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The Summoner's Guidebook: Cutting your losses in League of Legends
When a team loses a teamfight in League of Legends, it's fairly common for the losing team to have a chance to back out, frequently with near-empty health bars and several dead teammates. Sometimes a fight can't be won, and it's important to identify when a fight is won or lost as soon as possible and take the appropriate actions to minimize loss or maximize gain. Additionally, it's important to know how to confirm on a play a team member has made. It's easy to see a Lux binding land and want to go all-in. However, sometimes that's not a good play, especially if the enemy has counter-initiation available.
Batman: Arkham Origins Initiation DLC, I Am The Night mode detailed
Batman: Arkham Origins' Initiation DLC will explore Bruce Wayne's journey to be a ninja before he became a bat, producer Guillaume Voghel told Eurogamer at this week's Eurogamer Expo. Initiation will follow Bruce's efforts to prove himself to Kirigi, the ninja that taught ninjitsu to both Bruce and his enemy Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins. Initiation will be the first event within the Arkham series to use a setting outside of Gotham. Arkham Origins will also feature I Am The Night, a difficulty mode that unlocks after players complete New Game+. I Am The Night will not allow saves and limits Batman to just one life. Considering Voghel said that Arkham Origins' "main narrative arc and side missions last about 12 hours," it sounds like players will need to conduct a crime-fighting marathon to overcome I Am The Night.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaming up to fight in League of Legends
Grouping up to fight enemies together is a concept that is old as history itself. Numerous treatises on group warfare have been written, ranging from small unit tactics to battle strategies involving hundreds of thousands or millions of combatants. A lot of the same principles of combat that are used in warfare are applicable to games and especially to team-based PvP games like League of Legends. It might not be readily apparent how ideas like the mission of a Marine rifle team might apply to a five-player team in LoL, but there are more similarities than you think. The tools are different -- for example, games use different means to suppress the enemy than real soldiers -- but the tactics are surprisingly similar. This week, we're going to cover the beginning of a fight. Starting a fight at an advantage is important element in victory, as the opening seconds of a battle matter the most. If you can leverage an advantage early on in a fight, you can snowball that advantage into a decisive win.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Good team composition for League of Legends Dominion
I would have loved to cover the IGN Pro League 5 this week, but at the time of this writing it is still ongoing. I'll do a brief overview of it next week, but its timing didn't mesh well with the timing of the Guidebook. I've been playing a lot of Dominion lately, and as many readers of the Summoner's Guidebook know, it's the gametype I focus my skills on. I try to build knowledge of League of Legends' other maps, including Summoner's Rift and the Proving Grounds/ARAM, but Dominion is definitely my focus right now (I haven't played much of the beta Twisted Treeline, so coverage of that will have to wait). One thing that really bothers me about Dominion, particularly as I creep into high level play, is that people still randomly pick champions without regard for a strategy. While I do think my overall skill has improved a lot, a major reason that I win 60-70% of my matches is because I look for where my team is deficient and pick a champion to cover that area. As you escalate into the intermediate levels of Dominion skill, a good arsenal of champions to fill roles can be a huge asset. This week, we'll look at some of the possible roles and compositions and some good champions to pick up to fill those roles.
Conspiracy unleashed: Funcom reveals The Secret World plans for Gamescom
The mass global conspiracy to hide the insidious secrets from the public cracked wide open as Funcom revealed that The Secret World is set to reveal the truth at Gamescom. If you're 16 years or older and attending the convention, head over to Hall 6 to check out Funcom's closed theater where a 20-minute live demo of one of the game's dungeons, The Polaris, will take place. Developers will also be on hand to talk about dungeon crawling, combat, progression, the skill wheel, and boss fights during the presentation. All players, regardless of age, can take an "initiation test" to see what secret society they should join -- sort of like a much more sinister sorting hat or guidance counselor. The studio will also be talking to the press about large-scale PvP, so hopefully we'll be learning more details about this aspect of the game next week!
Assassin's Creed fan-made film 'Initiation' available today [update]
Update: We've added the full video after the break. Enjoy! When the folks at The Duo Group aren't busy making short films, animations, or advertisements for various entertainment companies, they make ... short films and animations just for the fun of it. Case in point, the recent Assassin's Creed fan film "Initiation," which provides a prologue piece on Altair joining the assassin's guild. Though the whole 10-minute shebang is set to be released sometime today, we can only provide the teaser still above and a preview after the break for the time being. We did, however, watch the entirety of "Initiation" this morning, and can assure you it'll be worth your time when it does finally arrive later today. [Thanks, Graham C.]
