So bad, it's great

The main landing screen of League of Legends has a variety of games for you to spectate??, most featuring high-level players in Diamond or Challenger tier. The client chooses which games to display by looking at the average ELO rating (the hidden ranking system League uses to determine placements) of a game's participants and featuring those where all the players have high ELO. One brilliant individual realized that if the system can find high-ELO games, it can find low-ELO games as well. Enter SaltyTeemo, the stream that only displays matches where the average ELO is roughly 400 or less.  

For context, everyone starts with a 1200 ELO rating, so not only are these bad players, but they're bad players who have played a LOT of games. Many featured on the stream have 1000+ games played, and for whatever reason, t??hey just haven't grasped how the game fundamentally works.

What does a 400 ELO game look like? Everyone builds Runaan's Hurricane, people run around with four Rabadon's Deathcaps, there's an absurd amount of trash talking and threats to report, and people generally just mash their faces on the keyboard as they ram into each other and die over and over. Games with 60 deaths by the 30:00 mark are common, and every time you look at the screen someone is attempting the worst Flash of all?? time. To top it all off, the stream is set to a soundtrack of dramatic orchestral music.

Watching SaltyTeemo is incredibly addictive, and quite frankly can be more interesting than some of the LCS matches I've seen. Check it out here, and get ready to laugh. 

The post SaltyTeemo is my new favorite Twitch.tv stream appeared first on Destructoid.

Court is back in session

Previous entries in the Ace Attorney series never examined the legal system beyond surface commentary. Apollo Justice came close when it examined the idea and consequences of a jurist system (something Japan was about to re-implement at the time, and an idea disappointingly dropped completely from this installment), and Justice for All posed an ethical dilemma in its fin?al case when Phoenix discovered his client was actually guilty (although the solution to that dilemma was a cop-out). However, these themes and ideas were introduced in the games' final cases, usually brought out as a surprise near the end, and touched upon only briefly. 

Dual Destinies uses all five cases to discuss much broader themes that are directly relevant to the real-world legal system. Despite the inherent ridiculousness of the Phoenix Wright series' depictions of a courtroom, with over the top witnesses, constant objections, and streamers and confetti as a verdict is announced, Dual Destinies actually raises some valid questions about the legal process and how our courtrooms work. As someone who has been involved in numerous criminal trials and has been on both sides of the courtroom in murder cases, I've confronted these issues head?-on through my own work, and I was pleasantly surprised to?????????????????????????? see them discussed in an over-the-top fictional courtroom game.

What happens when and if the public loses trust in the legal system entirely? How do you define justice? And, most importantly, what happens when?? "winning" becomes more important than finding the truth?

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies (3DS [eShop Only; 4432 blocks])
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
To be released: October 24, 2013
MSRP: $29.99

Dual Destinies takes place after the events of Apollo Justice, in a time that the game refers to (over, and over, and over) as the "Dark Age of the Law." Shortly after Phoenix's disbarment in the early events of Apollo Justice for unintentionally producing false evidence thanks to Kristoph, Simon Blackqu??ill, a rising star of the p??rosecutor's office, was indicted and found guilty of murder. Because of his talents, he's still allowed to try cases while incarcerated, and is your main opponent in this installment of the series. 

With two of the best attorneys on both sides of the aisle disgraced, the public loses faith in the system. Attorneys begin resorting to underhanded tactics to win cases -- if Phoenix Wright was fabricating evidence to save his clients, why shouldn't they? If defense attorneys are going to fabricate evidence, the prosecution needs to find a way to secure convictions. If the prosecution is convicting by any means necessary, d??efense attorneys ha??ve to fabricate evidence to defend the innocent.

It becomes a vicious cycle, and gets to the point the top legal academy in the country begins training it students to win at all costs, teaching that the ends always justify the means. It's our own legal system taken to the extreme -- while nothing in American jurisprudence is as blatant or overt as what occurs in Phoenix Wright, we're reminded that we still live in a country where local prosecutors are often politicians looking to move up, and defense attorneys are paid to defend their client at all costs. It's in a similar environment Dual Destinies takes place -- Apollo, Phoenix, and new attorney Athena Cykes try cases, defend c?lients, and try to put an end to the Dark Age of the Law while sticking to their morals.

The structure of the game will be fami??liar to any who have played any of the previous installments. After a short, courtroom-only introductory case, the rest of the cases play out similarly -- an anime cutscene introduces the murder, Phoenix, Apollo, and/or Athena show up on scene to investigate, and then present their findings in a courtroom sequence.?? For longer cases, an additional investigation/courtroom sequence or two are added, but the general structure remains the same.

Investigative portions play out like they always have: you move from area to area, interrogating witnesses and presenting evidence to them, gathering ammunition for court. Certain areas, usually the actu??al scenes of the crime, allow you to search the whole room in a point-and-click style sequence reminiscent of classic adventure games. After you've thoroughly searched the required areas and spoken to all of the necessary witnesses, the game moves to the courtroom phase.

There aren't many changes to the courtroom action either, where gameplay primarily consists of the cross-examination of witnesses. As you discover contradictions in witness testimony, you present evidence to blow their statements out of the water or, when you don't have evidence, bluff your way through the examination by selecting the appropriate responses from small dialogue p??rompts. It's simple,? it's basic, and it works, just like it has in the four previous installments.

T??he one significant new addition to witness examination comes from Athena Cykes, who can use her robot, Widget, and her skills in analytical psychology to read the e??motions of a witness as they testify. During these sequences, you listen to a witnesses testimony while monitoring their four basic emotions -- joy, anger, sadness, and surprise, and look to find where their emotions (or lack thereof) don't match the testimony they're giving. Back on the investigative side, Apollo Justice's bracelet, which allows you to observe a witness in slow motion to look for physical tells that show they're lying. Phoenix's Magatama and the Psyche-Lock system also make a relatively brief return. 

On the whole, Dual Destinies is an extremely strong addition to the series, and my favorite Ace Attorney game so far. The cohesive themes and narrative tie the game's cases together more strongly than any previous title, and I think the final case just barely beats the Case 5 of Trials and Tribulations ;in terms of drama and surprise. New prosecuto?r Simon Blackquill is a so??lid addition to the series, although I don't think he can stand up to Godot or Edgeworth.

The real standout is Athena. Initially introduced as an assistant attorney, Athena's background and her story soon become the core focus of Dual Destinies. While the Ace Attorney series frequently slips into stereotypes and caricature,?? particularly with witnesses, Athena makes for a unique character who'??s history, motivations, behavior, and eventual story arc may be the most well rounded of any characters in the franchise.

Unfortunately, Dual Destinies still occasionally suffers from the same problem all of the previous games have had -- there are times when you piece together the mystery several steps ahead of the game, and get bogged down trying to figure out what you need to do next because you can't leap straight to your conclusion. You can't present the decisive piece of evidence you know will break the witness too early, because the game's script demands that you do otherwise. Similarly, events in the investigative phase often won't trigger until one very specific piece of evidence has been shown to a certain witness, and the game isn't always clear that this needs to happen for you to move forward. However, these incidents are relatively r??are, particularly compared to the previous games, and don't cause significant trouble beyond brief annoyances.

Finally, those who might have gotten excited upon hearing the game had received the series' first ever M rating from the ESRB should temper their enthusiasm. Just like every other game in the Ace Attorney series, every case in Dual Destinies involves murder, but there's nothing I'd consider overly graphic. My guess is either that the ESRB is simply inconsistent in its ratings, or the M comes from the stories of two separate witnesses who for whatever reason concerned someone at the ESRB: one witness is revealed to be a different gender than initially presented (their parents forced them to live as the opposite gender and the game leaves it at t?hat), and another character hints at a same-sex attraction. Both issues are given cursory examination, and then the cases move forward. In any event, aside from the murder present in every game in the series, there's nothing here that's inappropriate for teenagers under 17.

However, even though it's not a new, gritty, ultra-violent courtroom drama, Dual Destinies delivers exactly what I wanted from a new Ace Attorney game. Interesting new cases, great new characters, lots of twists and surprises, and what is ultimately an excellent work of interactive fiction. Topped off with beautiful 3D animations, an unsurprisingly excellent soundtrack, and some great anime sequences that highlight major moments in each case, Dual Destinies is not to be missed.

The post Review: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies appeared first on Destructoid.

Retro Card-Gaming Fun

Boss Monster is a card game you likely haven’t heard of. Successfully Kickstarted back in November of last year after exceeding its requesting funding amount by almost 18 times the original goal, it’s been available for purchase since aroun???d February.

The premise of the game is simple -- you’re the Boss Monster in a dungeon of your own design, and you must attract as many heroes to it? as possible and kill them for their souls. Collect enough souls before your opponents and you win the game, but if too many make it through your dungeon alive, they’ll ki??ll you instead.

With an 8-bit art style and writing that’s an homage to both classic NES games and a lot of current pop culture, Boss Monster is worth picking up if you’re looking for a light-hearted card game that’s easy to teach and play, even for people who don’t board game often. Those who insist that all their games contain deep strategic experiences or find themselves frustrated by games with a strong luck element may want to steer clear, but I’d recommend Boss Monster as a casual game that should appeal to board gamers ?of all skill levels.

Boss Monster
Created By: Brotherwise Games
MSRP: $25.00 

Boss Monster’s r??ules are simple, and after a couple playthroughs to familiarize yourself with the rules, games should take roughly 20 minutes to complete. Play begins with each player randomly selecting a Boss Monster card, each with a special power that&rsquo??;s activated after five dungeon rooms are completed, drawing their starting hand, and building the first room of their dungeon.

At the beginning of each turn, heroes gather in the village. There are four types of heroes --fighters, mages, thieves, and clerics, each looking for a different type of treasure. Later in the turn, each hero will go on an adventure to the dungeon containing the most treasure of their preferred type (if there’s a tie, they wait in town until the tie is broken on a subsequent turn), and p??ass through that player’s dungeon room by room. A hero that survives your dungeon deals you a wound, and five wounds knock you out of a game. A hero killed in your dungeon becomes a soul, and the first player to collect ten souls wins.

After the heroes gather in the village, each player gets to draw a Room Card, representin??g (surprise!) a room in their dungeon, and they may then build a room out of their hand if they so choose. Each room deals a set amount of damage to any hero that passes through it, and has an additional effect -- for example, some deal ex??tra damage if your dungeon meets certain conditions, some allow you to immediately build or move other rooms. Every room card also contains a certain amount and type of treasure or treasures, which are needed to actually get heroes to come to your dungeon in the first place.

There are also Spell Cards which can be played either during the building phase or the adventuring phase. Spells have a variety of effects and tend to be very powerful, and will often determine the outcome of a game. You only start with two, however, and cannot naturally draw more unless you have specific rooms in your dungeon that allow you to do so, or your Boss Mons????ter card’s power gives you more spells on the completion of your fifth room.

The strategy behind the game is fairly simple -- build a dungeon that’s capable of killing heroes, while managing your treasure properly so that you’re claiming as many heroes as you can w??hile denying other players hero types by forcing ties. Most games we played involved lots of treasure ties in the early rounds, until someone could finally pull ahead and snag a huge pack of heroes that had backed up in town.

While there’s little direct interaction with other players, unless you’re playing a ??spell card while they have heroes in their dungeon during the adventure phase, the treasure management still makes the game feel competitive. Snagging a huge pack of heroes out from under your friends feels great, as does watching a confident player with a strong dungeon get hit with multiple wounds after o??ne of your Spell Cards throws a huge wrench in his plans.

However, be??cause this is a card game based on random drawing, luck does play a huge factor in terms of what cards you draw, what rooms you can build, what kinds of treasure you have access to, and what spells you end up getting. Every now and then, you’ll have a game where one player really can’t compete with the rest because they’ve gotten unlucky with their rooms and either can’t get enough treasure to attract any heroes, or can’t quite put together a dungeon that deals enough damage. Luckily, games run short so this player shouldn’t feel too put out, but among our group we had some frustration since this happened to every player in at least one game they participated in.

Boss Monster is quick, light, and does a great job infusing the game with a retro, NES-style theme that its 8-bit art belies. I recommend it to people who like to play with board gamers of varying skill levels, even if those people aren’t huge videogamers, with the caveat that most players will experience a frustrating game every now and then. As long as you don’t mind games with moderate luck elements to them and aren’t playing with people who will pitch a fit if they end up with crummy cards, Boss Monster is a solid addition to your board game coll??ection.

The post Impressions: Boss Monster appeared first on Destructoid.

Great value for the price

My experiences with sub-$100 headphones haven't been the most positive. I've gone through quite a few pairs from a variety of man??ufacturers, and have generally h??ad issues with either comfort, durability, and/or sound/microphone quality.

I ??was pleasantly surprised, then, to find that the $79.99 G430s can compete, and even surpass, other headsets I've tried that offer comparable features but cost over double the G430's price. I've spent a few weeks with my pair, and they've now become my primary gaming headset.

Product: G430 Surround Sound Gaming Headset
Manufacturer: Logitech
Input: 3.5mm jacks with USB adapter included
MSRP: $79.99

The G430 package is fairly basic -- you get the headset and a small USB adapter, and that's it. The headset? itself has a non-detachable microphone and a simple inline control on the cord that toggles volume and microphone mute only. There are no adjustable straps, no additional inline control panel attachments, and no ??other input adapters.

For me, the basics were all I needed. I tested the head??phones on a variety of games, and came away generally impressed -- audio comes through crisp and clear, and the headphones deliver on their promise of 7.1 surround sound with surprising accuracy. While I primarily connected the headset to? my PC with the USB adapter, I also switched out to test the 3.5mm inputs I noticed no difference. 

Although the headset's microphone doesn't offer studio quality recording capabilities, it's more than passable for Skype conversations or voice chat. Tests on Skype, Mumble, Google Hangouts, and a number of in-game chat services produced easy-to-hear conversations with no static or cutting out. Physically, the headset's microphone is a little thick, but also rather flexible, and can ?be turned upwards out of the way.

I initially found the G430s to be on the heavy ??side. Most of the headsets I've used in the past have been on the lighter side, and I was at first experiencing mild head and neck pain related to the headset's weight after about an hour of use. However, after roughly two weeks, I appear to have adjusted, and can now wear them for hours at a time with little to no discomfort. The headband and over-the-ear cans are both padded with breathable cloth-covered foam, and while the headset is a bit tight, even after adjustments (people with huge heads beware), the headband and cans never caused discomfort.

Overall, the G430s are a solid buy at $79.99, and can compete with headphones that are significantly more expensive. They may take a little bit of time to get used to wearing, especially if you have a bigger-tha?n-average head, but provide significant value at a very reasonable price.

The post Impressions: Logitech G430 Surround Sound Gami?ng Headset appeared first on Destructoid.

A solid middle entry for the series

It appears Blizzard's learned quite a bit from Diablo III's launch, as Heart of the Swarm was instantly playable on release with virtually no s??erver problems -- a bit of a rarity, it seems, with rece??nt PC releases.

It's a good thing, too, since as soon as I logged in at midnight, I got hooked on StarCraft again. Heart of the Swarm brings engaging RTS gameplay, sets up a story I found to be more interesting than what was presented in Wings of Liberty, and serves as an excellent middle entry in the StarCraft II trilogy.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (PC)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: March 12, 2013
MSRP: $39.99

Heart of the Swarm picks up right where Wings of Liberty left off -- Kerrigan has been saved and retu?rned t??o a mostly-human form (shame about the hair), the Zerg threat has been diminished, and she and Raynor are free to run about curbstomping the Dominion.

Or, that's the initial plan. Since Heart of the Swarm is, of course, about the Zerg, within an hour of starting the game Raynor promptly finds himself in trouble and Kerrigan once again takes control of the Swarm. This time around, the story focuses much more on Kerrigan herself -- while Raynor was the hero of Wings of Liberty, that game's story tended to focus more on the Terran army as a whole and the various mercenaries you dealt with. Heart of the Swarm shines the spotlight directly on Kerrigan.

While Kerrigan can still control the Zerg, Raynor's artifact essentially restored her soul. The antagonism between Kerrigan and Arcturus Mengsk may seem like the central plot line, but in my opinion Heart of the Swarm is really about how Kerrigan comes to terms with what she did as the Queen of Blades, and the internal struggle she faces to cling to her newfound humanity as she slips deeper and deeper into the power of the Zerg. I found the story this time around to be far more engaging than the fairly standard war story of Wings of Liberty, and a huge part of that is because Heart of the Swarm feels more personal and in?timate than the previous installment.

When it comes to gameplay, the new missions in Heart of the Swarm don't deviate too much from the style seen in Wings of Liberty, but are unique enough that they don't come across as a simple rehash of Wings, just with the Zerg. The only real notable difference is the introduction of Kerrigan as a persistent hero unit, reminiscent of Warcraft III. In most missions Kerrigan is present on the battlefield and directly controllable, and she gets stronger and develops more powers as you level her up by completing mission objectives. Base building is still the focus of the game, but Kerrigan usually p??lays a major role in fights as her abilities tend to be profoundly useful.

Much like Wings of Liberty, a majority of the missions generally focus on one or two types of units, and the mission is designed to teach you how to use that unit and its abilities. Sprinkled throughout the game, however, are missions that tend to focus on Kerrigan and her abilities, much like the first Zeratul mission back in Wings. I actually found these to be the most interesting, simply because of the variety they provided. My favorite mission involves Kerrigan essentially fighting three "boss monsters" as she moves through the map, with the fights feeling like a combination between playing a MOBA and battling a World of Warcraft raid boss. I like base building as much as the next StarCraft fan, but it's always nice to mix things up.

As you progress through the single-player campaign, you have the opportunity to select minor and major evolutions for your units. Minor evolutions unlock as soon as you acquire the unit, and tend to be small stat boosts or a passive ability. Major evolutions see you decide between one of two new forms, and require you to complete a short "Evolution Mission" that shows you the abilities of each new form before making your selection. These missions naturally unlock as you progress through the story -- you no longer have to find out-of-the-way collectables scattered around the maps like you did in Wings. Instead,  optional mission objecti??ves provide additional levels to Kerrigan.

Multiplayer has remained essentially unchanged outside of balance tweaks and the introduction of a few new units, and it's still great if you're into competitive real time strategy games. Players who haven't hopped online since Wings of Liberty may be surprised to see how much the general skill level has risen, and ca??n expect quite a few frustrating games if they jump into ranked, especially since this season just began and the matchmaking system is still sorting people where they belong. Don't be surprised if you run into highly skilled players in the lower tiers of play during these first few weeks.

The multiplayer replay system has a couple new fun additions. You can now watch replays with your friends and, even better, pause a replay at any time and have you and your friends take control of the game at the point you paused. It's a solid tool for practicing matchups if you have friends willing to? work with you, but I think the most interesting aspect will be th?e ability to download and mess around with pro-level tournament games, assuming they put replays up.

Heart of the Swarm is a fantastic addition to the StarCraft series, and quite frankly feels on par with a $60 game. It brings almost nothing new to the table, but there's nothing wrong with sticking to a formula you know works well. If you enjoyed Wings of Liberty, or just like RTS games in general, there's no reason not to pick this one up.

The post Review: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm appeared first on Destructoid.

Decent headset, fair price

The Razer Electra is an oddity. It's billed as a "music and gaming headset," but is primarily designed for use with mobile phones -- the headset is spe??cifically made for iPhones, HTC phones, and Blackberries (and any laptop that happens to have an audio + microphone combined 3.5mm jack).   

To be perfectly honest, I'm hard-pressed to think of any mobile games aside from perhaps Sword & Sworcery that would truly benefit from high-quality "gaming" headphones. That said, the Electras are a comfortable set of headphones that are perfect??ly serviceable if you want to listen to? music on your mobile device, as long as you don't mind the size and bulk.

Product: Razer Electra Headset
Manufacturer: Razer
Input: 3.5mm jack (inline mic requires a 3.5 combined audio/mic jack, or a separately-sold splitter)
MSRP: $59.99

The most important quality in headphones, for me, is how long I can wear them comfortably. My ears are on the larger side, and I've experienced some fairly serious discomfort from other headsets after even just 45 minutes of use. Even with my big ears, I was able to wear the Electras for extended listening sessions without problems. Large, wide leather cushions around the ear cups kept things comfortable, and while I occasionally wanted to a??djust them when I felt my ears getting warm, I was able to avoid the pressure I often get with other headsets. The ear cups also do fairly well in keeping out external noise. They won't completely block unwanted sound, particularly if you're out and about in the city, but typical background noise won't make it through.

A close second in terms of importance, of course, is sound quality, and the Electras perform well for a $60 ?headset. The bass is solid, though serious dubstep fans will likely not find it powerful enough, and the treble comes through crisp and clear. While the audio won't stand up to the kind of quality you'll find in more expensive headsets, the Electras seem comparable to other headsets I own in ?the sub-$100 range.

One disappointment is the lack of controls on the in-line mic -- surpr?ising given that the headset is mainly designed for phones. There's no way to raise or lower volume, or to accept an incoming phone call, without reaching into your pocket. The microphone itself, however, is about what you'd expect from an in-line microphone. When I called people to test it out, they could hear and understand me fine, and felt the volume levels were appropriate, but noted that my voice sounded rather tinny, and that it was lower quality than if we were just regularly speaking on the phone.

Finally, t?he headset itself is somewhat thick and bulky, and may not be easily transported. Given that these are designed for use with cell phones, it's a shame the Electras ??don't come with some sort of carrying case or bag. While the headphones themselves are certainly sturdy, I'd be wary of just tossing them into my already packed laptop bag.

On the whole, it's hard to recommend the Electras for "gaming," simply because I'm of the opinion that there's not really a need for gaming audio equipment for mobile devices at this time. If you're in the market for some nicer headph?ones for listening to music on your phone, though,?? the Electras are a solid choice that are priced right, as long as you don't mind reaching into your pocket every now and then to answer calls and adjust the volume.

The post Review: Razer Electra Headset appeared first on Destructoid.

It's Risk, but with StarCraft pieces

_{[Destructoid is considering adding board games (videogame-themed or not) to what we cover. Think it's a good idea? Want us to stick to videogames only? Let us know in the comments.]}

Themed variants of popular games like Monopoly and Risk have existed for a while, covering everything from cereal box characters to Nintendo. Blizzard's dabbled in this arena before, having recently released World of Wacraft Monopoly, and now they've followed it up with StarCraft Collector's Edition Risk.

Grognards who hate the entire concept of Risk won't find much here, but those who don't take issue with Risk's central premise and enjoy the StarCraft property should have fun with the game.

As with most versions of Risk, StarCraft Collector's Edition Risk allows for up to six players. All three StarCraft races are represented, with each race having two factions. On the Terran side, you can play as Jim Raynor or Mengsk. Protoss players can choose from Zeratul and Artanis, and the Zerg can select either Kerrigan or Zagara. Each race obviously has its own figures, made of a somewhat flimsy yet durable plastic. The map should also be familiar as well -- while it's skinned with StarCraft planets and locations, it's essentially the standard world Risk map, just flipped horizontally.

The option to play the long, standard Risk game mode with no rule changes or variations is, of course, available, and if you choose to do so different pieces and a flipped map will be all that StarCraft Risk really gives you. If you pick up this game, however, you'll likely want to play the special mode designed specifically for StarCraft Risk: Command Room.

Many of the recent Risk variants have included game modes aimed towards shorter, tighter, games, and StarCraft Risk is no exception. Command Room still follows the basic rules of Risk, but includes a n??umber of changes ?designed to make the game move faster.

Setup generally follows standard rules, with the addition of bases and mineral fields. Bases serve as your headquarters, providing you with an extra unit per turn for each base you control. Mineral fields are randomly placed across territories at the game's start, and each territory you control with a mineral field counts as an extra point when calculating how many troops you ??get to place at the start of your turn.

While wiping your opponents off the map is still an option, games of Command Room are generally won by completing achievements. When the game starts, eight achievements out of a total pool of twelve are randomly drawn and laid out on the board. Some are control achievements, and require you to control an entire planet at the end of your turn. Others reward aggression, including things like controlling a certain number of opponent's bases, or taking over a certain number of mineral fields ??in a single turn. You can only earn a maximum of one achievement per turn (unless you eliminate a player, in which you immediately claim all of her achievements for your own), and the first to accumulate three wins.

Each achievement also has a reward token placed facedown over it, and claiming the achievement allows you to take its reward. While some only provi??de minor benefits, such as allowing you to reinforce twice at the end of your turn, others provide substantial benefits, giving you an extra attack or defense die for the rest of the game. The rewards definitely are not balanced, and while the game is generally short enough that this shouldn't be a serious issue, some may be frustrated by how powerful opponents can get if they're lucky enough to claim two of the strongest rewards.

StarCraft Risk also contains hero units; the named characters mentioned above. Your hero?? is represented by his or her own figure and moves with an existing squad, and while he or she doesn't count as an actual troop, the presence of a hero allows you to add one to your highest d??ie roll, whether on offense or defense.

Finally, each race also has its own deck of cards that they may draw from on any turn in which they conquered at least one territory, and also did not earn any achievements. Like in standard Risk, these can simply be turned in for additional units on th??e beginning of your turn. However, each card also has a power or ?ability on it which you may choose to use instead.

While many of the abilities are shared across all three decks and just have different names, each race does have a few unique abilities in keeping with the general theme of StarCraft. The Terran card "Lift Off," for example, makes them the only race that can pick up and move their base, even if it's currently controlled by another player. Again, like with the achievement rewards, these abilities aren't even close to being balanced, and a lucky card draw can quite literally turn the tide of a??n entire game.

Despite some of the noted balance issues, my game group had a good time with StarCraft Risk. With two of us being Risk fans and the other two generally not liking Risk on principle, all four were pleasantly surprised with how the game played. Games can be completed in roughly an hour, and the win conditions of Command Room require you to manage multiple fronts at once -- if you try to sit back and build up a giant army to sweep the entire board, you'll probably have lost the game before you can actually deploy it. As a result, the pace of the game is much faster, and even from?? the first turn players will likely be engaging in a number of fights with most of the other players on the board.

In a nutshell, StarCraft Risk is easy to learn, doesn't take very long to complete, and increases the luck factor of the original game substantially. StarCraft Risk and its Command Room mode don't change the fundamentals of Risk in the way Risk Legacy or Risk 2210 A.D. do, but there's ??enough here to keep it from being more than just a straight-up reskinning of the base game.

While it won't be making its way to my gaming table every single week, and serious wargamers will want to look elsewhere (but they're almost assuredly not looking at Risk in the first place), Risk fans and casual board game players will have a good ti??me.

The post Impressions: StarCraft Collector’s Edition Risk appeared first on Destructoid.

Torchlight II was,?? unfortunately, subject to a number of delays. Originally set for release back in 2011, it's only now become available for purchase. I'm happy to say the wait was worth it.

It's a bit rough around the edges, but Torchlight II takes the successful formula of the original Torchlight (and its predecessors) and expands on it, without making any drastic changes. If you played the first game, you know pretty much exactly what you're getting with the sequel -- and that's definitely not a bad thing.

Torchlight II may not be a perfect game -- the UI?? could use a bit of extra polish and the multiplayer system begs for extra features -- but it's a ton of fun and at only ?$20, it's an absolute steal.

Torchlight II (PC)
Developer: Runic Games
Publisher: Perfect World
Release: September 20, 2012
MSRP: $19.99

It's been a few years since the end of the first Torchlight, and, surprise surprise, the world is in danger again. A corrupted Alchemist (likely the playable c??haracter from the original game) has destroyed the town of Torchlight, stolen Ordrak's Heart, and it'?s up to you to chase him around the world and stop him before he drains the energy out of the Elemental Guardians that keep balance in the world.

How will you save the world? You will click. On everything. You will click on a bunch of monsters, and you'll click on some chests and some urns, and you'll click on all the massive amount of loot that spews forth from everything you touch, and sometimes you'll even mis-click on a poorly placed UI element. You'll happily click away, you'll have a lot of fun doing it, and you'll suddenly look up and realize you've been clicking non-stop for three hours and you didn't re?alize how late it was and you really should go to bed but there's another dungeon you need to click your way through so maybe you'll just do one more quest and then you'll finally stop clicking and go to bed. Maybe.

Your primary method of slaughtering enemies will be with your class skills, and Torchlight II's skill system will be familiar to those who've played the original game, although it's gotten some minor tweaks. Each of the four playable classes still has three skill trees, with each tree containing seven active skills and three passives. At each level, you get five attribute points to pla?ce into one of the main attributes (strength, dexterity, f?ocus, and vitality), and one skill point to place in one of your skill trees.

Unlike the original game, the?re are no skills shared among all the classes anymore -- each class has a unique set of 30 abilities. As long as you meet the level requirements for a skill (which naturally increase as you train a specific skill), you can put a point into it??, regardless of how many previous points you have in skills that come before it or in the overall tree.

It?'s pretty straightforward, and on the whole each class's skills seem varied and, for the most part, useful. Even the early skills can hold their own as long as you keep investing points into them (my Embermage beat the game almost entirel?y using Prismatic Bolt, the first skill in his Storm tree).

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of room to experiment -- yo??u can only refund the last three skill points you spent, and the cost to do so is rather high. One to three points in a skill is, I found, not enough to really get a fee??l for how the skill will perform at later levels. I often found myself hoarding points or just investing in passives -- I was hesitant to commit, out of a fear of having to restart my character because of bad skill choices.

Another new mechanic is the addition of the Charge bar -- a meter that fills when you're murdering things and decays when you're not, conferring class-dependent bonuses. Embermages receive 12 seconds of mana-free casting and a damage burst when their bar is filled, while Outlanders receive small boosts to a variety of stats depending on how full their bar is. Engineers get charge "points" that make certain skills and abilities more powerful, and Berserkers get guaranteed critical hits for six seconds whenever their bar is maxed. It's an interesting mechanic that not only adds d?epth to each class, but also encourages y??ou to move forward and keep murdering things.

You'll fight your way through four acts (really three acts and a short final dungeon), each with its own feel and theme. The locales are nicely detailed and feel varied, and I never found myself getting bored of an area before I was on to the next, even when full clearing the area. Full clearing is something you'll want to do -- missing a sidequest or a dungeon can quickly put you behind the level curve, and you'll either have to go back and find what you missed or rerun ?previous areas to catch up before you can progress.

The most notable new feature in the game is multiplayer -- something fans of the original game had been clamoring for. While the multiplayer system is primitive, consisting simply of a friends list, a list of games around your level range, and no chat lobby, it gets the job done, and as expected, Torchlight II is great to play with your friends. Any loot that drops in-game is unique to your character, so you don't have to worry about ninjal?ooters or fighting?? over the unique item that just dropped.

It's a good thing, too, since you'll see a lot of uniques drop. Loot is plentiful, and as your work your way through the game you'll be showered in upgrades, which follow the standard loot rarity rating of common - magic - rare - unique - legendary. Whereas Diablo III was criticized for the scarcity of powerful items and upgrades, Torchlight II almost suffers from the opposite issue, with uniques dropping at a ?pace of roughly one every half-hour or so.

I hesitate to call it a "problem," especially since trading is tough/non-??existent given the lack of a chat lobby in multiplayer, but I will admit to being a bit annoyed after getting three of the exact same unique helmets in the span of thirty minutes. I've yet to find a legendary though -- the most powerful, rarest items that only show up starting at level 50 -- so even though I ended my first playthrough with something like 35 unique items, there's still better, more exclusive loot to aim for.

And it's easy to want to aim for better loot after completing the game, since Torchlight II gives you a few options to keep things fresh. There's a standard New Game+ mode, allowing you to beg??in again with everything starting at Level 50, and there's also the Mapworks, which enables you to spend gold to purchase maps that allow you to enter various random dungeons, each with their own level range and special modifiers?? that mix things up.

These complaints are relatively ??minor, though, especially in light of the game as a whole. It's addictive, it's got character, and it's really, really cheap for the product you're getting. I can guarantee you'll notice some problems as you play through it, and you'll probably wish the UI had a bit more polish and that the multiplayer system was a bit more robust, but you'll find these issues don't detract much from the overall experience. When you consider that the mod tools are already available, and what we saw with the first game, it's likely many of these issues will be modded out somewhere down the line.

If you're a fan of hack 'n slashes, loot fests, or dungeon crawlers, definitely pick up Torchlight II. It's absolutely worth your time and money, and should hold your attention for quite a while. There are portions of the game that could certainly use a little bit of polish, but it's unl??ikely these problems will turn you off from the game entirely. Grab the game, grab some friends, and get to clicking.

Did I mention it's only $20?

The post Review: Torchlight II appeared first on Destructoid.

With the Guild Wars 2 headstart beginning tomorrow, many of you will be playing the game for the first time. Some of you may still be on the fence about whether to purchase it or not (hint: you should). If you haven't played in any of the beta weekends, or even if you have and just didn't have much time to explore, there are a number of things about Guild Wars 2 you need to know that aren't directly apparent.

We often joke about a "right way" and a "wrong way" to play games, but it's a concept that I truly believe applies to Guild Wars 2. It may look similar to other MMOs -- you'll see a few quests, some hotbars, traditional MMO classes -- but the fundamental mechanics stray sig??nificantly from most other games in the genre.

Unfortunately, the game itself doesn't exactly hold your hand. If you try to play Guild Wars 2 like World of Warcraft or the Old Republic, lo?oking for connect-the-dots quest chains to grind out, there's a good chance you'll find yourself confu?sed, frustrated, and wondering what the big deal is.

Don't worry, I'm here to help.

If you hav??e any familiarity with other fantasy MMOs, here's the most important thing you need to know when selecting a character: the Trinity is de??ad.

There are no "tanks," or people whose job it is to soak up damage and manage aggro and threat, no dedicated "healers," and no classes whose purpose is to dump out damage and do nothing else. This seems to be the number one biggest thing that people don't understand, even when I explain it to them, so I want to reiterate: the Trinity is?? dead. Everything you know about tanks??, healers, and DPS is wrong.

When I say that, I should be clear ab??out what I mean. It's not that there is a "different kind of tanking." There is no tanking. Monsters can and will regularly attack everyone in the party, and everyone has a responsibility to mitigate or avoid the damage. There's not a "different kind of healing." Everyone has a self heal?, and can spec to also have some weak group heals on long cooldowns, but healing is not and will not be a central focus of your gameplay, beyond your own responsibility to occasionally heal yourself.

Every class is capable of dealing serious damage, and every class has the ability to act in a support capacity, throwing buffs (positive status effects) on their allies and debuffs (negative status effects) on their enemies (called "boons" and "conditions" in Guild Wars 2). And most classes have the ability to hand out some minor healing or regeneration to allies. Despite the notion of everyone being able to do "everything," each class feels quite different from one other because of the weapons they are able to use and their unique mechanics, so the best thing for you to do is read up on the classes and p??ick which one sounds most interestin??g.

Don't fall into the trap of trying to pick based on archetypes. If you normally enjoy tanking in WoW, don't think you have to pick a Warrior or a Guardian -- there's no tanking because there's no reliable threat management. If you normally play a dedicated healer, you're not going to be standing back and healing anyone in Guild Wars 2, so find a profess?ion that sounds cool and try it it out. Unlike virtually every other MMO on the market, every race can play as every class without any penalty or stat differences, so play around until you find a class that works best?? for you.

Once you have your character created and you've moved through the very short introduction section, you're somewhat u?nceremoniously dumped right outside your city's starting zone with little direction. You'll see one green star on your map, indicating a portion of your story quest, and not much else. An NPC will direct you to what also appear to be quests -- different hearts on the map indicating people who need help.

Your first inclination may be to run straight to your story quests or toward the heart quests -- after all, that's what we've been conditioned to do in almost every MMO since EverQuest. DON'T DO IT!

One of the biggest fundamental shifts in thinking you'll have to do when playing Guild Wars 2 is to understand that the game is about exploration, not just running in a straight line. In most games, the best way to level is to do as many quests or dungeons as possible in a short amount of time. In Guild Wars 2, it's much different; the more tim??e you spend wandering around off the beaten p??ath, the more things you'll find to do.

In this game, there are many ways to earn experience. You get experience for finding waypoints and points of interest on the m??ap. You get experience for killing things. You get experience for reviving other players. You get experience for World vs. World PvP. You get experience for gathering crafting materials and making things out of them. You can even go back to old zones you never completed and get experience from them -- the game downlevels you to whatever zone you're in so you can do the content without blowing through it, while getting appropriate exp rewards for your actual level. These aren't just tiny amounts of experience, either -- they're significant.

It won't be immediately apparent out the gate, but the best way to level in Guild Wars 2 is to do as many different things as possible as you play. In fact, to e?arn your first level out of the tutorial/intro mission, I recommend turning around, going back inside your race's major city, and exploring the entire thing.

When it comes to actual "questing," the majority of "quests" in the game are randomly occurring events. As you walk around and explore the map, events will suddenly begin, or you'll move into range of an in-progress event. These events form what will likely be the core of your PvE experience, ?and you should always be looking to participate. Again, the best way to find these events is to just wander around exploring the map -- those who only run in a straight line to the heart and story quests will miss out.

Events will occupy much of your time in the game, but if you ever get tired of them, or if feel like you are too under-leveled to move forward (and, if you only do story and heart quests and nothing else, you'll hit this point pretty quickly), remember all the other things you can do. Spend some time gathering materials and crafting items, go check out the World vs. World combat, or even check out the other races' starting area??s. (Getting to them is simple, although not obvious. Lion's Gate has portals to all five major cities, and can be reached either through the portal in your own city, or by entering the sPvP lobby through your Hero Menu and taking the portal found there.)

Remember -- don't focus just on q??uests, don't be afraid to aimlessly wander and explore, and don't be afraid to check out other zo?nes. The more you explore, the better off you'll be.

One of the other aspects of Guild Wars 2 that will probably take some adjusting to is the fact that ?it's a social game. Not "social game" in the sense that you're spamming farming invites to your friends, but social in that there's a very real incentive to work with other players, and luckily, doing so is simple and generally doesn't require any futzing with parties or raids. Hell, you don't even have to technically talk to anyone, but you will have to work with other people.

Again, it's not immediately clear, but working with people in this game is ALWAYS beneficial. There's no kill stealing or even kill tagging. You can't take loot meant for someone else. Even gathering nodes will be unique to your character, meaning no one will swoop in in front of you and snag that ore chunk you ??had your eye on.

If you come across other players, help them! Start attacking their monsters -- they won't mind, since you'll both get experience and treasure. Happen upon a downed or dying player? You'll want to try to revive them, since there's a bit of experience in it for you. If you ?see a group of people wandering around, follow them. You'll all help each other out, and there's a good chance you'll come across a random event together as a group. Similarly, if you see a whole bunch of players all running in one direction, definitely follow them. A major event is probably about to start or already in progress, and you won't want to miss out.

Later in the game at around Level 30, wh?en dungeons become available to you, you WILL have to start dealing with a party system. The dungeons are all five-mans, but, again, remember that the Trinity is dead. It shouldn't be super difficult to find a group, because virtually any group composition should be able to clear any dungeon in the game. You don't have to sit around waiting for a tank or a healer -- you can grab the four nearest Engineers and still have a reasonable chance of completing the dungeon.

Simply put, if you're the kind of person who tries t??o play MMOs solo (which, I admit, often describes me), you're going to have to shift your thinking??, or you're not going to have much fun in this game. All that said, my experience in the beta weekend has been that once all the barriers to co-operation are removed, people generally seem to act a whole lot nicer to each other.

Now, we get to the combat itself. First off, your main skill set is tied to the weapon you're currently using -- the first five skills on your hotbar correspond directly to your equipped weapon. You start with only one skill in each useable weapon, but they quickly unlock as?? you kill things -- within two or three hours of play, you should have unlocked most if not all of your weapon skills. Your other five slots are a healing skill, three utility skills, and an elite skill, all of which you can choose from a set that you will unlock as you level up.

When it comes to actually killing, throw everything you know about priority systems and rotations out the window. Guild Wars 2 isn't the kind of game where y??ou stand in one place mashi?ng buttons; you need to be moving CONSTANTLY. Almost every skill can be used while moving, even most channeled ones, and as such you should be constantly strafing and circling your target. Generally speaking, you have less skills overall than in most other MMOs, and the skills you do have come with significantly longer cooldowns. The time you're not spending mashing skill buttons instead goes to combat positioning and avoidance.

