Noah

I really want Portal 2. But I haven’t gotten it. That’s because I have so many other games to play, and I’d like Portal 2 to be a nice birthday or Christmas gift request. That is, only if I can endure the excited stories and hype I’m likely to hear from my buds who have the game now. But if I can resist not getting a new Pokémon game for over 12 years (and believe me, the Pokémania at Nintendojo is intense), I think I can resist Portal 2 for a few months.

So what has taken up my time instead? More Okamiden (now eight hours in) and I also returned to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 to unlock more characters and improve my skills. I actually learned a couple new moves that are potentially annoying and definitely humorous that I look forward to trying out on Mark and Jason next time we get into that game together.

I also had several games of League of Legends, though I started to get an eerie feeling of being rusty since I’ve been playing Kog’Maw almost exclusively, versus constantly flipping between all sorts of champions, as I was doing for a few months. But hey, I scored my 100th official victory last night with Kog’Maw, and I have no complaints about that! That’s small fries compared to Mark’s, Phil’s and Scott’s mammoth numbers, but considering how infrequently I’ve been able to actually play games over the last couple years (this was a victory long coming), I’m pretty happy.

I’ve also been a little burned trying to be flexible in my champion selection, rustiness be damned. In spite of that 100th victory glow, I’ve had at least a couple embarrassing games where I tried to play tank champion Galio. I was embarrassed because playing as a tank is not my forte and I died a lot of times, “feeding” the opposing team and ensuring a loss. Yet I fell into this situation because tank is the role that no one wants to play, but so many are quick to bitch when someone isn’t playing one.

Ah, the bane of many a League of Legends game…

A perfect example came up last night. Mark and I had made it through the matchmaking queue and were at the champion selection screen everyone goes through before the game kicks off. Four of our five-person team, including Mark and I, had already selected champions, but none of our choices was a tank. We hadn’t locked in our selections though, so we could have switched. The fifth person, however, quips, “needs tanks” in the group chat, doesn’t select any champion at all (he could have selected a tank himself), and then said, “I can see you all play this game a lot” and actually quits. Since he quit out of the champion selection, the rest of both teams– 9 people– were dumped back into the matchmaking queue again. I called this guy some choice words to Mark and we fortunately ended up in our next game without the loser who was quick to tell us what to do but not do it himself.

Yes, this happens a little more than I’d like. Fortunately, such dbags aren’t as prevalent as you might fear in the game, unless you start to lose, which can sometimes bring the worst out of the immature players. But so what? You ignore the bitching, request a surrender vote, and move on to the next game. Because after all, that next game may be your 100th victory, and that’s something to keep playing for.

Jason

Portal 2.   Not going to go into it too much, but look for a podcast review coming soon to a mp3 player near you.

One Android game that I failed to mention in my last post on droid games has slowly taken me by finger (I know…sounds gross, but I’m all about effect here).  If you’re a baseball fan, give Homerun Battle 3D a shot.  It’s like having the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby in your pocket.  It features online multiplayer battles, achievements, and unlockable uniform parts that can enhance your sluggers power and accuracy.  Quite addictive…and without the side effects or congressional hearings that come with steroid abuse.

Mark

I’m currently suffering through Gamer Interrupted status.  I’ve not had a lot of time to play thus far but am HOPING to dig back in to Dragon Age 2.  I really want to finish the game and feel I’m well on my way there.  When I do have a spare 30-45 minutes I’ve tried to get in a game of League of Legends, as Noah has chronicled earlier in this post.  It continues to be a great distraction, or should I say addiction?  They continue to add new champions and I’ve recently been playing Brand.  I find that I want him to play differently than he, obviously, was intended to be played and this is causing me to..hmm…what’s the word for it…oh yes, SUCK with him.  Inevitably, after playing with him for a game I go back to wonderful, awesome Tristana.

I also have dreams of playing some more Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 where I am perfecting my Annoying Cheese strategy.  Noah and Jason can speak to that (and I’m sure they will).  It involves finding some kind of irritating weak attack and doing it over and over again until you eventually defeat the other player or annoy them to the point that they take a big chance and are susceptible to a massive attack.  While I see nothing wrong with this, it tends to bring dirty looks and harsh commentary.