Video Games: PC, PSP, PS3, xBox, and Wii Gaming News

A couple screenshots from the upcoming Valve/Steam game DotA 2 came out not too long ago:

It’s said that these screenshots are of a development build up to four months old, so no doubt the game will look many times more polished before then. And since Dota2 is free to play, you can bet the Hon/LoL communities are going to be totally destroyed by its release. The Dota 2 Gamescom Trailer below shows off its true beauty:

If you haven’t read Game Informer’s Valve’s New Game Announced, Detailed: Dota 2, go do that. But basically what it has announced can be summed up by the following points:

• IceFrog, aka Abdul Ismail, has been hired by Valve to make Dota 2
• Dota 2 is a straight port of Dota with all the original heroes
• It will probably be value added with better graphics, achievements, social “steam” aspects
• It will probably have hats

There’s no new gameplay or mechanics, and the map is identical. However, the engine will be new, and we can hope for better graphics. The Source Engine will be used, and there will be voice chat (something HoN already has). There will be a new “coaching” system, as well, where players can login to help other players rise in stats so that they can play in higher-ranked matches.

Follow IceFrog’s blog for more updates on Dota 2. Also, Valve has released the following artwork: (more…)

Check out this screencap from a Hon match, where I was Gauntlet, and got my flying glove stuck in the terrain by our middle lane’s rax:

So i remained tied to the glove chain thing, couldn’t fire it or ult until I was killed! Weird glitch.

Quick, head over to heroesofnewerth.com and sign up for a free week of gameplay! For those not in the know, Heroes of Newearth is a premium, standalone DoTa clone. I’m an avid player, it’s tremendously fun, offers a match-making system for automatically finding games, reconnect if you crash out midgame, and many new inventive heroes.

You can now play Heroes of Newerth for FREE! Come join us for a Free To Play Week starting Monday, August 2nd at 1:00 PM EST and ending on Monday, August 9th at 1:00 PM EST. Set up your free account and download the client here. It’s fast and easy to do. You’ll be playing HoN again in just minutes! And, for FREE.
Come see what you’ve been missing. You will have access to the full game and all 68 heroes, including the newest hero, Doctor Repulsor. You will be able to see all game replays, but no cumulative stats will be available for F2P accounts.

Good luck, you’ll need it. Your PSR will need it!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted on Dota (or anything for that matter), so it seems like an appropriate time to catch up.  Dota 6.58 ushered in some deep revisions to items and heros alike.  Dirge and Storm Spirit have been completely reworked, and key items like the basher, blade mail, and heart have also undergone substantial alterations.  Several new commands have been added, notably “-mines” so that techies can now count how many mines he has laid, and “-switch” so that games that are plagued by leavers can be balanced.

Although the “-switch” command is a useful tool (since there are so many leavers), it creates the wrong incentive.  People that are prone to leave a game have even less reason to stay because they know that others will compensate for their actions.

Dota 6.58b, like most “b” versions, suffices to correct a plethora of bugs in the latest version.  The changelog is as follows:

* Fixed a rare bug introduced last version with Nevermore’s ultimate
* Fixed a bug with Cranium Basher
* Fixed a suicide bug with Heartstopper
* Fixed a bug with Overload
* Various tooltip fixes
* Fixed some rare glitches that could cause some abilities to malfunction
* Fixed various -switch related bugs
* Switch now works if all but one player votes for it, instead of requiring 100%
* Fixed truesight on The Frozen Throne
* Decreased Undying’s model size a bit
* Fixed conflicts between Viper Strike and Venomous Gale
* Fixed Soul Rip targetting problems on Tombstone
* Fixed -mo/-ro in -gameinfo
* Fixed a bug when picking up invisibility rune while under the Phase effect from Phase Boots
* Fixed -mr failing to be recognized as a gamemode
* Fixed Rapier damage values when being carried by a non-owning player