DOTA 2 Gallery
In-House Screenshots
The Binding of Isaac
In-House Gameplay Video!
Be Careful Who You Mess With!
Call of Duty Trash Talk Leads To Assault
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
In-House Interview!
A report submitted to the Korean National Assembly has put forth the idea that such behaviour is equivalent to dirty, dirty gambling due to the nature of random loot drops. As a result, the standards set out in Korea by Article 1 of the Gaming Industry Promotion Law in July aren't met by Diablo III's Auction House. The consequences of this are far-reaching, but hit Diablo III during its development.
The media in Korea have apparently taken this as a move against Blizzard, but the Korean Gamers Rating Board have countered this with the fact that all games will be coming under the same scrutiny.
While it's obviously an enjoyable thing to be in such a nerd-infused celebration of your central hobby, the prevailing feeling I take away from the expo every year is of slight disappointment. It's the sprawling abundance of consoles alongside the sad scarcity of PCs that does it. And the lack of Anno 2070, of course.
Taking the reigns of a Counter-Strike game with a controller is something I think I'll take a while to recover from. "Why do people do this to themselves?" I muttered in quiet desperation as I strained to leer my crosshair onto the approaching menace of a counter-terrorist using the wiggle-stick. It does tend to mean that I'm instantly charmed by any game that comes with a mouse and keyboard attached to it, no matter how uninterested I may be in Every MMO Ever. By the way - on a completely unrelated note - I picked up a bunch of codes for some in-game "dwarven smithy goggles" for your delightful characters in RIFT. If you'd like a pair, leave a comment describing the style and colour of your character's hair.
Amongst the other unearned treasures on offer, OnLive were giving out free consoles to the rabidly queuing hordes, t-shirts fell continuously from the sky and Trackmania 2 ran a tournament for expo-entrants in which first place yielded an unashamedly spangly Alienware laptop. The deal came complete with a clipboard-accessorised lady who sat beside players, taking note of their best time, while a camera mounted beneath the monitor stared perseverantly up noses. I couldn't handle the prospect of trying not to swear profusely while an inevitably ill-timed drift slammed me into a wall, but I also couldn't handle the prospect of owning an Alienware laptop, so it all worked out fine in the end.
The Indie Games Arcade heaved with humans for the duration, which was a welcome change from previous years. My favourite games on display there were Pineapple Smash Crew (a top-down control-four-dudes have-a-fun-time shooter), Stellar Impact (a space-opera DotA-alike with added naval warfare) and Smuggle Truck (Trials 2 with some bonus illegal immigration).
In left-over snippets: the PlayStation Vita didn't manage to convince me, Skyrim looked promising, Mass Effect 3 is Mass Effect 2 and my computer is (finally) joining me in London today so if you'll excuse me, I must envelop myself in Battlefield 3.
Before I do that, here's that funny Fifa 12 video. Oh ho ho ho! I like it.

Onlive, the cloud gaming service that streams your input to a remote server running the game, and then streams the video back to sounds like it could be the perfect solution for many gamers. We are already doing it with our music and with our movies, so why not games? Their streaming method would mean reduced costs in both purchasing games as well as no need for expensive hardware upgrades because all of the processing is done remotely. Even better, all of your games and progress are synched, so it doesn't matter if you're playing on your desktop, laptop, or in your living room on your TV, you're accessing the same game files and always resume at the correct place.
The Onlive CEO Steve Perlman is very confident about his platform claiming that "The publishers are telling us we're number two in terms of digital distribution behind Steam" and that "Publishers have bought into it, they get it, they know that it works, and the cheques at the end of the month help."
I've tried Onlive extremely briefly myself and wasn't very impressed. Are any of you readers Onlive subscribers? How do you like it? I was thinking about loading it back up to do a mini review of the Onlive service - if that is something you'd be interested in, let me know in the comments.
Thanks to GP.

EA has made the demo for The Sims 3 available to play in-browser; I assume eschewing the need to install is to help appeal to the casual gamer who is more used to playing Farmville than a real computer game.
"You’ll get to play 20 minutes of some of the best content The Sims have to offer in this gameplay teaser. First, choose one of three classic character types as your Sim, and then send them off on their first adventure. Have your Sim explore an Egyptian pyramid, commune with ghosts in a haunted house, or let them party the night away with vampires. It’s up to you to decide what your Sim does next! Content in the teaser includes elements from The Sims 3, The Sims 3 Late Night, The Sims 3 World Adventures, and more."
No word yet how much Sim torture you can unleash in this "teaser", but I'm about to find out!

Valve has announced that they will be releasing "Portal 2: Peer Review", some free DLC for Portal 2 on October 4th for all platforms. Peer Review adds a new co-op adventure for you and a pal to play through, as well as single player and co-op challenge modes and leaderboards.
Also don't forget to snag the third volume of the Portal 2 soundtrack "Songs to Test By, Volume Three" while you're waiting.
I'm giving it a download right now, need some strategy action to break up the Fall TV schedule with!
Key features:
Be sure to check out the Dota 2 gameplay video of Pudge too!
Graphics
Storage
Cases
Power Supplies
Motherboards
Other
One of the two emails was titled "Comparing testing experiences", and read as follows:
We hope you are enjoying participating in the Game Testing Program and want to thank you for helping shape the most anticipated MMO to date.We've posted a fun short survey for game testers, and the results have been really interesting so far. Answer a few questions and see what your fellow testers are thinking. After the survey, hit the forums to talk about your experience or get gameplay tips.
Bastids.
Bradford admitted the attack was a 'moment of madness' as the child 'would not shut up'. He said: “I'd been playing the whole day and he was baiting me and baiting me and just would not shut up. “He went on and on and I just lost it. I hold my hands up, I lost the plot. In a moment of madness I went round to his house. I didn't know what I was going to do.”
Bradford admitted one count of assault by beating. (Source: Wownews.co.uk)
We have been working very hard on SS3 all the way, and especially in these recent months trying to make it for the promised October 18th. In the past few days, we did some reassessments, based both on internal results, and on beta testing feedback, and determined that we would want to do some more gameplay tuning, bugfixing and optimization - more than would be possible within the given timeframe. This is the game that we have invested a lot of love and work into, and one that we know the series' fans are expecting a lot from.
A press release will come later today.
In the game, you play a merchant in northern Europe in the late Middle Ages when the Hanseatic League of traders and merchants was flourishing. Your goal is to rise to become the most successful and influential member of the Hanse, ultimately being elected Alderman, leader of the trading league. Start by trading common goods, then build up your own production and establish a merchant fleet to expand your trading empire and gain more political influence as you conquer new towns.However, a Hanse merchant's life can also have its dark side. During your rise to power you must hold your ground against fierce rivals, whom you have to overcome by any means - be it economic competition, price wars or "other" underhanded tactics such as sabotage. Will you even engage in piracy to get what you want?
Patrician IV Gold Edition Features:
Each hero in this tale – Andriel the Elf, Eradan the Human, Farin the Dwarf - contributes a vital talent further uniting the Fellowship. Hear from the creators themselves as they delve into the inner workings of the game’s heroes. Utilising teamwork and communication, players can join together to fight the War in the North.
Dawn of Fantasy enables players to build up villages into towns and then mighty strongholds, to manage a thriving, persistent economy, and to lay siege to enemy armies and citadels with great trebuchets, the brute strength of the walking woods, and fire-breathing dragon mercenaries to reign supreme.
Players can play as one of three different races – elves, men and orcs, each of which offers a radically different play style and has been given a deep, compelling mythology, a dramatic, historical background, and a spectrum of complex political ambitions and sub-plots that drive the story and gameplay.
"The game goes where we can´t when training in the field: mounting the various circuits in full is not feasible in most cases because of time or space, and in the videogame we can see all of them, learn and practice as desired" said Zara Peral, coach of wheelchair slalom."We recreate technique or mistakes in the game and then recreate the correct mode of execution, which helps players to progress faster."
People who practice or want to start practicing this sport can learn more about their rules, event types and courses and even improve their times practicing different strategies of movement.
The game recreates Slalom practice in a three-dimensional environment and allows users to manage their profile, selecting characters, wheelchair type, tests and obstacles.
'Slalom, the videogame' offers the chance to compete against another player on the same computer, and contains several tutorials that explain the rules and all the obstacles presented.
Section 8: Prejudice Features
In this video, the Resistance has heard rumors of an Ark surfacing in Jackal Valley, and they need you to search the site for a valuable data decrypter. Finding it won't be easy as the valley is home to one of the Wastelands most brutal factions, the savage Jackal Clan.
It's bad news for PC fans no doubt, but Ubisoft did just release some footage which shows off Ezio's new toy - the hookblade. Looks sweet!
The best way to describe the gameplay in Isaac would be to compare it to a hybrid of Smash TV and the original Legend of Zelda. It's not the easiest game, much like Super Meat Boy, but it is very fun and rewarding. Every time you play the game generals entirely new levels, item drops, mob and boss encounters, etc., so you've got a casual game which ends up being a little more old-school than you'd probably expect. Danny Baranowsy lent his musical talents to Team Meat once again too, so you'll at least get to enjoy some sweet tunes while you try to master the variety of monster patterns.
You can see a recording of two full game sessions that I took back to back below. TBOI is played entirely with the keyboard, there's not any need for a mouse or gamepad. I can definitely vouch for the fact that the game is so much different every time you play. All in all it's one of the better gaming values on the PC that I can think of for $5. If you're interested in picking up a copy you'll want to swing on by the Binding of Isaac Steam store page soon so that you can take advantage of the 10% launch week discount.
Did you guys catch the in-house Dota 2 gameplay video that went up yesterday? After finally seeing Dota 2 in action I'm much more confident that it's going to be a big player in the MOBA scene, despite any competition from League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, or even the original Dota mod for Warcraft 3. If time permits, I'm going to try to get an article up sometime in October which takes a closer look at the landscape of these so called MOBA games. It should be an interesting read whether you're a "MOBA" genre fan or not.
Oh and before I forget, we've narrowed down the Sengoku winners! After G'moist, Jube, and I spent some time going over the haiku submissions in our very own Dojo we came up with the following winners: 1badmf, Asianwaste, Armandeus, Syric, and Renato. If your spot your name in the list then please fire off an email to ohmwrecker [at] ve3d.com so I can get you linked up with your key sometime tomorrow!
Anyways guys, that's all for your Friday "Blah". Thanks to Dave Oshry from Ripten for today's video of the day. Move over Shakeweight, the Free Flexor has arrived.