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The folks over at HiRez Studios are always hard at work adding new Gods and tweaks to their 3rd person MOBA. Today, they’ve dropped a new trailer on YouTube for Scylla the Horror of The Deep.
The trailer below details the new God’s lore, moves and some different fighting scenarios.
Check it out, and don’t forget to tune in this week as our DJs will be telling you how you can win a code to unlock either Agni or Nu Wa as a playable character as well as an alternate skin.
We’ve known that Blizzard has been working on its own MOBA for a while, though the name has changed several times between each discussion. Originally announced as Blizzard DOTA – causing much of a stir with players of the Warcraft 3 mod of the same name – it was later given the code-name “Blizzard All-Stars“. Now it’s officially known as Heroes Of The Storm.
Now, before we go on, let me take some time to criticise Blizzard’s naming policy. It’s quite obvious to me people will start abbreviating the new name for Blizzard’s new MOBA; however, HOTS is already used to refer to another Blizzard game, the Starcraft II expansion fully titled “StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm” – and sometimes, by extension, StarCraft II itself. So should we call the new game “Heroes” for short? But then, what about Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft? It starts to feel like Blizzard don’t want people to call their games anything OTHER than their full, long titles…
Anyway, Heroes Of The Storm will feature characters from all three of Blizzard’s main franchises – characters so far revealed have been Starcraft‘s Kerrigan and Jim Ranyor; Illidan and The Lich King from the Warcraft series; and the titular Diablo of the games of the same name – in team-on-team battles to destroy an opposing base while protecting your own. But if that sounds too much like your standard MOBA game (if actually there IS such a thing as a “standard” MOBA since the term has been applied to a number of completely different games), it’s Blizzard’s attempts to switch up the genre that make this one stand out.
For a start, unlike most similar games, you will not be buying items and accruing currency to get more over the course of the game. Instead, gold chests will periodically spawn on the map to collect or steal (depending on which side of the map you’re on), which can then be used to purchase powerful map-specific upgrades. Items themselves have been replaced by unlockable character-specific skill choices, allowing you to customise the skills offered by your characters beyond the typical four initial choices and keeping you always in the thick of the action. As for those map-specific upgrades, one map sees a character able to transform into a powerful dragon; while another sees a ghostly pirate fire cannons at your enemy’s base to deal huge damage.
Blizzard’s main goal with Heroes Of The Storm is seemingly to speed up the time taken to play full MOBA matches, but still keep all the action. The previously mentioned maps shown off so far are small in comparison to genre tradition; and with mounts available to increase the speed at which players can move, crossing the map is likely to be a very quick process even in the most demanding battles. Slowing players down however are the use of gates, which must be destroyed before certain parts of a map can be accessed; bringing a new level of crowd control beyond towers and lanes. Forts will be nearby, too, to enable health and mana regeneration.
Heroes Of The Storm will be free-to-play with microtransactions, but it’s not clear if that means purchasing heroes to play as or just skins and mounts.
You can sign up to the Heroes Of The Storm beta now, or do so through your Battle.net account page.
With new zones to explore, new playable heroes, new game modes, a brand-new story arc, and dangerous new villains to fight, Marvel Heroes is better than it’s ever been! Check out our latest trailer for a sneak peek at some of our exciting new content!
Head over to marvelheroes.com to sign up and grab the free to play game
There was a time when getting a license out of Games Workshop was harder then getting a Chaos Marine out of his armour. Now they’re distributing them more liberally; and plenty of chapters are being given the chance to prove their devotion to the Emperor. Space Wolf is the latest Warhammer 40K game to be announced: a PC and iOS collectible card game from mobile developer Herocraft.
“HeroCraft have presented us with a unique and exciting vision for a game based on this most evocative and barbaric chapter of Space Marines – the Space Wolves.” says Games Workshop’s head of licencing Jon Gillard. “Given that, their clear passion for the IP, and their experience in the market, we are only too happy to be working with them on this project.”
The team promise a branching campaign against Necrons and Word Bearers; and multiple strategic paths, including Grey Hunter, Wolf Scout, Blood Claw, or Wolf Guard. Rather than focus purely on duelling, the decks players construct will be used to tactically command squads through interactive 3D environments.
As the WCS Europe Round of 16 Group C matches came to a close today, viewers and commentators alike were starting to finally feel a little more comfortable with the players they were seeing. After two days of stunning upsets, today’s competition saw Starcraft II international veterans NaNiwa and MMA moving on to the round of 8. Of course, even with familiar players, the round of 8 is already shaping up to be far different from the competition we saw last year. For one thing, MMA is the only Terran player to be moving on to the next round and is, in fact, the only non-Protoss player to move on so far. Tomorrow’s Group D matches will continue the ‘Toss heavy trend, with TitaN, MC, and MaNa all playing Protoss. Poor VortiX is Zerg’s only chance to move beyond this round. No pressure.
The preferred races of the players aren’t the only changes to be seen in this year’s competitive Starcraft scene. The series have also taken noticeably longer than games in the past. No longer are early attacks the deciding factors in games. Cheese has been nearly non-existent in this competition so far. More and more, we are seeing the deciding moments in games being large scale, battles between supply-maxed armies, rather than the more micro heavy, smaller, earlier plays of previous years. Given how many veteran players we have seen fall to newcomers in this bracket so far, it’s probably worth looking into favoring these new, long term tactics over the more aggressive play of the past.
