Steam's absolutely massive Winter Sale has now arrived with quite a few deep discounts in tow
- By Ash
- in News
If you've finally managed to make a bit of headway with your gaming backlog, I'm afraid it's time to nullify all of that progress and add a few more great games onto the piles. In other words, Steam's absolutely massive Winter Sale has now arrived, and with it a whole assortment of games have gone on rather steep discounts.
Since there is basically no way to give you a brief overview of every quality game on sale, allow me to share a couple of stand-out deals, mostly from games I've been playing religiously throughout 2019. Here's my small list:
Battle for Azeroth's possibly final major update Visions of N’Zoth is coming this January 14th
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Blizzard has now released a lengthy preview of everything coming in with Patch 8.3!
It is the time of year where World of Warcraft players get to be both incredibly happy and sad at the same time. Happy because there is an absolutely gigantic update on the horizon that will likely keep them occupied for quite a while, and sad because this is likely to be the last major patch before the next expansion is ready to release.
But regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, I'm sure you'll be interested to hear that Patch 8.3 "Visions of N’Zoth" will be coming to World of Warcraft on January 14th! It'll bring with it a brand new take on map-wide Assaults, a new Horrific Vision game mode that offers plenty of challenges for both solo players and groups, as well as two new Allied Races - Vulpera (Horde) and Mechagnomes (Alliance).
The Epic Games Store is giving away a new game each day, starting with Into The Breach
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The second day of the event has arrived, and with it a brand new free game. This time around it's the multiplayer-focused 2D action game TowerFall Ascension.
The Epic Games Store is currently running a rather hefty winter sale, and in order to get as many people to check it out as possible, they have also started an equally massive giveaway. From today until January 1st, each new day will bring with it a brand new and entirely free game to grab!
Things have started off on a seriously high note as today's freebie is Into The Breach - an excellent strategy/puzzle game from the developers behind FTL. In order to grab it, all you need to do is head on over to its store page, log into your account or create a new one, and simply claim your copy.
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator is heading onto Game Pass and the Xbox One this December 20th
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator is one of those games I judged completely wrong. When I first saw its goofy animations and extremely simplistic visuals, I immediately wrote it off as yet another in a long line of terrible, terrible simulator games that constantly infest the Steam storefront.
Luckily for me, I did eventually give it a try, at which point I realized that it's a genuinely fun game to mess around with and one with a pretty darn active development team behind it. TABS might look downright goofy, but it features a ton of different characters and unique interactions, and smashing wildly different things together is always an entertaining time! After all, how often do you get to pelt the grim reaper with cannon balls while raptors nibble on his shins?
Riot has opened up their own publishing platform to help expand the League of Legends universe
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Riot Games are working on an MMO set in the League of Legends universe!
Instead of keeping all game development in-house and under tight control, Riot Games have announced that they plan to partner up with developers both big and small in order to expand the League of Legends universe. In order to achieve this, as well as ensure the new games are properly funded, Riot have now also opened up their own publishing platform - Riot Forge.
"We’re a player and developer-focused publisher," reads the official announcement. "Our mission is to bring awesome new League of Legends games to players by partnering with experienced and talented developers from around the world."
Dota Underlords update has sped up the early game and added a new titular Underlord - Jull
- By Ash
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[Update]: Dota Underlords' next titular Underlord is the small but scrappy Enno.
While Valve's willingness to experiment with Dota Underlords is certainly commendable, sometimes all that tinkering results in quite a few problems. Most notably, the last few major patches have greatly increased the average match length, to the point that they sometimes even exceeded actual Dota 2 matches, which isn't exactly ideal for a game that bills itself as being easy to pick up and play.
As such, I'm very happy to say that the newest update has now greatly sped up the early game, and thus also significantly reduced the overall match time. Unit health has been lowered across the board, players now start with a higher unit cap and more gold, while creep rounds have been removed entirely in order to get everyone smashing into each other as soon as possible.
Total War: Three Kingdoms is getting a massive new DLC - Mandate of Heaven
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Mandate of Heaven has now arrived in full, and so far it seems to be a pretty solid piece of DLC.
These are pretty exciting times for the Total War series. Total War: Warhammer 2 has recently received the The Shadow & The Blade DLC alongside truly impressive end-turn timer reductions for the Mortal Empires campaign, while Total War: Three Kingdoms is now slated to get a massive and feature-rich new DLC - Mandate of Heaven.
The Mandate of Heaven campaign begins in 182 CE just before the Yellow Turban rebellion and features over 40 new combat units to mess around with, six new playable warlords with unique mechanics, as well as origin stories for many of the characters that play pivotal roles in the main campaign. Speaking of which, you'll be able to seamlessly transition from your Mandate of Heaven campaign to the main one, with many of the most important events adjusting themselves based on what you've accomplished.