Plus: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire hits closed beta, The Surge goes for A Walk in the Park, and a gaming chair that cools your butt. This is gaming news for November 13 to 17
This is gaming news for November 13 to 17.
But first up, our recap of this weekend’s free games. We’ve got two free-to-try titles this weekend, with both available for steep discounts if you wind up enjoying the games. For strategy fans it’s Endless Space 2, launched earlier this year and updated with new diplomatic options this week. It’s free through November 20. PCWorld’s Endless Space 2 review liked the game a lot.
Those looking for something a bit louder can play Rainbow Six Siege, coming up on its second anniversary and still one of the best shooters this generation. Caveat: It requires Uplay, as usual, though you can still snag the game through Steam.
In this case it’s the British Isles around 878 AD, focusing on the immediate aftermath of the Viking invasion, particularly the resistance led by Alfred the Great, King of Wessex.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire reached a new milestone this week, officially entering closed beta to those who backed high enough during the Kickstarter campaign. If that’s you, have fun. If not, well, you can watch the video below to get a look at combat, ships, and…well, mostly combat. Let’s go ahead and throw this on our “Most Anticipated” list for 2018.
Speaking of isometric CRPGs, a rumor started this week that Beamdog was working on a Planescape sequel of sorts. If you can’t guess what happened next: Those rumors were summarily shut down. Maybe one day, though. Sounds like the idea’s at least been floated.
Marvel Heroes, the action-RPG MMO that contained basically every Marvel hero ever, got end-of-lifed this week. That comes less than a year after a massive game-overhauling update, so I guess those improvements didn’t stick or at least didn’t bring the audience back. It sounds like the game will be active through the end of the year, so you’ve got a bit more time to revisit it before the plug’s pulled.
The kicker: The blast of anger now has both Belgium and the Netherlands investigating whether loot boxes qualify as gambling. Eurogamer has a pretty good summary of the situation, courtesy of reports from NU.nl and VTM .
Spoiler: Star Wars: Battlefront II isn’t very good.
This is less “Gaming” and more “Games Adjacent,” but Thermaltake unveiled its new desk chair this week, the X Comfort Air. The gimmick: It has four fans embedded in the seat which are supposed to cool off your butt. Wonder what happens when you fart into it.
