As someone who's actually played it, it's terrific and well worth the 15 dollar asking price. Great atmosphere, mix of DotA and TF2 (without the awful playerbase), tight controls, pretty shallow learning curve, and it nails the whole Xtreme Sports Extravaganza feel perfectly, right down to the announcers, sponsors, and everything else.

Wow, you're a bit of a pessimist. :p

http://store.steampowered.com/app/63200 It's not there yet. But they WILL be. Once the modding tools are released you bet you'll see new custom maps and custom servers pop up.

If your issue is "Oh we have to run Steam to play the game" well... too bad.

You'll get no argument from me on that point, I am a pessimist.

Is it just me, or does that sound a bit vague? I mean, if I can host a dedicated server (good) but can't find my buddies on the local LAN as one can only join via Steam's client then it's mostly sizzle and no steak.

Let me rephrase, I'd love to see a life for this game beyond Steam. As in, if Steam goes this game could still have years of life left in it, will the tools support that?
Fair enough, I agree you can make your mouse behave so insensitively it would be like using an analog stick. Most people don't set up their mouse that way, though.

As a side note, I find it hilarious that there have actually been people like raging over the fact that this game got cross-promoted with TF2, even going so far as to ask-- nay, demand that the developers give them an option to disable seeing the TF2 costumes in-game. All because they don't want to be reminded of Team Fortress.

I'm just blown away by that because, really, how can you look at a screenshot or video of MNC and not immediately link its graphical and gameplay style to TF2? What, were they expecting it to be football with guns?

You could argue that in theory but, pragmatically speaking, the developer of the game is about ten times more likely to fold than Valve/Steam.

Sure, but if it was disconnected it wouldn't matter if either bit the dust.

So... then it's safer to hedge your bet on the thing less likely to fold...

You're arguing as if being forced to be part of Steam has some sort of inherent advantage for me, I assure you that it does not. I haven't bought anything on Steam, ever, and I won't be doing it for MNC, despite me loving the hell out of the game (and in reality, it would likely be way more justified as it stands it will go poof anyway - but I refuse to pay Valve a dime for screwing the PC with this bullshit).

Not at all. I''m suggesting that, even if one doesn't like Steam, from a practical standpoint it's overriding negative aspect (the 'rental' argument) probably wouldn't come into play for this particular title as: 1) It's produced by an indie studio that arguably has a lower life expectancy than Valve; and 2) it's a multi-player game so unless there is a community for it 10+ years down the road it won't really matter if the Steam servers go offline unlike a single player game. And I respect that. You actually have a stance you don't compromise and you don't beat people over the head with it, either.

I'd prefer multiplayer-only games be attached to Steam, for them it makes a ton of sense. I was super annoyed Borderlands didn't use Steamworks.

Steam's DRM isn't a concern with multiplayer because multiplayer is inherently temporary anyway. The client, which I find annoying to use in singleplayer games because it offers me no benefits, suddenly becomes useful with a multiplayer game.