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[Update]: Patch 11.21 has now arrived, and with it All Chat has gone *poof*.
In an effort to combat League of Legend's problem with toxicity, Riot has now opted to go with some rather drastic measures. As such, once update 11.21 arrives the long-standing all chat option will be temporarily going away in order to monitor its impact on the amount of reports and penalties, as well as the changes in negative behavior among the community.
"While /all chat can be the source of fun social interaction between teams, as well as some good-hearted banter, right now negative interactions outweigh the positives," reads the developer update. "We'll evaluate the impact of this change through verbal abuse reports and penalty rates, as well as surveys and direct feedback from you all."
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[Update #2]: The latest gameplay preview offers a closer look at a siege battle between Tzeentch (attackers) and Cathay (defenders).
[Update]: Creative Assembly has now detailed the Tzeentch faction and its crazy campaign mechanics.
While Total War: Warhammer is a brilliant series, and one that has devoured more of my free time than I'm willing to admit, it has always had one major issue dragging it down - siege battles. Despite being the most numerous battles past the first 100 turns, sieges are overly simplistic and monotonous, as well as extremely easy to trivialize due to the weak AI.
Thankfully, this won't be a problem for much longer as Total War: Warhammer 3 will bring with it a major rework of sieges as a whole! Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the recently posted preview as it highlights exactly what Creative Assembly is doing in order to make sieges more interesting, strategic, and most importantly of all, fun. Have a little peek:
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[Update]: The third End of Dragons beta is coming this October 26, 2021 with the Mechinist, Specter and Untamed
Guild Wars 2's third expansion End of Dragons is set to arrive in February 2022, bringing with it the long-awaited return of Cantha - the southwestern continent not seen since the original Guild Wars. Besides a bunch of new areas to explore, End of Dragons will also add nine new specializations to play around with, a combat-focused turtle mount that seats two players, new endgame content, as well as both a fishing profession and player-controlled boats!
While ArenaNet has sadly not shown off all of those things just yet, I'm happy to say that the two freshly posted previews have now given us a glimpse at the Shining Jea Island zone, the fishing profession, as well as the personal skiffs. Have a peek:
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[Update]: Halloween Terror 2021 event has now gone live, and sadly there is absolutely no new PvE content. On the positive side, the accompanying update did add some awesome Mercy improvements!
Given that Halloween is fast approaching it should come as little surprise to hear that Blizzard has now announced that Overwatch's annual Halloween Terror event is coming back once more. What might come as quite a surprise, however, is that they did not leave much time between the announcement and its release!
So if you're in the mood for some spooky, scary skins, you'll be pleased to hear that Halloween Terror 2021 will be launching this October 12th! The event will last until November 2nd, and much like before, will bring with it an assortment of new and old cosmetics to collect, as well as the co-op focused Junkenstein’s Revenge mode.
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[Update]: After two years of updates, Grounded has now finally been unleashed from Early Access!
While the initial version of Grounded suffered from a rather severe lack of content, things are looking a lot better these days thanks to a steady stream of updates. In fact, the backyard is about to become even bigger as Obsidian is currently testing the rather hefty new Hot and Hazy update.
You can expect to see four new zones to explore (more on that in a bit), significant updates to the Haze biome, an assortment of new bugs to beat up, as well as plenty of fancy new equipment to craft. Most interestingly of all, the update will also bring with it both personal and party-wide stat upgrades in the form of vitamins scattered across the yard, thus even further encouraging exploration!
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[Update]: Crytek has announced that they're working on the long-awaited Crysis 4.
It has taken quite a few months since the release of Crysis Remastered, but soon the remastered trilogy will finally be complete. According to a brief announcement by Crytek, the Crysis Remastered Trilogy will be heading over to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 15th.
Much like before, you can expect to see the remasters bring with them high definition textures, enhanced lighting, better character and weapon models, as well as a variety of other visual improvements. As for what exactly this might look like in actual gameplay, that you can find out through the recently posted launch trailer:
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I hope you're in the mood for a Ubisoft themed open world game, because Far Cry 6 has just been unleashed onto PC and consoles. It once again brings with it a massive and varied map to explore, a tyrannical ruler to take down, as well as a whole assortment of modern and makeshift weaponry to utilize as you cause untold chaos and irreparable damage to a lovely, tropical paradise.
If you're wondering what all of this looks like in actual gameplay, wonder no more as Ubisoft has recently posted an extended gameplay preview showing off the first two hours of Far Cry 6. I wouldn't recommend watching the whole thing due to the numerous spoilers, but simply skipping around the video should still give you a pretty strong impression of just what Far Cry 6 is trying to be. Have a gander:
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[Update #2]: Creative Assembly has now detailed the Tzeentch faction and its crazy campaign mechanics.
[Update]: It has finally happened! Creative Assembly has now unveiled the full scope of Total War: Warhammer 3's siege rework!
Given that last week's preview gave us a closer look at some of Cathay's units, I figured today would finally be the day we see what Tzeentch's schemes will bring to Total War: Warhammer 3. However, in a rather surprising twist, Creative Assembly has decided to stop with the small teasers and instead opted to detail every single unit in the Cathay army!
Unsurprisingly, Cathay takes a great deal of inspiration from Chinese history and myths, though thankfully it doesn't just go for the usual clichés. Instead, I'm happy to say that Games Workshop and Creative Assembly have managed to create a rather unique and interesting faction despite many of their units being similar to those already available to the various human empires.
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[Update #2]: Back 4 Blood's Tunnels of Terror expansion is coming this April 12, 2022 with new characters and enemies.
[Update]: Back 4 Blood has now landed onto PC and consoles, and so far it's looking pretty solid.
A fair bit of time has gone by since the open beta, so if you're itching to dive back into the Left 4 Dead inspired Back 4 Blood you'll be happy to hear that you won't have to wait all that long. In fact, it's only a matter of days as Back 4 Blood will be launching onto PC, Xbox and PlayStation this October 12, 2021!
The launch version will bring with a whole bunch of maps spread across multiple campaigns, a variety of previously unseen characters and upgrades, as well as some much-needed balance fixes and changes based on beta feedback. Personally, I'm hoping to see some major improvements to the companion AI, because trying to play solo in the beta was an exercise in sheer frustration due to the bots being unable to reliably handle any of the special enemies.
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[Update]: After a decade of waiting, Alan Wake 2 is finally heading over to PC and consoles in 2023.
If you're a fan of highly atmospheric horror games and you've somehow managed to avoid giving Alan Wake a try all this time, you might be interested to hear that the new and improved Alan Wake Remastered has now arrived. The remastered version brings with it 4K visuals, support for modern resolutions, reworked character models and cutscenes, as well as a bunch of other graphical improvements.
As for what exactly all of this looks like in actual gameplay, that you can get a glimpse at through the recently posted launch trailer. Have a look: