Banner Saga 3 has now been pinned for a July 24th launch on both PC and consoles
- By Ash
- in News
After being successfully Kickstarted back in March of 2017, the third and final episode of the Banner Saga is now just about ready to launch. As such, you can expect to see Banner Saga 3 on PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Switch this July 24th.
If you would like a little bit of a sneak peek at what it has to offer, allow me to share with you the recently posted pre-order trailer. It's not very lengthy or very detailed, but it'll at least give you a bit of an idea of what's happening. Have a look:
Code Vein's latest gameplay trailer shows off the heavily Dark Souls inspired combat
- By Ash
- in News
Code Vein is Bandai Namco's upcoming action-RPG that seems to be taking quite a few pointers from the Dark Souls series, both in terms of gameplay and storytelling. The combat is all about careful positioning, precise strikes and timely dodges, while the world and its inhabitants are all dark and twisted. There is obviously more going on than this basic comparison would let on, but it should at least give you an idea of what to expect from Code Vein.
You can also check out the recently posted gameplay trailer as it features some heavily Dark Souls inspired combat. It's still a little bit clunky as Code Vein is currently unfinished, but there does appear to be a great degree of potential here. But enough babbling from me, have a look:
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration has now arrived on macOS, the Linux version is coming soon
- By Ash
- in News
The Mac version of Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration has now made its way to Steam, while the Linux port will be coming in the near future, though I'm afrad no exact date has been given just yet. In terms of content, the rather ambiguously titled "20 Year Celebration" edition brings with it the base game and all of the DLC in one convenient package. The DLC itself isn't anything special, and a lot of it is cosmetic, but it's still good for a few hours of fun so I'd say it's well worth checking out.
Much like the good chunk of ports these days, the Mac version of the 20 Year Celebration edition has not been made by the developers themselves, but rather by Feral Interactive. You might recognize them from their work on the Mac and Linux ports of Tomb Raider, Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2, XCOM 2, Dawn of War 3, and the list goes on. So far their work has been pretty high quality, so hopefully the same applies in this scenario as well.
World of Warcraft devs are working on slowing down the combat in the Battle for Azeroth expansion
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: World of Warcraft will soon be reverting the rather controversial Global Cooldown changes.
World of Warcraft's abilities can be broadly categorized into two groups: those that require you to briefly pause after using the ability, and those that can be chained with other abilities without any restrictions. Your standard spells like Fireball or Frostbolt belong in the first category, while the second category is almost exclusive reserved for power-up spells, escape abilities, and powerful defensive cooldowns.
While it might sound complicated on paper, it's a fairly simple and effective system. As such, I must admit I'm a bit surprised to announce that Blizzard is aiming to remove the second category and make it so the vast majority of abilities incur a global cooldown after use. If these changes go through you can expect to see the combat become slightly but noticeably slower, especially for classes that rely on combinations of abilities for their damage or defense.
Hearthstone's The Witchwood expansion has now arrived with 135 new cards and some simple yet effective mechanics
- By Ash
- in News
After being teased for quite a while now, Hearthstone's The Witchwood expansion has finally arrived alongside the Year of the Raven. What this means in gameplay terms is that you now have 135 new cards to play around with, a couple of simple yet incredibly potent new mechanics, as well as a Standard Mode without Whispers of the Old Gods, One Night in Kharazan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan cards.
You can find the full list of new cards, as well as all of their effects, over at the official website. If you prefer to see them in action, however, you'll be glad to hear that just by logging in you will be granted 3 The Witchwood card packs and a random new Legendary. Additionally, your odds of getting new Legendary cards are greatly increased while opening your first dozen or so packs, so make sure to take advantage of that feature as well.
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia will bring with it a greatly improved politics & intrigue system
- By Ash
- in News
The upcoming Thrones of Britannia is going to be the very first of the new Total War Saga spin-off series. In other words, instead of covering a large stretch of territory across an equally large time frame, Thrones of Britannia will narrow down the focus to the British Isles and the most interesting events that happened after the English king Alfred the Great halted the Viking invasion in 878 AD.
In gameplay terms this means you can expect to see a smaller amount of more interesting and unique factions, "the most detailed Total War map yet", plenty of local flavor, as well as a variety of gameplay improvements. A little while ago Creative Assembly highlighted most of the combat additions and changes, while this time around it is the politics & intrigue system that's getting all of the spotlight. Have a gander, it's quite an interesting video:
Shovel Knight has now sold two million copies, although the two expansions were "not worth it financially"
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Shovel Knight devs are working on a new 8-bit action-adventure - Mina the Hollower!
In an update that came as a bit of a surprise to me, Shovel Knight's developer Yacht Club Games announced that they have now managed to sell two million copies. I genuinely expected that number to be much higher given how fun Shovel Knight truly is, as well as how many platforms it has appeared on over the years. That said, two million sales is still a pretty darn impressive accomplishment!
"Just 18 months after its original debut, Shovel Knight surpassed one million copies sold total. Since then, the road to 2 million has been arduous but at the very end of February, an extensive 26 months later, we reached a colossal milestone," reads the developer update. "Thank you everyone for your unbelievable support! It is so inspiring that people still pick up, play, and fall in love with Shovel Knight for the first time every day."