Overwatch Season 21 update has brought in Hero Bans and a brand new map rotation
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Overwatch Archives 2020 update has now suddenly arrived, bringing with it PvE challenges and some truly amazing new skins.
In an effort to keep Overwatch fresh and interesting, Blizzard recently announced that they will be releasing more frequent balance changes, as well as adding curated hero bans. These Hero Pools will be controlled by Blizzard themselves, and will remove five heroes (one tank, one support and 2 DPS) in Competitive Play for a week or two. The goal, as you might imagine, is to constantly mix up the meta and ensure no strategy gets to remain dominant for too long.
The first batch of hero bans has now arrived alongside the start of Season 21, and for a little while Hanzo, Mei, Orisa and Baptiste will be unavailable in the Competitive Play mode. The DPS picks are good choice for obvious reasons, while the already underplayed Baptiste and Orisa feel like they've been thrown in there just so Blizzard can better judge how this whole system will impact tank and support play as a whole.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night devs are bringing in a highly customizable Randomizer game mode
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night update has made the umbrella-wielding vampire Bloodless a playable character.
[Update]: Zangetsu has now made his way to Bloodstained alongside the rather exciting Randomizer game mode.
While Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ended up delivering on the gameplay front, things haven't exactly been smooth sailing on the Kickstarter side of things. Multiple platforms ended up being cut entirely before launch, while some of the content that was promised either ended up being pushed to some point after release or axed entirely.
The roguelike game mode was one of these promised features, which is why I'm a bit sad to say that it will not be coming. According to the recent developer update, the roguelike gameplay style is simply incompatible with Ritual of the Night's code, especially when it comes to procedurally generating a massive castle.
DuckTales: Remastered is now once again available on digital storefronts
- By Ash
- in News
As is unfortunately the case with quite a few old games, licensing disputes can result in them being pulled from digital storefronts. This is exactly what happened to DuckTales: Remastered back in August of 2019, and while Capcom did drastically reduce the price so everyone gets a chance to enjoy it, the whole situation was still a bit disappointing.
Luckily, this story has a positive ending as Capcom and (I can only assume) Disney have now managed to come to an agreement. As such, DuckTales: Remastered has now once again become available on all of its previous digital storefronts.
Record of Lodoss War is soon getting a Symphony of the Night inspired Metroidvania game
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth has now been released from Steam Early Access and, unsurprisingly, it's pretty fun.
[Update]: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth has now made its way to Steam, and while the initial version is fairly short, things are already looking pretty good in terms of gameplay and visuals.
If you're a fan of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or Metroidvania games that have followed in its footsteps, you might want to keep an eye on the upcoming Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. While the name may be downright unwieldy, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is all about exploring a wast and interconnected world, collecting new abilities to help you fight enemies and open up even more routes, and clashing with a variety of massive bosses.
You can get a pretty good impression of just how similar Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is to its inspiration, as well as what it has to offer on its own, through one of the recent trailers:
Guild Wars 2's Visions of the Past update is bringing back five Season 1 missions
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: ArenaNet has announced that the third Guild Wars 2 expansion will be set in Cantha!
[Update]: Visions of the Past update has now gone live.
These days Guild Wars 2 tries hard to ensure that all of its content is replayable, even many years after its original release. However, in the early days, this was unfortunately not the case. Specifically, the entirety of Season 1, including all of the events and unique missions, are currently lost to the void and cannot be replayed in any way.
Thankfully, this limitation will soon be lifted, at least partially. The upcoming Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire update will bring in four story missions from Living World Season 1, as well as a new mission that offers a different perspective for the "Whisper in the Dark" story.
Apex Legends update has added a new event and greatly reduced weapon muzzle flash
- By Ash
- in News
If there was one thing that has annoyed me with Apex Legends' gameplay since day one, it would be the muzzle flash that occurs when using your weapon. For some of the slower-firing weapons it's not that big of a deal, but when you're trying to aim with the Spitfire or R99, it's practically impossible to even see your enemy after half a second has passed.
As such, I am ecstatic to announce that the newest System Override update has finally corrected this problem! Every single weapon besides shotguns and snipers, the ones that don't really suffer from the issue anyway, have had the intensity of their muzzle flash reduced by a significant margin - to the point where you can quite clearly see where your tracer rounds are going even on weapons like the R99!
Half-Life: Alyx's three newest gameplay previews are looking downright impressive
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Half-Life: Alyx has now been released, and I'm pleased to say it's been well worth the wait!
Valve's VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx will be making its way to Steam this March 23rd. The action will take place between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and as you might imagine, it will focus on Alyx Vance as she attempts to weaken the Combine's grip on City 17 and the planet as a whole.
As for the actual gameplay, you can learn more about that through the three recently posted (and rather impressive) previews. Each of the videos features a unique chunk of gameplay and a different style of movement, so do make sure to give each one a peek. The first video showcases teleportation, the second uses the teleportation method with a bit more movement added into the mix, while the third one sports my personal favorite - continuous movement. Have a gander: