Doom's recent Update 6.66 has made all of the DLC available for free
- By Ash
- in News
In a bit of a surprise update Bethesda and id have made all of Doom's multiplayer DLC and weapons available for free! I'm still not a big fan of Doom's multiplayer, but even I must admit there is now a rather impressive amount of content to be explored, and all of it is in addition to the downright excellent singleplayer campaign.
Besides all of the free DLC, Update 6.66 has also revamped the multiplayer progression system to remove randomness and promote in-game challenges. In other words, instead of hoping the gods of randomness will give you the unlock you seek, items are now obtained through either specific level requirements or in-game challenges that can be completed at any time. For example, if there's a specific helmet you need to complete your awesome armor set, you now have the ability to get it directly as long as you're willing to focus your playstyle on whatever the challenge requires. Its a simple system, but it should be an effective one.
Path of Exile developers have detailed the upcoming Harbinger Challenge League
- By Ash
- in News
Path of Exile will soon be getting its biggest expansion yet - The Fall of Oriath. Once it arrives the expansion will bring with it six new acts, thus completely removing the need for multiple difficulty levels and constant replaying of the same few zones, as well as a whole bunch of new enemies (including the damnable Bonewheel Skeletons from Dark Souls), spells, bosses, and the list goes on for quite a long while.
As is tradition with pretty much any major Path of Exile update, there will also be a brand new Challenge League for everyone to enjoy in both Softcore and Hardcore variants. The league in question is simply called "The Harbinger Challenge League", and as you might expect from the name alone you will be spending a whole lot of time fighting the new and mysterious Harbingers.
Immortal Planet, an action-RPG with a focus on challenging combat, has now arrived on Steam
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Immortal Planet is a Dark Souls inspired action-RPG with a focus on challenging combat that rewards patience and timing above all else. In gameplay terms this means that all of your enemies and bosses will have clearly defined patterns you'll need to spot and exploit, lest you find yourself becoming yet another red stain on the floor. Chances are you're going to die quite a lot before you get the hang of things, but much like Dark Souls death should be treated as nothing more than a learning experience, so don't stress too much if you find yourself failing over and over again - we've all been there.
If you're interested in seeing how all of this translates into gameplay, you'll find one of the recently posted trailers down below. Its not overly long, but there's enough gameplay in there to give you a pretty good idea of just what kind of ARPG you're getting yourself into. Have a look:
Total War: Warhammer devs have released a lengthy video detailing Norsca's campaign mechanics
- By Ash
- in News
Instead of the usual pre-order bonus Total War: Warhammer 2 will be giving everyone who purchases the game before or within the first week of launch access to the newly revealed Norsca faction. More importantly, you won't have to wait until Total War: Warhammer 2 arrives in order to play as the demonic vikings and their beastly minions - they will be coming to the original Total War: Warhammer on August 10th!
Like all other Factions that came before them, Norsca will bring with it two distinct tribes with their own Legendary Lords (Wulfrik the Wanderer and Throgg), a whole bunch of new units and mechanics, as well as the ability to align yourself to a specific god of Chaos! While the combat reveal has not yet arrived, Creative Assembly did just post a rather lengthy gameplay video showcasing the Norsca campaign and its mechanics, so if you're interested in seeing what they have to offer you'll find the video right below. Have a look:
Civilization VI's Summer Update has now arrived with Nubia and a whole host of balance changes
- By Ash
- in News
After a rather lengthy period of no changes Firaxis has now updated Civilization VI with the rather plainly named Summer Update. The patch has brought with it the option to regenerate a map with the single press of a button, the ability to save game configurations and settings for future matches, a variety of balance changes for Districts and individual factions, and the list goes on for quite a while.
Besides all of the adjustments, the Summer Update has also brought with it the Nubia DLC. With Nubia you can expect to see plenty of powerful and easy to build ranged units, as well as the Nubian Pyramid which gives massive bonuses to construction and district yields, perfect for any sort of early-game build. If you're interested in seeing what all of this might look like in-game, here's the recently posted trailer:
The hand-drawn Metroidvania Sundered has now arrived on Steam
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Sundered is a hand-drawn Metroidvania that will have you explore a ruined world teeming with eldritch horrors. Unlike most Metroidvania games, however, Sundered has a mixture of hand-crafted and procedurally generated levels, which in theory should add a ton of replayability and content to explore.
If you're wondering what all of this might look like in gameplay terms, you'll find one of the recent trailers down below. Its not very long, but it sure is lovely to look at. Have a gander:
For Honor developers are now working on dedicated servers, among other major changes
- By Ash
- in News
Despite For Honor being touted as a competitive game, Ubisoft for some reason decided to launch it with absolutely no dedicated servers. While this didn't end up being as big of a problem as I anticipated, it was still incredibly annoying to get randomly booted out of a game, get hit from behind by an enemy that just popped into existence, and other such lovely examples of connection problems.
As such, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that Ubisoft has announced that they are working on dedicated servers, among other major improvements such as better defensive combat, a new tutorial and training arena, as well as a whole bunch of new characters. There is a ridiculous amount of stuff to cover, so if you're interested in all of the details you will find what you seek on the official blog post, but for now allow me to share a few choice quotes about the dedicated servers: