Heroes of Newerth Preview: Like DotA, But Better

With an increase in popularity on the “Warcraft 3″ custom map “Defense of the Ancients” over the past few years, many game developers have decided to create their own spin-off version; Stardock made their attempt with “Demigod,” and Riot Games is currently working on “League of Legends”. This isn’t much of a surprise, as there are millions of players around the world who play “DOTA” and is the only reason why “Warcraft 3″ is still selling after so many years. S2Games, the folks behind the FPS/RTS hybrid “Savage” series, are about to throw their hat in the ring with their recreation of “DOTA” called “Heroes of Newerth”. While other companies derive their methods on the “DOTA”-style gameplay, “HoN” does not shy away from the fact that it is “DOTA” 2.0 and even has the blessings from “DOTA”’s current creator, Icefrog. [Continue Reading]

Savage 2 Review: Changing The Game

Five years ago, S2 games released their first game, called “Savage,” and it instantly became hailed as an original multiplayer title due to it’s unique combination of a real-time strategy game and a shooter. Unfortunately, due to a rather failed marketing campaign as well as flawed design, many people thought it was an MMORPG, and for those who didn’t, found the game to be a bit high on the learning curve. In January 2008, S2 games releases their second attempt to gather an audience with “Savage 2.”

You must be wondering why this writer is wasting his time on a game that was released over a year ago? As strange as this sounds, the game has changed so much since its original incarnation that any review which hasn’t been written the past few months should be considered obsolete. Recently, S2 games performed numerous changes to the game; removing units, adding new units, giving the player more items, and changing the core melee system. Are these changes for the better? Hell yeah. [Continue Reading]