Arrested Development Clan

A good read for people into 'action RTS'

http://gameinformer.com/b/features/arch ... tails.aspx

I have mixed feelings about it. The reason I could never get into dota was because of the incredibly steep learning curve. Dota 2 seems to be alleviating this by adding community features, tutorials, help guides, and using an engine that won't have the same limitations that WC3 and Battle.net had. So that's cool, and Valve + Source Engine always gets a vote in my favor.

But... isn't this just the exact same game as DotA? It sounds like they haven't changed ANYTHING. Erik Johnson straight up says that all the design decisions were there for a reason, so they aren't going to touch them. I realize DotA is considered a very balanced game in it's current state, but how can you call it DotA 2 when it is literally the exact same game on a different engine?

I'll probably try it out just because Valve is behind it, but a lot of the things League of Legends did to distance itself from DotA and make it unique are what I like about the game. DotA 2 isn't doing anything different at all, if anything it is trying to be as close to the original as possible. That makes me feel ambivalent about the project.

Agreed. Calling it Dota2 seems strange, but it is on a different engine at a different era. Not sure if Dota Episode 1 would really work. Plus Value may never actually get around to the updates if it's called that. Calling anything <insert name>2 will mean many updates to come.

Also, Valve has never let me down before and I trust them with what they do best, make games.

As far as LoL, HoN, Dota go I think there is a market for all of these games. People try them and find the one that fits them best.

My 1 hesitation is that Valve is changing genres from what they normally develop.

Good stuff, would read again! I'm interested in how matchmaking and game mechanics will work considering they're changing how it's a new community and publisher. Also, will it cost money? Probably so. I guess we'll have to see!

Trailer released:

http://www.dota2.com/trailer

Beta sign ups: http://www.dota2.com/tournaments/international/