The completely free co-op shooter Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop has just received a content update
- By Ash
- in News
If you've never given Alien Swarm or its standalone expansion Reactive Drop a try, consider this an ideal opportunity to remedy that little 'mistake'. Not only are they completely free-to-play and devoid of microtransactions or any sort of loot box nonsense, but Reactive Drop has also just been updated with yet another dose of content!
The details are unfortunately still lacking, but the update has added three new weapons (a heavy rifle, a medic rifle, and a gas grenade), a new seventh promotion to brag about, an increased level cap of 34 to accommodate the 3 new weapons, as well as a variety of bug fixes. Not exactly major changes by any stretch, but it's still a nice little addition to an already excellent game.
Valve has now acquired Campo Santo, the studio behind Firewatch and In the Valley of the Gods
- By Ash
- in News
In a move that I don't think many people could've predicted, Valve has now acquired Campo Santo, the studio behind Firewatch and the upcoming In the Valley of the Gods. While no specifics have been given just yet, I can only assume Valve is going to use them to create story-focused games that would work well in VR, a formula both Firewatch and In the Valley of the Gods already fit quite nicely.
"In Valve we found a group of folks who, to their core, feel the same way about the work that they do (this, you may be surprised to learn, doesn’t happen every day)," reads the official announcement. "In us, they found a group with unique experience and valuable, diverse perspectives. It quickly became an obvious match."
The turn-based strategy Eador: Masters of the Broken World is free on Steam for a short while
- By Ash
- in News
In celebration of the game's 5-year anniversary, Snowbird Games are currently giving away their turn-based strategy Eador: Masters of the Broken World for free. Simply head on over to Steam, click the "Install Game" button, and Eador will be yours to keep. Make sure to do this quickly as the promotion is set to end on Sunday, though no exact time has been given just yet.
If you're wondering what Eador is even all about, allow me to share with you one of the original trailers. It's not the most detailed video around, but it should still give you a good idea of whether Eador is something you'd enjoy or not. Have a gander:
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia's latest preview shows off the Kingdom of Mierce campaign
- By Ash
- in News
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is set to arrive this May 3rd for Windows, while the macOS and Linux versions will be following shortly after. In terms of content you can expect to see the most detailed map the series has had so far, a variety of large and interesting siege maps, unique and fairly historically accurate factions, as well as a variety of gameplay improvements.
You can get a good peek at what all of this looks like in-game through the recently posted gameplay preview down below. It's a bit of a lengthy video showing off the Kingdom of Mierce campaign, so it should give you an excellent idea of what Thrones of Britannia is trying to accomplish. Have a gander:
Overwatch devs are looking to rework Symmetra as a Defense hero, and improve the matchmaking system
- By Ash
- in News
Even in the early days of Overwatch, when we only had four different support heroes to choose from, Symmetra often ended up being ignored in favor of actual healers. These days Overwatch has seven support heroes in total, six of which are healers, so poor Symmetra is barely ever seeing play in higher ranked matches or the Overwatch League as a whole. The situation got so bad that Blizzard announced a massive rework back in February, after which we have not heard much about Symmetra's future.
However, according to a recent InvenGlobal interview with Overwatch's Tim Ford, it would appear that Symmetra will be leaving the support category and transitioning into a defense hero. In my eyes she was always a defense hero, but now that Blizzard has officially confirmed it I wonder if this means that Symmetra will be losing some of her support-y qualities in favor of increased surviability or area control? There is unfortunately no answer to that question right now, but given the recent Hanzo rework I think Blizzard will do right by Symmetra.
The hellish survival-horror game Agony will be coming to PC and consoles this May 29th
- By Ash
- in News
Agony is an upcoming survival-horror game set in one of the most fitting locations for the genre - a bizarre and twisted depiction of hell itself. What this means in gameplay terms is that you'll have to sneak around hordes of bloodthirsty demons, explore a confusing and unsettling hellscape, and perhaps most interestingly of all, posses lesser demons in order to avoid detection and bypass obstacles.
If you're wondering what this might look like in action, allow me to share with you the recently posted announcement trailer. It's not a very long video, but it should get the point across quite nicely. Have a look:
Vermintide 2 devs have announced a new Quest system and more hero-specific cosmetics
- By Ash
- in News
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developer Fatshark recently held a brief Twitch stream where they discussed the current 1.0.6 patch and what sort of features we can expect to see in the future. The stream itself was unfortunately light on details, but you might be interested to hear that the developers are currently working on a brand new quest system.
I can't tell you much about it since it's still early in development, but according to Fatshark it won't function like the bounty board from the original Vermintide. While this hasn't been officially confirmed, I believe this means we won't be able to get specific items through the quest system, but rather different tiers of loot boxes, as seen in the placeholder image above. If so, I really do hope they won't be commendation chests (the ones you gain from leveling up) as the quality of items found within are severely lacking when compared to Champion or Legend chests.