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6 CommentsHeroes of the Storm ranked-play overhaul kicks off in June with first season
Heroes of the Storm's ranked play is getting a complete overhaul in mid-June, Blizzard said on Friday, introducing the game's first ranked season with new tiers and divisions and other features.
The tier-and-division system, broadly speaking will separate players according to skill level and then, within that, note how close those players are to being promoted or demoted to a different tier, ranging from Bronze to Diamond.
The top tier, called Master, will display rank differently. Masters will have a badge showing how many rank points they have accumulated in that season's Master league. Grand Masters are Master league members who are the top 500 point earners in their region. Their badge will note that numerical rank. The rank is updated daily.
As a result of the new tiering...
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May 2, 2016
Their future is Epic: The evolution of a gaming giant
Find out how one of the industry’s biggest developers is changing its approach.
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3 CommentsReport: Big-time German soccer club acquires spot in League of Legends championship series
Here's a twist: an esports league has a new team: a soccer team. A German soccer club, that is, one of the nation's largest.
Esports Observer reports that FC Schalke 04 has acquired a place European League of Legends Championship Series, replacing Elements. The deal has not been formally announced but Esports Observer cited multiple sources saying the deal had gone through.
FC Schalke 04 is not the first professional sports club to get into esports. Others in European soccer also sponsor teams and just this week West Ham United F.C. of the Barclays Premier League signed up an esports professional to represent it at FIFA tournaments (the video game series, not the global organization). Eports Observer notes Schalke's move is the first significant foray into a top-tier league, however.
...
Movies
16 CommentsHere's what Khadgar looks like in the Warcraft movie
Warcraft's latest trailer showcases another mainstay character of the 22-year-old franchise. Here is Khadgar the mage, portrayed by Ben Schnetzer in his first major role.
In Warcraft's canon, Khadgar is the apprentice of Medivh and commands the Alliance's expedition into Draenor. In Warcraft II he closed the Dark Portal but was trapped in Draenor when it went kaboom. He was presumed dead, but really, when is that ever permanent. Khadgar went on to several more appearances in Warcraft, and will return in World of Warcraft's next expansion, Legion, coming this summer.
Warcraft, as in the movie, will premiere June 10.
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6 CommentsNew Fear Effect developers working on bringing game to PS4, Xbox One
The new Fear Effect game will be ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, developer Sushee said this week, if its crowdfunding campaign for the game is successful.
In an update posted to the Kickstarter campaign for Fear Effect: Sedna, Sushee said the decision to pursue a console port was based on numerous requests from fans.
"It was a difficult decision for us, because developing on PS4 or Xbox One requires a lot of work, and significant financial investment too," the studio said. "It was a tough job, and we had to make choices, but today we can officially announce that we will be porting the game on PS4 and Xbox One!
"We are very excited to see Fear Effect on consoles. You may wonder why we didn't plan this at the beginning of the campaign? The reason is simple, we only could secure...
News
2 CommentsSteam updates review listings to better show how games change post-release
Steam is updating its user reviews to show player a video game's most recent reviews and review scores, in order to give a clearer picture of how people feel about the game at the current time.
The changes are in response to customer feedback, Steam said, and it better reflects the fact that games can change from their launch-day or even month experience thanks to post-release support, downloadable content and expansions, and title updates.
"That review score that appears at the top of a product page didn't always reflect the dynamic nature of the game," Valve wrote."We'd previously only been compiling an overall score using a simple calculation of the percentage of all reviews that were positive. This let us be really transparent in how the score was being calculated, but didn't...
Analysis
18 CommentsThe Hearthstone legendary cards you must craft ASAP
With last week's release of the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion and the introduction of standard mode, a lot of new players are checking out Hearthstone and old players who wandered aware are returning. Whatever your status, one cold truth of reality is shared by everyone: There are a lot of cards in Hearthstone, and it's hard to know which ones you really need.
In the smart video above, popular and talented Hearthstone streamer Kripparrian runs down his choices for the most must-have legendaries in the game right now. For his list, Kripparian splits the legendaries into three tiers of desirability. The best of the best are in tier one, the best class legendaries are in tier two, and strong but situational legendaries can be found in tier three. He stresses that legendaries in the...
News
26 CommentsMighty No. 9 finally launches on June 21, creator says
Mighty No. 9 has a new launch date: June 21.
The "spiritual successor" to Mega Man has "gone gold," creator Keiji Inafune said, putting Mighty No. 9 on course to launch for Mac, Linux, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on that date in North America and Asia. It will launch worldwide on those platforms on June 24. Deep Silver is publishing the game on consoles.
The versions for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita will follow at a later date, Inafune said.
Inafune acknowledged it has been nearly three years since the project was initially and enthusiastically crowdfunded by thousands of Mega Man fans and apologized for the repeated delays to Mighty No. 9's launch.
"This is a project where everyone's passions were combined in order to create something very...
News
15 CommentsAdmins of shut down World of Warcraft server say they will meet with Blizzard
The developers of a legacy World of Warcraft server that has drawn tremendous fan support since being ordered to shut down say they have been invited to meet with Blizzard Entertainment on its campus in southern California, portending some kind of an amicable resolution.
The admins of the Nostalrius server delivered the news to their community today. Nostalrius was closed April 10 following a cease-and-desist notice from Blizzard Entertainment, leading to an outcry among the tens of thousands of fans wishing to play "vanilla" or an older version of World of Warcraft, without any of its expansions. Such servers are a violation of the MMO's terms of use.
Following a tense two weeks in which fans poured out disappointment and gathered some 250,000 signatures on a petition demanding...
News
7 CommentsNew mod from Long War developer released for XCOM 2
Long War Studios, best known for creating the Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within, has created a new mod for XCOM 2. This is in addition to the three mods the studio made available for the game at launch.
Called Toolbox, the new mod is available on Steam Workshop for free today. It allows players to configure camera rotation within missions, create random stats for new soldiers, edit damage values, tweak the game UI and turn on a modifier where injuries can affect a soldier's stats. The original Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown made the game more challenging as well as adding units, weapons and customization options. It was popular among players of the turn-based PC game, in which humans seek to defend their planet from alien invasion.
For the February launch of X...
News
12 CommentsRomero and Carmack pull their Kickstarter campaign for new FPS Blackroom
Doom creators John Romero and Adrian Carmack canceled their days-old Kickstarter campaign for their new first-person shooter, Blackroom, saying they're going to focus on developing a playable demo.
In an update posted to their crowdfunding campaign, Romero and Carmack say the team at Night Work Games is working on a demo "which demonstrates the kind of gameplay, look and innovative, cool features that make Blackroom truly unique — the things we've waited years to put into an FPS and which make us incredibly excited about this game."
The developers say they're "pressing pause" on their fundraiser to complete the demo; work on the demo would take longer than the time remaining on their Kickstarter, they explain, and they'll relaunch the campaign at a later date. The developers cite...
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