The voice of the Sniper in Team Fortress 2, John Patrick Lowrie, has been talking on the Impetuous Windmills podcast about his recent work voicing heroes for Dota 2. He says that Valve are "planning on releasing it in the fall," and drops details on the seven heroes that he's done voices for already. The roster includes a couple of old favourites from previous versions of Dota, the butcher, Pudge and the lightning fast Storm Spirit.

"So far I have voiced seven characters in Dota 2" says Lowrie at around 34 minutes into the show. "So far, I just voiced kind an ice spirit guy, and a kind of an ultimate devil guy, and then kind of a martial arts mystic guy."

"Then, early on, I voiced a guy named Pudge ... and a guy named Storm Spirit that everybody at Valve really enjoys playing and two other characters that I just don't remember. Who knows what the count will be eventually?"

The presenter goes on to ask Lowrie when the game will be coming out. "I think that they're planning on releasing it in the fall I think they're finishing it up," says Lowrie, adding "of course, I could be wrong, I'm just the hired help, but I believe that's what they told me."

Elsewhere on the internet, fan site Dota-Two have posted a letter apparently sent from Valve, inviting them to attend a Dota 2 presentation at Gamescom in Cologne next month. The key excerpt reads as follows:

"Valve Corporation is delighted to invite you to participate in our Dota 2 international invitational being held in Cologne, Germany from August 17th to 21st, 2011 (the "Event"). Valve is developing and publishing Dota 2, and the Event at Gamescom will mark the first public presentation of Dota 2."

Valve are already listed as showing a strategy game at Gamescom, we'll have to wait until next month to hopefully get our first glimpse of the game. Valve have also said that we can expect Dota 2 to be released soon , to be made available through Steam's upgraded download system.

Here's a bonus revelation for those who don't know. It turns out John Patrick Lowrie, voice of the Sniper, is married to Ellen McLain, the voice of Glados. Here's a video of the two of them performing Jonathon Coulton's Portal 2 song 'I Want You Gone' together. Sniper plays a mean banjo.