RTV

This week will have no posts, minus this one as I focus for finals, sorry folks. I suppose you could say there is a slight chance I could make a quick post if Fiora decides that she's gonna release herself, or if TF2 drops some major bomb, but otherwise,I got nothing.


Except this. If you look to your right (Not literally, on the computer Screen) you'll see a cute little poll. I've had it set up all throughout February, but most people haven't voted on it, so if you'd so kind to select what you'd like to see more of, I'll be sure to put more focus on it. You may select multiple ideas to enter, but if it ends up as a dead-end tied (like it is now) then it's a little bit for naught, the voting end at noon on 3/3/12, so go ahead and rev up those proxies, and set out to vote.

--Santa

LoL: Kat Has a Sister

So on Thursday, Riot announced their new Champion, Fiora, the "Grand Duelist." Got to admit, she looks like a re-skinned Demacian version of Katarina. She even has long red hair, and follows the rules of the internet for all women (as noted in the Sejuani Post.) So although I may not be excited (or care) that there's the new patch coming out to bring another ball-busting carry who deals massive damage, I am getting some good news in the form of the latest patch preview.

We're seeing major changes to Ziggs (in the form of some buffs, but mostly nerfing his AOE bomb attack) and a big boost to Lux, which as we all know is not needed. Lux is one of those champions that doesnt seem to be very useful except for uber stuns and a very, very annoying ult. Olaf is also getting buffs, but other than that no major chnages to champions have been announced. However, they are changing the Jungle. Killing will now grant a slice of mana along with the health, basically making jungling, as far as I'm concerned, a much more viable option. This is a fantastic gameplay change, and I can only hope that Riot continues to be innovative.

Also, I've heard of a possible re-make on Heimerdinger, as done on Gangplank, Jax, and so-on. I'll keep my eyes open on this one, and see if I can find anything  out.

--Santa

LoL: Going Pro

When you get into one game a bit more, like in my case TF2 and League of Legends, you start thinking about whether or not going ‘pro’ would be a good decision. But, I’ll tell you one thing, good luck. Focusing on League of Legends (since TF2’s professional life has nothing to do with hats, and is therefore completely un-interesting) you’ve got the ‘Season’ circuit, which is currently on its second run. Riot endorses this circuit by showing up with a gigantic $5 million prize pool, and the total world tournament being worth $2 million, why not just throw your (hypothetical) hat into the ring, you know you’ll get pub stomped, but you may get like $50 bucks in your regionals. Here’s the overall steps

1.       Hit level 30. This is non-negotiable, sorry. You need to be level 30 before you can even consider being in the semi-pro market, and most of the real pros are already in teams.

2.       Make your team. Get a bunch (or acquire) a bunch of friends, up to 8, to be part of your team.

3.       Play ranked. You need 16 champions to be able to play in ranked (remember that this also counts FTP champions, so if you’re going along at your own merry speed on Ranked, and suddenly find that your top 3 champions have been banned, and all you have left is to play a Jungle Garen you may want to think of getting a few more champions to acquaint yourself with before joining ranked matches)

4.       Get a ranking, also known as your ELO. Your ELO goes from anywhere from 1200 up to 2400+ (which is where all the top players are) the higher the ELO you have,  the better of you know how ranked works

5.       Compete at prized events, most of which are worth around $100 or so for the grand champion. At these competitions, you earn circuit points, depending on your placing.

6.       Depending on your circuit points, you can see how well you would do on the Pro series. You gotta be a high rank, (like these guys) to make it

7. World championship-- Do it bro, for all of us pub players. God speed

Its pretty simple. Just play ranked and get that ELO. Mine is 1200 or so, so I'm not gonna be in any big games anytime soon, but who knows? You can probably do better than me.

--Santa

UPDATES

I was really busy yesterday, praying to every omnipotent being I could think of in hopes that they could possibly bring up my precious item server on TF2, but Robin Walker (God of Hats), Gabe Newell (God of Delays) or Andrew Hussie (God of useless killings) failed to answered my call, so I just ended up doing nothing all day except watching random YouTube videos and eating canned pudding, so my Tuesday had effectively become my normal Saturday. But you haven’t come here to read my endless bantering about how Canned-Pudi Inc. is sure to be worth 10 times the amount Apple is wo TF@ no you came here to read about my useless opinion!

Today we’ll be touching base on the following subjects

• Team Fortress 2 (Hats and Other items)
• League of Legends (Free Champion Rotation & new skins)
• Homestuck
• State of Santa's Workshop

Let me just get out my trusty name-drawing hat, this is gonna require me drawing out something special... Homestuck? Nah, not going to start there, we'll just go in the order of the list.

Team Fortress 2

All right, for all of you following the TF2 blog (linked here) should know that Valve loves to act like busy little bees, in the form of adding new items, going back to about a week ago, Valve has added a ring for Valentine's Day, simply called the "Something Special for Someone Special" to the Mann Co. Store. The ring is a cute misc item for $100 bucks, but can't be traded, and comes with a free thing of gift wrap and  name tag, for gifting to that special someone, and upon gifting, everyone on TF2 is sent the message of love that had just happened. So beautiful, no? Other items include the Snapped Pupil for Demoman (A picture of his good eye, taped over his eye patch) and a Boombox, the Boston Boom-Bringer, to replace the Scout's pack and to bring some much needed beats to Teufort civillans.

League of Legends

A bit of old news for anyone who does follow Leage of Legends, but its always nice to see who's FTP this week.

• Kassadin- Void Guy, quite annoying when he teleports to you and launches goop on you
• Master Yi- PRO
• Rammus- Spikey the Armadillo
• Singed- WW's best bud, and a lunatic
• Taric- Opals are so fabulous
• Malzahar- I HAVE A WALL AND A TARANTULA AS A PET. DON'T MESS WITH ME
• Miss Fortune- "Pirate Hunter" who's dad was totally not killed by Gangplank
• Caitlyn- All sheriffs have top hats, all top hats are purple. This is final.
• Talon- Absolutely nothing like Ezio from Assassin's Creed. Totally.
• Fizz- Self-Explanatory

Along with the free rotation, Riot has left us with a forum post as to how they choose their free champions, check it out. We also see some new skins, a very women-empowering NSFW skin that will definitely win Vayne Tramp-Of-the-Year. But, there's also a new skin for Ryze, which scares me to no end. But, that's no different from normal.

Homestuck

I'm completely caught up on Homestuck, into act 6, and almost understand whats going on. Seriously, so many little children, so little time. I got to say, Hussie is magic, and I'm just talking about his lips (which have the power to kill all the heroes who have ever existed.)

Here in the Workshop

Recently I hit 1,500 views, actually I'm at a bit above 1,650 but I forgot to make a post for 1,500. All I have to say is, thanks. I didn't imagine a blog that's just a cute little project from my AP class would end up actually being a legitimate source for learning (or for anyone looking up Jax for whatever reason, which alone has gotten nearly 900 views.) But, if you take out Jax's one post, I'm at like 750, which still beats everyone else in the class by like 10 fold. So thank you everyone for making this little project into something a bit bigger. For anyone who does red this blog, please take a bit of time and vote on what you'd like to see more of, I will respond to you guys. Feel free to comment as well.

T. Hanks

--Santa

Flashback: Vacuums Suck

Yes. Oh yes. I have been waiting for this one for a long time now. All I have to say is that this game right here is probably the only reason I still have my Gamecube, because I'd feel like I was cheating if I played it on the Wii. This game's series is the only reason I'd ever get a 3DS, since its sequel was announced at E3 2011. This is the first game I had ever completely beaten, and it is probably the best Mario Bros. game to come out for the Gamecube, (I may have loved Sunshine, but this blew it out of the water.) What I'm talking about is the immortal Luigi's Mansion.

I may have mentioned before my opinion about Nintendo's 3DS-- I'm not a big fan. Ever since the DSi came along and tried to take away my precious Gameboy slot, I haven't forgiven Nintendo, to the point that I didn't even buy Black or White, as my own little form of Protesting. But what I didn't know until about a week ago is that at E3 '11 (while I was too busy watching out for Valve to hopefully announce Half Life 3: Rise of the Hats) I completely missed out on seeing Luigi's Mansion 2 being announced. Luigi's Mansion was, to be completely honest, the best game released on the Gamecube. I may have spent more time on MKDD or SSB Melee in the long run, but my real gaming hours went into Luigi's Mansion. Hunting Boos and yelling 'Mario' until I was sure Luigi was just plain stop. It didn't matter that Luigi knew that Mario had been kidnapped by King boo, he was going to yell his brother's name 'till the end of time, and nobody would stop him!

Armed with a Gameboy Horror, flashlight, and his magical little vacuum given to him by the renowned inventor E. Gadd (who also created FLUDD from Sunshine, made smoothies in Superstar Saga, and has appeared in many other Mario games over time) which allows for Ghostbuster-esque adventures through the Mansion you have somehow won, probably from a Nigerian Prince or something.

Later on into the intense adventure, finding the ability to shoot fire from your vacuum, sucking up giant rubies, sapphires, gold bars and 100 dollar bills which are randomly stuffed into corners throughout your new 'mansion' and enough frights that little 10-year-old-me had nightmares for a good couple of months gave me reason to respect this masterpiece of gaming. To this day, I still refuse to play Deadspace or Doom or Resident Evil, and I do believe its because I got so afraid from when little smug ghosts who would decided it'd be a great laugh to just wait underneath a chair or something, and then pop out and ruin my day, thanks for killing the survival horror game series for me.

--Santa

League of Legends: Big Daddies and OP Ninja's

Looks like Riot's been hard at work this week making Nautilus, but I can only wonder, how many AP Tanks is enough? Don't get me wrong, I do like Leona, Volibear (Whom I've lovingly re-named Roli-Poli-Voli) and now Nautilus (who also may be one of the first releases in a while who could be underpowered, or just plain useless) but I would love it if Riot would just take a step back from all these new characters, and take a bigger focus on in-game items, or new mags, or just general game changes. Champions are cool an all, but let the rest of the game catch up to your 100,000+ champions.

Looking through the patch notes here, I can see that all Shen players are going to dominate for a very long time. Not to say that Shean was not needing a buff, but more that an OP Tank can really ruin my day. Once again, I think it would be fun for Riot to play around with more characters, and not add more to the League, give us a chance to settle in a bit, and really get to know our champions.But enough om my persistent nagging. Here's the Free Champions!

Champions for Week 12, Season 2

• Alistar- Giant support tank, pretty cool guy, especially when you want a bullish tank. (GHET IT? HE'S A BULL!)
• Ashe- 450 IP gets you one of the best known champions in the LEague, tons of AD, and an ult that can annoy anyone. Also fairly easy to learn.
• Gangplank- My first champion. Melee AD Carry. Has the only sex joke in the game. What a guy.
• Heimerdinger- My SECOND champion. Like a midget Schrodinger-Einstein mix, with the ability to put down turrets like the Engineer.
• Janna- Elf-thing who controls wind.
• Malphite- Giant golem tank with annoying slows/stuns.
• Lee Sin- Blind guy who destroys everything. Enough said.
• Sivir- One of the other really cheap champions. Ranged AD and enough harass to make little Ezreals everywhere cry.
• Volibear- Roli-Poli-Voli loves to harass, jungle and eats Yordles. Probably the strongest AD Tank in the League, and one of the most annoying to counter, unless he goes straight Warmogs.
• Ziggs- Newest champion. Who wants to try out a bomb toting Yordle with a high-explosives ult? I know I do.
  

Enjoy the rest of your day, internet, I've got some LoL to play.

 

--Santa

Ironic Animals and Viewing Screens

If you spent your time growing up in a similar fashion as me, you probably have spent a good chunk of your life of the internet. I personally feel right at home on the internet, my head is a vault filled with metric gallons of memes. I really have been far even as decided to use even go want do more look like. I remember when YouTube was a year old, deviant art was full of idiots (and to some point, still is) and icanhascheezrger was no more of a conglomerate as there were fails on the internet. I remember so many things from my days of randomly browsing the internet. But I wasn't a regular on sites like YTMND or Funnyjunk. My upbringing was more on AlbinoBlackSheep, and eventually, Youtube. 

For those of you who may not have heard of AlbinoBlackSheep just imagine a mix between Newgrounds and AddictingGames, flash games and flash videos without the ranking system, it feels like a more casual site. ABS (similar to the break system) was the site to first introduce me to memes, and from there, my love of the iternet. The flash videos on ABS range from completely random to down right stupid, only adding to and shaping my own sense of humor.

What I got most from ABS was Animutation. (Use care while watching some of the videos, some are quite NSFW)  Animutation was created by Neil Cicirega, you may have heard of him, he made the Potter Puppet Pals series and is quite popular on YouTube. Hyakugojyuuichi, which is riddled with so many refrences and memes (most of which are ancient) that going back and reviewing them now almost baffles me. But, I remeber this flash video well. Although you may not have heard of Animutation, you can be certain that if you've watched enough flash videos, you've seen the style. You know when you cut out the obttom of the mouth on a picture, and then move it back and forth to show speak? Just one part of 13 year old Cicirega's brilliance.

For those of you who have been to or have now viewed ABS, you may find it quite odd, or just think of me being an idiot for liking what makes absolutely no sense, and you know what? I really don't care. There is a reason that I can't look at JJ the Jetplane, the Smurfs and Mr. Bean the same way anymore. There is a reason I break out everyrime I hear the word Ixofalxonigl, and there is a reason that I enjoy memes, and it all started with these random few videos, and if you got the time, brainpower (or perhaps lack of) and stomach to watch (some of these videos do contain child-ruining content. You have been warned) then go on ahead, and you know what? Welcome to the internet.

--Santa

Flashback: Flash Games and Destruction

I may have grown up a hard-core Nintendo fan, but that didn't stop me from going out and trying other systems. I had played on the other competition's best games (keep in mind this was the 6th generation of gaming, so it was back when graphics like Halo 2's were supreme) I had my first taste of Halo, one play of GTA, and didn't think a computer was a gaming device, it was just the internet, which back then was only a series of tubes, and didn't even have any LOL cats on them just yet. I was young, and so was my appreciation of gaming, but I soon found out about one of the internet's many secrets, and one that is the chagrin to many computer teachers everywhere: Flash Games.

Many of you probably know what I'm talking about, I mean really. You ARE on the internet. Sites like AddictingGames, Kongregate, notdoppler and many others were fantastic for idly wasting time while you were supposed to be doing some big project. We've all been there. Games like The Impossible Quiz, Kitten Cannon, Sunny,  SCGMD (Super Crazy Guitar Maniac Deluxe series) have made me stop doing some reading assignments in favor of chucking kittens out of cannons to playing crazy guitar riffs. But, lets narrow our focus. There is one series of games that still makes me check these websites, even though I've got games like TF2 and Terraria to play instead. I am of course referring to one to monkey, and their balloons.

To be more precise, Bloons, in the form of the original "Bloons" where you played as a monkey with an intense hatred for balloons, and an immense love for the sound of their popping, and would go on genocidal bloon-killing rampages. But there was another version which turned your monkeys into towers, and made my all-time favorite tower defense game, the Bloon Tower Defense series.

Its as simple as it seems. Elements shown throughout the series of the original Bloons would be used for the destruction of side-scrolling Bloons on their path to destruction. You build the tower you so desire, update it, and watch the mayhem unfold. It really was a very amazing idea if I do say so myself. Recently Ninja Kiwi (the developer of  this all-mighty game) released the 5th version, with new towers, upgrades, and maps that I care to explain. Just click and try it out for yourself. Its a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours (which can very quickly turn into a whole day escapade)

Other than this, I think I have my weekend all planned out. TF2, Terraria, and Bloons TD 5, oh my! But, before I leave for this weekend, have you seen the new comic for the Big Daddy-esque champion entering the League soon? I'm not quite sure what to think just yet, but I want more AD champions. The last new champion released that was AD was Graves, I think he could use some company.

--Santa

Steam: Building Your Own Future

Team Fortress 2 is the undeniable leader for hat and hat accessories in the video game world. But, Valve can only make so many hats, even to Robin Walker's own chagrin. But, for the last few years, there has been a was to add hats to the game without Valve having to do anything!

This is a subject I've mentioned in about 3 or so posts now, but I do believe that it is deserving of its own post. The Steam Workshop is a way for people to submit user made  content, after which can be viewed and voted on by viewers. 

But as well know the Team Fortress community is filled with mappers and modders and hackers. I may not understand how to program, but I sure do appreciate the work that these non-paid vigilantes put in to making these wonderful items that I may some day be using to taunt my fellow game player. But, one may ask, why should I bother to learn how to do this? it seems just about pointless to me. But, this is where you are wrong. Valve gives to whomever makes an item, and then is implemented into the game the item they made, but it has green text (similar to the text of a genuine item) and is called a self-made item. It also sparkles, like community weapons. What I would give for a sparkling Hotrod...

But Valve has expanded the Steam workshop. With the release of the creation kit for Skyrim there are now more mods coming out to shake a stick at, and it just so happens that Steam has Skyrim on sale for $40 bucks at the moment (certainly not a strategy to increase sales, of course not!) and a possible mod to be able to kill stop children from hindering your path, it may be time that I invest in a computer copy, at the very least I could just look at it on my computer. Just staring at me aimlessly. Just like New Vegas.

So, if you think you got what it takes to make a hat, or a map, or something else really cool you can try out SDK, I was never any good at it, but I have a few friends who have made maps. The community can always use more map makers and hat creators. And to any of you with the talent to do it, best of luck.

--Santa

the Internet: I'm Stuck

All right, this was a post that was originally wasn't going to happen. Originally I was planning on reading the first few pages on a bet, say it was stupid, and stopping.

I was completely wrong.

Yes, I was going to make this post yesterday, but I ended up reading for about 4 hours and then not caring that it was 10 pm. I guess its time to say it.

I enjoy webcomics.

To be more specific, I've been reading MS Paint Comics. Which is just another way of saying this bro writes out comics in Microsoft Paint, and then puts them on the internet.

