Battaglia per Dazar'alor: Tattiche

Ecco i link diretti ai PDF delle tattiche per i nuovi boss, cortesia del nostro capogilda Broxi!

1) Campioni della Luce;
2) Grong;
3) Maestri Giada Fulgida;
4) Opulenza;
5) Conclave dei Prescelti;

LOK-TAR OGAR!

Sun, Garden, and The Witcher 3 on remote play!

    Being able to play outside, in the garden, when the sun is high and the temperature is hot, with a frozen beer at my side, always intrigued me.

    First reason is that this way I can enjoy a bit of the "outside" people always talk about, leaving my Hobbit Hole for some time.

    Second reason are my dogs, who can enjoy the garden more than they usually do, while I can still devote myself to my favorite hobby.

    So, during this sunny week end, I brought out the "solution" described in my previous post "PS4 and PlaystationTV marry Power Line Adapters", as shown in the attached photo.

    A very long extension cord provided energy to the whole thing, and the remote play on PS4, through the PlaystationTV, worked perfectly, with only some very minor connection drops.

    Sunlight is a major issue, because it strongly limit visibility. Still, increasing both game and TV brightness, make the game playable. I'll try to find a solution to this, even if I already know there aren't that many: anti-reflection film for PC and other device can perhaps better the experience, so I'll try out one of them.

    The Witcher 3 is a great game for remote play, as it doesn't need an incredible precision in controls: differently from Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I found the play experience to be almost like I was playing directly on PS4.

    Speaking of this, this title is very attractive, big, and masterfully directed. Still, I must admit it has a bunch of things I strongly dislike:

    - Controls: Let's face it, the "action" side of this game is pretty sick. Controls, movements, attacks and the like are clumsy, woody and inaccurate at best. CD Projekt RED clearly haven't improved this side of their development skill, as both The Witcher 1 and 2 had the same problem!

    - Fast Travel: I think the sign posts system is a bit annoying; being forced to reach one of them to use the fast travel is just a waste of time. The ability to open up world map and directly select a destination sign post would, imho, improve exploration.

    - Food: Food heals so few it hurts, and you're forced to bring tons of them with you, if you want to rely on it. I strongly dislike this (going around with 50 meat chunks, 60 hives etc etc just sound wrong to me). I think it would be better to have the food heal more, perhaps over longer times, in order to limit the carriage. I understand the developers want perhaps to force the player into using alchemy, but still food works bad for my taste.

    - Quick Items Slots: Dunnow if later in the game you gain more, but the two item slot I can use so far is a bit limited. 2 potions or 2 kind of food (or a mix of the two) is not very much. Something like four slot would be probably more enjoyable.

    The game is still a precious gem, and one of the best titles for PS4 so far, but my vote for it is around 8/10, perhaps 8.5/10, mostly because it's pure gameplay aspect is definitely clunky.

Valhalla Knights 3: Skill Master List!

    A couple of weeks ago, Valhalla Knights 3 was on discount on PlayStation Store, for the great price of €4,99 (A joke). Even if I knew this is not the best game ever, I decided to buy it, as the price was luring enough. And now I'm here, playing it here and there on my PSVita.

    As a niche game, it is not easy to find english help for this title, apart from something on http://www.gamefaqs.com/ boards. There is much more material in japanese, where the game met more interest.

    This is why I decided to create a post here and there about this game, with interesting info I'm struggling to find on the internet.

    By the way, I'm liking this title alot, to be honest, as a relaxed game to carry around; moreover it's great on PlaystationTV, too. Pity for the loading times, that are quite annoying.

    So, first post is a list of all Skill Master available for this game; Skill Master are "secret" skills that unlocks for a character when you learn all the skills of a specific profession.

Prisoner
SBP Needed: 4590.
Name: Prisoner 25601.
Effect: Make it possible to equip every weapon (except firearms).

Fighter
SBP Needed: 3760.
Name: Challenger.
Effect:  Increase HP+500 and P. DEF+100.

Mage
SBP Needed: 3150.
Name: Great Magician.
Effect: Increase SP+500 and M. ATK+100.

Priest
SBP Needed: 2500.
Name: Holy Servant.
Effect:  Increase SP+500 and M. DEF+100.

Thief
SBP Needed: 2230.
Name: Thief King.
Effect:  Increase HP+1000 and SP+500.

Akatoki
SBP Needed: 4135.
Name: Unleashed.
Effect:  Increase HP+500 and STRK+100.

Archer
SBP Needed: 3265.
Name: Sharpshooter.
Effect:  Increase HP+500 and SHOT+100.

Soldier
SBP Needed: 3185.
Name: Mercenary.
Effect:  Increase P. DEF+150.

Samurai
SBP Needed: 3850
Name: Swordsman.
Effect:  Increase HP+1500.

Ninja
SBP Needed: 1645.
Name: Shinobi.
Effect:  Increase SP+1500.

Shaman
SBP Needed: 3450.
Name: Archmage.
Effect:  Increase M. ATK+150.

Merchant
SBP Needed: 3920.
Name: Great Fortune.
Effect: Receives 15% discount on all items at the item shops.

Amazon
SBP Needed: 1410.
Name: Warrior Queen.
Effect:  Increase SHOT+150.

Automaton
SBP Needed: ???.
Name: Ultimate Gizmo.
Effect:  Increase all stats.

Bunny Girl
SP Needed: 1950.
Name: Paramour.
Effect: Uses love to get bonuses.

    I hope the SBP Needed voice is correct. All these info are based on what I found over the Net AND from personal experience.

    I'm going to build a collection of game maps, and place them in another post like this!

    Good game everyone!

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood - Platinum n° 52

    Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order is my platinum n° 52.

    Votes:

    - Game: 8/10

    - Fun: 8/10

    - Platinum: 4/10

    This game is a well rounded single-player FPS with a good price, nice graphics, ok-but-not-striking story, great and various gameplay and fun B.J. Blazkowicz moments, especially if you're a Wolfenstein's serie fan since it's first episode in far 1992 ;) .

    The game is fun even at highest difficulty, as it's not so unforgiving if you're an FPS veteran; Moreover, if you adopt a stealth approach, you can skip alot of fights. Sure there are some quite hard fights, but nothing insurmountable.

    Platinum is fast to gain and quite easy. As mentioned the game itself is not that hard, and most trophies just come naturally or just need a bit of farming. Challenges are the true hard part, but after some tries you should be able to get the grip on them. As a general advice, remember that enemies can't clim ladders (not stairs: ladders): exploiting this AI limit can easy up your life alot, trust me ;).

    It took me around 14 hours to plat this game, without using any kind of guide and playing it at maximum difficulty on first run.

    If you don't apply last patches, there even is a glitch that allows you to play all the game on "Can I play Daddy" difficulty and just replay last chapter in "I Am the Death Incarnate" to gain ALL difficulty based trophies (Hero, Super Hero, Uber Hero).

    The game is quite easy to platinum without using guides and such, but if you need any help, here is a good forum where you can find it: http://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/wolfenstein-the-old-blood/.

    I started The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt two days ago; I already checked the trophies list, and I don't think I'll go for the platinum for this title, but I'll play it deeply for sure, as it seems huge, fun, addictive and very well polished, even if the action side of the title (read: combat), is ok but not great at all. Still, game's direction is wonderful.

    P.S.: The digital version of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood has been released on 5/5/2015, which is the 23rd birthday date of Wolfenstein 3D.

PS4 and PlaystationTV marry Power Line Adapters

    This week I decided to buy PlaystationTV, mostly because I was tempted by the possibility to play PSVita titles on the big screen. As soon as the small but powerful console was delivered, I attached it to my 42" plasma, realising that the TV was way too big for the PSVita games, as the graphics really appeared awkward and heavily pixeled.

    Not that great problem, to be honest, as graphics is not the most important part of most the titles I play on the PSVita, but still it was a bit unsatisfying.

    So, in a rush of impulse, I decided to change the initial purpose of the PlaystationTV i buyed, transforming it in a secondary gaming location, basically installed on the bedroom, but easily movable to every place of the house I like.

    Now, the main problem was the router and the Wi-Fi range: my main "gaming" room is located in the basemend (really fresh during the hottest months of the year), with all my books, comics, action figures etc. etc., and with the router too, which is located very near to PS4, PC etc. The signal of my little guy has proved to be pretty strong, even if basement's walls are thick and heavy, but not enough to provide a stable and powerful enough connection for the remote play.

    I considered various solutions for this problem, such as moving the router or buying Range Extenders, but the first did not work very well, and I was not very sure about the latter (i'm pretty new to all this stuff).

     I turned to a local computer shop for an help, and the guy suggested me to try out Power Line Adapter, an ingenious invention that throw your internet signal on the electric wires, allowing it to reach places quite far from the router, as long as the target electric socket is under the same switch of the one where the router's Power Line is attached to. This kind of technology is pretty old, in truth, but today's devices are much more reliable and powerful than the old ones. This is perhaps the best way to extend internet coverage in your house, even if it is not free from issues; the one I was more afraid of was that it's suggested to attach the Power Line adapter directly to an electric socket (i.e.: not to a power strip), in order to avoid interferences from other devices on the same socket: doing this was pretty impossible for me as sockets in the house are all single.

    But the issue proved to be inexistent: after installing the Power Line adapters (an incredibly simple process), I turned up the PlaystationTV, eager to see the results, and they were amazing: remote play work very well with both streaming options set to "High", even if the PS4 is still under Wi-Fi connection. Sure, the game is not as smooth as if it is played on the original console (the gameplay feels somehow "gummy", if you get what I mean), but it still works excellently. I'm trying the remote play with Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, and it's very playable, even if you lack a bit of precision and finesse in controls; with a different genre of game, the results can perhaps be better, as FPSs in general require a greater degree of precisione compared to other kinds.

    To complete my new gaming location, I buyed a relatively economic Telefunken TV: 24" and HD Ready are enough to take advantage of PlaystationTV. I meant to spend even fewer euros on it, but this one was the less expensive I founded at the local store.

    So, in the end, here is what this "whim" costed:
    - PlaystationTV (discounted): €59,99;
    - Controller Dualshock 4 (discounted): €59,99;
    - Telefunken Tv Led 24"' Te24275B31T10E: €168,00;
    - AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit (TL-PA4010KIT): €65,00
    Total: €352,98

    Not an inexpensive solution, but hey, still less than buying another PS4 + another TV!

    Next step will be to try bringing all this outside, in the garden. The sun's reflexes will probably make it impossible to see the TV screen well enough to play, but I want to give it a try, as playing outside, during spring/summer, would be fantastic.

    Oh, ok, I'm an extreme Gamer, I know! As always: good game everyone.

Dark Souls 2: SotFS Platinum!

    Ahhh, so, after around 150 hours, I finally earned Dak Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin Platinum!

    I haven't rushed this Platinum, as I explored the game very deeply before completing the trophy list, reaching level 709 and gathering around 98% of all the equipment and spells available (I actually miss 11 "objects", between spells, weapons, armor, rings and shields).

    It's my plat n° 48. Not that many, but I'm proud of all of them ^_^ .

    This one has been a long, but not so difficult, Platinum. The game itself is hard and unforgiving, but once you get the grip of how it works and how you should approach exploration and combat, everything goes much smoother. And you can always farm a bit to make your character more powerful but, most important thing in my opinion, more versatile: being an huber melee fighter with some backup healing spells, the ultra-useful Repair or some ranged magical attack can prove to be quite helpful.

    Still it can be difficult to earn this Plat without a guide,  as some of the trophyes are tricky to obtain, if you don't know exactly what to do. For this reason, I strongly suggest to have a look at this guide: Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin Trophy Guide and Roadmap, at least to know what you'll be facing.

    And now, let's start Final Fantasy Type-0, at least until I don't receive my physical copy of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood *__*!!

Zanfire on Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin! Warrior, Mage, Cleric and Archer build!

    So, it's been a while I'm playing Scholar of the First Sin.

    Just after platinating Bloodborne (great game, easy platinum), I decided to give a try to the other "big" FROM Software game available for PS4, which is Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin Edition.

     And a new love was born.

     The incredible amount of character development choices this game offers really enthralled me, forcing me to play it non-stop from when the disk entered my PS4.

    Sure the game is not easy, but it's neither all that hard for someone who, like me, have over 1000 hours of gameplay on Monster Hunter titles on PSP.

    After some time farming here and there (I already completed the first gamethrough), gathering all the armors, weapons, rings etc I can, just for sake of collectionism, if not true usefullness, I discovered how to farm Giant Lord boss to build up an INSANELY amount of souls (How to farm Giant Lord; there are minor differences in the SotFS edition, but it still works). Thanks to this, my Zanfire reached his fullness in a couple of days, allowing me to build him as a well-rounded character able to employ various kind of magic and kick ass hard in both melee and ranged fight. This is the kind of character I like most: the "jack-of-all-trades", and I'm quite happy Dark Souls 2 allows me to build one, as it is not an option often available in vRPGs (excluding Elder Scrolls serie, obviusly).

    Here is the "generic-purpose" build I'm using at the moment:

Covenant: No Covenant
Starting Class: Bandit (11)
Soul Level: 473

Vigor: 50
Endurance: 83
Vitality: 60
Attunement: 94
Strength: 50
Dexterity: 50
Adaptability: 40
Intelligence: 50
Faith: 50

Head: Hexer's Hood +5
Chest: Havel's Armor +5
Hands: Havel's Gauntlets +5
Legs: Havel's Leggings +5

Left #1: Claymore (dark) +10
Left #2: Hunter's Blackbow (lightning) +10
Right #1: Blossom Kite Shield +5 / King's Shield +5
Right #2: Black Witch's Staff (magic) +10

Ring 1: Chloranthy Ring +2
Ring 2: Third Dragon Ring
Ring 3: Royal Soldier's Ring +2
Ring 4: Open slot (usually Ring of Blades +2, Bracing Knuckle Ring +2, Stone Ring, Southern Ritual Band +2, Covetous Gold Serpent Ring +2 or Covetous Silver Serpent Ring +2)

Spell 1: Dark Weapon
Spell 2: Great Magic Barrier
Spell 3: Great Heal
Spell 4: Great Heal
Spell 5: Great Heavy Soul Arrow
Spell 6: Great Heavy Soul Arrow
Spell 7: Crystal Soul Spear
Spell 8: Crystal Soul Spear
Spell 9: Repair
Spell 10: Open slot




    This is surely not the best of builds, but I enjoy being prepared to most situations, especially thanks to the various spells I use (Black Witch's Staff allows you to use Sorceries, Hexes and Miracles; it is not the strongest focus for magic, but it's incredibly versatile).

    Even if invaded, the great array of spells and the protection I can count on give me an additional edge to vanquish my human opponent.

    My basic weapon is the Claymore, as it has a good damage/attack speed ratio and a great moveset (long lunge is buddah in this game); I own a +10 one for each infusion type! I love the Zweihander, too, even if it's damage output is surpassed by other weapons: it has a great moveset and it's quite light for the damage it offers: thanks to that I can stay under 50% load ("medium") even while wearing 3 pieces of the allmight Havel's Set, which offers an incredible protection. Where I need more poise damage to stagger enemies, Old Knight Greatsword do a great job while maintaining a good attack speed (50 poise damage at calibration 2.01). Backup weapons are mainly Heide Spear +10 (lightning) (amazing spear that helped me along most of the game, thanks to it's long trust attacks!) and +10 (magic) Mastodon Greatsword, a great substitute for the Claymore (more damage, different moveset and much more weight!). Yes, I definitively love Greatswords ^_^.

    Hexer's Hood satisfy my need to wear a hood (even if I prefer the Forlon's one, for cosmetic purposes) and enpower the spellcasting side a bit, thanks to the additional spell cast it offers.

    As always, good game to everyone.

Blooddborne farming - Blood Echoes farming - 11000 every 2 minutes - Lecture Building

    So, Bloodborne is out, and I'm very engaged by the title. It proved to be a neat challenge and a fun game, with a great, if hard, gameplay and a beautiful setting. I love demon/monster hunting, after all :) .

    Among the various tips and advices you can give/find about this game, I learned that one of the most important is to level up your character. I was quite lucky in finding an incredible Blood Echoes farming location early in the game, and this made a big portion of Bloodborne incredibly easy after just an hour or so of farming. So I'm here to share this trick with you. As mentioned, the best about this farming spot is that you can reach it very soon: Just after you defeat Vicar Amelia (she can be your 3rd boss, after Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne) you can travel to the Forbidden Woods, which is the first step to discover the Lecture Building. I don't exactly remember when and how I reached the location, as it was mostly a matter of luck and risk, but I made my best to rebuild the steps to get there, and here they are:

    Step 1) Go to Forbidden Woods and follow the path of the bridge (beware the trap), until you reach a group of enemies near a campfire. Kill or rush beyond them and go left, following the path throught a flowered camp with a ruined house to its right (with an enemy inside it). Go ahead and pass a low gate that bring you to a big group of houses, like a small town. You should reach another house with a red lantern and some cages near it (with caged or free dogs, depending on how deep are you in the game). Speak to the person inside and you'll receive an item you need to reach the Lecture Building (Beast's Roar?).

    Step 2) Go to the Grand Cathedral lamp and exit down the first ramp of stairs. Looking at the Grand Cathedral entrance, follow the right path, which bring you to an area where you need to fight (or avoid) two hunters (one of them wield a Tonitrus). From there, the path continue down (there are other enemies along the road: kill or avoid them), to a large area with a couple of big guys and an edifice at it's end. Inside the edifice there is a giant monster hanging from the cieling (the monster is incorporeal until you reach a given point of the story), and a door (closed in the beginning of the game: it will automatically open as you progress into the story). When you try to open the door (or if you pass through it while it's open), a warp/portal-like effect will appear: you must do your best to get caught by that distortion. The creature will take you in it's hand, squeeze you, give you Frenzy and say something, before throwing you to the Lecture Building (it will kill you, if you don't have the item recovered from the Forbidden Woods; note that you are automatically teleported in the above mentioned area after you kill Rom, The Vacuous Spider).

    Step 3) Activate the lantern and clear all this floor by opening all the door and exploring all of it's parts. When you're done, you can go back to the Hunter's Dream and start farming the location shown in the video (see below), for a neat amount of 702 x 16 Blood Echoes each run (which takes 2-3 minutes). One of the best things is that the load time for this location is pretty short, as it is small!

    Here follow a couple of videos that explains both how to reach the location and how to farm it:

    Video 1 - How to reach Lecture Building: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRpandCc3Bs (exactly at 4:48, the guy reach the Lecture Building lamp)

    Video 2 - How to farm Lecture Building: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icj6T9Ez0A0

    Hope this can help some of you in not succumbing to frustration for such a demanding title ;).

    Good hunt, out there.

The Order 1886: My Two Cents (Ita)

    Ci sono molte recensioni di questo gioco in giro per la rete. Nel complesso viene, fortunatamente, acclamato, ma tutti sono concordi sul constatare che si tratta di un prodotto controverso, cui sembra mancare qualcosa.

    Nonostante a me sia piaciuto molto, e sia più che soddisfatto di averlo preso al dayOne, ho deciso di fare una review più oggettiva possibile, sperando di aiutare tutti quei giocatori indecisi se acquistarlo fin da ora, a prezzo pieno, o se aspettare più avanti.


    - Presentazione (grafica/sonoro/storia/ambientazione): L' aspetto immersivo di The Order è sicuramente il suo punto di forza. L' impatto grafico è notevole e dimostra una cura eccelsa, presentando una Londra vivida sia nelle ambientazioni, sempre diverse tra loro e che non fanno sentire quel fattore "ripetitività" tipico di altri giochi (sempre le stesse riviste in giro per il gioco, sempre le stesse bottiglie, gli stessi poster/quadri etc), sia negli effetti di luce e nelle animazioni, fluide e realistiche a parte qualche rarissimo caso. Il dettaglio dei personaggi è eccelso, come sono ottime anche le animazioni facciali, mai facili da rendere. Pixellizazione a distanza ravvicinata pressochè nulla. Piccolo neo sulla varietà dei visi dei nemici, dato che sembra di combattere sempre contro gli stessi tre ribelli, ma è un dettaglio trascurabile, che si nota quasi solamente combattendo a distanza molto ravvicinata. Musiche ed effetti sonori, pur non lasciando a bocca aperta come invece può succedere per il reparto visivo, sono altrettanto curati e si fondono bene col complesso narrativo, creando un' esperienza audio/visiva degna di uno splendido film. La scelta delle barre nere che modificano la risoluzione base del gioco può risultare fastidiosa, anche se ci si abitua piuttosto in fretta. Se le avessero tolte nelle fasi azione avrebbero spezzato lo standard visivo, quindi, alla fine, è probabilmente stata la scelta migliore mantenerle per tutto il gioco. La storia è ovviamente legata al gusto personale del giocatore, ma, seppure possa risultare un po' scontata per i veterani della fiction in generale, è ben curata e la narrazione si svolge in modo superbo, con un' ottima regia; non darò info aggiuntive su questo aspetto per ovvi motivi di spoiler :).
    Voto 9

    - Giocabilità: La giocabilità non è sicuramente il lato più eclatante di questo TPS (ThirdPersonShooter). Non presenta infatti grandi novità; anzi, per certi versi sembra aver fatto alcuni passi indietro rispetto agli standard moderni. L' interattività con l' ambiente è molto limitata, ed il gioco è piuttosto ferreo su dove/come ci si può muovere in giro per le varie sezioni; non ci sono capriole o salti, il corpo a corpo gestito come QTE (QuickTimeEvent) risulta un po' goffo (nemico su livello diverso non sempre può essere attaccato in mischia, ad esempio, anche se è poco più in alto del giocatore) e limitante, ed in tutte le parti che non siano di pura azione, la mobilità è altrettanto bloccata. In ogni caso, in quel "poco" che fa, il gioco riesce bene: il sistema di coperture è ottimale e non mi ha mai creato fastidi (come invece mi è successo per altri titoli), permettendo un passaggio disinvolto dai ripari al campo aperto; le meccaniche di sparo funzionano a dovere sia come precisione e fluidità che come resa (anche se a volte ho avuto l' impressione che sparare ad un nemico sbilanciato da un primo colpo risultasse inefficace); i mini giochi legati alla fase esplorativa sono semplici, rapidi e, nel complesso, abbastanza divertenti da non risultare fastidiosi o pesanti. La ricerca dei collezionabili è un' attività piacevole e non troppo complicata, aiutata dall' indicatore dell' oggetto, piuttosto evidente (personalmente ne ho persi solamente 2 nel primo walkthrough), anche se l' assenza di un sistema di tracciamento degli stessi rende poco pratica la raccolta in fasi successive (molto simpatiche le citazioni legate a questo aspetto di gioco). Nel complesso si ha un po' la sensazione di essere legati ed obbligati a giocare il titolo come vogliono i programmatori: se ciò aiuta, da un lato, l' immersione nell' ambientazione (non poter correre quando non sembra appropriato, ad esempio), dall' altro potrebbe dare la sensazione di essere troppo pilotati a quei giocatori che preferiscono una maggior libertà di azione.
    Voto 6

