[Creative Assembly vows investigation after 'deeply concerning and serious' allegations of workplace abuse]

Creative Assembly, maker of the Total War series and upcoming shooter Hyenas, has responded to allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct against one of its former employees. The company says it will investigate the matter and is calling for former employees to reach out if they have testimonies that could aid the investigation.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Creative Assembly writes that it has "been made aware of deeply concerning and serious allegations regarding a former CA employee," and that while the company is "dedicated to providing a safe and inclusive environment for our people," it is clear it "[needs] to do better".

The post concludes with a statement that the company is "investigating this matter through an external party to fully understand what happened," and calls on former employees with knowledge of misconduct to reach out via the company's whistleblowing email account.

Rumours surrounding potential misconduct began to swirl over the past few days, as developers on Twitter stepped forward to make allegations of misconduct, abuse, and cover-ups against one of the company's ex-employees. Several people who have worked at Creative Assembly, or that know someone who has, have now come forward to make allegations of bullying and harassment, and at least one claims that reports made regarding the individual in question were ignored.

The Creative Assembly allegations are the latest in a series of abuse scandals that have rocked the games industry in the last few years. This year alone, the lead developer of Microsoft's HoloLens resigned amid accusations of inappropriate conduct, a report painted a disturbing picture of toxic workplaces at a number of indie companies, and the Activision Blizzard scandal continued to produce discomfiting stories of sexual harassment and abuse.

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[Elden Ring patches its patch after Endure spell proves too enduring]

Elden Ring recently received a 1.07 update, which was one of the most major attempts FromSoftware has made to deal with the porous line between PvE and PvP in these games. It came with an absolute boatload of changes aimed at multiplayer balance, and decoupled PvE and PvP weapon balancing (albeit, this mainly involved buffing weapons in PvE). It all got a bit live service for a moment.

Possibly too live service, because now the developer's rushed out a patch to the patch, re-tweaking some values and acknowledging that some weapons weren't functioning quite as an Elden Lord might like. Prime among them is the Ash of War art Endure, which had its effect lengthened and let you poise through attacks with decreased damage and respond with an almighty thwack. The direction of this art has now been reduced after Tarnished got a bit too poise-happy, with the buff having "a greater impact on the game balance than expected."

There's a minor tweak to the Inescapable Frenzy incantation, where the FP reduction wasn't being properly reflected, and apparently the 1.07 patch notes also incorrectly assigned a 'charge' mechanic. The incantations Flame of the Fell God and Gurranq's Beast Claw cannot in fact be charged, and this note corrects the previous.

Finally there's an odd bug with the Black Blade incantation, which has a combo element to its attacks: if you cast it from the left hand at the moment, you won't get the follow-up attack. FromSoft is aware of this but hasn't yet fixed it, and promises a correction in a future update.

The patch ends by promising more future game balancing, and the original patch 1.07 does show a game settling in for the PvP long run. The Souls series have these grand player-driven afterlives because, long after you've explored every nook and cranny of the Lands Between, it remains enormous fun to go sallying forth in co-op with newer adventurers, or hunt your fellow grizzled veterans. The list of changes made in this patch is exhaustive: you can see them all here.

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[New Tales from the Borderlands review]

I love a bad joke. Dad jokes, terrible puns and oneliners—they all appeal to me, which is why I have always found the Borderlands universe painfully funny. I'm still laughing about the town called Buttsville in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. The original Tales from the Borderlands was as hilarious as it was heartwarming, introducing new characters who—thanks to its adventure games structure—actually had a purpose and a story I cared about. And despite the genre shift, it was very much a Borderlands game in every sense: vault hunting, scams, capitalism, guns, and weird humour.

Need to know

What is it? An episodic, QTE-heavy narrative-driven Borderlands spin-off.
Expect to pay: £34.99/ $39.99
Developer: Gearbox Studios
Publisher: 2K
Reviewed on: Intel i7-9700F, RTX 2070 Super, 32GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Link: https://newtalesborderlands.2k.com/
Release date: 21 October, 2022

New Tales is still funny, but too many jokes overstay their welcome and overall, it just feels a bit rushed. It's obvious that Gearbox has tried to imitate the pacing and storytelling style of Tales, but instead, we have the introduction of characters who are never really seen again and plot points that end up being loopholes.

The narrator in New Tales from the Borderlands introduces the three main characters as idiots and doofuses and he's not wrong. Our trio of 'heroes' might be some of the most annoying protagonists I've ever played as, which is a credit to the writing team because that's exactly how they're supposed to be. You play as each character in rotation and will control various conversations in a group setting. An assassination bot, Lou13, is also present for the majority of the story but you don't get to play him, which is rather disappointing.

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(Image credit: Gearbox)

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(Image credit: Gearbox)

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(Image credit: Gearbox)

Let me introduce these dinguses: there's Anu—nerdy doctor and anxious, socially inept weirdo—and her younger brother, Octavio, a clout chaser. If TikTok were in the Borderlands universe he would be the most annoying creator on the app. And Fran? Actually, I quite like Fran. She's self-assured and makes it her mission not to lose her 'frack' at the other two idiots every five seconds. She made a lot of sex jokes that I laughed at, and some I made a shocked Pikachu face at, so I have some complicated feelings about her.

New Tales from the Borderlands shares a similar theme to the rest of the series: one mega corp is trying to take over the other, while searching for Vaults and the treasures that lay within. Eridium, easily the most sought-after commodity in Borderlands, can move over in New Tales: it's healing shard time. Only, there's an angry entity that lives in the shard who's been separated from their death-dealing cosmic twin. And did I mention that Tediore has managed to get their hands on it and that the seemingly sentient shard has possessed Anu and nobody knows what to do about it? Yikes.

This is… actually a cage 

For once, there's not much focus on the main or supporting character's backstories, which is quite refreshing. I don't much care about who these losers were before they turned bomb expert/sniper/taco-stand owner. There's a fast turnaround of introductions where said characters are only briefly seen again in montages. There are a lot of montages, one per act, and they kinda sucked. I would have rather they were playable sequences and, while the songs used in them were good, there wasn't the usual bombastic use of music to set the scene as in other Borderlands games. 

Whether it was a budget issue or time constraint, there's a lot missing from New Tales. All of the episodes are available upfront, so you won't be waiting months between releases, but you're definitely still left wanting. In one sequence, Anu and Fran are in a shark tank and Fran is beating up sharks. Only, it's all a QTE with Octavio narrating and—aside from a quick look at the blood seeping into the tank—you don't see any of the action. And given that Fran's whole vibe—should you choose to keep her on the straight and narrow—is "I will not break my anger sobriety", it was really disappointing to see it all reduced to a behind-the-scenes event.

QTEs felt really overused—did I really need a quick-time sequence to slap some cage bars, or as part of a gratuitously overdrawn 'science experiment' to see if the healing shard really worked? There are a lot of what could have been really fun moments hidden behind QTEs, and I can't help but feel that a paced release of each chapter so that more time could be spent on New Tales development would have been the better option. You can fiddle with the difficulty of QTEs in the menu, and failing one doesn't automatically lead to death or a game over, but it will impact the story in ways that might not be clear until later on.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

5 billion dollars? That's almost 6 billion dollars… 

As usual, New Tales is full of toilet humour and is genuinely funny, but you probably won't find it as funny if you don't like memes. Fran and Lou13, in particular, had some cracking one-liners that had me pausing the game to laugh. In between the usual awkward, *finger guns* types of laughs like "[screams internally]" and a well-timed use of the phrase "thirsty", there's a reference to OnlyFans (if you guessed it's OnlyFrans, then well done), and insults about playing narrative-driven video games with a lot of fourth-wall-breaking stares. 

On the flip side, there are a lot of sex-heavy jokes that don't land well at all, and many that are recycled making them a bit stale after a few hours. It's also painfully boring to see the characters in virtually the same situation every time. Anu will be freaking out and being super awks, Octavio will play buzzword bingo by himself and act painfully incompetent, and Fran is probably making the situation sexually tense for reasons. It takes the majority of New Tales to see some real growth between the characters but for some reason, they just never seem to learn. Or maybe I just made some really bad decisions for them.

At the end of each episode, you get a rating of how well each character is bonding with the other, and Lou13 will rate your team's morale on a scale of zero to skateboards. Why skateboards, you ask? No idea, it is never properly explained other than Lou13 tries quite hard to be rad but unfortunately got all of his cool guy chat from Octavio.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

I was fired for playing Vaultlanders 

The Vaultlanders action figure minigame is excellent, however. Vaultlanders are action figures of characters from previous games, like Maya, Fl4k and Brick. Each has unique attack and defensive stats and an ultimate of sorts you can use mid-fight. Basically, it's Mortal Kombat but with plastic figures. You whack your action figure off your opponents, dodging attacks and then hitting them with crit attacks until you get a K.O. It's as stupid as it sounds and I love that you can get access matches at any time from the main menu.

There's a recurring character—found in many cold storage areas for reasons that are never explained—who reminds me of your rival in the Pokemon games. If you find him, you're locked into battle and winning the fights means you can take the Vaultlander figurine from him. Once you've won the first fight against him, you can choose to play Vaultlanders matches from the main menu, if you need a break from the story. Unfortunately, encountering the Badass Superfan falls into the same repetitive story trap as the rest of the non-QTE sections: You can finally roam free, loot some boxes, oh and a little prompt tells you there's a Vaultlander or two hidden in this very small area. 

(Image credit: Gearbox)

The Badass Superfan and the rest of the Tediore soldiers are some of the best tertiary characters. The banter between them is so stupid and funny and I ugly laughed a lot. It reminds me a lot of Jake Peralta and the Brooklyn 99 squad—rambling, sort-of incoherent nonsense that's just for laughs. One of the soldiers forgets his teammate's name and is just shouting "Doug? Wait, isn't it Anthony? Doug Anthony?" and the absurdity of it happening during what is actually quite a tense stealth QTE mission made it funnier. Throughout the story, there's a good mix of really dumb humour with serious decision-making or QTE events that saves it from being soulless, but there's still something missing.

Sadly, the Telltale magic just isn't there. There are predictable twists and surprise events during the story with plenty of successes and pitfalls, but Gearbox just hasn't managed to get the pacing right. Chapter-based games can always feel like a bit of a slog in the middle, but parts of this were downright painful to get through. You can't even skip ahead with the dialogue so you're trapped in a sequence until either a QTE begins or you can finally have some freedom to wander about a tiny, limited area. It's difficult to understand who the target audience for New Tales is, other than elder millennials with a cynical sense of humour. It made me laugh a lot, but equally, there were too many sections that I wanted to just be over already which sucked a lot of the fun out of it.

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[Microsoft's new PC management app is one step closer to release but it's not for expert users]

Microsoft has a new app for generally keeping your PC in good working order. It's called PC Manager, and while it's technically not fully released yet, I've given it a whirl to see what it's all about.

PC Manager is a compact application that offers more shortcuts to lesser-known or not often used features of your Windows PC. It helps clear up your storage drives, for example, or offers an at-a-glance nod to your startup time and what apps might be affecting it. You can even disable the apps hitting your boot time hardest from here. 

It also offers a 'Boost' button that cleans up all your temporary files for a session, helping to free up precious memory. You can also tailor which files you'd like Windows to eradicate on your behalf, which is where Microsoft has slyly attempted to get users to restore their default browser to Edge.

No thank you.

There's also a security section with shortcuts to Windows Update, browser security, and pop-up management. You can even run a quick scan from within this section.

It's a fairly sleek app, too, though in my use of it I did feel it's one of those things I'll use once and then never open again. But perhaps I'm not the target audience, and I dare say most, if not all, of you reading this won't be either. As a windowed application it's another app to have open on the desktop, and you can access these settings elsewhere if need be. Perhaps as a pop-up card or shortcut it'd be a touch more useful, but I don't think users familiar with what Windows has to offer will gain much from the app as it looks and operates today.

Window shopping

(Image credit: Microsoft)

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The app has been in beta for a few months, reports Aggiornamenti Lumia (via Windows Central), but has only recently been added to the Windows Store. The listing is hidden as of today. The account also notes that it appears there are two versions of the app preparing for release, but the difference between them is not clear.

If you want to try it for yourself, you have to head to the Chinese-language webpage for the public beta version. This has an official Microsoft certificate and is a subdomain of the Microsoft site, and suggests Microsoft is targeting the Chinese market with the app first of all. With a view to launching it elsewhere around the world at a later date, perhaps.

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[How to complete the Millicent quest in Elden Ring]

Elden Ring's NPC quests

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Elden Ring quests guide
- Elden Ring: Ranni's quest
- Elden Ring: Blaidd's quest
- Elden Ring: Nepheli's quest
- Elden Ring: Fia's quest
- Elden Ring: Irina's quest
- Elden Ring: Varre's quest
- Elden Ring: Hyetta's quest
- Elden Ring: Thops' quest

The Elden Ring Millicent quest is one of the longer questlines in the Lands Between and you'll have to progress pretty far into the game to finish it. If you do follow the steps all the way to the end, you'll be rewarded with an item that can be used to reverse a fairly major decision that affects the Elden Ring ending you'll receive. Even if you don't need the item, the chance to learn more about what's going on in the Lands Between is always welcome.

Millicent's quest starts at Gowry's Shack in Caelid, so you can pick it up as soon as you work up the nerve to venture to this Scarlet Rot-infested area. Subsequent steps require you to explore further into the game, however, so unless you've got quite a bit of story progression under your belt, don't expect to finish this right away. If you are ready to get stuck in, here are the steps to complete the Elden Ring Millicent quest.

Elden Ring Millicent questline overview

Here's a brief summary of the steps you need to take to finish Millicent's quest: 

1. Go to Gowry's Shack in Caelid and agree to help Gowry.
2. Kill Commander O'Neil in the Swamp of Aeonia to get the Unalloyed Gold Needle.
3. Return the item to Gowry at his shack.
4. Find Millicent at the Church of the Plague and give her the needle.
5. Return to Gowry at his shack and speak with Millicent.
6. Retrieve the Valkyrie's Prosthesis item from The Shaded Castle in Altus Plateau.
7. Speak to Millicent at Erdtree Gazing Hill and hand over the item.
8. Defeat the boss at Windmill Village and speak to Millicent there.
9. Speak to Millicent at the Mountaintop of the Giants.
10. Access the Haligtree and find Millicent.
11. Defeat the Ulcerated Tree Spirit mini-boss.
12. Make a choice between invading or being summoned.
13. If you helped her, reload the area and speak to Millicent to get the Unalloyed Gold Needle
14. Use the needle at the Scarlet Bloom in Malenia's boss arena after the fight to get Miquella's Needle and a Somber Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone.

Caelid

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Gowry's Shack location. (Image credit: From Software)

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Gowry inside his shack. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Where to find Gowry's Shack 

Gowry's Shack is found in Caelid, just south of Sellia, Town of Sorcery. If you haven't explored this area, the easiest way to get here is via the road from the northeast corner of Limgrave. Just run past everything and pick up the Sites of Grace along the way. 

Once you reach the Southern Aeonia Swamp Bank Site of Grace, continue along the road to the north and pass through the large gate—just watch out for the troll throwing rocks from the cliff above. On the other side, you should see the shack off the road to your right. Talk to Gowry inside the wooden hut and he'll tell you he wants to heal a girl but needs you to find the Unalloyed Gold Needle first. 

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Commander O'Neil location. (Image credit: From Software)

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Commander O'Neil boss fight. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

How to get the Unalloyed Gold Needle 

This item is dropped by Commander O'Neil, a boss found in the nearby Aeonia Swamp. He's located within the circle of rot just to the east of Gowry's Shack, but it's worth grabbing the Inner Aeonia Site of Grace immediately to the north of this location so you spawn right next to the boss arena if he gives you trouble. 

Commander O'Neil isn't particularly tough but he does summon help which can make the fight more annoying. You can also fight him while riding Torrent which can be helpful. If you have problems taking him down, you can engage the boss, then lead him back towards the Inner Aeonia Site of Grace. The Scarlot Rot geysers here do a decent amount of damage to him so you can kite him into them to bring his health down quickly.

Once you have the Unalloyed Gold Needle in your possession, head back to Gowry's Shack and hand the item over. Gowry will give you Sellia's Secret in return immediately, but to continue the quest, you need to fast travel away or reload the game and return to him. Once you're back, Gowry will hand back the repaired needle.

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Church of the Plague location. (Image credit: From Software)

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Millicent at the Church of the Plague. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Elden Ring Millicent location: Church of the Plague 

Next, you need to head to the Church of the Plague, which is just to the east of Gowry's Shack but at the top of the cliff. 

When you gave Gowry the Unalloyed Gold Needle in the last step, he told you the secret of Sellia which allows you access to the road from this side. You can go ahead and light the beacons in the village to gain access, or you use Torrent to run down to the location from the Bestial Sanctum in the north. You can access the sanctum via a waygate in Limgrave near the Third Church of Marika (D in Roundtable Hold tells you about this after you pick up your first Deathroot).

Millicent is found inside the ruins of the Church of the Plague. Hand over the needle then rest at the nearby Site of Grace. Talk to her again until she gives you the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom talisman.

Now you need to return to Gowry's Shack. Speak to Gowry, then fast-travel to the closest Site of Grace and return to his shack or simply reload the game. Millicent should now be there. Speak to her and exhaust her dialogue options.

Altus Plateau

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Valkyrie's Prosthesis location at the Shaded Castle. (Image credit: From Software)

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Millicent's location in Altus Plateau. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

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The chest containing the Valkyrie's Prosthesis. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Elden Ring Valkyrie's Prosthesis location 

You won't find Millicent again until you reach Altus Plateau, just past the Grand Lift of Dectus in the northeast part of Liurnia. You can find her just to the north of the Erdtree Gazing Hill Site of Grace, but you can't progress her quest further until you retrieve the Valkyrie's Prosthesis item from a chest in the Shaded Castle in northern Altus Plateau.

The map above shows the location of the Valkyrie's Prosthesis in the Shaded Castle, and you'll need to fight or run past a Cleanrot Knight to access the room where it resides. 

Once you have the Valkyrie's Prosthesis, return to Millicent in Altus Plateau and hand it over. You now need to keep talking to her until you run out of new dialogue.

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Godskin Apostle boss location. (Image credit: From Software)

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Godskin Apostle boss fight. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

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Millicent location at Windmill Village. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Defeat the Godskin Apostle at Windmill Village 

Now you need to head to Windmill Village in the north of Altus Plateau. Once you've activated the Windmill Village Site of Grace, head up the narrow area of land to the east and you'll find the Godskin Apostle boss at the top, near a windmill. If you've already handed over the Valkyrie's Prosthesis to Millicent—which you should have if you're following this guide—she'll be available as an NPC summon to help you out. 

This boss is pretty tough and you should be prepared to dodge a lot. Multi-hit magic damage seems to break his poise and he seems to be somewhat susceptible to bleed. As with most bosses, it's best to play it safe and be ready to dodge until you've figured out his attack patterns and the tells for his more devastating attacks.

Once you've defeated the boss, activate the Windmill Heights Site of Grace. Rest or fast travel away and back again and you'll find Millicent standing nearby. Exhaust her dialogue once more.

Mountaintop of the Giants

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Millicent's location in the Mountaintops of the Giants. (Image credit: From Software)

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Millicent location. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Talk to Millicent at Mountaintop of the Giants 

You won't see Millicent again to speak to until you reach the Mountaintop of the Giants region, to the northeast of Leyndell, Royal Capital (you need to defeat the boss there to access it). You can find her at the Ancient Snow Valley Ruins Site of Grace, to the south of Castle Sol and the southeast of Stargazer's Ruins.

Speak to her here and she'll say that you can call her in battle. She also talks about finding Malenia and mentions the Haligtree Secret Medallion that unlocks a hidden location at the Grand Lift of Rold. For details on how to access Miquella's Haligtree endgame area, check out our Haligtree Medallion guide.

At this point, you can return to Gowry's Shack in Caelid and talk to him about Millicent. He has a fair amount to say, although none of it is necessary to progress through the  rest of Millicent's questline.

The Haligtree

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Prayer Room Site of Grace location. (Image credit: From Software)

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Millicent in the Prayer Room. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Meet Millicent at Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree

Once you have access to Miquella's Haligtree, you need to carefully make your way down the tree branches, fighting giant ants and poor Albinaurics on the way. It can be a tricky area for melee characters; I'd recommend bringing some kind of ranged attack so you don't roll off the tree to your death.

Eventually, you'll start to run into buildings near the trunk of the tree. Keep moving forward through the enemies until you reach the Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree boss. Once you get her down, move past her location into Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree.

Make your way through until you reach the Prayer Room Site of Grace. Find Millicent nearby, speak to her, and she'll talk about Malenia.

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(Image credit: LunarGaming / FromSoftware)

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(Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Defeat the Ulcerated Tree Spirit mini-boss

Continue on through Elphael, Brace of the Haligtree. There are many, many enemies to defeat as you head lower into the area. Once you reach the Elphael Inner Wall Site of Grace, keep going until you reach the Drainage Channel Site of Grace after a bunch of icky Scarlet Rot pools.

Past the the Drainage Channel is more Scarlet Rot, but this time there's an Ulcerated Tree Spirit lurking in one that you have to drop down to. As gross as it is, you have to defeat this Ulcerated Tree Spirit to continue with Millicent's quest. 

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Drainage Channel Site of Grace location. (Image credit: LunarGaming / FromSoftware)

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The yellow and red summon signs. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

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Speak to Millicent. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Millicent's Prosthesis or Miquella's Needle choice

Survive the Lands Between with these Elden Ring guides

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Elden Ring guide: Conquer the Lands Between
Elden Ring map fragments: Reveal the world
Elden Ring weapons: Arm yourself
Elden Ring armor: The best sets
Elden Ring Smithing Stone: Upgrade your gear
Elden Ring Ashes of War: Where to find them
Elden Ring classes: Which to choose

Once you've defeated the mini-boss, return to the Drainage Channel Site of Grace. Run back to the boss area and you'll find two summon signs where you're faced with a choice, similar to the Sellen quest choice. The yellow summon sign will have you summoned to Millicent to help her defeat NPC invaders. The red summon sign will let you invade and kill her.

If you go with the red summon sign, you'll have to fight Millicent. If you successfully defeat her, you'll earn Millicent's Prosthesis and prematurely end the quest. If you do this, you will not be able to continue past this point.

If you go with the yellow summon sign and help her kill the NPCs, you're rewarded with the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, a talisman that greatly raises attack power with subsequent hits.

You can then rest at the Drainage Channel Site of Grace again, or reload the game, and find Millicent near the spot where the summoning signs were. Talk to her, then rest or reload again and you'll return to find her body. You can loot her for the Unalloyed Gold Needle item, which you can use to acquire Miquella's Needle.

Miquella's Needle

Elden Ring Miquella's Needle: How to get it 

Once you've received the Unalloyed Gold Needle by choosing the yellow summon sign in the step above, you need to progress further into the Ephael, Brace of the Haligtree area and beat the optional Shardbearer, Malenia. Once you've defeated her, reload the area and return to the boss room to find Malenia's scarlet bloom, then use the Unalloyed Gold Needle and you'll receive Miquella's Needle in return. 

Miquella's Needle has the unique ability to undo the Flame of Frenzy ending if you went down that route. As a reminder: that's located underneath Leyndell at the bottom of the Subterranean Shunning Grounds, through a bunch of tunnels and past Mohg's boss room. Inside, there's a big door that requires you to take your armor off to enter it. Once you do, you'll be marked by the Flame of Frenzy and have yellow eyes.

Without doing Millicent's questline, you'll be locked to this ending if you proceed. But you can undo the Flame of Frenzy if you see her quest through.

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Beside the Greatbridge Site of Grace location. (Image credit: HarryNinetyFour / FromSoftware)

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Dragonlord Placidusax boss arena. (Image credit: Gamerpillar / FromSoftware)

Tame the Flame of Frenzy with Miquella's Needle

To undo the lock on your character for the Flame of Frenzy ending, you must take Miquella's Needle to the boss room for Dragonlord Placidusax.

The Dragonlord is located in Farum Azula, which is only accessible in full after you've interacted with the Forge of the Giants in the Mountaintops of the Giants. Once there, go through normally until you reach the Beside the Great Bridge Site of Grace. From there, head down the nearby elevator, down the stairs, past the beastmen, and outside. Walk straight out like you're walking off the map and then look down to see a path of rocks below. Jump down and make your way toward the tornado until you reach the building fragment. Stand on the vacant part of it and interact with it to initiate a cutscene that takes you to the boss room.

In the boss room, equip Miquella's Needle or use it in your menu and select yes to tame the Flame of Frenzy. Now, you can continue on with the game normally and you won't be locked into that ending, and you'll have saved Melina in the process.

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[Modern Warfare 2 safe codes for Alone and El Sin Nombre]

There are three safe codes to find in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 campaign and these are needed for the El Sin Nombre and Alone missions. Cracking these safes isn't necessary to progress through the game but you'll be rewarded with some useful weapons if you decide to investigate.

These MW2 safe codes can be quite tricky to locate so I'll save you some trouble and list them below. I'll also explain where you can find them if you'd rather do some of the legwork yourself. If you're ready to get cracking, here are the Modern Warfare 2 safe codes for the new Call of Duty campaign.

Modern Warfare 2 El Sin Nombre safe code 

The first safe is found in Diego's bedroom during the El Sin Nombre mission. The code you're looking for is the "date" found on a portrait in the same room as the safe. 

• The El Sin Nombre safe code is 02-02-19.

Once you've accessed the safe, you'll be rewarded with a silenced Lockwood 300 shotgun and Plate Carrier armour.

Modern Warfare 2 Alone safe codes 

There are two safes to find during the Alone mission. The first is inside the office in the Coffee Shop, though you'll need to pry open the door to reach it. You can work out the safe code from the clue on the calendar in the same room. 

• The Alone coffee shop safe code is 10-10-80.

The reward for cracking this one is a silenced .50 GS pistol and a throwing knife. Good job, one more safe to go.

The second Alone MW2 safe is found inside the workshop office during the same mission. The safe code is discovered by checking the computer there.

• The Alone workshop safe code is 37-60-80.

You'll find a crossbow and another throwing knife inside this final safe. 

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[Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is back online, but original Dark Souls is offline forever]

Two months after Dark Souls 3's servers sprung back to life, and nine months after the servers for the entire Souls series went offline, Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (SOTFS) is back online. And that's pretty much where the good news ends.

Online features for the PC version of Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (DX11) have been reactivated.Online features for the base version of #DarkSouls II for PC (DX9) will be made available at a later date.Our thanks for your continued patience and support. pic.twitter.com/OihQUJOIbuOctober 25, 2022

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The original version of DS2, which runs on DX9 and lacks the additions and reconfigured encounters of SOTSF, will have to wait a little longer to get its servers back up and running. From said only that base DS2's online features would be back online "at a later date," which is a scarily elastic timespan.

Still, it's a better prognosis than the one given to Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition (the original, pre-remaster version of DS1): that game won't be coming back online at all.

"We have determined that we will not be able to support online services for the PC version of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition that was released in 2012," said From, putting the blame on the "aging system" that supports the game's online features.

It's not too surprising: you can't even buy that version of the game any more, but it's a sad end for the original Dark Souls, which just passed its PC release's tenth anniversary. Sure, the game was incredibly janky, barely playable on keyboard and mouse, and has since been supplanted by a remastered version, but you'd hope the game that kicked off the PC's love affair with Souls games would go out with more bang and less whimper. Plus, Prepare to Die Edition still has over double the number of mods available for it than the remaster, more than a few of which centre around online play.

But it's not meant to be. From is, of course, still promising to restore the servers for Dark Souls Remastered, so it's not like DS1's online play has winked out of existence. Judging by how long it took to fix DS2: SOTSF after restoring DS3, though, we probably still have a few months of serverless Souls ahead of us before things are back to normal.

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[Terra Invicta beginner's guide: Five things to know before getting started]

Terra Invicta is an astronomically deep and ambitious strategy game that will have you staging coups and mining asteroids to fend off an alien invasion of Earth. The number of different options and mechanics to keep track of is downright daunting, especially if this is your first trip around the solar system. 

Since this is a beginner's guide, I've tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible. Not to fear, though: with these helpful tips, you'll be able to hit the ground running and secure humanity's independence. Or sell them out if you play as one of the pro-alien factions, I guess. It's your save file, and I'm not your mom.

Terra Invicta: tips for getting started

Assemble an effective council

You don't get to pick your first two councilors, so unless you want to keep restarting to get better ones, your first order of business should be taking a look at their strengths and weaknesses and hiring people to fill the gaps. Your starting stats are going to be pretty terrible across the board, but that's par for the course. 

As you complete missions, gain experience and take control of organizations, you can turn even the most inept pencil-pusher into a terrifying whirlwind of death or the world's greatest spy. It's usually much easier to raise stats than it is to acquire new missions, so prioritize hiring people who have the missions you want more than ones with impressive starting stats.

So what makes a well-rounded council? You will need at least two with good Persuasion who have the Public Campaign mission, and at least one of them needs Control Nation. This is how you will bring countries to your side and secure support. Preferably two councilors with good Command and who have the Assault Alien Asset mission. These are your XCOM officers, basically. If you can't keep up with fighting the alien threat on the ground, things can quickly become overwhelming.

Having another one with the Investigate Alien Activity mission, and another with the Surveillance mission. You won't get very far at all without these since they're required to complete certain story objectives, but it seems like one of your starting councilors always has at least one, and they're not tied to any stat. 

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

Other important missions and stats to look out for in the early game are:

• Investigate Alien Activity
• Surveillance
• Crackdown
• Espionage
• Purge
• Investigate
• Defend interests
• Detain Councillor
• Assassinate
• Investigate Councilor
• Inspire
• Stabilize

Crackdown, Espionage and Purge will help you steal countries from other factions, and Defend Interests will help you protect your control points. Having high Investigate and Detain Councilor means you can afford to play dirty in the mid to late game, and they go hand-in-hand with Espionage and Assassinate. The only issue with Assassinate, though, is that you also need your councilor to have the Criminal trait, so if you see someone who has it, hire them quickly!

Other major ones to look for are Investigate Councilor, which can tell you if your teammates are truly loyal or not, and Inspire, which can make them more loyal. You'll also probably need at least one who can perform Stabilize to keep your countries from getting overthrown by a revolution. 

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

Finally, you'll want at least one with the Protect Target mission. Assassinate and Detain missions have a hidden risk: If you roll a critical failure your councilor dies. That is, unless, they have a buddy using Protect Target on them at the same time. Never attempt either of these missions without using the buddy system, unless you want to risk all of your hard-earned XP. This means at least one protector needs to not be your bounty hunter or your assassin—or both of them need to have it, so they can trade off watching each other's backs.

Remember to check the org marketplace if you're missing some key missions since a lot of orgs give you more missions in addition to better stats. 

Pick the best opening nation

You can start gathering support for your cause anywhere, but some areas will get you more return for your investment and keep dangerous toys out of the hands of your enemies. There are four openings that are generally seen by the community as the strongest overall: the USA, Russia, China, and the European Union.

The United States is probably the most difficult to wrest control of. Nations with larger GDPs give a penalty to Control Nation rolls, so you'll need to run a lot of Public Campaigns to get the people on your side first. You also get a bonus for controlling bordering nations, so it would be good to get a foothold in Canada and Mexico first. Once you're in control of the US, you'll have the most powerful military in the world at your disposal, with plenty of nukes, great science output, and a pretty strong economy that can be made even better by solving its issues with income inequality and a rapidly eroding democracy. 

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

China is also very difficult to get a grasp on, and isn't as strong in 2022 overall as the US, but has the potential to become much stronger with the right investments. If played correctly, they can easily become the most powerful country in the world in a relatively short period of time.

Russia has the most nukes of anyone to start with, but they also begin embroiled in a costly war with Ukraine and lack much of the economic and scientific strength of the other big dogs. One of their main advantages is actually Kazakhstan, who they start in a federation with, owning one of the most productive space launch facilities on the planet in 2022. Most strategies that don't involve taking Russia do involve stealing Kazakhstan out from under their sphere of influence.

France isn't especially impressive compared to the US or China, but they gain the ability very early on to form the European Union state, which can gradually absorb the rest of the continent peacefully, country by country. A fully united EU has an incredible GDP and more science output than anyone else in the world, including the US, in the 2020s.

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

Later on, you may even be able to control two or three of the above. But what's more important is, whichever ones you don't pick, you want to keep your enemies from getting dug in there. If you're playing as an anti-alien faction like the Resistance or Humanity First, you do not want the Servants or the Protectorate gaining control of China, Russia, or the US Even if you don't have the control points to take them over yourself, it's worth purging enemy control points and then abandoning the country, over and over again, just to stop them from getting a foothold.

If you can get a sympathetic faction like the Academy, or even the neutral Project Exodus, to take over the superpowers you can't hold yourself, you'll be in great shape. Don't waste your time kicking non-hostile factions out of major nations. They're doing you a huge favor by blocking your real enemies from taking them.

Administration is the God stat

As your councilors gain XP, you may be tempted to put it into the stats that boost their most important missions. Makes sense, right? Wrong. Completely wrong. Everyone should level up their Administration to at least 20 first.

Doing this has two effects: It increases your overall control cap and lets you take over more of the globe, and it allows them to control more organizations. Organizations can give them the other stats they need very efficiently and quite often, one point of Administration will give them access to multiple points in other stats if you hire the right orgs. Always be pumping Administration, and keep a sharp eye out for the Holy Grail of Terra Invicta: orgs that give you more Administration, which pay for themselves and give you even more org capacity on top of that.

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

Don't skimp on Espionage and Security

In the early game, your councilors are not going to be targeted by hostile actions very often. But when you get to the midgame and end up in an open war with other human factions and the aliens, it becomes a regular occurrence. To keep them from getting captured or assassinated, you should try to get everyone to at least 20 in Espionage, which makes them harder to locate, and Security, which makes them harder to kill if they do get targeted. Keep in mind that councilors who have already been spotted by enemy factions will need to use the Go To Ground mission to benefit from their Espionage skill again. 

Expand into space intelligently, not recklessly

It might be tempting to try to colonize everything in sight once you have enough Boost, but this is a trap for two reasons. First, there is a hidden cap of 12 on the number of extraterrestrial bodies you can colonize before you will start to be charged a stacking Mission Control penalty. Early on, you should target the Moon, Mars, and Mercury, plus eight or nine juicy asteroids that have a lot of whichever resources you're low on—this will usually be Noble Metals. The cap is per solar body, not per colony. So you can have as many habitats on Mars as you want and it still only counts as one.

Because of this, I generally try to send a probe to Mars very early and then reserve as many spots as I can with cheap, basic outposts before I do anything else. It's expensive since you're delaying getting your mines up and running, but worth it in the long run. Eventually, you'll research ways to steal outposts from other factions and dominate the Red Planet completely, but it doesn't hurt to have a head start.
 

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

This also means that bigger bodies with multiple colony sites, like moons, will almost always be more efficient than those with only one, like asteroids. So when you're finally able to settle the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, it might be worth abandoning some of your asteroid bases to stay under that cap.

There's also a second reason to pace yourself in space that's a bit of a spoiler. Let's put it this way: in 2022, the aliens don't really consider humanity to be a threat. But if you start building huge space stations and pumping out warships like there's no tomorrow, they might get a bit nervous. Fly under the radar as long as you can, and thank me later.

It's not over till it's over

This guide covers the absolute basics for getting a potentially successful run off the ground. There's a lot more to learn in Terra Invicta, and a lot of it can only be learned by trying and failing. But let me give you one last tip before I set you loose on the extraterrestrial menace: It's never over until it's over. You may reach a point in your campaign when everything is falling apart and all hope has nearly faded. But that's when you just have to look the ETs in the face, wipe the blood off your lip, and say, "I didn't hear no bell…"

(Image credit: Pavonis Interactive)

Terra Invicta actually has an achievement for winning as the Resistance after the Servants have already declared victory, and that should tell you something about the way it was designed. There are a number of comeback mechanics built in, and all is not lost as long as a few brave souls are still willing to fight for our planet. Patience and tenacity won't automatically win you the war, but you can effectively wage a guerrilla campaign on a devastated Earth in the style of Falling Skies, and even gain the upper hand if you're persistent and clever. It's a lot of fun, too, if you have the right mindset! Never give up. Never surrender. 

I mean, unless you want to. Sometimes it's just nice to start fresh with a big list of all the things you would have done differently. You can't win 'em all. Keep your eyes on the skies, friends.

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[Wordle today: 493 answer and hint for Tuesday, October 25]

Welcome to PC Gamer's daily Wordle section. Here you'll find all the tips and hints you need to make today's puzzle fly by with ease, as well as the answer to the October 25 (493) challenge if you need it.

I ended up with just one green and absolutely nothing else by the end of my second go—the sort of situation where this could have gone either way. Luckily all of those worrying greys in my openers had ruled out just about anything other than the answer, so my third go neatly finished today's Wordle.

Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, October 25

You'd use this word if you wanted to describe clouded, confused thinking—the sort of mindset where everything seems to be in a haze. This is also the term for any environment where there's fog present. There's a repeat consonant to find today. 

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 493 answer?

I won't keep you away from your win any longer. The answer to the October 25 (493) Wordle is FOGGY. 

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:

• October 24: FAULT
• October 23: MUMMY
• October 22: SPIEL
• October 21: GROVE
• October 20: DENIM
• October 19: QUIRK
• October 18: EXIST
• October 17: STEIN
• October 16: SPADE
• October 15: CATCH

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. 

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[Explore endless roads in this beautiful driving game that runs in your browser]

Having an absolutely tricked out PC with the latest and greatest tech is the dream for many a PC gamer. That pull is especially strong at the moment with the release of new premium hardware options like Nvidia's RTX 4090 Founders Edition GPUs, AMD's new Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7950X, and Intel Core i9 13900k CPUs. PC gamers around the world are dreaming of their next build.

But if we are honest with ourselves, that dream might be a bit further off than we'd like. Between bills, the economy, global shortages, and whatever's next, it's a bit of a lofty goal. A new PC that can do it all, probably isn't in my near future. That's why I'm so thankful that people are making incredible stuff, like this zen driving game, that runs in a browser window.

Slow Roads is an endless procedurally generated driving game that's free to play in your browser. Its developer goes by Anslo, who recently posted a video of their game running to Twitter, announcing that the project was ready to share. The video shows off the game running with different environments, and times of day, and it's immediately very clear that this is quite an impressive effort that really pushes browser based gaming.

"Slow Roads exists primarily as an exploration of procedural scenery generation, but also as an experiment testing the boundaries of 3D application development within JavaScript. As a game, this project is a nostalgic love letter to the rolling hills of the Peak District, and to the arcade rally games I would play for hours on end as a child. As a technical demo, I aim to set a high bar and redress the negative idea of what can be accomplished in the browser" Anslo explains on the Slow Roads website.

Loading up Slow Roads in the browser is a little bit mind blowing. There's no login required or any hoops to jump through, and the game simply runs. Perfect for when you need to just take a few minutes away from work and get your head out onto the open road. Or to marvel at some impressive creation a developer came up with that doesn't care what GPU you have. 

After 16 months of work I'm ready to share https://t.co/8FtBldzYAe, my project to procedurally generate scenic landscapes, packaged as a chill driving game. Built with @threejs to run in your browser - no logins, no installs, just roads...#threejs #procedural #webgl pic.twitter.com/ri9XsypjmfOctober 22, 2022

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Once in the game you can pick a few different options for your road trip. Staying on earth will let you explore the hilly roads in all sorts of climates or you can pop out to the Moon, Mars, or Venus for your driving pleasure. Times of the day can be freely set, and you can pick between a car, bike, or bus for your adventures.

Anslo specifically wants to keep the game free, but is accepting donations which will help to bring forth potential future updates to the game. This includes support for controllers and racing wheels, which would be super welcome. Slow Roads is a lovely little escape, and getting away from the keyboard would definitely improve that.

Perfect peripherals

(Image credit: Colorwave)

Best gaming mouse: the top rodents for gaming
Best gaming keyboard: your PC's best friend...
Best gaming headset: don't ignore in-game audio

Other proposed features include adding more locations, vehicles, and making improvements to weather effects and lighting. If there's enough interest, competitive modes and leaderboards are also on the menu. There's also the plan to keep optimising Slow Roads for lower-end machines, bringing the endless driving to even more browsers around the world.

For those curious as to how Anslo managed this, they're planning a series of blogposts to help explain the process, and have an FAQ on the Slow Roads site. Pick up and play games like Slow Roads are perfect for a quick browser based escape, and the accessible nature is a clear win. Here's hoping this trend continues. I can't wait to see what other ideas turned browser based adventures will be added to my favourites folder.

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[The 7 best, worst, and cringiest moments of Modern Warfare 2's campaign]

As much as Activision's extravagant marketing would have you believe Call of Duty's campaigns are the biggest gaming events of the year, CoD is really all about its multiplayer. To many players, story mode is enough of an afterthought that it's common to simply skip the campaign and jump straight into team deathmatch. I'm typically in the same boat, but when Infinity Ward makes a new campaign, I've learned to pay attention.

Modern Warfare 2 relies heavily on the sort of gimmicky, one-off missions that have become the bread and butter of CoD's playbook—routinely stepping back from traditional breach-and-clear operations to explore simplistic stealth, tactics, and even sandbox survival ideas. A lot of it works, a lot of it doesn't, and some of it is couched in the same sort of tone-deaf oo-rah military enthusiasm that makes me embarrassed to be a Call of Duty fan. Let's take a look at Modern Warfare 2's highs and lows.

Note: Spoilers for Modern Warfare 2's campaign below.

BEST: An 'All Ghillied Up' successor that I'll remember for years

Call of Duty has been chasing the highs of its iconic "All Ghillied Up" mission for 15 years to varying degrees of success (2019's Highway of Death mission didn't hit the mark for a lot of reasons), but Modern Warfare 2's "Recon By Fire" may actually outdo the original. The mission starts in familiar territory—ghillied up, cozy in some grass, lying absolutely still while soldiers pass by just inches away. Even knowing that these dumb AI grunts are programmed to not see me as long as I don't move, I still get a genuine rush from these Behind Enemy Lines-type encounters. 

Recon By Fire doesn't ride Call of Duty 4's coattails for too long, though. Once Gaz and Captain Price clear the mountainside, the pair scope in to pick off baddies in a compound a whopping 600 meters away. Instead of doing the same "watch the flag" trick to account for wind deviation, Infinity Ward takes cues from dedicated sniping series like Sniper Elite and Ghost Warrior, with Price feeding Gaz tips for calculating bullet drop with the scope's notches. "400 meters. Compensate two and a half notches." While I don't think actual scout snipers need their spotter to teach them the basics of scopes while on missions, it's well-integrated guidance that reaches for greater authenticity in sniping (scope notches are typically just for show in other games).

Then, Infinity Ward flexes its Warzone map muscles by making you go to the place you just shot at from half a kilometer away, revealing that the whole area around you is not a curated funnel of invisible walls, but one big sandbox. The hour-long blend of incognito sniper operations and stealth-action infiltration is a near-perfect example of Call of Duty doing the thing that we always ask it to do: change! Unlike most of the other levels in Modern Warfare 2's 17-mission run, I can't point to Recon By Fire and declare it a cheap knockoff of some other sniper mission from eight CoDs ago. I can, however, point out that if you want sniper missions similar to this that are a little more hardcore, you should really play Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2. 

WORST: These jerks with body armor

This is Infinity Ward's first post-Warzone CoD campaign, and it really shows. There are hints of Modern Warfare's battle royale cousin littered all over the campaign, most noticeably in the increased map size in missions like Recon By Fire and actual drivable trucks in a highway chase that would've just been an interactive cutscene in older CoDs. One Warzone hand-me-down I'm not on board with, though, are these armored a-holes that unexpectedly appear in nearly every mission.

I think fighting them is meant to evoke the higher time-to-kill of Warzone (breaking armor even plays the same familiar "crunch" sound), but what they actually do is slow well-paced gunfights down to a crawl as a single armored goon takes between two and three full magazines to bring down. All the while, these emboldened juggernauts march forward with LMGs and shotguns, dropping Soap McTavish faster than he can say "Oscar Mike." Shoving eight pounds of lead into a single target shatters the already-thin veneer of immersion that a good CoD mission can achieve.

CRINGE: Pressing Mouse 2 to 'de-escalate' civilians with a gun

I think I'm done backspacing foreign towns off the face of the planet.

Infinity Ward clearly set out to make a more lighthearted military romp after the tonal disaster that was Modern Warfare 2019's campaign, but between cheeky breaks for optional dialogue about Captain Price's favorite gun, Modern Warfare 2 still finds time for a few uncomfortable, teeth-gritting moments that make me utter "jeez, Call of Duty" to myself and wonder why I still play these games.

Like in a mission that begins with the player climbing over Donald Trump's infamous border wall, when on-screen text prompts you to "press Mouse 2 to de-escalate civilians" who are understandably curious why two armed commandos are trampling through their yard. De-escalate, in this context, of course means to threaten to kill them with your gun until they crap their pants and run away. What could've been an appropriate moment to use Modern Warfare's new dialogue system to solve a problem without a gun is instead the dark timeline version of the "press F to pay respects" meme. 

BEST: A point-and-click stealth mission that surprisingly works

Another nice surprise. Infinity Ward took one of the low points of Modern Warfare 2019—a point-and-click stealth mission in which Gaz directs an embassy worker via cameras through hallways and offices to avoid enemy soldiers—and made one of Modern Warfare 2's highest highs. The mission Prison Break takes the same CCTV gimmick and flips the scenario: instead of a helpless civilian trying to escape a place, you're guiding Ghost from cover to cover as he infiltrates a heavily-guarded prison.

Ghost can shoot or stab baddies in his way or often avoid them altogether. The controls are intuitive and the animation work for Ghosts' takedowns are top-notch. It feels like I'm watching a security camera replay of John Wick doing a murder. My only gripe is that this section ends too early and what follows is a series of unremarkable firefights.

WORST: This Uncharted wannabe truck chase

Remember that kickass part in Uncharted 4 where you jump from truck to truck, shoot bad guys, and drive to the front of a convoy? Call of Duty decided to do that exact idea, and it's easily the weakest gimmick of the bunch. You might've seen snippets of this mission, Violence and Timing, in some of the trailers—it begins with Gaz shooting out of a helicopter, the heli getting clipped by a rocket, Gaz falling out, and then hanging inverted by a rope whilst shooting with a technique that'd made Nathan Drake proud.

If the entire mission were just increasingly unlikely angles to shoot at trucks from, I'd be on board, but the adrenaline stalls early on as you begin the rinse-and-repeat of truck jacking and headshotting. I'm not sure which part of Violence and Timing rubs me worst: it could be that the convoy is about eight trucks too long, or that all the vehicles feel like they're moving too slow, or maybe it's the absurdly dark miniboss truck that throws landmines onto the street (blowing up dozens of civilian cars in the process) that sent me over the edge. No, wait, it was definitely the last firefight, in which two armored jackholes with shotguns appear five feet in front of me and mow me down before I can tear through their seemingly endless armor. 

CRINGE: Bombing a small Mexican town with a PMC

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

Infinity Ward, I know that everyone really liked those AC130 missions from the old Modern Warfare games, but I think I'm done backspacing foreign towns off the face of the planet. The pair of eye-in-the-sky carpet bombing missions, Close Air and Hardpoint, taste especially bad this time around because the air support is supplied by Shadow Company, a PMC led by a guy named Graves who talks like someone who'd steal a stapler from Nacy Pelosi's office during the Capitol riot.

It won't surprise you to learn that (spoiler!) Graves and Shadow Company is actually the third act villain twist, though he's so immensely unlikeable from the start that I wish I could've blown him up with his own plane.

BEST WORST: Crafting

Maybe the biggest swing that Modern Warfare 2 takes are two later missions in which Soap is without his guns and has to sneak around soldiers crafting improvised weapons with random stuff found on shelves. I'm impressed by how far Infinity Ward goes here—it's not just a one-off moment where you stick a cloth in a bottle and call it a molotov. There's a full crafting wheel with six recipes and hyper-detailed animations for crafting each one. I especially like the DIY proximity mine, which is essentially mouse trap + duct tape + gunpowder somehow equals boom.

Crafting mode disappears for a while once Soap rendezvouses with his boys, but it comes back again in the very last mission of the game, a showdown in a Chicago highrise in which a gun-less Soap has to avoid enemies while also following the instructions of the voice in his ear to disarm a mid-flight missile. It's a pretty intense moment, doubly so thanks to the Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes-style inputs you have to punch into the laptop to pull it off, but the encounter feels totally imbalanced. I failed a lot because, no matter which route I took, I struggled to craft any useful gear before either 1) a baddie shot me or 2) I ran out of time to disarm the missile.

I commend Infinity Ward for what is one of the most unique final boss "fights" I've played in a long time, though by my eighth attempt I just wanted it to be over.

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[10 Final Fantasy 14 tips to conquer tank anxiety]

Let me start with a confession: I am not the greatest tank in Final Fantasy 14. In most games, this one included, I’m much more comfortable dishing out damage than I am soaking it up. If you play as a tank in FF14, all eyes are on you: Not only will enemies send all of their aggression your way (if you're doing your job), but the rest of your party will look to you for guidance. At first, that thought terrified me more than the haunted halls of Haukke Manor or the deadly dragons of The Aery.

But I gave it a shot anyway, and now that I've worked my way through the main game and two expansions as a tank, I can safely say that my dreaded "tank anxiety" is gone. Once you get the hang of it, tanking isn’t really more difficult than playing a damage-per-second (DPS) or healer class; it’s just different. Thanks to FF14’s (mostly) patient, easygoing community, you’ll find plenty of people willing to hold your hand while you master the basics. If you're ready to take center stage, but are still a little afraid of doing so, here are 10 tips to help you tackle tank anxiety and become the heart of the party.

1. Run Halls of the Novice missions

(Image credit: Square Enix)

If you started FF14 as a DPS or healer class, you may have forgotten all about the Halls of the Novice. These singleplayer missions help you learn your role by giving you real-time instructions as you cooperate with a group of non-player characters (NPCs). The Halls of the Novice missions for tanking involve generating enmity, targeting enemies from afar, keeping additional enemies (adds) away from party members, mitigating damage and more. 

2. Practice with Duty Support or Squadrons

(Image credit: Square Enix)

The best way to prep yourself for multiplayer dungeons is to try them in a pressure-free singleplayer format. You can now run most dungeons from the base game, A Realm Reborn, as well as the first expansion, Heavensward, with a party of NPCs.

Duty Support is the easiest way to do this, as you can simply select it from the Duty menu and dive right in. However, it’s worth doing Squadrons instead if you can, since you can customize and upgrade your allies and earn special rewards for your Grand Company. Unlocking Squadrons is a bit complicated, so consult a guide if you haven’t done so yet. 

3. Ask Novice Network or friends for help

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Newer players should have access to the Novice Network chat channel. Most NN chats have a mix of curious newcomers (or "sprouts") and helpful mentors. Generally speaking, if you ask for help with a dungeon, you’ll get half-a-dozen eager volunteers ready to help you out. If you mention that you’re new to tanking, they may also offer advice as you go. If you have friends who play FF14, you can also ask them, since it’s usually not as daunting to make mistakes in front of people you know. 

4. Communicate with your party

(Image credit: Square Enix)

More FF14

(Image credit: Square Enix)

- Which race should you choose in FF14?
- Final Fantasy 14 house guide
- How to get back into FF14
- Final Fantasy 14 classes guide

Repeat after me: "It's my first time tanking this dungeon, if there’s anything I should know."

Sometimes you’ll get a helpful response, whether it’s the healer suggesting how many enemies you should engage, or a DPS explaining how boss mechanics work. 

Sometimes, you’ll get something snarky. (I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard "Stick it with the pointy end!")

EIther way, the party knows to extend a little patience and grace. If you pretend to know exactly what you’re doing and then make a big mistake, then your companions may feel less magnanimous.

