Category: Reviews (Page 12 of 24)

      Does LoL need an ‘easy mode?’

      May 31, 2011 /

      Easy Button.

      I have a couple good friends that I frequently join up with to play Twisted Treeline. It’s not a perfect experience by any means, but it allows us to play a draft mode together and the games are relatively short. The best part about TT is definitely game length, but the map leaves an awful lot to be desired in terms of balance.

      The time issue actually carries over to Summoner’s Rift for me. I rarely queue for 5v5 unless I know I have an hour to spend and even 3s can take 40 minutes if the game goes long. That’s a pretty long chunk of time to commit to a game, especially if it ends up being a loss. I’m sure we’ve all had games that are going so poorly that there’s no hope of victory but teammates hang on and refuse to surrender. Those types of games make me long for a quicker experience.

      DotA had an “easy mode” toggle that could be used with each gametype, granting bonus gold per second and I believe extra gold for towers. It increased the pace of the game by allowing players to passively reach a level of farm more quickly, similar to the way Twisted Treeline generates per-second gold faster than Summoner’s Rift. I actually think it would be cool to have an “easy mode” playlist in League of Legends, a mode in which the XP and gold rewards were tuned so that 30 minutes looked like 70 minutes does now.

      That mode wouldn’t work very well on Twisted Treeline. The 3v3 map just snowballs out of hand far too quickly. Games would likely be decided by the first fight (and in some cases, they still are). For Summoner’s Rift, though, I think it would give casual players more opportunity to fire up a game while the baby’s napping, in between classes, or just before heading to bed. Speaking of which…

      Editorial, league of legends, Reviews

      Champ of the Week: Teemo Wrapup

      May 29, 2011 /

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      The Teemo champ of the week has been one of the toughest yet. Teemo is missing a lot of the mobility and survivability that other champions have, not to mention that he has one of the weakest passives in the game. He can still have an excellent early game, though, as long as you’re willing to play carefully.

      I started the week trying to tweak my typical Teemo build to take advantage of Trinity Force and Wit’s End. Unfortunately, that’s a lot of gold to put toward items that best augment a naturally high attack damage or a naturally higher attack speed. Teemo’s poison certainly gives him a lot of damage, but it adds magic damage to each shot, both when the attack lands and in the damage over time. For that reason, Malady/Bloodrazor seem to be the best way to go, with a little survivability as you need it. I’m not typically a fan of Frozen Mallet, but it really is a solid item for Teemo if you don’t need a Banshee’s Veil.

      The strangest thing about Teemo is his secret taunt passive. For whatever reason, players love to kill Teemo. Even in fights in which I thought I was second or even third priority, I often found myself getting focused immediately. In a weird way, this can absolutely help your team. Teemo’s damage output is great once he’s farmed, but depending on map position, taking the priority off your carries can be effective.

      For the most part, I think Teemo is in a pretty good place. He needs a team with enough crowd control/peel to help keep him alive, a favor he can return with the exceptional map control offered by his mushrooms. If I could change one thing about Teemo it would definitely be his passive. His passive has essentially one use and one use only: level 1 harassment. It can be helpful when setting up a teamfight, but unless you’re well ahead of your opponent, it usually doesn’t make sense to stand still long enough to take advantage of the passive. I’d like to see him get some sort of damage or utility, potentially giving him the survivability to make it into the jungle. My few attempts to counter jungle were met with almost immediate failure. Counter junglers really need to be able to control creeps, not champions, and Teemo just doesn’t have that power early in the game.

      Stay tuned later today for this coming week’s Champ of the Week.

      Reviews

      Champ of the Week: Teemo trouble

      May 26, 2011 /

      Easter Bunny Teemo.

      This is now the sixth part of the Champ of the Week series and I can honestly say I haven’t had this kind of bad luck yet. Every time I’ve picked Teemo this week it has resulted in utter failure. My first serious attempt at counter jungling I ended at 4-10, basically tanking for our team because our real tank was never with us. In other games my teammates have been all over the place, or we haven’t had any CC.

      I also had the unique displeasure of laning mid against Warwick. I can’t wait till they nerf that hairy bastard. He was tower diving me at level six and otherwise nuking straight through the 80 magic resistance I had at level 10. It was an infuriating experience.

      For right now I’m just trying to keep the faith. I know I’ve had fun with Teemo. I know I’ve done well with Teemo, and not just in that fluke, the-other-team-is-a-wild-pack-of-noobs kind of way. Still, I’m having a hard time seeing those games right now. That’s one of the funny things about this game – it’s so easy to get into a rut with a champion or a comp or a class or anything and just forget to try and dig yourself out. There are champions I haven’t played in ages, probably because my last experience wasn’t so great.

      Not Teemo. I won’t let that little Yordle down. If I give up on him, who are we going to send to make mushroom art on the moon?

      Reviews

      The Next Great MMO: Why SWTOR will Fail

      May 7, 2011 /

      Outdated Republic.

      I haven’t done a “Next Great MMO” spot in a while, mostly because MMOs have sort of slipped from my mind a bit. Of late I’ve been spending what I call my “long term game time” in Minecraft, exploring a few different servers in the hopes of finding a ruleset I like. That experience has made me wonder just what will make the next great MMO truly great, and as far as I can tell, nothing currently in development has what it will take, not even Star Wars: The Old Republic.

      I wrote a longer piece about the ways SWTOR – one of the most anticipated and ambitious MMOs out there – will fail. I’m sure the game will still sell, but I don’t think it will make a dent in WoW’s numbers. It’s too similar a game and it fails to innovate in the genre. Here’s a quick excerpt from my article:

      This is the experience most MMOs fail to deliver. Instead, games like “WoW” and “Champions Online” and yes, probably “SWTOR,” present the player with a paradox. The player is told he or she is going to be a great hero someday, defending the world from some great evil, and yet, as long as the player is playing the evil persists, the villains respawn, and the game world remains virtually unchanged as a result of that player’s presence.

      For the full article, head over to our parent site, Bullz-Eye.com. Be warned, there’s a lot of Minecraft talk, so if you aren’t down with Mojang, it’s best not to click through.

      Reviews

      Brand Impressions

      April 14, 2011 /

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      I’ve been spending a lot of my LoL time on Brand, more than most of the recent champions and mostly because he’s a lot of fun to play. His combo system is an absolute blast – one of the best examples of a champions that forces you to make decisions when choosing your spells. For the most part, I also think he’s pretty balanced.

      If I have one complaint about Brand it’s that the range on his E is just a little too long. He’s a fairly slow champion – he feels slow, anyway – so I understand that it’s a sizable radius, but coupled with his passive it deals an awful lot of damage from pretty huge distance. Other than that, I love the skill. The Blaze synergy is great for a little bounce damage off the caster minions if your opponent gets too close.

      Pillar of Flame is probably my second favorite skill in Brand’s arsenal. The animation is great and the damage is impressive, especially if your target is ablaze. I do think the W->E combo might give him a little too much farming potential, but a simple mana tweak would address the problem.

      As far as stuns go, I think Brand is in a good spot. His stun is not just a skillshot but a conditional skillshot at that. You miss it and you’re pretty much sunk if someone’s in your face. That kind of risk also makes it a lot of fun to land, especially when you snake it through a minion or two.

      I have mixed feelings about his ult. If the circumstance is just right it feels pretty good, but the circumstance is rarely just right. In most cases I see it wipe out a few minions, dealing damage to a hero or two along the way. Though I do occasionally wish it dealt a bit more damage, I think erring on the low or unreliable side of damage is better than the alternative.

      I’ve heard a lot of people complain that he’s OP, but I just haven’t seen it yet. He is very high burst, in much the same way that other casters can be, it’s just that his playstyle rewards skill more than many others.

      Reviews

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