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[Update #2]: Blizzard will be adding cross-platform progression with Overwatch 2.
[Update]: Overwatch's final event, and likely final update as well, has now arrived alongside some fancy reskins.
In a bit of a divergence from the original plan, Overwatch 2's competitive PvP mode will be releasing for PC and consoles on October 4th, 2022. As for the story focused campaign, and co-op based PvE missions in general, those will be released in pieces throughout 2023 (and most likely beyond).
If you don't feel like waiting until October to give Overwatch 2 a try, you'll be pleased to hear that Blizzard has now launched the second Closed Beta. The highlight, as you might imagine from the title, is the brand new tank hero - the super aggressive Junker Queen. Here's a brief trailer showing what she's all about:
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[Update #2]: The latest preview has finally offered a close-up look at the Immortal Empires campaign map and some of the new Legendary Lord positions.
[Update]: Total War: Warhammer 3's first post-launch DLC will add four new Chaos factions.
Once it arrives this August, Total War: Warhammer 3's Immortal Empires campaign map will combine all of the major gameplay elements and factions from all three games into one gigantic package. You can expect to see 86 playable Legendary Lord, dedicated factions for a bunch of mostly forgotten characters like Grombrindal and Volkmar the Grim, new starting locations for 29 of the older Legendary Lords, as well as improved faction mechanics for a fair few of them.
Best of all, Creative Assembly has now revealed that the Immortal Empires combined campaign map will be nearly twice as large as the Mortal Empires map first introduced in 2017. Not only that, but there's a whole bunch of empty space on the new map that's obviously going to be expanded upon in the future, so the final version of Immortal Empires should be remarkably massive.
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[Update #2]: The heavily exploration focused Dragonflight expansion has now arrived, and so far it's looking quite good!
[Update]: World of Warcraft is introducing cross-server auctions for consumables and crafting materials.
After spending a fair bit of time messing around with the very concept of an afterlife, World of Warcraft's next Dragonflight expansion will hopefully be taking things in a more down-to-earth direction. In terms of actual content, Dragonflight will bring with it a new draconic class/race combination, the Dracthyr Evoker, the return of oldschool talent trees, seemingly Guild Wars 2 inspired flying mounts, and naturally, a whole bunch of new areas to explore.
If all of that sounds like something you'd love to mess around with, you'll be happy to hear that Blizzard has now revealed that Dragonflight will be launching in 2022! No exact release date has been given just yet, but I'd imagine it'll be swooping in during the winter holiday season, for obvious reasons.
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[Update #2]: The Guild Wars 2 team is working on addressing the rather poorly received balance changes.
[Update]: The balance update has now arrived, and as expected, things are a bit messy at the moment.
A few months have gone by since the End of Dragons expansion arrived, and as is to be expected from an MMORPG, the most dominant end-game builds have become quite entrenched. In an effort to shake everything up, as well as to promote both class and specialization diversity, ArenaNet has announced they're planning to release a sizable balance update on June 28th.
To give everyone at least a bit of time to prepare and adjust their builds, the Guild Wars 2 team has also taken this opportunity to release a lengthy preview. So if you're curious what exactly is coming to your favorite characters, you can find the full patch notes over at the Guild Wars 2 website.
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[Update]: Valve has just unleashed the second round of Team Fortress 2 fixes and improvements.
After a recent and surprisingly effective protest, Valve announced that they are working on a solution for the endless plague of bots and cheaters that have come to infest every inch of Team Fortress 2. Given the complexity of the task at hand I figured it would most likely take Valve a couple of months to sort everything out, if not longer, but in a refreshing twist the Team Fortress 2 team has managed to get everything done in under a single month!
Thanks to the freshly unleashed update a variety of exploits have now been patched out, including a particularly silly one where players could use sv_cheats even on secure servers. The update has also made it so players can't just rapidly change their names during a match in order to avoid getting kicked, and most importantly, greatly improved the Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) system's ability to sniff out bots and cheaters.
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[Update]: Steam's Autumn Sale 2022 has now arrived alongside the annual Steam Awards nominations.
If you're looking for a reason to stay indoors and avoid the scorching summer heat, you'll be happy to hear that the 2022 Steam Summer Sale has now arrived. As is tradition, it brings with it an absurd amount of discounts spread across a wide variety of games and genres, as well as a little mini game to mess around with while you shop.
For those of you unsure about which ones to go for, allow me to give you a couple of suggestions for some of the cheaper-yet-still-excellent games out there. Here's the brief list, in no particular order:
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[Update]: Fall Guys' Season 2: Satellite Scramble update is bringing in a variety of new levels and cosmetics.
After being teased for quite a while now, the day has finally come - Fall Guys has gone free-to-play on all platforms! Best of all, the free-to-play launch brings with it both cross-play and cross-progression, so teaming up with friends should be incredibly easy regardless of what platforms you play on.
In order to thank veteran players, as well as to make the whole transition go by as smoothly as possible, the Fall Guys team has given everyone who played before June 21st the Legacy Pack. The freebies include a fancy nickname and nameplate, a couple of costumes, and most importantly of all, the Season Pass for the freshly re-branded Season 1!
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[Update]: Heroes of Newerth is teasing some sort of a revival.
Before Dota 2 and League of Legends held absolute dominion over the genre, Heroes of Newerth enjoyed immense popularity among the MOBA crowd thanks to its highly polished gameplay and remarkably creative hero designs. Unfortunately due to a couple of major missteps, the biggest of which was switching from free-to-play to a standard paid model, Heroes of Newerth quickly lost a good chunk of its playerbase and never really managed to spring back.
I'd love to tell you this story has a happy ending, but alas Heroes of Newerth is not so lucky. As such, after twelve years of frantic battles, I'm saddened to announce that Heroes of Newerth has now closed down its doors for good.
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After going through two exclusivity periods, first on the PlayStation and then on the Epic Games Store, the improved version of the Final Fantasy VII Remake has now finally landed onto Steam and the Steam Deck. The Intergrade edition brings with it an assortment of visual enhancements, a couple of new story moments sprinkled throughout the original campaign, and most importantly of all, an extra piece of DLC starring the ninja Yuffie.
What all of this looks like in action, that you can get a small teaser of through the freshly posted trailer below. Have a gander, it's a short one:
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[Update]: After a lengthy period of testing, Warcraft 3: Reforged has now unleashed Update 1.33 alongside player profiles, leaderboards and ranked play.
After a couple of solid attempts at improving the somewhat disappointing Warcraft 3: Reforged, Blizzard suddenly went quiet and stopped releasing updates. Two years have gone by since then, and with Diablo 2 Resurrected being the shiny new remaster that's getting all of the attention, I wouldn't blame you for assuming Warcraft 3: Reforged was simply left for dead. To be honest, that's exactly what I thought.
However, in a refreshing twist, Blizzard has now returned to Warcraft 3: Reforged with a fresh PTR update! Best of all, they're finally adding some of the features from the original version that were inexplicably missing in the remaster: ranked play, leaderboards and player profiles.