5. Watch dungeon-specific tanking guides

If you go on YouTube, you can find a comprehensive tank guide to any dungeon, trial or raid in FF14. If you emerge from a dungeon thinking, "That didn’t go well," a guide can tell you what you missed, and how to do better next time.

You can also watch general tanking guides, which won’t spoil any of the story or gameplay for you. These are an excellent resource for new tanks, since they tend to focus on fundamentals rather than highly specific, situational tips. I personally love JoCat’s "Crap Guide to Final Fantasy 14 – Tanks," but you may find yourself laughing too hard to internalize the lessons. 

6. Consult your map

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Half of your job as a tank is commanding the enemy’s attention; the other half is leading your party. Tanks are almost always first in the marching order, setting the pace for the dungeon and keeping everyone on the right path. Some dungeons are essentially just a straight line to the end, but most of them have branching pathways, and you may need to explore side rooms for keys, levers or treasure. You don’t want to lead your companions on a heroic charge to a dead end, so I recommend having the map open most of the time. 

7. Pull what you’re comfortable with

(Image credit: Square Enix)

When you first run a dungeon as a DPS or healer, you may marvel at the tank blazing forward, grabbing the attention of a dozen monsters at once. You don't have to do this, though. Veteran tanks don’t pull tons of enemies because there’s any special benefit to it; it just makes the dungeons go a bit faster. But remember: FF14 is a game, and everyone’s playing because they have free time to spare. I recommend starting with two groups of enemies per pull—or even one, if the enemies look particularly tough. Your healer will let you know if you should go for more. 

8. Remember your role

(Image credit: Square Enix)

If you first played a DPS class, your top priority in a dungeon is "killing enemies." If you first played a healer class, your top priority in a dungeon is "keeping everyone alive." As a tank, you’ll still do these things, but they’re not your primary responsibilities. Your job is to make sure every enemy in the room is attacking you—and that’s doubly true if you’re fighting a boss.

During boss fights, other players can generally handle smaller enemies or activate mechanics by themselves. In fact, running all over the arena to help them might do more harm than good, if a boss decides to unleash a powerful area-of-effect (AoE) attack. Generally speaking, if the enemies are focused on you, you’re doing fine.

9. Do your Duty Roulettes

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Tanking is a skill, and like any skill, the only way to get better at it is to practice. The easiest way to practice is to run down your list of Duty Roulettes every day. By the end of A Realm Reborn, you should have five different options: Level 50/60/70/80, Leveling, Trials, Main Scenario and Guildhests. These will toss you into dungeons or other multiplayer content with pick-up groups of other players, and you’ll get generous experience and currency bonuses for completing them.

More importantly, you don’t know which dungeons or trials you’ll get, so you’ll have to think on your feet and learn each one’s ins and outs. Over time, you’ll find that you can confidently lead a party through almost any dungeon, rather than just a few plot-specific ones.

10. Screw up really badly

(Image credit: Square Enix)

You can’t make this one happen, but trust me: If you play long enough, it will.

Sooner or later, you will lead a catastrophic dungeon run. You will run headfirst into every deadly mechanic the boss has as its disposal. You will flail wildly around the arena as the enemies’ AoEs decimate your entire party. You will fall off the edge of a cliff, leaving your companions to fend for themselves. And all of this will drag out a 20-minute adventure into an hourlong odyssey. Your party will be disappointed, or exasperated, or maybe even angry with you.

But here’s the thing: It’s not a big deal. A spectacular screw-up has almost no lasting consequences. You’ll still finish the dungeon. You’ll still get all the rewards. And if you’re lucky, you’ll learn from your mistakes. The scariest part of tanking is being afraid to fail, but failing is simply not a huge problem in FF14. And once you learn that firsthand, there’s nothing left to fear.

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[V Rising, the other vampire survival hit of 2022, is going free to play for Halloween]

The Bloodfeast is coming to the hit indie vampire survival game V Rising, and while that sounds ominous and potentially horrific, what it means in practical terms is that you can play the game for free this weekend.

Beginning on October 28 and running through November 1, V Rising—not to be confused with Vampire Survivors, which is a whole different thing and, ironically, not actually a survival game (in the conventional sense, at least)—will be fully free to play for all creatures of the night. A day before  that, October 27, V Rising will also be added to Nvidia's cloud gaming service GeForce Now.

Ahead of the free weekend, developer Stunlock Studios is also releasing Halloween-themed DLC for V Rising called the Haunted Nights Castle Pack, which includes an array of new cosmetics, lighting options, and furniture. 

To access the new content, first install it (you'll need to have V Rising installed as well, naturally) and then complete a trio of journal quests:

Lord of Shadows

• Haunted Nights Coffin (Skin variation of Wooden Coffin)
• Haunted Nights Stash (Skin variation of Wooden Stash)

The First Book in the Library

• Haunted Nights Carpets
• Haunted Nights Stained Glass (Window)
• Haunted Nights Wall Decor (2x Wallpapers)
• Haunted Nights Web Drapes (Wall / Window Wall / Pillar attachments)
• Haunted Nights Gourd Lantern (Pillar attachment Light)
• Haunted Nights Floating Gourd (Flying Light)
• Haunted Nights Lanterns (4x Standing Lights)

Expanding My Domain

• Haunted Nights Standing Mirror

(Image credit: Stunlock Studios)

(Image credit: Stunlock Studios)

(Image credit: Stunlock Studios)

There's also a new update out today that makes a number of balance and gameplay changes to V Rising, and adds a new Mad Hunt game present for both PvE and PvP action. The full patch notes are below:

General

• The Servant Resurrection timer has been increased to 10 minutes from 15 seconds (Primarily to tackle PvP scenarios where the short resurrection timer could be abused).
• We have rebalanced how Siege Golem health is calculated and have updated the Siege Golem health settings. By default, Siege Golems will have 250% more health (represented as shield value) than before. The Golem's health also scales based on the player's current health to a minimum of 50% of the total health (should the player transforming have less than 50% health, the golem’s shield value will be reduced accordingly).
• The default time-slot setting for when PvP raiding is active has been reduced to 18:00-22:00 local server time from 17:00-23:00.
• The maximum height travel for Mist Trance has been reduced; this fixes an issue where players could reach unwanted heights using this ability.
• The mirror visuals of the Gothic Mirror and the Cabal Mirror have been updated.
• Chandeliers and other rotating buildable objects no longer flicker when “temporal anti-aliasing” and “motion blur” is active.
• The chat message that printed “We are experiencing technical issues on some hardware setups…” every 90 minutes, prompting users to restart their game has been removed periodically.
• Old saves are now automatically backed up when they’re loaded in a new game version. The backed-up save is placed in \.BACKUP\\AutoSave_X.save
• Added rocks north of the Farbane Bear Cave so that players in the future cannot build in such a way that it blocks the cave exit, trapping players. Also added a new route to take if there is an actual castle blocking the normal path.
• Fixed a glitch in the Silverlight Silver Mines that allowed players to jump into the mountain.
• Fixed a bug where some world teleporters could stop working for new players.

New Game Presets

Two new Game Presets have been added:

• Mad Hunt - PvP 
• Mad Hunt - PvE

These presets enable three new server settings:

Shuffle V Blood Locations

• Shuffles the location of all V Blood units and alters their faction to reflect the faction of the V Blood they replace. V Blood units are shuffled using three pre-defined groups based on difficulty level.
• When this setting is active, all V Blood units have their portrait and lore hidden in the V Blood Menu until they are defeated.
• Note that the technology unlocked to progress is still unlocked in the same order and level, but a new V Blood unit will take its place and level.

Shuffle V Blood Abilities

• Shuffles all V Blood ability rewards randomly across the board. Some units will end up with one ability reward, others with two, and some with zero.

Shuffle V Blood Tech

• Shuffles the technology rewards of all V Bloods. Technology is shuffled using many pre-defined groups to ensure that players may progress with essential technology regardless of how rewards are shuffled.
• Note: When Shuffle Tech & Shuffle Abilities are activated, some V Bloods may end up with no rewards.
• Note" Enabling any Shuffle settings may only be done when starting a new server. These settings cannot be modified on a running server, nor can these settings be deactivated.

Balance Changes

Weapons

• Axes
• Frenzy
• Casttime increased to 0.35s from 0.3s.
• Hitbox radius reduced to 4 from 4.2.
• X-Strike
• Range reduced to 8 from 10.
• Sword
• Spinning Strike
• Damage per hit increased to 35% from 30%.
• Reaper
• Howling Reaper
• Duration reduced to 2.2s from 2.5s.
• Total area damage reduced from ~180/200% (this could vary depending on range before) to 160% (note that the initial projectile hit still deals 50% damage).
• Spear
• A Thousand Spears
• Reduced spear channel duration to 1.1s from 1.35s (effectively reduces the time a unit is stunned by the attack by 0.25s).
  Damage per hit reduced to 20% from 25% (from a total of 200% damage to 160%).
  The attack now hits all enemies in the area rather than only one.
• These changes reduce the damage and stun duration for single-target attacks but make the spear overall stronger when hitting several targets (primarily affecting PvE).
• Slashers
• Camouflage
• Incapacitate duration reduced to 2s from 2.5s.
  

Spells

• Mirror Strike
• Hit Collider increased (now has the same hitbox as Merciless Charge and Heart Strike).
• Arctic Leap
• Freeze duration on vampire targets reduced to 2s from 3s.
• General Freeze
• The shield component of Freeze has been changed from a static 5 health shield to a spell-power-based shield. Freeze now shields the target for 50% of the owner Spell-Power resulting in a shield that scales from ~5 - 20.
• General
• Shields now properly use the owner's spell power when calculating the power of a shield that is applied rather than using the target's shield power.
• Crimson Aegis
• Duration reduced to 3s from 4s.
• Crimson Beam
• Reduced duration to 3s from 4s.
• Increased damage per second to 200% from 150%.
  Increased healing per second to 150% from 100%.
  Corpse Explosion
• Radius increased to 3.2 from 2.8.
• Volatile Arachnid
• Increased movement speed to 4.8 from 4.5.
• Reduces cast time for self-detonate to 1s. from 1.2s.
• Detonation damage increased to 120% from 100%.
• Spectral Wolf
• Bounce damage reduction per hit reduced to 85% from 75% (effectively increases the damage overall from hitting multiple targets).
• Spectral Assassin
• Damage increased to 140% from 125%.
• Spectral Assassin attack cast time reduced to 0.9s from 1s.
• Chaos Burn Effect
• Reduced to 5 ticks from 7 (reduces damage to 50% from 70%).
• Veil of Chaos
• Knockback tier reduced from illusion detonation to no longer affect vampire players.
• Aftershock
• Cooldown reduced to 10s from 12s.
• Damage increased to 125% from 100%.
• Void
• Damage increased to 75% from 70%.
• Fixed an issue where Void would consume Chaos Burn if it was active on a target.
  

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[Everything videogames have taught you about medieval pigs was a lie]

Peter Alexander Kerkhof, an assistant professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, has a lot to say about how pigs are portrayed in videogames with medieval settings. Our polygonal porkers of the past are too pudgy, too stumpy, too pink, and too naked. At least that's what Kerkhof wrote in an article for the Leiden Medievalists Blog back in August of 2021.

Let's back up. As humans domesticate living things, they change over time to reflect the features we selectively breed them for. The giant ears of corn we turn into soda here in America were bred from wild maize, which had far less abundant yields. Sweet, adorable little pugs with their squashed faces and crippling breathing problems are descendants of the noble wolves who guarded our prehistoric campsites. Some thanks, huh.

Kerkhof, through studying the period, has access to a large body of evidence showing the character of pigs in medieval Europe and how they differ from modern sows. Namely, they were leaner, hairier, and rangier, with tusks like wild boar. Medieval pigs were also more free-range than modern ones, with only breeding sows and piglets kept on the farm, while the rest wandered the forest and fields nearby.

Lest you think this interpretation resides solely on the output of medieval artists, who were very bad at cats, Kerkhof has an extensive bibliography that cites animal remains and various kingdoms' law codes alongside contemporary art and descriptions of the animal. 

The pig discrepancy cannot be denied (Assassin's Creed pig vs. 14th century illustration) (Image credit: Leiden Medievalists Blog)

Kerkhof paints a compelling picture of the hogs of old. And yet, the developers of today are completely failing us in the depiction of those oinkers. Assassin's Creed,  A Plague Tale, The Witcher⁠, everywhere you look it's pink, pot bellied piggies in pens. All our commitment to realism, and this is what it gets us.

Jokes aside, Kerkhof's article is an illuminating read. More than a castigation of game devs, it's a reminder of how utterly alien the past is. Language, morality, science, even our understanding of the passage of time was so different even just two hundred years ago, why should pigs be spared the abyss of eons?

It's probably fine if medieval games keep getting pigs "wrong," though I'll be curious to see how Pentiment handles its oinkers. As my girlfriend pointed out to me, we should always make room in our hearts for the pink-bellied grunters of today. It's the least we owe them after the centuries-long genetic engineering project to turn them into the perfect snack. 

