Most fan art is, well, fan art. Sometimes you find an artist that’s able to take it beyond the source material. Click the image for more of the dude’s work.
Category: RPG
DOTA 2- down the fucking rabbit hole (again)
I got into the beta of DOTA2 awhile back and after installing my only experience with it was waiting for a match to start and then quitting after about 2 minutes. Given that I played the early versions of DOTA as part of my (and everyone else’s) Warcraft 3 addiction, I didn’t think I was missing much. How good could it be? It’s a bunch of WC3 heroes fighting each other on the same map over and over and over again and I’d done that before. Plus, I remember it being pretty boring compared to a straight up WC3 match– you do only control one hero after all.
However, I’m eating a bit of crow meat now–I’ve played some handful of matches here and there and am largely hooked– every time I win one of those boxes, I buy a 2$ key (the game was free after all so I feel I owe them something!). So my few and dear readers, I will likely post a terrible amount of DOTA stuff in the next gaggle of months until the addiction passes. The realization that I liked it hit me last night when I actually called it the Cosmic Encounter (the best board game ever made) of video games– in that the basic premise is very simple and easily understood, but the sheer asymmetry of the number of heroes turns it into something completely different every single time. What’s more, even if you suck really bad, you can still contribute to your team if you have a basic understanding. Going into a server assuming you will be THE carry in the game is setting yourself up for disaster, but pushing lanes, support and ganking are doable with just a bit of practice.
Please note the most popular video game on the planet is effectively a DOTA clone (League of Legends) so the addictive qualities speak for themselves.
A neo guardian heroes approaches
After the legendary Guardian Heroes appeared on XBLA we’ve had some good times with it and people likely noticed! Looks like the team that did the gorgeousity that is Odin’s Sphere on the PS2 have queued up a very similar title to the revered Guardian Heroes: Dragon’s Crown. Please note the female proportions present in the illustrations.
Nostalgia madness
WOTC has been hitting the old School D&D hard since the announcement of 5th edition– with the reprints of both 3.5 and the original AD&D hardcovers, it’s like 1979 and 2002 all over again. Showing how far they are willing to go to rope in the nostagists (the 40+ who still play the 1981 boxed editions)– they are now reprinting the original white books (or tan) that kicked off this insane hobby in the first place.
I’ve seen these in the past and read through them a bit (I found one randomly on a dude’s porch one day outdoors) and I have to say it’s pretty much all nostalgia if you want to have these. It’s not that the rules are shit or anything, it’s just that we have moved FAR beyond what these guys started back in the 70’s. I can see sticking with the Basic D&D from 1981– but not this far back. Not that I don’t sort of want these…even if the art isn’t great.
The hipster D&D invasion
Bestigor, the line in the sand this week
Looking at my Warhammer Fantasy Battle miniature backlog is a truly daunting thing. I have a 4000 point chaos army, a 3000 point beastman army and a small Dark Elf army sitting on shelves with, for the most part, no paint on them. I have been pushing through painting a 30+ bestigor horde for the last—YEAR. This week that’s got to end. I sat down yesterday and cranked on four of them and when I finish those off I will be down to five to finish off the unit.
With painting, it’s one of those things that’s not hard– I don’t set a super high standard for my core units (though they do look really good on the table) so there’s no nervousness around painting that you would have with say, anything CONFRONTATION or 28mm skirmish anything (including Blood Bowl) where it really has to look good when close viewed. It’s more of a motivation thing– my painting table is filled with miniatures and when I finish them, they go away in a box so ALL I see is the unpainted stuff and a mass of metal and grey and black staring back at you with their dead, unpainted eyes can be intimidating to the extreme. I’ve been painting beastmen on and off since 2005 or so when we thought we’d start playing 6th edition (we didn’t). With the bestigor unit done, I will have 100+ painted models for the beasts– really a small amount for a horde army but the bestigor unit completion the rest of the army is all downhill. Next up are 25 Ungor– not a joy to paint but easy and then about 15 more Gor, which I can probably paint in my sleep. After that, Nine minotaurs …at that point I could slap together another chariot, paint the Giant or get the obligatory swarm of level 1 bray shaman to huddle around the Herdstone Shard done. With the exception of the minotaurs, all pretty easy stuff considering. So this week the Bestigor get done…
I just have to keep chanting:
Their walls will fall.
Their faith will fail.
Their flesh will tear.
Torchlight 2 Elite Hardcore tips Levels 21-30
So you made it to level 21 in Torchlight Hardcore Elite aye? Think it was tough? Think it was a slough and many of your characters died even with my other list of tips as reference? Well Act 1 is fucking CHEESE CAKE compared to Act 2 Elite. I want to tell you straight away: you will not make it through Act 2 Elite hardcore. It’s really best to give up now. Act 2 comes down on you so hard that you will need aircrash coroners to piece you back together again. That said, here are ten more tips if you do choose to keep going past level 20. These are not class specific. You better know your build and how it’s going to both deal out and survive damage. There are tons of solid builds out their on the interwebtubes to look at for all classes. After my level 23 or so Embermage bit the dust, I ran Elite Hardcore with a Berserker and used THIS build strategy. I cannot comment on any other classes above 20 because, pathetic as it is, all my other characters died in the second part of Act 1. I didn’t cry, I promise.
You will spend most of your time in that second part of act 1– the winter part. Obviously make sure your ICE armor is 100+ or you’re meatpastecicle. There is a lot to look out for in that region– but be especially careful of bosses that shoot out ice/earth in a line straight at your character (Ice Elementals and Chillhoof are examples of this). This type of attack seems to do MASSIVE damage and can one hit you if you let it connect. You will eventually build up to level 27-28– that is the time to hit the Grand Regent (boss of Act 1)– not before unless you are very sure of yourself. GR has a couple of attacks that do huge damage and unless you’ve fought him oodles of times before on Elite Normal, you won’t know the visual triggers for those attacks until you are already a corpse. That said, here is the list!
- Play alone or with one other person ONLY. Damage modelling, which I won’t pretend to understand, seems to go off the charts when you have more than two people playing together, and it’s really not worth the risk of untimely demise. This is sad because TL2 is all about the multiplayer but it gets really tough when you just can’t take down mobs and take tons of damage more than you are used to. This is Elite remember, ELITE so if you want to go have a jag with your friends, go back to Veteran.
- Stay in Act 1 for as long as you can stand it. You could conceivably spend levels 21-30 IN Act 1 because the end dungeon is fairly difficult, but you will yearn to go to Act 2 because level ups will become painfully slow and, because you are not dying, you will build up a lot of ember chips to merge up. However, you need to grind for gear, especially stuff that gives you elemental protection and armor. You need as much armor as you can load on and will you need to level up to at least the late 20’s before hitting Act 1’s boss. Act 1 may start to seem pussy to you after a span of time and this is a good thing. Use that to build up gold reserves and farm for items. The items are FAR better in Act 2, but your chance of survival coming right out of Act 1 is close to zero if you haven’t taken precautions.
- Level up more than you think you need. If you are used to Disgaea and the like you know what it is to level up prematurely. With Torchlight Elite Hardcore, you only have one shot at this or you’re back to square one. If you think you need to be at level 24 for a dungeon– make sure you are at least 4 levels higher. This will take time– but less time bringing another character up to level 20 again!
- Play super conservatively. You cannot survive against anything mobbed up in Act 2 when you first get up inside the act. Get that into your head straight away. Go very slowly through the main map and break up mobs by running off. Use your summons (both from scrolls and from your class skills) to take out enemies as you run away to safety. I’m assuming you have seen the enemies you need to watch out for from previous plays, but if you haven’t make sure to study the enemies you go up against before diving in. Some of the mobs in Act 2 are insanely brutal.
- Remember: One critical from a boss and you are done. If you get a critical hit against you from a boss, you’re character is dirt. There is no way to prepare for those types of hits. You will never have enough armor or vitality to survive it– so DO NOT GET HIT. One of the advantages of Torchlight 2 as a game is that you can dodge attacks and don’t have to stand there and be hit from across the screen due to hit lag like Diablo 3. Use this to your advantage. Don’t stand toe to toe against anything unless your build allows it. Engineers– don’t get overconfident that you can tank. You can’t.
- Run Grell– Go back and run General Grel from the first part of act 1. Grell sometimes drops an EYE that reduces ALL damage by 3%. You could do worse than to fill ALL of your available sockets with the Eyes of Grell. This will take time not so much on the run itself, but finding the Dungeon can take awhile.
- Use both your weapons sets. (switch with W) One should be for defense and one should be for offense. Ideally the offensive one would give you health steal and the defensive would give mana steal. Shields are great for any class– yes they reduce your damage output compared to the 2-handers or dual-wielding but what’s most important in hardcore? Survival!
- Map your Keys – I’m not going to go into class specifics but hunting and pecking for shit on the number row in the middle of a fight (which you are doing right now aren’t you?) = DIRT for a character. So remap your main keys for a fight to WASD or QWE and remember Z and X are already mapped to heal.
- Monsters to look out for in the second part of Act 1: Mirka Frostbinder (really watch out for these), Blackfist Assassins en masse, Bosses: Ice Elemental (make sure to kill all of his mob before taking him out), King Ice Gel (he can one hit you like nobody’s business).
- Monsters to watch out for in Act 2 (the early part): Basilisks in a Mob with anything. Dune Mothers. Ezrohir Snatchers. Bosses: Caius the Fleet, almost all the dungeon bosses are tough.
- (bonus number eleven) Don’t wander into any Act 2 dungeons until level 29+. Some of these drop you immediately into a big boss battle during which guess what? Your character dies.
You are kickstarting my balls
Ok so you have convinced me to back your shit via kickstarter– I already think it’s a good idea and I think you’ll get it done (someday) so there is my fucking money. While I am interested in your progress I am really not interested in anything but the finished product, i.e.: when the fuck it’s coming out, when the fuck I will get to play it or have it and if there are any delays about points one and two. I have no interest in my inbox being peppered with constant emails about the minutiae of your development process or any of the cool stuff that will be in your game or piece of art– I will see ALL that shit when it gets into my hot little hands. Don’t want your interim artwork, don’t want your videos about stuff, don’t want your backslapping about how great your kickstarter went either. All that is fine, but I really just want YOUR PRODUCT. What’s more, if you have an inkling that your kickstarter is going to fail, please stop sending me the pleading emails to tell all my friends. I have already pinged you on some social networks, I have already told people of like interest I know about it and they either chose to throw some cash in, or did not. Sending me constant emails with banners to slap all over my site to back the kickstarter just displays an underlying anticipation of failure. And if you think your kickstarter wouldn’t generate enough $$– why did you GO SO FUCKING HIGH SO THAT THE GOAL CANNOT BE REACHED? Sure Kingdom Death went to some insane levels of funding, but they were only asking for 35,000$ to start– it’s not their fault that they are incredibly talented modelers and had SEX EVERYWHERE (not death at all)
That said, I did back the above 40K rehash and also recently backed the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide. I am just having so much fun using the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system (if not the setting) that I just can’t help myself but hope for more shit for that system. While I really like FATE, I’m starting to lean a lot more towards Cortex because it really does supers well and with the eventual goal to be running Exalted again with a better system than 2nd edition, Cortex is much more suited for it than FATE is (Kerberos Club is close though).
Xcom Review: a finished game!
I did it. I finished a game. So rare, so unique to actually push through and complete any game I start– it must be good, right? Yes. The new Xcom delivers the turn based goodness big time. While it is not up to the Jagged Alliance 2 level of turn based goodness– Xcom is by far the best modern TBT (turn based tactical) game I’ve played and hopefully will usher in a new age of copy cats that take the genre to new heights. This was an A class title and while I’m not sure about sales, it must have some publishers thinking that turn based strategy is a sell for gamers. What’s amazing about Xcom is that it not only plays like a great TBT title, it LOOKS like an A class game. A lot of people may have played Laser Squad Nemesis, but likely not a lot of people were drawn in by the graphics who otherwise wouldn’t look at a TBT game. The last serious TBT I played was Soul Nomad and the World Eaters after a long string of NiS titles since the legendary Disgaea hit the states. Xcom is a far cry from the NiS games but the essentials are the same: you have a group of guys, they level up, they get better gear, they fight stuff in turn based mode.
First, lets me get on about the stuff that’s not really all that important: the visuals. This is window dressing for the core gameplay and while it can’t make the game it is a HUGE bonus in Xcom. Firaxis uses the Unreal engine and it is just gorgeous. All the effects look great, the physics are superlative and the destructable terrain is to DIE for in this genre. We’re seeing things in Xcom (again, a TBT) that are normally in a top drawer FPS. The camera work is fairly good during shots and criticals– I saw a few glitches here and there, but nothing gamebreaking. This is, by far, the best looking TBT around. What I was most worried about after Xcom Apocalypse is that the aliens in the new version would look like SHIT or just too comical to take seriously (like the blue ice cream guys or the walking asses). I can say the aliens look excellent. While not a fan of the ‘greys’ as a design, they did a great job with everything else. They even go into explaining why there are so many different races invading the earth all unified– not something that was ever done in the old Xcoms.
Gameplay. Firaxis made some decisions that at first concerned me a great deal. First there is no inventory at all. You don’t have a backpack filled with crap for each soldier and you cannot pick up anything on the ground during a fight. Soldiers have a main weapon, a pistol and up to two extra items (either a medikit, stun gun, grenades or extra armor for the most part) depending on your class.
Secondly, your guys get two moves only. That means you can’t move one square forward, move another square forward, etc. You have to pick a square to move to and GO. You can move a second time, but again, you pick a square within your move range and go there. For your shooting action, you either shoot first (and not take your movement at all) or move first, then shoot.
Both of these things seem shocking to Jagged Alliance veterans—but they do something that I highly respect: save time. If you remember, missions in the old Xcom and map clearing in JA could take a long, long time. Xcom’s new version drastically reduces the possible time spent on a mission, mostly due to the two major changes above. You are not wasting time moving single squares with your guys, nor are you fuddling about with trying to determine if you can grab a grenade out of you backpack and still have enough action points to throw it. This does remove some of the age old tactics of picking up alien tech and slapping it in your backpack (or alien corpses) or getting aliens to drop their weapons on a successful psionic control attack (yes Psionics are in the game). However, the benefit far outweighs the loss of these age-old and rather beardy tactics in that you are done and on to the next mission.
Campaign. The campaign game is engaging and tight. There are cinematics for a lot of events and a set of cheracters that you interact with throughout who provide some added entertainment and give you a feel for what is at stake. I only played through the campaign twice, once losing pretty quickly before I understood the importance of countries panicking and leaving the Xcom project. Once you get down to too few countries funding Xcom, the aliens basically take over and it’s game over.
Another interesting bit is that the aliens always abduct humans in multiple sites–so you have to choose where to take your guys to shoot them. You can take easy missions (and should early on) with small rewards, or take difficult missions with more rewards. Eventually you are forced to take the most difficult missions as the panic level in some countries becomes so great, you don’t have a choice but to take on that mission to lower the panic level. Since, as noted above, missions go quickly, campaign game can go fairly quickly, unlocking new weapons (and facing new enemies) at a good clip. While it’s key to allow the player to determine some of the pace in a TBS game, I found it a good mix of being forced to take action and having time to mull over decisions.
Soldier upgrades are simplified in that you choose a skill per advance. These skills are very clear in gameplay, and you can tailor your guys to be pretty much exactly what you need at the time. My only complaint here is that you will get some guys that can no longer advance as they have all the advances in their class tree. This is minor as by that time, you are headed to the end of the game.
That said, Xcom is not an extremely long game where you are slugging through hours and hours of missions and side quests, there are distractions from the main quest, but you are always against the clock and have to start making your way to the end with some speed if you want to win. As a responsible adult, I found this to be great as I could actually FINISH it. Now back to the pile of unfinished games from 2011….
Talisman fart-candle
