One of the best lines in Final Fantasy 13 is uttered by its narrator, Oerba Dia Vanille, when she says, "Maybe we’d fall short. Maybe we’d never even come close. But someone, someday, would know we’d tried." 

These days the anticipation for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PS4 grows stronger with every passing day. The reception for this updated version of the most beloved Final Fantasy makes me think of Final Fantasy 13 and how its legacy has shaken out in comparison. Like Final Fantasy 8 (the only other instalment that can contest it for the title of the most divisive Final Fantasy) it took risks and, as a result, fell short of the expectations of many fans. But it’s important to know that it tried and that it resonated with many, myself included. I’ve played most Final Fantasy games, and while Final Fantasy 13 isn’t perfect, as I give it a reinstall and dive back into it, I’m reminded why it’s one of my favourites: namely, its excellent cast.

While every Final Fantasy has memorable characters, not every game has succeeded in developing all of them in meaningful ways. Final Fantasy 13 strikes a perfect balance; the cast is large enough to form a web of dynamics that continuously develop in fascinating ways, while small enough that everyone gets considerable screen time and complexity. The game’s characters are its pillars, especially given its infamously tricky to follow story.

Final Fantasy 13 follows a group of six people who are branded L’Cie, beings who must serve demigods known as the Fal’Cie. Becoming L’Cie seals their fates; if they don’t complete their Focus they become ghoulish husks known as Cie’ths. If they do complete their Focus, they are crystallised and can only be restored to their mortal forms under specific circumstances. Together they set out to fight the Sanctum government, which is purging L’Cie, and figure out their Focus. At the beginning the exposition dumps lore and terminology on the player without spending much time to explain it all, and this is one of its flaws. However, once you take the time to really understand them, the game rewards you with a story led by what is still the most nuanced and interesting cast in the series’ history. 

The game achieves this feat through constantly changing the makeup of your party and having you play as everyone despite Lightning being the protagonist. It splits up specific characters whose narratives depend on each other into pairs, developing them as compelling individuals and partners in the process. Later on these duos join up to become a larger group that stands together throughout the many revelations and hardships that plague their journey. The events of the story force them to come to terms with their flaws, face the consequences of their past and present mistakes, and have the difficult conversations that gradually change them into better, more complete people. 

Lightning resembles Cloud and Squall in that she’s a no-nonsense soldier who deeply struggles with emotional vulnerability. Following his mother’s death, Hope is a teenage boy who gets caught up in a war he never wanted to be part of. Through his tendency of proclaiming himself as a saviour to mask his insecurities and failures, Snow is a play on the classic hero archetype. Fang is a Dragoon who wields sarcasm, cockiness, and assertiveness as expertly as her lance; a type of character that isn’t assigned to women in JRPGs often. Sazh is a kind and devoted father dedicated to saving his son and, even now, a rarity among JRPGs as a black main character who’s written like a person rather than a caricature. Vanille is a subversion of the happy girl archetype, utilising a bubbly facade to mask the cynicism and darkness that lurks underneath. 

It’s not easy to immediately see how intimately these characters are connected to each other. But by the end, this group of wildly different individuals united only through their base mission of escaping persecution becomes a family that knows the flaws and virtues of its members.

Paradigm shifts

Next to Final Fantasy 13’s linearity its most controversial aspect is the battle system. Its core concept is switching between Paradigms, specific classes you assign to each character. Every party member can access every one, but each is most well-suited to certain classes. You have a limited number of slots for Paradigms, so you have to envision various situations in advance to prepare yourself. 

You might want to start a boss battle with a Commando and two Ravagers to build up and maintain a stagger percentage on them. If you’re low on health after a devastating attack, you’ll want to rapidly switch to a Paradigm composed of two Medics and a Sentinel to heal up your party and enhance defences. While you’ll spend a significant time using the Auto- Attack command between Paradigm shifts, different situations call for different Paradigms, so the system isn’t as passive as you might assume. It requires you to think on your feet and to do so quickly. 

It’s strategic, but in an admittedly unorthodox way. Against challenging enemies, it can be really good fun. Just as you’re not bound to playing just one character, you’re not restricted in the classes you can assign to them—so if you want to make tiny 14-year-old Hope into a Sentinel who stands firm on your frontline, you can.

The promise

One thing that helps define all Final Fantasy games is the quality of their music. There’s a reason why tickets for Distant Worlds, the Final Fantasy orchestra concert, often sell out as it tours venues all across the world. 

While most soundtracks in the series have been primarily composed by the iconic Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu takes the rein on Final Fantasy 13’s. 

Yet I’d go as far as to say it’s the best in the entire series, with the soundtracks for FF 8 and FF 14: Shadowbringers being the only possible contenders for that illustrious title. The soundtrack is as diverse as the locations you’ll travel. Some, like Blinded by Light, are thrillers that trigger a surge of adrenaline that gets you on your feet in the middle of battle; some, like The Promise, have beautiful piano accompaniments, perfect for relaxing or studying; and some, like Dust to Dust, are so wistful and magical that I struggle to convey the feelings they stir in me in words. 

Final Fantasy as a series is never an easy one to summarise, and that’s in large part due to atypical entries like Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy 12, and Final Fantasy 8. While the latter two are generally remembered more fondly, it’s FF 13 that solidified my love for the series. In being the first high-def Final Fantasy, it was eager to take risks that most sequels wouldn’t dare commit to. Time hasn’t dulled that rebellious spirit in the least.

Before Slay the Spire even left Early Access, it was already a hit. And it’s easy to see why—Mega Crit Games crafted an engrossing and exciting deck builder and roguelike dungeon crawler that’s immediately accessible to new players yet has the depth to satisfy card game veterans. The blend of genres matched with elegant and satisfying deck-building possibilities makes Slay the Spire an almost infinitely replayable experience. 

But why stop at infinite when you go even further? Modders have been busy adding new characters, cards, relics, potions, and even completely new rulesets to Slay the Spire, and mods run the gamut with everything from poker rules to Sailor Moon to playable monsters to farming. Yes, you can really play Slay the Spire as a farmer. Thanks to the Steam Workshop, mod installation is done with the simple click of a button, so there’s no excuse not to try some of these next time you play. (Unless, of course, you’re playing on Xbox Game Pass, which unfortunately doesn’t offer mod support.)

He slimed me

Download: Steam Workshop

There are a lot of cool character mods, many of them coming from unexpected inspirations. For example, one of my least-favourite enemies in Slay the Spire are slimes. When you’ve taken them below half-health, they split, and each of the two slime-halves have the same health as the original before it divided. Knock down their health and they’ll split again, redoubling the amount of slimes you have to face. It’s not always terrible—forcing a Slime Boss to split before he unleashes his slam attack will save you from the immense damage. But typically, having an enemy dividing into a bunch of copies of itself can make for a long, drawn-out fight. 

What’s great about the Slimebound mod is it gives you the chance to play as a slime yourself. Your rogue blob has decided to not simply sit and wait for adventurers to wander in. Instead it wants to conquer the Spire for itself. Your slime character can build a deck with the same powers the slime enemies have, from goop sprays to corrosive spit, and even the fearsome slime crush. And yes, you can split just like an enemy slime does, giving you multiple characters to fight and defend with. You can even find additional gooey friends and add them to your team, and at the end of a round you can re-absorb them to boost your health. There are 75 new cards added and lots of enjoyable original art in the Slimebound mod, and it’s so well made it feels like it could easily be a part of the original game. 

Slimes aren’t the only Slay the Spire monsters you can play as. The Playable Snecko mod lets you crawl through the dungeons as, well, the Snecko, one of Slay the Spire’s act 2 monsters. If you’ve faced one before, you know it uses Perplexing Gaze, which causes confusion—the effect that randomises the cost of cards in your deck. When you play as the Snecko you begin with a relic which confers permanent confusion. Never knowing how much a card will cost adds a bit more RNG to the already heaping mounds of RNG in Slay the Spire, making it a fun and incredibly tricky way to play. 

Playble Snecko also gives you a Snecko Soul relic that adds six unknown, transforming cards to your deck, meaning your hand will be full of surprises in every round of combat. It’s a great mod and a good way to shake up your game. 

If you want a familiar face—or at least a familiar mask—in your next round, The Bug Knight mod should delight you. It adds the character from the outstanding metroidvania Hollow Knight as a playable class, and close to a hundred beautifully illustrated and well-designed cards. The Bug Knight has its own custom resources, called Soul and Void, and your knight might even change appearance if you build some specialised decks, which is just a brilliant touch as well.

Poker face

Download: Steam Workshop

If you’re a fan of another type of card game, you’ll enjoy The Poker Player mod. This mod doesn’t just add a new hero, cards, and relics, but an entirely new ruleset governed by the immutable laws of poker. The Poker Player adds 40 standard playing cards with suits (clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds) and ranks (one to ten). 

Rather than trying to use your best cards in any given round as in vanilla Slay the Spire, you’re trying to save them up to create poker hands. You play your best poker hand at the end of your turn, all at once, which is called the Showdown. 

The poker hands are ranked—pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight (sequential cards), flush (all cards of the same suit), full house, four of a kind, and straight flush. Each poker card costs one energy, so you can discard the ones you don’t want, which are replaced with fresh cards until you’ve run out of energy—or if you’ve been dealt a good hand, you can skip straight to the Showdown. There’s strategy, too, because each suit has a specific buff: diamonds will deal damage to the enemy with the least amount of HP, for example, and spades give you points to your block. Cards are upgradable, too, so you can turn a four of clubs into a five of clubs if you haven’t found one yet. 

Many of the vanilla Slay the Spire cards are deactivated when you use The Poker Player mod, which feels weird until you realise they’d just get in the way, taking up room in your deck and preventing you from putting together an effective five-card poker hand. But there are custom specialty cards added, too, like those that let you draw cards of a certain suit or peek at your deck to see what’s coming next. If you love poker and deck builders, this is a creatively made and extremely fun mod to try.

Growing cards

Download: Steam Workshop

As you’d expect there are plenty of anime mods—The Senshi mod adds Sailor Moon to the mix, for example—but it’s hard to look through the Steam Workshop and not find yourself curious about a mod that adds a farming system. I’m not sure why a farmer would try to conquer the Spire, but just because he’s got a pitchfork instead of a sword and overalls instead of armour doesn’t mean he can’t try. The Hayseed mod adds a character whose abilities centre around planting and cultivating crops. You’ll plant different crops like potatoes and squash—they’ll hover around your head like The Defect’s orbs—and once they’ve matured you can harvest them for different effects. The Hayseed mod even brings seasons to Slay the Spire, which can result in different types of crops and seasonal events. The custom card artwork, along with the overall concept, is exceptionally creative. 

And even if you’re not looking for wild, drastic changes like farming and poker, there are still mods that add new options while letting you retain the essence of vanilla Slay the Spire. Replay the Spire doesn’t alter the rules or make you grow vegetables, but it does add tons of new stuff on top of the existing game, including over 70 custom cards, more than 60 new relics, plus additional rooms, bosses, and events. It’s bursting with fresh surprises for your next few hundred runs, and it’s got a sharp sense of humour with custom relics like baseballs, lightbulbs, and even anti-virus software. 

And just for fun, why not throw in the occasional treasure chest that may decide to take a bite out of you when you open its lid? Mimic Mod turns those treasure rooms and question marks on the map into a random chance for danger, because you may discover a chest full of loot is in fact a ravenous monster. It’s an additional challenge, sure, but mimics feel right at home in the dungeons of Slay the Spire. There’s even a new Mad Mimicry card to use against them, which lets you duplicate a random card in your hand. Hope it’s a good one. You’ll need it.

Head to the Steam Workshop to find any of the mods I’ve listed—just type their names into the search bar and they’ll pop up for you to subscribe to, as long as you’re logged in. To get these mods running you’ll also need to install a couple of utilities—don’t worry, though, they’re a snap. The first is Basemod, an open-source API that adds a dev console and new cards, relics, monsters, and characters to be added. The second utility is ModTheSpire, which is a mod loader—when you play Slay the Spire with mods, you’ll just need to tick the box next to the mod you want to use, and untick any you’d like to disable. Luckily, you can simply subscribe to both of these utilities in the Steam Workshop, and the next time you start the game, they’ll be ready and waiting.

If you've ever thought to yourself that life is good but it could use more hedgehog, the Humble Store is here to help. The Humble Sonic Bundle 2019 is a hefty collection of blue spiny Erinaceinae, beginning with Sonic Adventure 2, the Sonic Adventure 2 Battle DLC, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – Episode 1, and Sonic Adventure DX, for $1.

If you have more dollars than just one, Humble has more games than just those. Beat the average price and you'll also get Sonic Generations and the Casino Night DLC, Sonic Lost World, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 – Episode 2, and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. And for a tenner, you can top it off with Sonic Mania, the Sonic Mania Encore DLC, and Sonic Forces.

That's a whole lot of Sonic, and thankfully none of them will expose you to the nightmare visage of this. (Which, in case you missed it, is now this—a reminder that sometimes, delays are a good thing.) 

On a not-really-related note, but since we're talking about Sonic, I'd just like to say that it will never not be weird to me that, between the original Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare released a Sonic the Hedgehog game. It's like Zeppelin doing jingles for Denny's between Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti or something. (Although in all fairness, Sonic Chronicle is actually quite good. But that doesn't mean it's not weird.)

Anyway, back to the matter at hand: The Humble Sonic Bundle 2019 is available until December 17 and funds raised will go to support Whale and Dolphin Conservation, although you can select a different charity if you like—believe it or not, there are actually multiple hedgehog rescue and preservation charities to choose from if you really to stick with the theme.

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, which promises to torment Stanley with new choices and endings, was originally due out this year, but with 2019's end fast approaching, the game is running out of time. In the most Stanley Parable way possible, developer Crows Crows Crows has announced that we're going to have to wait a bit longer. 

News of a delay is usually greeted with understanding because nobody wants a rushed game, but I've not seen a developer put quite such a creative or positive spin on it, but then The Stanley Parable is pretty weird. It's milking it more than a little bit, but I could listen to the narrator respond to letters all day. 

Despite the narrator's protestations, however, it sounds like things haven't been going as smoothly as the developer might have hoped, so the release date is being pushed back until next year, hopefully before summer. 

In terms of script length, it's half of a new game, so the Ultra Deluxe won't be skimping on the new stuff, and Crows Crows Crows is working on console ports, too. It's not clear if the PC version will be a standalone, expansion or an update to the base game, but the developer wants to make both versions separately accessible. 

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition and Farming Simulator 19 will be available to every Stadia owner, all of whom currently have a Stadia Pro subscription, in December. This is along with Destiny 2: The Collection and Samurai Shodown, which are already available. 

Both additions were announced last night, but they've also been for sale since launch. Since everyone has a subscription at the moment, anyone who purchased the games would have been able to get them at no cost if they'd just waited, though they couldn't have known. 

Thankfully, Google has since added that it will be able to offer refunds even if they're outside of its normal refund policy.

"We know that some users have recently purchased these two games for their collection," the update reads. "Because of the proximity between the launch of the platform, and the announcement of these titles in Stadia Pro, we're happy to assist you if you'd like to request a refund if you have purchased either or both of these titles, even if it's outside of our normal policy."

You will still need to request the refund, though, as the process isn't automatic. And if you don't pay to resubscribe when the free period ends next year, you will lose access to both games, along with 4K streaming. In that case, it might be worth holding onto them.

Planet Zoo received a sizeable update today that apparently contains more than 400 fixes and updates, including plenty of squashed bugs and a bunch of new options that will let you further customise your sandbox zoos. After having a great time during beta, I've cooled on it since launch thanks to some bugs and management woes, so I'm hoping this will help me get my zoos back on track. 

There are lots of little tweaks, like suspended grazers now being able to serve up to four animals instead of one, UI fixes and scenario improvements, but the headline attraction is the new list of Sandbox mode options, which you can check out below.

• Power usage
• Water treatment
• Fence degradation
• Predation/fear
• Death by old age
• Staff happiness degradation
• Staff energy degradation
• Animal welfare needs
• Maximise guest happiness
• Freeze guest needs

The guest limit setting has also been added to both Sandbox and Challenge modes, along with unlocked assets from scenarios. 

Planet Zoo is a very playful, chipper game, so dead animals cause a dramatic change in tone and, frankly, make me very gloomy, so I couldn't be happier with the ability to let them live forever. As it should be. This update specifically lets you stop them dying of old age, though they can still die for other reasons. Luckily there's already an option to cancel death entirely. 

The Sandbox mode is where you'll want to go if you don't want to worry about cash or other limitations, letting you run free and design whatever kind of zoo you fancy. Challenge mode was added after beta feedback and is essentially the same as Franchise mode, but it's offline and doesn't let you run multiple zoos. 

