- By Ash
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The end of 2019 is nearly upon us, and much like the past few years, Valve has now released the list of the best selling and most played PC games across a variety of categories. You can find the full breakdown over at Steam, but for now I'd like to focus on the two main categories: the top sellers and the most popular games.
When it comes to the best sellers, things are pretty similar to last year with games like Dota 2, Warframe, PUBG, GTA V and Rainbow Six Siege occupying a prominent spot. However, the one trend I am somewhat surprised by is the continued success of highly challenging games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Monster Hunter: World.
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If you've explored every nook and cranny American Truck Simulator has to offer and you're still itching for more, then you'll be glad to hear a brand new DLC is on the way. As the title would suggest, the new DLC will have you roam across Idaho, a state most famous for its mountainous landscapes and large stretches of both farmland and wilderness.
"The state covers two time zones, runs from Canada to Nevada, and encompasses the western side of the continental divide of the Rocky Mountains," continues the brief DLC announcement. "Rivers, mountains and farmland dominate the state’s landscape. The panhandle has emerald green hillsides, timbered mountains and pristine lakes. Central Idaho is covered with jagged peaks. The Snake River Plain, with its wide open vistas, irrigated farm lands and vibrant cities forms the character of Southern Idaho."
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[Update]: Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, newest digital adaptation of the popular card game, has now arrived.
Despite the downright unwieldy name, Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is actually a pretty simple concept. It's all about re-living the most iconic duels from the animated series, toying around with an absurd amount of cards (around 9,000 with more to come), and once the campaign is done, battling against more challenging AI opponents or players online.
Right now Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is only available on the Nintendo Switch, but according to Konami's recent announcement, it'll be making its way to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 at some point in the near future as well. As for the exact release date, I'm afraid nothing has been revealed just yet.
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[Update]: World War Z is getting an expansion with new levels, characters, and even bigger zombie hordes.
While the World War Z title might not inspire a lot of confidence given that it sounds like a tie-in for a movie that just released way too late, in reality it's actually a pretty good Left 4 Dead style shooter. With that in mind, I'm glad to say that things are now getting even better as the developers have just added a fairly comprehensive Horde mode.
Instead of the usual affair that involves camping a corner and blasting apart enemies until you get overrun, World War Z's Horde mode is a bit more proactive. The map is littered with loot to scavenge, defenses and upgrades to purchase, and most importantly of all, bonus tasks that ask of you to roam around during some of the heaviest zombie waves. So while it will still likely get old after a while, it's at least an interesting take on the Horde mode formula and a nice little side-attraction to complement the main game mode.
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[Update]: The Last Autumn has now arrived in full, and it appears to be a solid yet flawed expansion.
The world of Frostpunk is an ice-covered nightmare where the last remnants of humanity are struggling against all odds to not only survive in the wasteland, but to also to figure out a permanent solution before the endless winter devours all. It's certainly a bleak future, but it does make for a rather compelling story!
Speaking of which, if you've ever wondered what events led to the grim situation in Frostpunk, you might be interested to hear that the newly revealed The Last Autumn expansion will be just about that! Here's the brief teaser trailer:
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After being available on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch for a little while now, the rather cheerful Dragon Quest Builders 2 has now made its way to PC via Steam. As the name itself would suggest, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is all about creating the perfect town one brick at a time, as well as exploring the open world in search of battles, secrets and crafting materials.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video has quite a few pictures, allow me to share with you one of the original trailers. It'll give you a pretty darn good idea of just what Dragon Quest Builders 2 is all about, as well as if it's even your type of game or not. Have a look, it's quite a good one:
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[Update]: The massive Escalation update has now arrived alongside Fleet Carriers, Outfit improvements, and a whole bunch of other changes.
A little while ago Planetside 2 added Nanite System Operatives - player-controlled robotic mercenaries whose task is to balance out the factions. While certainly a neat idea, the one big downside is that NSO classes can only use neutral weapons and vehicles, which makes for a bit of a samey experience after a while.
In order to correct this, as well as introduce even more fun things to mess around with, the latest Planetside 2 update has now added a bunch of new toys for the NSO faction. First and foremost, we have a brand new class - the Defector. It's essentially a grenade launcher wielding variant of the MAX unit with far more mobility than usual, though it pays for this boon with noticeably reduced damage resistance. So if you decide to pilot one, make sure to mind your positioning or you're going to be in for a one-way trip to the respawn area!
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[Update]: Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners has now released in full, and I'm happy to say it has turned out quite good!
After a couple of disastrous big budget games, it appears like The Walking Dead series has now slowly moved over to VR. Raw Data developers have announced a little while ago that they're working on a zombie-slaying VR game called The Walking Dead: Onslaught, and now Skydance Interactive have unveiled their own take on the formula called The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
As you would expect, Saints & Sinners will have you roam the desolate streets in search of much-needed supplies, slice and dice through hordes of zombies in VR with both melee and ranged weapons, as well as make friends or enemies with the various survivors you'll encounter along the way. The details are few and far between, but according to the brief description a playthrough should take you around fifteen hours, which would indicate that Saints & Sinners will be a bit more in-depth than the usual VR zombie game.
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If you've finally managed to make a bit of headway with your gaming backlog, I'm afraid it's time to nullify all of that progress and add a few more great games onto the piles. In other words, Steam's absolutely massive Winter Sale has now arrived, and with it a whole assortment of games have gone on rather steep discounts.
Since there is basically no way to give you a brief overview of every quality game on sale, allow me to share a couple of stand-out deals, mostly from games I've been playing religiously throughout 2019. Here's my small list:
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[Update]: Blizzard has now released a lengthy preview of everything coming in with Patch 8.3!
It is the time of year where World of Warcraft players get to be both incredibly happy and sad at the same time. Happy because there is an absolutely gigantic update on the horizon that will likely keep them occupied for quite a while, and sad because this is likely to be the last major patch before the next expansion is ready to release.
But regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, I'm sure you'll be interested to hear that Patch 8.3 "Visions of N’Zoth" will be coming to World of Warcraft on January 14th! It'll bring with it a brand new take on map-wide Assaults, a new Horrific Vision game mode that offers plenty of challenges for both solo players and groups, as well as two new Allied Races - Vulpera (Horde) and Mechagnomes (Alliance).