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As their big April Fools' gag last year Sega released The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - a visual novel based around trying to deduce who managed to kill the fastest creature on Earth and how. Since the whole thing felt like a one-off joke that would get old within five minutes, I must admit I didn't pay it much attention when it first launched. That was a mistake!
After having it recommended to me time and time again, I finally sat down and played through The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog this week, and you know what? It's actually good! And not only is it well made, but it manages to work as both an investigative visual novel and as a fanservicy homage to Sonic games of old. Here's a little peek at what it's like:
Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is launching on June 21st with a rather large price tag
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It has taken an entire year for us to get here, but I'm happy to say that FromSoftware has now finally announced that Elden Ring's first (and hopefully not last) expansion Shadow of the Erdtree will be launching on June 21st. As you would expect, the expansion will bring with it a sizable new world to explore, a whole host of bosses and deformed monstrosities to fight against, a new storyline that is likely to bring up more questions than it answers, and naturally, a wide variety of new weapons, spells and equipment to mess around with.
The one bit of bad news is that the price tag is going to be a fair bit larger than any previous Souls DLC. To be more specific, even the basic version of Shadow of the Erdtree will set you back 40€, which is almost as much as the base game itself. Whether this is a simple price hike or if the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion will contain an absurdly large amount of content, that still remains to be seen. Personally, I really hope it's the latter as I certainly wouldn't mind losing another 100 hours or so to Elden Ring!
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While Darktide is still struggling with regular content patches, the Vermintide 2 team continues to impress. Despite being hard at work on the long-awaited addition of PvP multiplayer, they've somehow managed to find the time to release the "A Parting of the Waves" update!
The recent update brings with it a conclusion of the recent Karak Azgaraz storyline, as well as a huge and elaborate new map to explore. It's also worth mentioning that despite the map being directly connected to the Vermintide 1 remasters, it's an entirely new creation, and quite a solid one at that!
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While originally scheduled to launch in late April, Darktide studio Fatshark has now decided to surprise everyone by suddenly releasing the Path of Redemption update! The new content patch brings with it a free Battle Pass filled with all sorts of new cosmetics, the Dreg Tox Bomber as a brand new enemy, as well as a variety of new puzzles and challenges to seek out in missions.
First things first, the Battle Pass, which I'm happy to say is a pretty good one! There is no paid version, the objectives are all relatively simple, and given how fast I've managed to push through the tiers just off previous achievements alone, I have a feeling it's going to be an easy one to complete. [Update]: I may have spoken too soon on that one. While the early levels go by quick, maxing it out is going to take quite a while!
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After two years of Early Access and a plethora of updates, the Heroes of Might and Magic inspired strategy Songs of Conquest is now finally getting ready to launch in full. Best of all, we don't even have to wait all that long as Songs of Conquest's Version 1.0 will be arriving in a mere month, on May 20th!
As you would expect, Version 1.0 will launch alongside a sizable update that will bring with it a variety of new features and improvements, including a brand new singleplayer campaign exploring the mercantile nation of Barya. While not explicitly mentioned, I'm also expecting a sizable balance patch to shake everything up as right now balance seems to be Songs of Conquest's weakest aspect.
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Continuing with the usual tradition, MTG Arena will getting the Alchemy: Thunder Junction mini-expansion this May 7th with 30 new cards to toy around with in Alchemy, Historic, Timeless and Brawl formats. However, this release will be a bit different than usual as the new cards won't just be focused around beefing up the themes and concepts found in Thunder Junction, but also the ones found in previous sets.
Whether this is a one-and-done sort of thing or if we can look forward to more cross-pollination from future Alchemy sets, nobody outside of Wizards of the Coast currently knows, but I do like the idea. There's plenty of interesting mechanics released each year that just don't get the support they need to truly shine, so adding a couple of new cards here and there can do a great deal of good.
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I an announcement that has garnered them a massive amount of criticism, Sony and Arrowhead have revealed that Helldivers 2 will soon require a PlayStation Network account regardless of platform or crossplay options. In other words, all PC players will be required to link their Steam and PSN accounts by June 4th in order to continue playing the game.
Usually these sort of account requirements are annoying and there's a fair bit of grumbling about them, but they're innocuous enough that most people just go through with it and move on with their day. This time it's a bit special, however, as not only is Helldivers 2 bringing this up many months after launch, but PSN also has two major issues that are unique to it.
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[Update]: The Helldivers 2 playerbase, in a dazzling display of democracy, is rallying against the new requirements.
Unlike some of the previous patches that added either new toys for the players or enemies to clobber, the freshly released Update 1.000.3 is entirely about tweaking what we already have. As such, you can look forward to an avalanche of balance changes, both positive and negative, as well as some much-needed bug fixes.
In terms of nerfs, the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon now recharges 5 seconds slower, the LAS-98 Laser Cannon has lost some of its anti-armor damage in exchange for being better against weaker enemies, the laser guard dog AX/AR-23 has lost a solid 30% of its damage, and most puzzling of all, the already mediocre CB-9 Exploding Crossbow has lost a good chunk of its splash damage in exchange for faster projectile velocity. Everything else I can understand, but the crossbow nerf just feels like kicking someone when they're already face-first in the mud. Not a fan.
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To say that the launch of Total War: Warhammer 3's Shadows of Change DLC was messy would be quite an understatement. Creative Assembly tried to charge more for it than previous DLCs while simultaneously offering less unique content per faction, to which the community response was about as negative as you'd expect.
In order to salvage the DLC, as well as to regain some favor with the playerbase, Creative Assembly recently released an update that added a whole bunch of new units to the Shadows of Change DLC - and pretty good ones too! So while DLC is still heavily overpriced in my humble opinion, it now at least offers a sizable amount of quality content.
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After multiple cryptic teasers and even a lengthy delay, Dota 2's much-anticipated Crownfall update has now finally arrived. However, instead of massive gameplay changes or even the previously announced Ringmaster hero, the freshly released Crownfall update is almost centered around cosmetics - both paid and free.
The highlight of the update is definitely the interactive world map that serves as both a story-telling tool and a Battle Pass. By collecting tokens gained from playing certain types of heroes (for example mounted, nuker or crawling ones) you can unlock new pathways and with them cosmetic rewards, small story bits, as well as silly stuff like a fishing mini-game or a reverse candy shop that will take your candy and give you a plethora of goodies in trade.