Drizzt Do’Urden Comes To Magic: The Gathering

2 years 11 months ago
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Game Informer

We knew Dungeons & Dragons was coming to Magic: The Gathering this summer, complete with Portable Holes and Beholders. Today, Wizards of The Coast has unveiled several new, high-profile faces that are set to be featured in upcoming Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set. Interestingly enough, one of them is even classified as a planeswalker! This is to facilitate Magic: The Gathering mechanics, but it’s still fascinating to see Lolth this way. So who’s on deck? Today, we get a look at Lolth, Spider Queen, the epic Drizzt Do’Urden, and Bruenor Battlehammer!

Author
Daniel Tack

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Genshin Impact: Best Eula Build Guide

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN
Eula, affectionately dubbed as End-User License Agreement, has recently joined Genshin Impact’s roster. With great burst damage and faster attack speed than all the other claymore users, she’s already proving herself as a great DPS character. That said, there are ways to make her an even better asset to your party. Keep reading for guidance on Eula's best talents, constellations, weapons, artifacts, and more. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/17/genshin-impact-new-character-demo-eula-flickering-candlelight-trailer"]

Eula’s Role in the Party

Eula is a physical and burst DPS character who is suitable to take the role of main DPS of the party. Her attacks deliver devastating numbers and she can easily wipe out groups of enemies with her elemental burst. She can be quite the selfish carry, just like Diluc and Klee. Since she deals cryo damage, we recommend having an electro sub DPS or support character to help trigger Superconduct, an elemental reaction that lowers a monster's physical resistance.

What Are Eula's Talents?

The priority for Eula's talents are normal attack, elemental burst, and elemental skill. We recommend prioritizing them this way because you will likely spend more time doing normal attacks when she’s on the field. Her elemental skill has a short cooldown, but it’s much better to use it as an animation cancel of her final normal attack to minimize downtime. Basically, the sequence would be to normal attack five times, then cancel the downtime of the fifth attack with her elemental skill. After two stacks of Grimheart, it’s time to hold elemental skill for the burst damage. Always try to always use her elemental burst when it’s up.

Favonius Bladework - Edel (normal attack)

  • Normal attack: Perform up to five consecutive strikes.
  • Charged attack: Drains Stamina over time to perform continuous slashes.
Author
Cedric Pabriga

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All Genshin Impact Characters Ranked By Role

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN
As of Patch 1.5, the latest character added to the tier list is Eula. So, you have a bunch of Genshin Impact characters but aren't sure how powerful they are. Luckily, we've put together a tier list that can help you gauge how your characters stack up to others in the roster. Keep in mind, not all tier lists are the same since it's largely based on the opinion of whoever ranked the characters. Nevertheless, it's an important part of the player experience, especially with Gacha games like Genshin Impact where you don’t know which character you’re going to get per roll. Before we begin, let's preface with how these characters are ranked. As stated above, a tier list is largely based on the opinion of the person who made it. In addition to our impressions of the characters and our experience playing with them, we've also considered their placements on existing tier lists. We also ranked them at C0. With all of that out of the way, it’s time to rank these Genshin Impact characters! genshin-impact-characters-main-dps-tier-list-ranked

Genshin Impact Main DPS Character Tier List

The Main DPS character in Genshin Impact typically deals lots of damage and is the character that will primarily carry your team in the game. For these reasons, they are on the field most of the time. The latest addition to this list is Eula. We put her in tier S because she can deal an incredible amount of damage all on her own. She has a faster attack speed than her fellow claymore wielders which means she can deal more damage in a shorter amount of time.
Author
Cedric Pabriga

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Final Fantasy XIV Community Pays Respects To Berserk Creator Kentaro Miura

2 years 11 months ago
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Game Informer

Kentaro Miura, the creator of the highly influential manga Berserk, passed away at the age of 54. Fans of the massively talented storyteller have rallied around his work to honor his passing, and one such tribute comes by way of the passionate Final Fantasy XIV community. 

When looking at his work, Berserk immediately comes to mind. Ever since its serialization in 1989, Miura's storytelling was phenomenal. Many called it a masterpiece, and they're not wrong. As gamers, we have so much to owe to this man. From Dark Souls to Final Fantasy, his creative touch has impacted so many aspects of our lives, making his passing even harder to accept. 

YouTuber SmugAnimeGuy uploaded a heartfelt video about how the Final Fantasy XIV online community pays tribute to Miura and Berserk, showing just how much his gift has meant to us through the years. 

Click here to watch embedded media

"Miura-sensei was a master artist and storyteller, and we had the great privilege of publishing several of his finest works, including his masterpiece, Berserk," said publisher Dark Horse Comics. "He will be greatly missed."

Author
Liana Ruppert

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Overwatch 2 Drops Standard PVP Count To 5V5

2 years 11 months ago
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Game Informer

Overwatch 2 is set to be the exciting successor to the team-based FPS that took the world by storm back in 2016. Players around the world fell in love with Blizzard’s colorful, diverse characters by way of cinematic shorts, comics, and in-game interactions. Overwatch 2, however, is bringing back everyone’s favorite roster of heroes and villains alongside a bevy of technical, visual, and contextual upgrades. Changes to the gameplay loop are also being implemented; one of the most important being the development team’s decision to drop the PVP player count from 6v6 to 5v5.

Author
Jason Guisao

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Injustice: Gods Among Us Explained

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN
There are many different versions of the DC Universe, but few have made as big an impact on the pop culture scene as Injustice: Gods Among Us. The original 2013 video game has spawned an empire unto itself, with a sequel, mobile games and stacks upon stacks of companion comics. The Injustice franchise is poised to grow even bigger in 2021 thanks to the news of an Injustice animated movie. If you need help making sense of this twisted superhero universe and why Superman is suddenly the bad guy, we've got the full breakdown. Here are the topics we cover in this piece:
  • What Is Injustice?
  • The Secret Weapon of the Injustice Universe
  • The Plot of the Injustice Games
  • How the Injustice Comics Fit In
  • Injustice's DC Influence
  • The Injustice Animated Movie
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What Is Injustice?

The 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Among Us introduces a new branch of the DC multiverse. This world once resembled the traditional DCU we know and love, but fate takes a very dark turn on the day Superman is tricked into murdering his wife Lois and their unborn child. That tragedy pushes the Man of Steel over the edge. His obsession with ridding the world of evil leads him to become a despot. Only this world's Batman and his underground Insurgency still oppose Superman's One Earth Regime.
Author
Jesse Schedeen

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Overwatch 2 Unveils Monte Carlo Map, New Looks

2 years 11 months ago
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Game Informer

Overwatch 2 had a robust presentation today, covering many of the shifting facets of player-vs-player that are being worked on for the sequel. While this stream was entirely PVP-centric, Overwatch 2 is being built with numerous co-op aspects in mind as well, including replayable missions that feature high variance, tasking players to defeat different enemies and complete different objectives each time. Blizzcon featured many reveals in regards to the concepts that are taking shape to form the co-op and campaign of Overwatch 2, but today was all about content that's relevant to the time-honored tradition of team-vs-team gameplay.

Overwatch 2 is shifting to five-vs-five instead of six-vs-six action as one of the major changes, but we also got a good peek at some of the glamourous maps we'll be doing battle in.  In addition to a big look at the changing face of PVP, the Overwatch team spent some time walking players through new maps and styles for classic characters. There’s a lot to digest, so I recommend checking out the major highlights over on the official Overwatch site here.

Author
Daniel Tack

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Overwatch 2: New PvP Changes, Monte Carlo Map, and Everything Announced From the New Livestream

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN

Today, Blizzard hosted a new Overwatch 2 livestream with a bunch of new details on the upcoming sequel.

While the biggest news was arguably changing PvP team compositions, there were plenty of other new details. Below are some of the biggest details we learned from today’s Overwatch 2 stream.

Overwatch 2 PvP Teams Will be 5v5, Not 6v6

As reported earlier, Blizzard has announced that Overwatch 2 will introduce 5-member PvP teams, down from the 6-person teams introduced in the first Overwatch. Along with the smaller team sizes, tanks will be adjusted so that they are more like brawlers in a fight, rather than stationary shields. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/01/overwatch-2-gameplay-overview-trailer"] Furthermore, each class will receive a new passive ability to complement their abilities. Tanks will have knockback reduction and reduce ultimate charge gain when taking damage from enemies; Damage heroes will get a movement speed bonus, and Support will self-heal when they don't take damage for an extended period of time.

