DOTA 2 First Blood Update This Month

DOTA 2 is set to get a pretty big update on the 23rd of September called First Blood to include some pretty major new features. While the changelog is so big I won't include it here, I can list off the major new bits!

Major New Stuff

• Local Play - Engage in close quarters combat with nine of your nearest friends. Now you can create a local lobby and use your computer to host a rousing round of Dota 2 through your home or café network.

• Captains Draft Game Mode - Gather a team, choose a captain, and face off against your opponents in a test of wits to assemble a squad from a randomized pool of twenty-four heroes. Each team takes turns banning two of the available heroes from the match while picking and counter-picking to compose their lineup before charging into battle.

• Improved Armory - Your Backpack is now your Armory! Never fumble through piles of weapons and announcers while trying to find your rare couriers again. Build filters for, and navigate your armory by item type, quality, rarity, and more.

• Portal Pack - The acerbic wit of Portal's GLaDOS finally makes her Dota 2 announcer pack debut! The sarcastic A.I. will be only too happy to tell you when your barracks or towers have fallen. Included in the pack are the new Aperture Science Wardcores as well as the Portal HUD skin, both of which are only available through purchase of the Portal Pack.

Linux Specific

• Make "Sound while alt-tab" setting work
• Added a fix for missing lip sync in hero portraits
• Fix corrupted GUI after changing video settings
• Hero Library videos now play on Linux

The rest of it are the usual random fixes, buffs and debuffs of characters to balance them apart from these few I picked that I feel are important:

• Added UI texture streaming to reduce memory usage
• The quality of the item drops you are eligible for is now tied to your Dota profile level. You can see your current drop level in your profile page
• Added profile privacy option to prevent viewing of Steam/DOTA profiles
• Alt-left clicking on an enemy icon in the top bar will send a chat message that the hero is missing

Personally I have been playing a lot of Awesomenauts lately, it's a far less hostile form of DOTA. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.