Tuesday 28 January 2014

Dota 6.80 changelog review/analysis

So the new patch for Dota 6.80 has come out and it's quite a bit earlier than I expected to be honest, we only spent around 3 months with 6.79 so I thought we'd get more time but Icefrog must have decided that the game needs a change to deal with some current issues and we get a pretty decent changelog this time.

I expect we will get 1-2 more patches before TI4 and I don't expect a patch to come out after June to allow the game to stabilize by the next big competition, but anyways let's start with the changelog.
GENERAL
  • You now lose one gold per second if you haven't picked a hero after the selection timer runs out in All Pick
  • All Pick selection time increased from 60 to 75
  • All Pick pre-creep time reduced from 90 to 75

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Naruto 661 review



Hello everyone and thank you for reading this review for the latest Naruto chapter, I hope you all had a fun Christmas and new year.

Have you guys checked out the Anime for Naruto lately? it's on the start of the Jyuubi arc where Madara has just arrived on the battlefield to capture Naruto and Bee, honestly it's quite good and readers should check it out since it's honestly just more fun than the manga.

Last chapter  we saw Madara try to extract the Kyuubi and I didn't think he would to be honest considering how long the extraction process takes and yet... he did, not only that but he managed to extract it in less than a minute which really makes you think how long the story of Naruto has taken, if we assume it's been what 5 years since the start of part 1 for Akatsuki to capture all the tailed beasts and Madara manages to do all that in what, 2 pages?

Infact that's exactly what Madara does, when he notices that Gaara is busy trying to make sure Naruto doesn't fall to his death Madara just goes on and captures Shikaku, two pages, two Bijuu caught. It's the fastest pace we've ever had I believe considering that we spent that last 50 chapters crawling through story progress and now we're having things happen at break-neck speed.


If you thought Madara was done well you're wrong, he still has Gyuuki to go and guess what? he captures him too, in fact we don't even see the extraction process from Kishi, why waste Panels showing us Bee losing his Tailed partner of over 30 years when you can spend 20 chapters on Rin? makes total sense really. Kurama does remind Gaara though that there is a plan going on and then we have two random fodder summarising the last 4 pages " they got sucked up".

Inspiring words Madara-san
Here's a question, why would anyone work for a bad guy? they're rude, they kill anyone who fails and they probably pay badly too, it's always a mystery how bad guys have tons of followers. When Madara asks about how the fight is going "over there" I can't say I'm sure where he means, is it inside the Jyuubi? or does he mean Kakashi and Obito? Zetsu mentions that "the insides are good" which is pretty damn cryptic if you ask me. Any theories guys?

I do like Tobirama's sneak attack and it reminds me a little of Sasuke in how pragmatic it is, no big announcement or crap like that, just a good clean sneak attack from behind, sadly it fails but I admire the guy for his effort. The battle sequence is a bit confusing but I think Tobirama manages to teleport to one of his Kunai after Madara blocks the initial attack, giving Gaara enough time to retreat.


How many people have the title of fastest Shinobi now? Tobirama, Minato and Raikage right? Anyways Madara starts monologuing cause that's what villains do for some reason when they have captured anyone, Tobirama for his part just lets Madara spew out his feels for a while.

We get a flashback to Sasuke and Hashirama talking where Hashirama offers a new technique for him to use and Sasuke just says " well how about I pull out those rods and YOU do it instead? you know since you're all dead and I don't wanna get butt raped" which for some reason Hashirama refuses since the rods are apparently at his pressure points, erm... so why not just destroy Hashirama and let him reform or something? he's an Edo Tensei so I dunno what's stopping them from just freeing him even with the explanation we got.


I'm surprised Kishi didn't put a panel of Sasuke next to Izune to show how similar they look but here is one for you readers out there, they do resemble each other strongly but I'm not sure how that's a good thing, the last time we saw Izune in the Hokage story he was urging Madara to never give up the fight against the Senju. Plus Hashirama saying that Madara can be stopped without force is something I hope never happens, I know Kishi likes to redeem people and make it so that few characters (Hidan, Kakuzu) are pure evil, but please let Madara die a villain.

I love how one page after Hashirama says that Madara was a kind man we get a panel of him impaling his brother through the head, for revenge against his brother who gets quite a few references this chapter, I'm guessing Izune will be brought up a few more times in the future. Tobirama shows his badassery again by reminding Madara that he's just a moving corpse, what can Madara do to him?


I don't get how Madara can ever call Hashirama a failure, I mean you have his face engraved on your chest dude so you can steal some of his power and he's the failure? Hashirama became Hokage and defeated Madara in pretty much all their encounters. How odd that the man with the strongest eyes in the series is blind to the truth.

Tobirama plays his part well and lets Madara continue talking, all Uchiha have this weird Talk-a-lot symptom which I think is unlocked with their Sharingan, but when Sasuke arrives Tobirama uses his situation to distract Madara by throwing some projectiles from his mouth, I think it's water but I'm not quite sure, but this is what it looks like to me.


I'm not sure exactly what happens but it looks like Sasuke is able to burn whatever it is that Tobirama shoots so they corner Madara from both sides, for his part though Madara manages to block Tobirama's attack and uses Shinra Tensei to hold Sasuke in the mid-air, it's at that point that it occurs to me how Sasuke has never met Nagato and has no experience in fighting that technique, information really can make the difference in the fight and it's nice to see how Sasuke's lack of knowledge on fighting the Rinnengan have an impact on the story.


For some reason the above panel doesn't impress me, I wonder if that's how it is with anyone else. Either way the chapter ends with Madara stabbing Sasuke, I'd be a bit more worried if people died more in Naruto but most of the time everyone turns out alright so this ending didn't really phase me much.

Predictions

1- Firstly no way in hell Sasuke is going to die from just a minor sword-to-the-heart wound, we've seen him survive a lot worse and Sasuke has the technique to bind Madara so he's not dying for a while, the worst thing he might get is that someone needs to heal him because I don't believe this is a genjutsu. Or it could be a shadow clone and then Sasuke shows up from underneath him with an amazing uppercut, that would be original right?

2- How many times have people mentioned that Naruto will get the Dark Kurama inside Minato? either way I'm sure that is part of the plan that Gaara has to do, Naruto also won't die because...well whats the title of this manga again? Tenten?

3- Izune might have more panel time in the future, he seems to be Madara's strongest connection in the world, also all these black rods might be used to control the Edo Tensei Kages and Madara can use them as if they are his Six paths of pain.

Rating

Hmmm this was a bit of an odd chapter really because it starts with 3 Bijuus being sealed right away and then sort of slows down with a lot of one on one conversations, personally I preferred the talking over the sealing myself because I enjoy the dialogue between characters, especially when Tobirama is involved in the conversation, however does that make this a good chapter?

I dunno, it seems decent to me I guess but it kind of lacks a kick to it since we know everything is going to be alright in the end so I'll give this chapter a 3 out of 5 and hope you guys enjoyed it more than I did.