Dota Underlords is quite the head-scratcher at times. Simplified heroes and systems it may have compared with its perplexing, ponderous progenitor Dota 2, but then Dota 2 never had multiple 10v10 fights happening at once, did it? So, to help turn that head-scratching into head-bashing (other people’s heads, I mean. Just go with it), we’ve put together this comprehensive Dota Underlords strategy guide, packed with beginner-friendly tips and explanations of everything that goes on in a match, from heroes, alliances and items to gold accrual, meta-dominating builds, and much more.

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Alliances are one of the key elements of Dota Underlords that sets it apart from its big brother, Dota 2, and which gives you an enormous amount to think about when deciding which heroes you want on your board. Success depends not only on creating a great build, but also on remaining flexible throughout the early-game and mid-game so you can change your alliances around as and when needed. We’ll go through everything you need to know in our Dota Underlords alliances guide, complete with in-depth explanations of each alliance, and an up to date Dota Underlords tier list of the best alliances to build around.

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When Bethesda released the first three Doom games on modern consoles last week, they added (by accident?) a requirement for players to register and sign into into their Bethesda.net doodad before playing these decades-old games. What does that have to do with PC? Well! Continuing the fine PC gaming tradition of pulling the pisser of modern big-budget games with their modern ways, a new Skyrim mod has added the thrilling experience of failing to connect to login servers and being kicked to the main menu. PC gaming: making daffy jokes playable since 1873.

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While ostensibly a subscription-based World Of Warcraft-alike, Final Fantasy XIV is secretly the biggest and probably best-written JRPG out there. It has made me cry over a bizarro-world Chocobo, and now features one of my favourite RPG villains ever>. It has held my attention for five hundred hours, and it’s updated more regularly than any comparable game I can think of.

It’s recently received another hefty update with the Shadowbringers expansion. But with everyone else so far ahead, is it worth starting six years after the game’s rebirth and re-launch? I think so, yeah.

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If your cult leans into a certain kind of kooky, pop culture has taught me there’s a good chance some kids will come after you. The brave stalwarts of The Blackout Club have spent the past eight months defending humanity from the weakened prism of early access, but now the game’s properly out and they’ll have to step up their game. The spooky, co-opey stealth and hijinks ’em up is marking its launch with a new area. That would be a daycare centre, described by developers Question as “perfectly normal”.

Mhmmmm.

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The first season of Teamfight Tactics has concluded, but you can still play casual and ranked modes. With a patch looming, the best comps for TFT could change dramatically in the next few days, but to tide you over until then, there are some dominant builds that you can use to win games.

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Most of the board games I like are exciting. They’re about betrayals, surprises, audacious cunning. They’re games that weave drama around humans rather than systems, driven more by the delights of psychology than the dryness of systems. They pop because humans, at least when they’re onto you, are hard to control – but that can be exhausting. Board games cater for less aggressive competitions, too. I also like games where you sit back, tinker with a system and watch it grow.

They’re called engine-building games, and Dota Underlords is a pretty good one.

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Those of a sensitive disposition may want to skip today’s sixty-second slice of WEGO war. Bayou Belle, one of our five webfooted troop taxis, is pivoting at the start of a pedal-to-the-metal tactical withdrawal when she’s socked on the right flank by something substantial and energetic. The speeding warhead halts her progress, slays two of her passengers and incapacitates three others.

(Quitting Qatab is an open-to-all game of Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 in which NATO forces are orchestrated by commenters while Qatabi units are computer controlled. Each daily turn covers one minute of action. For a scenario outline and summaries of earlier turns, click here)>

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You bastards. More of you should have bought Murderous Pursuits.

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I’d never met a toad I wanted to punch until now. God, look at him. Those teeth, those bulging biceps. The cocksure attitude and the shoe seven times too big for the foot it’s loosely hanging onto. Oh christ, it has horns now.

I’m sure it makes sense: in a fighting game, you probably want your characters to be decisively punchable. And boy, I sure would love to deck Rash right about now. But if Killer Instinct‘s Game Pass players on PC had to be stuck with only one character (and they are, as it happens) why did it have to be him?

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