So, Starcraft II is now in my possession. Yes, I now own what may be the most important RTS release of the decade.
Now, Starcraft II has been in development for a LONG time. The original was released in 1998 and is recognized as one of the premier strategy games of our time, arguably the greatest, and for sure the longest lasting. With people still playing Starcraft VERY seriously it’s no wonder that a lot of people watched everything that Blizzard did with a lot of criticism.
Blizzard removed LAN, they divided the Single-player into 3 separate games, they require online-activation, the want you online the entire time you’re playing the game, the entire RealID fiasco, etc. Blizzard has had a lot of PR systems that have messed them up, but I think most people are being far too severe.
Starcraft II is amazing. Blizzard is still one of the best Video Game Studios in existence, and they’re still making amazing games. Yes, the game costs $60. Yes, it has online activation, yes you aren’t getting a Zerg or Protoss campaign (YET!) and yes, RealID was arguably the stupidest thing any video game company has ever envisioned, but beyond all of that, beyond all the PR mistakes and Nerd Rage Blizzard has encountered, I think that Blizzard has created a great video game that, assuming Multiplayer Balance, will have the staying power of Starcraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. This is Blizzard people, and I think it’s a bit of a shame they’ve received all the criticism they have. Some of it is valid (RealID, and perhaps even no LAN) but some of it (3 games, Online Activation), I don’t think that’s an issue. Blizzard knows their market and their market is gonna be with how they dealt with everything.
And now, I’m gonna play Starcraft II.
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
L4D2, LoL Rambles
So I’ve been playing gangplank in LoL again, and its been interesting. Gangplank is basically a low tier melee dps, so, in terms of viability at the pro level, he is either just bad, or a very specifically played hero with a very specific role. Gang has 4 spells, of course, but really only his first two are worth anything. His ulti, a big aoe damage/slow isn’t amazing. I mean, it can do some damage, clear creeps, and some different things, but really, its not the best AoE ulti. His first spell, a nuke that deals damage off of his base damage and has a crit chance, is his most important spell, and his second spell, a heal/cleanse, is arguably one of the best spells in the game, it just has a long cooldown. People say that you need a specific rune set for Gangplank, that is, I believe pure critical strike runes, which makes him a harder hero because he doesn’t have the general melee DPS runes. However, I like him. So whatever. Given enough time, I’ll probably go back to Warwick for 3v3.
One thing I have noticed, however is that DPS heroes are really, really strong in TT. Heroes like Mundo and Warwick, which are not near as good in 5v5, its interesting how that is. This is probably because Mundo has a lack of AoE, just lane control with his 1st spell, really.
Oh, and also I’ve been playing a decent bit of Left 4 Dead 2, which is really fun. I find that the campaign mode isn’t as fun as versus, but it’s still pretty good. The best thing is to get a semi-decent group together and play versus, but I enjoy playing randoms some. Mostly though, I just wait to see if friends get on and then run in and try to join a game.
Back to LoL… Season 1 should start anytime soon. Either this Wednesday or next Monday, hopefully the later as I’m gonna travel starting Thursday, and the more time I have sitting still in a house and not traveling in a car the more time I have to play LoL and see how I stack up to other players. I’m really excited about this, even if I’ll probably end up soloqueing most of Season 1 cuz I don’t have a team. I might get some team-queing with my GitP friends, but I find that unlikely.
The thing is… I don’t really know what my ELO, relative to the other LoL players is. I mean, obviously, I’m not an idiot. I know the basics of LoL, I play a few heroes like Warwick really well, I can also do decent as a Ashe (who I admit, is one of the easiest heroes in the game), Heimdeiger (or however you spell it), and Sivir. I haven’t tried some of the more tanky heroes like Alistair and Chogath, which is funny sicne I used to playa OT of tankers in DotA, but I seem to prefer damagers in LoL. I think the thing is, in DotA, I ended up playing to support the team, since we already had really strong mid solos, or damagers, so I played Support. Also, DotA’s support is more prominent, there are not support heroes in the same vein as heroes like Shadow Shaman or Crystal Maiden. First of all, there are not near as many stunners, sure you have lots of disables, but mostly slows, a few stuns, and some blinds, but mostly yes… its slows. Also, the light health heroes, the mages, tend to be damage heavy heroes: Ryze, Annie (who, come to think of it, is a kinda support hero in the vein of warlock in DotA), Karthus, Heim, these are damage heavy mages: Blasters. DotA… you don’t see those kind of heroes because nukers tend to level out in DotA. People play Lion not because of his damage (its nice, but not the main thing) but because he has 2 disables.
Anyways… so I went though the LoL list of “support” heroes, and yes, they are support heroes… but they are a very different kind of support hero. Several of them are tanks, and many others are some sort of strange hybrid damager/support or mage/support (like Zilean, who really should just be classified as LoL’s most annoying harasser/nuker/support/IHATEYOU hero).
So… I should probably stop rambling here. For a short life update I’m reading Shadowline by Glen Cook, and its pretty good, it’s one of his older books, but I really like it. Cook is a great author.
One thing I have noticed, however is that DPS heroes are really, really strong in TT. Heroes like Mundo and Warwick, which are not near as good in 5v5, its interesting how that is. This is probably because Mundo has a lack of AoE, just lane control with his 1st spell, really.
Oh, and also I’ve been playing a decent bit of Left 4 Dead 2, which is really fun. I find that the campaign mode isn’t as fun as versus, but it’s still pretty good. The best thing is to get a semi-decent group together and play versus, but I enjoy playing randoms some. Mostly though, I just wait to see if friends get on and then run in and try to join a game.
Back to LoL… Season 1 should start anytime soon. Either this Wednesday or next Monday, hopefully the later as I’m gonna travel starting Thursday, and the more time I have sitting still in a house and not traveling in a car the more time I have to play LoL and see how I stack up to other players. I’m really excited about this, even if I’ll probably end up soloqueing most of Season 1 cuz I don’t have a team. I might get some team-queing with my GitP friends, but I find that unlikely.
The thing is… I don’t really know what my ELO, relative to the other LoL players is. I mean, obviously, I’m not an idiot. I know the basics of LoL, I play a few heroes like Warwick really well, I can also do decent as a Ashe (who I admit, is one of the easiest heroes in the game), Heimdeiger (or however you spell it), and Sivir. I haven’t tried some of the more tanky heroes like Alistair and Chogath, which is funny sicne I used to playa OT of tankers in DotA, but I seem to prefer damagers in LoL. I think the thing is, in DotA, I ended up playing to support the team, since we already had really strong mid solos, or damagers, so I played Support. Also, DotA’s support is more prominent, there are not support heroes in the same vein as heroes like Shadow Shaman or Crystal Maiden. First of all, there are not near as many stunners, sure you have lots of disables, but mostly slows, a few stuns, and some blinds, but mostly yes… its slows. Also, the light health heroes, the mages, tend to be damage heavy heroes: Ryze, Annie (who, come to think of it, is a kinda support hero in the vein of warlock in DotA), Karthus, Heim, these are damage heavy mages: Blasters. DotA… you don’t see those kind of heroes because nukers tend to level out in DotA. People play Lion not because of his damage (its nice, but not the main thing) but because he has 2 disables.
Anyways… so I went though the LoL list of “support” heroes, and yes, they are support heroes… but they are a very different kind of support hero. Several of them are tanks, and many others are some sort of strange hybrid damager/support or mage/support (like Zilean, who really should just be classified as LoL’s most annoying harasser/nuker/support/IHATEYOU hero).
So… I should probably stop rambling here. For a short life update I’m reading Shadowline by Glen Cook, and its pretty good, it’s one of his older books, but I really like it. Cook is a great author.
Friday, June 25, 2010
DS Games
So I’ve been playing Empire Total War and League of Legends on the computer, which is good stuff, but I’ve also been messing around with three DS games. Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, Disgaea DS and the World Ends with You. I haven’t messed around with the World Ends With You much so I’ll focus on the other two.
First of all, Advance Wars, it’s a really great game and I love it. The campaign mode is interesting and the skirmish mode is really fun, but I think my favorite thing is making crazy maps and playing them against AI. Its advance wars, so you capture towns and factories, build armies, and fight each other on Land, on the Sea, and in the Air. Great stuff. Of course the campaign plot is lame and has far too much heavy-handed morality about the good of humanity or whatever, but the battles are fun.
Disgaea is interesting. The plot, again, is crap. I mean its complete and total crap and I really wish that the Japanese were capable of actually making a RPG with a good plot. Golden Sun came close… and I hear the Final Fantasy has a few good ones, but I’ve yet to see one. However, the gameplay is solid. Basically, it’s a turn-based RPG, lead your squad against the enemy in good old Grid-based, turn based, RPG fashion. What makes it different, really, is the use of geo-thingies, I forget the name, which can alter battle by affecting certain squares and can be destroyed for extra damage. Another cool feature is the combo feature, where if your units are aligned correctly they’ll all get to attack for extra damage.
Anyways, that’s what I’ve been doing as far as Video games go these days. Today I finally got around to seeing Iron Man 2 in Theaters, and I loved it, I’d talk about it more, but I think most people have seen the movie by now. My next movies I really want to see are The Last Airbender (*cough*Avatar*cough*), Predators and maybe Salt, my sister really wants to see Salt, because it looks cool, but I’m not so sold.
And tonight we are going to Applebees, yah! :D
First of all, Advance Wars, it’s a really great game and I love it. The campaign mode is interesting and the skirmish mode is really fun, but I think my favorite thing is making crazy maps and playing them against AI. Its advance wars, so you capture towns and factories, build armies, and fight each other on Land, on the Sea, and in the Air. Great stuff. Of course the campaign plot is lame and has far too much heavy-handed morality about the good of humanity or whatever, but the battles are fun.
Disgaea is interesting. The plot, again, is crap. I mean its complete and total crap and I really wish that the Japanese were capable of actually making a RPG with a good plot. Golden Sun came close… and I hear the Final Fantasy has a few good ones, but I’ve yet to see one. However, the gameplay is solid. Basically, it’s a turn-based RPG, lead your squad against the enemy in good old Grid-based, turn based, RPG fashion. What makes it different, really, is the use of geo-thingies, I forget the name, which can alter battle by affecting certain squares and can be destroyed for extra damage. Another cool feature is the combo feature, where if your units are aligned correctly they’ll all get to attack for extra damage.
Anyways, that’s what I’ve been doing as far as Video games go these days. Today I finally got around to seeing Iron Man 2 in Theaters, and I loved it, I’d talk about it more, but I think most people have seen the movie by now. My next movies I really want to see are The Last Airbender (*cough*Avatar*cough*), Predators and maybe Salt, my sister really wants to see Salt, because it looks cool, but I’m not so sold.
And tonight we are going to Applebees, yah! :D
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Empire Total War II: The AI
So, more thoughts on Empire Total War.
The Total War series greatest failure has always, always, always been its AI. Frankly the AI in Medieval Total War II and Rome Total War never really impressed me. Shogun Total War struck me as hard, but I was a little kid so I can’t really comment. Empire Total War has the same problem that previous total war games have: Bad AI.
Oh sure, the AI can be annoying. In fact the Mughals really did a good job harassing me on account of my weak navy. But once I got a strong navy they kinda… stopped doing that. The Mughals, in their existence, only attacked me once. In twenty years, something like 40+ turns, while I conquered province after province I a slow and steady advance, they only attacked once. I crushed their attack quickly. The real time battles are equally frustrating. It often seems no matter how badly I play I still win. Honestly I don’t mess around with the real time battles too much, but basically if I have about the same soldiers at the enemy, I win. Sure, I do think I beat the Mughals on account of my superior forces in terms of quality, and a well placed charge or flanking attack, but then I played some skirmishes with some various forces and every time I won easily. It wasn’t even difficult… the enemy advanced and I killed them with musket fire and flanking attacks. I don’t think I even played very good, I just kinda messed around.
Having said all this the game has an awesome campaign map. I think they should probably really focus on hammering out the AI, making it equal to games like Civ 4 (the AI is HARD to beat in the game). I don’t even need good real-time battle AI (it’s fun, but time consuming, especially since it’s so easy now to get huge armies). I just want to know what the Mughals did with all their money… I cannot imagine that in the early game I had more money than them, especially with their blockades. Yet they didn’t seem to build many soldiers and my 3 armies slowly conquered their entire empire without a single defeat. Seriously, I think I lost like… 3 battles, all naval, and only 1 against the Mughals (the others were pirates). It was really… really weird.
In other news, I have new speakers, M-3 Audio. Awesome things.
The Total War series greatest failure has always, always, always been its AI. Frankly the AI in Medieval Total War II and Rome Total War never really impressed me. Shogun Total War struck me as hard, but I was a little kid so I can’t really comment. Empire Total War has the same problem that previous total war games have: Bad AI.
Oh sure, the AI can be annoying. In fact the Mughals really did a good job harassing me on account of my weak navy. But once I got a strong navy they kinda… stopped doing that. The Mughals, in their existence, only attacked me once. In twenty years, something like 40+ turns, while I conquered province after province I a slow and steady advance, they only attacked once. I crushed their attack quickly. The real time battles are equally frustrating. It often seems no matter how badly I play I still win. Honestly I don’t mess around with the real time battles too much, but basically if I have about the same soldiers at the enemy, I win. Sure, I do think I beat the Mughals on account of my superior forces in terms of quality, and a well placed charge or flanking attack, but then I played some skirmishes with some various forces and every time I won easily. It wasn’t even difficult… the enemy advanced and I killed them with musket fire and flanking attacks. I don’t think I even played very good, I just kinda messed around.
Having said all this the game has an awesome campaign map. I think they should probably really focus on hammering out the AI, making it equal to games like Civ 4 (the AI is HARD to beat in the game). I don’t even need good real-time battle AI (it’s fun, but time consuming, especially since it’s so easy now to get huge armies). I just want to know what the Mughals did with all their money… I cannot imagine that in the early game I had more money than them, especially with their blockades. Yet they didn’t seem to build many soldiers and my 3 armies slowly conquered their entire empire without a single defeat. Seriously, I think I lost like… 3 battles, all naval, and only 1 against the Mughals (the others were pirates). It was really… really weird.
In other news, I have new speakers, M-3 Audio. Awesome things.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Empire Total War
So I got a new laptop, and, as a result, I can actually play Empire Total War, a game I bought last year that never really worked properly on my old computer. I mean, it worked decently well, but it was really, really, really slow, so I didn’t bother playing it.
So first of all, the basics on Empire Total War. Empire Total War is the 5th game in the Total War Series and is by far the most complicated, though I personally think the combat of Medieval Total War II is better.
Empire Total starts in the year 1700 and goes on till about 1800ish, it’s the time of Napoleon and European Colonization, Gunpowder, Cannon and Steel. You get the picture. The game starts out with gunpowder pretty much entrenched as the primary weapon of infantry in Europe, but with Eastern Powers still relying on swords and pikes somewhat. Calvary are pretty much light cavalry for scouting, screening, and harassing, and Cannon, while still somewhat immobile and inaccurate, are very much have their place.
So the game starts out allowing you to pick several European Nations and then a few odder ones. Obviously nations like Spain, France, and England are pickable, but they also have some others that are less known such as the United Provinces (Netherlands), Russia, and Sweden. Non-European nations include the Ottoman Empire and the Marathas of India.
Medieval Total War II, the previous Total War game, while an improvement over Rome Total War in terms of adding more Religion features, a 3d map, and a very good family tree method however, does not boast of many of the feature of Empire Total War. First of all, Empire Total War is at truly a global game. Players can battle in Europe, India, North America, and even the coast of Africa and the East Indies. Furthermore, provinces no longer have every single factory and farm all in the capital, but spread out over the province. This allows for several things, including raiding actually being somewhat useful. Realistically, several small bands of fast moving units (cavalry?) can run over the map, hit a town, factory or plantation, do damage to it, making unusable for a turn or two, and depriving your opponent of valuable resources. Also, for the first time in the history of the Total War series, Naval Battles are actually playable! I have not fought many of these such battles, and have been told they are somewhat clunky and unrealistic, but they do actually have them, so that is saying something.
The biggest difference I think, from previous Total War games, is the government and how you run your empire. Previous games pretty much worked like an absolute monarchy, sometimes with the King given missions or advice or commands from powerful figures within the government (the Pope, the Senate, the Nobility, etc) but essentially the King/Emperor/the Player had absolute power. His family controlled the government and having a large number of various relatives of semi-competent city-management and army-commanding abilities generally was a good thing.
Empire Total War does provide for an absolute Monarchy for many of its nations, however, it also allows for more modern governments such as a constitutional monarchy or even (I think) a democracy or republic of sorts. Also, because many of these kinds of governments do not look kindly upon dynasty politicians, the family tree of the head of state really doesn’t matter. No one cares if you are royalty in a democracy! As a result, generals are no longer carefully raised and nurtured to have that natural killer instinct, but simply hired and promoted from the ranks or picked out from a list of promising candidates. All of this makes the game a rather different animal than previous Total War games, but I think in a good way.
Anyways, so my personal experience has been rather entertaining. Being the TCK I am I of course decided to play the Marathas of Southern India (who actually traditionally ruled the area of India I was born in) and proceed to conquer the horrible Mughals that oppress my Northern brothers! The Marathas are interesting in comparison to European Nations. Obviously Europeans have more use for Muskets and Cannon, and less for sword and spear, yet I am finding Maratha cavalry to be frighteningly powerful against lesser trained musket-men. A general frontal charge can leave them reeling, and a flanking attack will do wonders. My artillery is rather underpowered, as I’m still using 15th and 16th century era cannon, but that is primarily because I don’t really need them! Yet, that is.
My only real problem is my navy. Basically, you star with no good naval base and I’ve pretty much spent my time conquering the land based Mughals, however, this means that every so often the Mughals surprise me with a naval raid or blockade of my ports that does wonders for destroying my economy in the short term. Its nothing more than a setback and a rather annoying inconvenience, but if they Mughals actually were on the offensive on the land, it would be truly frustrating.
Anyways, my current plans are to finish conquering the Mughals, which will probably take some time, and then turn my eyes to the Ottomans and Persians. I think it would be hilarious if I managed to sail a fleet into say… Spain or better yet North America, but I’d like to have a bit of a more realistic approach to this game.
On another note, the US is awesome. I’ve been greatly enjoying some relaxing time with my family. Jet-lag is passable, but because I have nothing to do I force myself to stay up late so I have a better chance of sleeping in. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be all over jetlag and I’ll have no problems with sleeping late.
Quickie Edit: I apologize for not posting so much, I have a few more things I can probably post about and I'll try and get several updates up this week, we'll see how things go.
So first of all, the basics on Empire Total War. Empire Total War is the 5th game in the Total War Series and is by far the most complicated, though I personally think the combat of Medieval Total War II is better.
Empire Total starts in the year 1700 and goes on till about 1800ish, it’s the time of Napoleon and European Colonization, Gunpowder, Cannon and Steel. You get the picture. The game starts out with gunpowder pretty much entrenched as the primary weapon of infantry in Europe, but with Eastern Powers still relying on swords and pikes somewhat. Calvary are pretty much light cavalry for scouting, screening, and harassing, and Cannon, while still somewhat immobile and inaccurate, are very much have their place.
So the game starts out allowing you to pick several European Nations and then a few odder ones. Obviously nations like Spain, France, and England are pickable, but they also have some others that are less known such as the United Provinces (Netherlands), Russia, and Sweden. Non-European nations include the Ottoman Empire and the Marathas of India.
Medieval Total War II, the previous Total War game, while an improvement over Rome Total War in terms of adding more Religion features, a 3d map, and a very good family tree method however, does not boast of many of the feature of Empire Total War. First of all, Empire Total War is at truly a global game. Players can battle in Europe, India, North America, and even the coast of Africa and the East Indies. Furthermore, provinces no longer have every single factory and farm all in the capital, but spread out over the province. This allows for several things, including raiding actually being somewhat useful. Realistically, several small bands of fast moving units (cavalry?) can run over the map, hit a town, factory or plantation, do damage to it, making unusable for a turn or two, and depriving your opponent of valuable resources. Also, for the first time in the history of the Total War series, Naval Battles are actually playable! I have not fought many of these such battles, and have been told they are somewhat clunky and unrealistic, but they do actually have them, so that is saying something.
The biggest difference I think, from previous Total War games, is the government and how you run your empire. Previous games pretty much worked like an absolute monarchy, sometimes with the King given missions or advice or commands from powerful figures within the government (the Pope, the Senate, the Nobility, etc) but essentially the King/Emperor/the Player had absolute power. His family controlled the government and having a large number of various relatives of semi-competent city-management and army-commanding abilities generally was a good thing.
Empire Total War does provide for an absolute Monarchy for many of its nations, however, it also allows for more modern governments such as a constitutional monarchy or even (I think) a democracy or republic of sorts. Also, because many of these kinds of governments do not look kindly upon dynasty politicians, the family tree of the head of state really doesn’t matter. No one cares if you are royalty in a democracy! As a result, generals are no longer carefully raised and nurtured to have that natural killer instinct, but simply hired and promoted from the ranks or picked out from a list of promising candidates. All of this makes the game a rather different animal than previous Total War games, but I think in a good way.
Anyways, so my personal experience has been rather entertaining. Being the TCK I am I of course decided to play the Marathas of Southern India (who actually traditionally ruled the area of India I was born in) and proceed to conquer the horrible Mughals that oppress my Northern brothers! The Marathas are interesting in comparison to European Nations. Obviously Europeans have more use for Muskets and Cannon, and less for sword and spear, yet I am finding Maratha cavalry to be frighteningly powerful against lesser trained musket-men. A general frontal charge can leave them reeling, and a flanking attack will do wonders. My artillery is rather underpowered, as I’m still using 15th and 16th century era cannon, but that is primarily because I don’t really need them! Yet, that is.
My only real problem is my navy. Basically, you star with no good naval base and I’ve pretty much spent my time conquering the land based Mughals, however, this means that every so often the Mughals surprise me with a naval raid or blockade of my ports that does wonders for destroying my economy in the short term. Its nothing more than a setback and a rather annoying inconvenience, but if they Mughals actually were on the offensive on the land, it would be truly frustrating.
Anyways, my current plans are to finish conquering the Mughals, which will probably take some time, and then turn my eyes to the Ottomans and Persians. I think it would be hilarious if I managed to sail a fleet into say… Spain or better yet North America, but I’d like to have a bit of a more realistic approach to this game.
On another note, the US is awesome. I’ve been greatly enjoying some relaxing time with my family. Jet-lag is passable, but because I have nothing to do I force myself to stay up late so I have a better chance of sleeping in. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be all over jetlag and I’ll have no problems with sleeping late.
Quickie Edit: I apologize for not posting so much, I have a few more things I can probably post about and I'll try and get several updates up this week, we'll see how things go.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Too Many Games!
You know what I’ve often found?
See, I get a lot of video games at once, a lot of times. I find a video game, I like it, and I play it for a week, which isn’t much really since I don’t have a lot of free time. Then I play another game the next week, which I just got, then the same thing happens a third week. Its annoying, because I want to play all these different games, but I often don’t have the time to play all three, so I end up playing well… only one or maybe even none.
For instance, I got Zeus: Master of Olympus the same week my brother got Prince of Persia. I played both, now I’m playing neither. I admit I had already started to get bored of Zeus (it’s a good game, just good in smaller doses), but Prince of Persia… I could have played that for a good while.
What happened? I got Majesty II from Jacob. Its also an amazing game, I really loved Majesty and thought it was one of the most well thought-out and unique games to be released over the past few years. Majesty II, while not perfect, does a lot of new, cool things that I really like and keeps the formula pretty much the same.
I am not playing Majesty much right now. What happened? I found this amazing game called Battle for Wesnoth. What is Battle for Wesnoth? It’s a hex-grid, turn-based, fantasy, strategy game akin to a strange combination of Fire Emblem and Age of Empires or something.
See, like Fire Emblem, a unit that is gone is gone for good and that’s it. Units gain experience and can be carried over from level to level so you’re encouraged to keep units alive, level them up, and keep on powering your army through the game. But unlike Fire Emblem, you’re expected to lose units and its perfectly acceptable if you complete a level having lost a unit or two. So in that way its kinda like your standards strategy game where your units are expendable and the only thing important is a few key, powerful or important (like heroes) units.
Anyways, the game has a few pretty cool little features. I’m playing a campaign that gives me access to a variety of elven, mermen, and human (and probably other things later on) units. Elves move fast through the forest, have high defenses in the forest, and possess the ability to move fast through forests, also, most of their units can wield both a bow as well as a sword, often to almost equal results. Humans… humans don’t seem particularly amazing, probably balanced overall, but with access to high damaging mages. Orcs are really strong and have brute force (duh) and mermen fight good in the ocean… but bad everywhere else, they also have the ability to swim in deep water.
One of the cooler features the game has is a meaningful day-night cycle. Warcraft III had a day-night cycle but it didn’t seem amazingly important, but in this game it really is. See, certain units fight better at night than at day. Orcs, being chaotic, fight really well at night, gaining a +25% bonus to attacks (and defense… I think) at night, but a -25% during the day! Humans, being lawful, have the opposite. Elves, being neutral, receive no benefits but have no penalties (making the elves more versatile, not the usual “sting you with arrows, but bad at everything else” guys. Nope, elves have good swordsmen, good archers, decent healers, and decent cavalry).
Anyways, it’s a good, entertaining, Strategy/RPG game. Best of all? Its free. Legally, free, that is, not “Jacob gave me Majesty II on a USB and I didn’t ask any questions” free, no, legally-you-can-download-it-from-a-website-and-that’- what-you-are-supposed-to-do-free.
I’ll write more about both this and Majesty II at a later point, though I really should play Majesty II some more before I do that… haven’t gotten too far in the game.
See, I get a lot of video games at once, a lot of times. I find a video game, I like it, and I play it for a week, which isn’t much really since I don’t have a lot of free time. Then I play another game the next week, which I just got, then the same thing happens a third week. Its annoying, because I want to play all these different games, but I often don’t have the time to play all three, so I end up playing well… only one or maybe even none.
For instance, I got Zeus: Master of Olympus the same week my brother got Prince of Persia. I played both, now I’m playing neither. I admit I had already started to get bored of Zeus (it’s a good game, just good in smaller doses), but Prince of Persia… I could have played that for a good while.
What happened? I got Majesty II from Jacob. Its also an amazing game, I really loved Majesty and thought it was one of the most well thought-out and unique games to be released over the past few years. Majesty II, while not perfect, does a lot of new, cool things that I really like and keeps the formula pretty much the same.
I am not playing Majesty much right now. What happened? I found this amazing game called Battle for Wesnoth. What is Battle for Wesnoth? It’s a hex-grid, turn-based, fantasy, strategy game akin to a strange combination of Fire Emblem and Age of Empires or something.
See, like Fire Emblem, a unit that is gone is gone for good and that’s it. Units gain experience and can be carried over from level to level so you’re encouraged to keep units alive, level them up, and keep on powering your army through the game. But unlike Fire Emblem, you’re expected to lose units and its perfectly acceptable if you complete a level having lost a unit or two. So in that way its kinda like your standards strategy game where your units are expendable and the only thing important is a few key, powerful or important (like heroes) units.
Anyways, the game has a few pretty cool little features. I’m playing a campaign that gives me access to a variety of elven, mermen, and human (and probably other things later on) units. Elves move fast through the forest, have high defenses in the forest, and possess the ability to move fast through forests, also, most of their units can wield both a bow as well as a sword, often to almost equal results. Humans… humans don’t seem particularly amazing, probably balanced overall, but with access to high damaging mages. Orcs are really strong and have brute force (duh) and mermen fight good in the ocean… but bad everywhere else, they also have the ability to swim in deep water.
One of the cooler features the game has is a meaningful day-night cycle. Warcraft III had a day-night cycle but it didn’t seem amazingly important, but in this game it really is. See, certain units fight better at night than at day. Orcs, being chaotic, fight really well at night, gaining a +25% bonus to attacks (and defense… I think) at night, but a -25% during the day! Humans, being lawful, have the opposite. Elves, being neutral, receive no benefits but have no penalties (making the elves more versatile, not the usual “sting you with arrows, but bad at everything else” guys. Nope, elves have good swordsmen, good archers, decent healers, and decent cavalry).
Anyways, it’s a good, entertaining, Strategy/RPG game. Best of all? Its free. Legally, free, that is, not “Jacob gave me Majesty II on a USB and I didn’t ask any questions” free, no, legally-you-can-download-it-from-a-website-and-that’- what-you-are-supposed-to-do-free.
I’ll write more about both this and Majesty II at a later point, though I really should play Majesty II some more before I do that… haven’t gotten too far in the game.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Zeus and Prince of Persia
Yesterday I installed two games. The first one, Prince of Persia I hadn’t played ever, while the second one, Zeus: Master of Olympus, I hadn’t played in a very long time.
Prince of Persia is the newest game in the Prince of Persia series. This one takes a break from the Sands of Time story and introduces a new prince and a new setting. Personally, I like this game a lot more than any of the others I played. I played Sands of Time and while I was never very good, I really like the setting and the style and tone of the game. It was a light, somewhat happy story about a young guy out to save the world. I got stuck and never returned to the game (I do that a lot, actually) but I really enjoyed what I remember of the game. My brother won it, so that kinda made up for me not doing so, I felt.
However, I did not like Warrior Within, the second game in the Sands of Time series. The game was, in short, too dark. It had the cool factor going for it, I admit. But, in hindsight, it wasn’t nearly as strong as Sands of Time. The third game in this series, Two Thrones, I never even played, but my brother did and he liked it enough. He said it was better than Warrior Within, but it still seemed to operate on the same premise and just didn’t really didn’t make me want to play it.
However, this new Prince of Persia is just up my alley. First of all, it’s a whole lot easier. Now, take that for what you will, but I personally prefer a game that’s a bit easier. One of my frustrations with older Prince of Persia games was the fact that you could die rather easily if you messed up badly enough and it relied on a checkpoint system versus a “save whenever” system. This new game has a “save whenever” system. There are other things that make the game easier, perhaps too easy, I admit, but I’m really happy the designers chose this method for the newest Prince of Persia.
Also, combat has been increased a hundred fold. Combos are now nice and easy to pull off and look properly cool. Instead of fighting multiple enemies at once and having to use a boring combination of mashing a dozen buttons to get a super attack, you fight one enemy at a time. Combos are also a lot simpler and make a lot more sense.
I haven’t played the game much, but it seems like a very solid game, and I hope more Prince of Persia games like it are released.
The other game I installed is called “Zeus: Master of Olympus.” A sequel, of sorts, to the game Caesar III, Zeus puts you in charge of an Ancient Greek city. The game features several large campaigns, mostly loosely based off Greek myths. The game has an awesome sense of humor and a very solid design at its root and makes for hours and hours of amazing gameplay.
Like other City Management games Zeus gives you the tools to construct a powerful city. The base of the game involves creating a powerful core city that can be expanded upon as the city grows. Build a small housing area, and then provide the houses with the essential services: food, water, security, health, etc. As more services are provided the houses will improve and demand more services such as culture, appeal, fleece, and olive oil. Improved houses pay more taxes and house more people, allowing you to further improve the city.
Anyways, while the game may sound really complicated, the designers have simplified it to allow players to quickly and easily manage their city. I think perhaps the most entertaining thing about the game is how carefully everything must balance in order to have a successful city.
One scenario I recently played requires me to create a colony for my primary city and then provide my primary city with tribute in the form of wine and lumber. I set up my basic city: farms for food, fountain, granary, agora (marketplace) and housing. However, I made a mistake and the worker shortage I had early game (not a problem, I thought because I would get more workers once my houses improved) meant my farms collapsed before harvest! This meant I had a food shortage for several game years and it took me some fancy doing to finally work through the food shortage, which lead to a labor shortage, which meant I couldn’t harvest lumber or tend my grapes, to finally win the level.
I think that is ultimately why I love Zeus. The game is a very simple, but solving the problems can really be hard. I move back to my old city and find I need 100 more workers (in a city of 2800 that’s really a small amount) but to do so I need to build more houses, which means a new agora, but this agora is too far away from my old granary and old warehouse that stores all my food, fleece and olive oil. So I build new ones. Then I run out of fleece, so I stop exporting fleece, but then I run out of money, so I stop importing wine, because I get enough in tribute, and slowly, slowly, I fix my cities infrastructure back to where it should be. Meanwhile I slowly build up to my current goal: summon Jason to slay the Talos and rid my city of the foul beast! (Doing so is not easy: Jason wants you to have quite the army! 2 companies of horsemen and 2 triremes, not to mention a LOT of food and some wine).
Anyways, I should get back to school now. Maybe if I work hard I’ll have time to play more Zeus! ^_^
Prince of Persia is the newest game in the Prince of Persia series. This one takes a break from the Sands of Time story and introduces a new prince and a new setting. Personally, I like this game a lot more than any of the others I played. I played Sands of Time and while I was never very good, I really like the setting and the style and tone of the game. It was a light, somewhat happy story about a young guy out to save the world. I got stuck and never returned to the game (I do that a lot, actually) but I really enjoyed what I remember of the game. My brother won it, so that kinda made up for me not doing so, I felt.
However, I did not like Warrior Within, the second game in the Sands of Time series. The game was, in short, too dark. It had the cool factor going for it, I admit. But, in hindsight, it wasn’t nearly as strong as Sands of Time. The third game in this series, Two Thrones, I never even played, but my brother did and he liked it enough. He said it was better than Warrior Within, but it still seemed to operate on the same premise and just didn’t really didn’t make me want to play it.
However, this new Prince of Persia is just up my alley. First of all, it’s a whole lot easier. Now, take that for what you will, but I personally prefer a game that’s a bit easier. One of my frustrations with older Prince of Persia games was the fact that you could die rather easily if you messed up badly enough and it relied on a checkpoint system versus a “save whenever” system. This new game has a “save whenever” system. There are other things that make the game easier, perhaps too easy, I admit, but I’m really happy the designers chose this method for the newest Prince of Persia.
Also, combat has been increased a hundred fold. Combos are now nice and easy to pull off and look properly cool. Instead of fighting multiple enemies at once and having to use a boring combination of mashing a dozen buttons to get a super attack, you fight one enemy at a time. Combos are also a lot simpler and make a lot more sense.
I haven’t played the game much, but it seems like a very solid game, and I hope more Prince of Persia games like it are released.
The other game I installed is called “Zeus: Master of Olympus.” A sequel, of sorts, to the game Caesar III, Zeus puts you in charge of an Ancient Greek city. The game features several large campaigns, mostly loosely based off Greek myths. The game has an awesome sense of humor and a very solid design at its root and makes for hours and hours of amazing gameplay.
Like other City Management games Zeus gives you the tools to construct a powerful city. The base of the game involves creating a powerful core city that can be expanded upon as the city grows. Build a small housing area, and then provide the houses with the essential services: food, water, security, health, etc. As more services are provided the houses will improve and demand more services such as culture, appeal, fleece, and olive oil. Improved houses pay more taxes and house more people, allowing you to further improve the city.
Anyways, while the game may sound really complicated, the designers have simplified it to allow players to quickly and easily manage their city. I think perhaps the most entertaining thing about the game is how carefully everything must balance in order to have a successful city.
One scenario I recently played requires me to create a colony for my primary city and then provide my primary city with tribute in the form of wine and lumber. I set up my basic city: farms for food, fountain, granary, agora (marketplace) and housing. However, I made a mistake and the worker shortage I had early game (not a problem, I thought because I would get more workers once my houses improved) meant my farms collapsed before harvest! This meant I had a food shortage for several game years and it took me some fancy doing to finally work through the food shortage, which lead to a labor shortage, which meant I couldn’t harvest lumber or tend my grapes, to finally win the level.
I think that is ultimately why I love Zeus. The game is a very simple, but solving the problems can really be hard. I move back to my old city and find I need 100 more workers (in a city of 2800 that’s really a small amount) but to do so I need to build more houses, which means a new agora, but this agora is too far away from my old granary and old warehouse that stores all my food, fleece and olive oil. So I build new ones. Then I run out of fleece, so I stop exporting fleece, but then I run out of money, so I stop importing wine, because I get enough in tribute, and slowly, slowly, I fix my cities infrastructure back to where it should be. Meanwhile I slowly build up to my current goal: summon Jason to slay the Talos and rid my city of the foul beast! (Doing so is not easy: Jason wants you to have quite the army! 2 companies of horsemen and 2 triremes, not to mention a LOT of food and some wine).
Anyways, I should get back to school now. Maybe if I work hard I’ll have time to play more Zeus! ^_^
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
DotA Thoughts
DotA is amazing. It’s absolutely amazing and epic. Anyways… see I had a revalation about DotA a while ago when I was tyring to think of the heroes and define their roles and stuff.
See, my primary mistake I think is trying to use stats to determine role. DoTA has three stats, Intelligence, Agility and Strength. My previous thoughts went something like this: Intel: powerful spells, early game nukers. Agility: late gamers, often called “carries” Strength: Mid game, tanks.
But then I realized that you also had pushers, chasers, killers and support. Then I realized something, my entire premises were wrong. See the problem is that stats do not determine role. Abaddon a strength hero is not a tank, he’s support. The same with Treant. Beastmaster, a strength hero can carry. Bloodseeker (agility) is a weird kind of ganker/carry I would assume. Ogre Magi, a strength hero, is a caster/ganker (though not a good one….) anyways… you get the point: stats do not determine role.
So then, what are the roles? What determines the roles? Ahh that is where things get tricky. I think the best way to explain this is that spells and stat gain determine stuff. For instance, a carry needs good attack speed, high damage, and the ability to farm and escape in order to be effective. Drow gets a lot of damage, but doesn’t have good escape mechanisms or good farming techniques. On the other hand, Naga Siren has 2 disables (one is ulti, but still) and mirror images for escape. Mirror images also do a very good job at farming. Abilities determine role.
But anyways, I’ve also been reevaluating the 3 phases of the game and using various other skills I’ve learned to understand how to build a team. See, before, I assumed you’d want a team makeup something like this: 2 str, 2 agi, 1 intel. One agi should be able to carry.
But… that’s crap, honestly. See in reality you want something like this: 2 support, 2 gankers, 1 carry. Support heroes spend lots of gold building wards, crow, and TPs. They don’t need items to work their spells and abilities, so they can get team stuff (like things listed above). Support heroes “support” the team in team battles as well as protect carries early game. Gankers don’t focus on farming so much as they do waiting for the ideal moment to strike and kill an enemy hero. Again, XP and gold are so important for a good ganker. Finally, carries need to farm, farm farm. They get lots of gold and lots of XP so they can build items and easily defeat 2-3 enemy heroes with little to no help from other players. Carries “carry the team to victory.”
So anyways… as a thought experiment I created a possible team matchup that accounts for the bans inherent in a CM match. The thing about CM matches is your team should be flexible and focus on the players’ skills not the hero pickings. My brother is amazing with most Intel heroes, especially support ones, so you shouldn’t pick a specific hero for him to play so much as you should keep in mind 2-3 possible heroes for him to play with. However, here is a team I think has a pretty good chance of getting played in the café. Now all I need to do is actually get my teammates to let me play as the Captain for one match…
Support: Tormented Soul, Treant Protector
Carry: Beastmaster (really carry/support)
Ganker: Chaos Knight
Initiator: Magnataur
Initiators aren’t something I referenced above, but basically they are another role that is not as important, but still there. Initiators need good AoE spells that give the rest of the team a chance to move in and deal lots of damage. For Magnatur this would require getting Blink, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Boots, Blink, Battefury (or even just perseverance), set.
Possible swaps include Rhasta or CM for Treant, and beastmaster will be swapped for any better carry (Naga Siren, PotM) assuming players/bannings provide.
See, my primary mistake I think is trying to use stats to determine role. DoTA has three stats, Intelligence, Agility and Strength. My previous thoughts went something like this: Intel: powerful spells, early game nukers. Agility: late gamers, often called “carries” Strength: Mid game, tanks.
But then I realized that you also had pushers, chasers, killers and support. Then I realized something, my entire premises were wrong. See the problem is that stats do not determine role. Abaddon a strength hero is not a tank, he’s support. The same with Treant. Beastmaster, a strength hero can carry. Bloodseeker (agility) is a weird kind of ganker/carry I would assume. Ogre Magi, a strength hero, is a caster/ganker (though not a good one….) anyways… you get the point: stats do not determine role.
So then, what are the roles? What determines the roles? Ahh that is where things get tricky. I think the best way to explain this is that spells and stat gain determine stuff. For instance, a carry needs good attack speed, high damage, and the ability to farm and escape in order to be effective. Drow gets a lot of damage, but doesn’t have good escape mechanisms or good farming techniques. On the other hand, Naga Siren has 2 disables (one is ulti, but still) and mirror images for escape. Mirror images also do a very good job at farming. Abilities determine role.
But anyways, I’ve also been reevaluating the 3 phases of the game and using various other skills I’ve learned to understand how to build a team. See, before, I assumed you’d want a team makeup something like this: 2 str, 2 agi, 1 intel. One agi should be able to carry.
But… that’s crap, honestly. See in reality you want something like this: 2 support, 2 gankers, 1 carry. Support heroes spend lots of gold building wards, crow, and TPs. They don’t need items to work their spells and abilities, so they can get team stuff (like things listed above). Support heroes “support” the team in team battles as well as protect carries early game. Gankers don’t focus on farming so much as they do waiting for the ideal moment to strike and kill an enemy hero. Again, XP and gold are so important for a good ganker. Finally, carries need to farm, farm farm. They get lots of gold and lots of XP so they can build items and easily defeat 2-3 enemy heroes with little to no help from other players. Carries “carry the team to victory.”
So anyways… as a thought experiment I created a possible team matchup that accounts for the bans inherent in a CM match. The thing about CM matches is your team should be flexible and focus on the players’ skills not the hero pickings. My brother is amazing with most Intel heroes, especially support ones, so you shouldn’t pick a specific hero for him to play so much as you should keep in mind 2-3 possible heroes for him to play with. However, here is a team I think has a pretty good chance of getting played in the café. Now all I need to do is actually get my teammates to let me play as the Captain for one match…
Support: Tormented Soul, Treant Protector
Carry: Beastmaster (really carry/support)
Ganker: Chaos Knight
Initiator: Magnataur
Initiators aren’t something I referenced above, but basically they are another role that is not as important, but still there. Initiators need good AoE spells that give the rest of the team a chance to move in and deal lots of damage. For Magnatur this would require getting Blink, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Boots, Blink, Battefury (or even just perseverance), set.
Possible swaps include Rhasta or CM for Treant, and beastmaster will be swapped for any better carry (Naga Siren, PotM) assuming players/bannings provide.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Crazy Sims 3
Okay, crazy story:
I’m playing the Sims again and I had this family that was composed of a Brother living with his newly married sister. The sister wanted to have lots of kids and so I decided to move them out.
And then… then I realized I had no money after I moved. I had 3k dollars to build a house. So…. I looked at my options and decided to NOT build a house.
See, my guy is a writer and my girl is a stay at home mom (with two kids now!), but I needed more money, so the guy joined the journalism career. Then, I built a bed. Then I realized that I didn’t need anything else! Madness? No, not really… see my guys can use the bathrooms at the gyms and eat at the Diner. I took bonuses that give me free food at the diner and I never have to use a toilet (shower daily, but no toilet!) so…
So my “house” is a table with a computer (so my guy can continue writing his epic Sci-fi stories), 2 cradles, and a double bed. B)
I think tomorrow I’ll probably get a bathroom, but it will be a good long time before my guys ever get a proper house. Who cares though? I haz a cool lifestyle! :D
I’m playing the Sims again and I had this family that was composed of a Brother living with his newly married sister. The sister wanted to have lots of kids and so I decided to move them out.
And then… then I realized I had no money after I moved. I had 3k dollars to build a house. So…. I looked at my options and decided to NOT build a house.
See, my guy is a writer and my girl is a stay at home mom (with two kids now!), but I needed more money, so the guy joined the journalism career. Then, I built a bed. Then I realized that I didn’t need anything else! Madness? No, not really… see my guys can use the bathrooms at the gyms and eat at the Diner. I took bonuses that give me free food at the diner and I never have to use a toilet (shower daily, but no toilet!) so…
So my “house” is a table with a computer (so my guy can continue writing his epic Sci-fi stories), 2 cradles, and a double bed. B)
I think tomorrow I’ll probably get a bathroom, but it will be a good long time before my guys ever get a proper house. Who cares though? I haz a cool lifestyle! :D
Saturday, January 30, 2010
League of Legends
So recently I’ve been playing Guinsoo’s (the 3rd guy to patch the DotA Map for Warcraft, also the one who did a lot and made DotA what it is today before handing it over to IceFrog) new project, League of Legends. League of Legends is a game in the vein of DotA, 5v5, 3 lanes, 40 heroes, last hitting, ganking and team pushes. However, the game has a lot of differences as well. Off the top of my head the differences are: only one mode for now, as well as no denying, no blocking creeps and pulling creeps is much, much harder. Also, runes have been messed with. They are much less used now I’d say because you don’t have a bottle-like item.
However, I think the differences are good. One of DotA’s problems is the game has such a crazy learning curve. I’ve played games with newbies in both DotA and League of Legends and its not fun. People, seriously, just move up the lane, never falling back, and let the towers hit them. League of Legend’s TUTORIAL says not to get hit by the tower. *sigh*
Anyways, comparing the game directly to DotA, League of Legends is awesome. It’s a microtransation based game, so its free to download and free to play, but certain special items require you to pay money. The game has 40 heroes, but you need to buy them in order to play them. Every week about 10-12 heroes are made available for free, and the game rotates these heroes so new players can try all the different heroes.
The game has heroes in the vein of DotA: Support, Tank, Mage, Assassin, etc. Each hero has 4 spells and a passive. Some of the spells have a passive element. The game also has some other elements unique to it. Every game you play your account gain’s experience and Influence Points (IPs). As your account level’s up, you can unlock “Masteries” which give your heroes small bonuses, as well as “summoner spells” (semi-powerful spells with large cooldowns, that, when used correctly, will change the game quite a bit) and “runes”. Runes are small upgrades you purchase with IPs that effect your hero. Stuff like 5 extra HP or .30 chance for critical strike. It’s not a lot, but get 7-8 runes and you can improve your character a decent bit.
The heroes themselves are well thought out. I haven’t found a very imba hero in this week’s batch of heroes, and I’ve played against/with all of them. I think the coolest heroes are probably Twisted Fate (Ganker/Carry) and Master Yi (Melee DPS/Carry). The fun thing about the heroes is, like DotA, the developers have a sense of humor in hero names. Heroes like Master Yi have jokes built into them. For instance, Master Yi is a Martial-Artist skilled in “wuju,” wuju being a combination of two of the game developers’ names.
I think the game has promise. It only has 40 heroes right now, but if they can make all the heroes interesting and useful (let’s be honest, who actually plays Sylabear? And troll doesn’t get much action nowadays either, sadly) then they should only need 60ish heroes, not the 90+ that DotA boasts.
Of course, there is a learning curve, even for DotA players like me. I still haven’t figured out how to Jungle properly in this game (I was just figuring it out… kinda… in DotA) and of course there are about 100ish items and I don’t know them all.
Then again, I appear to know more about the game than some people I’ve played with. I’ve gotten some mixed groups. I think one of the problems is the matchmaking system isn’t perfect. It has limited information so it will make mistakes. For instance, if the game looked at my account, right now, it would see I’m a newbie who knows a little bit of what I’m doing. However, actually I have played DotA for a long time and while the heroes and items of League of Legends are new, I myself am very familiar with the tactics involved: ganking, farming, last hitting, lane control. I know it all. So the result is I’ve played with noobs who don’t know the first thing about the tactics, and people who, like me, understand how to properly gank and push.
I’m just hoping as I level up and my wins increase and my kills increase I’ll get placed with better players and avoid the “hero gets killed by creeps” syndrome. Actually, funny story, I started a game and I’m bot with another player as Master Yi. Master Yi attacks the enemy hero before the creeps come, but chases the enemy PAST THE TOWER and dies. *headdesk* one of my allies types, “oh, its another one of those games.”
We did win that game, however. But wow, Master Yi did not understand the game. After we had cleared all the towers and gotten super creeps in one lane he responds with “are we winning?” I wanted to say, “No duH?! Please… learn to play properly!” But I was nice to him. Actually, being mean to noobs isn’t something that I’d ever do, because it’s not very… nice… still, it’s frustrating when you charge the enemy and realize no one followed you and you’re now dead.
However, I think the differences are good. One of DotA’s problems is the game has such a crazy learning curve. I’ve played games with newbies in both DotA and League of Legends and its not fun. People, seriously, just move up the lane, never falling back, and let the towers hit them. League of Legend’s TUTORIAL says not to get hit by the tower. *sigh*
Anyways, comparing the game directly to DotA, League of Legends is awesome. It’s a microtransation based game, so its free to download and free to play, but certain special items require you to pay money. The game has 40 heroes, but you need to buy them in order to play them. Every week about 10-12 heroes are made available for free, and the game rotates these heroes so new players can try all the different heroes.
The game has heroes in the vein of DotA: Support, Tank, Mage, Assassin, etc. Each hero has 4 spells and a passive. Some of the spells have a passive element. The game also has some other elements unique to it. Every game you play your account gain’s experience and Influence Points (IPs). As your account level’s up, you can unlock “Masteries” which give your heroes small bonuses, as well as “summoner spells” (semi-powerful spells with large cooldowns, that, when used correctly, will change the game quite a bit) and “runes”. Runes are small upgrades you purchase with IPs that effect your hero. Stuff like 5 extra HP or .30 chance for critical strike. It’s not a lot, but get 7-8 runes and you can improve your character a decent bit.
The heroes themselves are well thought out. I haven’t found a very imba hero in this week’s batch of heroes, and I’ve played against/with all of them. I think the coolest heroes are probably Twisted Fate (Ganker/Carry) and Master Yi (Melee DPS/Carry). The fun thing about the heroes is, like DotA, the developers have a sense of humor in hero names. Heroes like Master Yi have jokes built into them. For instance, Master Yi is a Martial-Artist skilled in “wuju,” wuju being a combination of two of the game developers’ names.
I think the game has promise. It only has 40 heroes right now, but if they can make all the heroes interesting and useful (let’s be honest, who actually plays Sylabear? And troll doesn’t get much action nowadays either, sadly) then they should only need 60ish heroes, not the 90+ that DotA boasts.
Of course, there is a learning curve, even for DotA players like me. I still haven’t figured out how to Jungle properly in this game (I was just figuring it out… kinda… in DotA) and of course there are about 100ish items and I don’t know them all.
Then again, I appear to know more about the game than some people I’ve played with. I’ve gotten some mixed groups. I think one of the problems is the matchmaking system isn’t perfect. It has limited information so it will make mistakes. For instance, if the game looked at my account, right now, it would see I’m a newbie who knows a little bit of what I’m doing. However, actually I have played DotA for a long time and while the heroes and items of League of Legends are new, I myself am very familiar with the tactics involved: ganking, farming, last hitting, lane control. I know it all. So the result is I’ve played with noobs who don’t know the first thing about the tactics, and people who, like me, understand how to properly gank and push.
I’m just hoping as I level up and my wins increase and my kills increase I’ll get placed with better players and avoid the “hero gets killed by creeps” syndrome. Actually, funny story, I started a game and I’m bot with another player as Master Yi. Master Yi attacks the enemy hero before the creeps come, but chases the enemy PAST THE TOWER and dies. *headdesk* one of my allies types, “oh, its another one of those games.”
We did win that game, however. But wow, Master Yi did not understand the game. After we had cleared all the towers and gotten super creeps in one lane he responds with “are we winning?” I wanted to say, “No duH?! Please… learn to play properly!” But I was nice to him. Actually, being mean to noobs isn’t something that I’d ever do, because it’s not very… nice… still, it’s frustrating when you charge the enemy and realize no one followed you and you’re now dead.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Torchlight
So recently, I’ve been playing this game called Torchlight. I haven’t played it that must (just maybe 4 hours yesterday) but I gotta say its an amazing game.
Torchlight is a Hack-n-slash “Diablo clone” (no duh, its made by former employees of Blizzard North, the CREATORS of Diablo). In the vein of Diablo there are three classes, melee smasher, ranged sniper, and magical dude. The game is set in the village of Torchlight, a mining community that operates around a mine near the village where a mystical crystal called “Ember” is found. You arrive at the scene to find monsters have overrun the mines and a two other adventer types (Brink and some girl… forget her name) fighting back the monsters. And there the game begins.
So… it’s a hack-n-slash. This means that the basis of the game revolve around one thing: kill monsters, loot them. You run around, fighting hundreds of different monsters (so far I’ve encountered rat-men, trolls, constructs (harder trolls), zombies, skeletons and various magical types) and then you loot their bodies and open the treasure chests they were guarding.
What I find so amazing about games like this is how stupidly unrealistic, yet amazingly satisfying they are. In a good story, the protagonist as a good reason for going on dangerous quests and often had lots of help along the way. Frodo never would have made it to Mt. Doom if it wasn’t for Gollum, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn et al. But yet, in this game, besides I think the two levels, I, basically, am alone (you have a “pet” that helps you, but it’s basically a tank/low damage dealer) the entire game. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn had a special sword, just one, and he used it throughout the book. He didn’t walk through orc corpses saying, “hey! That looks shiny! Who cares about this old sword, I’ll use this one!” Granted, Aragorn already had an amazingly good sword, but I’ve never heard of a single hero who fights through hordes of unnamed creatures and then takes whatever random weapons they were using for himself.
Furthermore, there is the whole question of “Why is this monster guarding a chest of weapons that he doesn’t use himself?” Question that I find myself asking. I mean, think about it: If that sword is a “OMG! UBER RARE TOTALLY AWESOME!” weapon, why isn’t the rat-man guarding it using it? It doesn’t make sense.
So anyways… yes, it’s unrealistic. Yes, its kinda stupid. Yes, its not that original in gameplay (the setting is a fun steam-punk type world. My character has a sword and shield and some PISTOLS! w00t!). But darnit, this game is amazingly fun.
Oh, do you know what the best part is? It'll run on just about any machine out there. It even has a special "netbook" setting if you're running one of those. Awesome, no? (Obviously its not that big a deal for me and my Duo Core CPU, Geforce 8 and 2 gigs of RAM, but hey, not everyone is like me. :p)
Website is www.torchlightgames.com its $20 off of Paypal, and the game designers claim 10-20 hours of gameplay every play through. I dunno about you, but with 3 classes, randomly generated dungeons, and gameplay this addicting I could play this game forever and ever. Assuming of course, I don't find another really fun game (like for instance... Dragon Age Origins or Borderlands, both of which seem like they're really good) *nods*
Torchlight is a Hack-n-slash “Diablo clone” (no duh, its made by former employees of Blizzard North, the CREATORS of Diablo). In the vein of Diablo there are three classes, melee smasher, ranged sniper, and magical dude. The game is set in the village of Torchlight, a mining community that operates around a mine near the village where a mystical crystal called “Ember” is found. You arrive at the scene to find monsters have overrun the mines and a two other adventer types (Brink and some girl… forget her name) fighting back the monsters. And there the game begins.
So… it’s a hack-n-slash. This means that the basis of the game revolve around one thing: kill monsters, loot them. You run around, fighting hundreds of different monsters (so far I’ve encountered rat-men, trolls, constructs (harder trolls), zombies, skeletons and various magical types) and then you loot their bodies and open the treasure chests they were guarding.
What I find so amazing about games like this is how stupidly unrealistic, yet amazingly satisfying they are. In a good story, the protagonist as a good reason for going on dangerous quests and often had lots of help along the way. Frodo never would have made it to Mt. Doom if it wasn’t for Gollum, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn et al. But yet, in this game, besides I think the two levels, I, basically, am alone (you have a “pet” that helps you, but it’s basically a tank/low damage dealer) the entire game. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn had a special sword, just one, and he used it throughout the book. He didn’t walk through orc corpses saying, “hey! That looks shiny! Who cares about this old sword, I’ll use this one!” Granted, Aragorn already had an amazingly good sword, but I’ve never heard of a single hero who fights through hordes of unnamed creatures and then takes whatever random weapons they were using for himself.
Furthermore, there is the whole question of “Why is this monster guarding a chest of weapons that he doesn’t use himself?” Question that I find myself asking. I mean, think about it: If that sword is a “OMG! UBER RARE TOTALLY AWESOME!” weapon, why isn’t the rat-man guarding it using it? It doesn’t make sense.
So anyways… yes, it’s unrealistic. Yes, its kinda stupid. Yes, its not that original in gameplay (the setting is a fun steam-punk type world. My character has a sword and shield and some PISTOLS! w00t!). But darnit, this game is amazingly fun.
Oh, do you know what the best part is? It'll run on just about any machine out there. It even has a special "netbook" setting if you're running one of those. Awesome, no? (Obviously its not that big a deal for me and my Duo Core CPU, Geforce 8 and 2 gigs of RAM, but hey, not everyone is like me. :p)
Website is www.torchlightgames.com its $20 off of Paypal, and the game designers claim 10-20 hours of gameplay every play through. I dunno about you, but with 3 classes, randomly generated dungeons, and gameplay this addicting I could play this game forever and ever. Assuming of course, I don't find another really fun game (like for instance... Dragon Age Origins or Borderlands, both of which seem like they're really good) *nods*
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Played a Pro
So… yesterday I played DotA as usual, but with one exception: two of the games were played with a DotA pro (whom Jacob called Werewolf… his screen name was ).
Anyways, two games, first one was All Random. I repacked Ogre Magi and proceeded to work with Manik (who played Razor… not amazingly well but he did okay). The two of us faced off against Specter and Phantom Assassin in what was actually a very heavy killfest.
Now, the pro player, werewolf, played Tinker and faced off against Derick (forget who he was playing…). In the words of Derick, werewolf had “constant Double Damage”. I never watched them but I assumed he had a bottle and put wards around the runes and was grabbing them like crazy. The first thing Tinker did was farm travel, and he then proceeded to move around the map killing and pushing like the amazing player he was. Twice he just walked (or TPed) into my lane and killed people. He was amazing.
The thing was, Tinker is an early game nuker/ganker dude. As the game continues he gets worse because, like most Intel heroes his spells just don’t do enough damage late game. So, we were able to push long and hard and pwn them in the long run. Still, it was a good match.
So… the second game was AP. I think I knew from the beginning my team was gonna lose because it was AP. Anyways, we picked Lich, Sandking and Drow and then Werewolf pulled out Invoker. We then picked Naga Siren (cuz Manik is epic with her) and I took Tidehunter because we needed an AoE stunner. We faced off against Treant (Mumu), Jakiro (my bro), Earthshaker (Saad), Invoker (werewolf) and Skeleton King (Marcus… someone I’ve never played with before but appeared to be Derick’s friend).
From the beginning, we were going to lose. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it really. Werewolf played Invoker FRIGGIN GOOD. I mean seriously… he knew all 11 (I think 11… not sure) of Invokers spells and on top of that made the most imba build for him. I think his first item was like… heart of tarrsque. He also made Guinsoo and Shiva IIRC.
Oh… and Saad… Saad was a ever evil Earthshaker who built and played his hero perfectly. At least twice he used his blink dagger and ulti combo to get like a double kill.
Anyways… we managed to make the game last seventy-five minutes, but in the end we knew we would win. It was really inevitable.
So… what can I say? Well first off… I felt like I did really horrible in both games. Maybe if I had played a hero I’m more comfortable with, like Nightstalker, Razor, Dark Terror (actually he has a new name but I forget what it is) or Dragon Knight then I would have done better. However, I don’t think it would have mattered that much really because I just died a lot. I couldn’t farm because Invoker would nuke me if I did and I couldn’t kill because I was often the first death in the battles, as a result I had a crap build. It took me the entire game to build one battlefury and one heart. If I had played well I would have managed to get Power Treads, Heart, Battlefury, Satanic and maybe even Buzi or Hyperstone.
So… what does this teach me? It means I need to learn to play Tidehunter better. Play him with a Blink Dagger, actually. I think that might have helped some. Not a lot, but some.
Anyways… it was a good game. If given the chance I’d love to play with the guy again.
Anyways, two games, first one was All Random. I repacked Ogre Magi and proceeded to work with Manik (who played Razor… not amazingly well but he did okay). The two of us faced off against Specter and Phantom Assassin in what was actually a very heavy killfest.
Now, the pro player, werewolf, played Tinker and faced off against Derick (forget who he was playing…). In the words of Derick, werewolf had “constant Double Damage”. I never watched them but I assumed he had a bottle and put wards around the runes and was grabbing them like crazy. The first thing Tinker did was farm travel, and he then proceeded to move around the map killing and pushing like the amazing player he was. Twice he just walked (or TPed) into my lane and killed people. He was amazing.
The thing was, Tinker is an early game nuker/ganker dude. As the game continues he gets worse because, like most Intel heroes his spells just don’t do enough damage late game. So, we were able to push long and hard and pwn them in the long run. Still, it was a good match.
So… the second game was AP. I think I knew from the beginning my team was gonna lose because it was AP. Anyways, we picked Lich, Sandking and Drow and then Werewolf pulled out Invoker. We then picked Naga Siren (cuz Manik is epic with her) and I took Tidehunter because we needed an AoE stunner. We faced off against Treant (Mumu), Jakiro (my bro), Earthshaker (Saad), Invoker (werewolf) and Skeleton King (Marcus… someone I’ve never played with before but appeared to be Derick’s friend).
From the beginning, we were going to lose. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it really. Werewolf played Invoker FRIGGIN GOOD. I mean seriously… he knew all 11 (I think 11… not sure) of Invokers spells and on top of that made the most imba build for him. I think his first item was like… heart of tarrsque. He also made Guinsoo and Shiva IIRC.
Oh… and Saad… Saad was a ever evil Earthshaker who built and played his hero perfectly. At least twice he used his blink dagger and ulti combo to get like a double kill.
Anyways… we managed to make the game last seventy-five minutes, but in the end we knew we would win. It was really inevitable.
So… what can I say? Well first off… I felt like I did really horrible in both games. Maybe if I had played a hero I’m more comfortable with, like Nightstalker, Razor, Dark Terror (actually he has a new name but I forget what it is) or Dragon Knight then I would have done better. However, I don’t think it would have mattered that much really because I just died a lot. I couldn’t farm because Invoker would nuke me if I did and I couldn’t kill because I was often the first death in the battles, as a result I had a crap build. It took me the entire game to build one battlefury and one heart. If I had played well I would have managed to get Power Treads, Heart, Battlefury, Satanic and maybe even Buzi or Hyperstone.
So… what does this teach me? It means I need to learn to play Tidehunter better. Play him with a Blink Dagger, actually. I think that might have helped some. Not a lot, but some.
Anyways… it was a good game. If given the chance I’d love to play with the guy again.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Earth 2160
So the past few days I’ve been playing this game called Earth 2160.
First off, I got the game from a website called gog.com (GOG = good old games). The website is designed to sell high quality, but older, PC titles (games you can’t find in the stores very often now) for low prices (6 or 10 dollars). Furthermore, they do so completely 100% DRM free. I think the main reason they have been sticking to Older games is that I know a lot of companies probably would never release their games DRM free on the internet if they were new. Even so they have yet to score a big contract with Activision-Blizzard or EA, so they catalogue is still pretty limited. That being said they have some great games.
Earth 2160 is a RTS game and the 3rd addition to the Earth series. The original two were set on Earth while the United Civilized States (USC) and Eurasian Dynasty (ED) fought a bloody war that ended with lots of nukes and an asteroid setting Earth off its normal orbit with its new orbit setting on a collision course with the Sun.
So… anyways the USC and the ED (along with the Lunar Corporation (LC), a faction based on the Moon) fought for resources, grabbed what they needed and flew off into space. Now they fight each other in Space on planets like Mars and Titan (which, is technically a moon, but whatever). All in all, it’s an awesome game.
The coolest thing about the game is the variety and various tactics you can try. Each race has its own weaknesses and strengths. ED seems to be the most balanced race, with a slight reliance on Lasers, while the LC has high technology and lots of lasers. The USC uses mechs and lots of standard weapons, while the secretive Aliens (did I mention them? No? Well anyways this game has aliens) I believe use lots of chemical weapons. When you research a new technology you can use that technology to upgrade existing units. So if you research RPGs then you can upgrade all your jeeps and buggies to have RPG launchers. Or if you research Chemical Weapons you will now have access to Chemical Cannons and various Missiles.
One of the coolest moments I think I’ve had with the game was in a skirimish against the ED (while I played… USC?) I was doing fine until they research Chemical Weapons. Now my reflective Armor (anti-laser armor) was useless and my units were eaten up. By the time I researched and applied Chemical Armor to my units I had already lost.
As a side note: the campaign is boring. I’m playing it, but the voice acting is TERRIBLE and the plot is horridly predictable. I didn’t realize how good some of the more average story-lines I’ve dealt with are until I’m faced with a truly horrible story.
So, if you’re interested in the game (and paying for it *cough*) then check out gog.com. They accept paypal. ;)
First off, I got the game from a website called gog.com (GOG = good old games). The website is designed to sell high quality, but older, PC titles (games you can’t find in the stores very often now) for low prices (6 or 10 dollars). Furthermore, they do so completely 100% DRM free. I think the main reason they have been sticking to Older games is that I know a lot of companies probably would never release their games DRM free on the internet if they were new. Even so they have yet to score a big contract with Activision-Blizzard or EA, so they catalogue is still pretty limited. That being said they have some great games.
Earth 2160 is a RTS game and the 3rd addition to the Earth series. The original two were set on Earth while the United Civilized States (USC) and Eurasian Dynasty (ED) fought a bloody war that ended with lots of nukes and an asteroid setting Earth off its normal orbit with its new orbit setting on a collision course with the Sun.
So… anyways the USC and the ED (along with the Lunar Corporation (LC), a faction based on the Moon) fought for resources, grabbed what they needed and flew off into space. Now they fight each other in Space on planets like Mars and Titan (which, is technically a moon, but whatever). All in all, it’s an awesome game.
The coolest thing about the game is the variety and various tactics you can try. Each race has its own weaknesses and strengths. ED seems to be the most balanced race, with a slight reliance on Lasers, while the LC has high technology and lots of lasers. The USC uses mechs and lots of standard weapons, while the secretive Aliens (did I mention them? No? Well anyways this game has aliens) I believe use lots of chemical weapons. When you research a new technology you can use that technology to upgrade existing units. So if you research RPGs then you can upgrade all your jeeps and buggies to have RPG launchers. Or if you research Chemical Weapons you will now have access to Chemical Cannons and various Missiles.
One of the coolest moments I think I’ve had with the game was in a skirimish against the ED (while I played… USC?) I was doing fine until they research Chemical Weapons. Now my reflective Armor (anti-laser armor) was useless and my units were eaten up. By the time I researched and applied Chemical Armor to my units I had already lost.
As a side note: the campaign is boring. I’m playing it, but the voice acting is TERRIBLE and the plot is horridly predictable. I didn’t realize how good some of the more average story-lines I’ve dealt with are until I’m faced with a truly horrible story.
So, if you’re interested in the game (and paying for it *cough*) then check out gog.com. They accept paypal. ;)
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