Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr official artwork

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr is an upcoming action RPG that aims to combine the grim darkness of the Warhammer 40k universe with the open-ended gameplay of the Diablo series. What I mean by this is that it will come with randomized levels, a massive focus on replayability, and naturally, a constantly rising difficulty curve.

If this sounds like something you might enjoy, and you don't mind trying out games in their unfinished state, you might want to check out the recently unleashed closed alpha, also known as "The Founding". It is by no means a fully finished or polished experience, but its there to provide the most dedicated fans with a way to try out the game ahead of time, and also share feedback on features and content moving forward. The catch, as you would expect from a game in alpha, is that early access will set you back a sizable chunk of money. In this case its $40 for the most basic version, with the option to go truly crazy with some of the some of the larger packages.

Deus Ex: Breach official screenshot

Deus Ex: Breach was originally released as a part of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as a sort of "arcade" take on the standard gameplay. It recently became its own standalone free-to-play game on Steam, though judging by the user reviews its still about as far removed from Deus Ex as it gets.

However, it appears that Eidos Montreal has a lot more faith in Deus Ex: Breach than the community given that they have just released a rather sizable update. It has brought with it randomly generated Ghost Networks that rotate on a daily basis, 11 all-new Picus Corporation maps for players to toy around with, a new conspiracy surrounding the very same Picus corporation, and naturally, a whole bunch of cosmetic items as well. The only catch is that you will need to solve all previous cases before attempting to do the Picus conspiracy, but that shouldn't come as much of a surprise given that its the continuation of a preexisting story.

Tracer fighting against Lucio and Torbjorn from Overwatch

For those of you that might not be aware, in Korea your Battle.Net account is tied to your Social Security Number, so the punishment for being banned due to cheating is much more severe than in the West where you can just purchase another copy. Unfortunately, this whole system can currently be circumvented by creating free accounts on the NA or EU regions - a process that doesn't require any identifying information. These accounts can then be used in PC Bangs (Korea's version of an Internet cafe) to play Overwatch for a fairly minor fee, essentially giving you access to an infinite amount of accounts with no actual risk involved whatsoever.

As you might imagine, when there is no oversight or any real punishment the temptation to start cheating becomes far too much for some people to resist. And after many months of complete silence from Blizzard the situation has become somewhat unbearable due to the amount of cheaters in North American and Korean servers. Thankfully, that is soon going to change, as according to the most recent Overwatch blog the developers are going to start requiring foreign accounts to purchase the game itself before playing it in a PC Bang.

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game official artwork for the Nilfgaard faction

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, as you might expect from the name alone, is a standalone version of The Witcher 3's endlessly addictive minigame. It features all of the same strategies and intrigue, but with actual balance, less overpowered dragons, and a whole bunch of new cards to toy around with.

If you haven't given it a try, now would be a good time to sign up for the Closed Beta as Gwent has just recently been updated with not only the new Nilfgaard faction, but also a bunch of extra cards as well! As for what exactly Nilfgaard brings to the table, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that they are focused entirely around control, treachery, and using the enemy's strength against them. If you want to see all of this in video form, but also get a brief look at all of the other factions, here's the most recent "Factions in Gwent" trailer:

Shadowverse and Street Fighter V crossover featuring M. Bison

In what might just be the most bizarre crossover this year, the card game Shadowverse has announced that they will be adding Street Fighter characters as alternate leaders. According to Famitsu Ryu is going to represent Dragoncraft, Juri Runecraft, Cammy Forestcraft, Chun Li Swordcraft, Karin Heavencraft, Vega Bloodcraft, and naturally, M.Bison is going to be the face of Shadowcraft.

If you're wondering what this sort of madness might look like in action, here's the recently posted announcement trailer. Its entirely in Japanese so I'm afraid I can't give you more information than that, but its still well worth checking out given how ridiculous all of it truly is. Anyway, here's the video:

BattleForge official artwork

In an announcement that I must admit comes as a massive surprise, MrXLink from the Skylords community has come out to say that EA has given them the greenlight to revive the card game/RTS hybrid BattleForge. Most importantly, EA has also given the newly created Ardent Peak team the rights to commercialize the game to a point, so you can expect to see more content in the form of cards and maps in the distant future. With all of that said, don't expect to see much in terms of new content until the team is happy with how the servers are set up and running.

Why exactly EA would do this, I have absolutely no idea, but I certainly do hope this is an example other companies will follow in the future. It really is horribly depressing to see perfectly good games get axed because they aren't bringing in much of a profit anymore, even though the community would be more than ready to take over all server duties in order to keep the lights running for as long as there is interest.

NieR: Automata screenshot from the Glory to Mankind trailer

NieR: Automata is Platinum Games' upcoming action RPG with a heavy focus on precision strikes and well-timed dodges. It it set to arrive on March 7th in North America and March 10th in Europe and Australia, though its still unknown whether the PC and PS4 versions will be launching at the same time. That said, Square Enix has never mentioned any delays for the PC version either, so I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

If you're wondering what NieR: Automata's story is going to all be about, here's the most recent trailer to hopefully enlighten you. I haven't played the original NieR so none of this made any sense to me, but the Youtube comments sure are excited about various numbers and letters, so I might just be the odd one out here. Anyway, have a look:

Conan the Barbarian from Conan Exiles

One of the things that initially caught my attention with Conan Exiles was the full support of not only community servers, but also user created mods. Because let's face it, survival games tend to have a plethora of issues that make continuous play more annoying than it needs to be, which is exactly where mods can come in to save the day.

While the server customization was available since day one, the Dev Kit has been withheld for a little while in order to iron out all of the kinks. As you can probably guess from the title, it is being withheld no longer, so if you ever wanted to create mods for Conan Exiles you now have a chance to do so. Just do bear in mind that you will need to download the Unreal Launcher in order to access the Dev Kit.

For Honor screenshot of a victorious Samurai

If you've become hooked on For Honor during the two previous 'beta' events, you'll be glad to hear to you won't have to wait for long before you dive in again. On February 14th, or more specifically at 9pm PST/6am CET, Ubisoft's medieval murderfest will finally be unleashed upon the world.

In order to drum up a bit of excitement, and also show tidbits of the singleplayer campaign, Ubisoft has recently posted the launch trailer... which then promptly bugged out and is currently unplayable. Thankfully the folks over at GameSpot have uploaded their own version, so you can still check it out while Ubisoft works out the kinks on their side. Have a look, there's even a random elephant in there somewhere:

Street Fighter 5's character Kolin striking a battle pose

After first appearing in Street Fighter 3 as an assistant of Gill, Kolin will be joining Street Fighter 5's ever-expanding roster of characters on February 28th. As for her fighting style, Kolin is primarily focused around using the opponent's momentum against them, always ready to counter attack should an opportunity present itself. And she can also shoot ice out of her hands and feet... because why not!

If you're wondering about Kolin's backstory and her moveset, you'll find a brief overview in the recently posted reveal trailer down below. Have a look: