What's the Scoop on Adult Swim's Black Dynamite?

Following in the footsteps of its live-action feature source material, Adult Swim’s new animated series Black Dynamite centers on its title character (played by Michael Jai White), a funky government agent-turned-assassin who is hellbent on stopping “the man,” while also protecting his eclectic family of pimps, prostitutes and orphans. While most of the original film’s cast and creative team have returned for the new show, The Boondocks creator Carl Jones has also come aboard as executive producer.

IGN recently spoke to some of the cast and crew to talk about the new series and how they worked to adapt the movie into a half-hour animated series. Jones recalled that it all started after he saw the Black Dynamite film, which White had written and created.

“As soon as I saw [the movie], the first thing that came to my mind was that this would make an amazing animated series,” said Jones. “Coincidentally, a week later, my manager called me and told me that the production company that did the movie was trying to reach out to me about developing a cartoon. So we met with Mike, started kicking around some ideas and then we took it to Adult Swim.”

During production, the new series quickly took on a life of its own, deviating from the low-budget, B movie look of the 2009 blaxploitation film and focusing instead on a slick and stylized aesthetic. “There are advantages in cartoons,” Jones continued. “You can do things that you can’t do in live-action. It actually opened up a lot more doors for us to explore. Just like the movie, we do film parodies. But now we can do a film parody of King Kong and then actually have Black Dynamite fighting a giant albino gorilla on top of the Watts Towers.”

However, White noted that there are still many similarities to the movie, particularly with the characters. “The essence of the characters is still there. That strange family unit is still evident in the cartoon. It’s not all that different, character-wise.”

Byron Minns, who reprises his role as Bullhorn on the show, felt that the series opened up new doors, allowing the characters to really flesh out their storylines. “The thing that makes the animated series special is that we’re able to delve into the characters in full,” he said. “In the series we have ten movies, and each episode is about a different character. We get to really see who these people are in different situations, how they interact as a family. In that way, it takes the movie so much further.”

Not unlike The Boondocks, Black Dynamite explores its mature themes through the use of comedy, offering entertainment for older and younger viewers alike. “I love the adult cartoons,” said White. “When a kid and an adult can watch it and get different things out of it -- this is one of those things where I think a teenager and an older adult will get different layers out of it. This is the kind of stuff that I would watch.”

Added Jones, “The interesting thing is, we have a whore house in the show, but you never actually ever see them whoring. I made it a point; you won’t ever actually see Black Dynamite being a pimp, and you won’t ever see the whores actually whoring because that’s not what [the show] is about. It’s just a way to give the world a texture that actually existed in that era, but the stories actually have nothing to do with it.”

Although the series is set in the 1970s, Jones said that the show is very modern in the way its presented. “The music of that time period, the colors, the styles, the fashions -- these are things that I think younger people can get out of it because the point of view is very young and fresh, but it’s also set in a world very familiar to people that are 30, 40, 50 years old. To me, it plays on so many different platforms and levels. You have a whole audience of fans that love animated action and fighting, stuff like that. Then you’ll get the Dave Chappelle, Boondocks social commentary and that type of comedy. There are so many ingredients that I think make it palatable for just about everybody.”

Black Dynamite also aims for a unique vision that really utilizes the animated medium while also taking advantage of its distinct period setting. “These people come from a particular slice of life,” said Minns. “They all have different backgrounds. You have a lead character, an ex-CIA assassin who goes back to the neighborhood and takes care of these prostitutes and orphans -- and in his world, that’s noble.

“We have ten crazy episodes that will explore almost any ‘70s icon that we can come up with, and that’s the beauty of animation," he continued. "We can have these people as guest stars on our show. We can bring back Elvis, we can see little Michael Jackson.”

As Kym Whitley, the voice of Honeybee, concluded, “I believe it’s going to be a hit because when I watched it I enjoyed the animation, the story -- it moved. I liked the characters, and it was something I’d not seen before on Adult Swim.”

Black Dynamite premieres Sunday, July 15 on Adult Swim.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Awesome New Expendables 2 Poster

Feast your eyes on this sweet new banner for the upcoming action icon team-up sequel, The Expendables 2:

The Expendables 2 will be at San Diego Comic-Con next week, so if you're there do check it out!

