Dual-citizenship: It's OK to like more than one MOBA

DotA 2 (left) and League of Legends (right) finally duke it out.

Happy New Year, everyone.  Hope you all had a good holiday and wishing you all well for 2015.  For my last post of 2014, I thought I'd tackle possibly one of the most defining, but definitely the ugliest, aspects of the MOBA genre.  And maybe, just maybe, help bring about a change for the new year.

"Rek'Sai: Scourge of the Desert" bodes well for League of Legends lore

So lately the popular opinion of League's lore is that it is either low quality or non-existent, both because of what fans have dubbed "The Great Ret-con", when Riot's lore department removed the Institute of War from the official narrative.  The decision met with severe backlash (case in point: you'll have to click "show" to see that actual quote since the comment is below the forum's rating threshold).


With the story piece released yesterday, I think that the lore department's stated goals of expanding the world are actually beginning to show some results for the narrative as a whole.  It's ironic that they would be brought about with the introduction of League's first "true beast", who would be expected to have a fairly small story element (eat caravans, terrorize cities, burrow, repeat).

Borderlands: The PreSequel DLC - more than the last, less than expected

So the second piece of Borderlands: The PreSequel DLC was announced on Thursday.  "Holodome Onslaught" will be released on December 16, 2014 and is essentially adding a boss-rush mode and a level cap increase.  And that's it.

Deckard Cain: Hero of the Storm - Really?

So, I fully realize this will not be a popular viewpoint (if anyone bothers to read this) but I don't think the (until recently) last of the Horadrim should join Heroes of the Storm.  At least not as a playable character.  Stay awhile and listen.

Welcome to the Jungle

Preseason for League players inspires equal measures of excitement and dread.  Excitement because this is when Riot introduces the most sweeping changes and dread for exactly the same reason.  

We as gamers can be a pretty conservative lot and change is scary.  We all wonder the same things: “will my favorite champion get nerfed?”, “will my favorite strategies still be viable?” but it all boils down to one, simple question.  

Will the game still be fun?

New Fizz and Syndra skins!

Happy second day of spring!  Besides the end of winter, Fizz and Syndra fans have more to look forward to with the potential upcoming release of two new skins.  Both are currently on the PBE, so as with all unreleased content, just about everything is subject to change - including particles, animations, sounds and visual effects.  While it's a relatively safe bet these will be coming out soon, a leaked video is no guarantee of imminent release - Scorched Earth Renekton was on hold for more than a year after the video hit YouTube but before being the skin was available for purchase.

Thoughts on Strife

Sounds pretty philosophical doesn't it?  Well, if you take in the context as my mother always says, you'll probably guess that I'm not going to explore the meaning of suffering.  Instead, we're here to talk about Heroes of Newerth creator, S2 Games' quirky and (despite its name) decidedly more lighthearted new MOBA.  Bear in mind, I've played League for about the last 4 years with only the occasional DotA foray so my comparisons may be skewed towards the former.  For those of you who haven't walked away in contempt- read on.