Update 1.0.3 is available now, and you can check out the rest of the patch notes here. 

Total War: Warhammer 2, already bursting with factions and leaders, is getting yet more factions and lords next month in The Shadow & The Blade DLC. Give the trailer a watch above. 

The Shadow & The Blade chucks Death Master Snikch and Malus Darkblade into the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns, along with their respective factions, Clan Eshin and Hag Graef. These new skaven and dark elf factions will also get 12 unique units, including High Beast Master, Bloodwrack Medusa, Master Assassins and Eshin Triads.

Accompanying the DLC is a free update that will give all players access to a new Bretonnian lord and hero. If Rapanse de Lyonesse and Henri Le Massif aren't tickling your fancy, there are also some pretty major quality of life improvements designed to make the agonising wait between turns a lot shorter. 

In both Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns, players should see up to a 60 percent decrease in wait times between turns. Given the extremely long wait times in the Mortal Empires campaign in particular, this is a pretty big deal. It's important to note, however, that the decrease will also be dependent on the game state and your PC specs. 

For more details on the DLC, check out the FAQ. The Shadow & The Blade is due out on December 12 on Steam. 

A few days ago Hello Games teased a new update for No Man's Sky, called Synthesis, without revealing what was in it or when it might arrive. Today we've got a few details, and they're pretty exciting. Not only is the Synthesis update arriving this week, on November 28, but it's making some pretty big and welcome changes to No Man's Sky.

Perhaps the coolest change is that players will be able to improve their starships by adding additional inventory slots. They'll even be able to upgrade their ship's class, which can increase various bonuses like maneuverability, warp distance, damage, and more, depending on what type of ship it is. These upgrades are done by spending nanites at the new starship outfitting terminals you'll find in space stations throughout the galaxy. This means if you find a ship you really love, you don't need to sideline it in the hangar just because you've found one with more cargo space. Nice! You'll also be able to salvage other ships you find for parts.

There are also some exciting changes to the terrain manipulator. Players will now have the ability to "make a permanent stamp on the world with your edits," according to the email sent to PC Gamer. That's a big deal. We're used to digging holes or transforming terrain, flying away, and returning to find the planet has 'forgotten' what we've done to it. It sounds like that will change with the Synthesis Update. Yes, that massive rock penis you carefully sculpted outside your base can apparently be locked into place and preserved. (Update: The Synthesis page reads "Terrain edits made within a base are now protected from regeneration." So your rock penis will need to be inside your base's borders.)

Jokes aside, being able to permanently alter terrain on a planet will be a huge boon to base-builders and will give our homes a more persistent feeling. Importantly, along with this change, an 'undo' feature has been added to the terrain manipulator, so you won't have to live with your mistakes.

And you'll no longer have to sell a beloved multitool when another one catches your eyes. "Players can own and customise multiple Multi-Tools," in Synthesis, says Hello Games. You'll also be able to "create multiple characters in the customiser to switch between," which sounds like you'll be able to save your character customization choices and quickly swap between the different looks you've created.

There are also some interesting changes that will let VR users and desktop players share some of the same features that are currently exclusive to each. First-person driving for planetary vehicles is being added for desktop players—until now, that was only available in VR—and VR users will be able to use the photomode and creature-riding features that desktop players enjoy.

There's more: a "whole new space map," a personal refinery you can use in your inventory for crafting, plus the addition of more base parts, and lots of bug fixes and other improvements. We'll post the complete patch notes when they arrive.

Beat Saber studio Beat Games has been purchased by Facebook and will become an independently operated arm of Oculus Studios, according to an announcement made today. In a statement issued by Mike Verdu, AR and VR Director of Content at Facebook, the pickup is "just the beginning" of Facebook's plans to "accelerate VR" via acquisitions.

"Beat Games is a strong team with proven potential across VR, games, and music," Verdu writes. "With the resources and know-how that we can offer, Beat Games will be able to accelerate, adding more music and more exciting features to Beat Saber as well as bringing the game to more people."

The existing Beat Games studio will remain in Prague, Czech Republic, and updates across non-Oculus platforms will still continue. Meanwhile, plans for a new 360 Levels mode, as well as forthcoming musical additions, haven't been abandoned in the transition. In an FAQ, Verdu hoped to allay fears that Facebook's acquisition might "ruin" Beat Games.

"I’ve been in the industry for a while and have seen that firsthand. However, I’ve also seen and been a part of some incredible success stories," he wrote. "The story we aim to prove over time is this: An indie studio joins forces with some like-minded allies, and together they find a way to push VR to new heights."

On the topic of modding, the statement is sterner. "We understand and appreciate the value that modding brings to Beat Saber when done so legally and within our policies. We’re going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base," Verdu said.

"As a reminder, our most recent policy updates give more clarity to how developer mode is intended to be used, such as helping developers build their apps or for enthusiasts to explore new concepts. It is not intended for engaging in piracy or illicit modding, including mods that infringe on third-party IP rights or contain malicious code."

Void Spirit and Snapfire, the new Dota 2 heroes that were revealed in August, are now live in the game as part of the big Outlanders Update that rolled out today. Known less poetically as the 7.23 gameplay update, Outlanders also adds a new neutral building type called Outposts and neutral item drops, increases hero levels to 30, and makes major changes to core gameplay.

The first new hero, Void Spirit, is the fourth and eldest of Dota 2's "spirit brethren," which also includes Storm, Earth, and Ember. "Able to step into and out of the mortal plane at will, he easily outmaneuvers opponents to strike from wherever he desires, calling upon the powers of the aether to shield him in times of need," the update page says.

Here's what he brings to the fight:

• Aether Remnant - Void Spirit dispatches a remnant aspect of himself to stand sentinel over a small area. The remnant peers in a single direction, waiting to pull in and damage enemies that cross its gaze.
• Dissimilate - Void Spirit temporarily fades into the aether, creating a number of portals through which he can reassemble himself and cause damage to enemies in the area where he reappears.
• Resonant Pulse - Void Spirit wraps himself in a protective shield that absorbs physical damage and emits a single damaging pulse around him. The shield gains increased damage absorption for each enemy hero the pulse hits.
• Astral Step - Void Spirit consumes a charge to rip through reality into the astral plane, damaging all enemies along the rift path and inflicting a void mark that slows and detonates for significant damage.

More interesting, I think, is Beatrix Snapfire, a goblin grandmother on a dragon toad named Mortimer who will bake you cookies or blow your face off, as the mood strikes: "The Outlands are littered with the bones of bandits and ne'er-do-wells who thought to take advantage of her small stature and propensity for kindness."

This is what she can do:

• Scatterblast - Snapfire unloads with a wide blast from her trusty scattergun that damages and slows enemies. Particularly effective at point-blank range.
• Firesnap Cookie - Snapfire feeds a potent cookie to Mortimer or an ally, causing them to hop a short distance. The hopping unit stuns and damages enemies in the landing zone.
• Lil' Shredder - Snapfire unleashes a volley of fixed-damage attacks with her lizard-mounted battle cannons, gaining rapid fire and bonus attack range while slowing the attack speed of enemies she hits.
• Mortimer Kisses - Snapfire rears up on Mortimer, guiding his aim as he launches burning globs of firespit that damage on impact and linger on the ground to slow enemies and cause more damage over time.

Outposts, the new neutral buildings, are located where Side Shops used to be, and can be controlled by right-clicking for six seconds, although more players channeling will hasten the process. Capturing an outpost grants an immediate XP bonus, followed by further bonuses at five-minute intervals, and holding them also grants an unobstructed view of the surrounding area. They cannot be captured during the opening ten minutes of a game, however, so plan accordingly.

Unique new items may now drop from neutrals that can be shared with allies but not sold. Five tiers of items will drop over the course of a game, and each drop within a tier will halve the odds of subsequent drops: There's a ten percent chance that a Tier 1 item will drop during the 5-15 minute window, for instance, and if one does, the odds reduce to five percent for the next drop, and so forth. There are 62 unique neutral items in total, and only one of each item type will drop for each team.

Taken altogether, the changes represent a major overhaul of Dota 2, to the point that some fans, and pros too, have taken to calling it Dota 3.

Others had comparable reactions:

Yeah, Virtus.pro got two, I couldn't make up my mind. 

Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the changes. Reactions on Reddit and to the Outlanders Update tweet express concerns about the extent of the changes, the heightened difficulty it presents for new players, and—as always—the general sense that the game isn't what it used to be (and thus isn't as good as it used to be). But the overriding feeling seems to be one of excitement for a major shakeup of such a well-established game.