    - Longevità: Questo è sicuramente il punto dove The Order 1886 pecca maggiormente. Un titolo dal prezzo standard di €69,99 che offre, nel complesso, un' esperienza di gioco che occupa circa una settimana, può far storcere il naso a molti acquirenti. Io ho impiegato circa 15 ore a completare il titolo, giocando con calma a difficoltà normale, cercando i collezionabili senza guida e mirando a fare più trofei possibile, ottenendo anche il Platino, che ha una difficoltà di conquista davvero irrisoria. Si tratta quindi di un tipico titolo "filmone", come li definisco io, da giocarsi una volta godendoselo a livello visivo e di narrazione, per poi riporlo nella propria collezione, fino all' uscita dell' eventuale capitolo successivo. Non credo si senta la mancanza di un MultiPlayer, se non forse una qualche forma di cooperativo, dato che il gioco è chiaramente più orientato alla ricchezza della storia che racconta, piuttosto che all' aspetto competitivo. Questo aspetto del gioco, come già detto, è una questione molto personale, nel senso che ad alcuni giocatori può non interessare la durata quando c' è la qualità in altri aspetti, mentre altri preferiscono titoli che possano occupare mesi e mesi del loro tempo. The Order 1886 non è sicuramente adatto a questi ultimi, a meno che non vogliano provare un' esperienza diversa. Il voto oggettivo non può però che essere orientato verso il basso, data l' innegabile cortezza di ogni aspetto del gioco.
    Voto 5


    La mia sensazione è che questo titolo sia un po' un campo di prova sperimentale per un team di programmatori abituati ad altro. E' come se in alcuni aspetti si fossero volutamente trattenuti e limitati, come a tastare il terreno. Speriamo che nei seguiti (perchè ce ne saranno, se le vendite non risultano troppo scarse) decidano di osare di più, ampliando l' esperienza di gioco dal punto di vista puramente ludico, dato che sul piano narrativo han già ottenuto un gran risultato.

    Nel complesso The Order 1886 E' un bel prodotto, ma inadatto a tutti i palati e sicuramente più orientato a quei giocatori che amano la fiction, piuttosto che l' azione e l' open world: se ami leggere libri, fumetti, guardare film e simili, The Order è il titolo per te e vale i soldi che ci spenderai. Se invece sei più per passare ore ed ore a cercare e completare missioni secondarie o raccogliere dozzine e dozzine di collezionabili per sbloccare questo o quell' extra, forse è meglio se ci rifletti un attimo prima di acquistarlo, o che aspetti di trovarlo usato, ad un prezzo più adatto alle poche ore di svago che offre.

    Come sempre, Just My Two Cents.

Diablo 3: level up tips and how to craft a Reduced Level Requirement weapon

    Here follows a few tips on how to level up a character from scratch. The best way is always to be boosted by a friend while playing at high Torment levels. But if you don't have such an option, you can find useful these suggestions. Most of the following ideas are based on the fact you already have a well enstabilished lvl 70 character:

    1) Play at the higher difficulty you can. You must be able to kill mobs quickly enough, so use your judgment for this. If you're able to kill a Fallen One in 1-3 hits, for example, the difficulty is good. Remember that quantity is more important than quality: the more, the best. Remember that quests give more experience if completed at higher difficulty levels, so increase it just before completing one.

    2) Items can have sockets starting from level 15. This means you can craft or search for socketed weapons and put into them an high level Ruby, in order to build a weapon with an incredible DPS for your level. This advantage will slowly lose effectiveness as you level up, even if you keep your weapon updated, as the benefits of the gem will slowly decrease. Ruby is quite good on helm, too, as it gives you a nice boost in experience gain. It can be worth to have both chest and legs socketed with Amethyst, too, in order to boost survivability and allow you to play more relaxed at higher Torment levels.

    3) Rush levels, avoid single monsters and instead try to kill big groups. The bonus experience from massacre (kill streak) is incredibly useful, trust me. Because of this, try to use a character build that focus on Area Of Effect (AoE) damage and movement speed, changing it to a single target one for specific boss fights (like The Butcher). Why rush to the game's end? Because bounties are probably the best way to level up quickly, so the faster you unlock adventure mode, the faster you can do them.

    4) If you like to farm mobs, repeatedly do Act III most dense levels, like The Keep Depths, or Ruins of Corvus in Act V. In these levels you can easily build big chains that awards with huge amount of experience even at T1-T2.

    5) When you reach level 40+, you can build a level 70 weapon with the "Reduced Level Requirement" quality. On a level 70 legendary, this affix range from 2 to 30 (falling usually around 13-18), allowing a character to wield such a mighty weapon much before it could, and giving him an awesome DPS. This affix is quite rare and elusive, but there is a trick to get it: craft a legendary weapon and make sure it comes with a "n% chance to xxx on hit" (where n is a number, and xxx a word: for exampe, 1,2% chance to Stun on hit) and another secondary stat (one among Life per Kill, Monster kills grants +X experience, Ignores Durability Loss or Maximum Mana, Fury etc.). Try to get a good one, with the right main stat for the character you're levelling up (like Strength for Barbarian) and Vitality or socket. Once you're done, run to the enchanter and just substitute the last secondary quality (leave the "n% chance to xxx on hit" as it is) until you get the desiderd "Reduced Level Equirement". You'll probably able to use the weapon once you reach level 50 or so, based on your luck, but it's still a very useful trick, especially for the last 10 levels, where craftable equipment is limited and hard to upgrade.

Just another day on Sanctuary

My best result ever: 412 chained kills.

    I admit it. Buying Diablo 3 for my PS4 has been the best and worst idea ever. I'm enjoying this game version like hell, thanks to all the commodities the console offers (joypad, sofa), but this is draining me away from many other activities. I'm neglecting reading and other games a bit too much: for example, I buyed Destiny's collector's edition, but I still have to put the disc into my PS4, as Diablo 3 is always running on it!

    My main is the Wizard, even if he is not among the the actual best classes, measured in "farm speed". I'm slowly levelling up all the six classes, both to equip them and for the Dream Team trophy, as I'll platinate this game for sure!

A game with 2 Witch Doctors and 2 Demon Hunters,
all pets based! (Part 1)

    I play alot both in solo and multiplayer, even if the latter game mode is a bit ruined by a clunky matchmaking system and the great amount of modded (cheated) items you can find at higher difficulties.

    I really appreciate the easiness the PS4 offers in recording videos and screenshots, as I can quickly do some of them about my gaming experence: this is something always intrigued me.

    The three attached screenshots are just some among the ones I take while adventuring on Sanctuary. The first is about a 412 kills chain, the best I ever did. That was a 4x Witch Doctor game, full of nasty dps, and in a particularly dense Rift. The other two are taken in a 4 player multiplayer match where the team was composed by 2 Demon Hunters and 2 Witch Doctors, all using a pet-based build: the screenshots don't give the right idea about how messy that game was, even more because of the amount of enemy mobs!

(Part 2)

    As always, if you want to reach me there, add my PSN ID to your friendlist: LoneTear77. At least we will take advantage of the gift and nemesis system of this version!

    Have fun and take care!

Fast exp for Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition on PS4

    I've recorded a quick tutorial for fast exp farming while soloing in Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil Edition. The video is in Italian language, as I'm too slacky to speak my ugly english for such a long time. Because of this, I've created the present post as a translation and english guide to the video.

    To gain a nice amount of experience while playing alone, one of the best way is to do bounties. There are 2 specific bounties that are particularly rewarding and fast to complete.

    This is how this method works, step by step:

    1) Change settings to ACT III, difficulty to T6*.
    2) Join a private game.
    3) Press "down" on the pad (bring up the map), hit R1 once, move the cursor to The Battlefields with the analogic joystick. Check if one of Clear Cryder's Outpost or Clear The Forward Barracks (avoid the ones about clearing 2nd levels) is available at the location. If yes, go to 4), if not, go to 5) .
    4) Teleport to The Battlefields and complete the quest. Cryder's Outpost is always in the middle of the map, while The Forward Barracks can be to the east or to the west side of the map. Both bounties are about clearing a 1st-level-only dungeons, so they're pretty quick.
    5) Leave game and repeat by going back to 2) .

    *: you can do the "run" at the difficulty you prefer; T6 just gives you the best exp and cash reward you can hope for.

    Each of the two bounties, if done at T6, award around 42 millions exp (52 millions if you have a Pool of Reflection active) . You can even do the bounty at T5, so you can kill the mobs faster, and raise the difficulty to T6 just before killing the last mob, in order to get the better exp reward. Each of the two mini-dungeons home an elite/unique group of mobs, anc you can often find a Treasure Goblin, too (which you must kill or let escape, to complete the bounty).

    A T6 run with an end level equipment take around 4 minutes, so this is quite a good way to level up.

   Both the bounties where part of the original Alkayzer Run 2.0, but I find somehow quicker (and perhaps boring) to farm just these two bounties. On the PC version, the exp amount has been fixed and reduced accordly to the time needed to clear the quests, so probably it will be changed on the PS4, too, but at present patch (which should be 2.0.6), you can still abuse it.

    Good farming, heroes!

Exploits for Diablo 3, PS3/PS4 versions (Duping, Blood Shards, Horadric Cashes, Crafting, Enchanting and Experience Tricks)

    Because of the way PS3 and PS4 make savegames, the Diablo 3 console version can easily be exploited.

   To some degree, all the stuff described here can be considered cheating.

    Personally I consider true cheating when you employ external programs (like "trainers") to easy your game (invincibility mode, infinite gold, one-shot-kill mode etc. etc), or when you (or someone other) modify game data to gain advantage (like changing a savegame by altering it's code).

    Exploiting is more about abusing a game's programming and architectural "faults": you don't touch the code in any way; you don't modify anything, you don't use external aid to change the original purpose of the programmation. You just slip through the "holes" left in the system in order to obtain a little or strong advantage.

    That said, I'm totally ok with exploitation ("Hey, developers, you left that available, so I'll use it until you'll fix it!"), even if I'm against cheating ("Using that SuperUltraUberUniversalModdedInvincibility Sword is just plain sh*t!").

    So, it's just up to you to decide what to do with the following informations: use them, ignore them, deprecate them, I just don't bother. ;)

    Anyway, what's all of this about? All the stuff relates to the fact that PS3 and PS4 don't save every thing you do inside Diablo (where PC does): the savegame is written once you create a new game, when you exit that game through the appropriate menù option, and again every few minutes or when some special events occurs (mainly checkpoints). If you close Diablo by selecting the "Close game/Close application" option available when pressing the "PS" button on the joypad, you'll exit the game without giving it the time to save (this way to exit Diablo will be grom now addressetd to as "kill/killing diablo 3"). Such a thing can be abused at our advantage in a number of different ways.

