Hearthstone has added Classic Mode featuring only the original 240 cards from 2014
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Hearthstone's Voyage to the Sunken City expansion is bringing in some truly gigantic creatures.
[Update]: Hearthstone is launching a balance update next week (April 12 in the earliest) to nerf Paladins, Mages and Rogues.
As a part of the recent Forged in the Barrens expansion Hearthstone has added 135 new cards to mess around with, many of which come with interesting new effects and fun twists on old ones. However, if you're in the mood for a bit of a nostalgia trip, Forged in the Barrens has also brought in something far more exciting - the Classic Mode!
Much like the name would imply, the Classic Mode allows you to craft and play exclusively with Hearthstone's 240 original cards. All of the changes that happened since then, including things like reworks and bans, have been reverted and as such the Classic Mode will represent Hearthstone exactly as it was in June 2014!
Oldschool business simulator OpenTTD has now made its way to Steam
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
OpenTTD is an open-source business simulator that's heavily based on the 1995 Transport Tycoon Deluxe. As you might imagine from that brief description alone, OpenTTD is all about trying to become ridiculously wealthy by transporting passengers and cargo through a network of railways, roads and rivers, ideally without getting your vehicles stuck sideways on either of them!
While there is a bit of a learning curve, OpenTTD is a highly enjoyable and surprisingly relaxing game once you get into it. So if you're curious about the whole thing, you might be happy to hear that it has just recently made its way to Steam, and much like everywhere else, it's entirely free to check out!
Thanks to another delay, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will not be launching in 2021
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Bloodlines 2 will be re-revealed in September 2023, though you can now refund your pre-order if you wish
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been delayed so many times at this point that it's becoming quite tricky to keep track of it all. So if you're as confused as I am at this point, you might be not be aware that Boodlines 2 has recently been pushed back yet again, this time to 2022 at least!
"We have made the hard decision that Hardsuit Labs will no longer be leading the development of Bloodlines 2 - which also means that we will not be releasing in 2021 as previously planned," explains the brief update. "Since we cannot at this time communicate a new release date, we've also decided to stop accepting pre-orders for the time being."
Subnautica: Below Zero will be leaving Early Access and launching in full this May 14, 2021
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Subnautica: Below Zero has now launched from Early Access, and without any sort of major technical issues!
After going through a rather eventful Early Access campaign that even saw the entire storyline rewritten due to player feedback, Subnautica: Below Zero is now finally nearing completion. So if you were holding off in order to get the full experience, you'll be delighted to hear that Subnautica: Below Zero will be launching this May 14, 2021!
While the details behind the launch version haven't been announced just yet, I think it's safe to say we can expect to see the final few pieces of content to round out the story, a whole bunch of bug fixes, as well as the usual performance improvements. So far things are already looking much more stable than the original Subnautica, so I must admit I have high hopes for the 'final' version of Below Zero!
Risk of Rain 2's Anniversary update has brought in a whole bunch of exciting new content
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Risk of Rain 2 will be getting its very first expansion in early 2022 - Survivors of the Void.
Even though Risk of Rain 2 was fully completed and released last year, the Hopoo Games team has now decided to release another massive update as a way to say 'thanks!' to all their fans. The appropriately titled Anniversary update brings with it Bandit as a brand new survivor, a variety of new items and skills, as well new monsters and even a boss!
The good news doesn't end there, however, as the update has also brought in some serious improvements to old content alongside numerous quality-of-life changes. As such, the final stage has been redone entirely and now features a more interesting area to play around in, while the AI pathfinding has been greatly improved across the board. The latter will be especially handy for friendly minions as they will now not only effectively stick around players, but thanks to other tweaks will also scale better as the difficulty level rises.
Voxel-based Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is launching on May 24, 2021 for PC and consoles
- By Ash
- in News
While the Earth Defense Force series has traditionally used semi-realistic visuals, the actual gameplay is about as cartoonish and ridiculously over-the-top as it gets. With that in mind, it should come as little shock to hear that the developers have decided to wholeheartedly embrace the silliness and make the Earth Defense Force: World Brothers spin-off entirely out of colorful voxels!
When it comes to the actual gameplay, however, it's still good ol' fashioned EDF. You'll need to save (and likely accidentally destroy) the world one city at a time, blast apart untold numbers of space-ants and mega-spiders with absurdly powerful weaponry, and as is tradition, relentlessly chant "EDF, EDF, EDF!" while doing so. And thanks to voxel technology you'll be able to wreck pretty much everything you can see, which is definitely a plus for an EDF game.
Cult classic turn-based strategy series Disciples is coming back this year with Disciples: Liberation
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Disciples: Liberation has now landed onto Steam, and if you're curious to see what it looks like, I'm happy to say there's a free demo available!
While the Disciples series started off heavily inspired by the immensely popular Heroes of Might and Magic, slowly but surely it developed in its own unique direction as a sort of hybrid between a strategy game and a turn-based RPG. Unfortunately, all of the good will Disciples managed to garner with the great first and second game quickly got erased once the unfinished and unpolished Disciples 3 landed. This blunder basically sunk the entire series, and Disciples as a whole faded away from memory afterwards.
However, in a twist that I don't think anyone could've predicted, Kalypso Media has recently announced that they are brining Disciples back. Better yet, they're not doing some sort of remaster of Disciples 2, but instead a proper mainline game by the name of Disciples: Liberation!