BardicKnowledge

As long as you've got speedy Internet, the rest of your computer's specs are irrelevant if you go the OnLive route -- my netbook that struggles to run TF2 at 800x600 normally runs Batman: Arkham Asylum at full resolution on max graphic settings in OnLive...as long as I'm at a wired connection. More on topic for everyone else, I'm actually very pleased that they are not bringing back any of the characters, as I'm not sure there's a good way to balance them (especially berserker/soldier needed buffs) without ruining the feel of the classes.

Crazy amount of Pantheon buffs -- he's going to be extremely dangerous now.

Gario, if you have a fast Internet connection you could play via OnLive: http://play.onlive.com/go/deusex?autoplay=yes The special edition comes with the home console also, so you can still multitask on your computer. I've got Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darksiders, and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on the system and love it.

Most of the Square RPGs have piano sheet music available, though many of the tracks are difficult for a novice piano player. I don't know of any good resources for someone completely new to the instrument, unfortunately.

My two favorite Metroid moments are when I found the second (first?) Ice Beam in Brinstar in college -- all of my life I would have told you that there's only one, in Norfair. The other one was seeing Metroid Prime for the first time. While I still prefer Super Metroid (and LttP, and most of the SNES incarnations of everything), I was totally blown away by how many things Retro did right. Everything about Prime is perfect. Someone in the original review said that it was as if the best game from five years in the future got sent back in time. I think it's yet to be outdone... ...unfortunately, that includes both Prime 2 and 3, which imo were not as good, largely because the keyhunts got more ridiculous. Lastly, some fan projects worth your time: SM Redesign: An SNES hack of Super Metroid that features a completley redone world, a couple new powers, and a new physics engine hardcoded on top of Super Metroid, making it feel like a completely unique game, not just a new map. It's hard but not impossible -- nothing more than double bomb jumps, for instance. DoctorM64, one of the artists on the Shinesparkers album (which rocks, go get it), is putting together a remake of Metroid 2, which is under loved by almost everyone. The project is approaching completion, and many of us are very eager to get our hands on it.

Crusader of Centy -- Raffelsia Training Grouns Btw, for those of you that missed out, Crusader of Centy is one of the best Genesis games -- give it a shot sometime.

^That looks amazing. I've been waiting for the MOBA genre to move away from what is still essentially DotA's map for a long time. Glad to see that it's finally happening! Now if only the community agrees with me and actively wants to move away from playing the same map over and over... Disclaimer: Yes, I'm well aware that the LoL map is different from HoN/DotA, but you all know what I mean.

Unfortunately, her old passive pretty much made her character, so now she kinda sucks.

When does everyone suggest that you start buying elixirs? I've started using them before teamfights after my first major item (rabadon's) and boots are done as Annie, and I'm really seeing the difference. At the very least, you should _never_ fill your 6th slot with an item unless you buy a big one all at once in a super late game. The utility of buying an elixir, drinking immediately, then buying two wards and heading out every base trip far outweighs anything that costs < 1500.

Love the pic -- I really wish I could get out east more than once a year. Glad everybody had a good time!

Yeah, Torchlight 2 can't come soon enough. It's nice to have fun co-op games to look forward to!

I don't have any runes yet, so maybe my Anivia opinion will change when I get to level 20...we'll see.

Teleport should be reserved for characters that push/backdoor really well such as Sivir and Yi. It also significantly speeds up farming for AD carries, but isn't quite as useful since the carry probably wants Exhaust or Ghost instead (assuming everyone gets Flash). I agree that babysitting the tank is a waste of time -- the support heroes work best when they allow someone like Ashe or Gangplank to farm at max efficiency. Support heroes are definitely not a waste in pub games though -- I solo queue as Sona or Janna a bunch and usually do quite well with them, healing / shielding the carry to victory. Where would you place Ghost? It is better for both chasing and running than Exhaust but not as useful in a teamfight situation. I get it over Exhaust on both Kat and Irelia atm and am not disappointed by it. I can see any committed "assassin" character using it very well. As far as Clarity goes, I know that Anivia makes really good use of it -- she gets mana starved without it early game, and in the midgame it lets her push/farm extremely quickly with her ult. Lategame of course it's still not very useful, but I don't think the phoenix can ever have enough mana regen. Dunno if there are any other side cases for it. I think the reason we never see Heal/Rally/Fortify in a game is because Flash currently occupies one slot all the time, and those three are obviously not as good as one of Exhaust/Ignite/Teleport/Ghost. If we actually had two slots to work with then I could see one Fortify per team being viable, for instance. One more sidecase to talk about: jungling. Obviously you want Smite...but I'm pretty sure I've seen a pro match where the Nunu jungler went Smite/Heal and did very well. Heal makes more sense to me in the jungle than anywhere else, as it allows you to stay in the jungle much longer the first trip and might speed up jungling significantly as a result.

The past two days were Evo, so I was away from gaming otherwise.

I still think almost every team can use one of the two "goddess sluts of assists" -- either Janna or Sona. Definitely want to try team fortify later on though. Did all of you have the mastery that gives towers splash damage?

From the article: Anyone who owns a 3DS system before August 11th will get 10 NES games and 10 GBA games for free. Pretty great if you've already got one.

Hope you had a great birthday!

Wait, so all of you had Fortify / Teleport? That would make it next to impossible to push if you lived -- to the point that it might be advantageous to outright avoid teamfights and just push their towers, since they can't ever push without killing 3 of you.

Happy birthday, djp!

Red buff is certainly an issue, sure. How would you feel white (movespeed) and green (attack speed + cooldown reduction) replacing red for the early game, and the lizard camp only spawning after the white/green had been taken once, or something like that?

I think the reason jungling works so well in LoL compared to HoN/DotA has little to do with the buffs -- while they are nice and do allow a wider variety of characters to jungle, they are not the game changers that force the 2/1/1/jungle lane composition. Tower damage is. In HoN/DotA, the reason you can run the 1/1/3 trilane against 2/1/2 is because you expect to be able to get kills in the trilane to make up for the EXP penalties for sharing amongst three people. Similarly, the 1v2 lane in HoN is something that only a few characters (Hag, Shaman, etc) can do successfully because it is very risky. (Note: pro / premade matches with two trilanes doesn't happen in LoL and I'm not really talking about them, though similar comparisons can be made about towers making you safe under pressure). In LoL tower diving before level 8 is not realistic -- most characters can't even survive running past the tower. If I am the solo char and they start to tower dive (assuming I have more than 1/3 health), I will usually get _both_ kills. Not sometimes, but usually. The extra tower strength makes you so much safer in LoL that the risk of putting someone in a 1v2 lane is mitigated compared to HoN/DotA where it is an unsafe activity and not usually done in pubs (because you don't trust the pub to handle it). Compare this to LoL where 2/1/1/jungle is commonplace all the time in pub games, and no one (unless they really suck badly) bitches about having top solo.

Keits reports that the new complete roster has been leaked: Capcom: Firebrand, Strider, Frank West, Nemesis, Phoenix Wright, Vergil Marvel: Hawkeye, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nova, Rocket Raccoon

In addition to the new chars announced so far (Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Strider, and Firebrand), apparently you can X-Factor in midair now. This means that you can't chip out Phoenix on entry, which means elevates her even higher than she currently is. Best way to deal with her now is to chip her out as she comes in before she can X-Factor -- dunno what to do now. Edit: 8 chars left to be announced, four for each brand. Thoughts/speculation? I think that we will get one of Vergil/Nero, Megaman X, and on the Marvel side we'll see Black Widow (to tie into the upcoming Avengers film) and Psylocke.

this forever. How can you do this to us, Capcom?

Kayle is ranged at least 3/4 of the time -- she just toggles on her E before she strikes. No hard CC is fair (she's got one slow), but her ult is completely game changing when used well.