Month: March 2016

Smite

Smite main gods?

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Played enough smite now that come to enjoy certain gods more compared to others.  Decided to make 5 gods from each group to be my main gods.  That said likely going to be playing other gods. Can see the gods below being some of my favorites not saying these gods are the best within the game.

Assassins

Ah assassin’s high damage burst gods which should keep to the jungle supporting teammates hunting other gods.  Don’t have any builds for season 3 yet no idea how build this class.  Weakest class for me however gotten better just suffer from rotation issues.  Yet to play Awillix, Kali been told both are late game ish gods.

  1. Arachne – Less annoying version of loki
  2. Awilix – Yet to play
  3. Fenrir – Easy versatile but lacks crowd control
  4. Thor – Versatile with crowd control
  5. Kali – Late game carry

Hunter

Below are the following hunters which likely to mainly play, create generic build for all hunters to follow. Class archetype focus is mainly on auto attacks two routes go down attack speed or critical hits.  Gone down the attack speed route over critical due to being rebalanced. End game once you have enough gold switch out the boots to gain more attack speed which increases your damage per second.

Gods like Rama are decent however suffer due having had to aim ults.

  1. Anhur/Artemis
  2. Chiron
  3. Medusa
  4. Ullr
  5. Xbalanque

 

Mage

Broken down the mage archetypes, generic builds won’t work so well here.   Lacking builds for mages in general but got rough idea.

  • Agni – Area of effect
  • Chronos – Magical carry can be built like a hunter or magical mage.
  • Freya – Magical assassins
  • Hel – Healer/burst damage
  • Janus – Burst damage/mobile

Warrior

Within this god class various archetypes from high damage to high defense.   Tyr comes down to switching stances all the time.  Guan yu can heal his team or minion wave.  Hercules is high damage warrior, Amatreasu attack speed based warrior.  Bellona no idea what archetype she comes under.

Yet to find good builds for each god.

  1. Amatreasu – Speed physical warrior
  2. Bellona – High damage hard hitter
  3. Guan yu – Healer warrior
  4. Hercules – High sustain
  5. Tyr – High damage, high defense

Guardian

Create generic build for every guardian focus is on protections from every group.   Added each archetype next to the gods on the list below.

  1. Ares – High damage
  2. Athena – Rotating guardian
  3. Geb – Setup
  4. Khepri – Setup/Healer
  5. Ymir – Aggro
Video Games

Sony shuts Evolution Studio

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Sony is shutting down Evolution Studio based in united kingdom.  Recently Microsoft shutdown lionhead studios, another British based studio.  Big budget British video game studios are suffering, crytek sold off it British studio years ago.  Sony’s recent decision comes after the studio suffered from terrible launch of driveclub,  company refocused the studio away from the title last year. Result was 55 job losses last year from the studio.  Company released statement on the closure stating that regular reviews take place within SCE worldwide studios.

Company plans on relocating talent towards other studios or projects aware that could suffer talent drain. European gaming studios have been gem in Sony crown, created some iconic titles for the company.

You can read the full statement here, former employers are posting thoughts on social media.

My own personal opinion was expecting news like this soon given the trouble studio had in the past. Sony plan on supporting the driveclub title no word on new content for the game. 

 

Marvel

Daredevil Season 2 Review

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Nothing quite beats binge watching TV this week show has been Daredevil due season 2.

Marvel cinematic universe often ends up focused on global villains small neighbour focused is welcome change.  Universe often ends up on big picture over smaller ones.  Small neighbour focus pays off for the minor characters.   New york city key location within Marvel cinematic universe, good to see minor characters being impacted by big picture.

Reviewing season 2 without spoilers is going to be bit of challenge.   Both seasons are different animals, see the devil appear for Matt.  New supporting characters provide moral compass for viewers.  Providing great contrast between characters daredevil is stuck within the middle. Suddenly Matt comes to understand his choices are not black and white.  World starts to change before Matt’s eyes with personal conflict started in series 1 carrying on in series 2.  Anchor keeping Matt sane starts to break down or does it.  Very slowly start to see devil inside Matt grow.  Challenges facing Mattt don’t come from one source with no single villain. Towards the end of season plot points come together more questions than answers given to the viewer.  Start to see the daredevil character grow far more in scope.

Sounds like season 1 with couple minor changes however new the characters provide different theme makes it nothing like season 1.  Daredevil shaping up be darker world within the universe full of heros. Providing non clear cut black and white world, characters start to show off reality.  New york city hell’s kitchen providing excellent background against the movies.

Ending provides the right amount of closure for the series.

