Halo: The Master Chief Collection Season 6 has arrived with a new map and gun-game inspired mode
- By Ash
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If you're looking for an excuse to dive back into The Master Chief Collection, you'll be pleased to hear that the Season 6 update has now arrived. It brings with it the usual assortment of themed weapon, armor and vehicle skins, alongside some pretty exciting gameplay additions.
First and foremost, Halo 3 players have just received a brand new map to mess around with - Waterfall. That said, calling it brand new is a bit disingenuous given that Waterfall was originally designed for the now-canceled Halo Online, and was merely reworked to fit in with Halo 3. But whatever the case may be, it's still an interesting (and entirely free) new location to fight in!
Diablo 2: Resurrected's very first technical Alpha will begin tomorrow and run until April 12th
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[Update]: Diablo 2: Resurrected has now been unleashed, and so far it's looking pretty good!
The ARPG classic Diablo 2 will be getting a fully fledged remaster later this year. You can expect to see greatly improved visuals and support for modern resolutions, an extended stash and the ability to easily trade items between characters, better anti-cheat and enhanced leaderboards, as well as cross-platform progression!
If all of that sounds as exciting to you as it does to me, you'll be quite happy to hear that the Diablo 2: Resurrected Technical Alpha will be starting tomorrow (April 9)! In order to get in all you need to do is head on over to the Diablo 2 website, opt into the test, and that's it. After that it's all in the hands of Lady Luck.
Survival horror Deadly Premonition 2 is heading over to PC via Steam in 2021
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Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise was a long-awaited sequel to the cult classic survival-horror Deadly Premonition. It originally launched in 2020 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, though now it appears to be heading over to PC as well!
While the full announcement has not been made just yet, the Thunderful Group 2020 annual report states that the PC version is under development by Toybox - one of the three studios behind the Switch version of Deadly Premonition 2. Similarly, there is no concrete release date to report, but it looks like we can expect to see Deadly Premonition 2 to land onto Steam at some point in 2021.
MTG Arena is reducing the best-of-one sideboard size from 15 to 7 cards
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[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
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[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
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[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
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[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.