MTG Arena's Historic Anthology 7 and Explorer Anthology 3 have arrived alongside a Crucias nerf
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: All of MTG Arena's upcoming Wilds of Eldraine set and accompanying Enchanting Tale bonus sheet have now been revealed.
[Update]: MTG Arena is getting Khans of Tarkir in 2023, while Modern Horizons 3 and Pioneer Masters will be coming in 2024.
After a brief yet surprisingly eventful round of teasers, MTG Arena's Historic Anthology 7 and Explorer Anthology 3 have now finally been unleashed. Each anthology brings with it 25 'new' cards to mess around with spanning everything from competitive staples to fan-favorite jank.
Just like the previous ones, each of the two anthologies will set you back 25,000 gold or 4,000 gems and will come with a full playset (four copies) of each card. While the Explorer anthology is somewhat mediocre, its Historic counterpart is definitely worth the asking price as it's filled to the brim with fun cards from eons past like Primeval Titan, Bloodbraid Elf or Sword of Fire and Ice.
Diablo 4's pre-season Patch 1.1 has brought with it a massive reduction in player power and survivability
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Following the disastrous Season 1 update, Diablo 4 devs have announced many major improvements.
[Update]: Diablo 4's Season 1 has now arrived, and it's unfortunately quite underwhelming.
While Diablo 4's moment-to-moment gameplay is highly enjoyable, the game currently suffers from a serious lack of balance as the vast majority of skills are so numerically weak that they're basically unusable. For example the Sorceresses' Incinerate, a gigantic beam of fire, does such little damage that it takes multiple seconds of standing still and focusing on a single basic, white-tier enemy in order to bring them down. It's astonishingly bad, and it's far from the only such ability.
Still, despite these types of issues I continued playing as I firmly believed that the Season 1 update would sort out this mess and make it so each class has a plethora of unique and interesting builds to choose from. Unfortunately, it would appear that my faith was misplaced as Blizzard has chosen to double down on all of the nonsense.
Cutesy card-slinging roguelike Oaken will be launching from Early Access on July 20th
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Right on cue, Oaken has now been unleashed from Early Access!
Oaken is a card-slinging, turn-based roguelike set in a randomly generated world inhabited by all sorts of nature spirits, both friendly and otherwise. True to its genre, Oaken's gameplay is all about navigating the world Slay the Spire style and weighing the possible risks and rewards of each branching path, fighting tricksy enemies with a combination of spells and spirits, and naturally, managing your deck and making your spirits as obscenely powerful as possible.
After spending about a year in Early Access, Oaken is now just about ready to be released in full. To be more specific, you can expect to see it leave Early Access and land onto PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch this July 20th.
Vampire Survivors will be adding local co-op and fully switching to a new engine on August 17th
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Vampire Survivors is soon getting a sizable, Among Us inspired DLC - Emergency Meeting.
[Update]: Update 1.6 has now arrived with local co-op and a brand new engine, as well as a couple of little teasers for upcoming content!
Despite it being nearly two years since Vampire Survivors first landed onto Steam, the quality of its updates doesn't appear to be dropping. If anything, each new one is even more impressive than the last!
This goes doubly so for the upcoming August 17th update as not only will it be adding a local co-op mode, but it'll also fully transition Vampire Survivors to a brand new engine. Best of all, the co-op update and all of its contents will be entirely free for everyone to mess around with.
Chainsaw-leg wielding boomer shooter Turbo Overkill will be leaving Early Access on July 18th
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Turbo Overkill's Version 1.0 has now arrived, and as I've detailed throughout my review, it's a ton of fun!
As the name alone might imply, Turbo Overkill is a ridiculously over-the-top boomer shooter where you get to zip around the levels at such speed that you can barely aim at things and where you can transform hordes of enemies into chunky giblets thanks to an assortment of high-powered weaponry. I've reviewed Turbo Overkill back when it first launched into Early Access and found it to be a great deal of fun, and the various updates since then have only made it bigger and better.
So if you're in the mood for a bit of retro shooty-shooty action, you'll be pleased to hear that the end of Turbo Overkill's Early Access journey is nearly upon us. And when I say "nearly", I really do mean that as Turbo Overkill will be launching on July 18th alongside the climactic second half of the third and final chapter.
Lovecraftian fishing game Dredge has added photography, new events and a passive difficulty
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: It took a while, but Dredge has now launched its very first expansion - The Pale Reach!
[Update]: Dredge's third update has added the often requested boat customization and 'craberrations'.
In order to help tide players over before the first DLC arrives at some point later this year, the Black Salt Games team has just unleashed the second update for their Lovecraftian fishing game Dredge. First and foremost, Update 2 has brought with it the ability to photograph the wildlife and the various Eldritch horrors that lurk in the depths, along with a brand new NPC to help you along on your journey of cataloging the local fauna.
If you don't feel like dealing with all of the spooky things trying to nibble on your boat, Update 2 has also added a Passive Mode that works exactly like you would expect. As long as it's turned on, enemies will simply ignore you and swim around you, thus giving you the perfect chance to photograph them.
Dota 2's Patch 7.33e has brought in nerfs to most of the overperforming heroes from the Bali Major
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Dota 2's Patch 7.34 has now arrived with an avalanche of balance changes and gameplay tweaks.
[Update]: Dota 2 devs have started up a new blog detailing development challenges and interesting bug fixes.
It's only been a couple of days since the Bali Major 2023 concluded, and already the Dota 2 team has launched a brand new balance update. Since the next big tournament is right around the corner, the freshly launched Patch 7.33e is all about bringing the overpeforming heroes back in line and thus does not contain buffs to any of the struggling ones.
In other words, heroes like Broodmother, Morphling, Medusa, Undying and Doom have now been smacked over the head with a nerf bat. Some like Doom and Storm Spirit have received relatively minor changes that will be barely noticeable in an average game, while others like Medusa and Morphling have received more comprehensive nerfs that will require a bit of effort in order to overcome.