Full details on Lee-Sin, League of Legends’ upcoming champion

Good one Riot Games! You really got me with that prank—for a second there, I thought you’d actually confirmed plans to release of the Blind Monk, after years of denying he would ever be revived. Whazzat? It’s not April Fools’ Day? Then…it’s true! Lee-Sin, better known to old-school League of Legends fans as the Blind Monk, is finally resurfacing after a two year hiatus. Come check out the classic champion’s new moves, including a roundhouse kick that puts Chuck Norris to shame.

A little back-story: Lee-Sin was present in early LoL builds, but he never made it into the initial release. One of Riot’s software engineers, Hohums, uses the Blind Monk as his avatar on the forums, and would constantly joke about the Monk’s revival. The Blind Monk was even deconfirmed by Riot’s Ezreal, all but guaranteeing he would never make it back into the League. And with all these Urf appearances, who knows what Riot has in store for other popular but unimplemented champions?

I’m personally planning to buy Lee-Sin on day one, no questions asked. His playstyle sounds incredibly fun—energy heroes are always great for when you want faster-paced combat, and the thought of chaining his abilities into an onslaught of damage gives me a tingly feeling. What’s your take on Lee-Sin? Should Riot have left him on the cutting-room floor, or are you eager to give judo-chops to the necks of all those two-eyed champions?

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A New Beginning preview

As all right-thinking people know, there are two reasons not to worry about the environment. If the babbling of fools is correct, the world will end in 2012 anyway. If not, television has long since taught us that if things get too bad, Gaia, spirit of the Earth, will send five magic rings to five special young people, and Captain Planet will clear up our mess. It wouldn’t lie about something like that, right?

There is of course a third possibility. Maybe nothing will change. Maybe the world will continue its spiral into chaos and decay, rendering the planet a barren wasteland where the surface can no longer support life and every day is a miserable existence of swallowing down food pills and waiting for a solar flare to scythe through the atmosphere and finally put us all out of our misery. Maybe in those dark days, only the sudden invention of time travel will offer some form of escape, allowing representatives of humanity to jump back and seek help from the one man who could have set it all right. That man is named Bent Svennson, and if you’re wondering how many cheap jokes about that are coming: just one, promise.

Despite the environmental angle, don’t worry – from the bits we’ve played so far, A New Beginning is neither preachy nor educational. The plot is pure sci-fi, involving a clash between one magic power-source that nukes the Earth, and a race to get it replaced with another magic one that turns simple algae into the ultimate fuel. By the end, there may be a puzzle where you need to sort the recycling into the correct bins or plant a tree, but most of the first chapter at least is more about running around a futuristic San Francisco, followed by a trip back to modern times where you find yourself finding ways to use aftershave and scrap paper to escape from a helicopter in mid-flight, and then sabotaging an energy conference with a badly forged press ID. If controlling emissions can’t save the world, then by god, at least we have adventure game puzzle logic to fall back on! (It’s also darkly amusing that the very first real puzzle, in which you control arch-environmentalist Bent, ends up with you lazily killing a bird.)

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Mass Effect 2 The Arrival DLC will have Shepard fighting alone

Commander Shepard will be flying solo for the final slice of Mass Effect 2 DLC. The Arrival will see you journey to the very edge of charted space to help out an operative with early intelligence on an imminent Reaper invasion, but none of your companions will tag along for the ride. It looks as though Bioware are planning a challenging end to the last piece of Mass Effect 2 DLC with plenty of combat and not much conversation.

Joystiq have taken an early look at The Arrival. The mission will be playable any time after the Horizon mission that takes place halfway through the game, and is described by Bioware as “kind of an epilogue.” Joystiq point out that there will be plenty of combat, and the grumpy, four-eyed Batarians will be the ones taking your bullets.

The solo nature of the mission will mean added challenge for those playing with an Engineer Shepard, or any poorly-armoured class. Luckily, there will be stealth options that will let you get around a few fights. It doesn’t sound as though there will be much in the way of conversation or choices to make, and the mission isn’t going to link Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3, though it should shed more light on the Reaper threat that’s poised to strike.

The Arrival is coming out next Tuesday March 29.

Disclaimer: All information on this blog has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.

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Just Cause boss says hiring hackers and better games will beat PC piracy

Better PC games and a better relationship with hackers are the key to fighting piracy, according to Christofer Sundberg, the boss of Just Cause creators, Avalanche. Sundberg believes that common anti-piracy measures like DRM “punishes the people who have actually paid for the game,” and says that hiring hackers is a good way to discover new talent, admitting that “50 percent of the people that work for me come from a hacker background.”

Sundberg was speaking to CVG about better approaches to tackling game piracy, and his belief that there is plenty of potential in the piracy community. “I absolutely think that’s a fair approach, to think about how these people can fit on the right side of the law. It’s one way, at least. Perhaps the truest pirates are too much down the road of anarchy to ever work with you in a proper way; these are the guys who see us as evil!

“But in Sweden the [hacking] scene was huge. We’re the home of the Pirate Bay, you know. As a studio, we’ve found that there’s definitely a lot of talent [in the hacking community].”

As well as tapping the know-how of the hacking community, Sundberg believes that better PC games will reduce levels of piracy, but admits that poor PC ports are a common problem.

“I think piracy wouldn’t be as much of an issue if there were better PC games out there. We could just scrap the whole concept of stupid DRM,” he says, adding “I’ve always been of the opinion that we should design PC games for the PC players. PC players and console players are completely two different types of consumer.

“You end up just doing a port, so there’s not a lot of time, budget or creative thinking going into using the PC. I think that’s quite sad. We [as an industry] should take the PC platform, more seriously. Everyone is just complaining about piracy on the PC, but when it comes to in-game DLC or social connectivity, the options on PC compared to console are endless.”

“I would like at some point to do a really good PC game designed specifically for PC players.”

Disclaimer: All information on this blog has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct.

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Heroes of Newerth’s latest champion, Tremble, will shake up the lanes

Heroes of Newerth players suffering from entomophobia (fear of insects) are about to get a nasty surprise: Tremble, the seventy-sixth hero to join HoN’s ragtag bunch, is sure to give hapless noobs nightmares. Combine the horrifying appearance of Warhammer 40K’s Tyranid Lictor with the creepy burrowing of StarCraft II’s equally horrifying Zerg, and you’ll understand why heroes should be terrified when the ground starts rumbling beneath their feet. Read on to find out more about the bloodcurdling beetle who’ll be coming soon to a gank near you.

Role:
Tremble, an Agility-based melee hero, has got it where it counts: his abilities make him both an excellent farmer and ganker. His early-game harassment and his ability to rake in gold can make him a force to be reckoned with mid-game, giving him free reign to roam around the map killing everything in sight (courtesy of his temporary invisibility). Players will have to use Tremble’s early-game advantages to stay ahead, lest they end up weak in the late-game when everyone else’s abilities that start scaling up. His Ultimate ability, Hive Mind, summons a powerful bug-pet, Shudder; this incredibly strong pet can effectively double your presence around the map. You can farm with Tremble while microing Shudder to aid your team with ganks and scouting. Check out Tremble’s four powers, with tips from S2 Games’ own [S2]Nome, the mind behind this hero.

Abilities:
Dark Swarm: When activated, Tremble becomes enveloped in a Dark Swarm of bugs. Enemies outside of Dark Swarm do less damage to Tremble, while enemies inside the Swarm take high magic damage.  In the lane, it can be used when going for a kill, or simply to farm creeps. Coupled with the slow from Impalers, Dark Swarm can make Tremble a difficult hero to pin down and eliminate. In team fights, activating Dark Swarm while engaging a target grants massive damage mitigation against ranged heroes, forcing them to enter the Swarm to take Tremble down.

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