The action RPG world rumbled when Grinding Gear Games announced Path of Exile 2 during the opening ceremony of ExileCon 2019.

The Announcement And Updates On POE 2

Mere weeks after Blizzard’s showcase of Diablo 4, Chris Wilson and a few other top-level GGG employees walked on stage, announced Path of Exile 2 and played the in-development product in front of the crowd. The people in the venue, Twitch chat, even Reddit, were all floored at the incredible edition and reinvention.

This huge expansion would introduce to one of the best ARPGs out there: two campaigns, one overhauled game. Even Chris couldn’t believe the reception.

The rest of ExileCon 2019 went swimmingly. Various developers spoke about their unique philosophy and development process while working on Path of Exile. The best racers in the scene competed to kill Act 5 Kitava’s first and ExileCon 2019 ended.

From November 2019 to April 2021, GGG remained silent on POE 2’s progress, continuing to release consistent expansions to Path of Exile 1.

Suddenly, in April 2021, GGG spoke out with an update on Path of Exile 2 and showcased portions of the new campaign’s second act, a desert area. Again, it looked fantastic. You can see the updated animations, the breathtaking terrain, two new weapons, the crossbow, the spear, boss, health bars, and so on. And community response to the content on display has also been very positive.

However, all POE 2 information went dark once again after this showcase. We waited for an update, but none occurred. We continued to wait and wait until in August 2022, GGG unveiled they’d be fully elaborating on Path of Exile 2 during ExileCon in 2023, which would be held on July 29th and 30th in Auckland, New Zealand.

Also Read: My Fastest Way To Farm Blight Maps In POE 3.21

The Numerous POE 1 Expansions

Since then, we’ve heard absolutely nothing about Path of Exile 2. In fact, nothing truly new has been unveiled since the Act 2 showcase in April 2021 more than two years ago.

So, what’s the deal? For those who don’t know Path of Exile’s developers Grinding Gear Games (also known as GGG) well, you may think they’re hiding something, something negative. Likely, that’s wrong. Instead, GGG is traveling a path untraveled by many game developers. These days, they’re working, waiting, and staying silent on the Path of Exile 2 product. This way they can focus on delivering and surprising their audience they have in the past.

All the while, they’ve been dropping decent sized expansions to Path of Exile 1. Since announcing Path of Exile 2 called the 4.0 expansion by some in the community as it’s going to be a massive addition and overhaul to the main game, GGG has introduced the following 13 expansions to Path of Exile.

Please do note, every single update also includes other minor but meaningful content, such as balance changes, new unique items, new skill gems, engine improvements, divination cards, new models, updated graphics, and more. These are only the highlights.

3.9 Conquerors of the Atlas in December 2019 was the introduction of a new endgame system, involving Sirus and the Conquerors of the Atlas, multiple different crafting tools and the metamorph build a boss mechanic. It also introduced Awakened Support Gems and new bow skills.

3.10 Delirium in March 2020 added the Delirium mechanic, which changed mapping forever and let us use cluster jewels on our passive skill tree to make our own passive skill trees.

3.11 Harvest in June 2020 gave us one of the most powerful and deterministic crafting systems in Path of Exile. That still exists in the game to this day although being in a nerfed state.

3.12 Heist in September 2020 rolled out a brand new chunk of endgame in the form of Heist, allowing us to discover new forms of every single gem in the game, old and new loot, brand new item bases and upgrade a host of rogues in an endless experience similar to delving and mapping.

3.13 Echoes of the Atlas in January 2021 presented players with the maven endgame fight and the idea of capturing bosses then fighting them all at once in a Grand Arena, The Maven’s Crucible. Plus, it added the Atlas Passive Skill Tree, allowing us Exiles to customize our endgame experience to our liking, unlike any other game out there. Plus, there is Ritual, a new way to barter and earn items while killing monsters.

3.14 Ultimatum in April 2021 surprised us with an amazing risk reward mechanic overseen by the wickedly sly Trialmaster and added multiple new powerful gems to the game like Reap, Exsanguinate, Petrified Blood and Corrupting Fever. All are used to this day in a variety of builds.

3.15 Expedition in July 2021 dropped in a gripping new narrative a brand new content system called Expedition and heavily reworked numerous pieces of character power. The changes are still controversial to this day.

3.16 Scourge in October 2021 summoned forth The Scourge faction and allowed us to clear our areas a second time. But the second run was in a literal hellscape. The league also heightened the skill ceiling with new forms of Uber content for Blight, Legion, Breach and Delirium.

3.17 Siege of the Atlas in February 2022 brought forth another huge improvement to Path of Exile’s mapping system and gave us four new Pinnacle Bosses. It also added Eldritch Currency to the game, which let players of all types craft in their gear. Plus, it began the revamp of rare monsters with the introduction of Archnemesis.

3.18 Sentinel in May 2022 added new ways to buff monsters using Sentinels, completely reworked rare monsters has just alluded to before, added seven Uber versions of bosses to the game and let us play with recombination a new crafting system that smashed items together to create something new but familiar.

3.19 Lake of Kalandra, in August 2022, introduced a new map building mechanic to the game, allowing us to enter the Lake of Kalandra and make powerful rings and amulets. It also further reworked where monsters completely changed the Beyond mechanic, replaced the old monsters with the Scourge, rebalanced hundreds of unique items, swapped the value of Divine Orbs and Exalted Orbs and changed around Harvest Crafting.

3.20 The Forbidden Sanctum in December 2022 launched a roguelike dungeon into Path of Exile, added one of the first character power enhancing account bound items into the game, further reworked rare monsters and walked back on the term Archnemesis, massively buffed a set of end game unique weapons, retooled jewels, ailments and a few other systems and added Ruthless a new game mode for Path of Exile with extreme item scarcity and numerous reworked or removed mechanics.

Finally, we’ve reached the present. 3.21 Crucible in April 2023 added the Crucible weapon combining mechanic to the game, reworked two former large mechanics Breach and Abyss, did a pass on passive skill tree masteries and completely changed up to ascendancies - the Pathfinder for the Ranger, and the Saboteur for the Shadow.

Those are the 13 major expansions to Path of Exile 1 since Path of Exile 2’s announcement at the end of patch 3.8 Blight in November 2019.

Why GGG Is Staying Quiet?

Although GGG has been almost entirely silent about Path of Exile 2, they cannot stop talking about an updating Path of Exile 1 because they are the same game folks.

Path of Exile 2 is a giant expansion to Path of Exile 1. Both campaigns will lead to the same endgame. All this work they’re doing and all this great content they’re adding and iterating on will probably be in Path of Exile 2 in some form.

Us Exiles will be able to slay the Maven as a werewolf. We’ll be able to zoom through maps with a crossbow shouting about bolts. We’ll have boss bars for our favorite foes, from Sirus to the Eater of Worlds. And we will progress through the core campaign battling Merville, Dominus, Kitava and more with the updated gem system.

So, why the silence on the Path of Exile 2 from GGG they’d rather show? It’s a meme in the Path of Exile Community to answer every problem minor or massive with the line: POE 2 will fix it.

