Vermintide 2 Halloween update has beefed up bosses and added new cosmetics to hunt
- By Ash
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[Update]: Vermintide 2's December DLC has added the Warrior Priest career alongside a bunch of weapons.
Unlike some of the previous events which only brought in a fancy new portrait frame to collect, this year's Geheimnisnacht themed Halloween event is far more substantial. Not only are there ritual sites spread across the various maps that offer a rather considerable challenge to overcome, but there are also a whole bunch of weapon cosmetics to collect along the way.
While all of the unclaimed Halloween stuff will be going away once the Geheimnisnacht event ends on November 7th, there is one part of this update that will be around forever - Grudge Marks. These are currently only a part of the free Chaos Wastes expansion, and they essentially function as a way to beef up the difficulty by giving bosses additional modifiers.
Age of Empires 4, the spiritual successor to the RTS classic Age of Empires 2, has now arrived
- By Ash
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[Update #2]: Age of Empires 4's free 25th anniversary update will be adding Ottomans and Malians on October 25th.
[Update]: Age of Empires 4's Season 1 update has brought in Modding Tools and a Ranked Mode.
A fair few years have gone by since the original announcement, but I'm very happy to say that Age of Empires 4 has now finally arrived. The launch version brings with it eight playable civilizations, four singleplayer campaigns, as well as whole bunch of gameplay improvements and quality of life features to help it stand out from Age of Empires 2 from which it draws a great deal of inspiration.
Since the moment-to-moment gameplay is the most important thing when it comes to these types of RTS games, allow me to share with you one of the full-length multiplayer matches Relic has posted over the past couple of weeks. This one features a battle between the Rus and the Holy Roman Empire and is a pretty fun one to watch:
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous update has improved the Crusade mode and fixed tons of bugs
- By Ash
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[Update #2]: After a brief delay Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous' Inevitable Excess expansion has now arrived, though unfortunately alongside some harsh criticism.
[Update]: Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous' first expansion Inevitable Excess is coming on February 15th.
As I mentioned throughout my review, Wrath of the Righteous' Crusade mechanics left a lot to be desired for back at launch. Not only was the whole thing horribly imbalanced and open to exploitation, but it was also riddled with bugs, missing tooltips, awkward controls, and the list goes on for a while.
Thankfully many of the post launch updates, including the freshly released Update 1.1.0i, have made the whole thing a lot smoother. The in-game encyclopedia now features a crusade tutorial, there's a new midgame quest to better guide the player forward, many tooltips have been rewritten and updated, a variety of in-battle effects have been clarified, and a whole bunch of previously broken spells and effects have been fixed. Best of all, you can now actually control your armies from the throne room instead of having to first leave the city!
Guild Wars 2's End of Dragons free beta event has brought in the Mechinist, Specter and Untamed
- By Ash
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[Update #2]: ArenaNet has announced sweeping changes to all nine of the upcoming elite specializations.
[Update]: End of Dragons' fourth beta event is arriving on November 30, 2021 alongside the Siege Turtle mount!
Guild Wars 2's third expansion End of Dragons is set to launch this February 2022, bringing with it the much-anticipated continent of Cantha. Besides a bunch of new areas to explore, End of Dragons will also add a combat-focused turtle mount that seats two players, a variety of endgame content, both a fishing profession and player-controlled boats, as well as nine new specializations to toy around with.
Best of all, as a part of a currently ongoing beta event, three of those specializations are currently available for testing: the Thief based Specter, the Engineer based Mechinist, and the Ranger based Untamed. Here's a brief rundown of what each of them is all about:
Apex Legends' Season 11 preview highlights Ash and the new monster-infested Storm Point map
- By Ash
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[Update #2]: Apex Legends' newest animated short offers a closer look at Bangalore's bloody backstory.
[Update]: Apex Legends' Season 11 "Escape" has now arrived, and so far it's been a remarkably smooth launch.
While new information is still slowly trickling in, Apex Legends' upcoming Season 11 update "Escape" is already looking quite exciting. Not only will be getting Titanfall 2's antagonist Ash as a brand new Legend alongside the C.A.R SMG, but also a spider-infested tropical map to roam around in - Storm Point!
Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you two of the recent previews. The first one will give you a pretty good idea of just what Ash and her pet rat are capable of, while the second will give you a bit of an overview of the new Storm Point map. Have a peek:
Blizzard has officially canceled next year's big BlizzCon Online convention
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard for nearly 69 billion dollars.
As many of you are likely aware, Blizzard is currently in major legal trouble due to a large amount of sexual harassment accusations. Combine that with some questionable additions from the World of Warcraft team, the numerous unfixed issues that still plague Warcraft 3: Reforged as well as Diablo 2 Resurrected's ongoing server troubles, and I think it's safe to say that Blizzard isn't enjoying much public support right now. With all of that in mind, it should come as little surprise to hear that their big annual BlizzCon convention has now been canceled.
"We’ve decided to take a step back and pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event scheduled for early next year," explains the brief announcement. "This was a tough decision for all of us to make, but it’s the right one."
Diablo 2 Resurrected is still plagued with server issues, even a month after launch
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Diablo 2 Resurrected's Patch 2.4 is adding ranked Ladders and buffing a bunch of niche builds.
[Update]: It took quite a while, but things appear to be rather stable now.
Unlike Warcraft 3: Reforged which has fundamental issues holding it back, Diablo 2 Resurrected is a remarkably faithful remaster of the original game. It looks better, it plays better, it sounds better, and most importantly of all, comes with some handy quality-of-life features like the ability to play with a controller.
Yet despite all of that I've not been able to truly enjoy Diablo 2 Resurrected for over a month now. During the first few weeks the game was plagued with numerous server issues that only seemed to get worse with each passing day. Blizzard took a while to react to these problems, but they did eventually fix them and I was able to play for a little while without any trouble... and then the queues happened.