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In a universe where cyber-ninjas fight against edgy murder-ghosts a Russian weightlifter might not sound like the most interesting character, but Zarya is by far and wide my favorite hero to play in Overwatch. She's self-sufficient, incredibly strong in the right hands, and most importantly, fully capable of giving your allies a chance to regret their horrible life decisions that led to them standing right in-front of a Roadhog.
With such a team-orientated skill set on her hands, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear that Zarya will be the next character introduced to Blizzard's ever-growing Heroes of the Storm roster. There's currently no hero spotlight available, but Blizzard did release a video detailing all of her cosmetics, and I have to say, I want these things in Overwatch right now! Here's the video demonstrating her various skins and another upcoming hero - Alarak:
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During the recent developer update Overwatch's Game Director Jeff Kaplan announced a whole bunch of interesting changes coming to Overwatch later this weekend. As you might guess from the title, "later" has now officially arrived and brought with it a rather sizable Season 2 patch to the PTR (Public Test Realm).
If you're looking for all of the details you can find the full patch notes by heading over to the Overwatch Forums, but if you're just interested in what exactly is going to happen with your favorite hero, you will find those changes listed out below. Fair warning to you Genji players out there, this is not going to be pretty:
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When Paragon first entered Early Access it was a fairly generic and uninspired MOBA, just another game that tried to usurp League of Legends and Dota 2 without actually trying to innovate. Thankfully, Epic Games has been surprisingly receptive of criticism throughout the alpha and after a whole bunch of updates Paragon has finally begun carving its own niche in the MOBA world.
Best of all, it has now entered a free open beta, so if you ever wanted to give Paragon a try without spending money on some of the quite frankly mediocre packages, you now have the chance! On the other hand, if you have no idea what Paragon even is or what it looks like, here's one of the recent trailers to clue you in:
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In a sharp contrast to Valve's Team Fortress 2, the developers behind Overwatch have so far been both communicative and fast to react. They've made plenty of mistakes along the way, there's no denying that, but they have continuously showed their willingness to improve and make things better.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the recently released Developer Update where Overwatch's Game Director Jeff Kaplan not only addressed all of the major issues that plague the competitive scene, but also announced a whole bunch of new changes to hopefully counter them. You'll find the video right below, along with a brief summary of what I believe are the most important changes:
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Killing Floor 2 has received a fair share of criticism throughout its Early Access stay as many of the promised features were either missing or so underdeveloped it would've been preferable if they were actually gone. Thankfully, the Killing Floor 2 of today is a far superior version as Tripwire has spent the better part of the year pumping out new content, weapons and classes to play around with.
To put it simply, so much new content has been added over the past few month that Killing Floor 2 is now inches away from its final release build. If you're wondering how close, the answer is close enough to set an official release date for November 18th:
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Throughout Heart of the Swarm Blizzard took a more laid-back approach to balancing, hoping beyond hope that the Starcraft 2 community will eventually figure out how to counter each other and create a sort of equilibrium. Unfortunately for everyone, the result of this little experiment was a metagame where each match took well over 30 minutes as players huddled in their respective bases, afraid to leave until they had their perfect deathball at the ready.
Thankfully, Blizzard's balancing approach in Legacy of the Void seems to be much more hands-on as they have just announced an absolute ton of new changes coming to the test realms. And best of all, they've taken the time and effort to demonstrate what each of these changes is going to result in, as well as what the intended goal is.
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Mods come in many shapes and forms. Some simply correct the bugs the developers left behind while others add new features and quality of life changes, but the most intriguing and impressive of them all are the total conversions - mods that essentially create an entirely new game within a game.
Enderal is exactly this type of a mod as it doesn't just add a few bits and pieces of content to Skyrim, it instead brings with it a whole new and unique landscape, different gameplay mechanics and abilities, and unlike Skyrim itself, a heavy focus on storytelling. If you're wondering what all of this might look like, here's the recent English trailer:
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Path of Exile is for me the golden standard when it comes to free-to-play games. The developers have not only managed to completely sidestep the allure of exploitative cash shop practices, but have also considerably improved and expanded the initially rough version of Path of Exile into something truly amazing. Best of all, they're still not done updating the game!
According to a recent announcement, the upcoming Atlas of Worlds expansion will bring with it 30 new maps to explore, 19 bosses to fight, and naturally, a whole bunch of absurdly powerful equipment to collect before meeting your end at the wrong side of a spike trap. If you're wondering what the Atlas of Worlds content looks like, wonder no more as Grinding Gear Games have released a trailer:
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Master of Orion made its debut back in 1993 and pretty much reshaped the entirety of the 4X genre (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) overnight. It was just that good! While I have a lot of fond childhood memories with it, despite not knowing a lick of English back then, there is no denying the fact that the original Master of Orion is a fairly old game and quite flawed in many ways when compared to more recent titles.
This is where the annoyingly named Master of Orion comes into play as it offers a modern take on everything that made the original Master of Orion good, but without the iffy controls and dated graphics. If you're wondering what all of this might look like, wonder no more as there is a relatively recent trailer showcasing the new additions, and the same old snobby space-cats:
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After being available in the Americas for a little while now, Aion's massive Lost Memories expansion has finally arrived to Europe as well. There's two new regions to explore, four new instances to bash your head against, 5 extra levels to gain, and naturally, plenty of new and shiny loot to collect.
On the other hand, if you're mostly interested in the story and what exactly Lost Memories brings on that front, here's the relatively recent trailer that details just that: