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Much like Roadhog, D.Va is one of those heroes that is incredibly difficult to balance. While she might not be as durable as her gigantic mech would suggest, her ability to delete just about any ultimate with the single flick of a button has made her an invaluable part of pretty much every single team composition for the past few months. To be perfectly honest I don't consider the current D.Va to be overpowered, but I do have to admit that both playing as or against her is a bit of a slog, so I'm very glad to say that Blizzard has now announced a rather major rework.
First and foremost, her Defense Matrix uptime has been nerfed by 50% which should be a significant hit against dive teams that rely heavily on its protection. In order to compensate D.Va has been given a new Micro Misses ability that lets her launch a salvo of small missiles that explode on impact and deal area-of-effect damage in a small radius. Most interestingly, these missiles can be used at any time - even while D.Va is holding Defense Matrix or flying around!
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While its existence was somewhat leaked last week, I am still excited to say that Blizzard has now finally and officially announced Junkertown as the next Overwatch map. The details are sadly still in short supply, but what I can tell you is that Junkertown will be a Payload map, which is a pretty damn good thing given how its one of the most balanced and competitively viable game modes out there.
In order to make this announcement just a little bit more interesting Blizzard released not one, but two rather awesome trailers! The first one is a humorous video starring everyone's favorite madmen Junkrat and Roadhog, while the second is a brief overview of the map and its lore. Even if you don't have much time I would highly recommend you give the Junkrat & Roadhog video a look as it manages to perfectly capture the spirit of the characters. But enough babble from me, here are the videos:
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Lost Sphear is an upcoming spiritual successor to I am Setsuna, or in other words a blend between classic Japanese role-playing games and modern gameplay elements. The adventure will being with our main character Kanata waking up to find his entire hometown mysteriously missing, after which we'll need to discover and channel the power of something called Memory in order to recreate what was once lost. Its not exactly a story you would expect from a nostalgia-focused JRPG, but it certainly is an interesting premise.
I would love to tell you more but there are unfortunately very few details actually available. What I can offer you, however, is a glimpse at Lost Sphear's gameplay thanks to its one and only trailer. Have a look, it'll give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from Lost Sphear:
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As you might imagine from the name alone, The Escapists 2 is a sandbox prison-escape game that will ask of you to craft, brawl, sneak, and explode your way out of some truly horrendous situations. Once it arrives it will bring with it drop-in multiplayer for up to four players, support for a variety of different gameplay styles, and perhaps most importantly, a whole bunch of unique prisons to tackle.
Out of all the upcoming prisons it is perhaps the mobile ones that are the most interesting since conventional tactics won't exactly help you when you're stuck 10 kilometers above ground. If you're wondering what exactly this sort of madness might look like in game, wonder no more as the developers have recently posted a trailer showing off the various mobile prisons you will most likely get thrown out of. Have a look:
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Papers, Please is at its core a 'bureaucracy simulator' intertwined with a story about human misery and the difficult choices one has to make to do the right thing. The gameplay is intentionally terrible, convoluted and tedious, but the message it conveys is so powerful that Papers, Please became immensely popular regardless.
So if you ever wanted to experience what Papers, Please is all about, but didn't really feel like slogging through the actual gameplay, you might be glad to hear that a short movie adaptation is currently in the works. The details are unfortunately very scarce so I can't reveal anything about the plot itself, but what I can tell you is that its being made by Liliya Tkach and Nikita Ordynskiy, both of which have multiple short films under their belts.
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Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA is an upcoming action-RPG and the long-awaited eight installment of the highly enjoyable Ys series. While it has been available in Japan for quite a while now, soon it will be marking the hopefully triumphant return of the Ys series to the west after an eight-year-long hiatus!
Instead of the usual pre-order nonsense the develops have opted to go with the much more pleasant early adopter bonus. Everyone who grabs Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA within the first week of launch will be given a couple of pieces of cosmetic DLC and some in-game goodies. And as an additional bonus, the developers have also made a portion of the official soundtrack available for free, as well as a mini digital art book to peruse while waiting for the release date. If you're interested in all of the details you will find the fairly brief announcement post over here.
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Morrowind Rebirth, as you would imagine from the title alone, is a TES: Morrowind mod that is all about enhancing and modernizing the gameplay through a variety of balance changes and new content. It features new creatures to fight, new armor and weapons to collect, massive zone overhauls, various tweaks to the magic system that make it less of a broken mess, and the list goes on for quite a while.
It has been a work in progress for almost a decade now, yet there don't seem to be any signs of the development slowing down. If anything, it would appear that the development is currently going faster than ever given how Morrowind Rebirth has just been updated with the rather hefty 4.2 patch. There are simply far too many details for me to cover in brief, so if you're interested in the specifics you'll find the full patch notes over here.
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Ever since Battlefront 2 was revealed during this year's E3 the gameplay trailers and previews were all pretty much focused on the ground combat and overall story. A real shame since some of Star Wars' most iconic and downright awesome moments happened in the depths of space, surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of clashing ships.
Thankfully that streak has now been broken, so if you're as much of a fan of space combat as I am, you'll be glad to hear that the most recent gameplay trailer focuses exactly on that. Its unfortunately not very long, but it sure is flashy! Have a look:
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[Update]: BioWare is working on a new Mass Effect game and Remastering the original trilogy!
Mass Effect: Andromeda launched with a wide variety of problems that quickly gave rise to an equally vast amounts of complaints from critics and players alike. While the developers did try to fix some of the most egregious issues, there was simply no way to get around the stilted animations and atrocious writing. A real shame since the original Mass Effect trilogy was such a joy to play, despite the somewhat disappointing ending.
Speaking of disappointment, I'm saddened to say that Mass Effect: Andromeda has just managed to reach rock bottom. According to the most recent announcement Mass Effect: Andromeda will be getting no more singleplayer updates or additional story content, even though there are gigantic cliffhangers and nasty bugs present all throughout the game. For those of you interested in finding out what happened with the Quarian Ark or other such unresolved mysteries, I'm afraid you're going to have to shuffle through the upcoming comics and novels to get any sort of closure.
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Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is a 3D action-RPG with some beat'em up elements thrown in just for good measure. While it will feature a lot of the same characters from the series The Chamber of Time will be its own self-contained storyline, so according to Bandai Namco it should be welcoming to both new players and seasoned fans alike.
If you're wondering whether that's the case, or what the standalone narrative is going to be all about, you might want to check out the recently posted "Life at Luna Lova" story trailer. Have a look, its surprisingly faithful to the show: