Valve's Steam Deck handheld PC will be launching on February 25th
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[Update]: Valve is also launching a free Portal-themed tech demo for the Steam Deck - Aperture Desk Job!
The Steam Deck, Valve's upcoming handheld PC, was supposed to launch during the previous holiday season, but due to the global supply chain issues it ended up being pushed back to 2022. Thankfully, the long wait will soon be over as Valve has now officially pinned the release date on February 25th!
As previously announced, the first batch will be available exclusively for reservation holders. If you're one of them, you will have three days after receiving Valve's email to make the actual purchase, while failing to do so will release your reservation to the next person in the queue. Once all of that has been sorted out, the Steam Deck units will start shipping on February 28th.
MTG Arena is getting a fresh round of bans and Alchemy-focused balance changes on January 27th
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[Update #2]: MTG Arena's cyberpunk themed Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty will be landing on February 10, 2022.
[Update]: The bans and balance changes have now arrived, while the Double Feature draft event will be launching on January 28th.
Given the dominance of control and mono-colored decks in the Standard format, it should come as little surprise to hear that Wizards of the Coast has now announced a bunch of upcoming bans. As such, once the January 27th update arrives, Alrund's Epiphany, Divide by Zero and Faceless Haven will be banned from Standard, while Memory Lapse will be fully banned in Historic.
Additionally, the Alchemy and Historic formats will also be undergoing a variety of balance changes. The ever-present Fearsome Whelp, Inquisitor Captain and Hullbreaker Horror will be getting a nerf, while a whole assortment of Venture-based cards will be getting some much-needed buffs. Most interestingly of all, the previously banned Teferi, Time Raveler will be returning to Historic in a freshly nerfed form!
Cities: Skylines' airport and air transportation focused expansion has now been unleashed
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[Update #2]: After eight years of updates, city-building sim Cities: Skylines will be getting an ambitious sequel in 2023.
[Update]: Cities: Skylines' Plazas & Promenades DLC will allow you to make pedestrian-friendly cities.
Unlike some of the more general DLCs that improved upon a variety of different areas and trouble spots, the freshly released Airports expansion is about as laser-focused as it gets. It's literally all about giving you the ability to design and construct your very own airports out of an assortment of modular buildings, as well as making it easier to integrate said airports with your bustling city.
Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the recently posted launch trailer. It should give you a pretty good idea of just what the Airports expansion is trying to do:
Overwatch's Year of the Tiger event has now arrived, though sadly with even less content than usual
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[Update #2]: Overwatch's second February 2022 update has added a Reaper themed event alongside a short story.
[Update]: Overwatch's February 2022 update has brought in some rather outlandish experimental balance changes.
After a suspiciously brief round of teasers, Overwatch's Year of the Tiger event has now been unleashed. Much like last year, the Lunar New Year event brings with it an assortment of new and old cosmetics to collect, the surprisingly addictive capture-the-flag game mode, as well as three weekly challenges that reward a couple of extra skins, sprays and icons.
The bad news, however, is that it seems like Overwatch 2 has managed to siphon even the last vestiges of support for the original game. In other words, not only has the Year of the Tiger event not brought with it any sort of new content, but there are now only two new Legendary quality skins to collect instead of the usual five.
Serious Sam 4's compact standalone expansion Siberian Mayhem has now landed onto PC
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[Update]: While a lot smaller in scope, the Serious Sam spin-off rogue-lite Tormental has now also been unleashed.
The freshly released Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem is a standalone expansion for Serious Sam 4 developed by a group of veteran modders under the newly formed Timelock Studio. So as you might imagine, Siberian Mayhem is all about gunning down hordes upon hordes of enemies with over-the-top weaponry, laughing at incredibly low-brow jokes, and naturally, backpedaling your way across the various maps in order to avoid the endless hail of projectiles heading your way.
What all of this nonsense looks like in actual gameplay, that you can find out through the recently posted and shotgun-fueled gameplay preview. Have a gander, it's a pretty fun one:
Blizzard has announced a new survival game set in a completely original universe
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If you're one of those people that likes to joke about Blizzard chasing trends, just with a five year delay, today's announcement should give you plenty of new material to work with! While the details are currently few and far between, Blizzard has just revealed that they are working on a brand new survival game for PC and consoles.
The most important bit of information, however, is that this survival game will not be set in the Starcraft, Diablo or even Warcraft universe. Instead, you can expect to see something entirely original, which is a rare delicacy with Blizzard these days.
Souls-like action-rpg Achilles: Legends Untold is heading into beta on January 27th
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Achilles: Legends Untold has launched into Early Access, and while it does show promise it's still a bit rough around the edges.
[Update]: Achilles: Legends Untold has now launched into Open Beta, so if you're interested in giving it a try, make sure to do so before the whole thing closes down on February 10, 2022.
The upcoming Achilles: Legends Untold is bit of an interesting combination of genres. On one hand it is a Diablo inspired action game where you get to slice and dice your way through entire armies, and on the other hand it's a Souls-like RPG where timing and positioning are often the only difference between being victorious or simply splattered across the floor.
In order to spice things up even further, the AI in Achilles: Legends Untold is designed to cooperate rather than simply rush at you. So as long as they have numerical superiority, the enemies will try a variety of different strategies in order to catch you off your guard. A pretty neat idea, provided it doesn't get too predictable anyway.