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[Update]: Diablo 4 has now finally arrived, and while there are some notable issues, it's pretty good fun.
After a whole bunch of previews, teasers and developer diaries, Blizzard has now finally decided to commit to an actual release date. As such, you can look forward to seeing Diablo 4 land unleash hell onto PC and consoles on June 6th, 2023!
Diablo 4 will feature five classes for you to mess around with: Barbarian, Druid, Rogue, Necromancer and Sorceress. The focus is on making each class feel unique and exciting to play, so you can expect to see a wide variety of customization options for them, both in terms of visuals and gameplay. So as long as the balance holds up, Diablo 4 should have a ton of replay value.
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Despite going through multiple redesigns and many years of updates, it looks like CD Projekt Red's Gwent: The Witcher Card Game has not managed to capture a sizable enough playerbase to warrant pushing it further. As such, CDPR has now announced that they will be drastically slowing down development on Gwent in 2023 and beyond.
It's not all bad news, however, as CDPR is not actually looking to shut their card game down. Instead they're planning to release an additional 72 cards through 3 mini-expansions in 2023, after which they'll switch their focus to maintaining and rebalancing things with monthly, community-guided updates.
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After a fairly lengthy hiatus, the Warcraft 3: Reforged team thankfully started updating the game again back in August 2022. This eventually led to Blizzard finally delivering on a bunch of long-standing promises by adding features like ranked play, leaderboards, player profiles, clans and the separation off AT and RT matchmaking.
The good news doesn't end there, however, as Blizzard is currently testing another major update! Once it leaves the PTR, Patch 1.35 will bring with it the ability to play and create custom campaigns, as well as a variety of balance changes and bug fixes.
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[Update #2]: Arkane's awesome stealth game Dishonored - Definitive Edition is free to grab until January 5th, 2023.
[Update]: The giveaway for December 27 has now arrived, and it's the action-metroidvania F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch.
In celebration of the holiday season the Epic Games Store is giving away a brand new game each day, all the way until December 29th. So if you're itching for something interesting to cuddle up to over the winter months, you'll be happy to hear that today's freebie is none other than Death Stranding!
Before you get too excited, it's important to mention that this is the base version of Death Stranding we're talking about. In other words, the Director's Cut upgrade and its additional missions, equipment and quality-of-life improvements are not included. On the positive side, the upgrade will only set you back 6€ during the current sale, so if you find yourself liking Death Stranding it's well worth grabbing.
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[Update #2]: Steam's Base Builder Fest has arrived to show off everything from simulators to city-builders and even survival games.
[Update]: Steam Awards 2022 winners have now been revealed, though unfortunately they're somewhat uninspired.
If you're looking for an excuse to stay indoors and avoid the chilling cold, you'll be pleased to hear that Steam's massive winter sale has now arrived. The sale will stick around until 10am PST on January 5th, which should give you more than enough time to figure out what exactly you want to sink your teeth into.
For those of you completely confused about which games to even check out, allow me to give you a couple of recommendations for some of the cheaper yet still excellent games I've been playing over the course of this year. Without further ado, here's the brief list:
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[Update #2]: Darktide's Patch 1.02 has now brought in a bunch of small but meaningful balance tweaks, fixes and improvements.
[Update]: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide studio Fatshark are suspending new content, microtransactions and the Xbox version in order to focus on much-needed fixes.
As a part of the recent update Darktide added a brand new map to explore, two new weapons to bonk Nurgle cultists over the head with, private lobbies so you can play with your friends, as well as a couple of balance tweaks and improvements to help spice everything up. Unfortunately, the update also brought with it two massive problems for the Psyker class.
While the original intent was for the Psyker's Surge Force Staff to get fancy new visuals that would better represent its true power, the new special effects were so bright and flashy that they practically blinded the user and everyone around them. The second problem was a lot less obvious, though just as annoying. Basically, when attempting to quell your peril (aka recharge your magic power) there was a chance that you would just kind of stand there for two full seconds before anything actually happened. Not exactly ideal given that you're usually quelling when you really, really need to get another blast out!
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[Update]: As a little Christmas gift, Death Stranding is free to grab until December 26th!
If you've somehow managed to avoid giving Wolfenstein: The New Order a try after all these years, you'll be pleased to hear that you now have a chance to rectify that mistake. I say this because Wolfenstein: The New Order is currently entirely free to grab over at the Epic Games Store.
The only catch is that the giveaway will be expiring tomorrow, on December 21st. So if you're even remotely interested, make sure to add Wolfenstein: The New Order to your account and you'll be able to play it whenever you want and for however long you want.
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[Update]: Nearly a decade later, The Witcher 3 is getting official modding tools.
If you've somehow managed to avoid giving The Witcher 3 a try all of these years, yet you're still open to the idea, this would be the perfect time to finally take the plunge. I say this because The Witcher 3's free next-gen update has now arrived with a whole host of improvements, bug fixes, as well as new content inspired by the Netflix show.
You can expect to see enhanced visuals across the board, better camera controls and an improved UI, a variety of fan-favorite mods integrated into the base game, a ton of fixes for previously broken or messy quests, and even a photo mode for those of you more artistically inclined. What all of this looks like in action, however, that you can check out through the trailer below:
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[Update #2]: Overwatch 2's Lunar New Year 2023 event has now landed alongside Capture the Flag and very little else.
[Update]: Overwatch 2's Battle for Olympus update has arrived with a fun novelty game mode and some truly awful challenges.
As a part of the Season 2 update Overwatch 2 added Ramattra as a brand new tank hero, a new escort map by the name of Shambali Monastery, as well as a whole host of balance changes. While the new content is certainly fun to mess around with, the update was unfortunately a bit of a mess due to some misguided balance tweaks that pushed the power levels of certain heroes to the extreme, while not really doing much to make underplayed heroes like Junker Queen actually useful in competitive play.
In order to sort all of this out, Blizzard has just released a hotfix containing a bunch of new changes! Doomfist, Sojourn, Tracer and Kiriko have received some well deserved nerfs, while Ramattra, Orisa and Ana have all received a couple of small but highly impactful buffs. Without further ado, here's what has been changed:
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[Update #2]: Darktide's Patch 1.02 has now brought in a bunch of small but meaningful balance tweaks, fixes and improvements.
[Update]: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide studio Fatshark are suspending new content, microtransactions and the Xbox version in order to focus on much-needed fixes.
As you've most likely realized yourself, not all weapons in Darktide are created equal. While some like the Veteran's power sword are capable of cleaving through entire hordes without a single issue, others have to expend a considerable amount of time and effort in order to kill even a single poxwalker. So in order to sort this problem out, as well as add some more content for everyone to play around with, Fatshark team has now unleashed Patch 1.0.20.
The highlights include a brand new map by the name of The Signal, as well as a fancy new power maul for the Ogryn and Zealot that literally makes people explode when you charge it up! Whether they're actually good or not, that still remains to be seen, but I can't deny that I've had a lot of fun experimenting with the Zealot's two-handed variant.