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Guardians of Middle-Earth review: MOBA fête

Mike Schramm — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:30:00 EST

"Multiplayer Online Battle Arena," or MOBA, is the name given to the emerging genre of games initiated by Dota, and now led by games like League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of Newerth, Smite, and more. Because MOBA games come from a heritage of real-time strategy gameplay, they tend to have most of the qualities of that genre. They're complicated, high stakes affairs, with lots of controls and nuances, where one little move can sometimes turn the tide of battle completely. These are traditionally games meant for hotkeys and minimap clicking, mouse precision and a Ventrilo client, rather than the relatively imprecise triggers and joysticks on a console controller.

Which makes it all the more impressive, then, that Monolith (a studio with a long shooter tradition that includes No One Lives Forever and the FEAR series) has chosen to take on Guardians of Middle Earth, a MOBA game designed from the ground up to recreate the traditionally PC-centric experience on consoles. Yes, games like Awesomenauts and Monday Night Combat have borrowed MOBA principles, but Monolith here goes full bore, all the way back to the top-down isometric view that began with the original Starcraft Aeon of Strife map at the genre's inception.

In fact, given this task, the fact that Monolith's game also happens to use the Lord of the Rings license (right around the release of the new Hobbit film) is almost inconsequential. Tolkien nerds may want to see Sauron battling it out with Gandalf directly, but MOBA nerds should be even more excited to see what Monolith does with this emerging new form.

Gallery: Guardians of Middle-earth (E3 2012)

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Guardians of Middle-Earth review: MOBA fête originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blizzcon 2011 tickets on sale (briefly) in May

Justin McElroy — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:35:00 EST

Start working out your index finger now, you've only got until May 21 to get into top clicking shape and secure your tickets to the Nerd-vana that is Blizzcon 2011. But there are two bits of good news for slow-pokes: (1) A second swath of passes will go on sale on May 25 and (2) Blizzard has upped prices by $25 to $175. That should knock out some your penny-pinching competitors, right?

If you want a start with either the May 21 or 25 batches, start refreshing Blizzcon.com feverishly at around 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. PST, respectively. You'll also want to make sure you can make it to Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Oct. 21 and October 22, otherwise, what was the point?

If all else fails, you could wait till May 28 and pay $500 to gain entry to an exclusive Blizzard charity dinner and the convention. What would the dinner conversation be like with people who have that kind of cash to drop on Blizzcon? We've got no guesses, but suffice to say we'd love to be a Darkmist Silkspinner on that wall.

Blizzcon 2011 tickets on sale (briefly) in May originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Gaming conventions to convene in Xbox Live

Ben Gilbert — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

According to a recent survey conducted by market research company VGMarket, Microsoft may be working on an "interactive, online version" of your favorite gaming conventions -- from E3 to ComicCon and everything in between. As noted by a Destructoid reader who took the survey, the online questionnaire presented the aforementioned hypothetical situation, and then went into detail about how such a situation might play out.

"Sign onto Xbox Live and you can enter a virtual version of that convention ... this virtual version contains 20-60 virtual booths sponsored by larger publishers and developers presenting at the real world show," imagined the survey. The possibilities then reached outrageous levels as the idea of downloading "demos and/or betas" directly from the virtual convention floor and playing them that very moment was suggested. However, as VGMarket doesn't list Microsoft among its clients on the company's official website, and a representative could not be reached for comment, the veracity of this survey and its information is still very much in question.

Rumor: Gaming conventions to convene in Xbox Live originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamer cosplay takes over NY Anime Festival

Majed Athab — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Fashion, Galleries

Click to embiggen

It's official. Gaming-related cosplay has crashed the anime party. You'd think a bastion such as the New York Anime Festival would be sacred ground for pure Naruto costume play, but it certainly was not this weekend. With the three-day event at the Manhattan Jacob Javitz Center wrapping up today, we've seen hundreds of gamers strut their stuff amongst the common 'Misa Misas' and 'Sasukes.'

Who did we see at the show? Well for starters, the cool kids from The World Ends With You showed us just how awesome it is to be a Shibuya wallflower. Then, we greased up and wrestled with El Blaze from Virtua Fighter 5 -- he was tough by the way. The Persona 3 crew refrained from shooting themselves in the head to take a picture for us, which was a nice gesture. In honor of the festival's guest of honor, Yoshitaka Amano, several people dressed up as Amano-inspired Final Fantasy characters. Evermore intriguing, people also dressed up as characters from games that are not even out yet. Oh, and almost forgot, Pyramid Head; you can't have a convention without one of those. Anyway, there's more in the gallery below (including a spot of anime cosplay). Can you name all the characters and what games they belong to?

Gallery: NY Anime Festival 08

Gamer cosplay takes over NY Anime Festival originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo at Tokyo Game Show 2007?

Eric Caoili — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Rumors

The talk around town is that Nintendo might have a significant presence this year at the traditionally Sony-dominated Tokyo Game Show, going so far as to secure a booth. The video game trade show hasn't made much of an effort to include Nintendo in the past, as the company stuck to the Space World expo and its own events to make announcements. But with the Wii's current momentum and Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Sky set to appear on the Nintendo DS, leaving Nintendo out of TGS just doesn't make sense.

Wired's Chris Kohler has an interesting post on how Nintendo's attendance at the September event will affect the console market in Japan and what the company might present at the convention. Playable DQIX demos of seem given, but we're sure that Nintendo has a lot more planned for the biggest dedicated video game show in Japan. What games and announcements are you looking forward to hearing about?

Nintendo at Tokyo Game Show 2007? originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TGS undermonetized, but so what?

Vladimir Cole — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 02:58:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, TGS, Business

Advertising's omnipresence in Tokyo is so complete and thorough that we only take notice when it's missing. Like air, you only notice it when it's gone.

It's therefore notable that most prime Makuhari convention center facades lack advertising of any sort, even though they were clearly designed to support large-format ads. There are a few possibilities that might help explain what's going on:

Advertising's inneffective: Given limited budget, game companies appear to prefer to pour Yen into their booths, the babes that staff them, the bags the babes hand out, and other tangible improvements to enhance their show presences. Game promoters have other means of driving traffic to (and interest in) their booths and their games.
Bad placement: Advertising plastered on lofty facades might be worthless if everyone's got his nose buried in a portable game device
Operational challenges: Perhaps show organizers aren't too skilled at wringing money from companies in attendance (if there's one thing the E3 organizers did well, it's help companies shell out lots of dough).
Small potatoes: in the grand scheme of things, this show isn't that important. It's just three days out of a 24-7, 365-day effort to woo gamers. That might explain why Nintendo's nowhere to be seen.

TGS undermonetized, but so what? originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 24 Sep 2006 02:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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