It's set to be a huge week for gaming, with the last 'Counter-Strike: Global Offensive' major starting, 'Skate' is beta testing now, 'Diablo IV' will have another surprise beta weekend, and one of the most anticipated games of the last few years will finally be released.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The first day of the challengers' stage has already brought a lot of excitement, as Ukraine’s Monte (HLTV rank #22) put up a valiant effort against Faze (#5), narrowly losing 14 – 16. The Brazilian derby of paiN versus Fluxo was nowhere near as balanced a game, with paiN easily taking victory 16 – 2. We also had some surprise underdog wins, Forze (#16) beating Liquid (#7), in the next match after their loss to fellow underdogs Grayhound (#26). Grayhound then lost 16 – 0 against Apeks (#29). The teams here are showing that they have all shown up to play, and making it clear that at this level of the competition, we can’t count on world rankings as an indicator as to who will come out on top.
The major runs until the 21st of May, and if the rest of the groups and stages are like this we’re in for an incredible run on 'Counter-Strike'.
Skate 4
The latest in the 'Skate' series, simply called 'Skate 4' or 'Skate', is having a closed beta from the 9th to the 23rd of May for the lucky few who were selected to participate. The pre-alpha “Still Working On It” trailer caught a lot of people's attention with its tongue-in-cheek references to it being in very early development stages, however the trailers that have since been released show that the core gameplay is coming along nicely. Understandably there is a lot of polishing left to do, and no release date has been announced yet, so hopefully they take some lessons from other recent releases and actually finish the game before releasing it.
Diablo IV
A surprise 'Diablo IV' server capacity/open beta weekend has been announced. The “server slam” event begins on May 12th, and while it will have some new gameplay updates, many of the conditions from previous open or closed betas remain. The level cap is limited to 20, characters from the previous weekends will have been deleted, and of course, progression will not carry through to the final game. The server slam comes less than four full weeks from the full release of Diablo IV on June 6th, and if you pre-order the Digital Deluxe or Ultimate editions you can play as early as June 2nd, though they are quite pricey coming in at €89.99 and €99.99 respectively. Almost €100 for a game is an unwelcome trend in gaming in recent years.
Will it be worth the price? Only time will tell for sure, but we have a good feeling about it.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Coming this Friday the 12th of May, the sequel to one of the biggest generations will finally be here. Six years after the release of its predecessor, four years after it was first announced, 'The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom' is now just around the corner. The notoriously secretive Nintendo has been holding its cards close to its chest, with almost no indication of what the story will contain. As it is a direct sequel to 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild', we can expect many of the game's building blocks to stay the same. Thankfully some new abilities have been shown to aid the players in their journey across the expansive open world, while things like weapon and shield degradation remain – one of the more controversial changes from the Zelda games previously. There are, as expected for game releases these days, multiple versions available for purchase, as well as limited edition pro-controllers and OLED Switch.
The base version of the game costs €59.99 in all the usual places, and while this is slightly higher than typical Switch game pricing, Nintendo seems to be keeping their pricing in line with gamers' expectations – for now at least.
This is likely to be a strong Game of the Year contender for many publications, and we’re looking forward to getting out hands on it.
