Overwatch's newest hero, a support sniper named Ana, is now available on the test realm
- By Ash
- in News
After briefly teasing a sniper rifle with the capability to heal, Blizzard has finally unleashed all of the information on Overwatch's latest addition - Ana. As you can probably guess from the name alone, she's in no way related the mysterious Sombra, a character who was widely rumored to be the very support sniper we received today.
As for her abilities, Ana can use her sniper rifle to either heal allies or deliver continuous damage to enemies (no headshot bonus though), briefly put opponents to sleep or until they take damage, and even throw a grenade that spreads a healing/damaging field. While most of these abilities offer a choice between damage and healing, Ana's ultimate is all about destruction as it allows you to briefly increase an ally's movement speed, damage, and damage resistance. Or in other words, make Genji a living nightmare to deal with!
On a somewhat different note, if you're like me and you actually care about the story in an FPS game, you will find Ana's Origin Story Trailer right below:
Long War Studios have released two new sizeable XCOM 2 mods
- By Ash
- in News
Long War Studios, the folks behind the rather amazing "Long War" mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, have returned once again to lend their expertise to XCOM 2.
This time around they're bringing in two mods at the same time, one that adds a brand new tier of laser weaponry to equip your soldiers with, and another that brings forth more than 70 new and reworked abilities that can be assigned to your soldiers, gear, and even the aliens themselves. As before, these mods are completely free and can be downloaded from the Steam Workshop along with the rest of the Long War Studio's repertoire.
Here's a brief rundown on what to expect from the two mods:
Song of the Deep - Detailed Review (PC Version)
- By Ash
- in Reviews
The amount of places you can explore through games these days is nearly limitless. You can strap on a rifle and witness the horrors of D-Day firsthand, you can put on your wizard's hat and act as an errand boy for a whole variety of fantasy races, and you can even become a space-trucker, endlessly delivering cargo between the stars. What you can't do very often, however, is explore the sea.
This is where Insomniac's Song of the Deep, a metroidvania-styled action adventure, comes in to play. Not only does it allow you to dive below the waves and observe the ocean's splendor, it manages to do so in a way that is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, a notion you will only truly come to understand when you're swimming through the dark, open ocean with monstrous giants for company. Whether its any good or not though, that is a question that's not easy to answer.
Warfarme's recent update has streamlined map progression and added space cats as companions
- By Ash
- in News
After what feels like an entire year in development, Warframe has finally received the much-needed Star Chart update. No longer will new and old players alike stare in utter confusion at a constantly spinning circle of poorly marked levels.
Besides the Star Chart rework, the Specters of the Rail update brings with it brand new companions, a race of space cats called the Kavats, as well as numerous improvements to the Archwing game mode, a visual redesign of the marketplace, and the merger between void and normal missions. Here's a trailer to illustrate all of that with some pretty pictures:
Starbound is leaving Early Access on July 22
- By Ash
- in News
After what feels like an eternity, but in reality is "only" 5 years, Starbound is finally nearing completion. In mere two weeks, July 22nd to be specific, Starbound will be leaving Steam's Early Access program and setting off towards the stars.
If you're wondering what Starbound looks like after all these years, here's a Youtube recording of the announcement stream where you'll be able to see a bunch of gameplay along with developer commentary:
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is free on Uplay for the next few days
- By Ash
- in News
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is a classic action adventure released in the ancient times of 2003, and it features a good mixture of combat, platforming, and naturally, puzzling. Its also one of the rare few games that has managed to successfully use time as a gameplay mechanic and not just a gimmick, both in combat and outside of it.
If this is now making you nostalgic for a series that has unfortunately died out, or if you've simply never played it but are willing to give it a try, you're in luck as Ubisoft is giving it away for free in celebration of their 30th anniversary. And before you ask, no, it has nothing to do with that boring movie! Here's a murky old trailer to hopefully give you an idea of what you're getting into:
Summer Games Done Quick 2016 has concluded with $1,300,000 raised for charity
- By Ash
- in News
Summer Games Done Quick, a community hosted event where speedrunners from all over the world gather to completely break the games you know and love, has recently concluded with around $1,300,000 raised in the name of charity. In this case, all of the money gathered throughout the event will be donated to Doctors without Borders, a charity organization dedicated to providing medical aid wherever its needed.
If you didn't know about it until now, or if you simply couldn't spare the time to watch the stream throughout the week, worry not as all of the runs have been archived on Youtube. Here's a few of my favorite from this year's SGDQ, and if you only have the time to watch a couple, make sure its these ones: