The Half-Life series is entirely free to play until Half-Life: Alyx arrives
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Half-Life: Alyx has now been released, and I'm pleased to say it's been well worth the wait!
[Update]: Half-Life: Alyx now has three new gameplay previews, each one showcasing a different style of movement.
If you've somehow managed to avoid playing the Half-Life games and yet you're curious what all of the fuss is really about, I have some very good news for you. In order to build up excitement for the VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx, Valve has made all of the main Half-Life games entirely free to play!
Each of them will remain free until Half-Life: Alyx launches at some point in March, though I can't give you an exact date here as Valve hasn't revealed it just yet. On the positive side, the current timer on Steam is set to expire in about eight weeks, so you should have plenty of time to give the series a proper try.
Northgard's latest DLC has added the highly aggressive and sturdy Clan of the Ox faction
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Northgard has just received its biggest and most important update yet - the Map Editor!
Northgard is a viking themed strategy game from the makers of Evoland, and as you might imagine, it's all about creating a thriving colony in an extremely hostile world. However, things have become even rougher recently as the latest DLC has brought in the Himminbrjotir, Clan of the Ox - a faction that is almost entirely geared towards conquest.
You can get a bit of an idea of what Clan of the Ox believes in, as well as how they prefer to fight, through the newest trailer. Have a gander, it's a pretty brief one:
Dota Underlords' full release and Season 1 are coming in late February
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Dota Underlords has now been officially released from Steam Early Access alongside the Season 1 patch.
After an absolute ton of changes, most of which ranged from good, bad to downright experimental, Valve's Dota Underlords is now just about ready to release in full. According to the latest developer update, you can expect to see it arrive alongside Season 1 this February 25th.
The details behind Season 1 are currently few and far between, but what I can tell you so far is that it'll bring with it new content in the shape of the City Crawl game mode, as well as a new Battlepass filled with cosmetic rewards. There'll also be a new meta with its own hero/item rotation, some much needed quality of life changes, and naturally, even more UI polishing and balance tweaks.
Dying Light's Battle Royale spin-off Bad Blood is now free for all owners of the original
- By Ash
- in News
During the initial Battle Royale craze, Dying Light developers decided to give the new genre a try by creating a parkour-heavy, PvP spin-off game. Unfortunately, while Dying Light's movement mechanics were awesome and the concept itself pretty solid, Dying Light: Bad Blood released as a paid Early Access game. As you might imagine, this meant that Bad Blood never got the player population it needed to sustain further development, and soon enough it was simply abandoned.
However, there is a small ray of sunshine in this rather sad story. Techland has recently decided to offer a free copy of Bad Blood to all owners of Dying Light, and because of this little promotion, Bad Blood's population has increased enough to ensure that you can actually find a full server to play on! It's still unlikely development on Bad Blood will continue, but at least for the time being you can give it a proper try and see just what could've been.
Overwatch devs have announced weekly hero bans and significantly faster balance changes
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Overwatch devs are now experimenting with a Triple Damage game mode, along with some major tank buffs.
[Update]: Hero Pools have now landed onto the PTR alongside some massive improvements to the Workshop tools!
If you've been paying attention to the Overwatch community over the past year, you've likely noticed that most of the complaints are focused around two things: the lack of frequent balance changes and the often rigid meta. Thankfully, it would appear that Blizzard is taking both problems incredibly seriously as they have just announced some rather drastic changes.
First and foremost, balance updates will now be more frequent and aggressive. If anything ends up being too broken, or if a hero falls out of favor entirely, Blizzard is also prepared to simply roll back the tweaks and try again. How exactly all of this will pan out, only time will tell, but if you ask me it's certainly a step in the right direction and something Overwatch has been desperately needing for years now.
Farming Simulator 19 is entirely free to grab for another week
- By Ash
- in News
If you're in the mood for something completely different, you might be interested to hear that Farming Simulator 19 is currently entirely free to grab. Simply head on over to the Epic Games Store, either log into your account or create a new one, and you'll be ruining your fields in no time.
As you're probably well aware by this point, there is a bit of a time limit to these types of giveaways. So if you're eager to give it a try, make sure to grab Farming Simulator 19 before it gets replaced by a different game on February 6th. You don't even need to install it. Simply add it to your account and you'll be able to play it whenever you want.
Total War: Three Kingdoms' massive Mandate of Heaven DLC has recently arrived
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: The next DLC, A World Betrayed, has now been announced and pinned for March 19, 2020.
[Update]: Mandate of Heaven has now also made its way to both macOS and Linux.
The biggest problem with Total War: Three Kingdoms, especially when compared to Total War: Warhammer 2, is the diversity between the various campaigns. Once you've played a couple of the original factions, there is very little new and interesting stuff to mess around with, not even in terms of units given how similar they tend to be.
As such, you might be interested to hear that the recently released Mandate of Heaven DLC has greatly spruced up the campaign and added some much-needed variety. There's over 40 new combat units to experiment with, six new playable warlords with their own unique mechanics, as well as new origin stories for some of the most famous characters of the time period. Perhaps most importantly, the Mandate of Heaven campaign seamlessly transitions into the main campaign, with many of the most important events happening as you progress through the years.