Friday, June 27, 2014

Smite - Beginner Guide to Athena by LostScarf


Hello friends, here is our beginner guide for Athena. This video will contain information that should help a beginner do fairly well with Athena from the start. Some of Athena's more advanced tactics are left out to not overwhelm viewers.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Hearthstone - Curse of Naxxramas Card Gallery


Curse of Naxxramas will contain 30 new cards that you can acquire for your collection! Some of these cards that you can obtain we have revealed over the past few weeks. You can view the gallery of the officially announced cards for Curse of Naxxramas here

The first details on Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure can be found in our original Curse of Naxxramas announcement here.


Source: http://us.battle.net/hearthstone

Diablo 3 - Patch 2.1.0 PTR Patch Notes


PTR PATCH 2.1.0 - v2.1.0.25014 

PATCH FEATURES

New Feature: Seasons
Seasons are an optional, recurring game mode that offers players the opportunity to periodically start fresh, leveling Normal or Hardcore characters from scratch without gold, resources, or previously earned Paragon experience. Similar to the separation between Normal and Hardcore game modes, Seasonal characters will have their own shared stash and artisan progression as well. Any items, gold, or Paragon experience earned during a Season will be rolled over to a player's non-Seasonal characters once the Season concludes.

Seasons offer unique rewards and new challenges for players, including new Legendaries, an exclusive Transmogrification set only available to those who compete in each Season, and new achievements called Conquests. Progress within a given Season will be tracked in our new Leaderboard system.


Please note that Seasons are not yet available for testing on the PTR. This feature will be enabled at a later date. 

New Feature: Greater Rifts
Formerly referred to as Tiered Rifts, Greater Rifts are a special type of timed Nephalem Rift. There are an infinite number of Greater Rift levels, and each Greater Rift level will be progressively more difficult than the last.

Completing a Greater Rift within its alloted time will allow players to progress to the next level (and if your time is exceptionally good, you may even skip multiple levels at once). Players can continue progressing through Greater Rift levels so along as they complete the Rift before its timer expires. Once a timer expires, players will reach the end of their current Greater Rift journey and their best results will be tracked in our new Leaderboard system.
 

New Feature: Leaderboards
With the addition of Seasons and Greater Rifts, we want to provide players with a way to measure their progress within each of those environments. To do so, we've created Leaderboards.

Leaderboards will track a variety of competitive player data including Greater Rifts clear times, Seasonal achievement point totals, and Seasonal Conquest completion ranking across several different game styles. Designed to be informative and detailed, Leaderboards will also allow you to compare your progress to that of players within your gameplay region, on your friends list, and in your clan roster.


New Feature: The Cesspools
In patch 2.1.0 and moving forward, players will now have a chance to spawn a new level environement while in a Nephalem Rift or Greater Rift: The Cesspools. 

Originally designed as the sewers of Westmarch, we weren't quite able to include the Cesspools in the list of playable environments in Reaper of Souls by the time the expansion launched. Still, we loved the look and feel of this festering, dank underworld and have spent some time polishing it up for use in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts. We hope you enjoy this new randomized landscape!


Source and more info: http://us.battle.net



Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Minecraft 1.7.10 on Thursday! More Realms!


Hey all!
I just wanted to let you know that 1.7.10 will be released on Thursday and I hope you will enjoy the update. It’s mostly new features and fixes for Realms, but who knows what other things it may contain! Personally, I’m really excited about the world uploader. It let’s you bring local worlds to Realms so they can be enjoyed by your friends 24/7!
  • World uploader – upload your local world to Realms (finally!)
  • Command blocks! (finally!)
  • Player activity monitor – when and for how long a player has been online (see who plays when you sleep!)
  • Access to more server settings (yey!)
  • Improvements in Realms UI (also yey!)
  • Some bugfixes (why where they put in there in the first place?)
  • And many more… (we just don’t want to look lazy, that is why that sentence is in there)
With love,
Realms team @dmarby@danfrisk@mamirm, and @xlson

Monday, June 23, 2014

The ultimate CS:GO resource guide by eeetoh


I'm a new player to the scene, and when I was doing research on how to get better, I found that there was no "hub" for information and resources, I decided to make it.


YOUTUBE CHANNELS
Adren - Varied content and lots of guides.
CoreHaven - Varied content and lots of guides.
PureBlue - Grenade spots.
TheWarOwl - Shoutcasts of high-level games and guides on important CSGO topics.
NetcodeIlluminati - Miscellaneous useful guides.
3KliksPhilip - Weapon comparison guides and other videos.
NaToSaphiX - Guides and other videos.
Playcasters - Guides and other videos.
HattonGames - Guides and other videos.

Autoexec CFG - Autoexec settings. Tweak to your liking. (Credits: CoreHaven)
Bot Deathmatch CFG - Simply type "exec botdm" in the console once you want to begin. (Credits: CoreHaven)
Grenade Practice CFG - Simply type "exec nade" in the console once you want to begin.
PCGamer's Configuration Guide - Tips on how to increase your CSGO playability.
Crosshair Generator - Generate and customize a crosshair to your liking.
If you want to have no crosshair outline, replace "cl_crosshair_outline_draw 0" with "cl_crosshair_drawoutline 0".
If you want a non-dynamic crosshair, change "cl_crosshairstyle 2" to "cl_crosshairstyle 4".

OTHER USEFUL LINKS
HLTV - CSGO discussion and links to lots of useful streams.
KnifeRound - A collection of useful guides on topics such as tactics, weapons, and maps.
CSGO Like A Pro - Basic guide on CSGO tactics.
OperationL2P - Website dedicated to grenade spots.
NetcodeGuides - Tons of useful guides for everything CSGO.
Competitive Map Callouts - Maps with names. Memorize them!
CSGO Calendar - A great website for checking when CSGO events are happening.
Tips from /u/killinginthenameo - General playing tips.
/r/CSGO_NadeTactics - Discovering and sharing grenade spots and tactics.
/r/RecruitCS - Find a team or friends to play matchmaking with here!
/r/CSGOCritic - Get your demo reviewed or review a demo to help redditors improve their play.
/r/GlobalOffensive's "Newbie Tuesday" Threads - Frequently asked questions.

Source: GlobalOffensive 

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Hearthstone - New Curse of Naxxramas Hunter Card "Webspinner"


“Let the hunt begin!” Weave a wicked web of your own with the Hunter’s Webspinner in Curse of Naxxramas!

Hearthstone - DreamHack Summer Top 8 decklists



Collected in this newspost are all 24 decklists from the DreamHack playoff finalists. Note that players were allowed to change their builds between the group stage and the top 8 bracket, so these are the final decklists that they used.
DreamHack Summer on GosuWiki

Rdu:

Amaz:

Reynad:

Realz:

ThijsNL:

Ek0p:

Frezzar:

Gnimsh:

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Video Games: The Movie (Official Trailer!)


In theaters and available on demand around the world July 15th, 2014! 

Narrated by Sean Astin and featuring interviews with: 
Chris Hardwick • Nolan Bushnell • Alison Haislip • Hideo Kojima • Wil Wheaton • Cliff Bleszinski (CliffyB) • Hiroyoki Kobayashi • Warren Spector... and MANY more!

Diablo 3 - First Look: Patch 2.1.0




It's almost here, nephalem! The first major content patch for Reaper of Souls™ is right around the corner and we're preparing a Public Test Region to give you a hands-on look at the upcoming changes. Before the PTR goes live, let's get started with a high-level overview of what you can expect from patch 2.1.0.
Table of Contents:
  • Seasons
  • Greater Rifts
  • Leaderboards
  • Combat Changes
  • The Cesspools
Please note that this is only a preview. The below information does not reflect all changes available in patch 2.1.0 and is subject to change. Some images represent works in progress, and may not be representative of the final product.

Seasons:

Similar to Ladders in Diablo® II, Seasons will offer players in Diablo® III a chance to periodically start fresh, leveling their level 1 characters and artisans from scratch. Season participation benefits include exclusive rewards and unique Legendaries as well as the the thrill of climbing all-new Leaderboards by completing achievements, earning Conquests, or running Greater Rifts.
  
