Killing Floor 2 (2015*) Early Access

Killing Floor 2 (2015*)
Tripwire Interactive
PC/Steam
Single, Co-Op, Multi
Instance

So one of the primary reasons I did the first one so early was I had been planning on getting the sequel on launch. However all the hype and demand and "something" from the many throngs of followers online prompted Tripwire to release an 'Early Access' version of the game in late April. I have enjoyed it thoroughly whether just jumping into matches with randos or having a few friends join me who also got it. That said this is a [better than] Beta release. Only 4/10 perks or classes are available and only 3 maps are present at this juncture, with no solo play mode yet. I've followed all of the developer diaries thus far (only 4 or so) and watched a couple of let's plays that came out earlier this year. I will not be regurgitating soundbites for you, but know that more information is out there and likely to continue until an official launch is performed.

Location, location, location:
That's it--3 maps: Burning Paris (France); Biotics Lab (Horzine HQ); Outpost (aka Hoth on some servers). I love these maps so far. They are large enough to warrant exploration and provide actual strategy for their new destructible environments they've implemented in the game. The one issue I've found is sometimes things get destroyed while you weren't there. And I'm not talking about a chair or something, but entire dorrs or [glass] walls that we purposefully avoided to leave them for later wave use are destroyed off-camera. For the time we're unsure if that is truly a bug or just a random affect of the zed (C) invasion. Makes for an interesting challenge so long as it's not persistent every time we do that map.

Perky, Classless Bastards
More of an homage to the semi-filthy language was associate, expect, nigh on demand from this game developer--and we are not disappointed. Good selection of sayings each character and/or class has could only ask for more on the basis I will probably hear and be tired of them whenever my gaming group starts the grinding of skill levels. Currently we have Berserker, Commando, Medic, and Support. I have never been fond of not expect to be of the Berserker--despite my up-close-and-personal play-style on similar games, this is just not my cup of tea. Maybe with more experience and practice. Support is one I have a feint interest in, but haven't had the opportunity to play it much--mostly due to the fact friends or randos, just too many Supports on most maps. Commando is my only niche perk thus-far released. I love the feel, control, and style of the Commando and the visual tracking of stealth stalkers is more convenient than most other starter perks imho. Finally we go to the surprise leader for me the Medic. I am more often than not on this baby for many reasons. The weapons systems here are phenomenal and so unique with the blue iridescent glow. It also makes me very useful to the rest of the team, not to mention that by healing and killing I typically go up a skill level each successful win. Sure that will change as we go higher.

The only negative I have has to do with the "Early Access" issue where everything is working but nothing is guaranteed to remain as is. Perks, achievements, in-game statistics, etc will all be reset multiple times as they include more features, perks, of this build. I wasn't expressly aware of this prior to purchase but I can understand why it needs to be this way. I would feel much more profoundly pissed if this weren't an online game where you're equally dependent of the other guy as much as yourself. If makes sense and new things come into play and get added some re-shuffling and adjustments are very likely. They've actually done a helluva job interfacing with the community to help wart out bugs and errors in what is released. They seem to be a constant presence on the forums and fairly transparent in why things are changing from time to time.

Can't justify perfection as it is still incomplete, but I do love what I see and have played so far. I love the fact that the entire game is being built so that the modding community can have immediate and ease of access once it gets off the ground. I expect this to rise with its official launch but for now, I give it a strong 8/10.

League of Legends (2009) Profile Stats & Lists

So I won't be calculating the RP/IP I've spent--not that I'm sure I even have access to the information, but here's my stats, skins and whatever else I can pull off the UI.

Level 30
User-User Interaction Ratings
Friendly 9
Helpful 2
Teamwork 12
Honorable Opponent 0

(Classic)
Takedowns 2820
Monsters & Minion Kills 44497
Wins 148

(Dominion)
Takedowns 204
Monsters & Minion Kills 280
Wins 9

(ARAM)
Takedowns 0
Monsters & Minion Kills 0
Wins 0

I don't pretend that these stats are excellent in any way but I was curious when I wrote the breakdown review yesterday. I like the personalized rating system but was already mostly out of my LoL routine when they implemented it. I don't really care for Dominion but I used it to break the monotony I was feeling towards the end of my active participation. ARAM is something I know nothing about other than it's a gamemode option in the drop down window. It's been so long they've apparently reset any ranked/league info I had because those are blank or asking if I'd like to join a league.

Runes
9x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
1x Greater Mark of Attack Damage
9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed
9x Greater Seal of Attack Speed
9x Greater Seal of Magic Resist
1x Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration
1x Greater Seal of Scaling Health
1x Greater Glyph of Armor
9x Greater Glyph of Attack Speed
9x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
1x Greater Glyphy of Scaling Mana
3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed
1x Greater Quintessence of Revival
1x Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power
3x Greater Quintessence of the Deadly Wreath
3x Greater Quintessence of Piercing Present

Item Sets
I know for a fact they've discontinued at least two of my go-to items with my various builds so I'm not going to bother. This tab wasn't here when I was playing though I would have loved it. They rotate, introduce, and retire items as their season come and go so I'll leave this blank in case I ever do want to drop my 2-cents worth.

Characters
Owned 109
Skins 264 - 109 (Classic Skins) = 155 Unique

Noticed a lot of new skins when I was browsing/counting also quite a few art redesigns and splash replacements. Like the grittier art style as opposed to their cartoonish animesque. As you may can tell at one point my group was trying to sync into a specific theme with skins. I was one who tried for the Ocean skins since my handle is Skelefish. We could never agree on one we all liked and so much of the skins I did acquire never saw gameplay.

Going through I see a disparagingly sad spread on some characters. Some have of the devs favorites (Fiddlesticks, Annie, etc) continue to get more and more skins while others continue with the 2-3 they premiered with over a year ago. As someone who played one of their niche characters I can tell you it's frustrating that you're good, but the community doesn't like your character so there's always a limited number of skins while others keep getting more and more. I get the marketing aspect: if a character is popular give them more personality options, but hit up the black sheep occasionally guys.

by Character... Name (# Skins) Faves if any
Ahri (1); Akali (5) Blood Moon; Alistar (5) Matador; Amumu (3) Little Knight; Anivia (1); Annie (5); Ashe (2) Amethyst; Blitzcrank (3) Boom Boom; Brand (3) Zombie; Caitlyn (5) Officer; Cassiopeia (2); Cho'Gath (5) Gentleman, Loch Ness, Jurassic; Corki (4) Urfrider, Red Baron, Dragonwing; Diana (2); Dr. Mundo (1); Draven (1); Elise (1); Evelynn (4); Ezreal (1); Fiddlesticks (3); Fiora (2) Headmistress; Fizz (2) Tundra; Galio (1); Gangplank (1); Garen (3); Gragas (4) Scuba; Graves (3) Riot; Hecarim (3); Heimerdinger (3) Alien Invader, Snowmerdinger; Irelia (2); Janna (2); Jarvan IV (4); Jax (7) PAX, Jaximus, Nemesis; Jayce (1); Karma (3); Karthus (3) Grim Reaper; Kassadin (2) Deep One; Katarina (3); Kayle (6); Kennen (1); Kha'Zix (1); Kog'Maw (5) Lion Dance, Deep Sea; LeBlanc (2); Lee Sin (2); Leona (4); Lissandra (1); Lulu (1); Lux (1); Malphite (2) Coral Reef; Malzahar (3); Maokai (3); Master Yi (2); Miss Fortune (7) Candy Cane; Mordekaiser (3) Pentakill; Morgana (1); Nami (1); Nasus (3) Galactic; Nautilus (1); Nidalee (5); Nocturne (2); Nunu (4); Olaf (1); Oriana (2); Pantheon (1); Poppy (2); Rammus (2); Renekton (4); Rengar (1); Riven (2); Rumble (1); Ryze (3) Professor; Sejuani (3); Shaco (1); Shen (4); Shyvana (1); Singed (3); Sion (2); Sivir (5) PAX; Skarner (2); Sona (4); Soraka (1); Swain (2); Syndra (1); Talon (1); Taric (2); Teemo (2); Tristana (4); Trundle (2); Tryndamere (1); Twisted Fate (2); Twitch (3); Udyr (1); Urgot (2); Varus (1); Vayne (1); Veigar (5); Vi (1); Viktor (1); Vladimir (2); Volbear (2); Warwick (3) Hyena; Wukong (1); Xerath (2); Xin Zhou (2); Yorick (1); Zed (1); Ziggs (2); Zilean (3); Zyra (1)

League of Legends (2009)

League of Legends (2009)
Riot Games
PC
Multi
MOBA

I'm not aware of a hotkey or shortcut to find the number of time spent in this "free-to-play" multi-player online battle arena that is arguably the most successful right now. QQ more Dota players, can't get behind you. Now admittedly I haven't played this game on a regular basis in 2 years give or take, but it still brings back quite a few fond memories. I log in every now and again to prevent the 6-month lock out to engage and to occasionally see if anything is on sale I can spend some of my remaining RP/IP on. Not going to get into a stat-heavy post, maybe later.

I was one of the people who got into it when it still typically came in the paper box in store. I own the vast majority of their possible characters and as such been with them from nearly the very beginning--not from the beta as my desire but unobtainable skin list shows (i.e. King Bowser Rammus). As in most game-acquisitions I DO purchase I wait for sales and bundles, Riot used to be really good about giving a champ and 2 skins on a regular basis--as I'm not a regular I can't speak to it now. I got a handful of them for free when myself of a friend went to a gaming convention and got a code, and I'll admit once or twice of purchasing a similar code from ebay if none of use were capable of going. As far as cosmetic re-skins I'm reminded a lot of the Penny Arcade comic concerning that exact notion --though I stress I did NOT spend $8000+ I did spend a few hundred over the course of the many years I was playing it. There is no gameplay mechanic necessity to buy from them, the entire game can be unlocked by just playing the game, but you miss out on the personalization of your chosen champion and I'll admit they do a decent job making them inticing and some of them (due to rarity) are kind of status symbols and bragging rights.

My favorite characters (due to my own personal play-style) are Jax, Corki, Caitlyn, and Jarvin IV. My heyday would be around season 2 where, along with some IRL friends we made a good stab at Ranked. Time schedules and living a fair piece from each other is what we attribute most to that failed venture, but c'est la vie. We did have a really good routine down and they were good enough that they could typically hold off a full 5-man push and I could backdoor (a flanking strategy) 1-2 of their turrets by stacking pure attack speed and 'on x hits' items like the Ionic Spark (R.I.P.) and Guinsoo's Rageblade. That sais the game lost a lot of my interest when it started trying to be so focused on competitive. Ironic though it sounds I'm citing where they pushed to make it like a Counter Strike event--not that it couldn't be, but I'd gotten to level 30 in a more or less casual pursuit.

Some of the major disheartening practice I associate heavily with Riot are their lack of content. Yes they had the 2-weeks new character roll around, but all that did was make new people pissy about unbalanced games when a heavy hitter joined in OP. For the entire length of time they did that they couldn't work on new features to the game for the sake of continually tweaking balance. I'm STILL waiting for a new map. I've seen the rough mocks up for it, I've heard devs confirm they've got it in the pipeline, where the fuck is my g.d. Molten Core map? I hate they and apparently most of the players are ok with their new gametype instead of new map strategy. I can stand Dominion, but I don't like it. I've yet to try whatever ARAM is but I see it listed in my profile. That said there are well over 100 characters and 3 maps to my knowledge: one solely for 3v3 Twisted Treeline; one for 5v5 Summoner's Rift; and Dominion. 4 if you count the solo-instanced bridge you play thru the tutorial in.

Where I think Riot vastly succeeded and suddenly failed was with their community efforts. Nika Harper was one of the *honestly* most hyper-positive, bubbly, recognizable personalities on the internet at the time and what she and Riot did with their weekly* Summoner Showcase was brilliant at keeping the community up on new developments and stuff other fans and players did. It got a bit stale as they scaled it back prior to her leaving Riot, but at it's pinnacle was a very looked-forward-to distraction each week. When she left there was a massive void in the Riot community and to date nothing has stepped up to do so to the level the Showcase did. Like most things online if you follow, lurk, or troll the forums or social media sites of your selected distraction you will likely be abreast of recent big developments but otherwise the nuance and sparkly shimmer was gone.

I do not recommend this game as a solo attempt, but if you'd like to try your hand feel free. I believe the base game itself is free-to-play so if you can wrangle one or more friends to share in the learning curve I do recommend that. As with all microtransaction-heavy games, unless you have some commitment to play it, test the waters before you drop hard coin on it. Every champion will eventually become free playable on a rotation so you can try them out before you buy. There were frequently bundles in their online store that gave you a handful of stuff at a decent discount, and there are always the occasional game unlock code at conventions or thru ebay.

7/10 imho best MOBA out there

Killing Floor (2009)

Killing Floor (2009)
Tripwire Interactive
PC/Steam
Single, Co-Op, Multi
Instance

I currently sit at 132 hours played and 157 or the 286 achievements unlocked on my Steam profile. Albeit I like this game. I had the distinct pleasure to visit with some of Tripwire's development team and personnel when I attended the inaugural PAX South recently and was in awe of how light and friendly they kept the typically stagnant atmosphere of developer-focused conventions. They were very personable with the audience and any individuals who decided to approach them and ask questions. They were so at ease it only too one slip of an expletive until the entire panel resorted to name calling (for fun) as one of them would incorrectly explain or misinform an answer to a question or so forth.

As the game itself goes it was originally developed as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 and was so successful it was redone into its own game (similar to the original DOTA). It is a standard FPS zombie survival game but what it uniquely does to my knowledge is their PERKS system. Very similar and specialized to other games CLASS systems it goes a very welcome step forward and allows you to progress them based not only on which class you selected, but the weapon you are wielding. Example I typically roll with some friends as a Firebug (Pyro, flamethrower, etc) but if I ever solo on my own I will use the Commando (battle rifles) perk which I have leveled enough to see invisible enemies well before they pose a threat to me.

I've spent the time and jokingly created my own storyline in some of the many maps I'm curious to see what they officially say are there. They do have 3 objective mode maps where a loose tale is woven I just wish there were a few more, it's an interesting fictional world they've created. No story to speak of otherwise but highly enjoyable with IRL friends online working as a unit. In multiplayer mode you get to deal with unknown quantities and play-styles with PUGs (pick up groups, randos, etc) just like any other online game. Recommended as you learn but always risky for completions of anything you're aiming for.

8.5/10