Firefall's patch 1.6 is trying to bring new life in to the game

Its no secret that Firefall has been a rather mismanaged project, constantly going through complete reworks and spending a lot of money on absolutely insane marketing stunts such as the by now infamous Firefall Bus which couldn't even drive.

There is a glimmer of hope for Firefall however as patch 1.6 which is arriving this January 20th brings with it massive updates to almost every area of the game, from questing to PvP and class skills. Here's a brief overview of the main features:

Tripwire Interactive detail their plans for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is a standalone sequel to the Red Orchestra/Rising Storm franchise whose depiction of ultra-realistic warfare is among the best I've ever seen.

It was initially announced last year but given that it was still in an early state the developers had very little to share with us. That has changed recently as Tripwire has released their first of many community focused updates going over what exactly Rising Storm 2: Vietnam will be about.

Here's a quick summary of the post:

The Division Agent Journey trailer has been released

With the open beta starting soon and official release date set for March 8 Ubisoft has begun heavily promoting and sharing information on The Division.

In a recently uploaded trailer titled "Agent Journey" we get a glimpse of the of overall narrative as well as the most recent gameplay footage. Here's the video:

Planetside 2 update promises to bring massive changes to the game

I've put in about 100-150 hours in to Planetside 2 since its release but throughout my playtime all I could feel is that SOE, the guys behind the game, had almost no idea what exactly they wanted to do with it. And so, despite loving the game, I ended up quitting because all I've seen were nerfs and terrible design decisions such as putting up 10 meter tall walls around every base so each fight took place in the same two corridors.

Thankfully, after SOE separated from Sony and created Daybreak Games there was quite a big reshuffling of staff and a lot of the old Planetside 2 bigwigs got swapped out with fresh faces who instantly got to work on fixing the issues years of negligence have caused. 

Given what their recent test realm patch contains it seems they are far more in tune with the community than the old team ever was and for the first time in over year I'm excited for Planetside 2 again.

My first impressions on the release version of UnderRail, a Fallout inspired isometric RPG

I quickly realized while playing UnderRail that it isn't the sort of game you beat in a single sitting so my proper review is going to be a few days from now. Until then I figured I would give you my impressions of the game as I go through it, explaining what exactly I find great about it and what doesn't really work.

That said, let's begin by explaining what kind of a game UnderRail is.

UnderRail is an isometric, as oldschool as it gets, turn-based RPG set in a post-apocalyptic scenario where the surface has been rendered uninhabitable and the remnants of the human population now live, and war against each-other, in metro tunnels and caverns surrounding them. You can get the Metro 2033 comparison out of your head because besides the similar setting the games couldn't be further apart in gameplay.

Four gameplay videos of "The Division" were leaked from Ubisoft's recent closed alpha test

Ubisoft's The Division had a closed alpha test a short while ago and even though the players weren't supposed to take any videos or screenshots someone went ahead and did it anyway.

The four videos are fairly lengthy and they are most definitely breaking the NDA so if you were planning on taking a sneak-peek I'd suggest you do it quickly before they finally get pulled down by Ubisoft.

17 minutes of new Firewatch gameplay showcase the lighting effects, random banter, and a bit of the story

Don't worry, this isn't the other arbitrarily 17 minute long gameplay video released a few months back. Instead, this video is a continuation of the old one and showcases events that unfold on day 2 in Firewatch, but don't worry, the developers were sneaky enough to remove anything that might spoil you the story.

In the video (embeded below) two Firewatch developers will guide you through the world and events that happen as well as how your choices could influence them to resolve differently. I have a few things I'd like to mention but in order to not spoil you on anything I'd suggest you watch the video first before continuing.

A new monster from Diablo 3's 2.4 patch called Greyhollow Island

I've talked about the upcoming 2.4 patch for Diablo 3 when it was first entering its test phase and now over a month later they're finally sharing more information about it.

In a recent post over on the Diablo 3 blog Blizzard spoke about what exactly we'll be able to find in Greyhollow island, the brand new map coming with patch 2.4, as well as their inspirations and goals while creating it. If you're interested in a brief overview of the new zone as well as the trailer you will find them below.

XCOM 2 - an example of one of the new alien enemies

As a big fan of the XCOM franchise it excites me to see Firaxis this open towards people showcasing their game a few months before launch, especially in today's world where some games hide behind a wall of hype until the last possible minute.

While I don't have anything to showcase myself (given that I started doing this a month ago) plenty of other people were allowed access and have created some amazing videos, including one of the most dedicated XCOM players around, Beaglerush. Here is the trailer and the links pointing you towards all of the stuff you might be interested in:

New Zombie type in Dying Light: The Following DLC

Before we move on the gameplay video its important to note that Dying Light: The Following is getting a price increase on December 8, the reason being that the DLC is far larger than was originally planned. The price will be going up from $15 to $20 so if you were planning to get it make sure you do it before December 8.

With that said here's the gameplay video and you can decide for yourself whether the price increase is warranted or not.