- By Ash
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The XCOM series is well known for its combination of tactical turn-based gameplay, often brutal difficulty, and a base management system that forces you to make some rather difficult choices. With that in mind, I think you can begin to understand the confusion XCOM fans felt when 2K announced The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - a squad-based shooter set in the XCOM universe.
While it didn't set the world on fire like XCOM: Enemy Unknown did, The Bureau was and still is a fairly competent shooter. So if you feel like giving it a try, now would be a good time to do so as its completely free to grab from the Humble Store for the next ~23 hours. As always, it is important to mention that you don't need to actually install it in order to 'confirm' your copy, simply add the CD key to your Steam account and it'll be yours for to keep for good.
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Ever since the first Overwatch cinematic appeared Doomfist has been the hero everyone wanted to play around with, so when he finally reached the live servers I highly doubt anyone was really surprised to see him soar in terms of pick rate. However, while he was a fun hero to play, he was also somewhat overpowered since his Rocket Punch could instantly kill you even around corners due to its massive hitbox. As expected, this eventually led to a small nerf, but unfortunately that nerf also brought with it more bugs than even someone as strong as Doomfist could bear.
After this patch Doomfist went from being one of the strongest heroes in the game to one of the worst, with a competitive win rate that mostly hovered around a miserable 46%. A truly unfortunate fate for a character that rode in on such a massive hype-wave. Thankfully, this sad state of affairs is soon going to end as Blizzard has just announced a whole bunch of bug fixes and tweaks to Doomfist's abilities. There is no easy way to summarize the changes, so here's the full list:
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Guild Wars 2's Path of Fire expansion brought with it a wide variety of interesting locations to explore, as well as some of the best mounts I've ever seen in an MMO, but what it unfortunately ended up lacking was long-term content. My first journey through Path of Fire was downright amazing, but there just wasn't any real reason to keep coming back, which is a bit of a problem for a freshly launched MMO expansion.
With that in mind, I am very glad to say that Path of Fire's first content update "Living World Season 4: Episode 1 - Daybreak" has managed to address some of the major complaints! There is a new and interesting storyline to play through, a variety of achievements and items to hunt, and perhaps most importantly of all, a brand new zone that seems to have some real meat to it. How long its going to last, only time can tell, but so far I must say I'm quite pleased with what Daybreak has to offer.
- By Ash
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Before Fatshark became famous with War of the Roses and Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide they created Lead and Gold - a fairly enjoyable third-person shooter set in the Wild West. However, as is the case with most indie multiplayer games, Lead and Gold's playerbase slowly but surely moved on to greener pastures, making the already niche shooter practically deserted.
As such, I am very glad to say that Fatshark is now giving away 1 million copies of Lead and Gold in order to make its servers active once more, and also to help promote the upcoming Vermintide 2. If you're interested simply head on over to the official website, jump through the usual bunch of hoops, and you'll be shooting outlaws in the face in no time!
- By Ash
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Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, besides having far too long of a tittle, is a cheerful JRPG focused around exploration and alchemy. After being available on consoles for quite a while, Atelier Sophie finally made its way to Steam this February to some rather positive reviews.
However, due to it being a console port, the majority of Atelier Sophie's 2D artwork was in a fairly low resolution. Well, this is no longer the case as Koei Tecmo has just suddenly released an update that upgraded the resolution of all of the 2D artwork! Its a fairly minor patch in the grand scheme of things, but its always good to see developers support their games even years after the original release.
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Wolfenstein 2's Season Pass is set to contain three pieces of standalone DLC, each of which will feature different "larger-than-life American heroes" as they attempt to sabotage the Nazi war machine from "the ruins of Chicago to the vastness of space". Well, technically there are four parts to this Season Pass, but Episode Zero was released the same day as Wolfenstein 2 and mostly reuses the same levels, so I don't think it really counts.
As for the first actual episode, you can expect to see the "The Adventures of Gunslinger Joe" this December 14th. If there's going to be only one DLC you check out, it should probably be this one as its premise is pure gold! Speaking of which, here's the basic summary of each of the three DLCs, as well as their arrival date:
- By Ash
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Despite water covering large stretches of most Minecraft worlds it is rarely anything more than a minor annoyance, an obstacle you need to cross in order to get to the fun stuff. That won't be the case for very long, however, as the Minecraft developers have now announced a massive update centered exclusively on the oceans.
"The Update Aquatic" will add a whole bunch of new areas to explore, including things like coral reefs and giant shipwrecks, as well as greatly improved water physics. There will also be a variety of new fish to encounter, dolphins to befriend, monsters to slay, as well as special enhancements to make underwater combat and movement much less tedious. For example, the Loyalty enchantment will allow you to throw your melee weapon like a boomerang, while the Slipstream Dash will give you the ability to quickly close the distance with your enemies.
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: THQ Nordic and HandyGames seem to be teasing Titan Quest 2.
Titan Quest is a fairly old action-RPG inspired by Diablo 2, though with enough new bells and whistles to truly set it apart. It has had a cult following ever since its original release, a following that only grew larger when the Anniversary Edition arrived last year arrived with a whole bunch of improvements and reworked multiplayer.
However, it would appear that simply remastering the original wasn't good enough for the developers as they have just recently released a brand new expansion - Ragnarok! It has brought with it a new story arc with dozens of quests to solve and hordes of monsters to slay, a new Mastery (class) in the shape of the Runemaster, a reworked experience curve and an increased max level, the introduction of thrown weapons and numerous new gear, improved character customization and a variety of new maps, and most importantly of all, the ability to wear pants!
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Fear Effect is an action-adventure released for the PlayStation way back in the ancient times of 2000. After receiving some favorable reviews it ended up spawning a sequel/prequel in 2001, though that was the end of the story as the series mostly faded away into obscurity.
With that in mind, I hope you now understand just how surprising it is for me to announce that the original Fear Effect is now getting a modern remake! The details are still in short supply, but you can expect Fear Effect Reinvented to have improved graphics, controls and gameplay, while still holding true to everything that made the original great. If you're wondering just how improved the visuals truly are, wonder no more as the developers have recently posted a teaser trailer. Have a look:
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Black Mesa is finally being released! You can expect to see it arrive on March 5, 2020.
For those of you that might not know, Black Mesa is a fan re-imagining of the original Half-Life. It features improved visuals and sound design, new dialogue and voice acting, a variety of updates to some of the more annoying gameplay encounters, performance tweaks, and the list goes on for a while.
In short, Black Mesa is a very ambitious project, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that the developers have now delayed the long-awaited release of Xen - the alien 'world' you visit in the later portions of Half-Life. According to the developers Xen has proven to be an enormous undertaking, and despite their best intentions things are taking a lot longer than expected. On the positive side, while Xen may have been pushed back, there will still be a significant update this December!