    So, what can you actually do?

- Duplicate item/gold

    This is also called dupe/duping and is about creating a copy of gold or any item in the game.
    There are mainly two ways to do this.

    The simpler is to send items or gold to a friend through the mailbox, closing Diablo 3 before it saves as explained above. This is very viable, but you must be warned that you should send only few items at once, or you'll risk that Diablo will naturally save the game when your items are sent, making the modifications permanent. You can even use this method alone, on the same console, using two different accounts and sending stuff between them, logging through them. This can be a bit slow if you don't have 2 joypads, but is still quite useful to duplicate craft materials, gems, gold, and Horadric Caches. Here are the detailed steps:

    1. Go to the mailbox and click on it.
    2. Select the person you're sending the duplicate stuff (items or gold).
    3. Select the items and/or the gold you want to send.
    4. Send it and a message will ask you if you want to do that. Click ok.
    5. A message saying the item has been sent will appear.
    6. Kill Diablo 3.

    If you have two joypads available, you can duplicate stuff much more quickly, by following these steps:

    1. Log in Account A with Joypad A and start a game.
    2. Log in Account B with Joypad B, choose any character and join the game.
    3. Account A drops the item you want to duplicate.
    4. Account B picks it up and exit the game with the appropriate menù option, saving the game.
    5. Account B enter the game again with the previously used character, which should be in possession of the item Account A dropped. Account B now drop that item, then leave the game by long-pressing the PS button and logging out from PS4. This way the original item will be on the ground and Account A can gather it. Rinse and repeat for fast dupe.

- Blood Shards abuse

    This is very simple: Just spend your Blood Shards at Kadala's "shop", but leave the game with the PS-button method if you don't get the item you're searching for. This way you'll restart with all your Blood Shards intact. You can even mix this with the dupe method, by sending to another account the interesting items you get from Kadala before killing Diablo 3 to reset everything.

- Horadric Casches abuse

    In the PS3/PS4 version of the game, an Horadric Cash content is rolled upon opening it, not when it's received. The level is set when you get it from Tyrael, but the class isn't. Beacuse of this you can even farm them with, for example, a Crusader and obtain Intellicenge-based items if you open them with a Witch Doctor. Pairing this with the dupe method can allow you to easily find all the special Horadric Cashes rewards (starting with the pretty useful Ring of Royal Grandeur).

- Crafting/Enchanting abuse

    In a way much similar to the Blood Shards abuse, you simply try some crafting/enchanting and, if you're not satisfied with the results, you can just kill Diablo 3 to retain all the material used in the procedure. All the enchanting modifications will be lost, as will be any item you crafted, but you can easily try again without wasting tons of money and materials.

- Experience trick

    An additional trick you can use is what I call the Difficulty Change Trick (what a mystical and evocative name eh? I know, I know, got a great inspiration here, for it!). While adventuring in Sanctuary, you can always change the game difficulty by 1 step harder or easier (even more, under some circumstances), switching, for example, from T5 to T6 in a couple of seconds. To do this, just bring up the in-game menù, select Change Difficulty and adjust it. Do this just before completing a "quest" (finishing a bounty, talking to Orek after a rift, talking to Tyrael after completing the 5 bounties of an act etc. etc.), increasing the difficulty to the higher step you can reach, to gain some additional experience. Return to previous difficulty once done, or just leave game and restart it at a different difficulty level. Simple, clean and helpful.

    As you can see, some abuses are less game breaking than others. Duping stuff can easily be seen as heavy cheating, while blood shards and crafting/enchanting exploits are just ways to easy your life a bit. Still, you should use them based on your judgment and at your own risk. I just provide informations and I'm not in any way responsable on how you use them ;).

    As always, have fun in Sanctuary!

My Crusader's Blessed Shield build for Diablo 3

Zanfire, the Crimson Crusader

    The standard Blessed Shield build is much different from the one I use. I love both the Cooldown Reduction mechanics and the Blessed Shield skill, so I decided to make my own build, more focused on these two aspects than the classic one, which completely abuse Blessed Shield. Additionally,

    What I like very much about my build is that it's heavily based on craftable stuff. You still need one or two very random item(s) (weapon and shield), but all other parts can be crafted or gained with focused farming.

    The build allows for a fast farming up to T5 (full tested on rifts and the famous Alkayzer Run 2.0). I gave some tries on T6, but I actually miss survivability. It's doable, but death is pretty common. I'm sure that more paragon levels and the Unity "trick" (see "Ring 2", below) will surely fix this!.

    So, here is my Captain America build!

    Equipment

    The equip is aimed to heavily boost "classic" damage output (atkSpd, crit% and critDmg), because the build deals a mix of holy and physical damage. Additionally, this equipment setup focus on building an high amount of cooldown reduction, in order to abuse the various CD-based skill you'll emply.

    General tips: Aim for a life amount over 450k+ as soon as possible, and keep all of your resistances over 850. Armor is very important too, but a high amount of this stat should came naturally to you, as a Strength based character: resist all is better than armor bonus, on items, at least until you're under 900 on resistances. Try to keep a 1:10 aspect ratio between crit% and critDmg (40% crit and 400% crit dmg, for example). AtkSpd is very useful for this build, as you're not going to depend on resources, so every point of atkSpd is just sheer dps gain. As always, in all stats, the highest the better ;) .


    Weapon: Gyrfalcon's Foote: this weapon is mandatory for the build. Without it you can't abuse Blessed Shield. You should aim for Str, dmg% and socket (with Emerald). If you're able to put atkSpd into it that's good.

