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After spending a mere two weeks on the PTR (Public Test Realm), it would appear that the freshly added tank/support hybrid Brigitte is just about ready for her full debut. To be more specific, you can expect Brigitte to arrive for Quick Play and the Arcade on March 20th. No details have been given about her inclusion in Competitive Play just yet, but if past releases are any indicator she's most likely going to be sitting in the sidelines for a week before being truly unleashed upon the world.
[Update]: Apparently Brigitte won't be available in Competitive Play until Season 10. In other words, we still have 5 more weeks to wait before she's 'actually' in the game. A truly puzzling decision.
If you're interested in all of her abilities and lore, I would recommend you head on over to the official website as it contains pretty much everything you'll need to know in order to be ready for her launch. On the other hand, if you're more interested in her design and origins, allow me to share with you the most recent developer video narrated by the Lead Designer Ben Zhang. Have a look:
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Yesterday the official Witcher Twitter account posted a brief yet cryptic teaser: "Kaer Morhen’s old stones have witnessed many battles... Once more they'll feel the sting of sparks as blades collide... Check back tomorrow." The pervading theory among fans was that this is some of teaser for Soulcalibur VI, mostly because the quote was phrased in such a way that it would perfectly fit the Soulcalibur announcer.
As you might imagine given the title, the fan theory was 100% correct! In other words, not only is Geralt bringing his sharp wit and even sharper swords to Soulcalibur VI, but he will be doing so alongside a Kaer Morhen themed stage and Witcher 3 inspired music. Rather than babble on, allow me to show you how Geralt handles himself in battle via the recently posted teaser trailer. Have a look, the video's short but sweet:
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Back in September of 2017 Square Enix announced a brand new Tomb Raider game, though sadly they didn't reveal any gameplay details or even the title. While the gameplay improvements are still shrouded in mystery, you might be interested to hear that the next Tomb Raider game will be called Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and that it will be arriving on September 14th.
This information comes to us from the recently posted teaser trailer, so if you would like to get a little bit of a sneak peek at Shadow of the Tomb Raider, you'll find the video right below. Don't get too excited, however, as the teaser trailer offers very little in terms of actual details. On the positive side, at least it's pretty to look at! Anyway, have a gander:
Gwent devs are working on restricting random cards from ranked play and restoring faction uniqueness
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While Gwent was and still is a great game, the past few updates have clearly shown that the team is struggling to define what exactly they want Gwent to be: a silly game filled with random effects and crazy swings, or a competitive one with predictable results and a focus on planning and strategy. Thankfully, it would appear that they have now sorted out whatever internal issues they had as the recently held AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the official forums is filled to the brim with excellent changes that are coming in the next few months.
First and foremost, I am incredibly happy to say that the developers have realized how boring some of the archetypes have become and are now working on making each faction more unique and interesting to play with. The end goal is for each faction to have three different decks to play around with, which should go a long way towards preventing the ranked ladder from becoming stale.
Speaking of which, some of the highly random and controversial Create cards are going to be restricted from ranked play. You can still use them in casual play or in the Arena, but their massive variance will no longer 'compromise' Gwent's competitive scene.
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Total War: Rome 2's recent Desert Kingdoms expansion has brought in four new factions to play around with, as well as a variety of content and improvements to the game itself. So if you were looking to give Rome 2 another try, now would be a very good time to do so, even if you don't own the Desert Kingdoms DLC as all of the new content is still present on the campaign map.
For the veterans among you that are looking for an extra bit of challenge, however, Creative Assembly has now revealed their video list of the top 5 hardest starting positions. The nominees shouldn't come as much of a surprise given how terrible some of their early turns are, but it's still worth checking out if you feel like trying to overcome the odds. Have a look:
The official Witcher Twitter is teasing a brand new announcement, possibly related to Soulcalibur VI
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[Update]: Geralt has officially been confirmed as Soulcalibur VI guest character, and there is a brand new video showing him in action!
Earlier today the official Witcher Twitter account posted a brief teaser for some sort of new announcement, as well as a notice to come back tomorrow in order to learn more. As for the teaser itself, it is a fairly brief and rather cryptic quote relating to the famous Witcher stronghold: "Kaer Morhen’s old stones have witnessed many battles... Once more they'll feel the sting of sparks as blades collide... Check back tomorrow."
If you're looking for a straight answer I'm afraid you're out of luck as nobody currently knows what CDPR is teasing, but the most popular theory is that this is going to be an announcement for Geralt's inclusion in Soulcalibur VI. The above mentioned quote is phrased in such a way that it would perfectly fit the Soulcalibur announcer, and the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen is a fairly iconic location that would make for a great stage to smack people around on.
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Sombra received a fairly major rework during the most recent Overwatch update. She lost the ability to farm health packs in order to charge her ultimate, but in return she gained a tightened spread on her weapon, a cast time reduction for Hack as well as the ability to disable more effects, and perhaps most importantly for infiltration, 5 extra seconds on her Translocator. The end result was that Sombra finally got uplifted from the very bottom in terms of winrate to a highly respectable 56.82% in Grandmaster.
However, while the new Sombra is definitely a much more useful hero, the reduced cast time on her Hack ability has also made her incredibly annoying to play against. After all, nobody likes having all of their toys taken away just because they haven't managed to continuously shoot at Sombra in order to stop the Hack. With that in mind, I am glad to announce that Blizzard is now looking to adjust Sombra's Hack in order to make it more counterable and strategic to use.
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While Gwent's faction challenges have been mired with problems before, it would appear that CDPR has managed to fix pretty much everything, just in time for the newest one! As such, you might be interested to hear that this month's faction challenge pits Monsters and Northern Realms players against each other in a battle to unlock new cosmetics as well as in-game currency and card kegs.
You will find the full list of rewards right below, but it is worth mentioning that playing with friends or in the Arena will not count towards your progress, for obvious reasons. Thankfully, CDPR has now added an in-game counter to the Notifications tab, so if you're ever confused about how many wins you still need in order to unlock a fancy new border, it's now going to be very easy to figure it out. As for the rewards, here's what you can get:
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After receiving 400% of it's initial crowdfunding goal, the long-awaited Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire was supposed to arrive this April 3rd. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately depending on who you ask, the release has been delayed by an entire month in order to ensure that everything is polished up and as ready as it can possibly be.
Besides putting the finishing touches on what appears to be an absolutely gigantic world, Obsidian has also announced that they will be incorporating a significant amount feedback from the Backer Beta. As such, while it definitely sucks having to wait for another month, I don't see much of a reason to be negative about this delay. After all, it's better for Pillars of Eternity 2 to be slightly late and highly enjoyable, rather than join the AAA club with the usually disastrous launches followed by weeks of frantic patching.
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After being successfully Kickstarted all the way back in the ancient times of 2013, the colorful and downright adorable 3D collectathon A Hat in Time finally launched in October of 2017. While the lengthy development process is usually indicative of problems, especially with Kickstarter games where money is tight, A Hat in Time ended up being not only good, but straight up excellent!
That alone would be enough, but Gears for Breakfast has decided to take things one step further by also including mod support, though initially only in a limited fashion. Now that "The Modding Update" has arrived, however, the mods themselves have become an integral part of A Hat in Time. In other words, it is now not only easier to pick and choose the ones you like, but you can also unlock a variety of hat flairs, remixes, and other cosmetics by simply playing and completing the community levels.