Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Hero of the Storm - The Butcher (And the State of the Metagame)

Welcome to Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at one of the playable heroes from Blizzard Entertainment's Heroes of the Storm: The Butcher, from the Diablo Universe, and the State of the Metagame.


Whew~!

So how are you guys?

  I know, I know - I wasn't around last week, and for that I apologize, but here we are, with another Heroes of the Storm column! Here's what's happened in the past week and change: the Eternal Conflict has arrived, The Butcher is the first "Hero" to come from the event, and we got us a HUGE talent overhaul for most heroes (but specifically Support types). So without further ado, let's get into the meat of it all and look at: The Butcher!

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Marvel Hero - Doctor Doom

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at Marvel Heroes 2015, the MMO/Action RPG's 2nd anniversary and their newest playable hero: Doctor Doom.

"Everything dies.

You. Me. Everyone on this planet.

Our Sun, our Galaxy. And eventually, the Universe itself.

This is simply how things are.

It's inevitable and I accept it."

  Marvel Heroes went from an almost unbearably unplayable Diablo clone, to one of the more creative Diablo clones in recent memory. Between character balance fixes, client upgrades, endgame content patches, and special events; it feels now more like an actual Action RPG/MMO than a regular ARPG with a wonky social component. Today I look at the big system revamps and events that have accompanied the game's 2nd year anniversary, and the release of one of the games original villains, and most requested hero/villain since Magneto: Doctor Doom.

"I openly loathe you, Richards!"

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday: Marvel Heroes 2015

Rican's Free 2 Play Friday, a weekly look into free-to-play gaming such as MOBAs, MMOs, Team Shooters, and more! This week we look at Marvel's foray into the MMO/Action RPG space in their recently revamped Marvel Heroes 2015.   

  On Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Gazillion Entertainment, founded by Diablo and Diablo II designer Dave Kosak, announced a 10-year partnership with Marvel to release an action/RPG MMO. The game was to have the same feel of the Diablo franchise, with the Marvel Universe as its backdrop, and the social components of an MMO including: hubs, an in game economy, and perpetually updated endgame content. The result of this was Marvel Heroes, which was released on PC (and a Mac Beta is now available) June 4, 2013, after a long gestating closed beta and later open beta.

Oh, so much promise wrapped up in such a shite game!