20 Jun
2012

Receiver – Indie FPS with Realistic Gun Mechanics and Randomized Content [PC and Mac]


Indie developer Wolfire Games recently released their entry into the 7 Day FPS competition – Receiver. The game has some interesting new concepts to show to the FPS genre.

Receiver is a first-person shooter that explores some interesting new ideas such as non-linear storytelling, randomized level design, and realistically interactive gun mechanics. When you first start you have nothing but a handgun, a cassette player, and, if you are lucky, some magazines and ammo.

Before you can do anything you have to familiarize yourself with your weapon. Check the magazine for ammo, inspect the chamber to see if there is a round in there, and flick off the safety. A small mistake such as forgetting to pull back the hammer or failing to disengage the safety can see you shot by an auto turret or tazered by a flying sentry bot.

As you progress you find tapes that, once played in your cassette player, begin to explain the story of the strange world you are in. You find the tapes in a random order so you could discover them all in different play-throughs or in just the one – if you can stay alive for that long. This game is hard, one shot, one tazer, or a small fall will kill you causing you to restart form the beginning again. The random level design makes this difficulty rewarding instead of frustrating.

I had a lot of fun with this game and I will likely be playing it quite a lot over the next few weeks. I am even more interested in seeing some of the new ideas explored here used in other games. A shooter where you must learn every feature of any new gun you find sounds like an awesome premise – one that I hope to see very soon.

You can download Receiver over at Wolfire Games. If you have already pre-orderd Overgrowth then you get it for free! 

19 Jun
2012

Diablo 3 News: Kripparian and Krippie Defeat Hardcore Inferno Diablo!


Team No Life’s Kripparian and Krippie teamed up together in the early hours of this morning to finally clear Diablo 3 on it’s hardest difficulty level AND on hardcore mode.

With only around 1% of players making it to Inferno in normal ‘Softcore’ mode, the Kripps achievement is pretty impressive. They not only had to defeat Diablo, they also had to make their way to him without dying – ever.

An impressive 45,000 people watched the 30 minute fight with the Prime Evil, prompting Twitch.tv to send out a congratulations to the pair on their victory.

This feat is the culmination of weeks of preparation and planing. Kripparian seen tinkering away at a spreadsheet and calculator almost as much as he is seen playing the game. The self-named TheoryCrafting Guru lives up to his name – and it has paid off.

A big congratulations to Krippie and Kripparian on their achievment from myself and everyone here at Real Life Highscore!

19 Jun
2012

Diablo 3: How to Transfer Your Battlenet Balance to Paypal [Real Money Auction House]


If you haven’t already found out for yourself that there is no official way to transfer your Battlenet balance to Paypal then I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news. If you made the mistake of not selecting Paypal or if you simply thought that you could do it later then you are stuck with your Battlenet balance, or, at least you would be if not for this workaround.

But B.net balance isn’t useless it can be used to purchase upcoming games – right? Not exactly.

Here is the list for what you can do with your B.net balance:

  • Buy things on the RMAH of course!
  • Pay for World of Warcraft character and guild services.
  • Buy WoW expansion packs up to Cataclysm.
  • Buy Diablo 3.
  • Buy StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty
  • Buy WarCraft 3.
  • Buy Diablo 2.

That’s all very nice but it’s what isn’t on the list that is concerning:

  • Mists of Pandaria.
  • Diablo 3 expansion pack.
  • StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.

Either this is an oversight or Blizzard do not want you to spend your RMAH-earned Battlenet dollars on new release games.

If around this point you are thinking you would like to cash out your B.net balance for Paypal then at least there is the following workaround available to you.

Read More »

17 Jun
2012

Diablo 3 – Armor, Resistances and Damage Reduction Theory Simplified.


So I’ve decided to create a new series which will consist of a few short videos that explain the theory behind the various game mechanics in Diablo 3.

The goal of these videos is to explain (using words, not math) the ins and outs of how your character interacts with the game world. It will be simple and enlightening.

 Today’s video is all about Damage reduction.

A lot of people have asked me, “Hwaygo, whats the difference between physical resistance and armor?”. Well the short answer is; nothing. The long answer is; they are completely different!

As you get further into Diablo 3 damage mitigation becomes more and more important. By getting more armor and resistances you increase your chances of survival. Once you reach inferno difficulty damage mitigation becomes your highest priority. If you don’t build a decent amount of armor and resistance you’ll find yourself re-spawning every 5 minutes.

Armor has changed.

Everyone I’ve spoken to seems to be confused about why physical resistance is in the game. If you built a warrior with lots of armor he would be susceptible to magic attacks, but able to take any physical punishment. If you want your character to be able to handle elemental attacks you would have to get elemental resistance. However in Diablo 3 we have this new thing called “physical resistance”. Whats the point of having essentially the same stat with two different names?

Well in actual fact armor works a lot differently in Diablo 3 than it does in almost every other RPG game. Your armor and resistance stack onto each other. When you get down into the details it can become quite complicated.

In this video I explain (and attempt to simplify) how armor and resistances interact with your character.

If you’d like to learn more about the math of damage reduction here is a really good thread on Armada gaming that explains everything.

If anything is unclear please feel free to ask in the comments.

 – John “Hwaygo” Pansini

16 Jun
2012

99 Levels to Hell – Indie Game First Impressions [Early Alpha 0.1.0]


I recently had the chance to talk to developer Bo Blond about his upcoming indie title – 99 Levels to Hell. Perhaps even more fortunately I was given a copy of the latest alpha build to try out!

99 Levels to Hell is a side-scrolling 2D rogue-like shooter. In addition to a really cool art style it also features some of the best lighting effects I have seen in a game like this yet. Your small bubble of light as you explore the stone tower and it’s dungeons is only occasionally bolstered by a torch or window. As you near a ledge your light slowly descends into the darkness to reveal the horrors on the next level. It’s a surprisingly creepy game for such a cute art style.

Check out the video of my first impressions below:

The game has massive potential for re-playability, and I say this having played a build that has only a fraction of what the finished product will have. In my first couple of playthroughs I didn’t even make it past the tenth level in what is a 99+ level dungeon. It’s a challenging game, just as a good rogue-like should be. However, it is equally rewarding to boot with you receiving power ups and new weapons at a nice pace.

The controls felt a bit floaty at first and jumping can be frustrating at times. I got used to the control style pretty quickly though and it ended up adding to the challenge in a meaningful way rather than in a frustrating way. However, the game still has a lot of development to go through so it is hard to guess at how the final game will play.

I am already pretty excited to see what will be added to the game in the lead up to release. If you want to follow the development yourself then head over to the official 99 Levels to Hell blog where you can also download a copy of a recent build.

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