Open Game Guides

May 15, 2012

Crafting in Diablo 3

Posted by admin under Guides | Tags: Blizzard, crafting, diablo 3, Diablo III, PC |
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One of the best features of the forthcoming Diablo 3 and one thing that was definitely missing from the prequel is the inclusion of a crafting system. This adds even more variety in the game and is a source of pretty decent armor and weapons. This post will give you a basic overview of the crafting system.

In Diablo 3, every player will have at his or her disposal one jeweler artisan and one blacksmith artisan. The reason this is important is because it allows you to craft your own gear the way you want. This is unlike other games like WoW, where a player has to locate other people with gear crafting abilities. This feature gives the Diablo 3 community a massive advantage as it puts every player on a level playing field.

The following paragraphs will highlight the different abilities of the artisans and will also quench your thirst for information regarding the leveling of a blacksmith.

Salvaging Goods

Diablo 3 will see the introduction of the salvaging system. Simply put, this system allows players to obtain all the raw materials they need by breaking down different kinds of gear. Once you obtain these raw materials, they can be disposed of through a number of different ways. The options in front of you include selling them off in the Auction House, giving them away to friends or using them to create your own new gear. The creating new gears part is where the blacksmith artisan comes in.

All these various options give the players a number of different choices within the game. The players can choose to earn gold by selling off their gear, or they can choose to save all that raw material to help make their own gear. Doing so will obviously help them upgrade their character. There is simply no limit to the number of trading/selling combinations you can devise as a player. There are also many avenues to craft your gear, which in turn helps you in regularly upgrading your character. These are the reasons why the salvaging system is expected to be such a big hit in Diablo 3.

Artisan Leveling

There is only way for you to level your artisan and that is by farming more and more gold. This has cast the spotlight on gold as it now is the single biggest resource in Diablo 3. At the same time, this will also ensure that farming is a harder task than before. So players will find it hard to farm and earn gold without which they’ll not be able to level their artisan. This will also directly affect their ability to improve their gear as gold is needed to craft such gear.

This puts a premium on the amount of gold a player has in the game and it will also lead to many exciting and unexpected developments. This will be due to the fact that there will be changes in the amount of gold from player to player during the course of the game.

Crafting Your Own Gear

One of the best things about Diablo 3 is that it allows players to craft their own gear. This is a very wonderful and distinct feature that will only make the game more enjoyable. As a player, you can use all the random attributes to create a gear of your own. Doing so however will also require you to have access to large amounts of gold.

Such a feature ensures that each player comes up with his or her own unique gear. And it’s likely that each such gear will have its own set of unique weaknesses. Now when you add the prospect of random gear drops by bosses within the game, the scene only gets more riveting and exciting.

April 27, 2012

TERA Hitboxes – A Basic Overview

Posted by admin under Guides | Tags: classes, hitbox, MMORPG, PC, tera |
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With TERA going into headstart tomorrow, I figured it’s still not too late to tell you what hitboxes are in this game. I’m guessing that many players are still undecided on their class and race choice, so hopefully this post will make your decision easier. However, it might make it harder as well, so caution is required.

What are hitboxes?

As you can see from the image above, races in TERA come in different sizes. Every race has a different hitbox, which is essentially an invisible “grid” around the character that determines whether a particular spell or ability will hit you or not.

The biggest race is Baraka, closely followed by Aman. Middle-sized races are Castanics, High Elves and Humans, and smallest ones are Popori and Elin. There’s also a different hitbox size depending on whether you play a female or male gender of a particular race: as you can see from the comparison above, females are generally a bit smaller than their male counterparts.

Baraka and Popori only have a male gender, and Elin are only female (or they’re all something in between, or both, depends how you look at it).

Why hitboxes matter?

When playing a tank, you can literally block entire passageways with your shield thus ensuring monsters and their attacks cannot hit your friendlies. Now that’s tanking! On the other hand, if you’re a DPS class you might want to avoid getting hit, which is often easily done by playing a race of smaller physical size. This is not only helpful in PvE situations, but extremely beneficial in PvP as well.

