World of Warcraft screenshot of the expensive $90 shop mount - The Trader’s Gilded Brutosaur

In what is quite possibly the biggest 'microtransaction' I've ever seen, Blizzard has just launched the brand new "Trader’s Gilded Brutosaur" mount onto the World of Warcraft store at a very humble $90 price tag! And what do you get for that much money? A giant dinosaur that offers you easy access to both the auction house and mailbox.

Funnily enough, this isn't the first time they've done this. Back in Battle for Azeroth Blizzard released a limited time 5,000,000 gold mount that only gave access to the auction house. There was no direct way to pay for it with cash either, though if you wanted to buy WoW Tokens and then convert them to gold, the mount would've taken you around $500.

Helldivers 2 artwork for the October 31st Truth Enforcers warbond

Now that they've sorted out most of the major issues, it looks like the Helldivers 2 team is finally able to once again focus on releasing new content. And so, the next premium Warbond will be launching on October 31st with three new weapons, two unique armors, a new booster, as well as the usual assortment of cosmetics.

The first weapon in line is the SG-20 Halt: a pump-action shotgun that can switch between stun rounds and armor-piercing flechettes. It's longer-ranged counterpart is the heavy SMG 32 Reprimand which, as you might imagine, packs quite a punch though shoots a bit slower than the previous SMGs. The final weapon is the PLAS-15 sidearm. This plasma pistol can either be shot semi-auto style, or charged for a period of time in order to deliver a more powerful punch. By the looks of things this charged attack can stagger even heavy devastators, so it should be quite a nice backup if you like running lighter primaries.

MTG Arena artwork for the notorious and banned Leyline of Resonance card

[Update #2]: MTG Arena will be getting the entirety of competitive Pioneer on December 10th, 2024!

[Update]: All of Magic: The Gathering's future cross-over sets will be legal in every format.

If you've been playing Standard for the past couple of weeks you're probably well aware of just how omnipresent the Leyline of Resonance 'combo' decks are. They're fragile and fold to early removal, sure, but if you stumble for even a single turn it's very easy to find yourself getting hit for over 20 damage.

Much like Tibalt's Trickery from a few years back, Leyline of Resonance creates some very boring games where the player using it either wins or loses within a couple of turns - almost like deciding the match with a coinflip. Unsurprisingly, this very quickly put it on Wizards of the Coast's ban radar, though since the set had only just released at the time of the last announcement, they figured they'd give it a little bit more time to see if the meta can self-correct.

Star Citizen early ship screenshot

To say that people have spent a long time waiting for Squadron 42, Star Citizen's singleplayer, spaceflight sim spin-off, would be quite an understatement. I say this because Squadron 42 was first announced 12 years ago, all the way back in October of 2012, which is just wild to even think about!

And now, after over a decade of on-and-off development, it looks like Squadron 42 will finally be launching for real. The exact release date hasn't been set just yet, but the recently posted gameplay reveal promises a 2026 launch. Given how things go with any Star Citizen announcement I'm fully expecting at least a couple of delays, but even so it's good to see the team commit to actually releasing a full game instead of just creating, dismantling and then recreating it forever in an ultimately futile pursuit of perfect.

Subnautica 2 screenshot showing two players exploring together

In the original Subnautica the most frequent request, going all the way back to the first Early Access version, was for an optional co-op mode. Because if you're going to be exploring an alien ocean filled with all sorts of horrible monsters that are just waiting for the perfect opportunity to scare the life out of you, why not add another few into the mix!

And so, now that Subnautica 2 has been officially announced, Unknown Worlds have revealed that they will finally be adding a fully fledged co-op mode. Best of all it'll support up to four players, so if you ever get attacked by some of the new leviathans you'll have a pretty good chance to escape... provided you're able to swim faster than your friends anyway!

Windblown action roguelike artwork and logo

As you might guess from the name alone, the Steam Next Fest is week-long event celebrating upcoming games, with the focus generally being on unique and interesting indie games. Most importantly of all, many of the participating games have free demos available for the duration of the event, so if you're looking to get into a new genre or just try out a game you've been keeping an eye on for a while, this is the perfect time to do so.

On the other hand, if you're not sure where to even begin, allow me to share with you a couple of stand-outs from various genres that I found rather fascinating, even if some are a little bit unpolished at the moment. Here they are, in no particular order:

It Takes Two official concept art

In an era where games are often either singleplayer or some sort of live service ordeal with thousands of players everywhere, Hazelight Studios stands as one of the last few bastions of true co-op focused gaming. And considering how both of the team's 'recent' games, A Way Out and It Takes Two, have ended up being nothing short of amazing, it's hard not to cheer for Hazelight.

Now that you know where I'm coming from, I hope you realize just how excited I am to announce that Hazelight will soon be revealing a brand new game! It's also not going to be a sequel to either of their previous games, but rather a brand new IP!

MTG Arena artwork for the Duskmourn enchantment land

[Update #2]: All of Magic: The Gathering's future cross-over sets will be legal in every format.

[Update]: MTG Arena has banned the contentious Leyline of Resonance in best-of-one Standard!

As with all of the Alchemy mini-expansions, the freshly released Alchemy: Duskmourn has now arrived with 30 new cards to muck around with. The new cards not only slot in well with the horror, enchantment and manifest themes of the main set, but many of them also share creature types with Bloomburrow's critters which gives them a lot of flexibility.

Furthermore, I feel like this Alchemy set has been the most spot-on in terms of power level. Nothing really stands out as being particularly obnoxious to play against, and there's only one card I would consider somewhat mediocre, and that's a mythic! Everything else, from the creatures to the enchantments, I can easily see being played in some sort of deck. So whoever designed both these cards and Duskmourn itself, hats off as you did a great job!

Helldivers 2 official artwork and logo

[Update]: Helldivers 2's next Warbond is coming October 31st with a heavy SMG, plasma pistol and unflinching armor.

While the recent and rather chunky update fixed many of the problems that plagued Helldivers 2, there were simply far too many issues to knock out in one single patch. And so, Arrowhead have now released another big update aimed at not only improving weapons across the board, but also giving fan-favorite toys a couple of new functionalities!

As such, both the Autocannon and the Recoilless Rifle have now received programmable ammo! The Autocannon can switch to flak which gives it the ability to carpet bomb a large area and clear out any low-tier enemies, while the Recoilless Rifle can swap out its bombastic rockets for a variant with lower damage, but a far bigger area of effect. Unsurprisingly, this tweak has made the already versatile Autocannon an even safer and more consistent choice regardless of what sort of enemies you might face.

World of Warcraft's 20th Anniversary update artwork and logo

[Update #2]: In a truly outlandish move, World of Warcraft has just launched a $90 auction-house carrying dinosaur mount!

[Update]: The 20th anniversary update has now arrived, and sadly the new events are a lot grindier than I would've liked.

It's only been a short while since The War Within expansion launched, and already Blizzard is getting ready to unleash a whole bunch of new content to play around with. Best of all, this new content will tie in with the game's 20th anniversary and thus bring with it a wide assortment of cool cosmetics to collect.

First and foremost, the iconic Tier 2 sets from WoW Classic will be getting updated versions that you can acquire through the new Bronze Celebration Tokens. And if you're like me and you're playing one of the classes that didn't exist back in the day, worry not as Blizzard has also created entirely new Tier 2 inspired sets so no class misses out on the fun.