Vermintide 2 alters its beasts with a new expansion this summer

I unexpectedly starting jonesing just the other day for a bout of delightfully grimdark rat-splatting in Warhammery Left 4 Deadlike Vermintide 2. It's coming up to a year since its release, but I never got around to the various DLC to date.

Perhaps now I'll wait until the summer, when the hairy crew known as the Beastmen are set to join the fray in what's being billed as the first actual 'expansion' for V2.

The major hot-under-the-collar element of the forthcoming Winds of Magic DLC is the introduction of the Beastmen, those horn-headed manimals of Chaos, as a new horde of snarling foes for the slaughter. Tiring of cleaving the same buck-toothed ratfaces in two a thousand times over in Verm1 feels like a distant dream now.

Devs Fatshark claim that the Beastmen "will be the toughest enemy faction our Heroes have faced", which, given the general fodder before now was either big rodents or rag-robed Chaos nutters, pretty much follows.

The press release and Steam page for Winds of Magic aren't terrible informative, which is perhaps because the DLC's snagged the cover of the next PC Gamer. The jaunty RPS tribute site has shared a few more details here, however, including the news that, unsurprisingly, the Horned Ones' elite unit will be the Bestigor, who in Warhammer lore is basically a Beastman++.

There won't be a new campaign as such, with the focus instead being on a new mode, concerning the titular Winds of Magic. Depending on which of this octet of forces is blowing through the map, your gang of fighters will be both blessed and cursed in different ways; the maps themselves will be remixed somewhat depending on the Wind too.

A raised level cap, an even meatier difficulty setting and five new weapons are also promised. Yeah, I'll dirty my blade with this, I reckon.

Winds of Magic is due out this Summer - there's a Steam page you can stare at here, if you like.