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Arcane Brilliance: Fire 101
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that believes there is no such thing as too much Pyroblast. You can certainly have not enough Pyroblast, as any fire mage who is desperately praying to the RNG gods for a second consecutive crit so that Hot Streak will grant him an instant one can attest. But you can never have too much. Never. Since publishing Arcane 101 and Frost 101, for our series of class 101 guides, I've received numerous requests for Fire 101. Where is it? When is it coming? Why haven't you written it yet? There's even one guy who I swear has emailed me pretty much daily inquiring as to Fire 101's whereabouts. These emails progressed steadily in their tone and verbiage from mild annoyance to frustrated desperation, to thinly veiled threats to do me bodily harm. It wasn't long before the emails began coming with increasingly creepy pictures attached: first one of a road map with a thumbtack in the southwestern portion of Nevada, then one of the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, then one of the street where I live, then one of my house, my driveway, and so on. The picture contained in yesterday's email was of a naked man who wasn't me standing in my bathroom brandishing a large knife. So, I've decided that today is the day! Now, please ... get out of my bathroom, crazynakedguy@iwillstabyouinthefacechrisbelt.com. As always, these posts come with a small disclaimer: these are meant to be basic guides covering a general overview of the spec from a PvE perspective. This one is meant as an introduction to Fire. It will not help you maximize your DPS on heroic 25-man Lich King. It will, however, help you get some idea of what the fire spec is, and how to go about playing it. Without further ado, I bring you Fire 101.
Mercenaries 2 'Total Payback' update is M.I.A.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames fanboys who were excited to get their hands on the new Total Payback title update will, sadly, be dissapointed. Pandemic Studios has yet to release the new update, which was supposed to release on October 13th. The Mercenaries 2 forums are abuzz with angry gamers, so much so that forum moderators have been deleting threads that make mention of the Total Paypack update being delayed. We aren't sure what Pandemic's reason is for the delay or when it'll finally be released, but we've contacted them for comment and will update when we hear back.[Thanks, Chris]
Mercenaries 2 receives Total Payback on Oct. 13th
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will be receiving it's first ever title update on Monday, October 13th with the release of a "Total Payback" update that's aimed at connecting gamers from around the world, adding more variety and enabling cheaters to, well ... cheat. The Total Payback update will add an additional six characters to the Mercenaries 2 mix, give players the ability to enter cheats and (this one's a biggie) enable cross-region support of Xbox Live multiplayer. Huzzah! Again, this is an update, meaning it'll be applied instantly and for free come October 13th.Also, Pandemic revealed that they'll be releasing the first set of Mercs 2 downloadable content sometime this November. So, keep an eye out for that.[Thanks, Fox]
Mercenaries 2 demo NOT on the Marketplace
Last night, Pandemic sent word to the internets informing everyone that the promised Mercenaries 2: World in Flames demo was released to the Xbox Live Marketplace for download. And even though they sent word, it doesn't mean it's true, because it simply isn't there. We're sure the Mercenaries 2 demo will eventually make its way to the XBLM (probably sooner than later), but right this moment we aren't seeing it. Keep your mercenary eyes peeled and your mercenary ears perked ...[Thanks, Rob]
A look at how Mercenaries 2 does co-op
IGN has a pretty decent writeup detailing their hands on time with two player co-op in the explosive Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Online co-op is presented pretty standardly, allowing two players to connect seamlessly where one player enters the others' world a la Crackdown. Meaning that any progress made during co-op only counts towards the hosts' game, but any weapons or money earned by the other player can be taken back to their game. What's nice to see too is the fact that the game doesn't "scale" the action based on co-op, which means that having a co-op buddy by your side makes dishing out the destruction a whole lot easier. Make the jump to get Mercs 2 learnified.
Arcane Brilliance: Ch-ch-changes
Each week, Arcane Brilliance fills your head with as much Mage-related information as it can. You may have wondered how our signature buff works--how exactly does a Mage make you smarter for an hour? Well there you have it: we shoehorn this column into your brain with a flick of our fingers. That's how awesome Arcane Brilliance is, not only does it entertain, it also actually makes you more intelligent. For an hour. Or until a felhunter eats it.It's Saturday again, and you know what that means: you guessed it, everything I'm about to write will be completely obsolete in about 15 minutes.I'm not even sure where to begin this week. I was planning to turn this column's attentions to the Frost tree, but how can I ignore the vast and fairly sweeping changes the other two trees have undergone in the past seven days? The answer? I can't.Still, I don't want to short-change the Frost tree. So here's the plan. I'm going to deal with the most drastic of the changes to the other two trees this week. Next week, barring another giant list of new craziness, we'll lay our hands upon upon that new Frost tree and wring it dry.So what's new, you ask? Lots of things. Come back after the break for more newness than you can shake an epic wand at.
Arcane Brilliance: The future of Fire
Each week Arcane Brilliance brings you a healthy dose of Mage opinion and analysis. Most of the opinion is extremely biased and borderline libelous, and the analysis tends toward hyperbole and slander, especially when the topic of Warlocks comes up. In fact, here at Arcane Brilliance, we feel that you can never have too much Warlock slander. Especially against Gnome Warlocks.Leave it to Blizzard to change the Arcane tree substantially the week after Arcane Brilliance's detailed look at that very same tree. I'm sure they did it to spite me, because yes, I do firmly believe everything is totally about me. Anyway, here are the notable changes, before we get to the giant unequivocal "meh" that defines our analysis of the Fire tree in Wrath. Arcane Impact has been changed into Spell Impact, and now increases the critical strike chance of not just Arcane Explosion and Arcane Blast but also Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Ice Lance, and Cone of Cold. This makes it a much more versatile and beneficial talent, affecting spells from every school of magic.Student of the Mind has been moved to tier 3 and now increases your total spirit by up to 12% over 3 ranks, while Potent Spirit (which gave increased chance to crit based on your total spirit) has been removed altogether. It looked for awhile there as if Blizzard intended to really increase spirit's usefulness to Mages, but I guess we should have called "no take-backs" on that one, huh?More Arcane changes after the break, as well as a few long sighs and downcast looks as we discuss the future of the Fire tree.
Mercenaries 2 developer walkthrough previews different 'approaches'
Those who enjoyed the economics-meets-explosions gameplay of Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction will no doubt get a kick out of the latest trailer for the title's upcoming sequel. The three ExOps personalities we came to know and love in the first Mercs are making a comeback, and in the above video, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames lead designer Scott Warner gives us a sneak peek at how these well-trained operatives, you know, operate.The gameplay looks solid, but for those of us too busy to watch a five-minute video on a Saturday afternoon, we'll briefly break it down using A-Team archetypes: Jennifer Mui is Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Mattias Nilsson is "Howling Mad" Murdock, and Christopher Jacobs is an amalgam of John "Hannibal" Smith and B.A. Baracus -- only he doesn't pity fools. He hastily shuffles them off this mortal coil using their own grenades.
Video: Let's have a Mercenaries 2 walk-through
Mercenaries 2 news has been lacking a bit lately, so we were rather excited to see a new trailer pop up on the old Gametrailers.com. Actually, it's a developer walk-through video with the game's lead designer Scott Warner who shows actual level gameplay but played three different ways with all three Mercenaries 2 personalities. There's plenty of tactical, covert and overkill gameplay to view complete with head butts, helicopter hijacking, button mashing sequences and explosive goodness that really doesn't look too bad. Both visually and gameplay wise, that is, if you're into that kind of genre. But how about that demo?
Mercenaries 2 demo and DLC confirmed
Pandemic Studios has just confirmed with Eurogamer that they plan on releasing a Mercenaries 2: World in Flames demo, but are "not sure of dates" for its release to the XBLM. Pandemic's creative director Cameron Brown also confirmed that they have Mercenaries 2 downloadable content in the works saying that they already "have it up and running on the consoles" and it is being seen as an "enormous opportunity" as far as the longevity of the title goes.Downloadable content already up, running and complete months before the game even releases? Something smells of EA shenanigans and it doesn't smell good.
Mercenaries 2 blows things up August 31st
IGN has revealed that Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is scheduled for a U.S. release on August 31st. And since a release date announcement is a big deal, Pandemic also supplied a new Mercenaries 2 "US Release Date Trailer" for everyone to enjoy. From what we can tell, things splode really, really good. We also get a feeling for why Mattias Nilsson is so hellbent on revenge ... his bum has a bullet lodged in it. Watch the trailer, take it all in and (potentially) add Mercenaries 2 to your ever expanding list of 2008 must-haves.[Via Game Stooge]
Rumor: Mercenaries 2 delayed until August
In the gaming world, a good rule of thumb is that when a game is delayed once, chances are it could be delayed again. See as examples recently announced "follow-up" delays for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Haze and Age of Conan, to name but a few. Now, after being delayed once to a Feb. 8 target, it seems EA's Mercenaries 2: World in Flames might be looking at a secondary push back to an August release date.While EA hasn't said anything official yet, the circumstantial evidence is mounting. Exhibit A: A Eurogamer article citing an EA spokesperson as saying we'll see nothing of the game "within the next few months." Exhibit 2: An Aug. 25 release date for the game as listed on Amazon and Gamestop's web sites. Exhibit D: A decided lack of advertising, hype, or review code for a major game that's supposedly roughly two weeks from release.The verdict? It seems pretty damning, but it's all still inconclusive until we hear something official from EA. We're following up with them and will let you know what we hear.
Mercenaries 2 World in Flames impressions
At an Electronic Arts event in San Francisco last night, Pandemic showed off an early, pre-alpha build of Mercenaries 2. The demo -- which was of Mr. Mohawk running around a jungle environment -- was being presented by a developer using an Xbox 360, which gave us somewhat of a chuckle considering the effort Pandemic went through to keep the Xbox 360 version unofficial. As to why they abstained from announcing the Microsoft iteration for so long, Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman told us it was "just the way we did it." As for future plans and exclusivity, Goldman said that there is one IP they have right now that may go exclusive and will be announced "pretty soon."%Gallery-1961%
