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[Update]: No Man's Sky's Sentinel update has overhauled combat, added new robotic AI companions, tweaked a variety of visual effects, and the list goes on for a while.
Even though they've long since fixed No Man’s Sky and transformed it into a genuinely good experience, Hello Games don't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down with their major updates. If anything, they are getting more and more ambitious as the newest Prisms update has brought with it a whole bunch of visual improvements, on top of some long-requested community features.
You can expect to see improved reflections and support for screen space reflection technology, as well as new styles of volumetric lighting alongside better optimization for lighting in general. Hyperdrive warp effects have also been greatly improved, while new parallax occlusion mapping tech has brought additional depth to previously flat surfaces, and the list goes on for a while.
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[Update #2]: MTG Arena has banned Tibalt's Trickery and Memory Lapse from the Historic format.
[Update]: MTG Arena is pausing development on the long-requested Pioneer Masters set.
To say that the recent MTG Arena tournament was a bit homogeneous would be one heck of an understatement. Not only was every single deck in the final eight blue/red, but five of them (including the winner) were almost exactly the same deck based around cheating in Velomachus Lorehold and using his ability to chain extra turns until the opponent was ground into a fine paste.
After witnessing such a dominating performance, Wizards of the Coast have decided that enough is enough. As such, starting from June 10, 2021 the often problematic Time Warp will be banned in the Historic format.
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In a bit of a strange announcement, Creative Assembly has now revealed that they are moving on from Total War: Three Kingdoms. What this means is that from this point onward there will be no more DLC or patches of any kind for Three Kingdoms. Development on it is now fully finished.
The reason I call this announcement strange, and the reason why Creative Assembly are even pulling away from Total War: Three Kingdoms to begin with, is that the development team is currently hard at work on a brand new Total War game set in the Three Kingdoms period and completely disconnected from the original. So instead of the traditional expansion-sequel like Total War: Attila, it seems like this new Three Kingdoms game will be a significant enough departure from the original to warrant standing on its own.
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[Update]: Overwatch has now added cross-platform multiplayer alongside a new Ashe themed event!
Considering that Blizzard is currently focusing all of their attention on Overwatch 2, to the point that the original hasn't received a major content update in quite a while, I'm both shocked and extremely happy to announce that Blizzard is soon adding cross-play to Overwatch! So regardless of what platform you play on (PC, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch), you will soon be able to team up with your friends and potentially make new ones across a variety of game modes and platforms.
Once the update arrives cross-play will be fully enabled for all game modes except Competitive Play where the matchmaking will be separated into three parts: PC-only, console with cross-play and console without cross-play. The reason for PC's exclusion, as you might imagine given the control differences, is to ensure a fair and enjoyable competitive environment for everyone involved.
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[Update #2]: MTG Arena is pausing development on the long-requested Pioneer Masters set.
[Update]: After a dominating performance, MTG Arena is now banning Time Warp!
While playing in the normal game modes is usually a good time, MTG Arena truly begins to shine whenever any of the over-the-top seasonal modes become involved. As such, I am very happy to say that MTG Arena has just brought in not only one, but two of the most popular ones - Historic Cube and Jumpstart!
Historic Cube is essentially a custom draft format that consists of some of the most powerful cards and synergies available in MTG Arena. So if you're up for playing around with extremely powerful cards without having to spend an obscene amount of wildcards to do so, the Historic Cube is a great place to be! The only downside is that unlike regular drafts you don't get to keep any of the cards, so unless you do really well in your matches your gold reserves might not look quite so happy at the end of it all.
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If you need a bit of a distraction from the quickly rising temperatures outside, you'll be glad to hear that the icy cold survival and city management game Frostpunk is now entirely free to grab. Simply head on over to the Epic Games Store, snatch yourself a copy, and you'll be ready to go after a brief download.
Much like before, the only catch is that the giveaway is time-limited. So make sure to add Frostpunk to your account before it goes away on June 10th, after which you'll be able to play it whenever you want and for however long you want.
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It has taken two years and quite a few updates, but Klei Entertinament's deck-building roguelite Griftlands has now finally been unleashed from Early Access. The full version of Griftlands brings with it three unique characters with their own campaigns and mechanics, the ability to both converse and battle against other characters with unique decks for each approach, and as you might expect given its roguelite status, plenty of random nonsense that can either help you out in the campaign or simply into an early grave.
As for what exactly all of that aforementioned nonsense looks like in actual gameplay, that you can find out through the most recent trailer. Have a gander, it's quite a fun one:
Skulls for the Skull Throne 2021 has arrived with a ton of new content and sales for Warhammer games
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[Update]: Creative Assembly has revealed the full scope of the upcoming Beastmen vs Lizardmen DLC, and it's quite an impressive menagerie!
If you consider yourself a fan of Warhammer games, regardless of the shape they might take, you'll be happy to hear that Steam's somewhat-annual Skulls for the Skull Throne event has now returned! The Skulls event brings with it massive discounts on a wide array of Warhammer games, an assortment of new content for many of them, as well as a couple of exciting new announcements to spice things up even further!
Great games like Mechanicus or Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 are currently a quarter of the usual price, Vermintide 2's new DLC has added the Sister of the Thorn as a spell-weaving career for Kerillian, while Total War: Warhammer 2 has unveiled The Silence & The Fury - an upcoming DLC pitting the Lizardmen led by Oxyotl against the Beastmen led by the Brass Bull himself, Taurox. Needless to say, there's a lot of fun stuff to check out!
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[Update #2]: Creative Assembly has revealed the full scope of the upcoming Beastmen vs Lizardmen DLC, and it's quite an impressive menagerie!
[Update]: Creative Assembly have begun teasing a new and mysterious free DLC that will accompany The Silence & The Fury.
It may have taken what feels like an eternity, but the long-neglected Beastmen will soon be getting the improvements they desperately need. So mark July 14th on your calendars as that's when the Beastmen led by Taurox will square off against the Lizardmen led by Oxyolt in Total War: Warhammer 2's penultimate DLC The Silence & The Fury!
The exact details are currently still few and far between, but you can expect to see two new factions with their own unique campaign mechanics and gameplay flavor, a variety of new units and heroes to toy around with, and if the recent Wood Elf DLC is any judge, a massive rework of the Beastmen faction as a whole.
As for what exactly the two Legendary Lords will look like in-game, that you can find out through the freshly posted teaser trailer. Have a peek:
Overwatch's June update has brought in small but noticable nerfs to McCree, Zarya, Baptiste and Echo
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[Update #2]: Overwatch will be adding Ashe’s Deadlock Challenge on June 22, 2021.
[Update]: Overwatch will soon be adding cross-play between PC and consoles.
Even though they are currently in the process of redesigning the PvP modes from the ground up for Overwatch 2, I'm happy to say Blizzard has not forgotten about the original Overwatch. In fact, they have just issued a small balance update that's mostly here to tone down some of the overperforming heroes like McCree and Baptiste, as well as to give a slight nudge forward to Reaper and Moira.
You can check out the exact changes, as well as the developer commentary for each one, in brief list down below. Have a gander, it's quite an interesting bunch of tweaks: