Well, at the beginning of its second week, Hulkageddon has crested the 1 trillion ISK damage threshold, which already makes this the most successful Hulkageddon to date (and it’s only half done)
The total kills at the beginning of the week stood at over 5,000. There still seems to be plenty of contest for the main event prizes (an assortment of goals, such as most kills in Caldari high security space, or most solo kills) but as per the agreement, Goonswarm continue to pay out 100 million ISK for every 10 exhumer kills. And on top of that, the lucky pilot who pushed the total ISK damages over the 1 trillion threshold was awarded a flat 2 billion ISK bonus!
The inclusion of rolling awards for this Hulkageddon seems to have kept the interest, with the 100 million payout offered by Goonswarm for each 10 confirmed kills. In previous Hulkageddon events, you’d tend to find that participation had begun to dwindle by now, as people felt they had no hope of catching up with the point leaders. But with these ongoing prizes for simply participating, it doesn’t look like the event is slowing down, which means the miners of New Eden may find that they’re going to be forced out of the asteroid belts for an entire month… which will be catastrophic for some, especially those who rely on mining to pay for their subscription.
But the real goal of Hulkageddon (at least from what I can tell) isn’t really to disrupt mining, but instead, to harvest carebear tears. And they’ve certainly been harvested! From some de-hulked miners issuing RL death threats to the events organisers, to a cacophony of rage across the blogosphere.
My personal favourite so far has to be the story of one blogger, named Pointy Sticks, who laid down the cyber-gauntlet with his closing statement in this blog post. “Hulkageddon?? Pffft. Fucking whatever . . . “ Naturally, some people took notice of this, and so began an epic game of hide and seek across the interwebs, with members of the Black Rebel Rifter Club taking it upon themselves to identify, locate, and ultimately assassinate this particular bear. Details of this awesome escapade can be reviewed here, as Kaeda relates the awesome in their blog.
But for those who need an abridged TL;DR version. Pointy Sticks acts all ‘like whatever’ about Hulkageddon, Black Rebel Rifter Club decide that the game is on. Internet super-sluthes discover previous posts talking about corp-mates getting killed by specific ships on specific dates. Deduce what corp he was in by reviewing kill mails. Hunt him down in game, then watch for an opportunity to gank. Opportunity presents itself, death squad launches and his Hulk is destroyed. And more importantly his POD. And more importantly still, HIS IMPLANTS WORTH 1.7 BILLION ISK…….. o.O
Good game, Black Rebel Rifter Club, good game indeed.
At this rate, this years Hulkageddon is turning out to be a very entertaining event to follow indeed. Stay tuned for continued weekly updates.
WARNING, this post may contain gameplay videos and trailers that may cause your brain to melt out from your ear… I kid, but there will be a lot of video links in this so enjoy:
BORDERLANDS 2
Website IGN has posted two videos showing Siren and Gunzerker gameplay, it does include commentary but you can ignore it and just watch those pretty lights. Oh wait, thats a giant crab thing getting blown to bits…Hurray!
This week THQ has officially announced the sequel for an early 2013 release. Relic will once again be developing the game using the Essense 3.0 Engine, no idea what it does but it will have a considerable graphical upgrade. They've said the game's features would include new commander abilities, enchanced environmental destruction and something called "Dynamic Battle Tactics". The warfare this time round has shifted to the Eastern Front so dress for snow and don't forget the vodka.
THE ELDER SCROLL ONLINE
Didn't think this day would come but it has, Elder Scrolls MMO was announced and is being developed by Zenimax Online Studio which was setup by Bethesda's parent company. To stop this post getting too big I've supplied some links, so for more details head over to IGN or Game Informer.
According to the website Siliconera, a source told them that Sony is recording a teaser for a future Killzone game set after the events of the third one.
"My sons and my daughters, today we take the first step toward our imperial future. For years, this once-great nation has stagnated in the shadow of its enemies. Governed by scoundrels who flaunted the ideals established by my father, these traitors… these enemies of our race have diluted and exploited the triad of Duty, Obedience, and Loyalty. This regime, this corrupt regime, has been dissolved. In its place does rise an era of stability and strength. A time of opportunity born from a promise that we shall return our people to their proper sphere of dominance."
'Duty, Obedience, and Loyalty' are the three virtues of the Helghast Triad. Our source says, these lines were written for a woman, who has ties to a Helghan Autarch. We’re speculating here, but the speaker might be Aurarch Visari’s daughter. Our source wouldn’t comment if this is tied to the upcoming Killzone game for PlayStation Vita.
Quoted "Siliconera"
ASSASSIN'S CREED 3
Ubisoft has released a new gameplay trailer which gives people a look at the game's environments and battles.
Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC takes place weeks after the events of Arkham City, Batman is in a fragile state after the events of the original game. When rumors turn up about Harley Quinn setting up in Joker's old stomping grounds, Batman immediately investigate and ends up off the grid.This leaves it up to Robin to find out what the hell happened. Harley Quinn's Revenge as well as the past DLC will be part of the "Batman Arkham City Game of the Year" edition which release date is slated as September 7.
This actually help me answer a comment left on last week's post, so here it is, Bethesda Softworks has announced that its steampunk-ish assassin game will be launching in the UK on October 12.
HITMAN: ABSOLUTION
After a leaked image on Tuesday, Square Enix has announced a standalone experience titled "Hitman: Sniper Challenge". Though part as a preorder bonus at Gamestop, there will be a steam version of the minigame available on August 1.
"Agent 47 is tasked with taking out a mark and all his bodyguards from a rooftop. Efficiency is key and will grant score multipliers and unlock equipment upgrades (some which will transfer to Absolution). Progress of the best snipers will be tracked on a leaderboard and the best of the best snipers in North America will win a trip for two to Copenhagen, Denmark, where they will meet the Hitman development team."
Sadly 2k Games has announced that Irrational Games's new Bioshock has been pushed back until February 26 next year. Ken Levine, Creative Director had this to say:
“When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we’ve uncovered opportunities to make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need to deliver the best Infinite possible, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February.”
Allo allo this long one is a late post because I was waiting for more information on some of the title announcements or leaks to turn up this month, but I got fed up of waiting hehe.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II
Activision confirms the next game in the call of duty franchise by offering a first look trailer to it's fans. The trailer itself show that the game takes place in the year 2025 and contains plenty of futuristic weaponry. What surprises me is that the trailer's voiceover is an elderly Frank Woods, those who played the first game sees Woods sacrificing himself to save the protagonist.
In Black Ops 2 players will play as former protagonist Alex Mason in the 1980s, and as his son, David Mason, in 2025. The two periods are entwined with the return of Woods and a new villain, Raul Menendez. The story arc spans the Mason family and Woods, and plot out the rise and fall of Menendez. Working with David S. Goyer, who helped co-develop the story for The Dark Knight, Treyarch has decided to shine a more detailed light on its villain. Players will see the breaking point for Menendez in the 1980s to better understand his motivations for terror in the future. We see a man go from good soldier to bitter terrorist, and his story is as important to the entire plot of Black Ops 2 as any other character we meet.
For more information, why not visit Joystiq's article on the game's first details: [CLICKY]
SKYRIM DAWNGUARD DLC
Bethesda releases the name of the game's first DLC along with an image, other than that they are keeping tight lipped until E3 next month.
BATTLEFIELD 3: CLOSE QUARTERS
Another gameplay video of Battlefield 3's DLC has turned up, this one shows a map named Donya Fortress.
After previous games in the franchise being singleplayer only, Game Director Todd Papy last week unveiled the new mode to the public. For more information on multiplayer head over to GameInformer: [CLICKY]
Thought advertising of a game couldn't get any weirder, but a few websites and publishers received a strange gift in the mail. Though looking more of a death threat than a novelty USB Memory Drive, the arm contained a series of photos, a letter and a video. Last week the video was extended on and here it is.
Well it does look like Sony is pulling a Nintendo again, after the whole Move wand thing they now decided to release a super smash brothers style game. It includes the platform's star characters such as Kratos, Sly Cooper, PaRappa the Rapper and many more. Though announced last week, this concept was discussed for about a year maybe more.
Aperture Science's Cave Johnson is back and he needs your help in the biggest con… I mean project in the world of Portal 2. But I'll leave it to Mr. Johnson to explain, take it away you mad sod hehe.
Resident Evil's creator Shinji Mikami has decided to return to his roots of survival horror by announcing that he will be developing a project named "Zwei".
"Our latest project's codename is "Zwei" and it is a survival horror game. The above image is a collage of different environments we put together for this announcement and is intended to give a feel for the tone and the direction the production is taking. (However, neither the code name nor the image is intended to tell you exactly what is in the game.)"
ODDS AND SODS
Thought I'd add this part just round up some of the little bits that didn't make it in this post like cancellation and stuff. Righto first up Bayonetta 2 has apparently been shelved no official word yet, Crytek has said that Timesplitter 4 is not in development at this time. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is cancelled but the same team is developing a free2play MMOFPS called Survarium.
While I’m sure many Eve Online players already know about this (I’ve certainly tried to make the players I know of, aware of the danger) I thought I might as well write a short blog-post about Hulkageddon.
Hulkageddon, as the name suggests, is an event in Eve where hundreds and thousands of players use throw-away ships to suicide gank players who are mining in Exhumer class Hulks, in the traditionally safe areas of Empire space. Turned into a sport, the days and weeks of Hulkageddon prove to be a harrowing experience for Hulk pilots, as single or teams of players compete for the highest kill counts in order to win big prizes.
There’s a whole lot of pomp and fanfare and general frivolity among the gankers, with videos being posted of particularly glorious kills, or the rage-filled eve-mails they receive from the pilots they have freed from their hulks.
Here’s a fun guide to Hulkageddon:
This years Hulkageddon will last for the whole month of May, the longest Hulkageddon to date. Naturally, with people largely unable to mine (or at least on the scale they’re used to) mineral prices will sky-rocket, which I’m sure some people are poised to take advantage of
The TL;DR version is – lots of people get together and, using very inexpensive ships, gang up on and destroy very expensive ships before the galaxy police show up and pop them, for fun and profit.
In a change to the ramblings of an aging gamer that has dreams and aspirations of making it to the Gold League, the Team b0b blog is also going to serve as a platform for helping the whole of the eFragz StarCrafters crew get better. This week Neylem has taken Rogue Spears placement match replays and put together a series of analysis videos to highlight good play and areas that could be improved upon to help Rogue Spear rise up through the ladders and crush nerds.
Have a look and chuck up your thoughts as to whether we should continue to work on this type of content, happy StarCrafting, over to Neylem,
Well this week the big boys of the games industry have shown up to keep the fans happy until E3 come around in June. So let's take a look together shall we:
HALO 4
First up 343 Industries and Microsoft has officially announced that Halo 4 will launch worldwide on 6th November 2012.
CRYSIS 3
After a number of rumours and leaks, plus the reveal details last week. Crytek officially unveiled CRYSIS 3 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 for the Spring next year. The story picking up after CRYSIS 2, players once again step into the boots of Prophet/Alcatraz as he seeks revenge. On returning to New York he discovers the city encased in a Nanodome created by the corrupt Cell Corporation. The Nanosuit soldier's arsenal contains a composite bow, an enhanced Nanosuit and alien weaponry to become the deadliest hunter on the planet. Whats interesting to me is that the boss of Crytek, Cevat Yerli stated on Twitter that "CRYSIS 3 will be more a spiritual successor in gameplay to Crysis 1 instead of Crysis 2."
