Dota 2's Patch 7.38b has arrived to fix up some of the recent balance mishaps
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Patch 7.38 really messed things up, because Valve has now released Patch 7.38c in order to sort out even more balance problems!
With Patch 7.38 the Dota 2 team redesigned the map yet again, reworked how neutral items are distributed and, as is tradition, rebalanced just about every single aspect of the game. Unsurprisingly, this sweeping set of changes has resulted in a variety of different bugs, as well as a couple of monumentally overpowered heroes.
So in order to sort out this newfound mess Valve has now unleashed the much humbler though just as important Patch 7.38b. The highlights include nerfs to Glimmer Cape and Orchid Malevolence/Bloodthorn, a widespread rebalance of neutral items, as well as nerfs to some of the overperforming heroes like Abbadon, Dragon Knight, Lifestealer and Nature's Prophet.
Slay the Spire 2, much-anticipated sequel to the phenomenal roguelike deckbuilder, is coming in 2025
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
If you're like me and you've done basically all there is to do in Slay the Spire and you're now hungry for more, you'll be delighted to hear that a sequel has just been announced! Slay the Spire 2 will bring with it a brand new engine with improved visuals and expanded mod support, new characters and mechanics, enemies and treasures, and naturally, a whole boatload of new cards to fling at people!
While it sadly contains no gameplay footage, allow me to share with you the freshly posted trailer as that should give you a bit of an idea of the sort of atmosphere Slay the Spire 2 is going for, as well as who one of the new characters is! Have a peek:
The Dead Cells team has now launched Windblown - a 3D, challenging and fast-paced roguelite
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Given the popularity and quality of Dead Cells I wouldn't have blamed Motion Twin from simply making Dead Cells 2 and going for a near guaranteed success. However, that doesn't seem to be where their passion lies. So instead of doing a retread, they've decided to tackle the roguelite genre from a different direction with the freshly launched Windblown.
We're still talking about a fast-paced and challenging roguelite, though this time around the action is in 3D which means a lot more room to maneuver, a lot trickier attacks to deal with, as well as more potential to outplay your enemies. And the biggest new addition? There's now online co-op so you can relentlessly mock your friends every time they get smashed by a boss!
Once highly popular MOBA Heroes of Newerth is teasing some sort of a revival
- By Ash
- in News
Before Dota 2 and League of Legends became the juggernauts they are today, Heroes of Newerth was the MOBA to play thanks to its highly polished gameplay, creative hero designs, and some really punchy spell effects. Unfortunately due to a variety of missteps, the biggest of which was going buy-to-play despite its competition being free-to-play, Heroes of Newerth slowly but surely found itself getting overshadowed.
It still continued on for many years, but it sadly never managed to find the same success it had in the early days. And so, after twelve years of frantic battles and magical dumpsters, Heroes of Newerth finally closed down its doors in 2022. However, in a little bit of a twist, it seems that this might not be the end of its story!
Dota 2's truly excellent Crownfall event has been extended for a few more weeks
- By Ash
- in News
All good things must come to an end, but sometimes you do get lucky and get a little bit of an extension! So if the holidays have interfered with your ability to finish Dota 2's rather massive Crownfall 'battle pass', you'll be pleased to hear that Valve has extended the event for a couple of extra weeks.
The whole thing will close, for real this time around, on February 6th. What this means is that you have a few additional weeks to collect all of the various rewards found throughout the four maps, as well as potentially find some extra goodies in the Candyworks Caravan as extra weeks means extra re-rolls... as long as you haven't wasted all of your candy like I have!
Darktide's recent Grim Protocols update has added an ultra-challenging new game mode - Havoc!
- By Ash
- in News
If you're like me and you've found yourself wandering away from Darktide for a little while now, you might want to consider coming back as the recently released Grim Protocols update is awesome! The highlights include a whole new game mode with 40 levels of difficulty, a snazzy new map, as well as three new weapon families to help you slice up hordes upon hordes of enemies.
First things first, Havoc is an end-game mode that will have you face off against the worst scenarios that Darktide's AI director can conjure. Expect to see unfavorable modifiers, increased enemy numbers, heightened enemy aggression, more challenging horde compositions, multiple bosses at the same time, and the list goes on and on.
The Wandering Village is a city-building game set atop a gigantic dinosaur
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: The Wandering Village has now stomped its way into Early Access, and so far it's been enjoying mostly positive reviews from the players.
In a bit of an interesting twist on the whole city-building genre, The Wandering Village will you have create a thriving civilization on the back of an absolutely gigantic, dinosaur-like beast! From there your choices will be to either live in harmony with the beast and work together towards the betterment of all, or focus primarily on your own villagers and let the beast fend for itself.
Whatever your choice may be you'll have to grow and gather an assortment of resources in order to keep your humble village running, send out expeditions into the remnants of the ruined world in search of useful technology, as well as handle unique threats that come with each biome the gentle giant decides to wonder through. What this looks like in actual gameplay, however, that you can check out through the reveal trailer below: