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After many months of announcements and teasers the Skyrim Special Edition has finally arrived to Steam, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. It brings with it improved visual and audio quality, remastered art and effects, as well as a whole slew of changes aimed at making mods even more powerful than ever before.
To be perfectly honest the graphical difference on the PC isn't that massive, but at the end of the day I don't think anyone can really complain about a free update of this size (it will be granted to you for free if you already own Skyrim and its DLC). But if you're interested in how much it has changed for the consoles, or just what Skyrim looks like these days, here's the recently posted comparison video:
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The Witcher 3 is one of my favorite RPGs of all time, and while I've done my share of exploration and monster slaying I'm fairly certain that I spent more time in taverns than out in the wild. If you've played The Witcher 3 you know fully well why this is the case, but if you haven't the reason is Gwent - one of the most addicting and exciting mini-games I've encountered in quite a while. Such was its popularity that CDPR decided to make an entire, fully featured card game out of it!
As you can probably guess from the title alone, the closed beta for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game has now arrived, so if you've previously signed up for the newsletter/beta I would recommend you go and check your email right now. CDPR has already sent out two waves of beta keys, so who knows, you might just be among the lucky few that got in. And if you're interested in what the standalone version of Gwent looks like, here's the brief trailer:
World of Warcraft's Update 7.1 - Return to Kharazan has arrived with new quests and a mythic dungeon
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After being teased before Legion even came out, Update 7.1 - Return to Kharazan has finally arrived to live World of Warcraft servers. There's a new five-man version of Kharazan to explore, a whole bunch of new quests to do in Suramar, a massive list of balance changes and quality of life updates to dread over, and in a couple of weeks a brand new raid in the form of the Trial of Valor.
If all of these new additions are a bit too much for you to simply grasp through words alone, worry not as Blizzard has also released a brief teaser trailer showcasing all of the new features coming in with Update 7.1. Have a look:
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One of the best features in The Binding of Isaac, and the main reason why I still keep playing it 300 hours later, is the impressive variety of items you can collect. Not only are they interesting in their own right, but they also combine in ridiculous ways to either give you a massive advantage or an equally massive disadvantage. As such, knowing which items to take and which items to ignore is an important skill, and one that takes quite a lot of trial and error to learn.
However, once you learn all of the best combinations (and all of the worst) The Binding of Isaac quickly becomes far too easy as it was never designed with such min-maxing in mind. If you're currently facing such problems, worry not as the upcoming Afterbirth+ DLC is bringing with it a whole bunch of new items to shake things up!
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Ever since Planetside 2 received a massive rework back in April things have definitely started looking up it. The once stale metagame got shaken up by the addition of resource gathering and base building, while the continents themselves underwent significant changes in order to remove some of the more annoying bases and locations.
If you ever wanted to give the new and improved version of Planetside 2 a try, now would be the best time to do so as a massive patch just recently hit the live servers. It brought with it numerous new construction objects (everything from bunkers to vehicle pods), a better anti-cheat system, a whole bunch of balance changes and bug fixes, as well as a brand new weapon to toy around with. In other words, pretty much everything a cloned soldier could ever need!
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It has been known for a very long time now that Deus: Ex Mankind Divided will be available for both Linux and Mac at some point after launch, but that was pretty much the extent of the information. While the Mac port is still slated for the rather ambiguous 'later this year' period, I do have some good news regarding the Linux version - its coming next Thursday, November 3rd!
As is tradition these days, the Linux and Mac versions aren't being made by the developers themselves, but rather by an outside party. In this case it is Feral Interactive, the folks behind the ports of Mad Max, Total War: Warhammer, XCOM 2, Tomb Raider, and the list goes on. In other words, Feral Interactive has a lot of experience porting games, so chances are high that the upcoming Linux version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be of more than satisfactory quality.
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If you are an average Overwatch player, and odds are quite high that you are, you've most likely finished your Season 2 placement matches with a Platinum rating (2500-3000). As it turns out, pretty much everyone else has as well given that the Gold and Platinum ranks contain a lot more players than they should, while Bronze and Silver ranks contain way fewer than expected. What this means in gameplay terms is that a lot of players placed way higher than what they truly deserve, after which they entered a massive plummet towards their proper rating, all the while decrying the cruel fate that got them stuck in 'Elo Hell'. Not exactly a fun situation for everyone involved, now is it?
Since this is obviously a massive issue, especially for those of you that truly belong in the Platinum rank, you'll be glad to hear that Season 3 of Competitive Play will be correcting this problem. If you're wondering how exactly that's going to happen, wonder no longer as Overwatch's Scott Mercer just released a rather lengthy post covering the topic. Have a look, and if you're just interested in the short version, direct your eyes to the bolded part:
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I often complain about Telltale and how slow they are when it comes to releasing their episodes, but when compared to The Odd Gentlemen and the modern reboot of King's Quest they aren't even worth mentioning. More than a year has passed since King's Quest - Chapter 1 first appeared, and only now are we getting the fifth and final chapter in order to conclude the story.
As for the release date, King's Quest - Chapter 5: The Good Knight will be arriving to the PC and consoles on October 25th. Furthermore, The Complete Collection will come with an added 'epilogue' chapter to tie up any loose ends, though it hasn't been confirmed it this will be granted for free to anyone that owns all of the previous chapters or not. I certainly hope so given that any other course of action is essentially a punishment to those that dared support the game from the very beginning.
If you've never played the modern King's Quest, but are a fan of adventure games, have a look at one of the trailers for The Complete Collection. Who knows, King's Quest might end up being right up your alley, and best of all, you won't have to wait an entire year like the rest of us! Here's the video:
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If you ever found yourself wondering how in the world Telltale injected a story into Minecraft of all things, wonder no longer as you now have a rather easy way to find out. Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 1: The Order of the Stone is now available as a free download on the Xbox One and 360, iOS and Android devices, PlayStation 4 and 3, and naturally, the PC. Though unfortunately, there is a bit of a catch with the last one - its only available on the Windows Store and as such is a Windows 10 'exclusive' offer.
For those of you that require a bit more information before they dive in, here's the rather stylish and ominous trailer for Minecraft: Story Mode - Episode 1:
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Around two days ago Blizzard mentioned how they are planning to release some highly experimental balance changes onto the Test Server at some point later this week. As you can probably guess from the tittle alone, "later this week" has now arrived, and with it the PTR (Public Test Realm) update!
And let's just say that the Overwatch team wasn't kidding when they said "highly experimental" either. Some of these changes are downright ridiculous and have rather far-reaching balance repercussions, but then again, that's exactly why the Test Server is here! Just have a look for yourself, the list isn't that large even though its impact certainly is: