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While Dota 2's old ranked matchmaking system did its job quite admirably, there was always the problem of what to do with returning players. If someone was gone for well over year their skill level and game knowledge were bound to deteriorate, especially when you consider how massive Dota 2's patches can truly be, yet that player's rating always remained the same. This brought in a heavy dose of uncertainty into the matchmaking system, which is never a good thing as one small mistake can easily result in a 'wasted' hour for 10 different players.
As such, I am very glad to say that Dota 2 has now transitioned to a seasonal ranked system. Each season will last six months and will require the player to do a series of placement matches before they are truly unleashed upon the matchmaking system. Furthermore, players are going to be split across seven different levels (or rather skill tiers), each of which will come with five divisions within them. As you might expect, you will need to climb through all five of the divisions before being given a chance to prove your worth and move onto a higher skill tier.
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Seven: The Days Long Gone is an upcoming 3D isometric RPG that allows you to freely explore a massive sandbox world. You can climb just about anything in order to avoid guards or to reach a more advantageous position, sneak your way through encampments and only attack when the situation favors you, or just throw caution to the wind and attempt to beat down scores of guardsmen through a combination of might and magic.
While the recently posted gameplay trailer does not feature any fireballs, it will give you a pretty damn good idea of what the stealth gameplay is all about. Have a look, its a fairly short but informative video:
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Total War: Warhammer 2's Mortal Empires campaign arrived a little while ago, bringing with a massive world full of unique factions and races to conquer. However, due to some technical issues most of the changes that arrived in Total War: Warhammer 1's final update did not come as a part of the Mortal Empires campaign, thus leaving almost all of the Old World races at a significant disadvantage.
As such, I am very glad to say that Creative Assembly has now released most of the important changes onto the Steam beta client. In terms of content you can expect to see numerous design changes for the Warriors of Chaos, a variety of Wood Elf followers, new skill trees and campaign effects for most of the Old World Legendary Lords, and perhaps most importantly of all, a vast array of balance tweaks. If you're interested in all of the details you'll find the full patch notes over at the official website.
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Battlerite is the spiritual successor to Bloodline Champions, and much like its predecessor its a highly skill-based and team-oriented PvP brawler. It went fully free-to-play around two weeks ago, and much to my delight it has managed to acquire a rather large playerbase. And what better way to celebrate its growing popularity than with a brand new champion!
The newly introduced Sky Ranger represents a combination of high mobility and slow but powerful attacks. As such, she's not going to be an easy champion to play since even a couple of mistakes can snowball into a quick death, but if mastered her damage potential is quite impressive, especially when you consider just how often she can bounce around the arena. But rather than just 'listen' to me babble about the new champion, allow me to show you what the Sky Ranger looks like in action. Have a gander:
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Episode 2 released back in October, and after a little bit of a wait Episode 3 of Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within adventure game series has now arrived to continue on with the story. I can't tell you much about the story itself due to spoiler concerns, but what I can say is that you will be taking an even deeper plunge into the criminal underworld as the villain's plans are slowly starting to unravel.
As always, the launch trailer features some minor spoilers, so if you want to have a completely 'pure' playthrough make sure to avert your eyes. If you don't mind seeing such minor details, however, you'll find the trailer right below. Have a look:
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[Update]: Northgard has now added a new and extremely aggressive faction - Himminbrjotir, Clan of the Ox.
Northgard is a viking themed strategy game that released onto Steam Early Access back in February. When I first did my review I found Northgard to be quite enjoyable, albeit severely lacking in content given that there were only three different units to toy around. With that in mind, I am very glad to say that the developers have come a long way since then, with their latest efforts now resulting in the appearance of the sixth playable faction - Clan Boar.
Unlike the previously added Clan Bear which focused primarily on resilience and an unbreakable defense, Clan Boar is all about furthering your civilization's understanding of the world. In gameplay terms this means that Clan Boar's healers are also capable of providing significant amounts of lore, villagers receive no penalties to happiness for non-upgraded houses, and perhaps most importantly, each additional territory passively increases the population limit.
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Before you even ask, the answer is no, this Black Mirror has absolutely nothing in common with the Twilight Zone inspired TV series of the same name. It does, however, have a lot in common with the ancient point & click adventure game called Black Mirror 1, mostly because its a modern re-imagining of the very same story.
It is worth mentioning that the modern Black Mirror will not be a simple tune-up as the original's gameplay is quite slow and arduous by today's standards. Instead, it will come with improved gameplay that's focused around exploration and careful examination, newly crafted visuals and a much better sound design, as well as "high quality voice acting from a compelling ensemble cast". If you're wondering what this might look like in action, wonder no more as THQ Nordic have recently posted a brief gameplay trailer. Have a gander:
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[Update]: Thanks to a partnership between Bethesda and GOG, the entire Dishonored series and the first two modern Wolfenstein games are now available DRM-free.
While it initially received overwhelmingly positive reviews, the public opinion on Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus has taken a bit of a downward turn in the recent weeks. So if you're not sure whose opinion to trust, you'll be glad to hear that Bethesda has now released a free demo for both PC and consoles.
If you're planning to test it out on PC simply head on over to Steam, navigate to the "Download Demo" button that's to the right of the purchase button, and you'll be playing in no time. As far as content is concerned, this demo will allow you to play through the entire first level, after which you will need the full version to continue. Naturally, your progress will carry over to the full version, regardless of when you buy it.
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After being in beta for quite a while now, CDPR has announced that their Witcher inspired card game Gwent will be officially released in 2018. In order to prepare for the upcoming launch the team will be increasing the tempo of multiplayer updates, while the singleplayer content will be rolling out at a similar pace. In other words, you can expect to see new cards, challenges, vanity items, and balance patches arrive with a much greater frequency as we inch closer towards release.
On a somewhat disappointing note, I also have to announce that CDPR has delayed Thonebreaker, Gwent's very first singleplayer story-driven campaign, until 2018. If its any consolation, Thronebreaker is being pushed further back in order to give the team enough time to properly flesh out all of the content, as well as increase the campaign's already massive scope! So while we might be waiting for a while for Thronebreaker to arrive, at least it seems like its going to be one very content-rich expansion.
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After being leaked and rumored for quite a few weeks now, the Steam Autumn Sale has finally arrived with alongside a whole bunch of discounts. There are also some account badges to earn by participating in the sale, though unlike the ones from the early days these badges don't appear to be anything more than a bit of cosmetic fluff.
Besides the sale itself, today also marks the start of the nominations for the Steam Awards - Valve's annual ceremony that seeks to celebrate the most unique and interesting games out there. As such, the categories are quite broad and open to interpretation, so feel free to vote for whatever game you feel deserves the recognition, be it indie or AAA. The Steam Awards nominations will only be open until November 28th, so make sure to head on over to the official website as soon as possible.