Early this week Bethesda Softworks issued a image showing a shadowy and dirty face, at first it was thought it was perhaps some dlc for Skyrim. But it turns out that it was a teaser to unveil a trailer for the company's next game.
Bethesda also announced that Prey 2 won't launch in 2012, pervious rumours suggest development was in trouble to the point where Human Head Studios had suspended work on the game since November last year.
CALL OF DUTY
According to an Kotaku article, a retail source forwarded them a image of a promotional poster. Though not confirmed by activision the poster gives a date of 2nd May which could be an reveal announcement. Also noted is the logo of Teryarch which from previous rumours are developing the next Black Ops game.
GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION
Another reveal listed for this week is of course God of War. No story details were given in the announcement but going off the trailer's narration by titan Gaia it looks like its a prequel.
THQ announced that Darksiders 2 has been officially delayed until August 2012. Apparently they need the additional time for "polish and to ensure that all aspects of Darksiders 2 meet the high-quality bar the team is targeting."
DEAD SPACE 3 & NEED OF SPEED: MOST WANTED 2
A South African retailer named 'BT Games' known for being prone to information leaks recently posted pre-order webpages for Dead Space 3 and Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2 (now removed). Though these two titles haven't be confirmed yet, this isn't the first time that BT Games has posted pre-orders before an official announcement.
It seems that the StarCraft Seasons are coming round too quickly from my point of view; I was finally comfortable with the idea of being in Bronze and smashing my way to victory and ultimately promotion back to the Silver league. This wasn't meant to be and after a better showing towards the end of Season 6, Team b0b finished 17th in Bronze Division Braken Alamo with 17 wins and 361 points. I'm quite pleased with that and am happy with finally getting more ladder games in; I really think the ladder anxiety is a thing of the past.
Right on to Season 7, this season is building on the success of Season 6 and has truly proven that Blizzard have turned a corner and we the StarCrafters will benefit. Season 6 saw the inclusion for the first time of community made maps, or non-Blizzard maps and the quality in balance and design shines through. The maps were Cloud Kingdom and Kohal Compound, pictured below; they were used in the GSL and have added more to the laddering sessions.
Cloud Kingdom LE
Kohal Compound
Blizzard have included two more GSL maps and have included a community made map, this is huge for StarCraft players, there were polls for players to choose which maps would be added and a poll for which map would be dropped. Blizzard also announced that they will be looking to Tournaments around the globe to help determine which maps should be in the line-up for the official 1v1 ladder pool. I am stunned that they are actually listening and implementing change based on feedback as it has felt like they weren't listening and marching to the beat of their own drum. Maybe, just maybe we will get replays with friends functionality and Streams in game, hat off to Riot and the work they are putting into League of Legends.
There has been a significant change to the MMR numbers, this is the magic behind the scenes number that determines how good you are and helps figure out who you should be playing. The changes have increased the variation in who you play so there is the option to face much harder players or easier players; it is to facilitate easier promotions and to expose you to varying skill levels. This can be looked at in two ways but at Team b0b it is all about the positives, if you play someone much worse than you it is fun, you smash them to pieces and feel great about yourself. If you play someone much better, you get smashed in the face but you now have a useful replay to analyse in order to get better, if you play better players you will get better yourself. I think the biggest aspect of the relaxing of who you face is that now there will be a variation in the games rather than every game being a closely fought slog as you were both close to each other's skill levels. I look forward to seeing how it all fits together in the grand scheme of things.
The Ladder map pool has now grown from 8 maps to 10, this does mean extra maps to learn but from my point of view this is a great improvement, I find that with my puter games I need variety in the environments I am playing in. I find that with games that I have sunk hours upon hours into, I love the game but need the occasional new map to give me some difference, somewhere new to go and now with the ladder I have more variety. The new maps are interesting and a few practice matches against the Very Hard AI have shown that the changes that have always been required, such as close spawn removal and the removal of short rush distances make the maps fun to be on. I will have to see how the ladder treats me going forward and I look forward to finding out what the maps offer in terms of tactics and exploits.
