indiefinch

Inhouses are always a good idea, but also a pain the ass to do. It never fails that there are some people who are really good and some people who are really bad. There is a 50/50 chance someone will get upset and rage quit. Then you get the people who will only play with their friends and has everyone on voice chat against a group who has never met before. If the game is a beat down, then some people from the losing team wont play another. I have just had nothing but bad experiences with community type Inhouse games. We tried to have a Dota Insight Inhouse night for a few months, we got a lot of people and was able to set up 2 or 3 games at a time...but it never failed to crash and burn and some people had bad experiences. Then you feel really shitty that some guy who has less then 50 games played was looking for a good experience then gets raged at because someones ego is hurt in a game that doesn't mean anything.

Inhouses are great when you can find a 5v5 organized competitive game or find 10 people who are all of the similar mindset of not caring if they win/lose but wanting to get better.

I think stupid games like reverse cm and all mid are the way to go for community events. People realize those really don't mean anything and do a good job about bringing people together. Another good thing is coaching / training night. Where you can grab a few new players and either play co op vs bots / customs in which an experienced player can get on voice chat and answer questions and give gameplay tips. With the guide system, skills and items are now super easy. However the untaught things like lane equilibrium, in what situations you should be pulling back, when to smoke gank, the hero power curve...etc all are things that can be extremely beneficial to new players but are things that you can't really read a guide and learn..they come with experience.

I would suggest Hard for sure. I unfortunately picked Normal since this is my first Fire Emblem game. After the first few hours I felt like I was unbeatable and the only time someone would die is if I was just trying to rush through the level as quick as possible. I ended up getting to a point where I just powered through chapters to end the game so I can begin a new file on lunatic. So far I am loving lunatic, it is making me wish I started on hard my first try then moved to lunatic afterwards.

@chibithor: I don't think they have given an exact date. But I believe the goal was around Summer of this year for the release. Then Beta for it will begin earlier, I am guessing April/May ish.

Join the GiantBomb chat channel in game, you should be able to find a group of people there. Also another channel to look in, is the DotaInsight channel. It is a podcast I do about Dota and one of the things we try to do is be a welcoming community to new players.

@bartok: There will be a side tournamentat Evo. Since it just lost to Melee during the fundraiser and it still raided about $80k, the Evo guys decided to throw $1000 bucks into the prize pool and will stream the top 8.

I am really happy to see the support pouring out for this game. I love it, but it just seemed it was plagued with so many problems at the start. It released and everyone griped about the lack of moves list, then they promised a patch which never came. It finally came out on PS3, but still not out on 360. They all lost their jobs and it seemed that the game was dead. But the community has shown major support between this and the Evo donation drive. I really hope people begin to dive back in when the PC version is out, which seems like it will be the definitive version.

I picked up the Amazon deal the moment it went up, I am quite excited for the release. Count me in for some hunting.

Now I have to just figure out what weapon I want to use... I always used Dual Swords / Long Sword on MHFU / MHP3rd then used Switch Axe in Tri. The demo has me loving the Bow as well as Hammer....thinking maybe I will mix it up and try to force myself to use new weapons.

@jjor64: A really good resource is the MyFairHunter podcast done by Roy from Kotowari.org. He teaches his gf to play Monster Hunter without her knowing anything. http://myfairhunter.com is the site. He also wrote a book specifically for new hunters coming into the game. It should be on that site or over on his personal site, kotowari.org.

The worst part of this damn demo, is that we still have another 4 weeks until it is released.....

@morbid_coffee: Yep, I kind of wish they would have thrown in a Great Jaggi or something as a low tier monster for people to train on. Lagombi is pretty decent once you learn the controls...but I really don't see new people taking the time to battle the Plesioth.

@chavtheworld: I really enjoy the Switch Axe, it was my favorite weapon in MH Tri. Tonight I am going to mess around with the ranged weapons a bit. I did take down the Plesioth earlier today, it didn't seem too too bad...I think I did it in around 10-15min. Try giving the Dual Swords a try on him, the type in the demo is electric and I believe the Plesioth's weakness is electric. Just hug his feet the best you can to avoid his tail spin and whenever he does the water spray just go nuts on him. Also work in any traps / bombs if you get the opportunity to.

The demo has finally come after all this time! It has two monsters on it (Lagombi and Plesioth). As well as access to 12 different weapon types to try out.

The only thing lacking is a basic tutorial / controls overview. For veteran hunters this is not a problem, but this game is in a situation to expose a whole new group of people to the Monster Hunter franchise. It would be a bummer for people to be turned off before even giving it a chance because they struggle with the controls.

The best advice I can give to new hunters trying this out, is try a few different weapon types. They all play extremely differently and will drastically change your game experience. You might be a big fan of something like Dual Swords because you feel more mobile. Or you might like the slow but powerful attacks of a Great Sword. Another tip of advice would be to take it slow and steady. Wait for your opportunity to attack and be conservative. Once you figure out the monsters patterns, then you can capitalize on those opportunities. If you charge in and button mash...chances are you will have a bad time.

Happy Hunting!

I think you are right. I bought a WiiU only for MH3U and Rayman Legends was just a bonus. Now with that gone, the Wii U is pretty much a Monster Hunter machine.

But I am really glad to see more people interested in MH games! I have always been a major fan, but it is hard to explain to people why the games are so amazing. Hopefully the recent success of games like Dark Souls / ZombieU, people will at least take the time to learn MH properly. At first it seems clunky / grindy, but as soon as you get a handle on the controls and take down that epic monster after a 30 min battle...it is a feeling very few games can offer.