Here's the full rundown of general gameplay updates. Full details on the Outlanders Update are at dota2.com.

Courier:

• Each player now has their own courier automatically
• Courier now gains levels when your hero gains levels
• Courier movement speed reduced from 380 to 275
• Courier health reduced from 75 to 70
• Courier now provides 85 GPM while it is alive (this replaces the base 91 GPM that previously existed)
• Courier passively gains +10 movement speed, +10 health and +2 GPM increase per level
• Courier gains flying movement at level 5
• Courier gains Speed Burst active ability at level 10 (6-second duration +50% MS, 120 CD)
• Courier gains ability to use wards at level 15
• Courier gains Shield active ability at level 20 (2s duration, 200 CD)
• Courier gains ability to use items in general at level 25
• Courier vision reduced from 350 to 200
• Courier team bounty is now 25 + 5 * Level, xp is 35 + 20 * Level
• Courier respawn time changed from 120/180 ground/flying to 50 + 7 * Level
• Courier Return Items ability will now cause the courier to return home even if it doesn't have items

Economy:

• Observer Wards no longer cost gold
• Heroes now start with 3 Town Portal Scrolls
• Gold earned from killing an Observer Ward will now always be given to the player that bought the true sight
• Heroes that have recently applied damage or a debuff on an enemy hero that dies are now considered part of the area assist gold even if they are no longer alive or in that area
• Assist gold distribution multiplier for Net Worth ranking factor in the area is changed from multiplying based on the heroes in the area, to globally.
• Net Worth Ranking factor for Gold changed from 1.3->0.7 to 1.6->0.4

General:

• Map layout redesigned
• Heroes can now level up to 30. Once you get to level 30, you unlock the entire talent tree. XP requirement for the levels are 3500/4500/5500/6500/7500. Respawn time does not increase past 25. XP bounties max out at level 25 bounty values.
• Spell Immunity no longer grants 100% Magic Resistance (this means that all spells that are able to pierce spell immunity now deal damage as well)
• Removed Side Shops
• Bottle has been removed from the Secret Shop
• All Secret Shop items are now exclusively in the Secret Shop (this means Ring of Health and Void Stone are no longer in the base)
• Tier 2 Towers HP increased from 1900 to 2000
• Tier 2 Tower Armor increased from 15 to 16
• Tier 2 Tower Damage increased from 152 to 175
• Tier 2+ towers night vision increased from 800 to 1100
• Tower Glyph multishot targets increased from 2 to 4
• Glyph duration increased from 6 to 7
• Improved input processing to feel snappier, as well as fixing some rare input drop bugs
• Denied towers now give half of the bounty to the team that denies it and half to the other team (instead of 0 to both teams)
• Siege damage against heroes increased from 85% to 100%
• Fountain damage increased from 230 to 275
• Fountain now has 20% Accuracy

Neutral Units Balance:

• Neutral Cloak Aura no longer stacks
• Neutral Harpy Stormcrafter: Max mana reduced from 400 to 150
• Neutral Harpy Stormcrafter: Mana regeneration increased from 1 to 3
• Neutral Mud Golem: Hurl Boulder damage reduced from 125 to 75
• Neutral Ghost: Frost Attack move slow from 20 to 25%
• Neutral Ghost: Frost Attack attack slow from 20 to 25%
• Neutral Vhoul Assassin: Poison debuff now applies 35% Regen Reduction
• Neutral Centaur Conqueror: War Stomp cooldown reduced from 20 to 12
• Neutral Dark Troll Summoner: Ensnare cooldown reduced from 20 to 15
• Neutral Dark Troll Summoner: Raise Dead cooldown reduced from 25 to 18
• Neutral Ancient Thunderhide: War Drums Aura no longer provides attack damage bonus
• Neutral Ancient Thunderhide: War Drums Aura now provides 40% Accuracy
• Neutral Ancient Thunderhide: War Drums Aura attack speed bonus increased from 15 to 25
• Neutral Ogre Frostmage: Armor bonus reduced from 8 to 6
• Neutral Ogre Frostmage: Slow now works against ranged units as well
• Neutral Ogre Frostmage: Attack slow increased from 20 to 30