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[Update]: Overwatch 2's July 11th update has added Summer Games 2023, a new Team Queue mode, and a variety of buffs
As a part of a recent announcement, the Overwatch 2 team revealed that they will be drastically downscaling the scope and amount of the long-awaited PvE missions. Furthermore, the unique and powerful talents first shown during the reveal trailer many years back have been cut entirely, and with them a fair bit of potential replay value as well.
Instead, a couple of new Story Missions will be introduced as seasonal content every once in a while, starting with the upcoming Season 6. The first batch of mission will have us face off against Null Sector yet again, this time in an effort to prevent them from seemingly trying to brainwash innocent Omnics. While the exact details are still few and far between, the gameplay shown so far makes them appear like slightly more spruced up Archives-style missions. Nothing too groundbreaking, but still a fun little diversion from the endless competitive PvP.
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[Update #2]: MTG Arena devs have shared the Format Popularity Stats and their Plans for the Future.
[Update]: The Tales of Middle-earth expansion has now arrived, and unsurprisingly, it's quite flavorful!
After the success of two Dungeons & Dragons themed expansions, Wizards of the Coast has decided to get a little bit more ambitious with their crossovers. As such, on June 20th MTG Arena will be getting a full standalone set based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings!
The aptly named The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will be legal in the Alchemy and Historic formats, and it'll come with all of the same goodies as a 'normal' set. In other words, you can expect to see both draft and sealed formats, a lengthy Mastery Pass, a variety of cosmetic styles for the new cards, and more likely than not, a couple of themed events to mess around with as well.
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If after a lengthy period of utter silence you're now itching for some actual information about the state of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, I have a bit of good and bad news to share. The good news is that not only is Bloodlines 2 still in development, but the team is now offering refunds to anyone that pre-ordered any edition of the game!
“We acknowledge it was a long time ago that many of you pre-ordered Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2,” explains the developer update. “As development continues, we will be updating the game’s editions and bonus content, and we want to provide the best value to those of you who supported us via digital pre-order after all this time. We are thus offering refunds to anyone who has pre-ordered any edition of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.”
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[Update #2]: Diablo 4's Season 1 will be launching on June 20th with new quests, items, boss and fresh start.
[Update]: Diablo 4 has massively buffed experience gains in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides.
After many years of waiting filled with all sorts of teasers, previews and developer blogs, Blizzard's much-anticipated ARPG Diablo 4 has now finally arrived. Well, while it may have some noticeable flaws, I'm extremely happy to say that it was worth the long wait!
I'll have a full review up in the near future once I explore a bit more of the late-game, but here's the short version for now: Diablo 4 is a highly polished ARPG with excellent moment-to-moment gameplay mechanics and a fun world to run around in, though also a couple of annoying problems. The three big things holding it back are the somewhat messy plotlines towards the end, a curious lack of quality-of-life features found in Diablo 3, as well as an overly harsh level/damage scaling system.
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[Update #2]: Bad news, I'm afraid. It looks like Overwatch 2's downsized PvE content will be locked behind a $15 purchase.
[Update]: Overwatch 2's Season 6: Invasion preview shows off the Story Missions and new Flashpoint game mode
As I've said in my review for the original Overwatch, there is nothing more annoying than being one-shot by someone you can barely even see, let alone interact with. Unfortunately, snipers have only gotten more obnoxious since then, especially in Overwatch 2 as the removal of the off-tank role has given them far, far more room to work with.
However, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon! After listening to the community complain about Hanzo and Windowmaker for many years at this point, Overwatch 2's Season 5 will finally be taking steps to address their most problematic aspects. As such, Widow will have a much greater damage fall off and will need to either land multiple shots or fight from closer range, while Hanzo will lose his ability to one-shot 250 health heroes on top of his Sonic Arrow ability getting more recognizable for the enemy side.
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After nearly eight years in development, during which the game evolved from a humble HD remaster to a full blown remake, System Shock has now finally been unleashed onto PC! The modern remake brings with it completely redone visuals, revamped controls, a greatly improved interface, a bunch of new enemies to mess around with and locations to explore, as well as a wide assortment of quality-of-life improvements and gameplay tweaks to make everything feel just a bit smoother.
The best thing, however, is that System Shock is actually quite good! Despite the odds being heavily stacked against it, System Shock has somehow managed to strike a nice balance between being a nostalgic homage to the original game and a proper immersive sim in its own right. So unless the whole thing topples like a house of cards in the latter parts that I haven't reached yet, I think the System Shock remake is likely going to be the definitive version of the game moving forward.
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[Update]: All cards for MTG Arena's The Lord of the Rings crossover set have now been revealed.
In an effort to revitalize the tabletop Standard scene, Wizards of the Coast has recently decided to extend the Standard rotation from two to three years. While this new change brings with it a variety of benefits, there is also a pretty big downside - overpowered and overplayed cards will now plague format for an additional year!
So in order to ensure the transition goes by as smoothly as possible, the Magic: The Gathering team has now issued bans for three of the most omnipresent Standard cards: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Reckoner Bankbuster and Invoke Despair. Here's a brief rundown of why each of them was hit:
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[Update #2]: Darktide's August update is looking to fix long-standing issues like crafting locks.
[Update]: Darktide's Patch 11 has added Crossplay, a new Mission Modifier and buffed the useless Ogyrn Shield.
After being teased for a couple of months at this point, Darktide's biggest content update has now finally arrived. The Rejects Unite update brings with it two new maps to mess around with, a revamped version of Vermintide 2's Chaos Spawn as a brand new boss, a couple of new cosmetics, and unfortunately, endless crashes for a sizable portion of players using AMD GPUs. The Fatshark team is aware of the problem and is already working on a solution, so with a bit of luck that blunder will get resolved with post-haste.
On the positive side Archivum Sycorax, the first of the new maps, is a great deal of fun. It has some unique and interesting setpieces to fight through, an awesome soundtrack, as well as a nice and spacious finale that feels fresh despite being fairly similar to everything we've seen so far. While not my personal favorite due to the overabundance of gunners on different elevations, Archivum Sycorax is definitely a solid map and a good addition to Darktide's roster.
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[Update #2]: Total War: Warhammer 3's Shadows of Change DLC is coming this August 31st with a much higher price tag.
[Update]: Total War: Warhammer 3's Update 4.0 will expand battle difficulty settings, add new landmarks and improve the tutorial.
In celebration of 40 years of Warhammer, the Total War: Warhammer 3 team has decided to go all the way back in order to find inspiration for the newest Update 3.1. And what better choice for a free DLC than the man, the myth, the meme - Harald Hammerstorm, or Harry the Hammer to his friends.
Harry is not only a ridiculously over-the-top champion of Chaos that has a bone to pick with the undead, but he also used to be the Warhammer. Back before Sigmar and the titular Ghal Maraz became major elements in the story, Harald Hammerstorm and his antics were seen as the embodiment of everything Warhammer Fantasy was about - big burly men wearing way too much armor running around and hitting each other over the head while screaming!
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Despite the very idea of Gollum as a protagonist being widely unpopular and often mocked online, I firmly believe that he can be used as a vehicle to tell a very, very compelling story. In the right hands, the tale of a pathetic character that's slowly losing their mind while stumbling from one terrible situation to another can be both an emotionally touching and narratively gripping experience.
Unfortunately, while The Lord of the Rings: Gollum does have some of those elements, none of that really matters when the simple act of playing the game is enough to drive one insane. After all, it's a bit hard to enjoy the interesting story beats when you're constantly being interrupted by numerous technical issues, a plethora of bugs and mostly janky gameplay. It's a shame Gollum ended up this way, though hardly surprising if you've seen any of the trailers leading up to this point.