The Weekly Updates Update: dicey dotes

In all the hubbub of the week, you might've missed some of the patches and updates rolled out to games. Presenting the Weekly Updates Update, a noncomprehensive roundup of new maps and characters and balance tweaks and fixes and such which caught my eye over the week - including a few we haven't posted about.

Wreckfest got a "major update"

The developers say it adds new vehicles, new tracks, performance improvements, and the "whole wealth of neat improvements introduced in the console versions."

Warframe added its 41st mechsuit, Gauss

Disruption Mode has spread to new planets too.

Dota Underlords added Contraptions

The Auto Chess genre hasn't developed much, mostly all copying the same mod, so it's interesting to see Valve experiment a bit. They've added 'Contraptions', deployable doodads that serve tactical functions like barriers blocking spaces and a cute wee Tidehunter doll drawing aggro.

Tier 5 units are now called Aces and bring an extra 'Ace effect' benefiting their whole alliance. Valve have fiddled with the odds of finding Aces for the squillionth time this month too.

Bard's Tale IV launches Directors Cut

After a mighty wonky launch last year, the action-RPG is back with an update fixing, refining, and optimising a load.

Borderlands 3 has collided with Fortnite

Fortnite's been an advertising platform for a while, but advertising other games is still a bit of a surprise. This crossover turns a bit of the world into the dusty wastes of Pandora, complete with Borderlands-style regenerating shields.

Epic this week also increased the delay between laying down blocks in Turbo Build mode, then reverted that. Players can once again throw a vast tower out their pocket in the blink of an eye.

Frostpunk added more maps to Endless Mode

This week's big Frostpunk event was the launch of its first expansion but hey, more Endless maps too.

Dicey Dungeons

Good news, dungeoneers: Aoife now has less health, and the Kraken can use its overwhelm attack fewer times per turn. The Witch find will more health pickups now too.

League Of Legends boosted Aurelion Sol and Kayle

Riot say they're avoiding big changes until after the World Championship in September, but have snuck a few cheeky wee buffs in for two heroes.

"Overall, Aurelion Sol should now be more comprehensible with more satisfying signs of successful play and Kayle should have more of a laning phase without feeling like a complete wet noodle," they explained.

Hitman 2 stops the rich from living forever

On one hand, I don't believe bankers should be able to idefinitely avoid death by picking up money. On the other, I am always sorry to see weird loop bugs fixed. IO Interactive explained:

"We have [unfortunately] fixed an [amusing] issue where the CEO of the Bank in New York would somehow manage to recover from falling through the clock to pick up a coin that she had dropped in the process of falling. Immediately after picking up the coin, she would then attempt to lean on the clock again and start falling before somehow managing to recover and pick up the coin that she had dropped, before..."

Disclosure: Dicey Dungeons creator Terry Cavanagh is a pal.