Blizzard Adding More Special Skins To Regular Overwatch Loot Boxes

Today during the Overwatch “What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that from now on, it’ll add more event-style skins to regular, non-event loot boxes. For the past year, the majority of new skins have only been available during timed events, after which they went back into a vault inside Jeff Kaplan’s terror palace. During…

This Week’s Giza Pyramid Discovery Was Already Built Into Assassin’s Creed Origins

Earlier this week, news broke that scientists had discovered a previously undetected open space in Egypt’s 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza. The new Egypt-set adventure game Assassin’s Creed Origins actually won’t need an update adding the chamber, because as the game’s creators explained to me, they already thought to put one in. In Origins, you…

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

The weekend is for really meaning to make your house look nice before your sister comes to visit but knowing you probably won’t. But since she has four kids, your house will still look like less of a disaster than hers does. Also, video games. Last night I started Wolfenstein 2 again so I could…

World of Warcraft Will Expand Legion’s Leveling System Across The Whole Game

If you try to level a new WoW character, you’re basically asking for mad deja vu. Ahead of the release of a new expansion, Blizzard is gonna let players change things up. A lot. During the World of Warcraft “What’s Next” panel at BlizzCon, game director Ion Hazzikostas announced that level scaling—which was introduced as…

Blizzard Unveiled Moira, Overwatch’s New Hero, With Cosplay

Like they did with Doomfist, Blizzard used the announcement of a new Overwatch hero today to indulge in a little company-sponsored cosplay. And like they did with Doomfist, they commissioned the excellent Henchmen Studios to do the building. Libby Ives is doing the actual cosplay, while Mineralbluwas there to take some shots (and video) for…

What Twitch’s New Raiding System Means For Streamers

Twitch’s latest update introduces a tool that lets a streamer instantly transport their viewers to somebody else’s channel. Known as “raiding,” this has been used in the past to harass people. Now that Twitch is making raids an official part of the platform, however, some streamers think the new feature will make it easier to…

Despite Controversy, Counter-Strike Gambling Guy Still Officially Repping Call Of Duty

Trevor “TMartn” Martin, best known for violating FTC regulations by aggressively promoting a Counter-Strike skin gambling site that he didn’t say he owned, has returned to the spotlight alongside today’s release of Call of Duty: WWII—helping publisher Activision market the new game and raise money for veterans. The Race to Prestigeis a long-standing around-the-clock fundraiser…

Overwatch’s D.Va gets her own set of gaming gear. Razer’s decked out its Abyssus Elite gaming mouse and Goliathus mouse mat in pink, blue and black, and created a new MEKA gaming headset to bring it all together. Themouse and pad are available now, with the headset coming later this year.

The Pokémon Show Introduced A Generation To Anime

Next week, the Pokémon anime will air its 1000th episode. The show and game are still capturing the hearts of children around the world, just like they captured mine 20 years ago. When I was eight years old, every day I’d hurry home as fast as possible to catch Pokémon on TV. I didn’t have…

Cuphead Developers Talk Cut Bosses And What’s In The Cups

Designing a game that manages to be both tough and fun is a difficult task, but Cuphead designers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, along with the rest of StudioMDHR, managed to pull it off. I spoke with the two brothers over the phone to learn about boss design, cut concepts, and life after a successful indie…

Call Of Duty: WWII‘s HQ Lets You Socialize, Duel, And… Play Pitfall

I was skeptical about Headquarters before I got my copy of Call of Duty: WWII, but after spending some time in the new social space, it seems like a well-thought out place to kill some time, get some loot, and play some Atari 2600. With today’s release of the latest Call of Duty, developer Sledgehammer…

World Of Warcraft‘s Next Expansion Is Battle For Azeroth

During today’s Blizzcon 2017 keynote, Blizzard announced Battle for Azeroth, the seventh expansion pack for World of Warcraft, rekindling the war between the Alliance and Horde. Now that the Horde and Alliance are finished teaming up against the demon invasion, it’s time to get back to the conflict at the heart of World of Warcraft.…

Blizzard Announces World of Warcraft Classic

Move over, Nostalrius—Blizzard is making its own classic servers for World of Warcraft, called World of Warcraft Classic “We’re committed to making an authentic, Blizzard-quality classic experience,” Blizzard said today during its Blizzcon keynote, promising that these new classic servers will take some time before they’re ready. So, uh, be patient. Fans had been asking…

Overwatch Gets A New Hero: Moira, A Support Healer

Overwatch is getting a new hero and she looks rad as hell. Moira is a powerful support healer that mixes DPS and healing. A geneticist working for the nefarious organization Talon with additional ties to the Overwatch’s spec ops group Blackwatch, Moira (full name Moira O’Deorain) mixes high mobility with support skills. In a trailer shown…

Overwatch‘s Next Map Is Blizzard World, A Tribute To Blizzard Games

Overwatch’s newest upcoming map is a crazy theme park full of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Starcraft and other Blizzard games’ lore. So Blizzard can advertise its other games to you while you’re playing Overwatch. Yay! Blizzard World will be part assault and part payload and released early next year. This is almost certainly the “Yo…

Soon, There Will Be Hanzo Mains In Heroes Of The Storm

Sick of all those Hanzo mains wrecking your Overwatch competitive ranking? Well, now you can’t dodge them in Heroes of the Storm. A new breed of Hanzo main is about to emerge. At BlizzCon today, HOTS’ senior producer Kaeo Milker announced that Overwatch’s Hanzo is coming to the MOBA in December, joining the half dozen…

StarCraft II Is Going Free-To-Play

StarCraft II is going free-to-play, Blizzard announced today during the BlizzCon 2017 keynote. On November 14, you’ll be able to download the Wings of Liberty campaign without paying a cent, getting access to both single- and multiplayer for free. If you already have Wings, you’ll get a free copy of the game’s first expansion, Heart…