* Drow Ranger: Marksmanship agility bonus reduced from 40/60/80 to 35/55/75 * Earthshaker: Base armor reduced by 1 * Grimstroke: Ink Swell max damage reduced from 220/280/340/400 to 160/240/320/400 * Grimstroke: Ink Swell movement speed bonus reduced from 18/22/26/30% to 18% * Grimstroke: Phantom Embrace latch duration from 4/4/5/5 to 5 * Grimstroke: Phantom Embrace DPS rescaled from 12/18/24/30 to 6/14/22/30 * Necrophos: Level 10 Talent reduced from +40 Damage to +30 * Necrophos: Level 20 Talent reduced from +80 Attack Speed to +70 * Phantom Lancer: Spirit Lance cast range rescaled from 750 to 525/600/675/750 * Riki: Smoke Screen slow rescaled from 10/15/20/25% to 8/12/16/20% * Riki: Smoke Screen miss chance rescaled from 40/50/60/70% to 10/30/50/70% * Riki: Tricks of the Trade AoE reduced from 500 to 450 * Riki: Tricks of the Trade duration rescaled from 4/5/6 to 4/4.5/5 * Riki: Level 20 Talent reduced from +900 Blink Strike Range to +700 * Riki: Level 25 Talent reduced from +400 Tricks of the Trade AoE to +300 * Silencer: Last Word damage reduced from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300 * Terrorblade: Conjure Image manacost increased from 70 to 70/75/80/85 * Terrorblade: Reflection slow reduced from -25% to -20% * Terrorblade: Sunder manacost increased from 200/100/0 to 200/100/50 * Terrorblade: Level 15 Talent reduced from +300 Health to +250 * Treant Protector: Leech Seed heal reduced from 15/30/45/60 to 12/24/36/48 * Undying: Tombstone hit count reduced from 4/5/6/8 to 4/5/6/7 * Ursa: Fury Swipes duration reduced from 20 to 8/12/16/20 * Weaver: Shukuchi Manacost increased from 60 to 70 * Zeus: Arc Lightning manacost increased from 65/70/75/80 to 80
Blizzard has addressed the rumors that Diablo 3 is getting cross-play support. Although the developer knows of players' excitement, it confirmed Diablo 3 cross-play isn't in the works at all right now.
"While we love the idea of bringing our players together across platforms, we do not have any plans to implement cross-platform gameplay for Diablo at this time," a Blizzard rep told Comic Book. Diablo 3 exists on several different platforms, including consoles from two different generations. With Sony's decision to try console cross-platform play with Microsoft and Nintendo in Fortnite, some players have looked to other games that could benefit from cross-play. With Diablo 3 on so many platforms, it's been a popular candidate.
Prior to Comic Book's confirmation, in an interview with Business Insider, a Blizzard rep said that Diablo 3 cross-platform play was "a question of when, not if." This led to several rumors that the dungeon crawler role-playing game would be supporting cross-play soon. Some theorized the feature might be announced at this year's BlizzCon, but--much like Diablo: Reign of Terror being a new game--it doesn't look like that's the case.
Blizzard previously released a statement that there were several Diablo projects in the works. The first one, Diablo 3 coming to Nintendo Switch, has already been announced. However, Blizzard has not revealed what the other projects might be. "Some of them are going to take longer than others, but we may have some things to show you later this year," said community manager Brandy Camel.
AHS Apocalypse's Cody Fern On Being The World's Sexiest Antichrist
Fans seem to agree: American Horror Story's Michael Langdon, played expertly by Cody Fern, is TV's sexiest Antichrist. That may be a relatively small category, but there's no denying Langdon's allure. When we got the chance to speak with Fern about the role, we couldn't help but ask him: How does it feel to be anointed as a sex symbol?
"Oh, I don't know what to think about that," he said, chuckling. "I don't have a Twitter, but I do find--people have read things out to me, and I do find them alarming and funny and generous. I can't think about that stuff, you know, because I'm just doing what I'm doing, and how people are receiving it is how they're receiving it."
However, Fern admitted that he "built a lot of sexuality into Langdon." He said he and Sarah Paulson, who plays three different characters and also directed an episode this season, discovered that side of his character together.
"We found Langdon's temptation in that scene when she goes to kiss Langdon," he said. That was also the first scene he shot as the character. "This woman who has clearly no intimacy in her life, whose body is broken and fractured and whose soul is wavering between the real world and the dark places, and she reaches out to kiss Langdon, and he tells her she's not getting into the Sanctuary--I mean, that was a very powerful moment for me on set, to understand that, wow, Langdon can twist anybody. I wanted to build that into every scene in the outpost."
From that point forward, he made sure that side of Langdon was evident in every scene, even the darkest points in the story. "The way that he enters a room is creating desire in people," Fern said. "When Venable is waiting for Langdon to come, everybody's sitting in a library, and Langdon enters--he enters, he doesn't look at anybody but Venable. He circles around the entire room, he takes the position, and everything is sexual. The way that he has her move out of the way. The way he begins his conversation. The way that he sees a massacre--it's a sexy thing, that you can take this pill and you'll die."
