Apex Legends' Season 13 preview is here to show off the new defense-focused legend Newcastle
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Season 13 - Saviors has now arrived alongside a whole host of balance changes.
I hope you're ready for a bit of a shake-up, because Apex Legends' chunky Season 13 update is coming this May 10th, 2022. It'll bring with it Bangalore's brother Newcastle as a brand new and defense-focused legend, a couple of fun new locations to spice up the Storm Point map, the usual assortment of new skins and cosmetics to collect, as well as yet another rebalance of how ranked play progression works.
Unfortunately, the rumors about the Nemesis assault rifle being a part of Season 13 have ended up not being true. Whether the weapon will arrive in a subsequent update, or if the whole thing was scrapped entirely somewhere along the way, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
New and improved Outward: Definitive Edition is launching on May 17th, 2022
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
[Update]: Outward: Definitive Edition has now been unleashed alongside a surprisingly musical trailer!
As I've talked about throughout my review, Outward is a brutal yet enthralling exploration-focused RPG, quite similar to the Gothic or Risen series. If that sounds like exactly the kind of adventure you'd like to dive into, you'll be happy to hear that the new and improved Outward: Definitive Edition is launching on May 17th, 2022 for PC, PlayStation and Xbox!
The Definitive Edition will come bundled with both of the expansions, The Soroboreans and The Three Brothers, as well as a whole host of balance tweaks, quality-of-life improvements and brand new content. The exact list of additions hasn't been announced just yet, but given my experience with Outward, it's probably going to involve being chased around by something big and scary!
Northgard's Sword & Solace update has spruced up everything from multiplayer to the UI
- By Ash
- in News
Given that Shiro Games have literally just released Dune: Spice Wars into Early Access, I figured they would take a little break from Northgard in order to give the new game a bit of a head start. However, in a refreshing twist, they've instead decided to unleash a rather chunky and quality-of-life focused update for Northgard!
The freshly released Sword & Solace brings with it an assortment of UI improvements to fix inconsistencies between the various menus, as well as to make creating and accessing custom games an easier process. Similarly, the multiplayer ranking system (Glory Points) has been greatly broadened, on top of making it so only players within a certain Glory Point range can join the same lobbies. This should hopefully result in much more balanced matches all across the board.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has now arrived with a ton of new and remastered content
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
After being delayed time and time again, The Stanley Parable's remastered and enhanced Ultra Deluxe version has now finally been unleashed! It brings with it a variety of visual improvements while still staying true to the original's style, as well as a ton of new content and secrets to explore!
The exact list of changes is nowhere to be found, which is probably for the best as The Stanley Parable is one of those games you really want to experience without any sort of foreknowledge. After all, driving the poor narrator insane is a whole lot funnier when you're actually trying to do the right thing!
Dying Light 1 has upgraded everyone to the Enhanced Edition for free, including the expansion
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: After seven years of updates and support, the Dying Light team is finally moving on.
[Update]: Dying Light studio Techland is working on a massive, fantasy themed open world RPG.
While Dying Light 2 has some serious issues that will need to be sorted out before it becomes the premier bandit-kicking simulator, I have absolutely no doubt that Techland will manage to succeed purely because of how well they've treated the original. In fact, despite Dying Light 1 being over seven years old at this point, Techland has just released a brand new update for it!
More on that in a second, because the most important part of the announcement is that everyone with a Standard Edition has just been upgraded to the Enhanced Edition for free! So regardless of when you've bought Dying Light you'll now have access to the excellent The Following expansion, along with the Bozak Horde, Cuisine and Cargo, Ultimate Survivor and Crash Test skin DLCs. The DLCs aren't all that impressive if memory serves, but getting The Following expansion for free is definitely a neat gift.
Martial arts roguelike Sifu has added new difficulty modes alongside an improved training arena
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Sifu will be coming to Steam in March 2023 alongside a new Arena Mode.
[Update]: Sifu's summer update has now arrived with 11 gameplay modifiers to tweak and 8 'cheats' to mess around with.
Whether you're looking for a relaxing experience or a heart-pounding challenge, the martial arts roguelike Sifu's latest update should have you covered. On the easier side of things you now have the Student difficulty mode that gives you more life to work with, while also making enemies less aggressive and reactive. On top of that bosses have simpler patterns for you to memorize and counter, which should make the whole experience a lot less punishing.
Unsurprisingly, the Master difficulty mode is the complete opposite. You have less life to work with, enemies are going to do their best to inconvenience you at every step and react far faster to your attacks, while the bosses themselves are getting tricky new patterns for you to contend with. Master difficulty isn't something I'd recommend for your first playthrough, but if you don't mind repeatedly sweeping the floor with your face while you master the combat, it could be a rather fun challenge.
Overwatch 2 beta update has rebalanced supports and given Zenyatta a mighty kick
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: Overwatch 2's PvP mode is going free-to-play and launching on October 4th, 2022!
[Update]: Overwatch 2 is looking to rework Junkrat, Symmetra and Moira, as well as give Mercy a proper super-jump.
While most of the reworked tanks in the Overwatch 2 beta felt straight up amazing to play, the support heroes desperately needed a bit more work as they just didn't gel well with the new 5v5 environment. So in an effort to bring the support class up to speed, as well as correct some of the more obvious balance issues, Blizzard has now released the very first beta update.
Lucio's self-healing has been toned down due to how well it compounded with the new support role passive healing, while Ana's biotic grenade has had its duration reduced in order to make it less of a tank killer. On the completely opposite side of things, Baptiste's healing ammo has been increased, Brigitte's shield bash knockback has been doubled, and most excitingly of all, Zenyatta has received more health alongside a new passive ability that boosts his melee damage and makes him punt enemies a good few meters!