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The Summoner's Guidebook: Stop worrying about the LoL metagame
If there's one thing that seems to be fairly static among low and mid-level League of Legends players, it's that they dislike the metagame. If I weren't such an exception (being a kind of bad player overall), I'd say that probably 100% of low-level players challenge the meta. This kind of complaint hits the comments, my email inbox, or IMs all the time: "LoL is so dumb! There are only four viable champs in each role, and the meta is static." The first thing I'd like to point out is that those statements, regardless of variation, are all wrong. LoL as a game changes wildly from patch to patch and season to season, and while the existing Summoner's Rift solo queue metagame is more or less fixed in terms of roles (duo bot, one jungler, a "support" who does not CS in favor of giving it to an ally), none of that applies to premades of three or more players or other game modes. Even between the roles, there's a wide variation in expectations of what those roles should do. Stop blaming the game; think outside the box and start seeing the game for what it really is.
Best of the Rest: Mike Schramm's picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. Puzzle CraftFirst, I'd like to take a quick bow. Last year at this time (while lauding the great Jetpack Joyride), I pointed out that we'd never chosen a first-released-on-mobile game for our top 10 list, and that 2012 might be the year it would finally happen. And as you've seen on our final list, we did finally pick a game that fits that definition in 2012.But it wasn't my pick: For my money, Puzzle Craft is the best mobile game of the year, and definitely in my top five overall. Right now it's free on iOS, and offers a gorgeous and polished mix of casual puzzle gameplay that slowly gets more and more rewarding and complex as you level up and stockpile farm-based goodies. I love the "days of the year" time mechanic, I love the way that the rules change as you grow your town, and I just plain love this game. Hopefully we'll see new content in the new year, because I've been at max level for a while now. Max level, that is, on all three devices I've installed it on.
LotRO treasure hunt event returns to Middle-earth
Treasure hunters, prepare your picks! Folks who have been awaiting the return of Lord of the Rings Online's minigame treasure hunt event should head to The Treasure Field in Ered Luin quickly. The event is now live on all servers but will last only until September 23rd. According to Turbine's latest patch notes for the 7.4 update, there are also new rewards to be found buried deep in the ground. Players who don't want to take the time to ride out to the field on their own can travel via the special festival announcer NPCs located in West Bree, Michel Delving, Thorin's Hall, and Celondim. More information about the event can be found in the Road to Mordor's treasure hunting guide.
LotRO's buried treasure resurfaces in a new dev diary
Deep under the soil of Middle-earth are riches galore, and only the Dwarves know where to dig. Fortunately for players, the Dwarves are totally fine with interlopers coming along to try their luck at finding a bit of buried treasure -- and they've even made an event out of it. While we previously saw a test run of the Buried Treasure event in Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine's put forth a dev diary that indicates we should be seeing more of it fairly soon. The event challenges players to flock to a treasure field, grab some picks, and get diggin' for booty. There's a strategy behind it that utilizes trained animals and dowsing sticks to find the best goods, although treasure hunters can just start digging randomly as well. The treasure will vary in size and quality, ranging from special mounts and cosmetic gear to more picks and barter tokens. While players can earn picks in-game through a repeatable quest, Turbine will also be selling them through the LotRO store for those who want to speed up their winnings. The dev diary posted several pictures of the nifty rewards that can be mined and states that the event is "seasonally agnostic," coming and going at various times during the year.
Best iPhone games of the year picks start to roll in
Gamasutra wins the award for being the first (that I've seen) to pick awards for their best five iPhone games of the year, and the list is respectable, if a little short for such a huge set of possibility. Unfortunately, they don't win any TUAW points for going with Skee-Ball over our preferred Ramp Champ, but Rolando 2 was a worthy sequel to a worthy game, Edge (now Edgy) and Eliss are both great games (too bad you can't play the former, but the latter was underrated for sure), and Space Invaders Infinity Gene deserves to be on almost any end-of-the-year iPhone game list. Good picks in there for sure. DigitalTrends also has a long list, though strangely, they tend to stick to big names and brands. There are a few gems in there -- Spider, UniWar, and Vay may be a couple good choices that you haven't heard of yet. And here's another top 10 list with some repeats from the ones above and a few more nice picks. I guess with the end of the year upon us, we'll probably have to choose TUAW's favorites of 2009, too, eh? Stay tuned.
Guitar picks crafted from old circuit boards spark binary solo revolution
As the great Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement would say: 0, 001, 001! Come on sucker, lick my battery! We're no experts on translating binary rock 'n roll into modern day English (or Russian, for that matter), but we're guessing that the boys from New Zealand would most certainly approve of a guitar pick crafted from recycled motherboards. Etsy member TheBlueKraken seems capable of churning these guys (and many other wares) out in almost any hue of PCB, and at just $7 or $8 apiece, they're hardly a rip off. In fact, we'd wager that these are pretty much the most awesome stocking stuffers of all time. Boogie, boogie, boogie, robo boogie, all after the break.
MacBreak Weekly has a Picks website
MacBreak Weekly is one of my favorite podcasts. Listening to that crew wax ecstatic about the Mac industry, delve into ratholes where no man has gone before, and sometimes even toss a shout out to TUAW helps me get through those long errand trips around town and actually enjoy cleaning the house. Something I missed until last night, however, is that someone has actually started up a MBW Picks site to help keep track of everyone's software and website picks from each show. Either a fan or a friend, Paul Mayson apparently runs the site and logs and links the picks from each show so you can easily check them out at your leisure. As of this writing, this new site goes back to MBW show number 45, and Mayson seems to be staying on top things after that.
Staff recommendations: Gamecube
Lately, a couple of lists have been speeding through the tubes of the intertron, reminding new Wii-owners that in fact, your new system has all the functionality of one recently passed away: the Nintendo Gamecube. As such, the library of playable games from launch is actually quite large. But how is one to discern the hidden gems amongst such a vast field? Worry not, fair readers: we're here to help.Let's be fair: you're here reading Nintendo Wii Fanboy, for goodness' sake, so you probably know about absolute wonders such as Super Smash Bros Melee, Metroid Prime, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. These games, of course, must be played under penalty of death. What follows are fifteen fourteen of our personal recommendations, leading you from the AAA-released to barely known wonders of the little purple box. Most of these games can still be found, used, at many outlets nationwide. Take a look, and buy a game! We believe in you.
