Well it seems like the British summer has once again been reduced to a two month period (surprise surprise). It's been raining down here for 7 days straight and the five-day forecast points to more rain on every day. Probably for the best that I'm heading off to the UK's biggest LAN tomorrow for a weekend of pure, unadulterated gaming with the occasional rainy visit to the pub.

2,000 gamers bring their own PC's to game it up from 6pm Thursday to 4pm on Monday. Major players in the industry such as Intel, EA, Codemasters and Ubisoft will be setup in the exhibition hall with many competitions and freebie give-aways (last year a friend walked off with a 32" TV, 8800GTX graphics card and £150 in cash!) as well as some of the largest tournaments in Europe taking place where we get to see Europes finest "pro-gamers" fight it out in Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 4, Battlefield 2 and Warcraft 3, among others. Even if you're not a fan of the games it's always an entertaining watch.

Multiplay's "iLAN" has been going on for quite a while now, this being the 34th iLAN to date, and I've come to make quite a few friends at these events (and from my various online gaming forays) who I am looking forward to seeing. On the gaming agenda at this iLAN? Eve Online, World in Conflict, Warcraft 3 (DotA), Day of Defeat: Source, Team Fortress 2, various HL2 mods, Diablo 2 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

At the last iLAN I went to last summer I saw a few folks showing off their Oblivion characters and I'll be sure to snap their ugly mugs with my camera this time around for your viewing pleasure should anyone be playing. Playing Oblivion at a LAN seems a bit anti-social when you're directly connected to 2,000 other gamers, though!

Have you ever been to a large LAN? Got any stories to tell? Drop a comment here.

Never been to a huge one, especially with prizes, but I wish there were such in Azerbaijan x(

Oh heck i want to join, just recently got done with a private LAN myself
Good luck pawning those nubs mate

I've been to a large Halo 3 lan party. I also had people screaming "God -blam!-it Rifleman Joe!" over and over again.

Best. party. ever.

I've been on a couple Lans, but none a big as iLan - sounds like good fun ^^

Well one time on Quake 2 (this was when i was in my first year of highschool) One guy across the way was saying that you couldn't play it as a run-an-gun shooter, he started camping in a dark corner and i just ran by (i didnt know he was there at first) "I'm much better at sniping. Watch, i'll get this guy" All of a sudden i'm hit in the chest with a rail gun, but dont dead thanks to a high armor count. I stood still and watched around me to see where the fire was coming from, then when he fired again i piled 5 rockets into his hiding spot. I heard him start complaining that about "How the &*$& could he see me!!" and the casic "Thats unfair! He's cheating!" the guy was so much older than me and was whining like a five year old....luckly he didn't know it was the first year ten seats down from him...i dont want to think what could have happened -_-'

Another one was the TMOG opening (i can't say the PC gamer event cause it was over the net, but that was so much fun ^^. I will gladly add it if DarkOne is ok with it)
There was this huge game of Counter Strike Source going on! And loads of guys on the Lan must have played it for a long time - some pro's were there too. It didn't help that i barely now what i was doing, thankfully the guys were giving me tips ^^. Well after a couple of rounds and finaly starting to play towards my strangths (Sniper, give me a shotgun and i wont be able to hit the broadside of a barn and pointblank with it) This guy behind me looks around and asks "Who's Just shot me?" I very tentivly put my hand up "I $*%&ing hate you! You keep killing me all the time!" It was kinda funny because i could barely get a kill on any of these guys! But that the wonderful thing about Lan you can play with players a thousand times better than you, and still have a laugh about it ^^ Escpecially if there all really nice and are just playing for fun ^^

I went to i32.

I'd go again if I had the money and a smaller case. Especially since I had to lug it on the train from Birmingham...

didnt realise this was based near my city (coventry).. ill be goin next year now, i didnt even know this lan party existed otherwise i would of went this time round, ill make sure i have a more powerful gamin machine for next year now

well i never... well can you do us all a favour? u see anyone showing off their oblivion chars and dont have a login to this site? well you gotta show their asses up!! and if they do have a tesnexus login... well, lets just say they need a lot of publicity ^^

Ah... The LAN. I havn't lanned since my earlier high school years. The only time I have been a part of a large lan was at a large gaming party. There were about 50 people in a mansion of sorts (darn rich nerds...) I wasn't playing, but I watched as people did DOTA and CS and the like. Man, I got in on some CS and I liked how everyone called me a noob at first... But I showed them with my m4a1 spraying lucky headshots. Woot.

Hey! If you see a guy that calls himself Kaidence, slap him for me, my name is David .

LoL, Kaidence is sitting behind me and to the left of me by two...he's in the Celebrity group, same as me along with Rikki, Lusc, Anim etc.

Lol! Yeah that's him. Did you slap him for me? :>

He's not awake yet, or he's gone off somewhere cause we haven't seen him this morning. I'll be sure to tell him Xilence says hi, or words to similar effect

Heheheheheheh

Guess where I am this fine weekend?

Well, to be specific, seat AT-5.

Bah 2000? thats nothing here in sweden we got a lan thats its over 10000+ ppls.
Hope you had fun

Have fun DarkOne Luckyone LOL

no Camping in the games u try ^^

Man, that sounds like fun. The only LANs that I've been to are local Halo tournaments. And there were only about 20-30 people at those.

I have never been to LAN of any kind.

Piccies of the LAN. Quite large so it's not dial-up friendly I'm afraid.

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Obligatory point at the RA3 stand.

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Towneh and I with Gemma "pee's in the road" Atkinson.

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Mmmm..lots of PC's.

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The crew while they've tackled a Rorqual in Eve. The support isn't going to get there in time, though, so they're just having a laugh.

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The crew waiting for the Operation Flashpoint 2 presentation.

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Out roaming in Eve with Rikki.

I am Jealous!

I wish I lived in a state that hosted large LAN programs, but no. I've got to shell out $700.00 to fly to New York city, which doesn't include the hundreds of dollars for hotel, food, transportation, protection money ect.

Hello, In two days i be discovered a new Oblivion Game with yours mods. All The mods of unique landscapes, arrius creek, etc... and sexy mods. Thank's to all. My votation for this site 1 to 10 is 15. And one question... how many time passes a modder preparing a land? Thank you!!!

I was in Valencia Campus party last year and had a very nice experience. My visit was made due to work because I'm journalist, but anyway enjoyed very much the place and ambiance

I remember once, when I lived in Hong Kong, my friend Nathan and I went to a Counter Strike:Source LAN party. Played all night - parents had something to say about when I got back home.

Hello

I went to a huge LAN in Paris...
The LAN ARENA (don't remember wich edition, 2 or 3) took place under the Grande Arche in La Defense. It was in 2001 or 2002 and i remember all the pro teams of Quake 3 arena screaming with the coach behind, it was amazing...
Many flat screens everywhere and a huge screen to see Slayer in final of Starcraft... 3 days of pure madness, no sleeping cause of noise maked by quake players in finals...
E-Sport is great, i hope that it will rise... because to see hands of starcraft's and/or warcraft's players is amazing, like piano players....

I'll never forget this moment, thx to my brother which gets the tickets.

Excuse my poor english, i'm french

And then there are those guys who dislike their 'ugly' ip adress and don't get it that changing 192.168.0.3 to 192.168.000.003 means more than a mere 'beautification'...
- with a little luck they connect the cable with their dsl card instead of the network adapter...

Your expieriences seem interesting.. I definately need to go to one!

Seeing that i live in sweden i been to Dreamhack a couple o' times. worlds biggest LAN. and it' awesome

I was playing in a RTS LAN in Boston, and at the time, we were playing Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. On this particular map, it is a 4v4, where each team is on one side of a single strip of land (Seton's Clutch). Early on in the game, I moved to Tier 2 units, and clandestinly set up a small stealth base in the center of the opposing team's land mass. Here, I built several tactical missle launchers, all well within range of all my opponent's bases. biding my time, I waited until i had enough missles to hit each of their commanders. (The playing mode was assassination, where you must kill your opponent's Armored Command Unit) then, setting up a radar station, i located the positions of each of the ACUs. Then, one at a time, I launched missles at each of their ACUs. As each of my opponet's ACUs exploded in a mushroom cloud, I heard shouts only 4 tables away from me: "What the **** was that" "Who's doing that" and "How the **** did Undead kill me." The game was over in 23 minutes, where as most SupCom:FA games can last up to and hour and a half. As my team and I stood in a celebratory way, the other team came over and almost started a fight until the staff came over and kicked them out of the Lan party.

Oh man, as soon as I turn 18 and schools over, I am going to take my graduation present and go to one of those! Unfortuneately the closest one that I know of is down in Iowa... I guess it's not TOO long of a drive...

Never taken part to a LAN and as far as it looks now it won't be happen that. Maybe i visit the codemasters campzone once, but i don't know.
I've ended my summer in a different way; visited mysteryland, the largest outdoor dance event here in the netherlands.

I also wen't to i34!

I've been to Dreamhack (yep, I'm Swedish) and that's one of the most awesome things I've done, will absolutely visit it in the winter too...

..but it's kinda hard to take a 17 kg computer, a 19" TFT screen and sleeping stuffs on a public train.... >.<'

Ahhh. LAN Tournaments and games. I love them Too bad my computer sucks so much. It can hardly Handle Oblivion But what ever. Still love these mods on here. Last time I went to a LAN Party was in England and I beat everyone to a bloody pulp in Halo 1.

I know this topic is old news, but... DarkOne, if you ever visit the U.S. you should stop by Minnesota. I've heard rumors of a rather large LAN party that is to take place in Minneapolis in about 2-3 years or so. If I remember correctly, it takes place at "The Monster Den."

I am so gonna be there.

You should all book tickets for the rAge expo next year, if you decide to come all the way to South Africa that is. It's a two thousand or something people LAN in South Africa and the best news of all? There's a gaming expo included, like a miniature E3. But hurry, within the first week of opening the tickets are usually sold out.

I totally agree with gman021 KUDOS!

Wait, you live in Minnesota?

Dreamhack (I'm swedish too lol) is like... the coolest thing in the world O.o... ALOTSA ppl there

Ye i think it were 10k gamers this year

only 1 kind of LAN were i live its called the dark media LAN

Never been to one. I don't really get what all the hype is about. I prefer online gaming =)

dreamhack oO, its the biggest lan in the world isnt it?? ;p
(im swede too lol ) xD xD xD xDxd HAHAHAHA hehehe xDxD funny!

hmmm 2 many people for me id also rather game online

Hmmm...isn't there an oblivion online mod out there somewhere (that is actaully stable)?

I live in Florida, 75 degrees sunny all year.

I don't really go to lan parties. I used to play multi in Halo 1 xbox back when it was cool, then Halo 2 went online and sort of killed hanging out with friends to play games. Halo 1 was the best though, the trash talking, the war stories lol that was something else. The rest sucked, a lot of my friends cared more about the game than the people and I literally haven't seen them since Halo 2 went online because they stopped going outside. I guess that's the closest thing I have to lan stories.

Never been to a huge one, but our computer class in high school would make a small one, and we would then play old games like Starcraft, Warcraft, and Doom

Had a huge LAN of COD4... team death match... 20 a side...
I got score limit for my team... i was not allowed to play COD for the rest of the day... they all said I was cheating, but I just know how to use a shotgun properly.

Yeah, they never let me play Atarcraft after that first time. I had already been playing it since I was 11, and they had just started.

I went to a huge 24 player counterstrike lan party in july and 24 gaming cpus in one house = about a million degrees so an hour into it 4 people went to a hardware store and bought a bunch of fans and every one was wearing no shirts............lol it was kinda wierd but fun