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.

Dead Island Trailer

This beautiful and strangely moving trailer has just been released to the public, creating rather a lot of hype. Nobody had heard much of it before but now it has certainly got everyones attention, and looks like it could be a great game, if the type of artistry put into the trailer is put into the game itself. Watch and enjoy.

League of Legends Patch v1.0.0.111 Analysis

High Command Katarina: a new skin I am no doubt going to buy.

Hi there and welcome to this weeks League of Legends patch analysis. I've left out the client changes as I can't exactly provide analysis on them, but they all sound good. As a summary their adding Co-op vs AI amongst other features for the client, and changing XP/IP rewards to give out an amount matching how long you have played for. Check out the official site for more details.


Maokai, the Twisted Treant

• Sap Magic (passive): Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, Maokai's next melee attack drains energy from his target, healing him for a percentage of his maximum HP.
• Arcane Smash: Maokai slams the ground, the force of which knocks nearby enemies back and sends an arcane shockwave forward, damaging and slowing his enemies.
• Twisted Advance: Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.
• Sapling Toss: Maokai hurls a sapling, dealing damage on impact. The sapling becomes implanted in the ground, warding a nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks, exploding in an arcane blast that damages enemies.
• Vengeful Maelstrom (ultimate): Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it. When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.

I've already discussed Maokai in my article below, the spotlight pretty much confirms my initial thoughts.

Akali

• Fixed a bug where the sound of Mark of the Assassin could persist after her target died

Amumu

• Base damage increased to 47 from 45
• Base armor increased to 18 from 15
• Tantrum passive physical damage reduction increased to 2/4/6/8/10 from 1/2/3/4/5
• Despair mana cost reduced to 8 from 10 at all levels
• Despair now has a new particle to match the area of effect

It's funny really, Amumu has fallen largely out of the limelight but not really due to nerfs, other tanks just seemed to take over. He was still a good champion, and maybe this might nudge him back towards being played again. Mostly seems to buff his jungling.

Anivia

• Fixed a bug where Flashfrost stunned for 0.75 seconds instead of 1 second as the tooltip stated
• Fixed a bug where unlike other skillshots, Flashfrost could not be cast from out of range
• Glacial Storm
  • Initial mana cost increased to 100/150/200 from 25/35/45
  • Cost per second reduced to 40/50/60 from 50/70/90
  • Slow duration reduced to 1 second from 2.5
• Rebirth
  • Armor/magic resist modifier changed to -40/-25/-10/5/20 from -40/-20/10/40
  • Rebirth now always shows the passive in the passive slot, and an additional buff in the buff bar with the current status (ready, active, or on cooldown)
   
  

Controversial stuff here. The idea behind Glacial Storm was to stop Anivia players 'pulsing' it to chill opponents before hitting them, but the amount of mana it costs now really seems excessive. It's also unclear whether the reduced slow duration means a reduced chill duration, because if it is only 1 second that's barely enough time to actually hit them after they are chilled. The rebirth changes I don't really think solve the problem. It's more of an issue early game, particularly when she dies behind towers. Late game if she becomes an egg Anivia would usually be surrounded and raped anyway, yet it is only the late game that has changed.

Dr. Mundo

• Fixed a bug where Infected Cleaver's PvP.net description was incorrect

Fiddlesticks

• Base magic resistance reduced to 30 from 35

Interesting they are nerfing him now, he has become more common. Shouldn't put you off using him though, his passive means your opponent will still have less magic resist than you.

Irelia

• Fixed a bug where the Transcendent Blades cooldown tooltip was incorrect

Just a small comment here. It's not relating to this change. By god she needs to be nerfed. The 3 real problem characters at the moment are Irelia, Nasus and Renekton. All 3 of them are insanely tough, but can put out an amazing amount of damage despite this. I realize that cooldown reduction items have been hit in an effect to counter these, but I don't really feel any of the items hit are often used on these characters. The main problem, I believe, is their lifesteal. It just makes them near impossible to kill and keeping them out of lane difficult.

A few games ago I played Mord, and had a Jax by my side in a 2 v 1 solo lane against Nasus. I spent the entire time sitting between him and our creeps so that his farm was at an absolute minimum. Other than repeatedly killing him, I could not have made it any more difficult, and out of the 3 aforementioned characters, farming is most important to Nasus. Despite this, he still later destroyed my team. The feeling is that they always seem fed, even if they have done very little. It's an issue that needs to be addressed at the moment, more than any other.

Karma

• Spirit Bond now properly assigns assist markers to allies that receive the haste bonus
• Fixed a bug where Spirit Bond would break friendly spell shields and not apply the haste bonus
• Fixed a display bug where Spirit Bond's beam would appear at Karma's feet for enemy players

Kog'Maw

• Fixed a display bug with Bio-Arcane Barrage attacks on several skins

LeBlanc

• Fixed a bug where the sound of Sigil of Silence could persist after her target died

Nasus

• Fixed a bug where attack damage granted by Fury of the Sands was not showing in your stats/character sheet
• Fury of the Sands now updates the buff tooltip to explicitly state how much attack damage granted

Olaf

• Fixed a bug where Undertow could hit the same target twice

Pantheon

• Heartseeker Strike now deals damage slower - it takes 0.5 seconds longer to deal full damage
• Grand Skyfall now has a small area near the center that deals full damage (previously it was impossible to deal full damage to any target)

The HSS change is a somewhat bizarre one. They changed his stun duration so the HSS could not achieve full effect after a stun - doing this as well feels a little over the top. His original channel time was 0.8 seconds, so the added time is more than half of that, a fair bit.

Rammus

• Powerball speed reduced by about 15%

Probably deserved, previously Powerball could outrun ghost, now you might stand some chance of getting away.

Renekton

• Fixed a bug where Slice and Dice would remember your order after casting, causing him to move toward previous locations

Vandal Twitch: the as yet other unannounced skin

Ryze

• Overload
  • Cooldown reduced to 3.5 from 11/10/9/8/7
  • Base Damage reduced to 30/55/80/105/130 from 50/90/130/170/210
  • Mana cost changed to 70/70/70/70/70 from 30/65/80/95/110
  • Missile speed increased to 1400 from 1200
  • Ability power ratio decreased to .2 from .45
  • Range increased to 675 from 600
• Rune Prison
  • No longer deals damage per tick and deals 60/95/130/165/200 damage up front (down from 80/120/160/200/240 over the duration)
  • Ability power ratio changed to a flat .6 from .4/.6/.8/1/1.2 (depending on snare duration)
  • Now deals 5% of Ryze's maximum mana in bonus damage
  • Cast range increased to 625 from 600
  • Duration reduced to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 from 1.2/1.5/1.8/2.1/2.4
• Spell flux
  • Ability power ratio per hit reduced to .35 from .38
  • Cooldown increased to 14 from 9
  • Mana cost reduced to 60/75/90/105/120 from 60/80/100/120/140
  • Cast range increased to 675 from 625
  • Base damage reduced to 50/70/90/110/130
• Desperate Power
  • No longer grants ability power but now grants 15% spell vamp
  • Area of effect damage percentage reduced to 50% from 65%
  • Cooldown changed to 70/60/50 from 50/50/50
  • Duration changed to 5/6/7 from 8
  • Now grants a passive 75/150/225 mana
• General
  • Reduced base magic resistance to 30 from 35
  • Fixed a bug where Ryze's base mana regen did not get updated properly during the previous patch's revamp
   
  

Big remake here. The idea was to turn Ryze into a sustained caster rather than a burst. Many people are already complaining about a 'nerf', but the change to Overload could really hurt. Combined with a Lichbane, and Rod of Ages + Archangel's Staff now unbelievable items for him, prepare to feel damage. He still has some of his early game power, but seems to be more angled towards late game now. The addition of spell vamp to Desperate Power I'm unsure about. It may yet work, but I don't really see it sustaining him through a teamfight, which seems to be the intention.


Sivir

• Boomerang Blade
  • Damage reduction to each subsequent target increased to 20% from 10%
  • Now scales from bonus attack damage instead of total attack damage
  • Base damage increased to 75/120/165/210/255 from 20/70/120/170/220
  • Attack damage ratio increased to .95 from .75

 This is apparently a nerf, but the increase in damage is almost as much as the starting attack damage bonus that was taken away. It looks more like a buff to me, a very odd change that suggests thoughtlessness.

Tryndamere

• Fixed a bug where Undying Rage could not be used while suppressed

Many people have claimed this wasn't a bug but a feature, however this apparently was always the case until a few patchs ago where it was accidently changed. Alas, prepare to see your Malzahar's head cleaved in twain.

Vladimir

• Crimson Pact Bonus ability power gained reduced to 1 ability power per 40 bonus health from 25 health
• Sanguine Pool no longer grants a speed bonus on use
• Fixed a bug where Turrets would sometimes idle while Vladimir was pooled
• Fixed a bug where Sanguine Pool would occasionally not properly draw aggro upon exiting his pool

Makes him a bit more bearable but doesn't solve the fundemental problems with his design, but I doubt anything other than a total rework will.

Zilean

• Base magic resistance reduced to 30 from 35

Any nerf to Zilean is welcome for me, I hate the bearded sod.

Items

• Fixed a bug where Vampiric Scepter improperly showed it could build into Malady
• Sight Wards and Wriggle's Lantern wards now have a green top
• Vision Wards now have a pink top
• Doran's Shield
  • Fixed a bug where it said it provided 9 armor but actually provided 8
  • Armor increased to 10 from 8
  • Health regen per 5 seconds reduced to 8 from 10
• Frozen Heart
  • Combine cost reduced to 650 from 800
  • Cooldown reduction decreased to 20% from 25%
• Glacial Shroud
  • Combine Cost reduced to 425 from 575
  • Cooldown reduction decreased to 15% from 20%
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity cost increased to 700 from 550
• Quicksilver Sash magic resistance increased to 56 from 48
• Randuin's Omen cooldown reduction decreased to 5% from 8%
• Spirit Visage cooldown reduction decreased to 10% from 12%
• Soul Shroud cooldown aura reduced to 10% from 15%
• New Item: Morello's Evil Tome
  • Builds out of Fiendish Codex and Blasting Wand (Total Cost of 2350)
  • +75 ability power
  • +12 mana regeneration per 5
  • UNIQUE passive: 15% cooldown reduction

 The cooldown reduction hits don't really affect those it was aimed at, except maybe Spirit Visage. Boots of Lucidity did need changing though as they were stupidly cheap. Quicksilver Sash obviously buffed to make it used more, but it was always a brilliant item anyway. Now it's even better. Morello's Evil Tome is ok, but just an inferior version of Deathfire Grasp. That said, they are already looking at buffing it before it has been released. Riot's testing procedures do concern me sometimes.


General

• Added a new UI to better convey Shields on the health bar.
• Surrender time on Summoner's Rift reduced to 20 minutes from 25
• Surrender time on Twisted Treeline reduced to 15 minutes from 17
• Smite now deals true damage instead of magic damage
• Updated tooltips for Akali, Annie, Ashe, Caitlyn, Cassiopeia, Jax, Malphite, Rammus, Singed, and Zilean

 The smite change might not affect as much as you think, it means slightly more damage to Baron and Dragon. Be prepared to adjust for this. The surrender time change is interesting. I'm not a fan of surrendering as many people do it pre-emptively, but with the changes to the way IP is given out this might be less prevailant. It's very rare that a game is totally over before 20 minutes, but admittedly not much fun when it is.


Thanks for joining me this patch, and hopefully I'll be writing some new articles soon. Until then summoners, try and make sure you have Renekton solo and Irelia jungle every match!

League of Legends: Maokai Abilities and Analysis

Abilities:

Arcane Smash: Maokai slams the ground, the force of which knocks nearby enemies back and sends an arcane shockwave forward damaging and slowing his enemies.

Twisted Advance: Maokai dissolves into a cloud of arcane energies. He regrows near a target enemy, dealing damage and rooting it in place.

Sapling Toss: Maokai hurls a sapling, dealing damage on impact. The sapling becomes implanted in the ground warding a nearby area. When enemies approach, the sapling attacks, exploding in an arcane blast that damages enemies.

Vengeful Maelstrom (Ultimate): Maokai shields his allies by drawing power from hostile spells and attacks, reducing non-tower damage done to allied champions in the area. Maokai can prolong the effect as long as he has mana to spend on it. When the effect ends, Maokai unleashes the absorbed energy to deal damage to enemies within the vortex.

Sap Magic (Passive): Each time a champion near Maokai casts a spell, he gains a charge of Magical Sap. When he has 5 charges, his next melee attack drains energy from his target, healing Maokai for a percentage of his maximum HP.

Analysis

You know what, I think he sounds really powerful. He can clearly lane, his passive gives him sustainability, his mines can ward against ganks and his Q + E combo could really hurt. It reminds me of a kind of reverse Alistair, where he uses his E to close the gap and then Q to headbutt back, rather than pushing back on the dash.

As well as this he could be a really good ganker for the same reason - a dash stun and a knockback could really cause some chaos. Perhaps the tree could be a jungler? Hilarious Riot. A potential little trick I imagine he could use is a bit similar to an AP Shaco's JitB traps. Maokai could plant a whole series of saplings then knock the enemy into the bush for some carnage.

Lastly, his utility is exceptional. Not only do his saplings grant great map control like a support, his ultimate may well prove to be one of the best defensive abilities in the game. It could prove exceptionally powerful against melee teams, but perhaps not so much against AoE teams, with the area effect causing your allies to cluster together inside it. Perhaps you could all hide in the small bush in front of Baron, all inside his ultimate, and launch a surprise. Time will tell, but I think he'll be one of the strongest characters released in a long time, he has it all.

