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[Update]: Amazon has canceled their Lord of the Rings themed MMORPG.
Crucible, Amazon's free-to-play shooter, released onto Steam back in May. Unfortunately, it did so far too early and with far too many problems, and as such instantly suffered from a large amount of mediocre to bad reviews. In order to hopefully turn the ship around and stop the rapid loss of players, Crucible went back into closed beta a month later with the intention to improve and rework the various problem spots.
A lot of time has gone by since then, and while I'd love to tell you that Crucible is now better than ever, I'm afraid I bring bad news. According to the newest announcement, Crucible will be closing down its servers on November 9, 2020.
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If you're not a fan of the Epic Games Store, or if you simply didn't noticed it launched, you might be interested to hear that Obsidian's The Outer Worlds RPG (not to be confused with the Outer Wilds) is now coming to Steam. You can expect to see it arrive this October 23rd, which is just under a year since it first released onto the Epic Games Store and consoles.
For those of you that need a bit of a reminder what The Outer Worlds is even all about, allow me to share with you the original launch trailer. It should give you a pretty good idea of just what kind of atmosphere Obsidian was going for:
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If you ever wanted to give Total War a try, or simply see what the Warhammer universe is even all about, you can now kill two birds with one Goblin tied to a stone. I say this because the truly excellent Total War: Warhammer 2 is currently having a free weekend on Steam, and will remain free to try out until October 12th!
Should you find yourself enjoying the experience, it's also worth mentioning that both Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2 are currently on a steep discount. Total War: Warhammer 2 is 66% off which brings the price down to €20, while the original Total War: Warhammer is 75% off and thus €15.
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[Update]: Total War: Troy is adding Artemis, Orion and a highly customizable new Photo Mode.
Two months after the original release of Total War: Troy, the macOS version has now been unleashed as well. Best of all, if you already grabbed yourself a free copy of Troy, you'll now be able to start playing on Mac without any sort of additional hassle.
The same applies to the recently released Amazons DLC. So if you're in the mood for seeing just how Creative Assembly is attempting to improve horde-based gameplay, as well as how Chaos in Total War: Warhammer 3 might function, I'd recommend giving Penthesilea a try as it's a rather fun campaign.
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[Update #2]: My Shadowlands review is now live, and I'm happy to say things are looking pretty good for WoW!
[Update]: Shadowlands pre-patch has now arrived with revamped leveling and tons of new customization.
While the Shadowlands expansion has been delayed until later this year, the good news is that the pre-patch will be arriving this October 13th to help tide you over. The pre-patch will not only set up a whole bunch of things for Shadowlands, but also tweak a variety of older content in order to make leveling new characters a lot more enjoyable.
As such, expect to see character levels squished down from 120 to 50, with item levels and stats going downwards alongside them. Best of all, under the new system you'll be able to level in whatever expansion you prefer, all the way from level 10 to 50. So if you're like me and you miss seeing the latter parts of Warlords of Draenor's questing experience, you'll soon have a chance to do just that!
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While Wasteland 3 is a pretty fun RPG to mess around with, it unfortunately has a hefty amount of bugs and optimization issues. Out of the latter category, the loadings times are by far the worst offender as it can sometimes feel like you're spending more time staring at the loading screen than actually playing the game.
With that in mind, you'll be happy to hear that Patch 1.1.2 has now arrived with some major improvements. According to the developers, the update should reduce loading times by up to 60% on PC and 25% on console. In terms of raw numbers, their test hardware went from a 38 second load time to a mere 13 seconds. Naturally, this will be different for every single PC out there, but it should still be a noticeable improvement.
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[Update]: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered has now arrived for both PC and consoles.
If you're a fan of the 2010 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, you'll be happy to hear that EA is currently working on a remastered version. The aptly named Hot Pursuit Remastered will bring with it support for 4K resolutions and 60 FPS, higher resolution models, better shadows and reflections, a longer draw distance, and a whole bunch of other visual improvements.
Naturally, the gameplay itself will be getting spruced up a little bit as well. You can expect to see new achievements, cosmetics, an updated photo mode and gallery, quality of life updates and bug fixes, and perhaps most importantly of all, every single piece of DLC already bundled in.
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[Update #2]: Valorant's Act 3 update has now brought in the very first new map - Icebox.
[Update]: Valorant's new animal-focused Agent Skye is looking to be an absolute powerhouse!
Even though the recent update has made it so maps are a lot less likely to repeat, Valorant is still in dire need of more maps. Each one is essentially its own mini-game with its own unique rules and tricks, so the more quality maps we have, the more enjoyable it is to just rush from one match to another.
As such, I am pleased to say that the upcoming Act 3 update will add the Icebox - a rather chilly map filled with storage containers, heavy machinery, and most importantly of all, ziplines! Here's a brief teaser of what you can expect to see this October 13th:
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[Update #2]: After three years in Early Access, Baldur's Gate 3 has now launched to overwhelming praise!
[Update]: Baldur's Gate 3 will be leaving Early Access in August 2023.
After going through the briefest of delays, Baldur's Gate 3 has now finally launched into Early Access. This initial version brings with it approximately 25 hours of content spread across the first act of the campaign, 6 player classes, 9 races and subraces, as well as 5 unique characters you can recruit.
As for the full version, it is estimated that Baldur's Gate 3 will spend about a year in Early Access. During this time you can expect to see updates that slowly flesh out the second and third act, add new characters and races, and as is tradition, fix up the various bugs and balance issues. In other words, Baldur's Gate 3 will be going through pretty much the same process as Divinity: Original Sin 2.
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After bringing in Alatreon and Frostfang Barioth as nifty little end-game challenges, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne's fifth major update has now added two more beasties to test your steel against. As you might expect from the title alone, the dynamic duo consists of the legendary black dragon Fatalis and the Arch-Tempered variant of Velkhana.
You can get a good idea of what both of them look like in action, as well as what sort of cosmetics have arrived as a part of this update, through the recently posted trailer. Have a peek, it's pretty fun stuff: