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Shadow of War is the upcoming sequel to the much-decorated Orc slaughterfest Shadow of Mordor. Once it arrives on August 22nd it will bring with it a new and improved Nemesis system, the ability to siege castles with your personal army of Orcs, followers that can help you plan out assassinations or assist in combat, and an even better open world to explore.
While the details are still fairly light, the developers have just recently released a brief teaser showcasing the fancy new visuals and some of the open-world locations you'll be able to slaughter even more Orcs in. Oh, and there's apparently a dragon in there somewhere as well! Have a look:
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In a bit of a surprise announcement Bungie and Activision have come out recently to announce that Destiny 2 will be coming to the PC exclusively via Battle.net. What might be the funniest part of the whole announcement is that no one in the entirety of Blizzard, Bungie, or Activision managed to remember that Battle.net has been renamed to the much more generic and less-memorable "Blizzard App". Really makes you wonder why they even bothered renaming it...
As for Destiny 2 being on Battle.Net, this brings with it some advantages for both players and developers alike. Since Battle.net already has an established account and multiplayer system Bungie will be able to spend all of their time making sure the PC port is up to par, while us gamers will be able to purchase both Destiny 2 and any potential DLC with Blizzard Balance. In other words, if you have an excess of World of Warcraft gold (or some cash left over from Diablo 3's real-money auction house) you'll be able to get Destiny 2 for 'free'. Given how gold is pretty much worthless in World of Warcraft I would say that's a pretty damn amazing deal!
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If you enjoy FPS games with low kill-times and a massive emphasis on positioning and teamwork you might want to pay attention to Rising Storm 2: Vietnam as its set to arrive on May 30th. In short, its a 64-player brawl between the US forces and the Vietnamese, with each side having their own unique abilities, weapons, and tactical advantages such as napalm strikes and artillery barrages.
Since Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is a relatively complex game with a lot of topics to cover, allow me to share with you the recently posted tutorial covering nearly all aspects of gameplay. The video below is a showcase of some of the more advanced classes, and while its not the first video in the tutorial playlist it will at least give you an idea of the toys you'll get to mess around with. Have a look:
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Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf is a challenging turn-based tactics game with some card game elements thrown in to spice things up. I reviewed it back in March only to find a number of extremely annoying issues eating away at any fun I could possibly have from using a giant flamethrower on a bunch of Chaos Space Marines. Thankfully, the developers have actually used Early Access for what its made for and have slowly managed to patch most of these issues away.
One such patch arrived just recently, bringing with it a dose of new content and a bunch of new weapons/cards to collect. As you can probably guess from the title alone, the highlight of the update is definitely the brand new PvE survival mode where you have to not only face off against increasingly more ruthless hordes of Chaos fanatics, but also adapt to constantly changing terrain. Here's a brief trailer showcasing what exactly the "Halls of Sorrow" arena is like:
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Unlike Total War: Warhammer which took an entire year to finally appear on both Mac and Linux, the Dawn of War 3 ports are set to arrive next month. To be more specific, Dawn of War 3 will release for both platforms on Thursday, June 8th.
Much like the vast majority of ports these days Dawn of War 3's Mac and Linux versions will not be handled by the developers themselves, but rather by Feral Interactive. While the name might not ring any bells, chances are high you know them from their work on the Mac and Linux versions of Total War: Warhammer, XCOM 2, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and the list goes on. So if we go with Feral's track record so far I think its safe to say Dawn of War 3 is going to be a very solid port as well.
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[Update]: The Overwatch Anniversary patch has now arrived to the live servers. You can check out all of the changes and cosmetics by heading over here. Have fun!
Overwatch's very first birthday is just around the corner, and in order to get everyone nice and excited Blizzard will be releasing a massive Anniversary Update on May 23rd. There will be new legendary skins to collect, dance emotes for a bunch of heroes, three new arena (elimination) maps for the Arcade, numerous meme-inspired voice lines, and most likely a brand new event-exclusive game mode as well.
If that sounds like something you might be interested in you'll be glad to hear that Overwatch will be free to try out next week, shortly after the Anniversary Update launches. Both PC and console players will have full access to the entirety of Overwatch (which includes earning loot boxes, achievements, and skins) from May 26-29. And naturally, if you decide to purchase Overwatch at any point in the future all of your progress will carry over.
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[Update]: The Overwatch Anniversary patch has now arrived to the live servers. You can check out all of the changes and cosmetics by heading over here. Have fun!
With Overwatch's birthday just around the corner Blizzard has announced that the Anniversary event will run from May 23rd until June 12th (most likely). The Anniversary Update will bring with it a new game mode, new maps to toy around with, a couple of balance changes including a buff to Hanzo, a whole bunch of cosmetics, and also the much-requested dance emotes!
While none of the new legendary skins have been revealed just yet, Blizzard did post brief videos showcasing the three new arena (elimination) maps, some of the dances, as well as a bunch of memes voice lines. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn't seem to be creating the correct code to embed some of these videos, so if you're interested in the new voice lines you can find them here, and if you're looking for the arena map previews you will find those over here. As for the dance emotes, you'll find those right below:
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After spending quite a while in Closed Beta Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is just about ready to open its doors to everyone. The free Open Beta will begin next week, on May 24th, and will be available for both the PC and consoles. As for the Closed Beta, it will be shutting down on May 22nd in order to give the developers enough time to work out any kinks before the floodgates truly open.
If your only experience with Gwent comes from The Witcher 3, or if you've never even heard of it but you're interested in adding a new card game to your repertoire, you'll find my early review of the Closed Beta version over here. Long story short, "Gwent might currently be in an early Closed Beta state, but even now it is a vastly superior version of The Witcher 3's minigame. The balance is tighter, there are more viable cards with which you can craft decks, and the card abilities themselves have been greatly redesigned to offer a much more strategic experience." I've been playing it on and off for the past few months and it has definitely managed to hold my attention, so if you're a fan of cards games I'd suggest you at least give it a look.
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[Update]: The Overwatch Anniversary patch has now arrived to the live servers. You can check out all of the changes and cosmetics by heading over here. Have fun!
Overwatch will soon be celebrating its very first birthday, and in order to get everyone in on the festivities Blizzard will be holding a massive Anniversary event featuring a new game mode, new skins, sprays, and a whole bunch more. The Anniversary Update will arrive on May 23rd and will last about three weeks, most likely until June 12th if previous events are any indicator.
While there is no official confirmation about the contents of this update, Blizzard has previously stated that Hanzo, Zarya, and Symmetra will be getting new legendary skins in the near future, so here's to hoping the overlooked trio will be getting some shiny new cosmetics to play around with. Furthermore, there is a strong chance some of the missing emotes (such as Sombra's laugh) will also be making an appearance given how they've been repeatedly mentioned in recent interviews. Whether any of this speculation is going to end up being correct or not, I'm afraid I don't know, but at least we won't have to wait long in order to find out as the event is only a few days away.
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Given the success and popularity of the Far Cry series and it spin-offs it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that Ubisoft has now officially announced Far Cry 5. What might come as a surprise, however, is that the entire announcement is one incredibly generic-looking logo and absolutely no accompanying information.
Since Ubisoft doesn't seem willing to reveal the setting or time period for Far Cry 5 just yet, allow me to share two of the most popular rumors. The first one is that Far Cry 5 will be a modern-day Western designed to compete with Red Dead Redemption 2, though personally I doubt this one is true given how Ubisoft has been uncharacteristically quick to shut down such claims. The second, and perhaps more realistic rumor, is that Far Cry 5 will let us play as a cop in rural, modern-day Montana. The reason I think rumor might have some credibility is that the only defining features of the otherwise bland logo are the red and blue colors which are commonly associated with the police.