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The modding scene for Marvel's Spider-Man: Remastered has so far focused overwhelmingly on the wall-crawler himself, with character mods coming thick-and fast. It's not always producing the most aesthetically pleasing results: Saul Goodman's character model perched atop a skyscraper doesn't look cool so much as like something from a J-horror flick. But all the modders can pack up and go home, because no-one's going to top the latest addition of Kermit the Frog, by one TangoTed. The beloved everyman muppet character fits into this world freakishly well, and unlike many of the more human-focused mods it doesn't feel weird to see his limbs and body arc in that acrobatic Spider-Man fashion. That's not to say he isn't still terrifying of course: pic.twitter.com/A0SDKstxUUAugust 27, 2022 See more The skin can be downloaded here and, as you can see, looks... absolutely fantastic in action. In both combat and when swinging around the city, Kermit fits over the Spider-Man movesets like a glove. Which when you think about it, Kermit kind of is. I am gaming pic.twitter.com/sdt5TELMaEAugust 27, 2022 See more Best Mod Ever. https://t.co/Xzry8cDoMl pic.twitter.com/LceWA95SbuAugust 28, 2022 See more Kermit takes the cake for me, but there are plenty of other leftfield mods replacing Spidey with everything from Ozzy Osbourne to Uncle Ben's gravestone (?!?), as well as a whole bunch adding variant suits and other superheroes. The one character mod that must find its way into every game is, of course, CJ from GTA: San Andreas and here he is. And there is one more perennial favourite: I'll leave you with this Thomas the Tank Engine mod, guaranteed to make anyone lose their lunch at a glance. (Image credit: Insomniac Games) View the full article

The best gaming laptop doesn't skimp on performance or portability, and still comes in at a reasonable price. Whether it's a sleek, ultra thin gaming notebook or a full-on desktop replacement, gaming laptops are so much more versatile than a desktop gaming PC. As the battle between AMD and Intel rages on the CPU front, anyone shopping for a new gaming laptop will have many great options. AMD's Ryzen 6000-series processors have been giving Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake chips a run for its money. The same can be said about AMD's new mobile GPUs slowly closing the gap to Nvidia's RTX 30-series offerings. And soon, a new generation of components is likely to grace our portable machines. The newest gaming laptops have improved portability, while still sporting all the fancy features of high-end gaming PCs. We're talking multicore CPUs, high-end GPUs, and speedy NVMe SSDs. You can even find heaps of RAM and super-high refresh screens under the hood. Gaming laptops with mechanical keyboards even exist, in case you can't live without that sweet clackity clack, like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15. Thankfully, gaming laptops mostly sidestepped chip shortages and are generally available for purchase. However, it looks does mean manufacturers have focused on providing more high-end configs though they are some exceptions like Dell, who offer some pretty impressive sub-$1000 gaming laptops. Of the hundreds of gaming laptops we've tested over the years, the ones that make this list always offer the best of three things; best balance of performance, portability, and price. Whether you're a student, professional, or just a gamer, there should be a laptop that's right for you here, and we'll continue to update this guide with the latest models as they're pushed out. Best gaming laptops Image 1 of 5 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 5 (Image credit: RAZER)Image 3 of 5 (Image credit: RAZER)Image 4 of 5 (Image credit: RAZER)Image 5 of 5 (Image credit: RAZER) 1. Razer Blade 15 The best gaming laptop CPU: Up to Core i9 12900H | GPU: Up to Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti | RAM: Up to 32GB DDR5 | Screen: 1080p @ 360Hz, 1440p @ 240Hz, or 4K @ 144Hz | Storage: Up to 1TB SSD | Battery: 80Wh | Dimensions: 9.25 x 13.98 x 0.78 inches | Weight: 4.63lbs Unparalleled build qualityWide range of CPU/GPU optionsLooks as good as it performsGreat battery lifeTrackpad can be awkwardRazer premium price Our favorite config: Razer Blade 15 | Intel Core i7 12800H | Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti You can, of course, go for the big boi—the RTX 3080 Ti—but in this slimline chassis, the Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti will deliver fantastic frame rates, even at the 1440p resolution of the 240Hz screen. You also get a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and 16GB of dual-channel DDR5 RAM at a blistering 4,800MHz.View Deal The latest spin of the Razer Blade 15 once again improves on one of the best gaming laptops ever made. It has the same gorgeous CNC-milled aluminum chassis as its predecessor, only this time it can house one of Nvidia's latest RTX 30-series GPUs and an Intel 12th Gen Core i9 CPU. We've played with the Razer Blade 15 Advanced with a 10th Gen Intel chip and RTX 3080 (95W) GPU inside it. And we fell in love all over again. We've also since then tried out the larger Razer Blade 17 with an RTX 3080 Ti humming away inside it, alongside one of those tasty 12th Gen chips and still stand bewildered by what will fit inside such a compact and neat chassis. The Razer Blade 15 is the overall best gaming laptop on the market right now. That said, you will get some throttling because of that slimline design, and even on the larger Blade 17 the battery life can be a little slim, but you're still getting outstanding performance from a beautiful machine. The Blade 15 isn't the lightest gaming laptop you can buy, but five pounds is still way better than plenty of traditional gaming laptops, while also offering similar performance and specs. That heft helps make it feel solid too. It also means the Blade 15 travels well in your backpack. An excellent choice for the gamer on the go... or if you don't have the real estate for a full-blown gaming desktop and monitor. Keyboard snobs will be happy to see a larger shift and half-height arrow keys. The Blade 15 Advanced offers per-key RGB lighting over the Base Model's zonal lighting. Typing feels great, and I've always liked the feel of the Blade's keycaps. The trackpad can be frustrating at times, but you're going to want to use a mouse with this gorgeous machine anyway, so it's not the end of the world. One of the best things about the Blade 15 is the number of configurations Razer offers. From the RTX 3060 Base Edition to the RTX 3080 Ti Advanced with a 144Hz 4K panel, there's something for almost everyone. It's one of the most beautiful gaming laptops around and still one of the most powerful. Whatever config you pick, we think the Razer Blade 15 is the overall best gaming laptop on the market right now, though you will be paying a premium for the now-classic design. Read our full Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition (2020) review. Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 6 (Image credit: Asus)Image 6 of 6 (Image credit: Future) 2. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) The best all-round gaming laptop CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS | GPU: Up to AMD Radeon RX 6800S | RAM: Up to 32GB DDR5-4800 | Screen: 14-inch IPS 1600p @ 120Hz | Storage: 1TB SSD NVMe PCIe 4.0 | Battery: 76Wh | Dimensions: 12.28 x 8.94 x 0.73 inches | Weight: 3.79lbs AMD's latest CPU and GPUFantastic gaming performanceSturdy and stylish chassis16:10, 2560 x 1440, 120Hz IPS panelNot as affordable as I'd expect from G14Disappointing gaming battery life Our favorite config: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (GA402RJ) | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS | AMD RX 6700S This is the less powerful version of the G14 than the one we reviewed, but all the better off for it. The CPU remains the same powerful octa-core AMD number, but the GPU and RAM have come down to a more modest spec, which makes the impressive G14 an affordable yet still powerful gaming machine.View Deal The new version of the Zephyrus G14 for 2022 impresses us once again with its well-balanced spec and excellent gaming performance. Seriously, this thing shreds through frames up to its 120Hz refresh rate, and it's great for much more than gaming, too. We checked out the version with AMD's RX 6800S under the hood, though there is an option for an RX 6700S, for a chunk less cash. Arguably, that cheaper option sounds a bit better to us, as the high-end one can get a little pricey and close in on the expensive but excellent Razer Blade 14. It's not helped much by its 32GB of DDR5-4800 RAM in that regard, though we do love having all that speedy memory raring to go for whatever you can throw at it. At its heart is the AMD Ryzen 6900HS. That's one of the top chips from AMD's Ryzen 6000-series, but not its best and brightest—though you're really fighting over boost clocks and not much else when it comes to the tippy top of the red team's mobile processors anyways. It delivers eight cores and 16 threads of the Zen 3+ architecture, capable of boosting to 4.9GHz (which it actually does on occasion), so that's more than acceptable by me. I'm heartily impressed with the G14's gaming performance overall. That GPU and CPU combo makes quick work of our benchmarking suite, however, and I have to say I'm heartily impressed with the G14's gaming performance overall. That's even without turning to the more aggressive Turbo preset—I tested everything with the standard Performance mode. It's able to top the framerate of RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 mobile chips pretty much across the board, and while it does slip below the RTX 3080 Ti in the Razer Blade 17, that's a much larger laptop with a much larger price tag. One of my favorite things about the G14 is in the name—it's a 14-inch laptop. The blend of screen real estate and compact size is a great in-between of bulkier 15- and 17-inch designs, and not quite as compromised as a 13-inch model can feel. But the big thing with the 2022 model is that the 14-inch size has been fitted out with a larger 16:10 aspect ratio than previous models' 16:9 panels. When it's running smoothly, the G14's high refresh and high-resolution panel also looks fantastic. Being such a bright and colorful IPS display on this model, you really get to soak in every detail. One of the downsides with this machine is the battery life, which really isn't the best while gaming—less than an hour while actually playing. You'll get more when playing videos or doing something boring like working, but we do expect a bit more from a modern laptop. It's not a deal-breaker, but definitely something you'll want to bear in mind. The G14 has lost that quality of being surprisingly cheap for what you get, too, even if you do get stellar performance out of it. Perhaps one reason for that is the inclusion of 32GB of DDR5 RAM—16GB of that is soldered to the board, and the other 16GB attached via removable SO-DIMM from the underside of the laptop. That's not cheap memory. DDR5 prices have hardly settled down since the memory standard was introduced last year, and 32GB is a bounty of high-performance memory by comparison to most gaming PCs today. Overall, though, the G14 experience is a pretty easy and straightforward one. I didn't run into any major issues with it over the couple of weeks I've had it, and for the few negatives I have with the design, Asus has offset them with heaps of positives. The cheaper models may be a better bet than the one we reviewed, however. The same chassis and great design but with a slightly more amicable price tag. Read our full Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2022 (GA402RK) review. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 4 (Image credit: Razer )Image 3 of 4 (Image credit: Razer )Image 4 of 4 (Image credit: Razer ) 3. Razer Blade 14 The most desirable compact gaming laptop CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | GPU: Up to Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti | RAM: 16GB DDR5-4800 | Screen: 14-inch 1080p @ 144Hz or 1440p @ 165Hz | Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD | Battery: 61.6Wh | Dimensions: 0.66 x 8.66 x 12.59 inches | Weight: 3.92lb Looks greatOutstanding build qualityExcellent all-round performanceUltra-portable ultrabook styleOnly way to bag a Razer RyzenPricey for 1080p gamingHigher-spec GPUs will sacrifice performance Our favorite config: Razer Blade 14 | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | Nvidia RTX 3060 As far as we're concerned, this is the ultimate configuration of the diminutive Blade 14. It's the most affordable, but it also matches the RTX 3060 GPU with a 1080p, 144Hz screen to deliver excellent gaming performance. The brand new 8-core, 16-thread AMD CPU then gives it workstation processing power too.View Deal I am mighty tempted to push the Razer Blade 14 further up the list, simply because the 14-inch form factor has absolutely won me over. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 in the No. 2 slot reintroduced the criminally under-used laptop design, but Razer has perfected it. Feeling noticeably smaller than the 15-inch Blade and closer to the ultrabook Stealth 13, the Blade 14 mixes a matte black MacBook Pro-style with genuine PC gaming pedigree. The Razer style is classic, and it feels great to hold, too. And with the outstanding AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX finally finding its way into a Blade notebook, you're getting genuine processing power you can sling into a messenger bag. And you're now able to get your hands on the Blade 14 with the brand new Ryzen 9 6900HX chip at its heart, though in practice that has changed very little apart from offering some decent integrated graphics. But add in some extra Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics power—now all the way up to an RTX 3080 Ti, but wear earplugs—and you've got a great mix of form and function that makes it the most desirable laptop I've maybe ever tested. My only issue is that the RTX 3080 Ti would be too limited by the diminutive 14-inch chassis and run a little loud. So I would then recommend the lower-spec GPU options, though if you're spending $1,800 on a notebook, that feels like too high for 1080p gaming. But you're not buying the Blade 14 specifically for outright performance and anything else; this is about having all the power you need in a form factor that works for practical mobility. The PC is all about choice, and Razer has finally given us the choice to use an AMD CPU in its machines. The PC is all about choice, and Razer has finally given us the choice to use an AMD CPU in its machines, although it would be great if we had the option elsewhere in its range of laptops. It's notable that we've heard nothing about a potential Blade 14 using an AMD discrete Radeon GPU alongside that Ryzen CPU. Ah well. Forgetting the politics a second, the Razer Blade 14 itself is excellent, and is one of the most desirable gaming laptops I've had in my hands this year. Maybe ever. The criminally underused 14-inch form factor also deserves to become one of the biggest sellers in Razer's extensive lineup of laptops. And if this notebook becomes the success it ought to be, then the company may end up having to make some difficult choices about what CPUs it offers, and where. The choice you have to make, though, is which graphics card to go with. Sure, the RTX 3080 Ti is quicker, but it leaves a lot more gaming performance on the workshop floor. That's why the cheaper RTX 3060, with its full-blooded frame rates, gets my vote every day. Read our full Razer Blade 14 review. Best Razer laptop for gaming | Best Acer laptop for gaming | Best MSI laptop for gaming| Best gaming keyboard | Best gaming mouse | Best gaming chair Image 1 of 7 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 7 (Image credit: Lenovo)Image 3 of 7 (Image credit: Lenovo)Image 4 of 7 (Image credit: Lenovo)Image 5 of 7 (Image credit: Lenovo)Image 6 of 7 (Image credit: Lenovo)Image 7 of 7 (Image credit: Lenovo) 4. Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16" AMD) The best high-refresh QHD gaming laptop CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | GPU: Up to Nvidia RTX 3070 | RAM: Up to 32GB DDR4 | Screen: 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 | Storage: Up to 2 TB M.2 SSD | Battery: 86Wh | Dimensions: 14.01 x 10.4 x 1.1 inches | Weight: 5.4lbs Excellent 165Hz QHD screen Great keyboardDecent value for money Poor mic and speakers 720p webcam Our favorite config: Lenovo Legion Pro 5 | AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | Nvidia RTX 3070 You can pick up the RTX 3060 model for less, but it's the RTX 3070 model with a 2TB SSD that makes for a better pairing with the high-refresh QHD panel. Throw in the eight-core Ryzen 7 5800H, and you have everything you need to handle all manner of tasks and enjoy serious high-end gaming. View Deal The Legion Pro 5 proves that AMD is absolutely a serious competitor in the gaming laptop space. Pairing the mobile Ryzen 7 5800H with the RTX 3070 results in a laptop that not only handles modern games with ease, but that can turn its hand at more serious escapades too. The QHD 16:10 165Hz screen is a genuine highlight here and one that makes gaming and just using Windows a joy. It's an IPS panel with a peak brightness of 500nits too, so you're not going to be left wanting whether you're gaming or watching movies. The Legion Pro 5 really is a beast when it comes to gaming too, with that high-powered RTX 3070 (with a peak delivery of 140W it's faster than some 3080s) being a great match for that vibrant screen. You're going to be able to run the vast majority of games at the native 2560 x 1600 resolution at the max settings and not miss a beat. The fact that you can draw on DLSS and enjoy some ray tracing extras for the money all helps to make this an incredibly attractive package. This is a lovely laptop to actually type on too. Folks have always gushed about how good Lenovo keyboards are; I always ignored them because I don't trust people that are too into keyboards. But, I will admit, I think I get it. The rounded bottom keycaps have a nice feel to them. Add that with the large 4.7 x 3-inch touchpad, and you've got yourself a lovely work laptop that plays games well. I wish other laptop makers would take advantage of the added space of 17-inch gaming laptops and use it to make our lives easier. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5 made me realize that Legion laptops deserve a spot at the top. If anything knocks the Legion 5 Pro, it would have to be its rather underwhelming speakers and microphone combo. Anything with a hint of bass tends to suffer, which is a shame. The microphone was another surprising disappointment. My voice, I was told, sounded distant and quiet during work calls, which paired with a mediocre 720p webcam doesn't make for the best experience. I will commend the Legion for fitting a webcam on a screen with such a small top bezel though—A for effort. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5 made me realize that Legion laptops deserve a spot at the top, being one of the more impressive AMD-powered laptops we've gotten our hands on recently. From the bright, colorful screen to the great feeling full-sized keyboard, The Legion Pro 5 has everything you want in a gaming laptop for a lot less than the competition manages. Read our full Lenovo Legion 5 Pro review. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 4 (Image credit: MSI)Image 3 of 4 (Image credit: MSI)Image 4 of 4 (Image credit: MSI) 5. MSI GS66 Stealth The most stylish gaming laptop CPU: Up to Core i9 12900H | GPU: Up to Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti | RAM: Up to 32GB DDR5-4800 | Screen: 15.6-inch 1080p 240Hz or 300Hz | Storage: Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD | Battery: 99.9Wh | Dimensions: 9.76 x 14.1 x 0.77 inches | Weight: 4.63lbs Sleek and powerfulLong battery life1440p options on the wayGets loudSlim chassis compromises fps Our favorite config: MSI GS66 Stealth | Intel Core i7 | Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti | 1TB SSD | 16GB RAM One of our biggest issues with the GS66 was that it was trying to pack too much into its slight chassis. With this RTX 3060 version, however, you get all the style, a still powerful 1080p GPU, and a far more affordable gaming laptop into the bargain.View Deal The MSI GS66 is one hell of a machine: It's sleek, slick, and powerful. But it's not Nvidia Ampere's power without compromise, however. MSI has had to be a little parsimonious about its power demands to pack something as performant as an RTX 3080 into an 18mm thin chassis. The top GPU is the 95W version, which means it only just outperforms a fully unleashed RTX 3070, the sort you'll find in the Gigabyte Aorus 15G XC. But it is still an astonishingly powerful slice of mobile graphics silicon. It can get a little loud, but thankfully, you have the benefits of all the Nvidia Max-Q 3.0 features at your disposal. This includes Whisper Mode 2.0, which will bring gaming down to barely audible levels, for when you want to be stealthy. The GS66 also comes with an outstanding 240Hz 1440p panel, which perfectly matches the powerful GPU when it comes to games. Sure, you'll have to make some compromises compared to an RTX 3080 you might find in a hulking workstation, but the MSI GS66 Stealth is a genuinely slimline gaming laptop. It's seriously thin. It's a shame laptop manufacturers are seemingly just content to use old chassis and cooling designs for their new Nvidia-based gaming laptops. Things are getting ever more thermally constrained when it comes to performance because new hardware is being dropped into old designs. This is the compromise with the GS66, and you have to be absolutely invested in having a low-profile gaming laptop to make it worth paying the price. And remember, that price is paid both in frame rates and in dollar bills. Nvidia's new suite of Max Q goodies help, although it's a shame they are likely to be overlooked as manufacturers fail to offer consistent messaging about them and users aren't necessarily going to go digging into exactly how they all work. But they do work, and this latest tranche of gaming laptops will absolutely be the best we've ever seen. Unfortunately, it might just be tougher than ever to figure out exactly which machine is right for you. There's a lot to love about the latest MSI GS66. This implicitly means there is also a lot that will frustrate. The overall machine is rather lovely—it's seriously thin, especially for a gaming laptop, and comes with some seriously tasty internal specs too, but there are places where it feels like it might have benefitted from a little extra design time. Read our full MSI GS66 Stealth review. Image 1 of 5 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 5 (Image credit: ACER)Image 3 of 5 (Image credit: ACER)Image 4 of 5 (Image credit: ACER)Image 5 of 5 (Image credit: ACER) 6. Acer Predator Helios 300 A quality, affordable 240Hz gaming laptop CPU: Up to Intel Core i7 12th Gen | GPU: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 | RAM: Up to 32GB DDR5-4800 | Screen: 15.6-inch IPS 1080p @ 240Hz | Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD | Battery: 58Wh | Dimensions: 10.01 x 14.23 x 0.9 inches | Weight: 5.51lbs Great performance for the priceDecent battery lifeRoom for 2x SSDs, 1x HDDAverage CPU performance Our favorite config: Acer Predator Helios 300 | Intel Core i7 11800H | Nvidia RTX 3060 The Helios 300 makes the most sense as a focused budget gaming laptop, and this Intel 11th Gen take on the brand nails that brief. The RTX 3060 affords plenty of gaming prowess and makes for a great pairing for the 144Hz 1080p screen. Throw in a healthy 16GB of RAM and a speedy 512GB SSD and you have a great budget gaming machine. View Deal We loved Acer's Predator Helios 300 during the GTX 10-series era, and the current generation Helios still manages to punch above its weight class compared to other $1,500 laptops. It may not be the best gaming laptop, but it's one of the best value machines around. The newest version of the Helios packs an RTX 3060 GPU and a sleeker form factor without raising the price significantly. It also has a 144Hz screen and smaller bezels, putting it more in line with sleek thin-and-lights than its more bulky brethren of the previous generation. The only real drawback is the diminutive SSD, although the laptop has slots for two SSDs and an HDD, which makes upgrading your storage as easy as getting a screwdriver. You often need to get handy with the upgrades at this end of the price spectrum, and the Helios 300 is no different in that respect. If you're desperate for just that little bit of extra gaming performance and hang the sense of it—or the sound and fury of it—the Turbo button is Acer's one-touch GPU overclocking feature. The Predator laptops have this simple feature designed to eke out as much extra gaming performance as possible. In theory, it's a neat feature but much as we saw with the Predator Triton earlier this year, you really only get about a 1-3% increase in performance. It also makes your system run very hot and distractingly loud. Honestly, I really don't think it's worth it unless you're truly militant about maximizing your frames per second. Or have a really good noise-canceling gaming headset. But for its $1,500 sticker price, the 15-inch Predator Helios 300 provides high-end 1080p gaming performance at a mid-range price. Even without the dubious utility of the Turbo button. The design changes are small but smart—like the power cord in the back instead of the side, having room for three storage drives, and the price/performance ratio is great. And that all makes the Acer Predator Helios 300 a strong contender for one of the best gaming laptops around. Read our full Acer Predator Helios 300 review. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 3 (Image credit: Asus)Image 3 of 3 (Image credit: Asus) 7. Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 (2022) The best big-screen gaming laptop CPU: Up to Intel Core i9 12900H | GPU: Up to Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti | RAM: Up to 32GB DDR5-4800 | Screen: 17.3-inch 1080p @ 360Hz or 1440p @ 240Hz | Storage: Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD | Battery: 90Wh | Dimensions: 11.1 x 15.55 x 0.92 inches | Weight: 6.39lbs Flashy but not obnoxiousOptomechanical keyboardQuiet coolingIncredible screen refresh rateFantastic battery17-inch screen makes it large Our favorite config: Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 | Intel Core i9 12900H | Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti You don't get much more high-performance than this beast of a laptop. With Intel's speedy P-Cores making short work of whatever you throw at them, and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti forming an incredibly potent core, hooked up to a 360Hz 1080p display, this is portable gaming nirvana. Yes, it's expensive, but this is the pinnacle of high-end gaming. View Deal There's absolutely no question you can buy a much more sensible gaming laptop than this, but there is something about the excesses of the ROG Strix Scar 17 that make it incredibly appealing. It feels like everything about it has been turned up to 11, from the overclocked CPU—which is as beastly as it gets—to the gorgeously speedy 360Hz screen on the top model. Asus has pushed that little bit harder than most to top our gaming laptop benchmarks. And top the benchmarks of the best gaming laptops it does, thanks in the main to the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti that can be found beating away at its heart. This is the 150W version of Nvidia's new Ampere GPU, which means it's capable of hitting the kind of figures thinner machines can only dream of. You can draw on Nvidia's excellent DLSS, where implemented, to help hit ridiculous frame rates, too. And if that's not enough, you can also grab this machine kitted out with an RTX 3080 Ti too. The 17-inch chassis means the components have a bit more room to breathe compared to the competition too, and coupled with the excellent cooling system, you're looking at a cool and quiet slice of gaming perfection. This extra space has allowed Asus to squeeze an optomechanical keyboard onto the Scar 17, which is a delight for gaming and more serious pursuits. Importantly, all this power comes at a cost not only to the temperatures but also to the battery life. Sure, you're not as likely to play games with the thing unplugged, but if you ever have to, an hour is all you get. I'm not enamored with the touchpad either, while we're nit-picking. I keep trying to click the space beneath it, and my poor, callous fingers keep forgetting where the edges are. This particular model doesn't come with a camera either, which is a glaring omission for the price, and there's a distinct lack of USB Type-A ports for the unnecessary arsenal of peripherals I'm packing. There are a couple of USB Type-C ports around the back to make up for it, though, and I'm happy there's a full-sized keyboard. For a machine with a 17-inch chassis, it doesn't weigh the world and doesn't need two power adapters to work to its full potential either. Such gripes are easy to overlook when Asus has managed to pack such an immense config in here. The frankly unnecessary 32GB of DDR5-4800 RAM and that 2TB SSD are awesome, but a bit over the top for most mortals. For a machine with a 17-inch chassis, it doesn't weigh the world and doesn't need two power adapters to work to its full potential either. For that, it doesn't feel as much like a hulking desktop replacement as we've seen. And that's okay. Particularly when you crown a portable machine like this off with a 1440p, 240Hz IPS panel with 3ms response time, which also does a smashing job of reducing glare. While you could get a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro with its RTX 3070 for half the price, spending $2,999 on this Strix Scar config will put you ahead of the competition with very little effort. And sure, it's not as stylish or as apt with ray tracing as the Blade 17, but there's a good $1,000 price difference there. And for something that can outpace the laptops of yesteryear in almost every running, I'd pay that price for sure. Read our full Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733 review. Image 1 of 5 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 5 (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 5 (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 5 (Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 5 (Image credit: Future) 8. Alienware m17 R5 AMD (2022) The best big-screen gaming laptop CPU: Up to AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | GPU: Up to AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT | RAM: Up to 64GB DDR5-4800 | Screen: 17.3-inch 1080p @ 240Hz, 360Hz, 480Hz or 4K @ 120Hz | Storage: Up to 4TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD | Battery: 97Wh | Dimensions: 11.7 x 15.64 x 0.89 inches | Weight: 7.3lbs Great 4K displayExcellent 1080p gaming performanceNeat AMD exclusive featuresLots of spec optionsUnderwhelming CPU performanceReally bad battery life. Like, really badAMD really struggles with ray tracing in games Our favorite config: Alienware m17 R5 AMD | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT | 1080p | 240Hz | The config I suggest is a little less overkill than what was reviewed. Instead of the 4K display, a speedier 1080p 240Hz display is a better fit in order to maximize frames on some of your favorite games and save a couple of bucks. View Deal One thing I love about Alienware is the company's unrelenting confidence in its new products. Whether that's boasting about a desktop being a "Benchmark Bruiser" or releasing one of the slickest OLED gaming monitors to date. So, when I get offered the chance to check out the new Alienware m17 R5 it has dubbed "the most powerful 17-inch AMD Advantage gaming laptop," how can I pass that up? Powering the Alienware m17 R5 is an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX and Radeon RX 6850M XT combo that, on paper, seems like a slam dunk for Team Red. It's also the first gaming laptop we've tested with an RX 6850M XT, and so I was stoked to see how it stacked up against laptops with an RTX 3070 Ti and even RTX 3080 Ti mobile GPUs. The surprisingly bright 500cd/m² 4K display got a lot of use for streaming video. I appreciate seeing the detailed stress lines on Guenther Steiner's face in the last season of F1: Drive to Survive in 4K on Netflix. Games look pretty good, though this display is better served for professionals and creatives. So if you don't fall into that category, you may be better off sticking with the 1080p display at 240Hz to save money and add time to your much-needed battery life. This laptop also takes advantage of AMD's suite of game-boosting technologies, such as SmartAccess Graphics, which automatically switches your output from the Ryzen APU and Radeon GPU, along with Smartshift Max, which automatically shifts around your power depending on what app or game you're using. The good thing about these features is that they just work without you messing with them. All nice features, especially if you are bouncing between gaming and, let's say, video editing and trying to eke out extra horsepower. On the GPU side, the Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage model excelled at nearly all our gaming benchmarks at 1080p on mostly maxed-out settings. On the GPU side, the Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage model excelled at nearly all our gaming benchmarks at 1080p on mostly maxed-out settings. It hit triple-digit framerates in nearly all the games I played, with a Hitman 3 average of just over 200 fps. If you value frame rate over resolution, the m17 R5 easily delivers over 100 fps frames on most games at 1080p. Even Cyberpunk was hitting around 128 fps (with FSR turned on). The high 120Hz refresh rate on the display means you'll run into little to no screen tearing. Because of the drastically higher frame rates, I played more games at 1080p than 4K. If you're playing a shooter like Apex Legends or Fortnite, that's the way to go, which makes the 4K display a bit redundant much of the time. The Alienware m17 R5 might not be the most powerful gaming laptop ever, but it isn't through lack of trying. Even with the CPU performance lagging behind some of its rivals, the m17 R5 makes up the deficit with impressive gaming results. The 4K display is great for anyone watching movies or working, but you could save a few hundred dollars by scaling down some of the more expensive components and score yourself a really solid 1080p gaming laptop. Read our full Alienware m17 R5 AMD review. Best gaming laptop FAQ What's the most important gaming laptop component?When it comes to gaming, the obvious answer is the graphics card, but that's where things have gotten a little more complicated recently. With GPU performance now so dependent on cooling, you have to pay attention to what wattage a graphics card is limited to and what chassis it's squeezed into. As we said at the top, an RTX 3080 confined in an 18mm chassis will perform markedly slower than one in a far chunkier case with room for higher performance cooling. Should I worry about what the CPU in a gaming laptop is?That really depends on what you want to do with your laptop. An 8-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen chip will allow you to do a whole load of productivity on the road, but honestly, it will have little benefit in gaming. That's one of the reasons Intel has launched its Tiger Lake H35 chips; they're quad-core, 8-thread CPUs, but they're clocked high to deliver high-end gaming performance when paired with something like the RTX 3070. What screen size is best for a gaming laptop?This will arguably have the most immediate impact on your choice of the build. Picking the size of your screen basically dictates the size of your laptop. A 13-inch machine will be a thin-and-light ultrabook, while a 17-inch panel almost guarantees workstation stuff. At 15-inches, you're looking at the most common size of the gaming laptop screen. Are high refresh rate panels worth it for laptops?We love high refresh rate screens here, and while you cannot guarantee your RTX 3060 will deliver 300 fps in the latest games, you'll still see a benefit in general look and feel running a 300Hz display. Should I get a 4K screen in my laptop?Nah. 4K gaming laptops are overkill; they're fine for video editing if you're dealing with 4K content, but it's not the optimal choice for games. The standard 1080p resolution means that the generally slower mobile GPUs are all but guaranteed high frame rates, while companies are slowly drip-feeding 1440p panels into their laptop ranges. A 1440p screen offers the perfect compromise between high resolution and decent gaming performance. At the same time, a 4K notebook will overstress your GPU and tax your eyeballs as you squint at your 15-inch display. Where are the laptops with AMD graphics cards?Your guess is as good as ours. A few gaming laptop SKUs offered the RX 5000-series cards, but they were thin on the ground. But AMD has promised RX 6000, Big Navi mobile GPUs will be on their way to gaming laptops in the first half of this year, but so far we haven't seen them in the labs. View the full article

Strike it big in the Season of Plunder (Image credit: Bungie)Destiny 2 map fragments: How to get treasure maps Destiny 2 Delicate Tomb: Grab the new season exotic Destiny 2 Cryptic Quatrains: Solve the riddles Destiny 2 Fortnite Armor: Get it for free Touch of Malice is the newest Destiny 2 exotic in the Season of Plunder, added alongside the returning King's Fall raid that's free to all players. This life-stealing scout rifle is from the original game's Taken King expansion, and it has a pretty thematic ability. When you get down to the last shot in its magazine, Touch of Malice drains health for increased damage, before regenerating that fired shot. Rapidly defeating three targets will also grant health. As you'd imagine, with the healing grenades, rifts, and wells that also exist in Destiny now, this is a really strong weapon. Destiny 2's Touch of Malice also has a new secondary skill: rapidly dealing precision damage charges a Taken blight that you can fire to blind enemies. Since a big part of arc 3.0 is about blinding and defeating blinded enemies, this should have a lot of utility. That said, here's what you need to do for a chance to get Touch of Malice. Destiny 2 Touch of Malice: How to get the exotic scout rifle Image 1 of 2 Touch of Malice is a powerful scout rifle (Image credit: Bungie)Image 2 of 2 You can find the King's Fall raid in the Legends destination (Image credit: Bungie) You can only get Touch of Malice through the King's Fall raid, but the good news is that the raid is free to all players. Just like most other raid exotic weapons, this scout rifle only drops from the final encounter with Oryx, and even then, the chance that you'll actually get it is relatively slim. You also only get one opportunity per character, per week, for Touch of Malice to drop, similar to Heartshadow in Duality. Sadly, unlike Duality, there isn't a way to boost your drop chances by completing triumphs and challenges in the activity. You'll just have to run the raid many times, and hope that you get lucky. Getting the Touch of Malice catalyst is far more elaborate, however, as you can see in this video from SneakyBeaver: The catalyst means that rapid precision hits increase reload speed and stability, which is pretty good when you're trying to get those three rapid kills for the regen. View the full article

The best gaming chairs will give you somewhere to rest easy as you do whatever it is you do at your gaming desk. A good gaming chair should be sturdy, ergonomic, and customizable to your needs—otherwise you're going to end up uncomfortable and likely quite irritated. Below, we've chosen the best gaming chairs that don't compromise on comfort or style, and that passed the rigorous testing we did (with our butts). In finding the best gaming chair for you, keep your spine in mind. Your body is a delicate fleshy meatbag that needs to be looked after properly. Consider chairs that provide the best back support for your frame. You might even think about consulting a doctor to see if you need extra-special lumbar support, neck pillows, or—I kid you not—built-in back massagers. A good chair might set you back a bit, but it'll be a great investment in terms of its ergonomic benefits. When you first start your search, you'll notice gaming chairs come in some intense designs: racing car seats, thrones covered in satanic runes, even gaming chairs that show off your preference in super heroes. If you're looking for something a little more reserved, we've also added some low-key yet stylish office chairs to the list. The Herman Miller X Logitech G Embody, is the envy of all Silicon Valley, and offers the support you want out of a gaming chair, without all the gamery aesthetics. We've tested dozens of gaming chairs from today's most reliable companies and every single chair in this guide has passed under our collective butts. And while you could always go the cheap gaming chair route, a chair from this guide is worth saving up for—treat your posterior to something special on a daily basis. Best gaming chairs Image 1 of 9 (Image credit: Future - PCGamer)Image 2 of 9 (Image credit: Future - PCGamer)Image 3 of 9 (Image credit: Future - PCGamer)Image 4 of 9 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 5 of 9 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 6 of 9 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 7 of 9 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 8 of 9 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 9 of 9 (Image credit: Secretlab) 1. Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 The best gaming chair made even better Seat type: Racing back, levelled seat base | Recline: 165 degrees | Weight capacity: Up to 180kg (397lbs, XL size only) | Weight: 37.5kg (83lbs) | Warranty: 3-year Magnetic cushion and coversVery comfortableEverything we want in a gaming chair feature-wisePricier than older Secretlab chairs3-year warranty isn't a match for some ergo chairs The Secretlab Titan is the benchmark by which we judge all other gaming chairs. To earn that role it ticked all the boxes you could ask of gaming furniture: it's comfy, supportive, and importantly looks great too. None of that has changed with the new Secretlab Titan Evo 2022, either, though it does pack a few great new features to keep ahead of the pack. Rather than tread old ground, let's get right into the new stuff. Secretlab is posing the new Titan Evo 2022 to a wider audience this time, with three new available sizes of the Titan Evo 2022 available. These are small, regular, and extra large. The benefit of this being you'll no longer need to look to a different model of chair to find the right fit—the Titan Evo 2022 should cover most bases. On a similar note, Secretlab has added a minor curve to the seat base that it says is to keep you in a healthy sitting posture. It's kind of hard to say whether such a gentle curvature is really doing much to keep me locked securely in place throughout the day, though the seat is plenty comfortable all the same with plenty of foam padding. User-friendly ergonomics make the Titan Evo 2022 a great fit for long nights gaming or eight hours tapping away for work, and that comes down to its superb built-in back support. It's highly adjustable, which means you can nail down a great fit with ease. There's also something to be said for the 4D armrests, comfortable seat rest, and magnetic head cushion. You read that right, a magnetic head cushion. A simple solution to fiddly straps, the Titan Evo 2022 does away with all that with a couple of powerful magnets. You can actually tweak the Titan Evo's lumbar support while you're still sat on it. A big part of the Titan Evo's high level of comfort is the adjustable lumbar support, and it's a pretty neat system it offers. It works by extending and retracting an internal support both in and out and up and down, through the use of the two dials on the side. So not only are you not relying on an awkward pillow to prop up your back, you can actually tweak the Titan Evo's lumbar support while you're still sat on it. This makes it exceptionally easy to get just right. The chair is also upholstered immaculately. While there's still something to be said for the SoftWeave Plus fabric we've rated best for durability and comfort all these years, I have to say I'm quite taken with the look of the leatherette, and especially the bright red stitching. I'll have to get back to you on actual durability when I've had longer with the chair, perhaps when the Titan Evo 2024 comes out I can tell you if it truly stands the test of time. Still, I can note how surprisingly airy and cool the leatherette fabric feels over the course of a day, and it certainly looks absolutely stunning. As an amalgamation of both Titan and Omega gaming chairs, the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 feels the better of both in every regard. What each chair has done so well, the Titan Evo 2022 manages to equal or better. It is slightly pricier than its predecessors at $449 ($499 for the XL model), but I feel that the upgrades it delivers are genuinely worth the higher price tag. Read our full Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 review. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: SecretLab)Image 2 of 3 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 3 of 3 (Image credit: Secretlab) 2. Secretlab Omega The more affordable Secretlab chair Seat type: Racing seat | Recline: 165 degrees | Weight capacity: 109kg (240lbs) | Weight: 30kg (66lbs) | Warranty: 3-year Velour memory foam pillowsVersatile tilt mechanism Lacking height adjustment on head pillow I know the Secretlab Omega is not a mattress, but bear with me. When it comes to mattresses, most people are willing to spend a little bit more for a quality product. That's because they know they'll be spending a sizeable portion of the 24-hour day laying in it. If the recent influx of gaming chair manufacturers is any indication, gamers have that same mentality when it comes to outfitting their PC setup with a chair. The Secretlab Omega is one of the most finely constructed chairs we've tested. Although it has largely been replaced by the Titan Evo 2022 above, the higher price tag of that chair might see the Omega remain a popular option for those looking to save a little cash. From the casters to the base, the lift mechanism, armrests, and seat back, Secretlab has used some of the best materials available. The Omega was upgraded with Secretlab's 2020 series of improvements, which includes premium metal in the armrest mechanism, making it silky smooth to adjust and even more durable, and adding the company's ridiculously durable PU Leather 2.0. So comfortable that we could smoothly fully recline the chair and take a nap. The chair features a high-quality, cold-cured foam to provide support. It feels a little firm at first but gets more comfortable after extended use. The Omega stands out from the crowd with its velour memory foam lumbar and head pillows. These are so comfortable that we could smoothly fully recline the chair and take a nap if we wanted to. Though that's not a great look in the office... If you're looking to treat your body with a chair that will genuinely last, the Secretlab Omega is worth every penny. You may not allocate as much of your rig budget as you would to a nice graphics card, but the best chairs for gaming can easily outlive your components and last a decade or more. The Omega is an extremely tough and sturdy piece of foam built to last. We've spent several months in the Secretlab Omega now, and the seat cushion feels just like it did when it was new. The one drawback with this is that the seat sacrifices some of its softness to support heavy usage over the years. Secretlab's not-so-secret formula for success involves cutting out the third party. The company sells directly to customers rather than dealing with retailers and distributors. This allows it to pass its savings on and offer a premium product at a very reasonable price. It also removes at least one extra shipping trip from the equation, reducing the likelihood of damaged goods. Read our full Secretlab Omega review. Image 1 of 5 (Image credit: Herman Miller, Logitech)Image 2 of 5 (Image credit: Herman Miller, Logitech)Image 3 of 5 (Image credit: Herman Miller, Logitech)Image 4 of 5 (Image credit: Herman Miller, Logitech)Image 5 of 5 (Image credit: Herman Miller, Logitech) 3. Logitech G x Herman Miller Embody The best ergonomic gaming chair Seat type: Task chair | Material: Multi-layer fabric | Seat height: 17–22 inch | Weight capacity: 136kg (300lbs) | Weight: 23kg (51lbs) | Warranty: 12-year Stimulates blood and oxygen flowUnrivaled back support12-year/24hr use warrantyJaw-droppingly expensive compared to mostNo headrest to speak of Perhaps you've heard of the Herman Miller Embody. It occupied a top position in our best office chair roundup for a long time, but that has come to an end. Not for lack of comfort or acclaim, simply because the famed chair manufacturer has partnered up with Logitech to create something tailor-made to our gaming rumps. For the most part, the Herman Miller x Logitech G Embody actually isn't a complete departure from the Embody of old. A tried, tested, and widely recognized design, the gaming Embody comes in a new black and blue colorway, with plain black also available if you're going for a more sober/edgelord look. There's also a small Logitech G brand toggle on the rear, that doesn't serve any purpose that I know of and a Logitech G logo across the upper band of the backrest. I'm not sure the Logitech collab is bringing a lot to the party, but the branding is notably light touch next to the racing style gaming chairs that we're used to as PC gamers, and it feels classy as a result. It's not so much the changes that make the Embody stand out as one of the best gaming chairs going. It's what's been kept the same. The tried and tested Embody design is simply one of the best chairs for office work or gaming. It's incredibly comfortable over prolonged use, supports an active and healthy posture, and is easily fitted to your frame. The chair was fully assembled so there was no fussing with screws or throwaway tools. Yet I wasn't sure what to expect of the Embody before it arrived. I certainly hadn't envisioned such a massive box turning up on my doorstep. First impressions, then, entirely focused on how I was going to get said box up two flights of narrow steps leading up to my apartment. That massive box hides what is perhaps one of the Herman Miller's best features. After deciding that I had to cut the chair out of the box with a knife in my hallway, I discovered the chair was fully assembled so there was no fussing with screws or throwaway tools, which is something of a pet peeve of mine. (I'm amassing third-rate Allen keys from cheap flatpack furniture and I can't help but feel there's got to be a better way.) The most immediately noticeable trait of this chair: You can sit in it all day and not feel a moment of discomfort beneath your tush. You may shift around your top half into all sorts of absolutely not ergonomic positions during the day but your bottom half tends to stay stuck in place at a desk, so it's important to get that just right. Thankfully, the Embody does. The warranty, too, is a standout feature. At 12 years, including labor, and rated for 24-hour use over that time, it's a chair that is guaranteed to last you over a decade, if not longer. So while the initial price tag may seem steep, and that it is, the reality is you're certain to get your money's worth in the long run. And your back will be thankful for it, too. Read our full Herman Miller Logitech G Embody review. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 2 of 4 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 3 of 4 (Image credit: Secretlab)Image 4 of 4 (Image credit: Secretlab) 4. NeueChair The best office chair for gaming Seat type: Task chair | Recline: 85–130 degrees | Weight capacity: 108kg (240lbs) | Weight: 29kg (64lbs) | Warranty: 12-year Ridiculously sturdy and well madeComfortable and supportiveHighly adjustableUninspiring design doesn't scream high-end If you're the sort of person who prioritizes functionality over flash, the NeueChair is an excellent option. This isn't to say it's not stylish—quite the opposite; the NeueChair comes in a sleek, muted obsidian or flashy chrome/silver, both with bold, sweet curved supports on the back and an attractive black mesh. But, more importantly, the NeueChair is built to last, with a heavy, sturdy industrial construction. Even the chair's weight in the packaging indicates a solid piece of carefully constructed industrial art: it's heavy and substantial. Assembling it is a breeze, as it comes in two discrete pieces and is simply a matter of inserting the casters and then pushing the two parts together. Almost every aspect of the seat is adjustable, from the armrests to the lumbar support system that lets you change the height depth of the backrest. It's one of the best office chairs I've ever had the pleasure to sit in, and if you can afford the admittedly steep price tag, well worth the investment. Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 6 (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 6 (Image credit: Andaseat)Image 5 of 6 (Image credit: Andaseat)Image 6 of 6 (Image credit: Andaseat) 5. AndaSeat Kaiser 3 XL The best gaming chair for a larger frame Seat type: Racing seat | Recline: 90–165 degrees | Weight capacity: 180kg (397lbs) | Weight: 34kg (75lbs) | Warranty: 6-year Adjustable lumbar support4D armrestsLarge seat sizePlacement of the lumbar support knobs isn't ideal The Kaiser 3 XL is a fantastic chair for anyone looking for a little more wiggle room than your usual gaming seat. The Kaiser 3 comes in two sizes: large and extra large. The large accommodate gamers 4’11 to 6’2’’ (150-190cm) and the extra large is for gamers 5’11” to 6’9” (181-210cm). The one I have the pleasure of experiencing is an extra large. The width of the extra large is for medium to XXXL, so whether you have a gluteus maximus or a gluteus minimus this chair will fit. The Kaiser 3 is really into giving options. This chair is available in two types of materials, premium PVC leather and linen fabric. The premium leather comes in seven different colors, including orange, pink and blue. The linen fabric comes in two colors; carbon black and ash gray. The chair I've been testing is the premium PVC leather elegant black which resembles the Jungle 2. The Jungle 2 is seen with orange accents. All of these things are cool, right? It’s great that the Kaiser 3 reclines to 165 degrees, it has two levers, one controls the tilt, the other controls the height of the chair raising it about three inches. These things are all great for comfort. The armrests are magnetic and are made of a PU foam that makes them easy to lean on. What I really want to get into is the Kaiser 3's really cool features that add to maximum comfort like the 4D armrests. Much like the Secretlab Titan Evo chair we love, the armrests are magnetic and are made of a PU foam that makes them easy to lean on. There are three buttons on the armrest, the one placed on the outside of the armrest controls the height of it. The button on the inside of the chair near the tip of the armrest allows it to go forward and backward and pivot left to right. The last one located underneath the armrest moves it left to right. I love a 4D armrest, especially when the chair reclines backward and tilts forward because it allows me to adjust the armrest for the position I’m sitting in. Nothing makes me more nervous than dangling elbows. It's like leaving your foot hanging off the bed at night. You just know something is going to grab it. Continuing with the magnetic theme is the neck pillow, another stellar feature. This one is a game changer, I can’t even lie. I am amazed at this magnetic neck pillow. That means no straps, no struggling to clip it through the backrest. BAM! Slap that baby on the chair like you’re in a Flex Tape commercial and it stays. Beyond it being a really cool feature, its helpful if you are shorter than the 5’11” that’s recommended for this chair because it’s easily adjustable further up or down on the chair. It being magnetic doesn’t take away from its comfort, either. The neck pillow is made with memory foam and has cooling technology to maintain comfort. Notice anything missing? Maybe a lumbar support pillow. That’s the cool thing! There is no lumbar support pillow, but there is lumbar support—it’s built into the chair. And controlled by two knobs placed on the left and right sides of the chair. As far as accessibility goes, they’re not placed in the best positions. But the knob on the left controls the lumbar support moving up and down. Which is, again, a great function depending on your height. The knob on the right side of the chair determines the firmness of the lumbar support and how much it protrudes out of the chair. When I turn the knob toward me I get more lumbar support. The lumbar support recedes into the chair when I turn it away from me. Neat. Seriously, I can sit in this all day. Plus there’s a feature being released in June, a magnetic tray table panel that snaps into the armrest. A portable desk sounds dope, well a lot more dope than a gaming high chair, which it also looks like. Read our full Andaseat Kaiser 3 XL review. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: Noblechairs)Image 2 of 3 (Image credit: Noblechairs)Image 3 of 3 (Image credit: Noblechairs) 6. Noblechairs Hero The best gaming chair for back support Seat type: Racing seat | Recline: 90–135 degrees | Weight capacity: 150kg (330lbs) | Weight: 28kg (62lbs) | Warranty: 2-year Great for lumbar supportIdeal for larger framesHas a firm seat and back-restA bit firm for comfortArmrests could be comfier When buying a gaming chair, it's easy to forget your health. After all, most are advertised as luxurious, cushioned thrones that soothe your every ache as you smash the crap out of your foes in Apex Legends. But that isn't true, and for some, it's important to pick a chair that takes back support seriously. With some of the team having used it daily for almost a year, we can thoroughly recommend the Noblechairs Hero in uPVC leather. While not the most exciting of chairs, or the sportiest, it certainly does a good job of taking care of your back. The Hero is easy to assemble, except for the bit where you attach the back to the seat, so make sure you have a buddy for that. It's firm and supportive, and extremely sturdy. As a word of warning: it is substantial, so if you prefer a softer chair that isn't as good for your lumbar, this maybe isn't for you. The sheer presence of the Hero gaming chair is staggering. Honestly, the sheer presence of the Hero gaming chair is staggering. The seat's cold-cure pressed foam means it’s firm yet comfortable. You don’t sink right into it, which helps with posture, and it will soften over time, but it certainly complements the aesthetic (hard look = brutal). But that base support means it’s still good for long gaming sessions—or working from home in your heathen temple. Either way, what it lacks in softness, it makes up for in support. I love the pivoting armrests, so you can jimmy them out of the way when you want to use a gamepad, and they’re fully height and width adjustable too, which is great for us little people. Also having such a wide armrest is great, but I find myself leaning on the corner a lot, not making full use of them, and at the same time tiring my elbow out. I’d personally prefer padded armrests, but at least they don’t get sticky or slippery when you’re attempting to flex on your favorite horror FPS franchise. The chair is height adjustable (as should all chairs be), and the backrest has a ‘rake mechanism’ so you can adjust the angle with its handbrake lookin’ contraption, and a completely independent ‘lock tilt’ mechanism so you can rock freely, or lock yourself almost horizontally for a good nap if all that hardcore gaming has tired you out. It also doesn’t spring forward and crushes you when unlocked, which is always nice. Read our full Noblechairs Hero Doom Edition review. Best gaming keyboard | Best VR headset | Best mechanical keyboard| Best wireless gaming mouse | Best wireless gaming keyboard Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Corsair)Image 2 of 4 (Image credit: Corsair)Image 3 of 4 (Image credit: Corsair)Image 4 of 4 (Image credit: Corsair) 7. Corsair T3 Rush A simple gaming chair with style Seat type: Racing seat | Recline: 90–170 degrees | Weight capacity: 120kg (265lbs) | Weight: 23kg (50lbs) | Warranty: 2-years Breathable soft fabric4D armrestsMemory Foam Lumbar Pillow180-degree reclineNot for the tall or large-framed Corsair's latest addition to its lineup of premium gaming chairs, the T3 Rush, has gotten a much-needed facelift. The T3 Rush is an insanely comfy chair thanks to its memory foam lumbar pillow but, more importantly, uses a breathable soft fabric in place of faux leather. This is because it retains less heat, keeping you fresh and comfy instead of sweating in your squeaky pleather. I don't have the heart to try it, but my main concern about a fabric gaming chair is how easy it cleans stains compared to leather and faux leather? So, it's something to consider if you're a notorious eater of foods and a spiller of liquids at your desk. Appearance-wise, the Rush leans more towards office-chic than a professional gamer. It comes in gray or black and avoids outrageous design choices that might look a little embarrassing on a work call. It's a chair that looks more expensive ($300) than it is. If you were looking for a little more personality, DX Racer and Secret Labs have many designs and colors if you're tired of black or gray. The Rush also reclines to a ridiculous 180 degrees if you want to lie back and take a comfy cat nap before taking on another marathon streaming session of Apex Legends or CS: GO. The only major downside of the T3 Rush is for smaller-framed users. If you require a smaller seat, the T3 will be an uncomfortably tight fit. So, if you're over 6 ft tall or larger than 200lbs, you'll need to look elsewhere unless you're buying this for a kid. However, the lack of any fun colors might turn them off. Image 1 of 8 (Image credit: DXRacer)Image 2 of 8 (Image credit: DXRacer)Image 3 of 8 (Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 8 (Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 8 (Image credit: Future)Image 6 of 8 (Image credit: Future)Image 7 of 8 (Image credit: Future)Image 8 of 8 (Image credit: Future) 8. DXRacer Craft Series Tons of bright and colourful options and designs Seat type: Racing seat | Recline: 135 degrees | Weight capacity: 113kg (250lbs) | Weight: 25.4kg (56lbs) | Warranty: 2-year (accessories), lifetime (frame) Very comfortableBold, attractive designNo creaks or groansLack of magnetic headrestA little priceyWeak warranty length Cut the cord... (Image credit: Steelseries)Best wireless gaming mouse: ideal cable-free rodents Best wireless gaming keyboard: no wires, no worries Best wireless gaming headset: top untethered audio The DXRacer Craft Series will appeal to those gamers that want their gaming setup to be more than a drab collection of black objects. There are heaps of colors and designs to choose from, including many with surprising artistic flair and grown-up tastes. The best bit, though, is that you don't have to settle for a sub-par chair to get the looks nailed down: the DXRacer Craft Series is well-made and comfy, too. The design of the DXRacer Craft Series resembles a lot of our favorite gaming chairs. It has 4D armrests, lumbar support, a removable head cushion, and two paddles to adjust the height and whether or not it can recline. Everything works smoothly; nothing hitches or creaks. The lumbar support in particular is a nice addition that my previous chair didn't have. Everything works smoothly; nothing hitches or creaks. You can adjust the chair as much as you want and it doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart, which is a boon for something you'll probably own for years. That said, all of the functions are largely the kinds of things you'll adjust once and leave that way, but it's nice to have the options if you say, play an instrument that requires more room for your arms. The chair itself is covered in PU leather or polyurethane leather. Nothing about the material feels uncomfortable, especially with the foam padding inside, but it's hard to accurately tell whether or not it'll peel or crack with extended use given my limited testing window. Other gaming chairs made with the same material tend to do this, so it's a real concern if you want your chair to look nice many years after you've purchased it. Typically, you want something that'll last longer like mesh fabric. The whole package doesn't cost much more than Secretlab's Titan Evo 2022 series which comes with many more color options, including branded looks like the League of Legends Jinx design. The Secretlab is a better chair, but the DXRacer Craft Series isn't so much worse that it's not worth investing in one if you find any of the designs pleasing. That said, this chair is a bit pricier than we'd like for the features on offer. It doesn't offer the feature set of the Secretlab Titan Evo, and it's not quite as clean-cut, but if you want something with a bit more out-there flair, this is absolutely an option that won't let you down. Read our full DXRacer Craft Series review. The best gaming chairs FAQ Are gaming chairs actually bad?Between recent articles about the effects of sitting down on your body and our experimentation with standing desks, you might think PC Gamer has fallen out of love with the humble chair. That could not be further from the truth. As gamers and office workers, we spend a significant chunk of each day sitting on our money makers in front of screens. Given that most of us don't plan to change that anytime soon, it only makes sense to do so in a great chair. So that's what I set out to find. We wanted to find chairs that maximized comfort, support, and value. We spoke with Melissa Afterman, MS CPE, a Senior Principal Ergonomist with VSI Risk Management & Ergonomics, Inc., who specializes in workstation setups. "Absolutely, chairs are still okay," she told me. "Yes, we know that sitting too long is bad for you. The reality is that standing too long is just as bad for you, so the answer is movement. Taking breaks, getting up at least every hour and moving, or changing your position from standing to sitting every hour so that you're not standing too long either." "If you're typing and working at the computer, you really want more upright support so that you can maintain neutral spine posture and let the chair hold you up," she said. "But when you switch to a gaming mode, you may want to recline a little bit to relax your lower back while still having good support in that position. So a locking backrest and/or some tension control is important." Another feature to look for, though it tends to be found on more expensive models, is a seat pan slider. This enables you to slide the positioning of your butt forwards or backward relative to the backrest. Are gaming chairs really worth it?The best gaming chairs will complete your PC setup, not just from an aesthetic point of view, but because you will likely be spending hours sat in front of your machine, they will give you the support needed to keep your spine healthy too. Is a gaming chair better than an office chair?Nope! You can find good or bad examples of both, and believe us there are plenty. That said, some office chairs are great for gaming and vice versa, and there are 'office chairs', like the Herman Miller Embody, that blend the line between both. Really it's about finding what's right for you, and a lot of the time that's a gaming chair because, let's be honest, you like the look of it. That's a perfectly good reason to make that decision, just make sure you're not sacrificing comfort and ergonomics for style and flair. A cheap office chair can be a great pick if you want to save cash and be comfy. Are gaming chairs good for your posture?The best gaming chairs look out for you and your back. When it comes to chair design, lumbar support is vital. The first thing you should look for in a new gaming chair is whether it has any built-in support to help your body maintain an ideal posture. Some even come with lumbar support pillows that work to some extent. Multi-adjustable arm-rests, upholstery, and general style are also important; note these features aren't cheap. That said, a gaming chair can't do everything. The best gaming chairs encourage good posture, but the other half of the equation is on you to stick to it. Does every gaming chair fit every body type?Different chair models accommodate different heights and weights, so make sure to check your fit. Look at the width and depth of the seat, too. Some chairs claim that you should sit cross-legged, but that depends on your size and legs' length. View the full article

The world got a little bit worse on Sunday as Snoop Dogg and Eminem performed their new single, From The D 2 The LBC, in the guise of their own Bored Ape NFTs. The performance took place at MTV's Video Music Awards, and saw the rappers changed—by the transformative powers of Snoop's comically large joint—from flesh-and-blood humans into animated versions of their own Bored Apes: #9055 (Eminem) and #6723 (Snoop). That's a half-million dollar transformation at least. Eminem picked up his ape for a dispiriting $460,000 back in January. Snoop, ever a man of wisdom, acquired his as part of a bundle, so we can't say how much he paid for his ape specifically. The problem with the performance, aside from the gnawing sensation at the back of your mind that art is dead, is that it looked awful. The animated portions of the video took place within the Otherside metaverse platform, created by Bored Ape Yacht Club maker Yuga Labs, which rendered Snoop and Eminem's apes with a kind of dead-eyed, passionless aspect that you normally wouldn't expect to see on the faces of two of the wealthiest and most famous rappers in the world. Then again, it's good enough for Zuckerberg. Snoop and Slim's adventures see them base-jumping off towering monoliths, addressing thronged masses of robots, and piloting a kind of space-bathysphere, rapping about the myriad cool properties of weed all the while. But they're completely deadpan throughout, like this is their 30th year in a dead-end job and they've long since progressed past caring about any part of it whatsoever. My favourite part features the two men, ape-ified, standing atop an obelisk while Eminem raps about how good his songs are. Throughout the whole section Snoop is just kind of waving his arms non-committedly, wearing a thousand-yard stare like he's remembering a lost boyhood love. This is honestly the best part of the entire video. With so much money and celebrity clout sloshing around these projects, you might think someone might eventually make something cool just by accident, but every time this stuff bleeds over into the real world it gets laughed right back out of it. Whether it's Zuckerberg, Snoop and Slim Shady, or any number of smaller projects with enormous promises, they're either baffling glimpses into the delusions of the ultra-rich or else destructive calamities. We should at least be thankful that Snoop and Eminem's VMA performance was tragicomic rather than simply tragic. View the full article

Need to knowWhat is it? An immersive interactive movie where you are the editor and the film might be haunted. Expect to pay: $19.99/Free on PC Game Pass Developer: Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid Publisher: Half Mermaid Reviewed on: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U, Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 2.10 GHz, 12 GB RAM Multiplayer? No Link: Steam Where does art come from? What makes creating a film different from writing a letter or inventing the toaster? Does it come from within us, or is it, sort of, all around us, y'know? This is the realm of cultural philosophy that Immortality (rather more eloquently) delves into as you unravel its FMV-led mysteries. Immortality is presented less as a game and more as a collector’s edition Blu-Ray box set of forgotten (and fictional) French model and actor Marissa Marcel’s filmography. Players begin with a question posed in the “Short History of Marissa Marcel,” helpfully written by Immortality director Sam Barlow: What happened to the actor? Why has she been absent for 20 years? Why were none of her movies released? Where is she now? Luckily, the answers may lie in the “large cache of film” Barlow and his crew serendipitously found back in 2020. “After carefully collating and scanning the footage,” Barlow writes, “we have created this piece of computer software in an attempt to preserve this work and share it so that Marissa may live again in the hearts of audiences.” Hide and Seek “The image is never a simple reality,” wrote philosopher Jacques Rancière. Likewise, the images in Immortality are rarely ever just what they seem. They hide things, distort their meanings, and play with the player’s expectations. Part of how Immortality hides things is through restraint. Unlike previous Barlow-helmed games, players do not have immediate or comprehensive access to the entirety of the available footage. Instead, they start with a single interview from a 60s-era late night talk show, and are expected to organically branch out from there. This is where the game’s first major mechanic comes in: the “match cut.” Match cuts are a commonly-used editing technique to build visual clarity for moviegoers. In Immortality, the technique is used to find similarly-composed images across different movies and other media. By pausing the scene, players can examine small aspects of it and, like a point-and-click adventure game, click on whatever they are interested in. This will teleport them to another scene with the same actor or a similar object in it. As players teleport around, they add the scenes they find to their library, and gradually, the true (or 'true') story emerges. The match cut here acts like its cinematographic counterpart by creating narrative, instead of visual, continuity for the player. The game itself is structured like a Moviola editing machine, and combined with the match cut mechanic, the player is able to put together their own “supercut” based almost entirely on vibes. While I imagine most players will use it for its specified purpose, there’s a lot of room for goofing off here. Want a montage of bowls of fruit? Go for it, why not. Some wall art catch your eye? Here are some more. It’s very satisfying to go down these rabbit holes on your way to solving the mystery at the heart of the game, and the sense that you are actively participating in this created world is bolstered by the presence of excellent background music by Nanita Desai that intensifies as you jump from scene to scene. As a note, while there are full mouse and keyboard controls built in, the devs do recommend use of a controller, which we discovered added haptic feedback when we used one in our playthrough. Additionally, players will want to scrub back and forth through scenes, as hints and insights can sometimes be found running the footage backwards. (Image credit: Half Mermaid) Cut, Print It With his previous games, Barlow has worked with established actors to create moments of intense drama and intrigue across hours of footage. What sets Immortality apart is that the fictional trilogy of movies at its core (Ambrosio, Minsky and Two of Everything, all shot over a span of 30 years in the story) are essentially real movies, around an hour each, with different writers, actors and production crews for each of them, all shot in the style of the time period they’re purported to be from. But these movies are not the sole space players get to move around in. A lot of the behind-the-scenes footage features Marissa, director John Durick (played by Hans Christopher) and an assortment of other actors and crew running through rehearsals, scouting locations, hanging out with famous time-period figures like Andy Warhol, and spending intimate time together. In these moments we see tension, we see catharsis, we see regular people trying to make art while ignoring what that attempt at creation is doing to them. Image 1 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 2 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 3 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 4 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 5 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 6 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 7 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid)Image 8 of 8 (Image credit: Half Mermaid) And we see the ugly side of the film industry, as well. If this game is a critique of anything, it is a critique of auteur theory, of the way the industry chews up and spits out talented people, and above all, it is a slam against the industry’s rampant and violent misogyny, past and present. While discussing this further would constitute a spoiler, do be aware that there is a list of content warnings in the menu, and it includes sexual assault and abusive relationships among them. Immortality is a remarkable game. It picks freely from several eras of cinema to deliver a genuine exploration of what it means, and what it costs, to make great, meaningful art. The game’s actors are giving the performances of their lives, both as the 'real people' they’re playing and in their various in-game movie roles. The aesthetics of each movie are so true-to-life that it’s easy to suspend disbelief and accept the fiction that these are movies from 1968, 1970 and 1999. While initially daunted by Immortality’s sweeping, sometimes-cosmic scope, I found that instead of being inscrutable it was eager to show new facets of the mystery. It wanted to be played. Immortality may draw comparisons to films by Alfred Hitchcock or David Lynch, or even past Barlow-penned titles like Telling Lies and Her Story. That is maybe unavoidable. But as a game, it goes much further beyond anything it might be compared to. Immortality is Sam Barlow’s best, most thought-provoking game so far, and a barnstorming debut for Half Mermaid. View the full article

Fractured Online is a dynamic and open-world sandbox MMO, where players choose where they want to go among three different but interconnected worlds. It skips the long grind in favour of a unique knowledge and talent system, which allows players to discover and learn new skills, master them quickly, and get into the action. You don't beat the bosses in this because you're high-level with sick equipment (though that helps). You can do it through pure skill. The promise is an open world where your adventure is yours to choose: explore the vast fantasy worlds as a solo player, prioritising PvE and the occasional bit of co-operation, or go full-blooded into dynamic PvP battles. If fighting's not your thing then Fractured Online has plenty of room for traders, crafters, enchanters, and even town planners. Don't like the city you're in? Why not establish a new one, and see if others will come along for the ride. As a city governor, you’ll be able to guide its development into a social, trading, or military hub. There are no set paths in Fractured Online. If you choose to found a city, for example, you can use that power and base to make war on others… or try to make deals with them and co-exist, and perhaps eventually even join together. Limitless conquest is always an option, but everyone needs a base. Fractured Online's world is created by players: both in terms of what they build within it, and the alliances and conflicts that form around them. Nothing will ever be static and, if it is, players can change that. Every time you visit somewhere in one of Fractured Online's three worlds, it will not be the same place you saw yesterday. Every item beyond the basics in Fractured Online is crafted by players: the fun part being that this can be unbalanced. This is a game that wants you to exploit it, using an uneven amount of resources to make ridiculous profit margins, and then put that back into your real goal of the most kickass place around. While Fractured Online's PvE side gives plenty enough for most, there will be some jonesing for the high-end PvP action. Asteroids host highly competitive end-game PVP events where you'll be up against the best of the rest for scarce resources and influence for you and your guild, with leaderboards showing who's got game. (Image credit: Glyph) As well as this, group play and guilds are a large part of the game. Seasons offer a competitive environment with quests, rewards, and those all-important leaderboards for the bragging rights. Simply being a member of a guild makes your in-game actions count towards the Season's results, and at the end of each the most successful guilds will be showered in rewards before a new season starts with new leaderboards, new challenges, and new opportunities! Fractured Online has an open weekend over 2nd-5th September. It launches on 15 September on Steam. PC Gamer has a bunch of keys to give away, and here's how to claim one: How to get a key for Fractured Online Users need to create a Glyph account here. After creating the account head to fracturedonline.com, click on 'Redeem a key' in the menu bar, log into the account and enter the following key: FRACPCGAMER2022 The key is redeemable from 2nd September 4pm CEST to 5th September 4pm CEST and will grant access to the Fractured Online beta for 72 hours after redemption. View the full article

Let me help you solve today's Wordle. Whether you're after a quick clue for the August 30 (437) puzzle, a few general tips, or you'd like today's answer in bolded capital letters, you'll find all of that and plenty more just below. I often worry the answer's going to be one of those words. I'm sure you know the sort by now: something you wouldn't dare type out because it contains an odd letter you're reluctant to waste a guess on—an X or something like that—or it repeats an uncommon consonant. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to trip me up. Wordle hint Today's Wordle: A hint for Tuesday, August 30 "Unpleasant beginnings" is perhaps the best way to sum up today's answer. The word you're looking for is most often used when something bad's on the horizon: a cold winter, a serious illness, things like that. There are two vowels in today's solution. Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day If there's one thing better than playing Wordle, it's playing Wordle well, which is why I'm going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success: A good opener contains a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants. A tactical second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.The solution may contain repeat letters. There's no time pressure beyond making sure it's done by midnight. So there's no reason to not treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you're coming up blank. Wordle answer (Image credit: Josh Wardle) What is the Wordle 437 answer? Let me help you over the finish line. The answer to the August 30 (437) Wordle is ONSET. Previous answers Wordle archive: Which words have been used The more past Wordle answers you can cram into your memory banks, the better your chances of guessing today's Wordle answer without accidentally picking a solution that's already been used. Past Wordle answers can also give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle solving fresh. Here are some recent Wordle solutions: August 29: CHIEFAugust 28: GAUZEAugust 27: RUDERAugust 26: IRONYAugust 25: CLOWNAugust 24: NEEDYAugust 23: WOVENAugust 22: MERITAugust 21: WASTEAugust 20: TREAT Learn more about Wordle Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them. You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns ️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. means you've got the right letter in the right spot. You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer. After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS). If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below. Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. View the full article

Hello SegelMP, Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. SegelMP joined on the 08/29/2022. View Member

AMD has announced its new Ryzen 7000-series processors today, along with the news that the architecture is actually performing better than it initially expected. Back at the Computex reveal earlier in the year Zen 4 was given an 8 - 10% instructions per clock (IPC) increase over its Zen 3 progenitors, but now we're told that's gone up to around a 13% IPC gain. With Zen 4 it became important for us to work on how we feed the instructions even faster into the machine. Mark Papermaster, AMD It is worth breaking that down, however. Both to get an idea of where that extra performance has come from, and how it actually breaks down in terms of how the architecture performs under different circumstances... because it's not just a straight 13% higher across the board. There are some pretty significant variances. For starters, the geomean figures are derived from a performance testing suite of 22 different workloads, all run at a standardised 4GHz, and with the eight-core Zen 3 and Zen 4 processors. That allows us to see straight architectural benefits, taking the increased clock speed of Zen 4 entirely out of the equation, on essentially like-for-like chips. Mark Papermaster breaks down the performance increase at today's event, explaining that: "Zen 4 is a derivative of Zen 3. So we targeted, of course, enhancing on that base of Zen 3, building on the success. "With Zen 3 we increased the execution width and so with Zen 4 it became important for us to work on how we feed the instructions even faster into the machine. And that's why you see most of the improvements coming from the front end and branch prediction. Really that makes up almost 60% of that IPC gain." Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: AMD)Image 2 of 2 (Image credit: AMD) AMD has also increased the amount of cache on the chip, though not to the same extent as it has with the 3D V-cache on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. That has an increased last level cache, but with Zen 4 AMD has doubled the L2 cache instead. That's been done "to provide critical data faster," says Mark Papermaster, "leading to that overall 13% IPC." It's worth digging into those 22 different workloads, however. Because you'll see some games actually showing a far greater than 13% improvement, but also some, such as GTA V and Fortnite, showing far lower single figure increases. It's also worth looking at the single threaded Cinebench R23 and CPU-Z figures, which show a 9% and 1% increase respectively. When AMD wants to talk separately about a single thread performance gain of 29% it uses the full 5.7GHz Ryzen 9 7950X running Geekbench to highlight that. Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: AMD)Image 2 of 2 (Image credit: AMD) There is also the 5nm production process to think about here, too. When discussing the performance and efficiency benefits of using TSMC's 5nm production process for the computational dies of Zen 4, Papermaster explains the most significant performance gains appear at the lower-end of the power consumption curve. When a 7950X is running at its 170W TDP it's showing up to 35% higher performance in the Cinebench R23 multi-threaded test compared with a 5950X. That rises to 37% at 105W, and to an astounding 74% at 65W. (Image credit: AMD) That could highlight what a beast the lower TDP cores might end up being, particularly in laptop configurations. But it also potentially suggests the 13% IPC gains, performed as they were on an 8-core Zen 4 core running at 4GHz, aren't necessarily going to match in the real world when it's drawing a lot more power with something like the 170W 7900X or 7950X. In the end the numbers AMD has provided are still worth interrogating because they provide a tantalising glimpse into what the new architecture can offer. And, when a Zen 4 core is pushed to a higher power draw it will be running at a significantly higher clock speed, which will also deliver more performance. So there may yet be some fascinating benchmark results once we get chips in hand later next month. View the full article

