BLGaming Forums: News

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I've been trumpeting the joy that is Super Monday Night Combat, but I've noticed not many of the average gamers have heard of it. So I'll do this little "Get to Know Super Monday Night Combat" article and hopefully you all will become more familiar with this game I love.

Monday Night Combat, Super Monday Night Combat's predecessor, was released on August 11, 2010 on the Xbox 360 as part of Microsoft's 2010 Xbox Live Summer of Arcade and is distributed through Xbox Live Arcade. It was released on January 24, 2011 for PC Via Steam. This was the first installment in a very fast paced over the shoulder action game with MOBA elements. Uber Entertainment is trying to realign with the ARTS scene with SMNC, by making it more than just an action game.

SMNC is a 3rd person shooter with Action RPG elements, and is unlike any game currently on the market. There are 2 lanes (Left and Right) in which bots spawn (like creeps in Dota/LoL/HoN). Your job is to push these lanes to the 'money ball' which is similar to Nexus/Ancient in other MOBAs. There are turrets, and various boosts around the map that add to the action feel of the game. The biggest boost is the Annihilator, it destroys all bots on opposing team as well as wounding the players. The game is far deeper than this, but I'm giving you the short and dirty for brevity sake. Expect a much longer and more thorough look at SMNC in the future.

I've really been enjoying SMNC, it's a very fun and fast paced game that's easy to love. Farming is less than tedious in SMNC and is actually quite enjoyable. The farm and poke formula that's part of the meta game in other MOBAs is lost on this one, it's an all out brawl! I can see myself playing Super Monday Night Combat well into release and beyond.

Interested in reporting on or helping out with SMNC tournaments? Make sure you join the #blgaming channel and send me a message. Let's hear what you love or hate about SMNC, let me know in the comments.
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Just posted on the DOTA 2 blog are the notes for the patch just released this evening. The update adds a new hero, Outworld Destroyer, and over a dozen new features, including a new game mode, Single Draft, a new interface for finding lobbies, and the ability to jump to any position in a replay.

DOTA 2 beta invitees should be able to receive the update by restarting their game.

You can find the entire patch notes, as well as a link to the complete DOTA 2 changelog at the link below.

DOTA 2 Blog
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In a recent interview by JoinDota.com's Ben "TobiWanKenobi" Dawson, Erik Johnson, Valve's Market Director of Operations confirmed that DOTA 2 will indeed have LAN support.

To quote Johnson directly:

Quote

This is great news for the DOTA 2 community as it not only guarantees the quality of LAN tournaments (and perhaps the quantity as well), but also puts DOTA 2 in the forefront of the MOBA (or Action-RTS if you prefer) scene, making it the first game of its type to natively support such a feature.

Johnson goes on to talk about Valve's commitment to the global DOTA 2 community, this years "The International" tournament, and even potential support for modding and custom games.

The whole interview can be found here.
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Perfect Reign

If you have any critiques about the show, or if you're a pro and would like to come on the show, feel free to leave a comment as well!

In order to qualify for the RP giveaway mentioned in the VoD, all you need to do is comment in this article. If you post more than once you are disqualified (Staff members dont get a shot, sorry :< ). The contest will end at 8pm EST, Feburary 15th.

The RP winner is.......................

....

JavECakez! Congrats. Keep an eye on your PM box on the forums for the RP code
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Valve feels really bad about taking down Dota 2 for Valentine's Day. So sad in fact, that they've decided to reveal some concept art for 3 "upcoming heroes." Take a look.

Lone Druid


Lycan


Shadow Demon


Usually released concept art is just a rough design of what the end result actually looks like, but in the case of Dota 2, it's usually spot on. Of course, you could always consider the original Dota model concept art. These are actually final concepts for the characters, so this is what they'll look like in game. This doesn't make up for the downtime, but it's a start.
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Reeling from server downtime? It's only been a few hours man, get a grip! But, I feel your pain, so I thought I'd showcase a member of the Dota 2 community that deserves a little recognition. His name is JohnnySigs and he not only streams Dota 2, but he's interested in helping everyone become a better player. Above is the first of many videos where he teaches the basics, and later on, the finer points of Dota 2.

Along with a playlist of videos aimed at improving your playing ability Johnny also takes some time out of every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to stream. He also plans on taking some time on Saturday to stream some more introductory style gameplay, for those of you who are either unfamiliar or just new. Streaming starts at 6PM EST and goes until question marks, which is a sure sign you're in for a good time.

Vying for his favorite hero slot, he has Shadow Fiend, Invoker, and Enigma. Though if he had to choose, it'd be Enigma. Stumbling across his videos, I thought they were a pretty good starter platform for new to the genre players.

Hope you like him as much as I did. Regardless of whether or not you liked him, Johnny requested that I help him express his gratitude to the Dota 2 community in general, specifically r/Dota2.

If you couldn't find the cleverly hidden links throughout the post, I'll collect them at the bottom here.


Playlist
Stream
r/Dota2
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This Friday, Draconis awakens to blast some noobs off the map.
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Good evening BLG readers! Udyr has just posted the patch notes for tonight's update and their new champion Nautilus. This patch also includes some big changes; specifically Soraka and Sona nerfs, and a significant upgrade to Shen. Will this bring Shen back to the top, or are these changes not enough? Leave your opinions of him and all the other changes in the comments!
To read the full story click here
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Valve is making it easier to decide between spending Valentine's Day with your significant other or playing Dota 2 easier by providing us with a full 24 hours of downtime. On the official Dota 2 blog a post was made on the 10th giving everyone a 4 day heads up on the 24 hour downtime.

While the thought of going 24 hours without Dota 2 might shred your tiny heart to bits, there is a silver lining. With downtime comes presents. The first bit of news dropped on the blog was a mention of increased server capacity, which bodes well for those of you who still have yet to witness the majesty of Dota 2 first hand. Along with what I can only imagine will be a metric ass load of Dota 2 invites coming out in the next week, the same standard of measurement could be used for the amount of heroes being released.

According to the blog post, the next patch will be a 'packed one.' This is exciting news as I was growing accustom to having at the very least, a new hero each week.

As always, Valve likes to implement a little humor into their blog post by linking to their own wiki's Valve Time entry. Estimations on when the servers will actually be up? How about the next hero release? This month? Let me know in the comments.
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