Crysis 2 Review

Crysis 2 has big boots to fill, lets not beat around the bush. The original set the standard for what defines a next generation shooter, featuring jaw dropping physics, incredible visuals and a monstrous foe. Crysis 2’s job was not only to replicate this in the urban environment of New York, but to branch this experience across multiple platforms (this review was conducted on a PC.) Unfortunately, the series has come two steps forward, and many giant leaps back.

You are Alcatraz, a marine given a nanosuit by one of the previous game’s characters – Prophet. Alien infection has spread throughout New York and your job is to battle through various famous locations to assist your allies whilst your suit manufactures a cure to the disease. The main criticism of Crysis was that the storyline was slightly cliché, and Crytek left with promises to do better next time. What they have come back with is a story even more cliché than the last, but heaped on top of this a whole variety of revelations about the suit that simply make you go ‘….what? You can’t be serious.’

One of the key elements last time around was how the aliens were presented. Almost like a horror game, they were briefly flittered in front of you for long periods - even by the end in all out war they were still hidden behind their machines, mysterious and unknowable. You were at the forefront of human discovery, the unforgettable segment inside the alien ship made you genuinely feel like a privileged human being, the only man to ever set eyes upon this magical place. This game, with no fanfare, reveals the aliens to you with almost zero preamble and simply says ‘kill’. A game and it’s sequel’s incredible build up torn up in one moment. It feels like any other futuristic, generic FPS where you wander the streets pummelling aliens with no thought behind it.

Visually, the game is still one of the best around, but only in terms of backdrop. The graphics, while remaining high end, have been cut back rather a lot as this article illustrates rather well (http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6307286/index.html). Want to customize the graphics on your PC? Well too bad, you can only choose between low, medium or high. Upon entering New York in real life, the first thing you are confronted with is the sheer sense of scale, something the free roaming nature of the first Crysis also gave. Now, confined to linear levels where piles of rubble conveniently block every street it feels claustrophobic at points – you are a superman but your powers are completely limited to what you are ordered to do.

The game can still look great but just cannot compare to it's forefather.

 This brings me to the most important aspect, the gameplay. The way the nanosuit works has been changed considerably, and it needed it, with the radial menu not cutting it before. All abilities (stealth, strength, speed and armour) now use the same energy bar. The fact that all abilities use energy now means that any combination of nanosuit abilities is very difficult, leading to a very bi-polar nature of gameplay where you either stealthily assassinate everyone, or just wipe everyone out in a firefight using armour. Super speed is now almost the equivalent of a standard FPS sprint, which doesn’t feel very superhuman at all. A lot worse is the strength, which has been replaced by a token ability to kick or throw objects a small distance. Rather than running around a large map creatively using your abilities, occasionally throwing a chicken as if from Thor himself so it blows a hole through a helicopter, now you can just poke a table simply because of a button prompt message. This ties in with the physics as a whole, which are very notably absent. The amazing world of fully destructible scenery and often hilariously interactive creatures has been replaced by one where the buildings are invincible and the civilians in the streets cannot be interacted with at all (ie, bullets and yourself can pass straight through them.)  

As previously mentioned, there are two effective ways to complete any level – stealth or simply fight. The stealth aspect here is simply ridiculous when combined with the AI. You have the ability to instantly kill any standard opponent whilst stealthed if you are behind them. The human foes seem alright, but the aliens will frequently just stand in a completely stationary circle while you slowly pick them all off, or get stuck on walls. More than once a solitary human guard was left standing in a pile of his comrades’ corpses, with me having just disappeared right in front of him, who would then cheerfully exclaim ‘threat cleared.’ I started off shooting the guards from stealth. Then it moved on the slowly using the close combat stealth kill to destroy entire maps of enemies. Eventually this proved so tedious that bypassing the level simply by stealthing and walking past everyone became a viable alternative. Towards the end of the game, there is an objective to destroy that you must interact with from close range, surrounded by hordes and hordes of aliens. I stealthed past them, then simply uncloaked and destroyed it not two feet behind their backs. I then happily skipped back past them, with them of course having no idea that this had happened. This was simply a test, as the cunning Korean soldiers last time out would ruthlessly hunt you down with the intelligence of Skynet, but instead you are confronted with aliens who are anything but a master race of space farers. One interesting new aspect is the ability to upgrade your suit by collecting resources from the fallen bodies of aliens. This is a good move, although the upgrades aren’t quite balanced properly, being either near useless or hideously overpowered (for example the stealth upgrade, which makes your stealth seems to last forever, and helps promote the behaviour described above.)

Perhaps there would be more encouragement to play the game properly if the enemies were more interesting. If you discount bosses (of which there are effectively two) there are only 5 types of distinct enemy in the entire game. One of these is a unit you only see in literally the final moments, and one is simply a slightly tougher version of the standard alien that looks near identical. At first this is all fine, but after wave upon wave of the same opponents, it just becomes a chore. Special mention has to go to the last level, which has got to be one of the most disappointing final fights I have ever played. The game feels as if it starts off fairly well, but gets progressively worse until it is crowned by this segment. The guns fair a bit better, the microwave gun and a rocket launcher that files clusters of small missiles called a ‘Swarmer’ are particular highlights. A major improvement has been made regarding an aspect of gunplay, namely headshotting. The Korean soldiers previously seemed to have remarkably tough noggins, whereas this time a headshot will drop many foes at the first time of asking - it needed this change. The cover system has also been implemented very well, with none of that ‘I am now physically stuck to the wall’ business that so often ruins games that use it. It is just a shame minor improvements like these are so vastly overshadowed.

This is like re-living the Cloverfield monster's sneak attack all over again.

 The game also boasts a significantly revamped multiplayer, something introduced in Crysis: Warhead, the expansion. In this iteration it was most comparable to the Battlefield franchise, but this time around it is Call of Duty. It’s not like Call of Duty, it IS Call of Duty, except you can go invisible. Perks? Check. Killstreak bonuses? Check. 16 player lobbies even on the PC? Check. Ranks and unlockable weapons? Check. The list is endless, but suffice to say the difference between the games is minimal indeed. If you like Call of Duty there is no reason to not like the multiplayer, but such a blatantly obvious attempt at replicating something leaves a very sour taste on the tongue.

The word it boils down to is fun. Crysis 1 offered a million and one things and ways of doing things. It stringed this along with a flawed but believable storyline and exciting race of aliens so advanced you genuinely felt mystified by them. Now we have linear levels, no more interesting physics, two ways of killing everyone that are both executing in remarkably boring ways considering how awesome superhuman armour is, aliens that are so intelligent they can’t figure out what a wall is or why all their friends are dead, and a storyline where you are bossed about by your suit and confronted with being told things about the suit that stretch your imagination beyond breaking point. It is very clear a lot of these sacrifices, particularly the level layout, are done so that it can actually be run on consoles. The first game was targeted not just solely at PCs, but high end PCs, and it was inevitable many things would have to be taken out. Ultimately, this makes the game an incredible disappointment if you have played the first. It may sell more, but it is literally inferior in every way, and not even by small amounts, it is not the same game in the slightest. Crysis 2 feels like a bog standard, but very pretty FPS, and even a fairly good one at that. There is no reason, if you haven’t played the original, that you won’t get at least some enjoyment out of this game. However, Crysis 1 was nothing like a standard FPS, it transcended this by adding features no-one had seen before, features that are all now gone. Minor improvements have been made, but this swiftly fade into meaninglessness when confronted with the massive core gameplay aspects that have vanished. So far it is the game that has best embodied an increasingly evocative message – multiplatforming just does not work.

Score: 7/10

LoL: AxeC's Analysis Episode 2 - Do Pubstompers have a Place in the Game?

Katarina is a good example of a pubstomper.

Hello and welcome to my weekly topic overviewing aspects of League of Legends game design. Today we'll be looking at one of the more controversial sets of characters - pubstompers.

First off, what is a pubstomper? It is someone who you can play in a solo queue game and absolutely destroy poor players with, but are often easily countered in ranked or by higher skilled players. Examples of these include Katarina and Tryndamere. Hopefully I'm going to be posting my ideas for changing Katarina soon, but that's for another time.

Right now in particular there seems to be a lot of upset about Katarina, so it begs the question, what is the point of these characters? They upset the players who cannot beat them, and are considered useless by those who can. Well, there are plenty of good reasons to have characters like these around. For example, being repeatedly victimized by someone whos easy to counter hopefully will eventually teach the player to learn to use that counter. In turn, this enables you to begin thinking of counters to characters who it is far less obvious on how to disrupt.

Lets look at some specific examples. Katarina obviously hinges around her ultimate. Should you be playing normal you will eventually be forced to learn the importance of using some form of interrupt, just like you would on say Nunu. Should she be picked in ranked you will possess the knowledge that you can counter pick with some like Malphite or Mal'zahar who can ultimate her straight back. Tryndamere is a little more difficult, as he is best countered in ranked. Should he be picked, hopefully you will have learnt the hard way to take lots of exhausts and laugh as he does nothing. Currently Nocturne is performing a fairly similar role, and can also be shut down with this kind of CC.

This doesn't really cover their problems at a higher level however - that they are simply not good enough as everyone has learnt how to stop them. This is true, but does every character need to be viable for competitive gaming? Why can some characters not have their use in lower level solo queue, and some in higher level ranked play? This is the way the current system works and there really isn't much wrong with it, balancing every champion perfectly for every aspect is near impossible. This is not to say that some changes shouldn't be made to some of these characters.

Currently pubstompers serve a highly unappreciated but vital role in the game. They appeal to neither end of the gaming skill level, but occupy a unique area as an obstacle for players to overcome in order to move from lower to higher levels of play. By pushing what is essentially unhealthy gameplay they promote healthy gameplay, all the while keeping the truely good and bad players where they probably deserve to be. Personally, I can't think of anything more important in this game.

Feel free to comment and discuss whether I have any idea what I'm talking about.

LoL: AxeC's Analysis Episode 1 - The Tanky DPS Problem

Irelia: a serious problem?

Hello again all, and welcome to my new weekly series overviewing different aspects of League of Legends,  with this being the first. Who am I? I'm a European summoner, not a high ELO, but with a strong knowledge of the game and interest in game design.

Tanky DPS is not a new problem for League of Legends, we all remember the days when a giant, spinning, flaming ball screaming 'DDEEEEMMMMAAACCCIIIIAAAA' would be the last thing you saw before a grey screen. This wasn't to last, and tanky DPS faded before a highly poking metagame. Now it's back, but not in the same way as before.

There appears to be some confusion as to exactly how tanky DPS are so strong, obviously they put out a fair amount of damage while remaining tough, but aren't they counterable in the laning phase? Well, they all are, but to varying degrees, this is where I feel the problem lies - the laning phase.

The difference between the old tanky DPS and the new tanky DPS can be summed up in one game mechanic - lifesteal. Let me name a few problems characters - Irelia, Renekton and Nasus. All are very lane dominant, and extremely hard to shift from it. This is simply because all have low level, instantly accessible and powerful lifesteal abilities. Characters like Vlad have these abilities, but Vlad's Q has a large cooldown. It is also far more obvious because of the nature/animation of the attack, and the amount of life stolen. These three characters are lifestealing constantly, yet not in an overtly noticable way to the opposition. This results in extreme lane dominance, which often ends in the effect of tanky DPS characters appearing fed, even when they are not.

A few other characters fall under this catergory. Olaf and Warwick are similar, but generally jungle. However, try putting Warwick in a solo lane. Last time I played this against a solo Renekton and ended up completely dominating him, mostly by virtue of having the superior lifesteal ability. I'm sure you all know how hard it is to dominate Renekton in a lane usually. I have not tried Olaf in a lane, but the effect may be similar. Other strong laners that utilise aggression based healing include Cho'Gath and Mundo. The reality is, against a solo tanky DPS, you are engaged in a war of attrition. One that, if played correctly by your foe, you will inevitably lose without aid.

Let's look at Garen, the aforementioned pinnacle of tanky DPS. Nowadays, he can still be a fairly good tank-type character, and also fairly good as a tanky DPS. However, he is outshined by the other characters, not by damage, but by durability, yet he is the only one with an actual entirely defensive ability. Again, the answer is lifesteal. If Garen had lifesteal in his current state, I would expect him to be just as powerful as those ahead of him. His health regen passive is one of the most frustrating to lane against in LoL, and achieves a similar effect, but with the undesirable method of avoiding combat. Healing hurts his laning, healing for the others promotes their lane prowess.

Gone are these days....maybe it's for the best.

 Now, the nerf to Spirit Visage seems to indicate an awareness of this problem. Tanky DPS nerfs are also supposedly around the corner, yet I feel if all that is done is some adjustment of stats and damage, the core problem will remain unresolved. Spirit Visage shouldn't be nerfed anymore as it will be borderline useless, the actual lifesteal abilities on the characters need changing.

