Dota 2 artwork of Dawnbreaker smacking Meepo into the sky Team Rocket style

[Update #2]: Dota 2's International 2023 update has added a cosmetics-free Battle Pass alongside a Profile rework.

[Update]: Dota 2's Patch 7.34c has arrived to fix some of the recent balance mishaps.

A little while back Valve said that they have big plans for Dota 2, and they certainly weren't kidding! Despite already releasing a couple of sizable patches, Valve has just launched what is likely the most important update of them all - a comprehensive rework of the report and player behavior system.

Commends and dislikes now allow you to slightly affect who will and won't appear in your future matches, the new report system collects a wide range of supporting data and is already looking far more accurate than before, and best of all, the punishments are sometimes almost instantaneous! There's a lot of details I'm leaving out here as trying to summarize everything would be needlessly confusing, but the important thing to note is that not only is Valve now finally taking toxicity and griefing seriously, but that the system is already having a massive positive impact despite only just launching!

World of Warcraft: Classic artwork showing off Ragnaros and the Molten Core

[Update #2]: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be getting the Classic treatment and many new improvements in 2024.

[Update]: Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be getting new dungeons and the legendary Icecrown Citadel raid on October 10. 

If you're in the mood for a bit of a challenge, or if you just want to replicate the atmosphere of the original World of Warcraft, you should definitely give the freshly launched Hardcore servers a try. The basic gist of it is that in the Hardcore realms you only have a single life to work with. Reincarnations, resurrections, soulstones or even the classic bubble + hearthstone combo will not save you!

Despite being the same game, the increased stakes make it a much, much more compelling experience, especially when it comes to social interactions as there is both safety and danger in numbers! Everything you do matters, and every risk comes with a chance to erase dozens of hours of gameplay. It's not for the feint of heart, but I'd definitely recommend giving it a try if you want to see World of Warcraft in a completely different light.

Darktide screenshot of the zealot's talent tree from Patch #13

[Update #2]: Darktide's Patch #13 has now arrived, and I'm happy to say it's already looking quite amazing!

[Update]: Fatshark have now revealed more about the upcoming RPG-like talent trees and accompanying balance changes.

After half a year of updates mostly focused on fixing Darktide's numerous problems, things are now finally looking up. Not only has the most recent Patch #12 greatly improved the mission selection and difficulty modifiers, but on October 4th Darktide will also be getting its long-awaited Xbox version alongside a sizable content update!

The big highlight is the addition of RPG-like talent trees for each of the four classes. Each talent tree will come with three main paths that feature a whole bunch of nodes that encompass everything from passive upgrades to new abilities, thus letting you create a whole assortment of new builds and playstyles. Most importantly of all, you're not locked to any single path - you can dip into all of them if you're so inclined!

MTG Arena Wilds of Eldraine artwork of a giant candy-based monster

[Update]: The Wilds of Eldraine set has now arrived with a bunch of new cards, improved duplicate protection, as well as Alchemy rotation.

If you're looking for a bit of a meta shake up, you'll be pleased to hear that the next Standard expansion, Wilds of Eldraine, will be heading over to MTG Arena on September 5th. The new set will bring with it the usual assortment of wacky cards to mess around with, as well as a Mystical Archives inspired bonus sheet filled to the brim with all sorts of classic enchantments.

Much like how it worked before, each pack will have a single common card replaced with one of the aforementioned 'Enchanting Tale' cards. As such, collecting a good chunk of them should be fairly easy, at least as far as the rares are concerned anyway. A good thing too, because this time around the bonus sheet is absolutely stacked with excellent cards!

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader official artwork and logo for the CRPG

[Update]: Good news! Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is coming to PC on December 7, 2023!

If Baldur's Gate 3 has given you an appetite for playing complex RPGs alongside a friend or two, you'll be happy to hear that the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, from the studio behind Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Kingmaker, will be launching with a co-op mode as well. That's certainly bound to be one heck of an adventure as Owlcat's games tend to take nearly 100 hours to fully finish, and that's with only one player at the helm!

