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This week's Dota 2 update shipped a little later than usual in order to avoid complications with the ongoing International 3 Western Qualifier. The update includes a series of gameplay tweaks relating to Elder Titan and Ursa, while a few modifications related to memory management were made to help improve the game's performance. Lobby and tournament games now support up to 6 broadcast channels, which has been increased from the previous limit of 4, allowing even more commentators and language options to be available by spectators viewing online matches or replays. A new cosmetic item set was released for Queen of Pain as a reward for purchasers of the recently released "Premier League Season 5" ticket. This item set is unique however, as the appearance of the "Wicked Succubus Set" can be upgraded and improved based on the amount of tournament matches the owner has viewed. The three different levels and their cosmetic differences are shown in the below image.

A pair of new cosmetic HUDs, namely "The Powered Star" and "Stone Ruin", were also added as ticket purchase incentives for the "StarSeries Season VI" and the "Premiere League Seasons 5", respectively. These HUDs were included alongside a wide series of unreleased alternate HUDs, including the "International 2013 HUD" promised to all Compendium owners after the newly added Stretch Goal 3 was completed earlier this week. Additionally, a new announcer pack was also added to the game files, this time themed after the extremely popular community personality "Pyrion Flax", which has apparently been sitting in the Steam Workshop for many months. The announcer pack also features an accompanying 'Mega Kill' version for all you triple killers out there interested in hearing Pyrion Flax scream at you through your speakers in celebration. For more information on this week's Dota 2 update, head on over to the Dota 2 Wiki for the official changelog, or check out Cyborgmatt's blog for his full patch analysis.

Back in February we posted about a large number of staff departures from Valve that started off when Jeri Ellsworth tweeted about her leaving the company. The Verge have revealed Jeri's reason for leaving Valve: She and fellow ex-Valve employee Rick Johnson left to found their own company called Technical Illusions which aims to create augmented reality technology.


The technology itself is being called CastAR and it is quite different to the Google Glasses method ofaugmented reality. A miniature projector is mounted on a pair of glasses which bounces an image off special retroreflecting panels. The panel also has infrared LEDs that a camera on the glasses can detect which the system uses to determine the user's position so that it can project the correct image as if the the user was moving in 3D space. An interesting aspect of the device is that multiple users can use the same screen to see different images as the light from each pair of glasses is reflected back at them.

More information, and a video showing CastAR in action, can be seen at the Verge.

After nearly half a year without a major Team Fortress 2 update, Valve have announced "Robotic Boogaloo" - the most recent sizable patch for everyone's favourite war themed hat simulator. The update, which was announced on the Team Fortress blog alongside the release of a brand new short teaser trailer and comic, is being described as "the first entirely community-created update" and includes 57 brand new community developed cosmetic items, many of which are robot themed replicas of existing hats and miscellaneous items. Every element of the update was created by the community before being evaluated and accepted by Valve including the website pages, the teaser trailer, the comic, all artwork and all in-game models. The new items are all available from the RoboCrate, a robot themed crate the community have been collecting en masse since it was added by Valve in late April 2013.


The update website uses original community created artwork uploaded to the Steam Artwork section to highlight a series of individual items included with the patch. The update is now available, so head on over to Team Fortress 2 if you feel like checking it out. While you download the update, don't forget to watch the impressive update teaser trailer included on the main announcement page, which was created by community member "MrPopulus89".

Valve today announced six more games have been greenlit for release on Steam. The six games are:

Bleed - a 2D action platformer
Game Dev Tycoon - a game development simulator
Stardew Valley - a co-op "country-life RPG"
RIOT - a game about riots
Legends of Eisenwald - a medieval RPG-RTS
The Legend - a first person horror game that isn't about collecting notes

We'll keep you up to date on any more titles getting through the greenlight process.

Following a week of speculation and rumour, Valve have officially announced the beta of Steam Trading Cards, a new feature that will allow players to earn and trade rewards using their games and Community Profile. Also included is a major cosmetic update for the Steam Community, offering players better ways to personalise the look and layout of their profile pages.

Players will be able to obtain the new Trading Cards in two ways. Firstly, by playing any of the participating games on Steam and secondly, by trading with other players in the Steam Community. Currently, the beta allows users to obtain cards using any of the games listed below, with more titles to follow in the coming months:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Don't Starve
• Team Fortress 2
• Portal 2
• Dota 2
• Half-Life 2

Once you have amassed a completed collection of cards, they can be combined to craft a badge specific to that game. These badges will be displayed on your profile page, including one "featured" badge displayed at the top of the page. Badges now also posses an XP value that contributes towards your profile level. Each new level offers certain perks, including increased friends list capacity and Profile Showcases, a new feature that allows you to highlight your favourite games, workshop items, or achievements on your profile page.
Crafting badges will also unlock their own randomised rewards, including coupons for the steam store which offer discounts on Games and DLC; new emoticons for use in your steam chats; and background art for your newly customisable profile page. All of these crafting rewards are tradable. However, they can only be used while you own them.

Profile pages in general have also seen a major update, with a greater emphasis on your personal playing habits and style. Along with customisable background art, information such as achievements, statistics, and community contributions have been organised into blocks which can be highlighted via the new Profile Showcase feature mentioned above.

Invites to the new beta are being released periodically, so be sure to sign up here if you wish to get early access to all the new features.