    Off-Hand: Jekangbord: This shield is not mandatory, but it makes the build much more effective, so you should get one. Str, and crit% are mandatory. A high parry% is quite useful (and increases damage), and Vit, resAll, and 6 ricochets all helps.

    Helm: Aughild's Spike; On this, you want at least Str, crit% and socket. It always come with resAll, which is good if you need survivability. If you don't need it, just throw in Blessed Shield dmg% increase!

    Shoulders: Born's Privilege; Str, Vit, resAll and cdReduction.

    Chest: Born's Frozen Soul; Str, Vit, resAll and 3 sockets.

    Necklace: Any heavy dps necklace is fine. Your best choice is Str, critDmg, atkSpd and crit%. CdReduction and holyDmg are also good choices.

    Gloves: Cain's Scriviner; Str, atkSpd, critDmg and crit% (in this order).

    Bracers: Aughild's Search; Str, crit%, holyDmg% are mandatory. Vit or resAll based on what you need more as additional stat. You can go Str, Vit, crit% and resAll if you prefer more survivability.

    Belt: Captain Crimson's Brace; Str, Vit, Armor, resAll.

    Legs: Captain Crimson's Codpiece; Str, Vit, resAll, 2 sockets.

    Ring 1: Ring of Royal Grandeur; The best you can get here is Str, atkSpd, critDmg and crit% (in this order of importance). Take the best you can. The item usually comes with atkSpd and Str, and you need it for it's special quality.

    Ring 2: Any good ring will be fine. Try to use this slot to balance what you're missing most. The build gives high survivability for it's game style (ranged with very high mobility), so you should probably focus on damage. As always Str, atkSpd, critDmg, cdReduction and crit% (in this order) are among the best choices. Stone of Jordan is always a solid option, even if this build can live without an high amount oh holyDmg% (but the eliteDmg% is good). Unity is the best choice for high Torment, one for you and one for your follower equipped with the Immortality Focus/Token/Relic: this will make you almost undying.

    Boots: Cain's Travelers; Str, Vit, resAll and Blessed Shield dmg% increase.

    Gems: socket everything with Rubies, unless you need more life or resistance, but put your best Diamond on Helm.

    Paragon Levels

    Core: Cap Movement Speed, all other in Strength.

    Offense: Cap atkSpd, critDmg and cdReduction in this order. Perhaps you need crit% more than other stats, but this depends on your equip. http://www.bannedofgamers.com/index.php?cdr/ is a good tool to find out your true Cooldown Reduction and decide the way to go.

    Defense: cap Resist All, then Life% and Armor, based on your needs.

    Utility: Area Damage must be capped first, then Life on Hit. You can reverse this, if you see you need healing power.

    Skills

    Build link: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#SPVYfQ!ZRSW!YaYabY .

    Blessed Shield - Shattering Throw: This is your main damage dealing skill. With high attack speed and Gyrfalcon's Foote + Jekangbord, this ability can easily cover the screen with lethal, flying, shields

    Phalanx - Bowmen: I always felt my build suffered from low single-target damage. This skill completely balance the issue. Thanks to the high Cooldown Reduction, you can throw out the four archers quite often, and they kick ass hard. At my equip level, they attack very fast, with a typical critical hit around 2M damage.

    Steed Charge - Endurance: Life saver and farm speeder. As for Phalanx, this ability benefits like hell from Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to summon the horse almost every time you need it. This often save you from dire situations and speed up the farming process a lot, especially while doing bounties.

A simple demonstrative video

Shield Glare - Divine Verdict: With the high cooldown reduction of this build, you can almost spam this skill whenever you want. This means great degree of crowd control (versus common thrash, you can keep them blinded almost forever, if you want!) and a good bost in damage, especially to the Phalanx's one, as you don't use Lord Commander.     Laws of Valor - Critical: Increase atkSpd is quite good for this build, and the ungly boost in critDmg given by activation can literally melt enemies. Throw out the Law, Phalanx and Champion and you'll have 5 seconds of pure power. Cooldown reduction boost the benefiets of using this skill alot.

    Akarat's Champion - Prophet: Kaio-ken button. You became almost invicible for enough time to destroy everything on your path or just put yourself in a safer position. Cooldown reduction make it very viable even without the Akkhan set.

    Passive Skills: Fervor and Finery are a must, as they better the overall build'd performances alot. Additionally, Towering Shield is a must as it boost both Blessed Shield and Shield Glare. Finally, Holy Cause is just the perfect completion, adding both dps and survivability to the build.

    Additional Considerations

    I often change things and try other stuff, out of boredom or because I'm not completely satisfied buy the build. Heaven's Fury is a skill  like alot, even if it never satisfy me, as this build lacks the amount of holyDamage needed to use it with efficiency. Sometimes I switch Shield Glare - Divine Verdict with Bombardment - Annihilate or Bombardment - Targeted, a skill I really like, even if I always feel like it has a way too long cooldown for what it does, even with Lord Commander replacing Towering Shield (or Holy Cause) and high cooldown reduction.

    As an additional note, as this build isn't completely focused on Holy damage (especially when you use Bombardment over Heaven's Fury), we can assume it can benefits from the +min/max damage affix. Still, I'm not that much into maths to be able to say how much, when and if it's best than +holyDmg, but having it on necklace, and rings can give a nice overall damage boost, increasing Phalanx damage alot, especially if your cooldown reduction is high enough to spam it often!

    Anyway, as you can image, this can be considered an entry build, until you can put your hands on the stuff you miss to reach what is considered the "optimal" Blessed Shield build. Still I think the cooldown reduction focus can offer an interesting, different and fun approach, without losing much effectiveness. As always, just try to find the way to play you like must, as the most important thing is to have fun while clearing Sanctuary from the sh*i!