It’s important to note that hitboxes also determine the difficulty of your friendly neighborhood healers trying to top up your health: targeting you will be just as easy or difficult for them as it is for opponents.

So which race to pick?

For tanks: (Lancer and Warrior): Baraka and Aman are obvious choices.
For melee DPS (Slayer, Berserker): Human, High Elf and Castanic
For ranged DPS (Sorcerer, Archer): also Human, High Elf and Castanic are good choices
For support (Priest, Mystic): Elin and Popori are often the best picks

Tanks and melee damage dealing classes will be getting most damage, which is the reasoning behind players often picking races that are easier to heal. Ranged DPS needs heals quite often as well, but not nearly as, so you can go with a race that is smaller or smallest. Support classes usually can heal themselves and it’s their job to stay alive as long as possible, so picking the smallest races is often a wise choice.

Is it really THAT important?

No, it’s not. Tons of players are picking race/class combos simply because they like their looks, completely disregarding hitboxes. Whether you want to be one of them is completely up to you: this post is intended to be only informational.

Anything else I should know?

As a matter of fact yes, there is. Different races also have different racial skills, both active and passive. You might want to consider them as well when picking your class.

For more detailed information on classes, races and their best combos, I suggest you read this article. It has more detailed comparisons of hitboxes and recommendations on which combos are better than others.

April 6, 2012

Tera Slayer Class – A Noob Guide

Posted by admin under Guides | Tags: classes, MMORPG, PC, slayer, tera |
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The role of the Slayer in TERA seems destructive and intimidating, and it very well should, as this character is known for their melee damage. Weapons of choice are few, and from all the different classes the great sword is used only by this one, and Slayers are known to force death taking blows to their enemies. Among the blows are the swinging of the sword, the circular motion attacks with the sword, the leaping strikes that deal a lot of damage to enemies, the rush attacks, shouts, and the kicking attack. Although their sword blows are mighty their armor type is very low or light, due to the ability to move swiftly among the battlefield.

If you want to fight like a tornado, taking down the enemies that line your path, this might be the best character of choice. Being the most aggressive player on the battlefield with evasive moves, swordplay, and overwhelming force, this character is able to mow down any opponent that stands in the way of victory. The slayer has mobility and damaging capabilities that make this character the ideal choice for the front line of battle among the team. Leveling up a Slayer gives you access to more skills and more abilities, along with new gear and equipment.

Where ever you see a Slayer, you will see his one true friend, the two-handed, double-edged great sword packed full of power to deal the most damage possible. If the slayer ever goes into a roundhouse attack, any enemies that stand in front, behind, beside, or in the vicinity is likely to be dealt a death attack with this powerful great sword. On the battlefield, with very light armor, this character has the ability to move quickly to avoid any damage that an opponent might try to deal to him. With being quick, during an attack, they are able to retaliate against their enemy with a death blow.

The MP of a slayer is built up by their combo attacks and when repeated they tend to gain the power they need for more dodging which helps with the damage attacks from the rear. Even though most classes gain extra skills on each level that they advance this certain character differently, each two levels passed he will gain powerful skills to help with his attacks and defense; however, proficiency and power will be gained from using these skills and from his beginning skills. Slayers are great for the every life, because they can do the normal reality things that humans can, by kicking, flipping, whirling, rolling, leaping, swinging, and the thrust of the all mighty great sword.

When a group of enemies decide to attack, the whirl wind defense is the best choice, while twirling around the gigantic great sword, the opponents will fall taking a great deal of force from the sword and more when they hit the earth. Even though their armor is light, they are still in hand to hand combat right beside their friends the warriors. They have more speed and mobility than your berserkers and the ability to take out many enemies at once is one that is treasured. The slayer can also sneak with light armor not making a sound, around behind their enemies for a sneak attack, making them ideal for the perfect team.

November 12, 2011

SWTOR Beta – Fixing “Blue Spinning Cog” Problem

Posted by admin under Tips & Tricks | Tags: beta, beta invites, beta testing, beta weekends, Bioware, fixes, issues, MMORPG, PC, star wars the old republic, SWTOR |
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Bioware finally sent a decent number of invites for the beta testing of Star Wars: The Old Republic this weekend. In case you haven’t heard, EVERYONE who signed up for beta testing prior to November 11 on swtor.com got an invite to participate.

Of course this being the beta and all, there’s bound to be some issues. Most common one that apparently thousands of players are having is the “blue spinning cog” issue, preventing them to play at all. Fortunately there’s quick fix available for that, courtesy of SWTOR forums:

Start the launcher, login, press play, once the launcher disapears disconect internet keep it disconected until the game gets past the loading screen. It will try look for servers none will load up. Once that has finished connect internet back wait a minute or two and servers will appear, select the server your want and your in the game.

If you’re having this endless loading problem be sure to try fixing it with the above guide. It worked for most players and hopefully it will work for you as well. Now go forth, level up your characters, try some crafting skills (my recommendation if you want a ton of credits: slicing), and enjoy. You might not want to wait as the next chance you’ll get to play The Old Republic might be on December 20 when it’s officially released.

November 9, 2011

Modern Warfare 3 – The Vet & The n00b Trailer

Posted by admin under News, Videos | Tags: Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3, MW3, trailers |
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I’m usually not in the habit of posting game trailers, but this one is definitely an exception. Over the past few years the quality of trailers in general has significantly increased in my opinion, and there’s rarely a game with a trailer not worth watching, whether you’re interested in the title or not. But this new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer definitely makes for one great watch.

It features Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill and Dwight Howard, and shows you the difference between noobs and experienced players in a unique way. If you’re a noob and need some guidance check this post for some links to good resources.

November 7, 2011

Modern Warfare 3: Beginners Overview & Guides

Posted by admin under Guides, News, Strategy Guide, Tips & Tricks | Tags: Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3, MW3, reviews |
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That’s right! Much like Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has also joined the ranks of FPS games that have both official and unofficial guides available. Unlike BF3 though, I don’t find MW3 nearly as complex game that would require one, even though it does have a few new features in this latest title.

It’s a bit disappointing to some Call of Duty fans that not much changes in these new sequels, which is perhaps because they still sell insanely well and a new one gets pushed every year. I’m not sure how many preorders Modern Warfare 3 has, but I’m pretty sure it’ll again break several sales records, much like Modern Warfare 2. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether it’s a good game or just better marketing, but one thing is for sure: there will again be a ton of multiplayer players and matches to jump in to. For those of you who decide to go for it, there are a few changes, although nothing substantial.

Here’s my basic overview of the new Modern Warfare 3, along with some information on where you can learn more about this game:

Weapons mostly remain the same. Standard assault rifles, sniper rifles, SMGs and machine guns remain, with a few interesting gadgets and explosives. It might take a day or two to get used to it, but all in all nothing will really surprise you in that department. Of course, every weapon can be customized with mods, attachments and proficiencies: attachments include various scopes, grips and sights. Weapon proficiencies will enable you to “upgrade” your weapon over time as you use it more and more, for example reducing the recoil or increasing damage.

Not that some proficiencies are locked to certain weapons, such as the aforementioned damage increase can only be used with a shotgun. There’s a total of 10 proficiencies, and while they do provide some degree of customization, you’ll soon realize which ones are best and you’ll just go with it like every other player. Still, it’s nice to be able to press the advantage where you like.

There’s also 15 different perks you can choose from spread through 3 tiers. For example, there’s a tier 1 perk that improves your reload time with all weapons, and when improved (pro effect) it reduces the time required to switch different weapons. As an example of a second tier perk there’s Overkill, which enable you to carry two primary weapons, and with pro effect even the second one may hold attachments. Tier 3 perks are the weakest, for example Steady Aim will enable you to shoot with more accuracy from hip, and the pro effect enables you to fire more quickly after sprinting. You’ll quickly figure out which perks go best with certain weapons and while again it does provide a bit of customization, don’t expect too much.

The biggest change I’ve seen is the one to kill streaks: those are now renamed to pointstreaks and work slightly differently than before. There are 3 categories of kill streaks, each with their own bonuses for a set number of kills. You can find out what they are here. There’s now also deathstreak rewards which I find really nice: I’m usually not the one to die consistently but we’ve all seen those who do, and these bonuses might just give them a break necessary to get back into the game and pick up some kills. They aren’t as strong or as fun as killstreak rewards, but still provide some sort of bonus: for example, after dying 4 times in a row you can move a bit faster and stuff like that. In fact I find these more balanced and less gamebreaking than killstreak rewards, which basically enable you to ROFLPWN people with air strikes, vehicles etc.

I did mention guides for Modern Warfare 3 of course, so here it is: there are several available, and you can find reviews here: MW3 strategy guides, Kosh MW3 strategy guide. If you find any more, be sure to post it in the comments below. There’s also some free beginner guides available on sites I linked before in this article.

Overall MW3 does have a few additions which make it a worthwhile purchase. I’m not sure how much entertainment can it really provide but hopefully enough to make you want more. And with any luck, new sequels will hopefully have a lot more features.

October 29, 2011

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim System Requirements

Posted by admin under News | Tags: Bethesda, Elder Scrolls, hardware requirements, Skyrim, system requirements |
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Bethesda’s VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines revealed the hardware requirements for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a game scheduled for release in November 11, 2011. Below are the minimum as well as recommended system requirements.

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

OS: Win XP/7/Vista (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
RAM: 2GB
GPU: DX9c video card w/ 512MB RAM
6GB free HDD Space
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet Access for Steam activation

Recommended Hardware Requirements:

OS: Win XP/7
CPU: Quad-Core Intel/AMD CPU
RAM: 4GB
GPU: DX9 vid card w/ 1 GB RAM (GTX 260/Radeon 4890 or higher)
6GB free HDD Space
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet Access for Steam activation

As Hines further explained, the minimum requirements will enable you to play the game. The recommended hardware requirements will allow you to set your graphic settings to “High”, but if you plan on playing Skyrim on “Ultra” visual settings you’ll have to have an even better PC.

I preordered the game awhile ago, but according to these requirements I’ll barely be able to play it on High settings. However, considering almost all games in The Elder Scrolls series offers a lot of replayability, I’ll probably be playing it for years to come. If the system requirements were even higher, it still wouldn’t be much of a problem in a year or so. Hopefully your PC is good to run it now.

October 26, 2011

How to get better at BF3

Posted by admin under Guides, Strategy Guide | Tags: Battlefield, Battlefield 3 |
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Battlefield 3 is not your usual first person shooter game. There are plenty of customization options for weapons, there are four distinct class kits, a number of different vehicles, maps, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Knowing all of it takes some experience, which can usually only be gained by playing the game. A lot.

However recently several strategy guides have popped up for Battlefield which can take your knowledge and understanding of the game to a whole new level. And no, I don’t mean advancing from Private to General, even though that’s covered as well. There are some fansites out there that do provide some free guides and information on BF3 but none of them really go into much detail, so your best bet truly is with one of these premium, high-quality strategy guides.

Fortunately there are a few different ones to choose from. I’ve found three so far: the official strategy guide by PrimaGames, and two unofficial guides, named Relik’s and Stark’s guides. By reading some reviews I found that the unofficial ones are in fact much better and more useful than the official one. A lot of players pick up those official guides at Gamestop and other retail stores, so if you’re one of them, too bad for you: you should of spent your money on the unofficial guides. And here’s why…

Relik’s and Starks guides contain tips that the official game guide will never contain. While all the tricks they have is perfectly legal to use, those kind of tips are in a gray area and it takes quite some time to figure out on your own: knowing hidden locations on maps where you can gain an advantage and having a detailed breakdown of game mechanics and other elements (weapons, attachments, …) is really amazing to have. Not to mention the fact that these unofficial BF3 strategy guides are frequently updated with new tips, which are always free to download. A paperback edition of PrimaGuide will most definitely not be updated with any new maps, tips, tricks, tactics, strategies, and whatever else you can find in these guides.

Basically, if you still haven’t I strongly suggest you pick up either Relik or Stark guide, both of which can be found on leveling-guides.com & strategy-guides.org. Apparently Relik is a bit better, but they do seem to be very close in quality despite. Whether or not you really need them is up to you, but considering how 90% or more of players I’ve seen so far play, I would strongly suggest you get it. They really won’t break your budget, and if you like the game, do yourself a favor and learn to play it properly. The other 63 players on your team will thank you for it.

August 4, 2011

Making a living with Diablo III auction house?

Posted by admin under Rants | Tags: Blizzard, cash shops, Diablo III, farming, gold farming, grinding, making money, MMORPG, PC, powerleveling, World of Warcraft |
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Recently there’s been a flurry of news about Diablo III, among them a potential release date later this year. But what’s most surprising is the fact players will have access to the auction house where they can sell items for real money to other players. Blizzard explains it as a way to combat gold sellers, but I see it differently: this only makes it easier for them.

While gold selling is against the terms of use of most MMORPGs, including Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, that hardly means it isn’t happening. While I never personally bought gold in any game (nor I ever had the need to), many players do and gold farming/selling industry is a rapidly growing one making millions of dollars each year. Powerleveling services are also tightly connected but in case of Diablo III it’s irrelevant. since leveling in Diablo 3 is pretty straightforward and easy.

Common knowledge is that most of these companies (often sweat shops) are based in China where young workers are being exploited for ridiculously low wages to farm and grind all day long. For the most part such practices are illegal, but of course that doesn’t make it go away. What I see happening is that these young, frequently underage boys will now be playing Diablo 3 all day long and sell those items for real money. And Blizzard is not only okay with it, but they even created a system that makes it extremely easy, and most importantly legal.

Most people when they heard about selling loot on the auction house in D3 thought how they could potentially make money playing the game, but that’s simply not true. You won’t even be able to get enough even for pocket change, because when these underpaid workers start grinding bosses and equipment and selling it the prices will get extremely low, and if you thought about earning money on Diablo think again. For the employers of the aforementioned workers this will most likely be a very profitable business, but the workers will still get less than $2 per day.

As a player this really doesn’t affect you much. If Blizzard decided to make a now already standard cash shop with items for Diablo III nobody would think twice about it, if not for the fact this is a single-player game (or maybe not?). This on the other hand is a completely different story, and how exactly it’ll unfold it yet to be seen.

There is however a clear winner in all of this, and it’s obviously Blizzard. They’ll sell you the game, and then take a cut from every single item sold. It’s definitely good business for everyone, except those guys working for $2/day.

June 13, 2011

Company of Heroes Error 10242 Fix

Posted by admin under Tips & Tricks | Tags: company of heroes, patches, PC, registry, RTS, tales of valor |
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If you came across an “Error 10242″ while trying to patch Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor to a newer version, it’s because you’re missing required registry entries for the game. Fortunately, there’s a pretty simple solution to this.

Create a new empty .txt file on your desktop, and add the following in it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Company of Heroes]
“DisplayName”=”Company of Heroes”
“UninstallString”=”\”F:\\Games\\Company of Heroes\\Uninstall_English.exe\”"
“InstallLocation”=”F:\\Games\\Company of Heroes”
“Publisher”=”THQ Inc.”
“DisplayVersion”=”2.500.0″
“DisplayIcon”=”\”"F:\\Games\\Company of Heroes\\Uninstall_English.exe\”"

Be sure to change the path where the game is installed on all three locations above. Also make sure that the “Display Version” is the exact one you have: you can check that either in the game, or right click on the “RelicCOH.exe” file in the Company of Heroes folder and choosing “Properties” > “Details”: it’s displayed under “file version”.

Save the file with the required information above, change the file extension from .txt to .reg and run it. It’ll add the entries above to your PC registry and after that you should have no problems running the patches.