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Unlock Xbox finalists announced
Did you vote in last year's Unlock Xbox competition? If so, did your pick make the final cut? Gamers and amateur designers were encouraged to submit their original ideas in the Doritos-sponsored competition. Out of over a thousand submissions, two will be turned into real (and free!) XBLA games. The three finalists to be considered by Microsoft execs are: Harm's Way -- snipers and drivers team up in a game that combines racing and blowing someone's brains out. Delicious! Avatar Crash Course -- inspired by Japanese obstacle courses, you must "press buttons, wiggle sticks, and jump up and down to survive." Thrown -- "the whole point of it is to smash into other vehicles in order to throw the driver from their car and then run them over." A feel good game! We're somewhat surprised by the violence involved in some of these XBLA suggestions. But perhaps we're looking in the wrong place for class, considering the last winner of Doritos' contest involved dinosaurs eating exploding trucks (seriously).
Scattered Shots: Weapon choices
(Apologies for the late posting of Scattered Shots. Next week we'll be back on our Thursday schedule.)Last week I covered crowd control using traps. This week, filling in for David, I'll discuss the options available to hunters for weapon choice: ranged and melee alike. Hunters have a wide variety of weapons we can train, but our main concern is usually going to be ranged weapons: the bow, crossbow, and gun. Secondary to the ranged weapon of course is what we carry at our sides. Hunters can train in every weapon style except for maces (one and two hand) and wands. It's not technically a weapon, but for the sake of this discussion it's important to note that hunters cannot train in the use of shields. What this means is that there's a lot of weapons we can use, while not all of them are weapons that we should. Adding to the decision is the fact that we hunters can learn to dual wield one handed weapons at level twenty. With one weapon, you tend to get more punch close up, but with two weapons you might lose some damage in melee, but gain an extra weapon's worth of stat bonuses, enchantments, and other augmentations. Each weapon you have equipped contributes its individual bonuses, if any, so it's a good idea to weigh the options, even for melee weapons which you might hardly ever use.Earlier in the column, I recommended a low level hunter train in a two handed weapon early, since the first ten levels involve a greater percentage of melee combat, prior to getting a pet to handle your aggro. I'll talk about where to train what weapons, what augmentations you can add to weapons, and which ranged weapons are the best, after the jump!
