PORTAL 2

We could basically put the entire Valve catalog in here. The joke goes that Valve doesn’t know how to count beyond 2, and that can be applied to so many of the company’s properties. Portal, for instance, absolutely smashed it with its second instalment, delivering an instant masterpiece that was widely beloved by pretty much everyone who played it- and a lot of people have played it in the years since its launch. It’s widely regarded as one of the best games of its time, lauded for its clever gameplay and incredible writing (among other things), while commercially, it’s been quite a success too. And yet, with Valve focused on Steam and now the Steam Deck, it’s unlikely that Portal will continue. At least we recently got Aperture Desk Job though, so that’s something… right?

Killing Kuro – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Wolf deals with quite a bit of hardship to help erase Kuro’s Dragon Heritage, like obtaining the Mortal Blade, defeating his adoptive father Owl and much more. Once you finally take down Genichiro and then a revived Ishin, it’s revealed that the Immortal Severance requires killing Kuro. Though there are other endings to help him survive in some way or another, it’s kind of a punch in the gut to end Kuro’s life after all the struggle, conflicts and death that he’s had to witness.

If you pre-purchased Warcraft 3: Reforged, Blizzard’s remaster of the classic RTS, then there’s some good news. The classic version of the game is now available to play, along with its expansion The Frozen Throne. A new patch has been released that also brings a number of different changes and improvements, along with hero balance changes to the classic version of the game.

Patch 1.30.2 brings filters for lobby name and map name, while also having maps be uploaded and downloaded from the cloud. Players no longer need port forwarding to host maps for custom games, and network traffic has been made encrypted. Region filter has also been added to the custom games filter.

You can check out some of the patch notes below, with more detailed notes provided here. Warcraft 3: Reforged is slated to release in 2019 for PC. However, Blizzard will have a beta (though it’s more akin to a pre-alpha) early next year. More information on the same – and how those who pre-ordered can get in – has yet to be revealed.

SPECIFIC CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

• Installation now supports verification of Reforged pre-purchase or legacy keys
• Added a filter for lobby name
• Added a filter for map name (prefix with @)
• Maps will now be uploaded and downloaded from the cloud
• All custom games from all gateways are now visible in the lobby browser
• Port forwarding is no longer required to host your favorite map for custom games
• Network traffic encrypted
• Updated custom game listing to have all games (for filtering) but list still shows the first 100 games
• Added region filter to custom game filter
• Added auto refresh of game information if less than 100 games on list
• Custom games that are full or cannot be joined are grayed out on games list (refresh to remove)
• Added kick and ban to player menu
• Limited color menu to selectable colors
• For arranged forces, changing player color will change player slot in game list
• Hosts have * next to their name
• Latency is shown on the right side of player list
• Improved peer-to-peer map transfer to increase download speed
• Game lobby is hosted in the cloud in closest supported data center to host
• Host leaving will not end game

HOST COMMANDS

• !ban [name|slot]
• !unban [name|slot]
• !closeall
• !openall
• !hold [name]
• !holds [name] [slot]
• !swap [x] [y]
• !abort
• !kick [name|slot]

PLAYER COMMANDS

• !mute [name|slot]
• !unmute [name|slot]

BUG FIXES

• Desyncs with certain custom maps resolved
• Observer API outputting accurate information
• Custom sound files with meta data play again
• Breath of Fire translated in Italian
• JASS Mouse Event IDs reverted to pre-1.30.0 order

KNOWN ISSUES

• A host leaving a LAN game sometimes removes other players
• Custom Hero Survival has a desync with random ability related to legacy code
• !ban command is not functioning when typed but does function from the drop down menu
• Instantly joining a custom game after it is created will cause errors and prevent the game from being listed for a period of time
• If the host leaves a LAN game all remaining players will instantly be taken to the score screen
• Leaving and rejoining a lobby with full observers can cause a crash if at least one player is on a Mac
• Players may become desynchronized when a custom game starts using The Third War Reborn

Blizzard announced during Blizzcon today something that long suffering Warcraft fans have waited years for—a remaster of Warcraft 3, complete with Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne bundled in. And it’s not just going to be a humdrum remaster, it’s a full fledged overhaul of the game, with a lot of effort put into modernizing the classic RTS that represents Blizzard’s once legendary mastery over the genre at its peak.

