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Steam weekly deals: Hitman: Absolution, Hydrophobia, Anodyne
This week on Steam, Agent 47 takes more than a few lives – he knocks 50 percent off the price of Hitman: Absolution, bringing it down to $12.50. Also on sale for up to 75 percent off on Steam is the moody, 16-bit adventure Anodyne, Dark Energy Digital's Hydrophobia: Prophecy, 2002 strategy game Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, adventure game The Book of Unwritten Tales, Postal 2 Complete (again) and puzzler Critical Mass. The sale ends on May 20 at 10 a.m. PT, even though Valve's weekly news post still says "May 6th." Shh – nobody tell Valve and let's see how long before someone on the team notices.
Building a Diablo III Wizard to solo Inferno difficulty
With patch 1.04's new paragon level system, there's been a definite increase in the number of people getting back to playing Diablo III. Every class was buffed in the patch, and only a small handful of skills and items were nerfed, leaving everyone to pore over the skill windows and come up with new builds. Barbarians definitely made it out of the patch in the best shape, with huge buffs to Bash and Rend, buffs to two-handed weapons, and a whole host of new legendary weapons to aim for. Wizards, on the other hand, weren't so lucky. For all the buffs described in the 1.04 wizard preview devblog, not much has really changed. The Energy Twister nerf backfired hilariously, and all of the underpowered spells and runes that were buffed are still pretty useless. Energy Armor is still a mandatory skill, most Wizards are still running Critical Mass builds, and the new legendaries aimed at Wizards don't seem to make any sense from an itemisation standpoint. So how should you build a solo Wizard in 1.04? In this guide, I detail three highly effective Wizard builds and give tips on gearing for each of them following patch 1.04.
Five Diablo III Wizard myths tested and debunked
When building your Diablo III Wizard, you have two main schools of thought on weapon type: use a high-damage two handed weapon with low attack speed or use a one-handed weapon and offhand and stack as much attack speed as possible. Items with increased attack speed on them greatly increase damage per second on paper, but there is some confusion in the Wizard community as to which spells are affected by it. Some players contend that Blizzard and Hydra are unaffected by attack speed; others report that channeled spells ignore both critical hit chance and attack speed. To find out the truth, I bought a two-handed weapon with 0.9 attack speed and a one-handed weapon with 1.6, both with the same rated damage per second. I then tested every spell on the zombies at the start of Act 1 in hell mode dozens of times and checked the damage difference, finally adding attack speed rings and amulets and re-testing both weapons. For almost every spell, the one-handed setup dealt lower damage but hit more frequently, averaging to the same damage per second. But the story was a little different for Hydra, Blizzard, and channeled spells. In this guide, I put five popular Diablo III Wizard myths to the test and discover the inner workings of Energy Armour, Hydra, Blizzard, Critical Mass, and other abilities.
Arcane Brilliance: MoP talent calculator changes for mages, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we finish what we started in our last cloumn, which will involve wild speculation, irresponsible levels of optimism, and a giddy and in all likelihood unwarranted sense of unchecked excitement about tooltips. If you missed part one, what were you thinking? We talked about the updated Mists of Pandaria talents and even made some disparaging comments about warlocks. It was super fun -- you should go check it out. But hurry up about it. Because we have new spells to discuss. Like that one up there in the picture. It's rad. Arcane spells Arcane Charge An Arcane Charge, generated by Arcane Blast and Arcane Missiles, and consumed by Arcane Barrage. Stacks up to 4 times (Passive). This is a brand new spell, and it's by far the single biggest game-changer for arcane mages in the new calculator. You pick it up if you spec arcane at level 10, alongside good old Arcane Blast, and it changes how that spell works, along with every other major arcane nuke.
Boondock Saints game a 'full-on co-op shooter,' maybe episodic
A video game based on The Boondock Saints film franchise has yet to be officially announced, but already some details are leaking out. After all, the MacManus brothers aren't exactly known for playing by the rules, unless it comes to truth, equality or shooting mobsters through the back of the skull. Critical Mass Interactive is developing the unannounced title, which is going to be a "full-on co-op shooter" for PC, Xbox 360 and possibly the PS3, CEO Matt Scibilia told G4.Scibilia would like to release the game as a full retail product, but it may end up in episodic, downloadable form, he said. "We don't want to do a crap-ass franchise game," Scibilia said. "We're staying true to the content. We're looking to expand the story, not just retell the franchise."The Boondock Saints characters are so strong -- the banter, the relationships between Rocco and the brothers, the Catholicism, that will all be featured in the game."Critical Mass Interactive will join members of the original Boondock Saints cast at SXSW's ScreenBurn Arcade series on Sunday, March 11 in Austin, Texas to talk details. Critical Mass also plans to show off the game in secret sessions at PAX East in April, and will reveal it for a wider audience at E3. Until then, watch the above trailer -- please watch it. You don't know how long it takes to find a reel of this film without any f-bombs.
The Boondock Saints cast to announce mysterious gaming thing at SXSWi [update]
Update: A flyer for the event (added below) mentions Austin-based Critical Mass Interactive as part of the panel. A quick trip to the developer's website resulted in the banner image above, which pretty much removes any doubt about what this announcement could possibly be for. According to its LinkedIn profile, Critical Mass Interactive handles outsourced art, design and programming duties for other developers, listing The Outfit and The Incredible Hulk among its past projects. Joystiq has learned that cast members from the 1999 cult classic film The Boondock Saints will be making some manner of gaming announcement during the ScreenBurn Arcade portion of next month's SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX. Now, whether that announcement is actually Boondock Saints related is anyone's guess, but that seems like the logical conclusion. At the moment, all we know for sure is that Norman Reedus (aka Murphy MacManus) will be in attendance.We've got our money on it being one of those cross-over fighting games the kids seem to like so much these days; Boondock Saints vs. Pulp Fiction: Bullet Break Valencia, or maybe Boondock Saints vs. Snatch: Sceptered Isle Showdown. We're also not entirely counting out Willem Dafoe: Boy Detective, but we feel pretty good about the fighter thing.%Gallery-148453%
Arcane Brilliance: Fire mage 4.0
It's Saturday, and that of course means it's time again for Arcane Brilliance, weekly mage column, hero to the downtrodden, vanquisher of evil, dispenser of justice. That's right. By day, Arcane Brilliance is a mild-mannered mage-related wall of text. But by night ... Arcane Brilliance is Deathspank. Another beta build hit a couple nights ago -- as they tend to do -- and it brought a number of class changes. A quick glance at the new talent trees revealed the expected (some talent position swaps, a few talents vanishing, some tooltip alterations, the occasional loss of a rank here and there) and the ... unexpected. Three changes in the fire tree, particularly, caught my eye: Critical Mass Molten Shields Oh, and Impact. Yes, the tooltip for Molten Shields really is "Redesign!" With an exclamation point. For emphasis. So clearly the fire tree is in a certain amount of flux? I became instantly excited. The fire tree, perhaps more than either of the other two trees, really has been due for some focused attention. Then I saw this, from none other than Lead Game Designer Tom Chilton:
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.
Choose my Adventure: Leave no Kobold unturned
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game! Oh, what a productive week we've had in Dungeons and Dragons Online. After arriving in Stormreach, we made it through the Harbor quests with no problem. And when I say we made it through the Harbor quests, I mean we made it through all of the Harbor quests. Fahryn is now level 3 and ready for some new challenges, so follow along after the cut for his in-character journal, my impressions of our adventures so far and your chance to let us know where our path should lead us next
Choose my Adventure: Reaching Stormreach
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game! Being the first week with Massively readers in Dungeons and Dragons Online, I'd say we were fairly productive. In the first 15 minutes, we formed the guild -- aptly named "Critical Mass" -- and began the butt-kicking. With last week's comments focusing on our completion of Korthos Island, we made quick work of that, finishing the main quests and arriving in Stormreach on our third night together. Now we patiently wait for our next adventure as you read through my impressions of the game so far, just after the jump!
Duke Nukem Trilogy for PSP 'more mature, more hardcore'
Despite the ... unique trailer featuring logos dancing around, Apogee insists they won't screw up the ultimate badass' return in the upcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy games. Terry Nagy, CEO of Apogee Software, gave some details about the newest outing of the Duke on the PSP. He started off by stressing immediately that the game will be out for summer 2009, unlike a certain other Duke Nukem game. With the trilogy, Apogee's plan is to have "another Duke game ... on the store shelves as the first one is starting to fall off the shelves." The first game Critical Mass will take place in the future, so the player will have "really cool futuristic weapons" at his disposal. Chain Reaction is set in current times while Proving Ground has Duke traveling back into the past to 1945 as "the Forrest Gump of World War II" and using "period-style weapons." Finally, Nagy reveals that the PSP version is "more mature, more hardcore of gamer, third-person, first-person, top-down scroller type of stuff" and that it is aiming for a Mature rating, as opposed to a Teen rating on the DS. We aren't too optimistic about this game, but then again we've seen basically nothing. Either way, we would avoid the DS version, not because we are fanboys at all, but because Duke himself would never be caught dead playing a Teen game.[Thanks, David B.!]
E308: What an awful, awful Duke Nukem trailer
So ... huh? After sitting through the above four minutes of explosions, nuclear symbols and flashing lights, we have learned nothing about the upcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy for the DS. Quite frankly, this isnt the kind of trailer you want to show at E3, when countless other videos opt to show gameplay footage and new details. Also, four minutes long? Sure, there's a bit of metal rocking out there, but wouldn't we rather watch a music video instead of the words Critical Mass and Proving Grounds blasting all over the screen? You bet.The rest of the Fanboy team thinks this irritable blogger is missing the joke of the (clearly satirical) trailer. They are probably right.
Cascading population drops the true MMO killer
One of the most depressing situations in any MMO is coming to terms with the fact that you feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of your massively multiplayer world. According to Eric Heimburg of Elder Game, this phenomena happens not because of any specific reason like a bad patch or lack of new instanced content, but because a server population has dipped below the critical mass it takes to keep a game functioning as intended, and players start fleeing in droves. Everquest II, he suggests, is in need of some server mergers if they hope to keep their population numbers above that important number.One wonders what is supposed to be done with a game like Tabula Rasa when servers drift into dangerously low territory. With only four servers to its name, it might actually be more harmful to the size of the player base to simply concede that a merger is necessary. Players have never been terribly resistant to bad news, at least if forums are any indication, so might a server merger act as another negative point in a cascading failure? At what point do you leave an MMO?
