Episode 317: Is League of Legends a Terrible Game?

In this episode, Jordan’s son Allen gets in on the act, berating League of Legends despite being addicted to it. This week’s Gaming Flashback is the Sierra Online adventure game Police Quest, while the Gaming History is how BioWare prepared to develop their first Star Wars game, Knights of the Old Republic.

This week’s news includes:

This week’s Question of the Week: “What’s your favorite RPG of all-time?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 317: Is League of Legends a Terrible Game?”

  1. I like to think of myself as a provider of counterbalance between Jonah’s XBox bias (yes, it’s there 🙂 ) and Jordan’s pessimism as far as it comes to Sony products. Look here and tell me again that there are no Vita games, I dare ya! 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Vita_games

    Sure, it is very possible that there will be few Vita-only games when PS4 comes out but we don’t know it for sure now and there really are games to play on the system now and there have been a steady flow of titles since it came out. There hasn’t been a moment when I didn’t have anything interesting to do with the system. Maybe I’m the perfect target for it but I really believe that when people get their hands on a Vita they see that it’s a great platform.

    @Diablo III – yaaawn. They’re gonna milk it till the cows come home, pardon the pun. Diablo never got me excited, I find it too repetitive and ultimately boring. Putting tens or hundreds of hours into it, hoping some amazing piece of loot pops up. No, that’s not for me. I enjoyed Borderlands much more because of it’s FPP nature although the basic idea is very similar. The humor and graphical style helped too. In short, I won’t be getting Diablo III on any of the platforms.

    @LoL

  2. @LoL – I was a semi-professional bridge player so I know a thing or two about unconventional sports 🙂 I don’t mind it becoming a professional sport although it may seem a bit silly. However, if prize money in the range of $1 000 000 is at stake, I see what the fuss is about. Let them at it. I don’t really know how the labor and tax regulations play into this but if it makes it easier for people to compete it’s even better.

    As far as the game itself goes, I tried playing the LOTR MOBA but I didn’t like the gameplay one and that’s how my adventure with the genre ended. Don’t really care (see Diablo III comments).

    @Sony appeal – It’s probably better to pay and let the stink finally disappear. It is strange it took them so long but better late than never. Hopefully, this doesn’t happen again and if it does, they handle it better next time.

    @MS family sharing – this is a great feature if it really works the way you described it. You buy one game and can share it between 10 accounts? Fantastic. It makes my wonder why Playstation now allows only two accounts to share a downloadable title and it used to be 5. Didn’t the publishers push Sony to decrease the limit because it resulted in less copies being sold? Did MS confirm that it applies to all games? Maybe it’s just 1st part downloadable titles?

    @Police Quest – I mentioned already that I love adventure games. However, I was a little too late for the Sierra title and only played some Leisure Suit Larry. By the time I discovered the Quest series, the graphics scared me away from them and I don’t think it makes sense to go back and play them now.

    @QOTW – There’s no other answer than Fallout! Is it a cop-out if I pick the whole series? I got the first Fallout for free with a video game magazine a long time ago. At first, I had no idea how to play it but once I figured it out it consumed me completely. I beat the first two games several times, several ways. I got Platinum trophies with F3 and New Vegas and I wasn’t bored for one minute. Amazing stories, fantastic character system. Perfection.

  3. I loved your gaming flashback to an old classic Sierra game. I played almost all of the various Quest games. They are a sorely missed company and am glad that some of them have gone to kickstarter to make their adventure games again.

    I will also be one of those that doesn’t buy a launch console I’m sticking with PC gaming.

    Yay at Jordan mentioning Suikoden! I loved this series with its epic world story telling. Also Sazh from Ff13 is not the only game character to sport a bird in his hair. There is also Faylon from suikoden 5 who had one as well.

    http://www.suikosource.com/chars/list/imageviewnojs.php?img=f/faylon01.png&char_id=617

    I don’t know why either of these characters has a bird in his hair. A google search brings up Nicholas cage with a bird hair too. It just seems like one of those strange random things and how appropriate to have ended the last show with White Rabbit to get to thinkin about why such strangeness exists.

    Qotw- even though I love Suikoden series I have to say my all time favorite is Baldurs Gate series. I loved having a group of characters I got to know. I also loved the iosometeric view I agreed with the computerized minis reference.

    Oh an Shadowrun was on Snes and Genesis. I remember playing the heck out of it on Snes and can’t wait to play the new version.

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Microsoft Says They’ll Win Console WarMicrosoft Says They’ll Win Console War

Apparently the war is in full force and Microsoft’s Don Mattrick is ready to poke the flag in the ground and call it a sure fire victory (in so many words). He said he’s “willing to declare here today that Xbox 360 will sell more consoles worldwide this generation than PS3” (eurogamer)

They’re either not seeing the Wii as a competitor or are trying to avoid that evil word considering the growth of the tiny little console in the market. After telling the audience the Xbox 360 has already outpaced the PlayStation 3 and Wii he failed to mention the one-year head start the 360 had over its competitors.

There are, of course, bonuses to talking figures when you were first out of the gate. The interesting facts, which won’t present themselves for years now, will be the end unit sales figures for Wii, 360 and PlayStation 3 when all boxes are end-of-life’d. We’re sure to hear each side declare victory when they’ve decided when the war actually ends. In Microsoft’s eyes, the console war will probably end when they release the next-generation box, barring the fact that they should wait at least one year before claiming the title.

You can’t argue with the facts, Xbox 360 is doing very well in the United States (if we ignore Japan). The Nintendo Wii has sold 8.8 million units to the Xbox 360‘s 10.3 million units. How many units did the Xbox 360 have sold around the same time Nintendo boasts 8.8 million? Probably a bit less.

Press can be a great thing when you have numbers to play with and figures to skew. Oddly enough, if some of us are any indication, we’ve purchased multiple Xbox 360’s because of dead systems. Sure, we’re stupid for actually doing it, but those figures will work into the total units sold for the Xbox 360 hardware sales. Imagine, their failing systems may have actually boosted sales figures a bit; probably not statistically significant but funny non-the-less.

We can’t wait to see what type of numbers Sony and Nintendo are going to fling out. If we ask each competitor, we’re sure they’ll say we’re going to win the console war. Nintendo may just ask, “what console war? We just make game hardware” and you can’t fault them there!

Episode 403: Jam and the HooligansEpisode 403: Jam and the Hooligans

The episode is a day late, sorry about that, folks. In this episode, we wish Paul was with us to discuss what he thought of the release of Jem and the Holograms in theaters. The banter is strong, but not overstuffed like last week.

Lots of news this week, however:

  • Konami insists Hideo Kojima still works at company
  • 343 Industries not ruling out PC port of Halo 5
  • Rebellion rescues Kickstarter backers from GRIN’s bankruptcy
  • Classic car combat RPG Autoduel may be making a comeback with inXile
  • Pete Hines: Entire game not on Fallout 4 PC disc
  • Vivendi seeking more shares of Ubisoft, board seats

The Question on the Week: Do you prefer first person or isometric RPGs?

Sony Responds To Crashing Sales with Management ShiftSony Responds To Crashing Sales with Management Shift

ps3Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has made some leadership changes in response to their in-ability to get things going in the sales department of the PlayStation 3. Gamer’s continue to refuse to believe the PlayStation 3 is in a bad situation by explaining how badly Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is doing in Japan and Europe compared to the Sony console. And, of course, the Wii isn’t competition to Sony.

“Andrew House, Chief Marketing Officer and Group Executive of Sony Corporation, has been named President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Chief Operating Officer (Co-COO) of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) as of May 1, 2009.” (smarthouse.au)

We’ve been told this is the year of the PS3, this is when they bring it all together. Nintendo’s losing some of their grip on the industry with slower sales, even in Japan. The economy isn’t playing nice with any of the consoles and sales continue to drop, reportedly 17% in March compared to last years numbers.

Australia isn’t proving to be any help to Sony, “for example in Australia a consumer can now buy the Xbox 360 for $299 and a separate Blu ray player and DVD upscale player for $199. Combined this is $200 under the recommended retail price for a Sony PS3.”

Here in the United States, we’ve bought more Wii balance boards than PlayStation 3 consoles. One can argue that the Wii is a novelty system but that really casts a dark shadow on the PlayStation 3. The PS3 is being beat out by a novelty item? Can the new SCEE management change the direction of Sony?