Following in the footsteps of Hearthstone's adventures, CDPR has just released the very first seasonal event for Gwent - The Mahakam Ale Festival. It consists of three singleplayer duels with custom decks, unique new cards, some rather funky new rules, and naturally, an optional hard mode that offers even greater rewards. If you manage to complete all of it you'll also be given an exclusive Odrin player icon and a surprisingly good-looking flagon themed border.

The whole process, including all of the hard modes, took me around 50 minutes to complete, and I am very glad to say that those 50 minutes were well spent! The only real complaint I have with The Mahakam Ale Festival is that there isn't enough of it, but that will hopefully be rectified in future events given how positively the community has reacted to this one. Oh, and its also worth mentioning that the event is completely free to enter. So if you have Gwent installed, go and give it a look, its damn good fun!

On a slightly different note, this update has also brought with it some rather significant balance changes. You'll be glad to hear that the power of the obnoxious Northern Realms armor deck has finally been reduced, while Skellige and Nilfgaard have received some most-welcome buffs. You can read about all of the changes and bug fixes by heading over to the official website. And as a final note, make sure to scrap all of the nerfed cards as they are currently giving their full value back. Even if you end up having to re-craft them later you'll still end up at the same place you are now, so there really is no reason not to do it.