Paul Kubit, Sr Game Designer for World of Warcraft, dropped a ton info about how Professions will work in Legion.

One huge reveal is there will actually be Profession questlines.

Here’s a run down of everything he talked about:

– Goal – Giving you more stuff to do
Example: you log in on sunday and want to relax by doing professions so we’re going to change recipe acquisition.

– You won’t just log into this expac and learn every recipe you need from a trainer.
We want you out in the world to go on adventures to find recipes.

Example: Tailor starts quest in Dalaran, trainer asks you to go find cloth. It fails, find a new person to help you make it work! Rest of the quest line deals with learning stuff from a Nightborne who also learns from YOU about Dalaran.

Example: Mining – you learn from characters on how to mine more efficiently.

New ore: Ley Ore

– Mining and Herb nodes are SHARED in Legion. Druids won’t steal your nodes!

– Moving recipes out in the world
– Profession questlines, which will teach how to use new materials and deal with other issues and consequences from the questline
– Gathering nodes in Legion will Finally be shared
– Recipes will have ranks Ranks

– Tradeskill UI update
– Can set recipes to a favorites list
– Learned/unlearned tab
– Unlearned gives details about how to get those recipes
– Obliterum – dust or ash which is used to make crafted things into more powerful items
– Obtain Obliterum by taking them to a special forge to destroy crafted items

– Crafted items are special
– – All high level jewelcrafter Necks have guaranteed gem slot & class specific buffs
– – Engineer helms shoot bullets because they are made of gun parts
– – Minor glyphs are usable items, used to augment spells themselves no limit on how many you can use

– Major glyphs will be removed from the game
– Archaeologists have an expansion length quest line
– Cooking will be able to cook bacon and Nomi will show-up to teach new recipies
– Fishing will feel like a an adventure
– First Aid will have all new content related to it to make it an adventure

What do you think of the changes?  Let us know int eh comments below!

Matt Doss, Lead Game Designer, took us into all the crazy things we have to look forward to with Items and Transmog including a complete revamp of how Transmog works and your past work on characters will be rewarded even if you didn’t still have the items when Transmog became a thing.

Legendary World drops
– From anywhere
– – Power remains relevant throughout the expansion
– – Unique effects
– – Will be a lot of them for all various kinds of classes/specs
– – Not fully random drops
– Every item can be scaled up to the level of the best items in the game
– Duplicate personal loot will be trade-able

Transmog
– Help clean up bank and inventory
– Expand customization
– Collection!
– – As soon as an item is bound the appearance is unlocked in your wardrobe
– – Don’t have to keep the item
– Account Wide
– Can see what skins you don’t have yet
– Added outfits
– Can link outfits to other players
– When you log in every bound item in bank, bags, void storage will be added
– Will unlock every item from quests even items not chosen
– Can save different outfits per spec
– Can hide slots per outfit, including hiding shoulders
– Can hide shoulders
– Can transmog weapon enchants, tabards, and shirts

Let us know what you think about the changes in the comments below!

This past weekend, I was privileged to play an interesting new indie title named Mushroom 11.

When I watched the trailer of the game, I was instantly interested in the unique mechanic in controlling your ‘character.’ Of course the design of the character you control is absolutely worth mentioning. You play as an amorphic green blob, with no name that I was able to discern. I had no issue with the lack of description or simplicity of the character model, in fact, I applaud it. Mushroom 11’s tutorial instantly begins to show you how to control your blob, and the game becomes completely about the game’s mechanics.

The mechanics of the game appear shockingly simple, you essentially use the 2 mouse buttons to delete parts of your blob to move it. Except when you delete blocks, the blob replaces these blocks randomly out of different sides of itself where the level allows. The mouse gives you 2 types of control: a large sweeping deletion type, and a fine tuned deletion tool. The large sweeping tool, bound to the left mouse button, allows for rapid movement and easy size reduction. The fine tune deletion tool makes it much easier to delete smaller portions of your blob which becomes essential for some of the tougher puzzles as the levels progress.

During the hour I spent playing this game, I easily encompassed the tutorial and enough levels to start to need several tries to clear an area. I was even able to conquer 2 boss fights. It is definitely fair to say the game has a steep learning curve. Rather than being frustrated while playing, and failing several times, I started to see the brilliance in the game. It is the first game where I found myself not having direct control on my character and it’s movement through the game. We are allowed only indirect control, and it’s an absolutely fresh and fantastic idea for a game mechanic. I find myself more and more interested to see how the game will show me to stretch, bend, curve, and express the flexibility of my little blob through the future levels. With the modest price tag, this game is an absolute steal for hours of mind-bending gameplay.

A Solid 9/10

The only reason it’s not a 10 is because I really like a story and it has none. But Otherwise, this is an amazing game!

A post that isn’t a review? Yep, time for a good old fashioned opinion piece, allow me to go all White Goodman on you fine readers and hit you with some knowledge.
OK that sounded stupid. (just a little 😛 ~Lone)

A thought struck me recently: Why do we get so up in arms about sequels? In fact not just sequels; remakes, reboots and franchising in general.
Immediate Answer: Well we as fans of entertainment, don’t like to think of our favourite films/characters/heroes/intellectual properties being used solely for profit. We want new and original content and not just the same things rehashed and reused every so often.

OK, that’s fair enough. New ideas should be sought after and praised, of course they should. Humanity probably wouldn’t have gotten very far if we didn’t take advantage of new and exciting ideas (Christ knows where we’d be if the wheel hadn’t caught on), and don’t get me wrong, I am all for new ideas in films and entertainment but if I like that new idea why is it so bad that I want more? I’m always the first to ask for seconds and thirds at the dinner table when pasta is being served.

This train of thought really struck me when I saw a news article about Disney and how they’re going to extend the life of the Frozen Brand (Yes I know it’s a giant film and you probably can’t escape it, yes I know Let It Go is everyone’s favourite song right now, yes I can understand how so many people find the film overrated, just hear me out). The comments on the link to the article were what you’d expect,

“They’re just trying to make as much money as possible”

“Why can’t they come up with anything original?”

“Frozen was overrated anyway”

“Hey everyone, lets all just Let It Go”

Yet all I could find myself thinking was,  “You’re all surprised? This is Disney we’re talking about”
This is the company that bought Marvel because they were raking in so much dough with all of their really, really good adaptations of their superheroes and we’re all surprised that they want to make more money of their most successful animated film ever? But I’m not here to talk about Frozen, not when I already did for my dissertation, (it made me enjoy the film even more).

Look I believe you can make a good film out of anything, if that means I get to return to Arendelle or fight some more Xenos then sweet, bring it on says I.  BUT, having said that, I can completely understand why sequels/remakes etc etc are frowned upon. We all know why, say it with me everyone, “They’re never as good as the original”

Now that phrase is as subjective as it gets, how could it not be? But as for sequels never being as good as the originals? What about Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Die Hard with A Vengeance, Hot Shots Part Deux, Blade 2, Empire Strikes Back, Shrek 2, Desperado, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Revenge of the Sith (Don’t give me that look), Spider-man 2, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn, Superman II, Back to the Future Part II, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior or X-Men 2. We can probably agree that each of those are superior to their predecessors or at least on par with them.

But of course those are only a few, and a debatable few at that. But still proof that it can be done, it just majorly sucks that not many people took notice of how a good sequel is made, and more of how much money they brought in. Foul play indeed I think we can all agree. But saying that, we still shouldn’t be surprised (trust me I’m especially not trying to put myself on a pedestal here, I am as guilty of bitching about sequels and money grubbing studios as the next person), last time I checked the whole point of Hollywood was to make money wasn’t it? That’s why Film Studios have marketing divisions and accountants isn’t it?

In fact going back to Disney, people are annoyed that they’re going to be franchising Frozen right? Well why are we angry at that and not the Marvel Franchise? That’s one of the biggest franchises out there at the moment yet when Captain America 3 or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 gets announces nobody says a thing. Well that’s because the Marvel Franchise is praised as unanimously good of course. But so is Frozen, at the very least people thought it was good when they saw it, that’s half the reason it was so well received (aside from all the money it made of course).

In fact if you are so sick of a certain franchise, why not just stop giving it your attention? Turn the radio station over next time you hear Let It Go or turn it off altogether, this is sadly more difficult for parents since their kids are the target audience, sorry parents everywhere.

So when a large studio decides to make money off something popular we collectively smack our foreheads and bemoan it. Yet when they’re in the midst of franchising the shit out of something else that’s very popular…we all clam up? I guess I’m just yelling at a larger beast here, after all I’m just one person with a keyboard, hardly going to make a difference right?

I wish we would stop committing the above offence. Sequels and franchising are not inherently bad, it’s their execution that can be viewed as bad. But hey, this is all amazingly subjective and I’m sure a lot of people disagree with me on this. Do you disagree? If so I’d love to hear how. (Politely, mind you this isn’t YouTube.)

The best summation I can give is this, if you don’t like the look of something, be it a sequel, remake or whatever, just don’t give it your time of day, you’ve undoubtedly got better things to be doing.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

~RattlinMan

If you’re one of the small group of people out there who owns a smartphone running Windows Phone 8 or 8.1, or a computer running Windows 10, you probably recognise Cortana. Effectively Microsoft’s answer to Siri and Google Now, Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to a voice-operated assistant that lets you speak to your phone to have it perform tasks for you, such as setting reminders, finding out things you need to know, or messaging contacts.

Though developed for Microsoft’s own devices, Microsoft of late have been very eager to expand the reach of Cortana and turn it into the personal assistant behind ALL your devices. To that end, the company has also released Cortana as apps for iOS and Android. But while these app-based versions of Cortana might allow you to message people with your voice or look up information from the internet, it’s not really integrated with Android or iOS. There’s only so much the developers can do when they don’t control the operating system.

However, a new announcement from Cyanogen suggests that this could change.

For several years now, a team of developers have made waves with a fork of the Android system known as Cyanogen. Cyanogen’s original intention was to take what was good from stock Android systems and modify the rest, to create a system that gives control and customisability over how their smartphone looks and works back to the actual user. Cyanogen has since become a corporation – of which Microsoft is a key investor – and the system has become a standard mobile phone OS in its own right, with Cyanogen OS becoming the original system of choice for the OnePlus One and many other phones; with the older Cyanogenmod remaining the tool of choice for replacing stock Android and installing Cyanogen to traditional Android-powered phones.

Cyanogen’s desire to put control back in the hands of the user has put the system regularly at odds with Google’s ethos; and Cyanogen has ditched many standard Android services for equivalents, either home-grown or ran by competitors such as Microsoft. And now, the company has revealed that it’s working with Microsoft to integrate Cortana into Cyanogen- kicking the traditional Android voice assistant, Google Now, out onto the street.

It’s not clear exactly how this will compare to the assistant on other platforms, but Cyanogen hints that it could offer better control over third-party apps than rivals like Google or Apple’s Siri. You could tell Spotify to play specific songs or playlists, for instance. We should not have long to wait to find out how well this pairing works, however – Cyanogen have claimed Cortana will start in her new role from the very next Cyanogen OS release.