Daredevil, Marvel, TV

Daredevil series 2

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Daredevil season 2 is now available on netflix set within Marvel cinematic universe.   Marvel netflix shows are coming together to create the defenders.  More minor lesser known members of the universe are being given screen time.  Daredevil was given fresh look at the character set within darker world.  Big screen universe normally avoids darker more adult subject matter making even dark characters lighter.  Of course Marvel has shown willingness to create one offs with deadpool being obvious example.  Speaking of which yet to see Deadpool told that character main movie is great.  Company has hundreds of characters within the giant universe.

Netflix offers the chance to show off more of these characters enter series 2 which gives us access to more characters.  Season 2 gives us look at the punisher who begins questions Daredevil own moral code.  Unknown at this time if the punisher getting his own spin off series.  What we do know is that Luke Cage, Iron fist are getting own series for Netflix.

Yet to finish season 2 however told that new characters show off much darker comic book side.

Anywho….

Daredevil season 2 episodes so far set the tone for the series with focus on Daredevil own goals and reasons.  Worth watching anything with Marvel’s name on it.

Going to avoid posting any spoilers for now may post spoilers for series 1.

 

Video Games

Smite closed alpha feedback

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Before starting would like to give little bit of background.  Favourite genre of games used to be real time strategy before disappearing off the face of the earth.   Never played moba before however do watch various bits of gaming content.   Understand the basics with concept behind the genre.

1,  New player experience is frustrating

Tutorial covers the basics but misses out massive parts of the game.  Fails to explain terms like carry, role they made. Loads of items missing from the tutorial which are important.  Don’t understand how nobody has picked up this before.  Biggest problem is the tutorial which is terrible which leads new player experience being terrible.  Start playing gods wrong start doing badly and quit the game.  Based on what my friends have told me this one of the biggest turn offs.

If you need to google anything within your game to understand it you done something wrong.   Call of duty explains everything within first 15 mins every game should seek to do that within fun way. Hearthstone tutorial helps players learn the game in fun way even ideas like trading or board clear within 15mins.

Solution

Let new players pick nameless god teach the basics, however show them various ult attacks being used in various situations.   Assassin ult used to help kill off somebody attacking your tower, garudan ult used to stun etc.   Could go on step further asking players to find the enemy god based on mini map. Throw in some basics combos which can be chained together.  Next level let them pick their favorite god within certain gamemode.  Putting together these situations within more real world environment.

Last training mode should be coop vs AI.

Not sure how you would cover the item topic [still don’t understand how protections work or power]

Most of my feedback comes from the game not explaining various things within the game.

2, UI god selection

One of the biggest mistakes I seen new players take call roles like carry on guardians.  Simple UI fix would be ‘You picked hunter that role should be carry switch now’

Again the concept and term not explained at all during the tutorial.

3,  No tutorial for conquest

Why does the game not explain conquest but yet new players select during matchmaking?

Final point…

I do like this game however feel the tutorial is half baked.  Took me couple of hours watching some YT videos for various ideas to click.

Willing to admit this quick piece of feedback but some my honest opinions on the game.  Solutions to some of these problems could be done in other ways.

Video Games

Smite let’s talk about gods

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Decided to take some time write about my opinions on various gods within Smite.  Yet to experience all of the gods due to the fact they have 70+ within the game. Good news the game has rotation system which allows players to experience gods for free.

Given the scale of gods on offer with each having own abilities loads to learn.  Looking forward to playing the following gods within the coming weeks.

  • Athena, Kherpi, Sobek, Bacchus – Guardian
  • Bellona, Tyr, Ravana – Warrior
  • Ao Kuang, Change, Chronos, He Bo – Mage
  • Fenrir, Arache,  Bakasura,  Hun Batz – Assassins
  • Rama, Hou Yi, Chiron, Ullr – Hunter

Brief opinions on the gods played so far.   Mastered each god once so not played them loads apart from Ymir.  List is ordered support to damage output.

Guardian

  • Ymir – Magical melee god who role more team support god.  Versatile due to his abilities.  Easy to play but hard to master, screw up your teammates with his abilities.

Warrior

  • Guan Yu – In my eyes better version of Chaac, versatile can be used in various ways.  Still decent choice could be underrating him, feel better options on offer.
  • Chaac – High sustain [healing] with slow series of attacks due his abilities.  Versatile lacking damage compared to some warriors.
  • Odin – Favourite with high damage output some serious powerful abilities.
  • Hercules – Better version of Chaac/Guan Yu.  High damage with better sustain or healing.
  • Amaterasu – New god not much else to say she is fun to play.

Mage

  • Hades – Low damage when comes to mage however some serious healing.
  • Ra – Versatile mage with some serious high damage and healing
  • AGNI – High area of effect damage, glass cannon you could say.
  • Kukulkan – Pusher of minions with some serious stun crowd control.
  • Janus – Decent amount of utility with high mobility can provide some serious damage output.
  • Sol – Single target version of AGNI but with high mobility. Glass cannon which is even harder to use compared to AGNI.

 

Assassins

  • Thor – High damage with mobility.
  • Ne Zha – Easier to use the mobility compared to Thor with high damage.
  • Loki – Stealth assassin with loads burst damage.

Hunter

  • Neith – Versatile with bunch high damage and utility.
  • Medusa – Even higher damage comes at the cost of versatile/utility.

Favorites gods and build

Made list favorites gods included various sources for god builds.  Smitefire, smite guru and smitejunkies main sources when comes to community builds.  Copied base idea behind each builds picking out the most versatile options depending on matchup.  Certain builds are designed for top tier play. Gods can be versatile some better suited for certain roles compared to others.  Example would be Odin better as damage output control monster over support role.

My own reference have idea how to build the following gods.  Season 3 has changed various items meta has shifted.

  • Ymir – Guardian * +
  • Odin – Warrior
  • Hercules – Warrior * +
  • Amaterasu – Warrior
  • Hades – Mage * half done +
  • Ra – Mage * +
  • AGNI – Mage * +
  • Janus – Mage
  • Ne Zha – Assassins * +
  • Loki – Assassins * +
  • Neith – Hunter * +

Notes

*Missing build

+Missing abilities

Video Games

Microsoft – Cross Platform Gaming?

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Normally San francisco Game Developer’s Conference  none event on the gaming stage.  Microsoft has talked about big potential announcement with major change in policy taking place.  Signaled support on cross platform play between hardware platforms.   Most of the frustrating things for gamers is walled platforms.

You can read the full announcement here.

Rocket league is going to support cross platform gaming with PC invites other platforms into the fold.

Big question why make the announcement now before E3……

Followed by why even support the concept.  Answer comes down to business reality the xbox one no longer king of online gaming.  Of course the announcement still has many technical problems only one game for now.  Microsoft signaled plans to changes the game brings up questions about windows store platform.

Company plans on supporting the move for all titles with rocket league getting an update spring.

 

Call Of Duty, CoD, Video Games

Call of duty ‘Community’ wants

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Over past couple of months loud minority within call of duty community has provided some interesting feedback.  Loud minority claims be part of ‘community’ speaking directly towards the studio.  Firmly rooted in modern military first person shooter genre keeping to the gameplay standards.   So the ‘community’ wants modern military first person shooter above all else.  Would like to see remastered version of older games, returning to boots on the ground.

Claiming this would return the series back to former glory with sales number hitting the roof once again.   Obvious that some people dislike change even minor change to series can cause the player base to get upset.  Call of duty is the best selling game every year has been doing that for almost 10 years now.  Even if the game no longer breaks records still outselling rival games on the market.

Claims that ‘community’ wants call of duty to return to return backwards are just opinions of small group of people.  Often with an audience who come to see that person speak .  Asking for remastered version of the older titles or game moving back towards tactical gameplay.  Ends up being small opinion over the wider picture.

Call of duty success targeting lowest common denominator with various gameplay mechanics. Anybody can pick up play the game do okay at it.  Impressive thing is illusion given so many players ‘king for day feeling’.    Seen many okay players say the game has moved towards children to much should be hardcore war theme game.  Covered horrors within theaters of war but that was ditched moved toward modern age.

Willing take whatever comes next from call of duty which is my relax game over super serious. Don’t think movement system works within the game but that just my own personal view.  Not to say does not work just not feel right.  However nice change of pace compared with modern standards which got stale.  Most of the complains I have due to business strategy and plan.

Journal

Spectre – James Bond

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Last night sit down saw Spectre which is newest James bond movie within the series released in 2015.  Movie almost never came out due to legal action taken in the 1960/70s was only just settled in 2013.  Plot point missing from the series due to copyright dispute over various characters and plot points.   First time watching the movie was hit with pure joy not seen for years.

Always liked James bond series my family used to buy me bond themed gifts which still have stored away.  Series has changed moving closer towards the books drawing more more on the source material.

Loved spectre think one of the best bond movies created in long time. Casino Royale from 2006 rebooted the series with new direction much of the old formula was ditched.  Happy to see this direction given the changing big screen tastes.  Worth watching even if you don’t like James bond movies.  Could be pretty biases given how enjoy the series loads have big connection towards the series.