Tag: ARAM

The State of the Game #11

Izlain

I’m a bit late this week (the shame!) but I have a good reason. I was off this past Tuesday, and I had a very busy day. Not only did I have to get my car smogged, insured, and registered (it had been on a non-op), I also had a date that night. All things were accomplished, and life was good. Sorry for the delay!

Over the course of the week I was light on gaming anyhow, mainly due to the fact that there was New Year’s celebrations to be had, playoff football to be watched (I touched on this in my last post) and I had work. Back to school this week, so I am back to the grind. Still, I did play quite a bit of Awesomenauts and League of Legends. I don’t understand my fascination with MOBAs, but I simply can’t pull myself away from them. I suppose like all things, I go in waves, but aside from MMOs, I haven’t played anything else quite as religiously.

In Awesomenauts, I went through the prestige process once again, now a total of  8 times. I’m half way to the 9th, and there is one more to go after that. I have also been climbing the leaderboards pretty steadily, and actually broke into the 1600 range earlier in the week. I had some bad games since then though, and am now ranked in the low 1700s. Here’s a pic for posterity:

WP_20140107_001

I can’t seem to break into the 16k rating though, and that has been frustrating. I ended up making a new “friend” the other night. I ended up on the team opposite him, and bots filled our our teams. The game came down to the wire, with him beating me by such a slight margin it wasn’t funny. He messaged me afterward saying that was an epic game and that we should team up some time. I added him as a friend and we went on a rampage for the rest of the night. Good times.

In League of Legends I had some varied experiences. I had mentioned before that I didn’t think I would earn one of the Snowdown icons due to it not working with my brother-in-law, but that was incorrect apparently, as it did appear later. 3/5 ain’t bad. On the last day of Snowdown I played the shit out of the Showdown mode, and had some fun with that. Later in the week after the event had ended, I went over to my sister’s house and played with my brother-in-law for a while, and that ended up being more frustrating than it was worth. When I’m at home, my ping floats between 20-70, and very rarely do I have issues with lag. As soon as I try to play with him in the same room, I get pings in the 60 (normal) to 4k range (wtf retarded). We will play successfully for small spurts, and then get bogged down completely with lag. It drove me crazy to the point where I left the final game I played without finishing, because I simply couldn’t handle not being able to control my character. In twitch based gaming, ping is your friend — or worst enemy. I told him that I could never come over and play that again, unless he buys a new router… or something. After Snowdown was over I fell back into my regular pattern of playing ARAM and logging off. Looking forward now to the next event that will probably come with a new featured game mode.

Lastly, I had been playing Tiny Death Star quite a bit after the “Bux Bug” had been fixed. I have since found another annoying bug that causes the game to crash every time I try this particular action. During the game there are crafting quests that are given out by Darth Vader, and I had completed many of them without incident. This particular quest that I’m on required three products, and I crafted the specific number of all three. From there I click “accept reward” and then the game promptly exits. If you hadn’t closed the game down (not minimized it to the background) in some time, you will lose all progress. The first time this happened I lost a lot of progress and was pissed off. Later I went back and tried again with the same result. I had recently saved up 75 bux to buy the next level elevator, and after having built up 40 levels on my Death Star I still want to be able to play the game as intended, which I cannot. This isn’t a game breaking bug like the Bux one was, but it’s still annoying that I’m still finding bugs this far after the release of the game. Apparently QA testing isn’t done for mobile games. With that said, I’m done with this one. It’s just not worth my time anymore.

Looking ahead, this week DmC is free for plus members, and I have downloaded that already. More on it as I play it. Until next week.

