Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, there's no case too big, no case too small - when you need help, just call... Chip, Chip, Chip and Dale, Resc- Oh. Wait. Sorry. Totally different guy.

It's the future, and we still don't have our flying cars. Boo. We don't even have our own rocket packs, though thinking about it, that's probably for the best. Nobody wants to be one butt-scratch away from losing a hand, and that's if they're lucky. That's not a hole you want cauterised if the straps slip a little, to put it mildly. But I think we can all agree that, maybe with the exception of hoverboards and grappling hooks, there's no cooler completely ridiculous way to get around. And in an alternate World War II, no other weapon capable of saving the world from Nazi... whatever it is they're up to this time.

Yes, Zeppelin, your bum does look big in this. Because you're a Zeppelin.

Seriously, it's hard to imagine any war in the future coming close to the sheer range of toys and tricks credited to everyone's favourite villains, from alien technology to time travel mystical devices to ancient weapons from the vaults of Atlantis to just plain Hitler in a robot suit. There's really nothing, no matter how crazy, you can't get away with if you don't imagine its inventor describing it and then adding "For the glory of the Reich!" An army of hunter-killer bees. Calling up Satan for some demonic troops. Parachuting the Kool Aid Man into enemy territory to smash open bases with a cheery "Sieg Heil!" Anything!

Fort Dix, home to the hardest soldiers this side of the Innuendo Canyon.

Rocket Ranger starts out a little bit more mundane than most, with the advanced technology... kind of... on the Allies' side - a single solitary jetpack in the possession of The Hero Formerly Known As Just Regular Ranger, and the Nazis restricted to just conventional zeppelins. Though the key word is 'starts'. This is another game from Cinemaware, makers of It Came From The Desert and Defender Of The Crown - another attempt to use for the time impressive graphics (on the Amiga mostly, the PC version looks much worse) and mini-games to create interactive movies long before the words 'interactive movie' meant crappy greenscreened FMV and very little interaction. It's not however what it looks like, a rip-off of the campy but fun movie The Rocketeer, having come out a few years earlier. Inspired by the comics that the movie was based on though, that seems pretty likely to the point of "oh come on, this is pretty bloody blatant", especially when Rocket Ranger would get its own set that wasted little time going from the picture in the title grab above, to good old fashioned Nazi punching, derring do, and then, uh...

If that dress was any more low cut, she'd be bleeding at the knees.

While it's hard to call much of Rocket Ranger 'good' - its arcade sequences are all incredibly simple and not much fun - it was a stormingly ahead of its time game at release, in 1988. People were still releasing text adventures in... wait, hang on, not a good example. You could go out and buy a game where main characters were no more complex than basic blocks and... oh, yeah, right. Well, by the standards of the time, it was still really ambitious and impressive. This couldn't be said for everything that Cinemaware produced - The Three Stooges was particularly terrible, This one though is remembered very fondly, and mostly for the right reasons - nailing its inspiration's style, and revelling in the goofiness of it all.

Here for instance is our hero spectacularly failing to take off properly.

I REGRET NOTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! EXCEPT NOT READING THE MANUAAAAAAAAL!

You know you've screwed up when the punishment isn't an instant death from smashing into something, but the game wearily throwing up a screen that says in about as many words "Yeah, you spend two months learning how to do this, you jackass. For now, let's just get to the next scene before you hurt yourself." Which is hilarious in the first mission, which is supposed to be a daring rescue of two captured civilians from a zeppelin in the Atlantic. The Nazis politely wait for literally two months until you get there, proving that being a monster doesn't mean you've got to be a jerk. Though they will, later.

As indeed will Rocket Ranger itself, a game that takes about half an hour to beat, and compensates with a double-whammy of not allowing you to save and making failure incredibly easy. You can survive just about anything and the game will continue, but do so more than a couple of times early on and you're completely hosed. That's because the adventure has a heavy strategy element. As you play, the Nazis are slowly conquering the bits of the world that don't matter - specifically, everything except America - and that rather puts the 'you' in 'failure'. Your rocket pack also turns out to be about the worst conceivable weapon for saving the day, thanks to running on a fuel called lunarium that the Nazis have vast stockpiles of and the US has about enough to get to the shops and back with. Lunarium also plays a part in Rocket Ranger's copy protection system, which is just awful. To fly to another country, you don't simply pick it from the map. That would be too easy! Instead, you have to move lunarium from your personal stash into the rocket engine, based on numbers from a code wheel (or these days, lists on the internet, made more complicated by the fact that different versions of the game had different lunarium amounts for the trips) and if you get it wrong, you splash down and waste it all. That makes some sense if you undershoot to the destination, but it also applies to going over. Rocket Ranger is far too committed to the virtues of early DRM to simply circle for a bit and burn off the excess like some kind of communist.

Also, he can't swim. A man who routinely crosses the Atlantic with a rocket pack can't swim.

Okay, no. Sorry. Thanks for your efforts, but we're finding a new Rocket Ranger. Right goddamn now.

So, quickly the game reveals itself. You have to not only directly take the fight to the Nazis in the form of a good old American one-two to the face, but also keep stocked up with the lunarium that you need to do it, and slow down the Nazi advance long enough that there's still a world to save. This being based on 50s SF serials and comics, nobody is ever particularly fased by anything that happens, up to and including being told that the only way to end things for real is to to build a rocket to the top secret Nazi moon base that they of course have, which is of course staffed entirely by busty, brainwashed Amazon types who mine lunarium with their bare hands. Actually, no, strike that 'of course'. That's actually pretty damn silly.

And you? Well, despite what it might look like, and especially in the PC version where the intro is easily accidentally skipped, you're not actually Captain America - though as you'll see in a second, you do share the infamous Liefeld Chest. You're simply as scientist working at Fort Dix who finds himself mysteriously given the rocket pack and a few other toys that are clearly from the future, along with a warning that the Germans aren't supposed to be doing as well as they are. The lunarium isn't simply a bomb you see, but a substance that renders men both stupid and sterile, allowing for absolutely no resistance that this game is interested in. And if Half-Life has told us anything, it's that the right scientist in the wrong place can achieve incredible things, even if he's a bit of a screw-up, but especially if his years of research and sleepless nights have somehow left him ready to crack skulls for a cause.

"Okay, you know ze rules. Whoever sticks their chest out the furthest may LEAVE ALIVE!

That's the love interest incidentally, Jane - daughter of loyal scientist Otto Barnstorff, who you start the game having to rescue, and then realise that you may as well not have bothered since both of them wear prominent "KIDNAP ME" signs on their backs. To get them back, which prevents the Nazis using Barnstorff's skills to boost their efficiency, you have to assault a zeppelin in a three-stage shooter section where you fail if you get hit, or accidentally hit the balloon part with your super 'radium pistol' - the weapon of choice for all heroes who want their ultimate reward to be cancer. Will the game start you right in front of the balloon so that accidentally hitting the fire button will blow it up? It will indeed! And then it will laugh.

In the original version there was another bit to the rescue too, persuading the doctor and Jane to come with you. This was another impressive thing for its day, because it used digitised speech long, long before anyone expected to hear anything more dramatic than "I AM SINISTAR! I LIVE!" from one of these video game doodads. Though what the characters said proved less progressive. The discussion began with telling her "Loosen up, Dollface," and really didn't get much better from there.

Incidentally, the villain's name? Colonel Leermeister. Honestly, of all the ridiculous-

Right, right, forget I said anything...

The strategy side of the game is dirt simple though, mostly because of the short playtime. The goal is to find five pieces of the ship you need to get up to the Nazi base on the moon - or as the Nazis would put it - ON ZE MOOOOOON!, along with the 500 pieces of lunarium needed to get there in the first place. That means assigning agents to hunt for their various installations, which they have several of, including both a jungle base and a desert one, and starting resistance movements to slow their progress. The simple fact that there is a jungle and a desert base means it's not too difficult to just assign agents to the appropriate places, with discoveries leading to one of a couple of mini-games - dodging shots, or punching the single solitary guards in each place who are charged with protecting Hitler's interests and all apparently members of the von Glassjaw family. Threatening, they are not. They're bubble-wrap with swastikas.

Ach, nein! Not ze face! Or ze body! Or ze legs! But you can be giving me ze spankings, if sie likes!

And at this point, it's finally time to blow Dix. Uh. I mean, 'head into space'.

Having gotten this far though, the ending is... uh... somewhat abrupt. If any game was going to be on a list of truly ridiculous finales, you'd think Rocket Ranger would be on it - it was early enough that it could have claimed dibs on the Hitler mech suit. Or maybe the entire moon would be a Nazi, turning around to reveal a swastika carved into it or something. But no. If you ignore the whole 'entirely staffed by scantily clad women' thing, which is easily done when they're in 99.9% of all silly games ever made, it's really quite boringly predictable. Rocket Ranger saves the girl he cares about, destroys the facility, and then a TO BE CONTINUED... pops up to obscure the fact that the only way this is a win is if the Nazis look at the majority share they now hold of the world and decide "Okay, you win, have it back." Which seems unlikely.

