Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Played Lately: League of Legends

  • Although I've never been a huge fan of competitive online game (mostly because I hate being killed and ridiculed repeatedly), I occasionally drop into an online game just because I like the underlying game enough that it overcomes the lack of a single player option. One of thost games is League of Legends. When I wrote about it earlier this year, I had just started playing the game. A lot has changed about the game in the meantime, but a lot is exactly as I wrote about it before. Both of those contradictary statements are very good things.

  • Since my last LoL post, Riot Games added a second game map, the 3v3 Twisted Treeline. I love its dark forest look as well as how quickly the game evolves. With only two lanes that approach at the middle, there is a lot of opportunity of individual glory as well as surprise full team ganking. Evidently Riot is releasing a third map, the Magma Chamber for 5v5 matches, that goes the other direction by preventing a lot of crossover between the lanes.

  • One other nice addition since the last post is a wide number of new heroes and additional skins that have become available. Even my Janna finally got some attention. Of course, I haven't bought it yet since I've been spending all my time with a new hero, Miss Fortune. Shooting people with paired flintlock pistols is a lot of fun, even if I die too often. But I'm still learning, still winning as many games as I lose, and still having enjoying myself.

  • I'm never going to be that great of a player. I'm having fun and that's all I'm looking for. But when I saw these videos of the WCG North American Championship games, I was thoroughly impressed. It's almost like they are playing an entire different game. It reminds me of watching the Guild Wars championship matches. It's thrilling to watch people play at such a high level, even if I don't aspire to those heights. The world championship is going on in Los Angeles on October 2. If I didn't have other obligations, I would be there in a heartbeat to cheer them on.

  • Amusingly enough, Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an article up about LoL. If you're interested in a good overview of the game, you should take a look. And if you want to have a little PvP fun, maybe you should try it yourself.


© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

4 comments:

  1. I just read the RPS article. All I can say is holy cow that sounds like fun, thanks for linking it. Apart from WAR (for whatever reason) or big RvR style battles when I can make tactical contributions I have a tendency to completely suck at PvP. Still this looks like it's worth a shot.

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  2. @ Yeebo - It was a lot more fun than I expected. I think the slower pace and how well the game is balanced really helps ease the learning curve. There is a curve, but it's manageable.

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  3. I keep meaning to try LoL out but I keep imagining it's going to be like playing Starcraft against Korean all-stars.

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  4. @ Blue Kae - I understand where you're coming from. The matchmaking in the game does an pretty good job of keeping the level 30 players out of the kiddie pool, though. And, amazingly enough, you probably will feel like you contributed to the team when you play. But definitely start with the tutorial and a practice match so that you are comfortable with the game before you jump in.

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