AMD has confirmed its commitment to the new AM5 CPU socket, promising to support the platform until at least 2025, and likely beyond. With the new AMD Ryzen 7000-series CPUs the red team is introducing its first new processor socket in six years, and the first LGA design, too. Yes, finally no need to keep an old credit card handy to fix those damned bent pins. Though you are going to need to be more careful about the pins now sitting in the new AM5 socket, however. The old AM4 socket was around before even the first Zen processor, but it's being effectively retired from front line duty with the release of the next generation of AMD CPU. We shouldn't, however, expect AMD to start introducing a new socket every other year, like some people. *cough* Intel *cough* "We built the platform around next generation technologies so that you can build today and upgrade as your needs grow over time," explains AMD's David McAfee at today's event. "And, just like AM4, we're making a commitment to support the AM5 platform with new technologies and next generation architectures through at least 2025. We're really excited about the next era of rising desktops with AM5." But AM4 is not done: "We do expect AM4 and AM5 to coexist for quite some time," Lisa Su tells us. "You should expect that, like with AM4, we'll build out the entire AM5 stack, but it will it will take some time to build out and we want to make sure the cost points are right, as always." Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: AMD)Image 2 of 2 (Image credit: AMD) That's an impressive commitment to both socket designs, and builds on AMD's focus on providing continued support around its platforms. The company has gone to great lengths to ensure the existing AM4 CPU coolers will all fit the new AM5 motherboards, meaning you may not even need to replace your cooler when Zen 5 appears in 2024. Because, yes, AMD has also confirmed that it's on track with the new Zen 5 core design, too. "I'm also glad," says AMD's Mark Papermaster, "to share that we remain on track for Zen 5 featuring a new grounds up core for 2024. Zen 5 will bring a combination of performance gains as well as further optimizations for the growing AI workloads." View the full article

We've become used to the new shiny things being completely unavailable at launch, and lately that's been down to a supply chain crisis that hamstrung the entire industry. AMD's popular CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, however, does not see that being an issue for the upcoming Zen 4 CPU launch. At today's Ryzen 7000-series processor announcement in Austin, Dr. Su responded to a question from the gathered audience about supply chain disruption in relation to the release of its new CPUs. "It is true that if you look at the past 18 months there have been a number of things, whether its capacity limitations or logistics," says Dr. Su. "From an AMD standpoint, we have dramatically increased our overall capacity, in terms of wafers, as well as substrates and on the back end. So with our launch of Zen 4 we don't expect any supply constraints. "Logistically it takes a little bit longer for things to get into region. So we're having this event at the end of August and we're on sale on September 27. One of the reasons for that time, frankly, is to make sure that we do have product in region so that people can really look at buying across the board." That's great news for anyone looking to make the big upgrade to the brand new Ryzen platform. There will be a host of high-end motherboards, as well as four distinct Ryzen 7000-series processors hitting the market on September 27. PriceCores | ThreadsBase clockBoost clockCache (L2+L3)TDPRyzen 9 7950X$69916 | 324.5GHz5.7GHz80MB170WRyzen 9 7900X$54912 | 244.7GHz5.6GHz76MB170WRyzen 7 7700X$3998 | 164.5GHz5.4GHz40MB105WRyzen 5 7600X$2996 | 124.7GHz5.3GHz38MB105W AMD has already spoken about the increased performance outlook for its new Zen 4 processors—positing a ~13% IPC gain over its previous generation. Compared with the 8 - 10% increase it initially suggested back at Computex, that's a bit of a jump. And is a good sign of the health of the new architecture at the start of its life. View the full article

AMD has today taken the wraps off its new Ryzen 7000-seres CPUs, claiming higher than expected performance for its new Zen 4 processors. It also promised the best gaming CPU will land on September 27 for $699. That's the 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 7950X, and, contrary to the earlier pricing rumours, that puts it a full $100 below the original price of the similarly specced Zen 3 Ryzen 9 5950X. The initial gen-on-gen performance boost for the new Zen 4 CPUs was between 8 and 10% instructions per clock (IPC) increase, but the biggest surprise of today's keynote at AMD's Austin tech day is the upwards adjustment of that number to ~13%. For contrast, the 19% IPC boost for Zen 3 over Zen 2 was called "historic" at the time, and this isn't a million miles off that. For something that was suspected might be a bit more iterative in terms of performance gains that's not looking bad. Obviously, we're relying on normalised metrics, and a geomean score across multiple different benchmarks—both computational and gaming—so that still has to be taken with a touch of salt until we get the different chips into our own test rigs for a proper CPU playtest. For us gamers the single threaded metrics are arguably more important than an ephemeral IPC increase, and AMD is also adjusting the previous 15% total single threaded performance gain up to 29%. That's almost double, though that number is taken from a Geekbench test compared to a 5950X chip, rather than anything actually gaming related. But AMD isn't just promising stellar gaming performance on its most powerful, highest spec processor, at today's event in Austin Dr. Lisa Su also demonstrated just how far ahead of Intel's Core i9 12900K its lower-end Ryzen 5 7600X is in gaming terms. After initially showing AMD's new six-core CPU besting Intel's 16-core Alder Lake chip by 11% in F1 2022, it showed an average 5% gain over the competition across a suite of five games. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: AMD)Image 2 of 3 (Image credit: AMD)Image 3 of 3 (Image credit: AMD) It does bear saying that of those five games, Cyberpunk 2077 shows a tie with Intel, and GTA V shows a 3% deficit in gaming performance. Still, we are talking about a $299 processor being able to deliver against a $650 (at launch) chip, which is an impressive showing. In between the Ryzen 9 7950X at the top and the Ryzen 5 7600X at the bottom of the initial four CPU launch stack there's the Ryzen 9 7900X and the Ryzen 7 7700X processors. Pricing-wise, the rest of the new chips are either the same price at launch as their predecessors or, in the case of the 7700X, a little cheaper than the equivalent Zen 3 octa-core processor. PriceCores | ThreadsBase clockBoost clockCache (L2+L3)TDPRyzen 9 7950X$69916 | 324.5GHz5.7GHz80MB170WRyzen 9 7900X$54912 | 244.7GHz5.6GHz76MB170WRyzen 7 7700X$3998 | 164.5GHz5.4GHz40MB105WRyzen 5 7600X$2996 | 124.7GHz5.3GHz38MB105W Your next upgrade (Image credit: Future)Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD Best gaming motherboard: The right boards Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest The new chips will launch at the end of September alongside a whole new motherboard chipset and socket. The new X670 and X670 Extreme motherboards will launch at the same time, starting at $125, though with many, many far more expensive options being offered out by the likes of Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. The more affordable B650 and recently announced B650 Extreme boards won't appear until October, though will still offer both PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support, but with only the Extreme version offering both graphics and storage support for PCIe 5. Though if you were hoping PCIe 5.0 SSDs might launch alongside Zen 4 it looks like that's slipped a bit, as now the first next-gen SSD is set for a November 2022 launch. View the full article

⁠In an August 26 Twitter thread clarifying the different versions of Hogwarts Legacy and what comes with them, the game's official account revealed that PlayStation editions of the game "come with an exclusive quest," while pre-orders of PlayStation editions also get the vaunted "Felix Felicis Potion Recipe" of Harry Potter lore. My knee-jerk reaction is to be frustrated with platform exclusive content, but you can almost guess the character of what's on offer. An NPC who maybe only has idle dialogue in other versions of the game will have some kind of collect-a-thon for you with quest rewards that are kind of OP in the early to mid game. Maybe they'll even send you to a bespoke dungeon if it's on the higher end of things. We'll know more soon, I guess. Full-on console exclusivity is becoming more and more a thing of the past, but small bits of DLC tied to different consoles and promotions are still stubbornly holding on, remnants of 2010 in 2022. Long before Bungie was acquired by Sony, Destiny had some exclusive goodies for PlayStation players⁠—a great gun or two here, an okay Strike there. It was never anything earth shattering, and all of the exclusive stuff eventually made its way to other platforms a year or two down the line. Meanwhile, fellow live service game Marvel's Avengers has Spider-Man forever platform-locked to PlayStation. The same year as Destiny, Konami double-dipped in platform exclusivity with Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes missions specially made for PlayStation and Xbox. On PS4, players got an extra side mission in which Big Boss recreates scenes from MGS1 on the Ground Zeroes map (kinda boring). Xbox pulled the longer straw with a mission starring Metal Gear Revengeance's Raiden tasked with killing "Body Snatcher" enemies from the 1988 Kojima game Snatcher (sick). Thankfully, all of this content eventually made its way to the PC version. It wasn't a console exclusive, but in the same spirit, Mass Effect 2's coolest helmet, the Recon Hood, was an exclusive Dr Pepper promotion requiring you to enter a code from a bottle cap. I love Dr Pepper, but I missed out, so I wound up keeping a cracked download for the Recon Hood on my hard drive for 10 years until the Legendary Edition released with all the DLC. And that absurd little experience really cuts to the core of things here: will we on PC be that much less spiritually fulfilled, deprived as we are of the Harry Potter sidequest to find all of Bloody Bernie Boffo's Every Flavored Beans in exchange for a green rarity wand that makes Hogwarts Legacy's first boss slightly easier? Not really, but the concept is just exhausting to even think about. Trying to understand the rest of Hogwarts Legacy's version differences is similarly tedious. Whatever happened to $60 for a manual, a cloth map, and an honest day's gaming? I guess that $300 electromagnetic floating wand edition of Legacy is cool, if you're into that kind of thing. View the full article

Paradox Interactive launched a new publishing label called Paradox Arc earlier this month, and now it's asking for people to sign up for its first beta testing, which is "in the very near future." There's just one catch: You don't get to know what the game is. "We will be running a beta test in the very near future and need people to help us!" the signup form states. "We cannot give the name of the game at the moment until an agreement and NDA has been signed. "The purpose of this particular beta test, however, is to stress test the online capabilities of the game and to gather player feedback on this test. The beta test is limited and will run for only one week starting on September 5th, 2022." We know that the test isn't going to involve one of Paradox's major games (or at least, we can be reasonably confident about it): Paradox Arc was billed as a kind of indie-focused publishing label when it was announced, with a focus on "deep, endless, and replayable games from smaller development teams." The first game released under the publishing label is Across the Obelisk, a "coop RPG deckbuilding roguelite" that launched into early access on Steam last year and went into full release earlier this month. (Paradox Arc has been tweeting about Across the Obelisk almost exclusively over the past week, which made me think that it was the game being tested, until I realized that it's already launched.) There are a few rules if you want to take part in whatever this is: You need to be at least 18 years of age, you need to have a Discord account, and you have to sign up by September 1. Once you've filled out the initial form, a second form containing your legal agreement and NDA will be sent to you via email; submit that, and on September 5 a final email with instructions on how to access the game and Discord server will be sent. Want to be involved in a Beta Test with us? We have limited spaces. We can't say more until NDAs have been signed, but you can sign up here: https://t.co/bCyVJQtvyOBe sure to read instructions about the process and complete the first form before 10am CEST on Sept 1st! pic.twitter.com/8lVfGLrxlsAugust 29, 2022 See more It seems like Paradox Arc is going to a lot of trouble to keep this one a secret, but I've reached out to Paradox for more information anyway and will update if I receive a reply. Do note, if you sign up to take part, that Paradox will likely be taking the NDA seriously: The signup form says that verification for the Discord server will be via "a unique single-use code" for each user. View the full article

When it comes to virtual tennis I have two main reference points: Tennis for the NES back in 1984 and Wii Sports Tennis in 2006. Since my pattern seems to be waiting 15-20 years to try out a new tennis game, it's the perfect time for a game called Tennis the Menace to pop up on Steam. And I'm excited to see Tennis the Menace finally fixes the main problem with tennis as a sport: the lack of powers like bullet-time and teleportation. Finally, a bit of magic in the so-called sport of kings. "So you've just chased down a drop-shot with your greatest effort and you're happy just to get the ball back into play," read's the game's description on Steam. "You find yourself off to the side of the court watching as your opponent is left with an easy shot into an open court. What to do?" Traditionally you'd stand there watching your opponent completely stuff you, or you might try throwing your racket at the ball, or maybe protest to the judge that the ball was out. But those wouldn't be guaranteed to work. So, Tennis the Menace invented a new option for you to quickly cross the court: "instantaneously teleport into a position where you can hit the ball." Yes, a blink-style teleportation skill definitely comes in handy in tennis, but it's not the only superpower you have in Tennis the Menace. You can also slow down time. Does your opponent have a blisteringly fast serve or return? Who cares? You can control time. Their vicious overhand smashes become harmless, languid lobs. If this sounds like a cheat code to make winning every tennis game easy, well…it definitely isn't. In Tennis the Menace, just learning how to serve or return the ball is going to challenge your muscle memory. It's played with a keyboard and mouse, and you use the mouse buttons to select the spin and power, not actually hit the ball itself, and you aim your shot "at an invisible vertical plane above the tennis net." It's… weird. It's one of the weirder sports games I've played and so far I haven't mastered much except a couple of basic serves. And as for your abilities, they're activated with the QWER and ASDF keys, so get used to using those two rows while clicking two mouse buttons (and sometimes holding one) while aiming at a spot over the net with the mouse. As you play a match, you intermittently get to upgrade your abilities, too, everything from your magic powers to your movement skills to the various types of shots you can make to something called "health bar distance." Look, even after playing a bit I can admit I don't entirely get everything going on in this game. But it's definitely a fresh take on tennis, and even though I don't fully understand it, I like it. You'll find Tennis the Menace on Steam for $6. View the full article

Summer is the best time of year to play free games. During the summer doldrums (or the winter doldrums, if you're in the southern hemisphere) there aren't many big games coming out, which means it's time for the best free PC games to really shine. There are new bite-sized freebies hitting the PC every week, and our favorite free-to-play games are updated just as often with new features and special seasonal events. Have you seen Goku in Fortnite lately? It's kamehame-heaven over there. Best of the best (Image credit: Paradox)2022 games: This year's launches Best PC games: All-time favorites Best laptop games: Low-specs The only thing that the games on this list cost you is time. But there are so many ways you could spend that time, any game you devote those precious hours to better be worth it. Everything on this page most definitely is. Our selection of the best free PC games is regularly updated with the PC Gamer team's personal picks. It's divided into some basic categories: major free-to-play games, casual free games you can pick up for an afternoon, and PC classics you can now download for free or play online. If you're looking for free games to add to your permanent game library, make sure to check a couple of our other guides: Epic Games Store free giveaway listEverything else temporarily free right now The best free PC games right now (Image credit: Subcreation Studio) The best free games: September 2022 Waves 2 - A twin stick shooter with shades of the phenomenal Geometry Wars. Waves and Waves 2 were made by indie dev Rob Hale, who died of cancer in August and requested both games be made free posthumously. Haunted PS1 demo disc: Spectral Mall - Low-poly horror gets another generous collection. This one features 18 games, most coming in full form later this year. But you can play them all in brief right now.Entropy: Zero 2 - This massive mod expansion to Half-Life 2 is practically a sequel: it's a full seven chapter campaign with new weapons and a sidestory to Gordon's adventure. It's not technically free as you need to own Half-Life 2, but enough people own Half-Life 2 that it felt like a worthy entry for the free list.Covert Critter - What if Metal Gear Solid, but instead of Snake, you were a gecko? Despite being made by two devs in 12 days, Covert Critter is amazingly faithful to the '90s MGS and its stealth gameplay. Just, you know, without those hours of cutscenes.The Looker - Someone made an entire game just to parody The Witness, and it's actually quite fun. And you really have to admire the commitment to the bit.The best games like Wordle - Try Quordle for a pure word game, Dungleon for a cute fantasy tile-based alternative, or Nerdle if you're a math wiz. Free-to-play games (Image credit: Warner Bros. Interactive) The best F2P games: September 2022 Free puzzle games (Image credit: Rusty Lake) Best free PC games: Puzzle Transmute! - Play as a wizard who can transform into different objects. You might turn into a key to open a lock, or a boat to sail the open sea. And you’ll do so to unlock a friendly little fantasy world. Mirror Isles - No list of puzzle games is really complete without a PuzzleScript game from Alan Hazelden, and Mirror Isles is one of the very best. It’s a top-down, Sokoban-style puzzler where you have to hop between islands, by using magic mirrors to swap places with your reflection. Cube Escape - There’s a strange atmosphere to developer Rusty Lake’s series of locked room puzzle games. Getting out of each one will test your brain, but you’ll be even more taxed trying to figure out what’s going on in their bizarre universe. Corrypt - What starts as a relatively simple block-pushing game ends as one where you’ll reshape the world, by using magic to reprogram the state of the environment. The Republia Times - You're the editor of a newspaper in a totalitarian state in this game from the creator of Return of the Obra Dinn. Each day you must choose which stories to run and how much space to give them, impacting your paper's popularity and the government's approval with the general populace. Smart and cynical. Free horror games (Image credit: papercookies) Best free PC games: Horror No Players Online - In the spooky No Players Online, you log onto an old FPS server, but where you’re the only player in a futile game of Capture the Flag. We Are Broken - An interactive visual novel where you must talk your way out of being eaten by a vampire. We Are Broken conjures a dark and cruel world with cutting visuals and music that makes your skin crawl. Bleakshore - This chilling adventure uses the fuzzy, lo-fi aesthetic of PS1-era 3D graphics to create an impressively eerie atmosphere as a shadowy figure stalks you across the landscape... Faith - Faith lures you into feeling secure—if a little jumpy—with its retro aesthetic, before it transcends its limitations in one shockingly scary moment. David Lynch Teaches Typing - What begins as a friendly typing lesson from film director David Lynch slowly descends into a surreal, disorientating nightmare. At one point you have to touch a gross twitching bug. Great work, kiddo! Best free strategy games (Image credit: Free Lives) Best free PC games: Strategy Dwarf Fortress - A complex game of colony management that’s still in development 18 years after its original inception. The incredible depth of its simulation doesn’t just add depth and challenge, it allows for emergent stories to arise as you play, giving your dwarves a life of their own. Tiny Islands - You’re drawing maps of little islands in the sea here, by placing beaches, houses, even waves as random cards are dealt out to you. But placement is everything, as every icon has its own set of rules. Brogue - ASCII roguelikes have a reputation for being impenetrable. Brogue, despite staying true to the genre, works hard to feel approachable. The controls make navigating its dungeons a breeze, and the elegant shading makes its symbols atmospheric and readable. Terra Nil - Terra Nil begins at the ultimate end of civilisation, letting you breathe life back into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. In this relaxing, therapeutic anti-builder, you construct devices to cleanse the earth, and to regrow green plants and trees. Best free Story & Adventure games (Image credit: Octavi Navarro) Best free PC games: Story & Adventure Deltarune: Chapters 1&2 - This sorta sequel to Undertale is packed with memorable characters, catchy tunes, and emotive dialogue. Chapter 2 released in 2021 and was a Big Deal for Undertale fans. The Doll Shop - Blending horror with romance, The Doll Shop transports you to a small village, which is being buried under a relentless snowfall. It tells a sinister story involving creepy handmade dolls. The art is sublime and the ending is especially memorable. The Supper - The Supper is a dark story of revenge that brings to mind Sweeney Todd. You play as a peg-legged tavern owner, who has to serve three very special dishes to a trio of horrible pirates, who really should have checked the Food Standards rating first... Lockheart Indigo - This is a sci-fi detective game that feels a lot like a JRPG. You’ve arrived at a vast mansion to solve the murder of its former owner, but locked doors and suspects stand in your way. The Herbalist - A wordless adventure about a traveller searching for a mysterious herb. You wander around its strange world trying to interpret symbols, in the hope of discovering the plant you need. Off-Peak - Stranding you at an otherworldly train station, Off-Peak encourages you to explore, talk to the locals, and luxuriate in its strange atmosphere. It’s got an incredible sense of place, despite feeling like nowhere on Earth, and as you poke around its nooks and crannies, the true nature of its world is revealed piece by piece. Emily is Away - Party like it’s the early-’00s in this narrative game set in a chat client. You’ll get to know fellow high school student Emily through snippets of online conversations about life, love and indie rock music. If you enjoy this, paid-for sequel Emily is Away Too is worth checking out. Olav and the Lute - An enigmatic adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world, with a cracking central mechanic. Rather than combining objects with other objects, you're affecting the world with a lute by plucking at its colour-coded strings. Free action & platformer games (Image credit: Chromacool) Best free PC games: Action & Platformers 1Boss1Battle1Button - This tough rhythm game pits you against a scary Picasso-faced monster, and your only hopes of survival lie with a single button. Pressing it in time with certain beats lets you jump, crouch, and dodge out of the way of oncoming attacks. N 2.0 - In this ultra hardcore platformer with simple controls and a minimalist aesthetic, the focus is entirely on quick, precise control. And lots and lots of practice. Eggnogg+ - This is Nidhogg, but free, and with different moves, and a bit more tongue-in-cheek. Expect hyperactive duels in a series of arenas. Cuckoo Curling - A fun four-player game that combines the rules of curling with Connect Four. An easy game to pick up and play with friends, you can play Cuckoo Curling in local or online multiplayer. First Cut - Flashy fighting games are all well and good, but there’s something satisfying about the one-on-one sword duel, as evidenced in Square’s classic Bushido Blade. First Cut is that but in 2D, essentially, offering feudal Japan-themed duels against some truly beautiful pixel art backdrops. Best free PC games: Chill and relaxing (Image credit: Victoria Smith) Best free chill games Toripon - You’re stuck inside your flat, thankfully with company. Instead of friends, your companions here are loads and loads of birds. Don’t look a gift parakeet in the mouth. Just sit back and explore your apartment, examining every nook and every crevice for your feathered friends. Lieve Oma - Lieve Oma takes you on a relaxing jaunt through an autumnal wood on the hunt for mushrooms. As you scamper around, your granny follows slowly behind, teaching you about which mushrooms are okay to eat and teaching you her humble life lessons. Forest Are For Trees - Walking through the forest is something that takes on new meaning in this mind-expanding exploration game, which is small and possibly infinite all at once. It’s a walking sim, sort of, where you traipse around an eerie woodland. But something funny happens when you make contact with a tree. Inside every tree there’s another forest full of ghostly trees. Best weird and funny games (Image credit: blarfnip) Best free PC games: Comedy and Oddity Pet the Pup at the Party - You’ve run out of small talk at a rambunctious house party and before anyone notices how awkward you are, you must find a pooch and pet it. Head Over Hooves: My Heart Bleats For You - An apocalyptic dating sim where you must make a goat fall in love with you and then sacrifice it to save the world from eternal damnation. Alfonso's Bowling Challenge - This sort-of sports game swerves away from its premise quickly, building on its strange version of bowling until you’re making breakfast and chopping hair with your bowling ball. Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - This team-up of The Stanley Parable creator William Pugh and stand-up comedian Simon Amstell takes you on a hilarious journey behind the scenes of a game falling apart at the seams. The Book Of Beasts and Buddies - An interactive monster manual filled with curious creatures. Each page throws you into a brief Pokémon-inspired encounter, and through interacting with them you can gather your findings for the bestiary. Stick Shift - As creator Robert Yang says, "Stick Shift is an autoerotic night-driving game about pleasuring a gay car." It’s part of an anthology with Hurt Me Plenty and Succulent, covering eroticism, politics and more. Stick Shift is funny while also offering food for thought. Best free PC games: Classics (Image credit: Revolution Software) Free classic games StarCraft - These days Blizzard sells a shiny remaster, but if the original’s good enough for South Korea, it’s good enough for us. There’s a reason that even today it’s an esports sensation – this iconic RTS remains a triumph of tight strategy and intense competition, with an incredible amount of depth for devotees to get lost in. The Dark Mod - A tribute to the Thief series, this standalone game lets you download a massive variety of user-made stealth levels, from tightly contained ones like Thief’s Den to the more open variety of Return to the City, and plenty of spooky ones like The Creeps. The Operative: No One Lives Forever - The classic stealth FPS, never re-released thanks to licensing hell. Its clever humour and charming 1960s setting hold up nicely, as do the arsenal of goofy, Bond-esque gadgets at your disposal. That includes lipstick bombs, sleeping gas perfume, and a briefcase rocket launcher. The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall - 1996's Elder Scrolls sequel was huge and ambitious, letting you explore High Rock and Hammerfell. A lot of series staples, like joining the Mages Guild, started here. Beneath a Steel Sky - This point-and-click adventure features art by Watchmen’s Dave Gibbons, a twisty sci-fi story, and a really goofy sense of humour. One of its neatest ideas is how you can stick your AI pal Joey’s electronic brain into different mechanical robots to solve puzzles. The MS-DOS Archive.org library - A collection of thousands of classic, free PC games playable in your browser. The MS-DOS collection on Archive.org contains more than 4,000 games, all emulated and easy to play in just a few seconds. Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia, Jazz Jackrabbit, Carmen Sandiego... you could spend a lifetime of lunch breaks in here. But then you might starve. View the full article

There are a lot of big names in Warner's cartoon fighting game MultiVersus, but one bigger than all the rest may soon be on the way. That's right, I'm talking about the one, the only, the chunky bunny boi, Big Chungus. The potential presence of Big Chungus was revealed in a European Union trademark filing, dug up and shared on Twitter by Andrew Marmo: Warner Bros. trademark Big Chungus for use of a video game. pic.twitter.com/T9tTg9jrkoAugust 27, 2022 See more First things first. Big Chungus, as explained by Know Your Meme, originates from a 1941 Merrie Melodies cartoon in which Elmer Fudd tries to find some peace and quiet at Jellostone Park, and Bugs Bunny, for no reason except that he's kind of a dick, immediately and without provocation begins hassling him. In one of his asides, Bugs balloons up to make fun of Elmer, who in this early iteration (before taking on his more well-known hunter persona) was notably obese and bulbous-headed. The word "chungus" was apparently coined by videogame journalist Jim Sterling sometime prior to December 2012. Several years later, near the end of 2016, someone had the bright idea to put them together, and thus was Big Chungus born. It's not the most sophisticated meme of all time, but it is pretty funny. (Image credit: BIG CHUNGUS) The trademark filing doesn't mention MultiVersus specifically, but it does cover game software as well as a range of other good and services. MultiVersus does seem like the natural, even obvious, fit: The meme has taken on a life well beyond its internet roots, and in fact Big Chungus is now arguably a part of the official Looney Tunes canon thanks to his appearance in Looney Tunes World of Mayhem, a mobile game for iOS and Android devices. Your world may not be ready for him.But our World of Mayhem is. pic.twitter.com/0MxoCrYrunMarch 29, 2021 See more And if he can turn up in that game, why not this one? MultiVersus has already made a habit of drawing inspiration from internet culture. Shaggy's in-game moveset is based around the "Ultra Instinct Shaggy" meme and one of LeBron James' moves is a reference to his most iconic face of bewilderment. Big Chungus is a perfect addition to that mix, and the fans want it to happen: (Image credit: BIG CHUNGUS) I've reached out to Warner for comment on the Big Chungus situation because, you know, I'm a professional and that's what I do. In the meantime, enjoy this very real regulatory filing. (Image credit: BIG CHUNGUS) View the full article

The world of Minecraft is forever growing, which Mojang now talks about in detail during its yearly Minecraft Live showcases. During one of its more frequent Minecraft Now streams where developers play together and answer questions, creative director Agnes Larsson fielded a question about the next major Mojang showcase. "First of all, there will be a Minecraft Live this year," Larsson said, in case there was any doubt. The date for that will be October 15, 2022. She also explained that Mojang has learned from past events what to show players and, crucially, what not to. Larsson said that one of the major goals of Minecraft Live is to "create player dreams" and celebrate with fans. "For this Live we have actually taken concrete actions to make sure we really, really can fulfill these dreams. [...] This year we will make sure the features we show have come really far in the development process." She calls that focus "learning from mistakes," most likely referring to the big Minecraft Live 2020 that laid out plans for a ton of upcoming features. The deep dark biome and wardens launched in the 1.19 update, a year later than the 1.17 update they were planned for. Others, like the frog food debacle, were changed during development. Most notably, the backpack-like bundles and the archeology system were both put on hold. "Of course we will still tweak [features] with feedback but we will be really confident that this is going to make it [into the game]," Larsson says. Like past years, we can likely expect Mojang to run a community vote on which new creature to add into mainline Minecraft—the yearly "mob vote." And, almost certainly, a feature and name reveal for the inevitable version 1.20. Historically, Minecraft Live covers all things Minecraft, not just the core game. We'll probably hear a bit more talk about Mojang's upcoming RTS spinoff Minecraft Legends, the action RPG Minecraft Dungeons, and probably something from Minecraft Education Edition too. As ever, you'll be able to catch the Minecraft Live presentation on Mojang's YouTube channel at a to-be-announced time on October 15. View the full article

First spotted by PCGamesN, a judge for the Central District of California has dismissed a lawsuit by choreographer Kyle Hanagami against Epic. Hanagami filed the suit in April, alleging that Epic had used his choreography for the 2017 music video "How Long" by Charlie Puth without permission or attribution. Epic faced controversy beginning in 2018 over the sourcing of its many emote dances in Fortnite. A sequence of artists including 2 Mily and Alfonso Ribeiro filed lawsuits against the company for copyright infringement, but a 2019 Supreme Court ruling determined that dance choreography has to be formally copyrighted before an artist can sue, thwarting most of the cases. Not so for Hanagami's case: his choreography for How Long was copyrighted. Hanagami claims he was never approached for licensing by Epic, and his lawyer, David Hecht, shared a fairly convincing video demonstrating the similarities between the two dances. Honestly, it looks pretty darn similar to me, but Judge Wilson's dismissal approaches it from a different angle. The judge argues that the standard for copyrightable choreography under the law applies to more lengthy movements than the several seconds at question in a Fortnite emote. "The Copyright Act's legislative history specifically states that 'choreographic works do not include social dance steps and simple routines.'" the judge's ruling reads, later pointing to similar examples of an entire dance production being copyrighted, but shorter sequences within being fair game. The ruling continues later, "Whichever way the Court evaluates Plaintiff's Steps—two seconds, four beats of music, or eight body positions, repeated ten times throughout the Registered Choreography—Defendant has the better of the argument. There is no authority to suggest that Plaintiff's Steps are protectable when viewed out of the context of the whole of Plaintiff's work; indeed, the weight of authority suggests otherwise." Based on this ruling, it seems doubtful that any choreographer could get the better of Epic in a suit over dance emotes, copyright or no. That's a pretty resounding victory for Epic in its quest to sell silly virtual dances to every last nephew and little cousin on the planet. So begins a 1,000-year imperium of Obi-Wan Kenobi doing the Griddy. View the full article

The CEO of Ragnarok, a multiplayer metaverse RPG currently in alpha, admitted to losing almost $2 million of company money from trading during the most recent crypto crash. In a rare act of transparency, the CEO publicly disclosed the project's earnings and expenses, revealing a huge pay disparity between founder members and the rest of the staff. The CEO of Ragnarok, who goes by Fanfaron, said on Substack that he made "mistakes by buying ETH (Ethereum) multiple times when [he] thought it was an advantageous investment for the project. "Then to protect downside risk and with the plan to reinvest at a better time, I sold our position in ETH, multiple times. This led to approximately 1.827M in losses," Fanfaron said (thanks, web3isdoinggreat). The company started with $1.75 million in seed funding and has made over $17.5 million from NFT sales and royalties. The game, which Fanfaron described as "similar to WoW but everything being digitally owned," has suffered some delays, which were blamed on overexpansion resulting in missed deadlines. "If I am being honest, running Ragnarok has made me aware of many personal skill gaps, and it is one of the reasons I am prioritizing expanding our team and bringing on domain experts to help lead us into the next phase of growth," wrote Fanfaron. "Ultimately, I own our mistakes as the leader of Ragnarok, and I apologize to the community for the missteps and lack of communication thus far. I cannot promise that we won’t make mistakes going forward—we are all human, but I can promise stronger transparency and that we will always act in good faith for our community and this project." The post includes a breakdown of the earnings and expenses for Ragnarok, including $5.4 million in salaries, $1.5 million of which was used to buy out a co-founder. For context, the project paid out $1.25 million in wages for 'core team members' over nine months for 56 people, which averages to about $22K a person; meanwhile, $400K in salaries were given to 'founding members' (2 people) for a year. (Image credit: ragnarok) Almost $3.7 million in 'post-mint' compensation was paid out to team members and founders. It seems like the lion's share was again given to founders, though exactly how the split works for core team members is not specified. One of the main reasons for releasing the company's revenue, expenses, and a record of repayments was for "transparency and context." Because, without it, Fanfaron said, the "complex structure of wallets and payments" surrounding the project "can paint a bad picture." Your next machine (Image credit: Future)Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines from the pros Best gaming laptop: Perfect notebooks for mobile gaming Though more transparency in Ragnorok's development was promised, this may well be the last time we see such a detailed public financial breakdown since Ragnarok is not a public company. Fanfaron says the project's investors still have "full trust and support" for him as CEO. He plans to pay back the $1.8 million lost from the trading and cut his salary from $1.2 million to $600,000. He also posted the wallet addresses where the repayments are coming from, including $200K chipped in from a former co-founder. This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a metaverse game get hurt because of cryptocurrency volatility, but Ragnorak still has over $10 million in its war chest for development and legal costs, according to the post. The roadmap aims to implement more features like combat, quests, and NFT breeding in the coming months. Currently, players can explore the Ragnarok metaverse and interact with buildings and other players. View the full article

Technically speaking, Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation is about a '90s anime and manga star spending a very strange week on holiday. There's an imperfect time loop, far more dinosaurs than any modern location should have, a curry-cooking ninja, and an ancient legend thrown into the mix—plenty to keep anyone occupied. But all of that's really just an excuse to give players a precious chance to tear around a small rural village in the carefree way only a five-year-old child could. It's a simple idea—and one that could be easily misunderstood when viewed through gaming's overwhelmingly achievement-focused lens. When so many games tend to be designed to be exhausted just in time for the next wave of #content, something as gentle and unfussy as Shin-chan can feel wrong, as though the developer missed the global game design meeting. A playable summer holiday may sound like a great idea, but what are you actually supposed to do? There are extensive lists of fish to reel in and bugs to catch, and lots of errands Shin-chan can run for the local businesses. Those are all tasks to be completed, aren't they? Well, yes… but also no. If this game had to be pigeonholed into a genre, Shin-chan would probably be bundled into the same nameless box games like A Short Hike, Animal Crossing, and this same developer's Japan-only Boku no Natsuyasumi ("My Summer Holiday") series go in. They're games that, if they must be "about" anything, are about the joys of existing within small and supportive community-centred sandboxes, and looking damned cute while doing so. There are plenty of defined goals to work towards—stories to follow up on, items to collect, new clothes to wear—but they're always presented more as a personal target, an optional something extra to help give the ongoing experience a little structure. There's always a lot that can be done, but very little that has to be done. The relaxed pace is the key to enjoying Shin-chan's adventure. The endless supply of fish swimming in clear streams or in the shade of the village bridge aren't objectives to be grinded out until the digital supply's finally been fully catalogued after many repetitive hours. They're meant to be idly noticed as Shin-chan strolls by on another perfect summer's afternoon, and only fished if fishing sounds like fun in that exact moment. Above: Turn the sound on and just soak in the atmosphere for a minute. The waiting, the sound of the water, the eventual catch via a simple, reaction-based pull—maybe it'll be something new to photograph, maybe it'll be something familiar the local restaurant wants to put on the menu in exchange for a little pocket money, maybe it'll be some genuine rubbish only fit for the bin. The experience is the point, not any quantifiable success or progression that might come from it. Adjusting to this laid-back lifestyle sort of requires turning off your gamer brain, but if you can manage that, living Shin-chan's holiday becomes far more fun than completing any defined task ever could. There's pride and pleasure in this relaxed frame of mind, in savouring a pleasant moment just because it's there. Summer Vacation isn't a realistic sim, but it captures the feeling of chasing butterflies in a favourite spot during a peach-coloured dusk and letting the sound of the cicadas drown out everything else. I always wanted to take the time to stand outside Shin-chan's neighbour's house to listen to the mother next door read her children a different short story every night on the porch, even though there's no tangible reward for doing so. The people living within this small summery world still manage to feel relatable even with all of the dinosaurs running around thanks to an honest sort of fine detail, which deftly anchors what could have been a shallow and stomach-churning sickly sweetness to a very ordinary sort of reality. Shin-chan's adventure in Asso village always feels like a summer holiday I maybe could've had for myself, if only I'd visited the right aunt for the right week too many decades ago. Tufts of grass grow next to worn dirt paths, concrete corners, and car parks. Beautiful sunsets silhouette a telephone pole. A pair of mismatched tables are pushed together at breakfast. Two people like like each other, but struggle to find the right words when they're together. Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: Neos Corporation)Image 2 of 6 (Image credit: Neos Corporation)Image 3 of 6 (Image credit: Neos Corporation)Image 4 of 6 (Image credit: Neos Corporation)Image 5 of 6 (Image credit: Neos Corporation)Image 6 of 6 (Image credit: Neos Corporation) Shin-chan may be a cartoon character running around with his butt literally out in a game with its own resident "evil" professor, but the charm lies in how this strange little gremlin-child's escapades capture the spirit of a summer that almost was for all of us. It's a place just about real enough to linger in our imaginations, even if it's not somewhere we could truly visit. In spite of its easygoing attitude it's not a long game (expect a start-to-credits run to take around 10 hours or so, even without a guide) but again, this is a carefully considered feature designed to enhance Shin-chan's sun-soaked atmosphere. An in-game day spent watering vegetables or playing with the local kids in a miniature robo-dino battle tournament can't be considered wasted if the "real" adventure's always so close at hand and so easily cleared, so why rush? Why not go investigate the local cows, learn the name of the beautiful pink blooms growing by the roadside, or even just watch fluffy clouds silently pass by near the top of the mountain? Your summer will definitely be over before the next big game starts downloading anyway—the only problem is once you've gotten used to Shin-chan's carefree tempo, you might not be in such a rush to move on after all. View the full article

A rumor surfaced earlier this year claiming that 2K Games' studio Hangar 13 was working on a new Mafia game under new leadership, following the departure of longtime president and chief creative officer Haden Blackman. Now it's official: In an interview posted at mafiagame.com to mark the 20th anniversary of the original Mafia, general manager Roman Hladík finally confirmed that it's happening. "I'm happy to confirm we've started work on an all-new Mafia project!" Hladík said. "While it's a few years away and we can't share anything more right now, we're really excited to keep working on this beloved franchise and to entertain our players with new stories." The May rumor indicated that the new Mafia game will be built in Unreal Engine 5 rather than the proprietary engine used for the previous games, and more interestingly it will reportedly be a prequel to the existing trilogy. The series has hopped around historically between games, from the early 1930s of the original game to the turbulent late-'60s of Mafia 3, so it's not entirely unexpected that the studio would opt for yet another era for the fourth game. There's certainly fertile ground for it: The Prohibition era is the classic Mafia setting but there was plenty going on around the turn of the 20th century, too. It's equally unsurprising that a new Mafia game, regardless of details, is happening: Mafia 3 didn't exactly knock our socks off, but it's a successful and well-liked series, and that makes the question of a sequel not an "if," but a "when." If you've never played Mafia and want to see where it all began, 2K Games is giving away the original on Steam over the weekend, beginning on September 1. The updated Mafia Definitive Edition is also on sale for $14/£12/€14—65% off the regular price—until September 8. In honor of #Mafia20 let's go back to where it all started 🏙Get the original Mafia (digital) for FREE on @Steam from Sept. 1 - 5 pic.twitter.com/ZdxSFZrLwhAugust 29, 2022 See more View the full article

Flame Fatales is a summertime speedrun marathon held by the all-women speedrunning community Frame Fatales, which along with the winter variant Frost Fatales raises money for charity—in this case (and in previous events) the Malala Fund, which advocates for free, safe, quality education for women around the world. The previous event raised more than $132,000 for the fund, and this one managed to surpass it—just barely—with a grand total of $135,512. So, what's fun to watch? Dozens of speedruns took place over the week and everyone will have their own favorites, but here are a few I think look fun and interesting: Mirror's Edge – because it's Mirror's Edge. Immortals: Fenyx Rising – I just think it looks neat. Divinity: Original Sin 2 – It takes me longer than 20 minutes to figure out what class I want to be. Elden Ring – Being level 1 in Farum Azula doesn't seem like a great idea to me, but I'm happy to watch someone else do it. Wizards and Warriors – There's no school like old school. With its summer speedrunner wrapped up, Frame Fatales confirmed that it will return again for the winter: The next Frost Fatales speedrunning extravaganza is set to run from February 26 to March 4, 2023. Time#FlameFatales 2022 raised a total of $135,512 for @MalalaFund! Thank you runners, commentators, volunteers & GDQ staff who made this possible, and everyone that donated & supported the event!The @FrameFatales will be back this winter for Frost Fatales, see you then! pic.twitter.com/mL3wjsSQ0aAugust 28, 2022 See more View the full article

It's been a long wait for Dwarf Fortress' hotly anticipated Steam release, which was originally announced back in March 2019. But avid fans of large fortifications and small bearded dudes may not have to wait much longer. Replying to a tweet asking when Dwarf Fortress will launch on Steam, publisher Kitfox Games stated that it'll be coming "Sooner than you might think." Sooner than you might think!August 28, 2022 See more How soon this will be, exactly, is of course up for debate. Kitfox Games provided no further specification about the release date, while the launch date on the game's Steam page still reads "time is subjective". Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that Kitfox Games would make this statement if the Steam release was, say, more than a year out. Meanwhile, over on Dwarf Fortress' development blog, creator Tarn Adams teased an "exciting announcement" coming "soon" in his most recent update. Adams also mentioned that the announcement is related to the Dwarf Fortress demo that will be shown off at this year's PAX. Given the PAX expo starts this week, specifically running September 2-5, it seems likely that we'll hear more about this announcement in the coming days. There's good reason why Dwarf Fortress fans are excited about the upcoming Steam release, which provides a massive overhaul to the game's presentation and UI. The ASCII visuals are being replaced with lovingly detailed tile-based sprites, which Shaun recently obsessed over while reporting on the game's update to its animal people. Meanwhile, the game's UI and menus are getting mouse support, buttons, extra tabs, and other quality of life updates that should make the game significantly easier to grapple with. In any case, it's all very intriguing. Maybe I'll finally be able to play Bay 12's wildly ambitious colony sim, which up to this point I've simply found too idiosyncratic to get on with. View the full article