Diablo III gains ladder-like Seasons system in Reaper of Souls 2.1
On the face of it, Diablo III is a cooperative game - but it’s always been played competitively, with one eye on the wider Blizzard community. This first major patch for Reaper of Souls will finally acknowledge that tendency in-game, with a Seasons system that starts players at the bottom, brigand-bothering rung of demon-hunting and compares their performance on leaderboards.
Age of Empires: Castle Siege is a Clash of Clans-ish Windows 8 exclusive
If you want to gauge Microsoft’s changing attitude toward PC gaming at any given point, look at what it’s doing with Age of Empires. The long dark age of Games for Windows Live was heralded by Ensemble Studios’ closure in 2008. And renewed efforts to “up Microsoft’s gaming presence on Windows” have seen the company take stock in recent months, releasing extended editions of Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology on Steam.
What are we to make, then, of Castle Siege? A touchscreen-focused Clash of Clans homage found only on the Windows 8 Store?
Loadout is getting a co-op campaign mode; expect a Steam beta within weeks
Writing his Loadout review, our Tim discovered that Edge of Reality’s free-to-play Quake throwback was secretly one of the best shooters to come to Steam in years. It’s also the only shooter on Steam to let you take your pants off and run about the battlefield with your physics-enabled johnson waggling back and forth like a pendulum for your thumping heart.
In acknowledgement of those truths, let’s look forward with all our might to Update 5.0 - Loadout’s biggest update yet.
Gotta have wraith: Zenimax to give pets as rewards to Elder Scrolls Online subscribers
The pre-release conversation around The Elder Scrolls Online was all about that subscription - a monthly tithe of the kind so many other prominent developers had roundly condemned.
But launch came and went, and it seemed there were more than enough Elder Scrolls Online subscribers. Now, Zenimax Online intend to sustain momentum not only with September’s Update 4, but with a series of conspicuous rewards for subscribers to flaunt all round Tamriel.
"Ungh!": voice actors take damage in the latest Evil Within trailer
The Evil Within is, first and foremost, a twisted imaginarium filled with things nobody should have thought of.
That leaves its set of well-established US voice actors with an intriguing challenge. They're left pretending to be “covered in acid” or suffering from “itchy brain”. But they seem to enjoy it.
Hazard Ops launches with mech-on-mech action and zombie attacks
Hazard Ops, the nutty free-to-play shooter from Infernum and Yingpei Games, has blown up the walls of open beta with C4 and has now escaped.
That also means more shooting, more modes and big mechs, because Hazard Ops launches with a meaty update to get things started.
Siege Warbear: Orcs Must Die! Unchained update introduces Tundra, the polar bear
A big update is coming to the Orcs Must Die! Unchained closed beta tomorrow, introducing a bunch of new stuff including a new playable character, big polar bear fella known as Tundra. He wears a lot of fur, which seems a bit unnecessary. I mean, he’s probably not bothered by the cold. Maybe it’s for modesty’s sake? Nobody wants to see a polar bear’s crotch in the middle of a battle, I guess.
Smuggling booze in Elite: Dangerous is challenging, noble work
Elite: Dangerous is a game where people get excited about docking. And they should be, because docking with a space station is an involved, exciting process. It’s not as hard as it was back through the mists of time, when you’d never make it without a docking computer, but it still requires that you stay alert.
Especially if you’re smuggling illicit goods.
League of Legends hits 4.15 and another champion, Azir, is on its way
Riot has been busy lately. With 4.15, the League of Legends developer has buffed newcomer - and Gremlin - Gnar, introduced the new Master Tier and improved the client patcher. And, in an effort to minimise the eventual Summoner’s Rift update, some of the finished parts are being patched into the live game.
A new champion’s been revealed to boot: Azir, the Emperor of the Sands. He’s a snazzy-looking mage with a heavy Egyptian vibe.
The Sims 4 recommended system requirements: can you reticulate the splines?
EA revealed the minimum system requirements for The Sims 4 last month, which were comfortably low so that few rigs couldn’t handle it, and now the recommended requirements have snuck their way into the FAQ.
While not exceedingly demanding, they are quite a bit higher than the minimum specs, and will likely leave anyone with a PC that’s more than a few years old struggling a little bit.
@TheVoxelman on twitter
Essay Pro