"The last Nazi Amazon tumbles into a ravine, and you leap into the air to celebrate. You've won. The Nazis have made their last lunarium bomb," yawns a dull final screen. "You start pulling off the slave women's zombie helmets and looking for Jane and Dr. Barnstorff. As you cast one of the helmets aside-

SURPRISE! LAST SECOND ALIEN ATTACK!

Yes! That's more like it! Because it turns out the Nazis weren't working alone, but had help from - and I quote - THE INTERPLANETARY UNION OF FASCISTS. That is a thing that exists in this game, and the way to defeat it is to shoot a bug-eyed monster right in its big bug-eyes. Much more like it!

(Rocket Ranger also came out on the NES, and not too surprisingly that version is all about an alien invasion from the start. There were things Nintendo didn't allow, and Nazis... yeah, no.)

Anyway, that's an okay ending, I guess. But how else might it have ended?

What if Rocket Ranger had failed his quest?

Well, at least the Nazis are going to be comfortable in The White House...

I don't know though, neither of those endings seem really fitting. What would have happened if instead, the mysterious benefactor who provided the Americans with the rocket pack and starting stash of lunarium had chosen more wisely, and brought it to a country that could really have done some good with it?

BEST ENDING.

See, Pepper? Good will always triumph over evi- Well, at any rate, over you.

As ever, despite the greatness of the PC, this was not a fantastic time for it in terms of graphics and sound, and Cinemaware spared little to no expense making the most of what it could do compared to the jazzier Amiga version. As such, this run-through uses that version, and I am sorry. But at least we can take solace in the fact that the PC is still around and kicking arse, and the Amiga... well, I'm sure it's still useful if you have a table you need to prop up. As for other heretical devices, it's also possible to get Rocket Ranger for the iPhone/iPad, right here, along with the oddly chosen King of Chicago for some reason instead of one of Cinemaware's more famous games. Go figure. Or, alternatively, not.

Generally speaking, "toxic" behavior amongst its players is not something that most game developers and publishers are looking for. Even pros, who aren't exactly famous for their upstanding behavior on the field of battle, can go too far, as these League of Legends Challenger Series players learned the hard way. But in the eyes of Orcs Must Die! Unchained designer Jerome K. Jones, attracting those players to your game is actually a sign that you're doing something right, and he doesn't want them to go away.

Jones doesn't seem to care for the categorization of Orcs Must Die! Unchained as a MOBA the website describes it as "a fast-paced Fortress Siege action game in which teams of heroes battle head-to-head to attack and defend ancient strongholds" and that's understandable; nobody wants their game to be pigeonholed as another "me too" release. But his stance on players who represents the worst the MOBA audience has to offer is somewhat more surprising.

"There's probably something good about the toxic players showing up and sticking with your game," he told Polygon. "The good thing is probably that it's a good game. It's holding their interest, it's keeping them around. It's making them passionate enough to give a damn."

He said he doesn't want to push those players away and he doesn't think other games should either. They're not necessarily "bad people," he said, and other players should simply try to deal with them in whatever way they can; in the case of Orcs Must Die! Unchained, that could mean playing in a defensive or supporting position, he explained, rather than leading the charge on offense.

I'm a little confused on that last point, since there seems to be some conflation of aggressive actions within the game with aggressively obnoxious behavior outside of it, but the bottom line is that these players aren't going away, and that's okay with Jones.

"You need those people there. They're driving the game. They're giving it longevity. They're giving it passion," he said. "And when they find something about your game that they love, they defend it to the death. Those are the same people that can go to bat for you."

Robot Entertainment didn t set out to make a MOBA, but design director Ian Fischer told me that s what everyone thinks Orcs Must Die! Unchained is, and he s not going to fight it.

It makes sense when you see how the game is set up. Imagine the original Orcs Must Die! games, where you defend your fortress from waves of orcs by setting up traps, or wading into the battle yourself. Mirror that setup and you ll get Unchained s basic premise: Two fortresses with two teams protecting them, and two armies of orcs heading in opposite directions. Consider that the orcs move through multiple lanes between the fortresses, a roster of heroes that lend themselves to different roles (ranged dps, melee tank), and the MOBA label makes sense.

You start the match by setting up traps burning coals, spikes, swinging maces, etc, and picking your special abilities, as you did in the previous games. The exciting new addition is that you also get to choose what kind of wave of mobs (or creeps, if you will) your enemy will face. You can opt for your plain vanilla orcs, very fast but easy to kill rats, or hulking ogre damage sponges. Each player can pick one unit for each gate, but you can also upgrade and open more gates to unleash more, stronger units.



The opposing team is doing the same, of course, and soon heroes and their hordes meet somewhere in the middle in chaos. Ogres fight bears, wolfmen claw at orcs, and heroes fire magic missiles that explode in the middle of the crowd. The game still has the tone of Saturday Morning Cartoon, but Robot has upgraded from the Trinigy engine to Unreal Engine 3, so character models for both enemies and heroes are more detailed, colors look more vibrant, and the action is a joyous mess of explosions and ragdolls.

It seems like random madness, but there s a staggering amount of strategy behind it all. Different heroes pick which unique abilities, units, traps, buffs, and other passive bonuses before the match starts. Each of these is represented by a card, which make up your deck. With five players and an endless combination of decks, there s no end to the strategies you can come up with if you work together.

As Bloodspike, an orcish hero that s good at close range, I customized my deck to spawn ogres that can take a lot of damage and a buff that makes them even stronger. Ogres are a higher tier unit, meaning I had to upgrade my team s gate a few times before I could release them. I couldn t do much on offense without their support, so I spent the early part of the match setting up defenses and earning as much currency as I could to upgrade our gate by picking on easy targets.



Depending on your deck and team, sometimes you want to take the lead and clear the way for your orcs, sometimes you want to hang back and let them take most the damage, and sometimes you want to be right in the middle of the action, but it s always absolutely critical for everyone to move together in large groups. An attack of just heroes or just orcs is doomed to fail.

This forces a nice ebb and flow on every match, where you re naturally shifting between attack and defense phases. I was constantly doing different things, not just in terms of strategy, but moment to moment, jumping at the opportunity to take down a weak enemy player, or running back to my fortress to frantically adjust traps based on the last wave the enemy threw at us.

When they were ready, I joined my ogres and the rest of my team s march on the enemy rift. By hobbling enemy heroes with a special attack and using another special ability that disables traps for a short time, I was able to reach the opposing team s rift with a fair amount of health. With a few of my fellow heroes at my back and my buffed up ogres, we were able to break through the final gate, step into the rift, and win the match.



I ll admit that it was in part luck and part Fischer giving me advice while I played, but I could already see how a little bit of coordination was a huge advantage, how the other team could counter my ogres (we were pretty helpless against ranged attacks), and how I could counter that counter.

If you ve played any League of Legends or Dota 2, this is probably starting to sound very familiar. The difference is that good strategy alone was not enough. I still needed fair aim and shooter-like reaction times, which kept me engaged where other MOBAs didn t.

Orcs Must Die! Unchained will also be free-to-play, but I don t suspect Robot will monetize too aggressively. The plan is to start each player off with five heroes and sell additional heroes, cosmetic upgrades, and shortcuts to more cards for your deck. Since all critical gameplay content can be unlocked through play, it sounds fair, and given how great the game looks, I might even be tempted to buy a cosmetic upgrade or two to customize my orcs.



However, it makes me worry about the old, single-player mode, which Fischer said it plans to add in the future, after Orcs Must Die! Unchained launches. The multiplayer mode is worth playing as is, but I d be pretty disappointed if Robot didn t give as much attention to more single-player Orcs Must Die! experiences that take advantage of the new engine, heroes, and abilities.

Lane pushers seem like a dime a dozen at this point, but I do think that Orcs Must Die! Unchained s distinguishing features emphasis on building defenses and fine tuning your team s creeps/mobs is promising. It s not just a me too product with a couple of novel twists. It feels more like a unique game that evolved into a unique multiplayer mode that just so happens to be very similar to a MOBA.

As we started planning for E3, the busiest week of the year, we decided that simply covering every PC game we could get our hands on at the convention wasn't enough. We wanted to do something ambitious. Something that would make our lives harder. Something like shooting the first episode of a new bi-weekly series about PC games. We're calling it The PC Gamer Show.

This is Episode 0 of The PC Gamer Show. Consider it our pilot. Without the focal point of E3, future episodes will be different. Our goal is to showcase the kinds of things we do for our job every day: talking about and playing games, testing out new hardware, and interviewing developers. Every two weeks, we want to put out an episode a little bit funnier and a little bit more informative than the one before.

The PC Gamer Show is a new project for us, and we want your feedback to help make it better. What kind of segments do you want to see? What games should we play and talk about? Who should we have on as guests? What's coming up next?

Shout at us in the comments below, or shoot us an email directly at letters@pcgamer.com. We're listening. And we'll see you in two weeks.

The Space Hulk: Deathwing Summer Trailer is packed with in-game footage, but it's really not very clear about what "in-game footage" actually is. It looks great, but I doubt we're going to see engraved bolter shells ejecting in slow-motion and bouncing off the blood-slick floor in the heat of battle.

It's right there in the opening sequence of the new Deathwing Summer Trailer, below the Unreal Engine logo: "In-game footage." My assumption is that because the trailer was created in the Unreal Engine 4, and the game is being made with the Unreal Engine 4, somebody somewhere decided that it qualifies. It's a silly stretch of the term, but healthy skepticism of the marketing angle notwithstanding, it's a pretty cool trailer, too. I'm not a "Warhammer guy" by any measure, but space marines, armed and armored beyond all sane limits, holding the line against hordes of onrushing alien monsters? That's my kind of game.

Sadly, the text accompanying the trailer doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know: It's an FPS based on the Warhammer 40,000: Space Hulk game being developed by Streum On Studio, the guys who did E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. There's still no release date info, but the tail end of the trailer does confirm that a PC version is in the pipe.

A look at the Star Conflict FAQ indicates rather strongly that the free-to-play space combat MMO focuses primarily on PvP action, with PvE present but relegated to the status of something you can do but probably won't find very interesting. The newly-announced "Invasion Mode" may change that to some extent, however, by introducing an AI-controlled enemy that can appear anywhere, at any time.

The new Invasion Mode is based around the reappearance of an alien race that, for reasons unknown, disappeared into another dimension of space and time and has now found its way back home. But instead of coming back with souvenirs and good stories, they're heading up an invasion, also for reasons unknown. But it doesn't sound like the kind of overwhelming, Freespace 2-style onslaught you might expect.

"The inclusion of Invasion Mode into the virtual world of Star Conflict provides a unique and unpredictable game dynamic that introduces more variables to the player's space combat experience," explained Stanislaw Scorn, director of Star Conflict studio Star Gem. "Not only do players have to worry about PVP attacks in the free-to-explore environment, but alien ships can suddenly appear close to player's own ship without warning, forcing them to make the lightning quick decision to flee or fight."

Star Conflict's Invasion Mode will be in closed beta until the end of summer, but access will be granted to anyone with either the Strikeforce Prometheus or Universe Conqueror achievements. You can earn them, and thus access, any time between now and the end of the beta, but until you do, the doors will remain firmly closed. If you don't feel like fighting for it, you can also buy your way in with the purchase of 6000 Galactic Standards a more efficient way to go about it, I suppose, but not nearly as much fun.

There aren t any big surprises in today s Daily Deals (how many times has GTAIV been discounted?), but cheap games are cheap games and there are some good ones today. There are also some holdovers from previous days, such as the BioShock Triple Pack, which has only lost 8% of its discount since Wednesday. Peek at our picks from previous days to see if any former Daily Deals are still discounted.

Don t forget to check out GOG s summer deals, too.

Reminder: if a game isn't a daily deal or a flash sale, it could pop up later in the sale for an even lower price. If you want to be safe, wait until June 30 to pick up a sale-long deal.
5 - Resident Evil 4: Ultimate HD Edition
40% off: $11.99 / 8.99 - Steam store page

Resident Evil 4 got a terrible PC port once, long ago. It's a sensitive topic. We don't like to talk about it. But the Ultimate HD Edition does justice to one of the greatest shooters of all time, with cleaned-up textures, a 60 fps option and responsive keyboard and mouse controls. The game is just as intense and brilliantly crafted as it was in 2004. The port has even gotten some substantial updates since release to fix bugs, improve some graphical effects, and eliminate a few of our complaints, like allowing us to remap the keys used for QTEs. RE4 is always worth playing again, and this is the version to play.
4 - Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack
80% off: $9.99 / 6.24 - Steam store page

Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, and Grand Theft Auto IV that s a lot of Grand Theft Auto. If you re only interested in GTAIV, the Complete Edition is also 80% off and half the price of the Complete Pack. It s been a while since GTAIV released (has it really been six years already?), so there s a decent chance you have no need for it, but it s a nice gift for anyone who hasn t yet seen a horse take it to the limit.
3 - Age of Empires II HD
75% off: $4.99 / 3.74 - Steam store page

Teutonic Knights. In HD. What more can you ask for? If that isn't enough, there are a few more benefits to this HD port of one of the greatest strategy games of all time, like online multiplayer and Steam Workshop support? How about a new expansion with five new civilizations? Twitch streaming? Modern Windows support? If you like Age of Empires II, well, you should probably own this.
2 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut
75% off: $4.99 / 3.24 - Steam store page

It was no small feat to bring back a franchise as beloved as Deus Ex. Eidos Montreal took on the task in the best way possible, creating a prequel that hints at the future from the first game, but puts its own stamp on the world. The director s cut here includes the full game and its Missing Link DLC, plus optional developer commentary. It s a great package for very little money.
1 - System Shock 2
85% off: $1.49 / 1.04 - Steam store page | Flash deal: buy before 8 p.m. EST

A bonafide classic of PC gaming, Irrational s first game set the template for its modern shooters, BioShock and BioShock Infinite. There aren t a lot of moments in the halls of the Von Braun when you don t feel vulnerable and alone, listening for the groans of mutants or worse, the babbling of cybernetic midwives and wondering how you ll get past them. Yes, the game is 15 years old, but this new release includes an improved engine, and the game s passionate fans have made plenty of mods that improve textures and models. If you ever wondered where the seeds of Rapture come from, you can find out here for less than the price of a cup of coffe.

Other deals today
Remember that games not categorized as Daily Deals or Flash Sales may be reduced further later in the sale.

Payday 2 (80% off) $5.99 / 4.59
BioShock Triple Pack (75% off) $14.99 / 9.99

Wayward Manor, the puzzle/adventure game being created by Neil Gaiman and The Odd Gentlemen, was supposed to come out last fall. Obviously, it did not. But one year to the day after the game was revealed to the world, the studio has announced that the wait is almost over.

I'm not familiar with the work of The Odd Gentlemen, but Neil Gaiman he of Sandman, Death, Books of Magic and so much more is a different matter entirely. And that, with all due respect to the Gents, means considerable interest in Wayward Manor, a "puzzle/adventure game hybrid" in which you play a ghost trying to convince the new owners of your haunted house to clear out. Naturally, asking nicely won't get the job done: You'll have to discover and play on their deepest fears if you want to hustle them out the door.

"We ve been working day and night to make sure Wayward Manor is the best game it can be. This ultimately meant making the tough decision to delay the game," The Odd Gentlemen wrote in the launch date announcement. "After adding more puzzles, an extra level of polish, and maybe even some paranormal surprises; we re finally ready to announce a release date for Wayward Manor. You ll get to scare the Budds on July 15, 2014."

Wayward Manor is listed on Steam now, although you can't actually pay for it just yet. You can, however, preorder from the Humble Store for $10, which will get you a Steam key when the game is released and also shoot ten percent of the purchase price to charity.

And, thus, the Dota 2 community did buy many internet sticker books. And yea, they did fill those books with non-corporeal points. And so, Valve did set aside 25% of each purchase creating an International prize pool of $10 million, and much wealth and happiness for their own accountants.

Essentially, the community has spent over $33 million on these virtual souvenirs. It's comfortably the biggest prize pool in e-sports history, and all with Valve contributing 'just' $1.6 million to the initial prize pool. It's a huge achievement, and one that should result in fierce competition for the top prize.

What we don't yet know is how much that top prize will be worth. The distribution of the pool is yet to be announced, although Chris is a strong believer that, this year, Valve need to make changes.

As part of the money raised, the community have unlocked all stretch goals currently set. You can see the full list of what Compendium owners (and the entire Dota 2 playerbase) have unlocked by visiting the Compendium mini-site.

Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies is out, and, as explained in our review, provides welcome rejuvenation to Relic's strategy sequel. In this new trailer, the game's executive producer Greg Wilson explains the standalone expansion's* new War Spoils feature. Also he jumps out of a plane.

War Spoils are rewards earned for playing the game. You can get new commanders, passive buffs or cosmetic skins and Relic plan to expand this system in the future, with even more types of bonus content. As mentioned in the video, right now, there's also free paratrooper faceplate to be nabbed. Head here to secure your loot.

*I was going to use the word "expandalone" here, because "expandalone" is a brilliant word. Unfortunately, I am alone in holding this opinion.