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[Update #2]: MTG Arena's August update has added the singleton, community-made Gladiator format as a limited event, and also heavily rebalanced the Baldur's Gate draft!
[Update]: MTG Arena will be adding 40 new cards for the Historic and Explorer formats on July 28th. Both anthologies have now been revealed as well, and while they're a bit of a mixed bag, there's definitely some fun new cards in there as well.
After a surprisingly brief round of teasers, MTG Arena's Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate set has now arrived for the Historic, Historic Brawl and Alchemy formats. It brings with it numerous cards from the Commander Legends: Battle at Baldur's Gate set, a bunch of cards from the same set reworked with 1v1 play in mind, as well as a variety of all-new additions to help spice things up a bit.
In terms of major keywords, there are three you'll want to pay attention to: Specialize, Double Team and Boon. Here's a brief rundown of what they all do:
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[Update #2]: Forspoken has now arrived with a free demo and an outrageous price tag.
[Update]: Square Enix has now detailed the PC system requirements and their expected performance for Forspoken.
If you were hoping to get your hands on Square Enix's exploration focused action-adventure Forspoken this October 11th, I'm afraid I have some bad news. In an effort to get everything polished up and ready to go, most likely to avoid another Babylon's Fall type of situation, Square Enix has now pushed Forspoken's release date to January 24th, 2023.
"As a result of ongoing discussions with key partners, we have made the strategic decision to move the launch date of Forspoken to January 24, 2023," reads the brief update. "All game elements are now complete, and development is in its final polishing phase. We would like to thank you for your continued support and patience on this journey."
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Rather than have the PC version be delayed like with Monster Hunter: World and Iceborne, Monster Hunter Rise's Sunbreak expansion has now been unleashed for both PC and Switch simultaneously. As is tradition, Sunbreak brings with it a chunky new world to explore, a variety of new and returning monsters, new Wirebug abilities for all fourteen weapons, as well as plenty of story-based excuses to start slicing monsters up.
What all of this looks like in action, as well as what you can expect to see in future updates, that you can find out through the trailer below. Have a peek:
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[Update #2]: MTG Arena will be adding 40 new cards for the Historic and Explorer formats on July 28th. Both anthologies have now been revealed as well, and while they're a bit of a mixed bag, there's definitely some fun new cards in there as well.
[Update]: The Baldur's Gate set has now arrived alongside the big balance update.
Over the past few updates the MTG Arena team has mostly rebalanced cards for the newfound and digital-only Alchemy format. However, as a part of the update that arrives on July 7th, they'll be dishing out some nerfs to decks that have been at the very top of the Historic format's meta for many years now: Blue/Red Phoenix and Green/Black Food.
Cauldron Familiar will lose its ability to block while The Meathook Massacre will no longer gain life, which should make Food and Sacrifice decks a bit more vulnerable to early game aggression. Phoenix decks on the other hand will have to contend with Dragon's Rage Channeler only gaining +2/+0 (instead of +2/+2) and the all-powerful Unholy Heat only dealing 4 damage (instead of 6) after its Delirium effect is triggered.
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[Update #2]: Guild Wars 2's August 2nd patch will fix the recently introduced Warrior and Mesmer problems.
[Update]: Guild Wars 2 will be greatly improving the colossal world bosses with the July 19th update.
In order to sort out some of the balance problems that arrived alongside the End of Dragons expansion, the Guild Wars 2 team released a sizable balance update a short time ago. Unfortunately, while some of the changes were well thought out and left the nerfed classes in a solid position, a fair few also ended up being an absolute disaster. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the Warrior class and its team-buffing banners, as they not only are they significantly weaker than before, but they're also significantly more annoying to use now!
To the balance team's credit, they have very quickly acknowledged the complaints and have already announced a series of follow-up updates aimed at correcting the newly introduced problems, and hopefully some of the long-standing ones as well. The first of these updates has already arrived with changes for the Elementalist, Ranger, Revenant and Engineer classes, and while there is still work that needs to be done, this is a very solid first step.
