So we’ve got a bit of welcome and pleasant news to report.

Those of you that regularly frequent our LAN center and ALSO use a microphone for either Ventrillo (or team chat, what have you) might be aware of the fact that several of the rear audio/mic ports on our machines are rather finicky. Some seem to have an intermittent short, while one is presumably picking up some random frequency, constantly broadcasting static over the mic whether or not a microphone is even plugged in!

Sadly, this issue wasn’t one of our highest priorities as not that many of our patrons regularly even use the microphones, and the resolution would involve spending some cash we could sooner put into some other projects we’d like to work on.

Thus swooped in Friday Night Frag Fest to the rescue!

Yesterday afternoon, two of the fragfellows dropped by with a pleasant surprise: sixteen (16) 6-channel PCI sound cards! Now, these certainly aren’t top of the line pieces of hardware – much to our appreciation, as we certainly don’t want anybody spending gazillions of dollars on lil’ old us – but they’re certainly on par (if not better) than our onboard sound, and there can be no disagreement that the friendly donation of sixteen sound cards is ABSOLUTELY an upgrade over onboard sound that ISN’T EVEN WORKING RIGHT.

So, when all is said and done, these guys single-handedly eliminated one of our more annoying and pervasive tech issues. Please, feel free to visit their site for more information about their LAN event, follow them on Twitter, or add yourself to their Facebook group. They’re among the store’s oldest friends and continue to support us.

Plus, you know, they’re throwing that LAN in June! Who wouldn’t want to keep up with that?

(Cowabunga.)

As a thank you to everybody who helped us out with the Borderlands promotional contest, we’ll be having the oft-mentioned, previously-unscheduled pizza party on next Thursday evening (January 14th). As promised, the pizza will be free and we’re even going to have a LAN special for the night, whereupon you get a free third hour with a two hour purchase.

Considering the recent mood of the LAN, the likely swing of the room will see League of Legends play, though perhaps some Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead 2 as well. Just the same, you watched our video, so come hang out with us next Thursday and enjoy some pizza.

I’m also strongly considering having a short Spaced marathon, in honour of because I feel like it. But, we’ll just see what folks wanna’ do.

Recommended show up time is sometime shortly after six to cast a topping vote, as I’m shooting for the pizza to have been ordered and arrived by seven.

Later!

Happy holidays to all of our customers, however you may celebrate this time of year.

Game On! will close around 6 PM on Thursday December 24th so that we can all take a well-deserved break. We may re-open again Friday December 25th at 6PM but that is still under debate. We’ll tweet the results sometime before then so be on the lookout if that’s something you’re interested in.

In addition, we will be going as late as people want to stay on New Year’s Eve (December 31st) and opening again at around 6 PM on January 1st.

As always I would like to thank all the people who play in our LAN not just for hanging out but for being awesome company. Now that we’ve gotten to know some of you, it would feel lonely without.

Suggestions? Comments? Want to sound off on anything? Go HERE

We fought the good fight, gentle people of Game On! We fought it hard, like so much hard-bodied people what are hard.

Hard.

A few days ago, I received an E-mail from our iGames representative informing us that we received second place in the Borderlands promotional video contest. Naturally, I assume that there was some kind of breakdown in the judging process, as our video was quite obviously terrible enough for TWENTY first places, but I’m (not at all) a sportsmanlike kinda’ guy, so I’ma ask that you just let this injustice slide, and don’t take to the streets with the name of Muad’Dib on your lips.

Now I know that I said there’d be some amount of award if we took FIRST place, and that we ultimately ended up to the rear of the fellows that did (whose video really is quite good, by the way), but it seems entirely inappropriate to abandon that promise on something as trivial as a.. pfft.. detail. I mean, come on.

Fact: We asked you to watch our video, and you obliged.

Fact: We had the most number of views on YouTube.

Fact: There absolutely WILL be a pizza party, and we’ll also figure out some kind of awesome special on LAN hours for the evening.

Thank you so much for your support guys,
Damon

P.S. This will be cross-posted in the forum to figure out a good evening to do the free pizza/LAN special. Come to the forum if you want to weigh in.

A little belated–not as cutting edge as we might like–but we now have League of Legends installed on the computers in the LAN. The game itself strives to be better and bolder than DotA with vastly upgraded graphics and a slew of new items and heroes. Like Heroes of Newerth, it is entirely stand-alone and no longer relies of Warcraft 3 for its maps or characters.

The game has several characteristics that distinguish it from Defense of the Ancients. Every player is required to create a free account which then tracks their stats, friends lists, and various other information. Players, known in League of Legends world as Summoners, have a customizable talent tree, the ability to level as themselves (in addition to their Heroes leveling over the course of a match) and customize gameplay with various talents and runes.

In terms of game play, there are obvious similarities between LoL and games like DotA and HoN. It’s a single map with three paths, a.k.a. lanes, that players can take to reach the opponent’s base and eventually victory. What makes League of Legends unique however is the level of customization available to players (both for free and via collectors’ packs) and the matchmaking capabilities of the game.

To speak more of them, one has to address friends. With separate accounts for each player (absolutely free), users can add friends to their friends lists and chat with them through the LoL interface. This same list can be used to create matches where all friends are placed in a match on the same side (up to 5 people) and the matchmaking interface them pairs them up with other players of similar level and player count. In this fashion, friends can play together without the hassles inherent to Warcraft 3’s Battle Net.

So, the game is here and we welcome you to give it a try.