This is your gaming news for the week of July 11 - 15.
This week in games: Overwatch shows off its first new character, Total Warhammer shows off its first new faction, and Valve shows its first interest in cracking down on CSGO’s shady betting scene.
Oh, and Hillary Clinton makes a bad pun about Pokemon Go. This is gaming news for the week of July 11 - 15.
Humble again
It’s been a long time since a Humble Bundle properly impressed me, but this one’s got my number: Pay what you want for Disco Dodgeball, Nidhogg, and Choice Chamber. Pay above the average for Golf With Your Friends, Skullgirls, Roguelands, and Spelunky. Pay more than $15 for all that plus Rocket League.
Okay, I mostly am recommending this bundle because of Rocket League. But hey, some of the other games are great too.
Healing headshots
Despite evidence to the contrary, it appears Overwatch’s first post-launch character is not named “Sombra.” Instead, it’s Ana Amari, a.k.a. Pharah’s mother. Other than that small detail, the speculation was remarkably on-point—she’s a support sniper. What does that mean? Well, if she headshots an enemy they die. If she headshots an ally, they’re healed. Weird.
Check out the introductory trailer below, or go ahead and give her a try on the Public Test Region.
In unrelated Overwatch news, Blizzard’s changing up Competitive Mode so you can only have one of each hero per team. (You can still put together your all-Winston or all-Mercy joke games in Quick Play, of course.)
Yells at clouds
Old Man’s Journey looks very pretty. Other than that, I have no idea what this game is. But I’ve watched the trailer three times so far because of the art.
Altered beasts
If you’ve already played and completed all five of the campaigns in Total War: Warhammer, well, congrats—you are very dedicated. Need a sixth campaign? Creative Assembly’s bringing the Beastmen to the game on July 28 for a whopping $20. Hopefully it’s a good ‘un for that price.
Shelter from the storm
Maybe you’re such a dedicated PC gamer you don’t even bother touching games on your phone. If that’s the case, you might be interested to know Bethesda’s Fallout Shelter launched on PC this week. The bad news: You’ll need to download Bethesda’s launcher to play it. This Tweet can help:
Get ready to put that computer to more use. #FalloutShelter is available on PC! Download: https://t.co/wZnrqW0dJz pic.twitter.com/c4W6kx9dBC
— Bethesda Softworks (@bethesda) July 14, 2016
Okay, if a grindy mobile game sounds boring you can just wait until the next Fallout 4 DLC arrives—it’s the Build-Your-Own-Vault pack (subtitled Vault-Tec Workshop) and it’s coming on July 26.
System shocked
Hey, that System Shock Kickstarter achieved its $900,000 goal already. Shocking, I know. You’ve got until July 28 to fund it, if you’re interested. Or just check out the demo.
Arma 3.5
“I like Arma 3, but it’s just too small.” These are words nobody has ever said. And yet in spite of that, Arma 3’s getting a big ol’ expansion this week—Apex, which brings along new weapons, new vehicles, and oh yeah a luscious jungle map that measures 100 square kilometers.
One man’s sky
“What do you actually do in No Man’s Sky?” It’s a question that’s plagued man since the dawn of time, and one we may never be able to answer. Or I guess you could watch this trailer:
Skin off my nose
The past few weeks have been interesting for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (okay, let’s just call it CSGO) community. To recap: For a while now there have been sites that allowed players to gamble on CSGO matches with in-game skins/crates/whatever. These items technically have no real-world value, but thanks to the Steam Workshop they sort-of-kind-of-actually do. See also: ISK in EVE Online.
These sites existed in a legal grey area at best, but everyone seemed content to ignore them—until it all blew up. Popular streamers owning sites without disclosing, streamers being bankrolled by the sites in order to drum up interest in gambling, streamers being given insider information on rigged matches and oh wow grab the popcorn.
The upshot: Valve and Twitch have both officially seized control of the situation this week. Valve issued a statement that in so many words says “Hey, probably get your skins out of these betting sites because we’re shutting them down” and Twitch followed suit with “Well if Valve says this is bad then I guess we’ll say it’s bad too.” No more gambling streams. No more gambling sites. And it only took a couple years for this to happen.
Ugh
Oh and while we’re at it: Rocket League is adding crates as microtransactions. But sans Steam Marketplace integration, so hopefully no grey-market betting rings spring up. I can’t say I’m a fan of the idea, but Psyonix claims it’ll use the money for prize pools, which seems less objectionable.
Presented without comment
Clinton jokes about Pokemon Go: “I’m trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokemon Go to the polls.” https://t.co/7VYm07wKMg
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 14, 2016
Interest > Zero
This Event[0] game looks pretty interesting.
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