Latrine

There's a whole genre of games called LOMAs, the best of which have been on the PC. I'd recommend starting with League of Legends, although DotA 2 seems more popular around here. While you're done with MMOs, you may want to give Blizzard's other latest games a try: Starcraft 2 and Diablo III. Valve's Team Fortress 2 is also quite a different game on the PC compared to its console community because of more frequent updates. To The Moon is an excellent story based indie game that puts you on an emotional roller coaster. Machinarium and Botanicula from Amanita Design are two of the most inventive and beautiful adventure games around. (You can pick up Machinarium for pretty cheap now in http://www.humblebundle.com/ and also get some other good games, particularly Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP if you haven't played that on a touch device.)

Also... (XCOM spoiler)

You know, Kirkman used to say all the time in the letters section of Walking Dead that the aliens would come eventually...

I don't know if anyone has posted about this here but over at gamerswithjobs.com we have weekly League of Legends game nights every Tue, Fri, Sat starting around 8pm EST. Many in-house 5v5s are played. Players of all skill levels are welcome, we try to balance teams as best we can. Join the "GWJ" chat channel in game or find us on the GWJ Ventrilo server. Even if you have access to DotA 2, I recommend LoL as a good introductory lords management game. They've made a number of design changes that makes the game more friendly while still preserving much of the intensity inherent in the genre. Sometimes we do amateur commentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY--y_B5VlI Thread: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/111445

I imagine Big Dog's birth was something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_p0qAIuHdE

Grats Chris, fuck Chris. This is the worst thing since Old Man Murray died. You better make a video game as good as Portal and Left 4 Dead combined. Just know that you'll never eclipse the glory of your past. Hope you back up into SLJ's severed arm real soon.

55-wizard-on and 55-wizard-no are the same phone number.

NDA has been eased up, so we can talk but no screenshots/video. LoL is very similar to HoN in my opinion but perhaps slightly better tuned, although that doesn't mean much since they're both in beta. Also while HoN is a carbon copy of DotA, LoL has some minor improvements and changes. Overall LoL feels a little more newbie friendly, it's still pretty easy to die but it's more easily avoidable. The item store is presented better by category, but what I find even more useful is the recommended item sets for each character which you can easily buy up as you go. They say that the recommended item set isn't necessarily the best way to gear your heroes but I find it works fine and doesn't make you think too much about it. There's no "denying" in LoL, killing your own minions and towers to prevent the enemies from getting gold, but you still need to "last hit" to get the most gold out of minions. The biggest gameplay change in LoL are the Tower Inhibitors which replace the minion producing structures in your base. If you destroy an enemy's inhibitor then you are able to spawn super minions until the inhibitor is rebuilt after some fixed time elapses. The super minions have a lot of health so they're difficult to kill and they can eventually overwhelm defenses if left unchecked. They're kind of like Giants in Demigod but they're not really a threat to enemy heroes and they eventually stop coming if they're held off. One other big change is the concept of the Summoner, who you play as the guy controlling the Hero. The Summoner has his own Spells of which you can select two at the start of a match. The spells don't cost your Hero any mana but they're generally on a long cooldown. Besides potions there aren't any usable items in LoL so the summoner's spells kind of fill that role. The Summoner also has a Rune book that you can fill with Runes that give minor bonuses to your hero. I'm not really sure how you're supposed to get Runes since currently you just press a button to get random runes right now in the beta. The Summoner also has Masteries which are basically WoW style talent trees to further buff your heroes or your spells. The three trees are Attack, Defense, and Utility. You gain levels as you play more matches so you have to earn points for the masteries and slots in your rune book.

Just got into the beta for this. I believe there's an NDA still in effect so that's all I can say about that. My PVP.net name is Latrine. As for other DOTA style games, I'll share my thoughts. I never played DOTA itself but I have played Demigod and the Heroes of Newerth beta which I hear is basically a carbon copy of DOTA. I played Demigod first and I really like it, and play with guys from the gamerswithjobs.com community. There aren't as many heroes as in the other games but they all have greater depth with multiple possible builds, and it's the only game out there that doesn't go cartoony with its art style. Also I will say I love the ability to zoom way out in this game that isn't present in HoN. The main difference between Demigod and DotA is the existence of control flags and base improvements. Most games are basically won by the team that controls the majority of the flags for the majority of the match in order to get Catapults and Giants well before the enemy team does. However early game smackdowns and late game jockeying for portal flags does occur. I've gotten a little tired of Demigod because I've played it so much but it's still my favorite DotA style game and I'm eagerly anticipating the two new heroes they're going to release. I played HoN after being exposed to a lot of Demigod so it was a rude jolt at first. The play field is zoomed in too close for comfort and hero vs hero combat is fast and unforgiving. The heroes are all simpler but there's more of them. There's a kind of novelty to trying a new hero every time but I never really felt attached to any of them. Also the item shop is a confusing jumble and your hero is very underpowered if you don't choose the right items off the bat. I got used to this eventually but it still doesn't feel right or fair. Also "juking" is much more common in HoN, having a bunch of people sneak up on and kill an inattentive hero. And I'm a little off-put by the "last hit" mechanic required to get gold and prefer Demigod's system of gold sharing as long as you do some damage to minions. Also games are more about pushing through defenses and winning engagements against enemy heroes instead of any sort of area control. However the basic gameplay is the same and I found it to be a fun, albeit sometimes frustrating alternative to Demigod. One final note, while Demigod is "slower" and HoN is "faster", the time it takes to play a single match of either game is about the same, 20 to 60 minutes, and I find that Demigod games tend to be shorter on average because Giants are usually an "end game" button.