Described by Tom Marks as "the strangest MOBA experience I've had", Heroes of the Storm character Cho'gall introduces an interesting or to put it another way, bizarre twists to the Heroes of the Storm world. For one, he's operated by two players concurrently. You can see Tom and Chris play him here.
He's available in the game, but you can't buy him yet. You need to win two games partied with Cho'gall before you can unlock him proper. Either that, or you can wait until next year, when he's set to join the hero roster permanently.
If neither of those options appeal, we've got 40 Cho'gall codes to giveaway to Australian readers only (these codes won't work in other regions). To go in the draw, chuck your email in the box below. If you've been selected, you'll get an email on Monday.
We didn't review Overlord: Fellowship of Evil, but you can get an idea of how it went over on Metacritic, where it sports a brow-furrowing aggregate review score of 24/100. That's "generally unfavorable" in Meta-parlance, which I think is a remarkably generous way of putting it. In the wake of that ugliness, and the recent closure of the studio that made the mobile card game Battle Decks, Codemasters told Eurogamer that it's giving up on other genres in order to focus exclusively on racing games.
"While it's been great to explore projects outside of racing, we know that our hearts belong to racing in all its many glorious forms," a Codemasters rep said. "The success of Dirt Rally's Early Access program has been incredible, F1 2015 was very successful reaching number one in many territories, we've recently announced that Micro Machines will come to mobile, and we have a strong road map ahead of us that keeps racing as its razor focus."
If that sounds familiar, it's likely because the company said essentially (and, regarding its "razor focus," exactly) the same thing in early 2012, when it announced that it was giving up on the action genre. "We have kept our reputation for delivering best-in-class racing games," Codemasters told MCV at the time. "And best-in-class racing games is now our razor focus going forward."
Unfortunately for Codemasters, the racing genre hasn't been a pot of gold for it recently either. Dirt Rally is doing well for itself in Early Access, but the 2014 release of Colin McRae Rally on Steam was a PR disaster, and the last two F1 releases weren't exactly barn-burners either. On the other hand, Grid Autosport was quite good, and it's on sale now in the Steam Autumn Sale for 75 percent off—that's $18/ 11 for the Complete package, which includes the main game and nine DLC packs. More of that, and Codies might just be alright.
I for one am pretty bloody excited that Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is coming to PC. I've already played it through on console, but as the trailer above demonstrates it's going to look and run a lot better on PC. Look at that silky framerate. It brought a tear to my eye.
If you've already played the game nothing in the video will surprise you it's a simple runthough of the game's unique systems, including pawns. These are fully-customisable companions that can be shared online. If other users take one of your pawns on an adventure, you reap some benefits.
Not shown in the trailer is that you can pick people up and throw them off cliffs. That's what initially sold the game for me. Oh, and the menu theme for Dragon's Dogma is one of the best ever committed to tape (make sure you listen until the 0:43 mark). Assuming the port is good, this will definitely be one to play. It's due in January 2016.
We described the Netgear Nighthawk X8 as "a greatest hits collection of the best ideas in current home networking" in our recent router round-up, in which we declared it the "best high-end router over $300." And now, over on Amazon, you can actually pick it up for under $300.
Very slightly under $300, yes, but if a tricked-out, high-end router is what you're after, the Nighthawk X8 is definitely worth a look. It supports tri-band Wifi and Quad Stream delivery of up to four data streams per band, with rated wireless speeds of up to 5.3 Gbps. Even more importantly, as we noted in our report, the range and stability of its MU-MIMO Wifi coverage went well beyond anything else we tested. There are six Ethernet ports (including a pair of aggregated ports) in the back if you want to actually plug stuff in, and the hard drive performance through its USB 3.0 port was also very impressive.
The Netgear Nighthawk X8 normally runs around the $400 mark, and whether you need a router that costs more than a couple of car payments is a question that only you can answer. But if the answer is "yes" (or even just an optimistic "maybe"), now would be a good time to give it a peek.
In an order to clamp down on Steam scammers, Valve is introducing "trade holds," which will insert a three-day waiting period between the conclusion of a trade deal and its actual execution. The idea is to give Steam users an opportunity to discover that their accounts have been compromised, and to do something about it, before their inventory is traded away.
What happens, simply put, is that some jerk gets hold of your Steam account, and then trades all your stuff to a second, fake account that's also under his control. Because trades happen immediately, your items are gone, baby, gone—and because Steam support is so notoriously slow, the odds of getting them back are not necessarily good.
Thus, trade holds. "If a user trading away items hasn't had their account protected by a Mobile Authenticator for the past 7 days, items delivery will be delayed by Steam for up to 3 days. This provides the user time to cancel the trade and any other that are pending," the Steam Support site explains. "Canceling trades that are pending or in a trade hold will begin a trading cooldown on your account to prevent any further unauthorized attempts to trade away items."
Using a Mobile Authenticator will eliminate the need for a trade hold, so obviously this is also a way of encouraging people to make use of them. Either way, this will be a boon all around: Your Steam stuff is better protected, and Valve will (hopefully) see a reduction in support requests for lost accounts or items. Given Valve's recent (and repeated) admission that its customer support is a gong show, reducing the demand for its services has to be a priority.
The Counter-Strike Blog says Steam trade holds will go into effect on December 9. To encourage people to get into the swing of things, Valve is also offering discounts of five to 33 percent on purchases from the Steam Community Market for anyone with a Mobile Authenticator until 10 am PST on December 16.
Fallout 4 is best on the PC, not just because it just looks and runs best, but because console commands let you
role-play a superhero, stage massive monster battles, or let you experiment with fashion no matter where you are. Problem is, typing in every command every time you boot up the game can take a bit of time. Luckily, there s a super easy way to expedite the process by making simple batch files.
Fallout 4 directory
First, you ll need to make a new .txt file using whatever program floats your boat. I m a Notepad++ man myself. Type all the console commands you d like to execute at once on separate lines in the text file, name it something simple you ll remember, and then save it directly to your primary Fallout 4 directory.
Once you re in game, hit the tilde key to open the console as normal, and then type bat [file name] to execute all of the file s commands at once. I ve yet to really stretch the limits of creativity with batch files, but I ve been using them to do a few things with quite a bit less typing. Here s a few examples.
Enable CPU multithreading
Off by default and difficult to change in the .ini files, making a batch file to take care of enabling CPU multithreading is a cinch. Some players have reported that it helps with hitchiness and framerate issues, so it might be worth giving a shot.
//enable CPU multithreadingtMta ONtMtrdfl ONtMtr ppld
The information behind the slashes just denotes what that command does. They re completely unnecessary, but if you end up making some complex batch files, it might be worth denoting what is what. Save the text file to your Fallout 4 directory, open the game, enter the console, type "bat juiceme" (or whatever name you chose).
Turn into an invincible nuclear skyscraper
Enabling god mode and setting player scale are pretty simple, but it can be hard to memorize every command or lookup item IDs each time you need to spawn something. Make breaking the game easy by throwing them all in a batch file. In this one, it enables god mode, gives me a Fat Man, makes me massive, and able to jump with the power of 200 Jordans. Entering the batch command feels like pressing the Fun Button. Throw something like this into a text file.
//GRONNIFER SMASH(God mode, jumps, and scale increase)tgmsetgs fJumpHeightMin 2000setscale 5
Press the tilde key, enter "bat smash" (or whatever you named it) and let the power flow through you. Make sure you go into third person and click on yourself so the batch knows what object to apply the scale settings to.
Have an impromptu Super Mutant and Raider battle
Batch files let you assign behaviors and spawn specific amounts of NPCs into the world all at once. Phil gave us
a detailed tutorial on how to make it work, so let s expedite the process. First, I made the battlechill batch file, which just spawns a few behemoths and raiders on my location, turns off their aggressive AI, and gives me god mode. (Be careful though, if you use multiple batch files that have redundant commands, you might be turning things on and off without realizing it.) Here's an example to work with:
//Toggle AItai
//Toggle combat AItcai
//Toggle god modetgm
//Monster spawns :D - 5 Super Mutant Behemoths vs 20 Raidersplaceatme 000bb7dd 5placeatme 000f757b 20
They'll spawn right on you, so you might have to turn on no clip (tcl) to get through.
The next batch file is just the on switch, which returns the NPCs their normal behaviors. Name it whatever you like (battlekill in my example), hit it, and watch the mess unfold.
//Toggle AItai
//Toggle combat AItcai
Or just turn the tide of the battle yourself. Just be sure you don't lose yourself.
These are just a few examples of how to lump together console commands. Used for chaos or convenience, they save a good amount of pecking out abstract commands and researching obscure object ID numbers. Feel free to share your own batch files in the comments.
There are sales galore happening right now. Even though Black Friday isn't officially here yet, many stores kick off the deals a day or more ahead of time (check out our ongoing list of Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals to stay plugged in). On top of it all, Steam's annual autumn sale has begun.
This time around Valve is calling it the Exploration Sale because you can "discover thousands of great deals throughout Steam." Valve could have just as easily called it the "Stock Up on More Games You Don't Have Time to Play Sale" because if you're like us, you end up adding discounted titles to your library only to later fret that you never have enough time to play games. First world problem, we know.
As always, the latest Steam sale contains a variety of games at varying degrees of discount. Here's a sample:
The Rainbow Six Siege open beta, which was delayed at the last minute because of problems with matchmaking and connectivity, is now underway. In an update posted earlier today, Ubisoft announced that those problems have been solved and the beta, as of 12 pm EST, is open.
Ubisoft said in a prior update that the server issues were introduced while fixing a different aspect of the game. It added that the scheduled launch of Rainbow Six Siege will not be affected, and that it is "confident the game will work as intended" once it goes live.
"This Open Beta will ensure the cleanest launch possible," Ubisoft wrote. "Keep in mind that this beta is intended for this exact reason: find problems and troubleshoot them to ensure the most stable launch possible."
This is true, but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't have more confidence in the process myself if it wasn't just five days away. The Rainbow Six Siege open beta runs until November 29 and, barring further breakdowns, the game will go into full launch on December 1.
This is Tiny. He has an ability called 'Toss'. 'Toss' means 'throw'. This is not a suggestion.
Three Lane Highway
Every week, Chris documents his complex ongoing relationship with Dota 2 and wizards in general. To read more Three Lane Highway,
click here.
The game has run long, as pub games tend to do. It's relatively even—maybe you're ahead a little, maybe they are, but the thing just won't seem to end. At this point, you probably have about a 50% chance of winning: and really is going to be up to chance, unless you ask yourself a simple series of questions.
Here is how you don't lose this Dota game.
Where are you going and why are you going there
You are going somewhere, because clicking on the ground is a pretty good idea in Dota 2. Where are you going, though? Are you going to your jungle? Are you going to the Roshan pit? Are you going to
their jungle, or to lane? Regardless of the answer: why are you doing this?
Here are some bad answers to this question:
There might be kills there and I'd like to get a kill. I want to be the 'kills guy', the guy who gets all the kills.
I am going to punch creeps until I can buy the big item I want. The big item will ensure that I become 'kills guy'.
I am going to place a ward because I would like my team to stop shouting at me.
I do not have any wards but I am going to use my face as a ward. My face-ward will find the enemy team, wherever they may be. My face-ward is not responsible for what happens after that.
Here are some good answers:
I am going to set up an ambush for the enemy split-pusher who has kept them in the game this far.
I am going to place a ward on the highground around our base and jungle so that we can push out and farm.
I am going to ensure that we have vision around the Roshan pit.
I am going to farm in an area that is safe because of the number of wards that we have. I am extremely grateful for all of these wards.
Do your friends know where you are
It's all very good to make solid right-clicking-on-the-ground decisions, but these can still become bad decisions if you choose to horde all of that wisdom for yourself. Why not share your plan of action with the rest of your team? This is why we call them 'a team', and not 'four assholes'.
You may
think that they're four assholes, but this is one of those rare instances where thinking it makes it so—and making it so will lose you this game of Dota 2. Sharing your plan will result in one of two outcomes:
Your team will accompany you on your mission.
Somebody will call you an asshole.
There's nothing you can do about that second one, but the first one is pretty important.
Why are you going by yourself
If you're going alone, then you've done something wrong. You've either forgotten to tell your team about where you're going, in which case go back a step, or you've told them and they've called you an asshole and you've decided to go anyway. This may make you feel like a strong free independent Dota player, but it is also probably going to get you killed and lose you the game.
It's dangerous to go alone. Take this. It's a teammate. Or an asshole. It doesn't matter. Just don't go anywhere you don't have really good vision without somebody else. This will either prevent a disaster, or at the very least mitigate the blame for a disaster.
Do you have a Town Portal Scroll
You really should definitely have a teleport scroll. You do not need a Town Portal Scroll if you have Boots of Travel. There are no other exceptions. Not even for you, Nature's Prophet. Not even for you.
Your gold isn't your gold now, surplus gold is your gold
Mouse over your gold counter on the right hand side of the screen, near the shop button. See all that stuff that pops up? One number is incredibly important: the green number (presuming that it's green. If it's not green, earn gold until it's green.)
This number tells you how much gold you have. You might think that you've got much more than this, but you don't. You see, all that other gold is reserved for the buyback that you definitely need. You need that buyback more than you need the item you're thinking of buying. You might think "I don't really need buyback". Don't have that thought. Eradicate that thought. That thought will make you lose this game.
You don't look convinced. You think that second Daedalus is going to ensure that, when the smoke clears, you emerge as the 'kills guy'. You're wrong. You should save for buyback.
You can buy things, but only using your surplus. If your gold count says '1898' but the green number reads '86', you may purchase items that cost less than 86 gold. May I suggest a Town Portal Scroll.
No seriously save for buyback
Do you know what's a pretty good item? Daedalus. It's worth 5520 gold. That's a lot of gold!
Do you know what's a really good item? All of your current items, plus your hero and all of their stats and abilties. That's worth every single piece of gold that you've spent in this entire game plus all of the experience that you've earned. Do you know why? Because all of these things are worth zero gold when you are dead, and only regain their value when you come back to life.
Buyback is the button that makes you come back to life. It's a very important button. Save for buyback.
Why doesn't anybody have buyback
YOU: I thought we just spoke about this! We have wiped and nobody has buyback.
TEAMMATE ONE: I thought it would be fine if I bought this item that I have just bought and now don't get to use because I am dead.
TEAMMATE TWO: I thought it would be fine if I bought this item that I have just bought and now don't get to use because I am dead.
TEAMMATE THREE: I thought it would be fine if I bought this item that I have just bought and now don't get to use because I am dead.
TEAMMATE FOUR: I thought it would be fine if I bought this item that I have just bought and now don't get to use because I am dead.
YOU: I should not have bought this extra Daedalus.
They won't skip barracks and go straight for the Ancient, it's fine
It's not fine.
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