Dota 2

Shitty Wizard!

Valve Software's upcoming stand-alone sequel to the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients. Valve had hired Icefrog (One of the game's original developers) and have been working on a commercial sequel/remake of a sort called DotA 2. It was recreated on the Source engine with all-new graphics and UI. It is due in 2012, and a closed beta is now available. Recent updates about DOTA 2 can be seen here.

Dota 2 provides examples of:

 * A Worldwide Punomenon As to be expected from Valve.
 * Double Standard: DotA 2 has a "pause" feature in case someone has to go afk for one reason or another. The existing Double Standard is that whenever the missing person is on their team, they wait...but whenever the missing person is on your team, they'll force-unpause the game.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! / Actor Allusion: A lot of the voice actors worked on Valve's previous games, so it's not surprising to hear familiar voices.
 * Invoker is Spy and Pyro, as well as The Helicopter Pilot
 * Broodmother and Death Prophet are The Administrator, GLaDOS, and The Combine Overwatch
 * Lich, Shadow Shaman, Sniper, and Pugna are Heavy and Demoman
 * Tinker is Dr. Issac Kleiner
 * Lina, Puck, and Windrunner are Zoey and Cortana
 * Earthshaker, Shadow Fiend, Pudge, Storm Spirit, Ancient Apparition, Dark Seer, and Doom Bringer are Sniper, Dr. Odessa Cubbage, and the citizens
 * Axe, Bloodseeker, Enigma, and Kunkka are Duke Nukem
 * Lone Druid, Lycanthrope, Shadow Demon, Brewmaster, and Ogre Magi are Nolan North
 * Dragon Knight, Night Stalker, and Viper are The Vortigaunts
 * Impressive Pyrotechnics: The Ancients' explosions.
 * I Shall Taunt You: Character taunt mechanic is taken straight out of Team Fortress 2.
 * Legacy Character: Due to copyright reasons (like belonging to Blizzard-exclusive races like Tauren or Pandaren) some characters had to be replaced. They are still easy to recognize.
 * Random Drops: recently incorporated, using a system similar to Team Fortress 2. The only items are cosmetic.
 * Retcon: The characters got all-new backstories, often tied in with others'.
 * Serious Business: Like the first? It's VERY Serious Business.
 * Shout-Out: Like in the original, a LOT of them
 * For example, Tinker borrows a lot of Dr. Isaac Kleiner's lines from Half Life. It helps that he's voiced by the same actor. Same for some other (like Sniper and, of all things, Pudge ).
 * Kleiner himself will be available as a game announcer who constantly breaks the fourth wall.
 * Updated Rerelease: It has very minor differences from the original's gameplay, but has a new engine, brand new graphics and modern interface.
 * World of Ham