By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG MOBA ReporterWelcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.124 article for League of Legends, the game in which nothing is true, everything is permitted. This patch includes a rework to sustained healing, UI reworks to pave the way for Dominion, and Talon, The Blade’s Shadow.Talon is walking murder. Seeing a Talon means only one thing – He is trying to kill you. Not later, sometime in the future, perhaps. Now. Right the hell now. Defense and utility are for pansies, a Talon player says, as they step over the bloodied remains of their recently departed foes. If you enjoyed playing ultra aggressive characters like Akali, but felt even she wasn’t aggressive enough, then Talon is your man.The trick with Talon is to use as many of his abilities as possible on a single target, as each one causes the following attacks to deal more damage. This can be through the use of Rake [W], a conical skill shot that slows the enemy, and through Cutthroat [E], a targeted blink that increases the damage output of any attacks following it. His passive, Mercy, allows him to deal more damage to targets under the effects of any crowd control except silence or blindness, so Rake’s slow will, in turn, give him yet another damage bonus, in addition to making him harder to escape from. Once he’s got the two damage enhancements on his desired target, you can then immediately finish them with a combination of Noxian Diplomacy [Q], and his ultimate, Shadow Assault [R].The most common combo to achieve single target damage is to tag the enemy with Rake, getting the slow on them, activating Noxian Diplomacy and Shadow Assault before jumping into their face with Cutthroat. This final act will trigger every other secondary effect at once, while hitting them with all of his most damaging abilities at the exact same moment. Depending where you are in a match, this can do anywhere from a third of someone’s health, to bursting them down from full health to nothing.The problem with this method though is that once your initial burst is done, everything you have is now on cooldown, and the enemy is now fully prepared to drive Talon’s head through his knees. If there is anyone around that might help your victim, don’t expect to survive the following encounter. The safer method then is triggering the ultimate late, using the stealth to cover your cooldowns in the same manner as Akali, and maybe make your escape if you need to. This lowers your burst considerably though, and should only be used if enemies have a vested interest in staying in an area, likely due to fighting a teammate, monster or tower, buying you enough time to hammer them with your second round of burst.Rake is going to be the first ability you should pick up, and the first to max out. This will help his damage, help his escape, act as harass and help his farming considerably. It’s the Swiss army knife of knives. Now, level 2 depends on who you’re up against. If you’re against a squishy ranged character, likely a mage, then Cutthroat’s leap and silence combo will help make them fear you, giving you greater control of your lane. If you’re against some burly meat head who wants to get up close and personal, grab Noxian Diplomacy to make them regret it. At level 4, pick up the choice you didn’t go for, rounding out your combo and letting the fun really begin. Once you’re done leveling Rake, Noxian Diplomacy is going to help with his ganking damage, especially once you start getting some attack damage items to back it up, so max this second. Cutthroat will be your final stop.I’ve been struggling with finding a good pick for him in the laning phase. All of his starting items feel sub optimal. The best pick I’ve managed is using the Doran’s Shield, or a cloth and five health potions for enough sustain to keep in a lane. After that, I try to stick around long enough to rush a BF sword or Brutalizer. The latter I only buy if I’m suffering in my lane, the former if things are going well. From there, I get my boots and complete the Bloodthirster, which will both help your farm with Rake, adding just enough to blow up a minion wave in a single use, and also add some beastly damage to Noxian Diplomacy. From there, keep getting damaging stuff (Focusing on AD and Cooldown) until you start being focused in team fights, at which point a defensive item may be in order. Sheen/Triforce works well on him I’m told, but I’ve been refusing to get it simply because the last two characters were Trinity Force users and I can’t stand doing that build yet again.For his Masteries, you could use a 21/0/9 for an all out offensive build. Personally, I’m not very good at the total offense, so I’ve been using a 16/14/0 build on him, using his defenses to make sure he doesn’t explode quite so quickly. For Runes (now stop me if this sounds familiar) I’ve been using armour penetration marks, armour seals, magic resist glyphs and health regeneration quintessences. I’ve been wondering if it’s worth slipping in some attack damage or more armour penetration in there, likely in the quintessences, to make him a little less item reliant for his damage, but that health regeneration is really needed to help his weak early game.I have to confess, I am terrible with this sort of character. I’ve never been a fan of these high risk, high reward types. If you are the sort of person who likes to go all in for every single fight they enter into, then you should find him a pretty good pick, as his burst is pretty insane once he’s got some farm. Farming though can be difficult on him, due to having a weak laning phase against anyone with some sustain. This usually means that his team’s jungler needs to set up a gank for him early to more reliably get the ball rolling, which is usually more co-ordination than is found in most solo queue matches.I’m going to hazard a guess that he’s not going to be seen much in competitive play, given that conservative play is usually rewarded there far more than risk taking. I will say though that he makes a great solo queue pub stomper, as most of these sorts of high damage dealing glass cannons often wind up being. He also might work out to be an excellent Dominion pick, given his need for a lot of gold early in the game, and reliance on kills aren’t a problem in that game type.The sustain changes have been painful for support players. While I fully understand why the nerfs were needed (I think I’ve fallen asleep in bottom a few times), I don’t entirely agree with some of the exact changes. For example, why was the AP ratios on most supports’ heals nerfed? I’ve never seen a single support who stacked AP and was actually effective. Everyone just grabbed gold per 10 items and bought loads of wards. It seems a bit superfluous to target a nerf at something that no-one who knew how to play their characters ever did. Then again, it’s not like that part of the nerf actually has affected any support players, given none of them are going to be buying AP anyway. You’d think though that Riot might want to discourage this type of play, as the gold per ten stacking encourages passive supports, but evidently they don’t see this behaviour as a problem. Fine by me, I’ll just keep stacking up my wards.The changes to Soraka are not only the most extensive, but also the most bizarre. Her heals have been nerfed so hard that you couldn’t put her on a team as the dedicated healer any more. Her damage output is now really, really high though, putting her more into the role that was once filled by Nidalee (RIP Nidalee) on top as a self sustaining mage. Where once you would pick Soraka to be the team’s heal-bot, now she’s better as a nuker and pusher, with a little bit of added sustain thrown in.My own bit of vitriol at the changes is the odd buff Sona has received for her heal to compensate for its lowered effectiveness. The idea is that she’ll enhance whatever auras she has active on the heal’s target while the buff lasts. This was to encourage clutch healing, giving allies more armour, damage and/or movement speed. The problem, however, is that this is Sona. You can’t choose your targets, only go with what the automated system picks for you, so clutch healing is nearly impossible when you know your mage is going to be burst down from full health, yet your half health tank is the only person you can heal. The buff is worthless when it winds up on the wrong target most of the time. This indirect targeting was fine when it was a good heal, since there was rarely a reason not to heal the person with the lowest health, but as a buffing system this is painful.The most likely result of these changes is we’ll simply see a shift away from the characters that relied on healing entirely, and more towards, well, everyone that didn’t get their ability to support nerfed. Alistar’s healing hasn’t been affected, nor Janna’s shield or ultimate, so they’re going to remain top of the support pile. Karma and Kayle might get a chance to shine now, since neither of their support capabilities got hit, but I’m a bit dubious myself. They both require a bit too much gold to be effective, and if there’s one thing you don’t want your support doing, it’s having to farm.To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. Also look forward to a review of Dominion mode coming up on OnRPG soon. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.
Seamus Blackley, one of the key figures behind the creation of the original Xbox, has said his proudest Microsoft career moment – aside from getting Bill gates to green-light the console – was realising that the work he’d done at the platform holder had inspired Sony to boost its investment in developer support. Blackley, who co-wrote the initial Xbox proposal, helped assemble the team that designed and built the device, and then became a B2B evangelist for the console, selling its abilities to game developers across the globe, told the latest issue of Edge:”One thing that really sticks with me is that after I left Microsoft and went to start an investment company, I went to visit the PlayStation guys and they had made a huge investment into developer support, which no console company would have done before Xbox. That’s the thing I’m really proud of.”It was announced in May that Blackley was to leave his role as an agent at Creative Artists Agency in order to return to game development.Edge 231 is arriving with subscribers now and will be available from all good newsagents next week. Order Edge here and have it delivered straight to your door.
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist Some if you might have heard of this game before. This game was formerly known as Granado Espada: Sword of the New World. Sword 2: Granado Espada was developed by imcGAMES. Sword 2 has won the Best Graphics award and also Presidential Award for Game of the Year. GamersFirst brings this amazing game to the West with many game enhancements. Set on a mysterious, dangerous continent with a story inspired by Europe’s exploration and conquest of America, Sword 2 is destined to dominate the world of MMORPGs by virtue of its groundbreaking design features, fast-paced gameplay and amazing graphics.Recently Granado Espada: Sword of the New World changed its name to Sword 2: Revelations and provided quite a few much needed features such as a more in-depth crafting system , the Viron Island Area, a new unique playable character, and the ability to have a pet. Sword 2 has a unique feature that lets you multi-character control up to 3 characters at a time. When you start creating your ‘family’ you are allowed to make different characters consisting of the following classes: Fighter, Scout, Wizard, Musketeer and Elementalist. With so many possible combinations it was rare that I felt like a copy of someone else’s family. As you go about your journey, you can unlock new playable characters to increase the diversity of your family. These characters are specialized in different statistics and skills, in order to unlock these characters you have to find them in the game and do the available quests to get the NPC into your team. All characters are assumed to be from the same family and share the same surname. This surname is used to identify a player in the game. Every character I tested brought a unique and enjoyable skill set that made for some very strategic party setups. Though when having fun swapping in multiple characters, remember that each character levels independently so you might have to do some basic grinding to level up a character if you want to utilize them in end game content.When you have created your desired team and have advanced a few levels you notice the skills you have gotten are all on different keys on your keyboard. No matter which one of your 3 characters you have selected to lead, you can all use their skills when you want to. This makes battles feel akin to playing the piano and put my worries to rest that I would have to play 3 MMO characters at once.If you don’t feel like doing normal quests in Sword 2: Revelations you can also visit various dungeons. These dungeons are generally composed of three to five floors with increasingly more difficult challenges to block your progression. In these dungeons there are boxes and barrels that act as monster spawn portals. These items make going AFK nearly impossible as they trigger wave after wave of monsters until destroyed. To keep you guessing, these monster generators are placed randomly on the map each time you enter, so you will be forced to explore a bit to find the source of your foes. In these dungeons there are waypoints or (player chosen) save locations. I found these very convenient since you can warp to a set part of the map with a ward scroll rather than fighting through the entire dungeon in one go. Five locations may be saved initially. And up to five more locations can be purchased from the Bazaar.It is possible to command your characters to do various things. You can choose to do this in a team or separate with the selected character. It is possible to choose from the following commands:Team Summon (F4): The team members are called to the team leader.Assault Mode (CTRL+Click): Attack all the enemies on the route to the point you have clicked. Harvest mode (CTRL+SHIFT+Click): Pick up items while moving to the designated point.Hold Mode (CTRL+H): Characters stop moving and attack approaching monsters.Defend Mode (CTRL+E and space): Automatically engage enemies in battle.When you have accepted a quest it is possible to look at the location in the Quest info tab (ALT+A). There you can see the location of the target you are looking for. In this quest menu map as well as the standard zone map, you are able to move to a target location simply by clicking it. The zone map is very detailed, informing you of available quests, npc locations, and what shops you have access to. In Sword 2 you can also test yourself against other players for one of the greatest challenges in the new world. The limited PvP action I had was enjoyable and all the industry standard types were available. These are the different forms of PvP included: Family vs Family dueling, Clan Wars, Faction vs Faction, Arena Play and GM Tournaments.For a game that is released in 2006, Sword 2 has wonderful graphics. The game is really detailed and the textures are really nice to look at. The game is also well programmed resulting in lower system requirements than one would expect for such a gorgeous game. You should at least have a Pentium 3 processor with 512 MB RAM and a Directx 9.0c supporting Graphics Card. Anyone without these specs probably has an ancient computer, likely made of wood and powered by a hamster. For the rest of us, we can enjoy this beautiful game to our heart’s content!Many items can be crafted in Sword 2, from refined materials to gems to equipment. Equipment can be upgraded through various means. This upgrading system is the standard MMO process involving increasing the number of slots and imbuing gems to given bonus statistics. Once you progress to above level 30 you can begin dabbling in gear enchantments as well. This gives you the option to customize and enhance your gear further without wasting precious slots. With the Revelations expansion, Alchemy, Cooking and Wing Crafting were added into the game to give craftsman even more toys to play with.GamersFirst calls their cash shop the Bazaar. The items for sale include the expected experience and drop chance bonuses. Also available are passes that allow you to access more challenging regions of the world faster than non-paying players are able to. I didn’t find too many items though that would give players a flat strength bonus over their enemies, which is always a good sign.Sword 2: Revelations is a fun game that thrives on its unique 3 character class system. It truly makes this game much more challenging than most MMOs and adds an unbelievable amount of fun factor to the genre. Combined with its beautiful graphics I really had few negatives to say about this game. If I have to quip about something it is various new regions haven’t been translated yet and quests will still be in Korean. I hope GamersFirst pushes to get this fixed as soon as possible because it seems like an easily patchable error in an otherwise flawless game.
Twinbee – a classic upscrolling shooter – will be the next game to arrive in the 3DS’ 3D Classics range. Originally released in Japan in 1985 by Konami as a coin-op arcade title, it was later ported to the Famicom (Japan’s NES) but never saw a release outside the Far East. The most unique aspect of the game is its item system – you shoot at clouds to reveal floating bells that change colour as you shoot them. You juggle them with your bullets, trying not to let them fall off the screen until they turn the desired colour before collecting them to receive a specific power-up – all while trying to dodge bullets and kill enemies (check the video below). Nintendo Japan has confirmed that the title will arrive on 3DS with new 3D effects on August 10, but will lack the two-player option featured in the original. It’s also unclear if the game will come to western regions considering the original’s Japan-only release. To be honest, we wouldn’t be too bothered if it doesn’t. We’re hoping to see some better games come out of the 3D Classics range. And there’s already an upscrolling shooter in there (Xevious). If it was the Super Nintendo sequel, Pop n’ Twinbee, we’d be a lot more excited. That game was MINT. Mike Jackson
On October 15th G4 will be participating in Extra Life, an annual 24-hour video game marathon that raises money to help kids at Children’s Miracle Network hospitals around the nation. I know what you’re thinking. "How can I be a part of the magic?" Well, little Timmy, all you need to do is donate.If you want to pitch in, all you have to do is make a donation. Even if it’s just $1, every little bit helps. Here’s what to do to donate: Go to G4′s Extra Life page, pick a G4 team-member to donate to, and have at it. Every dollar you donate goes to a hospital in the Children’s Miracle Network, and none of your dollars go toward us buying expensive sunglasses, I promise. The change in your cup-holder could enrich a child’s life forever.Gamers, it’s up to you to step up and make the world a better place. Ask yourself, What Would John-117 Do? He would donate.
Activision’s somewhat controversial auction house feature in Diablo 3 that’ll allow players to make real-world currency sales for in-game items could eventually make its way to StarCraft 2. Speaking during an investors conference call today, Activision said that some of the back-end tech being developed for the Diablo 3 auction house can be leveraged for its globally popular PC RTS game, StarCraft 2.Rather than item trading as players will be doing in Diablo, Activision suggested that players would be able to create put their own custom-made maps up for sale to other players. Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo said after the announcement earlier this week that Diablo 3′s auction house will help prevent players from inevitably resorting to the illegitimate black market to buy items by providing a safe and secure system for such trades to take place within the game itself. Mike Jackson
