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The Art of Wushu: The limits of human reaction time
We're finally back on track with the kung-fu lessons, and today we're going to talk about something very important: how being human limits what you can do in an Age of Wushu duel. Like a lot of skills relating to dueling and strategy, this is a fairly broad skill that can be applied to a lot of games. Reaction speed is one of the most difficult things to train in Age of Wushu, especially for old-timers like me. Reacting to things in a timely matter is a massive advantage; it lets you punish feints, interrupt sluggish normal attacks, and stun people out of dance-like moves. The trouble is, we're human, and humans are slow. This time, we're going to look at exactly what that means in hard technical terms.
Daily iPhone App: Relic Rush is a one-touch beauty
Man, if there's one thing Apple's iOS platform is good at, it's this: A really great, simple idea made beautiful. That's exactly what Relic Rush is, and that's why I bring it to you highly recommended as a US$0.99 purchase. Relic Rush is a one-touch game in which your tap on the iPhone or iPad's screen simply makes the little hero stop in place, for as long as your finger is held down. That's it. We've seen this idea done a few times before (This Could Hurt is probably the most memorable example), but I've never seen it done so simply and elegantly as Relic Rush. Each level takes place on one screen, and you just need to navigate your little guy through a series of obstacles by timing his run just right, trying to reach through five of them to a trophy waiting to be collected. The game's timing puzzles start out as just regular intervals, but of course as you proceed through the more than 100 levels, things get more and more ingeniously complicated, requiring you to figure out loopier and loopier schedules to navigate through. But just like all great "hard" games, you never once blame the game for messing up -- everything is there on the screen for you to dodge, and it's up to you to get the timing right. Relic Rush is a great title. It might be a little tough for extra-casual gamers, especially in the later levels. But the game is so meticulously well-crafted that anyone who sending Mario through those old castles past fireballs should find the same fun here. You can get the app now for 99 cents.
Black Desert shows off time transitions
We've all sat down to play our favorite game in the evening only to be alerted to the time by sunlight filtering in through the window. In many games, however, day and night are simply toggles -- the game goes from dark to light, possibly with some dimming or brightening along the way. Black Desert is going for a more realistic approach, and a new set of photos shows off the game's transition from the deep of night into the brightness of day. According to translations, a full day cycle runs in four hours, with a gradual progression of the sun from the horizon to its zenith and then back down again. The result are shadows and light patterns that reflect the time of day. Time will also be reflected in the habits of NPCs, with shopkeepers returning home to rest and monsters swarming in increased numbers. There will also be content only available during the day or night, something to look forward to as the sun rises or sets.
Winter Wake-Up app adjusts your alarms for bad weather
As we settle in for the rest of the long, cold winter, we're just about to hit the time of year where it's most likely you'll hear the two sweetest words in the English language. No, not "cellar door." I'm talking about "snow day." Winter Wake-up is a new app that combines two different usual tasks in a fun way. It's an alarm app that will automatically check the weather for you, and it will wake you up early if there's either snow or frost on the menu for the day. You can set two different settings, put in your zip code, and then get a custom alarm based on what it's doing outside. There's also an option (and here's what you really want) to kill the alarm completely if the weather's really bad outside. Unfortunately, I believe the app just checks the National Weather Service for the conditions, not your actual school or work, so if your boss commonly makes decisions based on something other than the official weather report, you might be out of luck. But I love the idea of combining access to the weather with my alarm, and that delicious feeling that may come about from waking up an hour late and realizing that there wasn't an alarm because you don't have to be up at all that day. That in itself is probably worth the free download, and might make the winter and all its snow and ice that much easier to live with.
The Mog Log: Time to relax
Time is strange. It's everywhere and yet invisible, and all we can do is represent it through measurements of time. Time flies, but time drags, and sometimes you're not sure where the time goes. Time keeps on slipping into the future, but you'll never get your time back, and you wait for the right time for what seems like an endless stretch of time. Time pushes us forward, holds us back; we put in hours of time at our jobs in order to get more time for play and relaxation, trading time for time. Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV both love time and timing. We have no shortage of timed events in both games, with the latter having almost gone overboard with the amount of time that matters. You're timed on your guildleves, which have a reset timer to contend with. The upcoming dungeons will be timed. You're even on a short clock of time when it comes to crafting. Why all the fascination with time? Do we need this much time? What would it matter if we stripped out all of the timing?
TERA play diary talks world size, combat timing, and more
The Isle of Dawn may be the proverbial newbie area when it comes to TERA, but if En Masse Entertainment's recent Community Play Diaries are any indication, the locale is anything but a smallish tutorial zone. En Masse's Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman are back with another diary entry that aims to give readers a glimpse into everyday play sessions involving the upcoming fantasy MMO. The fact that the dynamic duo are still on the Isle of Dawn after several weeks worth of diaries speaks to the sheer size of the place. "The Island of Dawn feels big, and when you look at the game map, it's really just a tiny blip. One of these days, I'm going to have to do a run-across-the-world adventure and time myself," Mical writes, while also hinting at the vastness of Arborea proper. This week's diary sees Mical and Berman carving a path through the Isle's numerous mobs toward Leander's Outpost. Along the way, they find time to discuss the finer points of TERA's action combat, and more specifically, the way that timing, motor skills, and repetition will determine your success -- as opposed to RNG and better equipment. "Since this is my alt character and I haven't played AnungUnRama since last week, fighting the terrons and noruks feels a little sluggish, and it's not hard to see why -- my timing's all off," Mical explains.
Intel Oak Trail Atom Z670 tablets to arrive at the end of March
Intel's spent the last nine months prepping its Oak Trail silicon to improve the battery life and performance of Windows 7 tablets, and come the end of next month we should finally have some slates with the new 1.5GHz Atom Z670 chip inside. While Fudzilla has heard that the tablets will hit in the general March time frame, the eagle-eyed guys at Netbook News spotted the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 press materials stating that the new platform will launch on March 30, 2011. That seems to line up with what we've heard on timing, since both the Oak Trail-powered Samsung Sliding PC 7 and MSI WindPad 100W were announced with March availability. Chances are we will hear more about it all at CeBIT next week, but honestly, at this point we're just really eager to get one of these in our hands to see what Chipzilla's really improved.
Apple's announcement timing is uncanny
Tony Bradley at Macworld points out something interesting that I've also been thinking about: Apple is being awfully sneaky with its timing when it comes to product announcements. The upcoming March 2 event happens to land not only right around the time that Motorola's much-anticipated Xoom tablet will hit consumers' hands, but also right in the middle of next week's Game Developers Conference, when quite a few developers will be announcing new games for both the iPad and Android tablet platforms. The timing seems more than coincidental, especially with all of the announcements we've seen today. And this isn't the only recent Apple announcement apparently targeted at shaking things up: The Mac App Store's launch date was set for January 6, right as this year's CES was underway in Las Vegas, and much of that show's sidetalk was taken up by rumors of the Verizon iPhone, which was announced a few days later on the 11th. You could argue that this is just good business, and you'd be right -- with its keynote events, Apple is the uncontested leader in product messaging for tech, and timing is a big part of that. If Apple is going to announce an iPad 2, why wouldn't it be right when everyone's focused on tablet software? (Not to mention that the event is being held at Yerba Buena, right next door to the convention center). But at the same time, it's quite a coup, hijacking the attention of press and developers without any official involvement in the event they're there to attend.
iPhone 4 preorders start tomorrow, but when exactly?
Update: Preorders are live! The emails haunt our sleep. Plaintive in tone, they ask the same question... and they just. Keep. Coming. When? they ask. Do I have to stay up late, or get up early? The anxiety, the tension. When? When? For the iPad launch preorder kickoff, we asked on your behalf and we got an answer; in this case, we we've had no response from Apple PR to tell us exactly when the iPhone 4 preorders will begin. Maybe that's a protective step, to keep AT&T's systems and Apple's store from getting deluged; we don't know. The retail outlets that are accepting preorders (Radio Shack and Best Buy; the Walmart sales don't kick in until launch on 6/24) will presumably be ready to go when they open Tuesday morning. Update: One of our commenters reports that he was told by an Apple phone rep to check the store at 9am ET, 6 am PT. What we can do is give you the likely times, and a quick bit of advice. [Thanks to timeanddate.com for the fixed time links.] Option A: Midnight, Eastern time. Not a particularly likely candidate, as it would put the heaviest load on the purchasing systems overnight when the support leads are presumably asleep. Still, if you're up and want to check the store, we won't tell. Option B: Midnight Pacific. Again, doesn't seem like a good bet, but it's possible. Option C: 8:30a ET/5:30a PT. This was the time for the iPad preorder kickoff, and it's a reasonable guess -- AT&T's headquarters team will already be on the clock, and Apple's store ops folk can be ready. Option D: 8-9 am PT. By this time, all of the East Coast will be at work or school, but it might be when the gates finally fall open. The piece of advice mentioned above? Relax, for crying out loud. Whenever you happen to wake up and check the site will be plenty of time to get your preorder in -- they are not likely to bump delivery dates on the first day of preorders. Have a calming beverage, get a good night's sleep, and let your dreams wander amongst the Retina Displays and the gyroscopes of your imagination. Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/flattop341/ / CC BY 2.0
TUAW's Daily App: Captain Ludwig
I've already exclaimed my love for Dizzypad, and Captain Ludwig is a game in the same vein. You're tasked with navigating a character (in this case, a little man) around a series of rotating platforms. However, while Dizzypad is more of an open-ended arcade game, Captain Ludwig adds some strategy and goal chasing to the mix by emphasizing collection and exploration. The game is a series of stages, and each stage has stars to collect; the overall goal is to explore the entire "system" of spinning planets. There are a few other elements (mines and rockets both hinder and help on the journey), but the biggest innovation is just that sense of exploration. Unlike Dizzypad, where it was all about timing, Ludwig actually gives you someplace to go. You can try it for free with the lite version or pick up the full game for just US$1.99.
BlizzCon schedule posted
Blizzard has posted the schedule for this year's BlizzCon event, and there aren't too many surprises at all. We already expected to see most of the panels, so while there'll be the usual favorites like lore and art panels for each game, and two different World of Warcraft class panels (those are always fun, with devs confronted by players with class balance issues), there aren't any unexpected sessions popping up. They haven't revealed, say, a "new WoW expansion" panel, or a "next-gen MMO" panel.That doesn't mean those won't happen -- it probably does mean we won't see demos for anything announced at Friday's keynote, as the schedule is pretty full already, but in the past when Blizzard has announced an expansion, for example, they usually spend a lot of time in the "Dungeons and Raids" panel talking about what they're doing with the new material. We'll have to see.Finally, it appears, somewhat strangely, that the live DirecTV broadcast on Friday might actually cut off the end of the popular contests at the end of the day -- the broadcast ends at 8, and the contests end an hour later. Hopefully stream subscribers won't miss out on some of the fun. They won't have that problem on Saturday, as the broadcast runs all the way through Ozzy's concert. And of course, don't forget to add our meetup on your own schedule -- we're kicking things off on Thursday night. Sounds like fun!Update: Blizzard has since retracted the schedule.Update x2: Blizzard has posted a new schedule. BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there's some great looking costumes.
Ghostcrawler and the pace of change
Ghostcrawler has a nice long screed over on the forums about Blizzard's theory about change. Way back when the first few patches went into the game, Blizzard had a plan to adjust a few classes at a time -- one patch would be all about Mages, while the next would be about Rogues. But right around Burning Crusade, they changed their mind -- no more large patches, and instead it would be back to lots of smaller changes.Of course, nowadays, whether they mean to or not, we're back to the way it was -- patch 3.1 will have pretty huge changes for all of the classes, and everyone is getting a free respec. GC says that while the "progressive patching" idea was a good one, Blizzard just doesn't have the chance to take that time -- patching is a big undertaking, and the way they change the game just plain leads to putting a lot of changes in a big patch. He would love to have the team make smaller patches more frequently (tweaking instead of a complete revamp), but the way things are now, the system just isn't set up that way.He also reiterates that Blizzard is designing the game, not the people who complain on the forums. Blizzard listens to what their customers have to say, but they make their own decisions from there. Sometimes, that means we complain about problems that don't get fixed (Cower bug, anyone?), and sometimes it means they hear us complain about things that turn out not to be a problem (back in beta, a few forum posters claimed Death Knights would never be able to tank, and we now know that's clearly not true). We can hope for more sequential changes in the future, but GC says that right now, the way the game works is that Blizzard fixes as they can, and those fixes will come out in large chunks like 3.1.
Warlocks in the Arena
There were a few interesting notes coming out of those early Arena rankings we saw the other day, but probably most interesting is that Warlocks have appeared to come back with a bit of a vengeance. They're not on super solid ground yet (the Death Knight seems to be the overwhelming force, and as long as you throw a Pally and a DPS in the same group with them, you can do alright), but they're definitely higher in those rankings than we've seen them before. And just in time for that little surge comes this great series from Yet Another Warlock Nerf about how to take your Warlock into the Wrath Arenas.He's got some excellent tips on talents and gear -- when you're a Warlock in the Arenas, most of your game is basically keeping DoTs up as much as possible, while also trying to protect yourself from a stealthed Rogue or angry Priest. As with most Arena battles, it's a game of timing -- you want your cooldowns to be up and ready at the exact second when the other team is at their weakest. If you can Spell Lock or Fear a healer at the exact moment when their partner is vulnerable to your own offensive cooldowns, then you'll rack up another win.Interesting stuff. There's lots more to learn, and especially if you're an Arena veteran, there's probably lots more you already know. But things have changed quite a bit from the old BC Arenas, and especially if you're a Warlock, a guide like this is a good place to pick them up again.
Rise of the Lich King excerpt shows the other side of the Lich
BlizzPlanet has an excerpt up from Christie Golden's upcoming Rise of the Lich King novel, featuring the back story of perhaps the lesser known (though no more less powerful) half of the Lich King, Ner'zhul the Shaman. Arthas has gotten banner credit for being the big bad in this expansion (because it's his form that the Lich King is possessing), but Ner'zhul is in there as well, being all evil and angry. And this little snippet from the book portrays very well just what exactly is going on inside that big spiky helmet. As much as little Arthas is lost inside the Lich King's power, there might still be a tiny bit of him that's still fighting back. Is he worth saving or not?I haven't been really interested in the Warcraft books, but given how timely this is (we're about to go knock that helmet off), and how interesting the story of Arthas has been, this is one that I plan to check out. It's due out later this year.
Breakfast topic: Time is the fire
Somehow I missed the memo that Blizzard was changing the minimap to include an upfront clock, alarm, and stopwatch. It's a pretty neat idea. My favorite part is that you can switch the clock to read local time. This adds to time management tools located in the account setting to limit play time. As I've mentioned before, I live in Las Vegas. It's a strange place, with time dimensions similar to World of Warcraft. You have to look pretty hard to find a clock or a window in one of the casinos and the floors are like mazes that are designed to disorient you. Why? They want you to stay there and spend your money. As far as I know, WoW has always had a clock, but until yesterday, you had to hover your mouse over it to see the time. You can always look around the room. I don't know how many times I've checked the time and wondered where the time went. I found it nice tonight to have it right in front of me.
Season 4 and PvE progression
Drysc gave a little insight into how the Arena seasons are scheduled over on the forums -- I had always thought that the Arenas were running on their own schedule (with the spaces in between augmented by when patches got released). But apparently the timing of Arena seasons has more to do with PvE content than anything else.Strange, no? But true -- Drysc said that they want Sunwell Plateau gear to "circulate" a bit more before introducing a new Arena season. That means that the players running PvE content are actually calling the shots for when the Arena season ends -- if guilds take their time getting through the Sunwell raid, it may be a long time before we see any signs of Arena season 4.That's interesting -- obviously a lot of players consider PvE and PvP to be completely different parts of the game, but not so with Blizzard. Apparently they consider them very much two sides of the same player base, so much so that even something as arbitrary as PvE gear distribution determines timing of the Arena seasons.
Scattered Shots: Auto Shot
Scattered Shots is for hunters. 'Nuff said.One of the most confusing things about a hunter's repertoire of spells is the exact use of Auto Shot. This ability is unlike the abilities of any other class, quite different from a warrior's swing timer, or a caster's wand shooting. Auto Shot is like a metronome, and the music of hunter DPS requires that we play according to its beat.We've discussed Auto Shot a little bit in last week's introduction to Shot Rotation, but Auto Shot is much more complex than is first apparent from simply reading the ability's tooltip. First of all, there is a discrepancy between what the interface shows you of Auto Shot and what is actually going on. If you don't use any hunter addons, you may have great difficulty getting a feeling for any of what this article is about, because Auto Shot doesn't have any representation in the default UI. If you use an addon like Quartz or ZHunterMod, however, you'll be presented with a timer that looks something like a regular casting bar -- and while this Auto Shot bar will help a great deal, it is still not complete. No matter what, your imagination and inner sense of timing are going to have to do a good bit of work in getting your shots timed right.
Scattered Shots: Shot rotations
Scattered Shots is for hunters. 'Nuff said.Once you reach level 62 and learn Steady Shot, it's time to start getting a firm grip on this thing hunters must learn called "shot rotation." If you don't - just casting your shots willy-nilly, as soon as they come off of cooldown -- you'll end up wasting a lot more mana and doing a lot less damage than a hunter who has his or her shot rotations timed right.The video embedded above is a handy example of two basic shot rotations which we'll look at in more depth here, and it can give you a basic sense for how the timing of all this is supposed to work. But if it still looks a bit confusing, fear not: today's Scattered Shots will help you to make your shots less scattered and more organized, with helpful charts and fundamental knowledge about how to do this rotation thing. It really ain't that hard -- just a bit of info can get you pointed in the right direction, determining the rotation which is best for you.
MBP vs. MBA benchmarking showdown
Bare Feats continues to pit Macs against each other in a no-holds-barred, up-against-the-wall benchmarking breakdown, and this time around it's the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air in the octagon together. And things go about as planned -- while the solid state drive in the MBA has its advantages, the processor and GPU (what little there is of it) in the MBA don't even really compare to the MBP. Sure, it's a small, super thin, super portable computer, but not only are you paying in cash for the portability, you're paying in performance, too.This doesn't mean the MBA is a bad computer at all -- for most tasks, it'll work just fine. But complicated 3D graphics (both Halo and Unreal Tournament 2004 were tested) will be almost unplayable in games, and there will be a substantial wait, sometimes up to minutes more, for certain processor intensive tasks. If speed is a high priority (at least higher than portability), the MBA isn't for you.I would like to see how the MacBook compares, though. It's not surprising that the MBP is a fast machine, but where does the MBA line up compared to the cheaper model?[Via IMG]
Scattered Shots: Addons for shot timing, threat tracking, and pet training
Last week, Scattered Shots hit the bull's eye on which professions are best for a hunter. Today, we take aim at some interface problems hunters have, and the addons we can use to eliminate them.A user interface is an ever-evolving work of art. You can use it one way for a long time and then suddenly find one simple addon that lets you change everything and make it much better. Especially with all the problems that show up every patch, I've begun to look at my interface as a constant work in progress. As such, I'm usually in a constant state of getting rid of old addons, enjoying the ones I use now, and looking for new ones that might help me even more in the future. Every choice of what to put in or what to take out is a conscious decision about what will help make my game play smoother, more successful, and more visually interesting. As hunters, there are a number of needs that we have which other classes don't have - and special hunter addons are there to help in many of those cases, while in other situations, one of the more generalized addons might fit our needs best. Today I'll cover three of the most glaring interface problems for hunters and show you how I deal with them at the moment. In the comments section, feel free to share your own different interface issues, as well as your own solutions, for the benefit of our readers. Keep in mind that a user interface is an extremely subjective thing, and one solution may not work for everyone. Nonetheless, often times just sharing your idea will inspire someone else to vary it a little and make their own thing out of it, which is even better.
