MTG Arena's new Historic Shakeup event offers a bit of a different competitive experience
- By Ash
- in News
Regardless of what game we're talking about, if there is anything on the line, sooner or later a meta will form. People will figure out what the best strategies are, how best to counter what the opponents are trying to accomplish, as well as how to do all of that in the shortest time possible. MTG Arena is no different in this regard.
However, fighting against the same decks over and over again does tend to get tedious after a while. As such, you might be interested to hear that the newly launched Historic Shakeup event has banned many of the popular cards, thus creating an entirely new and unexplored meta to mess around with!
World of Warcraft has toned down some of the ridiculously difficult Mythic+ Dungeon enemies
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Blizzard has removed the weekly time-gating for the roguelike dungeon Torghast.
If you've been running through World of Warcraft's Mythic+ dungeons over the past few weeks, you've likely noticed that the difficulty between them can vary massively. Dungeons like Mists of Tirna Scithe are absurdly easy and can be completed with plenty of time to spare, while something like De Other Side can be an absolute nightmare with even a slightly uncoordinated group.
This discrepancy has only become more apparent with last week's Bolstering & Tyrannical affixes, with some dungeons like The Necrotic Wake becoming nearly impossible to complete without stacking some of the best classes and specializations. So in order to address this problem, as well as make the dungeons a lot more pleasant across the board, Blizzard has now released a whole bunch of tweaks.
The excellent turn-based dungeon crawler Darkest Dungeon is free to grab for Christmas
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
While not exactly the most Christmassy game given that it's all about suffering, madness and death, Darkest Dungeon is still a pretty darn good game to spend the holiday season with. As such, I am more than happy to say that the Epic Games Store is currently giving it away for free!
Naturally, the giveaway won't last long, so make sure to pick up your Christmas present sooner rather than later. Once you have it unlocked on your account you'll be able to play it whenever you want and for however long you want, so a little bit of haste right now is well worth it.
Stardew Valley's freshly launched Update 1.5 is the biggest the game has ever seen
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Last year Stardew Valley's Update 1.4 brought with it an impressive amount of new content, but all of that pales in comparison to what has just arrived with Update 1.5. The freshly released patch not only brings with it a plethora of new content and quality of life improvements, but also some features that have been continuously requested ever since Stardew Valley first launched, things like splitscreen multiplayer!
You can also expect to see a sizable new location to explore, tons of new dialogue, new characters to interact with (including one that's fully fleshed out just like the original villagers), and even a new farm designed with veterans in mind. Speaking of which, there's also a new "Advanced Game Options" button on the character creation menu that lets you customize your playthrough and really shake things up.
Steam's massive Winter Sale has arrived and will be sticking around until January 5th
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Valve has announced the best-selling and most played Steam games of 2020.
If you're looking to treat yourself for the holidays, or simply pile on another bunch of games onto the backlog, you might want to check out the freshly launched Steam Winter Sale. Much like before, it's absolutely filled to the brim with discounts on all sorts of games, so chances are you'll easily find a few games to occupy your time.
For those of you looking for a bit of advice, allow me to also share a couple of games I've enjoyed messing around with over the past few years. Here they are, in no particular order:
World of Warcraft has greatly rebalanced the roguelike dungeon Torghast
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Blizzard has removed the weekly time-gating for the roguelike dungeon Torghast.
[Update]: World of Warcraft has toned down some of the ridiculously difficult Mythic+ Dungeon enemies.
Out of all the new additions in Shadowlands, the roguelike and ever-changing Torghast is by far the most exciting. It certainly was for me anyway, because as I've mentioned throughout my review, the combination of wacky powers and the ability to completely and utterly break the game makes for a pretty good time!
Unfortunately, not all classes and specializations are equally balanced when it comes to Torghast. Playing through it on my Demon Hunter has been a genuine joy thanks to an excellent selection of powers, while my friend's Priest ended up having a significantly tougher time on the higher difficulty levels, on top of significantly longer runs. And sadly, this was not an uncommon occurrence, especially after the recent health buffs.
The charming Monster Sanctuary combines RPG-style monster taming with Metroidvania exploration
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're a fan of Pokemon but wish there was a greater focus on exploration and using your abilities to help you reach new and exciting places, then you might want to check out the freshly released Monster Sanctuary. It is essentially Pokemon meets Metroidvania, though with enough unique ideas and flare to make itself stand out from the crowd.
So not only will you be able to roam across the world in order to capture and train an assortment of monsters, but also specialize them through skill trees, as well as further enhance their potency with special weapons and accessories. Outside of the 3v3 battles, however, you'll also be able to use the monsters' unique abilities to help traverse the terrain, solve puzzles, and also open up new pathways.