The Ragers' Nest in LoL

I have played League of Legends on the Personal Computer for quite some time now and compared to games like Demigod and Heroes of Newerth, the game's community is for the most part, welcoming. I have written about it many times in the past but there is just something about these online battle arena games that make people go completely bonkers. Things have taken a turn for the worse in LoL. I am sad to say, as I am moving closer and closer towards the level cap of 30, the occurrence of encountering a verbal abuser is getting more and more frequent. I think over the last couple of days, I got "yelled at", ridiculed, and treated like I wasn't even human at least once every 2-3 games. The thing is, I really could care less about these jerks but of course, being treated like you are a bane to the existence of the game by your own team member while you are trying to accomplish a team goal is disheartening to say the least. I am pretty diligent in reporting these individuals though and I would always take the time after these affected each game to narrate the specifics of the incidents to Riot Games using the LoL client's convenient report function. There is no shame in doing so: I know I am helping out the community, one jerk at a time.

You win some, you lose some, but you should never leave them.

If you do play the game and you are tired of teaming up with these kind of people, feel free to send me an email at loner.gamer@yahoo.com. I would like to get a friendly team together for a LoL session. I must warn you though that:

1) I don't curse and I don't get upset when I die in the game nor would I do so when I lose a match. This doesn't mean that I don't care about staying alive or working hard to win that match.

2) I am willing to take constructive criticism and when I talk to you about strategies and champion builds, I will only do so politely.

3) I am not a perfect player and I would like to continue getting better and better at this game. I view both my successes and my failures as learning opportunities.

4) I don't expect you to be a perfect player. I hope to learn from both your successes and your failures.

5) I think that the Summoner's Code is totally rad!

If you don't play LoL but all of these talks about getting verbally abused by arrogant players excite you - or perhaps it was the flowery parts that got you going - make sure to sign up for your account and start playing the game! It's completely free!

New Game Alert: Puzzle Solved Edition!

The Personal Computer version of Infinite Interactive's Puzzle Quest 2 finally arrived today. The game is a couple of dollars more expensive than the X-Box 360 edition (still way cheaper than the Nintendo DS version) but the mouse control is a definite plus. Unlike Gyromancer, moving the gems around the puzzle board feels a lot more intuitive and natural with the mouse and it's very easy to move about the game inside and outside the actual puzzle battles. I must say that my extra-heavy PC gaming of late has really caused some problems for my wrist so half of the time, I did play the game using the 360 controller, which is of course a really ironic thing. Now that I have played the game a bit more extensively, I can definitely see its improvement over the original. The one thing that helps this game the most is its large characters and that you are moving your character through beautiful locations versus a zoomed out overhead map from the original. This PC version is published by Namco - weird - and it does feature online multi-player. Unfortunately, the "Tournament Mode", where you create a team of monsters to fight against another team, is left offline here unlike the 360 version - definitely something to consider if you are trying to decide which one to get between the two releases. The Steam release comes with a hefty amount of achievements for those who care about them.

Red Death wants your soul, Goblin and this game wants the soul of its players!

Some More LOL in LoL

More of the "creative" names that I stumbled upon while playing League of Legends on the Personal Computer. It's hard to come across these names lately, probably because of the proactive measures taken by the community and Riot Games to eliminate  problem players - it's easy to spot the rotten people by their mostly arrogant names.

As they say, Rogues Do It From Behind...

Because the chicken wanted to be Donald Trump.

Announcing it in that fashion almost made it sound like you are compensating.
The fact that you are playing Fiddlesticks made things even worse.

Allods Online: Triple Vision

I created an Imperial faction character when I first started playing Allods Online on the Personal Computer yesterday so today, I thought I would check out the opposing League faction. One of the races, the Gibberling, is very unique in which the character is represented by three linked avatars. You can customize the basic looks of each of the triplets during the creation process but you really just control one while the others follow. When you equip a new piece of equipment, it visually alters all of the characters simultaneously. It's really not my style though because they are just too synchronized and thus seem "unnatural". This whole thing is just too trippy and weird but it also very different so I really commend the game for offering something that is truly unique.

Want to control more than one character at once without dual-boxing? Pick the Gibberlings!

Plants vs. Zombies... Updated!

With the eventual release of Plants vs. Zombies for the X-Box 360 next month which will include extra contents, it would be grossly unfair if these additions were not provided in some manner to those who already purchased and played it on the Personal Computer (and now Mac). After all, it was the PC community that gave the game its remarkable success. Now that I have just updated the game with the recently released and free "Game of the Year Edition" patch, I am disappointed to report that the X-Box 360 version will still gain the edge when it comes to the actual content because this patch doesn't include any of the online modes made for the console release.

PvZ already has its own in-game achievement system.

Those who purchased the game on Steam will now get additional achievements to obsess over.

So yeah, the "Zombatar", where you can customize your zombies is cool but it's not as cool as playing with others online. What's worse is the fact that the Michael Jackson zombie is now replaced with a generic boogie woogie zombie due to the pressure from the Jackson estate whose interest is probably dominated by greed than anything else. There is no way that the controls would be as precise using the game controller than the mouse setup or even the touch screen of the iPad version so I surely hope that PopCap Games will release an update again that will feature the online co-op mode for the PC version with the game's arrival on the X-Box 360. To create such a marginal distinction between the two versions brings nothing but total disgrace to this brilliant game so PopCap should think about what they are doing more seriously if they don't want to lose a chunk of their business in the future. They probably want those who have access to the console to buy the game again but they should know that there is nothing worse than a double dipping developer: it's disgusting and it's just plain wrong.

It's just not the same but what can you do.