MMO News |
- League of Legends Nemesis Mode Reviewed
- Marvel Contest of Champions: Superior Iron Man’s Special Moves
- Eridanus Wars
- Dota 2 – New Bloom Festival Review
- EVE Online: Tiamat release is now live
- Grepolis Unleashes Battle of Troy Event
- TERA: Fate of Arun – Sky Cruiser Endeavor
- Dying Light Developer Tips #1: The More the Merrier
- Total War Attila Official Launch Trailer
- Tree of Savior: S.Korean Version To Be Released Q3 2015
| League of Legends Nemesis Mode Reviewed Posted: 17 Feb 2015 04:35 PM PST By Jason Parker (Ragachak)
You Should Be Enjoying This Battle More, Nemesis! League of Legends‘ new flavor of the month mode, Nemesis, is really something. It’s ARAM with a choice. Its core concept is built around a 5v5 match where the enemy team picks your champions for you, bans included. While you can trade and strategize, you have to live with what they picked. The goal is the same, but it is considerably harder given that you have no rerolls or second chances. My first thought was that it would be, unsurprisingly, an incredibly toxic mode. Almost every game I've played or heard about, at least one person has raged, quit, or simply fed because they weren't happy with the pick they were given. The argument can be made that the mode only fosters bad feelings, but I found a secondary purpose for this mode. It reminds me of DOTA2's "Least Played" option, where you are forced to play champions/characters that you (personally) seldom pick. If the devs at Riot are smart, they're paying careful attention to who is banned and picked for the other teams. Both picks and bans are generally champions that have low synergy, low win rates, and are as a whole regarded as not worth playing. Champs that aren't picked tend to be fairly powerful. After all, why give your opponents an edge?
80% Luck, 20% Skill So the enemy picks your characters. So what? For the player who is well-versed in a variety of characters it's not a problem. The problem lies with players who only choose to play a small handful of characters, unwilling to learn something new. It forces players to play in a variety of situations. There won't always be a jungler in Nemesis mode, and there are often lots of awkward or strange lane choices. TaricxGragas vs. ShenxPoppy was interesting to say the least. One major downside to this mode comes in the form of players refusing to take what they are given, or being upset at what their team gives to the other. What each player considers a "bad" champ varies. For example, champions that I consider underpowered are Zac, Shen, Ashe, and Janna, which are champions lacking burst damage. But players that disagree might argue or fuss over the ban choices or the selections given to the opposing team. Another great disadvantage of this mode is when players go into this mode assuming they will get to play whatever champ they're strong with or role they're confident in. Sure, I've managed to support in every game so far, but that doesn't mean it will happen every time! Players that cannot use this as a learning experience will not have fun here.
Come Together, Right Now, Over Drag It's not all bad, to be sure. Sure, lots of toxic and negative behavior shows up in this particular mode, but it can teach a great deal. Nemesis mode shows a team how to do creative and new things with whatever silly, absurd hand they're dealt. So your team is Heimer, Sona, Taric, Hecarim, Urgot? That's not impossible to win with by any stretch. It shows you (the player) that not all the champions are as bad as you might think them to be. You will also possibly see a great deal of champions more than others. If a powerful champ is picked, the odds are high that the other team doesn't think anyone on your side can use them! Show 'em wrong, and get in there and do your best! This is not ranked play. It's just a fun normal mode to improve your skills in. It's a mode that promotes trial and error, learning what can possibly work and what probably will not. It does not promote a new meta, or require players to work within that meta. Sure, there are champions that are stronger than others, but the odds of them getting play here are unlikely. Unless the enemy team is coincidentally very talented with Aatrox, and you think nobody is good with him because you thinks he sucks. Chance of Diagnostic Error One final note to consider: there is the chance that Riot is using this as a diagnostic tool. If they collect data on the champs and matches, the developers can use this in a positive way to influence not only the game but the community at large. I hope players will not only use this mode as a way to grief other players, though it is a noticeable trend. With a bit more positive outlook in the community, this could be an awesome popular mode that I'd be delighted to see return again in the future. You never know when you're going to find a new obscure favorite champion from it! My thanks to Vulkary Sori for his contribution to the article in the form of his screenshots.
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| Marvel Contest of Champions: Superior Iron Man’s Special Moves Posted: 17 Feb 2015 04:05 PM PST We hear this moveset is better than the last Iron Man model.
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| Posted: 17 Feb 2015 03:48 PM PST Eridanus is a multiplayer space shooter with co-op crew action, built for VR headsets.  Publisher: StellarVR Pros: +Crew mechanic lets players control a single ship together. +Designed for VR.
Overview Eridanus Wars OverviewEridanus Wars is an online virtual-reality co-op space shooter. Players can join either the Eridanus or Federation and head out to battle for control of several resource-rich sectors that support and boost their faction as a whole. Spaceships are designed for two or three crew members, letting players join up in small parties to navigate and fight together in new ways. Eridanus Wars Screenshots         Eridanus Wars Featured VideoComing Soon… Full Review Eridanus Wars ReviewComing Soon… Screenshots Eridanus Wars ScreenshotsComing Soon… Videos Eridanus Wars VideosComing Soon… System Requirements Eridanus Wars System RequirementsComing soon… |
| Dota 2 – New Bloom Festival Review Posted: 17 Feb 2015 01:28 PM PST By Mohammad Abubakr I have not been spending a lot of my time playing Dota 2 in the past few weeks. With my busy schedule it can be hard to commit to long Dota 2 matches as once you start, you really should play it out to the end. It is never fair to both teams to leave mid way (if there is an emergency, don't let a game keep you there!). However, with Dota 2's latest update introducing this year's New Bloom Festival and the addition of a new hero, Winter Wyvern, I just had to check it out. Read on to learn what this year's festival is all about as well as an overview of Winter Wyvern. Firstly, while this year's event goes by the same name as Instead of a team of five teaming up to take down the year beast as fast as possible, this event pits five against five in a battle to not only destroy each other’s base, but also their own personal Year Beast. The Year Beast Brawl is like a normal match of Dota with the addition of each team's own Year Beast charging down lanes towards the enemy. These beasts spawn every five minutes and are controlled by the AI. However, players can spend Ability Points to command the Year Beast. There are multiple commands and abilities available for use on the Year Beast such as a global Zeus ultimate or teleporting it to a lane of your choice. At the start of the Brawl, players decide on the strengths and weaknesses of their Year Beast. As mentioned above, these commands and abilities use Ability Points. This is a currency unique to this event and can be acquired by playing Dota 2, winning the Year Beast Brawl, or through purchase with real money. Your ability points are redistributed at the end of each match; be sure to use all your points in each match! I read a lot of complaints about the ability to purchase these points as they give teams an advantage from the get go. However, after trying out the game mode I did not feel there was a big need to purchase these ability points due to the daily bonus. I had plenty of ability points available for use and, thanks to the ability cooldowns, I never ran out of ability points by the end of the page. I can see this system being a problem in the beginning but after getting some free daily bonus points, I personally feel there is not a big problem with paying users gaining an advantage. This does not mean I am entirely happy with this event but my reasoning is on an entirely different front that I’ll get into later. In order to join the Year Beast Brawl, you must queue for a game within random 15 minute time periods. A countdown will appear an hour before the start of each Brawl to give you time to prepare yourself and gather your friends. This horrible design decision causes the servers to get hammered in one small time frame. I could see my friends' statuses change to 'Finding a match' right as the Brawl began. After waiting in the queue for multiple minutes, with many failures to find servers, I finally got into a game. There were some server issues even when playing but they were minimal, mostly consisting of a lag spike hitting every 10-15 minutes. I really do not understand why Valve would limit this event into random 15 minute intervals (it used to be 10 minute intervals initially…).
Players that win the Brawl are rewarded handsomely with item sets so the restriction to play could be because of these rewards. However, Valve could have simply limited the number of itemsets players could find every day and allow everyone to play the event at their own pace. Not everyone is able to have the game open at all times and wait for the event's random time intervals to pop. I had to leave the game open on the side while doing some other work just to be able to test out the game mode. There are many abilities available for the Year Beast but they are the same as existing hero abilities. When I finally got to play The Year Beast Brawl, I was quite underwhelmed. It did not feel as epic as previous events. In previous events I felt like I was taking down a raid boss with my party in an MMO. This year I am just playing a normal game of Dota, which is not bad, with a stronger creep at my side. It feels like the marketing team at Valve worked to push out this update rather than the amazing designers we have come to love at Valve. It all seems like a cash grab via a rushed event.
On the other hand, it seems like a lot of time was spent on Winter Wyvern. This support hero can lock down enemies while also keeping her allies alive. Arctic Burn (Q) allows this dragon to soar, granting unobstructed movement, and attack enemies at long distances with a chilling attack that slows and damages enemies. This ability is very strong at all points in the game and can be used both offensively and defensively. It works great alongside Splinter Blast (W) which launches a ball of brittle ice that shatters upon impact. It is important to note that the ice does not affect the target and only damages and slows enemies within a 500 radius of the target.
Her third ability, Cold Embrace (E), encases an ally in an icy cocoon, blocking all physical damage and healing a percentage of their maximum health each second. This cocoon can also be cast on yourself to help you get out of sticky situations and bait attacks. Finally, Winter's Curse (R) freezes an enemy in place, causing nearby enemies to attack their frozen ally. The 300 range radius for Winter's Curse is quite small and often times you will be using this ability just for the 3 second stun. Crystal Maiden's new Arcana comes with a dog! Prioritization of skills depends on both your playstyle and the enemy team composition. Aside from always leveling your ultimate, the other abilities can be leveled up with personal judgement. I am a big fan of Arctic Burn as it allows your carry to keep up with and kill slow enemies, it works great in a trilane. Splinter Blast deals a lot of damage but it can be hard to use against passive enemies. If the enemy team is very aggressive and always grouped up (either with heroes or creeps), Splinter Blast's high damage is amazing. Cold Embrace is great but only if the enemy team has a lot of physical damage. It is similar to Omni Knight's Repel which is great against spells but does nothing against physical damage. Like Crystal Maiden, Winter Wyvern is very, very slow. You will want to pick up boots as soon as you can to keep up with other heroes. A Force Staff is also highly recommended as it can be used to push allies under your Cold Embrace or enemies under Winter's Curse. From there on, you will move onto the normal support items depending on the state of the game and the enemy team's hero composition. Items such as Mekansm, Eul's Scepter, and Rod of Atos are great choices in many situations.
Conclusion: Not as Good as Last Year I was quite disappointed with this year's New Bloom festival. It seemed like a rushed event to make some easy money. The events in the past were amazing. You worked together with your team to tackle a new challenge that brought something new to Dota 2 outside the traditional 5v5 experience. This year we are just playing a normal All-Pick game with a pet that helps you take down buildings. I hope future events get more thought put into them. I have always praised Valve for their creativity and desire to make the best games, but this event does not represent the Valve I look up to. However, they did do a great job with Winter Wyvern. While I am not a support player, I enjoyed my time with this hero. She does seem a bit weak at the moment but it will be interesting to see where the meta game and professional players take her. |
| EVE Online: Tiamat release is now live Posted: 17 Feb 2015 12:35 PM PST Today Tiamat has followed the Rhea release as EVE Online’s second feature bundle of 2015. Here are some of the changes in Tiamat:
And, importantly, Tiamat also includes mysterious newcomers to New Eden (pictured) — and other things player have to be in space to discover. For more info, visit http://community.eveonline.com/releases/tiamat/?utm_source=ccp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20150217_pr&utm_content=tiamat
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| Grepolis Unleashes Battle of Troy Event Posted: 17 Feb 2015 12:32 PM PST InnoGames' Greek strategy game Grepolis, relives the legendary Trojan War with its latest event: "The Battle of Troy", launched on all game worlds today. Inspired by the epic clash, players will battle their way through a campaign map filled with multiple fighting stages and five types of mercenary armies. Grepolis fans can find these mercenaries by performing regular tasks like city building, research or recruitment. Thus, a higher in-game activity will mean a bigger chance of discovering them all. However, the amount of mercenaries is limited to 10 per day. The main objective of the event is to defeat all fighting stages on the way to Troy. Each level has a set amount of enemies which will increase in difficulty once they are beaten. To make it more challenging, players have a limit on the amount mercenaries they can use per stage. Yet, they can use the Hero Achilles to boost their combat power by 20%. In addition, the event will reward players via 3 different awards: Trojan Massacre, Conqueror of Troy and Leader of Trojan Mercenaries. For more info, visit http://www.innogames.com/en/browser-games/grepolis/ |
| TERA: Fate of Arun – Sky Cruiser Endeavor Posted: 17 Feb 2015 12:19 PM PST Take the battle into the clouds with TERA‘s newest dungeon – Sky Cruiser Endeavor!
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| Dying Light Developer Tips #1: The More the Merrier Posted: 17 Feb 2015 12:11 PM PST Your first tip to survival? Play with friends. LOTS of friends.
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| Total War Attila Official Launch Trailer Posted: 17 Feb 2015 12:04 PM PST Begin a Hun-derful adventure as Total War: Attila sees release.
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| Tree of Savior: S.Korean Version To Be Released Q3 2015 Posted: 17 Feb 2015 12:04 PM PST Nexon Q4 2014 investor's presentation confirms that Tree of Savior will be published in the second half of 2015 or later. The game release pipeline also has other games such as Dirty Bomb, Aima, Maple Story 2 scheduled to release in 2015. This comes without surprise as the Tree of Savior first CBT showed as much promises as room for development. imcGAMES is currently improving Tree of Savior based on the feedback they have obtained in first CBT and preparing for second CBT. Second CBT is expected to begin later in spring 2015. For more info, visit http://treeofsaviorgame.com/news/1387/tos-will-be-published-in-2h-2015-or-later/ |
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