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World of Warcraft's recent Update 7.3.5 has brought Legion's level scaling system to every single zone across all of the expansions. So if you ever wanted to level a new character and explore some of the regions you haven't touched since the Cataclysm, now would be a very good time to do so.
If that isn't enough of an incentive to start up a new character, you might also be interested to hear that the pre-order for the Battle for Azeroth expansion has recently gone live, and with it the ability to play as one of the new Allied Races. The full version will feature six races in total, while right now you can only play as the Void Elves, Highmountain Tauren, Nightborne and Lightforged Draenei. There are also a bunch of additional benefits if you decide to go with the more expensive "Digital Deluxe" edition, but it's pretty much all cosmetic fluff so if you're just in it for the gameplay I wouldn't worry too much about it. That said, here's what the new races look like:
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Right now is a really good time to be a fan of Total War games. Total War: Warhammer 2 has just added the Tomb Kings as a brand new race, Total War: Rome 2's Empire Divided expansion launched with a whole bunch of new content and features to mess around with, and if that wasn't enough there are two additional games coming this year: the massive Total War: Three Kingdoms and the somewhat more focused Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia.
While Total War: Three Kingdoms is pinned for a rather nebulous "Fall 2018" release date, Thrones of Britannia is set to arrive in the relatively near future, on April 19th to be exact. It'll bring with it the most detailed Total War map to date, ten playable and hopefully highly unique factions, as well as a variety of victory conditions that align with your chosen faction's history. There will also be numerous gameplay improvements, mostly surrounding recruitment, politics, research, and how provinces operate.
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The more complex and interesting a class is, the more difficult it is to balance. Nowhere has this been more apparent than with Guild Wars 2's Mesmer. Its ability to summon illusions and disengage from battle at will, as well as dish out heaps of positive and negative effects, has made it a nearly mandatory class in any serious content, yet it has also made it a bit of a balancing nightmare. After all, how do you improve some of the underperforming skills and weapons without making the Chronomancer specialization even more powerful?
The answer, as you can probably guess from the title, was to rework the core principles behind the class itself. As such, Phantasms now only have one powerful attack after which they turn into a generic clone, all primed and ready to be shattered. This might sound like a silly little change, but it goes a long way towards preventing the Mesmer playstyle from degenerating into "stand still and auto-attack with three Phantasms up". Similarly, the Chronomancer's Alacrity buff has been tweaked so that it's much more interactive, and more importantly for PvP, dispellable! The changes are quite technical, so if you're looking to find out more you should head over to the official blog.
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While the overall balance in Overwatch is currently in a good spot, there are some heroes that are unfortunately not up to par. For some this is because their abilities are inherently niche and inflexible, and for others it is simply a matter of numbers that keeps them from entering the spotlight.
If you've played Overwatch for even a couple of months chances are you already know what heroes I'm talking about: Symmetra, Torbjorn, Mei, Sombra, Hanzo and Doomfist. All of them have been at the bottom of the barrel for many, many months now, and as such I am very glad to say that Blizzard is currently looking at tweaking every single one of them!
You have 5 more days to grab the Rockstar Games themed Humble Bundle with quite a few classics in it
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If you're a fan of Rockstar Games but you've never played any of their older classics, today might just be your lucky day. Rockstar Games has recently partnered up with Humble Bundle to offer a wide variety of games from their catalog, with Rockstar's share of the profits going directly to the Rainforest Alliance charity.
So if you feel like trying out games such as Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto 3 & 4, as well as support charity along the way, you should head on over to Humble Bundle. On the other hand, if you're just wondering what the bundle even contains, here's the full list of games and the tier they appear in:
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Overwatch's Lunar New Year update is set to arrive later today, bringing with it a whole bunch of new cosmetics to collect, a couple of minor balance changes, and some much-needed bug fixes. Perhaps most importantly of all, it will bring with it a newly reworked Capture the Flag game mode, as well as a four-week long competitive season dedicated just to it!
If you have a bit of time and you're looking for all of the details you'll find the latest developer update video right below. On the other hand, if you're just looking for the 'short' version, I'll add my summary as well. Have a look:
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It would appear that whoever thought up Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is once again in charge of Far Cry DLC. In other words, instead of the usual batch of story missions and weapon packs, Far Cry 5's three planned DLCs will allow players to experience a variety of cheesy b-movie scenarios.
The first and quite possibly the most 'normal' DLC on the list is "Hours of Darkness" that will have us travel back in time to Vietnam in order to fight against Việt Cộng soldiers. On the other hand, the second "Dead Living Zombies" DLC will offer a chance to face off against hordes of zombies in true b-movie fashion. The third, and perhaps most interesting to me, is the "Lost on Mars" DLC which will have us leave Earth behind in order to square off against Martian arachnids!
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Throughout Guild Wars 2's history the Mesmer class has always been a problematic one. Its reliance on illusions and elusiveness have made it a nightmare to properly balance in PvP, while its ill-fitting abilities and lacking synergies have made it an awkward class in PvE. Nowhere is this more apparent than with Chronomancers - Mesmers that are downright mandatory in any serious content yet almost completely isolated from the rest of the classes. Combine this with the rather abusive relationship between Phantasms and Clones and you've got yourself a gigantic hodgepodge of mechanics and ideas without much cohesion or structure behind them.
With all of that in mind, I am very glad to say that ArenaNet has decided to undertake the gigantic task of reworking some of more troublesome areas of the Mesmer class. First and foremost, the Alacrity buff will be getting a considerable nerf in terms of overall duration and power, but in return it will be a part of the boon system and as such will be influenced by the Concentration stat and abilities from other players. According to ArenaNet's explanation Chronomancers will still be able to maintain current levels of Alacrity, but there will be a lot more interaction with it, and more importantly, a couple more sources to help plug in any gaps.
You can grab Dark Souls 3 and its Ashes of Ariandel DLC for $12 via February's Humble Monthly Bundle
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The Humble Monthly Bundle is a $12 subscription service that instantly gives you access to one major game, and then a whole bunch more once the next month rolls over. Last month the featured game was Civilization VI, while this time around you're looking at one of my absolute favorites: Dark Souls 3 and its Ashes of Ariandel DLC.
With most games I have to weigh my thoughts and really consider who I'm willing to recommend them to, but for $12 I honestly feel Dark Souls 3 is a game everyone should try out. You might not like it, in which case you'll have all of the bonus games to help soften the blow, but if you do end up getting immersed into its world you'll find a game truly unlike all others. If you're interested in more details and why exactly I think Dark Souls 3 is so good, I would suggest heading over to my full review.
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It hasn't even been two weeks since Blizzard added a whole bunch of new cosmetics to Overwatch via the Blizzard World update, and already there are more waiting just around the corner. As expected, the new skins will be themed after the Lunar New Year holiday and will set you back 3000 in-game credits for each of the legendary ones. In other words, I sure hope you didn't spend all of your credits buying the recently released Blizzard World stuff!
Even if you did, you still have a bit of time to recover as the Year of the Dog update is set to arrive next week, on February 8th. There are unfortunately no details available just yet, but you can get a brief look at a very festive Lijiang Tower over at the Overwatch twitter.