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League of Legends announces ranked team play, Summoner Spell changes
Riot Games has announced that Season Two will bring ranked team play to the online MOBA title League of Legends. Previously, players have had their own individual gameplay rankings, but starting with the game's Season Two update, teams will be able to form up on either the 5v5 or 3v3 maps, and get their own rankings as a group. Teams will need a captain to create and invite or remove members, and will be able to choose a name and tag to go with their rating. The company is also tweaking the in-game Summoner Spell abilities. The Rally and Fortify spells, which Riot calls "underused," are being removed from play, and in their place will be Surge and Promote. Surge will allow Summoners who chose it to boost themselves up with an aura buff, empowering their champions and anyone around them with extra combat effectiveness. And the Promote spell has made its way over from the Dominion gametype, so players who choose it will be able to beef up a minion in the standard game now. Season Two doesn't have a release date yet, but it will also bring the long-awaited Spectator Mode to the game, which has already been seen on the servers in preview form. Odds are that we don't have too much longer to wait for the full update.
Buzz-building booklet
From hosting parties with Wii ambassadors to tagging along with touring bands, Nintendo has been pushing its new system in lots of creative ways. It's helped a lot to spread the word about the Wii to not just traditional gamers, but lapsed and non-gamers as well.Our latest issue of Nintendo Power came in the mail packed with a 12-page booklet promoting the console's features. Considering that most of the magazine's subscribers likely already have a Wii, this doesn't seem noteworthy at first, but turning to the last page, Nintendo has a message encouraging people to pass around the advertising piece. We doubt that there are many situations where you'd want to evangelize Nintendo with the booklet, but it sounds like an effective way to give information about the console to someone who's interested in the Wii, but doesn't know much about it. Jump past the post break for the scanned message.
Etrian Odyssey Age
Developer Atlus admits that it will have a tough time selling Etrian Odyssey to anyone who isn't already a fan of dungeon crawls or other niche genres. As great as a turn-based, first-person RPG might sound to some of you, it's rare for that kind of game to register even a blip on the radar of most gamers or gaming media.Atlus has been updating Etrian Odyssey's official site with promotional webcomics, the first of which proposes how the title can attach itself to current trends and elbow its way to the front of the crowd. Likening the game's dungeon crawl experience to Brain Age is a huge stretch, but we have to applaud the creative approach. See what we mean after the post break!
Chicago signing for Uematsu, Aki, & Roth tonight
Are you in Chicago tonight for the big PLAY! concert tomorrow, but weren't willing to shell out $125 for the VIP meet-and-greet at the event? Well, you might be in luck (even if you're not attending), as a few famous folks from the concert will be on hand to sign autographs in Chicago proper for free tonight.From 7 to 9 PM (presumably Central time) at the Tower Records store on 2301 N. Clark St., Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, bilingual songstress Angela Aki (who wrote and sang the theme song for FFXII), and Principal Conductor and Music Director of PLAY! Arnie Roth will be signing autographs to promote the world-tour premiere of 'PLAY! A Video Game Symphony' and the CD for More Friends - Music from FINAL FANTASY.While this blogger is sadly occupied with prior engagements tonight, gamers in the area are more than welcome to mob that Tower Records and cause the store's employees much consternation and bewilderment. If you don't have any imported CDs to sign, however, don't fret: the store's web site claims to have "some awesome Japanese imports available for you to purchase and have autographed at the event." Not only that, Angela Aki will be performing live as well. Score! Anybody wanna tell us how this evening turns out when it's all sung and done?[Via The Daily Northwestern; image culled from Angela Aki's blog, Nobuo Uematsu's Squenix profile, and Arnie Roth's 2005 interview with IGN]See also: Official page for Tower Clark Street (with details on the signing) Ticketmaster site for the PLAY! concert debut tomorrow Sonic and Chrono composers to join PLAY! in Chicago
