World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's January 10th update is all about buffing the underperforming classes and specializations
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[Update]: The balance patch has now gone live, while the cosmetics focused Update 10.0.5 will be launching on January 24th with grey/white transmog and the cosmetics-focused Trading Post!
In order to start off the year on a good note, the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight team has now announced a sizable new update. Once it arrives this January 10th the patch will beef up a variety of underperforming classes and specializations in an effort to make them a more competitive option in endgame PvE and PvP content.
Before you get too excited, it's important to mention that the vast majority of the buff are purely numerical, so any sort of mechanical problems you might have with your favorite class will have to wait a little while longer. That said, there's a ton of seemingly massive tweaks coming with the January 10th update, so I'm fully expecting the meta to get a proper shake-up regardless.
Returnal, PlayStation 5's third-person roguelike, will be heading over to PC "soon"
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[Update]: It's official - Returnal will be launching onto PC this February 15th, 2023! It's also worth mentioning that the PC system requirements have been slightly adjusted. The most important thing to note is that you'll only need 16 GB or RAM for the recommended 1080p/60fps settings rather than the previously stated 32 GB.
If you're in the mood for blasting apart all sorts of bizarre alien creatures with a constantly shifting arsenal, you might be interested to hear that the PlayStation 5 exclusive third-person roguelike Returnal is heading over to PC. The exact release date has not been announced just yet, though you can expect to see it arrive in the near future.
Similarly the exact list of improvements has not been revealed, but given the teasers and the rather spicy system requirements I can only imagine the PC will be getting some sort of major upgrades. The biggest indicator here are the recommended settings as the developers are suggesting 32 GB of RAM, which is double the usual recommendation from even the biggest AAA games.
Co-op focused shooter World War Z is adding Horde Mode XL with an utterly absurd number of zombies to fight
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[Update]: The Horde Mode XL update has now arrived, and I'm happy to say the new weapon progression system is looking quite good!
While the name might imply it's some sort of cheap cash-grab, World War Z is actually a surprisingly solid co-op shooter that had a lot of love and care poured into it. In fact, despite launching World War Z all the way back in 2019, the Saber Interactive team has just announced a brand new update for it!
Once it arrives this January 24th, World War Z's Horde Mode XL will bring with it a truly absurd number of zombies to fight, by which I mean over 1000 at a time! What this sort of madness looks like in action, that you can get a little sneak peek at through the teaser trailer below. Have a gander:
Overwatch 2's Battle for Olympus update has arrived with a fun novelty game mode and some truly awful challenges
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[Update #2]: Overwatch 2's likely final Season 2 update has now nerfed Roadhog, Sojourn, Kiriko and Orisa.
[Update]: Overwatch 2's Lunar New Year 2023 event has now landed alongside Capture the Flag and very little else.
In order to add a little bit extra pizazz to the currently ongoing Season 2, Blizzard has now unleashed the new Battle for Olympus free-for-all deathmatch mode. The whole event will last until January 19th and, true to its name, offer you a gigantic brawl between seven heroes (Junker Queen, Reinhardt, Ramattra, Roadhog, Pharah, Widowmaker and Lucio) with super-powered ultimates and ridiculous power spikes.
Widowmaker is able to petrify her enemies, Pharah can soar across the sky while using her rocket barrage, Junker Queen wields the power of lightning, and Roadhog has decided that chucking boulders out of his gun is a highly entertaining way to spend the evening. Needless to say, the new game mode is an enjoyable little distraction, though definitely not something you'd want to commit a serious amount of hours into given that it's more of a novelty than anything else.
Steam Awards 2022 winners have now been revealed, though unfortunately they're somewhat uninspired
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[Update]: Steam's sizable Summer Sale 2023 has now arrived and will stick around all the way until July 13th.
After tallying all of the votes cast during the recent Steam Winter Sale, Valve has now unveiled all eleven winners of the Steam Awards 2022. Unfortunately, as is often the case with popularity-driven contests, the winners are quite uninspired as it's mostly just a bunch of super-popular games rather than ones that might better represent their category.
First things first, allow me to share with you a quick rundown of the eleven categories and their winners so you'll have a better idea of what I'm yammering about:
Physics-based sandbox Kerbal Space Program and the stealth-focused Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice are free for a week
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If you feel like your backlog just isn't big enough, even with all of the holiday sales and giveaways, you might be interested to hear that Kerbal Space Program and Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice are currently free to grab. Simply head on over to the Epic Games Store, add the games to your account, and you'll be good to go.
As always, there is a bit of a time limit you'll need to keep in mind. In this case the giveaway will be ending on January 12th, though once you've claimed the games you'll be able to keep playing them for however long you want. So take a few minutes now and grab the freebies before you forget all about them.
Vampire Survivors devs have revealed their plans for 2023, including new content and an engine upgrade
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update #2]: Vampire Survivors is getting an animated show, along with even more free updates throughout the Summer!
[Update]: Vampire Survivors' second expansion has brought in a huge new map, 8 characters and 13 weapons.
Back in early 2022 the Vampire Survivors team rather optimistically announced that they will be doing a massive engine upgrade at some point in summer. This upgrade was not only supposed to significantly increase the performance (perhaps even up to ten times), but also give the developers a lot more freedom when it comes to designing new stages, items and weapons.
Needless to say, this didn't exactly go according to plan, though you'll be happy to hear that they're not giving up! According to the latest developer update they'll be working on it throughout early 2023, so with a bit of luck we might see the big upgrade sooner rather than later. Since the two versions will likely have some notable differences, the Vampire Survivors team will be maintaining both versions until 2024, at which point they'll fully commit to the new and improved one.