Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Mark Casino
Customize Skills with Runestones in Diablo III
Blizzard wants players to be able to have the option to highly customize their characters in Diablo III. In order to accomplish this lofty goal, Blizzard has introduced Runestones. Runestones are used in order to augment your skills. Each class has 20+ Skills and players are allowed access to seven of those Skills at any one time.
There are five types of Runestones: crimson, indigo, obsidian, golden, and alabaster. In addition to the different types of colors, Runestones also come in different ranks of power. The higher the rank, the better effect on the skills it is attached to. Each of the Runestone’s effects vary depending on what skill you actually attach it to. For instance, the crimson Runestone will enhance a barbarian’s Whirlwhind Attack to cause rocks to fly in every direction, dealing area of effect damage. The same crimson Runestone will cause the witch doctor’s Acid Cloud spell to cause immediate damage instead of its original damage over time effect.
To see videos on how Runestones alter your Skills, head on over to the official Diablo III website.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Diablo III
Lara Croft is shipwrecked in the Tomb Raider E3 trailer
The gritty reboot of Tomb Raider finally has a trailer. The people at Eidos felt that Lara Croft was more of a super hero figure and wanted to create a more vulnerable Lara in this reboot. In essence, think of this as similar to Batman Begins. In the Batman movies, the superhero is portrayed as this unstoppable paragon of justice. Batman Begins analyzes the story of how he had to overcome his fears to be the nearly invulnerable Dark Knight. As such, this Tomb Raider reboot focuses on Lara just after she graduated college. She is taking in the world with a sense of wonder and she is very, very vulnerable. Eidos has stated that they are not afraid to let Lara die; there will be plenty of moments in the game where a gruesome death awaits our fledgling adventurer.
Tomb Raider will be part of Square Enix’s E3 showing next week.
Batman: Arkham City takes at least 25 hours to complete
Sefton Hill, the game director of Batman: Arkham City at Rocksteady, recently talked to The Guardian about the game. During the lengthy interview, Hill discussed the Arkham City’s narrative and revealed a few details about the game’s length:
“It takes over 25 hours to complete the main stories in Batman: Arkham City. To keep players engaged for this length of time, not only do the characters and the story need to progress, but the core mechanics of the game they are playing need to change and adapt as well.”
He also mentions that there’s at least 15 hours of side quest content to this dark sequel. Yes, Arkham City is loaded with over 40 hours of gameplay; which is much more than its predecessor.
Batman: Arkham City will be relased for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 October 21.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City
Hideo Kojima answers E3-related questions
The man with the master plan, Hideo Kojima, has answered some very important E3 related questions in the latest Kojima Productions podcast. For all of us who don’t understand Japanese, here’s a translation of the important part of the podcast:
Question: “Will you appear at the Microsoft E3 press conference?”
Answer: No
Question: “Will you announce Metal Gear Solid 5?”
Answer: No
Question: “Will Metal Gear Solid 3D be released at the end of 2011?”
Answer: Yes
Question: “Is Doctor Lautrec the new title from the Metal Gear staff?”
Answer: No (with a laugh)
Question: “Did Kojima Productions not work on Metal Gear Arcade?”
Answer: Yes
Question: “Is Gray Fox the main character in Metal Gear Solid: Rising?”
Answer: No
Question: “Will Metal Gear Solid: Rising’s multiplayer be shown?”
Answer: No
Question: “Is Metal Gear Solid: Rising’s release date November 1, 2011?”
Answer: No
Question: “Will Metal Gear Solid 4 be ported to NGP?”
Answer: No
Question: “Are you planning something big for Metal Gear’s 25th anniversary next year?” Answer: Yes
Also note that Hideo Kojima has confirmed he will not appear at E3 this year, so don’t expect any Metal Gear news at the big show.
Street Fighter X Tekken: Julia is New Challenger #3
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time again to receive yet another obvious character tease announcement for Street Fighter X Tekken.
If you haven’t figured it out, it’s Julia from the Tekken series . Other characters that have been added to the roster are Sagat and Cammy. Is it just me or are these character reveals not as exciting as the ones for games such as the Marvel vs. Capcom series and Smash Bros Brawl series? Perhaps this is because we know for a fact that the only characters in this game will be from either Street Fighter or Tekken and that Capcom is not afraid to release a fighter with a 56-character roster list. Because Capcom has not released any word of the character roster limit, we may very well see almost every character from both the Street Fighter and Tekken universes.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter X Tekken
BlizzCon 2011 tickets go on sale tomorrow
BlizzCon, Blizzard’s premiere convention, will be taking place in the Anaheim Convention Center from October 21-22. This second batch of tickets will go on sale on May 25 at 7 PM Pacific Time (the initial batch sold out quickly on May 21st). Take note that these tickets get Zerg rushed pretty fast so you best be ready to purchase them at a moment’s notice.
If you miss out on tomorrow, your only other chance at securing a ticket is by purchasing a benefit dinner ticket. All proceeds of this benefit dinner will go to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. During this dinner, guests will have the opportunity to chat it up with Blizzard developers, executives, and other higher-ups. These tickets will go on sale on Saturday, May 28 at 10 AM Pacific Time and this includes BlizzCon admission.
Normal tickets cost $175 while the benefit dinner tickets cost $500. Blizzard did say that they are working on a completely new MMO. Thus, this year’s Blizzcon may showcase that new MMO… Which will probably be released in 2020.
In order to garner these tickets, head on over to the BlizzCon site.
Dragon Age III is looking for environment artists
So the announcement that Dragon Age III is in development isn’t exactly shocking, but it is good to see that BioWare is starting to work on the game. The company’s Senior Director of Creative Development, Alistair McNally, recently tweeted that he’s looking for environment artists:
I’m looking for exceptional environment artists to join me at #BioWare Edmonton, Canada to work on #DragonAge3 #gamejobs #jobs #3D #artists
Does this sound like something that’s up your alley? If so, head on over to the BioWare website to apply.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Dragon Age: Inquisition
Choose the Mega Man suit design that you want to see in Mega Man Legends 3
One of the cool aspects of Mega Man Legends 3 is the fact that Capcom is letting fans help design the game. If you haven’t gotten a chance to meet Aero, the new heroine chosen by those fans, take a look at her at the Capcom Unity blog.
As for Mega Man’s suit design, Capcom is offering up two choices. You can choose which one you think is cooler at the Mega Man Legends 3 Devroom.
Unfortunately, Capcom is delaying the release of Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version, the paid demo of the game that was set to premiere in June alongside the opening of the 3DS eShop. A new release date hasn’t been announced yet but Capcom is asking gamers to “Please wait just a little longer!“
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Mega Man Legends 3