Smite

If you were paying attention to XBLA Fans last week — or, really, any gaming website, for that matter — then you’ve likely voraciously consumed a veritable smorgasbord of E3 news, previews and other coverage.

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Update: The patch is expected to launch Friday baring technical difficulties; however there is a chance it could be delayed a couple days.

After speaking with PR for Smite, …
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Yesterday, Major Nelson announced on the Xbox Daily show that Smite would be part of the Summer Spotlight. On July 8th, Smite will transition from closed beta to open beta. …
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During the Xbox Daily: Live @ E3 show Major Nelson announced a new promotion called Summer Spotlight. Summer Spotlight is about highlighting some of the best digital games launching …
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Days 3-7

Now that I’ve finally unlocked Conquest mode in Smite, I don’t see myself leaving anytime soon, regardless of the other modes that I’m sure I will be unlocked in the near future. Conquest is a tried and true MOBA map, and it feels great running around it from one point to another, and the controls are great and customizable to the point where there’s something for everybody. As a result, everything simply flows together and just work. I was curious how Hi-Rez would solve the problem of not being able to move the camera off the controlled immortal, as can be done in other MOBAs. The studio worked around this by giving all allies and enemies in vision a faint outline with a health bar on the field, making them easy to see. The only crucial thing to take away from what I just said is that everything works how one would expect on a PC, which is all anyone is really asking for.

Anyway, remember how I pretty much only played Ymir in Arena? Well, by day three I had discovered playing Ymir in the support position, and I fell in love with him all over again. The little bit of skill I had built up on Ymir from Arena definitely gave me a leg up over players trying new champions. I’m fortunate to have discovered an immortal that I can thoroughly enjoy so early on. I was setting up kill after kill for the carry, a support’s job, and being able to actively see a player snowball their advantage into something massive is a beautiful sight to behold. But after close to a week of playing Conquest, I’ve begun to notice some trends in most players that are easily fixable and would improve everyone’s play. Granted, some of the following do’s and don’ts apply to more than just Smite, but that doesn’t lessen their value here in the slightest.

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Get ready for a week full of new release streams, early looks, game giveaways and much more on the XBLA Fans Twitch Channel!

In addition to our scheduled streams …
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In addition to our scheduled streams below we also sometimes do impromptu streams. The best way to stay informed of those is to follow XBLA Fans on Twitter and follow us on Twitch.

If there is a game you want to see streamed, please contact us.

All times are listed in EST.

Tuesday 5/19

• 7p – 9p K4rn4ge – Mega Coin Squad (Early look!)
• 9p – 1a Cain141 – Smite

Wednesday 5/20

• 12p – 3p Zero Jehuty – Lifeless Planet or Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
• 4p – 7p K4rn4ge – Day of Knights (Rogue Legacy and Shovel Knight)
• 7p – 10p Cain141 – Mega Coin Squad (New game!)
• 10p – 1a PamdemoniumXOXO – Game TBA

Thursday 5/21

• 7a – 9a RazorPriest – Neverwinter and/or Happy Wars
• 5p – 7p K4rn4ge – Throwback Thursday (XBLA Xbox 360 games)
• 7p – 11p Cain141 – New release or extended XBLA Throwback Thursday Block
• 11p – 1a The Snapple Cap – Game TBA

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Welcome to part one of a multi-part series in which I plan to document my time with Smite to show how I grow as a player in the beta, which should help show new players what to expect. I went into Smite with hundreds of hours of League of Legends logged and even more time spent watching professional matches, plusan occasional dabble in Dota 2. One might think that my modest amount of time spent in the genre might translate over into Smite, but I can say without a doubt, it didn’t give me a leg up over the competition, as evidenced by how poorly my first handful of games went.

Day 1

The game starts with a simple enough tutorial, but, like most MOBAs, it barely even scratches the surface before it sends players on their merry way. The only mode available to players when they first start is called Arena, and that’s where I spent the entirety of my first day.

Arena is shaped like the Colosseum, with jungle camps along the side that provide buffs to players. It’s an excellent place to start, because it avoids the deeper intricacies of a standard match and allows players to focus on finding a god or immortal that fits their play style and novoices to feel good about themselves. Everything seemed to be working well when I first got into a match: the store was easy to navigate; I could decipher what was going on with little problems; and I felt adequately prepared to get started.

Of course I was dead wrong, I finished my first game with a 1/11/11 (kills/deaths/assists) score line as Ares and felt lost. It felt as though I was missing everything, and even though I had these great combos in my head I just couldn’t seem to pull them off. All my skillshots always “just” missed, and I couldn’t seem to land a single auto attack, regardless of if it was melee or ranged. After two more games where I did as bad if not worse than the first, I decided it was time to turn to everyone’s greatest resource: the internet.

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We post our streaming schedule each week, however, we’d like to start highlighting at least one of our more unique streams each week. Join us Tuesday from 10PM EST …
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In addition to our scheduled streams below we also sometimes do impromptu streams. The best way to stay informed of those is to follow XBLA Fans on Twitter and …
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