Dota 2- Phoenix

SCREE! SQAWRK!

I've been playing a lot of Phoenix lately and the more I play the hero, the more I realize just how much damage Phoenix is capable of outputting. Phoenix is a ranged strength hero and acts as an initiator, tank, nuker and to an extent, an escape hero. His early to mid-game presence is powerful, especially in team fights. Phoenix is what I like to call a do-shit hero: as early as level two, Phoenix holds the potential to set up and secure kills.

Icarus Dive- This is your basic initiation skill: you press the button, select a point on the ground, and Phoenix swoops in, burning and slowing any enemy caught in his path. Also note that you can activate items and use your other skills while mid-flight. You can also stop your dive at any point by pressing the key again.

Fire Spirits- Primary damage source of Phoenix, Fire Spirits are not something to underestimate. Damage scales 40/120/200/280 over four seconds, so on paper, Phoenix has the ability to do 160 magic damage at level one and 1120 damage at level four Fire Spirits to a single target, not mentioning the AoE effect of Fire Spirits. On top of that huge amount of damage, the hits also reduce attack speed.

Sun Ray- Deals damage based on your max HP, this skill is best left to be leveled up last. After building some tank items, Sun Ray really helps Phoenix against enemy tank heroes. Don't forget that Sun Ray drains your health to use and that the skill also heals allies caught in the beam.

Supernova- Your very own panic button, if need be. You turn into an immobile collapsing star that deals damage over time to enemies in an AoE which stuns anyone caught in range after the star explodes. Phoenix emerges with full health, mana, and reset cooldowns for his minor skills. The star can only be destroyed via enemy hero right clicks.

Phoenix is superb in big team fights: Icarus Dive in, apply Fire Spirits to enemy heroes, and then Supernova on top of them. Supernova forces the enemy team to either back off or focus you down, and while that's happening, your teammates have a lot of room to act. His skills also make him a formidable ganker. Icarus Dive on top of an unsuspecting enemy and let your teammates back you up.

Phoenix also holds quite a fair amount of solo kill potential if you should choose to. Icarus Dive, Fire Spirits, and Supernova are very synergistic skills which throws Phoenix right in the middle of the action, all while dealing tremendous amounts of damage.

no cosmetics yet 0/10 would play

Items wise, I really like Tranquil Boots and Urn of Shadows in the early game. These two items provide Phoenix with some pretty neat HP regen and armor as well as even more utility in team fights. Wand is also a good pickup: if you're ganking and team fighting a lot, chances are you're going to be running into a lot of enemy spells and the burst health/mana can be the difference between you getting your ultimate off or not. Force Staff can offer further utility and survivability. Moreover, Phoenix is a good candidate for carrying a Mekansm as his skills aren't mana intensive and the bonus armor only serves to make him more tanky.

Towards the late game, I really like grabbing a Shiva's Guard and using it in conjunction with Icarus Dive. As well as survivability, Shiva's Guard also provides even more team fight power. Because items can be used mid-dive, you can activate Shiva's Guard, enter a dive, and catch many enemies within the Shiva's Guard blast radius.

That being said, Phoenix does run into problems when it comes to chain-stuns and silences that stop the casting of spells. You're also pretty much a sitting duck when your skills are on cooldown. Being out of position without your skills removes much of Phoenix's damage potential should a fight break out.

Phoenix is a really versatile hero. He can support the safe lane, go in the offlane, or even go mid depending on the match-up. Icarus Dive boasts a great range and can be used to force fights from quite a distance away. In the early game, pick up your Tranquil Boots quickly and look to use your Fire Spirits to harass the enemy, diving in on them when they are at low health. With some teammates as backup, Phoenix can easily play aggressively and place a lot of pressure on enemy heroes, and help to snowball your carries out of control.

TF2- RE: "Get your priorities sorted please."

Browsing the Steam Team Fortress 2 forums, I came across this post: 

"tl;dr version: TF2 is Valve's cash cow but they treat it like a decommissioned farm animal that is ready for the transformation from cow to beef, which is a thing that needs to change."

The post refers to the recent Spring Cleaning update Dota 2 received (fixed many major and minor bugs, balanced and tweaked some skills, and added some new interface changes) and laments about how TF2 has been relatively neglected. 

Team Fortress 2 is a mess right now, no doubt about it. There are some serious bugs in the game: invisible players, people showing wrong team colors, clipping issues, floating cosmetics, medigun beams flying everywhere, particles being stuck, wrong sounds playing, etc.

