It would be fair to say that Bethesda releases are often very much anticipated. After all, everyone spent ages trying to decipher what any little piece of news meant about when Fallout 4 was coming (along before it was actually confirmed to be a thing that existed) and they continue to do the same with The Elder Scrolls 6. Bethesda projects are big.

Now in an interview Bethesda’s executive producer Todd Howard has revealed that not only are Bethesda currently hard at work on three projects – they’re “bigger than anything [Bethesda has] ever done.” Sounds exciting. According to Howard two of those games are “classically Bethesda” while the third is a mobile game which doesn’t sound that exciting until you remember what a success Fallout Shelter was.

Talking about the two larger projects Howard said: “We have two larger projects that are more classically the scale of what we do, but even bigger. We overlap the projects so we’re working on them at the same time, but they’re staggered. I can’t talk a lot about them, but I can say that they’re bigger than anything we’ve ever done. They’re a bit different, but definitely in the wheelhouse that people are used to from us.”

Obviously as I mentioned above, people are speculating that one of these two larger games has to be The Elder Scrolls 6 but only time will tell. Bethesda has their usual Sunday slot at E3 though, so maybe we’ll see some news there when it takes place in a few months time?

It’s time for the yearly shake-up of Hearthstone’s meta, and as the Year of the Kraken goes out, the Year of the Mammoth comes – and fittingly with huge changes.

The most obvious of those are the rotation of certain sets of cards out from Standard to Wild. Joining Naxxramas and Goblins vs. Gnomes are the cards from The Grand Tournament expansion, as well as the Blackrock Mountain and League of Explorers adventures. This should see the Wild meta become vastly different from the one in Standard, as more sets are now Wild-exclusive. Adding to this, there will be a few of the Classic cards made Wild-exclusive owing to how often they pop up in play right now:

• Azure Drake
• Sylvanas Windrunner
• Ragnaros the Firelord
• Ice Lance
• Conceal
• Power Overwhelming

These six cards the developers feel contradict what they’re trying to do in the creation of Standard and Wild; to diversify the cards used and make the meta more interesting for players. Because these six were often seen as auto-includes, Blizzard feel that it’s time for them to rotate out into what they’ve dubbed their ‘Hall of Fame’ set of cards. While they had entertained the notion of allowing a full dust refund for these cards, they have decided that goes against their other goal of making Wild seem like fun – so if you own any of the cards that are going out in the Hall of Fame set you’ll get the full dust value of that card (up to the number of cards you can put into a deck) the first time you log on after the Year of the Mammoth has begun!

The next big thing for the Mammoth is that instead of going between Adventures and Expansions, this year we will have 3 inputs of expansions that add around 130 cards – which means a LOT of new cards coming this year. But for those who enjoy the colourful stories of Adventures (I’m one of them), never fear – the storytelling is coming to the expansions to help make them even better and cooler. These will be in the form of option single-player missions that expand the lore behind each expansions card set. Additional details about this new idea will be revealed at later dates.

Blizzard are also going to be trying to incentivize Wild, with them collaborating with third-parties to promote additional Hearthstone tournaments that use the Wild format, as well as an upcoming Heroic Tavern Brawl that will utilize it.

Also before the next expansion (theorized to be Un’Goro themed) Hearthstone will have for a short time, daily login rewards to claim. Dust, gold and packs will all be on offer, as well as “a few other surprises” before the expansion’s launch “to blaze a trail for everything our next expansion has to offer.” One of these could even be the new Hero that Blizzard are planning to release. New Rogue Hero Maiev Shadowsong will be available to gain after the next expansion launches, just by winning 10 games of Heartstone in either Standard Ranked or Casual modes. Given that all the others have required payment of some sort or to use another game, it’s nice to have one we can just earn by playing this game.

And that is basically what we can expect from the Year of the Mammoth, as far as Blizzard have announced. It sounds like a lot of fun is in store.

Game reviewing requires you to sometimes play genres that maybe you’re not so interested in. When those come along, you can still judge a game to be ‘good’ if it is still a great game despite the fact that maybe it’s not your particular cup of tea. Some genres though, it’s very hard to do much different with.

Dungeon Escape is a 2D jumping platformer in the same one-hit, one-kill, start level over again vein as Super Meat Boy. You have hazards, you have one hit point. You need to get out of the level and onto the next one. Simple. The art style is simple but not basic, and the game moves and plays very fluidly. You are a prisoner in this dungeon and you need to make it through even dangerous level, grab the key, bring it to the door and exit to make it to the next level/room of the dungeon with the hope of eventually escaping.

The levels are clearly constructed, and since you usually enter in a spot out of danger you’ve time to evaluate which way you need to go and the hazards you need to avoid. Of course, jumping around, over or between hazards needs timing, poise and… well, as I said this is one of those one-hit, one-kill, restart games. One wrong move and you needs to start all over again. The game has a points system, and around levels you will find coins to collect if you wish to bring up your score. Of course, to get to those coins you need to risk restarting the level again so it’s perfectly possible to grab the key and run if you want. Levels will also gain enemies that can kill you also in one touch, but very much like a Goomba they can be stomped upon and at times will need to be to clear certain areas and make them safe for you.

As I said in the beginning, even if you’re not fond of a genre that doesn’t mean a game in it is necessary ‘bad’. There’s been games I am terrible at, but know that they’re great games – I just suck at them. Dungeon Escape however, does not feel like one of those games. There’s very little reward for making it through levels other than unlocking the next one in the chain. Timing jumps, getting through spaces, hitting something and having to do it all over again? It’s not fun and this is one of the few games I’ve ever truly felt like rage quitting on. There wasn’t even a decent story to follow from level to level; I don’t know who this character is I play as, why they’re in this dungeon in the first place, if there’s any antagonists with sentience and if there’s any secrets deeper in the dungeon to discover. That would have at least kept me engaged. That being said, it seems the game was the work of one person but surely even one guy can add a little backstory?

If the challenge and making it through is the payoff that matters for you in the game, you will probably like this game more than I do. I however cannot really recommend this one. It’s a well-put together game and functions perfectly – there’s just nothing to make me want to continue playing.

6/10

If you were hoping to get your hands on Halo Wars 2 physically and live in the States, I’ve some bad news. Microsoft have officially cancelled the production of the physical edition of the game in the US – although digital copies will still be available.

Speaking to Halo Waypoint, 343’s community manager Brian Jarrard said “Our retail plans have shifted and Microsoft has made the decision to focus the release of the physical retail version to Europe only. We apologise to any customers affected by the change in our retail plans, and thank everyone for the continued support as we look forward to the release of Halo Wars 2 for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC.”

Originally THQ Nordic was supposed to be responsible for the physical edition as they did with Microsoft for both Quantum Break and Ori and the Blind Forest’s physical editions, but now it seems plans have changed it seems. If you want a physical copy now, you’ll have to get one imported from Europe or elsewhere. The Windows Store will still have digital copies available globally though of course.

Halo Wars 2 will release on February 21st, and will be a Play Anywhere title, so if you buy for Windows 10 you can still play it on your Xbox One and vice-versa.