Before you shitheads go pointing and laughing at me for still playing the game that ruined people’s HSC, let me say this…

…

fuck you.

Anyway, so lately there’s been many developments in the gaming community revolving around making a “Dota alternative” to free the current game of its reliance on the 7-year-old Warcraft 3 engine. First there was Demigod which is pretty poor. Too graphics intensive, felt like you were controlling a single pathetic unit in a RTS game.

Then you have League of Legends which has the original DotA developer on their development team. I recently got an invite but haven’t tried it yet probably won’t since HoN is so much more awesome.

More recently I’ve been playing Heroes of Newerth (HoN) which ismore or less identical to DotA. All the items are based off the ones in DotA Allstars, same recipe cost, statistics and ability, just different name and icon. Heroes resemble closely to Dota with some new heroes and some ability alterations. Even the map is more or less identical.

Before you calling it a “dota rip off” you should try it first. I haven’t had a single bad game. When I say bad game…I mean, ragers or laggers or douches in general. But that will probably change once they release it to the wider public.

I would like to just point out several key benefits of this game.

Firstly, the hosting is conducted server side, meaning that you don’t actually connect to a host. This means that anybody can host. Thus, you don’t get the “Waiting for player:” dialogue which is oh so common inside Warcraft 3.

Secondly, there is a rating system. Every time you play a game, you gain points for winning or lose points for losing. Because of this there is also an auto-balance feature  so you don’t get “imba teams”.

Thirdly, there is leaver protection. The system records every time you leave a game. Thus if you leave enough games you won’t be able to join certain games. However, if you do happen to disconnect from a game for whatever reason, HoN allows you to rejoin the game! As long as it’s within 5 minutes. Enough time to reboot the router and rejoin :)

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there is a “concede” option. Players vote if they want to forfeit the game. How is this important? This means that you don’t get douches rage quitting a game because they feel that the game is gg.

I have 5 4 3 2 0 invites available. If you wish to play let me know and I’ll send one your way. :)

Here’s a trailer.