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[Update #2]: Total War: Warhammer 3's August update will greatly rework the long-forgotten Warriors of Chaos.
[Update]: Total War: Warhammer 3's first post-launch DLC will add four new Chaos factions.
While work on the massive Immortal Empires combined campaign map continues, the Total War: Warhammer 3 team has now unleashed Update 1.3 to help tide everyone over. The update brights with it the second batch of Regiments of Renown, a variety of improvements to unit responsiveness in battle, reworked character traits and skill trees, and the list goes on for a while.
You can get a brief overview of the major changes, as well as check out how all of this looks like in action, through the developer preview below:
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[Update]: World of Warcraft Classic is giving players a fancy new dragon mount for simply playing Death Knights.
While playing on lower population servers is generally fine due to the Looking For Group system and zones that always try to keep things populated, there is one very annoying problem you'll always have to contend with - a lack of resources. Without a vast array of players to constantly feed crafting materials into the Auction House, making potions and other consumables tends to be a remarkably expensive affair, even at the best of times.
In order to sort this problem out, as well as improve the Auction House experience for everyone, the next update will make it so commodities (gems, herbs, flasks, consumables, etc.) are shared across all Auction Houses in your region. Items that don't belong in that category, like raid-dropped armor and weapons, will continue to be realm-specific.
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[Update #2]: The Baldur's Gate set has now arrived alongside a variety of rebalances.
[Update]: After years of dominance, MTG Arena is nerfing two of the best decks in the Historic format.
In an effort to spice up the struggling Alchemy format, as well as to give to Historic Brawl players a whole bunch of new toys, the MTG Arena team will be releasing the Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate set this July 7th. It'll bring with it a whole assortment of cards from the Commander Legends: Battle at Baldur's Gate set, a bunch of the Commander focused Baldur's Gate cards rebalanced with 1v1 play in mind, as well as a variety of new-to-Magic cards that heavily utilize the digital design space.
Speaking of which, Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate will bring with it three new keyword mechanics: Specialize, Double Team and Boon. Here's a brief rundown of what each of these does:
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[Update #2]: Guild Wars 2 will be greatly improving the colossal world bosses with the July 19th update.
[Update]: The Guild Wars 2 team is working on addressing the rather poorly received balance changes.
In order to sort out some of the balance problems that have appeared alongside the End of Dragons expansion, as well as to reshuffle which classes have access to some of the all-powerful stat buffs, Guild Wars 2 has now unleashed a sizable balance update. Unfortunately, as is often tradition with Guild Wars 2, the changes are all over the place.
Some classes like the Engineer and Guardian have gotten through the update with barely a scratch, despite being some of the most popular and powerful in end-game scenarios. On the other hand, Warriors and Elementalists have received some sizable nerfs that will likely mandate a follow-up patch in order to get the two classes back into shape.
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[Update]: Dragon's Dogma 2 will be launching on March 22nd, 2024, nearly twelve years after the original!
While most people might know Dragon's Dogma as "that game where you get to climb all over the monsters", the reason I consider it one of the finest RPGs around has very little to do with the actual combat. Instead, it's the process of exploring the world that truly captivated me. Every trip is a lengthy and risky affair that requires careful planning and preparation, yet the world is so rife with danger that your plans will frequently fall apart, thus forcing you to roll with the punches and overcome near impossible odds. It can be brutally challenging, sometimes even a bit unfair, but all of that is irrelevant compared to the sheer satisfaction you'll feel once you succeed!
With all of that in mind, I hope you can understand just how excited I am to say that Dragon's Dogma 2 is currently in development! The exact details are still few and far between, but it looks like Dragon's Dogma 2 will be developed using Capcom's RE Engine (Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter Rise, Resident Evil 7 and remakes), so the world should be quite lovely to look at as you run away from a giant manticore.