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

Bethesda announced today that its ”Winner of E3 2008’s ‘Best of Show‘” will be released to eager fans in North America on October 28, and to European fans a mere 3 days later.  10 years ago Fallout 2 riveted RPG enthusiasts with its balanced yet open-ended adventure set in a post-nuclear wasteland.

Bethesda assures us in no uncertain terms that Fallout 3 will maintain the vision of the previous Fallout games while delivering even more freedom of choice, but plot-wise is “[a] different story unto itself and isn’t directly connected to any of the other storylines.”  This has allowed Bethesda enough creative license to reinvent the details for Fallout 3, in what will undoubtedly be the biggest single-player RPG hit of 2008.

The full press release is as follows:

August 20, 2008 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, announced today that its highly anticipated title, Fallout® 3, will be available on store shelves and online in North America on October 28, 2008 and in Europe on October 31, 2008. Developed at Bethesda Game Studios – creators of the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® – Fallout 3 is slated for release on the Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows.

“We are very excited to let gamers get their hands on Fallout 3, the latest chapter in this beloved and highly acclaimed franchise,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “To meet the huge demand for this title by our fans worldwide, we are planning one of the biggest launches of any game released this year.”

Fallout 3 features one of the most realized game worlds ever created. Set more than 200 years following a nuclear war, you can create any kind of character you want and explore the open wastes of Washington, D.C. however you choose. Every minute is a fight for survival as you encounter Super Mutants, Ghouls, Raiders, and other dangers of the Wasteland.

Hailed as one of the most anticipated games for 2008, Fallout 3 has already won numerous awards including Best of Show from the official Game Critics Awards at E3 2008, a selection voted on by an independent group of journalists from 36 leading North American media outlets that cover the videogame industry.
Fallout® 3 has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

Following the release of DotA 6.44, the good folks over at dotaportal have released a newer version of DotA: version 6.44b (not AI). Of course, I guarantee that within 2 weeks there will be at least a DotA 6.45. You can download the latest version (6.44b) of DotA Allstars HERE. The changelogs of DotA 6.44 and 6.44b are as follows:

6.44b Changelog:
================
* Fixed Pit of Malice tooltip
* Fixed issue with Templar taking Geomancer’s spot as an Agi hero in -allagi
* Fixed a bug with Storm’s Overload that made its attack counter inaccurate at higher attack speeds
* Fixed the issue that caused a checksum error to appear
* Killing a courier’s image no longer announces the message as if it was real
* Fixed a bug with respawning that would respawn you faster if you had boughtback right before dying again
* Clarified Plague tooltip
* Fixed Cleave, Scattershot and various other spells from affecting Psionic Traps
* Fixed Boots of Travel working on Psionic Traps
* Fixed Vacuum from working on various exploitable areas
* Improved Plague visual effect
* Nerfed Plague damage amplification by 5% and changed the duration from 7/9/11 to 7/8/9 seconds
* Reduced Reverse Polarity mana cost and cd per level
* Lowered hp/armor on Raise Dead summons and increased bounty a little
* Fixed a bug that caused Plague to slow more than intended and said in the tooltip
* Displayed the player name when a tower is denied instead of his team name
* Clarified Life Break tooltip
* Nerfed str gain on Dirge
* Reduced Dirge model size very slightly
* Fixed Electric Rave from triggering Essence Aura, CotS
* Fixed Plague from giving the kill credit to the Dirge instead of the damage dealer
* Improved Luna base damage
* Fixed some issues with Meld
* Clarified Soul Rip tooltip
* Inner Vitality manacost is the same at all levels now (a nerf)
* Rebalanced Dark Portal. Aside from stat changes such as manacost/channeltime/duration, it cannot be cast from/to base and you can only transport through it once, not back and forth.
* Reduced the pause effect on vacuum considerably
* Added visual effect to transporting units through Dark Portal
* Changed the Storm soundset
* Fixed misc other minor issues
6.44 Changelog:
================
==[Heroes]==

* Added a new Scourge hero: Dark Seer
* Added a new Scourge hero: Pit Lord
* Added a new Scourge hero: Undying
* Added a new Sentinel hero: Storm Spirit
* Added a new Sentinel hero: Templar Assassin
* Added a new Sentinel hero: Sacred Warrior (39888)
* New heroes are disabled in -lm/-xl
* Queen of Pain -> Reduced attack range from 600 to 550
* Queen of Pain -> Rebalanced how Shadow Strike levels up
* Dwarven Sniper -> Slightly increased base mana
* Ursa Warrior -> Is now a proper melee hero (recent patch fixed the issue, 137702)
* Shadow Priest -> Removed the duration nerf on Shallow Grave (it will now last until the target dies). Reduced cooldown. The respawn speed is nerfed instead.
* Troll Warlord -> Removed Berserker Rage mana cost
* Alchemist -> Increased casting range on Unstable Concoction a bit
* Alchemist ->  Improved level 1 Chemical Rage health regeneration by 5
* Alchemist -> Minor buff to the damage on Unstable Concoction
* Doom Bringer -> Reduced Doom’s Scepter upgrade duration by 2 seconds
* Moon Rider -> Eclipse no longer depends on Lucent Beam level
* Chen -> Increased movement speed from 290 to 295
* Spiritbreaker -> Nether Strike no longer depends on Greater Bash
* Bristleback -> Reduced max Quill Spray damage stack
* Bristleback -> Reduced movement speed by 5
* Bone Fletcher -> Changed Searing Arrows cooldown from 4/3/2/0 to 4/3/0/0
* Magnataur -> Improved his cast animation time
* Doom Bringer -> Due to popular demand, Level Death deals it’s bonus damage on level 25 as well
* Syllabear -> Level 3 Spirit Bear has regained Entangle
==[Misc]==

* Various minor terrain improvements requested for league play
* Added hotkeys for all basic items (only a few had them before)
* Changed piercing damage to heavy armor to 75% from 100%
* Added -roll command (133304)
* Added a few new weather effects (-weather moonlight/wind)
* Added -weather random that will randomly change the weather for you (and only you) every 5 minutes
* Rewrote some item manipulation code to fix some exploits
* Added creep spawn modes -notop/-nomid/-nobot (-nt/-nm/-nb)
* You can now team kill units in other damage over time abilities like Curse of the Silent and Shadow Word
* You have to be below 25% health for an ally to be able to start denying you (assuming you can be denied of course)
* Removed the last melee creep count upgrade (the rest of the changes from last version are still the same)
* Recoded various resource intensive abilities for increased map stability
* Added new command -noswap (-ns)
* Satyr Trickster -> Increased movement speed
==[Item]==

* Wards -> Reworked Observer and Sentry wards again
* Bottle -> After rune usage, it returns a 2/3 Bottle instead of a fully refilled one
* Tango -> Price from 80 to 90
* Flask -> Heals over a period of 10 seconds instead of 20
* Flying Courier -> Removed Boots of Speed from requirements
* Flying Courier -> Added new ability (Courier Shield) and lowered vision
==[Cosmetics]==

* World Tree -> Added a new model (provided by Janzak @ janzak.deviantart.com)
* Chat messages now show hero name
* An announcement is now made when a tower is denied
* Considerably improved End Game Scoreboard and Observer Scoreboard presentation and content (total gold row coming in near future)
* Wrote gold cost on basic items like they are on recipes to allow for price checking before you go back to base
* The game now displays a kill message when a chicken dies
* End Scorescreen now lets you know when someone is no longer in the game
* Scoreboard now colors players differently if they have left the game
* Slithreen Guard -> Added new Sprint visual effect (126186)
* Goblin Techies -> New Remote Mine model (130285)
* Flying Courier -> Added unique scourge flying courier model
* When a team mate denies an ally, it now says his name (127161)
* Crystal Maiden -> Crystal Maiden’s Scepter upgrade now gives a unique visual effect (128977)
* Chaos Knight -> Chaos Bolt now shows the random stun duration (130088)
* Keeper of the Light -> Added a new and more accurate Illuminate Wave effect provided by eva00r
* Shadow Fiend -> Added a special effect when Nevermore gains a soul (132731)
* Morphling -> Added text overhead to show the damage dealt by Adaptive Strike
* Camera now moves to the throne/tree when it dies. Added 1-2 second delay before scoreboard appears to show the death animations
* Added more flavor text to various items (130384)
* Added new icons for Freezing Field, Viscous Nasal Goo, Drow’s Silence, Lightning Storm, Blur, Global Silence, Plague Wards (thanks snork and switch)
* Added new icon for Mirror Image (73303)
* Changed second secret shop name
* Improved visibility of scourge fifth recipe shop when not in base
* Improved movement speed items’ tooltips (130948)
* Courier -> When purchasing a courier, Sentinel will get a random selection of Chicken, Raccoon or Penguin, while Scourge will get a random selection of Carrion Beetle, Dune Worm or Fel Boar.
* Listed damage type for Arcane/Impetus/Glaives
* Improved Demon Witch’s Impale tooltip (107362)
* Changed the default missing icon on the scoreboard from the eye to another one
* Battle Fury -> now lists it as a melee item (139040)
* Sanity’s Eclipse -> The damage dealt to units is now listed as an overhead text
* Added more flavor text to various abilities
* Improved various item tooltips to make it more user friendly
* Added reminder in -mm regarding hero switches
* Updated Bottle Tooltip to make it more obvious that rune bottle refilling is not a bug!
* Reduced how long the warning about disassemble lasts on the screen
* Improved dozens of tooltips
* Thanks to Eva00r and JetFango for various icons/effects
==[Various fixes]==

* Fixed the desync bug that happens when observers leave a game, causing some other players to disconnect
* Fixed another very rare respawn glitch
* Fixed Ignis Fatuus scepter upgrade not being on autocast by default
* Fixed a bug that caused sprout trees to sometimes respawn trapping the hero again
* Fixed Lothar’s Edge icon(132136)
* Fixed a bug with custom replay data winner field
* Fixed Holy Persuation not showing level in tooltip
* Fixed Midnight Pulse killing mines
* Fixed Clarity Potion buff icon bug
* Fixed Mask of Madness buff icon (126834)
* Fixed Drunken Haze tooltip typo
* Improved some internal Observer Mode code
* Fixed Wrath of Nature typo
* Fixed a bug with Black Hole pulling in mines
* Fixed some memory leaks with Time Lapse and Poison Nova
* Fixed a rare bug with Toss
* Fixed Chronosphere tooltip
* Clarified some TDA quest menu rules
* Compressed various icons (thanks PGRu-Unexpect3D)
* Fixed a bug with Phantom Edge giving extra evasion
* Lots of optimizations to how Impetus/Glaives/Arcane abilities were coded
* Fixed Helm of Iron will giving 2 hp regen and not 3 hp
* Fixed the game clock continuing after the game has ended
* Fixed a rare bug with Adaptive Strike
* Fixed Rampage buff tooltip
* Fixed a rare bug with Greater Bash
* Fixed some bugs with -dm and various abilities that depended on unit state
* Fixed Silencer from stealing an INT from an ally deny
* Fixed Shockwave from hitting wards
* Gave unique codes to the following abilities make replay processing more straight forward: Phantom Assassin’s Shadow Strike, Venomancer’s Shadow Strike, Queen of Pain’s Shadow Strike, Stealth Assassin’s Blink Strike, Chaos Knight’s Blink Strike, Lion’s Voodoo, Rhasta’s Voodoo, Razor’s Frenzy, Viper’s Frenzy, Sven’s Storm Bolt and Leo’s Storm Bolt.
* Fixed some item buying cooldowns that were still at 5 sec instead of 1
* Fixed Necromastery tooltip
* Fixed various other buggy tooltips 

As usual, I’ll keep you guys posted on the latest DotA details: where, when, and what’s going on with your favorite WC3:FT custom map.

Following the release of DotA 6.43, the good folks over at dotaportal have released a newer version of DotA: version 6.43b (not AI). Of course, I guarantee that within 2 weeks there will be at least a DotA 6.35. You can download the latest version (6.34b) of DotA Allstars HERE. The changelogs of DotA 6.43 and 6.43b are as follows:

6.43b Changelog:
=================

* Fixed some big performance problems lower end machines were having
* Fixed some rare bugs that caused heroes to not revive
* Fixed -swaphero, neutral creep spawn time and initial gold in -xl

6.43 Changelog:
================

* Added new mode -xl(Extended League Mode)
* Reworked the Roshan Terrain area for improved Sentinel accessibility (lots of miscellaneous tweaks and mechanics to that area have been done beyond simply terrain change)
* Fixed the multiple hero exploit
* Recoded the death timer. It is more accurate now (the display was off before, you don’t revive any faster than you used to)
* Items with armor bonuses no longer stack (Vladmir/Basilius/Assault)
* Fixed a bug with Satanic that was giving it extra life steal
* Fixed some bugs with Mekansm, Morphling Stat Change and Hand of God that caused the death timer to not properly show
* Added Bottle to the new secret shop
* Undid some of the Toughness Aura buff from last version
* Tinker no longer Rearms Arcane Ring
* Slightly reduced creep collision size due to the increased number in the last patch towards the end of the game
* Fixed Sentinel ranged creeps having slightly less regen than Scourge ranged creeps
* Mekansm and Bloodstone now tell the user when they fail to heal him properly due to stacking rules
* Watchers give slightly less gold (due to their new radiance vulnerability last patch)
* Fixed various typos
* Fixed Ring of Basilius ability from working on CotS and Essence Aura
* Song of the Siren properly sleeps units out of its vision
* Items that can be disassembled now tell you when you buy them
* Fixed a bug with chicken that lets you sell unsellable items
* Fixed Throne not providing the lifesteal capability that World Tree does
* Reduced Radiance damage bonus from 70 to 60
* Fixed Phantom Assassin’s Blink Strike range
* Death Board is on by default now (-don)
* Observer Wards last a little longer now
* Reduced Avernus’ movement speed by 5
* Temporarily disabled Meepo in -dm to fix some bugs
* Fixed the Doppelwalk and Lothar’s Edge “0!” text
* The icon for turning Rot off is now more obvious
* Changed Meepo Attribute Bonus from 40% to 25%
* Improved Unstable Concoction (When you cast it, you lock vision on the target while you channel)
* Various nerfs to Alchemist: Acid Spray AOE (700-550), Acid Spray Mana (120->160), Str/lvl (2.4->1.8), Int/lvl (1.5->1.0), Lowered health regen on level 1 ultimate, Greed Stack Duration (20->18), Greed Gold Cap (20->18), Movement Speed (300->290) but level 2 and 3 of his ultimate give him a minor boost back to his normal speed, Slight base armor reduction
* Fixed Cheese to heal the proper amount
* Fixed the creep spawn sound from happening too early in -mm

As usual, I’ll keep you guys posted on the latest DotA details: where, when, and what’s going on with your favorite WC3:FT custom map.

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