Langdon's look, with his red eyeshadow and flowing, golden hair, adds to his mystique. Fern said the hair was the first thing AHS creator Ryan Murphy told him about the character, who was first introduced as a demonic baby way back in American Horror Story Season 1.
"I didn't know that I was playing Michael Langdon until two days before we started filming, and I didn't have the first script until two days before," Fern said. "The only thing that Ryan had told me about the character was that he was going to have long, flowing, Dorian Gray hair. But as soon as I put that wig on, I knew who Langdon was."
Beyond the hair, Fern said he can take only partial credit for the rest of Langdon's distinctive look. "I worked closely with Lou Eyrich, who's just the most phenomenal costume designer, and with Eryn Mekash, the head of makeup, and Michelle [Ceglia], who's the head of hair," he said. "We all had long conversations about how Langdon should look." The red eyeshadow was Fern's insistence, and it's another aspect of the character's appearance he was excited about.
"In terms of his sexual nature, he needs to be very liquid in everything that he does," Fern described. "He needs to straddle the fence between what is considered feminine and what is considered masculine, between how he dresses and how he presents himself. I don't see the Antichrist as being--he doesn't have a sexual orientation. He is the embodiment of something sexual, so whatever that is in a person, whatever their deepest desire is, he'll draw out."
It certainly doesn't hurt his appeal that Michael Langdon is so deliciously evil--or is he? Langdon seems to be the villain of Apocalypse, maybe even the cause of the end of the world--but Fern disputes the idea that he's evil.
"I don't think that Langdon is evil. I think that Langdon is righteous," Fern said. "He understands that people are lying about who they are, and that everybody is keeping up this facade of being good and wholesome, but deep down, they want to do dark things. And he just brings that out in them. So he's the light that illuminates the dark. That's how I see Langdon...He doesn't see that he's destroying the world. He sees his role as one of creation--of creating a new world."
No doubt many AHS fans would be happy to live in that world, as long as it meant being close to our favorite new demonic sex symbol.
American Horror Story Apocalypse airs Wednesdays on FX.
Challenge the horrifying reign of Nazi terror and battle an immortal evil in Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics; a turn-based tactical strategy game set in the award-winning Achtung! Cthulhu universe.
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Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 -- All Multiplayer Maps At Launch
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches with 14 multiplayer maps. There's already a 15th map scheduled for November as a post-launch expansion, but it will be free for all players.
Right now, players have access to Arsenal, Contraband, Firing Range, Frequency, Gridlock, Hacienda, Icebreaker, Jungle, Militia, Morocco, Payload, Seaside, Slums, and Summit. Four of the maps--Firing Range, Jungle, Slums, and Summit--are all from previous Black Ops games, but with a visual upgrade. In November, the Call of Duty classic Nuketown, also remastered with upgraded visuals, will become available. Treyarch hasn't announced how map updates after Nuketown will work, but they'll probably be a part of paid DLC expansions.
According to Forbes, the 14 original maps are described as follows:
Arsenal: Hostile covert ops on a manufacturing facility of a powerful North American military defense contractor means someone may have stolen the keys to the castle.
Contraband: Surveillance of an international arms smuggling operation has uncovered this shipping hub on a remote, uncharted island off the coast of Colombia.
Firing Range: US Forces gear up for red team/blue team combat exercises in this Guantanamo Bay military base.
Frequency: A covert listening station deep in the mountainous region of Hunan Province is being used to track strategic targets across the globe.
Gridlock: A Japanese metropolis whose city center has been jammed up by a bank heist gone wrong.
Hacienda: A lavish vineyard estate situated on a quiet lake in the Spanish countryside, home to a high-ranking crime syndicate boss.
Icebreaker: A long lost Nuclear submarine in the Arctic houses a uranium supply which a Russian unit has come to salvage.
Jungle: The heat is on as Cold War forces collide in the sweltering depths of the Vietnam jungle.
Militia: Anti-government extremists backed covertly by a Russian cell are stockpiling weaponry in a remote region of Alaskan wilderness near the Bearing Strait.
Morocco: Rebels in a small Moroccan village are using government military supply planes as target practice as they fly over the surrounding Sahara Desert.
Payload: A defensive ICBM launch facility deep in an Icelandic mountain range has been infiltrated by hostile forces attempting to steal a nuclear warhead.
Seaside: An anti-government protest in this quaint coastal Spanish town grew out of control and forced a military shutdown.
Slums: Street battles rage in head to head heat through the center of a run down Panama neighborhood.
Summit: Cold War surveillance is at its peak above the clouds in the mountaintop listening post in the Ural Mountains.
These maps do not include the ones exclusive to Black Ops 4's Zombies and Blackout mode. In Zombies, IX and Voyage of Despair are the two maps for the new Chaos storyline, while Blood of the Dead is the map for the Aether storyline--which continues the overarching narrative from the previous three Black Ops games. Blackout launches with only one map, but it's the biggest one the Call of Duty franchise has ever seen.
Video: A design-centric approach to developing characters & stories
Who is the actor in a game? Is it the person holding the controller in the real world, or the player-character who moves through the game-world?
The answer, at least care of veteran game designer Matthias Worch (Mafia III, Star Wars 1313, Dead Space 2) circa 2011, is both, and the game designer must work carefully to keep the interests of these two consciousnesses aligned.
At GDC 2011, Worch gave a great talk that examines how we reconcile developer-defined and player-derived character identities. Games often feature strong pre-authored characters and story arcs, while trying to give the player the feeling of uninhibited agency. The practical techniques presented by Worch suggest a path to designing stories that don’t simply provide a context for the players actions, but instead create impulses and motivations within the player that are in alignment with those of the avatar.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.
Today’s Deal: Save up to 80% on select games and celebrate Day of the Girl!*
October 11th marks International Day of the Girl. Children’s charity War Child UK and its US partner Children in Conflict want to celebrate with a collection of awesome games featuring female protagonists where a portion of the proceeds from participating partners will help support children affected by conflict.
Riverdale Season 3 Premiere Introduces A Slender Man Style Monster
Everyone's favorite Archie Comics based teen crime drama, Riverdale, is back for its third season on The CW and things are not looking great for Archie and his pals. Don't worry, they're still as fashionable and as shirtless as ever before, but not only is Archie Andrews on trial for murder, and not only has Betty Cooper's mom Alice joined a cult, but the town of Riverdale is slowly being invaded by a creature called the Gargoyle King. Watch out, this post contains spoilers for Riverdale's Season 3 premiere.
This week's episode gave us our first real insight into what, exactly, the Gargoyle King is--and it's even more buckwild than you might expect. Dilton Doiley, Riverdale's erstwhile scoutmaster and occasional paranoid gun enthusiast, and his friend Ben have, apparently, started playing a Dungeons and Dragons flavored roleplaying game over the summer--a game that, somehow, has summoned the Gargoyle King into their world. Maybe.
It's unclear whether or not the Gargoyle King is actually some sort of supernatural monster that has been summoned to Riverdale by Dilton and Ben's game, or if it's just (yet another) opportunistic serial killer carving a path through the countryside. Honestly, at this point, either option seems pretty absurd--and equally likely. Either magic and monsters are both real, or Riverdale is the single most unlucky town on Earth, so does it really matter?
That question is exactly the point of this season, explained Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at this year's New York Comic Con. "Just how supernatural is the Gargoyle King? That's the big question." Aguirre-Sacasa teased, "He's a little bit like the Slender Man--we're taking these crazy things, but we're grounding them with real-life touchstones."
The Slender Man seems to be an apt comparison after we see Dilton's panic in this episode. "Ben and I, we thought it was just a game," he frantically explained to Jughead, "The Gargoyle King." But it wasn't a game, apparently--or, at least, it wasn't the game Dilton and Ben assumed it was. Just hours after Dilton's initial breakdown, Jughead finds a mysterious map left on his kitchen table that leads him deep into the woods on the outskirts of town. There he finds what can only be described as a sacrificial altar--and the unconscious, possibly dead, bodies of both Dilton and Ben strung up below it.
Fans of the first season of HBO's anthology crime drama True Detective might see the similarities immediately. The creepy wicker-and-skulls motif, the ritualized position of the bodies, the weird runes painted (carved?) into their backs--it has all the classic Southern Gothic markings of some creepy, cult-based horror. A True Detective flavored, surreal, supernatural-but-not crime spin on this season seems slightly more likely than the honest-to-goodness supernatural being tossed into the mix--but really, it's far too early to call.
There is, after all, a cult in the mix with Alice and Polly Cooper's "The Farm," a New Age "lifestyle support group" led by the mysterious (but amazingly named) Edgar Evernever. For a brief moment, we see Betty hallucinate (?) Alice and Polly attempting to sacrifice Polly's twin babies into a giant bonfire--only to watch the babies float upwards away from the flames rather than burning to death. Moments after watching/hallucinating the event, Betty experienced a strange not-quite-black-out where she collapsed with a ringing in her ears. Was it the product of her recently revealed prescription drug problem? A side effect from the nefarious machinations of The Farm? A genuine supernatural event that Betty's mind just couldn't process? Were Alice and Polly really about to sacrifice children, or was the whole thing just in Betty's head?
The waters of what is or isn't on the table get a bit murkier when you look at the bigger Archie Comics-based picture. Though they're officially not crossing over (not yet, at least) Riverdale's neighboring town of Greendale is dealing with witches, warlocks, and demons over in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, so who's to say some of Greendale's magic didn't cross the city limits?
So far, we know that The Gargoyle King has something to do with Dilton and Ben's tabletop game, that it apparently either requires or encourages some sort of sacrifice, that Jughead may now be the only other person outside of Dilton and Ben who knows that something is wrong, and, while all of this is going on, Riverdale is now home to a cult. Maybe the two things are related--maybe they're not. But, either way, Riverdale's teen heroes are about to have their work cut out for them.