Metropolis
Ohana
Daybreak
I completed my placement match against a Protoss on Metropolis, I did alright but ultimately got beaten, out macro'd and out manoeuvred I dreaded the placement, it was going to be Bronze again and I would be grinding for another season. However things aren't always as expected…
Boom! Back in the game, the Season 6 kick in the spuds behind me and now I am grinding for Gold! Man it feels good being back on track!
Lost Planet 3 introduces Jim, a rig pilot who leaves Earth to take on a hazardous but lucrative contract on E.D.N. III. Working for Neo-Venus Construction (NEVEC) who are preparing the planet for colonization, Jim joins his fellow pioneers at the Coronis base and begins surveying the uncharted terrain and obtaining samples of the planet’s energy supply – Thermal Energy. With NEVEC’s existing Thermal Energy reserve running low the fate of the Coronis mission depends on the natural source of the energy supply being located. Realizing that this is a great opportunity for a huge pay-off and early ticket home to his family, Jim braves the risk of the treacherous environment and threat of the indigenous Akrid. Acting as a home away from home and boasting an array of tools that can assist Jim on the field, the utility rig provides Jim’s safety and is essential for not only his contract work but also his protection against the ever-changing climate.
Well this isn't new to EA but after a balls up on its online store ORIGIN it was reveal that the third game in the series (I'm not counting Warhead before people ask) was set to be unveiled on the 16th April. During the week EA accidently published a banner and a game box on its store, EA sometime later informed GameInformer with the following statement:
"The best kept secret in shooters just can't be contained. Stay tuned for more information on April 16."
GOD OF WAR 4 ANNOUNCEMENT NEXT WEEK TOO? MAYBE
Although not confirmed a teaser turned up on Playstation's Facebook webpage.
The kick in the spuds from Blizzard has had a reaction, it has spurred me on to get back to where I was and to get into a more committed routine of getting more ladder matches in. The countdown no longer holds dread but excitement, I look forward to facing a nerd, crushing them and moving onto the next one. I am amazed at the amount of cheese I am encountering but amd pleased to see it as with my current tactics I am able to hold and it puts me ahead straight away and that momentum mentally helps me feel positive through to the end. I think there is a part of me that just can't cheese, I don't like the idea of throwing a game away because my cheesey plan didn't work.
Shakuras Plateau, Zerg and favoured, this is a good start as it will be a potential stack of points and a bigger step closer to the new goal of top 25. I opened defensively just incase Mr Zerg tried anything funny and funnily enough fairly quickly a Zergling rush came in, it died and I continued about my business. I had saved my Scouting SCV and was able to dart back into the Zerg main, seeing no natural expansion I new this guy had tried an all in and now I was ahead. I scouted a Baneling nest and bolstered my front to prepare for a Baneling bust, super SCV made it out and was sent around all the expansions looking for another Zerg base. With none found things were looking good as I was on 2 base and definately ahead and increasing my advantage. I scanned and caught the pack of Banelings sat waiting outside my front door, I knew what I was dealing with and sent a lone brave Marine out to be the early warning system.
The bust came in and killed my wall but it was cleaned up by the units waiting for them, he had managed to kill my wall but caused minimal unit losses, this again meant a bigger lead for me and mentally my opponent must have been hurting. I fixed the wall, continued to macro towards my prefered composition and scouted the Zerg via scans, he had double expanded to try and catch up and was switching to Mutas. My economy was rocking so I went for a defensive Thor and made a pretty pattern with turrets as at this point the only thing that could kill me was a big band of Mutas sat over all my production killing everything.
Rather than wait for the Mutas I sent out a pair of Vikings to get a count on them and see what was going on with the possibility of killing a few Overloads just to wined him up. The Mutas were in the middle of the map and intercepted my birds, then they came for the juggular and in the spirit of ST.Bomber ran into 3 grouped up turrets, they scurted round and got in to my main. Usually this would be bad but now they were encircled by turrets, next to a Thor and had a ton of Mariners running in to incept. He tried to escape but encountered turrets in three's and had to turn right around. With every poke to get out he had to turn around and flew straight into the Thor backed up by upgraded Marines, I love watching Mutas disintergrate into Zerg blood vapour, it is an awesome sight, especially when he had 27 of them and now they are all dead with me taking almost no damage.
Confident that I was so ahead at this point I was in my next game it was time to march across the map and end my opponents misery, I was scanning as I went to check for burrowed units and to kill creep tumors. There was nothing, no burrowed nasties or creep which was wierd, confidence growing as I approached Zerg central I decided to kill his Tech rather than his economy and went for the main. I managed to clear up both the main and natural with half my force still intact, this is looking like a match against the easy AI at this point. I killed the Spire, Lair and Spire meaning that whatever he could produce from his other two bases would be low level units and no match for 2 – 2 Marine, Marauder backed up with Medivacs and Siege Tanks. My reinforcements joined up with my veterans and together they attacked into 12 Spine Crawlers, his last stand he tried Infested Terran from burrowed Infestors which with the aid of a scan were cleaned up for the GG.
Thank you Mr Zerg, 30 points and up to 40th, I'm sure things will get harder to closer I get to the top of my league but at the moment it is just a case of focusing on the basics and over powering the lower level guys. The only questions I can't answer by facing what I am percieving as worse players are what do I need to improve on? Am I getting better? The only thing to do is to continue on and get into the top 25 before the season ends.
Allo allo its time to see whats been going on this week, hmm that looks good and that looks interesting… Oh wait, you can't see what I'm looking at can you so here you go:
BORDERLANDS 2 IN ACTION
Well looks like PAX East came round again, its generally not full of gamer info but you do sometimes get a big name there to show off its stuff. Here some ingame combat to wet your appetite.
At its PAX East panel yesterday, Epic president Mike Capps teased that the company might be working on a PC-only title. Shortly after Cliff Bleszinski or Cliffy B for short then confirmed it, "Let me say that again, we are working on a PC game." Is this a sign that the company is coming back to its roots or is it the fact that their latest game engine would probably make the PS3 weep and the Xbox self destruction hehe.
MASS EFFECT 3 EXTENDED CUT DLC
BioWare has made an announcement that it will be releasing free DLC this Summer which will contain extra ending content for Mass Effect 3. The Extended Cut DLC will feature new cinematics and epilogue scenes that will expand upon the game's ending, providing extra detail and insight to fans. Also a new FAQ was posted along with the announcement that clears up any questions for fans.
"Though we remain committed and are proud of the artistic choices we made in the main game, we are aware that there are some fans who would like more closure to Mass Effect 3. The goal of the DLC is not to provide a new ending to the game, rather to offer fans additional context and answers to the end of Commander Shepard’s story." In addition, BioWare said it "strongly believes in the team’s artistic vision for the end of this arc of the Mass Effect franchise.
Here the trailer for Resurgence, new multiplayer DLC for Mass Effect 3
Markus 'Notch' Persson the creator of Minecraft has revealed the name and details of his new game. 0x10c is set in space (I can remember reading somewhere that he wanted to create the next evolution of the old game 'Elite') and is still very early in development, the official website does include a set of features.
Hard science fiction.
Lots of engineering.
Fully working computer system.
Space battles against the AI or other players.
Abandoned ships full of loot.
Duct tape!
Seamlessly landing on planets.
Advanced economy system.
Random encounters.
Mining, trading, and looting.
Single and multi player connected via the multiverse.
I managed to catch this while rumaging through the different websites I look at, I found it on All Games Beta's site and believe its the article found in the Game Informer magazine.
The highs and lows of b1llyb0b versus the world of StarCraft II, here I will document my StarCraft II career, the training, the learning, the wins and the losses.
I will be documenting my journey and experiences with this well balanced esport monster of a game.
According to the website 