Well, he has it all except looks. He looks a bit weird.

The 'Death' of PC Gaming

Heres a short article I've just written for my university newspaper, and thought you guys might enjoy it.

The death of PC gaming is a phrase I hear thrown around a lot these days, and not by people who play on computers. It seems to be the common opinion that consoles have completely taken over and there remains a last, battered few who still persist with the PC. I come before you as a PC player to explore the actual evidence behind this - am I part of a dying breed or a largely unknown yet thriving community?

Let’s start by having a look at some of PC gaming’s biggest giants. Routinely, when polls are held as to which developer is the best across all platforms, three come out on top – Blizzard, Valve and Bioware. These three also happen to be some of the biggest PC games developers. Blizzard, in itself, is a PC only company making huge titles such as the Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft series (including World of Warcraft). The console arm of Blizzard is Activision – the makers of most of the recent Call of Duty franchise. Their projected earnings for 2010 were around $4.28 billion, a staggering amount.

Starcraft 2: product of a dying platform? I don't think so.

Valve, as well as developing genre-definers such as Half Life and Counter Strike, provides the Steam service. Steam is a program that allows you to download and subsequently run games through it, including most large games released by any developer. Steam users at last count were over 30 million and Valve made an estimated $1 billion last year. Bioware are well known master story tellers producing Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. However, both Valve and Bioware have only made tentative steps towards console platforms. Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, had previously derided Sony’s Playstation but has now mysteriously changed his mind (I’m sure you can guess the reason we all suspect). Bioware are just getting round to releasing the phenomenal Mass Effect 2 on Playstation, but the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series remain the companies’ only stabs at the Playstation and Xbox. The developers seem to appreciate there is clearly a lot of money in the console arena, but their aim still seems to be to cater to PC users.

There is also an incredibly strong community within PC gaming. A perfect example of this is the game Minecraft. So far, by attracting the interest of the community alone, it has more than a million players and hundreds of mods being pumped out for it. What makes it special is the fact that it has not even been released! It is produced by the tiny, new developer Mojang Specifications, and is available to buy online and play as a beta version (the stage before full release). Modders, people who independently produce modifications for games, provide new ways to play any game and near infinite replayability. The mod ‘Defense of the Ancients’ for Warcraft 3 became so popular it has spawned an entire new genre of games, and Valve’s hit Counter Strike began as a mod.

I don’t look at it as the death of PC gaming, I see it as the rise of console gaming. PC gaming will always be more of a niche appeal, something that provides for a community of modders and dedicated players with their own culture. Consoles however, have far more accessibility, being both cheaper and a lot easier to use. It’s no surprise that this is a winning formula, but the ascendancy of one platform does not crush another, especially when it has the most dedicated user base of all. Whatever happens, do not write us off.

Counter Strike: a child of all that is good about the PC community.

10 reasons why 2011 is going to blow your mind.

Hi once again and, slightly late I'll admit, here are the games that I'm really looking foward to in 2011. Sequels are very much the theme, so if your a fan of any of the series listed, your in for a treat.

10 - Dragon Age 2

The first Dragon Age was just masterful. Bioware are the absolute epitome of what it is to make a thrilling story within a game, and the sequel has a lot to live up to. There were some gameplay issues with the first, for example if you took 2 mages the game was a cakewalk, if you took any less it was impossible. Any fixes to these would be welcome. The new graphical style, I'll admit, doesn't look very good to me, which is why I'm putting it at 10th.

9 - Crysis 2

To this day, since the release of Crysis, no-one has ever bettered it's graphical magnificence. Sure the plot was a bit cliche but the gameplay, particularly the unbelievably interactive physics, meant that it was such a spectacle it was difficult to see anything else. I like the look of the sequel more than the original - Crytek pledged to try and make a better story out of it and the setting is an urban one, which at the same time looks better than the jungle whilst not killing your PC if you put any anti-alaising on. It's supposedly easier to run due to better optomization than the first, but the fact it is going multiplatform is an understandable worry for PC gamers.

8 - The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

 

Everyone's favourite slashing, womanizing witcher, Geralt, is back. The series carries a theme of being an 'adult RPG', which sounds rather seedy. There is a fair amount of romancing involved, but ultimately the adult refers more to the dark and serious nature that it takes. Frankly, the original was such a breathe of fresh air that almost nothing like it had appeared before, and to see it come from such a small developer (CD Projekt RED) as their first proper game was staggering. Genuinely, only Bioware can claim to produce RPG's with as much quality as the first Witcher. The Witcher 2 boasts a new combat system (I thought the old one was fine to be honest), some great looking, quicktime event themed boss fights and a continuation of it's unique plot style.

7 - Duke Nukem Forever

As Duke himself says in the trailer - after 12 years, it better be good. You know what, it actually looks like it might be. This is a game that is so legendary, I would buy it to mount it on my wall no matter how awful it is. It is the mythical holy grail of games, the Chuck Norris if you will. Nobody ever thought they'd see this, and yet it's coming. Everyone thought the final product, if it did come, would look like a horrible mash up between the various engines and graphical styles of the years it took to produce, and yet it doesn't. If you want to a man, if you want guns, aliens and to rescue hot chicks, there is nowhere else to go. Always bet on Duke Nukem.

6 - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Lets not beat around the bush. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had it's flaws. The AI was at times borderline idiotic, and when you levelled up a certain amount, rather than many new monsters that 'troll' has now become an identical looking 'angry troll'. That said, the modding community was huge, and with a load of mods running this game was brilliant. What it set out to achieve, that giant free-roaming RPG world but from a first person perspective was so ground breaking I didn't care about those things. What Bethesda have shown with the Fallout series since then, is that they have entirely learned from their mistakes. None of the problems with Oblivion appear in Fallout. If Skyrim takes all that was great about Oblivion and combines that with the good parts from Fallout, it really could be a genre definer.

5 - Defense of the Ancients 2

You probably won't see this on many of this other lists, it's coming in fairly somewhat under the radar, but any list that omits this is INSANE. Defense of the Ancients created an entire new genre by itself, a mod that was so good it spawned two full blown games (League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth), yet DotA remains the daddy. DotA 2 is being developed with Valve, and everything Valve touches tends to turn to gold. The formula for DotA works brilliantly and DotA 2 will likely leave much untouched besides the graphics. What Valve really want to grapple with is the notorious community. Generally there is a negtive atmosphere overhanging these 3 games, but Valve are implmenting systems such as rewards for helping new players to encourage positive gameplay. I really don't see how this game can be anything but a massive hit, considering how it's predecessor already is, and is just a mod.

4 - Portal 2

Portal was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge success. It really was hard to overstate my satisfaction. No but seriously if you want a better example of a short but engaging and brilliantly scripted masterpiece, look no futher. If Portal 2 could even emulate the first it would be an instant buy, yet Valve are looking to beat it. Co-op was long thought of as the one missing piece from Portal, and yes, it's here. There is just so much untapped potential it beggars belief, with an infinite array of puzzles that can now be composed with a second player entering the fray. That's ignoring the single player campaign, which promises to be a bit longer this time around. Portal isn't just still alive, it's going to be killing you.

3 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution

 

In terms of an RPG styled as an FPS, the ancient beast that is the first Deux Ex has never been bettered. There was literally nothing you could not do. You want to kill the integral plot characters? Do it, the game finds its way around it. Crysis attempted to emulate it's choice of stealth or action, but ultimately did not manage it at all. Deus Ex is the ultimate tactical game. You can do anything, anyway, all the while being treated to the breathtaking visuals and incredible interaction that this new outing boasts. In the year where a franchise as old as Duke Nukem is being revived, it is only fitting that Deus Ex, possibly one of the greatest games of all time, gets to have a go too.

2 - Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 2 was just so....so.....Bioware. It was beautiful. The story was so incredibly intense and compelling, yet the characters so relatable it is a journey you will never forget. With the ability to move your saves across each game, your decisions impacting upon the future, it's a journey you don't have to forget. Mass Effect 2 really made strides in terms of gameplay over the first, and if Mass Effect 3 continues this theme then we have one of the games of the 21st century. The trailer features the best CGI I have ever seen, ever. I know it's a cinematic trailer and proves nothing but I couldn't help but wee a little in excitement. Time will tell, but if theres one group you can trust to deliver the goods, it's Bioware.

1 - Diablo 3

No-one, not even Valve, can boast a track record like Blizzard. I'm not a fan of World of Warcraft, but even still, you have the Diablo series, the Warcraft series and the Starcraft series. Bam, just like that, 3 of the biggest series' ever in PC gaming. Blizzard are quite famously never rushed into finishing a game, and they proved last year they can always up their game, doing the impossible and beating Starcraft with it's sequel. Warcraft III is still one of the most highly competitive games in existence. Diablo 2 is now 14 YEARS OLD, I just can't believe that, and still has a large online playerbase. Just like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 looks for all the world to be the next step. Both series' predecessors were arguably the best in the genre, Starcraft 2 is the world's pre-eminent strategy game, if you were going to place your bets on Diablo 3, saying it will be anything other than crazily good would be madness.