Slackogamer

Diablo 3 is Official ! (told you so)

2008-06-30T01:48:00.003+08:00

I have been guilty for not finding enough time to post lately, but this, probably the biggest news of the year, is finally out. Diablo 3 has been confirmed by Blizzard yesterday in the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France.

So far only 2 of the 5 characters have a unveiled and it is the brute-force Barbarian and newcomer, probably teleported from some Warcraft portal, the Witch Doctor.

More info, including a cinematic trailer and a gameplay trailer is available on Blizzard's website : http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

Currently, the released date for the game have not been confirmed yet with the usual Blizzard response of perfecting the game before release.

Gameplay trailer looks amazing, expect bloodbath.

Official Warcraft 3 1.22 patch changelog from Westfall Beta Server

2008-04-15T17:52:00.005+08:00

Hi folks !
Blizzard just opened a new beta server called Westfall. Upon logging on the server, you'll get the update from the latest 1.22 patch. As of this moment, I looks like I'm the only guy there at the moment. There is no one in the chat rooms or playing games at the moment. Join me there pls :P

Anyway here are the official Warcraft 3 changelog for the 1.22 Patch.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patch 1.22
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

FEATURES

- There is now a replay auto-save feature in the options menu. Replays
are automatically saved to the "replay" folder.
- Added an option to always show unit and building health bars.
- You can now enable and disable the display of minimap signals
from players and other observers using chat commands:
/showminimapsignals and /hideminimapsignals.

BALANCE CHANGES

HUMAN
- Scout Tower repair rate changed from 12 to 20.
- Knight damage increased: Attack cooldown changed from 1.50 to
1.40 and base damage increased from 25 to 28 (Average damage is 34).

UNDEAD
- Increased Ziggurat base armor from 1 to 5.
- Reduced the build time of the Necropolis from 120 to 100.

NIGHT ELF
- Reduce the Orb of venom poison duration from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- Increase the experience gain from Dryads from Level 2 (40xp) to
Level 3 (60 xp).

FIXES

- The cooldown on unlimited usable items (example: the staff of
preservation) now persists after the item is dropped or traded.
- When you unburrow a Crypt Fiend, its auto-cast will no longer be toggled
off.
- An exploit bug in which items could lose their cooldowns when transferred
between heroes has been fixed.

Lol. As you can see the info I got about the rumored changelog was way off. My apologies on that. I thought the source was a reliable one :)

Blizzard annouces new Terran unit for SC2... the Tauren Marine !

2008-04-01T21:44:00.003+08:00

Just today Blizzard announced their latest...but rather unusual addition to the Terran forces. The Tauren Marine is said to have been created by the Confederates when they bumped into the planet Azeroth. Training up the those cows that they found to be mean fighting machines. Eat this Zerglings !

Check out the gameplay videos below :

Happy April Fool's Day !

How to record console videogames to your PC

2008-03-18T06:28:00.007+08:00

Maybe you have an impressive high score to show or just itching to show what games you play on Youtube. Whatever the reason is, gamers have always wanted to record their console game and not have a crappy quality version taking using a videocamera.

I recommend using Adaptec's Gamebridge as it works well for me and it is reasonably priced. According to Gamebridge's technical specs, it will allow you to connect your PS 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and GameCube to your computer. But I'm sure it will work on the PS3 and Wii and possibly anything that has a video output.

Amazon's retailing for about 100 bucks and you can get it over here.

Latest Street Figther IV gameplay clip from AUO Show in Japan

2008-02-18T10:14:00.005+08:00

Here are the latest video clip of the Street Fighter IV gameplay taken from Japan's AOU Show 2008. The one I'm showing here is RYU vs. KEN.

The game's graphics is really rich and fluid. While the games has 3-D elements, most of the gameplay is done still on the usual 2-D screen. Notice how the attacks (like the Hadouken) look really much cooler than its predecessors. If I would to buy a home arcade cabinet next time, Street Fighter IV will definitely be it.

Kids getting a PS3 for Christmas !

2008-02-16T08:20:00.002+08:00

This video is really really funny. These kids are opening their Christmas presents and their complaining about their gifts (initially). I love the part , "IT'S FOR PLAYSTATION 3...WE DON'T HAAAVE A PLAYSTATION 3!!" So their actually getting PS3 controllers and games for Christmas but they don't have a PS3 console...well not just yet :P

Kid gets some serious high score on Guitar Hero 2

2008-02-11T11:32:00.000+08:00

This is kinda crazy. I wonder if all he ever does is play Guitar Hero. But then again...amazing !

I can't play guitar hero, not when you know how to play the real guitar.

Top Party Games for the Wii

2008-02-10T10:35:00.000+08:00

Planning to get some friends over but can't find something fun to do ?

Then this list of top Wii party games is for you !

1. WarioWare: Smooth Moves
This game is amazing and its probably the craziest game you'll ever play ! Packed with loads of hilarious mini games, requires you to do silly poses when you win the game, or pluck a nose in order to win a game and even dance. The story line is whacked. The gameplay is superb. Graphics is cool too with a mix of most 2d cel animation, some ugly 3-d stuff and even hand drawn graphics.

Warioware make good use of the Wii-remote (called "form baton" in the game) and theres different ways that you could you used. Ways you never though possible. Forms such as the elephant where you put the wii-remote on your nose to pose like an elephant !

You'll need to complete the game once though to unlocked the multiplayer mode. And multi player mode uses one Wii-remote and 2-12 players taking turns

Watch this to see what I'm talking about :

You should probably take a look at these two games too. But if you're planning to get only one party game (which is btw more than enough) then Warioware : Smooth Moves is the way to go.

2. Rayman Raving Rabbids
One thing about Rayman Raving Rabbids is that is 2-4 players only. The good thing is, every player uses their own Wii-remote. This simultaneous multiplayer gaming was missing in Warioware. This same is also funny and packed with mini games. One thing it enjoys is the use of 3d graphics. Get those evil Rabbids !!!

3. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Originally planned for the Gamecube, Super Monkey Ball is another fun party game designed by SEGA. Like the previous two games, its has lots of minigames and the graphics is pretty good too. Though controls seems quite difficult for me at times, but after getting the hang of it, it is quite fun. It does get boring after awhile as some mini game are repetitive. And single player mode is quite short. Not a bad buy if you are not planning to having friends over often.

Awesome Street Fighter IV Screenshots !

2008-02-09T06:16:00.000+08:00

Famitsu just released the latest screenshots of Street Fighter IV and it looks AMAZING ! I've just a few to show you what I mean.

More screenshots at Famitsu

Lost Odyssey - The game to watch out for in 2008

2008-02-09T04:41:00.000+08:00

Lost Odyssey is the latest Japanese RPG coming to the Xbox360. You play a man callled Kaim, who have lived for 1000 years. Basically he has eternal life or some sort. The game's story revolves around the many generations of which Kaim is a part, his loves and losses and conflicts.

The development of the game sees a gathering of famous Japanese developers. An all star team really. You have Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of Final Fantasy) as game producer, Kiyoshi Shigematsu (award-winning Japanese novelist) doing the story, Takehiko Inoue (famous comic book artist, creator of Slam Dunk !) doing character design and Nobuo Uematsu (the veteran Final Fantasy music composer) doing his magic with the music.

With all the big names in the industry, you can see how hard Xbox is trying to getting a foothold on the Japanese market with these RPGs.

Lost Odyssey has already been released in Japan. While release days for North America is February 12, 2008 and Europe is February 29, 2008.

For more info, check out the video review below (worth it ) :

Rumored changelog for Warcraft 3 1.22 Patch

2008-02-07T16:09:00.000+08:00

With all the hype for the soon to be released 1.22 Patch going on, I decided to put up this unconfirmed change log, from mymym.com . Of course, this is just the unconfirmed changelog as discussion with the esports teams and all are still going on. But from what it looks like Night Elf, my fav. race (not because its imba), it's going to go down when the patch is released. No...the once cheap Dryads !!! Whatever the case is, it welcome the new patch and extra features (esports, tourneys) as players need to rework their strategies.

Human
-Tank will use 4 food instead of 3 and will give +25xp
-flying machine flac cannon will cost 200g/175w instead of 100g/150w
-masonry resarch wont increase human tower Hp, but towers will have 600 basic HP
-Orb of fire splash damage changed: from +5 to 45% of hero's damage.

Night Elf
-Staff of preservation cost increased from 150 to 200, cooldown increased to 45sec
-chimaera will use 7 food instead of 5
-dryad will give +20% xp
-effect of orb of venom and dryads poison decreased to 50%

Orc
-spirit wolf HP will be 300/450/600 instead of 200/300/500
-speed scroll cannot be dispelled
-raider armor+1
-healing salves healing time decreased from 45sec to 25sec

Undead
-dk +3 agility
-all spell of casters will have reduced mana costs

and some non-confirmed changes:

Human:
-Archmage; Blizzard Mana cost increased to 85
-Bloodmage; Starting Agility Increased by 1
-Paladin; Divine Shield Duration Reduced to 12/24/36 Seconds from 15/30/45. The cooldown of this spell has also been decreased respectively
-Paladin; Devotion Aura also grants a 2/4/6% Chance to completely ignore damage on top of the Armor Bonus (This is introduced to make Devotion Aura used more often)
-Rifleman Hp Changed back to 525 Hp from 505
-Siege Engines no longer give experience for *buildings* they kill. This prevents a human player from literally 'creeping' off of a Night Elf base. Air units will still give EXP.
-Orb of Fire now also increases attack speed by 10%

Orc:
-Blademaster; Agility lowered by 1 at starting level
-Tauren Chieftain; Shockwave is now capped at 8 units of full damage (down from 12)
-Tauren Chieftain; Starting Strength and Intelligence increased by 1
-Farseer; Wolves now have about 15% extra life per level with Mana cost increased to 90
-Raider ensare now creates a Cooldown on the unit its cast called 'Careful Footing'. This cooldown lasts for 4 seconds after the ensnare wears off to prevent spamming.
-Spirit walkers are now completely immune to magic (including magic attack dmg) *ONLY* when in physical form. This change will actually make orcs be able to fight mass casters efficiently
-Orc shop now has a new item. Wand of Desperation (Tier 3, 100 gold). It has an AoE Dispel effect and has only 1 charge. It deals 400 Damage to Summoned units

Undead:
-Dread Lord; Carrion Swarm Mana Cost reduced to 100 from 110.
-Dread Lord; Vampiric Aura now has a 2%/4%/6% to cause 100% Life Leech by level(100% heal based off of melee dmg not full life heal) on
a melee attack
-Acolytes have a new passive ability called "Citadel Ritual". Whenever an acolyte is repairing a building it gains a temporary bonus +1 to armor. This is a cumulutive effect for each acolyte repairing and can stack up to 3 times. This can be very effective on meat wagons when sieging or when trying to save an undead gold mine.
-Ghoul Frenzy now also increases ghoul Life Regeneration by .5 and grants Ghouls a 5% Life Leech (Stacks with Vampiric Aura)
-Obsidian Statue build time increased to 60 from 45. Destroyer Form upgrade lowers Obsidian statue build time back to 45.
-Ziggurats (Non-upgraded) now have 2 armor up from 1.
-Necropolis Build time reduced to 105 from 120.

