Rocket League's new arena, the Forbidden Temple, is a fetching car-ball battlefield all decked out reds and purples, and it will be available to everyone from January 20 to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Along with the Forbidden Temple, the Lucky Lanterns event will also let you earn red envelopes that can be redeemed for New Year rewards, including some very flashy cosmetics for your wee cars, including paper dragon kites and new dragon-themed skins. Get your hands on limited-time golden lanterns and you'll also be able to unlock items from Champions Series 1, 2 and 3.
If you've taken a break from Rocket League, you might have missed a spot of controversy that hit the game late last year. Psyonix has done away with loot boxes, normally a cause for celebration, but the community wasn't too chuffed with what replaced them: an item shop that tipped over the game's economy.
Along with the shop, players can now get blueprints that can be crafted into a new item, at the cost of some credits. While it's removed the randomness of the old system, it also means you can't get lucky and net yourself a rare item for the price of a single (no longer available) key. Since the update, however, Psyonix has reduced most blueprint prices, with the exception of black market items.
Complaints seem to have died down since the price reduction, so hopefully everyone is in a better mood this year.
The Lucky Lanterns event kicks off on January 20 and ends on February 10,
Football is so 12th Century. Thank God for Rocket League, which took football and transformed it into flying rocket car daftness. The onward march of human progress didn’t stop there, however. Modders have since transformed Rocket League into flight combat sims, obstacle courses, and Quidditch.
It’s all impressive, but I’m most enamoured with the work of pro player “Lethamyr”, who moonlights as a modder turning Rocket League into pinball, pool, beer pong and prop hunt.
Videogames are always willing to pounce on excuses to sell you hats, so naturally Rocket League is celebrating the Chinese New Year. The event kicks off on Monday. There will be new rims and such, available to buy on the recently reworked and now slightly cheaper store. I’m more interested in the new Forbidden Temple Arena, which looks like a colourful escape from this dreary January.
High-octane ballsport Rocket League yesterday reduced cosmetic item prices, having started selling them at high prices with new systems replacing DLC and loot boxes in last week’s Blueprint Update. Our Matt said only yesterday that “Rocket League’s new Blueprints are too expensive, but still better than loot boxes” then a mere six hours later, Psyonix announced the price cuts. This is response to a solid week of complaints from players but the timing does make us look dead influential so yeah, yeah, you’re welcome, everyone.
I knew from my first few hours playing Rocket League that it would become my most played game on Steam. It took me nearly a thousand hours to reach the coveted top rank of Grand Champion. It remains, in my eyes, the perfect competitive multiplayer experience: easy to get into, difficult to master, and far more focused on tactical decisions and reading your opponents than about who has the twitchiest reflexes or the highest APM.
Rocket League is, simply put, my jam.