wizards
Latest
Pantheon explains how a wizard does it
The sad reality is that with each passing year it is less likely that a very large man will enter your life to inform you that you are, in fact, a wizard, Harry. Even more so if your name isn't Harry. So perhaps you can console yourself by playing a wizard in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, slinging destructive spells left and right and holding on to the last remnants of your dwindling sanity as you do so. Or perhaps not holding on to those remnants, as one of the class specialties, Frenzy, is specifically for casters who have let themselves go completely bonkers and derive power from that madness. The other specialty, Aspect, allows the wizard to maintain sanity through martial perfection, creating shrouds of mana and summoning duplicates for various functions. Take a look at the full reveal for more details on the lore and mechanics of these casters.
Magic 2014 coming soon with new campaign and cards, sealed deck play
For a long time, Wizards of the Coast would not release anything official on iOS, even though the biggest collectible card game -- Magic: The Gathering -- seemed perfect for Apple's touchscreen platforms. Then, last year, we finally got Magic 2013 on the iPad, and now Wizards of the Coast is preparing Magic 2014. When the update is released in about a month, it will offer lots of new features and content to the iPad and Android devices. That second platform may not matter much to us here at TUAW, but it's a sign that Wizards is continuing to rethink its mobile strategy. The company kindly showed us the latest version of Magic: The Gathering running on the iPad this week, and it's very impressive. It runs faster than ever, and while the campaign is similar (you undertake a series of single-player challenges, or can take on other players in multiplayer), Magic 2014 has a definite emphasis on story that the current version doesn't have. Magic 2014 was designed to attract new players, so the various missions serve as a tour of the game's lore and background, with each section culminating in a battle against a "Planeswalker," one of Magic's big heroes. In addition to the new campaign structure, there's also new content, including lots of new cards from the past year of Magic. There are even some new cards from the Magic 2014 Core Deck, which isn't set to release until after the iOS app has arrived. That means that playing with this game will be the first time some Magic players can officially sit down and play with the new cards. There will also be more of a newer card type called slivers, so even if you've played Magic 2013 completely, the new version should offer up some more twists and turns. One of the biggest problems fans have had with these Magic: The Gathering video games is that in the single-player campaign, you don't get to build your own decks. Rather, you get to unlock cards for a certain deck. While there is some choice in which cards you use, all of the cards are basically tied to specific decks, so building a custom deck is out. Wizards is aware of this concern, and has an answer in Magic 2014. Sort of. The game will introduce a new mode called Sealed Deck play, where players will get six booster packs, featuring random cards from a larger pool, and will then be allowed to build their own deck from those opened cards. It's not complete freedom, because you only get a certain number of booster packs to choose from, and you'll need to make decks from those. But it does allow for a very structured bit of deck-building, and Magic 2014 contains a whole campaign and a PvP option centered just around using these sealed decks. On the game's initial purchase, you can create two total decks in this way, and then you can buy more slots for these built decks via in-app purchase. If you want to play with a sealed deck, but don't know how to build a Magic deck, the game offers an "autobuild" option. There are plenty of tutorials and difficulty options, so no matter what your level of Magic experience, 2014 has plenty to offer. The biggest drawback might be that while there are lots of new options and content, the game itself hasn't changed. Stainless Games is the company that makes both the console and the iOS versions, and as a result, both versions use the same pacing, same graphics and same gameplay. There's no iOS-specific touchscreen moves or fun tablet-specific tricks or graphics. But that's fine. The point of this is to play Magic, and Wizards and Stainless both deserve a lot of credit for producing such a well-made game. Magic 2014 should be available on the iPad in the next few months or so. We'll keep an eye out for it, and let you know when it's finally arrived.
Kaiju Combat Kickstarter on hold over Wizards of the Coast trademark dispute
A Kickstarter project for an indie game called Kaiju Combat: Giant Monsters has been put on hold, due to a trademark disagreement with game publisher Wizards of the Coast. Soon after raising $112,513 for its $100k goal, developer Sunstone Games received an infringement notice from Wizards of the Coast. The notice claimed the name of Sunstone's game violated Wizard's "Kaijudo" trademark, which refers to a collectible card game based on a Hasbro TV show.Sunstone says its lawyer contacted Wizards last December to argue that "Kaiju" (a Japanese word that means "monster") had nothing at all to do with "Kaijudo," and they believed the matter had been settled. But this past week Wizards took the matter to Kickstarter directly, which took the project offline, claiming it was "the subject of an intellectual property dispute."Sunstone's owner Simon Strange says he's working as quickly as possible to get the project reinstated. Going through court costs, he says, would be prohibitive on the company's "limited development budget." Strange adds he's "hopeful" that Sunstone won't have to change the game's name.
Diablo 3 Inferno Difficulty monster damage balance tweaked
Blizzard is making a few tweaks to Diablo 3's Inferno difficulty yet again. The developer added more high-level drops to the difficulty before, and this time it's effectively reducing the damage monsters will do in that mode. As Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng says, Blizzard is reducing the potency of player defense spells and reducing the monster damage, which means that monsters in Inferno won't hit as hard overall.Why? Some defensive skills, Cheng says, were made so effective that players consider them essential. Energy Armor, for example, is used by 83 percent of level 60 wizards, and War Cry's Impunity modifier is used by over 87 percent of barbarians. Nerfing the monster damage and the effectiveness of these spells is supposed to let players go to other options, rather than just walling up defense all of the time.Cheng says there are more changes coming: A new "monster power" option to up the difficulty for higher rewards; and a tweak to the monk's One With Everything skill. We'll stay tuned for those.
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.
Microsoft streamlining Windows 8 install process, promises setup in just 11 clicks
Trudging through Windows 7's upgrade process drags users through as many as four wizards, 60 windows, and more mouse clicks than anybody at Microsoft cared to count. In a recent study covering PC upgrades, Redmond found this was simply too much of a hassle for many customers. The fix? Consolidate and streamline -- according to the outfit's Building Windows 8 blog, upgrading customers will be able to power through installing Windows 8 using a single wizard in as few as 11 clicks. The new process scans the machine for compatibility, checks for the best version of Windows to install, and prompts the user through the process. Moreover, using Windows 8's upcoming web delivery method pre-keys the setup image, freeing users from remembering a 25-digit product key. Advanced users will be able to use a new Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit to create customized unattended setup configurations for multi-boot and specialized network installations. Want to read into all the juicy details? Hit the source link below.
The Perfect Ten: Why a Harry Potter MMO makes sense
The idea of a Harry Potter MMO is hardly a new one at this point -- we've even speculated on it around Massively for years now. Rumors and wishful thinking have brought up this hypothetical MMO time and again, and for good reason: It simply makes sense. In fact, the more you think about it, the more surprising it is that we haven't heard official word of a Harry Potter MMO by now. After doing some poking around, the most likely suspects to take on this project would either be Warner Bros. (which owns the rights to the franchise) or Electronic Arts (which purchased a license from WB to make the movie video games). Both companies have MMO studios at their command -- Turbine, BioWare, Mythic -- and both have the resources to make it happen. So why does Harry Potter make perfect sense for MMO-adaptation? Hit the jump and I'll run you down the top 10 reasons! And if you post a positive comment after this column, I'll add five points to the house of your choice (go Hufflepuff!).
The Road to Mordor: What if?
By the time you read this, I'll be scurrying around PAX East in Boston, feeling much like a Hobbit: unable to see over the crowd, far out of my element, and deeply wishing I purchased shoes. I'll of course be talking with the folks at Turbine to see what information I can wheedle out of them about the future of this terrific game, so if you don't hear from me again, I'm most likely languishing in a PR dungeon somewhere for being too nosy. It's a good week, therefore, to be thinking about the future. My mind never stops thinking about future possibilities for any franchise, and even if they never come to be, these speculations are a great pastime of any fan. I'm always wondering "What if?" as I play Lord of the Rings Online -- what if I could mug Frodo and become the Ring-bearer? What if those lazy bums finally finished the repairs to the tavern in Frogmorton? What if Elves could kill innocent woodland creatures and go to the dark side? Playing "What if?" with LotRO is tougher than with other games because of the limitations imposed by the IP. Despite what some say, Turbine's struggled hard to stay within the boundaries of lore and setting, and while that's helped the company to be creative in ways that it might not have otherwise, it does present some unique obstacles that aren't present in competing MMOs. So to celebrate PAX, LotRO, and the future, here's a column of "What ifs?" for your consumption!
Second Magic the Gathering expansion DLC detailed
Jonesing for a few handfuls of new decks for Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers? You could try throwing your real-life Magic cards at the screen as hard as you possibly could, hoping they'll somehow break into the virtual plane of existence. Or, you could take the more intelligent route and wait for the next batch of DLC to drop -- GamerBytes reports the expansion will add three new decks and "a slew of new cards" to the XBLA title. In addition, the DLC will feature a new single-player campaign (in which two of the new decks will be unlocked), as well as new challenges, personas, Achievements and Avatar Awards. There's no release date on the new content, but we'd previously heard a Spring launch window. Oh, hey -- it's Spring right now!
Wizard101 gets first major expansion, Wizard Arena for PvP
The kid-friendly massively multiplayer online game Wizard101 saw some big changes yesterday. The introduction of the high level world "Dragonspyre" expands upon the existing storyline in Wizard101, bringing players into a haunted world where a militant society proficient in Fire Magic once lived. The other major addition to Wizard101 is the new PvP Wizard Arena. According to the latest press release from KingsIsle Entertainment: "Players can challenge each other in either Practice or Ranked duels, with up to four Wizards per team. Un-ranked practice duels, free for all Wizard101 players, allow players to jump into an automatically formed duel or set up their own team and choose opponents. In Ranked duels, a robust matchmaking service matches Wizard101 subscribers with similarly ranked Wizards, and the winners of each duel are awarded Arena Tickets, redeemable for unique loot." For the next few weeks, these Ranked duels will be a subscriber-only benefit. But in mid-February, Ranked duels will also open up for non-subscribers. As an added bonus, there are quarterly Wizard Arena seasons, and the top Duel Master will be named at the end of each Arena season.
Discover the wizardry of game design with WAR's Brian Wheeler
Gather around folks, get comfortable; we've got a tale of fantasy, kings and wizards to share with you. As seems to be the norm with our friendly neighborhood Mythic developers, Brian Wheeler has done his best to avoid bringing us a boring and straightforward Dev Diary, instead opting to explain his role of Senior Designer for Warhammer Online through a short story.It turns out that game designers are not unlike the great wizards Merlin and Gandalf (coincidentally, these two exist in the same space in Wheeler's fantasy world, and often enjoy a pint together) in that they come up with multiple ideas and solutions for a single problem, and present them all to the king to decide which will be used. They aren't necessarily ideas that the king couldn't figure out on his own, but the wizards can afford to spend all their time researching every possible strategy, giving the king the freedom to attend to other business. That's the short version -- to read Wheeler's longer and much more entertaining take, visit the latest WAR dev diary.
LotRO's Gaunt-lords will scare the bejeesus out of you
Making it into the Lord of the Rings Online lorebook this week are the supremely evil Gaunt-lords. Beginning their lives -- err, their "undeath" -- as Gaunt-men, they moved throughout Middle-earth in service to Morgoth, raising wights as they went. It was only later on, when serving the Witch-king, that five of these Gaunt-men became Gaunt-lords, to match the power of the Wizards aiding the Free Peoples.Donning their sinister crowned helms and peering with hollow eyes, the five Gaunt-lords stand for death, famine, pestilence, war, and evil. Approaching these powerful foes will strike fear into any adventurer's heart, and great courage will be required from those attempting to dispatch them. Find out more about the Gaunt-lords history at their new lore page.
Magic: The Gathering-based games coming to PC, Mac, Xbox Live
If a hit computer game can turn into a hit collectible card game, then why can't a hit CCG become a hit computer game? That seems to be the thinking behind today's announcement that Wizards of the Coast has licensed video game use of its Magic: The Gathering IP to Stainless Games (which will make Xbox Live and PC versions) and Mind Control Software (which will make a Mac edition).Today's bare-bones announcement includes absolutely no information about how the license will be used or what form the games will take, but it's probably safe to say they won't be direct conversions of the popular card game (WotC's Magic: The Gathering Online already fills that role quite well). More likely, the games will probably follow Acclaim and Atari's leads in using characters and locations from the card game for a new type of experience. We can only pray that these newest efforts will improve on those somewhat disastrous past efforts, because the Magic Universe definitely contains a lot of potential for a good video game.[Thanks Ross]
Children-focused dev Nik Nak creating Ology games for Wii
Since announcing plans to re-imagine Templar Publishing's popular Ology series of children's books as video games last October, Codemasters has kept mum on the project, stating only that the first title in the series, Dragonology, will ship for the Wii and Nintendo DS during the second half of this year. Now Kuju's recently formed studio Nik Nak has confirmed that it is handling not only the development of Dragonology, but the follow up Wizardology as well. Nik Nak's efforts only extend to the Wii versions of the games, which are expected to take a more action-oriented approach to the material, so we're left to guess on whose lap the DS versions will fall.Details remain scarce on the titles, though Nik Nak notes that the games will "tap into children's insatiable appetite for all things magical and mythical," and that the Wii remote will make them accessible to both new and seasoned gamers alike. Accessible, sure, but will the waggle-enhanced gameplay make learning about dragons or casting magical spells more fun?
.jpg.cf.jpg)
Codemasters bringing pirates, wizards, and dragons to Wii, DS
Codemasters has announced a deal with Templar Publishing to release a series of games based on the multi-million selling 'Ology series of faux encyclopedias for the Wii and Nintendo DS late next year. The agreement includes the first three books in the series, Dragonology, Wizardology and Pirateology, with the former expected to ship first in the second half of 2008.While details are scarce, we know that the Wii version of each title will take a more action-oriented approach to the source material, while the DS will get more 'explorative' games, described by Codemasters as 'interactive books.' The latter certainly makes sense, though does it strike anyone else as odd that encyclopedias, even fantasy encyclopedias, are being made into action games? The books themselves are really amazing works, but it's anyone's guess how this material will be translated into an interactive format.
