The indie 4X strategy game Thea 2: The Shattering is coming next week
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Thea 2: The Shattering is a 4X strategy game that blends together elements from grand strategy games, RPGs and even card games. What this means in gameplay terms is that you'll have to manage a large empire as it spreads across the world map, equip your various characters with the best armor and weapons you can possibly find, and then finally duke it out with your enemies through a card game inspired combat system.
Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you one of the recent trailers. It should give you a pretty good idea of just what Thea 2 is about, as well as how its various elements combine together. Have a gander:
The rather excellent physics-based puzzle game World of Goo is free until May 16th
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Epic Games announced a while back that they would be giving away a new and interesting game every two weeks throughout all of 2019, and so far they have not disappointed. Last time around the free game was the stylish RPG Transistor, while this time around you're looking at the equally excellent physics-based puzzle game World of Goo.
Despite being over 10 years since its original launch, World of Goo has just recently received a small remaster. While it sadly didn't add any new levels, it did slightly improve the visuals and UI, added better mod support, as well as ensured that World of Goo behaves properly on modern systems and resolutions. A small update, but a fairly meaningful one.
Planetside 2 has added player-controlled robots in order to help balance out the factions
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The NSO faction has now received a bunch of new content: a new weapon, vehicle and MAX variant!
After spending a remarkably long time on the test servers, Planetside 2's Nanite System Operatives (player-controlled robot mercenaries) have now finally arrived. Their purpose will be to help balance out the factions by providing additional firepower wherever it is needed the most, thus fixing one of Planetside 2's biggest problems - the purely numerical faction imbalance.
However, while the Nanite System Operatives are a brilliant idea and something I fully support, there is unfortunately one catch - they are only available to players with a paid membership. Why exactly is such an important feature locked away from the average player, I have no idea, but thankfully there appear to be enough of them milling around that faction imbalance shouldn't be a concern for the foreseeable future.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr preview goes in-depth on the new Necromancer class
- By Ash
- in News
The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG will be heading over to Elsweyr this June 4th, with an early access period starting on May 20th. Besides giving players a chance to explore the Khajiit homeland, the Elsweyr expansion will also bring in a storyline filled with dragons, new dungeons and world bosses to conquer, as well as a brand new class to play around with - the Necromancer.
If you're wondering what exactly the forbidden arts have to offer, as well as how the Necromancer differs from all of the other spellcasters, allow me to share with you the recently posted and rather in-depth developer preview. Have a gander:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's zombie-free edition has been discounted to $12
- By Ash
- in News
If you ever wanted to give Black Ops 4 a try, and you don't particularly care about the co-op focused zombie mode, you might be interested to hear that the "Battle Edition" is currently $12 as a part of the latest Humble Monthly. There will also be a couple of mystery games coming in next month, so if you're even remotely interested, I'd say it's a pretty good deal.
The only thing you really need to watch out for is that the Humble Monthly is a subscription service. In other words, unless you're interested in getting a brand new bundle next month, make sure to unsubscribe as soon as possible. You'll still get Black Ops 4 and the bonus games next month, so there's really no downside to doing it before you potentially forget.
Blizzard appears to have some really big plans for the future of Overwatch
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: According to new rumors, Blizzard is currently working on Diablo 4 and a story-focused Overwatch game!
Even though the Overwatch team was expanded with new writers and developers, the pace and quantity of updates hasn't really increased when compared to the previous two years. As you might imagine, this quickly led to rumors that Blizzard is working on some sort of massive Overwatch project behind the scenes, perhaps even the much-requested and story-focused expansion.
While none of this has been officially confirmed or even commented on, things have definitely become more interesting after the recent Activision Blizzard earnings call. According to Blizzard's J. Allen Back, the team has some rather massive plans for Overwatch's future, plans that seem to expand beyond the current game itself.
Epic has now acquired Psyonix, the developer behind Rocket League
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Rocket League is going free-to-play, while the Steam version will become unavailable to newcomers
[Update]: Rocket League has now announced that they will be ending support for macOS and Linux platforms.
Ever since the Epic Games Store launched a little while ago, Epic has been spending more and more money in order to carve themselves a piece of the PC gaming market. They've bought exclusivity rights to a whole bunch of games, both indie and AAA, offered a generally interesting game for free every two weeks, and now even acquired the Rocket League studio Psyonix.
"In the short term, nothing will change at all," reads the official announcement from Psyonix. "We’re still committed to providing Rocket League with frequent updates that have new features, new content, and new ways to play the game for as long as you’ll have us."