Valve has detailed their troubles and successes with Half-Life: Alyx's locomotion
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[Update]: Valve has now released the official modding tools and Workshop support for Half-Life: Alyx!
Whether we're talking about a VR game like Half-Life: Alyx or something a bit more standard, the way you move around is of the utmost importance. Everything from your movement speed to your maneuverability drastically affects the gameplay, and if anything is even slightly off, the whole experience can collapse in an instant.
As such, it probably won't come as much of a surprise to hear that Valve had to put in quite a lot of effort into Half-Life: Alyx's locomotion. They needed to account for a variety of common problems like motion sickness from VR movement, as well as some sillier issues like character height that could leave taller players with their heads stuck in the wall!
World of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion is heading into Closed Alpha this week
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[Update #2]: Blizzard has now also unveiled some of the massive class changes coming with Shadowlands!
[Update]: Blizzard has released a new Shadowlands preview highlighting some of the Covenant class abilities and effects.
With Battle for Azeroth now slowly winding down, Blizzard has begun focusing all of their attention on the upcoming Shadowlands expansion. So in order to better collect player feedback, as well as test out new systems such as Covenants or the leveling overhaul, Blizzard has now revealed that the Closed Alpha test will begin this week!
While the exact release date hasn't been announced just yet, this initial alpha will mainly be for long-time WoW players with active accounts in good standing, as well as Blizzard friends and family members. In terms of content, the entirety of the Bastion zone will be available for exploration, along with its accompanying dungeon - the Necrotic Wake. You'll also be able to check out the Alliance side of the revamped new player experience, as well as mess around with the freshly improved classes and abilities.
Due to the pandemic, Wasteland 3 has been delayed until late August
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[Update]: Turn-Based RPG Wasteland 3 has now made its way to PC and consoles!
The post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland 3 was originally slated to arrive this May 19th, but sadly that is no longer going to be the case. Instead, due to the pandemic forcing the team to adjust to working from home, Wasteland 3's release date has been pushed back until August 28th.
"As with most companies, we moved to a work-from-home environment some weeks ago, and that's of course introduced new challenges that many of us throughout the world have been learning to manage, reads the brief developer update. "We've been excited to see the Wasteland 3 Beta so well received, but the reality is that with these new logistical challenges our release was going to be impacted."
Riot Games' competitive 5v5 shooter Valorant is heading into Closed Beta this April 7
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[Update #2]: Valorant has now been released for PC, and unsurprisingly, it's a pretty fun shooter.
[Update]: Valorant has been pinned for an early June release date!
League of Legends studio Riot Games is currently in the last stretches of development on a new 5v5 character-based tactical shooter called Valorant, which as you might imagine, has piqued the interest of quite a few FPS players. With that in mind, it's worth mentioning that while Valorant's characters seem to take a fair bit of inspiration from games like Overwatch, its moment-to-moment gameplay is most similar to slower-paced, tactical shooters like Counter-Strike.
Even though the recent teaser trailers are all unfortunately fairly short, they can still give you a pretty good idea of just what Valorant is trying to be. So for now, here's two of them to help clue you in:
Action-adventure Hob and the exploration-focused Gone Home are free for a few days
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Another week is nearly upon us, and as is tradition at this point, there is a brand new giveaway. This time around you're looking at the self-explanatory Drawful 2, the action-adventure Hob, as well as the exploration-focused 'walking simulator' Gone Home.
If you're interested in either game, all you need to do is head on over to the Epic Games Store, create or log into your account, and you'll be good to go. The whole giveaway will only last until April 9th, however, so do make sure to at least add the games to your account before you forget entirely.
Trails of Cold Steel IV has been announced for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch
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[Update #2]: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has now concluded the massive saga on both PC and Switch!
[Update]: The latest trailer shows off what the story in Trails of Cold Steel IV will be about.
Trails of Cold Steel III has only just made its way to PC alongside some highly positive reviews, and already I have more great news to share! In a rather brief announcement, Nihon Falcom has revealed that Trails of Cold Steel IV is being developed for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch!
Expect to see the largest roster of characters in the entire series, with plenty of fan-favorites returning to the battlefield once more. The combat itself is also being spruced up, and much like the characters, it'll feature a combination of new and old ideas. The same trend applies to the out-of-combat activities as well since Trails of Cold Steel IV will be adding an assortment of new minigames, along with some of the more popular ones from before like Vintage Master.
Borderlands 3's newest DLC has brought in an over-the-top wedding and an old friend
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If you're in the mood for even more bandits to gun down in Borderlands 3, you might be interested to hear that a brand new DLC has just arrived - Guns, Love, and Tentacles. As the name would suggest, the DLC brings with it a bombastic wedding between Hammerlock and Wainwright, multiple new regions to explore, as well as an old friend from Borderlands 2.
You can get a bit of an idea of what all of this looks like in action, as well as who the old friend might be, through the reveal trailer down below. Have a gander: