Guide Spotlights #1 - Heroes of the Storm

When most of us start a new MOBA, we do a little research first, or at least just after that first, painful loss where you had no idea what you were doing while your teammates raged at you.  Guides and full play through videos are great but what if you just want something you can watch on your phone during the loading screen?  In this series I'll pick a game and spotlight members of its community who produce short and sweet content for new and veteran players alike.

Darkest Dungeon gives a light for the dungeon crawling genre

A friend of mine sent me a link the other day for a game's demo at PAX East 2014.  Titled "Darkest Dungeon", my interest was immediately piqued since I'd recently done a post on another game - "Dungeons II".  A cookie for you if you can see the connection there.

"Darkest Dungeon" looks like it may actually live up to its slightly grandiose name with a unique twist on the classic dungeon crawling RPG genre.  You control the standard four person party, fighting monsters in turn-based combat and collecting loot - but staying alive is only half the battle.  As you venture deeper into the catacombs, the real question becomes: can you keep your party from not only being devoured by monsters, but also sane enough that they don't kill themselves?

Heroes can't just be balanced - they have to be epic

The concept of Heroes of the Storm is very simple: play as your favorite characters from various Blizzard franchises in a massive hero (and villain) brawl.  What makes them so compelling, that they are able to stay with us long after we've stopped playing the original franchise?  It's that they resonate with our internalized mythology - adhering to age old archetypes of heroes and villains reinforced by everything from popular culture to bedtime stories.  Their identities are already established in a sense, so their incarnation in Heroes and their previous games isn't our first time meeting them.  We know them.

Just not nearly as well as we thought.     

Classic League of Legends champion Tristana gets a long-awaited update

Patch 5.2 is now live, and with it the Tristana visual and kit rework.  Though I can't speak as a Tristana main, at least as a Tristana fan, I love the end result for its thematic cohesion.  I haven't even played her in a couple of years but our pint-sized gunner still holds a special place in my heart.  Tristana was one of the first champions I ever played when I started League that summer four and half years ago (Season 1 in League terms).  She was also quite likely the first ADC, attack damage carry for those who know them as Marksmen, that I played back when they were still called ADCs.  The memory gave me a fair bit of investment in her champion update.

Like Diablo? Like Warcraft? Then get excited for Dungeons II

Remember how Azmodan kept appearing to taunt you all through Act III of Diablo III but instead ended up telling you all of his plans?  His bravado and overconfidence were a big part of his undoing, and he's not alone.  Your standard villain will almost always trip themselves up at the finish line and the hero capitalizes on it to save the day.  When you're on the verge of completing your grand plan for world domination or ultimate power, one would think you would be damn careful at such a critical juncture.  There will be plenty of time to gloat later when they're all your  unwilling minions.  Did you ever catch yourself thinking "if it had been me things would have gone differently..."  Well, developer Realmforge Studios is giving you your chance to prove it with Dungeons II.

Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta is live - so let's talk about the release date

New heroes and villains will be joining the Nexus in the Closed Beta and beyond.

So Heroes of the Storm is officially out of Alpha and has begun its Closed Beta testing, which with most games is usually the point at which the community starts getting its first good look at them pre-release.  However, with most games the community isn't actively participating in the testing phase usually exclusive to developers.  The Technical Alpha for Heroes has been going on since March 2014, so the start of the Closed Beta is a slightly different milestone in the development timeline than in previous Blizzard projects.  However, even if we don't have a one to one comparison, from looking at other games we may be able to predict a window for the game's release date before a company rep decides to grace us with something more specific than "when it's ready."

Throwback Thursday: The retro trend of Heroes of the Storm's Warcraft characters

For the last several years, the Warcraft franchise has become almost synonymous with World of Warcraft.  The other day, a friend of mine commented that Hearthstone wasn't so much "Heroes of Warcraft" as it was simply "Heroes of WoW".  It's true that Hearthstone currently draws on elements from WoW more than any of the other Warcraft games, and that the MMORPG will likely remain the defining aspect of the franchise.

However, a recent pattern in Heroes of the Storm implies that Blizzard is making an effort to hearken back to the Warcraft that many of its older fans remember.  So for the first post of 2015 (and first Throwback Thursday edition) let's take a look at how Blizzard is tacitly acknowledging that some of those Warcraft fans may not necessarily be World of Warcraft fans.