The game did make a lot of money last year in micro transaction sales, but I would wager that most of the income came from keys and MvM tickets and vouchers. Much of the focus in TF2 has been concentrated in MvM for awhile now with the scarce content updates being added in. Team Fortress 2 has aged really well, but that doesn't mean the game isn't aging. It's been 7 years now, and the game has changed dramatically. 

It's not that the developers don't care about the game, it's just that the game is old. Nobody wants to stick around on a project that can't exactly innovate new technologies or techniques in video game design. For the most part, TF2 is Valve's playground for testing out new community features and then applying features which work to games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive or Dota 2. 

It's fun, it's exciting, but TF2, for better or worse, is slowly being nudged out of the limelight- it's actually been that way for at least a year now. With the coming End of the Line update and the moonbase update, TF2 is still holding on. The communities that exist are still dedicated and active and the competitive scene is relatively healthy. And remember, there's always one thing you can do: keep playing.

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Dust: An Elysian Tail is an action RPG fighting game developed by indie studio Humble Hearts and published by Microsoft Studios. Originally for the Xbox Live Arcade, the game has since then been released for Windows, OS X, and Linux and is available through digital distributors GoG (DRM free) and Steam.

dust to dust, get it? get it? themes!

This is a game that came out way back in August 2012 on the Xbox Live Arcade and in May 2013 for Windows and wow is it a pretty game. 

You play as Dust, an amnesia wrecked half-past hero who wields ultimate powers of beat-the-shit-out-of-everything granted by his sentient sword Ahrah. Accompanying Dust and Ahrah is a nimbat (a quick Google search yielding not too much) named Fidget. Together, you'll traverse the world of Falana and help or beat up anthropomorphic animals and monsters of various convictions, slowly unraveling just who you are and just what kind of horrible things you did in the past.

i'm glad they had full voice acting

The gameplay of Dust: An Elysian Tail is solid. The game's combat meshes well with the RPG elements in the game: chain combos together to yield more experience, use experience to progress your character. Attributes include max health, damage, defense, luck, the usual. The game doesn't go out of its way to innovate in the traditional RPG mix, rather relying on what has worked- it's simple and effectively executed in Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Dust: An Elysian Tail beholds a picturesque aesthetic that reminded me of Bastion. The post processing effects of the game add a new dimension to the presentation: wind, water, and weather effects all seem to jump into life. The world also boasts healthy amount of variety: Dust, Fidget and Ahrah will traverse large plains and mountains, ominous underground caverns, and dark forests, all complete with their own themes and styles.

vwooshzheeooshzoozoosh

Sound design for the game also compounds the the painterly graphics. The amount of detail in the sound work was astonishing- Dust's footsteps echoed as he stepped in puddles in caves and smoothly transitioned as he exited. The game also displays the work of HyperDuck Soundworks and Alexander Brandon in a fitting soundtrack that mirrors moments of peace and action. The game's overarching aesthetics combines elements of eastern and western fantasy to provide a vivid and rich experience.

that guy is australian

How combat plays out reflects the aesthetics of the game marvelously- I would argue they are the crown jewels of the game. Combat is sleek and fast, heavy hits and explosions are mirrored by crescendos in the music, and the animations are gorgeous and responsive. I also enjoyed the ARPG component of the game where some levels would pit Dust against many enemies at once- it is so satisfying to chain over 300 hits together and blow everything up. Dust's combos are easy to pick up but have a high skill ceiling if you plan to use them all in a devastating combination, but for the most part you'll be fine using maybe two or three. 

 hud can be moved and scaled

Puzzle elements are also present in the game. There are many hidden secrets and treasures marked on the map for players to find and some of them can prove to be challenging. The game utilizes puzzle elements to seal off areas for until Dust has unlocked a certain ability and manages to pace the game well and prevent the player from being overwhelmed. They also provide a reason to go back to completed areas to seek out those treasures usually consisting of money, items, and sometimes even better.

If I had to pan the game for any reason, it'd most likely be the writing. Dust: An Elysian Tail explores redemption and mercy as well as undertones discussing racism and genocide and I think the script did a good job of keeping things fair and representative. The game even talks about how at times, even one's best cannot avert disaster, but it only matters that one gives one's best, even if only to inspire others. So where's the problem? you may ask. 

let me play the game fidget

I felt the script held some awkward, unfitting fourth wall breaking moments. Fidget also will stop all gameplay just to say things like "What is that?" or "Ahhh! Scary monster!" It interrupts the flow of combat and I'd much rather prefer the dialog to play in-game instead of having to stop everything for two lines of Fidget talking. The characters in the game are many and varied and for the most part you're going to love them or you'll hate them. Some are just horrendously awkward but you'll get the chance to get to know everyone as Dust travels across the land and some will grow on you.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is masterfully crafted and wonderfully presented. It's sleek and fast while being paced and tempered at the same time. I wholeheartedly recommend this game.

Learning Dota 2- Lanes

One of the best ways to learn something is to reteach it to someone else. So, from one beginner to another, let's learn about Dota 2.

The Dota 2 map has three lanes carved into it: top, middle (mid), and bottom (bot). Lane creeps provide heroes with the essential early game gold and experience needed to propel them into a strong mid-game. Although the three lanes look similar, there are small differences that dictate what kind of heroes perform well in those lanes.

Getting gold and experience
Gold is given for every killing blow that you land on a creep, hero, or structure. It is important to practice last hitting by simply playing a hero and getting a feel for how well or how badly they last hit.

Experience is given for every dead enemy and is split among friendly heroes near where the kill happened. This means that one hero in a lane will get all the experience from dead creeps whereas two heroes in a lane will split the experience between them.

You can also use your attack command and attack your own creeps once they are low health. If you land the last hit on your own creep, you deny the enemy gold and experience.

how do i doto

The Safe Lane

Also known as the easy lane or short lane, the safe lane is probably where you will be spending a lot of time as a beginner. An important thing to note is the distance between tier 1 (outermost) and tier 2 (2nd outermost) towers. Now compare that distance to the distance between tier 1 and tier 2 towers in the offlane, or hard lane. 

The distance between towers is greater in the safe lane- it means that if players are caught overextended or out of position, they won't have to run too far back to get back within the safe comfort of their towers. Because one can get the gold they need with relative safety, the bottom lane is usually reserved for a carry: a hero that really needs items to be useful.

A lot of times, that hero will also be accompanied by a support who will babysit the other hero by harassing the enemy offlane, setting wards to gain vision of the enemy offlane, help set up kills for the carry, etc. The carry will focus on last hitting whereas the support stays on top of denying.

The Offlane

Also known as the hard lane or long lane, the offlane is opposite of safe lanes. If a player is caught overextended or out of position, they will have a harder time getting back to safety than a safe lane hero. 

Offlane heroes emphasize escape abilities and mobility. There will be times when an enemy safe lane dominates the lane and all you can do is stand around for experience, but that's fine. Good offlane heroes will also usually have utility skills that aid them well in the mid-game.

Generally speaking: stay safe, don't dive too far, and if you can't do anything, just sap experience. If you are having a rough time, you can ask your mid hero to maybe ambush and kill the enemy safe lane heroes, slowing their gold advantage.

The Mid Lane

This is where the Boss Tweeds of your team face off in a 1 v 1, mono v mono battle royale. Because this is a 1 v 1 situation, both heroes will be getting full experience from creeps. Knowledge of match-ups and abilities is critical. Mid heroes must also have map awareness and be wary of ambushes from the enemy team.  I don't exactly recommend going mid as a beginner- it's a lot of things at once and can be frustrating for newer players.

mid lane is where the space jam happens

Lane properties also highlight the importance to putting the right heroes in the right place. You don't want a slow hero without any utility in the early game in the offlane- he own't be able to escape. You don't want two melee carries in the safe lane- there will be no way to harass the enemy. 

Look over hero skills on the Dota 2 wiki and most importantly, ask for help. If you're not sure where to go or which hero to pick, ask your teammates. Watch gameplay videos of how a hero is played and try to apply what you learned in a real match. 

Again, the goal is to get as much gold and experience in lane during the early game as possible. The most important thing is to continue to contest your lane and force the enemy out of their lane while also keeping yourself safe. 

Guns of Icarus Online

Join a crew of four in Guns of Icarus Online and blow up steampunk airships while trying to prevent your own from blowing up in a multiplayer, team-based setting! Developed and published by indie company Muse, Guns of Icarus Online is available for Windows, OS X, Linux, and the Playstation 4, digitally distributed through Steam.

the empire wants you!

You and three other mates get to fly around in a steampunk airship crossing over the resulting deserts of a past war. This is a game that my friends and I were greatly anticipating when it was first announced. We had the four-pack pre-order and we were ready to hop aboard and become scrappy pirates of the skies.

The core game mechanics surrounds the airship and her crew. The crew is allowed to select from three distinct classes: Gunner, Engineer, Pilot. Everyone gets at least one of each tool for gunning, repairing, and piloting, but each respective class gets to have three of their specialty, making them more versatile and effective at their task.

The Pilot is a special role in of itself. The Pilot picks the ship and guns, all of which have different strengths, weaknesses, backstories, and different combinations of guns of different ships allows for various types of approaches in those aerial battles. Everyone aboard the ship places his or her trust in the Pilot as he grabs the wheels and throttles the ship into combat. The interactions of the crew and the interactions of Pilots on the same team are complex but allows for intricate battle plans and maneuvers to be carried out.

it isn't steampunk unless you have top hats, right guys

Sounds really neat, doesn't it? However, Guns of Icarus Online is a very niche game. That isn't to say it has, or will continue to have, a low player base (it kinda does right now)- the game is a bit difficult to get into. A big part that played into accessibility that I noticed is that nobody really wants to play as the Pilot. The Pilot is a crucial role and a bad Pilot can mean a disastrous 5-0 score in the end. There are times when I played Pilot that I felt absolutely helpless: my partner ship got blown up, my engines were shot dead, and my hull could not take the continuous beating of flak cannons and flamethrowers. The worst part is that it mostly falls on you as the Pilot to have gotten your team into that situation. Playing Pilot boasts a really steep learning curve that new players may have difficulty navigating. 

bring me closer, i want to hit them with my wrench

There is also a staunch lack of feedback when you're gunning. One of the mechanics in the game is damage type. Certain parts of a ship are more susceptible to certain damage types and more resistant to certain damage types- makes sense, right? The only kind of feedback you get when you deal damage is either a) visual or b) hitmarkers. The visual approach only really lets you make two conclusions about the state of an enemy ship: "their balloon is deflated" and "shits on fire, yo". If you've just picked up the game, the hitmarkers feel arbitrary. Does a bigger hitmarker mean more damage? Is there damage fall off? Just exactly where am I supposed to aim with this particular gun?

Now, the game does have an in-game manual where it lists everything, but it's a chore and an ineffective way to teach players. Why isn't an option like displaying damage numbers available? It's a perfect source of player feedback and doesn't hurt gameplay at all- it will allow players to gradually learn by playing the different damage types and resistances. 

runs off the unity engine

Right now, the only game modes are skirmishes between teams of airships. While fun and tense at times, it slowly begins to lose steam. Once the steampunk and film noir filters come off, you realize there isn't much to the game. There is player customization with monetized hats and whatnot, but there isn't anything you can do to pimp out your airship in any way. No banners, no skins, nothing. A rudimentary reward system gives an incomplete sense of progress as you slog your way through finishing grinding tasks.

But when you look at the game, you can see there is a universe waiting for its story to be told. There's not much content, but the niche dedicated community makes the maps and fictional places come to life. You'll be flying over a map and think "Why is there a giant engine turbine in the sands bigger than my airship? What came before?"

relic of a battle long ago

Muse is a small indie development team dedicated to doing what they love and I admire them for it. Their offices weathered Hurricane Sandy and despite all the setbacks, they continue forward with greater passion and enthusiasm. 

I'm cheering for Muse- I really am. But I'm worried, too. With the promise of a greater Adventure Mode kind of gameplay involving town interactions, factions, and bigger battles, I'm worried that Muse might be undertaking a task it cannot handle. And when projects get too big, corners are cut, and the result is sloppy execution. However, I am glad to see that Muse is working on some co-op game mode in a form of PvE setting that may be a precursor to the Adventure mode gameplay. Although the new Adventure mode will probably end up being something like a paid DLC, I do look forward to seeing what kind of universe Muse is crafting as it is sure to breathe new life into a game that has been through a long developmental process of betas and patches. 

Guns of Icarus Online is fun despite its flaws- do not doubt that. If you ever do get the chance, do pick it up in the Steam store and give it a go.  Guns of Icarus Online is a game with a fantastic amount of potential from a group of a very talented and dedicated developers.

The Swapper

The Swapper is a sci-fi puzzle platformer developed and published by Facepalm Games, a Finnish indie studio, and is available for Windows OS, OS X, Linux, and eventually the Playstation consoles as well. The game is available on Steam and DRM free directly from the developers.

"Tell me who I just ejected into space"

There's been a great deal of puzzle games that have been coming forth with compelling and driving narratives to add to their array of interesting game mechanics. The Swapper utilizes some well recognized puzzle mechanics from games like The Company of Myself or Thomas Was Alone in the sense that the game is kind of a one player co-op. 

The Swapper is, at it's core, brilliantly simple. With only a few mechanics introduced in a well paced system of progression, the game manages to create an effective tutorial as you play. The game also manages to create create fiendish puzzles that the player has all the resources to complete using a small tool set. I would make no hesitation to place The Swapper next to some of the best puzzle games of all time.

