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EA announces intial batch of Hasbro games, G.I. Joe sadly absent
Electronic Arts has sewn up the rights to deliver games based on numerous Hasbro properties, though before you get too excited in hopes that you'll soon be revisiting your past and playing games based on G.I. Joe, we should note that of this "initial slate" of brands singled out by the companies not one packs a 'kung fu grip.' EA calls these games "new ways for families to build relationships through digital entertainment," which of course means we'll be seeing at least some of these games crop up on the Wii. In fact, the first titles from the deal confirmed for both the Wii and DS include games based on Littlest Pet Shop and NERF "N-Strike," both of which are being put together by EA's Salt Lake Studio. Last year EA inked a deal with Hasbro for rights to make games based on the seemingly innocent but often cutthroat board game Monopoly, and players will be able to edge their way out of (and into) virtual bankruptcy come March for mobile phones and later in the fall over EA's casual POGO portal for the PC. Other brands in the works as part of this new deal include Scrabble, Operation, and Trivial Pursuit, meaning that in the not to distant future we could be once again partying like it's Christmas 1980.
What you really want to know about the patch 2.4 notes
Yeah yeah, the full patch notes are a good read, but why read those when we can pull the good stuff out? Here's what we thought was big in patch 2.4: Sunwell is inc! Also, the island where the Shattered Sun Offensive is fighting is called the Isle of Quel'Danas. There's a Keeper of Time to take players in Shattrath to the Caverns of Time Spell haste changes are in, as well as item casting changes (items that cast spells will do so at player's level now), and more intellect will now regenerate more mana per Spirit Find Treasure doesn't deactivate on death anymore, but there's nothing about Find Herbs, Find Minerals, or any of the other tracking spells Fear Ward usable in Shadowform (meh, say shadow priests) A whole host of spells that weren't penalized at lower ranks are now penalized Earth Shield nerfed-- mana cost lowered and charges dropped from 10 to 6, and Shamans get a default UI totem timer Ritual of Summoning can bring players into instances now Warrior Endless Rage is fixed, and now you can't change into a stance that you're currently in Honor instantly calculated, since there are no diminishing returns Warmasters and marshals in AV now share each other's health, and Horde starting point has been moved south WSG changes: when both flags are held for 10 mins, flag carriers take more damage, increases over time. Also, flag carriers can be tracked after holding flag for 45 seconds. Enchanting: Void Crystal to Large Prismatic, and Defense +15 to chest Rocket Boots nerf is in there-- players carrying flag in WSG will drop it when boots are activated 25man bosses drop more cash and an extra set token No attunments for Hyjal and Black Temple any more (players who've completed Attunement will get "Hand of Ad'al" title) Vashj and Kael can be fought without finishing all other bosses in the instance Undead and Mechanical can bleed, elementals not always immune to poison and disease effects (though nature-based elementals will be immune to nature poisons and effects) Level 70 superior quality PvP items from rep vendors Weightstones and sharpening stones now work while shapeshifted Lots of UI changes, including new options screen Whew! Even as a summary, that's a lot of notes. Players aren't exactly excited about the patch on the forums, but odds are there's something pretty big that affects you in there.
Gears lancer made with NERF and toy chainsaw
Can you say delectable? Because that's the adjective we use to describe the custom created Gears of War Lancer you see above. Not only is it an amazingly detailed replica of Mr. Fenix's Lancer that lights up and carries that "bad-ass mystique", but would you believe it was created by fashioning together a NERF gun and a toy chainsaw? Well, you should believe, because that's exactly how it was made. Words cannot express our admiration with the toy in question ... it was love at first sight. Now only if they sold these kind of toys at our local Toys R Us, then we'd truly be satisfied in life. Stupid government though. We say down with the government's strict toy rules and up with realistic Gears Lancer toy replicas at Toys R Us! Woohoo! Who's with us?[Via Joystiq]
Toy chainsaw + Nerf gun + time = DIY Gears of War gun
We're not sure if it came to him in a vision or if he was visited by an angel, but when forum-goer Forsaken_angel24 played Gears of War, he paused the game and told the Dom to his Marcus that he was going to build a Lancer, the game's memorable assault rifle slash chainsaw.That's right about where we imagine his friend politely excused himself and phoned the local police, but even that couldn't stop Forsaken_angel24 from following through with his dream: he combined a Nerf gun with a toy chainsaw and copious amounts of free time to create a believable enough copy of the Lancer. How believable? The chain on the chainsaw actually moves, the lights actually light up, and it shoots totally realistic Nerf bullets. Still curious, peep the video after the break. Oh yeah, there's a video.[Thanks, Phillip]
When cheap attachments attack
For as much as we report about weird things you can attach your Wiimote to, we've never felt a desire to bring one of these kind of kits into our offices willingly. Maybe it's our incredible imagination that allows us to visualize we're actually holding a bat when playing Wii Sports and causes us to feel no need for such attachments. Whatever it is, after viewing this video, we're glad we only had a brief amount of time to interact with any of these type of accessories.Now, the above video is either going to be incredibly painful to watch or downright hilarious, depending on what kind of person you are. However, note that we're not buying that sound effect of glass shattering near the end. We're fairly certain the TV didn't break, as it's not really shown after the accident. [Thanks, Michael!]
The Daily Grind: Nerf!
There are so many MMOs with their own gameplay and storylines, their own abilities and skills, their own raids and dungeons. But for all their differences, somehow the community that springs up around these games always seems the same. There's always the class that's overpowered, always the class that's underpowered (most often the class the writer plays), and someone or something definately needs nerfs. (Many MMO communities may be succinctly summed up with the following generalization: I'm rock, scissors is fine, nerf paper.) And if it's not something that needs nerfing, it's something that's been nerfed -- no doubt something vital to your personal playstyle, changed due to an obvious bias against your class. With most MMO environments in a constant state of flux, there's always change and the discontent that comes along with it. But does change always have to mean nerfs?Do you find that the community built around your world of choice is filled with such "nerf" conversations? And, if so, is it always justified?
A clockwork nerf
Did you grab your Clockwork Robot Bot from under the tree this Winter's Veil? I did, and I was thrilled to find that the little wind-up robot is more or less what we asked for a while back-- when two of these guys are summoned next to each other, they'll battle it out. Now, they only have a few HP, so really, just one hit from one usually takes the other out.Unless you can buff them, that is. A few people found that you could cast Power Word: Shield and Power Word: Fortitude on the bots when they first came out, which meant that you could give them more health and make them invincible for a few seconds. Unfortunately, Max Bliss found out that's not the case any more-- Blizzard has performed a clockwork nerf, and the bots are now unbuffable. Lame.Sure it may be imbalanced that some people can buff their bots and make them live longer, but this is hardly an instance of life or death. Let the bots be buffed, Blizzard!
Blood Pact: Looking back at Locks
Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman.What? It's the new year already? Obviously so ... judging by the sheer barrage of weight-loss ads on TV. They make reaching for my next fistful of buttered popcorn a journey in guilt, even though I'm considered somewhat undernourished in my household.Here we are in the first week of 2008 - an opportune time to look back on the past year, when memories of being fear-dotted to death are still vivid. If warlocks owned 2006 since skillcoil, then 2007 was the year that warlocks became just so OP with every nerf.
DS gifts on the cheap
GameDaily put up a helpful set of cheap DS gifts, from games to accessories, that can help to take the sting out of shopping this season ... if, that is, you can find any of 'em, and if you want 'em when you find 'em. Example: Namco Museum Remix is on there, as it's priced at a modest $19.99, but if it's anything like the Wii version, you might not want it. Of course, it did receive better scores than its console cousin, so it might be safe. But you also get gems like Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and the Nerf DS armor, so can you really go wrong? There's a hidden bonus of saving money as well.
Tabula Rasa's Guardian gaffe?
As Guardians in Destination Games' Tabula Rasa already well know, the staff ability saw something of a change this past week, and it was an unexpected change at that. Players wielding a staff saw their damage reduced to about 20% of what it was, and the speed of their attacks was raised 5x times, ostensibly to make up the DPS lost. On the official TR site, a community update went up to let players know that this was only part of a proposed Guardian tweak that they're working on behind the scenes, of which the 5x speed increase was a part -- the lowering of the damage was just a hotfix to temporarily rein in the damage until the full fix came out.Now, as an aspiring Guardian myself, I can tell what's wrong with this idea right away. Giving the Guardian, the tank class of the game, a 5x attack speed increase is destined to upset players. Guardians tend to put five pumps into hand-to-hand because the damage bonus it affords stacks with staff damage. The problem? Putting five pumps into hand-to-hand also gives you a 75% knockback chance. Think about that. If you increase the number of swings Guardians take by five, you're increasing the number of knockbacks by five. Knockbacks, those fun little occurances where you actually lower your DPS by knocking your enemy out of melee range.I think this may be the first time I've heard a class-wide, "NERF!" in Tabula Rasa since it went live. *sniff* They grow up so fast!
2.3.2 patch notes updated
Earlier today, Salthem posted updated patch notes on the European WoW site and Teza has reposted them at World of Raids with all the changes highlighted. From my quick scan of the list, it appears that resto druids are getting nerfed, mages' Mana Emeralds as well as rogues' Hemorrhage ability are receiving some rather neutral changes, and rogues' Shadowstep is getting buffed.From my understanding, tree druids are currently able to maintain a high level of healing per second through careful upkeep of Lifebloom on their targets. This is due to the fact that a druid can pop all his trinkets to maximize his +healing and then cast the spell. As long as he keeps refreshing the HoT before it "blooms", it will maintain that maximized level of +healing, thus making for a very efficient and powerful spell. As I understand the new patch notes, this will no longer be possible since the incoming Lifeblooms will overwrite the +healing value of the previous ones. I don't play a tree druid, but I'm sure some of my guild mates will be ranting over this in tonight's raid.
Tabula Rasa Rage nerf, free respec for all
After Tabula Rasa forums and general chat have been flooded with rumors of an impending nerf to the Soldier's Rage ability. The discrepancy between the buff to damage Rage gives in practice, what it says in the tooltip, and what the designers originally intended has been the cause of a lot of speculation and debate. As it exists, you get a 105% buff to damage on the first pump alone, an extraordinary boost to damage for one paltry ability point. Destination Games' lead designer Paul Sage has finally put the conversation to rest today, announcing that an impending patch will be put on the PTR soon that will nerf Rage back into the realm of reality.The fix will make Rage a fast cast ability (it currently has a two second casting time) and has modified the buffs as follows: Rage 1: 30% damage self buff Rage 2: 30% damage buff w/squad members Rage 3: 40% damage self buff – 10% resist bonuses Rage 4: 40% damage buff w/squad members Rage 5: 50% damage buff w/squad members – 10% resist bonuses Players will all receive a free respec in accordance with the change. Needless to say, we're quit excited to see how this change will work out when it goes live. Maybe we'll see more specialists!
Hunters no longer have FD Drink in 2.3: Bug fix or nerf?
There is a new uproar on the forums, this time from Hunters -- petitions, titles in all caps, threads being moderated, etc. What are they all upset about? It seems an important item was left off of the Patch 2.3 notes: Fixed a bug in which Hunters were able to disengage from combat using Feign Death during boss encounters. Nethaera explains that this should only affect Hunters during boss fights and not when fighting trash mobs.The Hunters are upset because they were not just using Feign Death to drop aggro during boss fights, they were also restoring mana by drinking.It has been suggested that this was actually nerfed because not only could you drink during a boss fight, you could also change gear. Nethaera agrees that this functionality was not intended, but still maintains this is a bug fix and not a nerf.
Wii Nerf Crotch Bat reviewed
Those redundant Wiimote shells aren't the only Nerf items you can get for the Wii. We introduced Pelican's Nerf Sports Pack way back in February, but it's apparently just now becoming available as a real item. It may look like any other Wii Sports-targeted Wiimote attachment set, but it differs in one significant way, which can be summed up in one silly, trademarked word: Nerf. All of the attachments are encased in Nerf foam, which, according to the IGN reviewer, allowed Pelican to make them all larger and heavier, and thus more realistic-feeling. Having a small, Nerfy baseball bat like that also tacitly encourages re-enactment of a certain Saturday Night Live skit that we can't help but mention every time we talk about Nerf. This time, it just seemed especially relevant.[Via GoNintendo]
WoW Moviewatch: 20k DPS in Black Morass
Pretty incredible. Xetrov on Farstriders took a few friends (and a pretty good Pally tank-- never thought I'd say those words) into Black Morass, and trashed all the trash. At once. With AoE. Good lord, look at all those numbers. He says he cracked 20,000 DPS, which is pretty jaw dropping.And this is also a really good example of how Blizzard has more or less crushed AoE when you're taking on more than ten mobs-- Xetrov has almost 800 spell damage, and yet his crits are hitting at around 150-200, because with so many targets, his spell damage is pretty much negated. He's still pulling down tons of DPS (and when are you really taking on more than 10 mobs, except in wacky situations like this?). But showing numbers like 150 and 160 coming off of a Mage with 800 spell damage show pretty clearly how weak AoE can get with this many targets.
Escape Artist facing raised cooldown?
Are they toying with the Escape Artist cooldown? I sure thought this thread, after reading the first post today, would get closed down but quick, but instead, after a player asked for Escape Artist to be removed from the game, Drysc offered the compromise of a cooldown.Wait, what? Was he joking? Escape Artist, the Gnome racial ability that allowed them to ditch any roots once per minute, got a nice buff and was made instant cast at 2.0, but I hardly think it's overpowered enough that it deserves a cooldown. Drysc's comment seems a lot like a joke (and an MVP shows up later in the thread to "deny" the change), but could the ability be facing a nerf in the form of a longer cooldown?Advocates for it point to Will of the Forsaken, another "break free" racial ability (it allows Forsaken to break fear once every two minutes, and if EA is nerfed, it would probably be given a two minute cooldown). But WotF also provides 5 seconds of fear immunity after being used, and EA doesn't provide any immunities at all.Hopefully this is all a moot point, and Drysc was just messing with Gnomes (a hilarious pastime to be sure). But it could also mean that the little kneebiters are looking at an upcoming nerf.
Arena gear swapping looking at a nerf
Currently, in Arena matches, once in the arena, you can still swap your gear before combat starts. Why would you want to do this? There is an immense amount of difference in what my resto Shaman can do depending on whether he's wearing his healing gear of his damage gear, and being able to choose my set after I've seen the other team can be an advantage.Too much of an advantage, says Blizzard. Even though they haven't changed things on the PTRs yet, Drysc says that when DoTs are affected by resilience, Arena players will no longer be able to swap their gear once inside. Apparently the reasoning is that when opposing players see a Warlock/Shadow Priest combo, they real quick switch on their shadow resist gear, and so casters are hoping for a nerf to gear swapping to come at the same time the DoT resilience shows up (which is what Drysc promises).It's an interesting little QQ session, and like all good PvP worries, it means a whole lot to the people who are affected by it, and not much to anyone else. Still, nerfing gear swapping seems like a big change to make just to deal with folks who are trying to duck shadow damage in 2v2 Arenas. But it seems like, as soon as 2.2, Blizzard might be telling arena players to pick a set and stick to it.
Nerfing your Wiimote
From the company who saved thousands of children from the pain of -- well, pain in the '90s, come Nerf products to save your television and spouses from those sadistic Wiimotes. The Nerf Wiimote case is available on GameStop's website, but it looks like it's the same deal as the DS Lite Nerf case, where they'll send you a color at random. So, check other retailers if you want a specific color.A Nerf case for your Wiimote really can't hurt, get it? We're still trying to figure out some way for us to have our Wiimote strapped on and reach for a drink without almost knocking the glass over as the Wiimote does a pendulum motion. Maybe bringing back the beer hat (for soda uses) wouldn't be such a bad idea for drink safety -- or the adult version of the Sippy cup.[Via WiiFanboy]
Nerf your Wiimote
"Hot" on the heels of the Nerf DS Lite case comes the Nerf Wiimote shell. Made of the finest imported Nerf, it will provide you and your Wiimote with all of the comfort and elegance associated with the name Nerf. We'd pay the $9.99 just for the excuse to say "Nerf" more often. It's quite a word. It'll probably ship from Gamestop's online store in a randomly-selected color, which is unfortunate. But can you afford to let something like color stop you from encasing your Wiimote in safe, soft, family-friendly Nerf? Think of your wild Wiimote gesticulations. How wonderful would it be not to worry about smacking your friends in the head? With this on, you can smack with abandon! Go ahead and use your Wiimote as a Nerf Crotch Bat*.*Do not use Wiimote as Nerf Crotch Bat. Do not use anything as any kind of crotch bat.
Nerfing your DS with a case
Nerfing usually has a negative connotation in gamer society; however, this is one nerfing we'd be happy to take. Unlike the utterly useless Wii peripherals created by Nerf, this DS Lite case is pure squishy goodness. Sister-site DSFanboy brings us the details on this case that you just want to fit your DS snugly into and drop on the ground to see if it breaks (but seriously, don't do that). The case retails for $12.99 and gives some extra girth to the DS allowing gamers with big hands to reduce those lovely hand cramps some experience.PDP, the company that makes the product, says that the cases are available in most major electronic store outlets -- including Wal-Mart. If you're a commuter this may be a great case to have when dropping your DS into your bag. It's also probably good for you gamer parents that just can't trust your kid not to break your toy.
