Our live radio broadcasts are currently on hiatus while we work on improvements to Sanitarium.FM's core services. For further information, visit our Discord.
If you are one of the millions of European WOW players, you may have heard of the new Warlords of Draenor expansion that dropped this week. Unfortunately, if you are one of the millions of European WOW players, you will also have experienced massive wait times that would test even the most experienced British queuer.
Alas, due to everyone wanting a piece of the action and DDOS attacks, my household has also fallen victim to the over-subscribed servers, with Lonesamurai twiddling his thumbs and clicking the ‘refresh’ button like it’s going out of style. In order to retain whatever sanity you may have left, I have put together a list of survival tactics, to be used in your time of need.
Step 1: Consider other Devices
Despite your undying need to explore Draenor, please be aware that other forms of entertainment exist and can be utilised to stave off the bloodlust. Halo for Xbox One has been a successful substitute for the Samurai of the house. Until he fell asleep with controller in-hand on the sofa, and that one time, mid-game when Xbox One decided to install an unwanted update. If one form of media is no longer enough, please consider turning on all electrical appliances in the house. TV, radio and even an alarm clock can trick your mind into believing you are amidst the most crowded raid your garrison has embarked upon.
Step 2: Other People
The thought of interacting with those outside the online world may be daunting, but persevere. You may discover a long-lost friend or spouse living in your home, and suddenly the source of that annoying background noise is explained. Mystery solved? Oh no, that list of chores is swiftly thrust in your face, and you can embark on a new adventure.
You may have also been fortunate enough to copulate with a member of the opposite sex. If so, chances dictate you are a parent, congratulations! Depending on the age of your offspring, they can be an infinite source of entertainment. From the small drunk person known as a toddler, to the stroppy teenager, a few choice words or a laser pointer will become your door to a new world of time-wasting. (These methods could also be employed in Step 3.) Who knew there was a world away from your desk?
Step 3: Escape to the Zoo
For whatever reason, you may discover aforementioned friend or spouse has left for greener pastures. Do not despair! Many humans share their private spaces with furry, scaled and hairy animal friends. Play can be a great bonding exercise for them and you, expanding your horizons and making you feel like the pack leader. (Unless you own a cat-then you are definitely the bitch in that relationship, believe me, I know). If your animal companion no longer functions or harbours a hatred towards you (again, I’m looking at cat owners), stuffed animals can also be a friendly alternative. Just be aware of open windows when you “do their voices”. Doctors can be really concerned about that sort of thing.
Step 4: Sustenance
Your main diet over the last few years is likely to consist of Doritos, chocolate, beer and Mountain Dew. Whilst these foods provide much needed vitamins and minerals, it may interest you to know that other flavours are available. For instance, right now, a wonderful creation known as ‘ice-cream’ may be lurking in the back of the freezer (above the big box that beer lives in). You could also try dusting off the old telephone and getting back in touch with your local take-away establishments. They will be pleased to hear from you, even though they thought you had died and sent pizza to your mother, in memory of their favourite customer.
Step 5: Porn
If you need instructions for this, you are too young to be on the interwebs.
Step 6: Acceptance
If none of the above have been successful, or you realise you are too morbidly obese to leave the desk, there is one fool proof method to pass the time. It is recommended this is used as only a last resort as you will look like a baby, and once it starts, you may be unable to stop;
We’ve heard so much about the BlizzCon movie over the past few years and now’s the time to hear even more. Get ready for the BlizzCon movie panel where we’ll hear about the upcoming movie right from the source.
We found out more about the characters and the movie itself from the panel and heres a run down of points they made about it:
– Everyone on staff is a huge Warcraft fan–they’ve played old school Warcraft, lost days of their lives to World of Warcraft.
– Warcraft has so many great characters and story arcs which made it hard to actually find a story of a suitable length for a movie.
– Original movie was very Alliance-biased, put Orcs in a more negative light. It was important this time for them to show both heroes and the conflict.
– Feels like a live action movie, the camera follows around from their perspective. The VFX for Orcs were hard to nail down, they needed them to be as genuine as humans. They used a lot of motion capture.
– They built sets, locations.
– They created a training session for people to become Orcs–actors had to learn how to become a 500lb creature, nuanced Orcs. Were they noble Orcs or aggressive ones?
– They didn’t want to do motion capture for Garona.
– One of the actors–Robert Kazinsky–actually had over 500 days /played, Death’s Demise, and more. He was in a top 100 World guild!
– Took months of training to learn motion capture. The actors also had to learn how to walk differently, get more in touch with their Orc side.
For the first time in many years, Blizzard announced a new franchise today: Overwatch, a team-based multiplayer shooter with Pixar-like graphics.
The game looks great. It’s a PvP shooter with classes, very reminiscent of Team Fortress 2. Here’s the cinematic trailer:
And, more importantly, here’s gameplay footage from the newly-christened Overwatch, which really does look fantastic:
Here’s Blizzard describing the game in a press release:
The action of Overwatch takes place in a technologically advanced, highly stylized future earth. In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world. After many years, the group’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now . . . but the world still needs heroes.
With an emphasis on accessibility and pure fun, Overwatch brings Blizzard’s signature easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay to the FPS genre. Harnessing the power of their hero of choice, players will join forces in teams of six and battle each other across a range of futuristic global locations, from the hologram-lit streets of London to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Every battlefield is iconic and built to highlight each character’s unique abilities, and fights can shift from streets to rooftops to open skies within the span of a breath.
“Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay,” saidMike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that’s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.”
The heroes of Overwatch each bring their own distinct weapons and superabilities to bear. Here’s just a glimpse of the numerous heroes that will ultimately fill Overwatch’s rosters:
– Tracer, a former British test pilot who shrugs at danger, can execute impossible acrobatic assaults thanks to her ability to teleport, drop energy bombs, and even reverse time.
– Reinhardt, a hulking German soldier in battle armor, can charge great distances and pin his enemies to a wall or slam the ground with his rocket hammer to knock them off their feet.
– Hanzo, a bow-wielding Japanese mercenary, has the ability to scale walls with his bare hands, fire off a tracking device that illuminates nearby enemies for his team, and unleash a huge spirit dragon that does grievous damage to all enemies in its path.
– Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies—and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.
The beta will be out in 2015 and you can sign up HERE!
Overwatch is a reworked version of the PVP portions of Blizzard’s Titan, the long-in-development MMO that was overhauled in mid-2013. Despite reports earlier this year that Titan had been cancelled, the game was actually turned into Overwatch last year, according to a person familiar with the project.
Ever since Nintendo hit on the concept of using online video to communicate the latest information about upcoming games, new DLC or any other news related to Nintendo to its fans and gamers, the company has developed a habit of encouraging people at short notice to come to the website or Twitch to watch live the latest Nintendo Direct as Nintendo employees (mostly Iwata) reveals the next little titbit from the company.
And so it came to pass that at 10pm on Guy Fawkes’ Day (that’s November 5th for you non-Brits), Nintendo put live its latest Nintendo Direct, which this time was focused on “new information about upcoming titles”. One of these titles was entirely new – I’ve covered the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D in the last article; and Digmbot has covered the Xenoblade Chronicles Xreveals elsewhere on the site – but here’s a quick summary of everything else that was revealed during the 30-odd minute discussion:
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M imagines a world where Steam power is still king. One fateful day, a steam-powered bridge over the River Thames is due to open, but as crowds gather to witness the event – suddenly, a monster invasion breaks out! A gang of four unlikely heroes, spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Abraham Lincoln – the trailer even refers to him as “United States President”) have to use steam-powered technologies to bypass or defeat the monsters and… save humanity, I guess? I don’t know, the Trailer doesn’t explain the plot… or make much sense at all if I’m honest! Check it out below:
Amiibo support in Mario Kart 8
Nintendo announced earlier in the year that their popular Wii U racer, Mario Kart 8, will receive DLC for Amiibo suppoort in the near future – and now, thanks to a trailer revealed in this Nintendo Direct, we now know what it consists of. When you touch a compatible Amiibo figure (currently any Wave 1 character) on the Wii U gamepad while playing Mario Kart 8, you will unlock a special Racing Suit depicting your character. Then, whenever you race as a Mii, you can have it don the suit and it’ll dress up as that character – so your Mii can pretend to be Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Captain Falcon or any of the other Amiibo figures you may have. It’s unknown at this point if the racing suits have any other purpose besides cosmetics.
Mario Kart 8 DLC
And staying on the topic of DLC in Mario Kart 8, Nintendo also revealed what will be coming in the first two DLC Expansions:
Hyrule Warriors: Spinner Link
Something that WAS a little shocking of late was Nintendo revealing that Hyrule Warriors – which had not previously announced to be getting any support for Amiibo – WOULD be patched to add in support in the future. A new Trailer in this Nintendo Direct revealed just what this support will be; and for once it’s actually pretty cool. Use the Amiibo figure of Link while playing Hyrule Warriors and you’ll unlock Link Spinner, a new form of link who rides atop a bladed Spinning Top which he can use to slice through enemies and other cool tricks! Check out this bad-assery below:
Mario & Luigi in Monster Hunter 4? WTF Capcom?!?
Okay, so it’s not ACTUALLY Mario and Luigi, but whoever in Capcom decided to do this should be fired for damaging the serious nature of the Monster Hunter games. It’s been announced that the long term cat-like assistants in the Monster Hunter franchise, the Felynes – who, among other things, are known for their love of cosplay in various MH Titles – will be able to dress as Mario and Luigi in at least some part of Monster Hunter 4. Yes, really.
Though, given Mario and Luigi dressed as cats in Super Mario 3D World, maybe the Felynes just want to return the favour.
Pikmin make their movie début!
…Well, short movies at least! The loveable Pikmin will be starring in a series of three short movies which will soon be downloadable via the eShop on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Splatoon’s Single Player campaign revealed!
Rounding off this episode of Nintendo Direct, at E3 earlier this year we were treated to our first look at a third-party, cartoon-style, ink-based Shoot-em-up coming to Wii U next year, called Splatoon. The E3 Trailer and subsequent discussion focused mainly on the game’s Multiplayer aspect; so this time, the footage focused on the single-player Campaign instead – which looks AWESOME, if I do say so myself.
It’s time to take a break from the slew of superhero news that’s come our way over the past week, and shift our focus back to a galaxy far, far away. Yep, that’s right, folks! According to the official Star Wars website, Star Wars: Episode VII has finished principal photography and finally has a subtitle: The Force Awakens.