Source : ign[dot]com

Two New Dota 2 Heroes Added

Announced officially on the Dota 2 website, today's game update added the classic heroes Disruptor and Undying to Valve's take on the action-RTS / MOBA genre. Disruptor is an Intelligence hero that focuses on blasting away at his opponents with electricity, while Undying is a Strength-based hero who uses plagues and the undead to unleash hell upon his foes.

The update also fixed numerous bugs for specific heroes, including quite a few changes to wisps. Also updated are the ways that bots work, with some specific bots like Crystal Maiden being  made "even more timid." To get a full breakdown, check out the latest update's notes.

To learn more about Dota 2, you should check out our Wiki, as well as our numerous character profile videos. Rest assured we'll be covering the heck out of Dota 2 leading up to its 2012 release.

Source : ign[dot]com

Activision Reveals Walking Dead First-Person Shooter

Activision has announced a new game based on The Walking Dead. Not to be confused with Telltale’s episodic The Walking Dead adventure game, Activision’s version is a first-person action game based on AMC’s The Walking Dead TV show.

Developed by Terminal Reality, The Walking Dead will revolve around Daryl Dixon and his brother Merle on a “haunting, unforgiving quest to make their way to the supposed safety of Atlanta.” Players will control Daryl as they attempt to avoid detection from zombies that hunt using sight, sound and smell and will choose between fighting them or using stealth to avoid detection. According to Activision, “No place is truly safe for Daryl as he makes his way through the Georgia countryside in this new, post-apocalyptic world.”

Supplies will be scarce and players will need to carefully manage food, ammunition and supplies as they make their way through the game. Daryl will encounter “a slew of other characters” along the way that can help or hurt him. Whether or not these characters accompany Daryl is completely up to the player and “represents just some of the major decisions that will constantly be made while fighting to survive.”

The Walking Dead will hit stores in 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Few other details are available, but check out the game’s official site for more info in the future. Until then, keep an eye out for all the latest announcements about The Walking Dead TV show before it returns to AMC for season three later this year.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: Watch the Biggest Trailers - Day 1

Holy trailer overload, Batman! Did you see the new Halo 4 live action trailer? The Watch Dogs teaser? What about the first look at ZombiU, the gruesome Wii U exclusive?

Chances are you didn't catch them all, but thanks to this handy-dandy and INSANELY GIANT run down of today's biggest trailers, you can!

So cozy up with the biggest, bestest trailers of E3 2012 Day 1, and jump into the comments below to discuss.

Halo 4 Live Action Trailer

Gears of War: Judgment Trailer

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist Trailer

Assassin's Creed 3 CG Trailer

ZombiU CG Trailer

Watch Dogs Teaser

Call of Duty: Declassified (Vita) Trailer

Watch Dogs Teaser

Assassin’s Creed Liberation (Vita) Trailer

Dead Space 3 Teaser

Far Cry 3 Trailer

Sony E3 Conference Opening Montage

Beyond: Two Souls Trailer

Beyond: Two Souls – Ellen Page Reveal Trailer

Wii U Sizzle Trailer

Crysis 3 E3 Trailer

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Trailer

Star Wars: The Old Republic Expansion Trailer

Need For Speed Most Wanted Trailer

Medal of Honor Warfighter Trailer

Avengers: Battle For Earth Trailer

Matter Trailer

South Park: The Stick of Truth Trailer

Battlefield Close Quarters Launch Trailer

Forza Horizon Trailer

Fable: The Journey Trailer

Ascend: New Gods

LocoCycle Trailer

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/05/e3-2012-watch-the-biggest-trailers-day-1

Scream TV Series in Development

Scream was quite the sensation, resulting in three sequels and tons of merchandise, from action figures to Halloween costumes. But are you ready for Scream… The TV series?

TV Line’s Michael Ausiello is reporting it’s now a possibility, as MTV develops a weekly series based on Scream. Former MTV executives Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley are the ones shepherding the project, and are looking for a writer for the pilot. No potential story details are known yet, including whether the series would involve any characters from the films or simply the idea of the Ghostfaced killer - or, hell, just a series using the title and franchise idea, a la Friday the 13th: The Series.

While Ausiello say it’s unclear what role Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven would have on the project, it’s hard not to feel the answer is likely “none” – particularly where Williamson is concerned, given the rocky way things went during his time on Scream 4, with Ehren Kruger (Scream 3, Transformers 2 and 3) doing the final drafts of the script on that film. Not to mention, Williamson is pretty busy with The Vampire Diaries and his upcoming new FOX series, The Following, these days.

Though who knows... This is Hollywood. Stranger things have happened!

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/scream-tv-series-in-development

Diablo III: Post-Launch Changes

In a post on the Diablo III site Blizzard described a number of changes coming to its popular action-RPG. It appears the “first real game balance changes” will arrive in patch 1.0.3, which will include adjustments to damage “spikiness” in the Inferno difficulty setting, and make the blacksmith artisan a little less expensive to upgrade.

In terms of what Blizzard considers to be important when adjusting balance and skills, “If any single skill or rune feels absolutely required to progress, it means that skill is working against our goal of encouraging build diversity -- and those “required” skills need to be corrected.” This is in reference to the recent hotfixes that lessened the effectiveness of the Monk and Wizard.

Blizzard also noted the 1.1 patch will be the PvP patch, which will add a combat arena into the game where players can beat each other up. In addition, the 1.1 PvP patch will include numerous non-PvP-related changes, such as increasing the statistics of legendary items.

“Legendary items are not designed to necessarily be the best items in the game,” said the post. “They’re just one additional type of item as you level up, and they are not meant to be the primary items you’re chasing at the end-game. They can -- and should -- be exciting to find, but they’re not supposed to serve as the single driving force of the item hunt. Rare items, for example, have the possibility to roll up “perfect” stats that can, if you’re lucky, outpace the predetermined stats of a Legendary. That’s by design.”

Blizzard also listed some interesting statistics for Diablo III, revealing that so far only 1.9 percent of those playing have unlocked the Inferno difficulty setting, and that 80 percent of Diablo III characters are between levels one and 30. So far, the most commonly used runes in the game include Best Served Cold (Barbarian), Lingering Fog (Demon Hunter), Mirror Skin (Wizard), Peaceful Repose (Monk) and Numbing Dart (Witch Doctor).

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/29/diablo-iii-post-launch-changes

Dragon's Dogma Review

Capcom’s fantasy RPG Dragon’s Dogma has been a long time coming, and it’s looked more and more interesting every time we’ve seen it, boasting robust action-focussed gameplay and an innovative Pawn system that lets you enlist avatars created by other players to fight alongside you. It often feels like an offline MMO, with a vast, scenic and perilous world to explore and a selection of thousands of characters to choose as your companions. It’s an interesting example of genre and style-mixing within the RPG, pulling in elements of traditional Japanese role-playing and churning them together with action-RPG physicality, open-world adventuring and MMO party tactics.

Dragon’s Dogma regularly reminds you of other games. There are flashes of Dark Souls in the real-time combat, of Skyrim in its open wildernesses, and of Shadow of the Colossus in its large-scale battles. Sometimes, these associations work in Dragon’s Dogma’s favour; other times, they just remind you how short the game falls of these outstanding inspirations. It offers a lot of innovative ideas and a real sense of adventure, but it’s also rough-edged and sometimes oddly hollow.

The plot centres on the rebirth of an ancient dragon, which runs around ravaging the land. You can customise your avatar down to the tinest, most insignificant detail – no matter how carefully you adjust the sliders, though, you’ll probably end up looking a bit weird thanks to the game’s eerie character models. After you unwisely try to take the dragon down with a rusty sword after it attacks your fishing village, it plucks out your heart and eats it. (A word of warning: it turns out that watching a reasonably accurate facsimile of yourself get eviscerated by a giant dragon is rather uncomfortable.) Afterwards, you are reborn as the Arisen, and set out to get your heart back.

After that exciting start, Dragon’s Dogma’s plot pretty much disappears for the next 35 or so hours, reappearing at the end to deliver a conclusion so bonkers that it’s destined to turn up in Weirdest Endings lists for years to come. There’s also a romantic plot thread that revolves around a certain fair maiden – which, if you’re playing as a female character, makes Dragon’s Dogma an unexpectedly progressive medieval fantasy.

“The story, characters and quests are about as interesting as porridge.