GGG stated during their initial and second announcement that Path of Exile 2 will indeed solve some things problems with this skill gem system, poor animations, outdated graphics, outdated design and numerous other areas of the game. But they’ve backed up those statements with evidence and ideas. We know how they’re seeking to improve their game. Because when they’re asked and choose to answer, their answers are concrete about Path of Exile 2 and frank about Path of Exile 1. They’re adding and experimenting in Path of Exile 1 while developing and iterating Path of Exile 2.

Otherwise, they’re silent. They don’t want to talk boldly about Path of Exile 2. They want to show us how they’re going to make an amazing expansion and overhaul to Path of Exile. They take the “when it’s ready” line very seriously when it comes to Path of Exile 2 and we’re going to witness that firsthand on July 29th of this year as we did in April 2021 and November 2019.

When Chris Wilson walks out on stage at ExileCon 2023, he may be passionate, tearful even, but he will be confident in the game. He’s about to showcase to the world as he was at ExileCon in 2019. He believes in his team of developers. Grinding Gear Games is putting in the time and effort to ensure Path of Exile 2 will outlast the competition of new and old.

As many of us begin to reach closer to level 30 on our battle passes, I wanted to review and analyze which light cones are the ones you should consider adding to your lineup and which are not worth taking for now.

There are a total of seven different Light Cones to choose from. Each corresponds to a path in the game, so no matter what characters you have, you should be able to get value out of one of these. Each Light Cone will be timestamped. So, if there’s a certain one you wanted my insight on, feel free to skip to that portion, and the order they are covered does not have anything to do with their usefulness.

Since this will be our first battle pass, I will be reviewing each light code at their superimposition level one just to make things simpler.

Carve The Moon, Weave The Clouds

We will begin with our first Light Cone, Carved The moon, Weave The Clouds for their Harmony, which states at the start of the battle and whenever the wearish turn begins.

One of the following effects is applied randomly. All allies’ attack increases by 10%. All allies’ critical damage increases by 12% or all allies’ energy regeneration rate increases by 6%. The applied effect cannot be identical to the last effect applied and will replace the previous effect.

The applied effect will be removed when the wearer has been knocked down. Effects of the similar type cannot be stacked. This Light Cone has a lot of useful buffs. However, the biggest issue with it is just the lack of consistent support. The best support here being the critical damage and having a 1/2 chance of appearing can be a real coin toss and in the best-case scenario, it would only have 50% uptime, but realistically more close to 33%.

When compared to the consistency of Chorus or Dance! Dance! Dance!, and Planetary Rendezvous, even with the type restriction, it is a hard Light Cone to sell even more so since it doesn’t really boost any of our three main harmony units or change their play styles.

It’s not awful and can be great for damaged showcases if all situations line up, but I wouldn’t recommend it since I like consistency.

Related: Honkai Star Rail: All Details On Combat & Characters - Beginners Friendly Guide

Return To Darkness

Next, we Return to Darkness for the Hunt, which increases the wearer’s crit rate by 12%.

After a critical hit, there is a 16% fixed chance to dispel one buff on the targeted enemy. This effect can only trigger once per attack. Another RNG Light Cone, however I’m a bit more favorable for this one as it does have a consistent boost to a critical rate and a high amount at that.

My only issue here is the chance of this proccing can be annoying, but the spell is not something to take lightly and just that utility alone can make some fights a lot more manageable, such as the fight against the Searing Prowler and Forgotten Hall Stage 12.

Don’t worry, more enemies like this will appear in the future, as well. If you have no plans on building Pella, who is your main source for dispel, this might be a decent pickup even if you don’t run it 100% of the time, just for the small times you may need it.

Nowhere to Run

Next up, we got Nowhere to Run for the Destruction, which increases the wearer’s attack by 24%.

Whenever the wearer defeats an enemy, they restore health equal to 12% of their attack. While not as good as Something Irreplaceable, this could make a good substitute for anyone wanting to throw this on their Clara.

Arlan and Trailblazer Physical can use this, as well. But I think On the Fall of an Aeon works better for them and it’s also free to play.

The only issue with this Light Cone is situations where some other character steals to kill when you needed it to heal. But outside of that, it’s pretty solid and might be useful for some nasty Clara solo.

This Is Me

We are now on to This Is Me for the Preservation, which increases the wearer’s defense by 16%. It also increases the damage of the wearer when they use their ultimate by 60% of the wearer’s defense.

This effect only applies one time per enemy target. This is probably the most optimal Light Cone for Trailblazer Preservation for a good mixture of damage and defense and will help great against fights, such as Cocolia when she spawns her Ice Spears.

Also, I feel like this isn’t my first time mentioning this funky March 7th setup. But for a few of you looking to push her into some weird counter DPS, this is another Light Cone to help push that narrative.

Today Is Another Peaceful Day

Next up, we have Today Is Another Peaceful Day for the Erudition.

After entering battle, it increases the wearer’s damage based on their max energy. Damage increases by 0.2% per point of energy up to 160 energy.

To make this a bit easier to understand, every multiple of 10 is 2%, so a unit with 120 like Himiko will gain 24%, which honestly isn’t bad. However, when compared to the free to play option, The Seriousness of Breakfast, which is super easy to superimposition due to it being free to play, becomes much harder for this to become a worthwhile pick, not to mention on some units like Serval. It’s not good at all and it is not something really worth recommending at the moment.

We Will Meet Again

Second to last, we have We Will Meet Again for the Nihility.

After the wearer uses basic attack or skill, the wearer deals 48% of attack as additional damage to a random enemy that is attacked by abilities. This one is a kind of funky. It doesn’t offer any real boost to your base stats.

However, you get additional damage based on attack on a more support debuffing unit, making it very weird to use. Not to mention, our current Nihility units aren’t the biggest damage dealers, with raw attack numbers being average at best, such as with Welt. Not really something I can say is worthwhile, but maybe someone in the future can make great use out of this.

Warmth Shortens Cold Nights

Lastly, we have Warmth Shortens Cold Nights for the Abundance, which increases the wearer’s maximum health by 16%. When using basic attack or skill, it restores all allies’ health by an amount equal to two percent of their respected maximum health.

In the previous time, I’ve mentioned this Light Cone as being a very good option. Unfortunately, this has not changed and I think it’s great for people who want to do auto battle since I am sure people have noticed by now healers suck on auto battle since they will take until the lowest amount of health before they even consider healing you, which can result in your death.

Outside of that, I don’t think this is too great to pick up since Abundance is one of the rare paths with almost too many good options in their Light Cone choices. Only pick this up if you’re looking to use it for auto battle just for a quick.

By the way, if you want to have the Light Cones or chacracters with five stars, geting Honkai Star Rail Accounts will be a good choice!

No doubt you guys have heard of Elder Scrolls Online at some point. Maybe you gave it a try back in the day and you’re probably sitting there wondering why is this game still so popular even to this day? 

If you haven’t tried it, maybe you’re sitting there thinking: what makes this game special? Why do people play this instead of playing World of WarCraft, Final Fantasy, Guild Wars or another MMO? Let’s go over the several points that differentiate ESO as an MMO and what makes the game just so good.

1. Rich Lore

If you’ve ever played an Elder Scrolls game, whether it’s Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, it doesn’t matter. You know that the Elder Scrolls Universe has a massive amount of lore going on for it. Each race, location, deity and hero has these extensive backstories behind them and Elder Scrolls Online is no different.

This game has a massive amount of rich and extensive lore. That’s been built up over the course of the game’s lifetime and of course this lore draws from the previous Elder Scrolls games, taking inspiration, but it also has introduced a ton of new stories, characters, and locations to the Elder Scrolls Universe.

One of the main reasons why people play this game so much is because it is so story driven because of the lore of Elder Scrolls Online. And if you’ve never given gaming lore a chance, Elder Scrolls is a great place to start, whether it’s this game or the single player games.

2. Level Scaling 

This is something that’s either you love it or you hate it when it comes to MMORPGs. But Elder Scrolls Online uses a level scaling system instead of a traditional MMO, where you level up a character, you ultimately out level zones and you sort of end up at the end of things in a select couple of zones that are the max level areas.

Elder Scrolls Online doesn’t do this. Instead, they have a level scaling system that allows their players to explore any part of the game world regardless of their level and it keeps every corner of the game relevant. This means that you can always find a challenge regardless of where you are in the game. 

If you’re a completionist or an explorer or whatever, this game is definitely right up your alley because it keeps things interesting with its scaling technology. Not everybody is a fan of horizontal progression, but in regard to the world, ESO does it very well.

3. Massive World

If you’ve ever played a previous Elder Scrolls title, you know that this is the kind of game that goes out of its way to be big and detailed and Elder Scrolls Online is no different.

The game world of ESO is massive, and players are free to explore it at their own pace. There are no level requirements for the zones either because of the scaling, so players can explore wherever they want. If you’re somebody that you want to quest and level up in Morrowind because that was your favorite game in the Elder Scrolls series, go over there and explore it or go to some of these regions where Bethesda hasn’t made a single player version of The Elder Scrolls at yet.

It’s completely up to you wherever you go. Across these zones, you’ll find everything from dragons attacking some areas to Oblivion Gates opening in others...... There're tons of stuff to find in each zone. Each zone has its own unique personality. It’s a world worth exploring. 

4. Player Choice 

Elder Scrolls is not a game where you just choose a class, level up the class and you’re stuck in that particular play style.

When it comes to ESO, you can play this game however you want. In Elder Scrolls Online, if you want to be an Argonian Thief, who wears heavy armor or who runs around healing people while also poisoning them with your daggers, you can do that. If you want to be a Necromancer who uses a bow and poisoned arrows, you can do that, too. 

You really can create whatever character you want in Elder Scrolls Online, which can lead to a little of a learning curve. But as you go through the game and as you gather points from leveling up or discovering Skyshards, you can spend them however you want in your skill trees that you unlock as you play the game. It makes the replayability of this game really good.

It also is cool because you’ll probably get to max before even exploring a fourth of all the zones in this game. So, going and checking out new zones and trying out new builds and new styles of playing your character. It’s awesome. 

5. Player Housing 

Player housing is a thing in Elder Scrolls Online and it is very expansive and it is very immersive. In this game, you can purchase tiny houses. You can purchase massive homes and with whatever your creativity desires. 

I’ve been in player homes that are completely vampire themed homes that are all like hunting with animal heads and stuff everywhere to even homes that are pretty much like entire castles that players have made within the giant landmass that you can purchase to customize your home on. It’s pretty wild how in-depth the player housing system is within ESO and I feel like I only scratched the surface of it despite my hundreds of hours in this game. 

6. No Subscription Required 

Unlike a lot of other MMOs, ESO does not require a monthly subscription, and the game is in no way paid to win.

When it comes to this game, if you play it, you can play it as much as you want or as little as you want without having to worry about any sort of recurring fee. 

The only thing really that you get from subscribing monthly to Elder Scrolls Online is you get points to spend in the Cosmetic Shop. You get an infinitely deep crafting bag, which some people would say it’s a little unfair. But it’s just a crafting bag. If you don’t care about crafting, it’s not a big deal. You also get access to all the content and all the expansions up to whatever the current expansion is whatever that might be. 

My first 100 hours in this game or so, I played completely for free with no subscription and I loved the game so much that I did ultimately subscribe to it. But it’s a hundred percent not necessary to progress in this game and to have a good time.

7. World PVP 

If you ever played Elder Scrolls Oblivion, you might remember Cyrodiil, a big landmass with the city in the center. 

In Elder Scrolls Online, the three factions are all fighting for control of that city. The massive scale world versus world combat in ESO, the moment that you try it, you’re going to get hooked to it: catapults and battering rams in all manner of fire and magic and fortresses...... It is wild that all of the this fortress besieging and stealing and whatever to claim the capital city right in the center of Cyrodiil and to claim an emperor for your faction.

Imagine a Classic World of WarCraft High Warlord or Grand Marshal. Because the emperor gets their own unique skill tree and abilities that they can use to dominate on the PVP Battlefield. It’s great. The world PVP in this game is so much fun.

8. Living World 

Something that I think a lot of RPG or immersive MMO gamer enthusiasts will enjoy about ESO is how interactable the world is and how immersive it can be.

In Elder Scrolls Online, if you’re walking along and you see a sword on the ground, you can pick it up. You see a potato, you can pick it. NPCs will lock the doors of their homes and you can break in. You can murder NPCs in this game. You can and get a bounty put on your head where guards will kill you on site unless you pay the fine.

If you are particular classes like a Necromancer and you were to use a Necromancer ability in the middle of town, people will freak out and try to attack you because you’re a freaking Necromancer. You’re raising the dead in the middle of the Town Square. 

So many people love this about ESO just how interactable the world is and how you can really play out whatever sort of fantasy that you want. Whether you’re a warrior, that’s going around and killing dragons to being some cutthroat rogue, who breaks into people’s homes and steals ESO Gold out of their treasure boxes, whoever you want to be, you can be that person.

Also Read: Elder Scrolls Online: The Unique Mechanics Of Arcanist Class Will Have A Big Impact On Game’s Resource System

9. Rewarding Exploration

Exploration is rewarded tremendously because Elder Scrolls Online is not a linear MMO. You can just kind of go wherever you want.

This is one of my favorite ways to play Elder Scrolls Online: just abandoning the quest that’s right in front of you and just wandering out into the world to see what you find.

As you explore, you’ll find more quests to take part in. You will find world bosses scattered throughout the world that you can fight. You can find delves, which are like these single player dungeons that you can go into. Fight the boss at the end and get an awesome piece of gear, possibly even a set piece of gear. There’s a ton of sets in Elder Scrolls Online that can all do unique things, like making your abilities poisonous, or you can summon like a Daedra. There are lots of stuff in this game in regard to sets.

You can find Skyshards out in the world, which you can collect to get more skill points. You can meet different guilds and factions. There’s a lot in Elder Scrolls Online in terms of exploration. It’s one of my favorite parts of the game.

