Elder Scrolls Online is offering subscription benefits for free to all players for a limited time
- By Ash
- in News
In order to encourage players to stay at home, as well as check out some of the content they may not yet have access to, Elder Scrolls Online has now unleashed a free trial for its paid subscription. As such, all of the benefits of ESO Plus membership and its accompanying DLC packs are entirely free to mess around with until April 27th.
For those of you curious about what exactly the subscription even has to offer, you'll find the full list of features and bonus content in the list right below. Have a look:
World of Warcraft has doubled reputation gains for Legion and Battle for Azeroth factions
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Blizzard is now making it significantly easier to acquire Corrupted Gear.
[Update]: World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will be removing the reputation requirements for flying in Warlords of Draenor and Legion content.
Blizzard has recently extended the 100% experience bonus for all players, so if you ever wanted to level a brand new character in World of Warcraft, this would be the ideal time to do so. To further help this process along, as well as make unlocking Allied Races on the opposite faction much more manageable, Blizzard has now also introduced a double reputation event.
This new event will run from April 20 through May 18, and will grant you double the usual amount of reputation for most Legion and Battle for Azeroth factions. Unfortunately, Battle for Azeroth's newest and probably most relevant factions, Rajani and the Uldum Accord, are both excluded from this event given that they are directly related to player power, especially in PvP.
PC version of Death Stranding has been delayed until July due to the ongoing pandemic
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: After some delays, Death Stranding has now finally made its way to PC.
[Update]: Kojima Productions have now announced the minimum and recommended PC specs for Death Stranding.
Death Stranding was originally supposed to make its way to PC this June 2nd, but unfortunately that is no longer going to be the case. According to the newest Twitter announcement, Death Stranding has now been delayed until July 14th in order to give the team enough time to adjust to their new situation.
"Following the temporary closure of KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, we have had to delay the PC launch of DEATH STRANDING to July 14, 2020, to allow more development time amidst the current work-from-home orders in place," reads the brief update. "Thank you all for your patience and continued support!"
Terraria's final and downright gigantic Journey's End expansion is coming this May 16
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The day has finally come - Terraria's biggest and most ambitious expansion is going live today!
For such a cheap game with absolutely no microtransactions, it's genuinely impressive to see just how many massive updates Terraria has received over the years. Alas, all good things most come to an end, and so Terraria's crowning update Journey's End will be launching onto PC this May 16th.
However, Terraria will not be going out with a whimper, as the Journey's End expansion is absolutely massive in scope! It'll bring with it 800 new items to find or craft, a ton of new enemies and bosses to overcome, an overhauled world generation system, an all-new difficulty mode, new and enhanced weather effects, and the list goes on for a very long time. More importantly, Journey's End will also add the most impactful and gameplay-relevant feature of them all - the ability to play golf!
The bite-sized and action-packed XCOM: Chimera Squad is coming to PC later this week
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: XCOM: Chimera Squad has now made its way to PC alongside generally positive reviews.
In a bit of a surprising announcement, Firaxis revealed that there is a brand new XCOM game on the way. However, instead of the expected XCOM 3, the upcoming XCOM: Chimera Squad will be a bite-sized spin-off with a focus on explosive action, unique pre-made characters, as well as a variety of interesting abilities.
Rather than try to explain all of this through words alone, allow me to share with you two of the recent trailers. The first one sets up the overall story and showcases some of the characters, while the second one goes in-depth about the gameplay and tactical options present in Chimera Squad. Have a look, they're pretty fun:
Risk of Rain 2's Artifacts update has recently landed with a bunch of new content
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Risk of Rain 2 has now left Early Access alongside the massive new Update 1.0!
It seems that Risk of Rain 2 is taking its Early Access stay quite seriously given the amount of content the developers have been adding. A few months ago they introduced a new survivor, bosses, as well as stage variants, while the more recent major update looks to be just as impactful.
The aptly named Artifacts update brings with it sixteen powerful artifacts that will dramatically change the way you play by essentially having you customize your own difficulty. For example, my favorite Artifact of Glass makes it so you deal 500% damage, but only have 10% of the usual health pool. It makes the gameplay mercilessly difficult as a slight breeze can topple you over, but the absurd amount of power you get in return is absolutely delightful to play around with!
A mere week after launch, Overwatch's Echo is already getting banned from Competitive Play
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: As expected, Blizzard has now announced some major changes to the Hero Pools system.
[Update]: It seems that the Overwatch team is a bit preoccupied with other matters given that they just released an experimental update that's trying to nerf Crowd Control effects across the board.
Overwatch recently changed how the Hero Pools (or hero bans) system works for both Competitive Play and the Overwatch League. Instead of being entirely separate, one curated by Blizzard and the other based on pro pickrates, the new system randomly chooses 1 tank, 1 support and 2 DPS heroes based only on play rates in high-level ranked matches.
Unfortunately, this system has already hit a bit of a snag. As a part of the next set of bans, Competitive Play will be entirely devoid of Orisa, Moira, Tracer, and oddly enough, Echo. So even though she arrived a mere week ago and people still haven't gotten over the novelty factor, Echo will be unavailable from Competitive Play for an entire week.