| League of Legends reveals Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert Posted: 29 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, MOBA If you're a fan of League of Legends' cute, fuzzy, and distinctly psychotic yordles, you're in for a treat this week! Riot Games has revealed the game's next champion, a furry little yordle who's as adorable as he is deadly. Ziggs the Hexplosives Expert may look innocent enough, but he'd just as sooner drop a bomb in your lap than give you a hug. In a new gameplay reveal, developers give us a look at each of Ziggs' abilities, some screenshots of him in combat, and a dose of lore to blend the new champion into LoL's ever-growing roster. Ziggs is able to throw a bouncing bomb, set up a delayed satchel charge and scatter proximity mines across the ground that detonate on contact. His ultimate ability, the aptly named Mega Inferno Bomb, is essentially a long-range portable nuke that deals massive damage to those inside the primary blast radius. All of these abilities add up to make Ziggs a scary little damage-dealer to come up against in a match. The Ziggs patch will bring with it a number of additional balance changes, including the removal of the critical strike mastery in the offense tree, a buff coming to Jax, and a significant nerf heading for Lee Sin players. Check out the Ziggs patch preview video after the break for more details. Continue reading League of Legends reveals Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert  League of Legends reveals Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Previously on MV TV: Week of January 23rd Posted: 29 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, Previously on MV TV Welcome to Previously on MV TV! Our livestreaming schedule has picked up a lot over the past few weeks, and our readers have busy lives, so we know it's impossible to watch every single streaming event live. Fortunately for you, we save all of our streams all for posterity on Massively's Twitch TV channel, so you can view them at your leisure. Even better, we've got a roundup of a few of last week's MV TV highlights from the livestream team. Follow along after the jump for the best of the best, and check out our full library of videos for the other games we've streamed last week as we begin to ramp up our streaming even more in February! Continue reading Previously on MV TV: Week of January 23rd Previously on MV TV: Week of January 23rd originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: How often do you want new abilities? Posted: 29 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous We're all very familiar with the term "ding." We're also familiar with the immediate follow-up to a ding -- namely, figuring out what new stuff you get following a new level. Of course, that varies a lot depending on the game. Guild Wars will give players new abilities all the time, whether or not you hit a new level, but Star Trek Online only offers up a new set of abilities every 10 levels or so (equipment notwithstanding). Granted, if a game gives you abilities infrequently, each one tends to be more vital to your overall play experience. Having a wider spread of abilities means more choices, but it also means that each individual skill doesn't matter as much. So which do you prefer? Would you like to be swimming in new abilities and new tricks at every new level? Or would you prefer a slow roll, with new skills coming infrequently but being special when they do come?  Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!The Daily Grind: How often do you want new abilities? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Weakness is strength Posted: 28 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Game mechanics, Lore, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log If you think about characters in the online Final Fantasy games compared to the console-based equivalents, you have to come to a kind of demoralizing conclusion: Your character online is pretty weak. In Final Fantasy XI, you can cap out your Black Mage and you'll still never learn Ultima. In Final Fantasy X, by the time you have your Black Mage using Ultima, you've still got most of the endgame ahead of you. Final Fantasy XIV might move the power scale upward, but at this point your character hasn't even actually mastered being a Paladin, much less summoning anything. Final Fantasy VII, by contrast, gave us three different versions of Bahamut to summon just to keep him relevant, and he was still nowhere near the best. And you know what? It makes the games much more fun to have these barriers in place. Players have been clamoring for high-end summons in Final Fantasy XI since forever ago, and the fact that it's not even on the visible horizon for Final Fantasy XIV is disheartening to some. But there's something to be said for a play environment where these touchstones of power remain out of reach, certainly for now and possibly forever. Continue reading The Mog Log: Weakness is strength The Mog Log: Weakness is strength originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Tattered Notebook: The significance of the update delay Posted: 28 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Patches, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook A funny thing happened on the way to the forum, and you could almost hear the record scratch when it did. Players have been speculating on two things recently: the release date of GU 63 and the absence of Executive Producer Dave "SmokeJumper" Georgeson from the forums. As it turns out, SmokeJumper was simply on vacation, but his first post after returning created quite a stir. He reported a new timetable for game updates this coming year, and it's different from what had been announced. Game Update 63 is now scheduled for April, not February. Furthermore, there are only three planned updates this coming year, rather than four, along with an expected expansion at the end of the year. Let's look at some reasons for the change in schedule and what it means to EverQuest II fans. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: The significance of the update delay The Tattered Notebook: The significance of the update delay originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Captain's Log: Epic adventure, revenge, and an interview with Adam Ihle Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Interviews, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Captain's Log Beginning Thursday, February 2nd, STO will see the return of the infamous Q and his mischievous ways. Players are invited to sign in every day between February 2nd and 6th to participate in a challenge handed down by Q. After doing the entity's bidding, players will be rewarded with a different daily prize, although what those four prizes are has not been revealed. However, the news that really has the playerbase buzzing is the announcement that the new and very highly anticipated Federation and Klingon flagships will also be up for grabs -- for free. I will be outlining D'Angelo's follow up posts that give us more details into both ships. Also, in light of the announcements, I took the opportunity to catch up with Adam Ihle, whose winning starship design became the inspiration for the final look of the Odyssey class; we'll hear his reaction to the ship's debut in the game. Continue reading Captain's Log: Epic adventure, revenge, and an interview with Adam Ihle Captain's Log: Epic adventure, revenge, and an interview with Adam Ihle originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Five phantastic videos from the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test Posted: 28 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, News items, Dungeons A decade ago, Phantasy Star Online brought the special multiplayer magic of the emerging MMO genre to console gamers around the world. Sega celebrated the game's 10-year anniversary with the announcement of a sequel due to hit the shelves in Japan this year. No word has been given on whether there will be a US or EU release, but that hasn't stopped international fans of the game from getting excited. PSO2 officially launched its second alpha phase yesterday, and foreign game review website Steparu managed to get itself an invite. Fans of the original game's online play will be pleased to know that party gameplay has been given some much-needed improvements. There's no more need to make sure everyone is on the same quest; instead, the party leader picks a mission and the whole party gets it automatically. Mini-quests can pop up randomly during a dungeon, and completing them grants bonus experience. Boss fights are just as deadly and hectic as in the original, with fast-paced action and team members dying repeatedly throughout the fight. Steparu has published a comprehensive review of the early alpha, with videos of everything from dungeons and boss kills to furniture arranging. We've embedded a few of those videos after the cut. Continue reading Five phantastic videos from the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test Five phantastic videos from the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google's filed its 10-K with the SEC yesterday, and the numbers have revealed a staggering increase in the number of acquisitions the search giant made in 2011. Google closed the year by spending close to 
It's been awhile now since Bill Gates ruled the roast over at Microsoft, however his philanthropic work across the globe has more than made up for his absence. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has almost completely rid the world of polio, and malaria and aids can't be far behind at this rate. The founder of Microsoft has arguably made one of the most significant contributions to the world in the past hundred years, but even despite all his own personal accomplishments, he continues to reminisce over the death of S
