Guild Wars 2 artwork from Living World Season 3

In the early days of Guild Wars 2 every single class used Berserker armor and Power-related builds, while Condition builds were widely regarded as a joke given how easily their damage-over-time effects could be overwritten. As expected, this problem eventually got fixed, though unfortunately it just resulted in most players shifting to Condition builds and propagating the same problem under a different name. Time and time again the developers tried to balance the two sides out, but they were never really successful, especially when it comes to PvP where Condition builds can be immensely powerful.

This is going to change in the very near future, however, as ArenaNet has announced that the December 12th update will even the playing field between Condition and Power damage, as well as slightly tweak how vulnerability is applied. If you're interested in a few examples, here's the brief developer summary:

Hearthstone's Kobolds & Catacombs expansion artwork

After weeks upon weeks of teasers and slow card reveals, Hearthstone's Kobolds & Catacombs expansion has now finally arrived. It has brought with it 135 new cards to play around with, including a Legendary weapon for all nine classes, as well as a repeatable singleplayer adventure!

There isn't a full list available just yet, but you can read about some of the new cards over at the official website. As for the new singleplayer mode, its essentially a mini-RPG. Each run through the dungeon will help you strengthen your hero and your pre-build deck, all in order to defeat eight progressively more challenging bosses. Most importantly of all, the new game mode is completely free for all players, so if you're even remotely interested in it simply head on over to Hearthstone and give it a look!

Life is Strange: Before the Storm official artwork and logo

The third and final episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm is set to arrive this December 20th. I can't tell you much about the story without going into spoiler territory, but you can expect Chloe to get herself involved in a highly dangerous situation that will force her to make "some of the toughest decisions of her life". Fairly standard fare as far as Chloe is concerned, but the stakes are a lot higher this time around.

If you would like to learn a little bit more, and you don't mind some minor Episode 3 spoilers, you'll find what you seek in the recently posted trailer down below. That said, I wouldn't recommend watching the video if you haven't already played through Episode 1 and 2, simply because some of the major events from those episodes make an appearance in Episode 3 as well. With all these warnings now out of the way, here's the video:

Screenshot of FromSoftware's newest game trailer Shadows Die Twice.

According to one of their recent tweets, the contents of which are entirely in Japanese by the way, FromSoftware announced that they are not done with the Armored Core series. They didn't share any actual details, but they did politely ask their fans to wait for a little while longer, which as you might imagine has gotten a lot of people excited about an upcoming announcement.

Well, that announcement has now arrived, but what might come as a bit of a surprise is that its not for a new Armored Core game! To be perfectly honest, nobody actually knows what this new game even is, but you can get a tiny little sneak peek through the recently posted trailer. Have a look, but I'd recommend keeping your expectations in check:

Homefront screenshot of a prison camp and a tank

Homefront is a fairly old FPS game with a rather ambitious premise. It attempted to showcase what an actual invasion on US soil would look like, but without shying away from some of the more horrific elements of war. That said, if you've heard anything about Homefront you're probably aware that the end result turned out to be a bit of a mess. A mess with a pretty damn good multiplayer mode, but a mess nonetheless.

As such, I am a bit surprised to announced that the Humble Store is currently giving away Homefront for free. The offer will only last for another two days, so make sure to grab yourself a copy as soon as possible, just to be on the safe side. As always, its important to mention that you don't need to actually install the game in order to claim your copy. Simply add the CD key to your Steam account and you'll be in the clear.

Total War: Warhammer 2 artwork for the upcoming "The Laboratory" update

Two days ago Creative Assembly announced some good and bad news. The bad news is that Norsca and its accompanying 30 new Regiments of Renown will not be making their way to Total War: Warhammer 2 until May due to technical problems. The good news on the other hand is that we'll be getting Tombs Kings as a brand new faction in January, a new Skaven Legendary Lord, as well as a highly experimental new game mode.

The Tomb Kings are still shrouded in a sandstorm so we have absolutely no information about them, but what I can tell you is that Total War: Warhammer 2 will be getting "The Laboratory" game mode next week! The new game mode allows you to tamper with 16 different sliders in order to drastically affect the course of battle. You can ramp up the number of models per each unit in order to recreate the Vermintide (an ocean of very, very angry rat-men), mess around with gravity so units go flying through the air with each charge, amplify the power and range of spells, increase the size and strength of units, and the list goes on.

Rise of the Tomb Raider official artwork

Despite all of their flaws, the two modern Tomb Raider games have been positively received by both critics and the general public, so much so that Rise of the Tomb Raider currently holds a truly impressive 97% approval rating on Steam. Given these sort of statistics you would think that Crystal Dynamics would have the greenlight to create even more sequels and potential spin-offs, but according to Square Enix's comments the series did not perform as well as expected. As such, the future of the series has always been in a bit of a limbo, which is a real shame since it has some genuine potential.

With that little bit of background now out of the way, I hope you can understand just how surprised and happy I am to say that Square Enix has now announced a brand new Tomb Raider game! There is currently no actual information about the game itself, but what I can tell you is that you won't have to wait long between the official announcement and the game's release.

Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire concept art of arches in the desert

Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire's very first content expansion "Daybreak" arrived a little while ago, bringing with it a rather stunning amount of content. There was a brand new and fairly lengthy zone to explore, a new story chapter with some of the best voice acting so far, a variety of new weapons and armor to collect, a new raid to repeatedly smash your head against, and naturally, a brand new Fractal - Twilight Oasis.

If you're interested in finding out what Twilight Oasis is all about, as well as getting a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at ArenaNet's development process, you'll find what you seek in the recently posted developer video. Have a look, its a fairly short but interesting one:

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided screenshot of Prague

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has been available on PC, consoles, and Linux for a very long time now, while the Mac version was unfortunately delayed due to its reliance on an upcoming update. Well, Apple's latest graphics API "Metal 2" has been released relatively recently, and as such the Mac version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be following suit next week as well! To be more specific, you can expect to see it arrive this December 12th.

As with the vast majority of ports these days, the Mac and Linux version were not created by the developers themselves, but rather by Feral Interactive. If the name doesn't ring a bell, you might know them from their work on the Mac and Linux versions of Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2, XCOM 2, Tomb Raider, Dawn of War 3, and the list goes on. So far they've had a pretty spotless record, so chances are high that this Mac version will be of excellent quality as well.

Trine 2 screenshot of a moonlit night

In honor of Finland's 100 years of independence Steam has now unleashed a sale featuring a variety of Finish developers. So if you've somehow managed to avoid filling out your backlog during the recent Autumn Sale, you now have another chance to celebrate freedom by liberating the contents of your wallet.

Unlike the Autumn Sale, however, this most recent one will only last for a short amount of time. To be more specific, the sale will end at 10am PST this Friday. It's not exactly a lot of time, but there aren't that many games on sale either, so you should be able to do a bit of research and figure out which games you would love to mess around with.