League of Legends preseason for season 6 has hit, and it’s a doozy. We’ve got some heavy hitting changes, and one of the heaviest hitters is Graves. Graves has always had trouble finding his niche to fit, but now it’s even harder. Because he can go everywhere.
Graves is overpowered. You can argue people just haven’t learned him yet, but this is pretty empty considering he can burst people down faster than he can fire three shots. Top Laner, ADC bot lane, Jungle, you could probably even Mid Lane him, no position is safe from his long arm of the law. This man has had a few changes to make him work everywhere, and I’m gonna make a quick review of how to fight against, or as, this Cigar lacking powerhouse.
Graves is all about the burst, and that extends to even his auto attacks. He finally has a real shotgun now, and each shot is a spread of multiple bullets. The more bullets hit, the more damage dealt. When Graves gets a critical strike, he fires more bullets in the same spread area, for more damage. Graves uses an Ammo system, which can be seen by all players in the game. He has unlimited ammo, like everyone else, but only two shots can be used at a time, before a notable “reload” delay. Graves has to reload then, significantly reducing his fire rate. He automatically reloads when inactive, walking around, whenever he gets the chance. So you only need to worry about ammo when combat rolls around. Your auto attacks should be planned well, and interspersed with his powerful abilities. Before we continue, he has one more very important passive, although it is rather easy to ignore at first. Graves gains bonus armor and magic resist while in combat, including last hitting minions, jungle camp fighting, everything.
Square Enix has announced that Life is Strange will be getting a physical, Limited Edition release. It will debut for PS4 and Xbox One on the 19th of January, with Europe also recieving a version for pc. It comes with a 32-page artbook, the soundtrack, and a director’s commentary.
With only a few days left on the clock, the Friday the 13th project by relatively new studio Gun Media has managed to inch past its 700.000 dollar goal on kickstarter. The game, which will be a multiplayer focused title pitting one player controlling Jason against seven camp counsellors, is set to be released in October of next year for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
This game is very similar in concept to a Kickstarter project that more than doubled its much more modest goal of 50.000 dollar called Last Year. Ironically, if both are going to launch during their planned window, Friday the 13th will beat it by a month. Whether or not they took inspiration from this smaller title we’ll never know, but it’s still a very novel idea and I think it can support two games if both are decent. The Friday the 13th series has never been my thing, having hit its apex before I was even born, but I adore asymmetrical multiplayer when it’s done well. The concept is certainly solid, and I hope they can find a way to build it out into a solid game.
Samsung has just made their $100 VR Headset available for pre-order at Best Buy. The device only works in combination with a variety of Samsung devices, the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge+, S6 and S6 Edge, and comes pre-loaded with a bunch of 3D movie trailers and “360° videos”.
A lot of sites have been hailing this as the device that’d make VR go mainstream but I’m….skeptical. The largest problem with the device is the lack of content for it, and it will probably be years before there will be consistent content created for it. The main advantage of the Oculus is that it has dedicated developers that are making shit for the thing, which this one doesn’t. And let’s be honest, you’re not going to be watching Netflix with this thing on. When you want to sit down and relax, you’re not first going to strap half a refrigerator to your head. Also I’m fairly certain binge-watching with this thing might just snap your neck in two like a twig. All in all, this might be the introduction of VR to the mainstream, but I think the introduction is a bit early and as a result may leave a foul taste in the mouth for early adopters.
A new Nintendo Direct is going to be held on the 12th at 2 PM PST, only two days from now. The link is already up and can be found here.
Nintendo is still very much Nintendo and hasn’t really told us what is going to be included in the conference, but I think it’s safe to assume it will largely focus on the company’s holiday line-up. Most notably, this line-up includes Xenoblade Chronicles X, the follow-up to a game I didn’t play because I do not own a Nintendo console. Anyway I do respect Nintendo’s way of doing things, even if I’ve never really managed to get into their games. I’ll probably check out the conference just because it’s bound to be better than the dreck I sit through every year at E3.
After bringing in 5.6 million unique viewers, with a peak viewer count of over 183.000 watching at the same time, it is fair to say the experiment of putting up Bob Ross on Twitch was a resounding success. As a result of the near universal positive feedback, Twitch will now regularly stream an entire season of Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting every monday on the designated channel. They will also stream the entirety of the thirty two seasons back to back every year on October 29th, to celebrate his anniversary on Twitch.
This is the part where I think of something clever or sarcastic to say but it just doesn’t seem right here. The unironic embracing of Bob Ross by the, let’s be honest, often toxic Twitch community is something so heart warming and positive even I can’t be cynical about it. Tuning into it and watching people celebrate every time he finished a painting the same way they’d celebrate a Nexus being destroyed or a bomb defused, it just made me feel….happy. Even years after his death, Bob Ross is still spreading the Joy of Painting to new generations, and I’d like to just appreciate that.
League of Legends preseason is coming up, and that means everything is about to change. We have a lot of official information from their site and unofficial information from the PBE.
Most champions with Mana as a resource are getting new mana pool sizes and scaling to adjust for mana pots being removed, and several less viable champions are getting reworks. This article will be focusing on the item changes.
The first thing to note is an item overhaul for what they’ve dubbed “marksman items.”
This is a misleading name as these same items are also used for many auto-attacking/AD scaling champs.
The reason it’s about “marksmen” is this is Riot’s personal name for what most people call the AD Carry. These item changes will affect every single physical damage based champ in an overall, probably positive way.
Riot has realize that ADCs have one or two correct item builds per Champ, and most of the champs all share the same item build. Infinity Edge is almost always first item, because almost all ADCs build Critical %. This is not changing, IE is still the prime crit item, but they’ve buffed MANY other items to make them viable starting choices
Some recipes have been changed, some items have been removed, but I’ll start by focusing on the item changes for top tier, complete items, the ones you’ll be getting end game.
Masteries have been overhauled, there is a free example mastery editor out here: http://efferentinc.com/wp-content/lol6calc/index.html#
Well, let’s start off with some warnings. This game hurts. It might not for you, but it hurt for me. You’ll probably look at one of the characters and before they even talk about themselves, think something about them. It’s very short, and plays in your browser. It’s a VN, more than anything else. I finished all three endings in a day, and it tore me apart.
This game is gonna make you feel things, if you let any of those characters be something you look at, and think “that’s me.” There are three “main characters” and your choices dictate the ending. As such, I had to play it through multiple times to be satisfied. On to agency, the game has a notably small amount of player agency; the only choices you make are which two characters are going to interact at each point in the game. You learn a lot about the characters that you choose to make interact, and it can be very heartwarming. It has queer characters.
I’m trying very hard to be vague, to avoid spoilers, because there’s a lot to be spoiled. This game hits hard, and then leaves you be to decide if you want another round. It has multiple endings, is fairly short, and immensely satisfying to finish. I’m at a loss as to what else can really be said about this game. It’s amazing. It’s got an engaging story, lovable characters, which are simultaneously hate-able. They’re real. They feel human. I wouldn’t be surprised if the creators sat down and wrote characters based on each other, because they feel so incredibly real.
Not going to play? Time to spoil it for you.Read More
In an update on kickstarter, developer inXile has announced its spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment will be releasing somewhere in 2016, moving the date back from its original Q4 2015 release window. It has also been announced that project manager Kevin Saunders will be leaving the studio. He will be replaced by Wasteland 2 lead Chris Keenan. Read More
During a Japanese livestream of Pokken last night, the new character “Dark Mewtwo” was revealed for the upcoming pokemon fighting spin-off Pokken Tournament, which is being developed by Namco-Bandai.Read More
Earlier this week the Hearthstone World Championship officially started. Even though it was only the round of 16, viewer count peaked at over 100K, briefly becoming the most viewed game on Twitch. The Hearthstone competitive scene is big, and it’s a pretty cool place. I’ve enjoyed following competitive Hearthstone ever since its beta, and I have managed to put in three top 500 on the European ladder over the last year. By this point the Hearthstone scene has been clearly established, and it can be intimidating for a newcomer to figure out just what the hell is going on. This article, which is going to be the first in a multi-part series, is going to tell you the basics of Hearthstone. After reading this you should be able to tune into a Hearthstone stream and follow along without any issue. It won’t turn you into a pro, but it’ll let you watch other, better players play the game. This is without a doubt the best way to improve, and it’s also loads of fun. Even if you’ve never played the game before, after reading this you should be able to tune into the World Championship and have just as much fun as the rest of us.Read More
An update this morning has added more ways to spend money in Destiny.
For 200 silvers players can buy Treasures of the Lost Chests which can contain small randomized items such as legendary masks and Jackolytes. One dollar is equivelant to 100 silver coins. In addition to the chests, emotes can also be bought with prices ranging from 300 to 700 silver coins. Read More
Last week YouTube announced the premiere of YouTube Red. This service allows content creators to gate off some of their videos behind a subscription fee. It seems however that as with every major change YouTube seems to make, there have been some issues. Certain gaming companies have not yet agreed to the terms for YouTube Red and as a result of this footage of certain games is getting blocked for US viewers.Read More
IndieCade is weird. So often “weird” is seen as a negative term, but weird is celebrated here. The games and activities showcase that the abnormal is often fun. In the Los Angeles heat, indie developers, gamers, parents and children enjoy the fun, thought-provoking and silly experiences. IndieCade celebrates innovation and it shows in every part of the festival.
