impossible to tell whats going on? once you play enough to understand each character and how they work, then imo it becomes even cleaner than dota. just takes getting used to.

USE BRIGTHESS SETTINGS and u might actually understand whats going on....

I have the right "brightLess" SETTINGS I'm talking about animations and the overall dark atmosphere. And yeah, in small fights it's pretty easy to tell what is going on, but in a big ass teamfights with 10 heroes spamming their ultis it's all animation over the screen. I guess I just prefer the more cartoonish style, that's why I prefer LoL's graphics over HoN's.

brightness**

well, its ok for me on 5v5 fight, even on those who finish in 5 seconds..

you have to realise that cs and war3 are +- 10 years old. Graphics were "amazing" back then, now it's all pixels with good gameplay. HoN has taken Dota and added to it, there are some quiet big differences between these two games. And I actualy like the fact that HoN has less leavers the higher you go in rating (even though that is sort of obvious due to player's pool being smaller). Game might be a lil dark yes, but how many people who know nothing about cs or war3 actualy tune in some tournament's stream just to watch some game? I've tried watching games I don't play, Halo for instance, and I can tell you that no matter how good the commentary is, I don't stick around for long. So, it's just like any other sports, if you don't feel for the game/don't play the game, you are not going to watch it.

The leaver issue and high ranking isn't a valid statement. Try to get in highskilled inhouse leagues/communities and you won't have any leever problem in dota. Karimarabu has my 5 cents on this one. The more eye-candy the less addiction factor there is nowadays. But I can't complain, I'm glad the adventure game is making a big comeback on both console & PC, it's still the best game genre there is.

Strategy games and reflex games shouldn't have all those flashy effects because the more eye candy the more tiresome and distracted you get. The more distracted the less you can concentrate the less epic things that will happen. Our brain can only interpretate so much information through the locus cereleus and other focus areas of the brain so the more graphics they add the more people will start filtering the input they're getting the more things get overlooked. Yes, this probably can be overcome with days of gameplay, but I'm pretty sure spectators won't have a clue unless they play the game theirselves.

There's a reason why professional games have less eye-candy and have their focus on gameplay. Yes, CS & WC3 & SC all had "crazy graphics" back in the day, but that doesn't change the fact that they were clean and simple. KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple) applies for eSports too.

Hmz I can't seem to edit anymore, where's andreas when you need him! :).
leever should be leaver, my bad!

"although dota is newbreed" DotA has been along for at least 5 years now, if it didn't get any serious attention when it was new I doubt it will ever will.

You don't know what's going on in HoN ? You must be really bad.

I never said I didn't know what is going on, I said there is too much useless graphic info that I absolutely don't care about and annoys me. I prefer the clean no bs look, I guess I hate the engine.

I'm pretty sure the next dota made by icefrog on the SC2 engine will please all the graphic fanboys AND still have that clean look I am talking about.

done.

lol retard you didn't, you just give minuses for nothing because your retarded DotA is so... 2003

You are true but HoN is faster than DoTa in gameplay , you need more skill for play it a bit harder for some ppl so they prefere says " retards " to ppl who prefer HoN, it's more easier to blame other people :)

i am sure ive started playing HoN BEFORE you two guys.

I did try, but it often happens, that heroes are pretty imba. Then they get nerfed.... but this process takes imo too long. You can see allready that something might be imba with a certain skill. I.e. from this archer guy where the summons make -12 mana on each hit o_O ???? Where is the sense in this :> Got nerfed, but something like that shouldnt have been used anyway from the beginning.
They just don't have the experience in here. I also dislike the fact, that kinda each update is made after a DotA update :/ They copy too much. They should faster rely on own thoughts and not starting to make a 1:1 DotA copy. They have allready unique heroes and most of them are based on nice ideas but it see too much DotA in that game....

Archer guy with summons -12 mana is not that anymore.

New patches come in, gameplay changes. This game has potential.

I don't think so.

That's why I'm waiting for the Valve version. :)

It will probably never have a DoTa SC2 when it goes out by IceFrog, he is working on a DoTa Standalone with Valve for more than 2 years .

HoN is on beta for the moment don't be so rude with them really ...
They add some nice things like connect, reconnect you said , the web page for replay , the ladder , the Stats for all account and a lot of other things ,who is just amazing....

Did you play at the first version of DoTa ... ? HoN is on Beta for the moment you can't compare a game who is out for 5 years now and a game who is on beta ....

As you say, chsn, HoN got some gay stuff like the music or when you click the exit button. But HoN is still a very enjoyable game and everything except for the music is better than in DotA.