The old god of Death is dead

Huzzah. After a couple of weeks trying, we finally got Yogg Saron down in 10 man. It actually only took us 5 attempts.

Again, gratz uod.

3 Weeks Till MML 8

3 weeks from right now I'll be settled into my seat at Million Man Lan 8. Now in all reality there won't be more than 500-600 people there, but it is going to be awesome just like last year. Also, for those of you who are lanwar fans, Burden is sitting on the other side of the table from me....awesome.

This year I suspect my game list will be:

DotA
Demigod
Left4Dead
WoW
and if I'm lucky, some IRC based UNO.

Of course there could always be other things to play, but those are the likely contenders. Drinks will of course consist of Water, Bawls, and Bawls G33k B34r (hopefully). The G33k B34r is a new addition to the Bawls regimin and its fantastic. Caffinated root beer!

So ok, 4 days of gaming, caffine and overall fun. What could possibly make it better right? The fact that I get to spend it with my best friend. Huzzah!

2 for Special

Also Jon Wyza the much hyped best friend on mine has been added to this site so he will publish some quircky thoughts every now and then as well.

-Crawly out
(Yes I misspelled it. Jon will catch the reference)

Demigod

Lets talk a bit about a game that showed up a few months ago from Stardock Games called Demigod. If you have ever played Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients (DotA) mod, then you'll feel somewhat comfortable in this game. The overall premise is that you control a hero and are tasked to accomplish some goal for the round. There are a total of 8 different heroes. 4 generals and 4 assassins. The generals have a following of creeps that aid them in whatever they attack. Upgrades allow them to have more and stronger creeps. Assassins don't have any helpers but make up for it in sheer power.

There are several things helping and hindering you in the goals.

• Buildings
  • Energy Towers - Attack anything near them. The more towers it can connect to the more powerful it is
  • Arrow Towers - Has a cone AoE attack
  • Fortresses - Lots of health, has a cone AoE attack
  • Item Shop
  • Artifact Shop - Has expensive and powerful items
  • Energy Crystal - Standing next to this gives you health and mana quickly
  • Flag - Gives a buff or debuff and often control of nearby buildings
  • Portal - Periodically spawns fighters that automatically attack the opposing team
  • Gold Mine - slowly gives gold to the team controlling it
    
  • Citadel - Lose this and its over. Gives you access to upgrades for all buildings and creeps.

As the game progresses your hero gains experience by capturing flags, killing creeps, and killing other heroes. Additionally you get large sums of money for killing other heroes. Each time you level you can upgrade or add new skills to your hero. In total there are 20 levels, however, there are closer to 30-35 upgrades available so you must find a good setup that works for you. Additionally as you upgrade things in the citadel your buildings get new abilities, stronger, and heal faster. New fighter types can also be added to the waves.

There are 4 levels of difficulty in the game. Easy and Normal feel undertuned. Hard feels more like what normal should and Nightmare is more like what hard should feel like, but that might just be me. Additionally there are 2 single player modes. 1 is tournament where you play 8 levels to get the highest amount of favor (earned by killing other things mostly). The second is a quick skirmish.

Overall I enjoy Demigod. It has had alot of patches in the last couple months to balance it better, but the patching has slowed and I believe we are up to a more stable point in the games lifespan.

Tuesday Night is Raid Night.

Well it has happened again. The hands of time have happened to stop on yet another Tuesday. Why is that so poignant that i should write a blog about it? Because it is RAID NIGHT YA'LL!!! Every Tuesday & Sunday my fellow cyber comrades-in-arms march into digital dungeons and control our pixelated avatars in a fight for justice and more pixelated items that incrementally increase our avatars statistics.

Now why do grown men and women do this? what could drive them to shun society and go into a hermit like existence? There is but one answer....

Escapism.

That is the essence of fantasy gaming. Without it no one would have any need to play these types of games. Plus there is a sense of comrodery that comes with playing one of these games. You get to know people by their handle rather than by their real names. It is a strange and yet rewarding relationship that you form with these cyber comrades.

On a side note:

My wife is also very hospitable to my wants and she graciously lets me play WOW on these days. So to you my lovely wife i must say that i love you and appreciate your patience with me as I indulge in childish activities.