Pillars of Eternity 2 expansion Beast of Winter is coming in August

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Obsidian has announced that the Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire expansion Beast of Winter will be out on August 2. The DLC, according to PCGamesN, will send players off to an island populated by worshippers of Rymrgand, the titular "Beast of Winter" and "god of collapse." Death, famine, plague, bad luck—basically, if it all goes to pieces, you can thank this guy.

When you arrive on the island, a snowy place located at the very bottom of the map, its inhabitants hold a feast in your honor. Not because you saved the world, though, but because you wrecked so much of it. "They respect the way that you go about messing things up," narrative designer Alex Scokel said.

It sounds like you're going to have to mess Rymrgand himself up, too. His manifestation has brought a supernatural killing frost to the island that threatens all of Eora, the world in which Pillars of Eternity is set. Despite that chilling setup—or because of it—executive producer Alec Frey said there's also a distinct element of dark humor running through the expansion.

"We obviously don’t want to make an incredibly depressing piece of DLC," he said. "It’s definitely an opportunity for us to show how people feel about this sort of thing, but also show the humor of it."

Beast of Winter is the first of three planned Pillars of Eternity 2 expansions, and will be available for $10 or as part of the $25 season pass. The launch of the expansion will also see the rollout of the 2.0 patch (no notes on that yet, but I expect it will be a big one) and the free "Deck of Many Things" pack.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.