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Hi folks,

We’re pleased to announce the 2nd update for the PC/Steam version of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion — and in contrast to update #1, which was mostly fixes, this update is chock full for new features for you to play with!

New features in this update:

B*D*I Slicer - the B*D*I faction has been working hard to counter the Scorched threat - and they believe they’ve succeeded with their latest weapon, the Slicer.  The Slicer’s primary mode is called the Land Saw, which shoots a rolling fire blade along the ground, burning through anything in its path.  It’s practically unstoppable - it even climbs walls to hit enemies on the other side!  It’s secondary mode is even more dangerous - especially for Pett and Magmor.  The Ice Rupture mode fires a torpedo under the ground, doing damage to burrowing Petts or anybody it is underneath - but the real damage comes when you press the trigger a second time - the torpedo explodes into the air, doing massive damage to anyone directly over top of it!   This weapon is free, but you must unlock it by reaching the rank of General (the highest officer rank) - and like all our weapons, you unlock the secondary mode through use of the primary.

Scorched Striker - not to be outdone, the Scorched Brotherhood have their own answer for battlefield dominance, the Striker.  The primary mode shoots a deadly Harpoon at targets - even the biggest opponents go down after just a few hits.  But it’s the secondary mode that’s the most deadly — when you flip into Energy Striker mode, your view changes to a overhead aimer — light up a target and pull the trigger - you’ll fire a guiding harpoon into the spot, which will be used to target a massive laser from an orbitting satellite overhead.  Incredibly devastating - especially to players susceptible to energy damage, like Robo!  [BV2 alum will recognize the Striker as our homage to the BV2 sniper rifle.]  Like the Slicer weapon, the Striker is free, but must be earned - only those players who reach the rank of Legend are deemed worthy of this piece of hardware!

New achievements - to go along with the new weapons, we have 5 new achievements for you to collect.

Babo Sniper - Get this achievement by getting 25 kills with the new B*D*I Striker weapon — using the Energy Strike mode, of course.

B*D*I All-star - Earn this achievement by playing as every B*D*I class in a single versus match.

Scorched All-star - Earn this achievement by playing as every Scorched class in a single versus match.

Skirmisher - Earn this achievement by accumulating a score of over 2500 points in a single skirmish match.

Playbrains rules - our 6 degress of Kevin Bacon achievement! :)  Get this achievement by playing against a Playbrains team member, or against anyone else who has the achievement (so this achievement should move virally, like many things at Playbrains… ewww  :)]

Dedicated Servers!!! - Thanks for being patient folks!  Our dedicated server software for Windows is now ready for deployment [Linux coming soon!].  We’re in the process of setting some servers of our own up (North America should be online today, hopefully Australia too - courtesy of our good friends at UGN).  We’ve started the process for Europe - took a few extra days for security verification and such - hope that I can get those servers going tonight/tomorrow.)

That said, we’re also making the software available - so feel free to host a server yourself - for you, your clan, or the world!  The bigger we build the community the better!  You’ll find the dedicated server software under the Tools tab in your Steam Client.  It’s pretty simple to set up - just read the .pdf file included with the install - and post to the forums if you have any questions/problems.

Attract mode - And to make things more fun while you’re waiting for folks to join your server, we’ve added a new feature we call “attract mode” to the game.  Basically, if you’re the first person in a match, we’ll spawn enemies for you to fight while waiting for others to join!  You don’t get points, but you will still accumulate experience (for unlocking), multipliers, and have a ball while you’re doing it.  The monsters automatically disappear when another person joins the match…   Also note, this is actually a server-settable parameter - you can turn it off, or change it so that the enemies *stay* even as you add more players…  Adds an interesting dimension to firefights!

Anyway folks,we hope you like the update…  and we’re far from being done - we’ve got more that we’re working on that we hope to surprise you with very soon!

Keep playing, and keep telling your friends…  we want to continue to build our online community as much as possible - and your help, well, helps! 

Paul.