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How the eSports community cares for injured players
Clinton Loomis, known to many by his online alias Fear, had his first experience of arm pain in Dec. 2013. For more than a decade, Loomis has been a professional esports athlete for Defense of the Ancients (Dota) and Dota 2. At tournaments, his reputation precedes him. He is considered one of the best players in the games' history, with multiple first-place finishes in global competitions, earning him six- and seven-figure sums. Similar to traditional sports, the number of people who play Dota 2 is far greater than the number of people who can make a living from it. Professional gaming requires fine motor precision, encyclopedic knowledge and relentless practice. The average gamer plays video games for five to six hours per week. Loomis estimates that at his professional height, he logged anywhere from eight to 12 hours per day playing Dota 2. A professional gamer like Loomis can average hundreds of actions per minute during those hours.
Researchers are using VR to make dentist visits less painful
Like airlines, dentists understand that the more they can distract you from what they're doing, the better off everyone will be. UK researchers wanted see if virtual reality can ease patient pain and anxiety, so they enlisted 79 people who needed a tooth pulled or cavity filled. Patients were divided into three groups: One that viewed a VR coastal scene, one a VR city, and the other, no virtual reality at all.
Step inside a mind filled with beauty and fear in 'Figment'
Figment is a colorful, whimsical puzzle game that combines childlike fantasies with mature themes including death, disease and trauma. It shouldn't work. These ideas should be oil and water, existing around each other but never fully melding into a cohesive experience. But Figment defies logic -- even in an early build, the game is magical and deep at the same time. It's like an episode of Adventure Time mixed with the adorable puzzler Machinarium but in a musical, hand-painted world.
F.E.A.R. Online comes to S.T.E.A.M.
As we all know, your games are incapable of being scary if they're not powered by the hatred of a forsaken child. That's why you need a jolt of F.E.A.R. Online this Halloween, an experience that is easier than ever to procure now that it's on Steam. You'll also be happy to know that the Desert Storm M4A1 DLC is currently on sale at 10% off, bringing it down from $0.99 to $0.89. This online free-to-play horror-themed shooter features both a co-op and PvP mode, the latter of which can turn players into literal beasts. F.E.A.R. also has a Soul King mode that allows players to "possess" enemy mobs in order to attack fellow players from any direction.
Star Trek Online opens up Hearts and Minds for one day only
It's Friday the 13th today, the most ominous of all day-and-date combinations. (Tuesday the 21st doesn't have a horror film series named after it.) Star Trek Online is celebrating as a result by giving players access to a special mini-episode, Hearts and Minds, an irregularly visited mission that is available to players only until 9 a.m. EDT on June 14th. Players who choose to take part in the mission are sent to investigate a Vulcan doctor and see just what happens when some unconventional research goes a bit too far. The mission is short and is meant to be creepy rather than gruesome, a quick vignette for any captains above level 10. You can also get a special reward for taking part, although you might feel a bit... unsettled afterward.
It costs nothing to enter FEAR Online's haunted arena
It's almost impossible to announce the news that FEAR Online is moving out of alpha phase and into beta testing without pretending to be a mad scientist working for the FEAR series' evil corporation Armacham, but here goes. *Ahem* PC horror/FPS mash-up FEAR Online will move to beta testing on May 26, publisher Aeria Games has announced. Players can register for the beta, free of charge, via the game's website. Developed by Inplay Interactive and published by Aeria Games, FEAR Online will feature 10 maps as well as competitive and cooperative modes to play. Competitive play will be team-based, while co-op scenarios will present a story that unfolds parallel to the events of FEAR 2: Project Origin. Whew, made it through the whole announcement without cackling maniacally. Heh. Heheh. Hehehehe! HEHEHE ... MWAH-HAHAHAHA!! *evil laughter* [Image: Aeria Games]
Infinite Crisis introduces Sinestro
The Green-Lantern-turned-bad, aka Sinestro, is the latest champion to be showcased in Turbine's Infinite Crisis MOBA. The free-to-play game based on the DC Universe will introduce Sinestro on Wednesday, May 21 for all players. Sinestro's uses silencing and fear to defeat his enemies, thanks to his power of control over Parallax, the living embodiment of fear. You can see Sinestro in action, including his featured powers and a bit of a battle strategy, in the video after the cut. [Source: Warner Bros press release]
Blood Pact: Do warlocks have button bloat?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill won't give it up on Soul Fire. Celestalon started the talk about what abilities would we be sad over losing. I don't know that warlocks would lose many spells with our recent expansion overhaul -- we're pretty streamlined as it is. Veteran warlocks can see and feel the difference between Cataclysm's complication and Mists' minimalism every time they play. A warlock class strength is that we're so flexible at dealing damage, whether we do it through DoTs or with direct damage, or whether we're single target masters or AoE beasts. So we end up with a good deal of situational abilities that confuse the casual or fresh warlock as to what should be keybound. We might not lose the amount of abilities that, say, hunters will, but we're likely not immune from the chopping block. Let's talk some suggestions.
Warner Bros. Humble Bundle adds Mortal Kombat, FEAR, more
The Warner Bros. Humble Bundle, which runs until November 19, has added some new games and DLC today. Those who have yet to pay over the average or have already done so will find Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, FEAR, Guardians of Middle-earth (including "Smaug's Treasure" add-on) and a special starter pack, which includes exclusive boosts, armor and quests, for Lord of the Rings Online available. On top of the free games, there's also a weapon pack for free-to-play shooter Gotham City Impostors, plus some additional skins for Batman: Arkham Origins. That last one is a little odd considering the game isn't even included in this bundle. The Warner Bros. Humble Bundle made its debut last week, offering up a collection of six games: Game of the Year versions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, along with FEAR 2 Project Origin, FEAR 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited and Lord of the Rings: War in the North. The Warner Bros. Humble Bundle will be live for the next five days.
Storyboard: What are you scared of?
I've made it pretty far into October without a single article that could be seen as remotely Halloween-themed, so I think I'm doing pretty well right here. But that's changing right now because it's time to talk about another topic that I thought I'd covered long before: fear. Unfortunately, fear is also difficult to address in a logical fashion. Fear itself isn't logical. From a logical standpoint, there is nothing serious that a spider can do to me. I'm thousands of times larger (no fat jokes please) and have access to a variety of tools; it just has eight legs and poison that's generally harmless to me. That doesn't mean I'm not scared of them, despite the fact that logic dictates that I should be more scared of seeing a bear in the woods. So I'm not going to talk about that. What I will talk about is giving your characters fears that feel real, making sure that you're afraid of things that work, and portraying those fears in a consistent way. After all, even if fear isn't logical, it certainly is understandable with a bit of effort.
Betrayer coming from FEAR, No One Lives Forever devs
Blackpowder Games, composed of former Monolith developers who worked on No One Lives Forever and the original FEAR, has announced a new "eerie and atmospheric first-person action adventure game," Betrayer. The game takes place in 1604, where the player has arrived in the New World, hoping to contribute to an English colony on the coast of Virginia. Betrayer seems to pull a page from colonial history, however, and it appears that some evil has befallen the colony, as the player encounters "only ghosts and mysteries in a land drained of color and life." The player's job is explore the wilderness, search for survivors and solve these mysteries. Aiding in this quest are period weapons like muskets, throwing axes and crossbows. Along the way, players will also meet a silent woman in red who, presumably, just wants to dance cheek to cheek. Betrayer is Blackpowder's first project, a self-funded effort. Creative director Craig Hubbard says the game is an attempt to create games "more intuitively," noting "[t]here's a sense of discovery and excitement when you navigate by instinct rather than market research and open yourself up to opportunities that arise during development." The game will be available via Steam Early Access on August 14. %Gallery-195390%
Aeria to publish F.E.A.R. Online
Quick, which F2P company do you think is publishing an online version of the much-loved psychological horror-thriller-first-person-shooter F.E.A.R. franchise? If you said Aeria, the firm that brought us Eden Eternal and Lime Odyssey, well, you get a gold star. Anyway, yes, Aeria is publishing F.E.A.R. Online, which appears to be a continuation of the story of Alma Wade who has served as the series' primary mystery and antagonist since the original 2005 Monolith title. Aeria's press release mentions a co-op mode and several competitive team modes, with the new title's story supposedly running parallel to that of 2009's F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Though Aeria is publishing the game in the west, it is actually being developed in Korea by Inplay Interactive. You can sign up for a beta slot on the title's official website. [Source: Aeria press release]
FEAR Online, a multiplayer shooter that fancies free frights
Fear is free. We're not talking about the emotional state but rather FEAR Online, a free-to-play online shooter being crafted for the PC by Korean outfit Inplay Interactive. FEAR Online will continue the story of the world's creepiest child, Alma Wade, and will include several competitive team modes. FEAR 3's Soul King mode returns, tasking players, floating about as spirits, with possessing AI enemies and using their guns to kill other AI-possessed players for points. If you've ever played GameCube scare-em-up Geist, it's kinda like that. Up to four players will be able to band together in a separate co-op mode in FEAR Online, which will run parallel to the events of FEAR 2: Project Origin. No mention of other modes is present in the announcement embedded past the break. FEAR Online will be published through Aeria games, an online games publisher who specializes in licensing established games for distribution. The publisher is ramping up a closed beta and currently accepting applicants, if you're into that sort of thing.%Gallery-194687%
Steam Holiday Sale continues with Dishonored, Future Soldier, Darksiders franchise and more
Valve's unceasing quest for the bottom of your bank account continues today with six new daily deals, as part of its ongoing annual Steam Holiday Sale promotion.Today's stable of temptations include Dishonored for $30, Darksiders and Darksiders 2 (plus a wealth of DLC) for $13.59, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for $15 (or as part of a massive $68 Tom Clancy's franchise pack), all three FEAR games (plus DLC) for $13.71, as well as SimCity 4 and Psychonauts for less than five bucks each.As always, various Flash Sales will come and go throughout the day, so remember to check the store periodically. Alternatively, add games you're interested in to your wishlist, and Valve will email you if they happen to go on sale.
Storyboard: A second descent into madness
I had a lot of stuff to talk about on the subject of madness. As it happens, I had so much to talk about that I elected to split it up into two columns instead of writing one monster, scratching and crawling about in a lone column's space. And as I sat down to write this column, I realized that I have an entire column's worth of things to say about a single facet of madness: acting mad. Herein we come to the meat of what bothers me about madness as most players use it: It winds up getting used as something wacky. It's an excuse to do things that are wild and unpredictable because your character is so crazy. That bothers me because there's so much to be done with madness and so many ways to make it an interesting character trait. It's not something for casual or shallow use.
Blood Pact: Staying slightly alive as a warlock
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill completely devours a real-life box of cookies while listing out all the ways a warlock can heal herself. Om nom nom. Dead DPS does zero DPS. We all know that saying. I introduce to you my Princess Bride collorary to the Dead DPS rule: Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do. Inigo Montoya: What's that? Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change. The perfect description of what happens when a mob dies in an RPG aside, Miracle Max is right: mostly dead is slightly alive, and slightly alive means you can still do more damage. Naturally -- since we are magnificent, resilient bastards instead of glass cannons -- warlocks are quite excellent at staying slightly alive.
The Daily Grind: Have you ever been scared in an MMO?
With the release of The Secret World, the topic of horror in MMOs has taken a sharp uptick in player conversations. For some, the title is creepy and spooky as all get out; for others, it's hard to get frightened with all these other people around and a solid shotgun in your hands. But The Secret World doesn't have a monopoly on scares in MMOs, as even the most benign titles may produce a moment or two that gives you the willies. It could be a monster that pops out of nowhere, a creature design that sincerely unnerves you, or a situation in which you feel utter dread and despair. I always felt that Fallen Earth delivered more than a few locations and moments that deeply unsettled me, and I'll admit to even jumping in fright once when I saw a giant wolf come out of the shadows in a darkened boiler room. So what about you? Have you ever been scared in an MMO, and if so, what happened? 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!
Deadlight story trailer explains the saving powers of fear
"The only thing we have to fear is to fear yourself." We're pretty sure that's what president Franklin D. Roosevelt said to galvanize the American public when he took office in 1933, in the thick of the Great Depression. Nothing says "We can do it!" quite like "You're a monster!"Thankfully Deadlight, which uses the tagline "Fear yourself" in its latest story trailer, isn't a historical-reenactment title, though it may be a simulator of potential future circumstances. If so, we may have a bit more to fear than metabolic reactions or mere humans.Deadlight is set to launch this summer on XBLA.
The Tattered Notebook: EQII's hidden gems for low-level explorers
One of the things I've enjoyed with the new EverQuest II update is how fun it is to get out there and explore the new zones. The Withered Lands has lots of nooks to check out, like the Holgresh caves up along the cliffs and the ruins just outside the Combine Foothold. As much as I like epic storylines and lofty challenges, sometimes it's fun to just mount up and scout out some really interesting locations. GU63, however, really doesn't offer any new content for lower-level players, and it's hard for someone under level 90 to get around the Withered Lands and Skyshrine safely. But one of the reasons there's not much new content at the lower levels is that past updates have added in so much already that there's almost too much to see and do. Queue up the Bud Light music, for in today's Tattered Notebook, we salute you, Mr. Low-Level Player. You tirelessly work through the Golden Path, but you deserve some cool hunting spots and gorgeous vistas. Below the cut are some of my favorites!
Encrypted Text: No'Kaled makes its claim for the throne
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. If you're frequenting any of the rogue community sites, you've seen the question: Should I be using No'Kaled? While assassination and subtlety rogues can blindly equip the legendary quest daggers at each stage, combat rogues have to make a decision. As I've said for years, rogues spec for their weapons. You need to round up all of your available weapons, and then mix and match to find the right combination. There are three different levels of No'Kaled, and there are also three stages of daggers we receive from Wrathion. Between all of these weapons, there are nine different possible combinations that you could have today. Your personal arsenal of weapons is dependent on your Elementium Gem Cluster acquisition rate and your luck with Madness of Deathwing drops, but chances are that you have at least one version of both the quest daggers and No'Kaled.
