Battlerite will be getting a 20-player Battle Royale game mode this Summer
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After seeing Path of Exile's battle royale April Fools' joke, I was left wondering why studios aren't experimenting with the classic battle royale formula in other genres. After all, the concept is fairly simple. All you need is a bunch of people, some solid moment-to-moment gameplay, a decently lengthy stretch of land, and plenty of reasons to go and find other players in order to hit them over the head until they explore into a shower of medpacks and resources. As long as the basic combat mechanics are good, there is no reason why the battle royale formula couldn't work on anything from platformers to moba-like games.
With that in mind, I am rather glad to announce that Stunlock Studios are working on a battle royale game mode for their "action-packed arena brawler" Battlerite. While the details are still in short supply, you can expect to see a map that's about 30 times larger than the usual arena, 20 people in each match, as well as the ability to play in teams of two or solo. As for the matches themselves, Stunlock Studios are trying to make them about 10 minutes long so there's never too much waiting in between all of the action.
Thrones of Britannia, a highly focused and detailed Total War spin-off game, has now arrived on Steam
- By Ash
- in News
Unlike the usual Total War game that span large stretches of land and equally gigantic time periods, the newly released Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia offers a much more detailed look at the events and battles that took place shortly after the English king Alfred the Great halted the Viking invasion in 878 AD. In gameplay terms this means you can expect to see the most intricate map the series has seen so far, a variety of factions that borrow heavily from real history, as well as a plethora of improvements to the politics & intrigue system in order to better emulate the time period.
Since trying to explain all of this through words alone is a bit of a pointless task, allow me to share with you one of the recent developer previews starring the Kingdom of Mierce. In my campaign the poor buggers survived only 10 turns, but thankfully the ones in the video will be alive for long enough to show you what Thrones of Britannia is all about. Have a look:
Overwatch's new Escort map Rialto has now arrived alongside the quite amazing Hanzo rework
- By Ash
- in News
After spending a little over a week on the PTR, the new Escort map Rialto has now finally made its way to the live servers alongside the much-anticipated Hanzo rework. The endlessly annoying Scatter Arrow has been completely replaced by a new rapid fire ability, while Hanzo's somewhat dreadful mobility has been significantly enhanced with a new short-ranged leap. Whether these changes are a bit too excessive, that still remains to be seen, but what I can tell you right now is that the new Hanzo is ridiculously fun to play!
As far as Rialto is concerned, it would probably be for the best if I just shared with you the recently posted trailer. It won't exactly tell you how to navigate across the map, but it will at least show you some of the prettiest and most interesting locations. Have a gander:
Overwatch devs have announced even harsher measures against toxic and abusive behavior
- By Ash
- in News
Overwatch's Scott Mercer went to the official forums earlier today in order to discuss what Blizzard is doing to make Overwatch a friendlier and more competitive place. Perhaps most importantly, he also announced some rather significant changes to how punishment will be dished out, especially for players with a history of abusive behavior.
"We’ve also made some changes to how we penalize repeat offenders for abusive chat. Repeat offenders used to be penalized with a silence, restricted from communicating with other players in the game, with each subsequent infraction incurring a longer silence duration," explained Mercer. "We’ve changed this so repeat offenders can now be suspended, and therefore unable to play Overwatch, for longer and longer durations. If someone continues to use abusive chat even after being warned, silenced, and suspended enough times, they’ve proven they do not want to be a positive member of the Overwatch community and will be permanently banned from playing Overwatch."
Sonic Mania Plus will be coming this July 17th with two new characters and a brand new Encore mode
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: The next big Sonic the Hedgehog game will focus on open-world exploration.
Sonic Mania Plus is set to arrive this July 17th, bringing with it a bunch of new content to play around with. You can expect to see two new and incredibly obscure characters (Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel), support for four-player multiplayer, a new Encore more that's supposed to provide plenty of replayability, as well as brand new zone to explore.
If you're wondering what all of this might look like in-game, wonder no more as the developers have recently posted a trailer. The gameplay parts are a little bit on the short side, but it should still give you a decent idea of what Sonic Mania Plus is trying to achieve. Have a look:
The PC version of Disgaea 5 Complete has been delayed until Summer due to a major bug
- By Ash
- in News
The PC version of Disgaea 5 Complete was supposed to arrive this May 7th, but unfortunately it would appear that it has now been delayed. As it turns out, players of the recently released demo have uncovered a potentially catastrophic issue, an issue that will take a bit of time and effort to resolve.
"As beta testing has been ongoing, we have been fixing bugs and issues as they were discovered. While working on corrections last night, we came across a new issue that requires additional attention that will take more time to resolve," explains the brief announcement. "Unfortunately, until this issue can be resolved, the release date will be postponed, and we are now targeting a release for Summer 2018. We offer our sincerest apologies to all who have been looking forward to this release of the game."
The final "The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+" booster update has added a whole bunch of new content
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The Binding of Isaac's final and absolutely massive expansion Repentance has now been unleashed!
The Binding of Isaac is one of those games that offer a seemingly limitless amount of replayability. There's tons of different bosses and enemies to fight, an absurd amount of items and combinations between them, as well as a variety of map layouts to explore and endlessly die on. With that in mind, I am very glad to say that The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ has now become even more diverse as the final booster update has brought in a whole bunch of new content.
You can expect to see 8 new community made items, 5 new enemies, a brand new boss, 64 new achievements to hunt down, and perhaps most impressively of all, 817 new rooms! Besides all of the new content, this update has also brought with it an absolutely massive amount of bug fixes and changes. There is no easy to way to summarize this, so if you're interested in all of the details you should head on over to Reddit.