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In AVARIAvs, players choose a party of 3 heroes to battle against an opponent’s party. During battle, opposing players choose their actions simultaneously and then witness the mayhem of their decisions. Combat rages on until one winner reigns victorious by decimating their opponent’s HP to zero.
Be warned however, matches that do not conclude promptly may be subject to JUDGEMENT…
AVARIAvs Is a turn based pvp game, where you make a team of three characters and battle it out online or side by side from your couch. Think of it as using a JRPG like Final Fantasy 7’s classic turn based combat to fight pvp matches, but both sides turns take place at the same time based on which character has the highest speed and plays out in real time!
In Avaria the players can select premade teams of 3 characters or build two custom teams from the 16 characters offered in the game. However you currently can only have a single character from each faction. As the match progresses a judgement system is activated to kill off characters to keep the match from dragging on, I have only ever seen the judgement affect the losing team.
The graphics and art for the game are amazing, while the sound track is a perfect fit for the game. Combat animations are spot on and a pleasure to watch while the match speed and turns have the perfect pacing. AVARIAvs hits all the bells and whistles I was hoping for from a competitive pvp game that is not a another moba or battle royale. This is something new, refreshing, fun, tactical, and awesome. I can see this game easily becoming the next League of Legends in popularity and Esports.
AVARIAvs is available now on STEAM. For more info, check out the links in the description below and remember to check out Sanitarium.FM and join our discord for more gaming news, info and community chat, over on Discord
Check out the video version of this review here –
AVARIAvs is an easy 10 out of 10 as a truly unique, and fun, experience that gets the competitive juices flowing and never fails to deliver on a good time. Get out there, represent your favorite characters, and fight to the death in AVARIAvs folks.
The joy of the prevalence of video games in recent times, is that it’s easier to explain your niche to others. This made it especially easy to explain to strangers why I was dressed as a character from Overwatch on a busy Sunday train to Birmingham, as I made my way to EGX at the NEC. And, while I am a regular convention goer and equally an avid gamer I had never been to a games specific expo before.
EGX is a mainstay for the big name gaming companies, with many demonstrations and presentations on new titles; regular Twitch streams by devs; cosplay competitions and merchandise on the floor. It has big draw for casual gamers, for families, and for industry professionals – and even for those looking for advice for how to make gaming their career. With all this in mind I was definitely expecting a busy day of exploring the expo floor and hopefully getting to try out some games in the process.
The upside was there was definitely plenty to see and do from a browsing standpoint. From the moment you walked in there were people handing out fliers and codes for promotions. The indie games area, EGX Rezzed, dominated the front zone even before you started to approach any of the larger name companies. I found this quite refreshing, as a demonstration of the importance of the indie market, and offered a great mix of games to play in genres ranging from very family friendly, to viral horror potential.
There were a good number of competitive gaming areas on show. This included the ESL E-Sports Arena; The Road to EGX Overwatch tournament; and a Street Fighter V tournament that had a raucous and excited crowd. It was great to see audience participation encouraged, as these areas had huge viewing screens that allowed folks to stand back and immerse themselves in the action, and to get behind the players throwing down – sometimes, quite literally – on screen.
Being present Sunday meant catching the tail-end of the various exciting panels that were available to attendees, but EGX had provided streams via Twitch the entire weekend and these could be caught up on through mobile even if it wasn’t physically possible to get inside. These can also be watched back on the EGX YouTube channel and give a good insight into many of the games that were on parade as well as industry insights.
The biggest draw still came in the shape of the big names, with Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Sega, Square Enix and Blizzard all having their own zones broken up over the expo. There were long waits for anyone who wanted a sneak peek at titles such as Farcry 5 or Assassin’s Creed Origins, to learn more about recent releases like Destiny 2, or even to try their hands at Youtube phenomenons like PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds.
There were upsides and downsides throughout my time on the expo floor. The biggest obstacle I found as a casual con-goer was that when it came to trying things out I didn’t get to see or do quite as much as I might’ve liked. Though the Indie Rezzed zone occupied most of the entrance area many games were only available on one or two screens at best.
A prevalent theme throughout the whole expo was that there didn’t seem to be many people enforcing rotation of players, either. On one occasion I came over to the Overwatch area after having been there an hour previous, and the same folks were still playing on many of the computers available. It made it much more evident to me why so many people make EGX a four day long event, in order to get as much gaming in as possible.
But where there was sometimes a lack of gaming there was still a lot of engagement. Representatives were generally happy to talk with con-goers. There was a cosplay stage in the centre of the convention where people could go and watch others that had turned their love of gaming into a creative outlet. There was some great merchandise available, from t-shirts to bags, figures to tech accessories.
Another great addition came in the form of a board gaming area, which had the Playopolis board game library working with EGX for the first time. They were providing games for visitors to sit together and play in the seating area. Some upcoming titles were demonstrating as well, including the MMORPG inspired City of Kings, were set out for folks who wanted physical gaming as well as digital gaming. There were some board gaming specialist vendors, too, making it just as easy to take the same experiences home with you.
Thank you to everyone who came and tried out The City of Kings @EGX it was great to meet you all and I look forward to next year #EGXpic.twitter.com/QX8f7XdkbB
All in all, I found my first experience of EGX a fun one, with most of the hiccups I encountered ones that could be easily rectified with a little pre-planning, or even spending a longer time at the convention over its four day length. And, with the joyous prevalence of video games in recent times, who knows – it may be even bigger and better than ever the next time it rolls around.
Right now there’s a lawsuit ongoing over two developers who have been making unauthorised mobile versions of Dota, something Valve is obviously not a fan of. Now the defendants are seeking to prove that Valve doesn’t own the rights to Dota at all, hinging their argument on a forum post over 10 years old.
The forum post is from 2004 and is from one of the original creators of Dota, which could prove that far from Valve owning the rights Dota is actually open source and has been all along. This story all began back when Blizzard and Valve launched the lawsuit in question against the two defendant developers, Lilith Games and uCool, publishers of two very popular Chinese mobiles games – Dota Legends and Heroes Charge. Both use Dota characters, hence the problems Valve has with them. It’s uCool who has brought up the question of who owns the rights to Dota, and if they’re right then Valve doesn’t actually own the trademark to the original Dota and thus would be unable to bring this claim against uCool.
Already another argument that uCool brought about Dota being a collective work has been shot down, but judge Charles Breyer is investigating whether the purchase of the Dota name to Valve by creators Icefrog and eul could infringe upon the original EULA for Warcraft 3 from which Dota draws its roots as a mod. The Warcraft 3 EULA forbids the distrubution of mods fgor “commerical purposes” and the sale of Dota to Valve has been said by Breyer to be “as commercial as uses go.”
Further, the aforementioned forum post from 2004 shows that eul seemingly abandoned his ownership of Dota stating that “whoever wishes to release a version of Dota may without my consent” although he does also “ask for a nod in the credits to your map,” so whether he did give up ownership or not is up for debate because of that. It will be up to the jury to decide whether any perceived rights abandonment will apply for everyone (including companies like uCool) or if it was just for “the motley group of modders making up an informal Dota online community.”
This will all be sorted out in a court case to determine whether uCool and Lilith Games are indeed in violation of a trademark that Valve is the owner of. If the judge finds in their favour, expect to see more Dota clones or Valve seeking to close the loophole as soon as they can. If the judge finds in favour of Valve, expect the two defendants to be paying a hefty sum for their trouble.
