Dota 2's New Bloom update introduces new heroes, game mode and balance changes
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The New Blood Festival reveals have brought bountiful news to the community in the shape of two new heroes and game mode. Terrorblade is a carry, a demonic marauder who can create illusions of himself and his enemies while transforming into a demon. Phoenix on the other hand is a majestic fiery bird who uses his own life force to augment his abilities, and can even be reborn on the battlefield.
Random Ability Draft is a new game mode which throws all of the picked heroes special abilities into a big draft. Players take it in turns to pick abilities for their heroes from the entire pool of abilities: any hero can use any abilities.
Finally, patch 6.80 brings in some balance fixes, most notably to that pesky Earth Spirit from the last update.
No secrets here: Funcom cooperate with investigation, remain "committed" to The Secret World
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Funcom have spent years training their Secret World playerbase to believe in every conspiracy that crosses their earlobes - so when they heard whispers on Wednesday that the developers’ offices had been raided by Økokrim, Norway’s financial crime unit, they were inclined to take it as fact.
Økokrim suspected that Funcom had infringed on their Securities Trading Act, and trading of the company’s stock was brought to a screeching halt for much of the day. As worrying signs go, these were among the most worrisome.
In the cold Scandinavian light of day, however, Funcom are the picture of optimism. Their stock is back in business, and the developers told PCGN that they’re “fully committed” to the ongoing post-release development of The Secret World and their new LEGO Minifigures game.
Everybody stream: Blizzard award the best of Twitch in 2013
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It was Hearthstone’s closed beta last year that cemented Blizzard’s place at the throne of Twitchdom. Oh, sure - StarCraft II and its fascinating metagame had been there for the streaming site’s founding, and the eminently watchable Diablo III a year later. But only when a digital collectable card game immediately began hoovering up featured slots on Twitch’s front page did it become clear that Blizzard’s future would be on film.
That’s a fact Blizzard have recognised themselves in their inaugural Stream Awards - a chance to shower fame and cash on the most dedicated and entertaining public players of their games.
Mount & Blade has bolted with TaleWorlds, say Paradox; players gifted Magicka: Wizard Wars
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Five and a half years ago, grand strategy minds Paradox published a medieval sandbox RPG which took Sid Meier’s Pirates! and Elite as its inspirations: Mount and Blade. Two more iterations and an explosive (and explosively buggy) little thing named Magicka helped establish the Swedish publishers as champions of the weird on PC, but now the tentpole must come down. Today, TaleWorlds are riding their winning franchise off into the sunset.
Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments Gets A New Trailer
Focus Home Interactive has released a new trailer for Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, in which we can admire the great work Frogwares has carried out on Sherlock Holmes and the cast of characters who feature in the six thrilling investigations in the game. Motion captured animations, meticulously detailed faces, lip-sync, the interplay between actor and cinematic cameras bring all the dialog, interrogation and interaction to life. Or at least that’s what the company claims. Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments is scheduled for a Q2 2014 release on PC, PS4, PS3 and X360. Enjoy! Continue reading
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