Overwatch 2 - New Monte Carlo Map Revealed

Blizzard also revealed a new map during today's stream called Monte Carlo. Based on the luxury vacation destination, the fictional version of Monte Carlo is very much like its real-life counterpart, where beautiful buildings are situated on steep hills. It is still very much a luxury destination but given the slight futuristic makeover of Overwatch.

Assault Will be Removed From Competitive Play

Assault is a mode where an attacking team and defending team vie for contested Capture Points on a map. Attacking teams will have a set time to capture a point while a defending team must stop them, and the two teams will switch off.

Author
Matt T.M. Kim

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Outriders has had enough players for Square Enix to stick with it

2 years 11 months ago
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Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Outriders seemed poised to be one of those games. You know the sort - the kind that's good fun to play but not exciting enough to get much attention. I expected to make a glib remark about Outriders in 2022 and be fully roasted for it by no more than six people. Outriders, it seemed, would be a real Stadia of a game.

Not so, say Square Enix. In a press release today, they say the looter-shooter has had 3.5 million players in its first month, which is successful enough that they're looking towards "expanding on Outriders in the future."

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Author
Graham Smith

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The Sims 4 Dream Home Decorator will make designing sim homes your job

2 years 11 months ago
Link
Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The next game pack for The Sims 4 might get me to actually unpause the game. The Dream Home Decorator expansion adds interior decorator as a new in-game career, letting you design rooms and homes for other sims to meet their requests. Since designing rooms and homes is what I typically play The Sims for, rather than all that interpresonal drama, this looks fun.

There's a trailer below, and the pack will launch on June 1st.

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Author
Graham Smith

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More Than Just Dots On A Map: The Challenges Behind Open-World Game Creation

2 years 11 months ago
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Game Informer

Video games are constantly getting more ambitious, whether it’s from advances in technology offering new possibilities or developers building on past innovations. One area that keeps flourishing is open-world design. Players gladly immerse themselves in virtual environments for hours on end, uncovering every possible facet and secret. But keeping players entertained for the long haul isn’t as simple as randomly filling the map with various knick-knacks and sidequests. Developers constantly have to find new and interesting ways to keep the journey through these massive landscapes exciting, while also making them feel like living and breathing entities. In these vast locales, myriad activities provide fun diversions, NPCs live out full lives, and intriguing discoveries are around every bend.

Everyone can remember their favorite world to explore, but what goes into building these vistas that slowly sprawl out before you? We were curious about the process behind these fascinating places and the design decisions that bring them to life. To learn more about this intense undertaking, we chatted with several developers from award-winning studios such as Ubisoft Montreal and Quebec, Sucker Punch, Insomniac Games, and CD Projekt Red, to see what goes into these worlds that we voluntarily lose ourselves in.

Author
Kimberley Wallace

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GI Show – Psychonauts 2 And Mass Effect Legendary Edition

2 years 11 months ago
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Game Informer

Click to watch embedded media

On this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, we discuss a handful of the games we've been digging recently, including Mass Effect Legendary Edition, The Ascent, Returnal, Aerial_Knight's Never Yield, and Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. We also recently announced that Psychonauts 2 is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer Magazine, so we spend a good deal of time talking about Double Fine's upcoming platformer and what we learned during our interviews with the studio. 

Author
Ben Reeves

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Blazing Strike Is A New, Old-School 2D Fighter

2 years 11 months ago
Link
Kotaku

Because there’s no such thing as too many anime-inspired 2D fighting games, Aksys and RareBreed Makes Games just announced Blazing Strike, an homage to classic pixel-art fighters with modern game mechanics that’ll hopefully make it play as good as it looks.

