Fight With Your Friends, or With NPCs?

So, a while back my brother and I were debating on one of our favorite subjects: Video Games. One of your favorite topics just so happens to be whether or not plot is more important, or multiplayer. I myself usually play multiplayer based games, while he prefers singleplayer based ones with intense storylines. Now, don't get me wrong, I've logged thousands of hours on Oblivion, Fallout 3, Bioshock, etc...  But my favorite games are still Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, Halo: Reach, etc.. And this confuses him. I personally think it's because he can't play multiplayer very well whilst I think I can do fairly well. But, let’s compare the two, as I think that the two can take a cue from each other.

Starting off for the Questline side, we have the ever great Oblivion, I would use Skyrim, but, I still have 1 month to wait. Its October 11th. I can just feel Bethesda taunting me with 31 days. Oblivion, also known as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is the wondrous work of Bethesda software. You start out making your own character (which can take you a few hours, depending on how you want your character to look. The options for customization are amazing.) You may then choose how you want to go the vast open world. do you want to be a rogue, an archer, a magician? Its like D & D when your friends are being dicks and won’t play with you, so you go and play Oblivion instead. I have legitimately put around 800 hours into Oblivion, and saved over 850 times.

Next, as pictured below, is Reach. The original part to the original trilogy, it shows the events before Halo: Combat Evolved. Naturally, when I first saw this at E3 a few years ago, I just about lost it. As any fan-boy

Can tell you, seeing Reach re-visited was just about a dream come true. Now, Reach does have a plot line, and it is pretty good for the most part, I won't spoil the ending for all of you who may not own the game, but I had tears in my eyes, maybe it was from the 8 hours I has spent playing the campaign straight through on Heroic. Maybe it was the Flaming hot Cheetos that I had mistaken for normal Cheetos that I had started eating right before the last mission. But, Halo is renowned for its classical Matchmaking game. It’s everything I could, except there are no hats, a cue that all game developers could take from Valve, but it did the next best thing. Complete customization over your Spartan, the one to the left is my very own. I will admit that I have fallen out of playing Reach over the past few months, but I still log onto my Xbox every now and then, and make sure I put a couple of games in. You never know when it may come in handy to remember how to use Bumper Jumper. So, what IS more important? In all honesty, I think it was to be one or the other, and I have a good example on how to prove it: Bioshock 2.

Now, Bioshock 2 was a good game, but that's the point: it was just a good game. And I think it had to do with them putting time into multiplayer instead of just focusing on the singleplayer experience. But, if you bought Minerva's Den, you found a quest-line rivaled to the original Bioshock. The game has amazing and fluid gameplay, but it just turned out kind of "meh." And that's why I do truly believe that you need to focus on one or the other, if you got a reputation for having a large plot, focus on the plot. Dead Space II was on 2 discs, just saying. And if you are making a game almost solely for Multiplayer, there should be bigger focus on how that handles. Unless your game is play-tested for 4 years, it won't be perfect. It took Valve 7 years to finish TF2, and they still update it to this day. They didn't even think of adding new weapons, or gametypes, or god forbid if they didn’t hats. This isn't to say you can have both, it is simply to say that I don't expect a game that has a massive world to have a massive multiplayer feature, unless its a MMO. And I don't expect there to be people yelling at me. "DOOD STOP HAXXING, UR A NOOB" when I'm playing in a deep questline based game. Until the day that they finish a complete virtual reality, if I really want both, I can always play Dungeons and Dragons, but, then again, Skyrim is just around the corner...

Flashback Special: A look into the Greatest Generation of Handhelds

So, after my LoL binge, I decided to pull out my old DS. For the record, I've gone through two before getting to this current one. My first DS was an old DS, which I simply called “FatS” because they're so much bigger than the DS Lite, it was Electric Blue, giving it the name Big Blue, and I swear I could hear thunder in the background every time I turned it on. I spent probably as much time on that DS as I spent on my entire time on the Gamecube. But, tragedy struck one day about 4 years ago. When I was giving it to my brother, he didn't have a strong enough grasp on it, and he dropped it, cracking the screen. There was a large disturbance in the force, as I could feel a small portion of my soul dying out, and so I ran to the nearest Super Target, receipt in hand, and claimed that my warranty covered it. Luckily, the man behind the counter was either stupid, or just had pity for me, as I had tear stains on my cheek. As any true gamer can tell you, you can get very attached to your handhelds.



What was besieged to me wasn’t quite what I expected, as I had originally owned an electric blue DS, that’s what I wanted back. But, this was when the DS Lite had made its first appearance, and the FatS were starting to disappear of store shelves. DS Lite’s at the time cost more than my FatS, and since I had no money on me at the time (And I was just about to beat the Elite 4 in Ruby version, again) I settled on the plain-Jane version, just silver. Now, don’t get me wrong, silver is fine, but it just didn’t have the power to make angels sing every time I flipped my DS open like Big Blue could, but I had him longer than I had most other things. I eventually gave him the name “Old Silver” since I was playing him no later than last June, but, of course, nothing good lasts forever.



I went through many games on Old Silver, from Phantom Hourglass to Diamond Version of Pokémon. I had him in my pocket for so long that his original bar code had fallen off from ware-and-tear. I even got him a cute little carrying case that had Mario and Luigi on the front from their greatest RPG “Superstar Saga.” It didn’t matter to me that it was made for the DS Lite; it still fit (even if it did put a good deal of strain on the zipper.) But, when I was out traveling, I gave it to my brother. And he dropped it. If you’ve ever had a pet die, and your parents have to break the bad news to you, this was the equivalence. I came into the room we were staying in, and he said, “Santa, we need to talk.” What proceeded was him sighing, and holding up Old Silver, now in two pieces, top screen in his left hand, and touch screen in his right. I was despondent for about a month.



I hadn’t used a handheld in about 5 months, and I had been on the Xbox ever since, this was about the time I started transitioning to PC gaming. But, I could feel the excitement of this box, and while I unwrapped it, I could feel a small rumble. It was a DS, Electric Blue. But, there was one difference, it was a DS Lite. I could feel the beginning of a new era. I went downstairs, pushed myself up next to my desk in my La-Z-Boy, and started charging. While I waited for it to charge, I opened up TF2, and traded for a few hours, (that was my obsession at the time) and when I turned it on, I gave it a new name, my new name, Santa, as a way of thanking this Christmas miracle. I started back up Ruby Version, and started a new game. Although I don’t play handhelds very much, I still love the DS; I can still play my GBA games, and get a tough of the future. Maybe I’ll get a 3DS in the future, but I’m not counting on it. I like holding onto the old days, and who knows? Maybe I’ll find my Gameboy Advanced in my storage room sometime soon.

Dominating Has Never Been So Rewarding

League of Legends is one of those games that can really make an impression on everyone who plays it, from the lores to the vast amount of character abilities that you can have, and control. But, the main point is always in the game, which as I found out, Dominion completely changes up. For all of you gamers out there, its like Modern Warfare 2's Domination tied up with the fast action of a good game of Dustbowl on TF2. League of Legends is quickly pulling me back in as a very powerful and addicting game, and Dominion is the main cause of it.

For those of you who like a visual representation of the map, click this! It shows the entire map, and'll give you a good representation of how the game works. Once again, you get to be on one of two teams, blue or purple, and spawn on their respective sides. But, you start out at level 3, more gold, and gaining xp and gold over time, and at a rather fast pace. This pushes gameplay a lot faster, and lets you get a larger grasp on your abilities. Now, you get one minute or so to talk shop with your team, and decide which of the 5 towers you want to capture, or "cap." There are 5 points of interest all around the map: The windmill, the quarry, the refinery, the drill and the boneyard. Capturing 3 of these points will swing power in your favor, and hurt the enemies' nexus. Since you can't hit the enemies' nexus, it now has an odd form of hit points, which are damaged when you have 3 or more towers, one of the champions die, or you complete an objective, given every 10 minutes or so. The Nexus has 500 hp, and although it may seem like a lot, it only takes about 15-30 minutes to finish one game of Dominion, packing all of the intensity of the original gametype into a faster paced game. 

But, LoL isn't all about the fighting; it's also about finer things, like how you can kill people faster at the beginning. In LoL, you are a Summoner, a magician who controls your champion through magical powers. And you have 2 spells that you can cast to help your team, or yourself, and runes, which affect only yourself. Both of which you unlock as your summoner level goes up. Spells are free, but runes must be purchased, and at levels 10, 20, and 30, you unlock Quintessences, which are like super runes. Runes do everything that items can do, but can also grant the abilities to gain more experience, or build better over levels. You also get Masteries, similar to runes, but free, and not quite as powerful. Masteries come in 3 different slots: Offensive, defensive, and utility. All of these can give powers to your champions before you even enter battle, but be warned, as not all of these powers will help every champion and playing style, try to experiment!

Seeing to the fact that I believe that seeing can really impact, I thought I would showcase two of my favorite characters in League of Legends. First up is Gangplank, that swashbuckling pirate. Yes, he says just about every single stereotype you can think of, he is a drunkard, a brute, and inappropriate, but he's also quite fun to play, and my first champion. Gangplank is a carry, making him quite strong later on in the game, and is a melee character. Gangplank has two unique things about him, one is his main ability "Parrrley" yeah, it is a bad joke. But it is special. Gangplank fires his Ye Olde pistol, and deals around 20- 70 damage (depending on its level) and however much attack damage you have, too. To put this in perspective: Gangplank gets around 200 attack damage by the time I hit level 15, so, 270 damage, that's also with pretty good range. This ability can also critically damage (for 200 or 250% if you get Infinity Edge, a very nice weapon), and apply effects like slowing and whatnot. Gang's ultimate attack is cannon barrage, which allows him to take his ship's cannons, and fire anywhere on the map. Literally anywhere. I can fire right on their spawn if I want to be that big of a dick. My usual build for Gangplank goes for attack speed, critical strike, and attack damage. I can get gang attack twice a second critting every time, and deal 800 damage per hit. He can be a very scary guy. 

Now, you your immediate left, you will see a giant insectoid. He is wearing a suit, top hat, and monocle. He also has a bottle of champagne and a pipe rubber banded to his claws, yes, this is the greatest skinned champion of all time, Gentleman Cho'Gath! Now, Cho'Gath does not usually come in his greater, cockney accented form, I had to buy him like this. He is the epitome of human eating Praying Mantises, as his ultimate allows him to eat enemy champions. If he successfully eats them (essentially killing them) then he will gain a feast stack, making him grow larger, and giving him more health. Cho'Gath also features a scream that can stop enemy champions from casting abilities, spikes that he can shoot from his back, and the ability to stomp on the ground, and fracture it. While Cho'Gath may require more grace than Gangplank, he is also much more, how do I say it, civilized, and hi famous catchphrase: "Let us Fight Like Gentlemen" is even printed on one of Riot's T-Shirts, showing him sitting in a nice chair. I bought that shirt, and I am currently wearing it. What can I say? I can be quite the fan boy.

For the rest of you hanging on the fence about joining this League, do it. It is a large download (not quite the size of TF2, but it comes close) and snazzy things such as skins can't be bought without throwing money into the game, but, you do earn champions with IP, given out at the end of each game, and Riot also goes through the free champion rotation, giving you the chance to sample before you buy. So, if you need to kill a few hours, or maybe just one, try out the league, Riot is always trying to out do themselves, and as Dominion has shown, they're always coming up with something new.

Legends Are Made, Not Born (LoL pt. I)

So, on Sunday I was thinking (Since I didn't have many ideas at the time to blog about) and thought "Self, what can you cover today? Team Fortress 2 hasn't had an update in weeks, you haven't played enough of Minecraft 1.9, and Fallout: New Vegas doesn't run very well on your computer," (I sold my earbuds for New Vegas, can you believe that? And mother used to tell me that sitting and doing "nothing" would never get me anywhere. Now sitting down has fueled my addiction, minus the fact that I have a horrid computer.) Then I came up with it, a game I hadn't played in a long time. So, I opened it, and set out on its download, and to my surprise, it had some new features, but still greeted me like an old friend, today I start discussing League of Legends.

For all of those whom may not of heard of this astonishing game, just head on over to this cute little thing and check out Riot's webpage just for LoL. This game flows perfectly, now whether or not it flows how you want it to depends on your teamwork. As LoL is based on teams, it becomes a lot more fun when you have some friends to play it with. Riot says they may eventually implement a voice-chat feature, which would help more than my method than to use conference over Skype for easy game play ideas. The entire point of the game depends on your map, I'll start out with Summoner's Rift. You can either play 3 x 3 or 5 x 5, and I almost always go for the latter. The 5v5 map is larger, and allows for a more intense gameplay.

To start, you spawn on a symmetrical map, and are either on blue (bottom left) or Purple (top right). The point of Summoner's Rift (the name of the map) is to destroy your enemies’ nexus. Their nexus is on the other side of the map, in the enemies’ base. Next you have the inhibitors, which spawn your cute little minions, known as creeps. From there you can choose one of three lanes, which are protected by turrets, which fire at you when you go all alone, or will fire at creeps first, unless you attack an enemy champion, then it will select you. Turrets fire for high damage, and do more damage over time, so it’s risky to attack your enemies under a turret, but you can attack back, destroying it, turrets have a good deal of health, and take half as much damage as most champions, it’s wise to attack it with the waves of your minions, and will probably take more than one wave of their scapegoating to take it down. There are two turrets in each lane, one protecting the inhibitor of each lane, and two protecting the nexus. When you get to the enemies inhibitor, and destroy it as well (it can't defend itself after the destruction of its guardian turret.) Its destruction puts one minion in your wave on super steroids, giving it around 3,500 health, more than most characters. But, inhibitors do respawn over time, just as a note.

Destroying the nexus ends the game, but you may wonder how you will do this? At the beginning of every game you start at level 1, advancing to 18 with the gaining of experience. Every level you can power up one of your abilities, and getting to use your 'ultimate' move at level 6. You can also buy items at the store to increase your attack and move speed, physical and spell damage (known as AP), critical chance, defense, and so on. You can gain experience, and gold from the killing of creeps, killing of enemy champions, or "jungling" in the land in-between lanes, which has creatures of all shapes and sizes, some which rant magical abilities to yourself, or your entire team, if you can kill them.  But, what makes LoL special is its array of characters.

There are over 80 characters in LoL, and Riot adds about one each week, allowing for vast types of strategies and gameplay, most classes fall into categories, and can fit into more than one, you have:

Carries: Characters who are weak at low levels, but will roll into higher powered characters as the game progresses

Tanks: characters with high health, but usually low attack

Ranged: this character can attack from far away

Melee: this character attacks with a melee attack

Assassins: this character is usually stealthy, and can deal high damage quickly

Pushers: characters who can bully others in a lane

Mages: characters deal more magic damage

Fighters: characters deal more physical damage

Supporters: have lower attack and AP, but have higher attributes to help the team

These characters come in all different shapes and sizes, click to see more. With all these combinations, LoL gives not only the power of choice, but the feel of control that many other games don't give you. LoL allows for a really close team experience while only taking about 45 minutes to an hour, which can be its greatest problem too, it takes a long time for one game, but, Riot may have made a solution. In part 2 I'll cover a new gametype, and more customizable powers you can have.