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[Update]: State of Decay 2 has now added the rather relaxed Green Zone difficulty mode.
After spending a fair bit of time on the Windows Store, State of Decay 2 has now made its way to Steam as well. It has not done so empty-handed, however, as this move was also accompanied by the rather hefty (and free) Juggernaut Edition update.
There's a brand new open-world map to explore, improved visuals and lighting, better audio and twice the amount of music tracks, as well as a new assortment of heavy melee weapons to crush zombie heads with. You can also expect to see the usual assortment of bug fixes and quality of life changes, as well improvements to the early-game experience.
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[Update]: Blizzard has now made it significantly easier to acquire Rank 3 Essences, and it's thankfully not even all that grindy.
While Blizzard has slowly but surely made leveling in Battle for Azeroth a faster and more pleasant affair, getting your alternate characters ready for the end-game is still needlessly tedious. You not only have to go through the usual process of collecting gear and Azerite Power, but you also have to unlock and level Azerite Essences all over again, some of which require you to invest a considerable amount of time into PvP or nearly obsolete content.
Thankfully, it seems that Blizzard will soon be addressing this problem and making alts a lot more attractive to veteran players. Basically, once you've unlocked a Rank 3 Essence on one character, you'll be able to also unlock it for your other characters by completing everything from Horrific Visions to Mythic Keystone Dungeons and PvP matches.
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[Update]: Doom Eternal has now been released, and I'm happy to say the reviews so far are pretty darn good.
After the massive success of Doom 2016, it's going to be up to Doom Eternal this March 20th to push the demon-crushing action even further. Expect to see bigger and more interesting levels, an assortment of new enemies and weapons to toy around with, and naturally, even more glorious metal music.
If you're wondering what all of this might look like in action, wonder no more as the developers have just unleashed an awesome launch trailer with a bit of an unexpected guest from the previous Doom games. Have a gander:
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[Update]: A World Betrayed has now arrived alongside a massive free update.
This March 19th Total War: Three Kingdoms will be getting another interesting DLC to spice up the campaign - A World Betrayed. The DLC will bring with it two new factions led by Lü Bu and Sun Ce, thirteen returning factions with new challenges, new story-focused events, and naturally, a bunch of new units to round everything out.
However, while DLC itself looks to be fairly solid, it's the accompanying free update that excites me the most. Not only will it add a massive rework of the bandit factions, but it will also include numerous new characters, a better spying system, and naturally, an assortment of balance changes and quality of life tweaks!
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[Update #2]: End of Dragons will be launching in February 2022!
[Update]: Guild Wars 2's third expansion - End of Dragons - has been unveiled alongside a new trailer
While the Living World updates are great as bite-sized pieces of content, it's the expansions that truly shake things up and breathe fresh air into Guild Wars 2. As such, I am extremely happy to announce that ArenaNet is now working on the third expansion!
The new expansion is still extremely early in development, and so ArenaNet has not shared any sort of details about the story, release date, or even special features that might serve as a highlight of the whole expansion. In fact, we don't even know what it's called right now. However, we do know where it'll be set!
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[Update]: Overwatch's Hero 32 will be the mysterious Omnic Echo from McCree and Ashe's cinematic short.
Instead of going through the usual process of slowly teasing the new event over the course of a week, Blizzard has now simply unleashed the Overwatch Archives update without even a single word. And honestly, I'm actually quite glad they did it since the slow trickle of information just deflates any sort of excitement the event might bring.
Speaking of which, this year's Archives event is looking pretty darn good, even if most of the content is recycled from last year. Not only are the new cosmetics some of the best they've released in quite a while, but Blizzard has also managed to breathe new life into the old PvE missions by creating special challenges. For example, one of the challenges is Glass Cannon that drastically reduces the amount of health your hero has, but in return grants you a significant increase in damage. Needless to say, it's a pretty fun new ruleset to explore!
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If you're in the mood for even more monsters to fight, and odds are you are given that's pretty much the entirety of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, you'll be glad to hear a brand new update has just arrived for PC. It brings with it the mighty Stygian Zinogre, a brand new Tundra Region to explore in the Guiding Lands, as well as the Safi’jiiva Siege for those of you looking for a real challenge.
You can get a pretty good idea of what these two monsters look like, as well as what sort of attacks you'll likely be taking square in the face while you learn the fights, through the two recently posted previews. Have a look, starting with the Safi’jiiva Siege one:
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If you're in the mood for something truly oldschool, you might be interested to hear that the 1991 turn-based tactics games Langrisser I and its 1994 sequel Langrisser II have now made their way to Steam, PS4 and Switch. The remastered versions bring with them improved visuals, reorchestrated music, better localization, quality-of-life changes, as well as a new character with their own story choices.
You can get a bit of an idea of what to expect in terms of visual quality, as well as a glimpse of what the gameplay in the Langrisser series is like, through the recently posted launch trailer. Have a peek:
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[Update #2]: Planetside 2's The Shattered Warpgate update has brought in a giant chunk of new content.
[Update]: The Colossus tank has now arrived, and it's deadly against both air and ground opponents!
With work on Planetside 2 now finally picking up steam again, the developers have just unleashed the first major update in quite a while. The definite highlight of this newly released Escalation patch are the massive, player-controller Bastion Fleet Carriers which serve as floating battle-stations.
Only one Fleet Carrier can be active per faction, and as you might imagine, building it will require a considerable amount of resources. What you'll get in return is a massive ship lined with controllable cannons, respawn points for players, as well as the ability to spawn air vehicles in order to help with its defense.
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[Update]: Trails of Cold Steel III has now arrived onto PC, and apparently it's even better than its highly reviewed predecessors.
Following in the footsteps of its predecessors, Trails of Cold Steel III will be heading over to PC and Steam this March 23rd. Besides the story-rich JRPG itself, the PC version will also bring enhanced visuals, customizable controls, auto-save functionality, and perhaps most importantly for any lengthy RPG, the ability to speed up the gameplay by up to six times!
You'll also be glad to hear that the developers are so confident in their work that they have now released a surprisingly lengthy gameplay demo onto Steam! The demo is essentially the entire prologue and it will introduce you to the overall storyline, a variety of characters and the basic gameplay mechanics, as well as give you access to the in-game library where you can read a quick summary of the previous games and learn more about the world.