Among the changes coming to Diablo III are completely revamped legendary items. Senior designer Andrew Chambers notes:
In many ways the Legendary items that we released with the game were just Rares with flavor text. You called us on it, and we’ve listened.
The updated legendary items will have new visuals and — more importantly — new custom effects. This will be part of the 1.0.4 update due by the end of August.
In case you’re considering going to hunt down a few legendaries now (i.e. scour the auction house for a good deal before these items get better), hold on a sec.
…these changes will only affect Legendary items that drop after the release of patch 1.0.4. This includes items that haven’t been identified yet (as items are rolled when they drop).
A lot of shmups on the iPad are ports that were good before they ever got to the iPad. For instance, the absurdly generous War Blade and the epically butt-numbing Battlesquadron One have both wended their way to the iPad from the Amiga. The Amiga, for pete’s sake! They don’t even make those anymore, and here we are, playing perfectly decent Amiga games on our iPads. Cave’s shmups — stand by for more on these, because you can’t talk about shumps without talking about Cave — all come from arcade machines. The iPad lets these games bust free from their origins.
But there’s something to be said for a game built specifically for a platform. The iPad isn’t just a place for ports. In some cases, the iPad is home. And in some cases, it shows.
Co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez have had a tough time following up on what made Blair Witch Project so good. Myrick has come closest with The Objective, which has a lot in common with Blair Witch Project. But Sanchez’ latest movies were the wretched Seventh Moon (Amy Smart gets chased by Chinese ghost people) and the uneven Altered (“Hey guys, look! I found an alien!”).
However, Sanchez’ has finally found firmer footing with Lovely Molly, a creepy horror movie that shares some important elements with Blair Witch Project. Lovely Molly flirts with the found footage concept, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if it’s a bit of an inside joke for Sanchez. Like Blair, this movie has a strong female lead. As Molly, a recovering heroin addict who may or may not be afflicted by supernatural goings on, Gretchen Lodge is 110% committed to what she’s doing. Is she a good actress? With this sort of absolute conviction, that’s beside the point. The movie wouldn’t have worked without Lodge’s focus, commitment, and fearlessness.
Lovely Molly can be pretty aimless. It takes its time. It meanders. It’s slow. But it will not deny you a payoff. As with Blair Witch Project, you’re in for a memorable finale. The problem with so many horror movies is that once everything is revealed, once the cards are on the table and the monster is out of the closet, it all falls apart. Any crappy horror movie can get mileage out of something lurking in the dark. But it’s a rare horror movie that can shine a light on its lurker and still be scary.
Most of the shootering I do on the PC these days is with friends on a LAN. Since we have a wide range of skill levels, our games of choice tend to be cooperative fare, like Payday: the Heist (the recent Wolfpack DLC is really good), The Darkness II, or Modern Warfare 2. As sleek, accessible, and energetic as Team Fortress 2 is, it never really fit the bill as a game for a small group of guys, some of whom are more FPS challenged than others.
All that changes tomorrow with Team Fortress’ co-op Mann vs. Machine mode. It looks like it’s time to finally reinstall.
Sleeping Dogs would have been quite the game four or five years ago, before Saints Row 3, Just Cause 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Assassin’s Creed, or Arkham City. As it is, in 2012, it is a thunderless game that does things that have each been done better in at least two or three other games.
After the jump, finding a place in an open-world worldContinue reading →
