MTG Arena's June update has added 30 new cards and some long-awaited quality-of-life tweaks
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Wizards of the Coast has now unveiled all of July's Baldur's Gate cards that are coming for Historic, Historic Brawl and Alchemy formats.
[Update]: MTG Arena has banned the surprisingly effective Expressive Iteration card from the Explorer format.
In order to help everyone pass the time until the Baldur's Gate set arrives on July 7th, MTG Arena has now unleashed a sizable new update. It brings with it 30 digital-only cards as a part of the Alchemy: New Capenna set, as well as a couple of long-awaited quality-of-life tweaks and improvements.
Unlike the previous sets, Alchemy: New Capenna has a slightly better distribution of card rarities (10 Uncommons, 15 Rares, 5 Mythics) which should make it a little bit easier to collect. And just to make things even more straightforward, Wizards of the Coast has also launched a week-long Alchemy Premier Draft event where one common card in each pack is replaced by a random Streets of New Capenna Alchemy card. In my experience it's not even close to being a balanced format, but it's still a nice little distraction from the usual onslaught of blue-white-green decks in the standard draft mode.
World of Warcraft has added cross-faction grouping and Dark Ranger themed character customization
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: World of Warcraft is introducing cross-server auctions for consumables and crafting materials.
[Update]: World of Warcraft's hopefully down-to-earth Dragonflight expansion will be launching in 2022.
It took many, many years for us to get here, but the day has finally come! As a part of Update 8.2.5, World of Warcraft has now added cross-faction grouping for most forms of instanced content: dungeons, raids, rated arenas and battlegrounds, as well as Torghast.
When in a party with a member from the opposing faction you will remain unfriendly to them out in the world, but as soon as you join an instance together you will be able to do everything from sharing loot to earning achievements together. In order to make the grouping process as simple as possible, Blizzard has made it so you can either invite players from the opposing faction via their BattleTag or cross-faction WoW Community, or simply through the use of the Group Finder. Nice and convenient!
Dota 2's "larger than normal" Patch 7.31d will be launching on June 8th, 2022
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Dota 2's hotly anticipated Patch 7.32 has now arrived with a brand new lane creep and tons of changes!
[Update]: Patch 7.31d has now arrived, and while it's not exactly massive, there's still a lot of interesting stuff on offer.
After a few rounds of teasers, Valve has now finally decided to spill the beans on the next big The International tournament. Long story short, the whole thing will be hosted in Singapore and will consists of three events: the Last Chance Qualifiers from October 8-12, the Group Stage from October 15-18, and the Grand Finals from October 29-30. So if you're a fan of high-level Dota 2, you might want to make some room in your schedule!
However, you won't have to wait all that long for something new and interesting to happen as Valve has also taken this opportunity to tease the next big gameplay update. As such, you can expect Patch 7.31d to arrive this June 8th alongside a much-needed Dota Plus update and a seasonal refresh.
Here are the five most exciting announcements from the Warhammer Skulls 2022 festival
- By Ash
- in News
Warhammer Skulls is an annual event that's here to celebrate everything related to Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 video games. Needless to say, this includes things like reveals of brand new games, major updates for existing ones, as well as a whole assortment of sales to give you an excuse to dive into the universe.
Rather than cover every single small and mostly cosmetic update, allow me to instead share with you the five most exciting announcements from Warhammer Skulls 2022. Without further ado, here's the brief list:
Vermintide 2's June 14th update will add Be'lakor's presence to the rogue-like Chaos Wastes
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: In celebration of the series' seventh anniversary, Vermintide 2 has just added a frigid new map - Trail of Treachery.
[Update]: The Be'lakor update has now arrived, and while a bit buggy, it's still a fair bit of fun.
The Chaos Wastes are Vermintide 2's rogue-like game mode where you and your buddies get to explore an assortment of increasingly more difficult and randomized maps. Along the way you'll have to contend with both positive and negative modifiers, collect a whole bunch of powerful upgrades, and naturally, tear through more ratmen and Chaos worshipers than you could even attempt to count.
It's a really fun game mode, and one that's only going to get better in the near future as Fatshark has used the currently ongoing Warhammer Skulls festival as an opportunity to announce a brand new patch for the Chaos Wastes! Once it arrives this June 14th, the Be’lakor update will bring the dark prince's influence to the Chaos Wastes, and with it a whole host of new modifiers and challenges to overcome.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has revealed the fourth and final Psyker class in a brand new trailer
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: My review for Darktide is now live and, long story short, it's as rough and fascinating as the world it takes place in!
[Update]: I have a few bits of good news to share! First of all, Fatshark has released a fancy new cinematic trailer for Darktide showing off the world and the fate of the fan-favorite Guardsmen squad. Furthermore, there's going to be a pre-launch beta starting on November 17th, and last but not least, Vermintide veterans will be getting a small cosmetic DLC as a gift.
The Warhammer themed Skulls festival has now arrived, bringing with it a whole host of announcements and previews. The Doom inspired 'boomer shooter' Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun has just been pinned for a 2023 release date, the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous team is working on a turn-based CRPG called Rogue Trader, and Fatshark has finally unveiled Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's fourth and final class - the psyker!
Before I go over the new details, allow me to share with you the freshly posted cinematic trailer. It won't tell you much about Darktide's gameplay, but it will give you a pretty good idea of the sort of atmosphere the Fatshark team is going for. Have a gander:
Total War: Warhammer 3's hotly anticipated Immortal Empires is heading into Beta in Q3 2022
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Creative Assembly has now unveiled the truly massive Immortal Empires campaign map!
[Update]: Immortal Empires will be coming in August with 86 playable factions and a bunch of awesome improvements!
According to the recent roadmap, Total War: Warhammer 3's long-awaited Immortal Empires combined campaign map will most likely be launching at some point in September. While the wait is certainly going to be long, it'll all be worth it in the end as Immortal Empires will merge Total War: Warhammer 1, 2 and 3 into one gigantic world that's absolutely overflowing with things to do and places to conquer!
That said, you will have a chance to dive into Immortal Empires a bit ahead of schedule! As their contribution to the Warhammer Skulls festival, Creative Assembly has just announced that Immortal Empires will be heading into Open Beta in Q3 2022.