February's Humble Monthly offers Vermintide 2, Earth Defense Force 4.1 and Cultist Simulator for $12
- By Ash
- in News
If you're looking for something to pass the time while we're still stuck in the "your brain will freeze if you go outside" weather, you might want to check out February's Humble Monthly bundle. For $12 it offers the excellent Vermintide 2, the incredibly cheesy Earth Defense Force 4.1, as well as the surprisingly captivating Cultist Simulator. And as an additional bonus, once the next month rolls around you'll get a couple of extra games as well.
As you might imagine given my review of Vermintide 2, I would highly, highly recommend you pick up this bundle. Both Vermintide 2 and Cultist Simulator are brilliant games in their own right, while Earth Defense Force 4.1 is somewhat niche, albeit still rather entertaining if you're willing to turn off your brain and just enjoy the mindless shooty action. I think Verminitide 2 alone is worth the $12, so if you're even remotely interested, make sure to give the bundle a closer look.
MTG Arena has now added best-of-three ranked play and slightly reworked draft matchmaking
- By Ash
- in News
MTG Arena finally added a ranked play mode a little while ago, though unfortunately the developers made it so only best-of-one games counted for your progression. This meant that, much like Hearthstone, the best decks to climb the ladder with were ones that were so aggressive they would either win or lose in a couple of turns. Not exactly ideal for a competitive mode.
As such, I am very happy to say that the latest update has now also added best-of-three matchmaking. This not only makes surprise tactics a lot less relevant, but due to the presence of a 15-card sideboard, you can now also adapt your deck to each opponent so hard-counters are less of an issue. However, if you don't like best-of-three games, or you simply don't have the time to play them, worry not as the best-of-one mode will not be going anywhere! Best-of-three is merely an additional option.
Team Sonic Racing's latest trailer shows off a variety of characters and tracks
- By Ash
- in News
Team Sonic Racing will be coming to PC and consoles this May 21st, bringing with it fifteen Sonic characters to play around with, as well as a variety of tracks, powerups and tricks to help spice things up. It is being developed by Sumo Digital, the studio behind the truly excellent Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed kart game, so unless something goes terribly wrong, chances are that Team Sonic Racing will end up being pretty darn enjoyable.
While the recently posted trailer unfortunately doesn't showcase much in terms of straight up gameplay, it'll give you a pretty decent idea of the sort of characters and tracks you'll be able to mess around with. Have a gander:
Ubisoft is currently giving away Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
- By Ash
- in News
If you've completed all of the mainline Assassin's Creed games and you're looking for a little bit more, you might be interested to hear that Ubisoft is currently giving away Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China. Simply head on over to the Ubisoft store, grab yourself a copy, and after a brief download you'll be able to slice and dice your way through ancient China.
The only catch, as you might imagine, is that this giveaway is time-limited. As such, you'll have to grab Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China before February 5th, though once you have it unlocked you'll be able to play it at any point.
The standalone expansion Subnautica: Below Zero has now been released into Early Access
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After a couple of short teasers, Subnautica's chilling standalone expansion Subnautica: Below Zero has now been fully released into Early Access. It offers a brand new storyline that takes place after the events of the first game, a large and ice-bound new region to wonder across, plenty of new creatures and leviathans to run away from, as well as a much greater focus on above-ground exploration.
If you would like a little bit of a sneak peek, and you don't mind one of the leviathans being spoiled for you in the process, allow me to share with you the recently posted trailer. Have a gander, it's quite lovely to look at:
Valve is "still in it for the long haul" with Artifact, according to the latest update
- By Ash
- in News
Valve's card game Artifact is in a bit of an unfortunate spot right now. Despite launching with some pretty respectable numbers, it has rather quickly deteriorated to the point where it averages less than two thousand players at any one moment. Whether this is due to the in-game economy, balance problems, lack of features or a combination of all three, I have no idea, but it's becoming quite apparent that Artifact will need a lot of work in order to live up to its potential.
With that in mind, I am glad to say that Valve has now released yet another balance patch, as well as a briefly stated that they are "still in it for the long haul" with Artifact. In classic Valve tradition they didn't exactly elaborate what their plans for Artifact are, but I can only hope they'll manage to turn the ship around like they've already done with the early version of CS:GO.
The Overwatch PTR has been updated with a new Assault map set in Paris
- By Ash
- in News
A little while ago Overwatch's Jeff Kaplan announced that they have a bunch of new content coming in the near future. As you're most likely aware, he really wasn't joking given that over the past few weeks Overwatch received a nice variety of updates. The Lunar New Year event added numerous new and old skins to collect, the Ana Bastet challenge offered a fancy new cosmetic alongside a short story, while the most recent balance update finally brought in some much-needed nerfs to the tank-heavy support lineups.
Given the Overwatch team's relative silence after the event's launch I assumed that was 'it' for the time being, but thankfully it would appear that I was quite wrong as the Overwatch PTR has just been updated with a brand new Assault map set in Paris! I won't pretend I'm exactly happy to see yet another choke-heavy Assault map, but if nothing else, the new Paris map really is beautiful to look at!