80
Latest
Distro Issue 80 goes mobile to tackle unlocking, form factors and the best of MWC 2013
Just as we had all recovered from the January trip to Vegas, it was time to ship a pack of editors to Barcelona for another week-long barrage of gadget news. In a freshly e-printed issue of our slate 'zine, we go hands-on with the best of what Mobile World Congress served up in 2013. To round out this Mobile Issue, Brad Molen decodes the new unlocking policy in the US and Sharif Sakr examines the death of the form factor phone. There's a truckload of other tech-centric goodness to peruse, so grab your copy and get to it. Distro Issue 80 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro in the Windows Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Flameseeker Chronicles: The long haul in Guild Wars 2
I hear a lot of Guild Wars 2 players talk about level 80. I hear, specifically, a lot of Guild Wars 2 doubters talking about level 80. Surely, surely, if the level cap could be hit in mere days (or for those of us well behind the vanguard, mere weeks), then the game must be content-light? Surely, surely, that would mean that the real game was "endgame"? Nope. Don't get me wrong; hitting the level cap is significant. It's cool. Your character strikes a pose (you know, the same one he has struck literally scores of times before at each and every level-up). Your character says a catch-phrase. You feel good. But in terms of actual gameplay, I can think of very little that is less significant.
Grandpa Aaron loves Bioshock, can't wait to see you for Thanksgiving
It's getting to be that time of year where mushy, sentimental and "awww"-inducing chatter overwhelms all channels of media and fills your heart with a warm sense of home, whether you like it or not. For example: Reddit user Jungleradio gave his 80 year-old grandfather copies of Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption, Braid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for his birthday, with quaint, heartwarming results. Jump past the break for Grandpa Aaron's take on each game, and don't forget to tell your Aunt Suzy to bring Nana's twice-baked potato recipe to the next family reunion.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guilds, grind, and Gamescom
Thursday evening was fairly eventful for me. Thursday is our regular Massively night in Guild Wars, so [MVOP] arrived in The Wilds and began setting up for our run through the mission. We found a few players waiting for us, extended guild invites, sorted out our grouping, and off we went. We made it through the mission with only one hitch -- which I'll address in a moment -- then headed over to the Eye of the North to begin tackling the Asura storyline. The plan was to make the full trek through Vloxen Excavations to the Asura Gate, but once we arrived at Umbral Grotto, certain party members (me) were falling asleep in their seats and had to bow out and get some rest. The plans for this week are all set, and everyone is welcome to join us. Now, about that little hitch. We were traipsing around the jungle in The Wilds when I got an IM telling me that the level cap had been set for Guild Wars 2. What? No way. A quick check confirmed it, and my wonderful group sent me off to a safe corner to leech and knock out a quick news story while they continued the mission. They even came back to find me after I returned and demonstrated my truly dismal navigational skills, because they are wonderful like that. The leveling and progression information was pretty big news, so there was no question that I'd look into it a bit more deeply for this week's Flameseeker Chronicles -- follow along after the jump.
Spiritual Guidance: Gear guide for fresh 80 healing priests
Every Sunday, Spiritual Guidance and Dawn Moore lead priests into the light by studying the fine art of healing. Priests who walk into the light have a longer life expectancy* than those who follow the teachings of Fox Van Allen. Recent studies show that the 51-point talent Dispersion is actually an unexpected side effect of drinking spiked Honeymint Tea, partying with warlocks and cannibalizing gnomes. Well, the day has come: I finally decided to put together a gear guide for fresh level 80 healing priests. Many readers have been requesting this, and I figured I ought to stop teasing everyone with promises of it. I hope that this list, combined with the 101 guides we published in the past few months, will be enough to help my fellow fledgling priests find themselves somewhere in Azeroth. I can't have you all getting lost before you have a chance to dive into that new, shiny Cataclysm water. Before I get started, let it be known that this is not a list of any and all healing upgrades you can get after you hit 80. Instead it is a list of gear I would recommend to a healing priest who is trying to get the best gear he or she can without raiding or is trying to get enough gear to start healing in the current raiding content (Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel.) Since this is not a complete list, feel free to deviate from it when you find upgrades that work for you. A lot of items you find in heroics will be be better than the gear you are wearing from questing. Now, let's get started.
Menq's $80 EasyPC E790 netbook runs Windows CE now, should run Android later (video)
Don't be fooled by that background: this Menq EasyPC E790 is only using Windows CE 5.0 for the sake of this hands-on. The successor to the $89 E760 we saw last year still sports a Samsung ARM processor, bumps the 7-inch display's resolution to 800 x 480, and at least as far as this Techvideoblog video hands-on shows, can do a decent (albeit not great) job of handling DivX files, Skype, and browsing. There's a promise from the manufacturer that Android is coming sometime in the next month, but honestly, given what we've seen before, we'd be happy to stick with Windows CE. Of course, the big selling point here is the price, and that claimed $80 is quite the looker. Video after the break. [Via SlashGear and Linux for Devices] Read - Hands-on Read - Product page
Samsung's SyncMaster 80 series LCD monitor stands above the rest
It's a simple idea, sure, and it's far from new, but putting an LCD on a telescoping mount offers incredible convenience. As such, this Samsung SyncMaster 80 series professional LCD monitor allows for a more natural secondary display perched directly above your open netbook or can be spun into a portrait orientation for those looking to go vertical. The 80's are available in either 20- (F2080) or 23-inch (F2380) configurations offering a 3000:1 contrast ratio, 178-degree viewing angle, narrow 15-mm bezel, and cover nearly 100% of the RGB color space. Priced in Korea at ₩378,000 (about $287) and ₩457,000 (about $347) when released later this month. See the Sammy pulled into a frontside vert after the break.
Encryped Text: One Rogue's take on Season 5
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we discuss the new Arena Season 5.Like many of my siblings of the shadows, I play WoW in both the PvP and PvE environments. As a guild leader, it is my responsibility to organize raid groups and to lead my team to victory (and the associated purple loot). While keeping up Hunger for Blood & Slice and Dice & Rupture up may seem interesting for others; after a while the raid DPS grind wears away at my soul. I was not born to be a number-crunching math machine. I am a Horde assassin at heart: born to taste the blood of my Warchief's enemies!I have been flexing my PvP muscles in the new Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients battlegrounds, though I find myself sitting in a turret or catapult fairly often. The arena has always been my true love. It was what brought me back to WoW for TBC, and it is what tempted me to level in Northrend for the next installment. With Season 5 now officially underway, my week has consisted of the most bloodthirsty battles I have ever been a part of. So go buy your Hateful Gladiator's Band of Triumph (best initial upgrade with no rating requirement) and read on!
And the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 is...
Nymh, Human Warlock of the EU server Drek'thar (and the real-world country of France) became the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 by working with an out-of-group Priest to spam area-of-effect attacks against rapidly-spawning mid-70s mobs, inspired by the technique of another World of Warcraft Warlock player named Jynxx, who eloquently explained the concept in a video (Note: probably won't make much sense if you're not a WoW addict already).Time from 70 to 80: 27 hours.Nymh did a lot of research and trial-and-error exploration of options in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test in order to be ready for the gauntlet after the EU launch, which of course came a little bit before the North American one. We'll note that the first-to-level-70-after-launch trophy went to another French player last year. Vive la France, no?[Via WoW Insider]
Spiritual Guidance: Holy talents - Did we get the shaft in Wrath?
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Matt scored a beta key and busied himself speccing and respeccing his Priest multiple times. This week, he takes time off to answer an important question about the Holy tree: Is it worth getting excited over? Generally, the new Holy Priests' talents in WotLK beta seem pretty underwhelming. Compare the flashy things some classes are getting, and take a look at Holy Priests... did we really need a THIRD talent to increase healing of some spells by 10%? Especially since the second one (Empowered Healing) was nerfed to always be weaker then the first one (Spiritual Healing). Yet another +healing talent for a different set of spells just smells like "we needed a talent to fill this spot and had absolutely no ideas." The way it looks right now, I expect that I'll be healing pretty much exactly the same way at 80 as I am right now - except without down ranking. So, how about it, WI? Has anything really changed for Holy Priest healing? The short answer would be no.
Experience needed per level for 71-80 soars in Wrath Beta
One of the more unwelcome changes in the latest Wrath Beta build is pretty simply explained: It now takes nearly twice as much experience (80% appears to be the exact number) to level. This has hit a few us on the WoW Insider Beta team by surprise. Both Zach and I, for example, were about 2 bubbles each from our next level, and now find ourselves only halfway through instead. Of course, this is the Beta, so one can hardly complain about one's leveling time stretching. However, 80% is a very significant jump. It would imply that either Blizzard was intentionally keeping leveling experience incredibly low so they could get testers to max level quicker, or they felt that testers were leveling far too quickly and required a massive amount of slowing down. I doubt leveling will be slow as it was in the bad old days of games like Everquest, but if it's so slow that players need to clear both starting zones to level up enough to progress further, it seems like that defeats the whole purposes of having 2 starting zones in the first place. Hopefully Blizzard monitors this new changes and adjusts it downward again if needed.
The Daily Grind: How long should it take to reach the level cap?
Yesterday Blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft's recruit-a-friend program will undergo some big changes. One of those changes: if you group with a friend whose account was signed up because you invited him or her to play, you'll both receive experience at 300% the normal rate.Blizzard has already decreased the amount of XP needed to reach level 60. When Wrath of the Lich King launches, word has it that an even bigger slash will occur in the 60 - 70 range. How long will it take to 60, 70, or 80 now, we wonder? That probably depends on your personal playstyle. But the question of how long it ought to take to reach the endgame in an EverQuest/World of Warcraft-style MMO has been on our minds ever since Funcom made a statement about how many hours it wants people to invest to reach level 80 in Age of Conan.What's the sweet spot for you? Do you want to get there as fast as possible, or is the journey to the top the real attraction?
Video, interview paint detailed picture of AoC raids
There's a two-pronged assault of Age of Conan raid content information at Ten Ton Hammer -- a 20 minute raid presentation video, and an interview with raid boss scripter Eirik Munthe. Both the presentation and the interview occurred at the AoC launch event in Oslo last week, and both were rich with information. It looks like the endgame content has some incremental innovations just like the lower-level stuff; that should make the hardcore crowd happy.In the presentation, bits and pieces of one of AoC's level 80, 24-person raids were shown to an audience with live commentary by Game Director Gaute Godager. Multiple bosses were shown, such as a poison-leaking monstrosity and two demons -- one ice, one fire -- who gain power when standing near one another. Godager explained the philosophy behind raiding and epic gear, and using collision detection in battle strategies. He revealed that raid groups will be able to call it a night halfway through a raid and finish any time they want (so long as it's before the raid expiration date -- one week after its start date). There was also a brief series of clips of a massive PvP siege.In the interview with Eirik Munthe we learned that Funcom put together strike teams consisting of designers, scripters, and writers. Each strike team focused its attentions completely on a 20-level span; for example, Munthe's team worked on content for player levels 60 - 80. Munthe described the challenges he faced when scripting encounters with some of AoC's unique features such as collision detection and CoE (cone of effect) healing in mind.
Average Conanite will reach level 80 in 250 hours
Age of Conan game director Gaute Godager said at the launch event in Norway that reaching level 80 will take "on average 250 hours of gameplay," according to videogamer.com.The first few levels will come lightning fast, but the bulk of them up to 60 will be comprised of between two and three hours of gameplay. After that, it will get a bit slower, thanks to some input from beta testers. By our math, that leaves five hours per level including and after 60, but who knows how that will be distributed.Whether this ends up being faster than competing games like World of Warcraft and The Lord of the Rings Online by the end probably depends on your play-style. He said "on average," so does that mean the hardcore achievers will reach the top in 90 hours and the casuals will mosey on up there within 500 hours? There's been a lot of chit chat and speculation in the Massively office about this news. We suppose we'll get a good sense of it by midway through the summer.
Microsoft clears up Zune 80 availability issues
Those of you searching in vain for a Zune 80 may not have longer to wait -- Cesar over at Zune Insider has just posted a note about the situation, saying that all the Zunes are ready and shipping, but the Zune 80 won't be widespread for the next 7-10 days. Apparently Microsoft's sales forecasts called for it to produce more flash Zunes, but the strong reaction from the press and consumers has led to increased interest in the Zune 80 instead -- which seems like the sort of thing you commission sales forecasts for, but hey, live and learn. Anyway, Microsoft's sorted things out and scaled up Zune 80 production, so all of you aching to get 80GBs deep into the social should be good by next week.[Via Got Zune?]
Breakfast Topic: Leveling to 80
A new expansion is coming our way, and with it comes an additional ten levels of zones, quests, dungeons, and other content. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, maybe... While I'm looking forward to seeing new people and places added to my favorite game, I can't say I'm terribly excited about leveling all of my characters up to 80. In fact, it sounds like a task with the potential to be extremely tedious. But for those of us still wanting to play, there's no option other than leveling up to 80 -- and if you're an alt-a-holic like me, leveling up to 80 again, and again, and again... So today I ask you: with level 80 on the horizon, do you look forward to the leveling experience, or dread it?
