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So Blizzcon has begun and with it came announcements, all quickly made during the Opening Ceremony of the event. One such announcement was that of Hearthstone’s next expansion, and as was teased it does have to do with Gadgetzan, although not in the way many seemed to be expecting.
Gadgetzan is now a large neutral outpost town, and with growing population and wealth comes the growth of something else much more unsavoury – crime. The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan focuses on the three main gang families who rule the seedy underbelly of Gadgetzan; the Grimy Goons, who are enforcer-types who operate with force and protection rackets; the Jade Lotus, who keep themselves to the shadows and are stealthy assassins; and the Kabal, a group of mages and alchemists who have grouped up after having been expelled from more reputable magical organisations for questionable practices.
The new thing for this expansion is the addition of tri-class cards, cards that can be added to the decks of 3 different heroes depending on which crime family they come under. The Goons tri-class cards focus on Hunter, Paladin and Warrior; the Lotus for Rogue, Druid and Shaman; and the Kabal have Mage, Warlock and Priest. I can see these cards helping players bridge the gaps between a class they are comfortable playing and one they’re not as familiar with.
With 130+ new cards coming, Blizzard have announced that The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan will be releasing some time in early December. Obviously, as with the last expansions there is an option for pre-ordering a number of packs before release.
And of course, during the announcement and the panel some of those new cards were revealed to the public. Check them out below:
Those cards with a crest underneath their mana cost are the tri-class cards I mentioned earlier. The crest shows which ‘family’ each card belongs to and therefore which three classes will allow you to use that card. It’ll be interesting to see where they fit into the collection book. There’s also one tri-class card which has an effect to craft custom spell cards – Kazakus.
One thing’s for certain, with this new expansion a lot of fun is about to be had.
Rainbow Six: Siege has one more DLC confirmed to come yet, and from tweets over at Twitter, it looks like it could be taking part in Japan.
The previous three DLC were released fairly evenly spaced, with around three months between each one’s being made available for purchase. The most recent one, Operation Skull Rain, came out on August 2nd so if the schedule keeps on going we can probably expect to hear a lot more official information soon about the forth.
The official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter tweeted out a teaser yesterday though, an image with Japanese text underneath:
Translations vary. Bing suggests “Come, ye and” while Google goes for “time is, come Tareri”. Ubisoft themselves though, publishers of the games, have said that it translates to “Time has come” which we can guess is meant to be the official message of the tweet. Other places have found leaked footage of destructible walls in a map meant to be added in the “Season 4” expansion – all with a distinctly Japanese themed building.
For more official information though, we’ll just have to wait.
Welcome to your catch up on what’s cool in the list of newly added Kickstarters for games.
To do a little recap on previously covered campaigns though, out of those covered a few weeks back Goblins of Elderstone is the only successful story there out of those that hadn’t already reached target when I covered them. They have recently bypassed their goal of $40,000 with 11 more days to go. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of Queer Quest and Creekside Creep Invasion, both of which are going to fall far short of their goals.
First up (and appropriate for the date) is a survival horror game set in Hell.
Agony sees you play as a lost soul, unsure about who you are and with the ability to take control of other souls and some simpler-minded demons as you try your best to make it through the harsh conditions you find yourself in. The game’s campaign page is full of a load of different quotes from different media outlets such as Kotaku, Destructoid and the Daily Dot – so you can tell that the game’s had a lot of people looking at it already.
If you’re interested, Agony has a target of $66,666 CAD (yes, really) and has made $2,862 with 39 days to go.
A puzzle-platformer, this game puts you in the driving seat of Cat City’s best detective as you try to track down who is responsible for the loss of the city’s plans. With areas ranging from the glittering high end areas to the seedy underbelly, you jump, puzzle and solve your way along through the story, as well as collecting items to help you along your way and meeting up with characters who can be talked to, befriended and in some cases romanced too.
PURRKINS has 27 days to go to make its £8,000 goal of which it has raised £26 so far.
Next up we have a card game where co-operation is needed to progress and build.
The Bird Told Me To Do It is a labour of love from Polish developers in which you build up a tree house for different types of birds by adding ‘twigs’ to the tree. Plumage cards are needed for scoring, and each twig placed will have an action you need to do – hence the title of the game.
The Bird Told Me To Do It has made £2, 897 of its £4,000 target so far, with 29 days still to go.
Lastly we have a space MMO game, that will be a free-to-play upon launch.
Space Wars will have many different ships with a load of customisation options as you would expect from a game of this genre. You can also customise crews as well, to best tailor your ships’ working to your playstyle. The game is a turn-based tactical strategy, with four different factions you can join – each with its own strengths. Venture forth and battle, conquer to gain experience to unlock better ships and upgrades.
Space Wars: Interstellar Empires has 25 days to go to make its $40,000 target. It has raised $5,646.
Halloween is coming up, and Steam are celebrating by holding a Sale. As they do.
The Steam Halloween Sale is focused on (you guessed it) games that are meant to terrify, scare and creep the living daylights out of you as you play. The thrill of the chase, the chill of the scare… you get the idea. There are also some Halloween updates to non-horror games in there as well, if you want to spookify some other games instead of getting scared silly. Also, halloween movies.
Classics like Limbo, FEAR and others are on offer, as well as things like the Five Nights at Freddy’s series and Outlast which have been quite popular for Let’s Players on Youtube. Especially around this time of year. The horror movie selection is also full of classic like the Saw series, American Werewolf in London and so on.
If you fancy checking out the deals, be quick. They’ll only last until 10am PT November 1st.
In a strange twist of fate, the lifting of a trade embargo to one country seems to have resulted in access to a service being cut off for residents of that country.
Origin, EA’s digital distribution platform has been available to residents of Myanmar (the small South-East Asian country also called Burma) since its launch, despite a trade sanction against the country from the US – the place where Origin is pretty much based. In the middle of September President Obama announced that the sanctions were going to be lifted from October 7th. Yet more than three weeks on from that date and Origin seems to be inaccessible to the residents of Myanmar, having been blocked since mid-September.
Community Manager on EA’s AnswersHQ support forum, EA_Tom explained that EA was now just complying with the trade sanctions the US has placed on certain countries, and that was why the service was being denied in these countries. Indeed there is a clause in Origin’s terms of service which reads “You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and agree not to transfer the Application to a foreign national, or national destination, which is prohibited by such laws, without first obtaining, and then complying with, any requisite government authorization.”
“In compliance with US embargoes and sanctions laws, Origin is not available in Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine (Crimea region),” EA_Tom wrote to one user.
Why EA have begun to follow the sanctions now after years of allowing access is unknown, and so far it’s unclear when EA are going to allow Myanmar residents access again now that the sanctions imposed on the country in 2003 after humans rights charter violations have been lifted.