10. Constant Updates 

Maybe a lot of you reading this article right now play World of WarCraft or Final Fantasy, which are some really large MMO today. And when you hear the term Elder Scrolls Online, you just think: it’s a dead game. It probably gets no content. Nobody really plays it...... 

You would be surprised to discover that a lot of people play this game. No matter where you go in the world, you’re going to be running into players. 

And in regard to the company behind the scenes making the content for this game, they are constantly pumping out updates whether they are new story chapters, dungeons, delves, zones, expansions, new ways to play the game like getting a follower introducing dragons and elsewhere. Whatever you want, these guys are just constantly pumping out new content into this world.

So, there’s always something to look forward to. Even right now in June, the newest Elder Scrolls Online expansion is coming out Necrom with a brand new class. Because the game has this constant steady stream of content, it does not get boring. And even when it does and you decide I’m going to take a break for a couple of months, when you come back, there’s always plenty more to do and plenty more to explore. 

EA Sports have lost the FIFA naming rights, which means it’s no longer going to be releasing FIFA 24. Instead, it is going to be EA Sports FC. So, in this article, we will discuss five new things that have already been confirmed for the new game.

1. There Will Still Be Women In Ultimate Team

*First, we do have women in Ultimate Team. This is something which caught absolutely everybody off guard, but we should have probably seen it coming. We have had the option for quite a while now in FIFA to play with them in kickoff. Also, we did see Sam Kerr on a FIFA cover. I heard the rumor a long time ago and now EA Sports has decided it is going to be happening in EA Sports FC.

So, we are probably going to be seeing both mixed men and women in Ultimate Team. I don’t see how we’re going to be having a separate mode just for women and men. It would be too much for EA Sports to handle, having to release promos new Team of the Week every single week, separately. I don’t see that happening. It’s definitely going to be in some way mixed in.

And, we have seen this tweet of course by Fut Sheriff leaking this and we do have EA Sports on their website, the EA Sports FC announcement page. We do have the UEFA Women’s Champions League that has been confirmed. We do also have the National Women’s Soccer League, which is the equivalent of the MLS. And we also have the Women’s Super League that is the equivalent of the Premier League. All of these are going to be coming.

Fut Sheriff is also confirmed that we’re going to be getting Women Icons and Marta Brazilian is a prediction. So, again, it will be interesting to see how it’s all going to be playing out.

2. Brand Promos

*Next, we do have brand promos in Ultimate Team. Adidas Numbers up was a promo we did see in FIFA 22. That was obvious with the Adidas brand. We have also seen collaboration with the Marvel brand in FIFA 23. Of course, we had Marvel FUT Heroes. And you can get them by using your FUT 23 Coins.

Vincent on Twitter has confirmed that we’re going to be seeing more of these and we do have many announcements already by different brands, for example Pepsi on Twitter. They did confirm that they are partners with EA Sports FC, so I feel like we could maybe see a Pepsi promo and I did make this a concept with Messi.

We could also see perhaps something with PlayStation. PlayStation did also tweet on other social media as well that EA Sports FC and sort of their partnership is going to be continuing. So, I do think that we’re going to be seeing something like this. What impresses me the most is the PlayStation Pack that appeared in FIFA 22. This was given out for free to all PlayStation Plus Members. So, I do think there is going to be a cross with more brands, for example Pepsi, PlayStation and even more brands that we haven’t even seen announcements from.

Also Read: FIFA 23: Best Tips For The Start Of TOTS Weekend League

3. Academy

*The next thing confirmed in EA Sports FC is for the Academy. Now it’s unclear whether this is going to be a separate mode or if this is going to be somehow integrated into objectives. Maybe it could just be a different tab on the objectives page, but this is essentially going to be allowing you to choose a player and then level him up. So, maybe this is going to be working just over time. Every single season, it just going to be upgrading automatically or maybe it could be you’re involved in the progression.

But it will be quite interesting to see how this is going to be working. It should be similar to Future Stars Academy, so it will be quite cool. Obviously, those objectives used to be very popular and I do think now it is going to have that sort of uniqueness. Everybody is going to be able to choose their own player and everyone’s going to have something different. It’s not just going to be everyone’s forced or if they want to participate, they are forced to have this one player. This is going to be quite cool.

Maybe they could also do something different with the Moments mode. I do think that was quite a waste this year. So, that’s going to be revamped if this is going to be involved with that somehow because that we did have a sort of Moments Tokens. Anyway, we’ll see more information from EA but FUT Academy is going to be an EA Sports FC.

4. New Icons

*Next, we do have new icons. This is something which we do see. Every single year, a few new players are added. And women this year in Ultimate Team will also get icons. There’s going to be more leaks and even more announcements, obviously for that.

But we do already have two new icons that have been confirmed. Fut Donk has said that they are in the code and also he mentioned them being in the trailer. I’m not too sure which trailer he is referring to. But Gento is going to be coming. I do believe he’s going to be Spanish. They have given him a left-wing position, and he does look quite decent.

We do also have Di Stefano. This is going to be a huge icon, which is very popular. And he is either going to be Spanish or Argentinian. We’re not too sure. I think maybe he played for both countries or something like that. But this has been going on for a while now. Everybody on Twitter is just debating which country he is going to be representing. Obviously, it’s only possible to represent one, but whichever one it is going to be, I do think Di Stefano should be a very solid icon.

One thing I want to mention here is that the Barcelona Stadium Camp now is going to be coming into EA Sports FC. But unfortunately, according to Fut Donk, this isn’t going to be happening. There were actually some rumors that this was going to be happening. There have been a lot of false rumors, including the Transfer Market being removed or things like that. Do not believe anything until you do see a reliable source and also confirmation from EA Sports.

5. Release Time For EA Sports FC

But the last thing which has been confirmed is the release date by Fut Sheriff. He has said that we are going to be getting EA Sports FC on September 29th and I do believe this is going to be the standard worldwide release date.

Usually, we see Ultimate Edition getting three days before that, so Ultimate Edition will potentially release on the 26th. And then, we do usually get Early Access or EA Play, which includes the 10 hours of the free trial. I mean, you don’t have to actually pay for it.

But there is going to be some sort of something similar to EA Play, but Fut Sheriff did say it’s going to be a little different this year. So, that’s going to be quite exciting and don’t forget: we are going to be seeing more official information from EA Sports in July.

What’s the point of doing damage if there’s nothing to kill?

I’ve been around gaming for way too long and the best groups always have somebody in a role when we’re trying to push harder content. We saw this in Diablo 3 even when it wasn’t really intentional by the designers, players still just figured it out. So, while everyone was worried about all the juicy info that Rhykker got from the dev talk and the service land weekend, I honed in on the subtle drop that supports are going to be required for Diablo 4 endgame.

Let us start with limited deaths and Nightmare Dungeons. The Sacred Nightmare Dungeons will have a death limit of 12. And the Ancestral Nightmare Dungeons will have a death limit of four. Four deaths per run. That’s going to be rough. Who doesn’t die in Diablo 3? They are the guys who use zBarb builds.

What is zBarb? It is also called the support Barbarian and is one of the strongest supports in the game and the addition of Crowd Control Resistance. By the way, if you want to improve your Barbarian, then you have to prepare a lot of Diablo 4 Gold in advance. In the meantime, you can also build more powerful builds.

