It's been well documented that Demigod has been having some server issues.  And while the game should be about up to snuff at this point, perhaps you are just fed up with things.  That's where GameRanger comes in.  Never heard of it?  According to the GameRanger team it's the longest running multiplayer service, having launched on the Mac back in 1999.  

In fact, GameRanger helped give the Stardock folks some breathing room to work on the issues. Stardock president, Brad Wardell, said: "I have fallen in love with a new program called GameRanger."  I fired up it up this weekend and it seems pretty straightforward, with very minimal effort to find and join any type of game you wish.  There's basic tools like friends lists, chat, as well as ping and connection indicators.

The service is free and currently supports over 500 games, plenty of them co-op too.  You can find out more at www.gameranger.com.  

Demigod launched last month for the PC, and since that time the gaming experience hasn't been very pleasant for players.  The game was plagued with a broken street date which caused a cataclysm of problems including busted servers, and overload of pirates (the illegal kind, not the yarr kind), and a host of other issues.

But Stardock CEO Brad Wardell is being the better man, and he's not pointing fingers or making excuses.  In his latest blog post, Brad outlines just what went down and just how they are going to fix it; because one month later things still aren't running smooth.

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Graphical representation of Demigod's Servers Crashing

Perhaps it's a bit ironic, perhaps a bit fitting, but on the day the Pirate Bay Trial Guitly Verdict was handed down Gas Powered Games has addressed some of the issues plaguing Demigod.  If you've picked up the game recently and tried to play online, you may have noticed that...well it's not working.  At least not very well.  The reason behind this?  Pirates - and I don't mean the Somalian kind.

According to the latest Demigod journal post, the game is currently seeing about 120,000 connections.  Gas Powered games had estimated about 50,000 at launch.  The problem here is over 100,000 of those connections are via pirated copies of the game.  That's right, the ratio of warez'd copies of the game to legitimate users is 5 to 1.  

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Stardock has sent word that their co-op-ish RTS Demigod has gone gold and will be available for download via their Impulse service and retailers on April 14th.

While we've been covering the game for some time, we've yet to see just how deep the co-op is.  If you've read our interview with Mike Marr of Gas Powered Games, you know it seems very team based, but there doesn't appear to be any story co-op.  That being said we haven't seen just how persistent the online Pantheon mode is, which may allow players to keep a stronger vested interest in the game for a more co-op feel.

Demigod will retail for $39.95 or you can get the above pictured collector's edition for $49.95.  You know you want that little Rook figure.

If you are looking forward to the upcoming RTS/RPG Demigod, then you are going to need to get on Stardock's Impulse service.  Similar to Steam, Impulse is a digital marketplace and community platform for gamers to buy games and play online.

After only 9 months, the service is about to eclipse 1 million members, and to celebrate Stardock is going to give out a $4000 gaming PC to member #1 Million.  Oh you sly dog Stardock, that's a clever way to boost sign-ups!

Impulse will be getting some pretty slick upgrades in the near future as well.
  

Next month Stardock plans to release the third major update to Impulse since its release which will include features such as Impulse Anywhere (ability to download your title from a web page on one PC and then install on your home PC), and the full release of Impulse Reactor, which will provide in-game features from Impulse seamlessly and an updated Impulse client with a host of tweaks and changes.

Sounds good to me!

Gas Powered Games has released a handful of new screenshots for Demigod, their 5 player co-op RTS/RPG game for the PC.  The new screens give players an idea about the interface of the game.

We'll have a preview of the latest build sometime this week, so be sure to check back!

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You've read the interview, you've seen the screens - now watch the walk through!  Gas Powered Games has released a short walk through of Demigod with the game's producer Brad Wardell.

The video does a good job of explaining how the different Demigods in the game have completely unique playstyles in both abilities and how the game actually functions.  While the walk through shows a "general" Demigod, which has the game playing more like an RTS; there are other Demigods that allow you to play the game a bit closer to an Action RPG.  

It seems the trend is continuing with RTS games getting away from resource gathering and management in favor of action oriented goal based resources.  Games like Dawn of War 2 and Halo Wars exhibit this really well.

Unfortunately the video doesn't show off any co-op play through the game's tournament mode, so we might have to wait for the next one. 

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Gas Powered Games has always been a supporter of co-op with games like Dungeon Siege and Space Siege. Demigod is a new game coming out that is going to offer a slightly different take on co-op, something more akin to Unreal Tournament rather than a strong story based game.

We talked with Mike Marr, lead designer, from Gas Powered Games about their upcoming unique hybrid game. All the details you wanted to know are right ahead.

Stardock, publishers of the upcoming co-op game Demigod, have unleashed a few details of their newest version of their digital distribution client.  Famous for their "we don't treat our customers like criminals" line - Stardock's Impulse Reactor service will be very fair in terms of DRM. 

Of course the first step to any successful method is getting the publishers to buy in.
 

...developers who use the next version of Impulse Reactor can include a small DLL that will allow developers to use Stardock servers for registration and updates. For example people who install a game with Impulse Reactor for the first time might be asked for a CD Key and an email address. Once that's done the game is registered with Impulse Reactor servers.

Great news for developers.  DRM management servers are removed from their equation as something they are responsible for.  Sow how does this help the gamers?
 

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See that big Demigod with the giant hammer?  He's the Rook, and he's going to lay the smack down on those little dudes.  If his hammer doesn't smash them, the hundreds of arrows coming out of his face surely will finish the job.

Gas Powered Games has released a handful of new screenshots of their upcoming Action/RPG/RTS game Demigod and it's looking mighty good.  We're still trying to dig up the co-op details of this one, but we do know there's at least some sort of skirmish mode available.  For now, that will have to do as we gaze upon these mighty screens.

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