For Warcraft fans who have only had the decade-plus old World of Warcraft to contend with for so long, getting a new Warcraft RTS release, even if it’s technically just a remaster of an older game, is probably going to be a seminal moment.

The best part is, you won’t have to wait too long to play the game either—Blizzard has announced it will be out in 2019, which means it’s probably less than a year away. Maybe its success can lead us to an actual, proper Warcraft 4…

You can check out the trailer for the game below. If you want to get back into the MMORPG World of Warcraft instead, make sure to check out our review for Battle for Azeroth, the latest expansion for it.

Arthas – Warcraft 3

The tragic tale of Crown Prince Arthas Menethil, knight of the Silver Hand was a man of principal, and who’s tragic fall came from his deeply seated sense of duty to his people. His ever more desperate bids to keep the kingdom of Lordaeron from falling to the Plague of Undeath caused him to take up the cursed blade Frostmourne, which led to the once proud hero eventually becoming the dreaded Lich King.

For all of their other considerable flaws (and there are many), the one thing you absolutely cannot accuse Blizzard of is not supporting its games properly. Blizzard will continue to push out updates for its games over a decade after they originally launched—as evidenced by the newest update released for Warcraft 3. Yes, Warcraft 3, not World of Warcraft.

The new update adds widescreen support, balance changes, 12 new team colours, support for up to 24 players in lobbies, with automated tournaments resuming next week. Amazingly enough, Blizzard promises there is more on the way, suggesting they’re still not done with support for the title.

Warcraft 3 was the final RTS game in the series, before the franchise moved towards being an MMORPG (and arguably the only MMORPG) with World of Warcraft. With no proper Warcraft 4 on the horizon any time soon, I guess Warcraft 3 is the only option fans of classic Blizzard RTSs have for now.

Check out the full patch notes for the update here.

Despite launching in 2002, Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft 3 continues to receive patches amidst rumours of a remaster. The latest patch on the Public Test Realm adds 24 players lobbies to multiplayer, updated team colours, widescreen monitor support and changes for the world editor. Even if there isn’t going to be a remaster, Blizzard deserves credit for supporting the strategy title for so long.

Interestingly, there will be also be a Warcraft 3 Invitational, the first of its kind, on February 27th and 28th. Players are invited to compete against each other to determine who’s the best. Given how important multiplayer is, it wouldn’t be odd to see Blizzard using this kind of Invitational to test balance changes and tweaks at the highest level to prepare for a remaster.

Rumours are rumours but if StarCraft could receive a remaster, then anything is possible. The question now remains – will we be seeing Warcraft 3 remastered first or Diablo 2, the classic action RPG that’s also been the subject of rumours? Stay tuned for more information.

Blizzard Entertainment has opened up a Public Test Realm server for Warcraft 3, it’s critically and commercially acclaimed real-time strategy title that also happens to be 15 years old. No, we don’t know why so don’t bother asking.

The PTR will look at testing things for map pools in 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s and free for all on Windows and Mac. Though Blizzard has been releasing patches for Warcraft 3 recently – and teasing a remaster for the game like the upcoming StarCraft: Remastered – it’s still interesting to see this level of support.

Blizzard is also tracking issues for the game like latency needing work to meet more modern standards, the matchmaker logic needing improvement and Automated Tournaments and Ladder Boards not being functional for the PTR. It’s made some progress with the latency as of patch 1.28 but further work needs to be done.

To see what balance changes have been made, check out the list below. You can also view the complete roster of maps in their different sizes here.

General improvements and gameplay objectives

• Balanced creep camp difficulty progression from early to late game
• Balanced creep drop tables for better item progression from early game to late game
• Item diversity: Varied Level 1 though 6 charged items and Level 1 through 6 permanent items
• Balanced all start locations: total amount and starting distance from lumber, equal amount of spacing, equal size choke points, et cetera
• Balanced expansion distance from start locations
• Decluttered points of interest to reduce visual competition during gameplay
• Retextured map surfaces for better visual clarity – both on screen and mini-map
• Minimized the size of trees and doodads that obstructed player view of points of interest
• Added cliff lines or deep water to edges of the map – removing hard edges (aesthetic choice for immersion)
• Properly placed trees and doodads on the pathing grid: full-cell Medium Grid to half-cell Medium Grid alternate
• Removed the rolling shoreline waves from rolling hills to remove the noise the waves created – remains for cliff shores