The Helldivers 2 playerbase, in a dazzling display of democracy, is rallying against the new requirements
- By Ash
- in News
I an announcement that has garnered them a massive amount of criticism, Sony and Arrowhead have revealed that Helldivers 2 will soon require a PlayStation Network account regardless of platform or crossplay options. In other words, all PC players will be required to link their Steam and PSN accounts by June 4th in order to continue playing the game.
Usually these sort of account requirements are annoying and there's a fair bit of grumbling about them, but they're innocuous enough that most people just go through with it and move on with their day. This time it's a bit special, however, as not only is Helldivers 2 bringing this up many months after launch, but PSN also has two major issues that are unique to it.
Helldivers 2's Update 1.000.3 has rebalanced dozens of weapons, including the Railgun, Quasar and Counter Sniper
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The Helldivers 2 playerbase, in a dazzling display of democracy, is rallying against the new requirements.
Unlike some of the previous patches that added either new toys for the players or enemies to clobber, the freshly released Update 1.000.3 is entirely about tweaking what we already have. As such, you can look forward to an avalanche of balance changes, both positive and negative, as well as some much-needed bug fixes.
In terms of nerfs, the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon now recharges 5 seconds slower, the LAS-98 Laser Cannon has lost some of its anti-armor damage in exchange for being better against weaker enemies, the laser guard dog AX/AR-23 has lost a solid 30% of its damage, and most puzzling of all, the already mediocre CB-9 Exploding Crossbow has lost a good chunk of its splash damage in exchange for faster projectile velocity. Everything else I can understand, but the crossbow nerf just feels like kicking someone when they're already face-first in the mud. Not a fan.
Following numerous complaints, Total War: Warhammer 3 is changing its DLC pricing and size
- By Ash
- in News
To say that the launch of Total War: Warhammer 3's Shadows of Change DLC was messy would be quite an understatement. Creative Assembly tried to charge more for it than previous DLCs while simultaneously offering less unique content per faction, to which the community response was about as negative as you'd expect.
In order to salvage the DLC, as well as to regain some favor with the playerbase, Creative Assembly recently released an update that added a whole bunch of new units to the Shadows of Change DLC - and pretty good ones too! So while DLC is still heavily overpriced in my humble opinion, it now at least offers a sizable amount of quality content.
Dota 2's much-anticipated Crownfall update has arrived, though without the Ringmaster hero
- By Ash
- in News
After multiple cryptic teasers and even a lengthy delay, Dota 2's much-anticipated Crownfall update has now finally arrived. However, instead of massive gameplay changes or even the previously announced Ringmaster hero, the freshly released Crownfall update is almost centered around cosmetics - both paid and free.
The highlight of the update is definitely the interactive world map that serves as both a story-telling tool and a Battle Pass. By collecting tokens gained from playing certain types of heroes (for example mounted, nuker or crawling ones) you can unlock new pathways and with them cosmetic rewards, small story bits, as well as silly stuff like a fishing mini-game or a reverse candy shop that will take your candy and give you a plethora of goodies in trade.
Helldivers 2's update has fixed numerous crashes and brought back the AT-AT looking Factory Striders
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The Helldivers 2 playerbase, in a dazzling display of democracy, is rallying against the new requirements.
While Helldivers 2's rapid release of new content is quite impressive, that sort of blazing speed does come at a cost, and that cost is stability. Almost like clockwork, every time a major update arrives a whole bunch of new crashes appear alongside it. This, needless to say, is not exactly ideal as nothing takes the fun out of your democracy-induced rampage faster than crashing at the very end of a difficult mission!
So in order to sort out the latest batch of problems, as well as spice things up on the gameplay front, The Helldivers 2 team has just launched Patch 01.000.203. Besides the crash fixes, the update has also made it so the CE-27 Ground Breaker armor now has the correct Engineer Kit passive instead of some random perks.
Steam's latest festival is all about First-person Shooter games of every variety
- By Ash
- in News
If you've got a bit of free time and an urge to explode all sorts of baddies into colorful giblets, you'll be happy to hear that Steam's FPS Fest 2024 has now arrived. Much like the previous festivals, FPS Fest 2024 brings with it a variety of discounts on all sorts of first-person shooters, as well as a plethora of free demos for upcoming games.
The whole thing will last until 10am PT on April 22nd, so should have plenty of time to peruse the games and see if there's anything that interests you. And if you're not sure where to even start, allow me to share with you Valve's trailer showcasing a bunch of different games:
MTG Arena's next set Outlaws of Thunder Junction is coming April 16th alongside 3 batches of bonus cards
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: MTG Arena's next mini-expansion, Alchemy: Thunder Junction, will be launching on May 7th.
[Update]: Thunder Junction has now arrived, and it's quite an interesting draft format. It's insanely high-powered, but there's also a lot of decisions to make throughout each match. This could be one of the good ones!
These days Magic: The Gathering sets usually come with some sort of a bonus set - a collection of extra cards that might not be Standard legal, but are either powerful or interesting enough to warrant reprinting. However, the upcoming Outlaws of Thunder Junction set which is coming to MTG Arena on April 16th has taken this concept of bonus cards to an extreme!
Instead of having a single bonus set, or even two, Outlaws of Thunder Junction has opted for three! The first and most common of these are the Breaking News cards which are all themed after some sort of crime. Then there's the The Big Score set which was originally going to be Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Aftermath, but due to the poor reception of that idea the cards have been collapsed into the main set, though all were upshifted to Mythic rarity for some reason! And then you have the Special Guests cards which are reprints of ten powerful cards that all come with their own fancy new art.