Blizzard have announced that they ll be tweaking the ranking system for collectable card game Hearthstone next month, making climbing the ladder a slightly less grindy experience.
Beginning on February 1st, players at most levels will only need to gain three stars by winning games in order to advance a rank, reduced from its current five.
Developers Analgesic Productions have announced that dreamily atmospheric clean em up sequel Anodyne 2: Return to Dust will launch in May.
If you ve not seen the game in action before, it s a Zelda-y, mixed graphics adventure RPG, and, well, you should probably take a look at the teaser trailer, which has really quite a lot packed into its short 30 seconds.
The less-discussed Fortnite sibling, PvE survival shooter Fortnite: Save The World is changing how its loot boxes work. Potential buyers will now be able to see exactly what s inside the store s llama pi atas, enabling them to make a more informed decision about whether or not they want to pay to take a metaphorical mallet to them.
Sundays are for finally reigniting your D&D campaign – organising a game with friends in four different time-zones is both wonderful and infuriating. Could the same be said of the best writing about videogames from the past week?
I’m a little in awe of Braden Moor. Waypoint’s Patrick Klepek has been documenting the man’s ongoing attempts to beat a ludicrously hard Super Mario Maker level of his own devising. Month after month, he streams his every defeat. It’s legitimately inspiring.
Freewheeling haul ’em up American Truck Simulator will be expanding into Washington State sometime this year, allowing players to explore from evergreen forest to concrete cargo port, and to travel under the ever-watchful eye of Seattle’s Space Needle.
Here s a teaser trailer, though it has nary a truck in sight:
If you ve always wanted to drop into Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, but lacked the PC power, you might soon be in luck. The developers are currently running a beta test for PUBG Lite; a version of the game designed to run with much lower hardware requirements.
They ve also lowered the monetary requirement about as far as it’ll go, making this version of the game free-to-play.
The GLAAD Media Awards, which recognise and honour media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and the issues that affect their lives are in their 30th annual iteration. This year, they’ve added a new category, for Outstanding Video Game.
Included among the nominees is Assassin s Creed Odyssey, whose latest DLC includes an (edited) forced heterosexual romance. GLAAD themselves admit this will surely raise eyebrows, but their justification brings up broader questions about how we celebrate queer representation.
Fallout 76 has always had a kind of pseudo-PvP, allowing players to fight one another but only through mutual consent. If you shot at someone who never shot you back, damage would be greatly reduced to prevent random server-mates from killing you everywhere you went. Now, though, they re introducing a new Survival mode specially for murdering one another.
Though they re aiming to release the mode into beta in March, they ve teased some details about how it s likely to work.
I make my bed every day. It’s the easiest way I know to tell the day that I am ready for it. Making the bed is fairly simple to do, and (in most circumstances, I imagine) shouldn’t take more than five minutes. The results can be astonishing. Voil ! A bedroom is transformed. Does a tidy person live here? Who knows! The possibilities are endless and the day begins with a task completed.
Here is the secret about making beds: you can make your bed at any time of day. It really doesn’t matter when. The same logic can be applied to days. Sometimes the best thing to do is to climb back into bed when the day is going wrong, just to climb back out of it again. The first month of the year is drawing to a close. Perhaps, by now, you have left your resolutions by the front door alongside your running shoes, yoga mat, and half-finished juice cleanse. That’s fine. The market for resolutions is wildly exploitative anyway. This isn’t the first time you have experienced a new beginning. It won’t be the last.
Here are some games which remind me of that feeling.
I’ll not shout this morning because I’m sure you’re still recovering from the merriment of Burns Night. Got a little carried away reciting Tam o’ Shanter and fell off the chair you were riding like a horse again, did you? Added a touch too much whisky to the cranachan, perhaps? Broke your heart thinking about that wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie and couldn’t sleep for all your tears? Take care. Rest up. Be well. Maybe play some video games.
What are you playing this weekend? Here’s what we’re clicking on!
Ack. Sorry. Habit. I’ll be quiet.