Hello everyone! A couple of days after The International and we are still trying to get back to every day life but the thrill and anticipation for DOTA 2 are just not helping!
This post will be a short news update on the DOTA 2 news that we had during these past weeks.
So, let's see that we have!
We saw DOTA 2 gameplay and we loved it!
As you probably now by now, DOTA 2 was shown for the first time during The International and it was thrilling. The game got amazing reviews and people loved it. Some minor negative comments where received for a couple hero models, some visual effects and for the user interface of the game - both of which have been addressed by Valve and as they said they have lots of feedback from the community and they will be making changes on the models and some visual effects. As for the UI they said that it will be reworked as well. The engine, which is the most important thing on the game, was great! The games where smooth, no real bugs or errors and gameplay seemed brilliant!
For anyone that missed it (I have no idea how or why you'd do such a stupid thing but ...meh!)The International is over and Na'Vi are the one million dollar prize winners! Congratulations!
You can read up on all the details of the international here, check the replays from the whole tournament here. Finally, you can check up on the statistics of hero picks from the tournament here.
DOTA 2 will not be shipped before 2012.
This is one of the sad news that we got from Gabe but, at the same time he promised that the open BETA will be live until the game is released. What does that mean? Free DOTA 2 until the game's official release for all. Meh... Delaying the actual release doesn't sound so bad if we can all play the game! :)
Gabe Newell's Interview on GamesCom
Here are the important stuff you need to know about this interview:
- Several Valve developers are avid fans of the original DotA!
- Story driven single-player campaigns are out of the question. Valve intends to focus on the multiplayer aspects.
- Matchmaking algorithms will match players of similar skill level.
- Community contributions such as player guides, coaching system and accessibility etc. will be an integral part of the overall gameplay experience.
- Cosmetic microtransactions are likely going to be implemented.
- Dota 2 will continue the DotA tradition of getting user feedback and suggestions.
- Dota 2 will launch in early 2012 at the earliest. Despite that, an invitation-only beta will start some time after gamescom and an open beta will follow after.
Erik Johnson's Interviews on Gamescom
Here are a few of the important bits, but we'd recommend you watch both interviews: interview 1 and interview 2:
- Dota 2 will have 105 heroes on release.
- Every hero in Dota 2 will have individual backstories, with several videos and comics planned to explore and tell the story of the Dota 2 world.
- You'll be able to join a game with your friends and fight similarly skilled players with friends. Valve is really trying hard to solve the problem of games with imbalanced skill levels.
- Bot training maps, tutorials, and coaching are all confirmed.
- Erik's favorite hero is Earthshaker!
- Feedback on the game from the Gamescom attendees are really positive.
- Beta will eventually go from thousands to hundreds of thousands in order to get more feedback. Player hardware configuration will likely be a criteria in player selection.
- The game can scale down on low end computers, so no worries tight-budgeted players!
Erik Johnson's Interview at Dealspwn
In this new interview, Erik Johnson said that they have plans to hold an event similar to The International yearly which gathers the best players from all around the world. At the same time, on the same matter IceFrog has confirmed that the prizepool will "be at least as big as the current prize pool" when responding to a fan query on playdota forums.
DOTA 2 Wins IGN's People's Choice Award!
Over the course of Gamescom 2011, IGN was running the People's Choice Award, giving you the chance to vote for your favourite game of the show - whether you were there in Cologne or not.
Altogether, 258,367 votes were cast - which, as I'm sure you'll agree, is a LOT of people. Incidentally, this makes IGN's People's Choice Award officially the world's largest videogame awards, which we're very pleased about.
It was a hard-fought battle, with five or six different games on top at one point or another in the show. There were 25 candidates, but there can only be one winner, and the eventual victor was... *drumroll*
...Valve's DOTA 2!
Finally unveiled on the show floor, DOTA 2 presents a mix of online RTS and RPG action, and it impressed us as well as voters. You can read our Gamescom impressions here.
A fan-made DOTA 2 Feedback website has been setup!
The website can be found here and it is basically gathering "like" and "dislike" votes on hero modes, item icons and spell icons. An interesting initiative that we believe is worth your vote.
Blizzard DOTA gets Rebooted!
One of the senior games designers at Blizzard told Eurogamer that the Starcraft II Mod got rebooted and thus it's release pushed back to 2012. It is unclear whether this reboot and postpone has anything to do with the trademark issues that Valve had with Blizzard on the DOTA trademark.
DOTA 2 BETA
This announcement gave hope to all of us a couple of days ago!
"Following yesterday's announcement of the Dota 2 public beta, Valve informed us today that the stress testing should begin "a few weeks following Gamescom," the mega-sized games convention currently taking place in Germany.
A Valve representative also told us that the company is targeting the Dota 2 launch for the end of this year, but it could be early next. Steam users who registered should keep an eye out for an invite to the beta shortly"
Finally, one last interview from Gabe was published last night that revealed that we can expect to see the beta in about three weeks. As he said, we have to wait that long because of the feedback they got from the tournament. Some of you may have thought the beta would start right after Gamescom, but this is appropriately timed considering the announcement of the beta starting in the Fall.
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