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ICYMI: User-generated Golf ads, motocross bionics and machine gun traps
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-704892{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-704892, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-704892{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-704892").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It, Volkswagen releases a new commercial for its Golf R that changes depending on what sound effects the viewer makes. We also take a look at a bionic knee from "Monster" Mike Schultz designed for Moto-crossing lower-leg amputees. The Mythbusters find out if Walter White's machine gun trap could actually work (hint: omfg, does it ever) and a Parakeet learns to speak droid because Star Wars just won't go away. If you come across any interesting videos, we'd love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd. And if you just want to heap praise on your handsome guest host, feel free to hit him up @mr_trout.
Trap-stealing hotfix is on the way
If you have a barn in your garrison, chances are you've run into this problem: trap stealing. As you go out to trap beasts, especially elites for Savage Blood, you've probably run into the nuisance of other players trying to trap the creatures you're trying to trap. This makes collecting Savage Blood a headache that often has to be done very early in the morning or very late in the evening, to avoid other players and the problems that can come with them. However, Blizzard is currently working on two changes that will make trapping a lot less frustrating. First, they plan on increasing the spawn rate of elites that can be trapped, to make these rare creatures a bit less rare -- and thus easier to come by. And more importantly, in order to trap a creature you'll need to have tapped it, which means a random person can't just come by and trap your kills. We don't yet have an ETA on when these fixes will arrive, but Takralus says they're being tested as we speak -- so hopefully they'll be live soon.
Guild Wars 2's Secret of Southsun patch releases today
Guild Wars 2's The Secret of Southsun patch has released today, bringing with it new quests, a crab toss mini-game, traps in WvW and more. This patch is part of the on-going content updates that ArenaNet has brought to the popular MMO since launch, including the ongoing Flame & Frost content. Word of an expansion pack came out during the NCsoft earnings call earlier this week, although nothing has been officially confirmed from ArenaNet. Check out new screenshots from The Secret of Southsun in the gallery below, and read up on the patch at the official site.%Gallery-92890%
The Summoner's Guidebook: I hate Jack-in-the-boxes
Out of all of the characters in League of Legends, Shaco is probably the least fun character to fight against. His traps are highly annoying, fearing you and poking you with damage. He is extremely slippery and hard to kill, striking out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly. Just when you think you have him, it turns out that was actually his clone and it explodes, netting Shaco yet another kill. "Annoying" is the first word I'd use to describe him, and this is what Shaco wants you to think. He doesn't want you to know his weaknesses, so he keeps you on your toes, constantly afraid of jack-in-the-box traps and invisible backstabs. However, he has weaknesses, and this week, we're going to talk about how to put the killer clown back in his toybox.
The Daily Grind: Would you like more exploration options?
Let's not mince words -- when you hear about a new location in any MMOs, you know it's being added so you can go in and kill its inhabitants. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, especially seeing as every new level brings MMO characters new ways to dice, filet, and otherwise demolish said inhabitants. But as many players have noted, it would be nice if there were occasionally other options, such as the puzzles and traps that Dungeons and Dragons Online places in some of its adventures. So would you like to see more exploration options in MMOs? Would you enjoy the chance to have a new location where you had to puzzle your way past traps and not draw your sword (or gun or electrical magic or whatever)? How about exploring a landscape without certain knowledge about what was on the other side? Or do you feel that's a thing of the past and so long as answers and guides are freely available online that exploration can't quite be replicated? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
It's a trap! Traps are back in Icecrown Citadel
By now, those of you that have slowly progressed throughout the initial part of Icecrown have witnessed (or at least triggered) various traps. Some traps seem to show up after your group has cleared out a room or killed certain mobs or met some other condition like the ones before Lord Marrowgar. But wait, there are more of them! Dinaer at Forever a Noob demonstrates that there are more traps as you progress through the levels of Icecrown Citadel. Spirit alarm: Trip these to bring in the big skeletons. Great for reputation. There are four of these in the two chambers leading up to Lord Marrowgar. Mist trap: Not exactly a trap per se, but it can catch the unwitting raider off guard if they run into it. Either have a rogue disable it on the side, or activate the teleporter on the other side and beam in. You'll run into it after you've downed the Deathbringer and zone in behind him. Geist trap: You'll find these littered in the hallways of the Plagueworks. Have a tank behind the raid to intercept them as they appear. I wonder what other traps we'll see in the remaining parts of Icecrown. I can't remember the last instance that had traps on the scale of Icecrown.
Games Day '09: A moment with Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher (also, Josh loves Aubrey)
Even with all of the excitement occurring at Games Day, Mythic's Paul Barnett and Josh Drescher still had a moment to sit down with us at Massively and talk a little shop about Warhammer's overall status, Mythic's future direction of the game, and why players should come back and experience the Land of the Dead. But they're tricky folks, Paul and Josh! They even tried to turn the interview back around at us at some points! But we stayed strong for you readers, and were able to get some interesting answers out of them regarding Warhammer Online. Also, we have exclusive coverage that Josh indeed loves his fiancee, Aubrey. Yay marriage! Interested in the full interview? Hit that link and read on!
Scattered Shots: The Future Soon: Hunters in patch 3.1 and beyond
Welcome to Scattered Shots, the weekly Hunter column which is written by a guy who doesn't generally spec for said talent.So. I'm here. I'm not completely wrapped up in Wrath, I promise. In fact, just to show how much I am not wrapped up in the here and now, in the long lines for the queues and prospect of getting a beautiful worm pet and all that good stuff, I'm going to predict the future! Let's look at some of the promises and perils that 3.1 and other future patches will bring for the Hunter.
Terminator 'MMO' comes to iPhone
Sci-fi fans of the revamped Terminator IP may have something else to be happy about: a Terminator iPhone MMO called "Ambush." Based off Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Ambush is a game played either online or through an iPhone. Gameplay is centered on predicting the movement of enemies through a virtual city, setting traps to eliminate the opposing side while evading their attempts to find you. iPhone 3G users can use their device's GPS to avoid such traps while racking up points. The game was developed by 65 Media, a marketing firm known for its past work on interactive and alternate reality games (ARGs). Ambush may not be a true MMO in the client/leveling/loot sense, but has a system of points gained through employing traps and counter-traps. It's perhaps more akin to Aurora Feint's debatable label as an MMO title, which has already proven to be very popular. Such titles are the earliest forays into that grey area of 'MMOs' for the iPhone, and more are certainly on the way. Ambush is free-to-play and available for iPhones with the 2.0 Software Update, downloadable at the Apple App Store. More information about the game, and how to play it on both the iPhone and online, can be found in the Ambush FAQ. [Via Spoiler TV]
Scattered Shots: Traps
Welcome to Scattered Shots, your weekly source for all things Hunter. This week, Daniel Whitcomb begins his stint as the official main author of the column.One of the coolest Hunter class changes in the expansion is the addition of the Freezing Arrow, which essentially the ability to "throw" a Freezing Trap at a targeted patch of ground. It's the type of ability Hunters have been asking for for a long time. Thinking of this, I noticed we haven't had a good trap discussion and primer for a long time, and now is as good a time as any. Traps are one of those parts of the Hunter class that separate the skilled from the Auto Shot AFKers. If you know how to use traps properly, it is much easier for you, as DPS, to stand out from the pack and prove that you bring enough to a group to merit a place on dungeon runs and friends lists. With that in mind though, the trap system is far from perfect, and some traps are definitely better than others. We'll take a look at each trap after the break.
The Daily Grind: do traps and puzzles make content more fun?
In a showcase of coming Age of Conan content, Erling Ellingson pointed out new traps as a main feature of the revamped dungeons. The dungeons would feature cunning Indiana Jones style hazards, with non-obvious solutions, such as firing an arrow into a huge stone eye in order to slay an otherwise unkillable snake. However, everyone who's seen the video will now know what to do in that event. That's the thing with puzzle-type content: once you know the trick, you've solved it. A tough boss is just as tough each time you encounter it, but you only ever have to solve a puzzle once. Having said that, puzzles can offer a level of satisfaction that boss-fighting and minion-crushing just can't. Some players welcome an intellectual challenge in an MMO. The original tabletop roleplaying games that preceded MMOs still feature puzzles and pitfalls, so why not MMOs?Should content designers include puzzle-type content as well as the tactical challenges of combat? Do you enjoy finding a puzzle in the course of a quest, or does that sort of thing detract from the pace of play? Is trick-and-trap content that has a clever solution a waste of developer resources, or an important facet of MMO gaming?
Disengage and trap changes coming to Wrath Beta
With all the Hunter changes we've been promised in relation to PvP, one that has recently been announced may be the biggest yet. Disengage will be getting a new trick.In a future Beta build, Disengage will cause the Hunter to jump back from their target 10-15 yards. As a result of this buff, however, the cooldown will be extended to 30 seconds. This really is the change Hunters need, more that the recent Aspect of the Beast and Mongoose Bite changes by far. What we really needed is a way to get back to range, and between this and Master's Call, we should now have a relatively dependable non-talented way of doing just that. 10-15 yards may seem a bit low, but it should be more than enough to get off a quick concussive shot, set a trap, or use a talented crowd control ability such as Intimidation, which will become instant cast rather than on next attack. Another set of baseline ability changes has to do with traps, and should be very helpful in both PvE and PvP. Freezing Trap will no longer break on any damage, but will instead break on a set amount of damage -- meaning a stray cleave or a miscast DoT won't completely ruin you. With this new functionality, Bear Trap will be removed and replaced at level 80 with Camouflage, which is returning after being discarded. Since setting a trap won't break Camouflage, it will become incredibly useful for setting PvP ambushes as well. There's plenty of other exciting changes on the way for Hunters, including a talent tree revamp that's currently up on Blizzard's official Beta site. Look for analysis of that in the coming days on WoW Insider. It's looking more and more like Wrath's going to be a great time to be a Hunter, and we're looking forward to seeing how the class plays with all their new toys at level 80, in both PvP and PvE.
Scattered Shots: Beloved complexity
This week on Scattered Shots, David provides a break in the rushing waves of Patch 2.4 news to wax philosophical about his love of being a hunter. To be perfectly honest, he hasn't had time to even try out the new patch yet, but he's really looking forward to waxing on and off about the patch at some point as well.They say that being a hunter is WoW on easy mode, but in reality, the "easy mode" style of hunting is only the beginning of what a hunter can do. Sadly many hunters never really arise out of that stage - easy hunting can become like a rut in which one may not even realize that there is another way to do things. A player can rise out of this rut, however, either through an enterprising nature, or through acquaintance with a good hunter role-model. However one rises to it, the opportunity is there for hunters to do all kinds of things amazing things, mostly at the same time. In fact, you could say that a fundamental mechanic of the hunter class, probably the mechanic I love most in the entire game, is that of controlling multiple characters at once: the hunter and the pet. You have the most control over your hunter character, obviously, and the pet functions as something like a yo-yo which is attached to the hunter. You can point the pet in the direction of an enemy to attack, or you can recall it to wherever you are, but you can't tell it, for instance, to kite an enemy around in circles in the same way you yourself could.The limitations inherent in the abilities of the hunter and the pet, as well as the synergy between them, reminds me a bit of chess. Managing both the pet and the hunter to greatest effectiveness in different situations means you have to keep more than one thing in mind at all times. When you play most other classes, you can just pay attention to them and what they're doing, but being a good hunter requires you to be more aware of what's going on around you, just like chess requires you to keep track of the whole board, not just the little portion of it where the most action is happening.
Scattered Shots: The line of sight between hunters and the Arenas
I'd like to take a break from the hunter leveling goodness we've had the last few weeks in Scattered Shots to take a look at where hunters stand as a class in Arena PvP, and where we might be going in the future. Blizzard developer Kalgan's measurement of how the different classes are faring in the Arena got me thinking quite a bit about the state of hunters -- currently functioning at the lowest place with 50% or less representation in the three Arena types at high rating brackets, followed by mages and shamans, in the 2vs2 Arena especially.What in the world is causing such a huge discrepancy between hunters and other classes when it comes to high-rating arena representation? When I play in Arenas and Battlegrounds, I don't feel like my class is somehow deficient or underpowered. My team's Arena rating is average -- we're not the best, but not the worst either. When I get beaten, I usually feel like the other team actually played better (or outgeared us, at least), so it's rather hard to see what's so messed up about hunters.The most obvious issue I can think might be the issue is that of Line of Sight. Hunters obviously have a rough time shooting at things behind sort of obstacle. In battlegrounds there are more wide open spaces, so it seems less of an issue there, but in Arenas it can get fairly annoying. Classes like warlocks and shadowpriests can just put a damage-over-time spell on you, and then hide behind a pillar, while druids can move freely around obstacles to give them plenty of time to heal themselves between your attacks. Warriors and other melee classes can hide for a bit, then get in so close that you can't use your best ranged abilities on them for a few seconds until you can somehow get away.
Upcoming Hunter changes
Hunters received a lot of changes in patch 2.3 and now Salthem on the european WoW forums has announced even more. Patch 2.3.2 will bring three buffs to the class, or two buffs and one un-nerf, depending on how you look at it. Check out the list of changes below.
BigRedKitty: Snakes Are People Too
Each week, Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the hunter class sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. Freezing Traps may be the bread-and-butter of the raiding hunter, but we've got other toys with which we can also be useful. Frost Trap is spiffy when you want to help your casters do tons of AoE damage. Explosive Trap can be used in conjunction with Misdirection to pull patrol mobs. But the most fun a hunter can have without Misdirecting a Fel Reaver onto a priest is with Snake Trap. Snake Trap is new with Burning Crusade and if you haven't played with it, we understand why. The Snake Trap tooltip is one of the worst things we've ever seen in terms of explaining just what the bejeezus a spell does. But Snake Trap is so useful, so clever, so bloody brilliant and spiffy that you can use it just about anywhere, on almost every pull, and we're positive that you'll wonder why it hasn't been nerfed already; it's that good.Now quit reading out loud. If Blizzard hears how much we love Snake Trap they'll be sure to downgrade it. Keep reading to yourself and when you realize how often you're going to use Snake Trap on your next raid, just chortle quietly.
