Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire artwork of the god Balthazar

After its existence has been accidentally leaked multiple times now, Guild Wars 2's second expansion Path of Fire has finally and officially been announced. It will bring with it the Crystal Desert and the adjoining kingdom of Elona as fully exploitable and rather massive zones, the Human god of war Balthazar as the main adversary, mounts that all come with unique effects and abilities, as well as nine new elite specializations - one for each of the current classes.

If you're wondering what all of this might look like in gameplay terms, wonder no more as ArenaNet released an extremely detailed video going over pretty much every feature. The entire video is about 22 minutes long, and if you're even remotely interested in Guild Wars 2 I would suggest you give it a look as its quite fascinating. Here you go:

Stardew Valley screenshot of some multiplayer farming

Even though Stardew Valley is a simple and relaxing game pretty much anyone can pick up, getting its multiplayer mode up and running has proven to be quite the challenge for the developers. Thankfully, after many months of work they now appear to have solved most of the issues given that the much-requested co-op multiplayer mode has finally been confirmed for an early 2018 release.

Once it arrives you will be able to invite up to three other players to live on your farm, each with their own little cabin to call home. The other players, or rather your farmhands, will be able to do pretty much everything you can: farm, mine, fight, fish, forage, marry NPCs, take part in festivals, and so forth. The only things your fellow players won't be able to do is dictate 'large' decisions such as when to sleep, when to start and end festivals, and naturally, whether to side with Joja or not. Oh, and if you are so incline you will also be able to marry your companions, though the exact details behind that process haven't been worked out just yet.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel artwork cuttout

[Update #2]: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III will soon be making its way to PC, and it'll bring with it some rather useful improvements like auto-saves and the ability to speed up gameplay.

[Update]: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 has now been released onto PC as well, and I'm happy to say it's getting just as good reviews as the original.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a turn-based JRPG with a heavy focus on storytelling and character relationships. Instead of everyone being an incredibly powerful fighter from the get-go, your team will first need to spend some time getting to know each other, as well as bond over various dialogue choices and events before finally learning how to properly support each other in battle. In other words, as you get to know your allies better your combined attacks and strategies will become increasingly more powerful, which is a rather intriguing way to mix in storytelling with your usual JRPG combat.

If you're wondering what all of this might look like in gameplay terms, you'll find your answers in the recently posted launch trailer. Its not overly long or even detailed, but it should still give you a general idea of just what kind of JRPG you're getting yourself into. Have a look:

Garrosh Hellscream artwork for Siege of Orgrimmar

After a few weeks of teasers and spotlight videos Garrosh Hellscream has finally made his way to the Heroes of the Storm PTR. Besides Garrosh and his cosmetics, the PTR update has also brought in a whole bunch of balance changes and tweaks, so if you're interested in all of the details you'll find the preliminary patch notes over at the HOTS blog.

On the other hand, if you're more interested in the former Warchief of the Horde, you'll find his most recent spotlight video down below. Without spoiling too much, let's just say that Garrosh isn't the type of hero you're probably expecting him to be. Have a look:

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds screenshot of a sneaky sniper

Given that first-person servers have been one of the most popular requests since release, it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds now supports matches with only the first-person mode active. As of right now the first-person server options are available in NA and EU Solo/Duo game modes, with the rest most likely getting added in a future patch. Similarly, the camera will be in third-person during the airplane phase, but will be set to first-person once all of the bugs and problems have been ironed out.

Besides the new 'game mode', this update has also brought with it the much-requested reconnect feature, as well as a proper colorblind mode. Now if you're worried about people exploiting the reconnect system in order to avoid fights, worry not as a disconnected player's character will remain exactly where they were. In other words, if someone force-disconnects in the middle of a firefight, that's pretty much going to be the end of their story. Its a simple little compromise, but it goes a long way towards making the reconnect system completely fair to all parties.

New Overwatch Lucioball map set in Sydney, Australia

After being teased for about a month now the second Overwatch Summer games event has finally been announced. As you might expect, it will come with a whole bunch of new cosmetics, all of the old and awesome skins such as Nihon Genji and Americree, as well as a competitive version of the Lucioball game mode!

The details are still fairly shaky, but what I can tell you is that Junkrat will be getting a cool-looking legendary item, Mercy will apparently receive her best skin yet, and that McCree and Widowmaker players will be very, very happy with their new additions. Jeff Kaplan also teased a brand new something for Roadhog, though its currently unknown whether its going to be a skin, some much needed balance changes, or even just an emote.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen screenshot of The Lost enemies

XCOM 2's War of the Chosen expansion is planning to greatly improve upon the original, while also adding a bunch of new storylines to explore, factions to befriend, and enemies to miss despite having a 99% hit chance. Out of all these new enemies the zombie-like hordes of The Lost might not be the most powerful, but they are by far the most numerous, which means that if you ever let your guard down you might just find yourself quickly overrun.

If you're wondering what exactly The Lost hordes look like in motion, and more importantly, what sort of role they'll fill in the War of the Chosen expansion, you'll find your answers in the recently posted teaser video. Have a gander:

Total War: Warhammer artwork for the 30 new Regiment of Renown units

Creative Assembly is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a rather hefty free DLC for Total War: Warhammer. The birthday update will bring with it a variety of balance changes and tweaks, as well as 30 new Regiments of Renown - powerful and unique units for the Beastmen, Bretonnia, Chaos Warriors, Norsca, and Wood Elves factions.

Since each one comes with slightly altered art, as well as new abilities, I would recommend you check out the recently posted trailer to find out more. It unfortunately doesn't go into too much detail, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Have a look:

BloodSouls mod screenshot of the Saw Cleaver in Dark Souls

While it took a little while for the modding scene to develop, the original Dark Souls is currently no stranger to graphical overhaul mods. If you are so inclined you can transform your character into Shovel Knight, the Doom guy, Guts from Berserk, and now also Blooborne's iconic hunter.

All of the changes are purely cosmetic, but if you feel like bringing a bit of BLoodborne's charm into Dark Souls you now have the ability to do just that. But enough blabber from me, here's what it looks like in-game:

Shovel Knight screenshot of Specter Knight from his own expansion

[Update]: Shovel Knight devs are working on a new 8-bit action-adventure - Mina the Hollower!

Shovel Knight's latest campaign "Specter of Torment" brought with it a whole bunch of new content, the most impressive of which was the ability to play as one of the previous bosses - Specter Knight! As you might imagine, the developers couldn't simply give you control over a boss and call it a day - they had to redesign him from the ground up.

It is exactly this process, from a simple idea to an actual character you can play, that the latest developer blog covers in rather enthralling detail. So if you're interested in peeking behind the curtains of game development and figuring out what exactly the developers planned, what they struggled with, and how they solved those problems, then I would highly recommend you give the article read as its quite captivating!