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With gamescom 2017 just around the corner Blizzard has announced that they will be showcasing a brand new cinematic short, as well as a new map! On August 21st at 18:00 CEST Blizzard will kick things off by releasing a special preview video showing off all of the new content, after which we will get a proper look at the new cinematic short during the Overwatch gamescom presentation.
As for what exactly the new cinematic short will be about, I'm afraid I don't know for certain, but I can give you a pretty damn good educated guess. A little while ago the announcer voiceline stating "Welcome to Junkertown" was datamined, which given today's announcement of an announcement seems to quite obviously point towards our two resident madmen: Junkrat and Roadhog. Combine this with the fact that both have been buffed on the current PTR and that Blizzard has already confirmed an awesome Roadhog skin in the next event, and you've got yourself fairly good odds that the next cinematic short will be all about the Australian outlaws.
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Despite being fairly popular back in their heyday, dungeon-crawling RPGs like Ultima Underworld have sadly become an extreme rarity these days. There is some hope on the horizon, however, as Underworld Ascendant promises to be the next-generation follow-up to the Ultima Underworld series. What this means in gameplay terms is that you can expect a deep storyline that responds to your actions, a diverse set of abilities and spells to decimate your enemies with, as well as an absolutely massive dungeon realm to explore.
The details are still in short supply so I'm afraid I can't really offer you much on that front, but what I can share is the recently posted trailer showcasing Underworld Ascendant's visuals and overall style. Its not a very long video, but it should at least give you a general idea of what to expect from Underworld Ascendant. But enough babble, here's the video:
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Gwent's very first Open Beta ranked season has had quite a few balance issues, but to CDPR's credit they have managed to correct pretty much all of them. There are still some outliers that remain overwhelmingly powerful, yet despite their dominance just about every faction and leader is viable in high level play.
With the upcoming 20-card expansion just around the corner, CDPR has now also announced that Season 1 will be ending later this month, on August 27th at midnight CEST. Once the season ends the top players will be given exclusive rewards, while everyone else will get vast amounts of card packs, scraps for crafting cards, as well as Meteorite Powder which is used to create animated cards. The amount of stuff you receive will be based on your season high, so make sure to push as hard you can in the next few weeks as you'll be reaping greatly increased rewards with each extra rank you achieve!
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Quake Champions is id Software's return to the arena shooters of old. What this means in gameplay terms is that Quake Champions will be focused firmly on fast-paced combat, a wide variety of overpowered weapons that can quickly kill an enemy provided you can actually aim with them, as well as advanced movement techniques such as rocketjumping. The one big difference is that Quake Champions' primary game mode will feature a variety of different characters, each one with their own unique benefits and abilities. If you aren't exactly a fan of these changes, worry not as there will also be a purist game mode specifically designed for competition.
If all of this sounds like something you would love to mess around with, you might be interested to hear that Quake Champions will be entering the Early Access phase next week, on August 22nd. Unlike the previous betas you will need to purchase the Champions Pack to get in, but on the positive side it will be $30, 25% off from the price of the release version. Its also worth mentioning that this will unlock all current and future Champions for you, so you should be pretty much set as far as the gameplay is concerned.
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Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an upcoming medieval open-world RPG that aims to be as realistic and faithful to the era as possible. What this means is that there will be no magic to cast or flame-spewing dragons to slay, just a massive civil war and a whole bunch of angry knights and peasants at both sides.
As you might expect from this type of RPG, our main character will come from humble origins and through some rather unfortunate events find himself deeply involved with the growing war. If you're looking for a few more details, or just wondering what all of this might look like in-game, you'll find what you seek in the recently posted "Born From Ashes" teaser trailer:
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Guild Wars 2's Path of Fire expansion will be coming this September, bringing with it a whole bunch of new content to play around with. We'll be able to explore the Crystal Desert and the adjoining kingdom of Elona, fight against the Human god of war Balthazar and his metallic minions, acquire all sorts of mounts that all come with unique abilities, and naturally, mess around with nine new Elite Specializations.
As you might imagine from the title, it is exactly these nine new Elite Specializations that the upcoming Open Beta will be covering. From August 18th until August 20th you'll be able to try out your new favorites in PvP and WvW, though do bear in mind that your progress and loot will not carry over to normal servers. More importantly, this Open Beta event will be available for free to everyone. Whether you're a seasoned veteran or someone playing on the free-to-play version, you'll still be able to log in on August 18th and see what the new 'classes' are all about.
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XCOM 2: War of the Chosen is set to arrive on August 29th, bringing with it a whole bunch of new enemies to fight, a variety of bosses designed to strike only when the moment is right, three unique factions to befriend and ally with, and the list goes on. While it might not be as exciting as shooting alien zombies in the head, War of the Chosen will also bring with it the Propaganda Center - a photobooth feature that allows you to design and share a variety of 'motivational' posters.
If this sort of silliness sounds like something you would love to toy around with, you're in luck as the developers have now released the whole thing for free as a part of the Propaganda Center demo. You can create and customize an entirely new squad using the improved character creator, or you can simply import your soldiers from XCOM 2. The goal here is to design a perfect poster that will simultaneously rally your troops and strike fear in the hearts of the enemy... or just make terrible memes, either one works.
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During the initial Total War: Warhammer 2 announcement Creative Assembly stated that the new campaign map will be equal in size to the original, if not slightly larger. As you'll see in the full image down below, they were not joking! Total War: Warhammer 2's campaign map is just ridiculously large, both in terms of territories and the factions that inhabit them.
So if you're interested in a bit of a sneak peek at what the New World will look like, you'll find what you seek right below. The image is fairly large in size, however, so you'll have to open it in a new tab in order to get a really good look at it. Anyway, here it is:
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Despite releasing on PC and consoles back in the ancient times of 2016, BioShock Remastered will soon be making its way to Mac as well. To be more specific, you can expect the Mac version to arrive next week, on August 22nd! Much like the PC version it will bring with it greatly improved textures and model quality, full controller support, director's commentary featuring Ken Levine an Shawn Robertson, Challenge Rooms to test your combat skills, and naturally, support for all of the modern resolutions.
As is tradition for the vast majority of AAA ports these days, the Mac version will not be handled by the developers themselves, but rather by Feral Interactive. You'll probably know them better from their work on the Mac and Linux ports of Total War: Warhammer, XCOM 2, Dawn of War 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and the list goes on for quite a while. In other words, they know what they're doing when it comes to ports, which is a good thing indeed since the PC version of BioShock Remastered was and still is a bloody mess. Hopefully the ridiculously long delay means the same fate will not befall the Mac version as well.
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[Update]: The Steam version of Prey has now removed the somewhat controversial Denuvo DRM.
Arkane Studios' Prey released a couple of months ago to some overwhelmingly positive reviews from both critics and users. Despite its favorable review scores Prey quickly disappeared from the public's eye, so quickly in fact that a lot of people didn't even realize it launched at all. I haven't had the time to play it myself so I'm not certain what caused this, but its a rather peculiar phenomenon to be sure.
Thankfully, there is now a free demo available, so if you're interested in finding out what Prey is all about you now have the opportunity to do just that. If you're on PC simply head on over to Steam to download the free demo, while those of you on consoles should visit your official marketplace. As you might expect, the demo will let you experience the entire intro section, which should be more than enough time to decide whether this is something you're going to enjoy or not.