Mirror's Edge, Spore, and The Saboteur are now available DRM-free on GOG
- By Ash
- in News
A little while back EA teamed up with GOG to release Dragon Age: Origins, Dead Space, and Simcity 3000 as DRM-free downloads, something that came as a rather massive surprise to me given that the two are pretty much direct competitors. However, this deal apparently went over extremely well as they have teamed up once again to release another batch of DRM-free games.
While the previous trio contained only classics, the newcomers are a bit... nuanced when it comes to quality. As you've probably figured out from the title, they new additions to GOG's DRM-free library are Mirror's Edge, Spore, and The Saboteur. Neither of them are bad by any stretch. I'd even go as far as to say that they're all enjoyable games in their own right, but there are certainly a lot of flaws you'll need to overlook in order to find such a joy.
The first big balancing patch for World of Warcraft: Legion is coming soon... and its a bit of a mixed bag
- By Ash
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During the most recent round of hotfixes Blizzard promised a massive balancing patch as soon as they've gathered a significant amount of data from the Emerald Nightmare raid, and sure enough, the balance patch will be released during the upcoming server reset. Unfortunately for those of you that have been coddled by the Overwatch team and their gentle approach to balance, the World of Warcraft team has once again decided to deploy the company sledgehammer in order to deal with the problematic classes.
Most of the changes are actually quite good, don't get me wrong, but when it comes to Shadow Priests, Protection Warriors, and Havoc Demon Hunters one really starts to wonder if the developers even playtested any of these changes. You can find the full patch notes by heading over here, but for now allow me to present you the changes I find particularly troublesome:
Prison Architect, Devil Daggers, and Punch Club are a part of the current Humble Bundle
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Humble Bundle has been on a roll these past few months, delivering entire batches of quality games, both indie and AAA. The same applies to the recently released Humble Jumbo Bundle 7, though the focus is more on the indie side of things this time around.
So what exactly does the Jumbo Bundle bring with it? Well, the first tier includes the old school classic RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Triple Thrill Pack, the action-packed FPS Devil Daggers, as well as a roguelike by the name of Runestone Keeper. The second, or rather the $5.33 and above tier, brings with it another classic in the shape of Stronghold Crusader 2, but also Prison Architect, and Punch Club. The final $10 and above tier features Miscreated, an Early Access survival game with some rather mixed reviews behind it.
The next Overwatch patch will be slightly nerfing Ana, but also buffing Widowmaker and Junkrat
- By Ash
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For those of you that haven't been paying attention to the Overwatch competitive scene these past few weeks, it is mostly dominated by 0-3-3 compositions. In other words, three tanks and three healers, all focused around Ana and her rapidly charging ultimate. Given how absurd things have become lately it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to hear that Blizzard has decided to slightly nerf the charge speed on Ana's ultimate. However, if you're a fan of her playstyle I wouldn't worry too much about this nerf as you'll also be getting a range increase for the always useful Biotic Grenade.
On the other side of the spectrum we have Widowmaker and Junkrat, two heroes that occasionally make a blip in the competitive scene, but are mostly underplayed due to some severe weaknesses. In order to hopefully correct this Blizzard has decided to decrease the amount of time it takes for Widowmaker to scope in, while good ol' Trashmouse will now be able to start up his RIP-Tire almost twice as quickly, essentially removing his overly long period of complete vulnerability.
You can find the full patch notes by heading over to the Blizzard forums, but if you're just interested in all of the hero changes - here the list:
Sorcery! Part 4 - Crown of Kings Gameplay Showcase - The first ~20 minutes
- By Ash
- in Gameplay Showcase
Sorcery! Part 4 - The Crown of Kings is a story focused adventure/RPG with an intriguing narrative, some unique and interesting characters that can't be described in a single cliche, a world that consistently follows its own rules, and most importantly, the ability to make a personal impact on the story.
Since there aren't that many games like it, especially not these days, I've made a brief gameplay video to show you what exactly Sorcery! is all about. The footage you'll be watching is the first 20 minutes from The Crown of Kings, so don't worry too much about spoilers as this is only a tiny slice of the entire game. Here's the video:
Valve has recently added a couple of new features to the Steam Review system
- By Ash
- in News
Whether you like it or not, the Steam Review system plays an important role in the success of any game on Steam. Unfortunately for us all, it is also a system that is incredibly open towards abuse and 'joke reviews' that add absolutely nothing of consequence, and yet constantly hog the top position due to their brevity. Thankfully, Valve is well aware of these issues as they have just recently added a couple of new and highly requested features to the Steam Review system.
The first of these new features is the ability to separate reviews based on purchase type. In other words, the ability to only read reviews from people that purchased the game directly from Steam, rather than from other third party websites or developer giveaways. This change will not affect a game's overall score as that was always based only on customers that purchased it via Steam, but it does give you the means to focus only on the reviews you might be interested in.
FromSoftware has released a lengthy gameplay preview for Dark Souls 3's Ashes of Ariandel DLC
- By Ash
- in News
The Dark Souls series has always had excellent DLC, so much so that I'm willing to say it was better than the games it expanded upon. This goes doubly so for Dark Souls 2 given that its DLC is some of the best Souls gameplay I've ever experienced, and I've played through the entirety of the series multiple times! With that in mind I hope you can now understand why exactly there is so much excitement for Dark Souls 3's upcoming Ashes of Ariandel DLC.
And to add further fuel onto the fire, FromSoftware has recently posted a rather lengthy gameplay preview showcasing a frozen wasteland, a giant viking, and a few snippets of the bosses we'll be able to spar against. The spoilers are minimal, but even so, do be warned if you want to have a completely 'pure' playthrough. Anyway, here's the video: