SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a new column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindi, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios upcoming MOBA.
Lore: Anubis – Anapa in Egyptian – is the jackal-headed son of Nephthys and is most closely related with the Egyptian process of mummification and thus, the afterlife. The association is strengthened further in hieroglyphics, which sees a jackal, Anubis’ animal form, sitting atop a tomb. In addition to protecting those during their travel to Datu, the underworld, Anubis was the “Guardian of Scales”, weighing the fate of the soul of the deceased.
His parentage is complicated, changing depending on the timeframe and legend of the texts. In the earliest texts, Anubis was of Ra’s seed. Later texts claim the father as Osiris. A near-equal amount attribute his patronage to that of Osiris’ brother, Set. Murkier still, one legend claims that Nephthys used alcohol to seduce Osiris, another that his mother impersonated Isis for the same purpose.
Hit the jump for the rest of Anubis’ lore and how it’s used in-game. Continue Reading
SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a new column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindi, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios upcoming MOBA.
Lore: Ao Kuang, usually spelled Ao Guang, is the destructive god known as the Dragon King of the East Sea. During his early years, Ao Guang reigned terror on man through the forces of nature. Droughts, storms and other natural disasters were his weapons of choice and his destruction continue unabated until Nezha, a protective deity, intervenes. After suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Nezha, Ao Guang seeks vengeance by kidnapping Nezha’s parents.
Hit the jump for the rest of Ao Guang’s story, how he’ll play in-game and further reading. Continue Reading
SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained is a new column dedicated to introducing prospective players of SMITE to its massive back story of lore. From the Greek to Hindi, each week we’ll look at two characters from a major pantheon and provide a quick recap of their history and in what capacity their digital incarnation will represent on the field of Hi-Rez Studios upcoming MOBA.
SMITE isn’t just another DotA knockoff. The developers at Hi-Rez Studios has put its own massive spin on the genre, aside from cherry picking from previous legendary lore. The title will be familiar, featuring lane pushing, towers, creeping, item building and personal spell selection. The major change is the camera. The camera will not be presented in the typical isometric view, like most MOBA games, but locked behind your player in a third-person perspective. This allows for complete ganks – no need for weeds to “hide” in – forcing players to keep tabs on blind spots and use them to their advantage.
The full list of characters and their titles are after the jump along with a video interview by iTZKooPA with a more comprehensive introduction to the title from COO Todd Harris.
It’s been an exciting week here at LoreHound! PAX East happened last weekend, and I wish I could have gone with iTZKooPA. But he was busy stalking game developers while there, and brought back a bunch of interviews which are in the process of being smoothed out and put online for everyone to see. I’m obviously biased, but I think they’re some of the best video interviews I’ve seen and and I’ve really been enjoying watching them. I can’t wait for the rest of them to be finished up! Thanks everyone for bringing these interviews to all of us who were unable to attend!
Now that I have gotten my PAX excitement out of the way, welcome to my very first weekly recap! Every Friday, barring strange and unexpected circumstances – which will hopefully be few and far between – I’ll be summing up the week and providing links to the week’s events. So if it’s been particularly busy and things have been pushed off the front page too quickly, you can catch up here. I’ll do my best to keep my commentary short and to the point, although I’m not entirely certain how well I’ll succeed as I can be rather loquacious and pithy when left alone. But, on to the show!
Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes entered open beta, and Mike has a limited code to use for Easter goodies for those who sign up.
I reported a deck builder for The Secret World, created by a poster on the Secret World official forums. I’ve already had hours of fun playing with this.
PAX Interview with Todd Harris of Hi-Rez Studios about the future of Tribes: Ascend. Learn about future content and spreadsheets. Yay, spreadsheets!
Today we have a preview of SMITE, Hi-Rez Studio’s upcoming MOBA, as iTZKooPA interviews Todd Harris, the game’s COO, at PAX East 2012.
They discuss the locked third-person camera, jungling and, of course, the different mythological creatures and heroes players can select from and will battle in-game. We also learn that SMITE has a new “auto-build” feature that allows players to select from pre-made character builds for those of you who aren’t interested in constantly tweeking your builds.
Here’s our new Live Cast format: Lore Cast! Below is the video to begin season 1, and it’s a doozy. It’s almost 30 minutes long, so be ready for such a long episode. There’s plenty to keep you glued. Most of our Monday episodes will be around this length. Come back Wednesday for Episode 2: Enunciate!
You can check below the video for the text version of today’s episode topic agenda.
iTZKooPA gets the skinny from the multi-talented CEO of Hi-Rez Studios Todd Harris on the company’s upcoming DotA-inspired third-person MOBA, Smite. Ride along with iTZKooPA to catch a glimpse of the title’s first public showing.
Continuing with giving you a teaser of photographic content to keep you thirsty for more as we polish off the content we have for you to grasp onto until release dates happen, here is Day 1 of PAX Prime 2011.
Day 1 was filled with a busy schedule as we ran as a pack of wolves with delicious prey to each booth to meet our appointments, ultimately in the end missing a few. Our schedules booked all day, we found only little downtime to meet with our old friends at Hi-Rez Studios and Riot Games, creators of Global Agenda and League of Legends .
Beararms managed to hop on a DDO station as we were in the area for an appointment, to recreate his infamous D&D character, Adam Grizzlys, visually. Along with a surprise of Batman: Imposters booth babe, and the bright lights, we Lorehounds managed to see a ton of things this year in one day. Continue Reading
