- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The update has now arrived with more weapon tweaks than I could've ever expected for a 'follow-up' patch!
A couple of weeks ago Helldivers 2 released an update that tweaked or reworked the vast majority of underperforming weapons and annoying enemies. As you might expect from such a massive update, some weapons and stratagems ended up falling through the cracks or were simply overlooked as the team had other priorities.
Now, with the upcoming October 15th update, the Helldivers 2 team is looking to tackle the weapons left behind, as well as even further polish the stuff that's already good! Sadly the exact details are still shrouded in mystery, but the most exciting addition is definitely programmable ammo for the Autocannon and Recoilless Rifle!
- By Ash
- in News
If you're in the mood for giving your mouse a thorough workout, you'll be happy to hear that Diablo 4's first expansion, Vessel of Hatered, has now been unleashed. As you would expect, Vessel of Hatred brings with it a sizable new area to explore, a plethora of new enemies and chests to smash in search of loot, a brand new storyline centered around Neyrelle, as well as a completely new class known as the Spiritborn.
As the name might imply, the Spiritborn is capable of channeling various spirits in order to empower themselves and change the very nature of their attacks. What this means in gameplay terms is that the Spiritborn is a reactive, incredibly fast paced class that can dash all across the battlefield debuffing and slicing enemies, while staying safe thanks to seemingly endless dodges. Needless to say, it's a ton of fun!
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Duskmourn: Alchemy has now arrived, and I'm happy to say it's one of the best mini-sets they've ever done!
I hope you're in the mood for a bit of spookiness as MTG Arena is getting a brand new batch of horror-themed cards on October 15th. Much like the previous supplemental sets, Alchemy: Duskmourn will bring with it 30 new cards of varying rarities to mess around with.
The goal with the new mini-expansion is to beef up some of the mechanics and deck archetypes from the main set, add a couple of fun Commanders for the Brawl crowd, and more likely than not introduce a few build-arounds for players to experiment with. The full list of cards has sadly not been revealed just yet, but I can share with you the rather interesting new room that accompanied the announcement:
- By Ash
- in News
As is often the case, The International tournament is quite good at showcasing all of the major balance problems and absurd items that may have slipped under the radar until that point. So with the tournament now over, the Dota 2 team has sprung into action to hopefully fix all of the pain points and really shake up the meta.
With that in mind, it should come as little surprise to hear that the recently released Patch 7.37d has nerfed most of the aura and buff based items like Crimson Guard, Arcane Boots, Pipe of Insight or Solar Crest. The changes are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things so all of them should still see play, but hopefully we won't again end up in a situation where you either have to buy all of the defensive items or get overrun by those that do.
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Helldivers 2's next Warbond is coming October 31st with a heavy SMG, plasma pistol and unflinching armor.
[Update]: Helldivers 2's October 15th update is bringing programmable ammo and even more buffs!
After a couple of months of doom and gloom, Helldivers 2's recent update has finally brought the game back to a good place thanks to a series of buffs and reworks. As such you can now run just about every weapon and stratagem without feeling like you're letting your team down.
The main reason for this is a comprehensive rework of enemy armor. Instead of making big and powerful enemies like Bile Titans or Chargers immune to everything but the heaviest of weaponry, you can now actually deal with them with even primary weapons - provided you're hitting their weak spots! This is nowhere near as efficient as simply slamming them in the face with a rocket, but the fact that you can do this is enough to make it so you're no longer stuck using the same few weapons over and over again.
- By Ash
- in News
It took what feels like an eternity to get here, but Dead Cells' bittersweet final Update 35: The End is Near has now been unleashed. There's three new enemy variants to smash your head against, three new Curse-based weapons to accidentally end your run with, as well as an equally cursed biome effect to conquer for extra rewards.
Perhaps most importantly of all, there's a ton of new cosmetics to collect! More specifically - shiny new heads! By completing all sorts of challenges, many of which involve beating bosses in as stylish of a manner as possible, you'll be able to pretend that your character is not called The Beheaded and adorn yourself with a variety of garish headwear.
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Helldivers 2's next Warbond is coming October 31st with a heavy SMG, plasma pistol and unflinching armor.
In order to rebuild community trust, as well as bring the game back from the brink of doom, Helldivers 2 developers have recently announced a 60-day plan. While the exact details are still few and far between, the first part of this effort will be launching on September 17th alongside a whole bunch of buffs.
First and foremost, enemy armor will be getting reworked, as will the armor penetration stat for players. The idea is to make the heavy enemies more vulnerable to a wider variety of weapons so players aren't just incentivized to use the same stratagems over and over again. The goal isn't to make heavy enemies pathetic so they'll likely get some buffs in return, but either way 'big bois' like Chargers, Bile Titans and Gunships will be a lot more straightforward to deal which is definitely a good thing given how often they can appear in some missions.
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Helldivers 2's September 17th update is coming with an armor rework, more effective heavy weapons and plenty of buffs!
If you haven't been paying attention, Helldivers 2 has had a bit of a fall from grace over the past few months. Despite starting off with an extremely enthusiastic playerbase, the endless bugs, crashes, nerfs and underpowered Warbond weapons have eroded all of the good will and created a rather adversarial relationship between the players and developers, so much so that Helldivers 2 now sits at a Mostly Negative rating on Steam!
In an effort to mend this divide, as well as bring Helldivers 2 back to its glory days, Arrowhead Game Studios have now announced that they are reevaluating their design choices, as well as working on rebalancing the entire game. The goal, as you might imagine, is to increase the amount of viable weapons and stratagems, while simultaneously reducing the amount of annoyance certain enemies can produce.
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: My review for The War Within is now complete, so if you're curious about what exactly the Delves have to offer, as well as how the rest of the expansion fares when compared to Dragonflight, I welcome you to give it a look.
Following in the footsteps of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the freshly released The War Within expansion is Blizzard's latest effort at trying to cater to a more casual, solo focused crowd. There's still Mythic+ dungeons and raids as usual, but now you can also look forward to lower difficulty dungeons you can tackle alongside an NPC party, as well as challenging mini-dungeons called Delves that seem to be tailor-made for the crowd that wants to experience WoW's endgame content, just without the time commitment.
What some of this looks like in action, as well as what the actual story is about, that you can check out through the launch trailer below. Have a gander:
- By Ash
- in News
The International 2024 tournament is nearly upon us, and while it's no longer as big of a deal as it used to be, it's still in everyone's best interest to have the games be as close and exciting as possible. So in order to achieve that, Valve has now unleashed Patch 7.37c.
As you would expect from a pre-tournament patch, the changes aren't exactly massive. However, that doesn't mean they aren't impactful as Valve has targeted the recently resurgent healing meta across multiple vectors. As such, items like Pipe of Insight, Mekansm and Holy Locket have been slightly toned down, as has the freshly buffed Omniknight.