The game's mechanics revolves around a device called The Swapper. It allows the player to create up to four clones to help solve puzzles to progress in the game. The clones mirror all of your actions and can die from environmental hazards. You're also allows to swap between the clones, effectively teleporting yourself across great distances. They're all mechanics we've seen before, but The Swapper manages to build off of them and innovate for its own.

liking the orange

The game's capstone to me is the narrative and the questions it asks players. You make a bunch of clones in your journey through the world, listening to these rock hive-mind beings called Watchers. It is hinted early in the game that they were once just one big mind that became fragmented and alone once human excavation began. 

the game's visuals are dazzling

The Watchers once held one, unified thought, but as they became separated from another, each began to develop its own individual thought. All those clones you made inside an asteroid field to watch get flung around by asteroids, are they people? And is what you did murder? 
The game's questions focus around the sanctity of life. We can create clones; it's been done before. We know that identical twins are separate, autonomous people. But if we were to ever be able to create consciousness, what does that say about us? What makes human thought special if its just some complex algorithm that can be created?

So here's the question: If you were to clone yourself and swap consciousness with your clone, would you still be you? In another words, are clones of yourself, still yourself or are they a completely separate person?

i don't wanna go through that, you go first. no you go first no you-

The Swapper reminded me about the concept of digitizing and storing human personalities on storage devices and uploading them to some kind of hive-mind, giving the person virtual immortality. The technology is probably a big more far off, but I honestly don't think it would be the same person. The personality on the CD would just be some kind of mirror image, a copy of a person that once was. 

The questions posed by The Swapper are tantalizing and will need to be answered some time in the future. The game's presentation is amazing- can I just say something? Most of the game's assets were made in clay and other everyday materials, and then digitized: a copy of a real world entity. Sound familiar?

it's really cool

To top it all of is an atmospheric and curious soundtrack composed by Carlo Castellano. Everything about this game is polished and hard to find fault in. The Swapper manages to bring back old mechanics, build off of it, and present itself in a gorgeous manner all focused on a centralized theme. 

And you know, puzzle games are puzzle games: they're gonna stump you once in awhile. Please, do not let up. Take a break, come back. Do not let this game hang on your shelf just because one puzzle stopped you. I promise, it's worth witnessing the end. 

I'll say this again here: the game is available on Steam, but it's also available DRM free from the developers. The Swapper is both beautiful and profound; it's an experience to be had.

Chess- Losing is fun

I got into chess around last October with my friend Blake- he was the one who encouraged me to play. I knew how to play (save for the then weird en passant rule), but it had been so long since I played my last game. I was a little scared to, wavering and saying things like "Oh, but I'm not good" and "I'm going to get destroyed" but he convinced me anyway. If anything, I could watch other matches and nod my head at things I didn't understand.

And I did get destroyed the first couple of times around. 

But rather than reveling in shame or being embarrassed, I realized that I had learned a lot more in that one match. This is why you don't play that move, this is why that opening doesn't work, here are the things you should try for- and on and on. The amount of things to learn was intoxicating.

Looking back now, and seeing all the things I've learned, it's amazing. Sure, I don't know most of the openers and still struggle with most, but I've come to sink a lot of time into just playing chess. Just playing. Blake and I would just meet up and play chess, for hours at a time, figuring out what worked and what didn't.

And it was fun. Really, it was.

From learning overarching tips to finding chess tactics, Blake and I just had a great time. And of course it wasn't all just chess; it's sort of our excuse to just mull around and chew fat. We'd just spend time together figuring out positions, what kind of responses existed, and how insane grand master chess players like Tal were.

I used to be scared of losing. I'm gonna look stupid; look at all these people who know what they're doing. Really though, the most fun in chess comes from fumbling around the board and losing. It's the best way to learn things: losing. You don't have anyone to blame but you, and that's a sign that you can always do better.

I wanted to write about this because of my friends who are just afraid of playing competitive games in general. I don't know how to play. I'll never be good at it. Even if I read up on the material, I'll play badly and I know it.

You have to put your pride past you- it doesn't matter if you lose. Take every loss as a chance for personal growth. The second you make it a mandate to win, the fun aspect of it leaves. Even if you do manage to read up on the topic and study it, you'll never get better if you don't play. Everything is about your attitude and willingness to learn. You have to be able to get past your initial doubts and fears.

And in the end, if you decide you don't like the game, that's that. You gave it an honest try and didn't like it- that's fine. But don't count yourself or the game out before you do give that honest try.

So get out there and play. It won't hurt you, I promise.