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New Halo 4, Gears of War Judgment DLC available for free today
If you feel like shooting aliens on your Xbox today, you are very likely to be able to do so in a new venue. Both Halo 4 and Gears of War Judgment have new DLC, available at no extra cost.Having passed certification early, Microsoft has released the Halo 4 "Forge Island" map well in advance of its expected April 11 date. On their own, these aren't the most exciting locations – three big, flat islands – but they're intended to be the base for Forge Mode customization. %Gallery-184351% Gears of War Judgment's Execution multiplayer is also available today, along with the map Haven, "courtesy of Maxim and Epic Games." Weird. Microsoft warns that you have to download this DLC directly from the title menu or from the Dashboard. "The dialogue box prompting you to download the pack in the matchmaking menu is not functioning properly and will be fixed as soon as possible." %Gallery-184350%
Gears of War: Judgment's Execution mode, Haven map free after launch
Gears of War: Judgment gets two pieces of free, downloadable content a few weeks after the game launches on March 19: The Haven multiplayer map and Execution mode, both scheduled to hit Xbox Live on April 2.Haven is a frozen, ancient monastery in the Azura mountains, featuring an asymmetrical, circular layout with all paths leading to the center. Lead level designer Jim Brown says "nowhere is really safe" in Haven. "It makes for especially hectic Domination games because the rings are easy to access and difficult to defend."Execution mode has players attempt to kill every member of the opposing team before time runs out, though unless hit with a one-shot-kill weapon (see: Booshka) or a follow-up execution move, enemies will enter a "Down But Not Out" state, where they will revive after a period of time. Gotta get that doubletap.Oh, and both of these pieces of DLC are sponsored by Maxim, for some reason.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Breaking down the skills to win in League of Legends
Although seasoned League of Legends veterans might suggest otherwise, LoL is a hard game with a lot of complexity. Even though the Summoner's Rift metagame (and to some degree the Dominion metagame as well) is fairly solidified, expert players tend to take the numerous skills to win for granted. This week I'm going to go over a basic rundown of the things that help you win and separate you from the noobs who just play mindlessly. Even the players who exhibit poor skills in one area might perform well in another, and it's easy for us to assign blame due to any poor performance at all. This means we really need to focus on our weaknesses and get them up to speed. Experts will find this kind of thing a no-brainer, but there are plenty of players who have no idea about all the things they need to perform better. This week, we'll cover all the major skill areas and why they're important.
Idea pitch-to-publish ratio low in gaming industry
Jason Della Rocca, former executive director of the International Game Developers Association just put out an interesting editorial at GamesIndustry.biz. He talks about the importance of having great ideas for games versus the ability to actually execute them. This piece is written about the gaming industry as a whole but it sounds all too familiar for MMOs specifically.One thing in particular that caught our eye is the concept of idea pitch-to-publish ratios. In most businesses, many ideas are tossed around before anything is ever acted upon. Based on Jason's experiences, he feels that game developers can become way too attached to their ideas and as a result, the gaming industry has a much lower pitch-to-publish ratio. This can lead to bad situations for both the game studio and to an extent, the players. From a business point of view, investors care much less about your ideas than they do about how the implementation of your ideas can make them money. As for players of MMOs and beta testers especially, when an idea has become too precious to the developers, does your feedback even matter?
Gears of War Video: Torque Bowned
Ah, the Torque Bow, easy to use, difficult to master. Formidable a task as that may be, Nismojoe seemed to handle it with little effort. To top it off, he also threw up a montage of his proficiency with the bow on YouTube. In the video he gets roughly one hundred and eleven (or eleventy-one, for you Tolkien fans) kills, a few deaths here and there, and plenty of gibbled body parts. Due to the graphic nature of this "M" rated game, we're going to keep the video waiting for you after the break.
