Dota 2 devs have started up a new blog detailing development challenges and interesting bug fixes
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[Update #2]: Dota 2 is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a bunch of thematic (and free) cosmetic items.
[Update]: Dota 2's Patch 7.34 has now arrived with an avalanche of balance changes and gameplay tweaks.
In a bit of an unexpected announcement given how secretive Valve tends to be, the Dota 2 team has now introduced a new development blog feature that will detail some of their challenges, interesting bugs and "occasional happy accidents" encountered while working on a game as ridiculously complex as Dota 2. The first of these development blogs is about Techies and their endless hordes of mobile Sticky Bombs!
This bug appeared with The New Frontiers update back in spring and it allowed Techies players to create an army of infinitely lasting and fully controllable Sticky Bombs. This not only allowed them to be used like an additional mine field, but also as a way to hunt down unsuspecting players without Techies ever putting themselves at risk. In other words, it was a brief nightmare!
Exoprimal is Capcom's surprisingly competitive co-op game about mechs fighting hordes of dinosaurs
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Capcom's freshly released action-shooter Exoprimal is quite a curious game. It's not only thoroughly unique because it's all about high-powered mechs fighting against hordes of horribly mutated dinosaurs, but also because it attempts to merge both competitive PvP and cooperative PvE gameplay within a single match.
The way it works is that you first compete against the opposing team by attempting to complete your objectives faster than them, and then towards the end the gloves finally come off and you're able to square off against your opponents directly in order to secure yourself the win. Most entertainingly of all, you will occasionally even get the ability to transform yourself into a giant dinosaur so you can really mess up your opponents and their plans.
Darktide's August update is looking to fix long-standing issues like crafting locks
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[Update #2]: Darktide will be getting RPG-like talent trees and an Xbox version on October 4th.
[Update]: Patch #12 has now arrived, and I'm happy to say it's quite a good one!
While the actual moment-to-moment gameplay in Darktide is some of the best I've ever seen, the systems surrounding it are... messy, to put it politely. Playing multiple characters is needlessly grindy since nothing is shared between them, trying to create weapons you like involves layers upon layers upon layers of randomness, and worst of all, you can't even choose the exact flavor of missions you want to run - it's all random!
Thankfully, after months of this nonsense, it seems that Fatshark is finally looking to address many of the long-standing community complaints. The details are still few and far between as this is an 'announcement of an announcement' type of deal, but you can look forward to some changes dealing with account based currencies, perk refinement, crafting locks and options on the mission board.
After a year in Early Access, the adorable card-slinging roguelike Oaken has now been unleashed
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Following in the footsteps of games like Slay the Spire, Oaken is a turn-based, card-slinging roguelike set in a world inhabited by all sorts of cutesy nature spirits. Each run will have start by choosing your basic loadout and abilities, after which you'll be let loose to explore the world, fight an assortment of enemies with a combination of spells and spirits, and naturally, upgrade the power level of your cards to the point of absurdity.
What all of this looks like in action, as well as how adorable the art style really is, that you can check out through the recently posted trailer. Have a little peek:
Following the disastrous Season 1 update, Diablo 4 devs have announced many major improvements
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[Update #2]: Patch 1.1.1 has now arrived, and I'm pleased to say it's looking quite good so far!
[Update]: Diablo 4's August 8th update will buff Barbarians and Sorcerers, increase enemy density and improve boss rewards.
In a bit of a bizarre decision, the Diablo 4 team decided to take the freshly released Season 1 as an opportunity to nerf just about everything related to play power. Damage and survivability went down across the board, cooldown reduction and leveling speed both got reduced, while classes like Barbarians and Sorcerers collected so many random nerfs that their late-game potential cratered compared to the pre-season. Long story short, the update was a mess.
Thankfully, it looks like Blizzard has realized this as they have already announced a variety of major improvements. First and foremost, the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes will be getting some significant buffs in the next few weeks, though the exact details have not been revealed just yet. Personally, I really hope the changes will increase the amount of skill diversity for Sorcerers as having to run all of the defensive abilities on every single build has gotten rather old at this point.
Cities: Skylines 2 will be launching this October 24th alongside a bunch of technological improvements, new features and quality-of-life updates
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After nearly a decade of updates and expansions, Cities: Skylines will soon be getting a bigger and more technologically advanced sequel. Once it arrives this October 24th, Cities: Skylines 2 will bring with it fully realized transport and economy systems, a wide variety of new construction and customization options to mess around with, as well as a much better simulation of how each city and its inhabitants operate.
Perhaps most importantly, Cities: Skylines 2 will follow in its predecessors' footsteps and come with a suite of modding tools to help players add all-important features like a Sponge Bob themed sewage pipe. There is unfortunately one bit of bad news. Since Cities: Skylines 2 has been built from scratch, it's highly unlikely that any of the more interesting mods from the original will be easily ported to the sequel. Instead, they'll almost certainly need to be rewritten from scratch as well.
Diablo 4's Season 1 has now arrived, and it's unfortunately quite underwhelming
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[Update #2]: Diablo 4's August 8th update will buff Barbarians and Sorcerers, increase enemy density and improve boss rewards.
[Update]: Following the disastrous Season 1 update, Diablo 4 devs have announced many major improvements.
As a part of the pre-season update, Diablo 4 dished out a whole bunch of nerfs to player power, survivability, cooldown reduction and leveling speed, while offering only paltry buffs to underused skills in return. This made it so most characters played pretty much exactly the same as before, just slower and weaker.
My hope was that the Season 1 update and its new systems would help compensate for some of these tweaks, but so far it looks like Diablo 4's first season is similarly uninspired. Season 1 brings with it seasonal realms that offer a fresh start to all players, a brand new questline to explore, a fancy new boss to poke for loot, as well as a variety of new gems to acquire by slaying malignant monsters. While all of this is definitely a nice change of pace and something fun to mess around with, the problem is that this is pretty much the entirety of Season 1.