Date played: February 11th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10
There was a patch for Rocket League yesterday and it brought along a ton of interesting changes. The biggest change is to how the ranking system works. Basically, ranked mode has been replaced with "Competitive" mode. Apparently, this will balance out the rankings and put players in matches with opponents that are closer to their skill level. It also promises that rank will increase or decrease only when a player is showing a clear upward or downward trend, as opposed to changing with every win or loss.
I played quite a few games of competitive 3 vs 3 and overall, I think I did pretty well, though I was getting a bit tired towards the end and wasn't playing as well. I got a few MVP awards, scored goals regularly and made good plays. After all that, I ended up in the 6th ranking class of 12, so I think that's pretty damn good. The patch also added a few visual items, including some awesome DeadMau5 decorations and a bunch of other little things.
Finally, the coolest thing about the patch is the addition of the Rocket Labs playlist. According to the description in game, this is a place where Psyonix can try new types of maps and see what works and what doesn't. I played this mode for a while and tried out the three maps that are available.
The first I played is Double Goal and honestly, while the idea is interesting, in practice, it was my least favorite of the three. Basically, each team's goal has two "holes" to score in, and there's a large pillar in the middle of the net to stop direct goals from going in. This ends up creating many situations where goals are scored by bouncing the ball off the wall. It's pretty damn cool, but it doesn't flow very well overall, and the goal line is kind of hard to see because of the curves in the goal's structure.
The second I played is a lot cooler, Utopia Retro. This thing is fucking insane... The map is shaped like a doughnut, forcing players to move the ball around the circle to reach the opposing goal. A key part of this one is that players can actually drive through the goals to reach the other side, which will turn a goaltender into an offensive player very quickly. This map is real hectic and it's super hard to get the angles right, but it's fun and creates some new strategies.
Finally, the most playable of the three maps is Underpass. This is a more traditional map, but it has "stairs" on each side of the arena, creating insane opportunities for aerial action and trick shots. I loved playing this one the most, since it's close to the traditional game, but it's still different enough to feel different.
According to this article by the Wall Street Journal, Rocket League made over $50 million on a budget of $2 million. I say, they deserve every penny.
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10
There was a patch for Rocket League yesterday and it brought along a ton of interesting changes. The biggest change is to how the ranking system works. Basically, ranked mode has been replaced with "Competitive" mode. Apparently, this will balance out the rankings and put players in matches with opponents that are closer to their skill level. It also promises that rank will increase or decrease only when a player is showing a clear upward or downward trend, as opposed to changing with every win or loss.
I played quite a few games of competitive 3 vs 3 and overall, I think I did pretty well, though I was getting a bit tired towards the end and wasn't playing as well. I got a few MVP awards, scored goals regularly and made good plays. After all that, I ended up in the 6th ranking class of 12, so I think that's pretty damn good. The patch also added a few visual items, including some awesome DeadMau5 decorations and a bunch of other little things.
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| Utopia Retro, one of the Rocket Labs maps (I'm the pink one!) |
Finally, the coolest thing about the patch is the addition of the Rocket Labs playlist. According to the description in game, this is a place where Psyonix can try new types of maps and see what works and what doesn't. I played this mode for a while and tried out the three maps that are available.
The first I played is Double Goal and honestly, while the idea is interesting, in practice, it was my least favorite of the three. Basically, each team's goal has two "holes" to score in, and there's a large pillar in the middle of the net to stop direct goals from going in. This ends up creating many situations where goals are scored by bouncing the ball off the wall. It's pretty damn cool, but it doesn't flow very well overall, and the goal line is kind of hard to see because of the curves in the goal's structure.
The second I played is a lot cooler, Utopia Retro. This thing is fucking insane... The map is shaped like a doughnut, forcing players to move the ball around the circle to reach the opposing goal. A key part of this one is that players can actually drive through the goals to reach the other side, which will turn a goaltender into an offensive player very quickly. This map is real hectic and it's super hard to get the angles right, but it's fun and creates some new strategies.
Finally, the most playable of the three maps is Underpass. This is a more traditional map, but it has "stairs" on each side of the arena, creating insane opportunities for aerial action and trick shots. I loved playing this one the most, since it's close to the traditional game, but it's still different enough to feel different.
According to this article by the Wall Street Journal, Rocket League made over $50 million on a budget of $2 million. I say, they deserve every penny.
