Who knew that being gone for a week would mean that all of the world's biggest gaming announcements were going to happen! This week we’ve got new details on Grand Theft Auto 6, a new Legend of Zelda live action movie announced by Nintendo themselves, Against the Storm, Caves of Qud, and more info from Blizzcon than you can shake a stick at!
Grand Theft Auto 6 Trailer Arriving in December - Article by IGN
Grand Theft Auto 6: All the news we’ve heard about Rockstar’s next game - Article by Polygon
Nintendo announces a live-action film based on its hit video game 'The Legend of Zelda' - Article by Eurogamer
Against the Storm - A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors. - Eremite Games (Steam, available now)
Caves of Qud - Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Come inhabit an exotic world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. - Freehold Games (Steam, available now in Early Access)
Blizzcon 2023
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred will introduce a never-before-seen class to the Diablo franchise. It takes place in Hahantu, an area from Diablo 2, and continues Mephisto’s story.
Vessel of Hatred is poised to launch Fall 2024
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHuaCwmx-Rg
Overwatch 2: Blizzard announced a new hero Mauga who is the first Samoan hero to debut in Overwatch!
Mauga features a kit that is designed to bash through the front lines and brawl his opponents in close-quarter combat, by wielding two powerful Chainguns that can either be fired individually or in unison. Ignite enemies with his Incendiary Chaingun “Gunny” to burn them when they take enough damage, then finish them with a critical hit from his Volatile Chaingun “Cha-Cha.” Paired with his Berserker Passive, which grants Mauga temporary health whenever he deals critical damage, he’s a mountain on the battlefield.
Mauga’s not just a leading star—he also brings a host of new abilities to support his team as well. Mauga can break his way through the front lines with Overrun, a charging ability that cannot be stopped by any crowd control abilities, and stomps into opponents dealing a powerful knockback. When the fight gets intense for his team, he has Cardiac Overdrive to engage both of his hearts and create an aura that reduces incoming damage, allowing allies to heal themselves while dealing damage.
Finally, when he really wants to tango up close with his foes, Mauga can unleash Cage Fight, his ultimate ability. Cage Fight traps nearby opponents in a cylindrical fighting ring. This barrier blocks enemy incoming damage or healing from the outside, forcing those trapped inside to face Mauga with Gunny, Cha Cha, and the barrage of infinite ammunition. If you can’t take him down quickly, the last thing you might see is his charming smile.
Mauga will officially become available to play at the start of season 8 which starts 12/5/2023
Mauga Origin Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCLjZDkpBoY
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQfRHycUsmQ
Hearthstone: Showdown in the Badlands: Deep in the heart of the Badlands, the Bloodrock Mining Company has struck gold! Or, rather, something even better: Azerite. Now they’re double-timing their mining, bleeding the land dry and putting everyone in the Badlands at risk. Mysterious heroes came on horseback to set the town right, but the corrupt Sheriff Barrelbrim’s stubborn as his hat is tall. It’s high time for high noon in this Showdown in the Badlands!
New keyword “Quickdraw” - In the Badlands, being quick on the draw might just save your hide. Cards with the Quickdraw keyword get a special effect on the turn they are added to your hand. Shoot cards off as soon as you draw them, or plan around your Quickdraws with bounce and generation effects!
New keyword “Excavate” - There’s treasure in them there hills! Cards with the Excavate keyword get your treasures from the Azerite mine. Each time you Excavate, you dig deeper and find rarer treasures!
Sketchy Townsfolk - The entire town is digging deeper and deeper into the mines, looking for Azerite treasures. Townsfolk classes have extra Excavate synergies and a unique reward for their Excavations! The corrupt Sheriff Barrelbrim’s behind the operation, and he doesn’t care what damage they do to the Badlands... or what they might awaken.
Heroic Outlaws - Sometimes, it takes an outlaw’s intervention for folks to start straight-shootin'. Some classes brought an outlaw to the Showdown in the Badlands. These lone gunslingers have extra effects if there are no duplicates in your deck. So, what do you say, are you feeling lucky?
Hearthstone: Showdown in the Badlands is available to play on 11/14/2023
Hearthstone What’s Next Panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcyDB4pBTHQ
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5___jYm6vs
Warcraft Rumble: Warcraft® Rumble™ is a mobile action strategy game set within the Warcraft universe where collectible Minis come to life to battle in frantic melee skirmishes. Play in multiple modes, including the single player campaign, going head-to-head in epic PvP battles, and more. Experience the true meaning of joyful chaos!
Deploy: Use gold reserves to deploy your Minis strategically on the battlefield. Gain additional gold passively over time, by mining, or finding treasure chests.
Capture: Capture objectives like Guard Towers and Meeting Stones, then use them to deploy your Minis closer to the objective. Controlling the map is key to victory!
Strategize: Different Mini abilities give you an advantage in combat. Flying troops are strong against melee troops. Siege troops deal additional damage to Guard Towers, and so on. Master your Minis’ abilities to succeed and learn Talents to make them even more powerful!
Conquer: Your Minis will march towards enemy Leaders and attempt to take them down. Support your deployed Troops with powerful Spells and direct them to victory.
There are 5 factions: Alliance, Horde, Beast, Blackrock, and Undead. Control heroes from Warcraft lore like Tirion Fordring, Grommash Hellscream, Hogger, General Drakkisath, and Baron Rivendare!
Blizzard has also made the 3D blueprints available for all their Mini avatars for free, so you can 3D print them for just the cost of 3D printing supplies!
Warcraft Rumble is available to play now on Android and iOS!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgOreJl6BJQ
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery: Those hoping for a Classic+ are seemingly getting what they’ve asked for! The announcement of Season of Discovery for WoW Classic!
In Season of Discovery, players will discover new secrets by scouring Azeroth to find class-altering abilities. Tanking Warlocks, Mage healers, and more will be possible. The Season will launch with an initial level cap of 25, and upon reaching max level, players will be met with a new level-25 endgame! Discover a 10-player Blackfathom Deeps raid with new and reimagined bosses, mechanics, and rewards. Not long after, the level cap will be increased by a few levels, bringing even more endgame content.
As players progress through Season of Discovery, they will find class-altering abilities in the form of Runes. These runes will alter spells, or grant new abilities that allow classes to do things they haven’t before, or to augment their current abilities and spells to do something entirely different! This even includes Runes that are inspired by later expansions, granting classes abilities that have never been seen in earlier iterations of World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Discovery will launch 11/30/23
WoW Classic: What’s Next Panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1rcs9mmf-s&t=1998s
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic: It’s the Cataclysm all over again…But different, but same. Same but different. If Classic Wrath of the Lich King is any indicator, Cataclysm might have a bright future ahead of it! Cataclysm Classic comes with an improved leveling experience, a new dungeon difficulty, account-wide pets and transmogs, a streamlined auction house, and a level cap of 85!
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic will launch on or before 8/21/2024
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XT7Q9Am8yM
World of Warcraft: The Worldsoul Saga: Chris Metzen delighted fans of World of Warcraft with an announcement of not ONE, but THREE new expansions for the retail version of World of Warcraft! Starting with the subterranean expansion The War Within, which takes us deeper into Azeroth than ever before! This expansion includes new zones Azj-kahet, Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, and Hallowfall, new dungeons, raids, a new battleground, and a new Allied race playable to both the Alliance and the Horde: The Earthen Dwarves. Along with the new zones to explore, it also comes with all new Hero Talents, which is a separate talent system, and a new treasure hunting activity called Delves, which can be played both solo and with a group to acquire new items and gear. Similar to dungeons, Delves will often contain formidable foes, but unlike dungeons, they will also contain puzzles of varying difficulty, and possibly more that has not been announced. And to wrap it all up, a new feature known as War Bands has also been announced. War Bands share a bank, reputation gains and more!
The Worldsoul Saga also has 2 additional expansions titled Midnight, and The Last Titan respectively. Not much was announced about these two expansions, other than the World of Warcraft team is dedicated to bringing out all 3 of these expansions in a much quicker cadence than we’ve seen expansion launches in the past. This isn’t too surprising though, as Final Fantasy 14 has done this in the past, and if Blizzard is good at anything, it’s copying good ideas.
The War Within expansion will launch on or before 12/31/2024
The War Within Features Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSvLkzRt9fc
The War Within: What’s next Panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMDQzaRsVqc
The War Within Deep Dive Panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqZ7LSGjSU