Left: A Seasonal Hardcore Crusader gets ready to hop into the action. Right: A full overview of your Seasonal characters will be available in your Character Profile.
Conquests:
With the start of each Season, players will have the opportunity to earn Conquests. Conquests are special Season-only achievements (offered in addition to the suite of non-Seasonal achievements already available in the game) that represent a variety of challenging goals. These goals can vary in terms of gameplay and difficulty, and some might be easier to complete than others. With tasks ranging from killing Malthael at level 70 on Torment VI to finishing Acts I-V in an hour or less, Conquests are designed to encourage and promote an array of different playstyles. 
Conquests are considered "first come, first served," and the first 1000 individuals to complete a Conquest within a given Season will be immortalized on that Season's regional Leaderboard. Right now, we're looking to provide between 10-15 unique Conquests each Season, and each Conquest will have its own Leaderboard. Conquests will also provide achievement points and will count toward your Seasonal point total. These points will be provided regardless of whether your character placed in the regional Leaderboard. 
No Seasons? No Problem!
Not in the mood to start from scratch? You’ll still benefit from Seasons (which, by the way, are completely optional). New Seasonal Legendaries will roll over to non-Seasonal loot pool after a Season concludes. In addition, Greater Rift leaderboards will also become available to non-Seasonal characters, so you can compare the progress of your friends and clanmates with that of your most veteran heroes!

Greater Rifts:

Formerly referred to as Tiered Rifts, Greater Rifts are a special type of Nephalem Rift that are designed to provide players way to measure their gear progression and efficiency.
How to Access Greater Rifts:
To access a Greater Rift, simply complete a regular Nephalem Rift in any difficulty. When you defeat the Rift Guardian, they'll have a chance to drop a Greater Rift Key. You can then use this new key at the Nephalem Obelisk, similar to other Rift Fragments—this will open a Greater Rift. If you have members in your party, each player will be prompted to use one of their own Greater Rift keys to join the fun!

Entering a Greater Rift requires its own type of Rift Keys.
How Greater Rifts Work:
While Greater Rifts are a type of Nephalem Rift, there are some key differences between the two features. In Greater Rifts:
  • You'll race against a clock to fill a progress bar by accruing monster kills.
  • Most monsters do not drop loot; rewards have been completely shifted to the Rift Guardian.
    • This removes conflicting pressure from attaining a better time versus picking up all your loot.
  • Monsters grant differing amounts of progress for your progress bar; the tougher the monster, the more they fill up your progress bar.
  • You cannot resurrect at your corpse or in town while in a Greater Rift—only at the last checkpoint.
    • Note that, currently, if you die in a Greater Rift on a Hardcore character, that death will be permanent.
  • You cannot use player banners or the Teleport option if the target player is in a Greater Rift.
  • Higher Greater Rifts levels are progressively more difficult. 
    • This difficulty is separate from the standard difficulty settings (Master, Torment I-VI, etc.)
If you complete a Greater Rift before time expires you'll advance to the next difficulty level. Should your time be exceptionally good, you might even skip a few levels! If time instead expires, you'll have reached the end of your current Greater Rift journey and your best results will be posted to the appropriate Leaderboards.

Your progress bar is a little different inside a Greater Rift, to allow you to gauge your completion compared to your efficiency.
Legendary Gems:
Greater Rifts are truly a challenge, and conquering such challenges should be met with great reward. To provide a unique and upgradable incentive, we're introducing Legendary Gems.
Legendary Gems are still undergoing significant iteration at this time, so you won't see them available on the PTR right away. The gist is that these gems are infinitely upgradeable, and provide special Legendary powers when socketed into the appropriate gear slot. They can only be socketed into Rings and Amulets, and can be upgraded by completing additional Greater Rifts. The higher you place in a Greater Rift, the more likely your gem will be successfully upgraded. We'll have more details in the future as we continue development on these powerful baubles, so stay tuned!
Coming to a Nephalem Rift Near You:
Some of the changes in Greater Rifts are also coming to regular Nephalem Rifts—like the way the completion bar will advance based on monster difficulty. In addition, we're slightly modifying the entry mechanism for all Rifts. All players will need to have a Rift Fragment in order to enter a Nephalem Rift; however, we’ve reduced the cost for entering a Nephalem Rift down to one Rift Fragment per character to compensate.

Leaderboards:

With so many ways to compete, we want to provide players with a quick and easy way to measure their progress. Enter our next big feature for patch 2.1.0: Leaderboards.
Leaderboards will track progress for Greater Rifts, Seasonal achievement points, and Seasonal Conquests across a variety of game styles. Designed to be informative and detailed, Leaderboards will allow you to compare your progress to that of your gameplay region, friends, and clan members, and each type of board will track progress a little differently.

Leaderboards offer a variety of ways to compare your accomplishments to your friends and clanmates.
Greater Rift Leaderboards:
Greater Rift leaderboards will be split between both Hardcore and Normal gameplay modes as well as Seasonal and Non-Seasonal characters. To help encourage a variety of play styles and allow you to measure yourself against similar competitors, we've also broken up Greater Rift leaderboards into the following categories:
  • Solo play for each class (e.g. top players for Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Crusader, etc.)
  • 2-Player Groups
  • 3-Player Groups
  • 4-Player Groups
Season-Only Leaderboards:
Some Leaderboards will be Season-only. For example, Conquests are only tracked on Seasonal characters, so these Leaderboards won't have a non-Season equivalent. The same will be true for Seasonal achievement points. In addition, because Conquests and achievements are account-wide, their associated Leaderboards will not be split between Normal and Hardcore (even though some tasks may require playing a particular mode). 

Combat Changes:

Of course, with so many competitive elements hitting the PTR, we're also reviewing each class thoroughly to ensure no matter what you play, you have a fair chance at reaching your Seasonal goals. While we won't be getting into class specific details here, we wanted to share with you a few examples of overarching adjustments we plan on experimenting with during the Public Test phase.
Dexterity & Survivability:
A major change is coming to Dexterity to benefit Demon Hunters and Monks. Each point of Dexterity will grant 1 point of Armor instead of Dodge chance. Dodge isn’t as reliable as Armor or Resistances and doesn’t protect you from some of the most dangerous monster affixes like Plagued or Thunderstorm. In light of this buff, the existing passives that grant 30% of your Dexterity as Armor (Seize the Initiative and Awareness) will be completely redesigned.
Healing:
The next change will be to Healing. Currently, Healing provided by gear isn't very valuable because you receive the vast amount of your healing from Health Globes. During internal testing, we discovered that as you reached higher Greater Rift levels, you really wanted more of your healing to come from your gear in order to survive. To facilitate this, we are reducing the amount of healing Health Globes provide, but buffing Life on Hit and Life Regeneration on gear to compensate. This change should make a more consistent experience when you turn up the difficulty (or reach a higher tier in a Greater Rift) in situations where you’re not killing as quickly and actually require the increased Healing.

The Cesspools:

While Seasons and Greater Rifts are definitely taking center stage with this patch, we're also providing some additional content to add more variety and flavor to your Adventure Mode exploration.
Originally designed as the sewers of Westmarch, we weren't quite able to include the Cesspools in the list of playable environments in Reaper of Souls by the time the expansion launched. 
  
Expect to encounter (and slaughter) a variety of creatures in the Cesspools!
Still, we loved the look and feel of this festering, dank underworld and we've spent some time polishing it up for use in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts. You'll have a chance to spawn Cesspool levels while in a Rift, and we hope you enjoy this new randomized landscape!
We may have additional treats on the horizon, but let's not get too Greedy. . . . You'll have your hands on the PTR soon enough to find out more.

We are incredibly excited to share patch 2.1.0 with you and can't wait to see your reactions once the PTR goes live. Be sure let us know what you think of the changes and features, and send any bug reports our way as you explore Seasons, Greater Rifts, Leaderboards, and more.
What new feature are you most excited about? Are you going to climb the Greater Rifts leaderboard, or will you race to be the first to complete as many Conquests as you can? Let us know in the comments below, and we'll see you soon™ on the PTR!

Source: http://us.battle.net

Grand Theft Auto 5 PS4 vs PS3 Trailer Comparison


Friday, June 13, 2014

Tips for Hearthstone by Mike Donais


Building a deck can be stressful, especially if you’re left wondering “what do?” when staring at your collection. I’m Mike Donais, senior designer for Hearthstone, here with a few tips on the subject. Aside from 20 years of card-gaming under my belt, I also worked as a designer for Magic: The Gathering and the World of Warcraft trading card game. Let’s get to it!
Deck building, how does it work?
Here are a few fundamentals for building a strong deck.
1. Focus on a theme
The types of decks you can create are virtually endless, so it’s good to know what kind of deck you want to play before you start building. If you want a fast, aggressive (“rush”) deck, stick to efficient, high-damage minions. Include minions with Charge and spells that deal damage directly to your opponent.
KotakoRepost_HS_Lightbox_cardSet1_CK_500x250.jpg
If a slow and careful “control” deck is more your style, include healing and taunt minions. The taunt minions force your opponent to attack them before they can take a swing at you, and the healing minions help restore some health you (or your other minions) might have lost.
KotakoRepost_HS_Lightbox_cardSet2_CK_500x250.jpg
Some themes can be more complex, for example focusing around cards like Gadgetzan AuctioneerAlarm-o-Bot, various Pirates, or Malygos. In those cases, you’ll of course want to include some fun cards that match your theme, but don’t forget to also have some strong, generally useful cards to keep you alive while your theme plays out, such as Frostbolt,Backstab, or Lightning Bolt.
2. Have 5–10 early game cards.
If you get behind in the early game, it’s tough to get the upper hand again. Having 5–10 cards that cost 1–­2 mana and make sense to play on the first two turns can help avoid this. These are usually minions or spells that can remove your opponent's early minions.
KotakoRepost_HS_Lightbox_cardSet3_CK_500x250.jpg
3. Have 5–10 late game cards
Most decks can benefit from solid late-game/higher cost cards. Even for rush-themed decks, something aggressive like Argent Commander can make sense, whereas a control deck might do well to include something like Sunwalker .
Card drawing can also be useful in the late game but remember a minion that takes 2 cards to kill is better than drawing 2 cards because if your opponent doesn’t have the cards to kill it you are way ahead.
KotakoRepost_HS_Lightbox_cardSet4_CK_500x250.jpg
4. Play mostly minions
If you play a minion and your opponent can deal with it, then you end up even. However, if you play a minion and your opponent can’t deal with it, then you are ahead on the game board. Once you are ahead on the board you can start making favorable trades or smashing your opponent directly. This makes minions more important than spells which kill minions.
When first building decks, try including 20 or more minions. Later you might break this rule with specific spell focused decks.
5. Improve the deck over time
Remember, this is a learning process; you’re going to win some and lose some. Don't change your deck after just one game—pay attention to what cards worked out well over the course of several. Then, go back over the deck and make changes based on what you learned.
For example, if you lost to a lot of fast-paced decks, add more taunt minions and cards that cost 1–2 mana. Make sure you don't have too many expensive cards.
Or, if you run out of cards before killing your opponent, add more late-game minions.
Have patience! If you lose to a deck/specific class once, it doesn't necessarily mean you need to make a change!
Playing your new deck
1. Start with cheap minions
If you don't play any cards on the first three turns, you’ll likely get too far behind, so make sure your starting hand has at least one 2-mana card even if it means you have to mulligan (redrawing at the start of a duel) a good 4-mana card.
2. Spend your mana
First, consider a play that would spend all your mana, and then compare that with your other options. Getting big minions out early is usually the best strategy because it puts your opponent on the defensive. If your opponent doesn’t have the right card to deal with your early minions you end up with a big advantage.
Once you are more experienced you should also think about how you will spend your mana on your next turn.
3. Think twice before making a play
Before you make a play, pause and look at your whole hand to make sure you don't have a better way of dealing with the situation.
4. A clear board is a happy board
Trading one of your minions for a similar enemy minion is generally a good idea. Meaning if you have say a 3/3 minion and your opponent also has a 3/3 minion, you should attack and kill theirs with yours. By doing this, they won't be able to surprise you with a buff spell that could make that 3/3 minion a 4/4 minion.
This is also important because if they play a spell that damages all of your minions, it won't be as big of a problem.
5. Don’t play too many minions.
Each class has some way of clearing the board if there are a lot of enemy minions. Try to keep those in mind when playing more than two minions.
6. Card drawing is for late game
If you have a choice between playing a minion or drawing cards it is almost always better to play the minion first. Putting out minions puts your opponent on the defensive while drawing cards doesn’t improve your board at all. When you are out of minions then you can play your card drawing to get more.
This applies to minions like Loot Hoarder, too. On turn 2, if you have a Faerie Dragon and a Loot Hoarder you should play the Faerie Dragon first because you don’t need to draw cards yet. Having the bigger minion out is more important.
KotakoRepost_HS_Lightbox_cardSet5_CK_500x250.jpg
7. Hero power
If you can kill an enemy minion by using your hero power it is a big advantage because you didn’t spend a card. However, most of the time, playing a creature from your hand will give you a bigger board presence than using your hero power. In the early game focus on getting out minions so that you control the board. In the late game you will have more mana so you can use your hero power more often.
8. Have fun!
Even the most experienced players don’t win all of their games.
Relax and have fun, switch decks sometimes, experiment, learn, enjoy!