GameGeex

Ships will sail, supply lines will be cut, and a murderous Warchief will be brought to justice -- all this and more rounds out Mists of Pandaria when Patch 5.3 lands in the World of Warcraft on May 21st.  From the very moment I learned about the culminating battle of this expansion I have been on pins and needles for its arrival.  Yes I love new worlds, but story progression in Azeroth is really what makes my heart pitter patter.  

This patch will come with some really interesting content, including four new scenarios,  a new battleground, a new arena, a world event -- and that doesn't even include the new Heroic Scenarios available or the Escalation questline.  There's all sorts of things you can do to get ready for this content, including getting yourself to ilevel 480 or above.  If you are still chugging away on the Wrathion quests (you're not the only one *shamed*) you will still need to complete everything up until patch 5.2 in order to reveal the next step in the story.  This means you won't miss out on anything, but you will probably have to mute your friends in guild chat who decide they need to "share."  Or hire a hitman -- whichever is more your style.

We have only a few short days until Escalation lands on the shores of Durotar.  Yes the Pandaren have taught us that war only leads to bad things, but that was only on Pandaria right?  Nothing bad could happen when we decide to bring war back to Kalimdor, right?  Right?

Probably one of the biggest questions in all of League of Legends: What do junglers do when all the lanes are losing?

This is actually a scenario I’ve come across more often than not, especially when I’m jungling (seems to always happen, right?). It’s a situation where all hope is lost, the flame wars begin, and trolls come out of hiding. Obviously, if you have the drive and desire to win, you at least want to know the best possible move to make. Perhaps you can even put some morale back into your team. I’m going to list down all your options and what doing them can potentially do for your team.

Do you like Batman? Do you like Arkham City? Do you like Deathstroke? HOW ABOUT ALL THREE TOGETHER!?

The game comes out on October 25th, 2013. For now, enjoy the teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins. Epic live action or Amazing CGI? You decide. Click the jumper for the trailer.

It was announced that Warren Spector, the developer who brought us Deus Ex and Epic Mickey, will personally work with Blizzard Entertainment's Chief Operations Office, Paul Sams, in order to oversee a gaming program at the University of Texas, Austin. This isn't just a normal game development class, folks. Students who graduate will receive a postbaccalaureate certificate rather than a graduate degree which has less restrictions and what I assume would be additional bragging rights and win-points.

I'm not feeling so hot right now. Obviously Carbine Studios knew I needed a lift and so they sent me this little gem in my email:  The second installment of the WildStar DevSpeak video series.  The first one was on housing, and all the slick things the developers are planning to make player housing a core feature to the MMO.  This episode focuses on movement, and while movement may seem basic, the design decisions made about what movement mechanics to add to the game deeply influence how a game is played and what content it can offer.  

Hit the jump to watch the video. What up.

I don't know where this is from, but it's awesome:  Evidently there's a convention that recently happened where fans were able to pose for a picture with Nathan Fillion.  This particular entry just proves how amazing the guy really is.  It turns out that after all that saving Link never gets to be with Zelda -- Fillion nabs her and gives him what for in return.  Hit the jump to the image so amazing I had to share it.  

League of Legends is commonly seen as "just another MOBA." However, the range of depth and story behind the onslaught of champions and minions alike is over-looked by many. Each character has it's own unique lore and in the grand scheme of things, you could probablly fit multiple RPG titles in LoL's expanded universe. Riot Games has finally given us a taste of this greater outside world by revamping the Howling Abyss to represent Freljord, the wore-torn icy tundra.

The new All-Random-All-Mid map is really well-done visually but why stop there? Riot went above and beyond to immerse players in their world so they needed good music to go with their theme. This video was released recently and shows us the making of the piece behind the conflict of the three sister tribes and boy does it give me goosebumps. Hopefully, we'll see mroe from Riot's vision here soon.

Just another MOBA? I think not. Check out the video below and tell us what you think of Freljord.

Finally, some good news regarding my favorite frachise! Electronic Arts has signed an exclusive deal with Disney to bring the world more Star Wars video games. Pinch me i'm dreaming!

"Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe," EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said in a statement. "Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise."

I had a feeling someone was going to buy the rights to Star Wars following the reconstruction of LucasArts into a liscensing company but I didn't think it was going to be EA. Even though they did bring us Knight of the Old Republic, which is arguablly one of the most highly-acclaimed games of the decade, they also brought us the expensive disaster everyone knows to be The Old Republic. May mean a lot to some of you, but not much to me because the writers of the game were excellent but I can't say they did a good job making a full-on MMO.

So what do you guys think of this move? Perhaps we'll seem some horror-based games come out of Visceral *Cough* "Death Trooper" *Cough* and perhaps the revival of First Assault via DICE? Oh the ideas! I just hope everything doesn't have to be Disney approved... Since you know, there is a dark side to Star Wars after all. No pun intended.

Microsoft has announced that they will let us know the details of their next gen Xbox console on May 21st, but recent Internet domain purchases may have already let the cat out of the bag.  It seems that Microsoft has purchased a slew of URLs containing the name "Xbox Fusion."  Does this mean that we have stumbled upon the name of the next console?  And if so, what does that mean?  Let's look a little at what this word signifies:

Fusion  (noun)

 

1. the act or process of fusing; the state of being fused.

 

2.that which is fused; the result of fusing: A ballet production is the fusion of many talents.

 

3.Politics.

 

a.a coalition of parties or factions.

 

b.( initial capital letter  ) the political party resulting from such a coalition.

 

4.Also called nuclear fusion. Physics. a thermonuclear reaction in which nuclei of light atoms join to form nuclei of heavier atoms, as the combination of deuterium atoms to form helium atoms.

Fusion is most commonly referred to when we talk about the combination of things that when joined together become inseparable.   The new creation is often stronger than the two things that went into making it.  Also, nuclear fusion - the combining of atoms rather than the splitting of them is supposed to be both much more powerful and much safer than the destructive force we use to generate nuclear power today.

The subject of gaming piracy is one people don't really talk about these days.  Sure, gamers lament, sometimes incredibly loudly, DRM and "always online" practices, claiming that their rights and freedoms are being taken away.  But very little is said from the game makers themselves about what a toll piracy takes on their business.  

Enter Greenheart Games, who released Game Dev Tycoon this week.  While a standard game release announcement isn't all that interesting this one is, because Greenheart created two versions of the game -- the standard one, and a cracked copy they themselves uploaded to The Pirate Bay (a site I will not be linking to, by the way).  Over 90% of the game's downloads that first day were from the pirating site, and those 3000 odd players received some interesting additions to their version of the game when they played it.

First, the members of the gaming company start talking about how dangerous piracy is to their business.  And suddenly your funds begin to dwindle as most of the games you produce are they themselves pirated.  Ultimately your game company runs out of funds and is forced to close.  The ultimate irony is that some players went online looking for help on how to beat the game since they kept running out of money and losing -- from piracy.