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['Sexual assault' custom game mode reveals a glaring Overwatch moderation problem]

Content warning: This news story includes descriptions of sexual assault.

Overwatch 2 has seen an influx of user-created custom game modes since its free-to-play launch earlier this month. Like a lot of FPS games with custom server browsers, Overwatch 2's custom games can be named anything allowed by Blizzard's word filters and character limit. However, that hasn't prevented a mode called "Sexual Assault Simulator" from showing up, which sparked Twitter user Lynn MBE to post a PSA for anyone who might encounter it. 

"Do not let your children play Overwatch," they warned. Lynn MBE says her 12-year-old son found the mode, "realized it was bad, closed the game and told me." Comedian and Twitch streamer Brian "Limmy" Limond posted several screenshots of the mode's listing that he found on Twitter in response to Lynn MBE's tweet.

The description for the mode reads: "This is version 1.2 of the new and unique Sexual Harassment Simulator. Find new friends, live a normal life and give birth to a child!"

When you enter it, it forces one player to play as Cassidy against a team of strictly female Overwatch heroes. In the top-left of the screen, it instructs you to "Flash to knock down your victims," which refers to Cassidy's old Overwatch 1 Flashbang ability and then says to "Tbag to 'frell'," which is written with spaces, seemingly to get around a word filter. As you crouch, text appears on the top of the screen that says "'storming'…" Enemy heroes are then marked as "pregnant" and, eventually, a Torbjorn bot is spawned to simulate a child.

The mode, which is attributed to YouTube user Amatsuhikone, was playable through a custom game code in Overwatch 1 as early as January, but has been updated following Overwatch 2's release.

"Inappropriate or explicit content has absolutely no place in our game," a Blizzard spokesperson told PC Gamer in response to my question about the mode. "We immediately removed the user-created game mode once made aware of its existence. We are continually working to improve automatic filters to prevent inappropriate user-created content, and manually removing any that are not caught by the system."

Do not let your children play Overwatch. My 12yo son found custom games within it, one called, 'sexual harassment' and one game that simulated the female characters being raped. Thankfully my son realised it was bad, closed the game and told me. Don't play #OverwatchOctober 23, 2022

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However, Blizzard seems to have only removed current listings of this mode in the custom games browser—I've verified that the unique five-digit code that allows you to play the mode is still available. Anyone with the code could presumably turn it into a public game and re-list it. It's possible to report custom game titles and descriptions through a button on the browser page, but for instances like this, where the mode itself violates the rules, there's no easy way to communicate that to Blizzard.

It's common to see Overwatch custom games titled "18+" or "NSFW" alongside things like "roleplay," but those warnings are usually used on things like empty maps to chill out and voice chat in, not elaborate creations that require custom scripting through the game's Workshop feature. Rarely do you see a mode so egregiously in violation of the game's rules before a single player even enters it.

In this case, Blizzard's moderation appears to be limited. It doesn't seem to include banning custom game codes, nor does it seem to fully filter offensive words out of the text within them. It's also unclear if the original creator has received any sort of punishment.

Custom server and game browsers can be a boon for lively FPS communities looking for an alternative to the regular modes and matchmaking, but strong moderation in those spaces is vital, especially for a game like Overwatch 2, which is primarily targeted at teens.

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[This gaming chair will literally keep you on the edge of your seat]

You know that position. The position your body naturally contorts into when you're playing a close match of Street Fighter 6 or crossing a foggy threshold in Elden Ring. You lean in six to ten inches closer to the screen, your shoulders and elbows tighten, and your pupils become dilated. Your S-foils are locking into attack position: It's the posture your body automatically assumes when you're playing a game, and 'frack' gets real. And it turns out that someone has made a chair specially designed for those moments.

Believe it or not, the Playseat Active Gaming Seat has been around since 2019. The only reason these chairs have popped up on my radar now is that I got an email about these NBA-branded Playseats going on sale. These $199 chairs are decked out in the colors of one of eight NBA teams:
 

• LA Lakers
• Boston Celtics
• Toronto Raptors
• Milwaukee Bucks
• Los Angeles Clippers
• Golden State Warriors
• Brooklyn Nets
• Chicago Bulls

Sitting comfortably?

(Image credit: Secretlab)

Best chair for gaming: the top gaming chairs around
Best gaming desk: the ultimate PC podiums
Best PC controller: sit back, relax, and get your game on

 The Active Gaming Seat is a gaming chair designed to support what Playseat calls "defending and full-on attack mode." The chair allows the player to lean forward to the point of what looks like the edge of tipping if you were in a rocking chair—a hardcore gaming rocking chair that you'd likely find in the loft of your definitely-adult friend who plays a lot of Call of Duty. 

There are cute little pouch pockets in the front and side for stashing your controllers and remotes when you are done gaming, or if you maybe just want to take a much-deserved power nap from, you know, all that intense gaming and need a place for your phone. I like that the chair looks like it lets one flop right off it in disgust after a loss in a match of Fortnite. 

Obviously it's a form factor designed for playing in front of a TV, since the idea of rocking back and forth in a gaming chair looks pretty uncomfortable and impractical for keyboard and mouse players. The lack of armrests isn't ideal for PC gaming either. While Playseat does make a more traditional gaming chair for PC gaming, the (labored sigh) L33T Black doesn't seem as magical as the Active Gaming Seat.

Playseat also makes specialized chairs for at-home racing cockpits. These chairs have all the brackets and plates you need for bolting on racing wheels and pedals. It won't look like Sebastian Vettel's cockpit, but it'll come pretty close.

The Playseat Active Gaming Seat starts at $179 on Amazon for its more standard chairs in either black or red. The basketballed-out Playseat Champs are on sale right now through Playseats' website and are selling for $199. I'm going to track down one of these for further coverage, so expect some kind of review soon, unless I go off my rocker.

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[From his hospital bed, this young Valorant player demolished the opposing team]

Hockey players are notoriously tough. Whether it's getting stitched up between periods so they can get back on the ice or pulling their own teeth out with their bare hands after eating a high stick, they have a well-deserved reputation for playing through just about anything. Based on a recent performance by Valorant collegiate player Nishil Shah, we might soon have to start according the same respect to esports players.

Shah plays varsity esports for Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. But on the cusp of his first College Valorant match (CVal), a medical emergency sent him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. The opposing team refused to reschedule the match, according to a tweet from esports reporter Jake Lucky, and so the ODU team agreed to go ahead, with Shah playing from his hospital bed—and they won the best-of-three contest in dominant fashion, 2-0.

When u got to play ur first cval match from the hospital but we take the W. @ODU_Esports @JakeSucky pic.twitter.com/Hx0i7224oDOctober 22, 2022

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Shah's accomplishment quickly came to the attention of several esports pros, who congratulated him for his effort and the outcome. "What a gamer, glad he's all good now," Skyler "Relyks" Weaver tweeted. 

"But imagine refusing to reschedule over a medical emergency and then still losing 13-1 and 13-3." 

Riot Games also took notice, and awarded Shah a gun buddy (a cosmetic accessory) and some Valorant points for his effort.

(Image credit: Riot Games (via Twitter))

Playing from the confines of a hospital bed wasn't the only challenge facing Shah in his match. He said on Twitter that he was playing "on 60 fps with so much packet loss," and that his mouse pad—which you can see in the picture—is his sister's laptop cover. He also had to take a break mid-match, so the medical staff could "put some shots in me real quick." That's hardcore.

Probably the sickest player comms of all timeMid series from his hospital bed, Collegiate Valorant player @nishil08 needed a 5 minute break after a 13-1 stomp to "get some shots" in him and an IV change pic.twitter.com/l4idLt0sISOctober 23, 2022

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As for the team they beat—West Virginia Wesleyan College—one of Shah's teammates said they're "getting a lot of hate for not rescheduling," but didn't appear to harbor any hard feelings—which I suppose is easier to do after you've come out on top.

"I feel bad for all the backlash they are getting on Twitter," Mitch tweeted. "We beat them convincingly and that should be enough imo."

For its part, WVWC tweeted a GG after the match, which—not unsurprisingly—was not as well received.

NISHIL OWNS YOU pic.twitter.com/psMX81qNWMOctober 22, 2022

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Nishil, by the way, has apparently recovered: Another teammate, Nick, said on Twitter that "he is fine now."

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[World's foremost PC gamer is back as Superman]

Where does Henry Cavill find the time? Our favorite swole PC gamer spent some of the quiet months of 2020 building a new gaming rig and painting Warhammer miniatures, but in the last couple years he's filmed two new seasons of The Witcher, played Sherlock Holmes twice, and done the talk show rounds to spread the good word that Warhammer is not the same thing as World of Warcraft. Now, as teased in DC's new superhero flick Black Adam, Cavill has confirmed that he's coming back as Superman. I'm starting to think there's some kind of correlation between rippling muscles and exceptional time management skills.

"I wanted to make it official that I'm back as Superman," Cavill said in an Instagram post on Monday. "What you saw in Black Adam is just a very small taste of things to come." 

A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill)

A photo posted by on

Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson has recently made it clear to anyone who'll listen that he really really really wants to fight Superman, but I hope Cavill finally gets to play Superman in a movie that doesn't feel like Zack Snyder smashing his action figures together. It's cliche to bring up this page from All Star Superman to explain just how badly the recent DC films have botched the character, but that doesn't make it wrong. Cavill already has his perfect grizzled role in Geralt of Rivia: let's have an optimistic Superman movie for a change, eh?

With more major superhero movies on the way and hopefully more seasons of The Witcher to come, Cavill's certainly going to stay busy. But hopefully he still has time to play Warhammer (has anyone told him Total War: Warhammer 3's Immortal Empires campaign is finally out?) and upgrade his PC in between filming.

I mean, imagine Superman gaming on anything less than an RTX 4090. I know he's meant to be humble and all, but that just feels wrong.

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[The best Fallout game was almost just an expansion pack]

Not that we can't still argue over it from time to time, but Fallout: New Vegas is widely regarded as the best Fallout game in the 25-year history of the series, not to mention one of the best RPGs of all time. That's especially unusual since New Vegas wasn't made by Interplay, the original creator of the series, or Bethesda, who took over the license, but by Obsidian Entertainment, who made a single Fallout game and then never touched the series again.

But Obsidian's RPG masterpiece almost wasn't a standalone Fallout game. According to Todd Howard, Fallout: New Vegas was originally planned as just "a big expansion pack" for Fallout 3.

To celebrate the Fallout series' 25th birthday, Bethesda has been releasing a series of retrospective videos (including one last week where Todd Howard revealed that he learned he'd be making Fallout 3 from a humble Post-It note stuck on his keyboard). Another video released today (imbedded above) focuses on the origins and development of Fallout: New Vegas.

In 2008, before Bethesda had even released Fallout 3, the studio was already working hard on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. When Fallout 3 turned out to be a hit for Bethesda, there was naturally a push to quickly follow it up with more Fallout. But with Bethesda Game Studios busy putting Skyrim together, it turned to another developer.

"Well, there's only one group we would really want to do this," says Howard in the video. Obsidian was the clear pick, considering the studio was packed with Black Isle Studios veterans like Feargus Urquhart and Josh Sawyer, who had worked on Interplay's original Fallout games (including the canceled Interplay version of Fallout 3).

"And it actually started as a big expansion pack for Fallout 3," Howard said, though the idea of New Vegas being just an expansion didn't last for long. "I felt really strongly it should be its own game."

The role of game director for New Vegas quickly fell to Obsidian's Josh Sawyer, who had played the original Fallout while in college. "I kind of let it take over my life. I thought it was incredible," Sawyer says in the video.

Obsidian didn't want to reinvent the wheel when it came to Fallout: New Vegas, but did want to put a unique stamp on the game, which included features like Hardcore Mode that added survival elements like thirst and hunger to the game.

"In terms of the story itself, I really wanted to bring back characters and factions, or descendants of characters, from the original games, and do the classic Obsidian presentation of, there are these factions vying for control," Sawyer says. "You come into the problem and you have to pick a way to go through it, and think a lot about your own values and decide who you want to support or don't want to support."

"I think that's maybe one of the reasons why people love it so much," says Feargus Urquhart, President and CEO of Obsidian Entertainment. "They can go into this Fallout world and just be who they want to be."

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[It looks like Discord voice chat is coming to PS5, too]

Discord is doing its best to become an all-encompassing voice chat option no matter where you play, and it looks like we'll be able to chat with even more console pals soon.

As spotted by The Verge, dataminer Advaith has apparently discovered evidence that voice chat integration will come to PS5 in the near future. Sadly it looks like there's nothing in the works for PS4 users outside of the already-available option to display game activity. The leak quickly follows on from the platform's integration with Xbox, which was pushed out to everyone back in September.

It's admittedly been a finicky process hooking up to voice chat on console—the whole thing requires you to have your mobile phone at the ready and the Xbox app installed—but with the phone requirement dropped soon, hopefully that means the PlayStation version will also be a simple few taps to dive into Discord voice channels.

Discord PS5 voice integration pic.twitter.com/Qsq2JqUDDHOctober 23, 2022

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It was only a matter of time before voice integration for Sony's latest console arrived. The publisher made a minority investment in Discord in May last year. Sony president Jim Ryan said the goal was "to bring the Discord and PlayStation experience closer together on console and mobile," adding that this year the company wanted to allow "friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together." That started out with the option to link your PlayStation Network account to Discord at the beginning of this year which allowed for the aforementioned game activity display, but voice chat is the real prize that our consoles pals have been eagerly waiting for.

As someone who occasionally favours the comfort of my couch and console over gaming at the same desk I work from (hi!), the option to easily access Discord voice chat from my PS5 is a welcome one. Sure I can use it on my phone, but it's irritating having to squash my earphones into my earholes to talk in Discord while plonking my headset on top for game sound. Being able to talk to our friends who game on other platforms is never a bad thing, either.

Assuming this is real, it's not yet clear when the integration will go live, or whether it'll spend a few months in beta testing akin to Xbox. We've reached out to Discord for comment on the apparent leak and will update if we hear back.

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['Activision's effect on Blizzard was like a frog in a boiling pot of water' says former Blizzard director]

Three Blizzard and Blizzard North veterans gave a talk at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, during which there was some red hot Diablo 3 chat. The triumvirate also discussed Blizzard more generally, however, and one topic that came up was the closure of the much-beloved Blizzard North.

Blizzard North, originally founded as an independent studio by Diablo creator David Brevik, was one of very few studios that was able to effectively work with Blizzard in an era where most external projects got cancelled. The decision to close the studio in August 2005 still rankles some to this day, even though Blizzard would absorb much of its key talent and go on to develop more Diablo games itself.

The closure came up during the panel discussion, and Jay Wilson talked about when "they" closed down Blizzard North, at which point composer and sound engineer Matt Uelmen had to get something off his chest. Uelmen did music and sound design, while Jay Wilson had various roles before becoming lead designer on Diablo 3.

"Also "they" closed down, by the way?" said Uelmen. "Wikipedia says that like Vivendi or the  French made a decision… Don't believe the business history you read online, business history is always stupid and wrong. You spend five minutes looking at who owns what and realise what the reality is in most of these situations."

Uelman went on to explain the reality as he saw it unfold.

"The French didn't shut the studio down in 2005, that's the dumbest thing I ever heard," said Uelman. "WoW was making more money than like the CIA selling crack in 1988 [laughs]. And so [Blizzard co-founder and president] Mike Morhaime, who I liked, had all the money and all the leverage in that situation. And it maybe wasn't an inappropriate move no matter how it was handled. It may have been the right call at the time."

Former Blizzard producer Matt Householder added, with a little grin, "we at Blizzard North called ourselves 'BN.' We called Blizzard South 'BS.'" 

"Oh the unkind [terms] Blizzard HQ has for Blizzard North," laughed Jay Wilson.

The Activision takeover

Near the end of the panel discussion there was a question about an even bigger event in Blizzard history: the impact of the Activision takeover, and the formation of Activision Blizzard. This question was fielded by Jay Wilson, who was there at the time.

"Activision's effect on Blizzard was like a frog in a boiling pot of water," said Wilson. "Early on it felt like nothing. Later, as business models progressed for products, it became more and more… the products that were newer, that were making money, had enormous amounts of pressure on them to produce… 

"Like Heroes of the Storm: they were just crushed in meetings with Activision where they were always talking about the bottom line, how to pull more out of that… Diablo 3 wasn't affected too much because we were very solidly a premium boxed model."

The unsurprising revelation and outcome of this, or one of them anyway, was that Activision had a very clear idea of one product that could make a lot of money. Wilson was ready to move on from Blizzard, but he was there in those early stages of integration, and one mooted project kept being raised.

"A lot of talk of Immortal before I left," said Wilson. "They were talking about Immortal, but it hadn't actually started, that was all Activision-Blizzard. They wanted a free-to-play Diablo really badly… and I didn't [laughs]. Now granted, by then I was off Diablo…"

The wider impact was, in Wilson's opinion, that a lot of the great senior leads that had made Blizzard what it was began to peel off, chafing against this different way of doing things. And with them went a certain attitude.

"[Activision] had a big effect on all those business models and, in my opinion, a lot of the higher-up people who left did because they got frustrated with all of that," said Wilson. "I don't think they made those products better. There's a lot of bad things about Blizzard, there's a lot of great things, but I think the best thing… when I was there Blizzard had this saying 'we always want to be the guys in the white hats' which means we always want to be the good guys.

"So if we charge our players for something, and of course we're going to charge them, we're a business… But we always wanted to charge them what we thought was reasonable. So that came in direct conflict with a lot of [Activision's ideas]."

You can see the full panel talk above, and read about what Wilson had to say on Diablo 3's auction house: and why it wasn't as easy to get rid of as you might think.

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[Terraria becomes the first indie hit to break 1M positive user reviews on Steam]

We liked Terraria so much we reviewed it twice: Once in 2011, when it was new, and then again in 2018, when we found that it was "still one of the best adventures out there." In case that's not sufficient testament to both its quality and its durability, Terraria has now pulled in over one million positive user reviews on Steam, becoming the first indie game to do so.

One of the big reasons for Terraria's enduring popularity is no doubt the relentless support given to the game, and its players, by developer Re-Logic. Its 'final' update went live in May 2020, nine years after the original release of the game, but then another 'actual final update' came out in October, followed by still more updates in 2021. In 2022 there have been even more updates, the most recent less than a month ago, and at this point I don't think anyone is even pretending that any of these updates will be the end of it.

Terraria co-creator Andrew Spinks also earned some gamer cred in early 2021 when he told Stadia to get bent after his Google account was disabled and he was unable to get support. That decision was eventually reversed, but then Stadia collapsed so in the end it didn't really matter anyway.

To be clear, Terraria is not the first game to hit one million positive user reviews, but it is the first sort of 'indie darling' to reach the mark. Games ahead of it on the list include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (5.9 million positive user reviews), PUBG: Battlegrounds (1.2 million), Dota 2 (1.5 million), and Grand Theft Auto 5 (1.2 million). 

But what makes the accomplishment especially impressive is that those positive user reviews come alongside just a little over 22,000 negative reviews, giving it a 97% overall user rating—"overwhelmingly positive," in Steam parlance. It's the only game in the top five to maintain that standard: CS:GO, Dota 2, and GTA5 are all "very positive," while PUBG Battlegrounds is "mixed."

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[Horror developers: please let P.T. have its eternal rest]

Much like Dracula, horror game trends are repeatedly killed off only to rise from their graves again and again. Zombies, ghosts, novelty jump scares, cooperative and competitive multiplayer—there's no discarded subgenre corpse that can't be reanimated by someone else. 

"P.T.-likes"—games resembling Konami's beloved Kojima-helmed PlayStation 4 teaser, a demo that has existed as an unliving corpse for longer than it was ever alive—have been tirelessly stalking PC gamers for years. Steam is littered with more games birthed from this unholy mould than anyone could ever play. A scarily long list of results manifests after clicking the "first person" tag in the horror section, and so many of their screenshots show another torchlit walk around some vaguely realistic hallway while one weird monster casts an ominous shadow across an otherwise mundane room. They're not all aping P.T., but far too many are. Honestly, the scariest thing about most of these games is how similar they are to each other, and to a PlayStation 4 demo released eight years ago. 

Konami's Playable Teaser needs to be laid to rest.

P.T. didn't invent or really even reinvent first-person horror—Outlast, Amnesia, and White Day all independently debuted years before P.T.'s Lisa stood at the end of what looked like an ordinary corridor in an ordinary house. You can even trace the genre as far back as 1981, to ZX Spectrum classic 3D Monster Maze. But what P.T. did do was offer aspiring horror developers of all sizes a strong framework they had a realistic shot of replicating on at least some superficial level. Developers seem to hope they'll retain some of the original's dark magic—and player attention—purely through imitation.

I get why this particular horror subgenre is so oversaturated. In theory it's the perfect foundation for a budget-conscious game: most potential customers already understand "P.T.-like" means "short and visually quite ordinary" before they've even clicked on the trailer. From the reductive point of view of someone trying to find the right "ingredients" to use in their own first-person horror game, P.T. was one small area made out of some easily referenced everyday objects with no visible main character to animate outside of a few very specific instances.

Most of the horror stemmed from lighting that small area in a different way, swapping out a few key textures, or making the teaser's only other major character model stand somewhere and look in the player's direction. Mechanically there's not a great deal to worry about either—no ammo to count, no health bar to keep track of, no inventory to manage. As long as the player can walk around and look at things, then technically speaking whatever's created accurately reflects the much-missed P.T. experience.

One of many indie horror corridors, from Life After Death (Image credit: Ask Games)

But in practice so very few games of this type manage to come close to, never mind escape, their famous influence's icy grip. Some of them were never meant to be good in the first place; just a few store-bought assets thrown together in a cynical meme-hopping bandwagon sort of way. Some of them fundamentally misunderstand what made the demo they were hoping to imitate so frightening: Layers of Fear seems to think P.T. was a game about opening drawers in the dark, springing scripted jump scares on its players, and reading many, many, notes. FM promises little more than darkness and corridors. Some sincerely try their best only to fail due to outside factors—a lack of time or money, a publisher failing to keep their promises. But almost all of them fail to step out of P.T.'s shadow because they're chasing an impossible target.

They don't—they can't—capture the one thing that actually made the chilling teaser they're based on so special: its inexhaustible supply of unrealised potential.

Yes, P.T. was (and still is) an unforgettable combination of nerve-destroying terror and obtuse puzzle solving. Its one rule was to never, ever look at the bloodied monster violently shaking right behind you and breathing heavily in your ear. The primal instinct that rule tapped into was more intense than just about anything else horror has ever produced. And the sparse fragments of a story scattered throughout its changeable corridor were tantalising: they formed a disturbing tale of love, violence, and loss.

But as great as all of that was, that's not why P.T. has lingered at the collective edges of horror gaming's consciousness for all these years. P.T. is an untouchable legend, a game that for all intents and purposes no longer exists. P.T. is anything and everything someone wants it to be. It is the promise of a long-awaited Silent Hill revival created by a dream team able to take the series in an exciting new (and surely—please—Pyramid Head-free) direction.

No studio can ever compete with that, because what "that" is doesn't actually exist in any meaningful manner. At best a developer's rival is a delisted playable wisp of a teaser released an entire console generation ago, more a short moment in time than a game. They're squaring off against the dream of a perfect Silent Hill that will never exist, and yet these photorealistic horror games with one weird trick™ still keep coming.

Typing "Backrooms" into Steam's search bar unleashes an avalanche of games hoping to scare me with wallpaper and open doorways. The recently released Life after Death invites me to wander down an ordinary hallway, but now in red. The in-development Hellseed is trying to turn my head with another dimly-lit building to stare at photos in and scares caused by vaguely human monsters that are either too distant or too close. However they turn out, they're no P.T.

So please horror developers, even if only for your own sake, let P.T. rest—after all, you can't kill something that never lived.

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[2022 games: all the new and upcoming games this year]

We're in the home stretch for 2022, but we've got all the skull-faced gun weirdos of the Fall release window between us and the year's end. Tighten on those suppressors, folks: it's Call of Duty month. There's been a little something for everyone this year, from huge new PC games like Total War: Warhammer 3 and the long-awaited, long-memed Elden Ring, to a great new way to play indie favorites with Valve's handheld Steam Deck. And we're sure to have more new favorites before we settle in for Winter.

Best of the best

(Image credit: Paradox)

Best PC games: All-time favorites
Best free PC games: Freebie fest
Best laptop games: Low-specs 

When you look at our list of the biggest games in 2022, you might feel a sense of déjà vu. It's true: some of the biggest games of yesteryear arrived late, if they've even arrived at all. Covid-19 and major developers working from home for most of 2020 and 2021 meant that last year was absolutely stacked with delays on games big and small.

It's a trend that's held up through 2022, with plenty of eagerly-awaited titles pushed into the nebulous future. But don't worry: however fake time might feel nowadays, we're still watching the calendar. To help you keep track of what you'll actually be playing this year, we'll keep this list up to date when release dates move to later points in the year or, more likely at this point, into 2023. 

Don't check out now, though. Holiday season looms, and there are plenty of quality 2022 games to come. Some are still waiting for their release times, so our TBA section is worth checking for fantastic-looking games that haven't nailed down a precise release date in the last handful of months. There's the usual hefty heap of shooters to dig into, a World of Warcraft expansion waiting in the wings, and a couple varieties of superheroes hanging around. And as always, the many excellent indie games that are too easy to overlook. Keep checking back to make sure you don't miss out on the smaller gems before the year ends.

Here's your guide to all the new games of 2022 coming to PC.

2022 Games: The biggest upcoming games

2022 Games: January

January is kicking off the year with two excellent PC ports of console games. Monster Hunter Rise is following in the new tradition of Monster Hunter games on PC while Kratos breaks new ground by bringing God of War to PC for the first time. Not a bad start to 2022. 

