The Banner Saga 2 builds upon Stoic's brilliant Viking-fantasy universe, and it's about to get a little bit bigger. Survival Mode is available today as a free update to Banner Saga 2, allowing players to assemble teams from a large swath of existing heroes and then pit them against enemies in 40 back-to-back, turn-based strategy matches. Once a hero dies, he or she is gone for good, but each victory grants players a form of in-game currency called Renown, allowing them to add fresh fighters to their teams. Items drop during combat and there's a 30-second timer keeping the matches moving quickly.

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Are you ready to snap up a ton of PC games to add to your ever-growing backlog? Steam's summer sale has begun, and as always, it offers big discounts -- some bigger than others -- on over 12,000 titles. They include everything from popular franchises, such as Assassin's Creed and GTA, to new virtual reality experiences. And in case you want everyone to know you're a sucker for Steam sales, you'll get a "Summer Picnic Sale" trading card for every $10 you spend that you can display on your profile. The event will go on for 11 days until 1PM Eastern on July 4th. Since Steam won't be holding flash sales or adding any more titles to the list, you can start scouring all the available deals right now.

Source: Steam

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"I'm not the only asshole who had this idea a few years ago," Cliff Bleszinski says in between sips of a sugar-free Red Bull. He's perched in the lounge area of his studio's E3 meeting space, on the other side of a thin wall where a dozen journalists and internet influencers are playing his latest game, a team-based shooter called LawBreakers. Every now and then, the players beyond the wall suddenly wail and clap as a game came to a dramatic close.

Bleszinski is talking about the market for online, first-person, team-based shooters -- a niche genre that, in mid-2016, is on the verge of over-saturation. Overwatch just came out and it's been a monstrous hit for Activision Blizzard. It dominates the front page of Twitch and there are already plans to transform it into a truly competitive, esports-focused title. Other similar games, such as Gearbox's Battleborn or Epic Games' Paragon, are also on the market but they can't compare in terms of player numbers or hype.

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Vampyr, the next game from Dontnod Entertainment features a white, male protagonist. For any other studio, this is de rigueur, something dictated by the gaming industry's presumed demographic. But for the team behind Life is Strange and Remember Me, it's the first time they've delved into the male mindset. And it wasn't the result of market research either: It's because Vampyr's story wouldn't have worked any other way.

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Amazon is throwing its weight behind mobile eSports yet again. The company -- the Amazon Appstore, in particular -- is the main sponsor of the 2016 Vainglory summer eSports season. Vainglory is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game for touchscreen devices, which Apple demoed on stage back in 2014 to show off the power of its A8 chip. It has become the biggest touchscreen eSport since then, convincing Amazon-owned streaming website Twitch to ink a deal with its publisher, Super Evil Megacorp, to broadcast its tournaments.

Source: Vainglory

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Researchers and makers over at Kougaku Navi in Japan have been working hard on a playable Splatoon gun since March, and the latest model really looks the part. It combines a Wii U GamePad, controls transplanted inside a Splatoon-themed water pistol and Sony's head-mounted display to give you at least a little bit of movement freedom. It's not perfect, but if you really want to play the game with a gun, it possibly the closest we'll get.

Via: Buzzfeed Japan

Source: Kougaku Navi

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