As of right now, Games For Windows devotees can—after having downloaded the latest GFW software update—enjoy Fallout 3, Dirt 2, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, Battlestations: Pacific, Fuel, Viva Pinata, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Shadowrun, Section 8, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and the free download Tinker, all through the newly launched service.

And if you act now(!) Viva Pinata and Shadowrun can be yours for half off. Yes, the season's hottest games, for a steal.

Games On Demand [Games For Windows - thanks SuperTongue and TheWax!]

Now more than three years after promising, and some say failing, to deliver a PC gaming renaissance with the Vista operating system, Microsoft is set to roll out Windows 7.

But this time there are no apologies or promises. PC gaming, it seems, has taken a back seat.

When Windows 7 goes on sale on Oct. 22, PC gamers will have little reason to run out to buy it, says Matthew Murray, managing editor of ExtremeTech.

"I don't think there's a lot about (Windows 7) that's going to make it that much more compelling to gamers than Vista," Murray said. "It's a bit better using memory, and it's a bit faster in certain areas, but the performance overall isn't really that much different. If you have Vista and you're happy with it, you can probably keep it, at least for now."

To be fair, much of that promised renaissance in 2006 was tied to the Games for Windows initiative, which launched alongside the Windows Vista operating system.

While the two hit at the same time, they're not directly connected.

The biggest idea behind Games for Windows was to make it easier to play games on your PC. This was done by creating a set of criteria that computer games needed to meet to have the Games For Windows label on their box.

Those criteria included compatibility, easy installation and including parental controls. There were also a number of neat ideas tested out, but never fully realized. Most computer games require an installation before playing, but the Tray and Play option was meant to allow gamers to pop a game in their computer and start playing almost immediately, similar to what most console gamers experience now. Unfortunately, only one game, Halo 2 for the PC, currently uses this system.

The most noticeable way in which Vista and Games for Windows crossed over was the operating system's Game Advisor and Games Explorer.

The Game Advisor ranks a person's computer and available games making it easier to tell if a title would play on a PC.

The Games Explorer was meant to collect all the games installed on a computer and display them in one folder. It's here that Window 7 does bring a modicum of improvement for gamers.

One of the biggest issues with Games Explorer was that it often didn't detect games that were purchases through online retailers and providers like Steam.

While Windows 7 still doesn't seem to include Steam in the Game Explorer, it now has the ability to if the company wants to support the service. If a game provider does choose to be listed in the Game Explorer, computer owners will be able to view news from the service and information about the service's games, all inside the window.

Another update to Games Explorer allows you to be notified when a game you own has an update or patch and then install the update from the explorer without having to launch the game.

Finally, Games Explorer will track statistics for the games you play, showing you how many times you've played, how long and your win and loss ratio.

Currently only the included games seem to support this function, but I'm sure more will include it after the operating system officially launches.

Murray says the only improvement he can find in Windows 7 for gamers is in the Games Explorer, but even he doesn't find it that useful.

"Being able to check for updates for all your games in one interface is a nice feature, but since it doesn't install the updates automatically (the way Windows Update itself does), I don't know how useful that's going to be to a lot of people," he said. "And I've never gotten that into using the Games Explorer anyway—I tend to just add icons to the new taskbar, as with everything else. Aside from that, there aren't a ton of game-friendly changes I've come across."

The problem I have with Windows 7, though, isn't its failure to vastly improve the gaming experience, it's Microsoft's failure to take advantage of the attention brought by the launch of a new operating system to once more thrust PC gaming into the spotlight.

The biggest promise the Games for Windows initiative made when it initially was unveiled was that it would be backed by a huge marketing campaign, one similar to the push Microsoft gave the Xbox 360 when it hit.

But that was never fully realized and PC gaming was left to suffer as a second favorite system next to the Xbox 360 and Microsoft's continued marketing blitz for its gaming console.

In the vacuum left by Microsoft game developers, chip manufacturers and PC builders have come together to try and reinvigorate PC gaming though the PC Gaming Alliance. But even this effort seems oddly absent during Window's big week?

If Microsoft want its PC gaming platform to thrive they will need to do more than offer lip service in the future. But with the lasting success of the gaming console and PC gamers' ability to seemingly put up with anything, why should they?

Microsoft declined to comment for this article.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

And it doesn't look like there'll be much in the foreseeable future, either. The company's internal Flight Simulator team has been canned. Ensemble Studios, the team behind the Age of Empires series, were broken up and shut down. And porting a Halo game to the PC three years after it appeared on the original Xbox is some kind of sick joke.

But, cross their hearts and hope to die, Microsoft aren't done in the PC publishing space. Games for Windows' Dave Luehmann tells Gamasutra:

We've got several titles in development right now, both internally developed and with external partners. We're here at GDC negotiating another deals, and we're here at GDC looking for other content partners. I'd say our position in Windows over the last six months has gone from a steady state, to a dip from a point of view of the press, but realistically we're putting more money into Windows games than we have in quite a while.

Hopefully he means more than just Gears of War 2. Oh, and a Halo 3 port that turns up in 2010.

GDC: Microsoft's Luehmann And Johnston On Future Of Games For Windows Live [Gamasutra]

But let's give it a shot!

Sega and The Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War is dense. It takes the existing Total War game model of turn-based strategy and real-time tactics, adds a bunch of new options and triples the size of the game world. In terms of the amount of time you'll get out of it, it's dense. In terms of the depth of options available to you as a commander, it's dense. In terms of the number of different ways you can play the game, yes, it is dense. Which is fine on paper.

But is it fine in practice?

Loved
Scale – They weren't kidding around when they said this was the biggest Total War game yet. Not only do you have the European map so frequently seen in previous games, but there's a massive map of America as well. And India. And four smaller trade theatres. Really, the amount of space available to conquer/manage is at times mind-boggling (but in a good way). The more land available, the more options you've got for your wars of conquest.

The Thin Red Line – Total War games have always looked pretty, but never like this. Seeing individual crew members of a ship clambering across the ropes at sunset, or a cloud of smoke gently envelop your infantry as they let loose a volley of musket fire is hypnotising. And if they weren't encouragement to zoom in and view your battles at ground level, you'll love the fact individual combatants now really appear to be fighting 1v1, instead of just flailing around.

The Shoe Fits – While there was nothing wrong with previous time periods, per se, the 18th century just feels more fun. The combination of melee and musket fire changes both the pace of the real-time battles and your tactical options on the battlefield. Same goes for naval battles: there's a romance surrounding tall ships, pirates and the Royal Navy that other time periods just can't match.

Overlord – Empire: Total War isn't about real-time battles. Those are just a pleasant diversion. Instead, you'll spend the bulk of your time on a much-improved campaign map, which has added new governmental control options as well as, crucially, the fact that important resources are now located outside town centres. This smaller towns/buildings can be occupied and fought over, meaning battles now take place across an entire map, and don't just focus on the big cities. Indeed, this mode is so strong that it could have been released as a stand-alone game and it would be amazing all on its own.

Play It Again – Because the game world is so massive, and because it introduces so many new features (like overseas trade routes and piracy), you can play two grand campaigns (the game's bread and butter mode) and they'll feel like two completely different games. Play as Britain and you'll be tinkering in continental politics while safeguarding vast international trade routes. Play as Prussia and you'll barely notice the sea as your armies march across the green fields of Europe.

Hated
England Expects (Ships To Be More Enjoyable) – Naval battles were hyped as this game's main new attraction. They're not. They look great, but large fleets are far too difficult to control (with most battles taking place between large fleets), so only the most resolute player will avoid the temptation of hitting the "auto resolve" button after only a few battles.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid – The Total War games have always had an Achilles heel when it comes to real-time battles: AI on stronghold missions. Out on the open fields, the computer does a great job, but if you're defending or attacking a city, it's a mess. Armies can't move around a fort with getting stuck, they can't enter or exit a fort without getting stuck, and you'll notice countless other errors, like defenders refusing to fire at attackers and attackers deciding it's more fun to just stand in front of a wall than climb up it. This means you'll sadly have to auto-resolve most city/town-based battles, which is a shame as they're often the most important.

It really is difficult to sum up such a vast game in such a short amount of space. So rather than trying to sum up any more features, I'll just say this: imagine all the power and options available to you as an 18th century King, General, Admiral or Prime Minister. Now imagine all those options could be rolled into a single job, and given to you. That's what playing this game feels like.

Only, because they've been rolled together so intuitively, it's fun.

Empire: Total War is, simply, a masterclass in PC strategy. It's boundless, it's polished, and its quality (and sales) show that despite other publisher's claims to the contrary, there is still a viable PC strategy market out there, so long as you deliver the goods. And Empire: Total War delivers the goods.

Empire: Total War was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Released on PC on March 3, retails for $49.99. Played American campaign to completion, played three grand campaigns to completion. Played multiplayer skirmishes, did not play multiplayer campaign.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Note: Folks, I broke the headline and it's taking a while to flush out of our system cache; the correction's been made. This refers to original Gears of War only. My error.

Rein said online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. "We made an embarassing mistake," he said. "We signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game."

Rein said Epic is working with Microsoft to re-sign the binaries properly, and they "hope to have this fixed very soon.

"We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience," he said.

I just like hearing an executive speaking in my language, for once. This isn't merely inconvenient — leaving the remote control in the kitchen is inconvenient. This sucks. Woo-hoo for calling it like it is, although he still calls it inconvenient, I guess because it's not a matter of personal safety.

Meantime, Rein suggests backdating your computer's clock to a date before today in order to play Gears of War.

Again, before you go apeshit in the comments: I put in an erroneous headline and immediately corrected it. If your front page says Gears 2, it's in error. This concerns original Gears of War only.

Epic Explains Gears of War Error [IGN]

Epic Games' forum dwellers began kvetching about the issue within the past 24 hours, when presented with a warning that read "The certificate has expired or is not yet valid." Gears Of War PC players found that resetting their system clocks back to the day before the Verisign certificate expired or earlier let them play as normal.

Fortunately, Epic seems to be well aware of the problem, responding in the official forum with "We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved."

Epic reps offered their apologies, opting not to point the finger at any party possibly responsible for the lapse in certificate renewal.

Given Microsoft's recent problems with keeping Zunes working on a day-to-day basis, we think we might know who the culprit is.

Modified executable code!! HELP!! [Epic Games Forums via Ripten]

Previously, only 1600 point cards have been available, for $19.99. Now, though, 800 point cards have begun hitting stores, priced at...$9.99. Glad Microsoft know how to divide by two.

800 MS point cards now available at retail [X3F]

Unfortunately, that's all the info that Squenix is providing, noting that whatever those new features are will be announced later. Date? No. Price? Nuh-uh. Just know that The Last Remnant is coming and that it will have an .exe.

The PlayStation 3 port of the RPG is still "TBA," if you're holding out for it.

DirectX 11 confirmed for Windows 7 - Microsoft revised statement [PCGH, via Voodoo Extreme]

Eventually, that may mean a proper digital distirbution solution for PC games sold via Live Marketplace. According to the brief interview snippet, it sounds like Microsoft is still figuring that out. We just hope it involves Clippy the paperclip saying things like "It looks like you want to reduce the number of computers on which you can install this game. Would you like help"?

Microsoft Confirms Plans to Challenge Steam with Digital Distribution of Full PC Titles [Shacknews]

According to IGN, the official minimum and recommended PC system requirements have also been revealed. The recommended requirements closely match what was posted on the official Games For Windows site — then pulled — last month. The full specs are after this.

Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz
* Memory: 1.5GB, 16GB Free Hard Drive Space
* Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900

Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
* Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1Ghz
* Memory: 2 GB (Windows XP) 2.5 GB (Windows Vista)
* 18 GB Free Hard Drive Space
* Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870

GTA IV PC Delayed to December [IGN]

The official Games For Windows site still lists the PC version's original release date, as does Rockstar's own GTA IV PC listing.

We've reached out to Rockstar to get confirmation on the potential slip and will update when we hear something official.

"The person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know [BitTorrent] to know all the elements so they can pirate software," says Bleszinski. "Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC."

Hmph! Thanks a lot, assholes. Oh, not you, Cliff. We were talking to the dude stealing your game.

Gears Of War 2 - Cliff Bleszinski Q&A [TVG]

Microsoft has exclusive control over Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC, and while some PC gamers might be indignant that it leaves out the better-performing, more accepted Steam — especially for taking advantage of its enhanced multiplayer — the lure of a powerhouse title coupled with real improvements to Games for Windows could do much more to bring new PC gamers into the fold. That's a big if.

