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If you've already completed Dishonored 2 and you're looking for even greater challenges, you might want to check out the recently updated Steam beta. Besides a variety of bug fixes, the full list you can find over at the Steam forums, the update has brought with it the ability to customize your difficulty through a variety of sliders.
You can adjust things such as how effective you are when leaning from behind a barrier, how quickly Sleep Darts take effect, how many active enemies are likely to attack you at the same time, and things like that. And for those of you that need an even greater challenge, there is also a brand new Iron Mode difficulty where you don't get to manually save, and where a single death will lead to a game over!
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If you've given up on Star Wars Battlefront until the next big update I'm afraid you won't find anything of interest here, but if you're looking for a more balanced and bug free gameplay experience then the January patch should be right up your alley. Most notably, you will no longer be able to chain-stun heroes as they will be granted two seconds of immunity after being stunned once, which should go a long way towards making them much more enjoyable to use.
Since the whole update is fairly small in size you'll find the full patch notes down below. Here's the list:
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For those of you that have somehow managed to avoid any exposure to Overgrowth, it is an incredibly detailed 3D action game where you get to beat up hordes of enemies as an anthropomorphic bunny with a serious case of anger management issue. Obviously its a lot more complex than that, hence why it took eight years to finally reach beta state, but the basics are quite literally as simple as "bunny beats up the world".
If you're interested in what all of this might look like, allow me to share with you the recently posted beta trailer. However, don't expect to see a finished game just yet, because Overgrowth in its current state is more a proof of concept than a fully fledged game. With that disclaimer now out of the way, here's the video:
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If you're a fan of Cricket, a sport my mind seems to only envision being played in the poshest of English movies, you'll be glad to hear that the latest iteration of the Don Bradman Cricket series has arrived on Steam. And best of all, there is a playable demo! In order to access it all you need to do is click on that "Download Demo" button that sits to the right side of the purchase button, and you'll be uhh... hitting balls in no time!
For those of you wondering what Don Bradman Cricket 17 looks like in game, allow me to share with you the recently posted launch trailer. It won't exactly tell you what the gameplay is all about, but if you're looking into buying a cricket game I think its safe to assume you already know what's happening. Anyway, here's the video:
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Sundered is a hand-drawn Metroidvania that will have you wonder a ruined world teeming with eldritch horrors in an effort to defeat even more monstrous bosses, all the while losing everything that makes you human. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, you'll be glad to hear that Sundered has been successfully Kickstarted one day after its campaign first launched! As of right now Sundered has gathered CA$ 48,710, which is almost double from its CA$ 25,000 goal, and with 29 days left to go I have a feeling that number is going to become much, much higher.
And if you're wondering what Sundered might look like in action, here's one of the recently posted trailers. I would recommend turning up the volume slightly because the music is downright amazing and it really fits the atmosphere Sundered is trying to go for. Anyway, here's the video:
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A mere month has passed since the last Developer Update and already we have Overwatch's Game Director Jeff Kaplan on camera discussing the latest hot topic - the PTR (Public Test Realm). The current problem is that most people don't actually participate in the PTR, yet are more than willing to quite angrily defend or attack certain changes, which has over time made any sort of discussion nearly impossible.
In order to finally explain what the PTR is all about, and what sort of feedback the Overwatch team is looking for, Jeff Kaplan has decided to dedicate an entire Developer Update video solely to that topic. So if you're interested in how Blizzard balances Overwatch, and what exactly the future will hold for Roadhog and Sombra, you can find the video right below. But if you don't have time and would like the short version instead, I will also include my brief summary. Have a look:
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When Landmark first arrived in Early Access it was showered with praise and admiration, and the biggest reason for that was its link to EverQuest Next. According to Sony Online Entertainment (better known as Daybreak these days) the developers were prepared to take the very best community dungeons and castles in order to implement them into EverQuest Next for everyone to enjoy. As you might imagine, this got a lot of players incredibly excited to give Landmark a try... which is where the problems started.
While the Landmark trailers and developer interviews may have promised the Moon and stars, the reality of the situation was far different. Landmark's tools were incredibly limited and clunky to work with, the performance was terrible, and there was a distinct lack of any 'real' gameplay. But the biggest nail in the coffin came when Daybreak announced that EverQuest Next is being canceled, which meant that the biggest draw for Landmark just suddenly evaporated, leaving only an empty husk of a game behind.
The once active developers slowly stopped communicating about Landmark altogether, and with no new updates in sight it appeared that the project was more or less abandoned. As it turns out, the community's worst fears came true a couple of days ago as Daybreak announced that Landmark is joining the ever-growing pile of games canceled under their name. Here's the full announcement message:
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[Update]: Friday the 13th: The Game's very final update has now removed Dedicated Servers.
Friday the 13th: The Game, besides having quite possibly the most boring name ever conceived by man, is an asymmetrical multiplayer game where one player controls Jason Voorhees and attempts to introduce the rest of the players to the sharp end of his machete. But most interestingly of all, due to Jason's penchant for drama he's only ever capable of walking at a brisk pace, which means that Friday the 13th plays a lot differently than most other games in the genre. Jason does get the ability to teleport around in order to compensate for this weakness, but its still a rather interesting concept, and one that has a lot of potential for exciting gameplay on both sides!
If you're wondering what all of this might look like in gameplay terms, allow me to show you the most recent trailer. For those of you that don't feel like watching the overly long intro, simply skip to 20 seconds in the video and you'll be straight in the action. Have a look:
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If performance issues have been stopping you from finishing Watch_Dogs 2, you might want to give the newest patch a try. It has brought with it performance improvements for systems with low amounts of RAM, as well as a bit of optimization for Screenspace Reflections that should improve the overall performance. And if that doesn't help, there are now two new lower quality levels for Screenspace Reflections, so make sure to give those a try and see if they can help you.
Besides optimization tweaks this patch has also brought in support for the newer versions of DualShock 4 controllers, as well as the long-awaited music volume slider. If you're interested in all of the details, here are the full patch notes:
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[Update]: The AMA is now over. You can find my summary by heading over here.
Even though Valve as a whole seems to shy away from any sort of community interaction Gabe Newell is surprisingly approachable, so much so that he has a public email address where he takes the time to answer fan questions. But even still I must say I am impressed that someone as busy as Gabe Newell has decided to, at the behest of a single fan, host a Reddit AMA so that the entire world can grill him endlessly about Half Life 3!
On January 17th at 11pm UTC / 3pm PST / 6pm ET Gabe Newell will appear on The Gaben subreddit and host an AMA (Ask Me Anything). The choice of subreddit is a bit... questionable given that The Gaben appears to be mostly satirical in nature, but if nothing else the comments are going to be rather interesting!