The guy is a genius. His job is to draw on MS paint all day. And he makes bank. I literally have to spell it out as bank.

so this guy has 4 stories that he has written, 2 of which he has abandoned, one he finished, and one which is ongoing, and very, very long.

• Bard Quest- Bard kills dragons, set up like a Choose-your-own-adventure (Unfinished)
• Jail Break- Self Explanitory (Unfinished)
• Problem Sleuth- Starts with a detective stuck in his office, ends as an epic adventure. (Finished, around 1700 pages)
• Homestuck- Four kids start playing a very powerful game (Very big understatement, In-Prgoress)

Although I have read about 50 or so pages into Problem Sleuth, I am at least 1000 pages into Homestuck. Actually, Im RIGHT HERE. (don't click, spoileres, unless you've read Homestuck, of course. )

A quick summary of the ideas of Homestuck: Impossible to give. Really, after about the 3rd act, everything gets all loopy and hard to explain. So, I won't. Instead, I'm going to put a page break in, and talk to everyone who wants spoilers, or has actually read ino the Second half of act V.

TF2: Whats in Store for 2012?

So Robin Walker and crew did something a bit different this year to bring us into the last year of our existence. They outlined some things we can expect from TF2 in 2012.

• Meet the Pyro will be released. My second favorite class will probably have the coolest meet the video, too.
• The Second annual Saxxy Awards. I came nowhere close to winning last time, I didn't even enter, but I sure would not mind getting a cool piece of Australium to fill the void in my heart that only a wrench made of gold could solve.
• Steam Workshop Blog. For all of you following the Steam Workshop, take a look at this.
• Something top secret. Valve hints at a hat-map hybrid. I can only hope that they're lying. I just want more hats.

So much to see, so little time. Oh well, I'm going to go play more Co-op v. AI until TF2 is a little more loose-lipped about their up-coming plans. I waited a year for Skyrim, I can wait a month or two for Meet the Pyro.

--Santa

League of Legends: The Post That Santa Forgot

Here in my workshop I have a schedule for my posting, generally on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for easier reading purposes. It also makes it so I keep a more rigid schedule, as it is my goal to blog 3 times a week. Yesterday I completely neglected to do Wednesday’s post. It was on my time the entirety of the day, but I never got to it. Why? Because I was much too busy playing the thing I was going to review.

A few of my more frequent readers may remember me mentioning a week or so ago that in the upcoming patch they were completely overhauling Coop v. AI. They were adding around 30 or so new bots, updating the modes to include Dominion, and making the bots just one step closer to Skynet.      Other than my fears of the new robot overlords, I did spend basically all of my time yesterday investigating this new mode so I could give all my readers a good feel for what they could expect if they were going to start playing Coop. My suggestion: Do it.

The old bots, to be nice, had absolutely no skill. None. Absolutely Nothing.  When I first started playing League of Legends I had next to no skill. I had never played Defense of the ancients (A Warcraft III mod that is the birth idea of the League) so I tried a range of characters. My first game of LoL I rolled Pantheon and got him 2 Warmogs. I figured more health meant more survivability. I was very wrong.  So, I started play Coop, and started on easy mode. I chose the lovely pirate known as Gangplank. He had the longest chest hair I had ever beheld. Gangplank would end up being the first champion I ever bought, following Heimerdinger (who became FTP after Gangplank, and before I had enough IP to get him, he also reminded me of an Erwin Schrodinger-Engineer hybrids, another love at first sight.) These were the two champions I really bonded to, and give me a mix depending on our team: AP or Attack Damage.

I used to engage in countless bot games, playing until I didn’t have to look down at the keyboard, didn’t die, and got at least 10 kills. When I hit this point, I went on to Intermediate games, doing the same process to get a strong hold of my champions.  When I finally felt that I knew my champions I went out and played real games. With my experience being much higher than other players at my skill level I generally did a lot better in games. I got other champions (most notably Anivia, Cho’Gath, and Graves) and did the same processes for them, as of recently I bought Leona for a tank, and I’m starting to do the same for her.

However, I find myself with the need to completely re-do the roster for all of my champions. This new updates gives a more wide-range feel for these champions, and makes the game feel much more realistic. So my line-up of champions: Anivia, Cho’Gath, Gangplank, Graves, Heimerdinger and Leona gives me a full feeling of the League, (two AD carries, one AP Nuke, one tanky-mage and one AD Tank) but this also means that I need to re-train so I can get back up to my old playing status. It’s hard to juggle 6 characters, especially when you end up playing a few over the rest. But, I’m getting back into all my characters, slowly and surely, and rest assured, I bet the same thing could easily happen to you.

--Santa