The second big International tournament for Dota 2 will take place at PAX Prime in Seattle on August 31. Valve are going to top last year's International tournament with a prize pool of at least $1.6 million. With so much cash on the line, we can look forward to a lively contest. If you'd like to swing by and absorb the ambience of the event first-hand, tickets will go on sale on the Dota 2 store tomorrow at 9am PDT / 5pm GTM.

The Dota 2 blog mentions that a lump of tickets will drop every day at that time until Saturday. Tickets cost $49.99 and will be added to your Dota 2 inventory on purchase. That means you can trade it with other players for an unspeakable number of Bill's hats. Using the item will tie your invite to your Steam account, after which "your confirmation and access pass required to enter the event will be emailed to you at a later date." PAX Prime attendees will be able to grab a few spare seats, but that'll be on a first come first served basis, so be sure to bring your best knuckle dusters. Valve say "we expect tickets to sell out quickly."

Valve recently announced that Dota 2 will be free to play, though it's not available yet. Valve are beefing up their server infrastructure to make sure they can handle the demand when the game eventually goes completely live. You can buy your way in, however, with a £25 / $39.99 Dota 2 Invite.

We'd previously heard that Payday: The Heist developers Overkill are working on a game with Valve, but details were scant - all we knew is that it was Left 4 Dead related. Our megapals over at CVG cite a source as saying that it's going to be a Left 4 Dead prequel which details the genesis of the zombie uprising.

"As perceptive gamers will have noticed, several hints have recently been dropped into Payday: The Heist, which has led to various rumors," the original statement from Overkill read. "We are excited to be able to confirm that an in-depth collaboration between Overkill and Valve is currently in production. We are working on a very cool blend of Payday and Left 4 Dead."

It's a really nice idea for a collaboration. In Left 4 Dead you're the good guys. In Payday, you're the bad guys. Combining of the two, you could be a bunch of morally grey guys. Also, it's a prequel, and everyone loves prequels, right? If not, don't worry: Overkill are also working on a sequel to Payday: The Heist.

Steelseries announced their next line of game-themed peripherals today, including a Dota 2 mouse, a Guild Wars 2 mouse and headset, and a new wireless version of their World of Warcraft mouse. Details, prices, and pictures for all three are below.


Guild Wars 2 headset - $100

Designed to be slim and travel-friendly, the Guild Wars 2 gaming headset utilizes mesh SNDBlock ear cushions to block outside noises, a 40 mm driver, a detachable cable to switch which side of your head it plugs in on, and a built-in microphone.

For audiophiles, here are the specific details from the Guild Wars 2 headset's official page.

Headphones
Frequency response: 18 – 28000 Hz
Impedance: 32 Ohm
SPL@ 1kHz, 1 Vrms: 118 dB
Cable length: 1 + 2 = 3 m (9.8 ft.)
Jacks: 3.5 mm

Microphone
Frequency response: 50 – 16000 Hz
Pick up pattern: Omni-directional
Sensitivity: -38 dB


Guild Wars 2 mouse - $70

Ambidextrous and bursting with Guild Wars style, this white, red, and black mouse appears to be based off of Steelseries classic mouse design. It sports four side buttons (two on each side) in addition to the mouse wheel and center triangle available for binding in-game or building macros through the included drivers. It also has one of those rubber, anti-tangle cords we love and the same high-level tracking laser we've come to expect from Steelseries.

For the data junkies, here are some specs from the Guild Wars 2 mouse's official page:
Weight: 90 grams
Height: 1.5 in
Width: 2.7 in
Length: 4.9 in
Mega pixels per second: 10.8
Frames per second: 12000
Counts per inch: 90 – 5670
Sensor data path: True 16 bit


Dota 2 mouse - price TBA
Based on Steelseries' Kana design, the Dota 2 mouse is also ambidextrous with only two side buttons, which are massively huge and can be disabled if you don't like them. The lighting on the scroll wheel changes based on the profile you currently have active, so you can build different profiles in the included drivers for each hero if you wanted to. Steelseries namedrops a few esports players they say provided input for the mouse's development, including Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, Evil Geniuses, and Fnatic. It comes bundled with a Dota 2 mousepad.

The specs from the Dota 2 mouse official website:
Weight: 0.16 lbs
Height: 1.5 in
Width: 2.5 in
Length: 4.9 in
Mega pixels per second: 3.7
Frames per second: 3600
Counts per inch: 400 – 3200
Sensor data path: True 16 bit


World of Warcraft wireless mouse - price TBA

An upgrade to the existing World of Warcraft mouse options currently available from Steelseries, this one adds wireless functionality with a detachable cord and a whole new look that showcases the world map and peaceful logo. It maintains the high button count with 11 programmable buttons and a new drag-and-drop interface for its drivers to help you set up those buttons easily. It looks like it's the same size as the previous WoW mice from Steelseries, which makes it more suitable for large hands.

The specs from the World of Warcraft wireless mouse official site:
Weight: 0.25 lbs
Height: 1.6 in
Width: 3.2 in
Length: 4.5 in
Frames Per Second: 12000
Counts Per Inch: 100 – 8200
Wireless Band: 2.4GHz
Wireless Range: 3m (10 ft.)


Steelseries also announced that they're working on a Guild Wars 2 keyboard, but have no details on the hardware or software capabilities of it at this time.

Valve has just announced the launch date of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: August 21. A collaboration with Defense Grid developers Hidden Path, Valve also mentioned that CS:GO will cost $15 "on all platforms."

The beta for the game continues to expand. A May 22 CS:GO update increased player capacity from 5 vs 5 to 15 vs 15 and added all-important chickens to de_inferno.

Oh dear, E3 is next week. Guess we'd better talk about what games we're looking forward to most, and our Impossible Dream Vision for a PC-centric E3. Beyond that, there's news to talk: Cyberpunk, Dota 2, Diablo, Max Payne, and more. Logan shares his indulgent gaming plans for the weekend; Evan shares another thrilling tale from Day Z.

PC Gamer US Podcast 318: Triple A

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You can buy early access to Dota 2 right now for £25 in the Dota 2 store, contrary to Valve's earlier declaration that Dota 2 is free to play. On the Dota 2 item shop FAQ Valve say that at this stage "we don't really think of Dota 2 as a beta" any more, but haven't completely released it because they're "working on expanding our server infrastructure" first. However, you can circumvent all that with the Dota 2 Early Access Bundle, which costs £25 / $39.99

So, Dota 2 is essentially out now, with a cost attached. The bundle also comes with nine cosmetic items, but it's the early access pass that Defence of the Ancients fans will be paying for. The free to play version of Dota 2 will give everyone access to every hero and players will only put down money for cosmetic items to personalise the game. That sounds promising, and fair, but as things stand, that's not the deal. Previously players have only been able to access the beta through invites from Valve and other players.

When they do press the big red "release" button, Dota 2 may well go nova. The beta alone has already proven extremely popular on Steam and the next International event is already scheduled for August.

It's barely news, I know: Valve just sent out a sneaky 7 o'clock press release formally declaring Dota 2 free to play. Like League of Legends and nearly every other MOBA known to man, it'll supported by microtransactions.

More noteworthy is the confirmation that Dota 2 will utilize Steam Workshop, and that, like TF2, the Dota Store will be putting player-made items on sale. A few are on sale now, actually—the "Early Access Bundle." "The opening of the Dota Store is a big part of our final push to launch," said IceFrog, design lead on Dota 2.

Dota 2 will release on PC later this year, Valve says. Expect a big coming-out party for the game during The International at PAX Prime.

Unusually close to our bedtime, Valve has launched Dota 2's microtransaction shop as it formally declares the game free to play. Click here to read the fancy Dota 2 Store announcement page.

We expected Dota 2 to be a free-to-play game—that's barely news. But more noteworthy is the confirmation that all of the game's playable heroes will be free with no limitations, that Dota 2 will utilize Steam Workshop, and that, like TF2, the Dota Store will be putting player-made items on sale. 67 items are in Dota 2's section of the Steam Workshop now, and almost 200 are in the Dota Store.

Dota 2 will release on PC later this year, Valve says. Expect a big coming-out party for the game during The International at PAX Prime.

The CS:GO beta is evolving. A post on the official Counter-Strike site yesterday announced the addition of more players to official maps. The update is one of the "most requested map features", according to the devs, and arrives as part of a larger update that rebalances a bunch of weapons based on feedback and data gathered from the community. Burst fire has been smoothened out, bullet tracers are more visible and, most importantly, chickens have been "added to inferno", which is a monstrous patch note if ever there was one. Here's the full changelist, as it appears on Steam.

Gameplay:

Updated weapons based on performance metrics:
Slightly increased the damage for the fiveseven to keep it on par with other pistols.
Lowered the max width of the recoil patterns for the MG's to make them better for their price point.
Lowered the spread on the Negev to be more in line with the m249.
Improvements have been made to burst fire and tapping.
Added player spawns to all maps to support up to 30 players.
Player spawns are now randomly selected from a prioritized list of spawn locations in order to better support more players per map.
Adjusted bot behavior to fix the “antline” looking behavior.
Added support for server operators to specify tick rate with the –tickrate parameter.
Physics simulation tick rate now set to be the same as the game tick interval.
Bullet tracers have had improvements made to speed, visual effect, and frequency.
Chickens added to Inferno

 
UI

The Server Browser sorts Favorites and Lan tabs by ping rather than Tags.
The radar will no longer display an ‘X’ for dying players when they are not within sight of the player or player’s teammate.
Weapons with a burst mode will now show which state the gun is in on the ammo panel.
Input device is now locked to whatever device launched the game session.
Updated the Kevlar and Kevlar + Helmet buy menu images.
Updated the Domination icons.

 
Audio

Footsteps update position more often by shifting position determination to client side entity tracking.
Tuned ambient sounds in most maps

 
Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug with individual pistol round-based achievements. They can only be earned in Classic game mode now.
Fix for changing video settings while in game sometimes causing a deadlock.
Added a popup message triggered when a player attempts to initiate a vote on a server with voting disable.
Fixed bug where player's nav area would be reported as being on the floor below them causing the radar location to be displayed incorrectly.
Fixed several UI related crash issues.
Third party map and _SE map names no longer display in the scoreboard with the #SFUI_MAP_ localization token.

 

In many ways, Payday: The Heist is very similar to Left 4 Dead. You team up with three friends, you fend off hordes of enemies and try to stay alive. But, in a few important ways, they're very different. In Left 4 Dead, a throng of zombies are trying to keep you out of a safe room, in Payday, you rob banks, take hostages and mow down legions of cops. According to a post on the Overkill blog, spotted by VG247, the Payday devs are working with Valve on a collaboration that will bring both concepts together.

"We are excited to be able to confirm that an in-depth collaboration between OVERKILL and Valve is currently in production." says Overkill director Ulf Andersson. "We are working on a very cool blend of PAYDAY and Left 4 Dead."

A "cool blend," eh. Time to indiscriminately mash Left 4 Dead and Payday's premises together until something works. Zombies robbing a bank? Survivors robbing a zombie bank? Tanks robbing a bank? Crims robbing a bank staffed by Tanks? This isn't working. What do you think it'll be?