Night Elf:
-Keeper of the Grove; Thorns Aura now has a 2/4%/6% chance to stun any melee unit for 1 second when attacking by level
-Demon Hunter; Base Agility lowered by 1.
-Archers can now mount Hippogryphs without the upgrade, its a base ability.
-Glaive Thrower build time reduced to 45 seconds from 48.
-Chimaera build time reduced to 60 seconds from 65.
-Dryad Cost changed to 165/65 Gold/wood from 145/60.
-Druid of the Claw build time increased to 45 Seconds up from 35. Adept and Master DOC training reduces build time by 5 seconds each. Setting it back to 35 second build time after both trainings have been researched.
-Faerie Dragon Cost Reduced to 145 Gold from 155.
-Orb of Venom Lowered to 80 damage over 10 seconds.

Neutral:
-Alchemist; Acid bomb now slows units per level by speeds of 5%/10%/15% per level
-Alchemist; Healing wave now only heals enemy units by 50% while healing allied units by 100%
-Dark Ranger; All units that are Charmed now have a buff on them called "Charmed". You may on them called "Charmed". You may only have a maximum of 4 units charmed at a time. If you exceed that limit the lowest food costing charmed unit will become "Neutral Hostile" or a "Creep" and will attack you. If all the charmed units are the same food cost then it will judge by gold, and then wood. And if they
are all the same it will be randomly selected. Charmed units no longer add to your food supply cost as the Ranger feeds her minions herself.
-Firelord; Incinerate Mana cost reduced to 4 from 6.
-Firelord; Incinerate has a 10/15/20% Chance to cost Zero mana per level
-Naga; Mana shield grants spell immunity while active. (All magic attack units will be able to damage her still)
-Panda; Breath of Fire capped at 6 units for instant damage. However any unit that has haze will be ignited if hit by the fire even if it doesnt take the initial damage.
-Pitlord; Cleave now also increases Strength by 2/5/8 per Level
-Tinker; Cluster Rockets are no longer considered a magical attack. It is considered a siege attack so they are effected by armor and does extra and reduced damage accordingly. This should make this skill more viable vs. casters or to siege a base.
-Tinker; Cluster Rocket Damage increased to 40/80/120 by level.

Creeps:
-If creeps are chasing a target for more than 5 seconds they will automatically switch to another target if they do not land a successful blow. Also if they cannot hit a target for more than 5 seconds they gain a Temporary True sight ability also to prevent abuse.
-Creeps will attack nearby critters if the above is true and there are no other units than critters to attack. They have to take their anger out on something.

Source : mymym.com

Blizzard releases Warcraft 1.21b No-CD patch

2008-02-07T06:10:00.000+08:00

Yes, you heard it right. This morning, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise when my Warcraft 3 downloaded an update and when I saw the changelog... its a NO-CD patch !!!

Time to put away my scratched Warcraft 3 cd and this makes lan parties much much easier :)

If you still haven't already downloaded the patch, you can get it over here.

Cheers

Via Domus means the way home (LOST videogame trailer !)

2008-02-05T02:58:00.000+08:00

If you can't get enough of LOST, then you really gotta get this game. At first, I was kinda skeptical but looking at the trailer footage, I think LOST : Via Domus is an excellent game (superb graphics) that runs well together with the series. In the game, you play Elliott, a photojournalist with amnesia. With of course, all the original characters of LOST.

Do check out the trailers below and keep in mind the released date 26 February 2008 for the PC, Xbox360 and PS3.

Don't Forget Your DS Next Time You Go To Disney!

2008-02-04T04:44:00.001+08:00

Here is an article and the very first screens of the downloadable ds tour guide of the magical kingdom.....where can you download it?.....at the kingdom itself.....take a look at the screens and decide for yourself if its worth the effort!

read more | digg story

Rock Band will be coming to the Wii (confirmed) !

2008-02-04T04:34:00.001+08:00

During a conference call today, EA's CEO John Riccitiello casually referred to the "coming launch" of a Wii version of Harmonix's multi-instrumental music game Rock Band. Harmonix's Alex Rigopoulos has mentioned the possibility before, but this is the first official word from the publisher.

read more | digg story

X Hero Siege 3.30 by Sogat is out !

2008-02-03T04:41:00.000+08:00

Finally, an update to X Hero Siege has been released ! I can't seem to find any info about the changelog but from what it looks like I don't see much noticeable difference in the game play. There are of course, refinements to the game build which makes it look more slick. Other than that, nothing beats playing the latest version.

Do let me know if you notice any difference.

Download it here

Get Super Smash Bros. Brawl now !

2008-02-02T19:09:00.001+08:00

Can't wait for Super Smash Bros. Brawl to be released in the US ? Found some Japanese versions already on Ebay. Check them out.

By the way, I heard that this game would be one of the Best games you can get your hands one on the Wii. A perfect score from the Famitsu magazine says it all.

FYI, the Japan version would NOT play if you Wii isn't from Japan. Its region-locked. This info is for import gamers.

Snake versus Mario : Super Smash Bros Brawl is here !

2008-02-02T04:55:00.000+08:00

This is a really really cool trailer for the Super Smash Bros : Brawl game. Snake gets his mission which is to takeout Mario. Lol !

And Yoshi isn't off the hook too :P

If you are wondering when this game is gonna be released. It's already out in JAPAN ! And North America's launch date is set to March 9, 2008. The rest of the world ? Well... I think we still have to wait quite awhile for that.

Footmen Frenzy

2008-01-31T07:47:00.000+08:00

After playing DoTA and X Hero Siege for quite some time, it gets REAL boring. Another custom game that I'm currently into is Footmen Frenzy. Unlike Dota, Footmen frenzy has 4 teams and 3 players in a team, battling out at the center of the map. You still have a main hero with auto spawning footmen.

Of course, those footmen can be upgraded to stronger units. The vary strategy on how to play this game which upgrades focusing on the heroes (buying powerful items), increasing unit stats or even pooling all the money to a single player.

There are many many different version to Footmen Frenzy. In my opinion the most popular one is the Footmen Frenzy v5.2 -AR. If you looking for the map, you'll be able to download the latest ones from www.nohunters.com

And here is a clip to see what I'm taking about :

Merry Christmas !

2007-12-26T05:11:00.000+08:00

To all readers, Have a Wonderful Christmas this year ! (try to relive some old memories by playing Christmas NiGHTS ! )

Super Mario Galaxy Ad

2007-12-14T19:00:00.000+08:00

Check out the ad for the biggest game on Wii this Christmas

Naruto Shippuuden GNT EX2 - Excellent gameplay footage

2007-12-13T16:08:00.000+08:00

Watching this superb gameplay footage, really made me regret getting the PAL version of the Wii. Anyway, this is a really really cool Naruto game with Shippuuden characters and Wii-remote controls.

Top 10 Wii Games to get this Christmas

2007-12-10T18:21:00.001+08:00

1. Super Mario Galaxy
If you can only buy one game this Christmas, then get this game ! Gameplay, graphics and the storyline are top class. Possibly the best game on the Wii so far.

2. Guitar Hero 3
3. Resident Evil 4
4. DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3
5. Medal of Honor Heroes 2
6. Soulcalibur Legends
7. Link's Crossbow Training
8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
9. Super Paper Mario
10.Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution

Why is PAL games most expensive ?

2007-12-09T20:09:00.000+08:00

My biggest mistake was getting my SEGA Saturn in London. It was PAL ! and certainly more expensive than Japan or US versions.

I made the same mistake again by getting a PAL version of the Wii. (I thought it was region free)
Games cost about $100 NZ here while in Singapore for the US version it cost about S$70. What going on ? Certainly EU gamers have been getting the worst treatment in the videogames industry by having more expensive consoles and system plus games take ages for the to be released in PAL version compared to their US / Japan releases.

So it you are now thinking of importing a Wii instead of buying the PAL version, check out this useful guide : http://www.nintendolife.com/features/importing_wii_guide

Top 10 Fighting games

2007-12-08T18:14:00.000+08:00

Although I agree with most of it. Where in the world is King of Fighters ?