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After a couple of sets that borrowed heavily from our modern day, real world, I'm pleased to say that Magic has now returned to a more fantastical and grounded setting - the plane of Tarkir. As you would expect from a set...uhhhh, set on Tarkir, the freshly launched Dragonstorm is full of all sorts of dragons, a plethora of cards representing each of the five tri-color clans, as well as a surprisingly large chunk of individually powerful cards that will likely remain relevant for a very long time.
With all of that in mind, I'm sure it'll come as a massive shock to hear that Dragonstorm has been a raging success so far! Hopefully this means we'll get more traditional Magic sets in the future rather than ones where popular characters do random cosplay, because after MKM, OTJ and DFT, I must admit I missed some good ol' fashioned fantasy.
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If you've somehow managed to avoid playing Metro 2033 or its Redux variant all these years, I'm happy to say I bring some good news. The original Metro 2033 is currently celebrating its 15th anniversary, and in order to get everyone in on the action 4A Games are now giving away Metro 2033 Redux on Steam.
The giveaway will end at 5pm on April 16th, so while you do have a little bit of leeway, I'd highly recommend grabbing it sooner rather than later, lest you forget. And once you have added it to your account, it'll be yours to keep for good. Don't worry, you won't have to finish the whole game in a single day!
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Two years have gone by since The Last of Us Part I first arrived onto PC, and while it has been quite a excruciating wait, I'm happy to say that The Last of Us Part II Remastered has now finally landed as well in order to get the PC squad up to speed on the whole story. In terms of features the PC version brings with it HDR and ultrawide support, a variety of graphic options to mess around with, as well as the now-standard support for upscaling technology like NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3.1, and AMD FSR 4.0.
While not particularly relevant for us on PC given that this is the only version available, the Remastered upgrade brings with it a roguelike survival mode with a bunch of different characters, an in-game tour of three early-development levels that ended up getting cut and, a personal favorite, hours of developer commentary sprinkled throughout the game for those of us that like to peek behind the curtains!
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Despite the humble name, Dota 2's Patch 7.38 is one of the most ambitious updates the team has ever done. As you would expect, with great changes come great balance problems! So much so that even Valve, a developer that is notoriously slow and cautious, has now released three hotfixes in a relatively short amount of time in order to iron out all of the kinks.
The newest of the bunch, Patch 7.38c, brings with it a couple of changes to the Dire side of the map, as well as a plethora of rebalances for the freshly reworked neutral items. The all-powerful Mana Draught has been nerfed yet again, though I imagine it's still going to be the best item for any spellcaster, while the somewhat mediocre Pollywog Charm and Ripper's Lash have received a small yet still very relevant buff.
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It took an entire decade for us to get here, but Magic: The Gathering will finally be returning to the plane of Tarkir this April 8th on MTG Arena, with the tabletop release following shortly after on April 11th. As you would expect from a set called Tarkir: Dragonstorm, there will be a massive amount of flying lizards to mess around with, as well as a plethora of cards representing each of the five tri-color clans. The main goal behind the set, according to Wizards of the Coast, was to create a nice middle ground between Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir which, so far, they seem to have done rather admirably.
You can check out the full list of cards, as well as their various alternate arts, over at the official card gallery. Before you get too excited about some of the inclusions, it's important to note that the Ultimatums and Fetchlands are a part of the Special Guests bonus sheet and are therefore not legal in Standard. Don't be too disappointed if you open any, however, as not only do they come with cool artwork, but most of the bonus cards have some sort of place in older formats.
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[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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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To say that people have spent a long time waiting for Squadron 42, Star Citizen's singleplayer, spaceflight sim spin-off, would be quite an understatement. I say this because Squadron 42 was first announced 12 years ago, all the way back in October of 2012, which is just wild to even think about!
And now, after over a decade of on-and-off development, it looks like Squadron 42 will finally be launching for real. The exact release date hasn't been set just yet, but the recently posted gameplay reveal promises a 2026 launch. Given how things go with any Star Citizen announcement I'm fully expecting at least a couple of delays, but even so it's good to see the team commit to actually releasing a full game instead of just creating, dismantling and then recreating it forever in an ultimately futile pursuit of perfect.