The Left 4 Dead franchise is based on a series of cooperative first-person shooter, survival horror video games developed by Valve Corporation. Set in the days after a pandemic outbreak of a viral strain transforming the majority of the population into zombie-like feral creatures, the games follow the adventures of four survivors attempting to reach safe houses and military rescue while fending off the attacking hordes. The games encourage cooperative play between up to four players, each taking the role of one of the survivor characters and the computer controlling any unassigned characters. Players use a combination of melee weapons, firearms, and thrown objects to fend off attacks from the bulk of the infected creatures, while using an assortment of healing items to keep their group alive. Certain unique infected creatures pose a more difficult challenge, typically requiring teamwork to take down effectively. The games are overseen by an "AI Director", designed to give the players a more dramatic experience based on their performance, penalizing players for stalling while rewarding players with special weapons by taking longer or riskier paths. The Director also makes gameplay dynamic, meaning that no two playthroughs are quite the same. Left 4 Dead (L4D) Left 4 Dead (abbreviated as L4D) is a cooperative first-person shooter arcade-style video game. It was developed by Turtle Rock Studios, which was purchased by Valve Corporation during development. The game uses Valve's proprietary Source engine, and is available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Mac OS X. Development on the game was completed on November 13, 2008, and two versions were released digitally: A downloadable digital version, released on November 17, 2008, and a digital retail disc version, with a release date determined by region. The digital retail disc version was released in North America and Australia on November 18, 2008; and in Europe and Japan on November 21, 2008. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, the game pits its four protagonists—dubbed the "Survivors"—against hordes of the infected. There are four game modes: a single-player mode in which allied characters are controlled by AI; a four-player, co-op campaign mode; an eight-player online versus mode; and a four-player survival mode. In all modes, an artificial intelligence (AI), dubbed the "Director", controls level pacing and item placements, in an attempt to create a dynamic experience and increase replay value. Left 4 Dead was well received by the industry media upon its release, with praise given for its replay value, focus on cooperative play, and movie-like experience. Several criticisms were aimed at limited level selection and the lack of a narrative. The game has won several publication awards, as well as distinctions from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and British Academy of Film and Television Arts. As was done with Team Fortress 2, Valve supplemented the game with free downloadable content. The first, called the "Survival Pack", was released on April 21, 2009. The second piece of DLC was charged for on Xbox Live and came in the form of a new Campaign entitled "Crash Course," released for both the PC and Xbox 360 on September 29, 2009.The popularity of the game led to the development of a sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, which was released November 17, 2009. Left 4 Dead 2 was released on Mac OS X via Steam on October 5, 2010, and the original Left 4 Dead was released for the Mac soon after on October 28, 2010. The Mac version of Left 4 Dead 2 incorporated a new map for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, called "The Sacrifice". Eventually all Left 4 Dead campaigns were ported over to Left 4 Dead 2 and allowing for cross-platform support between Windows and Mac versions.
Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) Left 4 Dead 2 (abbreviated as L4D2) is a cooperative first-person shooter video game and the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States and November 20 in Europe; in 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 was made available to the Steam client for Mac OS X; on May 3, 2013 a port of the beta development branch of the game was made available through Steam for Linux. Left 4 Dead 2 builds upon the cooperatively-focused gameplay and Valve's proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in the original Left 4 Dead. Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, Left 4 Dead 2 focuses on four new Survivors, fighting against hordes of the Infected, who develop severe psychosis and exhibit zombie-like tendencies. The Survivors must fight their way through five campaigns, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of escape at each campaign's finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by the "AI Director 2.0", which monitors the players' performance and adjusts the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Other new features include new types of Special Infected and an arsenal of melee weapons. The game made its world premiere at E3 2009 with a trailer during the Microsoft press event. Prior to release, it received a combination of positive and negative critical and community reactions. It attracted an unusually high volume of pre-release controversy about the game's graphic content. In response, alterations were made to the cover art and both Australia (due to having no R18+ rating at the time) and Germany refused to rate the unmodified edition. After release however, the game was met with positive reviews.
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to Portal (2007) and was released on April 19, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The retail versions of the game are distributed by Electronic Arts, while online distribution of the Windows and OS X versions is handled by Valve's content delivery service, Steam. Portal 2 was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game. Before the game's release on Steam, the company released the Potato Sack, a second multi-week alternate reality game, involving 13 independently developed titles which culminated in a distributed computing spoof to release Portal 2 several hours early. Portal 2 mainly comprises a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player's character and simple objects using the "dual portal device" (better known as the portal gun), a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes. The game's modified physics engine allows momentum to be retained through these portals, which must be used creatively to negotiate the game's challenges. The game retains Portal's gameplay elements, and adds new features, including tractor beams, laser redirection, bridges made of light, and paint-like gels that give surfaces special properties, such as accelerating the player's speed or allowing the player to jump higher. These gels were created by the team from the Independent Games Festival-winning DigiPen student project Tag: The Power of Paint. In the single-player campaign, the player returns as the human Chell, who has awoken from stasis after many years. Chell must navigate the now-dilapidated Aperture Science Enrichment Center with the portal gun while the facility is rebuilt by the reactivated GLaDOS, an artificially intelligent computer. The storyline introduces new characters, including: Wheatley (Stephen Merchant) and Cave Johnson (J. K. Simmons). Ellen McLain reprised the role of GLaDOS. Jonathan Coulton and The National each produced a song for the game. Portal 2 also includes a two-player cooperative mode, in which the robotic player-characters Atlas and P-Body are each given a portal gun and are required to work together to solve test chamber puzzles designed to require cooperation. Valve provided post-release support for the game, including additional downloadable content and a simplified map editor to allow players to create and share test chambers with others. Some reviewers expressed concern about the difficulty of expanding Portal into a full sequel but critics universally praised Portal 2. The game's writing, pacing, and dark humor were highlighted as stand-out elements, and critics applauded the voice work of McLain, Merchant, and Simmons. Reviews also highlighted the new gameplay elements, the game's challenging but surmountable learning curve, and the additional cooperative mode. Some gaming journalists ranked Portal 2 among the top games of 2011, and several named it their Game of the Year. The trailer :
The Half-Life universe, also known as the Half-Life and Portal universe, is a science fiction universe created by Valve Corporation in 1998, with the release of the video game Half-Life on the PC platform. It is told through four related story arcs, each stemming from a game: Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Portal, and Portal 2. Half-Life has spawned since then many modifications, expansions, and sequels, most of which set in the same universe. Most of them were developed by Valve; however, Half-Life's three expansions, Blue Shift, Opposing Force and Decay were developed by Gearbox Software. In 2005, Electronic Arts took over distribution of the Half-Life series. Since its first installment, the series has been introduced to many consoles such as the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, as well as Mac. Starting on the GoldSrc engine, a modified Quake engine, the series now runs on the Source engine. The protagonist of the Half-Life series is Gordon Freeman, a former Black Mesa employee whose attempt to escape from Black Mesa ends up in his employment by the G-Man. In the canon expansions and spin-offs, the featured playable characters are not Gordon Freeman, but rather a HECU Corporal and a security guard, both as eager as Gordon to make their way out. In the spin-off series, including Portal and its sequel, Portal 2, the main protagonist, Chell, a Test Subject, is detained in the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center, run by the A.I. GLaDOS, the series' main antagonist. The Black Mesa's trailer :
Team Fortress is a series of team- and class-based multiplayer online first person shooter games, designed by Robin Walker and later developed by Valve. The series places a high emphasis on teamwork and coöperation to complete objectives by two competing teams of players selected from nine classes, each fulfilling a different role in the team's ranks. Released in August 1996, Team Fortress is a game mod based on id Software's Quake engine. The first iteration of Team Fortress, also known as Quake World Team Fortress (QWTF) or Quake Team Fortress (QTF), was designed and written by Robin Walker, John Cook, and Ian Caughley. An update to the game was released in December 1996, which was instead based on the QuakeWorld engine. Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress Classic (TFC), also known as Team Fortress 1.5, is a title in the Team Fortress series of games. Team Fortress Classic is a class- and team-based multiplayer online first-person shooter video game developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios. A port of the Team Fortress mod for Quake/QuakeWorld, Team Fortress Classic was originally released for Windows on April 1, 1999 as a mod for Half-Life and based on the Half-Life 1 Engine (Gold Source Engine). A standalone version was later released on January 16, 2003. The development of Team Fortress Classic was led by John Cook and Robin Walker, two of the three designers from Team Fortress. The game itself involves a number of teams, each with access to ten classes, competing in a variety of modes such as Capture the Flag, Control Point, and Escort. In June 2000, the game underwent a significant upgrade, adding new player character models and game modes. As of 2003, the game was one of the ten most played Half-Life mods according to GameSpy.[1] Today, as with its predecessor, Quake Team Fortress, it is not very active, and as such, there are few servers with humans on them, and bots prosper in the majority of servers. Your server browser can pick up at most 100 or more servers. Team Fortress Classic revolves around two or more teams competing in a variety of game modes with players typically selecting one of ten classes. Players usually have the choice of two equal teams, Red and Blue, although certain game modes allow for more than two teams with access to different classes. The way a player acts in a game is defined by which class they select, with each class having their own strengths and weaknesses. As such, Team Fortress Classic relies heavily on teamwork between players of different classes. Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based multiplayer first person shooter developed by Valve Software as part of the game bundle The Orange Box. It was first released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on October 10, 2007. Following suit, it was released as a standalone title on April 9, 2008, and on June 10, 2010, Team Fortress 2 was released for Mac OS X. The PC and OS X versions of Team Fortress 2 adopted a "Free to Play" model on June 23, 2011 with all revenue being generated from micro transactions in the In-game Store. After several months of closed beta, Team Fortress 2 was finally released for Linux operating systems on February 14, 2013. The game was first announced in 1998 as a sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake, but has since been through various concept and design periods. In 1999, the game appeared to be abandoning the art styles of the original Team Fortress Classic by transitioning toward a more realistic and militaristic style of gameplay. However, the design continued evolving over the game's nine-year development period and game engine switch. The final art style rendition of Team Fortress 2 resembles that of the original Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic games, and also features a cartoon-like visual style based on the art of Dean Cornwell, J. C. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell. Team Fortress 2 follows a popular trend in recent CGI films, in particular, films recently made by Pixar Animation Studios, such as The Incredibles. The absence of media information or apparent development progress for six years of the game's development caused it to be labeled as vaporware, and it was regularly featured in the Wired News' annual vaporware list, among gaming news outlets. Since its release, however, the game has received critical acclaim and several awards.
Battlefield 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is a direct sequel to 2005's Battlefield 2, and the twelfth installment in the Battlefield franchise. The game was released in North America on 25 October 2011 and in Europe on 28 October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. EA Mobile also confirmed a port for the iOS platform. The game sold 5 million copies in its first week of release, and received critical acclaim from most game reviewers. It is the first game in the series that does not support versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista as the game only supports DirectX 10 and 11. The PC version is exclusive to EA's Origin platform, through which PC users also authenticate when connecting to the game. The game's sequel, Battlefield 4, is expected to be released in fall of 2013. In Battlefield 3's campaign, players take on the personas of several military roles: a U.S. Marine, an F18 weapons system officer, an M1A2 Abrams tank operator, and a Spetsnaz GRU operative. The campaign takes place in various locations, including Iran to New York City; and follows the stories of Sergeant Henry Blackburn and Dimitri Mayakovsky. Battlefield 3 features the combined arms battles across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes. It reintroduces several elements absent from the Bad Company games, including fighter jets, the prone position and 64-player battles on PC. To accommodate the lower player count on consoles, the ground area is limited for Xbox 360 and PS3, though fly space remains the same. During an interview with Game Informer, EA stated that Commander Mode is unlikely to be included, which was met with some criticism on the EA forum. The game features maps set in Paris, Tehran (as well as other locations in Iran), Sulaymaniyah, New York, Wake Island, Oman, Kuwait and other parts of the Persian Gulf. The maps cover urban streets, metropolitan downtown areas, and open landscapes suited to vehicle combat. Battlefield 3 introduces the "Battlelog"; a free cross-platform social service with built-in text messaging, voice communications, game statistics, and the ability to join games that friends are already playing (though both players need to be on the same platform). A demo featuring the new co-op mode was featured at Gamescom 2011. DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson confirmed that a split screen option will not be available in co-op mode. Battlefield 3's new Battlelog social network, DICE noted, would be tied to all co-op matches, allowing players to try to beat friends' scores and to track their performance. It has also been confirmed that