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When you have a game as diverse as Overwatch not every hero is going to be viable at all levels of play. Junkrat for example is a great hero at the lower ranks, but as you climb higher his lack of accuracy starts becoming a serious detriment, hence why most higher ranked players tend to avoid him. But there is unfortunately one Overwatch hero nearly every skill tier tends to avoid - Bastion. As it turns out, having the potential to dish out insane amounts of damage does you little good when you're a sitting duck for every enemy projectile.
There is some hope on the horizon, however, as Overwatch's Principal Designer Geoff Goodman just recently posted a couple of Bastion changes they're going to release onto the PTR (Public Test Realm) in the near future. Here's what you can expect to see:
Hearthstone's Game Director has released a brief post defining "complexity, depth, and design space"
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Hearthstone is currently going through a bit of a rough patch. In Legend rank 40% of the players are using Shaman, every class capable of utilizing the 'pirate package' is doing so, and the rest of the decks are either a Reno variant or Dragon Priests. And to top it all off, Hunter and Paladin are in such a bad shape right now that they might as well not exist.
While all of this is pretty awful when it comes to Hearthstone's fun factor, it has managed to at least bring with it one blessing - Blizzard has finally started communicating! In his most recent Reddit post Hearthstone's Game Director Ben Brode has detailed how the team treats complexity and depth, as well as what exactly "design space" means for Hearthstone. The whole post is fairly short, so if you're interested in the design side of Hearthstone I fully recommend you give it a read. As for me, I would like to comment on Brode's thoughts on strategic depth:
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If you've been clamoring for Valve to bring back Diretide or any such similar Dota 2 events, you'll be glad to hear that they have just recently added the Dark Moon mini-game. It is very similar to the previous Wraith King event, by which I mean you will spend most of your time defending against waves upon waves of deadly enemies, with your potential rewards increasing with every every wave you vanquish.
While the concept itself is fairly simple, actually succeeding in the Dark Moon event is anything but. In order to win you will need to create a well-balanced team that consists of good crowd control, area-of-effect damage, and healing, or else you will find yourself quickly overwhelmed. Since your entire team needs to be on the same page when things go terribly wrong I would recommend you only play the Dark Moon event with people you can trust, as otherwise you're going to be rolling the dice on whether your teammates have any clue about what to do.
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Even though Prey shares the same name as its predecessor there doesn't seem to be much of a connection between them. The original Prey was a simple enough story about a Native American trying to save his beloved from the clutches of evil aliens, while the new Prey on the other hand has portable black holes, Slenderman demon/aliens that are able to transform into chairs and cups of all things, and superpowers you apparently inject straight into your eye.
And before you ask, no, not a single one of those features was exaggerated. So if you're interested in seeing some absolutely bizarre aliens and a whole bunch of ridiculous weaponry such as the surprisingly useful gloo-cannon, here's the recently posted trailer:
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Toukiden: Kimawi released back in 2015 as a sort of competitor to the Monster Hunter series, and while it was flawed in a number of ways it ended up being a pretty decent alternative. As such, I am glad to say that its sequel Toukiden 2 is set to release this March for the PC, PS4, and PS Vita.
Toukiden 2 will feature the same sort of tactical combat against gigantic enemies, with the biggest difference being the addition of an open world you can explore at will. Along your journey you will be accompanied by five supporting character, with each of them having a specific role to fulfill in combat. How exactly all of this will work, I'm still not sure, but you can see a bit of gameplay through the recently posted trailer. Have a look:
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If you've beaten every challenge the newest Hitman game has set before you, worry not as there will soon be even further obstacles to overcome. Once the free January 31st update arrives it will bring with it a variety of bug fixes and gameplay improvements, but also the new Professional difficulty level.
The Professional difficulty will introduce strict item rules so players will be noticed carrying suspicious materials and weapons, disguises can be ruined depending on how you take out the NPC wearing them, and in order to stop people from simply cruising through the levels the security cameras will also be greatly improved. And to top all of this off you will only have a very limited number of save files, so I hope you don't plan on making any mistakes!
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After creating the rather amazing Banner Saga 1 and 2, Stoic is now back on Kickstarter to fund the third and final part of this story - Banner Saga 3. If you're a fan of their previous work you'll be glad to hear that Banner Saga 3 has already gathered an impressive $107,500 in a single day, and with the goal set for $200,000 I have a feeling the developers are going to have a ton of stretch goals to contend with.
For those of you wondering what exactly the Banner Saga 3 is going to be like, allow me to show you the recently posted Kickstarter trailer. There's obviously no gameplay footage in the video, but it should still give you a general idea of what the developers are aiming for. Have a look:
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Deus Ex: Breach was originally released as a part of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as a sort of "arcade" take on the standard gameplay, but with today's Steam release it has become a standalone free-to-play game. Unlike Mankind Divided, each mission in Breach is self-contained and brings with it simple objectives which range from retrieving a set amount of information to defeating a specific enemy. And if you want to brag to your friends you can always attempt to reach the high score on specific maps, or try your hand at some of the custom challenges.
If you're wondering what all of this might look like, allow me to share with you the fairly lengthy preview trailer. Its a bit outdated by this point, but it should still give you a good idea of what to expect from Deus Ex: Breach. Anyway, have a look:
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While Overwatch's Year of the Rooster update has added some new cosmetics, balance changes, and even a new game mode, Heroes of the Storm's update is a bit more humble. The Lunar Festival brings with a bunch of new and festive cosmetics, as well as a new daily event that you can complete for gold and eventually a rather fancy rooster mount. In other words its only cosmetics, but at the very least they appear to be of a high quality.
But perhaps the best part of this whole event is the brief trailer Blizzard released to showcase some of the skins and map decorations. And if you're wondering when exactly Heroes of the Storm added the Monkey King as a playable hero, the answer would be never, because its actually just Samuro in an elaborate monkey costume! With that lovely image now stuck in your head, here's the video:
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You have to hand it to Lab Zero, even though Skullgirls released back in 2013 they have not stopped releasing content updates and balance changes. As you can probably guess from the title alone, today's Second Encore+ update is a combination of both. It has brought in a ton of balance changes to a variety of characters, further improvements to the tutorial and training mode, a new lobby system, as well as a whole bunch of other changes, additions, and bug fixes.
I would love to give you a summary, but the patch notes are so ridiculously large we would probably be stuck here until tomorrow night. So if you're interested in all of the details you can find the full, extremely detailed patch notes over at the official website. And if you're just looking for the balance changes you will find them near the bottom of the list.