Posted in General Crap on 26/09/2011 by pawndemonium
In an effort to make this blog more readable I changed the layout a bit and most notably the tag count dropped from about 521, to… 225 (hey, it’s an alpha version!).
The latter probably resulted in some posts not making as much sense as they used to, but that doesn’t really mean they had some in the first place.
Even though I want to retain a bit of hidden humor (it really exists, I still need to find most of it on my own though), I have to admit that some things just were a bit too excessive. Considering that I will stream sooner or later, and even will give my opinions a more visual appealing presence, this blog should be part of it, and not fend people off! ;]
When it comes to the layout itself, it shouldn’t be as cluttered with useless crap as it used to, some can even assume it has some order in it (I had to look that word up). Categories follow a structure (wha’?) now aswell, although that’s not as recognizable as I want it to be, it kinda makes sense when administrating them. There you go, you even get informed about stuff you won’t notice! Now I just have to work on not mentioning it if you don’t care, but all in a days work!
Over the next weeks there will be more updates in that regard, most notably THAT bugger needs some attention. If it’s there it deserves content I guess.
But more on that later, for now… enjoy less tags, and a – in my opinion – better layout!
Thanks for staying around btw… except you, dreaded spam bots, you suck, some day you will be outnumbered by actual readers! *imagine evil world domination laughter by a guy with a monocle and a tophat*
To show everyone how serious I am, this post doesn’t even have any tags!
For those who still don’t know (or even deny it), the Diablo 3 Beta has already begun for a small village… quite old news here, I know, as it started over a week ago for the inner circle of Blizzard, also called Family&Friends (F&F) Beta.
That explains all these countless streams (mostly american timezones), and videos (there isn’t a NDA, so it’s allowed to do so), in case you wondered. However, for the press and basically any normal player around the beta may kick in soon enough (=very soon!)… so be ready to spam the living crap out of your mailbox if you’re into that kind of stuff.
Anyway, I actually didn’t want to state the obvious here, I had something different in mind, everyone here can play around with…
It’s the official Diablo 3 Skill Calculator, where you can play around with how you want to spec your character.
Just mock that ridiculous age check, pick your desired class, choose among 6 skills, drop in your 3 passives, and finally juice your skills up with runestones! I’m still not sure how much I like triangular wheels, but there most certainly will be more customization than in Diablo 2.
Passives and Runestones have quite an impact though… we’ll have to see how that turns out. So far I clicked myself through the Barbarian, and I came to the conclusion that he can have a lot of hitpoints, armour, regeneration, and still hit like a truck (at least in theory!). Quite curious how Wrath of the Berserker socketed with a Golden Runestone fares with Frenzy… time will tell.
Anyway, enjoy the hype! ^^
It’s Skyrim time! Bethesda released a demonstration for everyone to see (even without a youtube account). Actually it’s the one people saw at E3 already, so most aren’t in here for a surprise here I guess. But if you want a coverage of the whole demo, without any cuts in between, give it a shot.
Not sure if I should paint everything black now, as it’s quite disturbing to me how they keep distance from showing off the character creator. But that’s marketing we all love… and probably hate when we finally get our hands on the real walk.
To spice things up, I’ll add my own marketing to every video part. However, take it with a grain of salt, I’m pretty much just shooting blindfolded here, quite ironic, as in the end it probably just evens out expectations. ;]
On top of that, marketing gang war crap aside, I’ll give a small summary what you can expect from that part, if you’re in a hurry for whatever reason.
So, here we go:
- The engine has been completely rewritten, to make use of higher graphic standards,
- Animations profit from new code aswell, as they look worthwhile now.
- No trample-rampage on grass and bushes, still static objects it seems, at least wild-life got some more love.
- Combat feels more dynamic now, as you can combine both hands now to fulfill desired effects.
- There seem to be finishing moves when striking down near death opponents.
- Weapons aren’t blood defiant anymore!
- The inventory looks terrible, and reminds me of being a douche with an IPad.
- When it comes to the map, it’s fully rendered in 3D now.
- Skills upgrade as to be expected (=learning by doing), however, there are now perks associated to every single one of them, giving more options to create a unique character, visualized by star constellations.
- As to be expected, console players need to cheat to play the game.
- Some NPCs have emotional issues with expressing being frightened (at least the old lady didn’t do the moon walk).
- Time doesn’t halt when starting a conversation.
- Riding is in of course, doesn’t look as if mounted combat is though (hinted at by not showing it off and beating the living crap out of air).
- There are no major skills anymore, everything adds to your leveling progress.
- Snowstorms are awesome!
- Sometimes it’s a great idea to just back off, when you meet a dragon (apparently even if you cheat, chicken!).
- Old ruins are immune to snow storms (well kinda), although they don’t feel as generic as in Oblivion anymore.
- As to be expected, sneaking looks worthwhile now aswell, considering it’s part of the category “better animations”.
- NPCs react to killed companions, by drawing their weapon and doing nothing. Female opponents love expressing their departure with male voices. (indeed, that part is seriously messed up)
- Dual Wielding is in! Don’t expect to block anything with those though (Blocking seems to be an exclusive to shields, which makes sense, let’s see if parrying somehow finds a way in)
- Spells can be used to lay traps.
- Finally there are biiiig spiders aswell!
- Attacking chums being caught in spider webs, does make them feel better, don’t try this at home.
- “You fool, I run slower than you! cy@uuuaaahhrg”
- Electricity works on dead people.
- Following the waterflow is probably a good idea, although it’s not that you had another option here anyway, just don’t deny gravity. ^^
- Switching weapons with an IPad sucks.
- Some candles would receive a AAA+ rating when it comes to saving energy, and life expectency.
- A potentialy great puzzle gets revealed in a demo, let’s hope the rest are as worthwhile to be titled that way.
- Bats are Batman, and vanish out of sight!
- Water gets spammed in that dungeon like there is no tomorrow, although I’d show that off aswell… it looks awesome.
- Summoned NPCs can take aggro from console players, to prevent them harming the source which would get rid of summons aswell, at least for some seconds.
- There is more to see than just lush, endless forests, and awesome looking mountain passes full of snowstorm pleasure! (I made it sound as unimpressive as possible)
- Our beloved guilds are part of the game.
- Mammoths weighting like 12 tons, hate it to get attacked. Other than that not everything tries to charge at you on sight.
- Cheaters take a pounding from Giants to summon totally not scripted dragon events.
- You can’t back off, when there isn’t a cave nearby!
- The words “Come on! Monster” are taken serious by dragons, most notably when you’re burning already.
- Kill commands used by console players now summon badass looking thunderstorms. On a more serious note, those Dragon Words have quite an impact, not only on graphics but also on gameplay.
- Falling damage is for PC players (with Mods!)
- Let’s hope that head smashing kill animation is all they copied from Dragon Age 2.
All sarcasm and cynism aside… great videos, looking forward to NOT play it on a console. PC all the way… for the mods alone, I want parry (and fall damage)!
Anyway some random stuff as closing words:
- There will only be three attributes: Health, Magicka, and Stamina (they can be raised without cheating aswell).
- Skills also got cut to 18 in total, no Acrobatics and Athletics anymore for isntance, although I liked the idea of those two, they were realized in a totally useless way.
- There are no class archetypes anymore, you just do what you want to, and get defined by how you pick perks.
Hope that helped a bit, if you had a laugh, it was totally not intended.
Alright, as I’ve never had in mind to give this place up, here is a small rundown on games you may read about in the future. On top of that I have some plans to spread my influence through reasonable and legitimite means, by streaming, but currently that’s in the stars, as I can’t even post properly on a blog. =p
I’m not sure if I should clean up that place a bit though, to be honest I probably exaggerated with excessive tags… some posts are maybe not as useful as I hoped them to be… ahr well, let’s see what I’ll come up with, in some months! ^^
And now to something completely different the shiny stuff:
Batman: Arkham City
I had my great share of fun with Arkham Asylum, and I expect no less from its successor. Diving from roofs, and beating the living crap out of people not only works in TF2, it looks even more awesome when its actually intended in the meta game. On top of that you’re freaking Batman afterall. End of October 2011
Diablo III*
Well, is there even anyone on that planet who doesn’t want to play this? You don’t count, shut up! =p
But what the hell is that asteric for? No, it’s not here to screw up proper search terms to keep WoW kiddies out of this holy sanctum of awesome. It pretty much only means that I need Beta access to stream it, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to post it here, as we’ll probably won’t see it until december…
When it comes to the class I’ll pick, it probably won’t be Demon Hunter… (although it would be my class, I want my stream to be awesome!). December 2011
Saints Row: The Third
That E3 presentation sold me! A totally exaggerated intro mission, and sense defying gameplay are totally my stuff. I’m still not sure if they will fail as hard when it comes to porting it over to the PC as they did with Saints Row 2… other than that, it could be the underdog of 2011. Unless you’re a serious guy of course, go play your Sudoku. Mid of November 2011
TES Skyrim
Nothing to add here, this will be the game of the year… not only because it’s impossible to come up with such a terrible leveling mechanic again, they also reworked the animations and the AI. Sounds more like a patch to Oblivion then, but no, it also adds freaking dragons… what else do people need? No, it’s not a breast slider (although you can change weight, whatever that means…). 11.11.2011
Torchlight II
The polar opposite to Diablo III according to most people, but that doesn’t mean it sucks… it’s actually certainly not the case if you can mod it, play with up to 8 players (not decided yet from what I’ve heard) on LAN (!), and just pay 20 bucks for it. Coming from a great share of people who actually bestowed Diablo II upon us, and by the looks of it, it very well represents their vision with 2011 standards. Before December 2011… they have to (with Torchlight 3 aswell… =p)
Tribes: Ascend
Free to play, fast paced gameplay, disc launchers, jetpacks, and FINALLY more than 12 opponents on large scaled maps? I’m sold! At least until it’s pay to win…
Damnit, I’ve had so much fun with Starsiege Tribes, don’t screw this one up, it’s about time to finally reconstruct my Quake 2 genes again. I don’t expect 2011… although the Beta should do
Oh my god, this place still exists…
Quick generic update here, probably should have posted that yesterday, as I had to look up the new beauties the second they popped up on NFKR… oh well, here we go.
Level requirements range from 86 to 89, not too bad, I’ve expected it to be higher. Every nation gets a new tier of essential ingredients to cook up some BBQ (got it? BBQ(Q)! Bloody brilliant!), so we have T3 engines, T3 eels, along with T3 FCS, T3 toilets, T3 rubber ducks, and more supports slots (actually when it comes to additional slots the IJN receives 2 slots, while the other nations get 1).
Interestingly the overheat ratio drops from 36% to 16% for all nations, keep in mind though that we heard yo like caps, so we put a cap on yo cap… well it’s still capped at 40 knots, so that’s not a big deal I guess, just spam Engineers where they fit (not on R/T slots if you’ve wondered).
Torpedoes are the standard 2k increase, no big news here… more burst, pretty much the same DPS compared to earlier tiers because of a higher reload time. UK, IJN, and MN have access to Scouts, while the IJN takes it a bit further (yeah, right) and can equip some aerial firepower… to be shot down by any capable CV (I’m not sure if that feature pays itself off… I highly doubt it).
No idea about dive times, but if it’s not a significant upgrade over SS4, my Type IXD2 will rot in the harbor (as likely as SS3 rotted there). What SS5 tend to share are terrible turn rates, both KM and SN take the lead with 21, (still a drop by 3 compared to SS4), while IJN needs the whole map to turn with 17 (seriously!).
For a detailed list of stats I can offer this thread on NFNA, or you can head directly over to NFKR where everything is listed (except dive times).
Here is my personal total scientifically approved ranking from best to worst on Tier 5 submarines:
1.) USN Gato – Finally here, and undoubtly the winner in that tier, perfectly suited for its intended role, sinking capital stuff with 6 bow tubes, and hailing white pills of colaterall splash giving doom to chasing vessels dumb enough in doing so, the USN finally prevails, when it comes to submarines…
2.) SN D Class – Not as many tubes as the Gato, but still gets the job done, on top of that an upgrade compared to earlier tiers (herp, derp).
3.) KM Type-IXD2 – Finally a new sprite, but technically it’s a downgrade to SS4 I guess, 2 support slots may help to reach your victims faster, but one more stern tube, that’s it… I’ll miss those Flaks, the new deck cannon probably just sucks, nonetheless it gets the job done, we all know what comes with SS6 here…
4.) IJN Kai-Ko Class – The little brother of the legendary I-400, quite a winner when it comes to playing styles, but in the end, you’ll hate enemy carriers, and friendly flak spam, just to find out that you are the slow big target with a terrible turning force, and less tubes to retaliate.
5.) MN Surcouf – The Jack of all Trades, Master of none… except that it rivals with the IJN to be a big slow pile of junk, those guns sound like some fun? You’ll learn the hard way on NFEU, even ignoring the interesting turning angle of those… ;]
6.) Border Humping – It makes people get kicked out of the game occasionaly.
7.) Islands – I’ve seen vessels get crushed by them!
8.) Paratroopers – … can jump out of planes…
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47) KM Type II – It can spam those mines you still have from events…
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9001.) RN M Class – Oh my goodness, what a disaster, 4 tubes? Really? And a 12″ gun with wooping 20° coverage? You gotta be kidding me… 4 tiers of endless tube spam get compensated with tier 5, enjoy sinking stuff with a terrible spread, turn speed, as you gotta turn the whole sub into an undesirable direction, just to get sunk after two seconds when trying to do so (on NFEU).
Thanks for reading (also thanks to spam bots for giving me hits, I guess)!
DISCLAIMER: I’m awesome!
Also keep in mind that I never tried any of those yet, that’s just pure speculation, although… you gotta be kidding me, the RN SS5 is so terrible.
