I would love nothing more than for Diablo 2 characters to make their way into Heroes of the Storm. Just for fun, I’ve been experimenting with a hero concept for the Diablo 2 Paladin, specifically that of a Vindicator variety (Smiter).
It’s probably more fun to view the image for the full flavor, but I’ll post my original text transcript below in case you’re interested in that.
Over 11 million people concurrently watched the League of Legends World Championship last year, and LoL is only one game among many. DotA 2, StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, and Counter-Strike all garner consistently high viewership, and fighting games like Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. are steadily growing thanks to their strong grassroots communities.
But what about engagement? Looking further into the viewership statistics for LoL Worlds 2014, the average time watched per-viewer was only 67 minutes. Considering that the broadcast was over five hours long, it seems that most people aren’t paying very close attention to what’s happening. But this relative lack of engagement isn’t surprising, because League of Legends is a terrible spectator game.
Diablo 3, for all its terribleness on release in 2012, has actually developed into a pretty solid game over the last year or two. Since the 2014 release of “Reaper of Souls”, I’ve logged in each Season and had a blast creating a new character, finding the best items, and slaying demons with a few of my buddies. It’s pretty impressive that Diablo 3 can call me back at all, considering how it initially violated the franchise that I loved so much.
My favorite part of the Street Fighter 5 beta so far has been Crush Counters. They’re specific normal attacks that cause severe hitstun to the opponent on counter hit. SF5 is more simplified overall and has a greater focus on neutral, and Crush Counters fit perfectly with that design. Each character has 2 or 3 of them. Check out the video below for a demonstration.
As you can see from the video, you can potentially get huge damage off of this mechanic. Each character’s ability to land Crush Counters depends on their normals and spacing, and the follow up combos are just as unique to each character.
Crush Counters put a huge emphasis on proper spacing and knowing when to hit buttons (and when not to!) during the footsie game. The more I play SF5, the more I wish it was released now and not just in a weekend beta test!
The second Street Fighter 5 beta is upon us, and PC players get to join the party for the first time. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it! Though I have to admit that, at first, I was really thrown off by the game’s hit confirming. Compared to SF4, there seemed to be almost no ability to do so.
For starters, most characters can hit with a maximum of only two light normal attacks before the opponent is pushed out of range, and light normals don’t link into medium or heavy normals. That’s pretty crazy, considering that in SF4 many characters could do 3-5 light attacks and still be able to confirm into a normal or special for a “finisher”.
One of the hardest parts about picking up a fighting game is the beginning. Many players linger in the beginning stages of their competitive understanding of a game for months, even years. Some players spend their entire competitive gaming experiences jumping from title to title looking for a game that fits them, while never truly transitioning beyond a beginner’s level of understanding in any of the games that they try out. A lack of intelligence or comprehension isn’t what holds these players back, but rather, direction.
