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I hope you're in the mood for some adventuring, because the truly excellent Shadowrun RPG series is currently free to grab! Simply head on over to GOG, sign up for the newsletter which will then give you the Shadowrun Trilogy, and after that you'll be good to go after a bit of a download.
As always, the one catch is that the giveaway is time limited. So if you're interested, make sure to grab the Shadowrun Trilogy in the next ~46 hours before the whole thing goes away.
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In celebration of Sonic's 30th anniversary, Microsoft and Sega have teamed up to release something I doubt anyone could've expected - a Sonic DLC for Minecraft! And no, this doesn't mean just a couple of new Sonic themed skins or blocks. Instead the newly launched DLC attempts to recreate Sonic's gameplay in Minecraft, which is about as ambitious as it sounds!
Since words alone simply can't even begin to describe this cross-over, allow me to share with you the recently posted trailer. It should clue you in quite quickly on just what to expect from Sonic in Minecraft. Have a gander:
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[Update]: After a long period of silence, Ubisoft has now delayed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to 2023-24.
After witnessing the Avatar 2 movie get delayed time and time again, it seems that Ubisoft has simply decided to take matters into their own hands! In other words, they have just announced Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - a first person, action-adventure set in the highly immersive, open world of Pandora.
While there is still no gameplay trailer available, you can get a bit of an idea of the sort of atmosphere and visuals Ubisoft is going for through the announcement trailer below. Have a little peek:
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[Update]: Total War: Warhammer 3's release date has been pushed back to early 2022.
While diplomacy plays a big part in any Total War game, it's the battles themselves that are the series' bread and butter. After all, signing a lucrative trade agreement feels pretty good, but not quite as good as watching a herd of minotaurs send a pack of ratmen flying into the stratosphere!
So after recently detailing the Khorne and Kislev armies, Creative Assembly has now taken the time to shed light on some of the improvements and changes coming to battles. First and foremost, more factions will have access to in-battle resources like the stuff we've already seen with Skaven, Tomb Kings or Dark Elves. The specifics have not been revealed just yet, but I don't think anyone will complain about having more toys to play around with!
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[Update #2]: Blizzard will be adding cross-platform progression with Overwatch 2.
[Update]: Overwatch is now also looking to heavily nerf hitscan heroes like Ashe, McCree and Baptiste.
After yesterday's announcement I was expecting today's Overwatch update to be a fairly simple one. However, in a bit of a shocking twist, Blizzard has now not only unleashed Ashe's Deadlock Challenge event, but also introduced cross-play to Overwatch!
In other words, from this day forward you can group, talk and play with friends across all four platforms. In order to keep things fair for everyone involved, however, PC and console Competitive Play modes will remain entirely separate. Similarly, if a PC and console player want to team up for some Quick Play or Arcade matches, they will be grouped exclusively with players in the PC pool in order to avoid giving the PC players a massive and unfair advantage. Pretty reasonable stuff, all things considered.
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[Update #2]: The Dark Alliance studio is being expanded in order to work on a AAA Dungeons & Dragons RPG developed on Unreal Engine 5.
[Update]: Despite Dark Alliances' rather frigid reception, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro have opened up a new PC and console gaming division.
If you're a fan of both co-op focused RPGs and the Dungeons & Dragons universe, I bring both good and bad news. The good news is that the co-op focused Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance has just arrived, bringing with it some fan-favorite characters like Drizzt Do’Urden, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, and Bruenor Battlehammer.
The bad news is that Dark Alliance is currently getting bad to mediocre reviews across the board from both critics and players alike. The main issue, from what I can tell, is that Dark Alliance is seemingly completely unfinished and in lacking polish, so the interesting ideas it does have just end up getting buried under the weight of technical problems and unresponsive combat.
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[Update]: Total War: Warhammer 3's newest preview shows off Grand Cathay and Tzeentch's armies for the very first time.
[Update]: Creative Assembly has now detailed the various improvements and changes coming to battles.
While Total War: Warhammer 3's release date is still nowhere to be seen, Creative Assembly has now released some rather juicy information to help keep us occupied. The information in question contains the full roster details for both Kislev and Khorne armies, alongside brief lore snippets describing each unit and their role. That latter part might not sound significant, but given that some of these units had literally no lore beforehand, it's actually pretty exciting stuff!
When it comes to Khorne's forces, it's pretty much exactly what you would expect - a bunch of demons and war beasts bolstered by hordes of mortal followers and the odd bit of machinery. That said, there is one little surprise hidden within the Khorne roster reveal - the Soul Grinder!
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[Update #2]: World War Z is adding Horde Mode XL with an utterly absurd number of zombies to fight.
[Update]: World War Z is getting an expansion with new levels, characters, and even bigger zombie hordes.
Despite Left 4 Dead 2 managing to stay highly popular years and years after its original release date, there are very few games that have tried to replicate its style. With that in mind, you can imagine my surprise when I realized that World War Z, a rather late movie tie-in game, managed to not only recreate the Left 4 Dead formula, but do it quite competently as well!
Much like its inspiration, World War Z is a co-op shooter that will pit you and three other players against hordes and hordes of zombies as you attempt to escape whatever precarious situation you find yourself in. Some of the zombies are just ordinary fodder, mostly there to be mowed down in the hundreds, while others have special abilities that you will need to deal with as a team in order to avoid a brutal demise. A simple enough concept, but also one that has already been proven to work.
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[Update]: Aftermath has now shambled onto PC and consoles, though not without some technical trouble.
Despite the vast majority of tie-in games being somewhere between awful to completely unremarkable, World War Z managed to successfully beat the odds and release as a genuinely good co-op shooter. Best of all, thanks to a newly announced expansion the future is now only looking brighter and brighter for World War Z!
Once it arrives later this year, World War Z: Aftermath will bring with it three new episodes set in Rome, Vatican City and Kamchatka, a variety of new characters and weapons to toy around with, and naturally, a whole bunch of new undead monstrosities to slice and dice your way through. And if you're looking for a little bit of extra immersion, there will also be a first-person mode option.
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[Update]: Overwatch has added cross-platform multiplayer alongside a new Ashe themed event!
In an effort to keep players occupied while most of the development team is working on Overwatch 2, Blizzard has been releasing smaller, cosmetic-focused updates for quite a few months now. However, while the previous Anniversary update brought with it cosmetics for a variety of heroes, tomorrow's (June 22nd) Deadlock Challenge will be all about Ashe.
The exact details haven't been announced just yet, but I think it's safe to say that we'll be getting a fancy new skin, a couple of sprays, as well as a player icon showcasing the skin itself. If some of the other challenges are any indicator, it's also likely that there will be a streamer-focused event that will grant another couple of sprays depending on how long you watch the partnered streams.