Of all the things Valve have done, the 'have-the-community-make-their-own-cosmetics' movement that started with Team Fortress 2, might be the smartest. By creating an ecosystem in which item-makers can profit, Valve have effectively allowed their community to hire itself to expand their game. Though still in beta, Dota 2 enjoys a constant influx of stuff. Every update bristles with new couriers, announcer packs, weaponry and other decorative paraphernalia. With that inevitable release date drawing inexorably closer each day, the momentum of production only seems to be increasing. But, who are the people behind the work?

"It’s one of the best, most straightforward ways for 3D artists to profit from what they’ve made."

To date, item creators have collectively made millions from getting their wares into Valve games. We speak to top item makers who have made significant profits on the Dota 2 workshop, from beginners who have just started modelling with no training, to seasoned professional artists who work for big-budget studios and create Dota 2 items on the side. They say that selling Dota 2 items "it’s one of the best, most straightforward ways for 3D artists to profit from what they’ve made." How did they get started? How do new items come together? How does Valve decide which Steam Workshop items make it into the game? Let's find out.

Getting started as an item-maker isn't a complicated as you might think. Mrpresident's first encounter with a 3D program was a mere 10 months ago when he made his first virtual box. "I was a huge fan of Dota and I'd always wanted to learn how to 3D model," he says "so, I spent a lot of time watching Anuxi and other stream their workflow process on twitch, and tried to practice their techniques and methods."

A firm believer in the educational properties of the twitch streams, mrpresident is one of the many who have taught themselves the art of 3D modeling. Similarly, Vladimir > the implyer, as he is known on Steam, never received a formal education in the field.



"I started modeling early - way before Max 6." Vladimir explains. "I got some books, learned the basics, modeled some teapots and islands made of primitives. At some point, I also began researching some original Half-Life assets, making Morrowind models and it was a lot of fun." Team Fortress 2's hat sales inspired him to start modelling for Valve games. "I always wanted a hat," he says, "but I was kinda late to that party. After the DOTA 2 workshop launched, I decided I should try my hat-making skills there."

Vladimir is arguably one the prolific figures in the Dota 2 workshop community. Clocking in a substantial 259 submissions ("I deleted some stuff, otherwise the count would be closer to 300."), Vladimir has made a name for himself competing with trained, professional 3D artists.

Australia-based Stephanie Everett, otherwise known as Anuxiamoon is one such individual. Her resume encompasses six years of experience in the game industry and big names like Trion Worlds. Of all the contributors, only she alone received the distinct honour of being assigned a 'chest' of her own. Originally too busy to join the ranks of the Dota 2 workshop contributors, Anuxiamoon first began participating in the creation of Dota 2-related items when Polycount announced a competition. She ended up submitting five sets to the event, the last of which made its way into the top ten.



"I had a block of free time open between freelance projects so I took advantage of that and entered the competition. At first, I had no idea what I was doing, but when you do something new, you always have no idea what you're doing, anyway."

"He earns enough to make full-time development of Dota 2 items a viable profession"

Chemical Alia and DrySocket, firm friends and co-conspirators, are veterans of the gaming industry as well. DrySocket claims over nine years of experience in making games. Chemical Alia currently works for a big-budget studio. For DrySocket, the Workshop is a place of experimentation, an avenue to explore quick ideas in his free time. Chemical Alia, on the other hand, began manufacturing items after being requested to produce work for the Dota 2 workshop.

"I originally got into making custom content for Valve games through Team Fortress 2. The TF2 Polycount contest led to a set for a Spy getting into the game, and that was pretty cool." Chemical Alia recalls. "I ended up getting involved in Dota 2 item creation pretty early, with some Valve folks requesting me to make a set of items, which were released alongside the Dota 2 workshop."

Though it might appear otherwise, Dota 2 item creation is serious business. 25% of total sales might not sound like much, at first, but the numbers do add up. Benjamin Retter, also known as BrontoThunder on Steam, says he earns enough from his creations to make full-time development of Dota 2 items a viable profession – a dream come true, for him. With such high stakes in play, it's unsurprising to learn that tensions do exist. Months where only a sparing number of items are accepted can, according to mrpresident, inspire high emotions.





“Mostly, people get frustrated about their own stuff not being accepted. It's gotten better recently but there have been times where two months pass by without a single accepted item and then, when they do accept items, it may be three or so sets out of the 10+ that deserve to be accepted that were submitted in the past two months. If someone has been submitting high-quality work for months and nothing get nothing get accepted,they get understandably frustrated and discouraged at the system, especially since Valve has been very quiet about how the selection process works.” Mrpresident sighs.

When asked about what he knows in regards to Valve's acceptance policies, Mrpresident offered a blunt, “Zero information.”

"There is a very strong distinction between an amazing piece of art and an amazing Dota 2 item."

“The official art guide is a good place to start but they will still pick items that break the art guide to a certain degree if they and the community like the item/set enough, but sticking to the guide will give you a higher chance of getting accepted. Some people have tried to figure out patterns but it appears to be almost random. My best guess has been that they look at the first few pages of highest community upvoted items and then select the items they like from there.”

Retter argues that a lack of style understanding can be a barrier to new artists. “There is a very strong distinction between an amazing piece of art and an amazing Dota 2 item. The most successful contributors to Dota 2 aren't those who are the absolute best artists, they are the ones who understand what works well within the restrictions Dota 2 has; How does it look from the in-game perspective? Does it fit the lore of the character? Are the colors balanced with the rest of the character? Does it animate well? Is it too distracting? Generally, if an item is popular and fits all of the criteria Valve has provided it won't be long until it's in the game but there are always exceptions to that rule.”

Given the community that its serving, it's unsurprising to learn that competitiveness is omnipresent.We are talking about Dota 2, after all. Chemical Alia notes: “The general culture among contributors is sort of a weird mix. One side of it is pretty constructive/supportive of other artists, but it can get angry and borderline hostile at times.”

One of Vladimir's works.

But while rivalries still exist, things appear better than before. Vladimir describes the past of the community as one steeped in grudges, split loyalties and 'a lot of passive aggressive shenanigans.' “Thankfully now most of the contributors are pretty friendly and everyone tries to learn from every other contributor. “

Whatever the eccentricities of the Workshop acceptance rate, for many, creating and submitting their work is a good way to learn, expose new work to community feedback and, of course, make money.

"Normally, when you make assets for a game, there’s no personal investment in how it does."

“I believe it's one of the best, most straightforward ways for 3D artists to profit from what they've made. Normally, when you make assets for a game, there's no personal investment in how it does. The Dota workshop creates a way for artists to learn, to showcase their abilities, AND to make money. “ DrySocket enthuses, a sentiment echoed by Retter who professes that the community is the number one reason he is making items for Dota 2.

As for what actually goes into the creation of a Dota 2 item, the design process seems to differ from person to person. For modellers like Retter, spontaneity is the primary ingredient. “Sometimes I'll know I want to make items for a specific hero and so I'll open up Photoshop and just start painting over the hero without any specific design in mind, creating interesting shapes and silhouettes until something clicks, and then move into 3D once I feel I've developed it enough.

"Other times I've either been playing or watching a Dota 2 game and I'll be hit with a burst of inspiration for a certain item or design which I feel would look really cool on a hero, these ones are usually my more successful designs, or at least, the ones I'm most proud of. I've just recently got into the habit of writing these ideas down when they come to me so I have a backlog of ideas to work through instead of stopping and starting every time I finish an item or set.”



“Usually I just get a random spark of an idea which sweeps me up and I ride it as long as I can.” Anuxiamoon quips. “For Dota 2, I sometimes do a semi meditative think process, where in the chaos of my brain I find shapes and lines and ideas that I think would work well. Whether they do or not is something I then figure out during my brainstorm sketch process. If you could see my sketchbooks, they are filled with scribbles and ideas for lots of Dota 2 Heroes.”

"The process can take anywhere from three days to a week."

With others, it's a more streamlined procedure. Chemical Alia and DrySocket frequently collaborate together on projects. “The first thing we normally do is brainstorm. Here are a few of the things we'll consider: what characters are newly available to the store, what characters already have awesome recently sets, which characters contrast with the sets we've already made so they can keep things fun, what characters are popular with the player base and so on. From there, we brainstorm set ideas, become acquainted with the character through the models, lore and voice acting. Then, we start drawing a whole bunch of ideas until we settle on a final design.”

The process, according to the pair, can take anywhere from three days to a week. “After that point we split up the work, where each of us takes about half the set and does the high poly, low poly, texturing, everything. We'll bring it all back together again once that's done, take a consistency pass over the textures to make sure it all feels right, and start on our marketing shots. You'd be surprised how much work there is actually besides making the models that you see in Dota! Testing takes forever, and making the actual promotion shots always takes longer than expected.”

Some of Chemical Alia's courier concepts.