As for the actual details, including the number of potential players, I'm afraid nothing has been revealed so far. The good news is that Owlcat has promised to share more in the near future, so we hopefully won't have to wait for too long.

Vermintide 2 key art for Sienna's new Necromancer career

[Update]: Many years after being canceled, Vermintide 2's PvP Versus mode is coming back.

It took a surprisingly long time for us to get here, but Sienna's long-awaited fourth career has now finally been revealed! The big surprise is that instead of getting one of a variety of fire based specializations like many have been speculating about over the past year, Sienna will begin dabbling into necromancy on October 19th!

Before I say anything else, allow me to share with you the cinematic trailer setting all of this up. Have a gander, it's a fun one:

World of Warcraft: Classic artwork for the Onyxia raid

[Update #2]: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be getting the Classic treatment and many new improvements in 2024.

[Update]: World of Warcraft: Classic has now launched Hardcore servers, and I'm happy to say they're quite fun!

After witnessing how popular the 'no death' runs have been in World of Warcraft: Classic over the past couple of months, Blizzard has now decided to make the whole thing official. As such, on August 24th WoW Classic will be getting Hardcore realms with slightly adjusted rules and only a single shot at life. This means no resurrections, reincarnations, soulstones or anything similar.

If you end up making a mistake and kicking the bucket, don't worry as you character won't simply disappear. By using the Free Character Move service you'll be able to transfer your character to any Classic Era realm, though obviously Hardcore servers will forever be locked for them.

Dota 2 artwork showing off the 10th anniversary items

[Update #2]: Dota 2's Patch 7.34c has arrived to fix some of the recent balance mishaps.

[Update]: Dota 2's final Summer update has enhanced the visuals and massively improved the report system.

In order to celebrate Dota 2's upcoming 10th anniversary, Valve has now released a commemorative treasure chest containing a variety of unique cosmetics items from Dota 2's history. And since this is the 10th anniversary we're talking about, naturally there are thirteen items up for grabs!

The list includes the 'controversial' cowboy Ursa set that was deemed too silly for the game back in the day, Earthshaker's awesome Bindings of Deep Magma set, a recolor of Void Spirit's 2019 Immortal set, and even the anime-themed Mirana persona. If you want to play Dota 2 on hard mode, there's also a really distracting CRT filter to mess around with.

Alan Wake 2 empty road teaser screenshot

If you were hoping to dive into Alan Wake 2 this October 17th, I'm afraid I have a bit of bad news. According to the latest developer update, Alan Wake 2's release date has now been pushed back ten days, or until October 27th to be specific.

As for the reason behind the delay, that would be the simple fact that October is absolutely stacked with interesting games so Remedy figured they'd give themselves, and their players, a bit of breathing room. Additionally, this puts Alan Wake 2's launch closer to Halloween, which is definitely a plus given its atmosphere and tone.

images/2022/3/Dota-2-Spring-Cleaning-2022-artwork.jpg

[Update #2]: Dota 2's final Summer update has enhanced the visuals and massively improved the report system.

[Update]: Dota 2 is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a bunch of thematic (and free) cosmetic items.

In order to shake up the metagame for the upcoming tournament qualifiers, Dota 2 launched Patch 7.34 a couple of days ago. The update brought with it a massive assortment of changes to everything from items to gameplay mechanics and pretty much all heroes. Unsurprisingly, given the sheer scale of the tweaks, not all of them have ended up working out as planned.

So in order to fix the various balance problems introduced with Patch 7.34, Valve has now unleashed the much smaller though still quite impactful Patch 7.34b. The one big general change is that Spirit Vessel has been made weaker and cheaper - it now provides +6 to all attributes instead of +12, gives an additional +125 health, and costs 200 less. It's still going to be a great item, though no longer an auto-include for any Universal core.