Jarvan is a great example of my point. Jarvan is new, shiny and a strong tanky DPS. He's nasty to face but is he overpowered? Have I ever played against a Jarvan and thought jesus, this guy cannot be stopped? No. His laning is tough but not invincible, as he lacks the sustainability of the others. He is a great character, but so much easier to stop. When I say easier, I don't mean easy, I mean within the abilities of a decent team.

Generally, when there is a problem people will merely acknowledge it rather than try to determine the source of it, and I hope I've explored a little of whats behind this today. Inevitably when this meta subsides another will rise to take it's place, but such is the nature of this game. Hopefully Riot will continue to keep up their good work and try and keep the game as balanced as is reasonable to expect.

Please leave any opinions you have, any feedback would be nice, as well as different views. If you think I have the brain of a salmon and the argumentative skills of a cheese sandwich then share what you think about the subject.

Hope you enjoyed reading and that I sparked some interest in game design amongst you.

Music Review: Children of Bodom - Relentless Reckless Forever (2011)

 

www.cobhc.com
http://www.myspace.com/childrenofbodom

Genre: Traditionally a very difficult band to put into a genre. Power Metal/Melodic Death Metal.

Track List:
Not my Funeral (4:54)
Shovel Knockout (4:02)
Roundtrip to Hell and Back (3:46)
Pussyfoot Miss Suicide (4:09)
Relentless Reckless Forever (4:40)
Ugly (4:13)
Cry of the Nihilist (3:30)
Was it Worth it? (4:05)
Northpole Throwdown (2:54)

Overview

Children of Bodom are my favourite band, lets make no bones about it. I am also one of the very rare people who likes all of their work - traditionally there is a major split between fans of their older material and their new material, most lurking in the former. Their most recent albums 'Are You Dead Yet?' and 'Blooddrunk' have come in for some flak, mostly for being different rather than actually bad.

Their sound has changed a lot through the years, moving slowly from their trademark style of Alexi Laiho/Janne Wirman solos wherever possible to what one might call a more generic, heavy sound. It is generally the talent of these two that make Children of Bodom stand noticably out - Wirman has hands of lightning and none could match Alexi's fret blitzing. One might mark this change in sound to two things. Alexander Kuopalla, on rhythm guitar left the band after 'Hate Crew Deathroll', and was replaced by Roope Latvala. This was subsequently followed by the biggest shift in their musical style. Wirman also revealed recently that it was at this same time Alexi began taking other ideas on from his bandmates for how the albums were to sound, previously utilizing his own ideas most of the time. 'Relentless Reckless Forever' continues CoB's newer sound in some respects, but there are some delightful moments of nostalgia unique amongst Bodom albums. If you want a summation of the sound, the heavier tracks on the 'Hate Crew Deathroll' album are the most comparable, which to me is no bad thing.

Review

The lead single for this album, 'Was it Worth it?', can be summed up in one phrase - a single. It reminds me a lot of their previous single 'In Your Face', it feels very simple but is quite catchy. The tone the band used to describe this song sounded to me almost apologetic for something they considered a mass appeal cop-out, which I find pretty frustrating. Usually I think CoB never pick their best songs for singles, and this one isn't an exception. The song isn't bad, I've grown to like some of the steady riffing, and the chorus sticks in your head despite being quite messy, with too many elements attempting to combine. However, the solo towards the end is atrocious - it is the worst solo in of any CoB song, ever. The video is also dire, it is simply your standard metal video of the band playing the song, with some skaters in the background that have no relavance whatsoever. I'll provide the video, but the song isn't to everyone's taste, I wouldn't advise judging the album on it.

The album as a whole maintains, and in some way exentuates, the more generic route the band is taking. The style focuses far more on riffs and rhythm guitar now than Laiho's lead or Wirman's keyboard, which have always been focal points. This is exemplified by songs such as 'Not my Funeral' and 'Relentless Reckless Forever'. Both of these are decent songs, but these guy's roles feel relegated to the background in these tracks. The tempo shifts also feel a little odd, especially on the latter which changes from slow to fast in a way that doesn't feel quite right.

My absolute favourite thing about this album are some noticable throwbacks to previous albums that I have never seen CoB do before. 'Shovel Knockout' has sections that could be taken straight out of 'Hate Crew Deathroll', while 'Roundtrip to Hell and Back' and 'Cry of the Nihilist' take parts from multiple sources. There is definately a huge mix in 'Cry of the Nihilist', from 'Hatebreeder' to 'Blooddrunk' to 'Are you Dead Yet?' This is the one thing I can truely highlight as unique about this album from it's predeccesors, which is ironic since it is taking material from them, and is a huge plus.

That said, many of the songs tread the line very finely when it comes to whether they are themed or similar and easily confused. This is mostly a problem for the first 5 tracks, except 'Pussyfoot Miss Suicide', mainly because it stands out like a sore thumb. I don't actually think it's a terrible song in itself, but the interesting rhythm may be far too gimmicky for many, and just doesn't fit with the album.

The best songs are definately 'Ugly' and 'Northpole Throwdown'. 'Ugly' shows the other songs how it's done, mixing a great, fast opening with some slower parts very well. Even though the chorus isn't handled the best it has one of the albums really good solos, something I was very grateful for, as they are not that common (compared to other CoB albums, to be fair). 'Northpole Throwdown' is an adrenaline fuelled powerhouse of a song, blazing away on both guitars. The chorus utilizes backup vocals very well, in the style of 'Hellhounds on my Trail', and also has a fantastic solo. The only shame is that it's so short. Overall, my favourite song is probably 'Shovel Knockout'.

Conclusion

The album feels very generic, that can't be denied. There are some good points, like the homage paid to previous albums, but ultimately there are some bad points I can pick at. The drums feel very redundant and my favourite thing about CoB, their distinct usage of Laiho and Wirman, is at it's least noticable in any of their albums. If you like metal as a whole you might like this album, but equally if your a big CoB fan you might not.

Personally I feel the album is pretty average. I can't look at any of the songs and say they are terrible, but equally hardly any appeal a great amount. This may change - I really hated Blooddrunk at first and it's since grown on me. Wirman confessed that he himself did not really like the album at first, but came round after a few listens, so it's definately worth giving a try. Considering CoB's extremely high standards however, I cannot help but feel somewhat disappointed, despite that fact that I have warmed to it more over repeated playthroughs.

Rating: 7/10

League of Legends Patch v1.0.0.112 Analysis Featuring Jarvan!

Hi folks and welcome to my bi-weekly analysis of the latest League of Legends patch. I've decided rather than doing the new champion and patch notes seperately, I'll combine them into one so that I can more accurately assess the champion. Previously I was using guesswork before they came out, now I will have actually seen them a few times. Anyway, on we go.

Annie: some old splash art has been updated.

Firstly, minor changes to the art, with some of the old art on characters such as Annie, Katarina, Eve and Twitch being changed. There have been some complaints about the Eve one but I think it's fine myself, nice to see these areas haven't been neglected.


Jarvan, the Exemplar of Demacia

• Dragon Strike: Jarvan IV charges through his opponent, dealing physical damage and lowering their armor by a %. This will pull Jarvan IV to a Standard if it encounters one, knocking up all enemies in his path.
• Golden Aegis: Jarvan IV calls upon the ancient kings of Demacia to shield him from harm and slow surrounding enemies. Triggers automatically if damage would reduce Jarvan below 300 Health if it is not on cooldown.
• Demacian Standard: Passively grants Jarvan bonus attack speed and armor. Active: Throws a Demacian flag, dealing physical damage and granting passive benefits to nearby allies.
• Cataclysm (Ultimate): Jarvan IV heroically leaps at his target, dealing physical damage and creating a circle of terrain around them for a few seconds.
• Martial Cadence (Passive): Jarvan IV exploits his target's opening, dealing 8% of the target's current HP as magic damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 6 seconds.

When I first looked at his abilities, and saw the spotlight, my instant reaction was oh my god he is the most overpowered character ever. Tanky DPS right now is easily the most powerful class, and Jarvan is the embodiment of this - he has a shield that slows as well, as well as various utility damage skills, what more could you want? Despite this, somehow in games I have found him to be pretty much precisely balanced. I'm not sure whether people have just not learnt how to play him yet, but he seems to do the right amount of damage (ie, not that much) to stop him being a monster. He also lacks the component that makes tanky DPS so powerful - lifesteal. He is awesome looking and conceptually great, so I'd fully recommend getting him.

Anivia

• Glacial Storm initial mana cost decreased to 75/125/175 from 100/150/200

I said I felt the previous nerf was a bit far, and they've addressed this here.


Caitlyn

• Ace in the Hole
  • Projectile speed increased to 3200 from 2200
  • Range increased to 1600/1900/2200 from 1400/1800/2200
  • Initial cast time leading up to the channeling time has been significantly decreased 

This ability had some problems, and these changes go some way to addressing them, making it harder to block and feel more 'snipery'. Good change.


 Ezreal

• Trueshot Barrage now scales with bonus attack damage at a 1.0 ratio

This is a difficult one to judge. At first, I thought it was totally unecessary - I play Ezreal and generally always do quite well. However, compared to other ranged carries such as Ashe or Sivir it's difficult to argue that Ezreal has the same power later on. Ezreal stands out as the weaker ranged carries amongst them, yet he feels fine - it feels like the others are too powerful. Nerfing all the rest instead of just buffing him would be pretty stupid, so I can understand why they chose this option. Also, note that it's only bonus attack damage, most Ezreals won't get more than 150 bonus AD.



Garen

• Decisive Strike
  • Movement speed boost increased to 3 seconds from 2
  • Total duration available to proc the silence and hit reduced to 6 seconds from 7
  • Bonus damage ratio increased to 150% from 120%
• Judgment cooldown reduced to 14/13/12/11/10 from 15/14/13/12/11 seconds

Minor buffs, Garen's speed boost was annoying anyway so I feel this was the area that least needed increasing. I feel Garen is under appreciated right now, whenever I see him he tends to dish out some pain - he still really can hurt and be pretty tanky besides. He simply isn't the unstoppable behemoth he was before.


Janna

• Monsoon no longer slows enemies who re-enter the storm

Janna is a hard case, she is clearly the best support but it is hard to nerf her without ruining her. They already hit her shield massively and she remains brilliant, illustrating how powerful she used to be. It's a minor hit, and probably one of the few that won't affect her drastically - the slow is by far the least important aspect of the ultimate. It won't stop her being awesome, but it's something.

Loch Ness Cho'Gath

Karma

• Heavenly Wave base heal increased to 35/55/75/95/115/135 from 30/45/60/75/90/105
• Spirit Bond cooldown reduced to 15/14/13/12/11/10 from 20/18/16/14/12/10.
• Soul Shield Increased the shield strength by 10 at all ranks.
• Mantra cooldown reduced to 25 seconds from 30 seconds.

She needed some help, and they have been cautious in this approach. Karma has so much utility she could easily become the best character in the game if buffed too much, so I think this is the right way of going about making her stronger. I saw a post recommending Riot crushed her AP ratios but buffed all her abilities a lot to encourage playing as a full support, not as an AP champion, which I think is a great idea.


LeBlanc

• Ethereal Chains ability power ratio increased to 0.5 from 0.4 for both damage components

Teeny, tiny buff. Shes pretty heavily underrated, if people start using her they will realise shes pretty damn strong. She is, however, still Kassadin's inferior cousin.


Maokai

• Twisted Advance levelup tooltip now correctly displays the increase in mana cost
• Fixed a bug where Maokai's death animation would not play if he is slain during Twisted Advance

Mordekaiser

• Mace of Spades ability power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.2

Another tiny buff. Morde is still a pub stomper, don't be put off playing him by his 'nerfing to the ground', I still often carry with him. This will only help that, but everyone seems to carry a conception hes not good anymore. The reality is he was, and always will be, great at solo queue low ELO, and rubbish at high ELO. I see more and more Morde's building hybrid with Hextech Gunblade nowadays, I think it's insane but it seems to work, so it may be worth giving a try.


Singed

• Fixed a bug that was causing Poison Trail to have a 1 second cooldown upon activation

Sivir

• Fixed a bug with Boomerang Blade that was causing certain items to not show their bonus attack damage in the tooltip

Urgot

• Fixed a bug with Acid Hunter that was causing missile lock to shoot further then intended

Veigar

• Primordial Burst ability power ratio increased to 1.2 of Veigar's ability power and reduced to 0.8 of his target's ability power

Made him a bit more useful against non-mage targets, but he really remains nothing but a counter pick. Theoretically he's a great champion, but he requires too many levels and farming to be useful in time.


Zilean

• Fixed a bug where the particle on Time Warp would not persist through the full duration of the movement speed modifier at later ranks

Items

• Fixed a tooltip bug where Haunting Guise said it provided 180 Health and 20 Ability Power, when it actually provided 200 Health and 25 Ability Power
• Morello's Evil Tome cooldown reduction increased to 20% from 15%
• Sight and Vision Wards can now be stacked 5 per slot
• Tiamat
  • Attack damage increased to 50 from 42
  • Mana regeneration per 5 seconds increased to 5 from 4
  • Shop tooltip is now more descriptive, matching the inventory tooltip
• Spirit Visage increased healing and regeneration effects reduced to 15% from 20%

Morello's Evil Tome is still not as good as Deathfire Grasp and Tiamat is still rubbish due to it's tiny splash area. These are simple facts. Spirit Visage really is taking a pounding of late, it's an item I really like but is beginning to teeter on the verge of being a Haunting Guise style useless mid game item.


Summoner Spells

• Ghost duration decreased to 10 from 14

This won't change much, 14 seconds was overkill anyway. If you need more than 10 seconds to escape from an opponent with Ghost, you are probably dead already.


General

• Death Timers have been reduced on Summoner's Rift to 12-50 seconds from 28-50 seconds
• Minions
  • Melee minion magic resist now increases 1.25 per 3 minutes (up from 0.5)
  • Ranged minion armor now increases 1.25 per 3 minutes (up from 0.5)
  • Cannon minion armor and magic resist now increase 3 per 3 minutes (up from 2)
  • After 20 minutes, cannon minions now spawn every 2 waves (up from every 3 waves)
  • Cannon minions and super minions now reduce turret damage by 65% (up from 50%)
  • Fixed a tooltip bug "This unit receive..." with cannon minions and super minions
  • Minions now deal about 50% more damage to turrets
• Turrets
  • Turrets deal about 10% less base damage to champions
  • Turrets now have 20% armor penetration
• Fixed several typos in the Options Menu 

The turret change is good, although 20% armour penetration is hardly going to be a vast deterrent to tanky tower divers. The death timers change I am unsure of. It has been made to stop lane passivity and I understand the logic. However, I look at it the following way. If I kill an opponent early game, lets say at mid, generally I'll be on low hp. I'll farm up the remaining creep wave, go back and buy items, then return. By this time the opponent has either returned or is seconds away. Why does it need to be made shorter? It is already easily short enough considering that, in fact I thought it was pretty much dead on. For me, this does not encourage aggressive gameplay, it encourages suicidal gameplay, that is not good.


With regards to the minion changes, this is another step towards trying to make lanes less passive. The result, however, may be an increase in overall game passivity. Now, should you try and group up for a teamfight, you may all have to split up to defend towers rather than fighting. It brings more tactical elements into the equation, which I like, but equally means it is difficult to fight unless all your lanes are pushed. If you do, you risk losing a tower easily. It also helps lane pushers - before high ELO this is already an overpowered tactic if carried at correctly, as people are not organised enough to effectively respond. This is another idea that I can understand the thinking behind conceptually (the other being the death timers), but ultimately I do not think will work in practice. I remain positive though as Riot have a clear direction where they are headed - it's not a bad one, but they are taking the odd wrong step. It's understandable, but I have faith in them. I think back to when I first started - when Twitch on the enemy team meant you had automatically lost, when Garen could happily stack 5 Sunfires, and I can't help but feel some progression. I think people need to look back at how things have been previously, and appreciate how far the game has come.

Hextech Anivia

Battlefield 3 and Skyrim Gameplay Footage Arrives

Two absolute awesome trailers have just been released for the upcoming games Battlefield 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Both previously had short teasers, now theres some gameplay, and boy do they look good. Battlefield only gives us a tiny peek at the graphics, but I'm so excited by the 10 odd seconds of gameplay that I can see, it should indicate how good it looks. Skyrim looks very much like it is following in the footsteps of Oblivion, this is no bad thing, and if it can rectify the problems with the first game this will really be one you enjoy. Check them both out below.

New Medal of Honor

The Call of Duty franchise faced a big rival last year in the form of the brand new, revamped Medal of Honor game. This challenge looks set to be sustained this year with the confirmation of a new Medal of Honor game. Call of Duty has previously adopted a yearly release schedule and it seems Medal of Honor may well be looking to do the same, with the ambition to overtake it as the FPS played by the most people being clear (for the record I despise Call of Duty).

The previous Medal of Honor did not differ enough from Call of Duty for me, both being fairly generic FPS games. Call of Duty, I believe, does not improve due to it's release schedule meaning every game being a recycled version of the previous one - I don't see how a yearly release schedule for Medal of Honor would result in anything different. That said, the popularity of the series cannot exactly be denied, so if you enjoyed them, as many of you will have, you have a lot more to look foward to.

Sourced from Gamespot.