MTG Arena is reducing the best-of-one sideboard size from 15 to 7 cards
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The spell-focused Strixhaven expansion has now arrived, and as expected, the draft format is delightful!
In a classic best-of-three showdown, the 15-card sideboard serves as a way to adjust your strategy between matches and hopefully sure up any weaknesses you might have to the opponent's combo. Because of this sideboards in competitive Magic: The Gathering are incredibly important, and knowing which cards to include and when to bring them out easily be the difference between a sure defeat and a crushing victory.
The reason I'm mentioning this is because the upcoming Strixhaven expansion will bring with it plenty of cards with the "Learn" keyword that allow you to pull "Lesson" type cards from the sideboard. Since your sideboard is limited to a mere 15 cards, including these Lessons has an enormous deckbuilding cost as you sacrifice flexibility between games for more options within a single match.
Overwatch Archives 2021 update has brought in co-op missions and brand new challenges
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Overwatch's big Anniversary 2021 update is launching on May 18th!
[Update]: Overwatch is looking to bring in some nerfs for Baptiste, Echo and Reinhardt.
After being announced a mere two days ago, Overwatch's annual Archives event has now been unleashed. Much like before, it brings with it a whole host of co-op missions to undertake, a variety of fancy cosmetics to add to the already enormous pile, as well as three weekly challenges that reward some nifty epic-rarity skins.
Unfortunately, it seems that my speculation that this event will be used as a testing ground for Overwatch 2 mechanics has ended up entirely false. So not only are we not getting a bunch of wacky new mutators to help spice up the PvE missions, but the three we have received are incredibly basic and don't really change much. While I understand the team is busy with Overwatch 2 and probably couldn't spare much time for the original, this is still a paltry offering for what is usually Overwatch's most exciting event.
BioWare has detailed the gameplay changes coming in with Mass Effect Legendary Edition
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Mass Effect Legendary Edition has now been unleashed without too many technical issues or bugs!
Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be heading over to PC and consoles on May 14, 2021 with remastered versions of all three games in a tow. You can expect to see support for 4K resolutions, improved textures and character models, updated shaders and lighting, as well as all of the DLC already bundled in.
Perhaps most importantly of all, the Legendary Edition will also bring with it a whole host of gameplay improvements and quality of life fixes. While many of these will be targeting the original Mass Effect in order to bring it up to the level of the rest of the trilogy, pretty much all of the games will be getting some nifty new features.
Hearthstone is launching a balance update next week to nerf Paladins, Mages and Rogues
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The balance patch has now arrived, and expected, it's a juicy one!
Hearthstone's recent Forged in the Barrens expansion added a whole bunch of fun new cards to mess around with, as well as the long-requested Classic Mode that let's you play the game as it was back in 2014. Unfortunately, some of these cards and combinations have ended up being so ridiculously powerful that the current meta has firmly solidified around three classes: Paladins, Mages and Rogues.
Things have gotten so bad that according to HSReplay over 50% of the decks played since Forged in the Barrens have been Paladin or Mage, with Rogue and Warlock lagging a fair bit behind. So in order to sort this whole mess out, Blizzard has now announced a major balance update for next week.
The story-focused action-platformer Oddworld: Soulstorm has now hopped onto PC and PlayStation
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition is heading to PC and consoles on November 30, 2021.
In an announcement that I must admit comes as quite a surprise to me, the 2.5D side-scrolling platformer Oddworld: Soulstorm has now been unleashed onto PC and PlayStation. Much like its predecessors, Soulstorm is all about planning, sneaking and frantically running in order to bypass a variety of devious traps and nasty aliens, all in an effort to save your fellow Mudokons from ruthless oppression and slavery.
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 Soulstorm looks like in action and what sort of story you'll be getting yourself wrapped into. Have a gander:
Assassin's Creed Valhalla's mysterious first expansion Wrath of the Druids is coming in late April
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: After a bit of a delay, Wrath of the Druids will be launching tomorrow, May 13th!
A fair bit of time has gone by since Assassin's Creed Valhalla first launched, so if you're itching for an excuse to dive back into its world, you'll be happy to hear that the very first major expansion is now just around the corner. The titular Wrath of the Druids will be launching on April 29 and will be available for €25 as a standalone expansion, or bundled as a part of the €40 Season Pass.
Whether the expansion will be worth that rather spicy price tag, I'm afraid nobody currently knows as Ubisoft hasn't even revealed what Wrath of the Druids will bring to the table. In fact, the brief description you'll see below is pretty much everything we know about Wrath of the Druids as of right now:
Turn-based strategy King's Bounty 2 will be making its way to PC and consoles this August
- By Ash
- in News
It has been quite a few years since Dark Side launched, but I'm happy to say that the King's Bounty series will soon be making a (hopefully) triumphant return with King's Bounty 2. You can expect to see it arrive on August 24, 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch.
Unlike the previous spin-offs, King's Bounty 2 will serve as a direct sequel to the 1990 original. In gameplay terms, however, King's Bounty 2 will still follow the familiar formula, though obviously with a few new features and improvements to spice things up.