Skye

Not that much of a nerf in general, and arguably a buff - the slow has the same effectiveness as the ministun, generally "stalling" the enemy when they try to close distance against you or try to flee from your attack range. 0.25 seconds of not moving will roughly equate to 0.5 seconds of moving half as fast. The same applies to the attack speed effect. The reason for the change is because Sniper easily countered heroes with channeling spells (Enigma, Bane, etc.) where most heroes have to invest a stunning spell or an item to do so. Bear in mind that Assassinate still mini-stuns, so a prepared Sniper can still cancel out channeled threats - it just means he can't get some lucky headshot and shut them off without much effort. ...Oh, and this.

Everyone will find something to be upset about. It's inescapable, and only as a result of the very high quality - and thus, very high standards - that DOTA merits. From my average player perspective, I love the patch overall anyway. Even the stuff I find questionable is most likely not the case - between me and Icefrog, I think Icefrog has your vote. It's a shame that with every patch, everyone becomes an armchair-game-designer and calls OP and UP after approximately four to five seconds of thought. (And yeah, I could do with Tobi spilling less salt in my Twitter feed. Whatever, it's drama, I'll ignore it and it'll settle down by next week.)

Well, you called it. Basic summary: Shadow Fiend remodel and Arcana. Treasure Chest with a set for Naga Siren, Omniknight, Mirana, Outworld Devourer, Spectre, and Magnus, along with a rare chance for a Lycan set, and a very rare Mini Nova courier. Several map changes, most notably some new alternate paths, ward spots, and the Roshan Pit is now moved to the side of the rune as opposed to above it. New rune; Bounty, which gives some XP and Gold. Two runes spawn each two minutes instead of one; one of these runes will always be a Bounty rune.# Glyph refreshes every time a Tier 1 tower is destroyed. Ranked All Pick now has a turn-based mechanic, similar to the All Draft concept (without the banning mechanic.) Lots of changes to heroes, obviously. Some particular ones: Bloodseeker reworked. Bloodrage no longer silences and deals damage over time, but instead amplifies damage taken and received. Blood Bath removed completely, replaced with Blood Rite; a 3-second-delay area of effect spell that damages and silences enemies. Changes to the numbers and little touches to Thirst and Rupture. Phantom Lancer reworked. Doppelwalk replaced with Phantom Rush, a passive with a cooldown that grants bonus movement speed and phasing to PL and his illusions when he attacks someone outside his attack range. New ability, Doppelganger, targets an area and "shuffles" PL and nearby illusions while creating two more illusions. Juxtapose is now his ultimate and replaces Phantom Edge. Bloodseeker and Phantom Lancer both removed from Captain's Mode because of their reworks. Aghanim's Scepter Fiend's Grip now also causes anyone who attacks Bane while he is channeling to be afflicted with Nightmare. Searing Arrows is no longer an Attack Modifier. Vacuum cooldown rescaled from 28 seconds to 28 seconds. Haha. Chronosphere and non-upgraded Doom no longer disable passive abilities. Earth Spirit Aghanim's Scepter: Grants Earth Spirit a new ability, Enchant Remnant, which lets him temporarily convert a hero into a Stone Remnant. Elder Titan Aghanim's Scepter: Causes units that are pulled in by Earth Splitter to be disarmed in addition to being slowed. Slow/disarm duration increased from 3/4/5 to 4/5/6. The following abilities no longer cancel Blade Fury: Chronosphere, Toss, Black Hole, Global Silence, Doom. Legion Commander and Terrorblade enabled in Captain's Mode. Shapeshift now has a 1.5 seconds transformation time. Ogre Magi's base HP regeneration increased from 0.25 to 2.5. Phoenix Aghanim's Scepter: Allows Phoenix to cast Supernova on an allied hero, bringing both into the Sun to be reborn together. This does not refresh either hero's ultimate. 500 cast range. If the Sun is destroyed, both heroes will die. Life Drain can now be targeted on allies, allowing Pugna to drain his own life into them. Riki's Permanent Invisibility is now a basic ability, and Blink Strike is now his ultimate. Numbers adjusted to reflect thusly. Sven Aghanim's Scepter: While activated, God's Strength grants an allied aura (900 area of effect) for 40/60/80% of base damage. TIME TO GET PUMPED Timbersaw Aghanim's Scepter: Grants Timbersaw a second Chakram. Treant Protector Aghanim's Scepter: Grants a new ability, Eyes in the Forest, which allows Treant to enchant trees to spy on his enemies and expand the area Overgrowth affects. Also item changes. BKB charges cannot be refreshed by buying a new one. Bloodstone now uses Soul Ring as an ingredient instead of Perseverance. Butterfly has an active use, which temporarily removes the evasion and grants bonus movement speed. New item; Crimson Guard. Created by combining a Vanguard, Buckler, and 825 gold recipe. Has an active that gives bonus armor and 50 damage reduction to user and nearby allies for 9 seconds. 70 second cooldown. Ethereal Blade's active is now a projectile (which moves at 1100 speed.) Flying Courier moves faster, but speed burst is weaker. Blink Dagger slightly more expensive, while Teleport Scroll slightly cheaper.

Did chapter six of Fire Emblem : Awakening (in which .) Finally getting into the swing of things, even on the Hard mode (though I'm still sticking with the Newcomer setting - Classic sounds like something for a second playthrough, where you know the intricacies and potential of each unit.) It's a lot more fun now that more of the game's features are open to me. The optional Risen and Spotpass fights give me a means of leveling up weaker units (although some fights are too high level for me), the shops let me use the gold earned from those fights to further improve units that I feel need to shape up a bit, and having more units to choose from gives me more flexibility in missions. For the sixth chapter, I saw the three chokepoints and decided for half the squad to be frontline fighters, and half the squad to be ranged fighters or healers. Simple and effective - only lost one unit in the fight (and that's because I'm at the stage where Donnel is a Magikarp.) Not to say it was a pushover though, as a few units came very close (I recall that Kellam cheated death almost three times as he blocked that staircase like the bro he is.) I think my earlier frustration came from the fact that, in the early game, you have little choice but to just do the next mission, and without optional battles, shops, or Spotpass features, it can be a sharp incline to get over. I understand that it was probably to help prevent players from feeling overwhelmed early on, though it did make things too linear and static (at least for my taste) as a consequence. Having lots more fun now, though. Also I want a full show based on these cutscenes. They're gorgeous and so is Lucina. Thank you for your advice, fellas. x + 2

Oh, and Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will have a hard mode.

I love Gravity Falls, in case this was ever unclear.

So does Call of Duty.

Sounds nice to the enthusiast, but alienating to the newcomer. I'll pass. I know, I'm being nothing but a moaner recently, but I keep trying new games and nothing's pushing any buttons. At this rate, I'm desperate enough to consider getting Destiny.

Funny, did that today as well. Whole lot of running around, not knowing what to do, where to go, and how exactly I'm meant to have fun for me. Just kept getting into these enormous clusterfucks and getting killed by people who had triple-digit "ranks" and the game was telling me about "ribbons" and "certs" and I had no goddamn idea what it meant so I gave up.

Love the Engrish on this upcoming Steam title.

So, what, is that #freehoxton thing going to be a new class or is someone blowing sunshine up my arse? (I love that phrase.)

As long you dont create Payday 2 cheats Payday 2 cheats run on Lua? Huh. Only games I know with modding that works in Lua is Garry's Mod and Roblox.

First line was pretty blunt (I have beaten Sacred Swords and all the Advance Wars game, you know) but all that advice was very useful. Pairing up and switching in and out at the best times was the thing causing me the most trouble - the game explains pairing up as just bonuses, which you can get by just standing alongside each other, so I was unaware of its practical uses until now. I was also unaware of Chrom's increased Dual Strike chance (so I paired Donnel with him and he carried him well) and I didn't know about terrain bonuses. Helped me get Donnel, so that's at least one step on the road. Thanks a lot, dude. lrn2giffadviceliekjordaxplz

Now completely stuck in Fire Emblem: Awakening. I can't beat the current chapter, I can't beat any of the side stories, I can't beat any of the Spotpass teams, and I have run out of gold to buy items. I've even reduced the difficulty to Normal (read: Easy) and I still can't escape from these first few chapters. I don't even get this. I beat Sacred Stones without too much difficulty, but Awakening seems completely intent on grabbing me by the dick and twisting it into a pretzel knot every time I boot it up. EDIT: Started again, again. Turn 2 of the very first mission, hiding everyone in the corner of the map to stay out of range for as long as possible. Bandits close the distance anyway, so an axe bandit runs in and critical-hits Robin in one hit. Game over. I'm tempted to start again again again and get a game over during the opening cutscene somehow. EDIT EDIT: Powered my way back to the chapter giving me trouble, where you fight the masked "Marth" in a colosseum to make the people from the north happy. Went perfectly fine for most of the turns, nobody died, careful positioning and such, and only Robin and Sumia have some minor scratches. Marth runs out to fight in the middle of the arena, and I put Frederick in front because he's a nice big wall of meat. Marth goes down to about 3 or 4 health after some beatdowns, while I have to bring Robin and Lysia to meet halfway to each other so they can get some healing done, putting them juuust within Marth's range. Then comes Marth's turn. Marth runs past Frederick. Marth runs past Chrom. Marth runs past Lissa. Marth runs past Miriel. Marth runs past Sumia. Marth runs at Robin. Marth gets a crit and kills Robin in one hit. GAME OVER aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

I've just started my lessons in Lua. I have no idea how I feel about it.

I feel like I'm playing Fire Emblem Awakening wrong. I'm on the Hard difficulty (which is actually normal, given Normal is Easy and Lunatic is Hard) and I'm on the Casual setting, and the game is still going out of its way to make things as difficult as possible. The AI is dead set on going for either Robin or the healers, completely ignoring all other units and just ganging up on those in particular, forcing me to pair them to keep them safe and ultimately making them useless during battles (de-pairing takes a turn and the AI goes back to sending four units all at once to skewer Lissa on a lance and wave her corpse around like a flag.) The only units that seems competent in battle are Robin (since I pump all my resources into keeping them alive, given the "Robin dies, instant game over" thing) and Frederick, who can only be in so many places at once. I rarely get through any of these battles with more than half the units I started with, most of them being picked clean because they're underleveled and the only way to level them is, well, to use them in battles - all of which seem to be above their pay grade. I ragequit during the first sidequest, where some twerp called Donnel needs to gain a level or he won't join us, and this game apparently doesn't let you have do-overs - if you missed something in a map or thought you could have done it better for more experience or something, too bad. Within the first two turns, Lissa and Maribella are down as every unit bumrushed them and took them down in a single fight, and then the second I try to use Donnel so he can get some experience, he goes down in literally one hit from an archer like an utter wuss. *inhale* I know I'm playing the game wrong somehow, but the game isn't giving me any feedback and we're at this low point in history where game manuals don't exist anymore and they're tiny leaflets they throw in the box to say what the controls are. I'm so confused.

Any multiplayer progression systems that people like? You know, the stuff that Call of Duty or Killzone does. I can't really think of any, excluding the arguable case of TF2 and DOTA2 (wherein investing time and/or money gets you hats, which serve as a visible "trophy" for your commitment to the game, albeit it's an esoteric one since it doesn't actually involve so much "progression".)

Later on, possibly. Right now, I'm fucking scrounging for cash because of this "you need the skill points AND the money for this skill" thing. It hardly seems like a waste to me at this point. Maybe later when money becomes "useless", sure, I'll trade that in for something more practical, but I took the skill for the same reason as getting more XP from heists - efficiency. Also money being "useless later on" doesn't sound very good to me. I thought the whole point of the game was to make money...

I'll keep that in mind the next time I go time traveling.

BREAKING NEWS MAN ENJOYS SAVING MONEY

Just once I'd like to actually play a heist in this game. As in, not get kicked halfway as we're 7 out of 8 bags without any explanation. And WOO, no experience or money. God damn, I want to like this game, but it really hates me for some reason.

You're not exactly painting "the proper mode" in any bright colors with the whole "I wasted an hour because of a single mistake" thing. Not exactly a bullet point on the back of the box, that... I'll stay with casual until I'm... not a casual.

List of things I hate: 1. People called Johnny. 2. Guitars. 3. Land mines. Also beat Dead Money and about halfway through Honest Hearts. Truthfully, as much as I dreaded Dead Money and was warned of its Tomb of Horrors style, I actually prefer it over Honest Hearts thus far. I mean, yeah, the survival horror genre shift it goes for wasn't fun since horror is my least favorite genre, plus the companions weren't very interesting and/or likable (excluding Christine, and only because she was kind of cute when she was mute and made me feel smart with my Intelligence checks.) Top that with the sadistic level design and the villain with the vaguest motivation in the world (something about wanting to destroy the Mojave because... I don't know?) and it seems awful. But here's something that Dead Money is; memorable. And by God, all I've done in Honest Hearts so far is walk around, look at rivers, occasionally shoot a tribal guy, and then more walking. The scenery is kind of nice sometimes, but man, I already feel my attention span dwindling. At least Dead Money had an interesting setting and enemies. Honest Hearts thus far is Joshua Graham aaaaaaaaand dudes in loincloths punching each other in a canyon. I'm hooked. At least the trailers suggest that Old World Blues and Lonesome Road really step things up. I've barely heard any bad things about them.

I want to join Moby in the "everything's just cool and not controversial and we're going to play video games instead of get angry about them" box. At least, that's what I'm calling it. I'm not sure if a mere peasant such as myself is allowed in his fancy boxes.