Blizzard announced the next Hearthstone expansion, Descent Of Dragons, today at BlizzCon. It’ll add new cards with new abilities – the usual expansion stuff. More curiously, Blizzard also announced Hearthstone: Battlegrounds, a new mode they say is inspired by the Auto Chess. Y’know, the burgeoning genre which began as the Dota 2 mod Dota Auto Chess and has already spawned Valve’s Dota Underlords and the League Of Legends mode Teamfight Tactics. That is not what I expected when I first heard the word “Battlegrounds” on the stream.

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Blizzard could announce Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, a new WoW expansion, and Hearthstone Auto Chess live on stage at BlizzCon–and they did–but none of that would sit right if they didn’t address the cloud over this year’s fanfest. Their decision to harshly punish a Hearthstone pro player for declaring “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” in a post-match interview has upset many over the past month, including players, employees, commentators, and members of the US Congress. Even Blizzard’s attempt to explain themselves only dug the hole deeper. They couldn’t avoid the issue. So at BlizzCon opening ceremony today, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack began with an apology.

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After a run of leaks and rumours, Blizzard today announced Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon. The FPS sequel will feature “a ton” of PvE and story bits, director Jeff Kaplan said in stage at BlizzCon, including “highly replayable” cooperative missions. A new core PvP mode is in too, along with new maps, new characters, and new looks for old characters. It’ll feature cross-game multiplayer with the first Overwatch and, my god, cosmetic doodads unlocked and bought in the first will actually carry over into the sequel. Come watch the announcement cinematic and first wee gamevid.

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After a world’s been trashed enough, how can you further raise the stakes (and the ruckus)? Mate, stuff it, tear open a route into the afterlife and give the already-dead a kicking. Blizzard today announced Shadowlands, the eighth World Of Warcraft expansion, where Sylvanas Windrunner will do just that. Off we’ll go into heck, exploring, murdering, and meeting new people.

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After a number of reported false starts, Blizzard were today finally ready to announce Diablo IV. Oh dear oh dear, someone’s only gone and released another ancient evil, so once again it’s up to us to click on monsters until their bellies burst with a blast of gold and swords. Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred, is the big nasty this time. She created the world of humans, so you know she’s a wrong’un. After the softer Diablo III, Blizzard say they’re going dark again with this one. Watch the action-RPG’s cinematic announcement trailer and a wee gamevid below.

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Humble’s Monthly games bundle will be morphing into the more expensive Humble Choice at some point before the end of the year, but until that happens it’s business as usual for the monthly subscription service. In what’s quite possibly going to be the last Monthly bundle as we currently know it, the early unlock games for December have now been announced as Yakuza Kiwami, My Time at Portia and SoulCalibur VI. You’ll need to be a Humble Monthly subscriber to get them, of course, but if you’re not you can join up right now for $12/month.

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ZeniMax, the parent company of Bethesda, will offer refunds on Fallout 76 to many Australian customers who were previously denied them. They’d previously said the people weren’t entitled to refunds under ZeniMax rules, but Australian authorities piped up to point out that Australian laws meant yes, they were. This isn’t a slam on Fallout 76, just another games company doing international business without understanding local laws.

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For many – okay, fine, all> – the best part of starting a new RPG is always the character creation process and The Outer Worlds doesn’t disappoint in this regard. With its finely crafted array of attributes and skills that you can use to start carving out the path of your character before you even set foot on Halcyon. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a bloodthirsty warrior, a slick-talker, or just want to break into things. We even have some interesting stats courtesy of one of our readers on mid/maxing your stats!

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From the very start of the game, The Outer Worlds gives you a variety of systems to play around with to customise and develop your character. Prime among them is the perks system, which gives you the chance on every second level-up to give your character a new Perk to help give them (and you) a slightly easier or more enjoyable journey through the game. You can also take flaws, which give you perk points at the cost of having a permanent debuff.

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Did you find the main campaign in The Outer Worlds just a little too easy? Well the Supernova difficulty is where the real challenge is and if you’re not prepared for the worst, you can easily die over and over, or even worse – lose your companions. Of course, you don’t want that to happen, so we’ve played a little bit of the game and scoured the internet to get tips to help you survive supernova difficulty in The Outer Worlds.

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