Already Microsoft has dropped its fee for the service, and will be adding an improved interface and a standalone client. Support for Xbox 360 controllers could also narrow the precision and performance gap among controllers in cross-platform gaming. And simplifying system requirements with this Windows Experience Rating could help, although that sounds like it's still dependent on broad Vista adoption, a problem the writer says got in the way of Games for Windows success early on.

Grand Theft Auto IV Could Save Games for Windows [blog.wired.com]

Processor: Dual core processor (Intel Pentium D or better)
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drive: 18GB free hard disk space
Video Card: 512MB Direct3D 10 compatible video card or Direct3D 9 card compatible with Shader
Drive: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive

18 gigabytes, eh? In the age of the terabyte home storage solution, Grand Theft Auto IV spreading out across that much platter isn't shocking, just a tad hard to absorb. (Ask me about my 80GB drive some time!)

We're checking in with Rockstar to make sure these figures are on the up and up, but until someone says otherwise, we'd think it's safe to start trolling NewEgg for whatever your needs may be.

Thanks to Mikko for the pointer.

GTA IV [Games for Windows]

Sure, it's entirely possible, given that Halo and Halo 2 both made the Xbox 360 to PC jump about two years after their respective console releases. And, sure, games like Gears of War have been inadvertently "announced" for the Windows platform in marketing materials, but you're really jumping to conclusions here. You think Microsoft is going to let something like this leak?

After all, only about 98.44% of Microsoft-based rumors are true. We're following up with the company to get our sweet taste of carefully worded denial right now.

In tandem with the announcement that MS was "taking off the Gold-only restriction for multiplayer gaming over Games for Windows LIVE," cross platform games (Xbox 360/PC) will be free for all for a limited time, according to a Microsoft spokesperson. Get crackin' online gamers. It won't last long, they say.

There's lots of issues about price points and models and the benefits to publishers — you have different developers that do things on different platforms. It certainly interests us, and it's one of many things we talk about, the fact that we have a service that spans both platforms opens up all kinds of opportunities like that. When we feel like we have all of the right pieces together, and we have partners who tell us they want to do that, you can expect that it's something we'll look at, much more closely.

Interesting, no?

Games for Windows Head Kevin Unangst Explains Move to Free Live [1UP]

When Microsoft vp John Schappert began his open letter to PC gamers today, he started with "Growth and Opportunities in PC Gaming."

Weird start. Nevertheless, Schappert has issued what is basically a Microsoft-penned report on the state of PC gaming. Pretty rosy. No mention of World of Warcraft or Steam or The Sims.

But some good stuff nonetheless, like:

Other popular titles such as “Crysis” and “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures” have sold and shipped more than 1 million copies, respectively. “Hellgate: London” now has more than 1 million active subscribers.

And

Today I’m excited to report that Microsoft and a growing community of the gaming industry’s leading publishers, hardware manufacturers and retailers have made the Windows-based PC the largest gaming platform in the world.

Read the full letter after the jump.

Growth and Opportunities in PC Gaming

These are exciting times for the PC gaming industry. Over the past couple of years, Microsoft Corp. has increased its focus on investment in Windows gaming because we see the incredible growth and opportunities it represents not just for us, but for the industry at large.

Today I’m excited to report that Microsoft and a growing community of the gaming industry’s leading publishers, hardware manufacturers and retailers have made the Windows-based PC the largest gaming platform in the world. Every major region will see PC gaming continue to grow in audience, game revenue and hardware purchases for the foreseeable future. While the challenges we face as an industry are many, PC gaming has never been stronger, and we’re confident this trend will continue in the years to come.

The past year has seen exponential growth in online activity and sales, continued platform and hardware innovation, and continued success with the Games for Windows branding initiative, which adds prominence, a quality and technical bar, and a consistent look and feel to the retail PC gaming experience.

In the last year, we have helped launch a wide range of stellar PC game titles exclusive to Windows including “World in Conflict,” “Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar” and “Sins of a Solar Empire.” Other popular titles such as “Crysis” and “Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures” have sold and shipped more than 1 million copies, respectively. “Hellgate: London” now has more than 1 million active subscribers.

We are also dedicated to supporting the next generation of PC game developers with XNA Game Studio, a set of free, easy-to-use development tools for Windows-based PCs, Xbox 360 and Zune. Our goal is to assist a growing community of more than 1 million students, hobbyists and independent game developers realize their potential and enhance the Windows gaming ecosystem through their ingenuity.

Later today in San Francisco, Microsoft will be joined by our partners and select press at our Big Picture showcase event, where attendees will experience the PC gaming renaissance firsthand. Top game publisher Activision will premiere upcoming title “Call of Duty: World at War.” Attendees will also be among the first to experience AMD’s new Radeon HD 4800 Series DirectX 10 graphics card, NVIDIA’s new GeForce 9M notebook GPU and other stellar hardware from Dell Inc., HP, Gateway Inc. and Acer Inc.

Also today, 16 titles join the Games for Windows portfolio, including “Call of Duty: World at War” (Activision), “Ghostbusters: The Videogame” (Sierra Entertainment), “Crysis: Warhead,” (EA Partners), and “Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection” (Microsoft Game Studios).

The Windows-based PC is the most connected gaming platform on the planet. Microsoft’s continued investments will enable game publishers to take advantage of that connectivity while delivering to consumers the kinds of gaming experiences they will love.

These are exciting times. We’re proud of how far we’ve come and excited for what the future holds.
Here’s to Windows gaming,

John Schappert
Corporate Vice President
LIVE, Software and Services
Microsoft

For the full list of changes implemented in patch 3, hit the jump for details.

General Changes:
Implemented Interoperable cross-play between Xbox and PC players in Ranked, Quickmatch and Conquer the World modes.
Team voice chat fixed so that communication between players is on a team basis during tactical combat
Fixed an issue where difficulty for Achievements was not being tracked correctly resulting in cases where Achievements might not always unlock.
Fixed an issue where the Corruptors would not fire on enemies within their attack radius.
Fixed an issue where Defilers would walk in place if the Project Radiation ability was targeted to close to them.
Fixed an issue where Collectors would stop collecting because they were trying to reach resources outside the playable area.
AI players are now added to custom multiplayer sessions with unique color and team settings.
In replays objects should no longer be tinted as if under the fog of war.
Implemented a quality of service check for multiplayer games to improve game matching, especially in Conquer the World mode.
Fixed an issue where Altea's aura would not un-phase enemy units.
Fixed an issue where Avengers would take zero pop-cap.
Fixed an issue where cloaked units that have been in the sight radius of a Sight-linked unit loose their ability to cloak until Sight link is removed.
Fixed an issue that was having a Conquer the World player leave the session if the other player disconnected BEFORE the stats results could be reported, preventing the player who remained connected from getting the win.
Fixed an issue where the light/dark mode was not properly reset during a tactical battle restart.
Fixed an issue where units selected in a group would not respond to orders if some were locked down by a Hacker.
Forged Alliance Achievement Renamed to Peacebringer. Requires the player to defeat 2 ranked game or CTW opponents on the opposite platform.

Xbox 360 Specific Changes:
Performance optimizations.
Fixed a random game freeze issue related to particles.
Fixed a random game freeze related to voice chat.
Fixed several Out of Sync issues, including a high-latency issues which would
cause the game to go OOS instead of correctly waiting for players.
Added Guard mode to the special ability carousel.
Added Patrol mode to the special ability carousel.
Fixed an issue where network selection lag would cause the carousel to never come up.
Fixed an issue where the build queues selected from the Command carousel would randomly disappear in battle.
Fixed an issue with paint select decal selecting units outside its radius.
Mirabel now plays her unit responses.
Fixed an issue with Foo cores not adhering to double-click movement rules.
Fixed an issue where Hackers were able to be built without the Science Center.
Fixed the invisible radar map issue in the Novus Homeworld tutorial.
Fixed an issue where the A button might appear behind something in the Novus patch menu.
If saving a replay to a full memory unit an appropriate error message is now displayed.
Players can no longer incorrectly bring up the pause menu at the battle end screen.
Multiplayer is now properly paused when the Battle End Screen is activated after the game is over, so you don't get continuing sound and rumble effects.
Fixed an issue that was causing the skirmish lobby to force the pop cap *UP* to 60 if you added 3 AI even if your chosen pop cap was less than 60.
Fixed an issue where the Y button prompt appears off the Radar Map and fails to function when maximum build cap is reached.
Fixed an issue with accepting an invite while the attract movie is up.
Fixed issue with white texture showing up for the neutral detection array's scan pulse ability.

PC Specific Changes:
Added Patrol mode via hotkey: Ctrl+A
Added progress bars to display unit/upgrade production in tactical and global modes.
Added multi-threaded support for systems with multi-core processors providing a large performance increase on those systems.
Research now available in Single Player Campaign.
Fixed an issue where using a laptop with a touchpad containing a horizontal and verticals scroll touch option would break the mini-map.
Fixed an issue where the help text would display off screen.
Fixed an issue where dropdown text would get cut off at extremely high resolutions.
Fixed an issue where tooltips for the capture ability would give an incorrect time.
We now hide the Private Game combo box when hosting, so you must make the decision about hosting a private game when you first create the session ... you can't change your mind later.
Fixed an issue which was preventing disconnected game notices from ever being displayed.
Game now pauses when LIVE dialog screen is up.
Fixed an issue which was causing multiplayer games from ending properly if the game was minimized when the battle ended. In Conquer the World this could prevent a player from being awarded a territory in some cases.
We now check save files to make sure they haven't been corrupted on the PC.
Fixed an issue where the game would crash when holding ALT key while loading and saving a game.
Fixed an issue with the research tree and other menus closing intermittently while in a MP game.

Novus Balance Changes:
Hackers now autonomously lock down targets in range.
Constructors now repair 14% faster.
Increased Constructor’s FOW reveal by 20%.
Reduced Constructor’s build time from 18 to 13 seconds.
Reduced Constructor’s price from 650 to 500.
Increased Constructor’s crush defense from 10 to 30.
Increased Founder’s Prowess health from 900 to 1100.
Increased Founder’s FOW reveal range in Prowess mode.
Increased Founder’s health from 500 to 650 in performance mode.
Decreased Vertigo’s FOW by 10%.
Increased Vertigo’s health from 700 to 775.
Increased Vertigo’s guard radius by 15%.
Increased Mirabel’s base weapon damage by 20%.
Decreased Mirabel’s Snipe recharge from 55 to 52 seconds.
Increased Mirabel’s missile damage volley by 10%.
Increased Mirabel’s missile speed by 10%.
Decreased Mirabel’s missile range by 25%.
Increased Amplifier’s movement speed by 10%.
Changed Amplifier’s armor from light to heavy.
Decreased Amplifier’s global cost from 450 to 400.
Decreased Amplifier’s tactical cost from 900 to 800.
Decreased Amplifier’s build time from 28 to 26 seconds.
Increased Amplifier’s guard range by 15%.
Increased Amplifier’s crush from 6 to 21.
Increased Field Inverter’s FOW reveal by 15%.
Decreased Field Inverter’s global cost from 600 to 500.
Decreased Field Inverter’s tactical build time from 30 to 28 seconds.
Increased Field Inverter’s guard range by 25%.
Increased Field Inverter’s shield mode walk speed by 25%.
Increased Field Inverter’s damage by 15%.
Decreased Hacker’s speed by 15%
Increased Hacker’s guard radius by 20%
Increased Hacker’s cost from 500 to 600.
Decreased Hacker’s max targeting range on lockdown ability by 15%
Increased Ohm’s max attack range by 25%.
Increased Ohm’s run speed by 10%.
Increased Ohm’s health by 15%.
Increased Ohm’s guard radius by 20%.
Decreased Corruptor’s cost from 600 to 500.
Increased Corruptor’s guard radius by 20%.

Hierarchy Balance Changes:
Increased Kamal’s health 900.
Decreased Kamal’s FOW reveal by 20%
Increased Nufai’s health from 700 to 750.
Increased Nufai’s guard radius by 15%
Increased Defiler’s cost from 775 to 850.
Increased Defiler’s build time from 26 to 30 seconds.
Increased Defiler popcap from 3-5 (updated)
Increased Saucer’s guard radius by 10%
Increased Saucer’s popcap from 3 to 4.
Decreased Saucer’s build time from 30 to 28 seconds.
Decreased Saucer’s cost from 825 to 750.
Increased Saucer’s speed by 10%.

Masari Balance Changes:
Decreased Light Mine damage by 50% for standard and upgraded figment mines.
Increased Charos, Zessus, Altea and Disciple’s guard radius by 15%
Increased Zessus’ health from 800 to 850.
Decreased Altea’s walk speed for both light and dark modes by 15%
Increased Altea’s health from 600 to 725