Sam Jackson has been in a number of games, normally reprising a role he's played on-screen. He has never, to the best of my knowledge, been in a Heroes of Newerth movie. Or TV show, for that matter.

A hacker claiming to be a software engineer from Belarus broke into online game Heroes of Newerth earlier this week, stealing passwords and account information from developer S2 Games' database.

Heroes of Newerth, originally launched in 2010, is one of the many multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games clamoring for attention these days. The genre grows more popular almost daily, with millions worldwide logging in to the generally free-to-play games and millions more tuning in to streaming matches online.

I'm sure that, like snowflakes or explanations for the finale of Lost, no two DOTA games are alike. But when a non-DOTA player like me sees a pair of group shots of DOTA games, I can't help but wonder about the range of visual variation in one of gaming's hottest genres.

The Defense of the Ancients genre seems to be heating up. Last week Heroes of Newerth went free to play. Earlier this week we learned that Valve's DOTA 2 will be playable at Gamescom and now comes news from League of Legends.

Multiplayer, action role-playing game Heroes of Newerth is now free-to-play, with developer reorganizing the Warcraft III Defense of the Ancients inspired game to include three types of accounts, developer S2 Games tells Kotaku.

PC game Heroes of Newerth has suffered a "a catastrophic hardware failure", perhaps the worst we've ever seen for an online title, resulting in the game being completely unplayable. Here's how it happened.

Sucks to be a Heroes of Newerth player this week (or next week, or the week after), after the game's servers suffered what's being called "a catastrophic hardware failure".

Players losing in Heroes of Newerth 2.0 may find that they've had their "cherry popped" or taken part in a "three way" if the person they're playing against purchased the PC game's "flamboyant" audio pack. [Updated with comment.]

Savage developer S2 Games is ready to bring its take on the Defense of the Ancients Warcraft III scenario to the masses, with the launch of the Heroes of Newerth open beta.

Tired of stodgy corporate games made by The Man and his minions? We're playing the 31 best indie games for a change of pace —- and so we can judge them. Today, Heroes of Newerth.