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Author
Mike Fahey

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Serial Game Studio Buyer Embracer Is in 'Late Stages' of Acquiring 20 More Companies

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN
Embracer Group, the Swedish games holding company and publisher formerly known as THQ Nordic AB, already contains multitudes after a spree of acquisitions in recent years. And now it apparently has 20 more companies directly in its sights. In an investor presentation released alongside its full-year financial results today, Embracer revealed that it has "engaged with" over 150 companies about joining Embracer during the last three months alone. Though it cannot specify what these companies are at this time, the report says that number includes "larger companies that could form additional operating groups." For context, its current operating groups include Koch Media, THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, and recent acquisition Gearbox Entertainment. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/08/17/game-scoop-494-its-time-for-timesplitters-to-return"] Furthermore, Embracer says it is in over 20 "late-stage talks" with companies for potential acquisition, though it again does not provide information on what kinds of companies these might be. Aside from the larger operating groups, THQ Nordic also owns several smaller operations, such as QA company Quantic Lab, PR company Sandbox Strategies, and the recent acquisition of Swedish studio Frame Break. Embracer has had acquisition fever in recent years, picking up over 30 different companies in the last two and a half years.
Author
Rebekah Valentine

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Overwatch 2 PvP Will Now be 5v5, Not 6v6

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN
Today Blizzard shared a major update for Overwatch 2 including one major change coming to the PvP experience. In Overwatch 2 PvP will be 5v5 experience instead of the current 6v6 team size. The team comp will now comprise two Damage classes, two Support classes, and one tank instead of two. Overwatch director Aaron Keller says that the change will remove help clean up the combat and create a more fluid gameplay style. Furthermore, without the defense provided by a second tank players are likely to use the environment more and play more strategically and aggressively. And since Overwatch and Overwatch 2 will have parity, this means PvP teams will shrink to five for both versions when Overwatch 2 comes out. Blizzard says that the change to 5v5 will update Overwatch’s classic roles. Starting with the sequel, Tanks will change significantly and become more front-line brawlers than stationary shields. In addition, each role will get a passive role bonus that will complement each heroes’ unique ability. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/overwatch-2-55-new-details"] Tanks will have knockback reduction and reduce ultimate charge gain when taking damage from enemies. Damage heroes will get a movement speed bonus, and Support heroes will have automatic self-healing if they don’t take damage for an extended period of time. This is one of the biggest shake-ups to Overwatch PvP and could potentially re-shape the competitive scene.
Author
Matt T.M. Kim

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Samorost is back with a free enhanced version on PC, iOS, and Android

2 years 11 months ago
Link
Destructoid

Whatever happened to Samorost, the darling point-and-click space gnome adventure we played in our browsers in the early 2000s? Don't worry, it hasn't been lost to the ravages of time. It's here — right here, actually. You can play a remastered version on Steam, itch.io, iOS, and Android. Best of all, it's free.

You might not be able to put your finger on what's different if it's been years since you've played Samorost, but as the video seems to suggest, there are touch-ups. According to Amanita Design, this new version for 2021 has "remastered sounds, enhanced graphics, and new music by Floex."

I had a lot of love for Samorost back then and I still do today. It put this team on the map for me.

As for what's next for Amanita Design, more adventuring. The studio's next project, Happy Game, is freakier than you'd expect — by like a few orders of magnitude. It's expected to hit Steam in 2021.

Also, I won't lie: that long branch extending out into another tree's "mouth" still cracks me up.

Author
Jordan Devore

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Jedi Outcast Is The Latest Classic To Get Ray Tracing

2 years 11 months ago
Link
Kotaku

After teasing the project for months, self-described “ray tracing addict” Zyanide is finally ready to share his work adding the computationally intensive lighting technology to 2002’s Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. And gosh, it’s as impressive as the game’s title is awkward.

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Author
Ian Walker

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Final Fantasy 14 Players Pay Tribute to Berserk Creator Kentaro Miura

2 years 11 months ago
Link
IGN
Following the death of acclaimed manga author and Berserk creator Kentaro Miura, players in the Square Enix MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 paid tribute in a virtual vigil. Miura is best known as the author and artist of the manga Berserk, a seminal dark fantasy series critically acclaimed for its storytelling, art, and world-building. Works that have been inspired by Berserk are numerous including games like Dark Souls as well as Final Fantasy. One of the hallmarks of Berserk is the absurdly large sword carried by its hero Guts. In Final Fantasy, plenty of characters wield similarly large weapons including Cloud in Final Fantasy 7 and the Dark Knight class in Final Fantasy 14. And it's the latter who showed up to pay respects to Miura virtually.
Author
Matt T.M. Kim

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