Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Christmas Come Early!

First Impressions
       Alright Ladies and gents, here's the run down. My other, non-Demigod duties have been calling this week (blasphemy, I know) so I must apologize for this post is going to be late as well as short. Better then nothing... right...? Of course!
       However, I have not been neglecting my faithful readers (all 3... 2 and 1/2) entirely. With Beta 3 so close, yet so very very far, I gave in and have started my official beta of the game today. I must say, its pretty sweet. And, in attempts of a semi-professional manner, I've made a list of pros and cons:

Pros

  1.   The game is visually stunning. The graphics make the game seem less like most RTS I've played, making your hero seem much more impressive. Sadly, I had to turn them down for my Dell XPS. Silly laptop.
  
  2.    I'm gonna be lame and say the menu interface. I'm not using this as a cop-out, I seriously appreciated the simplicity of the menus, particularly the hero selection screen. You have the hero model in the middle with 3 buttons on either side (generals and assassins). I really appreciated the fact that it wasn't just a drop down menu. 

  3.    Controls and game-play basics are quick to learn. The controls mimic most RTS games making the game a "pick up and play" for anyone who every played one. And though it took five minutes to look through the abilities, once you pick one, its a one button process.

Cons:

  1.     It lagged on my end. Most likely my computer or my crappy Internet connection, but that             was the biggest obstacle at the time. I'm going to figure it out though, so no worries.

  2.     Though the very basics were really easy to pick up, everything else has a steep learning curve. With items, unit upgrades, skills, enemy skills, hero builds, flags, towers, leveling up, etc. I didn't even know where to begin on a competitive level. That will definitely come in time though.

  3.     When I was a general, it drove me absolutely crazy that I could not see my current selected units, let alone stats. If I really had to micro-manage, I think I'd have to hurt something...

  4.     I couldn't find a whisper command, at least "/w" didn't work... But that is very minor and one probably already exists, i just haven't figured it out yet.

I Sneeze Acid...?
       Yea, I know its a pretty shallow list... I only had time for two games. Plus, I don't want to make any judgements early on. And for those of you wondering "Hey, why didn't you just use the numbered list format built into the blog", the auto format uses flowers...
       But, I must say, I really did enjoy it. I rocked out with the Unclean Beast first match and I really liked how he played. He reminded me of Pudge from my Dota days. Now if only Unclean Beast could pull enemies to him with his giant, hooked, acid tongue that'd be really sweet.... (*cough* Stardock *cough*). I attempted a harassment build with his damage-over-time ability (a DOT for those not in the know *awink*) and his exploding corpse skill. Didn't want to risk the pestilence AOE damage skill due to too much lag. I didn't want to lose control of it and have it kill me. Only downside was that a harassment build was a little too easy against AI. From what I hear though, everything is  little too easy against AI.

Epilogue
       Well, I said it would be a short post, but hey, last week's was extra long, so go read that instead! I'd also like to give a shout out to specialissimus from my first game. He played a 1v1 with AI so i could get a hang of it. I'd also like to thank prozombe for not only playing with me and showing me some common problems of the game (like the difficulty of a comeback), but for reading my blog as well. Also, I'd like to apologize to Hunkd379 for the lag for when I hosted. Nothing I could do about it.
       So if you guys see me in game, say hi, tell me how much you like my blog (or how much you hate it... I suppose), chat about Demigod, or anything you want really, and play a game or two. Who knows, I might even mention your name. Oh joy!

Laters!

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