Nidalee the Beast Mistress found herself alone in the jungle as a young girl after her fortune-seeking parents died of a mysterious disease. Taken in and raised by a family of cougars, the cats taught the huntress how to fight tooth and nail. She's rejoined civilization in order to protect her home from being ravaged by war, and she looks quite fetching in animal furs.

Check out the official bio for Nidalee below, along with some screens of her in action. To play one of the most addictive PC strategy games around for free, visit www.leagueoflegends.com.

Nidalee, The Beast Mistress

There are few dwellers, let alone champions, residing in the blasted and dangerous lands that lie south of the Great Barrier. Much of that world still bears the scars of past Rune Wars, especially the mysterious Kumungu Jungle. There are long-forgotten treasures in these strange places which many risk life and limb to acquire. The champion known as Nidalee was only a young girl travelling with her treasure-seeking parents when they lost their way in the dense, rainy jungles. The jungle was unforgiving, and she watched her parents suffer agonizing final days as they fell victim to a mysterious and vicious disease. As improbable as it was for a child to survive in the inhospitable jungle by herself, she did just that. Her youthful innocence and a fortunate naïveté caused her to appeal to the beasts of that place and she was taken in by a family of cougars and raised as one of their own. She grew and somehow absorbed the raw magic of the dense wilds, evolving beyond both her human physiology and her feline affectation. On one pivotal day in her life, standing over the torn remnants of a Noxian squad of woodcutters, Nidalee chose to rejoin the so-called civilized world, to fight in the League of Legends so as to protect the vast woods from both Demacia and Noxus.

Nidalee was taught to fight by her feline family, battling viciously with tool and nail. Something in her feline ways may draw you to her, but remember that she is no pussycat.

Ability Descriptions

Because Nidalee can transform into a cougar, she has two sets of abilities. One ability set for when she is in human form, and a different ability set when she is in cougar form.

Javelin Toss/Takedown
Javelin Toss: In human form, Nidalee throws a spiked javelin at her target that gains damage as it flies.
Takedown: As a cougar, she grabs her opponent by the throat and attempts to bring them down, dealing more damage based on how wounded the target is.

Bushwhack/Pounce
Bushwhack: In human form, Nidalee lays a damaging trap for unwary opponents that, when sprung, reveals the target and reduces their armor and magic resistance for 12 seconds.
Pounce: As a cougar, she pounces forward, dealing a small amount of damage when she lands.

Primal Surge/Swipe
Primal Surge: In human form, Nidalee channels the spirit of the cougar to imbibe herself and her allies with increased damage and attack speed for a short duration.
Swipe: As a cougar, she rapidly claws enemies in front of her.

Aspect of the Cougar
Nidalee changes her form, switching her ability set in the process. Leveling up this skill improves Nidalee's cougar form abilities.

Prowl (passive)
Moving through brush increases Nidalee's movement speed by 25% for 2 seconds.

In League of Legends you take on the role of a summoner, calling forth a champion that you control in Warcraft-esque skirmishes as you work to tear down defensive positions and destroy the enemy nexus. Working with other player-controlled champions, the game is based on cooperation and collaboration, with all of the micro-managing thrown out the window.

As with its mod-inspiration Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends won't cost you a dime to play, but is it good enough to convince you to shell out cash to upgrade and excel?

Loved
Simplified Strategy: Built on the core of Warcraft III, League of Legends strips away the need to micro-manage, or manage at all. Defense towers exist when a match starts, minions spawn automatically and course through a map's paths on pre-determined routes, stopping to attack the first foes they encounter or to try and level enemy defense towers. You have no control over any of that. What you do have control over is your single champion, his or her ability to impact the lines of minions, and the champion's growing power, which can be used in battles to shift the tide of war. Of course you also have to look out for the other champions on the map looking to take you out or clear a path to your nexus home base.

Cornucopia of Champions: In many ways, League of Legends plays like a straight-up action role-playing title. The character you level up over the course of a match is selected from a growing number of champions, each with their own abilities, spells, attack styles and look. As you play through a match your champion earns experience and levels up, unlocking skills and spells that only last until the match ends. The game launches with 40 of these characters with a steady stream promised from the developers. Mastering the game is one challenge, but learning the ins and outs of each champion is the sort of enjoyable task that could takes months to complete.

Mastering Masteries: While the champion you summon and control is drawn from the same ever-expanding pool all of the other players draw from, the summoner (that's you) levels up over time, earning mastery points which can be applied to three different fields: Offense, defense and utility. The way you spend these points impacts whatever champion you decide to use in a match giving them stronger attacks, better defense, improving their magic or even tweaking the spells they can cast. This summoner leveling adds another level of complexity to the already cleverly constructed game.

Items and Spells: Champions all start out as level one at the beginning of a map, but as you gain experience they level up, letting you assign points to their abilities and spells. The fact that you have some choice means that even if two of the same champions meet in battle, there's a good chance they won't play the same. On top of that, you can spend the gold your champion earns in battle to buy magical items that augment attack and defense abilities, spells and give your character new skills.

Stealth: While the maps can get a little old over time, the fact that there are creatures stalking the marsh and woods between paths can make things interesting. Better still, certain areas of the map allow you to hide from other characters, making it possible for you to slip behind them during battle and pull off a stealth attack.

Anime Warcraft: The selection of champions include a wide variety of art styles, from large-eyed, big-headed anime-ish characters, to characters that would fit in as heroes in Warcraft III. The look, as much as the abilities, of these champions are the biggest reason you may want to take the time to master one.

Free Forever: While it's probably worth dropping $30 to pick up the collector's pack, and score special runes, items and a champion, you can actually play this game for absolutely nothing. The better you are at it, the more points you earn to use in the online store to purchase new champions and other power-up items. And the game always gives you access to 10 of the 40 champions. If you're not good, or you're impatient, you can also spend cash to buy items, champions or new skins. It's a serious win-win.

Hated
Need More Maps: With the game already out for more than a week, there's really only one map to play on and earn experience. A snow version of the map is said to exist, but I could never find a match with one. A third, smaller map, is in beta right now. As much as I love the game, and I borderline can't stop playing love it, the lack of maps is a serious issue. Riot Games' biggest push right now should be on rolling out more maps so the current one doesn't go so stale no one will ever want to play it again.

Slow Matchmaking: Matchmaking in League of Legends is a surprisingly long affair. I've waited as long as 15 minutes to find a match, though waits of closer to a few minutes is closer to the norm. While it's hard to directly control, I also found a high percentage of whiney, insular gamers in the matches I played. They complained about tactics, about losing, about experience points. Maybe creating different rooms or leagues could help cut down on the player in-fighting because it's a real turnoff.

As a long-time fan of real-time strategy games, I approached League of Legends with more than a little doubt that it could provide the sort of engagement and intellectual stimulation I'm used to from my RTS gaming sessions. But it only took a couple of matches to prove me wrong.

My biggest concern with League of Legends is not whether it's worth playing, but whether it can survive under the creative micro-transaction pricing system that Riot Games has established to financially support the title.

League of Legends was developed by and published by Riot Games for the PC on Oct. 27. The game is free to play, though you can spend cash on upgrades. The collector's edition sells for $29.99. A copy of the collector's edition and a $10 gift card for in-game item purchases were given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through training mode and dozens of matches with 20 of the 40 champions.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

We'll have our full review up for the real-time strategy game tomorrow, but until then take a look at this trailer, which shows off some of the more than 40 playable champions in the game.

Why "pre-season" you ask? The competitive online strategy game uses a seasons model in order to keep gameplay fresh for everyone involved. October 27th sees the start of its pre-season, a period in which players can form teams, learn the game, and formulate strategies in advance of season one, which kicks off in early 2010. The model also allows Riot to cycle content, meaning the set of Champions you have at your disposal and the maps you play on can change with each season, keeping the game fresh and the competition on their toes.

Riot has just opened up the beta for the game, allowing anyone interested to sign up and participate for free, holding on to their accounts once the game launches. The closed beta has been running for awhile, so you're late to the game, but every extra day helps. You've got five. Go play.

Champions are the characters that your Summoner summons to represent them on the field of battle, and Riot is going out of its way to make sure there's a large selection available at launch. Of these latest five, four are already available in the closed beta, while the fifth will be added later on this week.

Click on the photos for short bios of each of the five new champions.


Corki, the Daring Bombardier

Corki brings his talents as a fighter pilot to bear on the Fields of Justice. Up high, he sees much further than most of his foes. His advanced weaponry allows him to lock onto a target, viciously hounding it while also painting it for the rest of his team. The automatic guns of Corki's gyrocopter can fire at nearby enemies nearly continuously, filling the air with whizzing leaden bullets. However, his bombing runs are what give him his appellation. He is capable of cluster bombing an area, unleashing a furious firestorm, as well as piloting his dreaded bombing runs, where all within his path must face his wrath.

He is Corki – death from above!

Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem

Blitzcrank is techmaturgical marvel; he is a slow metal bruiser who is a challenge to bring down. When Blitzcrank is in mortal danger, he automatically converts his mana-enriched fuel into a protective barrier that keeps the mighty machine going. Rockets in his wrist propel his fist into enemies, grabbing them and dragging them back to the waiting machine. He is able to charge up his mechanical fists, inflicting increased damage on an unsuspecting target. Blitzcrank can also energize his inner circuits to randomly arc electricity into nearby enemies; he can further increase this power to trigger an electromagnetic shock wave, silencing his foes. Despite his normally plodding nature, he is capable of firing his systems into overdrive, rocketing himself around at amazing speeds.

The Great Steam Golem is quickly becoming the most feared magical automaton in all of Valoran.

Taric, the Gemknight

Taric is both a warrior and a healer, drawing on the mystical powers of the earth. Taric uses different kinds of gems for different kinds of effects, shattering his enemies' defenses while boosting his own and those of his team. When needed, he uses his father's arts to bring health back to his wounded allies; his persistence in combat allows him to heal more rapidly. Taric can also use the damaging energies of his gems to focus his anger into a dazzling ray of light, damaging opponents at a distance. If he truly concentrates, he can channel the powerful energy of the crystals in the earth, rallying and healing allies that surround him.

Kassadin, the Voidhunter

Kassadin has harnessed the power of the Void. His Nether Blade steals the magical energy of his opponents. This dark blade also allows him to fire ethereal bolts of Void energy, not only harming his enemies, but inhibiting their ability to utilize their mystical abilities. Kassadin draws energy from others' magical use, charging him until he unleashes a force pulse that both damages and slows foes. His connection with the Void also allows him to transform the damage he takes from other Champions, increasing the speed of his attacks. Kassadin can also step sideways through the world, teleporting where he pleases. He can utilize this rift-walking ability multiple times to deal more and more damage.

Veigar, the Malefic One

As one might expect, Veigar brings the power of dark magic to bear. He fires dark bolts of mystical energy that not only harm foes, but strips their protective armors right from their beings. Veigar has the power to snatch a meteor from the heavens and bring it down upon a terrestrial target. He may also channel his power into an intense single-target magical strike, one that increases in lethality based on how much mana the sorcerer has at his fingertips. Furthermore, Veigar can also permeate the ground with magic, constricting and stunning any foe that enters the area.

Who says evil needs to come in a fearsome-looking package?

Riot Games wants 40,000 folks to follow the League of Legends Facebook group, or become fans, or whatever it is you Facebook people tend to do. And once they reach that goal, all 40,000 fans will receive entry into the closed beta test for the action-RTS. This means that once they reach that goal, if you ask another League of Legends tester for their Facebook and they say they don't have one, there's a good chance they are lying.

To become a fan of League of Legends on Facebook, go to the official page and do that fan thing.

You kids today, I swear.

League of Legends is an online persistent massively-multiplayer real-time strategy title, and Riot Games wants to make sure they don't flip the switch in September only to have the servers explode. To that extent, they need you, the player, to sign up for the closed beta so then can make sure the game can carry your weight. Testers who've been participating prior to last month are getting character name credit in the game itself, and while you might be too late for that benefit, an exclusive beta tester-only Champion skin can be yours should you make it in.

"By expanding the pool of beta users we strive to support the strong community following itching to jump right into the game," Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO, Riot Games, said. "We truly value the input and early support our community has provided, so it's only fair that they get credit and rewarded for helping to mold the game!"

See? Rewards! Head over to the game's official site to sign up for rewards.

League of Legends is an action-strategy game with roleplaying elements, fashion after the Warcraft III Defense of the Ancients game type. The player takes on a role of a Summoner, who calls forth a Champion to fight for him against other players. Riot has put a ton of work into developing the game, revealing new Champions on a regular basis and tightening up the graphics on level three, so the announcement that the game will be free-to-play comes as a bit of a surprise.

"One of our goals at Riot has been to set a high quality bar for core games that are available for free online as we believe that a relentless focus on delivering tremendous value to online communities will earn player loyalty," Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO, Riot Games, said. "League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people's minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free."

For those of you averse to not spending money, fear not! League of Legends has two currencies. Influence points are earned by simply playing the game, allowing players to purchase runes that will enhance their powers, much like experience points. Riot Points, on the other hand, are purchased using real currency and exchangeable for new Champions to play and cosmetic enhancements.

Riot Games is confident that their Riot Points won't be able to purchase anything that would give one player a distinct advantage over another. They'd best keep a close eye on Champion balance then, as players will eat them alive if they sense money gives their opponents any sort of leg up.

When the game goes live in September, players will be able to download and play for free, or they can opt to purchase the League of Legends Collector's Pack at their local game store, which offers exclusive Champion skins, new Champions, Riot Points, and Runes.

Interested in learning more? Riot Games will be hosting a Q&A session this Friday from 2-4PM Pacific, where developers will answer every question you can imagine in an exhaustive fashion.

I wouldn't go as far as saying a game requires a snow level in order to be considered a real game, but it certainly helps. As it stood, I was pretty sure that competitive action RTS League of Legends was real, thanks to a rather lengthy feature that appear previously on these very pages, but it certainly helps to have confirmation.

Thanks for the screens, Riot. We eagerly await confirmation of the desert level.

Even writing up a lengthy feature on the game and it's evolution from the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients into a full-fledged game didn't give me a very firm grasp on the gameplay of League of Legends: Clash of Fates. Judging from the trailer, we're in for some colorful, candy-coated multiplayer mayhem with a healthy dose of humor and random dancing.

Yep, that totally cleared it up for me.

Lasky, Beck and Merrill unveiled the venture this morning, and announced they've accumulated some industry vets for their studio talent, with "core members" of Ultima Online, Dungeon Siege, Jak & Daxter, Heroes of Might & Magic, Neverwinter Nights 2, Sly Cooper and Total Annihilation's teams, among others.

You may, by now, be a little jaded at yet another announcement of a venture capital-funded online games startup, but when Kotaku talked to Lasky, Beck and Merrill yesterday, they had some things to tell us about how they plan to shake things up.

"I think what was refreshing from our point of view about their approach was both a real awareness of serving a particular consumer... serving an audience that is not the sort of moms and '15-54 year-olds' that the casual games companies are focusing on," said Lasky.

"They've got a very specific community that they're targeting that plays a certain kind of gameplay pattern very aggressively... there's focus on an almost core audience with their products."

Riot hasn't announced its first product yet, but CEO Beck gave us a few hints. "There's a fundamental appetite out there for online game experiences that are not your typical 'casual game'... that's richer than the typical casual game experience but not as deep or as time-intensive as some of the front-line MMOs that appeal to the core or mid-core gamer," he said.

When we asked the team to define the "certain kind of gameplay pattern" to which Lasky referred earlier, Beck was willing to elaborate a little on their target audience: "Online, competitive gamers," he said.

"There's a particular gameplay style and pattern that we're creating that is exciting, innovative, [focuses on] replayability, and from a philosophical perspective we want to create games... that are simple to learn but difficult to master, where the depth comes in from the amounts of rich content... and from emergent gameplay," said Beck.

For example, "Rather than being Half Life 2, we want to be Counter-Strike," he said.

Here's the full announcement:

RIOT GAMES RAISES $7M FROM BENCHMARK, FIRSTMARK;

YOUNG GAMER EXECS LEAD DEVELOPMENT OF PREMIUM ONLINE TITLES

Los Angeles-based Independent Developer-Publisher Names FirstMark's Rick Heitzmann

And Games Industry Veteran Mitch Lasky to Board

LOS ANGELES-July 10, 2008- Riot Games has secured a $7M round of funding from Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital to finance development of its first title. Riot's development is fueled by the passion of its founders, Brandon Beck, CEO, and Marc Merrill, President and Chief Marketing Officer. The two have brought together respected industry veterans, creating a leading edge development studio comprised of core members of the teams behind some of the industry's most popular titles, including Ultima Online, Dungeon Siege, Jak & Dexter, Heroes of Might & Magic, Neverwinter Nights 2, Sly Cooper, Total Annihilation and many more. The world-class team is already at work, building the company's soon-to-be announced title on Riot's robust technology platform.

Riot's board of directors welcomes games industry veteran Mitch Lasky, a partner at Benchmark Capital, and Rick Heitzmann, a partner at FirstMark Capital. Lasky is the former founder & CEO of JAMDAT, former EVP of Online & Mobile at Electronic Arts and former head of Worldwide Studios for Activision. Heitzmann brings more than 10 years of entrepreneurship, operating and investing experience as an investor and board member of consumer technology emerging companies including Live Gamer, weplay and Clickable.

"The online game industry is ripe for new ways to bring products to market and new ways to acquire customers," said Mitch Lasky, partner at Benchmark Capital. "Riot's unique approach to building customer relationships and its innovative content strategy will make Riot an online publisher to watch."

Riot Games is the brainchild of Beck, 26, and Merrill, 27. Beck was formerly a consultant at leading global business and strategy consulting firm Bain & Company, where he specialized in media, entertainment and private equity; Merrill previously managed corporate marketing at Advanstar Communications, one of the largest business to business media companies in the US. The two founders bring to the company the unique combination of an authentic love for games and business savvy.

"Tremendous opportunities continue to emerge in the online games industry as distribution and business models evolve," said Brandon Beck, CEO, Riot Games. "As independent, direct-to-consumer developers with the vision of treating games as services, we are focused on delivering first-rate game experiences to highly targeted online audiences."

Riot's titles will combine premium online multiplayer session-based games with best-of-breed online services, powered by the company's own leading technology platform. Beck and Merrill plan for the Riot platform to provide robust community services that surpass the current industry standard in tools such as matchmaking, stat-tracking, ladders and more.

"Online gamers are not shy about asking for what they want," Marc Merrill, president and CMO, commented. "Riot is responding with a commitment to creating premium titles that focus on gameplay and replayability in order to build deep, ongoing relationships with gamer communities."

Riot Games will announce the details of their first title later this year.

About Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital, a leading venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Benchmark's general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm's portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes high-profile start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital. For more information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.

About FirstMark Capital

Based in New York City, FirstMark Capital (formerly Pequot Ventures) has established itself as a venture leader with a strong, national reach over its twelve year history. FirstMark invests in companies that are creating new markets with innovative technology solutions or rethinking existing markets by applying a novel business model. With nearly $2 billion in capital commitments, FirstMark's team of investment and operations professionals have decades of real-world experience and leadership in core technology markets, making the firm uniquely qualified to offer industry insight, relationships and the operational expertise to build lasting businesses. Select historical investments include: Netgear, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR); First Advantage Corp. (NASDAQ: FADV); StubHub, Inc (Acquired by eBay, Inc.); Netegrity, Inc. (Acquired by CA Inc); Flarion, Inc. (Acquired by Qualcomm, Inc.); OutlookSoft Inc. (Acquired by SAP AG); Analex Corp. (Acquired by QinetiQ); Vallent (Acquired by IBM); Syndesis (Acquired by Subex) and Navic (Acquired by Microsoft). For more information, please visit www.firstmarkcap.com.

About Riot Games, Inc.

Riot Games, Inc. (www.riotgames.com) is an independent Los Angeles-based video game development company, funded privately and through leading venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Firstmark Capital. The studio was established in 2006 to develop innovative online next-generation titles for consoles and the PC. Comprised of industry veterans with a shared passion for creating fun, innovative gameplay, the company is currently developing a cutting-edge game platform in conjunction with their first title, combining the best elements of the action role-playing and real-time strategy genres into a uniquely replayable and competitive multiplayer experience.