This will be interesting. *Awaits it to be later*

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/10 ... es-dota-2/

Shame, I was hoping they would make it different, rather than a tech upgrade

EDIT: The most interesting thing for me here is the further improvements for source (cloth and lighting). I've heard DotA is pretty unforgiving (which is why I like LoL - it cuts you some slack), which seems to be against the Valve philosophy to me. I'll probably give it a look if it's cheap, but almost certainly won't be dropping more than £10 on it, unless we get some more interesting news than "Oh look, we made DotA shiny".

did you say .. cloth?

did you say proper ropes

did you say gmod torture rack

Hmm, some interesting and quite damning information regarding IceFrog. Could be fake, but seems real enough:

http://icefrogtruth.blogspot.com/2010/10/truth.html

http://www.dota-allstars.com/index.html

Just read that blog, but I really don't get who Icefrog is (DotA creator?). Wasn't quite sure what was going on.

IceFrog is a person that was/is heavily involved with the original DotA. AFAIK he is not actually the creator, but is often cited as having made DotA as popular as it is. He was hired by Valve a year or so ago, to make DOTA 2.

Actually, I'd presume Valve didn't want to make DOTA 2, but wanted to try something interesting in the same vein, but it seems IceFrog is rather controlling about it, essentially making an exact replica with newer tech. I was wondering why DOTA 2 lacked the Valve touch (see: Portal, TF2).

http://www.dota2.com/

Site's up, with some info.

I reckon it's a free-to-play version of Team Fortress 2.

That's the other rumour that appeared after I posted this, and there was something to do with game files that backed it up.

Valve hosts biggest* gaming tournament ever, before game is even launched.

*biggest = largest prize pool, at $1mil. AFAIK the next biggest was the LoL end of season at $100K.

Dota 2 biggest e sport in world. But if it is like dota then i'm not interested just general un-fun and un-intuitive mechanics.

I really hope they do change some of the silly things, otherwise it is just a boring farm and deny fest.

Yeah, I feel like DoTA 2 is going to demolish HoN, but LoL will survive because it is different enough to classic DoTA. Still, if it's F2P, I'll give it a shot, if not, probably be the first Valve game I haven't owned shortly after release for a long time

What is HoN?

A quick google reveals the name 'Heroes of Newerth'.

What type of game is this? Real time strategy?

HoN (Heroes of Newerth) is a DoTA clone, in a genre called MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arena), like LoL and Demigod. They control like RTSes, except you only have 1 unit who has ~4 abilities and can level up and be upgraded with items (you typically have 4 teammates). The game typically takes the form of lanes, which have towers in them and uncontrollable minions travel down the lanes attacking the enemy minions and towers. The aim is to push the lanes back, destroying the towers then the enemies base (typically something along the lines of a barracks + big final base).

The reason I think DoTA 2 will destroy HoN but not LoL is because HoN is pretty much a clone of DoTA (which from what we've seen, so is DoTA2) and Valve have a lot of money to throw at it and HoN hasn't been massively successful. LoL, on the other hand, is like DoTA but with significant changes, such as a lack of creep denying (you get gold+XP for killing enemy minions, in DoTA you can attack your own minions to "deny" the enemy the kill reward, whereas you can't in LoL, except with some abilities). This makes the game a bit easier to get in to, but no less challenging at the high end (thus still being a good eSport). On top of that, LoL has achieved massive success, and is possibly the 2nd most popular game around, after WoW.

Some leaked screenies:



More here.

http://www.dota2.com/trailer

All I can really say is that Valve have become so good at animation now.

The music was also great.

The face at the end reminded me of a popular meme...

The game assets contain such high detail models? Nice.

Other than that, being done in engine is kinda obvious, as it's how Valve always does trailers.

There's no reason they couldn't have done it differently for that trailer. Reading that it was all done in-engine, etc, just makes it all the more impressive to me.