In addition to just moving around your opponent, you also need to learn to dodge. The dodge skill is absolutely critical to survival in the game, and once you move past the first few areas, you'll find that even basic monsters can easily kill you if you're not careful. Many enemies have extremely powerful a??ttacks that can one-shot you, so you need to learn the tells so that you can dodge out of the way.

In the event you do go down, don't worry! The downed state, which you should be introduced to in the tutorial, is an expected and normal part of the game. Being downed doesn't necessarily mean you've done something wrong (although there's a good chance you're down because you blew a dodge), and you should quickly be revived by another player in the area. You can also come back from being downed by contributing to an enemy kill while downed, and it will be obvious how to do so when you first enter the state. If you do end up dying, you'll just respawn at a waypoint. As you move through areas, keep an eye out ??on your map for other downed players -- reviving them will grant you some experience, and they'll certainly appreciate the help.

Finally, ?a few not?es about loot, dungeons, and the "end-game."

The "end-game" concept central to most MMOs is not present here. In Guild Wars 2, the time it takes to gain a level is designed to be roughly equal, whether you're leveling from 29 to 30 or from 79 to 80. Rather than gating con?tent at the level cap, the content is more evenly spread throughout the entire game. When you do ultimately hit the level cap, you have an opportunity to go back to all the areas you've missed and try them out -- because of the downscaling system, you won't be just blowing through them without a challenge.

Five-man dungeons are present in the game, and the first isn't available until level 30, but they don't exist to gear you up. Equivalent versions of all of the loot from dungeons can be found out in the world or crafted -- they instead serve as cosmetic rewards. Loot in general is significantly scaled back from many other games, and you'll find that you're pretty naturally upgrading your gear as you move through the game without any kind of dungeon or raid grinding. Instanced raids do?n't exist at all, but many will find that some of the major area events serve as de facto, non-instanced, mini-raids, and these are available as early as the starting areas of each race.

As should be clear from the above, I spent a significant amount of time in most of the beta events, and had a really positive experience. I think a lot of you, even if you don't normally like MMOs, will enjoy the game as well. That said, I'm sure it won't appeal to everyone, and sadly I think a lot of people may be turned off from it simply because they try to play it like World of Warcraft or Old Republic. That's not to crap on those games (I still have an active World of Warcraft account and a great guild), but it's just to note that you really do have to change the way you think about and play MMOs to really "get" Guild Wars 2. If you read this guide the entire way through, you should have a pretty good idea of how?? to do so.

See you in Tyria!

_{[Jordan, Chris Carter, and I are planning on rolling on the server Ferguson's Crossing, and we expect a few other editors will be playing there as well. We don't have any kind of solid plans for a guild at this point, but if you're looking for a server, feel free to join us!]}

The post Your guide to Guild Wars 2 appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

With PAX coming up soon, I thought it'd be interesting to do a Bloggers Wanted topic that?'s a bit different from the norm -- I want to hear you?r best convention story.

Ideal blogs will be about gaming conventions, or at least featur??e gaming in some w??ay, but it's not a requirement. Just tell us your favorite memory from any nerdy convention you've been to and help everyone get hyped up for PAX in a couple weeks! No weird fetish sex stories from the time you went to the Adult Baby Diaperfur Yaoi convention though -- keep your story under an NC-17 rating.

To participate, just write a CBlog, title it "Conventions: [Your Blog's Title]"??, and ?? select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout  the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders! We'll keep this topic up a week or two after PAX wraps up as well, so if PAX is your first convention make sure you do something crazy you'll be able to write about afterwards!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Conventions appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

Nintendo has been releasing more details about the Wii U over the last few weeks, and just a few days ago we heard that Microsoft has been sitting on the name "Xbox 8". The next generation of consoles is?? rapidly approaching, and assuming everything goes according to plan we'll be seeing the first one drop this holiday?? season.

For Bloggers Wanted, I want you to tell me about your hopes and expectations for this next console cycle. Feel free to discuss al?l three major companies, or to just focus on one of them. What do you want to see in this new generation? What did the? companies do wrong last time? How can they fix it? What features will they need to have to stay competitive? Who do you think will come out on top?

To participate, just write a CBlog,  title it "Next-Gen: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discu??ssions going ??with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Next-Gen appeared first on Destructoid.

[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]

E3 starts tomor?row, and we want to hear ?what you have to say about it.

What are your predictions? What did you think about the Nintendo press?? conference? Is the new game that got announced amazing or terrible? All this week, we want you to blog your thoughts, expe??ctations, and reactions to everything at E3.

To participate, just write a CBlog, title it "E3: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. ? Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and  get some discussions going?? with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: E3 appeared first on Destructoid.

It took almost eleven years after Lord of Destruction, but Diablo III finally released, and it was met with immediate controversy. Always-online requirements; a rough first couple of days for the servers; a real money auction house (that, at the time of this review, s?till isn't live yet).

We're now a little over a week after launch, and most of the problems appear to have been smoothed out. My buddies and I each have at least forty hours of game time on our main characters, and we're still going strong. Fundamentally, Diablo III has a number of flaws; some of them are minor, and some of them are fairly obvious. There are certainly valid complaints to be made about the game. In the face of its flaws, though, Diablo III is a tremendous amount of fun.

It's been a long time since I've been awake until 3 AM every night playing games, and, even with its problems, I suspect my friends and I will be playing Diablo III for quite a while.

Diablo III (PC, Mac)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: May 15, 2012
MSRP: $59.99

If you're coming to Diablo III as a newbie to the series or the genre, the premise is simple. Pick some skills, fight huge waves of monsters, blow the?? crap out of everything, get loot, and repeat -- against stronger monsters. That's the pure core of the game, and I think one of the reasons why the franchise has been so well received. It's straightforward, satisfying, and mos?t importantly, fun.

For everyone with some experience with previous Diablo games, the big question is, "How does Diablo III compare to Diablo II?" The answer is that it definitely feels like a Diablo game, but how it stacks up to its predecessor will really depend on how you remember your Diablo II experience, what your expectations are for this game, and what parts of the Diablo franchise most interest you.

The actual combat of Diablo III is where the game really shines. Mowing down hordes of enemies is as satisfying as ever, and every class has a number of viable, gratifying ways to do so (unless you're on Inferno difficulty). Unique monsters and champion packs have interesting new modifiers that make combat much more dynamic and exciting. Far more so than in Diablo II, you'll find that you need to be aware of your surroundings to survive on any difficulty???? beyond Normal.

You may find some really difficult monsters, and you may need to coordinate with the rest of your party and adjust your skill builds, but the frustration of running into one of Diablo II's lightning-immune/frost-immune champion packs as a Frost Orb/Chain Lightning sorceress is gone. It's replaced with new frustrations (jailer/desecrator/invulnerable minions?), but I've yet to run into a monster pack that I literally can't touch. On the whole, I consider Diablo III's combat to be a clear, positive evo??lution from what was in the previous games.

By far the weakest part of Diablo III is the story, and this is mainly a problem because, unlike the previous games, Diablo III is constantly throwing narrative in your face. Diablo has never had a particularly strong story, but in previous games the story generally took a back seat. In Diablo II you would occasionally get some lore through a quest, or would watch a cutscene at the end of an act, but for the most part you could move through the entire game without engaging with the lore or narrative.

Diablo III decided this was a problem, so the game is filled with cutscenes, story quests, and conversations. These cutscenes and conversations are skippable, but that doesn't prevent their appearance from being annoying, especially when you're in the middle of vendoring or crafting and are dragged into a cutscene because a party member triggered the next step in your quest. That said, the fully animated cutscenes are absolutely stunning, and I think Blizzard's cinematics team is legitimately the best in the industry. With the exception of Jennifer Hale as ??Leah and a few of the playable characters, the voice acting generally ranges from substandard to straight-up cringe-worthy. (Emperor Hakan is probably the most egregious offender.) After your first play-through, you'll find yourself skipping everything story-related, every time -- there's simply no reason or incentive to go back and listen to them again, and if you want to watch one of the awesome cutscenes, you can do it straight from the main menu without being annoying to your group members.

The user interface also suffers from a number of problems, most noticeably that the screen simply feels cluttered for a Diablo game. Given that you will spend most of your time frantically clicking around the screen, it's all too easy to accidentally click on a party member portrait and bring up a window, or to accidentally click on an achievement notification that just popped up on your screen; on later difficulty levels, this can mean d??eath. Having to scroll through six separate pages of skills while swapping builds gets annoying, since they can all easily fit on a single page. It can be difficult to see when certain skills like Arcane Dynamo, which allow you a damage burst once the skill has triggered five times, are active, because most of your buff icons are small and placed very low on your window and they force you to look away from? the action to check their status. Some buffs, like Magic Weapon, don't even have icons at all, leaving you to either guess when it's almost up, or just make refreshing it a regular, constant habit.

One positive addition to the UI has been the social features. They're easily turned off if they bother you, but I've been finding that I like them. You can easily quick-join your friends' games straight from the character select menu, they can quickly join yours, and you can all view each other's progress as you work your way through the game's hundreds of achievements. One of the exciting parts about unlocking achievements in Diablo isn't just the accomplishment, but also knowing that it's going to trigger conversation with a bunch of my friends who want to congratulate me on what I just did, or ask me how I did it. That said, the in-game chat leaves something to be desired, and Diablo II fans will likely lament the loss of private chat channels and the tragic removal of the chat gem.

The gold Auction House (all references to the Auction House are to the gold Auction House; the Real Money Auction House was not live at the time of this writing) can be clunky and awkward to use -- you'll find yourself swapping tabs constantly when trying to sell things, and when buying items it seems odd that you can't sort by low bids or time remaining. Having a limit of ten items to sell at a time with no way to cancel auctions is also extremely frustrating, given the amount of loot that drops in the game. Additionally, the Auction House has been having a number of problems lately -- searches sometimes don't work, bids occasionally don't go through, or items will sometimes return an error when you attempt to list them. These are sporadic problems, but nonetheless annoyances, and I think they're a cause for concern for when the Real Money Auction House does go live. These issues certainly don't ruin the game by any means, though; they just serve as annoy?ances and di?stractions.

Probably the biggest fundamental change from Diablo II to Diablo III i??s the revamp of the skill system. Skill points and attribute points are entirely gone -- skills, and runes that modify those skills, unlock in a set order as you level up. On the whole, I prefer the new system. I like being able to experiment ??with different builds on the fly, and I like not having a ruined character because I invested in the wrong skill or put too many points into the wrong attribute. So far, at least on Hell difficulty, my friends and I have found totally different, viable builds on the same classes that we're all enjoying playing -- my wizard is using a Living Lightning/Arcane Orb build that revolves around stun procs and Arcane Dynamo, while my buddy is mostly focused on Magic Missile and Disintegrate. I simply don't have the time anymore to run a brand-new character through 20 hours of leveling to try one new skill.

In Diablo II, the alternative to grinding it out was just to get instantly rushed to a high level by sitting in on Baal/Cow Level runs, and I think this new system elegantly avoids that problem. That said, it is a little disappointing to lose out on those fun one-point utility skills that many builds in Diablo II had. Essentially, those who really enjoy carefully mapping out a character and making difficult, permanent decisions on how to build them (assuming you're not just following a guide) will likely find Diablo III's advancement system disappointing. If you like being able to try new s??kills and abilities on the fly, or want the ability to modify your character in response to specific situations, the new syst?em should appeal to you.

The way loot is handled in Diablo III also is a bit of a departure from Diablo II. On the surface it appears the same, but many character stats have been condensed (which affects what k??inds of things are showing up on loot), good item drops are significantly rarer than in previous games, and legendaries and set items are currently just not that powerful. Some people may be put off by how the stats have been condensed -- damage and health are paramount, and people are generally just looking for items that boost their primary stat (which increases damage), their damage, and their health pool, and nothing else.

This is essentially how itemization worked in Diablo II as well, except it was more obscured, and Lord of Destruction added a lot of variety with items and runewords that gave you other class' skills or offered unique abilities (these were almost always secondary to +skills or magic find, though). It wasn't readily apparent how, say, a plus to a skill or an increased attack speed affected your damage output, so items with those properties felt different. In Diablo III, all the calculations are done for you -- it's immediately apparent that your 10% attack speed increase will add 300 to your damage. Transparency has trade-offs, and here, having a solid sense of how items affect your character without being hidden behind complex calculations comes at the cost of feeling a sense of homogenization among items -- everything generally comes down ?to an increase in damage dealt, a decrease in damage taken, or your health pool, and it's right there in your face. Making gear decisions at this point (and, again, we're only a week since launch, so it's possible that builds will be discovered that stray from the stack damage/vitality formula, like the just-nerfed Wizard No-Vitality Force Armor build) seems to revolve mostly around balancing your total damage output against your health pool, with almost everything else being a complete afterthought.

I've taken my wizard to right before the level cap, but I've yet to see a set or legendary item drop, although I have found a number of rares that ended up being a significant upgrade from what I'm carrying. Generally speaking, I don't find the item scarcity to be a bad thing -- the game has only been out a week, and I'?m under no delusion that I should be ro??lling in powerful items already. (In fact, I'd be disappointed if I already had acquired the top-tier items.) I'm personally willing to deal with the scarcity if it means that the game isn't distilled down to running the same boss over and over again as fast as possible because I know they have the highest chance to drop uniques or set items.

The scarcity can, however, make you feel like you're not making much progress. Almost all of the items that drop for you will be functionally worthless -- unsellable on both the Auction Houses, and unusable by you simply because the stats are bad. If you're particularly unlucky with drops, you can conceivably move through entire acts without finding?? any substantial upgrades for your current items outside the Auction House.

It seems clear that the scarcity serves to drive people to Blizzard's Auction House. Clearly, no one is being forced to use it -- an??d I'm currently leveling a Barbarian who is avoiding the Auction House entirely and is still enjoyable to play -- but those who don't will likely run into problems on Hell and Inferno difficulty, unless they've been extremely lucky or spent significant time grinding for gear.

For many people, including my??self, playing the Auction House is something of a metagame unto itself. I personally don't mind the Auction House at all, and I'm not bothered by the fact that a lot of my gear upgrades have come from it (and they've been mostly paid for by items that I sold there). I do mind, however, the restrictions Blizzard has placed on it. Currently, you can only list a maximum of ten items, and there's no way to cancel any item you've placed unless it's a commodity. It can be really frustrating to have a great item you know you can sell, and have to wait a full two days to put it up because you've run out of auction slots.

Diablo III is something of an enigma. Virtually all of my friends who have been playing it agree -- there are definitely things that could be improved. No one agrees on exactly what those improvements should be, and we're unsure if this feeling is simply a result of us misremembering fundamental aspects of what Diablo II was actually like. It just feels like Lord of Destruction added so much to the Diablo experience, with jewels, runes, charms, synergies, etc., that it's a bit of a surprise to see so much of that missing here. That's not to say the current system is bad, because I really don't think it is -- ?it's j?ust different.

What we all do agree on is that, while we all have things we'd like to see changed in future patches or expansions, Diablo III is fucking fun. Period. I honestly haven't had as much fun gaming in years as I've had this last week, jumping onto Skype with three of my friends and blowing demons away while we talk until the early hours of the morning. Soloing the game is fun, and I sometimes enjoy playing alone because I find it almost hypnotically relaxing, but Diablo really shines when you're pl??aying with a group of?? buddies.

Even if it's not a perfect game, there's something special about Diablo, and it's something that keeps people playing beyond just a basic addiction to loot. That I've already sunk over 40 hours into the game in just over a week and I'm not even close to being bored of it yet is a testament to the magic of Diablo, and something that can't be ignored.

At the end of the day, fun is what gaming should be about, and Diablo III delivers.

The post Review: Diablo III appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

Diablo 3 releases tonight, and I will finally get the game I've been waiting almost twelve y??ears ?for. I don't think I've been this excited for a game in a long time -- certainly not since I've been an adult.

For Bloggers Wanted, I want you to tell me about?? the game or piece of gaming hardware you've been most excited for. It doesn't matter if it actually ended up being good or not; I want to hear about your hype and excitement. It can be a recent thing, or something you really wanted as a kid. Tell us about it, why you were so pumped up for it, and whe??ther it met your expectations or not.

To participate, just write a CBlog, title it "Hype: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and g?et some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Hype appeared first on Destructoid.

[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]

The recent news that ??Apple and Valve might be joining forces to work on a new console?? is exciting, and it got me thinking about what other major companies I'd like to see team up for a project.

I want you to write a blog about which two gaming companies you'd like to see work together on something gaming-related. Tell me which companies, why you picked those two, and what kind of project you envision them working on. To participate, just write a CBlog, title it "Collaboration: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers? Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Collaboration appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm firmly convinced that the Retina display on the new iPad 3 is a gamechanger, but it's going to take a while for games design??ed to work with the new resolution to become common. Many current apps are still waiting for an update to take advantage of the increased resolution, and at this point not very many new games are providing ?Retina assets.

One recently released game, Amoebattle from Grab Games (universal app, $4.99), had the Retina assets included right out the gate. Amoebattle takes full advantage of the Retina display, featuring beautiful maps and detailed units. The art style is fairly unique, with pixel art being used for the units while the maps almost look like they're watercolor paintings. If you've been looking for a real time strategy game for your brand new iPad (or iPhone, or iPod Touch), I'd suggest giving Amoebattle a try.

Amoebattle takes a somewhat simplified approach into the real-time strategy genre, but don't think that simplified means easy. If you've played any RTS like StarCraft or Warcraft, you'll understand the basics of Amoebattle. You select, group, and control individual units as they make their way through the twelve levels available in the game, each with its own objective. While some maps have the standard "eliminate all enemies" as a goal, others have you defending various structures from assault, or e?xploring the map to locate certain units or objects.

Units are created not through buildings and production, but through mitosis. There are three general classes of amoebas -- herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and nine unique units. As your units defeat enemies (or find algae plants scattered around the map), they gain Food Points. When their food meter is filled, the unit can split in two, giving you an identical new unit. You can also evolve a u?nit, changing it to any unit type you currently have access to. All forms of unit creation cost energy, a resource that slowly replenishes over time (although there are ways to speed it up), and you can only have a maximum of 25 units at any given time.

Controlling your units is relatively simp??le. You can tap individual units to select them, draw circles around groups to select multiple units, or tap and hold on a unit it to add it to an already existing group. You can ??also save groups in one of four preset slots, allowing you quickly tap an on-screen button to select a group of your units -- critical in levels where enemies attack you from multiple directions simultaneously. Tapping moves your units, and drawing a line to a location serves as an attack-move command. Combat is mostly handled by the AI -- you just select your targets and your units will attack them.

Control is, for the most part, smooth, although I did find myself struggling a bit when I had to split my units into multiple parties. When you have separate groups of units assigned t??o presets and are quickly switching between them, ?it's very easy to get things jumbled up when trying to add new units to existing groups.

You'll also need to utilize a variety of probes that are available to you. These cost energy to sum??mon, and essentially serve as support items. One probe will freeze all enemies that step near it, dramatically slowing them. Another can be placed on algae to increase the rate of y??our energy regeneration.

Make no mistake -- Amoebattle may sound relatively simple, but it'??s quite a challenge. On many of the levels, one small mistake can mean defeat. The game never feels unfairly difficult, but those who are not already RTS veterans will likely find themselves failing a few times on most of the later levels before they're able to pass it.

The main campaign should probably take the average player around 10 hours to complete. Each level also has an achievement from Game Center tied to it, almost all of which up the difficulty significantly. Surprisingly, no multiplayer mode is currently available for the game, although the developers have said they'd like to add one. Even without the multiplayer, though, Amoebattle should k?eep RTS fans entertaine??d for quite a while.

The post Amoebattle on iOS lets you divide, then conquer appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

One of the most frustrating parts? of April Fool's Day is when a company fake-announces a product that sounds AWESOME. ThinkGeek does this every year (although they at least often follow through), and many game companies get in on the action -- often fake-announcing long awaited sequels or reboots of beloved franchises.

The games eventually end?? up not being real, but what if they actually were? For Bl?oggers Wanted this week, I want you to tell me about your dream game that hasn't been made yet. It can be a non-existent sequel to a franchise you absolutely love or, if you really want to get creative, a totally original creation with gameplay you haven't seen done before, but think would work well.

My choice is obviously a true, direct sequel to Chrono Trigger.

To participate, just write a C Blog, title it "Dreaming: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers ? Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the next two weeks, keep an eye on the ?blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Dreaming appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

It's been pretty hard to avoid -- a lot of people are really unhappy with the ending of Mass Effect 3. I want to hear more about what oth??er games have left you disappointed -- either because a series ended in a way you weren't happy with, or perhaps because a game you had hyped up in your mind didn't deliver what you were expecting. Tell us about the game, why you were disappointed, and how you think the developer could have prevented your unhappiness??.

Enough people have been talking about Mass Effect 3 that it's off limits for this topic -- pick something else. Everything ?else is fair ?game.

To participate, just write a C Blog, ? title it "Disappointment: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the next two weeks, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Disappointment appeared first on Destructoid.

It's been out for a little over seven years now, but World of Warcraft is still going strong. Last week I was invited over to Blizzard to take a look at Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria, and I was able to get some playtime with the game and speak to some of the members of the development team about what's in store when Mists of Pandaria is released later this year.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC [previewed], Mac)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: 2012

The events of Cataclysm (World of Warcraft's most recent update) have caused the southern continent of Pandaria to emerge from the fog that has hidden it for the last ten thousand years. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria tells the ??story of what happens when the Alliance and the Horde discover this new continent, its res?ources, and the people who live there.

Unlike previous expansions, Mists of Pandaria will not feature a single "big bad boss" at the end of the patch cycle. As Lead Designer Cory Stockton explained, the central story arc of Mists of Pandaria concerns the tensions between the Alliance and the Horde finally coming to a head and erupting into an all-out war. Mists of Pandaria begins with the Horde and Alliance both landing on the continent of Pandaria, and conflict breaks out between the two almost immediately, as each group fights to rally t??he Pandaren to their side as they prepare for war.

The future patches for Mists of Pandaria will be heavily story-focused, with each update being described as essentially a "story sequel" to the one before it. Instead of just introducing another dungeon that brings you one step closer to defeating the "ultimate boss," the patches will advance the story as the war moves from Pandaria to the mainland, culminat??ing in a full-blown siege on Orgrimmar.

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer, told me that one of the major priorities for Mists of Pandaria was to provide much more end-game content for players, particularly since the primary focus of Cataclysm was revamping much of the original world and the starting areas. In addition to the seven zones on the Pandarian continent that will take players from level 85 to 90, nine new dungeons and three new raids, and multiple end-game faction quest lines, Mists of Pandaria will also feature a number of new systems designed to appeal to end-game pl??ayers.

To encourage players to revisit older dungeons and to increase some friendly competition within a player's own server, Mists of Pandaria is introducing a dungeon challenge mode. Essentially a timed dungeon run, the challenge mode will automatically scale players' equipment to the proper item l?evel of the dungeon. Beating dungeons fast enough will earn players a spot on the lead??erboard, and will provide cosmetic, visually impressive equipment for players to use in transmogrification.

The pet battle system that was announced at BlizzCon was also shown to us in more detail, although we unfortunately were not able to get hands-on play with the system. The pet battles will be 3 vs 3, and they appear to play out like a typical turn-based fight in an RPG like, say, Pokémon. Battles will be cross-server and simple to jump in and out of, but competitive players may be disappointed -- this system is designed to b?e low-key and casual. You can't see the name of yo?ur opponent, you can't speak to them during the battle, and there are no rewards for winning.

Mists of Pandaria is also introducing a new quest type: scenarios. Street explained that when people end up with a group quest in their quest log, they tend to skip it -- players find it too difficult to get together a proper group just to run and do a short quest. Scenarios aim to solve that problem by replacing standard group quests with short, instanced content designed for three players. Rather than spamming general chat looking for party members, you can queue up just as you would in the dungeon or raid finder. The content is specifically designed to not require the holy trinity of tank-healer-DPS; the idea is that viable groups can form quickly, and people can jump right into the content. While the examples we were shown were all combat scenarios, Cory Stockton suggested that there may be some entirely non-combat story scenarios for players more interested in Warcraft lore.

And, as anyone who has been following Mists of Pandaria knows, this expansion will be introducing a new race -- the eponymous Pandaren -- and a new class, the monk. Mists of Pandaria will also include a complete overhaul of the talent system. Street told us that the original talent tree concept essentially ended up creating cookie-c??utter builds, as the community identified an optimized build for each tree. Many of the previous abilities gr?anted by talents have been rolled into the abilities themselves, and talent choices now provide smaller, situational abilities or bonuses, regardless of specialization.

For example, when I made my Paladin, my first choice was choosing between one of the following three talents: a flat 10% movement speed increase in all situations, a moderate movement speed increase that lasted for eight seconds but only triggered when I used Judgement, or a significant movement speed burst that was its own ability on its own cool-down. The idea behind the new system is to make each talent choice viable and to eliminate "must-have" talents that virtually all players end up t??a??king.

There's no specific release date yet, but Blizzard says that five of the seven final zones in Pandaria are content-complete, and that they're trying to get Mists of Pandaria out as fast as possible. This expansion doesn't appear to be fundamentally altering the core of World of Warcraft -- you'l??l still be doing quests where you kill ten jaguars, and returning players will likely only find minor tweaks to their existing rotations -- but Blizzard is hoping that the expanded focus on end-game content and the loomin?g war between the Horde and Alliance will keep existing players entertained and entice lapsed users to return to Azeroth.

The post Preview: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

For a limited time while GDC is going on, you have the opportunity to get into the free beta of Desktop Dungeons, and if you're a fan of Rogue-likes I highly recommend it. One of the best things about it, for me, is that it's pla?ya?ble right in my browser.

This week??, I want you to write about your favorite in-browser game. It can be Flash, Unity, or anything else -- the only requirement is that it has to be a game you can play online and in your browser.

To participate, just write a C Blog, title it "Browser Games: [Your Blog's Title]", and  select the Bloggers Wanted Essa??y Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and g??et some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Browser Games appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

As you may have seen, last week EA decided to promote Mass Effect 3 by launching copies of the game into space by tying them to weather balloons. Some lucky gamers managed to recover the copies, even though one fell in?to a tree and the other into the middle of nowhere in the Arizona desert.

This isn't the first time a game has had a crazy promotional campaign, and it certainly won't be the last. This week, I want you to write about a promotional campaign, good or bad. Tell us why it was memorable and if it worked or not. For me, the one I most vividly remember was the horrible "Scratch and Sniff" magazine advertisements in Earthbound. In fact, I can still remember the exact smel?l. I'm not sure whose idea it was, but making a magazine page literally smell like a fart didn't make me want to run out and buy the game.

To participate, just write a C Blog,  title it "Promotions: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wante??d Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussio??ns going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Promotions appeared first on Destructoid.

Hot on the heels of last weekend's closed press beta, ArenaNet is now taking applications for all future Guild Wars 2 beta events. Sign-ups will only be open for the next 48 hours, so if you're interested, you should put your name in the runni?ng immediately.

All you need to do is head to this website, submit your contact information and your DxDiag file, and you're registered for future beta events. There's no guarantee you'll get in, and specific dates for future betas haven't been announced yet, but if you're at all interested in Guild Wars 2 I strongly suggest you sign up.

The post Guild Wars 2 beta sign-ups are live appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

In my opinion, the final sequences of games tend to?? be some of the weakest parts. You've just finished an epic final battle, and then, more often than not, settle in to watch ??20 minutes of a CGI movie that's nothing more than a cliffhanger designed to set up a sequel.

This isn't true of all games, though. This? week, I want you to tell me about a game you thought did a great job in its final moments and why its ending was truly a satisfying conclusion to the gam??e you just enjoyed.

To participate, just write a C Blog, ? title it "Endings: [Your Blog's Title]", and  select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders!

The post Bloggers Wanted: Endings appeared first on Destructoid.

This weekend, ArenaNet gave select members of the press a chance to see the current beta of Guild Wars 2. We h??ad the opportunity to create Human, Charr, and Norn characters of any class, and play through each race's level 1-30 zones. Additionally, we had access ?to the Ascalon Catacombs, a level-30 dungeon, as well as the opportunity to play on all of the Player vs. Player battlegrounds and try out the World vs. World vs. World PvP.

I could use this preview to go into detail on the various systems (how combat works, what the classes are like, character creation, etc.), but you can find accurate information on most of those topics on ArenaNet's website. What I found most fascinating about my time with Guild Wars 2 is how different it feels from any ot??her MMO I've played before, while still ??keeping most of the elements of the genre intact.

Guild Wars 2 (PC)
Developer: ArenaNet
Publisher: NCsoft
Release: 2012

After creating my first character of seven, a Charr Warrior, I began in the Charr tutorial area. My first glance a??t the screen suggested there wasn't much new going on. I saw an NPC with a glowing green star above its head standing in front of me, some combat skills down in my hotbar, and quest details in the upper right corner. After completing the area and slaughtering a giant possessed statue with?? the help of about ten other players, I started to see what made the game unique.

I tend to be a loner in MMOs; in World of Warcraft, I usually just quest by myself. I made it to level 85 with a Paladin, and I think I did maybe two instances. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, I did one Flashpoint and then spent the rest of the game completely by myself. In Guild Wars 2, I fo??und myself working consistently with other players, and for the first time, I didn't mind.

While, as I mentioned earlier, there are still quest givers and floating green stars, that mechanic is o??nly used for your Story Quests -- a quest chain that is personal to your character, instanc??ed, and based on your race and the decisions you made at character creation. Every other quest and event, which will likely make up the bulk of your Player vs. Environment experience, are world events that just naturally happen.

You'll hear that a farmer needs help tending his field, or will be informed that a group of harpies is launching a raid on a nearby rock quarry. And as you start running towards these battles, you'll see that most of the other players in the area are, too. When you start fighting or assisting, all you have to do is jump in and start working on quest objectives. You don't need to group up or join a party, you don't need to worry about mob tagging o??r kill stealing, and you won't miss out on experience or loot as long as you participate in some way.

Because it's so easy to work together, and because there aren't any negative consequences, Guild Wars 2 is the first MMO I've played where I actually feel connected to the rest of the player base. Rather than hide from other players, or compete with them for quest spawns, I found myself actively looking for opportunities to ?help others. Instead of running the other way when I saw large groups of people, I'd start following them, since I assumed they were heading ?somewhere interesting.

Social aspects aside, it didn't really strike me how fundamentally different Guild Wars 2's philosophy was until I ran the Ascalon Catacombs dungeon. The trinity as you know it is absent -- there are no tanks, no dedicated healers, and no classes focused entirely on DPS. Every class feels unique both in terms of weapon skills and mechanics, and every class can contribute significantly in terms of dealing damage and helping the party with support and utility. You don't need any particular party composition to complete the PvE dungeons in Guild Wars 2 -- my group was made up of two Rangers, two Guardians, and an Engineer. According to the developers, the game has been explicitly design?ed so that you can grab anyone around you and run a dungeon, without worrying about which classes y?ou have in attendance.

Don't mistake this design choice for a decision to make dungeons easy, though. They're not. They're actually quite difficult -- even with three developers in our group, we wiped four or five times. Not because the dungeon was unfairly difficult or because the bosses had an unfair advantage, but because we often simply weren't paying attention and/or didn't quite have a handl?e on our classes yet.

While Guild Wars 2's combat will generally feel familiar to MMO veterans, two mechanics set it apart from most o?ther games: the ability to move while using most attacks (even many channeled ones), and the ability to dodge. Having to maneuver during combat, while a simple addition, adds a new tactical level tha??t requires more attention. At early levels, you can get away with standing still and rhythmically pressing your hotkeys in rotation order, but you'll quickly learn that your position in relation to your enemies is important.

Knowing when to dodge and how to position your party appears to be critical to success in Guild Wars 2. Since you don't have tanks, and you don't really have healers, anyone can be attacked at any time. Mon?ster AI goes beyond standard threat/hate generated by damage, and we were told that it also takes into account a combination of thin??gs such as position (apparently the most important determinant) as well as who's already hurting. You can't just plop a tank on a boss and consider everyone safe -- because everyone is vulnerable, everyone has to know when to advance, retreat, or dodge a massive attack that could take them down in one or two hits.

Because of the limited time frame of the beta, I had t?o make a choice between whether I wanted to dive into the World vs. World vs. World stuff, or the more standard Structured PvP. Since the World PvP was new to me (and since it seemed that's what everyone else was doing), that's where I chose to spend my time. It was, again, unlike anything I had? ever played before.

Throughout the weekend, the World PvP was consistently compared to the Realm PvP system of Dark Ages of Camelot, both by multiple members of the press and even some developers. I haven't played DAoC, so I can't confirm just how similar or different it is, but the general gist is as follows. Three entire servers are pitted against each other in a two-week, persistent battle across four connected maps. Three of the maps are virtually identical, and serve as each server's starting base of operations. The fourth map is a unique one in the middle that generally serves as the central ??hub for the fighting. You can freely travel to any of the four maps at any time through portals, though, so raids and incursions into "home base" territory are common. The goal is to capture various structures such as supply camps, keeps, and towers, and hold them for as long as possible. The more structures you hold, the more points you earn. The server with the ??most points at the end of the two weeks is the victor.

The basic idea may sound simple on paper, but in practice it's anything but. Keeps and towers can acquire fortifications and weapons that can be manned and fired. Players can repair gates and walls as they're attacked, and also have opportunities to purchase upgrades for the entire s?tructure -- but only if they have the money and supply to do so. Supply camps send out supply caravans to keeps and towers, but are lightly defended. A keep that's well supplied can last for hours during a siege, as long as there is at least one player inside to initiate repairs. Cut the supply lines and blockade the entrances, and the gates will fall fairly ?quickly. Add another team into the mix beyond the traditional two, and you have a fluid, complex PvP system that I found to be quite enjoyable, and I normally don't participate in PvP scenarios.

I tried the World PvP on Saturday afternoon, the battle having raged on for a little over a day. We were in second place: the Green team had a moderate lead on us, while the Blue team was lagging far behind. As I joined the fight, I was told we were grouping en masse to try to take back a Green keep near one of our own castles. I met up with my team at the fron??t gate, which we were trying to batter down to no effect. Looking at the map, we realized that the Green team owned almost every supply camp across all four areas, and that the damage we were doing was quickly being repaired by someone inside the keep. Technically, with enough time, we would have eventuall?y been able to wear it down, but a Green scout had alerted his team that we were assaulting the keep, and we ended up being driven off by a defense squad.

As we tried to regroup, we realized we ??needed to take back the supply camps. Our commander noted that the Green team seemed to consistently travel in one single pack; because they could theoretically be attacked by two teams at once, this wasn't necessarily a bad move. We figured, though, that we could use this to our? advantage. We decided to attack another Green structure -- this time a tower -- but we peeled off two small teams of four (one of which I joined) to go try to take back the supply camps while Green was distracted by this new assault.

It worked. For the next hour, my small group ran across all four maps, liberating supply camps and taking down any Green caravans we saw along the way. Currently, you are o??nly notified that one of your structures is under attack if you are near it, although you can look at the map and see who controls each point. If you watch the map carefully, you can see that you're losing ground, but you won't know anything about the size of the force or which direction they're heading in next unless you have players scouting the area. Green apparently did not do this, as we were able to take all but one supply camp for Red.

With their supply lines cut off, Green had a much harder time defendi?ng their points. We all grouped back up, and went on a rampage across Green's home te??rritory, capturing four or five towers and keeps before we were eventually located and repelled. I logged out that night in pretty good spirits, convinced that we had put ourselves in a great position, until I logged back in Sunday morning and found that Blue had mounted a huge comeback overnight, taking virtually all of the territory we had previously won. Oops.

Guild Wars 2 seems to have kept many of the basic structures and tropes of the MMO genre (levels, five-man dungeons, distinct classes), but much of the core MMO gameplay has been tweaked or expanded to create a new experience. MMO fans looking for something new will, I think, enjoy how social this game is, and appreciate that ArenaNet has tried to make group questing and dungeon running smooth, painless, and natural. PvP fans, especially those looking for persistent and complex battles, should enjoy the World vs. World. vs. World gameplay. If you've never played an MMO before but are interested in the genre, the lack of a subscription fee and the accessibility of the game may make Guild Wars 2 worth checking out.

In a genre that's filled with clones and rehashes, the beta of Guild Wars 2 was refreshing. While there's not necessarily anything wrong with any previous MMOs, it's nice to see that ArenaNet is taking Guild Wars 2 in a unique direction.

The post Guild Wars 2 isn’t like any MMO you’ve played before appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

This ??week's topic should be something everyone can easily write about. For Bloggers Wanted, I want you to tell me about your first gaming ex??perience, and how it got you into gaming long term.

To participate, just write a C Blog, title it "XXX: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Ess?ay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the b??logs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders, and make sure you look for promoted blogs from last week's topic, Training.

The post Bloggers Wanted: Beginnings appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

I've tried, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around games like League of Legends or DOTA 2. I understand why they're fun, and I think they're good games, I am just so unbelievably awful at them that I?? feel like I'll never get anywhere. I just don't have the hundreds of hours of practice required to really get good on them.

A lot of people do, though. Whether it's a fighting game, or StarCraft, or a MOBA, plenty of people devote huge amounts of time into becoming beastly at their game of choice. This week, I want you to tell me about a game you've really trained for and ho??w it managed to suck you in. Tell me about the process of starting out as a scrub, an??d eventually mastering your game of choice. What exactly did you have to do to really get good at it?

To participate, just write a C Blog, ?? title it "Training: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the  Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders, and make sure you look for promoted blogs from last week's topic, Improvement.

The post Bloggers Wanted: Training appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

I wasn't a fan of Final Fantasy XIII. At all. I'm hearing, though, that tomorrow's release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 fixes a whole host of issues that the first game had, and that gave me an?? idea for this week's topic.

I want you to pick a game and identify its problems. Then, explain to us how you would design a theoretical sequel to that game, fixing all of the problems you noted earlier. (It's fine if the game you pick is already a sequel itself -- if you want to write about Grand Theft Auto IV - 2, that's cool.) It's a pretty simpl?e topic, but I suspect we'll get a lot of great responses.

To participate, just write a C Blog, title it "Improvement: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders, and make sure you look for promot??ed blogs from last week's topic, ??Location.

The post Bloggers Wanted: Improvement appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

One of the most imp??ortant parts of a game is its setting or location. While not frequently discussed, where a game takes place can pretty much make or break an experience. A survival horror game with incredible gameplay can fall flat on its face if the atmosphere isn't scary, and a game that would otherwise be mediocre can become engrossing if you get drawn into its ??world.

This week, I want you to tell me about your favorit??e settings or locations in games, or, alternatively, games where the setting was so bland or uninspiring that it ruined the game for you. This isn't about gamepl??ay or characters -- I want to hear about actual places.

To participate, just write a C Blog,  title it "Location: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get?? some discussions going with your fellow Dtoiders, and make sure you look for promoted blogs from last week's topic, Mobi??lity.

The post Bloggers Wanted: Location appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

Today's prompt is a day late, because I just got back from a really long work trip where I had almost no free time. It struck me, as I was touching back down in Los Angeles, that I spent?? almost the entirety of my six hours in the airport/on the plane playing games on my iPhone.

This week, I want you to tell me about your favorite mobile phone game. Why is it good, how did it hook you, and what mak??es it better than all the others?

To participate, just write a C Blog, title it "Mobility: [Your Blog's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some di?scussions going with your fellow Dtoiders, and  make sure you look for promoted blogs from last week's topic, Predicti?ons.

The post Bloggers Wanted: Mobility appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[When we're looking for blogs on a specific topic, we'll put out a Bloggers Wanted call. Check out the blog prompt, write your own response in the Community Blogs and tag it with the "Bloggers Wanted Essay Response" tag, and you may see your blog promoted to the front page. -- JRo]}

This week, ??the Destructoid editors will be ??listing the games we're most looking forward to in this upcoming year. Why don't you do the same? Pick one game for any platform that you're really excited to play in this upcoming year, and tell us why you're so pumped for it.

To participate, just write a C Blog, title it "What I Want in 2012: [The Game's Title]", and select the Bloggers Wanted Essay Response tag. Throughout  the week, keep an eye on the blogs and get some discus?sions going with your fellow Dtoiders, and make sure you look for promoted blogs from last week's topic, Predictions.

The post Bloggers Wanted: What I Want in 2012 appeared first on Destructoid.