My Top Ten Games of 2013

Izlain

I played too many games to mention this year. The ones that made the best impression were the ones I’ve already spoken of. There were many games that I played that didn’t release this year, so despite loving some of them, they won’t be on this list as they aren’t “current.” I also wasn’t playing any MMOs this year (at least not seriously) so there aren’t any of those on this list. Finally, these are mostly niche games, because I haven’t been buying mainstream games as they release, as much of the AAA titles on offer this year weren’t ones I was interested in, or couldn’t afford when they released. When I say “couldn’t afford” I really mean I’m a cheap ass gamer these days. So with all that said, on to the list (in no particular order):

The Last of Us:
This is one of the only two AAA titles I played this year, though it still wasn’t upon release. I picked up my copy of The Last of Us a few months later on sale. This was a game I couldn’t pass up, not only because I have loved nearly everything Naughty Dog has ever done, but also because it’s a survival horror game which is right up my alley. I only played through the game once, but the story was amazing and the game play equally fun. Multiplayer was more of the same, but was still enjoyable at times. I will probably go back and play this one again some day, as it really was a great experience.

Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch:
I spent less time with this game than I would have liked, but still have strong feelings about it. I can’t say that I beat it or even got all of that far through the game, but what I did play was amazing and I will be revisiting it soon. Another AAA title that I got on sale, it was most definitely worth the $20 I paid. There are so many different systems from different JRPGs present here, that it feels like a mix of most of the RPGs I loved playing as a kid, on through my adulthood. I love all RPGs, but there is something to be said about the addictive nature of ones from Japan.

Dragon’s Crown:
This is the only game I couldn’t wait to have this year. I bought it shortly after release for full price. Granted, it was less money than a boxed $60 game, but still, this needs to be notated. I have recently posted about this game so I won’t go into reasons why it’s on my top ten again, but if you are a fan of side-scrolling beat-em-ups with RPG elements, this game will suit you.

Path of Exile:
PoE is the true successor to Diablo II. I say this without having played Diablo III, but I know enough about it to make that statement. Everything about it screams “Diablo II with slightly different systems and holy fuck look at that skill tree!” This game has been playable for more than just this year, but was officially released in 2013, so it makes my list. One of the best 3/4 view action RPGs of the year.

Rogue Legacy:
One of the two Rogue-likes that made this list (FTL would have too if it would have been released this year), Rogue Legacy is an awesome 2-D platformer that redefines death. Death means you will get new powers and possibly new disabilities, all of which are random along with the levels. I have progress pretty far into the game, and I would recommend it to anyone that owns a PC, and a controller. Controls are weak without one, and that’s my only disappointment.

Sword of the Stars: The Pit:
This is my other Rogue-like pick, and it is vastly different from the aforementioned title, but still good in almost every way. Permadeath is definitely a pro and a con, in that it is great to have to take responsibility for your actions, but it really sucks to get further into the dungeon than ever, just to die and have to start over. Still, I have had much fun with the game and have written about it multiple times. Grinding recipes is about the only part of the game that is overly frustrating, because some characters simply cannot hack machines for the messages needed. All in all a must-play.

Terraria:
Terraria released this year on PS3 (though I believe other versions were last year?). I haven’t made much headway with the game, and it is disappointing that there isn’t a way to connect with people that aren’t on your friend’s list. Aside from that, I have had fun exploring and taking part in gameplay that is far from traditional. I have explained my lack of experience with sandbox games, and this was the game that opened the door for me. If you like Minecraft, I’m sure you’ll like Terraria. Just make sure you have friends with the game, as multiplayer makes it more fun.

Dragon Fantasy Book 2:
Dragon Fantasy Book 2 is the sequel to (you guessed it) Book 1. Where Book 1 was an 8-bit adventure reminiscent of Dragon Warrior, Book 2 mixes elements from the 16-bit era, with combat like Secret of Mana or Chrono Trigger, a Pokemon-like pet collection system, and other goodies that remind me of being a kid. In the “good ol days.” I haven’t finished it, but it is on my to-do list and it recommended for old school JRPG nuts. Looking forward to seeing the next iteration, that is supposed to support an engine using 32-bit graphics. FF7 clone here we come 🙂

The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode 1:
This was a recent release, so this goes without commentary. If you scroll down, the dedicated post should still be on the main page. Must-have for those of you who were fans of the first season. I just wish it wasn’t so short, and hope that future episodes make up for this lack of length.

League of Legends: All Random All Mid:
In the MMO world, people will select expansions in their “best of” posts, and as League is the closest thing to a Massive game that I’m playing, I’m going to consider this an “expansion” for all intents and purposes. ARAM was released this year, and became a dedicated game mode, like Dominion and Twisted Treeline before it. ARAM most likely consumed more of my game time than any other game this year. I played my share of other modes in LoL, but I think ARAM took the cake for hours played. The game mode is my favorite way to just unwind, without the pressure of having to win, as there is no leaderboard. I love League, and will most likely keep it in my rotation for a long time to come.

I read a post over on The Cynic Dialogues about 2013 being the worst year in (PC) gaming, and I was about to argue against that fact (except the author has comments disabled), but after delving through my posts, trophy lists and memories, it was difficult for me to put together this list of ten. I am now more inclined to agree with them, despite knowing that if I had a slightly better computer I would have been playing some games that I can’t run now. Also, being rich would help to buy some of the games that I didn’t touch this year, so my list might be a little skewed from where it could be. Still, here’s hoping that 2014 blows us away. I hope to get a PS4 and a new computer next year, so maybe I’ll have more options available to me and next year’s list will be easier to pull off.

Lastly, if you are anal like me, you can verify release dates for any of the above listed games here. Just so you know I didn’t cheat ;P

Jinxed

Izlain

Sorry for the lack of posts this month, I had been doing pretty good with a couple of posts a week, but I have just been busy I guess. Between work and school, the last episodes of Breaking Bad, the new episodes of Sons of Anarchy, and clearing out my backlog of PS3 games, I just haven’t had as much time. I do still have a post in the works regarding those backlogged games, but that won’t be going up today.

This post is mainly about the new champion teaser for LoL, but first, I have some more screenshots of recent games I’ve played that I’d like to show off. Remember a few posts back when I had the Nami game where I had 56 assists? Well I almost matched it here:

lux

56 is still the record, however I managed 55 in this game, along with quite a few more kills, and only a couple more deaths. Lux is a little more geared to damage dealing than Nami, so these totals are more in line with her kit. This game was solo queue, lasted nearly 30 minutes, and as you can see, I was the only one on my team that wasn’t feeding. Still, it was good fun and I loved hearing “wait for lux” the few times that I did die. It’s great to know you’re carrying your team.  Speaking of carrying:

mf

This game happened last night. I was in a full group, one of which is my brother-in-law (fiddlesticks). The difference not having random players in your group is huge. This is officially the quickest ARAM I’ve participated in, clocking just over 12 minutes. They usually don’t go this fast, 20+ minutes is more of an average. Despite the quick game, I still managed the most gold, creep score, kills, and I wasn’t too far behind on assists either, and tied for least amount of deaths. I have always played a mean ADC, but this was just ridiculous. And fun 😛

Finally, on to the champion teaser:

The name’s Vi. I’m an enforcer. And this is my town – Piltover. They call this place the City of Progress – or they did until she showed up.

Her name is Jinx. That’s what they call her, anyway. No one knows who she is, or where she came from. This scrawny pain in the neck shows up one day, firing heavy guns in the air. And laughing – always with the laugh. I can’t stand her.

Everything changed the day she arrived in town. They might as well call it the City of Crime. Panic among the people. Chaos in the streets. Mayhem everywhere you look.

The worst part is: none of it makes any sense. Ask her why she’s doing it, and she’ll give you a million different reasons. But the only one that matters is:

She’s having fun.

Piltover is just a plaything to her. She’s enjoying the time of her life, and she doesn’t care who gets hurt.

Well, I’m here to shut down the party.

It doesn’t matter what she wants. I don’t care what her sob story is. I’m gonna put her away for a long, long time. And right before I do, I promise you: I’m gonna wipe that stupid grin off her face.

Permanently.

