Jahrelang dachte ich, dass LAN-Parties in Zeiten wie diesen, wo eigentlich fast jeder Haushalt mindestens einen Internetzugang besitzt, dem Aussterben Nahe sein müssten, oder zumindest immer kleiner und seltener werden würden. Dass dem nicht so ist, hätte ich mir, wegen des momentan nicht enden wollenden  e-Sports-Hype,  denken können. Jedoch hätte ich mir die Ausmaße der weltweit größten LAN-Party, der DreamHack in Schweden, niemals so gigantisch vorgestellt. 2004 bekam die DreamHack sogar einen Eintrag ins Guinness-Buch der Rekorde als größte LAN-Party der Welt. 2007 erreichte sie ihren Höhepunkt mit 11.060 Teilnehmern und 10.544 vernetzten Computern. Aber nicht nur virtuelles Gemetzel steht an der Tagesordnung, auch wilde Aftershow-Feten mit Gogo-Tänzerinnen, oder Live-Auftritten von diversen Rockbands, uvm. Also ich hätte mir das Ganze weitaus [LAN]gweiliger vorgestellt, aber seht selbst:

Meine ehemaligen Kollegen von Gamers.at haben eine recht interessante Liste für alle LAN-Parties in dieser Woche aufgestellt. Wer also Lust hat, jetzt schnell seinen Rechner zu packen und sich ins LAN-Getümmel zu stürzen, hat also diese Woche die Qual der Wahl.

This last Sunday afternoon, I met with two friends to play some LAN games. In this case we finally wanted to get Company of Heroes - Opposing Fronts up and running. The last attempt several weeks ago was a failure.

Since we started quite late in the afternoon, we only managed to get in two games and then it was already past midnight. On normal difficulty the computer already gave us a hard time. I was virtually a beginner on this, but I was not doing too badly and had some fairly good stats at the end. My friends sometimes play the game on insane difficulty.

In the second game at least six vehicle overran my base and nearly forced me out of the game. Not having all builds together helps and having engineers spread out helps as well. One friend came to help me out with his rangers while the other one was trying to eliminate one of the three enemy bases. It took a while, but we turned the mess around and gained ground. I managed to get anti-tank cannons up and running which later on actually gained veterancy.

In single player I would not play this game, but multiplayer is another matter. It is nowhere near as bad as Dawn of War.

Saturday morning, bright and early I got up and serviced 3 PCs. In the afternoon I prepared for the small LAN we’d planned for the evening. Late afternoon everyone turned up and we played ALL 4 campaigns of Left 4 Dead on a dedicated server we had on a LAN, it was absolutely epic. Then at 5AM I realised I was absolutely shattered and feeling rather woozy so I headed for bed but before I could settle down was violently, painfully ill (you know, to the point your chest hurts so much from all the heaving). Woke up late this morning feeling dreadful, shaking uncontrollably, the headache I get periodically hit me like a ton of bricks and everything ached. It was not fun and I still feel awful. However I did veg out, watch anime and play Banjo Kazooie all day! Oh can’t forget whilst cuddling the kitten too! ^_^

Left 4 Dead was just like this, it was hilarious and exhilarating.