Dry quips, half mournfully. “My girlfriend does NOT like it when I say 'I'm almost done' because she never believes it anymore.”

"I see the Workshop community as more a group of gamers, rather than artists."

On top of harsh critique from their peers and personal obligations, Dota 2 item-makers must contend with the general public, a group composed of the frequently vilified players of Dota 2. While some rail against the acid so commonly associated with that demographic, others take it in stride.

“They're a pretty opinionated bunch, but I think that's to be expected because they care about the game and what content goes into it. I see the Workshop community as more a group of gamers, rather than artists. So, while the feedback we get from them might not be the most technically insightful or artistically constructive, it still gives us an idea of how your average Dota 2 player responds to your work and that is a super important metric.” DrySocket remarks.

“There's definitely this strange relationship between contributors and their fans.” Mrpresident says. “You wouldn't believe how many times I and others have been told to "read the art guide" as if people that have sunk hundreds of hours into item creation somehow haven't taken 15 minutes to read the art guide, and then intentionally try to push it and see if Valve likes it.”

The weekend is so near I can almost taste it. Here in Britland the sky is a blank grey texture, devoid of depth - a rubbish skybox. Beholden to the circadian law of Fridays, we'll no doubt retreat from that sky to the soft, warm glow of a pub and then run home to play some videogames. But which ones? The sky will no doubt have opened by then, drumming summer rain into our window panes. A cup of tea and an adventure game might suit, or a round or two of Civilization, perhaps. Here's a round-up of the games we're planning to install, and a question: what will you play this weekend? Let's chat.

Graham has just moved flat, which means learning how to play games without an internet connection to download/activate them. It's surprisingly difficult these days. His solution - put Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe onto a memory stick and spend the weekend weaving roads and railways into beautiful, efficient tapestries of traffic. It's free, so if you fancy doing something similar you can grab the latest build from the Open TTD site.



Phil is going to try Zafehouse: Diaries, a game about managing a group of survivors through an apocalypse via the interface of a grimy, bloodstained logbook. Your team have a degree of autonomy, which means they'll wander around your infested stronghold, chatting to each other, tinkering with things and almost certainly splitting up and getting eaten a lot. Zafehouse promises detailed simulation without relentless micromanagement, something that plays like a work of interactive fiction but with a more complex engine behind it. Hopefully Phil will discover exactly what a "Zafehouse" is so he can tell us on Monday.



Rich has spent the afternoon dipping into Rogue Legacy, a side-scrolling dynastic roguelike that lets you take charge of the next tier of your hero's family tree when they die. Your offspring have various genetic conditions that can dramatically alter their perception of the dungeon. A warrior afflicted with chronic vertigo will have to play the whole game upside down, for example. I imagine Rich will have clocked up hundreds of deaths by the time we return on Monday.



Chris is determined to play something that isn't Dota 2 this weekend. Will he succeed? Well, he's got Sleeping Dogs to finish and Receiver to experiment with. The first is an entertaining, gung-ho crime adventure set in Hong Kong, the second is an exciting little shooter born out of a seven-day game jam. Considering that we've been shooting things in games since games were invented, very few have played with the idea of the gun as a complex piece of machinery. In Receiver you must manually attend to your firearm, using different button presses to free the clip and plop round in one by one. The result is a tense shooter that turns the FPS into a tactile challenge of your memory and finger dexterity. Highly recommended.



I can't buy a win in Company of Heroes 2 at the moment, so I'll spend the weekend scowling over cold cups of tea learning to play, and then probably giving up and replaying the first two chapters of Kentucky Route Zero, a serene, surreal and beautiful episodic game that I'd describe as a "redneck Murakami adventure" if I had to cram the experience into a reductive three-word phrase. And I do, because it's so very nearly the weekend, and somewhere out there there's a Company of Heroes 2 trampling with my name on it.



You can catch up with our writers' progress, and their many tangential observations via Twitter. That's us, but what about you? Catching up on blockbusters past? Playing experimental indie games, or dipping into the latest releases?

In case you hadn’t heard, the business of creating content for games you didn’t make is booming. People are quitting their regular jobs because building Team Fortress 2 robot skins—along with the hats for said robots—is more profitable. The whole thing seems to be working, and now Valve wants to ensure everyone gets their fair share.

“Creating high quality content for games is rarely a solo endeavor,” Valve said in a statement. "Along the way, item creators often make use of specialized tools and receive help, guidance, and feedback from various communities and individuals. We've heard from a number of item creators that are looking for a formal way of recognizing and rewarding the toolmakers and service providers that have helped them.”

Anyone who's bought from the Humble Bundle will understand how the new tool works. Creators get a pre-approved list of companies and individuals to divvy up a part of their earnings between to show support. All the money comes from Valve’s take, meaning item creators won’t have to cut into their own profits.

As of now, creators can only make money from the TF2 and DOTA 2 workshops, but who's to say that won't change? If community development makes millions of dollars for Valve, it’s not hard to see third parties following suit.

I visited Valve early last month, and while I was there I was treated to a world-first, last-minute screening of the first part of ‘Free To Play’, the Dota 2 documentary that the devs have been working on since prior to the first International tournament.

The version I saw was so raw it was being shown directly from the editing software, and there were a lot of first-pass effects that undoubtedly be finished by the time the film comes out. That said, I’m in a position to provide a sense of where Valve are going with it, as well as a few of my concerns over things it might be missing. I’m going to run through my first impressions below, but bear in mind that I will talk about a few specifics of what the movie covers - if you’d like to go in completely spoiler-free, consider this your warning.

They’re using lots of inventive ways to explain Dota 2, but could take this further

The film opens with a montage of people explaining Dota: its history, its popularity, and what you actually do in the game. It’s compared to basketball and chess, and at one point a speaker describing the game as branching network of decisions is accompanied by a diagram illustrating the kinds of choices players make over time. Interviewees range from pro players, community members like TobiWan, developers, and fans outside the games industry.



To illustrate the game, they’re using a mix of in-game footage, new Source Filmmaker animation work, off-screen footage from the International and other tournaments, and even parts of the Gamescom trailer from 2011. At the time I told Valve that I thought this approach was a little scattershot: if the film was your first introduction to the genre, it might be difficult to tell exactly which footage was from Dota 2 and which wasn’t. That said, it’s exciting and emphasises Dota’s legitimacy as a sport, which is important.

Their access to players and their families is really impressive

The bulk of what I saw was concerned with establishing the stakes leading up to the first International. In part this is handled as you’d expect: the history of competitive DotA is covered in order to set up the reveal of the tournament’s astonishing $1m prize pool, and there’s even a montage of shocked YouTube comments from the day the figure was announced.

The heart of the film, however, are Valve’s interviews with players and the people around them. They didn’t just sit down players in front of a greenscreen and get a few soundbites: they followed players as far apart as North America, the Ukraine and Singapore, seemingly for weeks if not months. To give one example, the film covers not only Dendi’s homelife but his childhood and relationship with his parents and siblings. There’s also close attention paid to the attitude of different players’ families to their chosen sport and what success means to each of them. It’s affecting and, crucially, it’s very human - exactly what e-sport coverage needs to achieve to find a wider audience.



There’s also footage of Dendi dancing around during a school play. So you’ve got that to look forward to. The guy, unsurprisingly, can dance.

They could do more to explain what makes each player talented as an individual

My only reservation about the documentary’s depiction of pro players is that it tells the viewer that they’re very talented without really showing why that’s the case. I understand that not everybody is going to be able to look at a bit of Dota footage and figure out what makes someone skilled, but this is where a slower, more explanatory approach could be useful.

One of the things that makes the Daigo Third Strike comeback so legendary in the Street Fighter community is that even if you know nothing about SF it’s possible to watch that video and get that not only is this guy skilled, but that he’s skilled because he’s calm, accurate, and has masterful timing. Hopefully this is something that Valve will also factor in for Free To Play: don’t just describe Dendi as talented, describe him as creative.

It’s kind of heartbreaking when you know how it ends

There’s something strange about watching a sports movie when the tournament itself happened almost two years ago: particularly when you’re watching players talking about how important winning is to them when you know they’re going to lose. This isn’t a criticism of the documentary, and it won’t be relevant for every viewer, but Dota die-hards should expect a degree of cognitive dissonance.

Valve are taking this seriously

Valve do very little by halves, and their filmmaking crew treat Free To Play as their full-time job. They’ve got a dedicated editing suite set up, and I would be surprised if Valve don’t continue to produce movies after this. It’s definitely in-keeping with Valve’s general shift from developer to wide-ranging media company.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the film treats Dota 2 - and games in general - as if they’re worthy of coverage by default. No “it’s only a game, but...” or “look at this novelty sport.” The only doubt about gaming’s legitimacy on the competitive stage is expressed by parents, and it’s heavily contextualised. This is great for e-sports in general: it doesn’t ignore the fact that they’re still a relatively niche pursuit, but it never questions Dota’s right to be taken seriously or the enthusiasm of its fans. For that reason alone, I’m really excited to see how Valve’s first foray into filmmaking turns out.

Brad Muir may be busy running Double Fine's latest Kickstarter, Massive Chalice, but he's still got time for his greatest vice: Dota 2. "I'm extremely addicted," he says. "I'm playing all of the Dota 2 I can handle!"

Name: Brad Muir
Occupation: Project Lead at Double Fine Productions on Massive Chalice
Location: San Francisco, CA
Twitter: MrMooEar

Who are you?

I'm Brad Muir! I'm a Project Lead at Double Fine Productions. I've been here for almost 10 years, working on games like Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, Iron Brigade, and now Massive Chalice.
"It boots and loads games so quickly it's ridiculous. I feel like I'm in the future."
What's in your PC?

I used to be really into building my own PC's but this time I around I had a good friend help me out. I just haven't been keeping up with hardware trends. But the rig that he spec'd out for me is about a year old and it's still a beast! Core i5 3570k, 8GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 580, 256GB SSD. It was such a major upgrade to my old rig!

What's the most interesting part of your setup?

I think it's a pretty normal setup. My PC is at a desk in the guest bedroom with a desk chair. There isn't really anything fancy about it. But I will say that upgrading to a PC with an SSD has been revelatory! I know that it's not uncommon nowadays, but the speed just hasn't worn off on me. It boots and loads games so quickly it's ridiculous. I feel like I'm in the future.

What’s on your desk?

It's so messy it's embarrassing! I keep a lot of stuff by my PC. There are a ton of books, Magic cards, and official-looking pieces of mail laying around that I should be dealing with. But mostly I'm just ignoring these things and playing Dota.
"Games were a great escape for me and let me really feel in control of what was happening in the world."
What are you playing right now?

Oh man I'm playing all of the Dota 2 I can handle! My younger brother roped me into the game and I'm extremely addicted right now. I'm definitely looking forward to The International 3 in Seattle in August! I've also been playing some Crusader Kings 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and X-COM: UFO Defense (old school!) for MASSIVE CHALICE research! It's pretty awesome when these games are considered "research" for your job!

Why do you game?

When I was a kid I think it was all about having a safe space. Games were a great escape for me and let me really feel in control of what was happening in the world. Nowadays I think it's a lot different—games are a great way to socialize and keep in touch with my brother. And I think they're a great, interesting way to apply stress your brain in a positive way. I'm so excited that games are offering all sorts of diverse experiences these days. I'm loving the indie community—it's just great that you can have games like Kerbal Space Program and Cart Life in the Steam store next to Call of Duty. Amazing!

How I Game is a weekly spotlight of developers, pro gamers, and community members. Know someone who you’d like to see featured? Drop a comment below.

Rumors that Dota 2 was now playable without an invite made their way across the Internet yesterday, but we now know that those were just rumors. You still need an invite to get access to anything other than the tutorial and spectator mode. The good news is that paying for access to the game is a lot more reasonable now with prices as low as $10 for the Dota 2 Starter Pack.
Even the Deluxe Starter Pack is only $20—exactly $10 cheaper than the $30 Early Access Pack that used to be in the store. The basic Starter Pack gives you access to Dota 2 and seven in-game items including a Key of Incandescent Wax ($2.50 in the store), the Slayers Glare Ward, the Fearless Badger Courier, and the Swordmaster of the Vigil Set for Sven. Spring for the Deluxe Starter Pack and you’ll also get an equipment set, a courier, a ward, as well as a 3-day Battle Bonus and an Announcer Pack.

Honestly though, if you don’t yet have access to Dota 2 and want to jump in, grab a key from the Dota 2 Dispenser and save your wallet for the endless torrent of couriers, equipment, and keys that you’ll inevitably purchase. Or you can wait for the game to launch this summer.

eSports network StarLadder TV has dropped the banhammer on Aleksey "Solo" Berezin and four of his teammates on Dota 2 team RoX.KIS. StarLadder TV claims RoX.KIS purposefully fed during a Star Series match to win a $100 bet placed on eSports betting site egamingbets.com.
Berezin has been permanently banned from all StarLadder competition while his teammates have received three-year bans. Team RoX.KIS has been banned for one year.
StarLadder TV got in touch with egamingbets.com to find proof of the $100 bet as well as the cash withdrawal into Berezin's account. StarLadder has a full post up on its site along with screenshots of the transactions, although it's all in Russian.
RoX.KIS maintains that the team is innocent, going so far as to say that the bet came from an unknown account with an IP that doesn’t match Berezin’s IP. “We think that the evidence base is very uncertain in this case. We've been able to insist on more thorough investigation of the incident and we believe in the innocence of our players and staff, and inadequate solution on the case,” said in a statement that was translated.
From where I'm sitting, it's suspicious that the $322 winnings were deposited into Berezin’s WebMoney account, even if the bet wasn’t placed with his usual IP. Addressing the alleged feeding, RoX.KIS says that the “match was just a formality,” because the team couldn’t have made it to the LAN finals.
After an even early game, the match seems to edge into zRage’s favor around 16 minutes into the VOD of the full match. To my inexperienced eye, the game doesn’t seem like an explicit attempt to throw—aside from a few bad plays. If anything, the fact that a loss for zRage would have meant relegation is just one more reason that zRage would try hard to win.
If the situation wasn’t confusing enough, fans betting branches in the GosuGamers.net non-money betting system clearly favored RoX.KIS with 84 percent of branches wagered on RoX.KIS’ victory.
Despite the strides that Valve is making in reforming the Dota 2 community, it seems that the eSports scene still has a bit of a ways to go. The strict response from StarLadder TV is the bright spot in a situation that doesn’t really benefit anyone.

Thanks, joinDOTA.

Dota 2's Windrunner leads the charge on our cover this month in PC Gamer UK issue 254. We visited Bellevue to get inside development at Valve HQ as the Dota community prepares for The International tournament and Dota 2's long-awaited launch. Dota can be baffling to the uninitiated, but with a bit of knowledge anyone can enjoy the spectacle, chaos and depth of competitive play. That's why, in addition to our six page preview, we've created a six page guide to watching Dota 2 that will help demystify this fast-moving and famously complex esport.

But that's not all, of course. We've also taken an early look at The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, revisited some of the great old sim games kept alive by their amazing communities and put to paper Rich and Graham's two-year 300+ game Fifa rivalry. That's as well as our normal brace of previews, reviews and more. The issue is available now via the App Store, Google Play or Zinio. If you prefer the weight of a glossy tome in your hands, you can subscribe to get each issue delivered to your door. Read on to find out what else lies within.



In this month's issue...
We pay a visit to Valve for an inside look at the creation of Dota 2.
Breaking Down Dota 2: your guide to deciphering and enjoying the beautiful, complex chaos of a competitive match.
Craig Owens dons his finest hat to preview The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
We take an early peek at the fascinating indie sci-fi god game, Maia, promising kickstarted RPG, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Paradox grand strategy, Europa Universalis IV, ex-Homeworld developers' new RTS, Hardware: Shipbreakers and goon-punching simulator Batman: Arkham Origins.
Rich and Graham document the highs, lows of their intense, life-changing two year rivalry in Fifa 13 in the PC Gamer Champions League.
The Sim Imortals: we pay tribute the classic sims that, thanks to mods and dedicated fan communities, are still going today.
We review Remember Me, Zeno Clash 2, Dead Island: Riptide, Fez, Slender: the Arrival, Kairo, Tectical Intervention, Leviathan Warships, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Star Trek and publish our first alpha review of Prison Architect.
We evaluate the best SLI graphics cards set-ups in this month's hardware supertest.
Rich's story of survival against the odds continues in part five of our Game of Thrones Crusader Kings 2 diary.
Chris skis back into Tribes: Ascend to see what's new in this month's Update.
We re-install Doom Engine RPG/shooter Strife.
Tony returns to Amnesia and Tom drifts through Eve Online in Now Playing.
And lots more!
 

Valve's DotA sequel will ditch its closed beta status and become 'free for everyone' later this summer, Erik Johnson told me during a visit to the developer earlier this year. We mentioned Valve's comments on the Dota 2 release date in PC Gamer issue 254, and community-run Valve news site ValveTime have since confirmed the release window via an e-mail exchange with Valve.

Dota 2 is currently available via an early access purchase or - more likely - through one of the dozens of beta keys sitting in everyone's Steam Inventories. As such, full release might not seem like a big deal - but chances are this means a huge upsurge in interest. The game will open up prior to The International in August, the biggest tournament in the Dota calendar and a huge draw in and of itself. Dota 2 became the most-played game on Steam with hardly any marketing: with a multi-million dollar tournament and the publicity of full release behind it, the Dota population could be set to explode.

From my conversations at Valve I believe that the game's release will coincide with the launch of the next two heroes - Abaddon and Legion Commander, probably in that order. This may seem to clash with Valve's original assertion that the game would be released when it'd reached full parity with DotA 1, but it's not far off - there's only half a dozen heroes to go.

Valve have been inflating the prize pool for The International via the Compendium, an interactive book that acts as a reference document and theorycrafting minigame for the tournament. New rewards unlock as more Compendiums are bought, and the ultimate goal - still a way off, at the time of writing - is to give the community the ability to pick Dota 2's next hero. With the release window in mind, assume that this vote would take place during or after The International, and therefore that the pool of unreleased characters won't include Abaddon or Legion Commander. In other words, get ready for a lot of people to mash the 'Techies' button until their fingers bleed.

The press conferences that precede E3 set the tone for the event, they determine the conversations and questions that follow. With no single unifying organisation to set up such an event, it's one of those rare occasions when the open nature of the PC can prove a detriment. The consoles have had their say, now we can't help but wonder what a similar a show for the PC would look like. Who would take the stage? What would they show? What song-and-dance numbers would we get?

Take your seat, make yourself comfortable and put those Doritos away as we welcome you to this year's purely hypothetical show, the E3 2013 conference that PC gamers deserve.

Introducing - our host! A lone spotlight picks out a trundling figure on a wide, dark stage. It grinds noisily to a halt to rapturous applause and spreads its tiny plastic arms wide. "GREETINGS. I am Medianbot," it drones, bionic monotone dripping with the collective charisma of a platoon of Microsoft presenters. "I have been selected by a vast conglomerate of PC developers as a completely impartial neutral representative for this event. My collective masters to remind you that not one of them owns the platform. We are multitude. We make things we think you might like, and we'd like to show some of those to you this evening. Enjoy."

The auditorium goes dark. A Roman appears on a huge main screen, charging up a beach as flaming rocks soar overhead. XBox One conference attendees sigh, for a moment they think it's the new Roman hack-'em-up, Ryse.

It isn't. The camera's pulling out. There are dozens of Romans. Hundreds. Thousands charging battlements under a a storm of arrows. A mouse cursor appears and it's controlling every last one of them. It's Rome 2. The Creative Assembly are on stage. They talk about diplomacy, subterfuge, politics and war on a huge scale. They talk about players crafting their own stories on the stage of history. They explain that there's no grunting and quick time events. This is a game for grown-ups.



It's Blizzard's turn. Dustin Browder takes to the stage and introduces a trailer for Legacy for the Void, but when the lights come back up, two booths have appeared on stage. In one, Flash, in the other, Life - veteran StarCraft and StarCraft 2 esports players. Browder explains talks about the PC not just as a platform for space adventure, but as a field for sport. He introduces top shoutcasters Tasteless and Artosis as our commentators, and the contestants go to war. There's no awkward, staged banter, only two athletes, laser focused on their screens.

In the coming ten minutes both players demonstrate the agility and quick-thinking that makes them masters of their game. The retiring "GG" is met by a resounding cheer.

A tough act to follow? Perhaps not, when you have a huge open world RPG to show off. CD Projekt RED take the mic. They talk about Geralt's final adventure, they show us the cities and forests we'll be able to explore in The Witcher 3. We've had competition, we've had huge strategy, now we're getting a huge explorable RPG. The showing of their debut trailer sends a ripple of excitement through the crowd.



But CD Projekt RED change tack. New zones, monsters and characters start appearing on the conference screens. They're not officially part of The Witcher 2, or The Witcher 3, it's a modding showcase. It's not about picking out individual examples, it's a catalogue of creations only possible on PC - whole new free campaigns, weapons and options, and the power to reshape entire worlds. Another video plays. Geralt walks into the swampy town of Flotsam - familiar to players of The Witcher 2 - only instead the tyranny of a malicious local thug, the Witcher finds that the town is under attack from a twenty foot tall fire-breathing horse. Modding at its finest.

Medianbot rolls back onstage to thunderous applause. "Greetings and thank you revellers. The soundwaves generated by your slapping meat-paws sustains me. I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the angry man with two swords doing things, but not less or much more than any prior or following presentation, for this is about mathematically identical representation for all aspects of the platform. Farewell."

ANGRY MACHINE NOISE. STROBE LIGHTING. It's DICE. It's Battlefield 4. It's running on PC live. It's big. It's loud. It's full of guns. Now, a while tundra - the THUMP of an AT-AT's boot crunching into the snow. It's Star Wars: Battlefront. Then it's Respawn's mech-blasty game, Titanfall. It's loud and angry, polished and beautiful, because the PC can do all of that too, but faster, and prettier.



Another changeover. A video. A montage, devoted to the low-budget, innovative games that wouldn't normally get their time in the limelight. We see interactive fiction games, Dwarf Fortress, Princess Maker, Kentucky Route Zero, Receiver. As if in a frenzied music video, bouncing between everything from Transistor to Minecraft to Project Zomboid to Frozen Synapse in quick but stunningly done style and backed by anything except bloody dubstep. Anything but that.

The lights come up again, and the stage is full of figures playing games on big screens. It looks like the indie showcase that the PS4 put on, but it's vast. Dozens and dozens of developers are playing their games on tiers and tiers of screens. Look - three tiers up on the left - Koakim "Konjak" Sandberg is playing the latest build of Iconoclasts. Hey, down there on the right - Introversion are quelling a riot in Prison Architect. Over there, Mitu Khandaker is climbing a starship's social ladder in Redshirt. Here, in the front row, the Fullbright developers are showing Gone Home. The message here is simple. Yes, you can play some fun games on console. On PC though, you get a whole world of gaming that no one company controls. And it's brimming with honest-to-god new ideas.

But it's not just about the games. The Oculus Rift developers take to the stage arm and arm with the Omni Treadmill creators. They talk about how hardware is advancing all the time, how static systems will inevitably fade in the face of new hardware from the big PC manufacturers. They mention that the consoles are still talking in familiar terms, about streaming via Twitch, about a camera that watches and listens to you, as though such concepts haven't existed on the PC for years already. The PC is a tool, they say, not a living room lifestyle choice. It does what you tell it, and it can show you the future.

Then up on stage, we get the Oculus Rift team to show off their latest prototype, along with the Omni Treadmill and the Epoc mind-reading headset. In front of a gasping audience, we see - live - someone step into Skyrim and kill a mud crab with his mind.



A cheerful Belarusian fellow walks out now. Who is he? It's hard to tell, but it's clear before he's even said anything that he loves tanks, because he's wearing a T-shirt that says "I <3 TANKS." Aha! it's Wargamng CEO Victor Kislyi, and he's here to talk about World of Tanks, kicking off a section about all the games you can play on the PC right now for no money. Quality games like League of Legends, Tribes Ascend, Team Fortress 2. Games that demonstrate that, while the initial cost of the PC may be expensive, a single buy opens up a world of free entertainment. Oh, and it does Netflix. AND you don't need to pay a monthly subscription to go online and try your free games out.

It's been a few hours. But who walks out now, at the end of it all? Is it Newell, talking about Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, how Valve think player-created content that adds value to their games should be rewarded monetarily? Is it CCP CEO Hilmar, talking about player run economies, betrayal and intrigue in Eve Online? Is it Bioware, talking about how they plan to tell stories on the PC we've never seen before? Is it SOE, talking about how they managed to get hundreds of players to fight a galactic war on a single battlefield in Planetside 2? Is it Arenanet, talking about dynamic MMO battlegrounds in Guild Wars 2? The question is posed to Medianbot. Its chrome head explodes.

It should be all of them. Perhaps PC gaming is just too big for one conference. Too varied, too niche, too wonderfully weird to play the same PR game as the platform holders.

Oh, what the hell. Let's go with Gabe.

Microsoft has demoed the Xbox One. Sony has shown off the Playstation 4. Then, in an equally big hall, the lights go down, Gabe Newell steps onto the stage. He says nothing. He just coughs. He points at the screen. A Half-Life 3 logo appears. The crowd goes wild. He walks off, still silent.

Then a minute later, he casually pokes his head back round the curtain. "Wait, did I forget to mention it's free and available on Steam right now?" he asks. "Sorry it took so long. Also, you can trade Steam games now. Don't mind that noise, it's just a pig taking off. Ah, one second. Someone needs to Heimlich Steve Ballmer's tongue out of his throat."

But before he can leave, a single voice cries from the audience. "Why, oh Gaben? Why?"

And the man pauses, the sound of choking from somewhere off stage echoing slightly. Slowly, he pulls on a pair of sunglasses. Half-turns. Smiles. Replies, quite simply, "Because we can."

For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage and our pick of the best games of E3 2013 so far.