Total War: Warhammer screenshot of the mighty Ghorgon

[Update]: Creative Assembly has now corrected the recent bugs and made cavalry charges a lot more effective across the board.

After a myriad of awesome updates and a whole boatload of new content, Total War: Warhammer 2 has now reached the end of its journey. Don't be too sad, however, as Creative Assembly has decided to send it off with one of the biggest and most ambitious updates the game has ever seen!

On the paid side of things we have the new The Silence & The Fury DLC which brings with it Taurox and Oxyotl as new Legendary Lords for the Beastmen and Lizardmen respectively, a whole bunch of massive new units to fill out both rosters, and perhaps most importantly of all, unique campaign mechanics for both factions to really help spice things up. Here's a little sneak peek at what all of this looks like in action:

[Update #2]: MTG Arena has banned Tibalt's Trickery and Memory Lapse from the Historic format.

[Update]: MTG Arena is soon adding a bunch of Modern Horizons 1 and 2 cards, alongside 31 brand new ones.

Once the next set arrives in September, four of the currently oldest Standard sets will rotate out of the format. Given that these four sets (Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and Core Set 2021) represent some of the strongest cards currently available in Standard, the upcoming rotation is promising to seriously shake up the metagame.

So in order to give players a chance to prepare for this, MTG Arena has recently introduced a brand new Standard 2022 game mode. However, while it's certainly a lot of fun to play with previously mediocre cards, the format has brought with it one major problem - The Book of Exalted Deeds combo.

Apex Legends artwork for the new Overflow Arena map

[Update]: Apex Legends' Season 10 is launching on August 3 alongside a new Legend, weapon and map rework.

The Genesis event has only just finished, and already Apex Legends has brought in a fancy new replacement. The freshly launched Thrillseekers event brings with it a variety of new cosmetics to collect, both paid and free, as well as a rather hot new Arena map to shake things up.

Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the recently posted trailer. It'll give you a pretty good idea of what the new Overflow map looks like, as well as what sort of theme they're going for with this batch of cosmetics. Have a gander:

Warframe screenshot of the Tannukai armor set and weapon

[Update]: After four years of waiting, Warframe's main storyline has now moved forward with The New War!

If you've done everything you wanted to in Warframe and you're now itching for something new and exciting, you might want to mark July 17 on your calendar as that's when Digital Extremes will be holding their TennoCon 2021 event. While the full details are still shrouded in mystery, for obvious reasons, the big highlight will be the full unveiling of the upcoming expansion The New War!

As for what exactly you can expect to see in terms of gameplay, that you can get a little bit of a sneak peek at through the recently posted trailer. Have a gander:

Diablo 4 official artwork and logo

[Update #2]: Diablo 4's December preview offers a closer look at the itemization, progression and visual effects.

[Update]: According to the Q3 2021 earnings report call, Blizzard has pushed back the release of both Overwatch 2 and Diablo 2. 

Despite carrying the same name as its predecessors, Diablo 3 is a far cartoonier and lighthearted game. That is a strange thing to say about a game where you're constantly fighting the forces of ultimate evil, but due to the goofy storyline and highly stylized visuals it's quite difficult to get immersed into its horror atmosphere.

If you found that to be a bit of a problem as well, you'll be happy to hear that Blizzard is going through a great deal of effort to make sure Diablo 4 is far closer in spirit to Diablo 1 and 2 rather than 3. And judging by some of the previews they've shared so far, I'd say they've done a rather spectacular job!

Death Stranding Director's Cut screenshot of the cargo catapult

[Update]: The greatly improved Death Stranding Director's Cut has now landed onto PC as a $10 upgrade

If you're itching to get your hands on even more Kojima-branded weirdness, you'll be happy to hear Death Stranding is getting a Director's Cut edition. This new version will come as a $10 upgrade for existing owners and will add a variety of new equipment like the cargo catapult or buddy bot, smoother controls and better melee combat, new missions and storylines, as well as UI improvements.

So far Death Stranding Director's Cut has only been announced for PlayStation 5, though it's highly likely that it'll appear on PC at some point as well. The PlayStation 5 version of the Director’s Cut is slated to arrive on September 24, 2021, so we'll likely hear more information about the PC version around that time.

Deathloop artwork and logo

[Update #2]: Deathloop has now arrived and, outside of some early performance problems, it seems to be getting a pretty positive reception.

[Update]: Arkane has detailed the PC system requirements and advanced settings for Deathloop.

The last few times I talked about Deathloop it was solely to announce bad news and delays. Today, however, I'm delighted to say that I come as a bearer of good tiding as Bethesda and Arcane have just released a rather lengthy gameplay preview!

So if you're curious what the time-bending shooter Deathloop has to offer, as well as how similar the whole thing will be to Arkane's Dishonored series, you'll find your answers right below. Have a peek:

Witcher 3 screenshot showing off Ciri

[Update]: The Witcher 3's next gen update is coming to PC and consoles on December 14, 2022 alongside a free DLC based on the Netflix TV show.

As a part of the recent WitcherCon event, CD Projekt Red has confirmed that they are still planning to release a next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt later this year. While the details are still few and far between, the enhanced version will bring with it things like support for ray tracing and faster load times on both PC and consoles.

CDPR has also taken the opportunity to reveal that they are working on a brand new piece of DLC inspired by Netflix's live-action adaptation. Once again we have basically no details, but if I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's likely going to be a cosmetic pack to make The Witcher 3's characters and weapons look more like their TV show counterparts.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 artwork showing the character flying on a Rathalos

Instead of chopping monsters into pieces in order to make increasingly spikier and more ridiculous pieces of armor, the newly released RPG spin-off Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin will have you take a more friendly approach. You'll be able to tame and raise a variety of monsters, interact with them through a story-focused campaign, join forces and engage in turn-based battles with them, and eventually even ride them around as you explore the world.

As for what exactly this might look like in gameplay terms, that you can find out through the freshly posted launch trailer. Have a gander, it's quite a colorful one:

World of Warcraft artwork showing off the burning of Teldrassil

[Update]: The quality-of-life focused Update 9.1.5 will be launching on November 2, 2021.

While World of Warcraft tends to have plenty of highly compelling stories tucked away in each of its various zones, the main plotline has sadly been a bit of a disaster for the past few years. Not even the Blizzard-quality cinematics can distract from the fact that important characters show up and disappear at random, plot points get brought up and forgotten just as quickly, while pretty much all potentially fascinating events end up getting resolved in what feels like the least satisfying way possible.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with the brief storyline we got with Patch 9.1 - Chains of Domination. Despite going into the self-titled City of Secrets and accompanying the Keeper of Secrets throughout most of it, we have learned essentially nothing about the big bad guy Jailer, his plans, or what the mysterious infinity stones sigils are even used for. And then, to really rub salt in the wound, the whole story ends with a teaser that's the equivalent of Destiny's "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."