Half-Life: Alyx will be releasing alongside a level editor in March, 2020
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Half-Life: Alyx has now been released, and I'm pleased to say it's been well worth the wait!
After not doing anything with the Half-Life series for what feels like an eternity, Valve recently came out to announce that they are working on a brand new VR game set in the Half-Life universe. Thankfully, we don't have to wait for another eternity in order to learn more as Valve has now officially unveiled Half-Life: Alyx!
The story will take place between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and as you might imagine, Alyx Vance and her father Eli will be working towards undermining the Combine regime through any means possible. As for the gameplay itself, you'll get a pretty good idea of what to expect through the recently posted teaser trailer. Have a gander:
Overwatch's Mercy themed 'Recall' challenge will be closing down next week
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Overwatch is getting its very own novel starring Orisa and Efi - The Hero of Numbani.
In order to bridge the gap between major content updates, Blizzard has started releasing small challenges that expand the lore and give players a chance to acquire a couple of new cosmetic items. The challenge this time around, as you might imagine from the title, is all about Mercy and why she has decided to stick with Overwatch.
To explore this question, as well as further flesh out Mercy as a character, Blizzard has also released the Valkyrie short story. It's not exactly long, but it does provide some nice insights into a character that has so far mostly stuck to the background. So if you're a fan of Mercy, or just looking to keep up with the Overwatch lore as we wait for Overwatch 2, I'd say Valkyrie is worth the 10-15 minutes it'll take to read.
Vermintide 2 update has corrected many of the recent bugs and problems
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: A brand new update has now arrived, and as expected, it has nerfed the Beastmen even further.
A little while ago Vermintide 2 received it's biggest expansion yet - Winds of Magic. It brought with it the Beastmen as a brand new faction to face off against, as well as a plethora of changes to the combat, enemy behavior and overall weapon balance.
Unfortunately, while Winds of Magic had the right idea, the implementation of many of these features left a lot to be desired. The Beastmen were somewhat irritating to fight due to hard-to-read animations, enemy behavior had a variety of bugs that made enemies attack almost instantly upon spawning, while the numerous tweaks to the weapons had brought back the infamous 'phantom hits' bug from ages past.
World of Warcraft: Classic has recently added PvP ranks and rewards, as well as world bosses
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Blackwing Lair, level 50 class quests, and a whole bunch of other content are coming to World of Warcraft: Classic this February 12th!
[Update]: Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley battlegrounds have now made their way to World of Warcraft: Classic!
If you're on a PvP server, make sure to stock up on a variety of potions as Phase 2 has now arrived to World of Warcraft: Classic! In other words, PvP ranks and rewards have now finally become available, as have the two original world bosses: Lord Kazzak and Azuregos.
In order to advance through the PvP ranks you'll need to kill players that are within ten levels of you, as well as take down the various faction leaders for a sizable boost to your honor. However, do make sure not to attack civilian NPCs or players that are far below your level as that will grant you dishonorable kills, each of which will provide a fairly significant reduction to your honor.
After years in development, Factorio will be releasing in full on September 25th, 2020
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: After nearly a decade in development, Factorio has now finally been released!
Factorio has been in Early Access for quite a few years at this point, and if you were worried it was planning to remain there indefinitely like some of the other games on Steam, worry not as the developers have now announced that they're slowly getting ready for the full release. In other words, Factorio will be leaving Early Access on September 25th, 2020!
"The approach 'It is done when it is done' was serving us well to deliver a high quality product, but if we continued this way, we would be doing it basically forever," reads the developer update. "A lot of us don't have any problem working on Factorio for some more time, but the main problem is, that we would like to introduce new features and content instead of just polishing parts that are already present in the game."
Overwatch PTR update is looking to greatly reduce the power of shields
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2:] Overwatch's massive shield rebalance and accompanying Winter Wonderland event have now arrived in full!
[Update]: Patch 1.43, as well as its accompanying Winter Wonderland event, will be coming next week. No release date has been given just yet, but December 10th is a pretty safe bet as most updates come out on Tuesday.
Ever since the introduction of Role Queue and 2/2/2 matchmaking, the meta in Overwatch has become rather boring. Instead of battles being about who can outmaneuver their opponents or use ultimates better, the optimal composition is all about standing behind multiple layers of shields and simply throwing damage around until something finally dies.
In order to correct this little problem, as well as make tanks a bit more attractive to play, Blizzard has now released a brand new PTR update that nerfs shields across the board while also buffing the individual survivability of tank heroes. Here's what all of these changes look like in terms of numbers:
Valve will be unveiling the VR-focused Half-Life: Alyx tomorrow, on November 21st
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Half-Life: Alyx has now been officially unveiled by Valve!
While VR devices are an impressive piece of technology, they currently lack games you can really sink your teeth into. Sure, games like Beat Saber or Budget Cuts are a great deal of fun to mess around with, especially with friends around you, but they're just not something you can play for an extended period of time.
What VR truly needs right now is a system seller, a game that's so good you might want to consider adopting VR just because of it, which is why I'm very excited to say that just so happens to be exactly what Valve is working on! The details are still few and far between, but the newly announced Half-Life: Alyx will be Valve's very own "flagship VR game."