My experience at The Game Awards & After Party, 2015

This year I was lucky enough to land free tickets to The Game Awards 2015. Geoff Keighley posted the following on Twitter “The first 25 people to email me will get free tickets” I saw this tweet 5 hours after its origination. I replied, hoping to make it but doubtful due to being so late to the sweepstakes. Well I ended up getting a response 3 days later with 2 tickets and RSVP to the After Party. I immediately began preparation for this weekday celebration, requesting time off work, planning the drive and grabbing one of my closest buddies Jordan. The drive to downtown L.A was only 66 miles for me, I had to be at the event before 6pm. Knowing typical LA traffic we left at 3:30… We didn’t get to our seats until 5:55!!! I don’t think I’ve ever been more anxious in my life! I’ve always wanted to attend a game event like this and I wasn’t about to let shitty drivers stop me hahaha. After the stress was over we landed into our seats, to my surprise these free tickets were pretty close to the front where all the stars sit! The first voice I heard over the loudspeaker was the one and only Geoff Kheighley. He’s only 20 feet away, with his microphone kicking off the awards! At that moment, after the long drive, stress from leaving work early and bad financial timing it finally felt real and was happening. The journalist who I respected the most over the last 15 years was in front of me. My fondest memories of summer break in high school was watching Geoff Keighleys E3 coverage on G4 back in the 2000’s. That’s when reality set in, I was part of it, finally! I was here with the man himself and the biggest stars in gaming sitting only a handful of rows ahead.

"That’s when reality set in, I was part of it, finally! I was here.."

As the show kicks off I sit back in my seat and let the environment take over. The first presenter was Camilla Luddington, the voice of Lara Croft. She fit the role really well and had similarities to the character she portrayed, to my surprise she was British?! Following a sweet speech about classic multiplayer, Splatoon was awarded best multiplayer. Thus Queuing Reggie Fils-Aime the head of Nintendo of America!! Speaking of icons, another figure I’ve come to recognize over the years. A guy who we all love for seemingly no reason at all. He’s quite taller than I imagined. Little did I know that I would see more of him not only on stage but in person at the after party (Spoiler Alert?)

The first new trailer we got to see was for Uncharted 4!!! My personal choice for most anticipated game! Shortly after that the Best E-Sports team which was presented by Shaq-Fu himself!!! The reveal trailer for Shaq-Fu a Legend Reborn gave off an afro samurai vibe, it looked alright for what it was. I mean come on, it’s a fighting game staring Shaq and the 94' SNES original wasn’t very good to begin with. This is totally a niche hit but regardless a title that gaming could always appreciate, again it’s Shaq. Fuck it! I personally wasn’t too excited for the E-Sports awards nominees but it nice to have those teams recognized. The biggest impact from Shaq’s performance was the announcement of the TBS E-League. A new weekly E-Sports broadcast on live television featuring Counter-Strike GO. This wasn’t exactly a world premier due to this being announced recently by TBS themselves but none the less it was great in this official capacity. Nothing to hate about that right?! Who doesn’t love some competitive CS from time to time?! I’m biased though, my alias is Gordon4reeman for Christ’s sake, of course i love CS.

“It’s Shaq. Fuck it, why not!”

Over the next 10 minutes we are filled with a quick commercial break which showed DeadMau5 in the green room playing Battlefront, I have never seen somebody who looked more bored and confused. He’s a space cadet, I said aloud, “Is he fuckin high?!” That got some belly laughs from nearby audience members. He was asked for his impressions of Battlefront, his response was a complaint about the mouse’s DPI and sensitivity. I found it hilarious that someone who makes a living on a computer doesn’t know how to change mouse sensitivity, especially a “musician” whose music is primarily based on video games. The local hobo is more professional than this guy. Enough negativity! Time to move on. The commercial break ends with Bethesda announcing a 1 Million Dollar giveaway for ESO subscribers, seems like a desperate move but more power to them.
Next up was Troy Baker! Voice of Joel in Last of us. If anyone were to win the dapper award it would be this gentlemen, he comes out smiling and dressed up like a boss. He read the nominees for Best Narrative which was awarded to Viva Seifert from Her Story. You could tell right off the bat that she was a powerhouse of a female. Professional and confident, portraying a very appreciative and humble personality. I always enjoy seeing impressions from stars who’ve never done game work before. In Kiefers words form the year before, you don’t realize the passion and appreciation that gamers have until you dive in head first. She spent time complimenting the writer/creator Sam Barlow. You could tell she was honored and proud of her work and team. Congratulations Viva!

The lights dimmed as we transitioned into the world premiere of Farcry Primal! The crowd reception was overwhelmingly positive, even I was on board for this and I’m not a big FarCry fan. Following that was a performance by CHRVCHES, is that Ceviche or Churches?! LOL JK I don’t know if I should be hungry or not. Coming back to the theme of female powerhouses, we all happily submitted to the talent in front of us. She has an outstanding voice! Not much of a relation to gaming, this seemed like a pop culture choice, which is fine. I’m sure I would ever have heard her work otherwise and I’m glad I did. The goons in the front row were waving their arms side to side as if in actual church, or something. I found that quite humorous. Shortly after was the nominees for Trending Gamer which is something that normally is a waste of an award, however this was special. This year’s winner was Greg Miller from Kinda Funny Games. His speech blew me away, he hit the nail on the head. He said what developers needed to hear on a celebratory night like this. A community full of negative feedback and harsh criticism was taught how the respect artistry. I can’t begin to summarize this, you have to spend 1 minute and watch for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoyN5NSorIM

Another world premier?! We see a trailer showing a general commanding a battlefield, calling in the Psychonauts as his last defense. Psychonauts 2 has finally been announced!!! I remember the first game on the original Xbox! As expected, the infamous Tim Schafer came out to present this game which is being funded using the Fig.com service. What I took from his speech was that this was similar to Kickstarter except that contributors earn shares of the profits compared to the amount invested. “When we make money, you make money” Seems like a good concept, I wish them the best.
*UPDATE:* “Psychonauts 2 campaign broke ONE MILLION DOLLARS in less than 24 hours on Fig!”

Rocket League wins best independent game before Iceman steps up on stage to present Quantum Break. Shawn Ashmore is a LOT shorter than you would imagine! An epic performance from Quantum Break. I’m always open-minded to new story telling methods. Overall I get a Heavy Rain vibe with more interaction.

The Man of the Hour…

Geoff took center stage again to give us a short speech regarding Satoru Iwata’s passing. Again this is another example of how Geoff makes for an unbiased and wholehearted letterhead for gaming journalism. He took the time to pause the awards, marketing and schedule to allow Reggie Fils-Aime the time to share Iwata’s greatest achievements along with the song “Man of the Hour” being performed live. It was really touching to see our big community come together to honor on of our founding fathers. I saw others crying and praying as we wished our Nintendo leader a peaceful afterlife and one last hoorah as we appreciated him together as a family. One person in the front row was even holding up a 3DS. The screen illuminated the scene like a lighter or candle amongst a quiet, respectful audience. That hit me hard. I can’t describe it any better than that. RIP Mr Iwata     Man of the Hour! Man of our Hearts!

BIG BOSS!!!

Our next presenter is Kiefer Sutherland, if you watched the live stream you may have heard me yell SNAKKKKKKE 3-4 times as he came on HAHHA! He presented the Industry Icon award to Westwood for their creation and evolution of Real-Time Strategy. I was a big C&C fan growing up. I always enjoyed the military and nation based themes those games had, especially Red Alert 2!!! I had not realized that Westwood was so far ahead of blizzard in this genre at that time. It really did influence a lot of major E-Sports today, the award was well deserved!

LUKE!!

Mark Hamill started with a bit about past adventure games he’s been a part of, even begging to be on the posters HAHAH. He has such a pleasant, goofy personality! He’s the most respected troll on planet earth! We love you mark!!!! (Seeing Mark Hamill in person has been checked off my bucket list) Luke then went on with his Joker voice before the nominees for best Action/Adventure Game. I was happy to see Metal Gear 5 take the win for this.

There’s no crying in baseball!

Shortly after the announcement Geoff personally thanks Hideo Kojima for his hard work on the game. Geoff subtely yet firmly shared the fate which Konami’s lawyers prevented Kojima from attending and representing the game. Its pure bullshit but Geoff’s response pretty much speaks for us all. I won’t buy another Konami game ever again. Why prevent him from accepting the award that he worked hard to earn! “There’s no crying in baseball” F you Konami!

Game of the Year 2015!

As I’m sure you’ve heard the game of the year is the Witcher 3, I personally did not play the Witcher 3 (yet) but I predicted this to win GOTY. My personal GOTY would be between Fallout 4 or MGS5 but I do believe that the Witcher 3 deserved this! Cd Projekt Red came out of the gate strong, they are a smaller company when compared to Kojima productions and Bethesda. The expectations for Witcher 3 were lower than Fallout 4. Fallout 4 had extremely high expectations and has some technical issues while on the other hand a company with lower expectation comes out with Witcher 3 with little technical issues and equal scale. I also think the earlier release date for the Witcher 3 helped it gain the extra votes. It’s probably safe to say that most of the panel did not complete fallout or MGS5 yet! I better take advantage of that 50% off sale and play Witcher 3 soon!!!!

After Party!!

The after party was RSVP only, luckily my giveaway tickets included RSVP for Jordan & I. when we first exited the awards show we saw that the line for the after party was already wrapping around the Microsoft center, over 2 blocks with thousands of people deep. We simply refused to sit at the end of such a line. We walked up towards the front. Funny enough there was a crosswalk between the front of the line and the Check-in/Entrance. We blended ourselves in to the crowd as they crossed the street to let the first people in. It actually worked!!! I thought we would just get pushed to the back of the line with no chance of entering. Well I tell ya Jordan’s Italian instincts kicked in and got us in there with the first handful of people!!! As we entered the venue it was still pretty empty, to the left side there was over 70 cabinets including arcade games and pinball machines. On the right wall was plug n play consoles with retro games displayed on projectors. The center of the room had the circular bar and at the back center was the stage and VIP patio. The kickoff to the after party was about the start, the room was starting to fill up and we overhear the guards speak about capacity. We literally would not have made it in if we didn’t troll our way to the front. Geoff is front & center about to kick off the party. I immediately ran to the front row, raising my glass with Keighley and the gang, at this moment only one foot away or less. (I managed to make it into a few pictures, still waiting for them to uploaded to their site)  The After party has officially begun!

 "70 cabinets including arcade games and pinball machines"

Jordan and I spent the majority of the party walking around and people watching. The venue itself was HUGE! It was a giant hangar on the roof of a parking structure. Music blasting, people gaming everywhere! The first developer I saw was Tim Schafer. He was dancing with his friends, drinks in hand. I could tell that he had a few already HAHA, he was funny. At that moment I spaced out on his name and was embarrassed to ask for picture unless I could properly address such a talented man. We thought we saw Mark Hamill but between us both and the distance factor we weren’t 100% sure. As we continued to rotate around the venue we ran into Viva Seifert who had a small clique around her at almost all times, she seemed very approachable but also very busy! It was great to see her up in the general admission area with all of us “regulars” Throughout the night we wouldn’t stray too far from the VIP entrance for fear of missing a big name walkin by. It didn’t take long for us to see a few at that very spot. The head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross walked by with a friend by her side. We had a quick view of Troy Baker exiting the party quite early, only a man like that would have a better party to go to! haha Shortly after that we saw Phil Spencer cruising the party before going back into the VIP section. Shortly after that sighting Geoff posted this picture on twitter that I thought was special and a true sign of what these awards are all about, especially in that moment.

Even rivals were Celebrating together!

Phil Spencer – Head of Xbox & Shawn Layden CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America



At this point we knew the VIP entrance was where we needed to be. It had been an hour since our last sighting. Beginning to tire out from standing all night we prepped to leave. Then I saw Reggie Fils-Aime!; The Head of Nintendo of America. He walked right by me within arm’s reach. I turned and said “Reggie!!!! You’re the man! And gave him a thumbs up! He glanced over, smiled and kept walking. He is seriously way too cool for school and for good reason! At this point I’ve seen the head of Xbox and Nintendo (of america), and barely missed the head of PS4 too! This place was a dream come true for me. What a highlight at the end. We left around midnight due to work responsibility the next day. I'm hoping to get a hotel room next time around so i can stay for the whole party and actually have more drinks haha. I actually felt like I was part of the video game industry last night. A feeling I've been dreaming of as long as I can remember. As a game fanatic and aspiring journalist I hope to find the means to make it to more events like this in the future. The highlight of the night was the after party for me, if you thought the game awards are a wash then hold your thoughts until you have the chance to attend. I assure you, you’re in for a real treat. The overall vibe was like a company Christmas party, you don't exactly know everybody but you felt the comradery. Thank you Geoff Keighley & friends for funding, planning and hosting such a memorable night for everyone involved.

-Spencer Wright (Gordon4reeman) 

FreeThought: Taco Tuesday

Today is Taco Tuesday. I couldn’t help but reminisce about a time when I not only ate tacos but played games on one, that’s right! A TACO!!! Thus leading into my next FreeThought. 

The Nokia N-Gage

     

The Nokia N-Gage Gaming Phone, otherwise known as the TACO! The N-Gage is a hybrid mobile game console and cellular phone rolled into one. This device had fully featured games by real developers with some titles even including online and Bluetooth multiplayer. The extent of services included MP3, AM/FM player, app store, movies, and screen capturing. The most notable feature is the location of the microphone being on the side of the device, forcing you to hold it sideways thus kickstarting the term “SideTalking”. This device is not short of nicknames…..haha

Mobilized online gaming in 2003

In 2003, the internet wasn’t mobilized on the scale it is today, especially in gaming. This “Phone” was the first mobile game platform with internet connectivity. This was HUGE. It was exciting for a group of friends to have multiple devices connected wirelessly in the same match. For reference the Nintendo DS came out in 2004 and the PSP in 05’. This was competing with the Game Boy advanced….. The closest equivalent at the time was the GBA transfer cable which was only really useful in Zelda 4 Swords Adventures.

During one poorly performing semester I was grounded from all things games, my parents had not known the extent of the N-gage functions thus turning it into my primary gaming device for that semester. During that time I allowed myself to explore some particularly heinous game experiences that I otherwise wouldn’t have succumbed too. Not all of them were as bad however. The most exciting memory surrounding this device was the multiplayer. Competing against my older brother and his friends. Playing a worms match with multiple N-Gage’s over Bluetooth felt too good to be true. Popup multiplayer in public at any time! When multiplayer wasn’t possible I was burying my head deep into the elder scrolls universe, barely making out what was in front of me on the tiny screen. Surprising enough the experience wasn’t that far off from Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind which released the year before.

What made the N-Gage stand out at the time (besides it ugly design) was its unique library of REAL games up to and including the only co-op elder scrolls game to date! (If you don’t include the MMO) I’m talking about serious franchises here with online multiplayer! This kinda makes our current phone app store look like complete trash. How do you compare angry birds to Sonic, Elder Scrolls, Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell, and Tony Hawk?.... Man times have changed. My favorites are listed below, there was a total of 58 games released before the sad demise of the Nokia N-Gage.  Let’s take a moment, bow our heads and wish our taco shaped device a beautiful after life as we enjoy some of the gems of its life cycle. 

The cult following behind the N-Gage has come and gone, what we have left is this website; paying homage to our beloved “SideTalkin”

http://www.sidetalkin.com/

Did you own an N-Gage? share your memories or hatred in the comments section

Happy Taco Tuesday!!!!

FreeThought: Battlefront Beta!!!

Over this weekend I spent most of my waking hours inside the Star Wars Battlefront Beta head deep in Hoth and the Walker Assault Map. It’s been 10 years since battlefront 2 launched. I’m not alone in saying I’ve been awaiting this game with open arms. Like any diehard fan I was curious, excited, and maybe even skeptical. Let’s face it, the expectations behind this game has to be intimidating for any developer. That’s a lot of pressure. It takes more than star wars skins in battlefield 4. How do you avoid pissing off some of the most devoted fans in science fiction history? I’ll tell ya how… Take the best features from the most beloved games made in the last 20 years. The perfection and variety behind Battlefront uses lessons learned from Battlefield, Halo, Twisted Metal, & Uncharted.

Lasers! (Not the doctor evil kind) The “gunplay” or should I say blaster play is spot on for what you would expect in the star wars universe. You aren’t plagued with wild recoil. The lasers actually have a travel time, shots don’t instantly hit the target like an arcade shooter. The emphasis on sustained fire really does remind me of uncharted multiplayer. You actually have to lead your crosshair ahead of a moving targets, achieving kills at range is a testimate of skill. “Time to kill” aka HP reminds you of halo in that you actually engage in a fight with someone. A world where shooting first doesn’t guarantee the kill.

Fluidity. The movement is smooth, the lack of a sticky cover system reduces convolution. You don’t get stuck on corners or misplace yourself. The parkour super human agility the jetpack gives you really rings true to Boba Fett. The ability to fly through the air with a jetpack and smack down unscathed is SO FUN. Getting to mountain tops or being able to sneak in that last kill before blasting off as you’re overrun is giggle inducing. Everything about the environment can be taken advantage of. You don’t get that “invisible wall” or “I’m not supposed to be here” reaction. If you took the time to jetpack up and climb a mountain you are rewarded. Positioning doesn’t feel as important in other modern shooters as it does here. Being able to toggle between 3rd & 1st person really made this game special for me, I’m a huge fan of 3rd person shooters and wish more games allowed this option. Seeing your characters adds so much more for me on terms of positioning, I like playing off cover and corners. Alternatively you can stay in 1st to line up ranged shots easier. It’s the best of both worlds

Power-ups. It’s SO refreshing to play a game with power-ups. These days the most you would expect is a helicopter spawn point being camped by 5 people who all want to drive. This is old school, this is Twisted Metal! Cruising along, spotting the awesome aesthetic of a spinning missile or mine icon only this time Squad Shields, AT-ST’s & hero pickups. The Hero pickup gives you a limited time to play as Darth Vader of Luke Skywalker. Playing as a hero feels like a MOBA, keys 1-3 are your core abilities. Force push, forward lunge, force choke, lightsaber throw (depending on Luke, Vader) are at your disposal. While a hero you have increased agility and feel like an absolute badass. That is until the time runs out or you get DPS’d down. My first time finding a hero pickup I spawned in as Luke. I see Darth Vader swinging his red saber on rebels across the map, I immediately bee-line across the surface of Hoth consciously passing storm troopers, walkers, leaping across terrain, deflecting lasers just to fight and destroy Vader. Some may have been more conservative with their hero power but in that instance going after the Vader I spotted across the map that was killing my friends was the single most exciting multiplayer moment I’ve had, I think ever. (I kicked his ASSSS, Jedi FTW)

Imbalances (the good kind...wait what?) Walker Assault is a 20v20 gametype where the rebels must defend a base while the empire throws everything they have at you as seen in The Empire Strikes Back. Multiplayer games often go for a perfect 50/50 balance in competitive multiplayer. This specific gametype opts to not give a shit and stay true to the scenario! THANK YOU!!! As the rebels you get a sense of being overrun and against the odds as in the movie. The empire has AT-AT’s & AT-ST’s marching towards the shield generator as rebels attempt to hold ground. Downing one of the AT-AT’s is incredibly difficult unless people work together in mass or have some gnarly pilots haha. On the other hand playing as the empire is often a shit show of free kills on desperate defenders.  This adds value to a rebellion win which is rare to be honest. That’s the fun of it, things can play out differently IF your team works together, it’s exciting to be part of the rebel team during a win, seeing both  the AT-AT’s fall with the rebel shield generator still standing. It plays off the innocent imaginations of our childhood. What if the rebels won on Hoth?! The community is split on this decision, one group wants an even field for competitive multiplayer while the other group wants authenticity. Personally I love the current iteration of Walker Assault. Instead of changing it I would love to see a separate scenario where the empire is suffering from similar circumstances, maybe the fight for the Death Star or Endor? A map with the empire being on the defensive would the better approach to adding balance. Don’t attempt to make Hoth balanced. That fight never was. Just maintain variation in map design, which I believe they will. 

Star Cards are the title of perks in Battlefront. As expected in shooters you have progression and unlockable abilities. Unlocking them is nothing new, you play, earn XP and purchase. The main difference that stands out to me is the resource management. My main example is the Cycler Rifle, instead of giving players a sniper class or pickup you actually have a sniper perk. This perk adds a sand-trooper style musket to your inventory. Upon pressing “3” you pull out said rifle and only have one shot. That one shot will do 90% damage, only insta-killing on headshots or wounded targets. This is basically the Scout in Counter-Strike. Just having a one shot sniper on a 6 second cooldown with unlimited ammo is balanced in my opinion. You can still have dedicated snipers without sacrificing your build or shoehorning yourself into that camping mindset. It adds more utility and risk in using your one shot. You can damage someone then off them with your primary blaster or take advantage of sniping when you’ve found yourself at higher elevation. Very reminiscent of the Halo B,X,R days or unloading a plasma pistol then finishing with a BR Headshot. It’s fast, effective and balanced. The old One-Two we used to call that. Perfect blend of utility with variety.

In conclusion I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Star Wars Battlefront Beta. EA/Dice really came out swinging. Obviously we would love a single player story mode but I’m okay without one, at the end of the day we as players wanted battlefront and here it is! There’s plenty of star wars story driven games that we played and quickly stopped,LOL. The developers did a fantastic job making this game feel and play like well STAR WARS! this will be the game I play over and over again even when exhausted of traditional multiplayer shooters. Based on what I’ve experienced so far there will be a lot of satisfied star wars fans November 17th. They did us proud 

FreeThought #1 - A Heroes of the Storm introduction from a LoL Veteran

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since my last blog post. To start off 2015 I wanted to begin my FreeThought Series which will be an extended look into my obscure ideas and reflections on games and its community either biweekly or bimonthly. I plan to keep it simple and straightforward.

This week i would like to share my new found love for MOBA's, primarily Heroes of the Storm I assumed the genre to be dormant after i realized that developers couldn't get past what was offered in Dota 1. I felt like developers like Riot, Valve (dare i say) etc have been rooted in expectations, nostalgia and lack of innovation. My excitement for the genre was gone after 3 long years of playing League of Legends.

Then on the other end of the spectrum you have DOTA 2 made by my beloved Valve. Dota 2 felt like more of the same that Dota 1 had except the complexities had no excuses. The interface was clunky w/ items being the primary addition of any active or passive modifiers. That didn't simplify things, at least LoL items were more commonly used in different situations. In Dota 2 the amount of items made it overwhelming for anyone NOT wanting the Dota 1 experience. They made characters that were difficult for no reason and many items only being viable in certain hero/situation combinations- I'm looking at you invoker. Personally doing a straight copy/paste of the Dota heroes didn't do much for me. At this point the developers were struggling with recapturing the Dota 1 experience instead of taking its strengths and pushing them further.

I had heard of Blizzard making a MOBA codenamed: Blizzard Dota, having dota in the name was a huge turn-off for me. Where was the innovation? Was anyone going to leave Dota behind and try something completely different? It took several weeks for my friends who played the closed beta to get me to try it. I finally got the beta and played it non stop for a month. Blizzard went in a whole new direction that makes you feel like this is the moba made for us, the gamers who don't live off of tournament winnings; those who play games every night to have FUN!

What's most prevalent here is Blizzards ability to make this game feel and play a lot differently than any other MOBA. I will take this time to summarize features that are different from LoL and Dota. The changes were shocking and as of yet Blizzard has not found the most productive way to inform new players of these changes and what they provide. Excuse my lack of granularity for i am summarizing.

• Leveling Up: Every several levels you are forced to select a "talent" these talents take place of what items would provide for you in other games; skill modifiers. NO Gold, NO Items NO last hitting.
• Experience: You're whole team shares experience and level, you rise or fall behind as one.
• Mercenaries: aka Jungle Camps, monsters found in the jungle do not grant individual buffs to the killer but rather come back to life and help push the closest lane, benefiting the entire team while providing pressure to the enemy.
• Objective: Each of the 6 maps have different key objective themes, all of which are important to winning and help the game end quicker with a game length median of 25 minutes (which isn't a bad thing, 25 mins is better than 45!) Example: On the Map DragonShire you are forced to capture a point on the top lane and bottom lane. Once both are held you gain access to the dragon knight which you can right click on in the center of the map to "become" the dragon knight, allowing you to control a giant dragon unit who lasts for a limited time. He does increased damage to structures and allows for aggressive pushing. This is a rough example but proves the point that you can make objectives that affect the game length, and game strategy. There is more to do here than collect gold and last hit minions. (See reference below)

• Character Concepts: A handful of base heroes do share similarities to Dota characters to an extent however some of the more recent Heroes released have shown incredible potential and bold new strategies. In short, we have a support hero that helps allies globally without the requirement to be in lane at all. 3 vikings that are one unit (ice climbers 2.0) and a siege tank capable of blowing you up from a screen lengths away. (that's just the beginning) It all sounds crazy on paper but the bravery that Blizzard shows is refreshing. you don't get the same characters from Dota 1.

To conclude my walk-through of the base differences between Heroes and the others i would like to say that after taking the jump into Heroes I have found myself happily looking forward to the future of the genre rather than backwards. I hope that the knowledge of these differences help your initial journey into this exciting game. Do give it an honest chance, after all, League used to be the odd man out when people still played Dota All Stars for Warcraft 3. Thank you Blizzard for making me fall in love with mobas all over again.