The three day festival is for gamers, developers and the general public alike. It showcases indie games from across the globe in 12 different innovation award categories. Here you’ll find games like no other in the world. Some are more familiar, like Nevermind, which is a horror puzzle solving game that tracks your heartbeat and increases in difficulty if you let your fears get the best of you. Others have controls so absurd that people can’t help but laugh while playing, like Butt Sniffin Pugs, where the controller consist of a giant rolling tennis ball, two buttons and a stuffed pug butt that you sniff to acquire new powers in game.
You know, this wasn’t the article I wanted to write. It really wasn’t. Let me get this out of the way: I love Life Is Strange. I love the empathy it shows in giving even most of its villains depth and meaning. I love how most of the time it manages to tap into that inexperience, that imperfection, that unbridled optimism that makes the best kind of teen fiction. I love Max and Chloe’s tender, confused, multi-faceted relationship with each other; and all those things that I love are in here. In fact, some of the best moments of the entire series are nestled amidst this final episode. Little pieces of humanity that represent the very best this series has to offer.
And that’s why the ending is so terrible.
The second half of episode five takes place largely inside what is implied to be Max’ own head, where she is forced to face her greatest fear: Terribly designed mandatory stealth sections. There’s plenty to criticize here, but let’s be honest. The gameplay of Life Is Strange, especially the puzzles that involve the rewind mechanic, have always been clunky. I can get over this bit of below-average gameplay, especially since the environmental design here is really cool. The way it manages to recall some of the scenes from earlier in the game and make them feel both familiar and yet alien, is well done and creative. No, the real ending, and the real problem I have with this episode, starts after Max has made her way through all that.
In one of the last scenes of the game, Max finds herself in a representation of Joyce’s diner. It is filled with the residents of Arcadia Bay who are all blaming her for their deaths. As she walks through the crowd, she finds herself confronted by a mirror image, who accuses her of being selfish. Her motivations weren’t pure, the doppelgänger claims. She only used her power to make people like her more, and in doing so started a chain reaction that destroyed their lives. It is without a doubt meant to be an emotionally devastating scene, forcing both Max and the player to reflect on their action throughout the adventure. They have to face the consequences of their actions now that there is no rewinding, only taking responsibility. This is followed shortly after by the final choice of the game: To either sacrifice Chloe and turn back all the changes Max has made, undoing all of her damage to the timeline but killing her friend in the process, or to sacrifice Arcadia Bay and its residents in exchange for Chloe’s continued existence.
It’s not a bad ending. That is to say, it’s not a bad idea for an ending. However it’s not the ending this game needed. In fact, this ending undermines the entire point of the series. The choice here and what it means is rather obvious: Max has to either commit to her selfishness and accept that saving Chloe quite literally means letting everyone die, or she has to turn everything back, letting Chloe die but in doing so not fuck up the lives of everyone else. The tornado here is a metaphorical butterfly-effect turned literal. It is the result of her actions doing countless things beyond her control, and others suffering for it.
The reason the ending ultimately rings false is that the criticisms thrown at Max are unjustified. They are not backed up by anything that actually happens in the series, and they fundamentally contradict the main focus of the games themselves: Max’ powers allow her empathy. There is an obvious parallel between Max’ passion for photography and her powers, with a lecture in the first episode referring to photography as “framing little pieces of time”. This is fundamentally what Max’ powers allow her to do to capture a moment, and to examine it closely from multiple angles. Her powers allow her to explore not just the possibilities she has, but the people around her. And in doing so, it allows her to see the sympathetic side of people that she would normally just dismiss. This is something that comes back constantly throughout the series. Victoria’s aggression and hate come from a lack of certainty about her own work, coming from a rich family and never knowing whether people actually care about her work and her as a person, or just her money. Nathan is a rapist and a murderer, but he’s also obviously an addict with an unclear mind who is groomed and manipulated by a man far more in control than him. Frank is a drug dealer who doesn’t care what his product is used for or how it damages other people, but he also genuinely cared for Rachel. While he is apathetic about the lives of most, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. The principal is an obstinate man who protects Nathan from scrutiny until he can no longer avoid it, but he does genuinely seem to care for his students and cannot help being forced into a position where most of the money for his school comes from the parents of one of the greatest threats to his students. The game never pretends these reasons absolve any of these people, but it understands they are humans and have their reasons for doing the things they do, and through her powers Max is able to understand these reasons as well and use that to find the best solution. Max’ power is fundamentally one that creates empathy and understanding, and it’s this empathy and understanding that guides the decisions Max makes.
