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[Update #2]: Blizzard has finally increased Anima rewards from World Quests!
[Update]: The major Update 9.1 - Chains of Domination has now made its way to the PTR.
In part due to the inability to mount, and partly due to the very limited array of daily quests, the Maw is by far the most hated and controversial zone in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Unfortunately, it's also the only zone that's tied to player power thanks to conduit upgrades and sockets you can purchase with Stygia once you have enough reputation with Ve'nari.
Going through all of that once is quite a and arduous long journey, as I've experienced while working on my review, but doing it for every single character you play on is absolutely nightmarish. The issue is that not only do you need to gather enough Stygia to be able to afford the items themselves, but each of your characters also needs to individually farm the Ve'nari reputation which is a seriously time-consuming ordeal.
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[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.
If you were itching to get your hands on Arkane's time-bending shooter Deathloop this May 21, I'm afraid I bring some bad news. Due to the pandemic messing things up and slowing development, Deathloop has now been pushed back until September 14, 2021.
"We're committed to quality and preserving our team's ambitions for Deathloop while ensuring the health and safety of everyone at Arkane," reads the brief update. "We'll be using this extra time to accomplish our goal: Create a fun, stylish and mind-bending player experience."
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If you're looking for an excuse to dive back into The Master Chief Collection, you'll be pleased to hear that the Season 6 update has now arrived. It brings with it the usual assortment of themed weapon, armor and vehicle skins, alongside some pretty exciting gameplay additions.
First and foremost, Halo 3 players have just received a brand new map to mess around with - Waterfall. That said, calling it brand new is a bit disingenuous given that Waterfall was originally designed for the now-canceled Halo Online, and was merely reworked to fit in with Halo 3. But whatever the case may be, it's still an interesting (and entirely free) new location to fight in!
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[Update]: Diablo 2: Resurrected has now been unleashed, and so far it's looking pretty good!
The ARPG classic Diablo 2 will be getting a fully fledged remaster later this year. You can expect to see greatly improved visuals and support for modern resolutions, an extended stash and the ability to easily trade items between characters, better anti-cheat and enhanced leaderboards, as well as cross-platform progression!
If all of that sounds as exciting to you as it does to me, you'll be quite happy to hear that the Diablo 2: Resurrected Technical Alpha will be starting tomorrow (April 9)! In order to get in all you need to do is head on over to the Diablo 2 website, opt into the test, and that's it. After that it's all in the hands of Lady Luck.
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Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise was a long-awaited sequel to the cult classic survival-horror Deadly Premonition. It originally launched in 2020 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, though now it appears to be heading over to PC as well!
While the full announcement has not been made just yet, the Thunderful Group 2020 annual report states that the PC version is under development by Toybox - one of the three studios behind the Switch version of Deadly Premonition 2. Similarly, there is no concrete release date to report, but it looks like we can expect to see Deadly Premonition 2 to land onto Steam at some point in 2021.
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[Update]: The spell-focused Strixhaven expansion has now arrived, and as expected, the draft format is delightful!
In a classic best-of-three showdown, the 15-card sideboard serves as a way to adjust your strategy between matches and hopefully sure up any weaknesses you might have to the opponent's combo. Because of this sideboards in competitive Magic: The Gathering are incredibly important, and knowing which cards to include and when to bring them out easily be the difference between a sure defeat and a crushing victory.
The reason I'm mentioning this is because the upcoming Strixhaven expansion will bring with it plenty of cards with the "Learn" keyword that allow you to pull "Lesson" type cards from the sideboard. Since your sideboard is limited to a mere 15 cards, including these Lessons has an enormous deckbuilding cost as you sacrifice flexibility between games for more options within a single match.
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[Update #2]: Overwatch's big Anniversary 2021 update is launching on May 18th!
[Update]: Overwatch is looking to bring in some nerfs for Baptiste, Echo and Reinhardt.
After being announced a mere two days ago, Overwatch's annual Archives event has now been unleashed. Much like before, it brings with it a whole host of co-op missions to undertake, a variety of fancy cosmetics to add to the already enormous pile, as well as three weekly challenges that reward some nifty epic-rarity skins.
Unfortunately, it seems that my speculation that this event will be used as a testing ground for Overwatch 2 mechanics has ended up entirely false. So not only are we not getting a bunch of wacky new mutators to help spice up the PvE missions, but the three we have received are incredibly basic and don't really change much. While I understand the team is busy with Overwatch 2 and probably couldn't spare much time for the original, this is still a paltry offering for what is usually Overwatch's most exciting event.
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[Update]: Mass Effect Legendary Edition has now been unleashed without too many technical issues or bugs!
Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be heading over to PC and consoles on May 14, 2021 with remastered versions of all three games in a tow. You can expect to see support for 4K resolutions, improved textures and character models, updated shaders and lighting, as well as all of the DLC already bundled in.
Perhaps most importantly of all, the Legendary Edition will also bring with it a whole host of gameplay improvements and quality of life fixes. While many of these will be targeting the original Mass Effect in order to bring it up to the level of the rest of the trilogy, pretty much all of the games will be getting some nifty new features.
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[Update]: The balance patch has now arrived, and expected, it's a juicy one!
Hearthstone's recent Forged in the Barrens expansion added a whole bunch of fun new cards to mess around with, as well as the long-requested Classic Mode that let's you play the game as it was back in 2014. Unfortunately, some of these cards and combinations have ended up being so ridiculously powerful that the current meta has firmly solidified around three classes: Paladins, Mages and Rogues.
Things have gotten so bad that according to HSReplay over 50% of the decks played since Forged in the Barrens have been Paladin or Mage, with Rogue and Warlock lagging a fair bit behind. So in order to sort this whole mess out, Blizzard has now announced a major balance update for next week.
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[Update]: Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition is heading to PC and consoles on November 30, 2021.
In an announcement that I must admit comes as quite a surprise to me, the 2.5D side-scrolling platformer Oddworld: Soulstorm has now been unleashed onto PC and PlayStation. Much like its predecessors, Soulstorm is all about planning, sneaking and frantically running in order to bypass a variety of devious traps and nasty aliens, all in an effort to save your fellow Mudokons from ruthless oppression and slavery.
Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the recently posted launch trailer. It should give you a pretty good idea of just what Soulstorm looks like in action and what sort of story you'll be getting yourself wrapped into. Have a gander: