THQ Nordic has now acquired Bugbear and Coffee Stain, studios famous for Wreckfest and Goat Simulator respectively
- By Ash
- in News
For a company that has seemingly appeared out of nowhere, THQ Nordic sure has managed to establish itself in the gaming world. Just in the past year or so they've revived the Darksiders series by announcing a new sequel, acquired Deep Silver and its rights to Metro and Saints Row games, as well as grabbed some cult classic IPs like TimeSplitters and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
With all of that in mind, I'm sure it won't come as too much of a surprise to hear that they have now acquired two additional studios: Wreckfest developer Bugbear Entertainment, as well as Coffee Stain Studios which are most famous for Goat Simulator and Sanctum. What exactly the future will hold for these two studios, nobody currently knows, but THQ Nordic has stated that they will leave them fairly independent.
World of Warcraft: Classic will arrive in the Summer of 2019 as a part of the current WoW subscription
- By Ash
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After what feels like an eternity of waiting, World of Warcraft: Classic finally saw the light of day during this year's Blizzcon. However, due to the Blizzcon demo being a bit limited, players were only able to explore the Barrens and Westfall, with the rest of the world being entirely walled off.
So if you're like me and you're wondering when exactly you'll be unleashed upon the entire world, you might just be glad to hear that World of Warcraft: Classic will be arriving in the summer of 2019, though no exact date has been given just yet. Perhaps most importantly of all, WoW: Classic will be available as a part of the current WoW subscription!
MTG Arena devs have detailed their plans to fix the wildly criticized 5th duplicate card problem
- By Ash
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While MTG Arena is a highly enjoyable game, and one that has consumed the better part of my free time these past two weeks, it unfortunately has a bit of a problem when it comes to its in-game economy. To be more specific, right now acquiring a 5th copy of a rare or mythic card feels absolutely awful. Instead of getting a brand new toy to play around with, opening a 5th copy of a card only gives you a very small amount of Vault progress, which when fully completed barely gives you any new Wildcards to use.
Given that this is currently the most complained about problem in the entire game, I am delighted to announce that MTG Arena developers have now not only acknowledged all of the concerns, but also outlined what they're planning to do in order to correct the issue. You'll find the full developer post over at the official website, but if you're looking for the short version, here's a couple of choice quotes:
Valve and Richard Garfield's card game Artifact will be releasing this November 28th onto Steam
- By Ash
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After a lengthy and far too secretive beta, it would appear that Valve and Richard Garfield's card game Artifact is now just about ready to release. To be more specific, you'll be able to experience experiencing a Dota 2 match from a bit of a different perspective this November 28th at a €18 price tag.
Your initial purchase will include 10 card packs filled with 12 cards from the Call to Arms set, 5 event tickets that you can use to enter the various game modes, as well as two complete starter decks: Red/Green Brawler and Blue/Black Control. Everything else you will need to acquire by either purchasing card packs, winning games in the Expert Gauntlet modes, or just by buying and selling individual cards on the Community Market. There will be no player-to-player trading at launch, so if you're planning on buying Artifact, do bear in mind that building a good deck will likely require you to open up your wallet once more.
Vermintide 2's upcoming Back to Ubersreik DLC will bring 3 remastered classic Vermintide maps
- By Ash
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While the initial updates were a bit mediocre, it would appear that Fatshark has now finally hit their stride with Vermintide 2. Not only have they recently released the Big Balance Beta that has rebalanced or reworked just about every single career, enemy and weapon in the game, but they now have also announced a brand new DLC - Back to Ubersreik!
As you might imagine from the name alone, Back to Ubersreik will have us revisit three classic Vermintide 1 maps, all updated and tweaked with Vermintide 2 in mind. The details are currently few and far between, but what I can tell you is that one of these maps will be the Horn of Magnus, and that according to Fatshark, it will be more than just a nostalgic revisiting of Ubersreik.
Microsoft has now acquired Obsidian and inXile, both studios famous for their RPGs
- By Ash
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It has been rumored for quite a while now that Microsoft is planning to acquire Obsidian Entertainment (Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2), so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to hear that the deal has now gone through successfully. What might come as a rather big surprise is that Microsoft has also suddenly acquired inXile Entertainment (Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, The Bard's Tale IV)!
What exactly this means for the future of both studios, nobody currently knows, but chances are that both inXile and Obsidian will continue on with their previous plans for the time being. After all, Microsoft has had a pretty hands-off relationship with Compulsion Games and their latest game We Happy Few, so I wouldn't be too worried about the future of Wasteland 3. Once the current projects are completed, however, odds are that both inXile and Obsidian will be set to work on Xbox One and Windows exclusive games.
Overwatch's 1.30 PTR has now concluded, the new hero Ashe is expected to arrive later today
- By Ash
- in News
Unlike some of the previous heroes that have taken an eternity in order to hit the live servers, it would appear that Overwatch's 29th hero Ashe will have a significantly faster journey. She became available on the PTR a mere few days following her big Blizzcon 2018 reveal, and now that the PTR has concluded after only 7 days of testing, it's expected that Ashe will arrive to both PC and console later today (November 13th).
Naturally, none of this has been officially confirmed just yet, but pretty much all of the telltale signs are there: Overwatch is currently pre-loading a brand new update, Tuesday is when Blizzard usually patches their games, the PTR version of Ashe didn't have any noticeable bugs, and perhaps most importantly, the last few heroes were released in a similar fashion. So while I would still recommend being cautiously optimistic, I think it's fairly safe to say that Ashe will be making her debut today.