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Yes, you read that right. After 12 years in development, numerous rewrites and engine changes, the sandbox MMO Dark and Light will be releasing later this year. While I'm not sure what exactly the developers have been doing the past decade or so, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that all of it has been devoted to graphics given that Dark and Light looks quite fantastic.
How fantastic? Well, take a look at the relatively recent teaser video and you'll have your answer. The actual graphical fidelity might not be the highest given that some of the rocks are quite blurry, but the art direction is definitely spot on! But enough rambling from me - here's the video:
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If you've never played the original Dungeon Keeper, and I'm specifically referring to the original here and not the free-to-play abomination EA dredged out from the depths of the abyss, you're in luck as Origin is currently offering it for free! What's the catch? You have to install Origin, but to be perfectly honest that shouldn't be too much of an issue given that Origin is a rather competent client, even though numerous people have made a hobby out of hating it.
You can find the download link by heading over here, but before you do allow me to hit you with a heavy dose of nostalgia - by which I mean the original (and extremely cheesy) trailer for Dungeon Keeper. Have a look... though given the video quality that might not be the best of ideas, so... have a listen:
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While a Goblin might not be the most... relatable of protagonists, there is no denying that Styx is a true master of stealth. His diminutive size and wast arsenal of tools are more than enough to handle any situation, as you'll soon realize with the most recent Styx: Shards of Darkness developer-guided gameplay video.
If you're a fan of stealth games, especially those that allow you a great degree of freedom when it comes to accomplishing your goals, then I would fully recommend you give the video a watch. The original Styx game was quite excellent, and from what I'm seeing so far the sequel is shaping up to be even better! Anyway, here's the video:
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With the qualifiers for the Boston Major starting on October 23rd, Valve has opted to release the Fall 2016 Battle Pass in order to drum up a bit of excitement beforehand. And what better way to rile the Dota 2 community into a frenzy than with the introduction of new quests, as well as a whole bunch of cosmetics!
The three cosmetic sets you will be able to unlock through this batch of quests belong to: Bounty Hunter, Razor, and Bane - with each one having an upgraded version reserved for those that can gather at least 40 stars in their respective category. Before you get too excited, do keep in mind that you need to actually win your game in order for your quest completion to count, so make sure you're not just sabotaging your team in order to complete these things!
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Now before you say, "Well obviously they're coming soon, its October!", allow me to just mention that this soon might be a lot sooner than you're expecting! As with the Summer Game Loot Boxes, someone over at the console side of things has accidentally leaked the existence of Halloween Loot Boxes, the screenshots of which you can find over at ChronosHero's Reddit post.
So why is this significant? Well, the last time the Loot Boxes got accidentally leaked Blizzard released them within the next 24 hours, which means that if the same train of logic applies here as well we can expect to see Halloween arrive quite soon indeed. Naturally, all of this is pure speculation on my part, but the events are unfolding far too similarly for all of this to be a pure coincidence. Update: Alas, it appears that I was wrong, and since Blizzard doesn't update over the weekend the earliest we might be able to see these Loot Boxes is on Monday.
Since the screenshots are a bit too blurry to read properly, here's what the Halloween Loot Box description says:
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Even if you haven't been playing League of Legends you're most likely aware of the outrage that happened with Riot Games removed the solo queue option in favor of dynamic queue. If not, let's just say that there was a whole lot of shouting and arguing, and for once it wasn't pointless as the system really did have some deep-seated flaws.
After the most recent ranked updates ended up not producing the desired results, Riot has finally decided to admit defeat and not only bring back solo/duo queue, but also introduce a couple of other improvements to the League of Legends ranked ladder! You can read more about this over at the official website, but for now I just want to highlight the most interesting part of the entire announcement - Riot's willingness to experiment and further improve upon the system:
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If you find the default Starcraft 2 announcers to be terribly boring, and would instead prefer to have someone like Alarak spend the entire game questioning your worth, you'll be glad to hear that Starcraft 2's upcoming Patch 3.7 will be bringing with it a bunch of cosmetic customization options! You'll soon be able to adjust the armor and appearance of your units, their dance animations, your decal and player icon, and naturally, the smooth voice of your friendly announcer.
Since these are some fairly major changes, to Starcraft 2 anyway, the developers have prepared a Patch Overview video to guide you through all of these new additions. Here's the video:
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Much like Planescape: Torment that came before it, Torment: Tides of Numenera features a world full of mystery and intrigue, as well as a cast of characters that make all of that madness truly come to life. Even after doing two reviews of the Early Access version I am still discovering new storylines, new characters, and new plot points - the world is simply too wast and too intricate to uncover so easily.
While I am a big fan of complexity when it comes to storytelling, there is no denying that too much complexity can just leave the players dazed and confused, rather than intrigued and immersed. In order to hopefully correct this little issue ahead of launch, inXile recently released a lore video to get you familiarized with Torment's bizarre Ninth World and its even more bizarre inhabitants. Have a look:
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[Update]: Turn-Based RPG Wasteland 3 has now made its way to PC and consoles!
Following the success of Wasteland 2 (and to a certain extent Torment: Tides of Numenera which is still in Early Access) inXile has decided to once again turn to crowdfunding. As it so happens, that was a rather brilliant idea given that Wasteland 3 has already gathered over $2,000,000 in funding, and we're still only on day one of the Fig campaign! Mind you, $1,600,000 of that comes as an investment from Fig themselves, but even with that considered these are still impressive numbers for a rather niche turn-based RPG.
And speaking of RPGs, if you're wondering what Wasteland 3 is going to look like, you're in luck as inXile have also released a brief gameplay video showcasing their work so far. It might not be finished or fully polished, but even this early on it still looks and feels much more engaging than Wasteland 2! Have a look:
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Continuing the trend of being absolutely amazing towards the Overwatch community, Game Director Jeff Kaplan has released yet another Developer Update discussing upcoming features, hero and map additions, balance changes, and community concerns. Most importantly for all you Symmetra players out there, Kaplan has officially confirmed that Symmetra is currently undergoing a rework in other to make her more than a "first point defender"!
If you're interested in watching the full ~14 minute video you can find it embedded right below, but if you're just interested in the short version I'll also include my brief summary. Anyway, here's the video: