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After what feels like an eternity of build up The Lord of the Rings Online has now finally opened up the most interesting region in the entirety of Middle-earth - Mordor! As you might expect, the expansion has brought with it the ability to fully explore Gorgoroth and face off against some of the deadliest enemies the world has ever seen, a brand new storyline that will delve deep into Mordor's history, as well as the noble High Elves as an entirely new race.
The Mordor expansion has also introduced a new allegiance system that allows you to pledge loyalty to a variety of factions in exchange for unique bonuses, gear, and additional storylines. In order to make all of this work the crafting and gearing systems have been adjusted to allow even greater levels of customization, though the details are still currently unknown. You can find out more about Mordor by heading over to the official website.
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Sonic Mania is an upcoming 2D Sonic game designed to be as faithful to the original classics as possible, while also bringing in enough interesting innovations of its own to keep things fresh. What this means in gameplay terms is that you will have new moves to mess around with, new maps with an even greater focus on speed and exploration, as well as a whole bunch of special bonus stages with their own unique twist on the gameplay.
If you're wondering what this might look like, wonder no more as the developers have just recently posted a video detailing all of the Special Stages, Bonuses, and Time Attack game mode. The video is only around two minutes long, but I would highly recommend you give it a look as it really shows how much the developers care about making Sonic Mania the best game it can possible be. But enough rambling from me, here's the video:
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For those of you that might not know, Hollow Knight is a hand-drawn 2D action-adventure that will have you face off against hordes upon hordes of monsters as you journey through a vast and interconnected world. As you might imagine given the mixture of genres Hollow Knight is by no means an easy game, but it does feature enough depth and complexity to greatly reward those that push through the initial difficulty curve.
If you number yourself among those that have already beaten every challenge Hollow Knight has managed to muster, you'll be glad to hear that the very first free content update Hidden Dream has now arrived. It brings with it two new bosses to fight against, each with their own little storyline and music track, the Dream Gate that allows you to instantly travel from one corner of the kingdom to another, as well as a brand new Stag Station to uncover.
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Life is Strange: Before the Storm is a prequel to the original game set three years before Max returned to Arcadia Bay. You'll be taking on the role of the rebellious Chloe Price as you explore her unlikely friendship with Rachel Amber, through there will also be a small bonus episode covering Max's initial departure. While this doesn't relate to the story, it is important to mention that Before the Storm will not be made by the the developers of the original as they are currently busy with the rather awesome-looking vampire RPG Vampyr.
So if you're wondering whether this prequel can live up to the high standards set by the original Life is Strange, especially considering that the voice of Chloe Price has been changed, you'll find the answers you seek in the recently posted and rather lengthy gameplay video. There's nothing major as far as spoilers are concerned, so feel free to give it a look. Here's the video:
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When Doomfist arrived last week he was quarantined from Competitive Play in order to give everyone a bit of time to adjust to his presence. Well, I sure do hope you've managed to just that because the floodgates have now opened and Doomfist has been unleashed upon Competitive Play!
I've only had the time to play a couple of mid-GM games with and against him, so take the following with a few grains of salt, but I'm pretty certain that he's not going to mingle well with the overly popular dive teams. In order to achieve any sort of mobility Doomfist needs to sacrifice his defensive cooldowns, which as you might imagine makes him quite vulnerable in close quarters combat. So despite his tag saying "offense" I believe Doomfist is going to be much better at defense, especially when it comes to protecting healers from pesky scientists and robot ninjas.
You have one more day to grab Pillars of Eternity and NBA 2K17 for $12 via the Humble Monthly Bundle
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The Humble Monthly Bundle is a $12 subscription service that instantly gives you access to one or two games, and then a whole bunch more a few weeks later. Last month the featured game was the rather excellent Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin Edition, while this month you're looking at a rather bizarre combination of Pillars of Eternity and NBA 2K17. I can't exactly imagine RPG and sports game fans having much of a crossover, but I suppose its a good way to get a sneak peek at the other side.
I won't comment on NBA 2K17 since I have absolutely no knowledge of sports games, but Pillars of Eternity alone is well worth the $12, especially when you consider all of the bonus games you'll be getting in the next few weeks. So if you're interested in classic cRPG adventuring, and also basketball for some reason, make sure to grab the bundle as soon as you can given that there are only 24 hours left (from the time of writing).
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Path of Exile is currently preparing for the launch of its biggest expansion yet- The Fall of Oriath. Once the expansion arrives it will bring with it six new acts, thus completely removing the need for multiple difficulty levels and constant replaying of the same few zones, as well as a whole bunch of new enemies, spells, bosses, mechanics, and items to play around with.
It was obvious from the outset that The Fall of Oriath would bring with it many changes and adjustments to Path of Exile, but now that the patch notes have been fully revealed I can only say that my predictions were woefully inadequate. If you have a bit of free time, and a nice cup of coffee to keep you going, you can find the absolutely massive patch notes over at the official forums. Since its basically impossible to summarize all of this, allow me to at least show you some of the new abilities and support gems you'll get to mess around with:
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The upcoming Norsca faction will be given for free to everyone who pre-orders or purchases Total War: Warhammer 2 within the first week of launch. More importantly, you won't have to wait until Total War: Warhammer 2 arrives in order to mess around with the demonic vikings and their woolly friends - they will be coming to the original Total War: Warhammer on August 10th!
Like all proper factions Norsca will come with two Legendary Lords from two distinct tribes (Wulfrik the Wanderer and Throgg), a whole bunch of new units and mechanics, as well as the ability to dedicate yourself to a specific god of Chaos. If you're interested in what all of this might look like in-game, you'll find the recently posted and quite exciting "Monster Hunt" gameplay video right below. Have a look:
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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:
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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.