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan, but America only gets a link back to the support page. Wow. I persisted and found the fraud line, but that also did not make sense for my type of problem. What about a customer support email? They do not mention one on their site, but I tried support@ncsoft.com at the request of a friend on Twitch.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy72xfOlkK8dCDVjs9iDbxJyvBi9fXKEXWPmWCkkzZWXT-bTQIfbfzlcHbLRfeiEHWKbwRnSgvC_a_nq0202PIpNatehsF9vcPqEHpXYQ6FKXPnt4rwiv8J4yzogrmAkuYlathsLwlK1Y/s1600/NCSoftSupport.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy72xfOlkK8dCDVjs9iDbxJyvBi9fXKEXWPmWCkkzZWXT-bTQIfbfzlcHbLRfeiEHWKbwRnSgvC_a_nq0202PIpNatehsF9vcPqEHpXYQ6FKXPnt4rwiv8J4yzogrmAkuYlathsLwlK1Y/s1600/NCSoftSupport.png" height="273" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
At that point, I started streaming on <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/saikogekido" target="_blank">my Twitch channel</a>. In the chat, a very helpful person (I'm sorry, but I forgot your username, was it woke_up_sleepy?) tried to brainstorm with me. They gave me links to the WildStar twitter and NCSoft Support Twitter, which I tweeted to twy and get help. WildStar Twitter replied before NCSoft Support did (I am still waiting for an NCSoft Support reply):</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH7M_JKbUKv8ef5z5GeWvRQWijeA4PWsVmQ9KpOCLnfdnMCMw9E22ZHiERCtJ2Wary9FV48Bw2-OBX1wdUGyoKex9okA-yN3weuvviiUm5BxlkJJYg2LRHX-EwMXGoVXPH_kgbor005I0/s1600/WildStarTweet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH7M_JKbUKv8ef5z5GeWvRQWijeA4PWsVmQ9KpOCLnfdnMCMw9E22ZHiERCtJ2Wary9FV48Bw2-OBX1wdUGyoKex9okA-yN3weuvviiUm5BxlkJJYg2LRHX-EwMXGoVXPH_kgbor005I0/s1600/WildStarTweet.png" height="306" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
Note to self, update twitter picture.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anyway, that link was specifically <a href="https://support.wildstar-online.com/home" target="_blank">the support page for WildStar</a>. At this point, I have given up on logic and believe there is no way I can fix the problem. I start ranting about it to people on my stream that came from <a href="http://destiny.gg/">destiny.gg</a>.<span style="color: #38761d;"> > MFW, in mid rant, I stumbled upon the solution</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.majhost.com/gallery/EvilGuy/phpbb/disbelief.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.majhost.com/gallery/EvilGuy/phpbb/disbelief.gif" /></a></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Want to remove the permanent block on your NCSoft Account?</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Step 1: Discover you have a problem. Accepting you have a problem is the first step to fixing it, since you are not going to receive an email from NCSoft about it.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Step 2: Are you a North American resident just trying to play Guild Wars 2 and don't care about WildStar? It doesn't matter. Since NCSoft does not have a centralized support page for North American account support, you will need to go to </span><a href="https://support.wildstar-online.com/home" target="_blank">WildStar Support</a>. In theory, this might work in one of the other support pages, but that would be logical, and we now know logic has no power here.</div>
<div>
Step 3: Notice that the main page says that you need to login to send a ticket to ask them why you can't login. Lose part of your brain cells. Go to the bottom of the page and select <a href="https://support.wildstar-online.com/categories/20110358-Login-Support" target="_blank">Login Support</a>.</div>
<div>
Step 4: Search for "Account permanently blocked". Your results should look like this:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcs3zp4zMRI17zTpgQVW_rjtVFchG0wfH_Ve_POpJSHwMTRF3yReMali4OtbSAhVtNSv9kg7rbD9AL2Fy5nmCGikvRACuaUfAq4aDm-0ccmaY02DpNGShq_i7VqApMp_6Nl1CK_oFvGQI/s1600/AccountPermBlocked.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcs3zp4zMRI17zTpgQVW_rjtVFchG0wfH_Ve_POpJSHwMTRF3yReMali4OtbSAhVtNSv9kg7rbD9AL2Fy5nmCGikvRACuaUfAq4aDm-0ccmaY02DpNGShq_i7VqApMp_6Nl1CK_oFvGQI/s1600/AccountPermBlocked.png" height="288" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
Step 5: Click <a href="https://support.wildstar-online.com/entries/41320387-I-m-having-trouble-logging-in-to-my-NC-Account" target="_blank">"I'm having trouble logging in to my NC Account"</a>. I suppose that is one way of saying, my account has been permanently blocked. Shouldn't there be an article specifically about that? Logic.</div>
<div>
Step 6: First it asks you to try resetting your password. Another dead end. Nope! The next sentence has a link to a page specifically for submitting tickets without being logged in! This must be the solution!<br />
<br />
EDIT: If you have Guild Wars 2, their support page has access to ticket submission at the top. However, you will need a lot more information. They may even ask for the serial key you used to activate Guild Wars 2. </div>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Or is it?</span></h3>
<div>
Depending on how you view automated replies, I am about four to five emails deep into the investigation of what NCSoft did to my account. First, one GM said that my account was blocked back in 2010, and had City of Heroes on it, but not Guild Wars 2. I asked if it could be under any of my other emails and gave them a list. This is the latest email:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiAyYAl7NQWlUkHslcTWhga4lhUFPW1kah8u7JnX75nlEtj41HvCu-cdXuBVEw0yqLkapYo6ABnUO4AwD7nLnWRPKRJjOrb-YBnJ-uNQAh1q25ExQoKkNQqJ_T10DmbpjEFHWYhty_Sc/s1600/TheEnd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiAyYAl7NQWlUkHslcTWhga4lhUFPW1kah8u7JnX75nlEtj41HvCu-cdXuBVEw0yqLkapYo6ABnUO4AwD7nLnWRPKRJjOrb-YBnJ-uNQAh1q25ExQoKkNQqJ_T10DmbpjEFHWYhty_Sc/s1600/TheEnd.png" height="340" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
In case you were wondering, both of those links redirect to the NA Support page that asks which game you want support for.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Good news is, I can join the beta. <b>The bad news is that my account no longer has Guild Wars 2</b>, possibly losing it during account transitions to the new system. I am going to keep trying to find out what exactly has happened and sort out this mess, but this is all of the information I have after one day. If it all gets sorted out, I will update, but there are some main points here that I feel are important to get out to people.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
NCSoft is about to launch another brand new massively multiplayer game in North America and they do not have the customer service aspect worked out. You can submit tickets, if you find the proper link in their knowledge base, but there is no phone number for customer support. Although I did not go into depth about this, I did try to call the fraud line to see if I could get redirected to a hidden customer support number. It went straight to voicemail with directions for reporting fraudulent activity. If your account gets hacked you<i> leave a message</i> with your account info and spoken email address and they will call you back during the week, or you can send them an email. According to several forums that I found while searching for a solution to my issue, the fraud line used to have a different number that was also for account support, not just billing. Those forums also had their own stories of trying to sort out similar situations with NCSoft: <a href="http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=654822" target="_blank">Example 1</a> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/WildStar/comments/1ved8e/help_i_just_logged_into_my_ncsoft_account_but_its/" target="_blank">Example 2</a> <a href="http://forums.na.aiononline.com/na/showthread.php?t=12246" target="_blank">Example 3</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As far as beta testing goes, I have not even been able to try out WildStar, but I have already found some major glitches in the system. All it would take is a server outage on day one, or even more people finding out their accounts were messed up during the June transition, to completely ruin the game. Unless NCSoft sorts the problems with their North American customer support, they could be in for a very rocky launch.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">UPDATE March 29th 12:56 PM</span></h3>
Using the Guild Wars 2 support ticket system mentioned in an edit above, they were able to find my Guild Wars 2 account. I still don't know what is going on with my SaikoGekido account. Sounds like most of the problem is solved, right? Not even close! My GW2 account does not count as an NCSoft account. I still need to get the SaikoGekido account back up and running.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">UPDATE March 29th 3:06 PM</span></h3>
I heard back from Guild Wars 2 support:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2c47eIrHIVW_EpgTGy4Y8qQUXP_kjwy-AHkk2ObZbeGy8q6KBxdvH1HB3BmXscWZczmjOybAXyr5TvEUH6cfDp8H-EplcKECPtWSx0_FBTA_KR6G9r13Bu8njD8d1NkaSVmNDgp_VhaQ/s1600/Confirmation.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2c47eIrHIVW_EpgTGy4Y8qQUXP_kjwy-AHkk2ObZbeGy8q6KBxdvH1HB3BmXscWZczmjOybAXyr5TvEUH6cfDp8H-EplcKECPtWSx0_FBTA_KR6G9r13Bu8njD8d1NkaSVmNDgp_VhaQ/s1600/Confirmation.png" height="351" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One mystery solved, but we still do not have a clear answer on how to restore my NCSOFT account. Waiting for a reply from my latest message to WildStar support, but I am also going to try sending another message back to Guild Wars 2 support, since they have been more helpful.</div>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">UPDATE March 29th 8:19 PM</span></h3>
Still no word from WildStar support, but I have another email from Guild Wars 2 support:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8J0YusFsPjTQD4APc6KK4TNAm0c19r2ndYnkJSJo0GmkHDLM2R_CHQJoQMURdn9By5_kg8CzTg3Ggti1QCXhirZwAWejPkepYAMxritPbwaKDnBizq6548d-yJuD6a3k3VWuAB12Yy3w/s1600/uwotmate.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8J0YusFsPjTQD4APc6KK4TNAm0c19r2ndYnkJSJo0GmkHDLM2R_CHQJoQMURdn9By5_kg8CzTg3Ggti1QCXhirZwAWejPkepYAMxritPbwaKDnBizq6548d-yJuD6a3k3VWuAB12Yy3w/s1600/uwotmate.png" height="400" width="347" /></a></div>
Quick recap: Guild Wars 2 just helped me reset the password on my Guild Wars 2 account, but they can't help me get my SaikoGekido NCSOFT master account because there are no games associated with it. Because I can't log in to my NCSOFT master account I can not add any games to it and upgrade it to the new master account format. The simple, obvious, solution to this mess would be to add my Guild Wars 2 account to SaikoGekido and have it unblocked, but it sounds like it needs to be unblocked before anything can be added to it, but it can't be unblocked because it can't be accessed because it is in the old format of the account system. This is the eighth email, and not the first time that NCSOFT support has said that exact top paragraph. I sent a reply to see if I could at least get the name from my old master account. Again, no word from WildStar support and no word from the tweet at NCSOFT Support's twitter.<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">FINAL UPDATE March 30th 3:05 PM</span></h3>
</div>
<div>
WildStar Support replied to my email:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Xm1mJ8NuPsGuFD9fqeFV1EVK-Jy-E7471ZihGssuCpU9rDBefdfIVWFhJDPGGhaXM5tctFfkiEBYgZEr1zedYG9VYHtJouPtuV239GlMQkGVshaF1HYh418B3XYvp7tlHg5z9NugoyY/s1600/FinalEmail.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Xm1mJ8NuPsGuFD9fqeFV1EVK-Jy-E7471ZihGssuCpU9rDBefdfIVWFhJDPGGhaXM5tctFfkiEBYgZEr1zedYG9VYHtJouPtuV239GlMQkGVshaF1HYh418B3XYvp7tlHg5z9NugoyY/s1600/FinalEmail.png" height="400" width="380" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the end, trying to get my SaikoGekido account unblocked and upgraded to the new system means creating a new account and then migrating the information from the old account to the new one. I still do not know if that is even possible, since previous emails said that I would need active games associated with an NCSOFT Account in order to make the account eligible for upgrade to a NC Account. Even though Guild Wars 2 is an NCSOFT game, it does not use the NC Account or NCSOFT Master Account system, so it can not be linked to the NCSOFT Master Account to give that account an active game to make it eligible for upgrade to the new system. Keep in mind, the changes from NCSOFT Master Account to NC Account just happened in June, without any major releases from NCSOFT. People unaware of these changes that had old NCSOFT Master Accounts with issues like mine are going to run into the same problems I did. Because NCSOFT's customer support system is maze of mirrors, I am going to make sense of all of this and create a followup post to help anyone that has the same problem. That should not be necessary.</div>
SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-19144593988207317612013-03-23T18:39:00.000-03:002013-03-23T18:39:48.129-03:00Steam Weekend: Natural Selection 2 - First ImpressionsThere is a very strong possibility that we will discover extraterrestrial life within the span of the next century. As a people, we have had a long time to think about what's out there, and come up with a million variations. Very few of these ideas are able to tear through a marine base like an Onos.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://imageshack.us/a/img96/6404/onos1024x768.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://imageshack.us/a/img96/6404/onos1024x768.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Onos (pictured left, in case you missed it) about to tear through a marine sans base.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<a href="http://unknownworlds.com/" target="_blank">Unknown Worlds Entertainment</a>
has created a unique shooter, based on a mod for Half-Life of the same
name. Players pick either Marine or Alien and duke it out in a unique
game mode like a cross between domination and StarCraft. One person from
each side chooses to become a commander before the match begins, and is
granted special necessary powers to assist their team. At the same
time, the commander's death is the victory condition of the opposing
team, which makes them the most scrutinized player on the team.<br />
<br />
The other players on each team choose roles through in game options. Marines have access to an Armory to switch out various guns, as well as a prototype lab, later in the game, to acquire jet packs and mobile armors. Aliens have access to evolutionary traits and several specialized species. All of these weapons and genetic blueprints cost Res(short for resource). Res is acquired through various in game actions, but primarily through killing other players. Base objectives reward a large sum, but the Res per minute is higher from going on a spree. It sounds snowbally, but the expenditure of Res is kept in check by your commander's progress.<br />
<br />
The commander has an RTS perspective on the match and spends the majority building structures to aid the other players. There are very few units directly controlled by the commander. This reinforces the teamwork aspect of the game, but it also has the down side of players not always knowing what a commander is doing. Anyone that has played a team oriented online game that matches people anonymously can figure out where this leads to: <b>RAGE.</b><br />
<br />
Players having a bad game will turn on their commander and attempt to vote kick them. Fortunately, it takes more than a few votes to kick someone out of the command chair. Otherwise it would be like France during the 1800's. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://wiki.theplaz.com/w/images/thumb/French_Revolution_Guillotine.gif/300px-French_Revolution_Guillotine.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://wiki.theplaz.com/w/images/thumb/French_Revolution_Guillotine.gif/300px-French_Revolution_Guillotine.gif" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Perhaps now you will understand what I meant when I called for a drop."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>ACTUAL ADVICE TIME: </b>I'll share with you what a player I met named Nightmare taught me. If you're the Alien Commander, spread cysts quickly to plant harvesters. Grab a second hive ASAP, then research Celerity and begin building more upgrade structures. Second upgrade should be Carapace, and then go crazy from there. Oh and someone kept shouting about Lerks needing their upgrades (which requires two hives).<br />
<br />
What I learned playing against Nightmare as a Marine Commander is that you also want to expand quickly. Res acquisition can not be underestimated, especially when it comes to marine upgrades. The armor and weapon upgrades are perhaps the best expenditure of Res a marine commander can do, so try and time your Res expenditure to have enough for each upgrade when the previous tier finishes. I like going armor first, because marines are much squishier than they look. For build order, I like to rush Shotgun (Armory then Res for Shotgun research), as it gives a big advantage, early on. Then Observatory, Arms, weapons/armor research, flamethrower and Robot Factory. If you get the second base, get the Prototype Facility and research jet packs. Jet pack + shotgun/flamethrower make skulks trivial. Most likely, it will get to late game when everything has been researched except the last two expensive armor/weapon upgrades. Work on those and spend the rest in Tanks. They are really useful for assaulting and one of the few ways to have a direct impact on the battlefield.<br />
<br />
In case you can't tell, I liked being a Marine Commander more than an Alien Commander. I don't think there's anything wrong with the Alien Commander game play style, so much as it is a personal preference. Speaking of personal preference, playing an alien was a lot more fun than playing a marine. The sense of speed with the aliens is intense, which also meaning less wandering around not sure if there's going to be someone around the corner. Instead, it is running past that corner and the person and then turning around and chomping on them before either of you know exactly what is happening. Add ceiling climbing in and the possibilities are endless, although many of them involve face-hugging marines.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/4920/" target="_blank">Natural Selection 2</a> is currently on sale for 50% off on Steam and is free to try until 1PM PDT Sunday.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-64778622141972238392012-09-10T19:53:00.002-03:002012-09-12T20:24:52.029-03:00Valve's Big Picture Requirements<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/p1Uddhpv98c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
Years of rumors about a Valve funded console have finally culminated in the release of Big Picture. Big Picture is a new interface for the Steam service that will allow the user to connect their PC to their TV. It only requires the installation of the normal Steam Client onto a fairly standard spec PC, and a connection to the TV through HDMI.<br />
<br />
<b>GRAPHICS CARD & CABLES</b><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The CPU requirements are fairly minimal. Either a 3GHz single core processor, or a 2GHz dual core processor. Most machines newer than 5 years will probably have one of these. The price of cards with HDMI ports and the price of cables have gone down drastically. Pictured below is a $34.99 graphics card from Officemax that meets the recommended requirements for Big Picture. It doesn't say whether it comes with an HDMI cable, or just a DVI with VGA adapter, so there's a second link below that for surprisingly cheap HDMI cables. A two pack of 6ft cables for $14.98 through Sams Club.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<a href="http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000005217789&pid=23342376&adurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.officemax.com%2Ftechnology%2Fperipherals%2Fgraphics-video-cards%2Fproduct-prod4020730%3Fcm_mmc%3DPerformics-_-Technology-_-DIY%2520Computer%2520Parts-_-Graphics%2520and%2520Video%2520Cards%26ci_src%3D14110944%26ci_sku%3D23342376&usg=AFHzDLtiI91PWXfH09R7PcCm704J_6W-uA&pubid=544494" rel="nofollow">EVGA e-GeForce 8400 GS PCI Express 2.0 512MB DDR3 512-P3-1300-LR (Google Affiliate Ad)</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000024781945&pid=sku7534156&adurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.samsclub.com%2Fsams%2Fvizio-6-premium-high-speed-hdmi-cable-2-pack%2Fprod6970108.ip%3Fpid%3D_DoubleClick_Affiliates%26ci_src%3D15781033%26ci_sku%3Dsku7534156&usg=AFHzDLtUecFdCK0S-EEKPNXj2HHud1Q2uA&pubid=544494" rel="nofollow">6FT Premium High-Speed HDMI Cable 2-Pack - TV Cables & Accessories (Google Affiliate Ad)</a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>CONTROLLERS</b><br />
Additionally, Big Picture adds increased functionality through a 360 gamepad or Logitech game pad. They've created a method typing with a combination of the analog stick and face buttons called the Daisywheel. It's rather fluid and easy to understand. Keeping that in mind, there's also a web browser included for taking use of the new controller style. The end goal is to allow people who have preference for a controller to not be forced to use a keyboard and vice versa. Everything in Big Picture can be done with a keyboard and mouse, as well.<br />
<br />
If you need a controller, for most people I suggest a wireless 360 controller. They're fairly inexpensive, coming in at under $39 from Sams Club. If that's still too much, or you prefer a controller more like a Playstation's, there are a few Logitech pads that are cheaper, including the F310 listed third among the links. However, that pad is not wireless, so keep that in mind.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000024781945&pid=sku2124189&adurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.samsclub.com%2Fsams%2Fmicrosoft-wireless-controller-black-xbox-360%2Fprod1720146.ip%3Fpid%3D_DoubleClick_Affiliates%26ci_src%3D15781033%26ci_sku%3Dsku2124189&usg=AFHzDLs6NniO01YYYSxXkMuc5LxwgSIxXQ&pubid=544494" rel="nofollow">Microsoft Wireless Controller - Black -Xbox 360 - Xbox 360 Gear & (Google Affiliate Ad)</a><br />
<a href="http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000024781945&pid=sku6704017&adurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.samsclub.com%2Fsams%2Fmicrosoft-wireless-controller-black-xbox-360%2Fprod1720146.ip%3Fpid%3D_DoubleClick_Affiliates%26ci_src%3D15781033%26ci_sku%3Dsku6704017&usg=AFHzDLurn1RV0VaSKOCIi3Wlo1F0v8KUBg&pubid=544494" rel="nofollow">Microsoft Xbox 360 Special Edition White Wireless Controller - Xbox (Google Affiliate Ad)</a><br />
<br />
If using a wired controller isn't an issue, and you care more about having the coolest controller in the room, but don't want to break the bank, go with the Razer Onza. At about the same price as the above wireless controllers, the Onza has a 15 foot cable, which should be more than long enough to reach your couch, plus extra customizable buttons, an ergonomic design, and it's from a very reliable brand.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<a href="http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000024781945&pid=sku3994071&adurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.samsclub.com%2Fsams%2Frazer-onza-professional-gaming-controller-xbox360%2Fprod3570078.ip%3Fpid%3D_DoubleClick_Affiliates%26ci_src%3D15781033%26ci_sku%3Dsku3994071&usg=AFHzDLt_huqA0ZLD827AwkfKxKmCwkxk3Q&pubid=544494" rel="nofollow">Razer Onza Professional Gaming Controller - Xbox 360 - Xbox 360 (Google Affiliate Ad)</a><br />
<br />
That is their lowest end controller that I could find, and they just get better form there.<br />
<br />
<b>ADDITIONAL </b><i><strike>PYLONS</strike></i><b> SHOPPING REQUIRED</b><br />
You should be good to go, now. If you need more parts or want to shop around a bit, I'd suggest <a href="http://www.newegg.com/" target="_blank">Newegg</a>. They have pretty much everything, and it's fairly easy to use their search features to narrow down what you're looking for.<br />
<br />
Good luck, and let me know how your Big Picture set up turns out.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-89055310155762016892012-09-01T05:43:00.001-03:002012-09-01T05:43:10.847-03:00Space Nuke Test Ad Revenue Stolen by tseriesbhakti - The Seedy Underbelly of YouTube Reposting this from my Reddit account so more people will see it:<br />
<br />
Many of you may remember a post in <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/z4zag/til_that_in_1962_american_scientists_detonated_an/">[TIL from yesterday about an H-Bomb detonation in space]</a>. In the blog article, there was an embedded YouTube video of the declassified US footage. That video was hosted on talkingsticktb's YouTube channel.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/z4zag/til_that_in_1962_american_scientists_detonated_an/c61l22u">[At least a few people]</a> that went to the video page were confused by something in the bottom right of the description: "contains content from tseriesbhakti". I'm sure most of you are familiar with what that means, but for anyone outside of letsplay, it means that tseriesbhakti claimed that the video contained his copyrighted material, and that YouTube allowed it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tseriesbhakti">[Tseriesbhakti]</a> is an Indian music artist. This is a video of declassified US nuclear tests. Fishy, fishy, fishy.<br /><br />To confirm what everyone was thinking, I messaged talkingsticktv to inquire about the copyright claim from tseries. As it turns out, talkingsticktv uploaded it without placing ads in the video. Tseriesbhakti saw this and claimed copyright on the public domain footage. Nothing illegal here, technically. However, <b>there's nothing talkingsticktv can do to get the claim off the video.</b><br /><br />Talkingsticktv uploads a lot of public domain footage, so this isn't the first time that a video was sniped. In the past, they tried to contest the sniped video copyright claim to get the ads off, and <b>received a strike against their account.</b> This is completely unacceptable. If I host content on my channel, I want to be able to control that content. I don't want a large YouTube network partner coming in and taking a proverbial crap on my front lawn, and when the police show up, they hand <i>me</i> a ticket.<br /><br /><b>TL;DR:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>talkingsticktv uploaded a public domain video to their channel</li>
<li>It made it to Reddit front page</li>
<li>tseriesbhakti claimed copyright on the public domain video that is hosted on talkingsticktv</li>
<li>tseriesbhakti is currently getting all of the ad revenue from that video</li>
<li>talkingsticktv can't do anything about it, because the last time they tried, YouTube/Google gave their account a mark</li>
</ul>
<br /><a href="http://imgur.com/a/oi5aH">[Here is the conversation between talkingsticktv and myself]</a>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-81091475292085718882012-08-26T22:31:00.005-03:002012-08-26T22:31:59.675-03:00MLGrama - Curse and Dignitas Disqualified - Destiny Leaves MLG Day 1The final culmination of the <a href="http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/live">Major League Gaming</a> (MLG) Raleigh <a href="http://www.leagueoflegends.com/">League of Legends</a> tournament ended with <a href="http://www.team-dignitas.org/teams/League-of-Legends">Dignitas</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TeamCurse">Curse</a> in a surprising face off. Surprising to most, anyway. Although they had met and agreed on one of their matches being an <a href="http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Custom_game#All_Random_All_Mid">ARAM</a> match, a non traditional game mode where players pick random champions and face off in a single lane instead of three, that was merely the tip of the iceberg. MLG was actually okay with the ARAM match, which was an interesting and unexpected twist to the Finals. What they were not okay with was both teams publicly talking about splitting the prize pool, which <a href="https://twitter.com/SirScoots/status/239815006034743297">SirScoots overheard and tweeted about</a>. In response, both teams have been disqualified. They will not receive any of the tournament points that <a href="http://www.riotgames.com/">Riot Games</a>, creator of League of Legends, keeps track of for their Season 2 tourney, nor will a first or second place be awarded for MLG Raleigh. [EDIT: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXOpt86zVJ0">Curse has released an apology video</a>]<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.destinysc2.com/">ROOTDestiny</a>, a <a href="http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Zerg">Zerg</a> <a href="http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/">StarCraft 2</a> player and member of <a href="http://root-gaming.com/">Team ROOT</a>, left the Starcraft 2 MLG Raleigh tournament shortly into it over a personal emergency. Allegedly, one of his friends by the name of <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/profile.php?user=Bluetea">Bluetea</a> sent nude pictures of herself to Destiny at some point in the past. He later showed them, in a private conversation, to a few friends over <a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a>. Someone in the conversation sent the chat logs via an anonymous e-mail address to Bluetea. Outraged, she attempted to contact Destiny, but could not get in touch with him before MLG. Taking advantage of a password that she had for Destiny's e-mail from when she helped schedule his training sessions, Bluetea logged into his public Twitter and posted pictures of his penis that she had in a folder on her computer. Finding out what she did, Destiny left the tournament to take care of personal matters that came up as a result of these events.<br />
<br />
Sources:<br />
[<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/an-important-message-regarding-mlg-summer-championship-league-of-legends/">An Important Message Regarding MLG Summer Championship League of Legends</a>]</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">[<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/yt1a8/to_spare_erin_heres_whats_going_on/">To spare Erin, here's what's going on</a>]</span></span></span>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-20161954763201188682012-08-26T13:02:00.000-03:002012-08-26T13:02:30.731-03:00SG's Hurricane Survival GuideWith Isaac about to touch down, this is the perfect time for a long time Floridian to share his considerable Hurricane survival knowledge.<br />
<br />
Step 1 :: Make sure you're not standing in a place that can be easily struck by lightning before proceeding.<br />
<br />
Step 2 :: Form your hand into a fist.<br />
<br />
Step 3 :: Raise it up above your head while glaring at the nearest clouds, preferably through a window. <br />
<br />
Step 4 :: Move your fist forward and backward, similar to a shaking motion.<br />
<br />
Optional :: Curse your favorite despicable Gods/Demons/etc. Remember Step 1.<br />
<br />
That's about it. You are now fully prepared for everything that hurricane can throw at you. And I mean that <i>literally</i>. Watch out for trees.<br />
<br />
If you still feel like there's more you want to do to prepare, the government has provided an extremely useful <a href="http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/lib1/nhclib/20101StopHurResourceGuide.pdf">One Stop Hurricane Resource Guide</a> to alleviate your anxiety. Aw, look at how happy that family is in the picture on the cover! Do they not realize that their home will probably be destroyed? Oh, check out page 1. That dog isn't going to make it. Looks as light as a football.<br />
<br />
Seriously though, good luck everybody!SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-49208601623121903752012-08-25T13:09:00.004-03:002012-08-25T13:11:27.956-03:00Technical Support : Maintaining League of LegendsIf you have been playing League of Legends for a while, you may have run into a few instances where the game fails to launch or loads slowly. The solutions to most of those problems can be found <a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=52018">here</a>, but today we're going to be discussing how to properly maintain your League of Legends installation to prevent these sorts of bugs from happening.<br />
<br />
<b>Proper Maintenance</b><br />
League of Legends frequently updates, which can cause a lot of fragmentation and a fairly high chance for corrupted files. This is not bad programming or anything like that, it's just basically how Windows works. In fact, LoL uses some pre-existing Windows programs to help it run. The most important of which is <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/air.html">Adobe AIR</a>.<br />
<br />
AIR is the platform for the LoL Launcher. Think of it as a sort of browser. Keeping it up to date with the latest version can help prevent many launcher related issues. There is a method to determine which version of Adobe AIR that is currently installed in your system ( <a href="http://helpx.adobe.com/air/kb/determine-version-air-runtime.html">found here</a> ), but it's just as simple to go to the web site below and install the latest version.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://get.adobe.com/air/">Download Adobe AIR Installer</a><br />
<br />
<b>Other Software</b><br />
Fragmentation. This has been the bane of Windows for a millennium (or almost 30 years). The way to combat this is through defragmentation utility programs. There is one that ships with Windows, but there are a lot better alternatives. Two of my favorites are:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html">Advanced System Care</a>, or ASC for short, is made by <a href="http://www.iobit.com/">IOBit</a>, and is a suite of repair and maintenance programs for your entire computer. It can help fix more than just League of Legends, and is extremely easy to use. You can use the free version to scan your system once a week, or buy the pro version to allow it to run in the background and perform automated services for you as well as giving you access to a few more programs in its Toolbox to configure your internet for maximum speed.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.piriform.com/defraggler">Defraggler</a> comes from <a href="http://www.piriform.com/">Piriform</a>, the developers of <a href="http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner">CCleaner</a>. Defraggler is sleek and a bit faster than ASC. It also allows you to target a single folder for defrag by right clicking the folder and selecting the option in the drop down menu. On top of that, the free version won't hound you to upgrade it like ASC free sometimes will. The pro version comes with a year of tech support and automated updates, but if you're going to go that route, spring for the package deal with CCleaner Professional to get the most out of your purchase. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html">Game Booster</a> is a subset of ASC. This is deceptively more advanced than the last two programs. It has five main functions:<br />
<ul>
<li><u>Boosting</u> - What the program is most known for. Using this before starting a game can be a huge help to many people. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Everytime you boost, it shuts down background services and defragments your ram. When you end your boost, it restarts the services. This has a tendency to restart programs that you don't want to reopen, like iTunes. Extended use also appears to have a negative impact on the system, so don't use this feature unless you know how to customize your services.</li>
<li><u>Defragging</u> - When it first installs, it creates a catalogue of all of the games on your computer. This allows you to boost and launch a program with a click, but also to defrag specific installations, like Defraggler can.</li>
<li><u>Tweaking</u> - The functionality of this feature is similar to what the main ASC program offers as part of the scan. It checks system settings to make sure they're optimized, and checks virtual memory settings. Run this once, and again whenever Game Booster updates.</li>
<li><u>Checking Drivers</u> - Game Booster can check to make sure that all of your drivers are up to date, which is important, but this is another feature that needs to be handled with care. If you bought your computer from Dell, HP, etc. use their support site to download the latest drivers for your system instead. A lot of the time, those companies use proprietary drivers in their machines which may not be detected properly by Game Booster.</li>
<li><u>Diagnose</u> - This is extremely useful if you run into any major errors. This won't fix the problem, but it will create a detailed log of your system that you can copy and paste to tech forums. This will provide almost all of the information that tech support will need, regarding your system configuration. <b>For League of Legends, there are separate log files that will also need to be uploaded when using the forums</b>. Details about where to find those are <a href="https://support.leagueoflegends.com/entries/20076987-league-of-legends-logs">here</a>.</li>
</ul>
You can find Game Booster in the Toolbox tab of ASC,
or download it separate for free.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-SystemCare/3000-2086_4-10407614.html">Download Advanced System Care</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download">Download Defraggler</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.iobit.com/gameboosterupdate.html">Download Game Booster </a><br />
<br />
<b>Optional</b><br />
At the top of the League of Legends Launcher is a button that looks like
two gears. Click that and it should open a tiny window within your
window with an option for Repair. Repair checks all of your League of
Legend files against the most current files on the server. It will
locate corrupt files that can cause a lot of the major issues. It's
mainly used for taking care of issues without having to reinstall the
entire program, but it doesn't hurt to run this once a month when you're
heading to bed or work. Most often, it's not going to find any issues,
but even that can help maintain <i>your own</i> piece of mind.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-31940615167840892082012-08-22T18:52:00.001-03:002012-08-22T18:52:09.715-03:00Syndra Preview Analysis<b>Syndra, the Dark Sovereign</b>, is the next League of Legends champion to be released in the next patch, barring any additional testing that might be required before the due date. From the early build, it looks like Riot has her tech fully implemented, but is busy balancing the numbers to prevent another Zyra incident. For the current numbers (which will probably change by release) check <a href="http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Syndra_the_Dark_Sovereign">here.</a><br />
<br />
Her abilities are fairly interesting:<br />
<br />
<b>Q</b> creates a sphere at a target location. The sphere appears at the location, dealing damage in an AoE, and remains in that position for a few seconds. Currently, it's possible to have 3 spheres out at a time from her Q. <br />
<br />
<b>W</b> is a dual activation ability changing after the first time you press it. It allows Syndra to pick up a sphere or minion. The sphere or minion will be dragged slightly behind Syndra. Upon activating the ability a second time, she can throw the minion or sphere to a target location to deal damage and Slow in an AoE.<br />
<br />
<b>E </b>deals damage in a cone and pushes enemies hit away a certain distance based upon how close they are to Syndra. It also launches any spheres, which will deal additional magic damage and stun enemies hit.<br />
<br />
<b>R</b> generates three spheres and picks up any additional spheres in the area, then launches them at a target opponent for massive single target damage. Currently, the maximum damage of this ability is at Veigar levels of damage, but it does require a setting up 3 spheres and using R before the spheres disappear.<br />
<br />
<b>Her passive</b> increases the power of all her other abilities when they reach their rank 5. Her Q has an increase in damage on champions, her W becomes an AoE Knock Up and Slow, her E conal area increases in size. Her R does not currently benefit from her passive.<br />
<br />
Syndra has a play style similar to Orianna. Her ability to zone is her strong point in lane, and the amount of set up for her ultimate ensures that her most effective usage will be in poke comps. Poke comps revolve around laying siege to an opponent and whittling down their HP from out of range of the opponent's ability to retaliate. The amount of range she can achieve with her Q, and her Q and E combination, and the amount of set up required for her R to reach full potential, make her ideal for this strategy.<br />
<br />
Check out the <a href="http://youtu.be/3A92uCc7fHY">Yogscast interview with Paul Bellezza</a> for more information about Syndra, Dominion, and, of course, Poppy.<br />
<br />
Sources:<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/3A92uCc7fHY">[Gamescom - Riot Games Interview - Syndra Preview] </a><br />
<div class="article_title">
<a href="http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/syndra-dark-sovereign-revealed-gamescom">[<span class="title">Syndra, the Dark Sovereign, Revealed at Gamescom]</span></a></div>
SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-69581438276495942532012-08-21T19:08:00.002-03:002012-08-21T19:09:30.077-03:00Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.4 Notes - Simplified<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"> Patch 1.0.4 is live on the Americas realm. Below is a simplified look at the notes, boiling them down to buffs and nerfs for classes. The other areas, such as the Auction House and Battle.net have a few major changes and several minor changes. Consider this the highlights of the patch notes. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">You can read the full patch notes <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7029347/Patch_104_Now_Live-8_20_2012">here. </a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Auction House</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Major
Changes -</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
The first thing you'll notice upon opening the new Auction House (referred to
as the AH), is that the number of searchable item property fields has been
doubled. The initial limit on the fields was a design choice towards the end of
development to force players to focus on a few stats instead of trying to find
items with 6 perfect stats. In practice, it just made it really hard for
players to find items with 6 perfect stats. This is probably the biggest change
to the AH that most people will find useful.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
The second major change is the ability to cancel auctions if there are no
current bids on the item. This is extremely useful for most players that are
trying to clear out their inventory quickly, but are having a tough time with
the 10 item auction limit. Now, if they have an item that's been up for a day
without bids, they can take it down and re-auction it at a better price. This
also shouldn't impact bargain bid snipers, who wait till the last minute to get
the best deals. Bidding on the item will lock it out from being canceled, so
those bid wars will proceed as planned.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Minor Changes
-</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Several item properties that existed on items but were not searchable, such as
Attack Speed on Quivers, are now searchable properties. Reduced Level
Requirement items will show up properly in item level searches. Before, you
would need to search for level 60 items with a minimum Reduced Level
Requirement of 10 or what have you. The compare tooltip is working in several
more areas, but there's still no stat comparison underneath. Finally, the
listing price of unsold items will appear on the completed page, which should
help out all those people that don't create Excel spreadsheets to operate the
AH.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Battle.net</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Major
Changes -</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
None.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Minor
Changes -</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Mousing over a Quick Join game will display all the players in the game in a
new window, as well as the amount of open slots. Reporting for Spam will now
automatically decline the message. Before, you would have to manually decline
the spammer after reporting them.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bosses</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Maghda :</b>
A new interaction. Her insect projectiles can be slowed. They're already
slow... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Ghom :</b>
Nerfed. Gas cloud spawn time increased. Less damage to minions. Invulnerable
bug fix.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Cydaea :</b>
Minor bug fix.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Azmodan
: </b>A new interaction. The slow moving fireball of death can now be affected
by slows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Izual : </b>Several
bug fixes, especially with his charge ability. It was sometimes not damaging
players, or damaging them twice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Rakanoth
:</b> Bug fix. Fully immune to CC during enrage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Diablo :
</b>Leaves players in the Shadow Realm, even if they defeat Shadow Diablo,
because why wouldn't he/she/it? Just kidding. Only minor cosmetic bug fixes,
and an exploit nerf on monks using seven sided strike to avoid Shadow Clone
creation.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Classes</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Barbarian -</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<b><u>Buffs :</u></b> Damage buffs to </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bash </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ancient Spear </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cleave </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hammer of the Ancients </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rend, Seismic Slam </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Weapon Throw </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whirlwind</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leap can now be used while CC'd, but
won't break the CC. For instance you can Leap while Jailed, but you're still
Jailed where you land.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Nerfs :</u></b> Proc coefficient nerfs to </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hammer of the Ancients </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Overpower (No longer procs on hit effects)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Demon
Hunter -</b></span></div>
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<b><u>Buffs :</u></b> Damage buffs to </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bola Shot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chakram</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cluster Arrow</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Entangling Shot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Evasive Fire</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Impale</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rain of Vengeance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rapid Fire</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sentry</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Smoke Screen (Choking Gas Rune)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Strafe</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Vault (Trail of Cinders Rune)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cost lowered on Multishot. Brooding
healing no longer paused by taking damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Nerfs :</u></b> Proc coefficient nerfs to </span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Caltrops (no longer triggers on hit effects)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chakram</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Grenades</span></li>
</ul>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Monk -</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Buffs :</u></b> Damage buffs to</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Exploding Palm</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lashing Tail Kick</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven-Sided Strike</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tempest Rush</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wave of Light</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Spirit generation increased on
Crippling Wave, Way of the Hundred Fists, The Guardian's Path Two-Handed Weapon
specialization and Exalted Soul now generates 1 Spirit per second. Cyclone
Strike can now trigger on hit effects. Duration of Sweeping Wind Master of Wind
Rune doubled to 20 seconds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Nerfs :</u></b> Fixed the exploding palm exploit that allowed Monks to gain multiple
rare drops by exploding all mobs in a Champion or Rare pack simultaneously.
Mystic Ally can no longer trigger on hit effects.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Witch
Doctor -</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<u><b>Buffs :</b></u> Damage buffs to</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Acid Cloud</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Corpse Spiders (they now benefit from +Critical Damage)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Firebats</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Firebombs</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gargantuan</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Grasp of the Dead</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Spirit Barrage</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Spirit Walk (Umbral Shock and Severance Runes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Soul Harvest (Vengeful Spirit Rune)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wall of Zombies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Zombie Charger (Leprous Zombie and Wave of Zombies Runes)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Circle
of Life spawn chance increased to 30%. Grave Injustice health and mana gain
doubled. Base Mana regeneration increased by 225% to 45 (ha, bet you got all
excited about that big number). Spellcasting animations have been tightened.
Spirit Vessel form can now walk through monsters and the heal has been
increased(incoming exploits?) Tribal Rites affects Zombie Dogs, Gargantuan, and
Mass Confusion. Pets should now be much more durable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Nerfs :</u></b> Pet coeffecients drastically reduced (Gargantuan can no longer proc
effects). Spirit Vessel duration reduced to 2 seconds. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<u><b>??? :</b></u> Rush of Essence now returns 49 Mana at Level 60, instead of 30% of the
Spirit Spell's cost. Vision Quest redesigned to grant 30% Mana regen instead of
300%, but with a much more forgiving cost. I don't have a level 60 witch doctor
to try these out on, so if anyone knows the answer to whether that's a buff or
nerf, let me know.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Wizard - </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Buffs :</u></b> Damage buffs to</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Arcane Torrent</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Archon (Arcane Destruction Rune)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Diamond Skin (Diamond Shards and Mirror Skin)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Electrocute, Explosive Blast (Time Bomb Runes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hydra (Arcane, Lightning, Frost, and Mammoth Runes)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ice Armor (Jagged Ice Rune), Meteor, Shock Pulse (Fire
Bolts)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Teleport (Calamity Rune)</span></li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They finally fixed the tooltip on Cold Blooded (which has
always affected all damage, but the tooltip said only Cold damage was
increased). Ice Armor has an increased chance to freeze targets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<b><u>Nerfs :</u></b> Proc Coefficient on Energy Twister cut in half. Melee Wizards
take note.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Crafting</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Major
Changes -</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You can craft new Legendaries compliant with the 1.04
changes!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Minor
Changes - </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Blacksmith figured out how to repair items.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Items</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Major
Changes -</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Pretty much every item you find from here on out is going to be much better
than what you would have found in previous patches. Legendary weapons and armor
now have unique properties, and can roll for much higher stats than before.
Remember that all of these changes are not retro active. Items from pre-1.04
are referred to as "Legacy" on the AH. Make sure you aren't scammed
while buying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Minor
Changes -</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Stack size of Gems is now 100 instead of 30. Repair costs reduced by 25%.
Two-Hander stats received a massive buff. Quiver drop rate finally reduced! The
hex code trick to let players identify the stats of of an item before
identifying the item has been fixed. There's a market for unidentified items
that was recently threatened by the mass discovery of this exploit.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Monsters</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>Major
Changes - </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Drop rate from normal monsters increased by 400% of the previous value. Less
bonus bonus health when players co-op. Inferno monster damage and health nerfed
across the board. <b>No more enrage timer.</b> <b>No more Invulnerable Minions.
Shielding Monsters nerfed. Fire Chains nerfed. Arcane Enchanted nerfed.
Nightmarish Monsters can no longer chain fear players.</b> Mortar should no
longer land in the dead zone. Oppressor charge will no longer deal damage to
players twice (bug).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Minor Changes –</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quite a lot of monsters were bugged.
Their bug list is extensive. Some monsters were dealing double damage (like the
Oppressor charge), while some monsters were spawning in weird areas or without
loot.</span></div>
SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-21174318996045406202012-08-20T20:33:00.000-03:002012-08-20T20:35:22.425-03:00Diablo 3 Patch 1.04 Paragon System - The BreakdownIf you haven't read the patch 1.04 preview for the Paragon system, check it out <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6923456/104_Systems_Preview-8_10_2012">here.</a> Most of the relevant information in that article can be found directly below "Introducing the Paragon System". Those bullet points are the bare bones of the system, such as how Paragon levels are gained and what effect they have on the character. Basically, they add Gold Find, Magic Find, and a little bit of the base stats to your character, as well as giving you a slightly cooler looking portrait every 10 Paragon levels.<br />
<br />
Jay Wilson went on to talk about the length of time involved in acquiring the levels, and the solution to the magic find item property issue which has been bugging the community for a while. It should take roughly the same amount of time that it takes for a level 1 Diablo 2 character to reach level 99. This means that reaching Paragon level 100 will take several months for most people.This ties in nicely with the solution to the Magic Find problem.<br />
<br />
There is going to be a cap of 300% Magic Find and Gold Find in 1.04, which does not include Nephalem Valor. At Paragon level 100, the player will naturally reach the cap and only gain a further bonus from Nephalem Valor stacks (reaching a maximum of 450% Magic Find and Gold Find) instead of from items.<br />
<br />
This will help phase out the highly priced Magic Find items on the AH very gradually. A sudden shift could have resulted in economic turmoil. Over the next year, expect Magic Find gear to be phased out of the top tier items as players gain more Paragon.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-28175632845113503602012-08-20T19:45:00.000-03:002012-08-20T20:34:33.817-03:00David Brevik Throws Diablo 3 Creators Under a Bus: Gaming Community Dissapointed That It's Only a Figure of SpeechWhat <a href="http://www.diablowiki.net/Jay_Wilson" target="_blank">Jay Wilson</a> could have said, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brevik" target="_blank">David Brevik</a> certainly has a few points. However, he doesn't know how hard we are working on the item overhaul, the class skill redesigns, and other surprises being released in <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6923456/104_Systems_Preview-8_10_2012" target="_blank">patch 1.04</a>, this very week. There are a lot of gears turning behind the scenes to tackle the issues brought up in that interview. That aside, we shouldn't overreact to this. I feel David was trying his best not to point the finger or accuse us of anything we didn't do. I wish him the best of luck with his upcoming <a href="https://www.marvelheroes.com/" target="_blank">Marvel Heroes MMO</a>."<br />
<br />
What Jay Wilson actually said, "Fuck that loser".<br />
<br />
Sources:<br />
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/08/20/diablo-3-team-spars-with-series-creator-online/" target="_blank">[Diablo 3 Team Spars with Series Creator Online]</a>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-46659878193215930952012-06-03T18:10:00.000-03:002012-06-03T18:28:20.893-03:00Katawa Shoujo Will Change YouHave you ever had a great idea and wished there was someone you could share it with? Apparently, the history of Katawa Shoujo can be traced back to a discussion on 4chan some odd years ago. I don't personally know the full story, but it was a single community effort between anonymous individuals over the internet, collaborating to create pieces of art, fiction, and technology. Their independent efforts, unfettered by the usual corporate bureaucracy involved in video game development, have yielded one of the most immersive and complex stories ever created.<br />
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Without ruining too much of the plot, shortly after the story begins, your character is forced to attend a new school for the disabled by certain life events. Part of the storyline involves your own character dealing with what it means to be disabled, and what normal actually is. Linked into this are the various students you're introduced to. On your first few days, you're given the opportunity to identify with each character and choose whose storyline you would like to follow. There are multiple endings to the story dependent on the choices that you make throughout. I suggest that every time an option arises, you stop and think about it
from the perspective of the main character, and all those affected. By the ending of Act 1, you will have narrowed down the branching paths to a few focused around a character (or two).<br />
<br />
<b>:: SPOILERS AHEAD ::</b><br />
To be fairly honest, I began this game like I usually would with any other bishojo graphic novel, through a shallow metric based on the characters' looks. Most bishojo that I have come across, tend to stick to a few cliche female personalities that are about as interesting as sopping wet cardboard. After reaching the end of Act 1 however, I detected that there was something more to Katawa Shoujo. There was a feeling of deja vu, or more accurately when you recognize someone at a glimpse, but have to double take to scrutinize them more closely. I started over with a new purpose. I searched for the personalities of the characters on a quest to uncover this strange aura around the writing.<br />
<br />
<br />
My Notes on the Characters:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Shizune</b> is the deaf and mute class representative of 3-4. Possessed of a strong personality, she believes in aggression and domination, and takes much pride in these aspects. I rate her as most likely to become an evil dictator. I certainly consider her storyline, but since she is introduced first, I wait to examine the others.</li>
<li><b>Misha</b> is the translator for Shizune. She has a problem keeping the volume of her voice below a shout, which is complimented by her extreme friendless and naivety. I'm not really sure what to make of her off the bat, since she's attached to Shizune, who tends to take control of the conversations. I note that she may have hidden potential, but put her in the back of the list.</li>
<li><b>Hanako </b>was caught in a fire and burned much of her body. My first thoughts when I saw her was that she may be the girl from the opening scene who felt misplaced guilt over Hisao's hospitalization and burned herself in order to attend the same school as him. Her timid personality and phobia of people lends a little bit to this theory, but Lilly mentioned that Hanako's injuries occurred at a younger age. Still, I feel like there's more to her story than just post traumatic stress disorder.</li>
<li><b>Lilly</b> is the blind representative of 3-2, a class for blind or mostly blind students, and mortal enemy of Shizune. They don't fully explain this enmity in Act 1, so it definitely piques my interest. She's the tallest person in the game that isn't a teacher and apparently raised as a proper British lady. She's also one of the few people Hanako trusts, which would mean that there's a great potential for her story to reveal parts of Shizune's and Hanako's respective pasts. There seems to be a lot of potential here.</li>
<li><b>Emi </b>is a track and field runner, sans legs, with an exuberant and childish personality similar to Misha's, but more exaggerated. Despite her disability, she loves to run everywhere, on the track in the morning, rain or shine, and through the halls during the day, much to the ire of taskmaster Shizune. She worries the most about Hisao's health, and encourages him to join her for practice in the mornings. Her dialogue and emotes are the most light hearted of any character in the game. Definitely a storyline that can cheer someone up and very worth considering.</li>
<li>I was immediately repulsed by <b>Rin</b>. It wasn't because she didn't have arms, it's because I'm not a feet person. Again with the shallowness, I know, but feet seriously creep me out for whatever reason. Since she was introduced eating lunch with a fork between her toes, you might not think that she'd be the story I'd be interested in, which is what I felt on my first innocent play through Act 1. However, the second time...</li>
</ul>
<br />
I couldn't place it at first. Rin is an artist that paints with her feet. She's always looking around, looking for things that no one can see, or looking through people at what she imagines of them. I thought she reminded me of an old high school crush I had that was never truly resolved in my life, and that's why I originally chose her path. Perhaps her story would present another way of looking at my own past and understanding it. <br />
<br />
Her story revolves around the concepts of self and identity. Her abstract style of art reflects a tragic search for who she really is, and a conservatory effort to preserve the past selves that she can hardly remember. Consider every scene with her for a long period and you'll discover multiple layers that build up to the fourth wall. Questions bleed over from the game into real life. Are thoughts like clouds, ephemeral and high above the world? What is art? What does it mean to change oneself? Does the previous self have to be destroyed to affect change? What is important in life? <br />
<br />
A strange thing occurred. The main character and I drifted apart in understanding. He became frustrated with her aloof nature, while I began to examine it more closely and came to a truer understanding of why I chose this path. When he began scolding her for the choices he had encouraged her to make, I wanted to defend her against him. Still within the mindset of thinking of her as the analogue of a high school crush, it took me the majority of the game to realize why I wanted to defend her. The way Rin acts, and thinks...<br />
<br />
<i>She's like me.</i><br />
<br />
I know it seems from this long expository that I might be the talkative type, but, in person, my conversations come in torrents or one liners. My thoughts are constantly in flux, often separate from the real world. The subjects of what it means to change and to have an identity are things that I have been wrestling with for years. When I pour myself into a work, it's like a dam is opened and I can finally be me, so long as I continue to draw or write. My memory is like a foggy ocean, full of ghost ships and distracting light houses. Rin is the only character I've known that has come so close to describing who I am.<br />
<br />
More than anything, I wanted her life to work out, and so I took every choice as if they were the most life threatening events in the universe, paused in front of me while I decided on my actions. At that point, I was no longer deciding for Hisao, or for Rin, but instead for myself. The choices were about the themes and the concepts brought up by the narrative and filtered through these characters. Carried by the author's words, I began an introspective journey that deepened as I continued through the game. When I arrived at Rin's good ending in my first try, it was like I had found the path to my own good ending. Now, I just have to figure out what that means.<br />
<br />
Rin may not be the character you choose. Every person is mostly different, after all.<br />
<br />
If you haven't played Katawa Shoujo, you can grab a free copy from their website. Keep in mind that it is aimed at adults, but you can turn off adult scenes in the options menu.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-86264583424814202402012-05-31T10:34:00.000-03:002012-05-31T10:53:03.744-03:00Diablo 3 Review <span id="goog_204588547"></span>Some people play for the story, and some people play for the game. The ones that can keep those two aspects in balance are victorious as great games. Maybe they won't necessarily become best sellers, but they'll definitely be remembered. This is the basic philosophy behind how I review most games. The only difference is in multiplayer games, where the focus is on gameplay and community.<br />
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Diablo 3 is a multiplayer game with single player support. Usually, that's the other way around, but the always on connectivity places a heavy emphasis on playing with friends. If you have to be connected, why not use it? That could make it difficult to make a proper decision, but I have come up with a solution. We'll discuss it as both.<br />
<br />
As a single player game, it offers a rich storyline. The game is oozing with lore. There are ancillary NPCs fully voice acted with their own dialogues about their friends and family which can be interacted with throughout the progression of events. That will go overlooked by many players, because there isn't any need to talk to Villager A who will tell you about life before the fall of Tristram, but for those that wish to delve deeper, there's a lot of substance there. On top of that are the books and monster lore hidden in dungeons and towns. One of the most interesting aspects of this were the diaries left by characters, such as Leah and Cain in Act 1. They will periodically update their entries as the Act goes on. :: MINOR SPOILER When Leah is following you in Act 1, enter her room for some unique audio clips ::<br />
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Gameplay-wise, I have some bones to pick with it. The old click control scheme requires heavy usage of the shift keys to get the most out of it. I had just finished Diablo 2, again, before Diablo 3 came out so that I could get familiar with the controls and storyline, so I'm not sure how clear the shift key usage is to new players, but I didn't notice a useful tooltip for explaining it. I also witnessed my friends playing without the shift key, and dieing a lot. They're making a slow progression through Act 1 Inferno, hampered by this and a few other things. A new idea for the game is making boss monsters actually large. In comparison to D2, the boss monsters take up over 1000% more screen real estate. It looks awesome, but in practice it can cause movement issues with the character, since clicking is both moving and attacking. My friend died to the Butcher in Inferno more than once by getting stuck in a corner and being unable to click past him before dieing.<br />
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As for the skills and abilities, they have a lot of multiplayer potential. The majority are single person buffs or DPS focused, but there are a few, such as the Monk mantras, that are team focused. I'm very interested in the PVP builds that will start coming out in a few months. Already, some broken single player builds have been discovered. Quite cleverly, a Wizard used one ability that reduced all incoming damage to a maximum of 35% of his HP, and another passive that caused him to heal over time. Sacrificing all of his vitality, enemies were hitting him for less than he was healing. Allegedly he managed to solo Diablo on Inferno. What I found the most interesting about this were the statistics for his build. Less than 0.5% of players were using that ridiculously good build. That either means that not a lot of people thought about it, or that there are other builds people are coming out with that are even stronger. The diversity promises to make playing with any new players a learning experience. "Oh, I've never seen that move before. What's it do?"<br />
<br />
Fortunately, the community is large and open. After spending a lot of time lurking r/diablo3 (I avoid GD forums at all costs), I found that most posts are funny light hearted memes, or build discussions and gameplay tips. There are a lot of videos of people showcasing their talents in game, as well as plenty of Error 37 criticism. Playing online, you can expect to find a diverse assortment of people, but don't expect too much discussion during gameplay, because it's pretty hard to type and use the mouse at the same time. Look for places like <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/diablo3" target="_blank">r/diablo3</a> and <a href="http://www.diablofans.com/" target="_blank">diablofans.com</a> for real discussions.<br />
<br />
It's a tough call, but I'd have to say that Diablo 3 is a pretty good game. The gameplay is familiar to veterans, though not perfect, and the skills and abilities have a lot of potential for discovery and unique builds. The community is awesome, but you're not going to be talking much while playing, and the lore is astoundingly vast. The biggest bone I have to pick with Diablo 3, I can't really talk about. I don't want to spoil the main plot for anyone, but the characterization and ending leave much to be desired.<br />
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Overall :: 4/5<br />
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/nwcEW.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="84" src="http://i.imgur.com/nwcEW.png" width="640" /></a></div>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-75404032806548456902012-05-25T17:54:00.002-03:002012-05-25T19:47:34.836-03:00New Video and Feedback Requested<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm writing a longer form, more serious first impressions of the Firefall Beta, but that won't be out until tomorrow. Tonight, we stream! Okay, maybe you aren't, but I'm going to be on Twitch.tv streaming Tribes Ascend for the Double XP Weekend event. Add SaikoGekido in game, or watch it live.<br />
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There will be a vlog post later tonight about this topic, but I'm curious what the community thinks about my channel. There are a couple of videos up on the chopping block, which I'll reveal in the vlog. Suffice it to say, some of my older content doesn't really look "professional". Especially the COD style League of Legends (LOL) videos.<br />
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I'll update this post with the vlog below when it's finished, or it will come up in your feed if you're subscribed to the channel.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dghzl6jBWyQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe> </div>
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Cya<br />
~ SaikoGekidoSaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-45139471844524964562012-05-21T14:46:00.000-03:002012-05-24T06:37:08.965-03:00Secret World Beta Weekend #2 Day 1You're a member of an elite secret faction imbued with celestial powers, fighting against chthonic forces bent on devouring the world. Sounds a little like the love child of the X-Files and World of Warcraft, which is a fairly accurate description of Funcom's newest MMO.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiogDqskea4hWE8ajbIXFgVuhT7IsOgr12wQbubi2eFdzd6zk5MoDqq7-e8e3aBCq58hdS7wCLTJwk4JFVk_rnUEFjdoK9ZQwdrRfBuXV9WcBYiNd5PzgvjGkUxNlJdwNvi4G1MwkOzuOI/s1600/the-secret-world2.jpg_5b076a068df3c2e957af266fa3005e90.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiogDqskea4hWE8ajbIXFgVuhT7IsOgr12wQbubi2eFdzd6zk5MoDqq7-e8e3aBCq58hdS7wCLTJwk4JFVk_rnUEFjdoK9ZQwdrRfBuXV9WcBYiNd5PzgvjGkUxNlJdwNvi4G1MwkOzuOI/s320/the-secret-world2.jpg_5b076a068df3c2e957af266fa3005e90.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Looks like H.P. Lovecraft. Better get a DNA test, X-Files.</span></div>
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The setting is a mixture of modern science fiction and fantasy, introduced to the player right off the bat by a tiny glowing bee. Have you ever heard those rumors about how we swallow bugs in our sleep without realizing it? That's how they start things off, with a pleasant, skin crawling urban myth. A bee floats into your characters room and casually slips into their mouth. Jolted awake, your coughing character reaches for their jacket, which of
course lights it on fire with arcane energy. Apparently that wasn't a
garden variety bee.<br />
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<iframe bordercolor="#000000" frameborder="0" height="200" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N7433.148119.BLOGGEREN/B6631428.670;sz=200x200;ord=[timestamp]?;lid=41000000005217789;pid=21741518;usg=AFHzDLu3uk9h43Apa_QPPPsBjFnWURMRgA;adurl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.officemax.com%252Foffice-supplies%252Fbreakroom-cleaning%252Fbreakroom-supplies%252Fcandy-snacks%252Fquick-meals%252Fproduct-prod3660177%253Fcm_mmc%253DPerformics-_-Office%252520Supplies-_-Breakroom%252520and%252520Cleaning-_-Breakroom%252520Supplies%2526ci_src%253D14110944%2526ci_sku%253D21741518;pubid=544494;imgsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.officemax.com%2Fcatalog%2Fimages%2F397x353%2F21741518i_01.jpg;width=200;height=177" vspace="0" width="200"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Bumble Bee Tuna anyone?</span></div>
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It was a really well done scene that illustrates how subversive the mystical side of the Secret World's reality really is. It just creeped right on into the character's life while they were sleeping. Skipping forward a few days, your character starts having transcendental indigestion, puking energy all over their apartment like Cyclops on a bender. They obviously haven't been outside in a while, and probably lost their job by this point. It's not really clear on this part of the setting, which I will get into later.<br />
<br />
Another few days and the character has really started to get the hang of their new powers. They're just juggling a tiny energy ball, minding their own business, when there's a knock at the door. Who could that be? Why it's a super secret Templar recruitment agent. She goes through a lengthy exposition detailing the basics of the Secret World to the player, what's expected of the character, hands them a note sealed with a Templar symbol, and ends with a subtle "join or die".<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">I'm no snake doctor, but I'm pretty sure this kills the snake.</span></div>
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A little background about myself before I respond to what just happened. I have been waiting for The Secret World MMO to come out since I heard about it. The modern setting mixed with elements of fantasy and science fiction really appeals to me, because of certain horror books I read as a child and the more recent World of Darkness setting that I really dug into in the early 90's-2000's. There's just something about people living normal every day lives, oblivious to the monstrous terrors of a true reality underneath theirs, which really appeals to me. Basically, I'm going to be hyper critical of the setting, more so than the gameplay.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">NEERRRRRD!!</span></div>
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The setting is fantastic. Of what I've seen, and I only played through a small portion of the beginning London area, but they managed to pull off a really hard feat. The issue with this sort of setting, and it came up a lot in World of Darkness, is that it's based around supernatural creatures, but as if the events were taking place in reality. What that means is that the setting can't exclude mortal characters/NPCs and just showcase a bunch of monsters or super heroes and cool powers. There has to be reminders that normal people exist. That can be as easily pulled off as having casual NPCs meandering around the city, or expendable characters with no idea what's going on, running for their lives from black ichor soaked horrors. However, I would classify this under "World Setting", because it's external of the character.<br />
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The character needs to have a dichotomy of supernaturally imbued badass, and mortal responsibilities. So far, I haven't played enough to understand the nature of what that bee did, but what happened to your character's job? Did they have friends? Allergies? Likes and dislikes? What made them human? That's something I hope there will be more of as I play on. I had a similar discussion with a friend about comic book characters. It's not about the cool powers. They're certainly eye grabbers, but the long time readers keep reading because of the characters. They get attached to the personality. My character is mute. And I know why.<br />
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Funcom has placed their excellent setting into a classical MMO build. The combat runs like World of Warcraft, Aion, etc. However, there feels like there's a great deal less emphasis on resource management, and more on movement and action. That's one aspect that really held back the old formula, which involved a lot of staring at bars. I was only able to try out the Shotgun, but it had several different abilities that utilized the position of your character and facing requirements. Oh, and no auto-attack!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">But what about white-paw damage?</span></div>
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There is a quest log/mission journal, and quest/mission markers on the mini-map. All the staple improvements of previous Everquest-tier MMOs are included. However, Star Wars: The Old Republic introduced your own character's personal voice acting, which is absent. I think that's really the only complaint I can think of, which popped into my head during the long rambling exposition of the Templar agent. That could have been a moment when any normal person would have spoken up.<br />
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They didn't pull a SWTOR and slave a bunch of voice actors to recite thousands of lines of dialogue. The NPCs are all voiced, and there appears to be in game cutscenes at every juncture of a mission tier, but using a voice actor for a minor character or two that only has a few lines of dialogue is different from getting one to recite nearly every possible reply for every mission in the game. Plus, they would have to implement some system like in SWTOR to accommodate multiple personalities, and really the more we talk about this, the messier it gets. SWTOR didn't even get that formula perfect, and they had EA, millions of dollars, and plenty of development time to work with.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Except replace "no" with "kill him"</span></div>
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Overall, I have some really high hopes for The Secret World. I'm definitely heading back to it in the next Beta Weekend for a second look, and an overview of any major changes. It still has a ways to go before release time, which leaves plenty of time for exciting surprises.<br />
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Check out the recorded footage from Day 1. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/NF1qsZs3u1A?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6401554068923529818.post-49851142994359703402012-05-19T19:47:00.000-03:002012-05-21T15:01:14.793-03:00The Launch That Couldn't Be StoppedThe most peculiar thing happened earlier this week. Millions upon millions of video gamers ran into a DRM (Digital Rights Management) issue, which is oft maligned and treated with grave sincerity when matters of properly purchased software become rendered inert by their arcane forces. DRM requiring the user to have an active internet connection has been seen as the hell spawn of corrupt business practices. Many a game publisher has been guilty of indulging in this practice, and they were all soundly put in their place by the angry barbarous shouts of the gamer horde. All of them except<br />
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<b>Diablo III</b></div>
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There were certainly a bold few to stand up to the challenge of upholding the traditionalist values of gamer society, which say specifically to shun all DRM that makes a game unplayable. On the launch of Diablo 3, millions of gamers attempted to connect to Battle.net and were rejected. The ripple of <a href="http://i.imgur.com/FrL9K.gif">"Error 37"</a> messages blew up Reddit and echoed off Facebook. But these weren't the actions of an enraged mob focused on a publisher, like every previous attempt at a similar DRM. People were mad, because they really, really, <i>really</i> wanted to play Diablo 3.<br />
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When the dam finally broke, and the people were allowed to enter Hell once again, the protest died. No one cared about the online DRM, Diablo 3 was just too good. While this lingering knowledge of obeisance to future publisher treatment is still stuck in every gamer's head that participated in the launch event, the tiny whispers of doubt and fear are just a minor annoyance. <i>If Activision-Blizzard can do it, so can EA and Ubisoft. </i>What if the success of the Lord of Terror reinvigorates these old gamers' adversaries. All new forms of heavy DRM could be let loose upon the masses, hidden in the gorged bellies of beloved franchises. <br />
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Assassin's Creed 3 is perched on the horizon. A bit foreboding, but let's dive away from this topic for a moment.<br />
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The actual game, Diablo 3 that is, seems simple and dumbed down at first glance. Once one delves into the multiple difficulty layers they discover the various abilities they've been sampling have a subtle range of flavor, like the difference between dark chocolate and milk chocolate. The goal is to get fat on loot, but the game must be paced and enjoyed, lest one suffer a heart attack. <b>SPOILER</b> a lot of people may have already suffered at least a headache from the ending. <b>END SPOILER</b> All in all, the game is quite delicious and fulfilling. It was well worth the long wait and even the snooty service.SaikoGekidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04163776324801933554noreply@blogger.com0