But here’s the thing and I’ve been playing Rhykker’s video since right after beta weekend because I saw how much damage some people can do and there’s just not enough mobs for everyone to be killing 100% of the time.

Also, from Rhykker’s video, we learned that monsters are going to hit really hard. So, if you don’t spec into defense or some kind of utility, you’re going to die. It is one of the reasons we have zero damage builds in Diablo 3. Speaking of DPS, you’re going to need a Barb to group things again. Here is a side note: I’m very happy about that because I love being a zBarb in Diablo 3.

Then, that’s kind of my next point. Some people just enjoy playing support roles. It’s what I like to do, and this is also a way for casual players or players that just don’t have time to provide their skills to join endgame content. This allows everyone to provide value and play with friends and enjoy the game.The difference is that Diablo 4 supports are going to do more than just buff the party. I’ve been calling them S-Builds (Support Builds).

Let’s get a little deeper into that. The support classes are going to have different roles. It’s really impossible to say which class will have which role because there’s going to be a lot of synergy to figure out with the endgame.

One of the main things is Crowd Control. We know monsters will get CC immune just like in Diablo 3. And just like in Diablo 3, we can’t have everyone trying to CC everything. We’ll end up with a ton of unstoppable monsters coming after us and running all over the place. Veiled Shot just dropped the video on this topic, but he just barely scratches a surface that will need support builds. If you are interested in it, you can check it out.

And then, we’ll have to complete objectives. There’s a lot of endgame to do in Diablo 4. Unless you’re on a mount, you move pretty slowly between objectives and running around maps. So, if an objective focused support role comes in, he can grab the idle. He can run back and put it on the pedestal or whatever you got to put it. That means that we’re just going to be doing boss fight after boss fight and if you want farming, that’s farming.

Also Read: Everything About Diablo 4 Co-op, Open World, PVP & Strongholds

This is going to be the most useful for leveling glyphs. If this works right, we can just form the bosses and clear dungeons a lot faster and while we’re trying to kill stuff, vulnerability is just too powerful not to take advantage of. But if a DPS has to spec into it, then they miss out on more damage. So, if a support class can cause almost constant vulnerability, then they’ll provide more value than trying to do damage. And with all that, the supports are also going to be there for typical reasons: buffing and debuffing monsters. Some can do this better than others. But that’s going to be something to look at once these rolls start to flush out a little better.

As far as the classes go, I love the Barbarian and it has a lot of options for support classes and for damage, there’s a lot of a lot to work with there. Rogue is also going to be probably something to look at. Necromancer has a lot of opportunities with Bone Prison, which I think causes vulnerability. The Sorceress does a lot of CC with her ice build, so that might be a great option for like taking out the world boss.

All in all, we’re going to see supports playing a huge role in the meta for Diablo 4.

Path of Exile is an action RPG that markets itself as being the best ARPG on the market in terms of character customizations. If you have ever played Diablo 3 and thought that it’s very simple or straight up just looking for a serious game to play for the next couple of years, then keep reading as today we will go over the top 10 things that you must know in detail before thinking about making Path of Exile the next big thing in your life.

1. Monetization

First, we got monetization. Most of you already know that you can basically boot up Path of Exile and start playing for free. But is Path of Exile really free to play any sense where you can continue playing without spending any money and compensate for that with your skills?

In your first 50 to 100 hours, you won’t feel the need to purchase anything. That’s until you realize that you are running out of space. Path of Exile gives you four generic Stash Tabs. This can hold pretty much anything. The problem is simple things like POE Currency are more than enough to eventually flood these Stash Tabs.

There are also maps and a bunch of other league specific currencies like Fossils, Catalysts and Scarabs and many others that you have to store. Of course, that’s aside from the rest of your items. In a few words, the game becomes unplayable at some point unless you purchase Stash Tabs.

The bare minimum amount of in-game currency that you have to spend in order to get essential Stash Tabs are: 75 points on a Currency Stash Tab, 150 points on a Map Stash Tab and another 150 points on one Premium Quad Stash Tab, which is required if you wish to participate in the item market.

All of that is going to cost you close to 40 US dollars, which is what I think is the bare minimum that you have to spend in order to keep playing for almost ever.

So, is Path of Exile really free to play? The short answer is no.

2. Complexity

The second point we want to talk about is complexity.

Path of Exile complexity is not actually as hard as people make it out to be. It’s just filled with so much information and details that you have to memorize. If you wish to play the game properly, just to put this into perspective. I spent over 10,000 hours playing this game. More than half of that time is spent on learning. Even today, I still get to learn something now and then.

Path of Exile is not difficult. It just needs lots of time to learn and it only becomes fun once you learn it. Unless you are seriously considering pouring multiple thousands of hours into this game, I don’t recommend playing it.

3. Grind

The third point that you must know in detail before playing Path of Exile is the grind.

Simply learning the game isn’t enough to make POE Currency. If you wish to play it properly, then you should know that: in order to keep up with seasonal players in competitive environments like League, then you have to play no less than 8 hours every day. Some people even play up to 15 hours a day on league launch.

The reason why this matters is that only those who reach endgame early are the ones who make the most amount of currency and those who make the most amount of currency controls the economy. It is basically like real life. It seems unfair, but that’s one of the things that makes Path of Exile the unique game it is and on top of this, it’s possible for you to spend an entire day playing without getting a single good drop.

Path of Exiel is a very RNG heavy game. If you hate feeling unrewarded for your time sometimes, then Path of Exile is simply not for you.

4. Difficulty

The fourth point we have is difficulty. Not to be confused with difficulty or complexity, it is one thing to understand the basics of a game and it’s a completely different thing to learn how to play it.

If you are literally coming from any other ARPG, then you need to know that Path of Exile weakest aspect is visual clarity. Both monsters and players deal with an extremely high amount of damage compared to their respective life poles. And what ends up happening as a result is that you either one shot everything or everything one shot you. You will be in an extremely chaotic atmosphere where you don’t realize what’s happening before it actually happens.

It is the least engaging combat style out of any other ARPG out there and journey Path of Exile biggest downside. It is for this specific reason why Path of Exile is considered difficult. No matter how cautious you are, you will eventually find yourself in a situation where you died and there is nothing you could have done to prevent that.

5. Endgame

For our fifth point, we are going to talk about the endgame.

Path of Exile’s endgame is where it is at. There are so many things you can do and so many endgame bosses to challenge for their loot. There are also so many league content for you to engage with, from many previous updates to enough content to keep you occupied and engaged for thousands of hours. You can go Delve, you can farm Legion, you can do Harvest, you can do Blighted Maps and more.

Best part of it is that every different league mechanic has its own target load to aim for. Basically, Path of Exile’s endgame allows you to specialize in whatever you want. The game even has its own separated passive tree that its sole purpose is to allow you to customize your endgame experience. No other game comes even remotely close to Path of Exile in that regard.

6. Crafting

The sixth important point that you need to know is crafting. In Path of Exile, you build a strong character by purchasing items for it from other people with your currency.

Most of this currency will come by crafting your own items and sell them to these people for profit. Learning how to craft is detrimental to progressing in this game and I’m not going to lie crafting is like a vast ocean.

Now, I know that the landing speed of one person differs from another, but as for me, it took me over 2,000 hours to master crafting in this game. And I did take the game seriously. As for a more casual player, it’s going to take them even more. That being said, don’t let that discourage you from getting into crafting, as you don’t need to learn everything to get started.

7. Multiplayer

Our seventh point is multiplayer. I want you guys to know that aside from the ability to chat and trade with other players, Path of Exile isn’t really a multiplayer game.

Sure, you can invite people to a party and go kill a boss with them or something like that, but you almost never want to do that in 99% of content you go through in Path of Exile with some very few exceptions.

Party play is generally something that people avoid as it slows down their progress. Unless you are XP farming for level 100, odds are you will be playing solo simply because party play doesn’t actually reward you with anything that you can’t get by playing Solo.

In fact, recently, the game developers killed party play by heavily reducing the load that they generate with 3.19 patch. That’s the more reason for you to be playing Solo.

You May Interest: Best Righteous Fire Juggernaut Build In POE 3.21! - Beginner Friendly

8. The Developers

Speaking about the developers, it is the next thing that we are going to talk about.

GGG Dev Team, the creators of Path of Exile are well known for their vision, a vision that’s all about slowing down Path of Exile as much as possible. Now, I’m not talking about gameplay. I’m talking about character progression.

The dev team has been doing nothing but nerfing every possible avenue for players to attain power because they believe that the more you have to grind every day to get what you want, the longer you will be sticking around playing a league. This helps to improve player attention numbers at the cost of every individual player's experience. You are expected to play no less than 10 hours a day to experience everything that this game has to offer.

Basically, the developers want Path of Exile to become a second day job for you, one that doesn’t pay you anything. If you are a busy person with important things to do in real life, then unfortunately, you are not the target demographic for Path of Exile and its developers.

9. The Community

However, with that being said coming, we have the complete opposite of the dev team, which is the community. Allow me to say that despite the inconveniences that come alongside playing such a complicated game like Path of Exile, you get a bunch of people who are willing to sacrifice their time to help the community by making some useful tools to save time.

One good example is Craft of Exile, a website that shows you the possible odds of spawning every single modifier in the game on an item. It also allows you to simulate your next crafting project without having to waste currency on it inside the game.

You can also plan your next build with another useful tool called Path of Building, an application that tells you which passives to allocate in order to better boost your damage and survivability without having to go through trial and error inside the game and more.

10. Future Game Support

Now, for our final point, we are going to talk about future game support.

Path of Exile is an ever-growing game in terms of league mechanics. The gaming graphics even becomes noticeably better with each update.

In the future, GGG is planning on releasing Path of Exile 2. It is not a separate game, but a major expansion to an already growing Path of Exile. This is big because you can start playing Path of Exile now without having to worry about changing games anytime soon.

Path of Exile 2 is an ambition project to expand the main game. It will improve graphics and simplify some complicated game mechanics, like gym linking.

In short, it’s worth diving into Path of Exile now, but only if you are willing to take it seriously. This means having no real life commitments preferably for the next couple of years and yes, this does include marriage anyway.

2023 for Elder Scrolls Online is going to be a very interesting year indeed. Every year, ESO will release four DLCs with big game-changing updates and will release within each quarter of the year.

This year, however, ESO is breaking tradition, but in my opinion, for a very good reason. As much as I love ESO and have done for the eight years I’ve played it, it has its issues. I think anyone who has played the game for longer than two years can agree with me on that. These issues have divided the community and have left some feeling ignored by ZeniMax Online Studios.

For whatever the reason, the majority of these issues have never been addressed or fixed. But, let’s look on the bright side that will all change within 2023.

The first half of this year will remain the same as any other. We have already received our first DLC, the Scribes of Fate, which added two new dungeons to the game: Scrivener’s Hall and Bal Sunnar. Along with that, we have new item sets and of course the usual update, which buffs, nerfs and changes parts of the game.

In June, we can expect to see a chapter. As usual, this year is taking us back to Morrowind with the Telvanni Peninsula, focusing on the city of Necrom and the Daedric Prince, Hermaeus Mora.

Following on from that, in the third and fourth quarter, we won’t receive any new DLC for ESO. We were told that something secret is being planned for the end of the year, something to do with an endless dungeon experience.

However, we are breaking norms and are not receiving another dungeon DLC or Zone DLC. Instead, ZeniMax Online Studios has promised to tackle the many issues plaguing ESO and focus entirely on fixing and updating instead of adding.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. I’ve always said that it’s better to stop adding content and fix what already exists within the game rather than continue adding to what’s already broken. Although I think so, I am also very curious about your thoughts. You can try to answer the following questions. How you feel about the change coming to this year? Do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea? Are you looking forward to the fixes and updates or are you worried that it may be made worse by the plan for 2023?

Now, I want to talk about Necrom. The Necrom Chapter for ESO will be releasing on June 5th for PC and Mac and then June 20th for console. Now, although the year's plan is different. This chapter, in comparison to others, is no different.

Related: Elder Scrolls Online: How To Prepare For Arcanist Class Release?

This chapter will take place in the Telvani Peninsula in Morrowind. Our main city is Necrom, which is where the chapter gets its name and is heavily focused around the Daedric Prince, Hermes Mora.

The chapter will allow the player to explore this magical and fungi-infested part of Morrowind, but also have access to Apocrypha - Hermaeus Mora’s realm of Oblivion. Whether Apocrypha will be like the deadlands in regards to size and exploration is yet to be revealed.

However, we know for a fact that we will be able to see a good portion of that realm. What attracts players most in this realm is, of course, is the new class we will be receiving along with the chapter.

Now, a big disclaimer: you must own the chapter in order to be able to play as this new class. The class in question is The Arcanist, a class that heavily revolves around using spells and attacks in the design of our Daedric Lord, Hermes Mora.

Sadly though, unless you’re able to access the private test servers on PC, ZeniMax Online Studios haven’t released anything about this new class as yet. But if your curiosity is getting the better of you, you actually fight and go up against enemy Arcanists in the new dungeon, Scrivener’s Hall. Anyway, if you like this new class, you can prepare lots of ESO Gold in advance to make more powerful builds for this class.

Not only are we getting a new class, but we are also welcoming two new companions to the game. We have Azandar Al-Cybiades, who was an Arcanist Redguard and also Sharp-As-Night, an Argonian Warden.

Companions are a great addition to ESO and I’m sure these two won’t disappoint. Just a shame that ZeniMax Online Studios skipped over Necromancer for a companion.

Tales of Tribute is also receiving a new Patron, which has been revealed as Almalexia, Morrowind’s Healing Mother. Apart from this, we have no information in regards to what she brings to the table quite literally on that one.

All in all, I think this is going to be a very interesting year indeed, with big changes and updates coming later this year and a great-looking chapter coming very soon.

With the AI advancing more and more, we wanted to ask ChatGPT how to play FIFA 23 better. As I asked my questions about it, I was completely shocked by how much information it had to offer. So, if you’re curious about it, keep reading!

Attacking Tips

Let’s start with attacking. I asked the AI how I can improve my attacking in FIFA 23 without knowing what to come. But as it started explaining, it gave me seven unique tips that are too much. Let’s test a couple of them to see if they are correct or wrong.

Quick Passing

The first tip is about passing. “Good passing is the foundation of any successful attack. Use short, quick passes to move the ball up the pitch and create space for your attackers”.

I can agree with this one as it’s one of the most important parts of the attacking. Short passing seems to be working in most of the situations. However, I struggled a bit when I tried to do it in a quick way, as the AI mentioned. Especially when you’re facing good Defenders, they might punish you for the careless quickness while passing.

So, on top of what the AI told me to do, I also paid attention to a couple of factors: the direction that my passer faces, the availability of my receiver, and the behavior of the opposition defense played a huge role with it.

As long as those three conditions were optimal for me, I was able to create space for my Attackers with short passes, as the AI told me to do so. It’s a very nice tip.

Crossing

Next up, crossing. The AI says “crossing the bolt into the box is a great way to create scoring opportunities.” Correct until this point. “Use the right stick to control the direction and height of the cross, and aim for your target player.” Obviously, this is wrong.

I guess the AI might get confused sometimes. Anyway, the initial idea is correct as crosses could be powerful situationally. Use the left analog stick to select their target and power up the cross regarding the distance. The power level of the cross will be decisive on how far it will go.

As I was trying to work with the crosses, I realized that they are powerful like the ChatGPT mentioned, especially when I get on the counter with a man's advantage. As I was exploring the side with my Winger, there has been always one player going into the box and crossing the ball to him allowed me to get dangerous without putting too much effort.

Even though the AI messed up with the controls, the initial idea allowed me to have better attacking options. These are the part of the FIFA fundamentals.

Defensive Tips

But what about defending? Can the AI teach me how to get better in defense? There were again a lot of tips. I am going to choose two of them and see what I can do with them.

Jockeying

First off, it starts with jockeying. “Jockeying is an essential defensive technique in FIFA 23. Use the left trigger/L2 button to slow down and position your Defender in front of the Attacker. This will make it harder for them to get past you”.

That is 100% accurate, as jockeying saves you most of the time. Jockeying allows me to have a very special defensive stance against my opponents and sometimes allows me to retrieve the ball without doing anything else.

However, I’ve seen that only worked out once I positioned my player directly in front of the opponent. If I position my player a bit towards this side or don’t have a strong stance against the opponent, he was able to go through.

So, remember what the AI says. Position your Defender in front of the Attacker while jockeying.

Tackling

Moving on to the next step, we got tackling, which is “another important defensive technique”, according to the AI. “Use the right trigger/R2 button to make a strong tackle or the B/Circle Button to slide tackle. Make sure you time your tackles correctly to avoid giving away fouls”.

With the default configuration, Circle Button allows you to go for a standing tackle and square button for a sliding tackle. That was a bit misleading.

However, the second tip is golden. We can only benefit from the tackles at the right time, which is when the opponent pushes the ball out of his feet for a brief moment.

If you try to tackle in a position where you don’t have the opportunity, you will probably get yourself in disadvantage. So, what I did was to wait for the perfect moment to get a tackle in as I waited for the opponent to make his move while pushing the ball away and made the fitting tackle to win the ball.

Related: FIFA 23: How To Master The Art Of Defending? - Complete Guides On Jockey

Tactics Tips

At the end, we wanted to ask a very controversial question to the AI, which divides FIFA community by far every year. And the question is: what is the best formation to play in FIFA 23?

It’s quite satisfied me with the answer. “There is no ‘best’ formation to play in FIFA 23 as it largely depends on your playstyle, the team you are using and the opponent you’re facing”.

This has been probably our argument for a very long time. Most of the players copied informations that pros or content creators offer without knowing or thinking about how to play with it, just because others get successful with it. That doesn’t mean you will do the same with it.

As the ChatGPT dictates, the best formation for you will depend on your playing style and the players you have available. Experiment with different formations and find the one that works best for you.

For starters, I recommend playing with 4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, or 4-4-2. Those are the classic formations which are suitable for every year. But like mentioned, try them out one by one and see if they work out for you. Of course, if you can add more strong players to your team by using FUT 23 Coins, it will be better!

To be honest, although the AI’s answer surprised me, it also worried me a lot. I am afraid that my job will be replaced by it in the future. So I reluctantly asked AI another question: “What do you know about the best player instructions and custom tactics in FIFA 23?” To my delight, AI doesn’t have a definitive answer to this question. Now I don’t have to worry about losing my job.

Anyway, the player instructions should be also set on the purpose. I am going to give you an example of it. Whenever I play with affirmation, which contains a CDM in it, I give that CDM three instructions: Cover Center, Stay Back While Attacking and Cut Passing Lanes.

The reason I put him on Covering Center is that mostly, I have side players to cover the wing and if my CDM also goes towards the wing, the center will be wide open. Putting him to cover Center defines his area to defend.

Cutting Passing Lanes let them move towards the potential passing targets. Even if I don’t control them, that will help me to switch to my intended Defender in the right position and just because he got close to the passing lane by himself, it makes me win the ball easier.

Staying Back While Attacking is often misunderstood. My CDM also joins the attack, but with this instruction, he remains closer to the Midfield. And he doesn’t rush inside like the box. So, whenever you get stuck on the wing and need to reset your attack, you can use the players with these instructions as your target and change the side of the ball. Pretty smart, right?

Diablo 4 had a livestream today that focused on endgame content and recent patch changes to the game.

Although there was no announcement of a game launch tomorrow or a third beta this weekend, many viewers were intrigued by a surprise announcement that was teased during the showcase.

It turns out that there actually is a surprise announcement related to Diablo 4 - there will be a third beta weekend called the "Server Slam" in which players are encouraged to log in to test the game's capacity and stability before its official launch in June.

This was revealed during a lengthy livestream focused on endgame content and recent patch changes.

The Server Slam third beta dates: May 12-14.

To summarize, the third beta weekend for Diablo 4, called the "Server Slam" was recently announced during a livestream dedicated to endgame content and patch changes.

Players can expect much of the same features as previous betas, including the same classes, story and zone progression, and level cap at 20. However, legendary drop rates and Diablo 4 Gold will not be inflated this time around , providing players with a more accurate sense of what to expect at lower levels.

A world boss named Ashava will spawn 24 hours after the start of the beta on May 13 at 9 AM PDT , and will then reappear every three hours until the event ends. Players who defeat Ashava with a level 20 character before the beta ends will receive the Cry of Ashava mount trophy, which features Ashava's horn attached to their horse. It's important to note that the trophy is not the horse itself.

It will feature a few significant changes, including the implementation of a beta feedback patch that will include numerous nerfs and buffs to different character classes. In particular, the Barbarian and Druid classes will receive significant buffs to address their underperformance at lower levels.

Additionally, dungeons will be tweaked to reduce the amount of backtracking through empty areas. It's worth noting that the game's fonts have also been updated to have a more Diablo-esque appeal.

Server Slam beta weekend is highly anticipated, despite featuring largely the same beta content as previous rounds. Progress will be wiped after the beta, though certain earned trophies, titles, and baby wolf back bling will remain.

While some players may have held back during previous betas to avoid losing progress, many are eager to try out different character classes in preparation for the game's official launch. The Druid and Rogue have received a lot of attention so far, but some players may choose to try out the Sorcerer or Necromancer classes before starting fresh with the traditional Barbarian when the game is released.

To clarify, the upcoming Server Slam beta weekend for Diablo 4 will not feature any new content beyond the addition of more world boss spawns and a new patch. However, many players are still excited for the opportunity to play more of the highly anticipated game before its official launch.

Despite featuring largely the same content as previous betas, the chance to try out different character classes and earn trophies and titles is still appealing to many fans of the Diablo franchise.

According to GameSpot's interview with Diablo 4 director Joe Shely and associate director Joseph Piepiora about the upcoming Server Slam test, the pre-launch period is crucial for ensuring a stable launch. The team's plan from the beginning has been to gather feedback from players through various beta periods, such as the early access weekend and open beta.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Server Slam Beta - Class, Dungeon & Legendary Changes

This feedback has allowed them to make necessary changes to improve the game and test their servers with a large number of players. Ultimately, the goal is to make Diablo 4 as stable as possible for its official launch.

Blizzard has made changes to the server infrastructure in preparation for the launch of Diablo 4, and they want to test these changes through a Server Slam event. The goal is to stress the servers as much as possible to ensure a smooth launch. The Barbarian class will also receive buffs based on player feedback.

Blizzard has already learned a lot from the beta period, but there are certain situations that can't be simulated internally. However, by making changes and deploying hotfixes during the beta period, they were able to improve the stability of their infrastructure.

Is Final Fantasy 14 is still worth playing in 2023? Why we’re still playing and loving it in 2023? Most of all, if it’s still worth to start your own adventure?

The first big positive of this game is something that is really hard to keep fresh because it totally leaves the traits of the MMO genre, but still is one of my biggest selling points for the game and that is the first time playing experience.

It’s really hard to take yourself back in time and remember all the good moments you’ve spent with things that are long gone. But if you do so for Final Fantasy, it had been the best moments of my game alive as a long time console player and single player game enjoyed. Even though back in 2014 where I came to Eorzea for the first time, it offered way more MMO aspects forced onto the player, but more to that later.

However, what really stands out in this game is not even compared to other MMORPGs on the market, but basically all single player games as well is how much this world makes sense to itself. And the developers created a universe that drags you in with every new character you meet or places you travel to. It is insanely immersive. And the laughter details references to the franchise or writing of the story’s plot are in a class of its own. Even starting into A Realm Reborn made perfect sense for me and I absolutely enjoyed the story with classical Final Fantasy elements, especially on the antagonist side.

Nonetheless, Heaven’s Ward, like for many players, was that expansion and moment in time where the game developed into an absolute masterpiece. Gameplay became complex, smooth, and much more entertaining and the story around each God and the Dragonsong War was just beautifully written.

While still having the ongoing light motif develop that leads to its conclusion in the recent and WarCraft expansion, so there had always been a lot of planning to make the whole world and story fit while still developing each expansion’s topic around it.

But even apart from all the story driven content, up to that point, there’s already so much to do in this game: so many outfits and weapons (which you can get by using FFXIV Gil) that are worth collecting, trials and raids to participate in and even the brand new crystalline conflict PVP mode is already available at that point. Crafting, Gathering, house building, Gold Saucer...... It’s crazy how much content this game is offering that even a player like Asmongold was totally stuck in Heaven’s Ward as there is so much content to tackle already.

Just when I was recently playing a good variation of single player games over the past weeks, I realized how good Final Fantasy 14 is where a good old classic, like Grandia, outplayed the other new games by longshot. Even Kingdom Hearts 3 that I absolutely love for many elements didn’t come anywhere close to the shining times of old Final Fantasies. And not talking about Strangers of Paradise, that was cool but felt super repetitive and boring after a while.

On the other hand, we had the Resident Evil 4 Remake. This game was great, not from the epic story or plot, but just how well it is crafted into a very atmospheric horror show. That was the play to have fun with the absolute basics of managing your resources, hitting enemies sharply and constantly making Leon look like the badass character he is. And while the whole engine at battle system has been pushed to the next gen standards, the mechanics of the game are absolutely 2005. To be completely honest, I think this is the best remake that’s available right now.

This is where Final Fantasy 14 comes into play again. This game is not trying to reinvent the wheel, but create the whole vehicle around it. The combat system is a classical World of WarCraft Rebrand with added strategical elements and the typical Japanese rotation system. But how all this is implemented and introduced in the game is absolutely classic.

I still hope for an earlier access to job skills and the way how the game could be more fun at lower levels. But overall, I have way more fun playing these old-functioning battle mechanics than warping my main character from spot to spot to dodge my enemy attacks or start any assault. Think about why Elden Ring was so popular? It took all the good battle made mechanics and updated them by mixing in some open world elements.

The gameplay of games like Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, while they seem dated from a visual perspective, they’re way more fun than modern strategy games that put in real-time decisions and stuff like that.

The one exception that I thoroughly enjoyed and would rate as my personal Game of the Year for 2022 is A Plague Tale: Requiem. Here, the producers and developers of the game took the horror genre to another level and while it doesn’t feature the grotesque horror of Resident Evil, the gameplay mechanics were simply amazing. The first game in which I enjoyed the stealth parts because they made sense. And while for me personally, the story was the big selling point for the game, gameplay felt rewarding and absolutely satisfying.

Related: Final Fantasy 14: Some Players Can Get Stormblood Expansion For Free

That’s how games should be designed when the players feel rewarded for their actions and get even more when walking the extra mile. So, this leads us back to Heaven’s Ward, right? Because walking the extra mile leads you into three more expansions that develop the main plot further with the heartbreaking and genius climax in Shadowbringers and perfectly crafted conclusion in Endwalker to become one if not the best stories that any game ever created.

But it still does offer all the MMO aspects especially if you reach end game but also everything the game had in stock before that because Square Enix are insanely good at keeping old content alive and due to thinking of former content, you can always go back in time with your high-level character to relive the moments that other players felt when they played the game two expansions ago, except for some balancing changes, maybe.

I mean for example, if you don’t care about the recent Mandeville Relic weapons, you can just leave Eureka a visit, gather up some friends and try to venture as far as you can into the riddles and mysteries of that very special aisle or you could join the Bozjan Southern Front for further development of the war against galimov and how the whole all scheming and planning took place besides the big events of Shadowbringers or Endwalker.

There’s just so much content that this game is offering and only the veteran players and those that played it patch after patch will run into content draft. If you’re a new player or haven’t explored all these old forms of content, this game is a freaking must play in my opinion, especially if you like any of the main series Final Fantasies that are on par with a quality of 14 or even beaten by it. I mean, you can even treat it like a single player game with each patch more and more because Square Enix is constantly adding party support to dungeons and trials so that you’re not dependent on other players to join your efforts and story progression.