Following yet another very quiet week from Valve, this week's short Round-Up episode is discussing a recent hat-filled patch for Team Fortress 2 and revisiting a bunch of neat improvements to the Steam Reviews and Broadcasting features added a few weeks back!


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After accidentally missing last week thanks to one of my own blunders, we're back to recap the past two weeks of Valve news! With Valve once again quiet, the biggest news we have to discuss revolves around the on-going Dota 2 / Warhammer cosmetic item contest, the re-tweaking of the 6.87 balance update, and a mind-blowing new speedrun of Half-Life 2!

We're hoping news should pick up again sometime soon, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook and Twitter! Thanks for watching!

We may have skipped releasing an episode last week due to the annual mid-April news drought, but the same cannot be said for this week - with interesting new headlines for both Valve's biggest games and Steam! Is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's classic map Inferno about to be remade, what effect will the changes of 6.87 have on Dota 2, and is Steam about to enter the digital film market in a big way? Come find out in this week's News Round-Up!

We should be able to return to a normal video schedule from now on, so don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to avoid missing out! Thanks for watching!

After several weeks of speculation about the community, this evening finally saw Valve announce "6.87", the latest balance patch for Dota 2. Like most balance patches, the update focuses on finely tweaking the gameplay experience of Dota 2 with both small and large brush strokes, changing values by decimal places or introducing totally new items and abilities. We won't be going over most of the contents of the changelog here as there's way too much to cover, but here are a few of the highlights!

A total of 7 new items have been added to the game with this patch, a number of which feature as end-game combinations or early game components for existing items. They include Bloodthorn, the game's most expensive item which features as a combination between Orchid Malevolence and Crystalys capable of guaranteeing critical hits and silences, Echo Sabre, which causes its owner to attack twice in quick succession every 5 seconds, and Hurricane Pike, a combination between Force Staff and Dragon Lance that blows enemy heroes in the opposite direction from the user. Other less expensive items include Blight Stone, a mini-Desolator which removes 2 armour on hit, Wind Lace, which gives +20 movement speed, Tome of Knowledge, a rare book capable of instantly giving 425 experience points, and Infused Raindrops, a 5-charge item able to block numerous instances of 120 magic damage.

An all-new mechanic known as "Scan" allows a team to check a 900 unit radius on the mini-map for enemy activity over an 8 second period. The scan, which is on a team-wide 4.5 minute cooldown, will alert the team with a light pinging noise, alerting them that enemies are now within that area without revealing exact locations or number of opponents.

Alongside this update's new items and mechanics come the usual plethora of changes for the game's roster of heroes, with Storm Spirit, Mirana, Oracle, Winter Wyvern, and Bloodseeker all being granted Aghanim's Scepter bonuses for the first time, while Earthshaker, Gyrocopter, Skywrath Mage, and more have had their benefits reworked to make them more effective or interesting. Other big changes include numerous nerfs to Invoker and Outworld Devourer, who have seen rampant success and ridiculously high pick rates over the past few months.

The spawning patterns and gold / experience balance of certain jungle creeps was also modified, alongside minor changes to the map's layout and a new structure for both Ranked All Pick and Captain's Mode. More details can be found over on the official changelog should it interest you.

While the release of traditional films onto Steam has been a slow and inconsistent trickle since the functionality was introduced with Valve's own Free To Play Dota 2 documentary back in 2014, things should start speeding up considerably thanks to a new partnership announced today via a press release. The partnership is between Valve and Lionsgate, the Canadian-American entertainment giant, which will see "over 100" feature films made available on Steam over an undisclosed period of time.

The press release references The Hunger Games, Twilight, Saw, and the Divergent franchises as a few examples of the blockbuster series which should soon hit the platform. As you would expect, more titles will also be added in the future as their long term partnership continues, with more entertainment content producers likely to join forces with Steam in time should these initial steps prove fruitful. The current and expanding line-up of Lionsgate can be found over on a new dedicated sale page!