participating in co-op mode allows the player to collect points that unlock additional content that can be used in multiplayer. Battlefield 3's multiplayer matches see players take on one of four roles: Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon. The Assault class focuses on assault rifles and healing teammates. The Support class focuses on light machine guns and supplying ammunition. The Engineer class focuses on supporting and destroying vehicles. The Recon class focuses on sniping and spotting enemies. The mechanics of the weapons have been changed to utilize the new engine: compatible weapons may have bipods attached which can then be deployed when in the prone position or near suitable scenery, and provide a significant boost to accuracy and recoil reduction. Suppressive fire from weapons blurs the vision and reduces the accuracy of those under fire, as well as health regeneration. The Recon class can put a radio beacon anywhere on the map and all squad members will be able to spawn on the location of the beacon. Several game modes are present, including Conquest, Rush, Squad Deathmatch, Squad Rush and for the first time since Battlefield 1942, Team Deathmatch. However, more game modes are available through the purchase of extra downloadable content packs. The PC version of Battlefield 3 is by default launched via a web browser from the Battlelog web site. A server browser is present in console versions of the game, however. The game's campaign takes place in the year 2014. Most missions occur as flashbacks on part of the interrogation of Staff Sergeant Henry Blackburn, and do not occur in order of events. Chronologically, the Campaign begins in medias res, following an unidentified man with handcuffs on the run in New York City. Evading police, the man manages to break into a hijacked subway train, full of terrorists and explosive charges. He works his way to the front car, where he is ambushed by Solomon, the man behind the attack. About eight months ago[when?], Sgt. Blackburn's five-man squad attempts to find and safely return a US squad investigating a possible improvised explosive device in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, whose last known position was a market controlled by the PLR (People's Liberation & Resistance), an Iranian paramilitary insurgent group. They find the missing squad, which had been ambushed by the PLR; but before they can escape the city, a massive earthquake wrecks the city. Blackburn, fellow squadmate Montes, and other survivors fight their way out of the ruins of the city. On the same day, the PLR stage a coup in Iran, and the US subsequently invades. Lt. Hawkins takes part in a raid on enemy fighters over Iran and an air strike over Mehrabad Airport. In the aftermath of the air strikes, Blackburn and his squad are sent into Tehran to perform battle damage assessment and apprehend the leader of the PLR, Faruk Al-Bashir. While investigating an underground bank vault in the target's suspected location, Blackburn and his team learn that the PLR have acquired Russian portable nuclear devices, and that two of the three devices are missing. Being overrun, the unit requests backup from an M1 Abrams column led by Sergeant Miller. Miller facilitates Blackburn's helicopter extraction, but is captured when waiting for the arrival of the Quick Reaction Force. Miller is promptly executed by Solomon and Al-Bashir, with the event being filmed. Later, Blackburn and his squad manage to capture a fatally-wounded Al-Bashir, who realizes Solomon betrayed him and reveals his plot to detonate the nukes in Paris and New York, before succumbing to his wounds. Blackburn's team gets a lead on arms dealer Amir Kaffarov, who was working with Solomon and Al-Bashier. They attempt to capture Kaffarov from his villa on coast of the Caspian Sea, near the Azerbaijani border. However, they run into a Russian paratrooper battalion, also after Kaffarov, who engage them with airdropped BMP-2s, with Su-25s providing close air support. In the ensuing chaos, two of Blackburn's squadmates are killed. Meanwhile, a Spetsnaz team led by Dima assaults Kaffarov's villa. Kaffarov tries to bribe his way out, but Dima interrogates him nonetheless. Blackburn arrives at the villa and finds Dima and an unconscious Kaffarov. Dima reveals Solomon's plot to Blackburn and requests his cooperation to prevent a war between their nations. Meanwhile Blackburn's commanding officer Cole arrives, and Blackburn is forced to shoot his superior before he can kill Dima. Due to his actions, Blackburn is brought to New York City and interrogated by CIA agents, to whom he explains all of his previous operations in flashbacks. During Blackburn's captivity, Dima's Spetsnaz squad attempts to stop the attack in Paris. Dima is unsuccessful; one teammate dies, and he and another teammate suffer the effects of the nuclear detonation. The CIA agents do not believe Blackburn's story, since Solomon is a CIA informant and there is no concrete proof of his involvement in the terrorist attacks. They instead believe that Russia is responsible for the attacks, and that Dima has tricked Blackburn. With no other options, Blackburn and surviving squad member Montes break out of captivity to stop the attack in New York. The events of the introductory mission play over again, revealing Blackburn as the man with handcuffs and the terrorists as members of the PLR. When ambushed by Solomon, Blackburn gains the upper hand by obtaining and activating the detonater, causing the train to crash. Blackburn pursues Solomon through the sewers, before climbing up to street level. Montes, having obtained a police car, picks up Blackburn and engages Solomon and the PLR in a brief vehicular chase, which ends with both cars crashing in Times Square. As a bewildered crowd watches on, Montes is shot by Solomon, but Blackburn manages to knock Solomon out in the ensuing brawl and recovers the nuclear bomb. In the epilogue, the player learns that Dima had survived the Paris detonation, albeit suffering radiation poisoning from the blast. He writes about the efforts of both him and Blackburn to stop Solomon's plan "to set fire to the world". As he finishes, there is a knock outside his door, prompting Dima to ready his handgun. There is the trailer of the game :
Dota 2 is an upcoming multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by Valve Corporation, and the stand-alone sequel to the Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Initially announced on October 13, 2010, via Game Informer, the game is currently available for early test access and will utilize a free-to-play business model when released. Dota 2 is exclusively available via Valve's content delivery platform Steam. The Dota 2 client is currently compatible only with Microsoft Windows, though Mac OS X integration is anticipated in the future. Dota 2 consists of session-based online multiplayer matches in which two teams of five attempt to destroy the opponents' fortified strongholds. Each player controls a player character called a "hero" and, over the course of each game, will improve their hero's abilities, acquire items, and attack the enemy team whilst applying pressure on their base defenses. Dota 2 combines the real-time strategy elements of a traditional top-down perspective, while also incorporating the leveling and itemization functions of a role-playing video game. Players are pitted against each other as two factions called the Radiant and the Dire. The Radiant faction is based at the southwest corner of the map, while the Dire faction is based at the northeast corner. Utilizing one of six hero selection modes, players select one of 101 "heroes" – strategically powerful units with special abilities, who, through combat experience, may progress to a maximum level of twenty-five. The heroes' methods of combat are heavily influenced by their primary property, which can be strength, agility, or intelligence. The basic setup of Dota 2 places two strongholds containing critical structures called "Ancients" at opposing ends of a geographically balanced map. These bases are connected by three main paths (referred to as lanes), which are guarded by defensive towers and groups of units commonly referred to as "creeps" which traverse their lanes, attacking enemy units and structures upon sight. Players are split into two teams, each consisting of up to five players, to compete as the primary defenders for each Ancient. The overall objective of each match is to battle through the opposing force's defenses, and destroy the opponents' Ancient. Because Dota 2 is highly team-oriented, players must coordinate with their teams in order to achieve victory. The towers and stronghold defenses are invulnerable to attacks, so long as the towers nearest to the enemy side still stand, and must be destroyed sequentially – a team cannot destroy the enemy's Ancient without first destroying all towers leading up to it in any one lane. The currency of the game is gold, which is granted steadily at a slow rate. Gold can be accumulated at a much higher rate by killing enemy units, destroying enemy towers, or killing heroes. Killing units grants gold solely to the player who killed it; killing heroes grants gold to the killer and any nearby allies; and destroying towers gives gold to all players on the team. Killing enemy creeps, heroes, and towers also provides experience, which allows the player's hero to level up, granting access to more powerful skills and abilities. "Denying" is a feature of the game which allows players to inhibit the enemy's ability to accumulate gold and experience by killing an allied unit or destroying an allied structure before an enemy can do so. Denying reduces the amount of experience and gold the enemy faction can receive for the kill. Allied heroes may also be denied if they are on critically low health and have a fatal spell applied to them. Featured across the map are units referred to as "neutrals", which are not aligned to a faction, primarily located in the forests. Located on the southeast side of the river is a boss called "Roshan" who typically requires multiple team members to be killed. Following his death, Roshan will drop a powerful item which allows for a hero to instantly respawn at the location of their death if they are killed. As part of a plan to create a social network based around Dota 2, Gabe Newell announced in April 2012 that the game would be free-to-play, with an accentuation on player contributions to the community. On June 1, 2012, the Dota development team at Valve formally confirmed that the game would be free-to-play with no added cost for having the full roster of heroes and item inventory readily available. Income for Dota 2 would be maintained, however, through the exclusively cosmetic Dota Store, where players could purchase in-game items. Until the game's release, players may still purchase an early access bundle, which includes the game, along with several in-game cosmetic items. The Dota Store is composed of custom creations developed by Valve, as well as products from the Steam Workshop, which is a system in which users may submit creations for review by Valve and if successful, would be permanently incorporated into Dota 2. The market model was fashioned after Team Fortress 2, which became successful in June 2011 and had reimbursed cosmetic designers with $3.5 million of income as of the free-to-play announcement. Watch the trailer on the video below :
League of Legends (or as it was previously known, League of Legends: Clash of Fates) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre video game developed by Riot Games, to operate on the Microsoft Windows operating system. It was first announced on October 7th, 2008 and released a year later on October 27th, 2009. The game was in beta from April 10th, 2009 to October 26th, 2009. Two main protagonists for the popular Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients: Allstars (commonly abbreviated as DotA), Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon are involved with Riot Games in the process of making of League of Legends. Guinsoo created DotA: Allstars from the original DotA, created by Eul, by adding his own mix of content, including over 40 heroes, numerous items, and various gameplay changes. Guinsoo then passed DotA: Allstars on to its current developer, Icefrog. Pendragon, who is the Director of Community Relations for Riot Games, helped create the DotA: Allstars website along with its forums, and is still currently working on DotA: Allstars alongside League of Legends. The idea of a spiritual successor to Defense of the Ancients that would be its own stand-alone game with its own engine rather than another mod of Warcraft III began to materialize at the end of 2005. League of Legends was born "when a couple of very active DotA community members believed that the gameplay was so much fun and so innovative that it represented the spawning of a new genre and deserved to be its own professional game with significantly enhanced features and around-game services." Riot Games was co-founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill. They partnered with some of the key creative minds behind the creation of DotA: Allstars, Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon. Riot Games officially opened its office in September 2006, and currently has about 100 people working on League of Legends, "including their robust technology platform to service and operate the game as well as a team dedicated to community relations." According to Marc Merrill, when creating the various champions in the game, instead of leaving the champion creation to just a few people, they decided to open up the champion creation process to everyone in the company based upon a template where they could vote on which champions made it into the game. Players are formed into two even teams of three or five players on each team. Each team starts at opposing sides of a map, near what is called a "Nexus". To win a match, a team must destroy the opposing team's Nexus. To do so, each team must work through a series of towers called "turrets". Turrets are often placed along a path to each base often referred to as a "lane". Along the way, each player gains levels by killing the opposing team's "minions" (small NPCs that constantly spawn and attack the other team), and buy "items" to advance their character. Matchmaking League of Legends is a session-based game. Matchmaking occurs based on the average Elo ratings of each individual player. The game can be currently played in four different modes: normal, Co-op vs. AI, custom, or ranked. In a normal game, the server attempts to match up players of equal skill level. It is possible to enter an arranged team of players, in which case the arranged team is considered to be more powerful than the individual players. A co-op game requires you to team up with four other randomly selected players to play a five versus five match against a team of five randomly selected bots. Custom game allows players to create a session and set its properties, or find an existing session to join. Unlike co-op, custom allows you to make any range of teams on either side from one to five. Empty spaces can be filled in by bots or players, or remain empty. Ranked games are competitive matches open only to players who have reached the highest level, level 30. It features a draft mode champion selection process, where a handful of champions are banned before picking begins. Game Types and Maps There are currently two game modes: Classic and Dominion. The Classic game mode is a base defense in which one attempts to gradually battle their way to the opponents' Nexus with the help of minions, through turrets and inhibitors. The Dominion game mode is a capture and hold game in which players battle over strategic map areas. Capturing these areas, and killing enemies will damage the opponents' nexus instead of directly damaging it. Maps in League of Legends are called "Fields of Justice". The maps put two teams with a fixed number of players against each other. Each team has its base, which contains the re-spawn point, item shop and Nexus. The two bases are connected by lanes. Periodically, waves of minions spawn from the Nexus. Minions are AI-controlled NPC's that move down the lanes, engaging any enemies they encounter. The lanes are lined with turrets that engage enemies within range. Once a turret is destroyed, it will not respawn. A new element in League of Legends is the inhibitors. Each lane has an inhibitor on both ends. If a team destroys the enemy inhibitor, more powerful "Super Minions" will spawn for that side. Unlike turrets, inhibitors respawn after five minutes. Besides the lanes, the maps also contain "jungle" areas, populated with neutral monster camps. These monsters can be killed by a champion for gold and experience. Some "epic" monsters will grant the killer a buff, such as the Ancient Golem on Summoner's Rift, which grants its killer the Crest of the Ancient Golem to help them in battle. Another special terrain feature is the brush. A brush blocks the line of sight of units, allowing champions to hide and set up a surprise attack, or "gank". The goal of each team is to destroy the enemy Nexus. The first team to achieve this is the victor. It is also possible to surrender using a voting system. You can watch the trailer of the game on the video below :