But for the meat of the game, the story, characters and quests are about as interesting as porridge. Everyone talks in this faux olde-worlde way that gets really irritating (“Prithee, Arisen, there be aught to find in yonder cavern, most like.”) There’s nothing gripping about the game world, which borrows heavily from Tolkien without adding much of its own personality. The capital city is strangely deserted, and there’s not much life anywhere in the towns. All the interesting stuff is to be found out in the great outdoors, where trolls and ogres hunker in winding mountain passes and griffins nest on clifftops. Outside, Dragon’s Dogma can look gorgeous, with mist-draped scenery that stretches far into the distance.

To make up for unimaginative fiction and repetitive quest design, Dragon’s Dogma has excellent combat. You start off by picking a class from fighter, ranger or mage, but after a few hours you can start switching between them and developing hybrid classes, becoming a magic archer or an assassin. As your character levels up, you gain points to be spent on skills that liven up the combat, from nasty-looking skewering strikes for warriors to conjured orbs of magic energy that shoot lightning bolts at enemies nearby. Though your avatar levels up passively, you always have complete control over what they can do. Each class comes with benefits outside of combat, too; mages can levitate, whilst warriors can duck and roll off higher ledges.

Whenever the enemies start to get boring – and they do, especially towards the latter third of the game – you can switch up your skill set and weapons to keep things fresh. Vitally, each class is fun to play with for different reasons. As a mage you can cast walls of fire from a staff, which is pretty awesome, but as a melee character you can climb up the bodies of a really big foe and drive your sword right into its fleshy bits, hanging on for dear life as it tries to throw you off. This flexibility carries the entire game, keeping you interested in Dragon’s Dogma even when the story and quest design give you no reason to care.

Just as important as your own skills are those of your companions – your Pawns. Dragon’s Dogma gives you one permanent partner that you can customise and develop to your liking, and two others that you can hire from the Rift, a kind of netherworld whether other player’s Pawns gather. You can hire anyone you want, whenever you want, and take advantage of their battle skills and knowledge. If you’re stuck on a quest, hiring a pawn who’s already done it can really help out. If you’re not online, the game provides some standard Pawns to choose from, but playing with other people’s creations feels more personal, like picking a party for an MMO raid – except with NPCs.

The makeup of your party is vital to success in Dragon’s Dogma, because this is a difficult game. Pawns are neither enormously smart and adaptive nor face-palmingly stupid – they’ll support you in battle, but if you’re up against an ogre or a chimaera, expect to have to take the lead. Being an open-world RPG, you’re likely to find danger almost everywhere you go, especially if you venture off the path and into the forests and caves, where the gloom encroaches upon your visibility and powerful monsters wait to slice you in twain and send you right back to your last save.

It’s unforgiving, certainly – investing in the right equipment is often the difference between dying ignominiously in some cavern or coming back with spoils. But sometimes it feels as if your numerical level is more important than your skill level, which can undermine the challenge. It’s unlikely that a brave attempt to fell a monster that’s just slightly beyond what the game wants you to take on at that moment will end in success, robbing you of those joyous moments of unexpected, hard-won victory that make stories out of your experiences in games like Skyrim and Dark Souls.

“All the effort that’s gone into the combat and character development has left other elements of Dragon’s Dogma feeling unfinished.

It’s clear, unfortunately, that all the effort that’s gone into the combat and character development has left other elements of Dragon’s Dogma feeling unfinished. Graphical glitches and technical problems plague the game from the start, and never go away. There are times when you’ll run up to a quest marker on your map to find that the person you’re supposed to talk to simply isn’t there, and you have to wait five or ten seconds for them to stream in. Fights out in the open wilds lose a touch of their drama when a griffin’s head or a Cyclops’ club disappears through the scenery. Some equipment doesn’t place nice with the character models, so your character’s elbow might poke through their shield when they run.

Walking along a road, your Pawns might start going crazy over some invisible enemy that will then suddenly appear out of nowhere. Big fights cause slowdown that can freeze the screen for seconds at a time on the Xbox 360 version. Dragon’s Dogma runs much better on the PlayStation 3 than on the 360, with a smoother frame rate and fewer streaming problems; if the 360 version is your only choice, a hard disk install is mandatory to make the game playable.

These technical problems are enough to sour the experience for anyone, but if you persist with Dragon’s Dogma, it gets more rewarding the more time you put into it. Where the game really succeeds is in providing a sense of adventure. As you press further and further out from the capital city, Gran Soren, you really do begin to feel like you’re on the frontier, exploring lands that human feet have rarely trodden. When night falls, you immediately start looking around for shelter – not because you’re told to, but because night is dangerous in Dragon’s Dogma’s world, and if you don’t hole up somewhere safe you’ll almost certainly die.

This palpable sense of danger makes quests feel exciting, even when their goals are uninspiring. Health doesn’t fully regenerate after a fight, so the longer you’re outdoors for, the harder things get. Hiding out in the wilderness in an abandoned fort, waiting for the sun to rise with only your Pawns for company, is an exhilarating feeling, as is bringing down a griffin or golem through a combination of tenacity and luck. You’ll breathe a sigh of relief every single time you return safely to an inn to rest, even 30 hours into the game.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/21/dragons-dogma-review

IGN Live Presents: Dragon's Dogma

Capcom is set to release the action RPG Dragon's Dogma On Tuesday, May 22. But you can get a good long look at it a day early during IGN's live stream from 10:00AM-Noon Pacific.

What: Dragon's Dogma Live Stream

When: Monday, May 21, 10:00AM-Noon Pacific

Where: Here in this article and on IGN's new Xbox Live app.

See you Monday!

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/18/ign-live-presents-dragons-dogma

Diablo 3 Advanced Guide: Bring On The Demon Hunter Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

We've put together this Diablo 3 Demon Hunter guide to get you up to speed on the most relentless class coming to Blizzard’s upcoming action role playing game. This handy guide gives you all the most important info on the Demon Hunter from Diablo 3 at a glance.

You Should Play A Demon Hunter If: If you love standing back and slaying enemies from afar, or finding the most strategic way to take down a monster, then the Demon Hunter could be for you. Specializing in ranged weaponry and traps, Demon Hunters, unlike some of the other Diablo 3 classes, need to take their environment into account when bringing down their enemies.

Background: Demon Hunters are a group of fanatical warriors who have but one purpose: to avenge their friends and families who were butchered by demons and hellspawn. Every arrow that a Demon Hunter launches is "dipped in spite" and "delivered with hatred." This fuels them to keep hunting, as every demon who falls to their deadly attacks makes the world that much safer.



The key features of the Demon Hunter include ranged weapons, shadow magic, traps, and battle tactics. A Demon Hunter has more precision with a ranged weapon than any other class in Diablo 3, and they use this extra skill to equip various artillery like longbows, grenades, hand-thrown weapons, and even dual-wielded crossbows. With shadow magic, the Demon Hunter can cloak themselves and slip between the shadows to sneak up on their enemies.

Demon Hunters are extremely agile but they can't withstand much damage. Therefore, they use traps to slow their enemies down so that they can kite, or run and fire at their enemies while they're slowed down. Using mines, grenades, caltrops, or steel-jawed traps are just a few of the ways that Demon Hunters soften up their prey. Finally, a Demon Hunter uses battle tactics like hamstring arrows or entangling bolas to debuff and slow enemies, making them more vulnerable to the Demon Hunter's attacks.

How You Play A Demon Hunter: Demon Hunters are the only class in the game with two different resources: Hatred and Discipline. Hatred is the resource which is available for a Demon Hunter's offensive skills and it regenerates quickly. Discipline on the other hand is the resource available for defensive maneuvers and traps and it regenerates very slowly.

Therefore, to successfully play a Demon Hunter you have to carefully balance how you generate and spend your Discipline in order to not only ensure survival, but also to kill demons as efficiently as possible.

Demon Hunter Equipment: Like all of the classes in Diablo 3, the Demon Hunter gets their own one-of-a-kind equipment including hand crossbows, quivers, and cloaks. Hand crossbows are "quick-reloading, fast-firing ranged weapons" that the Demon Hunter can actually dual wield. Double the hand crossbows, double the fun, as they say. The Demon Hunter's quiver contains not just arrows, but mystic properties that allows the DH to fire faster as well. Finally, as every class needs a stylish flair, Demon Hunters can equip cloaks which not only provide chest protection, but allow them to move acrobatically while defending themselves against their foes.

Demon Hunter Skills: Demon Hunters have 23 available skills in total in Diablo 3 which are divided in to three different types: Offense, Discipline, and Utility skills. Whereas other classes have skills that feel like they could be interchanged between any tree, the Demon Hunter's three types of skills are all very distinct. It will be up to your personal playstyle to choose which skills will be the best for you.

Skills which use Hatred will cause the most damage to enemies, as well as debilitating them, depending on the skill. Discipline skills are all of the Demon Hunter's defensive maneuvers. These skills will allow you to use traps and turrets, summon companions, or even vault out of harm's way. These are non-direct spells that generally help protect your Demon Hunter while dealing out some damage to foes in the process.

Like all of the other Diablo 3 classes, Demon Hunters can only have six skills active at a time. You start out with one active skill at level one and you unlock the ability to use a extra skills at levels 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24. Demon Hunters also unlock passive skill slots at levels 10, 20, and 30.

As you're making your way through Diablo 3 as a Demon Hunter, there are a few skills to keep in mind. These are skills that will prove to be the most useful, or are a bit more potent than others.

Hungering Arrow: Unlocked right off the bat at level 1, Hungering Arrow is a magically imbued arrow that seeks out targets and deals 115% weapon damage to them, with a 35% chance to pierce through targets. It also generates 3 Hatred. I liked this skill a lot because it was sort of a homing arrow, and no matter which direction I aimed, it would always find a target to kill.

Caltrops: Unlocked at level 4, Caltrops costs 6 Discipline and the skill allows you to lay a trap of caltrops on the ground that slows enemies within 12 yards by 60% once activated. This skill is a great way to slow enemies down so that you can get as far away as possible and deal damage to them while they can't catch up to you. With this kiting method, you can solo just about any standard enemy in Diablo 3.

Chakram: Unlocked at level 12, Chakram costs 10 Hatred to use. It sends a Chakram towards enemies, dealing 150% weapon damage to any enemies that it hits along its path. It's basically a huge swirling ninja star of death that deals tons of damage and looks very cool in the process. Getting a good angle to send out the Chakram is fun, and watching it impale multiple enemies at once is awesome.

What's great about the Demon Hunter is that because they're adept with both ranged weapons as well as traps and explosives, you can choose the way that best compliments your playstyle and set your Demon Hunter up in that way. Balancing your Hatred and Discipline might be somewhat difficult when you first start with the class, but eventually it makes sense and once it does using both types of skills pays off.

Passive Demon Hunter Skills: In Diablo 3 you can only equip one passive skill at level 10. Your choices at level 10 are Tactical Advantage and Thrill of the Hunt. At level 13 Vengeance unlocks, while at level 16 you get access to Steady Aim. When you unlock your next Passive Skill slot at level 20, you'll also unlock Cull the Weak and Night Stalker. Passive Skills are just that: abilities that you don't have to cast but grant passive advantages to your Demon Hunter.

Tactical Advantage gives the Demon Hunter a 60% boost to movement speed for 2 seconds every time you use Vault, Smoke Screen, or backflip with Evasive Fire. Thrill of the Hunt makes your attacks immobilize your target for three seconds once every ten seconds. Vengeance allows you to gain 20 Hatred, 2 Discipline, and increases your maximum Hatred by 25 for ten seconds whenever you consumer a health globe. Steady Aim increases your damage by 20% as long as there are no enemies within 10 yards of you.

Cull the Weak will have you utilizing traps to an extreme, as this Passive Skill increases damage to slowed enemies by 15%. Finally, Night Stalker is useful if you find yourself struggling to fight defensively, as it causes critical hits to have a chance to restore 1 Discipline.

I went for the Vengeance passive skill for my Demon Hunter. Increasing my Hatred by 25 every time I ate one allowed me to spam a lot of Hatred Spender skills and deal a ton of damage to my enemies. I also just love the Steady Aim passive skill in general. I think that it will make players play the Demon Hunter how Blizzard intends for the class to be played, and that's brilliant game design in my opinion.

For my Demon Hunter's Active skills I chose a mix between Hatred Generators, Spenders, and Discipline spells (what a surprise!). My staple Hatred Generators were Hungering Arrow and Evasive Fire, the latter of which shoots enemies for 125% weapon damage, and if an enemy is at close range you back flip away 15 yards. This mix of Hatred Generation was strong enough to take out enemies out quickly, and then I'd spend my Hatred on Chakram which could rip through packs of foes quickly. Finally, I used Vault as my Discipline skill to both get away from enemies quickly, as well as a way to stylishly get from one pack to the next. In sticky situations I'd throw down a caltrop trap, but in general I didn't need to do this too much.

Like the Monk, the Demon Hunter is one of the more skill-based classes in Diablo 3. You really have to focus on balancing your Hatred and Discipline in order to use your skills, and it will be interesting to see how different types of players utilize the Demon Hunter. Not only that, but a lot of the Demon Hunter's skills will be more beneficial for those people who strategize more with class, lay traps, etc., rather than those who just run into every situation with their crossbows out.

What do you think of the Demon Hunter in Diablo 3? Let me know in the comments below, and tell me how you set up your Demon Hunter's skills if they're different than the ones that I used. Also be sure to check out our Diablo 3 Witch Doctor Guide, Diablo 3 Wizard Guide, and our Diablo 3 Monk Guide for everything you want to know about the other Diablo 3 classes.



Source : http://www.g4tv.com

Dishonored Release Is Set For October 2012 Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Bethesda Softworks confirms that Arkane Studios' action/stealth game Dishonored will be coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC platforms -- specifically, Games for Windows -- in North America on October 9, 2012. A European release will follow on October 12.

Dishonored puts players in the shoes of Corvo, a disgraced bodyguard who ends up on the run after he's framed for the murder of the empress he was charged with protecting. Corvo sets out to clear his name in the city in the fictional city of Dunwall, which feels like a steampunk reinterpretation of Victorian London. Early previews peg the game as a blend of Thief: Deadly Shadows and BioShock, but we should get a better sense of it once the media gets its first hands-on at E3 2012.

To get a better sense of the game's multi-path mission focus, be sure to check out our latest Dishonored preview.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723657/dishonored-release-is-set-for-october-2012/

Diablo III sets Blizzard preorder record

Diablo III can lay claim to the title of Blizzard's most anticipated game ever, as the PC action role-playing game was today confirmed as the developer's most preordered title of all-time. That news comes with a slight asterisk, as it includes copies of the game owed through the World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion, which gives a free copy to anyone who signs up for a full year of the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

A decade between games can help build anticipation.

The Diablo III news was announced as part of Activision Blizzard's earnings report for the quarter ended March 31, which also included some noteworthy stats for the Activision half of the company. The publisher confirmed the Call of Duty Elite service has 10 million registered users now, with more than 2 million of them paying for the premium tier membership. The game-and-toy synergy of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure also continued to sell for the company, with more than 30 million toys sold through March. It's been doing so well that Activision's internal estimates have Skylanders toys outselling even Star Wars for the first three months of the year.

As for the company's actual financial figures, revenues and net profit both surpassed projections set in February, but fell short of the company's performance for the same quarter last year. For the quarter, Activision posted sales of $1.17 billion, down year-over-year from $1.45 billion. It also chalked up $384 million in net income, down from $503 million for the same period last year.

The results beat expectations sufficiently for Activision Blizzard to up its full-year forecast. The company now expects the calendar year 2012 to see it ring up $4.2 billion in sales (up from $4.15 billion) and earnings per share of $0.65, up from $0.63.


Source : http://gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-sets-blizzard-preorder-record-6375915

Soul Sacrifice Teaser Shows Off A Monster Hunter-Looking Vita Game Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Today brings your very first look at the upcoming fantasy action game Soul Sacrifice for the PlayStation Vita, in the form of an exceedingly brief 36-second teaser. The game was first outed in April 2012 by an ad in an issue of Famitsu; the initial vague hints that followed pegged it as a Monster Hunter-style adventure with co-op elements.

The trailer doesn't offer up much more, instead flashing through a series of action-packed fight scenes. On screen text points to May 10, 2012 -- also known as "this Thursday" -- as the date that all will be revealed. This falls in line with what we'd previously heard about Sony holding a May 10 press conference for the game at the Tokyo International Forum.

Source: All Games Beta


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723558/soul-sacrifice-teaser-shows-off-a-monster-hunter-looking-vita-game/