Ok, so is it just me, or does this character sound a whole lot like Harley Quinn from the Batman franchise? Maybe you won’t get that impression from only the text, so here is the picture that also lends to the idea that this champion is “inspired” by Batman:

BulletinBoard

The hair, the makeup, the cooky weapon designs. Yeah. It’s all screaming Batman, to me. I can’t imagine another ADC coming in right after Lucian, and as the lore is related to Vi, I’m guessing we’re looking at a bruiser type, though guns are ranged, so perhaps another Urgot? I would love another ranged bruiser, as Urgot is the only one that exists today. More on this as the story develops.

Finally, I have been watching Worlds. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, educate yourself. I didn’t catch all the action of the group stage, but I did manage to catch some of it (I believe it was two out of the six days). It was unfortunate to see two of the American teams eliminated at that point, and in the quarterfinals over the last two days, the final NA team was also eliminated. Last night, a Korean (SKT) and a Chinese (RYL) team advanced, both of which won two in a row to eliminated the other teams in best 2 out of 3s. The Semi-finals are coming, and we’re down to four teams. As much as I wanted to root for an NA team, I guess the next best thing is to root for Fnatic. It’s exciting to watch no matter what, and much can be learned from watching the streams. If you want to improve your game, I’d recommend watching the best players in the world while they’re still competing.

Epic Nami Game

Izlain1 Comment

This made my day:

nami

 

It’s only an ARAM, and yes, the teams were unfairly balanced (the enemy team on bottom has very little poke and were all melee). We had the nexus towers down and I still hadn’t died, but they did manage to get me twice after that, as they started to get a little more built. I assisted with 56 out of 64 kills. Not bad for a champ that I don’t even own, I’d say. The commentary from my team mate was even more ego boosting 😛

In other news, I finished The Last of Us last night. I also began the factions portion of the game, playing a couple rounds before bed. I must say that the multiplayer, despite being slower paced, is actually better than I expected. It’s something a bit different, but still very similar to uncharted 3’s multiplayer. I have yet to try the newest mode that Naughty Dog released this past week, but I intend to do some interrogating of my own very soon.

Otherwise, I am currently downloading the Resident Evil games that entered the IGC today, while listening to the new Nine Inch Nails album and playing League. The album is fantastic, by the way. That’s about all I have for today.

Patch 3.9

Izlain

It’s that time again, another round of patch notes for League of Legends. This time around, there are some balance changes for a few specific champs, some item changes, a new item added to The Howling Abyss, and other general tweaks. For me, it’s a ho-hum patch, as the champions mostly affected by changes are ones that I don’t play all that much, but I am excited about the new item. Here’s the video, you can see for yourself:

I really do like the addition of the new item, “Orb of Winter” to the ARAM map. It’s basically a Hexdrinker that gives more magic resist, and gives health regen instead of attack damage, also providing a “bubble”. It is unclear if the item grants protection from magic damage like the Hexdrinker, or if it’s any kind of damage, or if it’s a true bubble like Banshee’s Veil or Sivir’s spell shield. I suppose we will find out soon enough. From the notes:

Howling Abyss

  • Added new item: Orb of Winter
    • Recipe: Rejuvenation Bead + Rejuvenation Bead + Negatron Cloak
    • Total Gold Cost: 2080 (combine cost: 1180)
    • +70 Magic Resist
    • +20 Health Regen per 5 seconds
    • Unique Passive: Grants a shield that absorbs damage. The shield will refresh after a short period without taking damage.

For the complete patch notes, click here.

In other news, the champion I was discussing in my last post has been revealed, and boy was I off. I was guessing his weapons were throwing hammers, and he would be a bruiser or a tank. One of my readers actually tipped me off that his name is Lucian, and he actually appears to be a carry, and his weapons are some sort of guns. I am happy with these facts, because I prefer ADCs to any other champion type, it just suits my play style. It was also unclear if he will be included in this patch, but I find it unlikely as he was not included in the patch notes. More on him later.

Lastly, if you have some money burning a hole in your pocket, some more skin bundles have been announced, at ridiculously low prices (I assume that these packages will also take into account the champs/skins you already own, and lower the price even more). After the sale ends, these skins are going to be retired, so if you see something you like it’s your last chance to get it! Check those out here.

That’s all for this edition.