Biggest January 2022 games

All release dates for January 2022 games

• January 12, 2022 — Monster Hunter Rise - The latest MonHunt
• January 13, 2022 — The Anacrusis (early access) - 70's style shooter
• January 14, 2022 — God Of War - Kratos comes to PC
• January 18, 2022 — Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel - The heart of the cards on PC
• January 19, 2022 — Nobody Saves the World - Transforming action-RPG
• January 20, 2022 — Expeditions: Rome - Party-based strategy RPG
• January 20, 2022 — Pupperazzi - Take photos of adorable dogs
• January 20, 2022 — Rainbow Six Extraction - Tactical FPS spin-off
• January 20, 2022 — Warno - 80's-styled cold war RTS
• January 20, 2022 — Windjammers 2 - Classic disc tennis sequel
• January 21, 2022 — Strange Horticulture - Occult plant puzzler
• January 25, 2022 — Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem - Wacky FPS goes out in the cold

2022 Games: February

After that good warmup in January, things are really scheduled to heat up in February. Elden Ring and Total War: Warhammer 3 are two big, highly anticipated games launching fresh on PC. They're joined by Dying Light 2, which is finally arriving after multiple delays.

Biggest February 2022 games

All release dates for February 2022 games

• February 1, 2022 — Life is Strange Remastered - First game and prequel
• February 4, 2022 — Dying Light 2 - Zombie-killing parkour
• February 8, 2022 — OlliOlli World - OlliOlli but prettier.
• February 8, 2022 — Sifu - Kung-fu brawler from Absolver's developers
• February 9, 2022 — Letters - A Written Adventure - 90's penpal story adventure
• February 10, 2022 — Know By Heart - Story-based adventure
• February 11, 2022 — Lost Ark - The fantasy MMO's Western launch
• February 11, 2022 — Not Tonight 2 - Political satire road-trip adventure RPG
• February 15, 2022 — Arctico (early access) - Dogsledding survival adventure
• February 17, 2022 — King of Fighters 15 - Next KOF fighter
• February 17, 2022 — Total War: Warhammer 3 - Grand strategy RTS
• February 23, 2022 — Final Fantasy 6: Pixel Remaster - Another FF remaster
• February 24, 2022 — Atelier Sophie 2 - Magical alchemy RPG
• February 24, 2022 — GRID Legends - Stylish racing sim with a story
• February 25, 2022 — Elden Ring - From Software's next big RPG
• February 28, 2022 — Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons - MMORPG's third expansion

2022 Games: March

Leading off as we start to move towards spring is the adorable looking fox-powered action-adventure Tunic, followed up by a re-imagining of SquareEnix's original entry in the series in Final Fantasy Origins.

Biggest March 2022 games

All release dates for March 2022 games

• March 1, 2022 — Elex 2 - Science-fantasy action RPG
• March 1, 2022 — Far: Changing Tides - Puzzle-y action adventure
• March 1, 2022 — Hero's Hour - Pixel turn-based strategy with real time combat
• March 1, 2022 — Shadow Warrior 3 - Guns, parkour, and gore galore
• March 2, 2022 — Instruments of Destruction - Vehicle building sandbox destruction sim
• March 3, 2022 — Babylon's Fall - Action RPG
• March 8, 2022 — Core Keeper (early access) - Caving 8-player sandbox adventure
• March 10, 2022 — Distant Worlds 2 - Space 4X strategy
• March 10, 2022 — Young Souls - Artistic 2D beat-em-up
• March 16, 2022 — Tunic - Tiny fox action adventure
• March 17, 2022 — Shredders - Open-world snowboarding
• March 17, 2022 — This Means Warp - Humorous co-op spaceship sim
• March 18, 2022 — Final Fantasy Origin - Inspired by the original FF
• March 24, 2022 — The Planet Crafter - Space survival and crafting
• March 24, 2022 — NORCO - Spooky gothic point-and-click adventure
• March 24, 2022 — Chromosome Evil - Horror survival RTS with turn-based elements
• March 25, 2022 — Ghostwire: Tokyo - Supernatural action thriller
• March 25, 2022 — Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - A Borderlands spinoff shooter
• March 29, 2022 — Abermore - First-person steal-em-up
• March 31, 2022 — Coromon - Monster collecting turn-based battler
• March 31, 2022 — Weird West - Top-down immersive sim
• March 31, 2022 — Midnight Ghost Hunt - Multiplayer FPS prop-hunter

2022 Games: April

April is looking like a light month for PC gamers, but there are a couple deep cut classics making unlikely returns. The weird 90s platformer Glover is getting a new PC release and Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers is coming to PC too. The next LEGO: Star Wars game arrives this month as well with a series-spanning cast.

Biggest April 2022 games

All release dates for April 2022 games

• April 5, 2022 — LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga - Blocky beat-em-up 
• April 7, 2022 — Chinatown Detective Agency - Futuristic detective agency adventure sim
• April 7, 2022 — Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition - Remaster of the classic
• April 7, 2022 — Demeo: PC Edition (early access) - Tabletop RPG gone digital
• April 7, 2022 — Forgive Me Father - Retro horror FPS
• April 7, 2022 — Kombinera - Colorful puzzle platformer
• April 8, 2022 — Stacklands - Deck-based city-builder
• April 12, 2022 — B.I.O.T.A. - Sci fi retro style metroidvania
• April 14, 2022 — Cat Cafe Manager - Cuddly shop management sim
• April 14, 2022 — Ghostlore - Action-RPG with 'eastpunk' style
• April 14, 2022 — Crimesight - Murder mystery board game from Konami
• April 19, 2022 — Winter Ember - Archer-based stealth action
• April 20, 2022 — Glover - N64 classic of glove-based platforming
• April 21, 2022 — Terraformers (early access) - Colony building and resource management on Mars
• April 26, 2022 — Galactic Civilizations 4 (early access) - Space-based 4X
• April 26, 2022 — King Arthur: Knight's Tale - Dark tactical RPG
• April 26, 2022 — Dune: Spice Wars - Real-time strategy game set in the Dune universe
• April 27, 2022 — The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe - Comedy narrative, expanded

2022 Games: May

Like April, May is a little on the slow side for new game releases this year. While we wait for some big announcements headed into the summer, there are a few awaited early access indie games alongside a new Warhammer game and Evil Dead.

Biggest May 2022 games

All release dates for May 2022 games

• May 3, 2022 — Loot River - Roguelike with moving levels
• May 5, 2022 — Citizen Sleeper - Tabletop-inspired cyberpunk RPG
• May 5, 2022 — Trek to Yomi - Side-scrolling samurai action
• May 5, 2022 — Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters - Knights of 40K
• May 10, 2022 — Salt and Sacrifice - Co-op action platformer
• May 10, 2022 — Songs of Conquest (Early access) - Classic turn-based strategy
• May 10, 2022 — Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising - Town-building action RPG
• May 10, 2022 — We Were Here Forever - The latest co-op puzzle exploration entry
• May 13, 2022 — Evil Dead: The Game - Co-op zombie slayer
• May 16, 2022 — Little Witch in the Woods (early access) - Witchcrafting life sim
• May 17, 2022 — V Rising (early access) - Survival basebuilding for vampires
• May 19, 2022 — Vampire: the Masquerade - Swansong - Bitey narrative RPG
• May 20, 2022 — APICO - Relaxed beekeeping simulator
• May 25, 2022 — Roller Champions - Competitive roller derby
• May 26, 2022 — My Time At Sandrock (early access) - Western crafting life sim
• May 26, 2022 — Sniper Elite 5 - The latest in the scope-friendly series

2022 Games: June

If April and May were slow for new releases, June is looking glacial. Even so, we've got the PC release of Diablo Immortal to ring in the month, and a slate of expansions and early access games to—hopefully—hold us over into summer.

June new games highlights

All release dates for June 2022 games

• June 1, 2022 — Silt - Underwater puzzle adventure
• June 2, 2022 — Card Shark - Deception and card games
• June 2, 2022 — Diablo Immortal - Pocket-sized Diablo gets a PC-sized release
• June 2, 2022 — Souldiers - Flashy 16-bit fantasy metroidvania
• June 6, 2022 — The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle - ESO's latest, Breton-centric chapter
• June 8, 2022 — The Cycle: Frontier (early access) - Sci-fi free-to-play PvPvE salvage and survival
• June 10, 2022 — METAL MAX Xeno Reborn - Open world Mad Max by way of EDF
• June 10, 2022 — Freshly Frosted - Pastry-based puzzler
• June 10, 2022 — The Quarry - Co-op summer camp horror from Supermassive
• June 11, 2022 — LumbearJack - Axe-wielding bear's forest reclamation
• June 15, 2022 — Dread Delusion (early access) - surreal open world RPG
• June 16, 2022 — Neon White - Deck-building FPS
• June 16, 2022 — Redout 2 - High-octane hovercar arcade racer
• June 16, 2022 — Starship Troopers: Terran Command - Sci-fi RTS based on the Verhoeven movie
• June 16, 2022 — TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - Classic styled turtles beat-em-up
• June 23, 2022 — Sonic Origins - Remastered collection of early Sonic classics
• June 24, 2022 — AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative - Anime visual novel meets sci-fi forensics
• June 28, 2022 — Disgaea 6 Complete - JRPG tactic juggernaut comes to PC
• June 30, 2022 — Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms (early access) - ARPG with classic CRPG flavor
• June 30, 2022 — Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course - Final quest for the punishing 2D platform shooter
• June 30, 2022 — Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak - Endgame expansion to the latest MonHunt
• June 30, 2022 — OUTRIDERS WORLDSLAYER - Major update for the looter shooter

2022 Games: July

July's list of new PC games may be even shorter than June's this year, but we've gotten two pretty worthwhile breakout hits from it. Cat puzzler Stray has captured the internet's heart and MultiVersus has proven to be a much more worthy Smash contender than Nickelodeon's attempt in 2021.

Biggest July 2022 games

All release dates for July 2022 games

• July 1, 2022 — F1 22 - F1 racing sim by Codemasters
• July 7, 2022 — Gwent: Rogue Mage - singleplayer expansion
• July 7, 2022 — Klonoa Phantasy Reverie - Classic 3D platformer remaster
• July 8, 2022 — MADiSON - Psychological photography horror
• July 12, 2022 — Monument Valley: Panoramic Collection - PC release for acclaimed puzzles
• July 12, 2022 — Time on Frog Island - Cute adventure game on amphibian archipelago
• July 13, 2022 — Rune Factory 5 - More monster hunting and farming
• July 14, 2022 — Powerwash Simulator - No pressure, it's more relaxing than it sounds
• July 14, 2022 — Dinkum (early access) - Australian Animal Crossing-like
• July 14, 2022 — Escape Academy - Puzzle game in a school for escape artists
• July 19, 2022 — Stray - Adorable cyberpunk cats
• July 21, 2022 — Moss: Book II - Mouse-based adventures continue
• July 27, 2022 — MultiVersus (open beta) - Warner Bros. goes Smash Bros
• July 28, 2022 — Bear and Breakfast - Relaxed grizzly-operated management sim
• July 28, 2022 — Lord Winklebottom Investigates - Point & click adventure

2022 Games: August

August is set to explode with a fresh Saints Row reboot and another of Sam Barlow's mysterious FMV story games.

Biggest August 2022 games

All release dates for August 2022 games

• August 2, 2022 — Frogun - Low-poly platformer with frog grappling hook
• August 3, 2022 — Hooked On You - A Dead By Daylight dating sim spinoff
• August 3, 2022 — South of the Circle - Interactive Cold War-era fic
• August 4, 2022 — Camp Canyonwood (early access) - spooky summer camp sim
• August 9, 2022 — Two Point Campus - University building sim
• August 11, 2022 — Arcade Paradise - Management adventure
• August 11, 2022 — Cult of the Lamb - Eldritch cartoon cultist roguelike
• August 15, 2022 — Fashion Police Squad - Restyling retro-FPS
• August 16, 2022 — Rollerdrome - Third-person stunt shooter on rollerblades
• August 18, 2022 — Thymesia - Plague doctor souls-like with disease weapons
• August 18, 2022 — We are OFK -  Indie-pop narrative series
• August 20, 2022 — A Walk With Yiayia - Visual novel grandma walkalong
• August 23, 2022 — Midnight Fight Express - Top-down street fight brawler
• August 23, 2022 — Saints Row - The outlandish action series reboot
• August 25, 2022 — I Was a Teenage Exocolonist - Scifi narrative lifesim deckbuilder
• August 25, 2022 — Monster Outbreak - Open-world basebuilding tower defense mashup
• August 26, 2022 — Soul Hackers 2 - Cyberpunk anime demon summoner JRPG
• August 30, 2022 — Immortality - A Sam Barlow FMV mystery
• August 30, 2022 — Tinykin - Microscopic monster-collecting puzzle adventure
• August 30, 2022 — TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection - Classic turtles beat-em-ups on PC
• August 31, 2022 — Scathe - Labyrinthian boomer shooter

2022 Games: September

September might not be laden with triple-A titans, but that isn't stopping a landslide of games from licensed properties. If you love brands, there's something for you this month—whether it's building your own little Disneyland, or slapping beefy anime meatheads and their psychic ghosts together.

Biggest September 2022 games

All release dates for September 2022 games

• September 1, 2022 — Chenso Club - Co-op roguelike with cute chainsaws
• September 1, 2022 — JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R - Stands vs hamon
• September 1, 2022 — Ooblets - Farming and town sim with Pokemon flavor
• September 2, 2022 — LEGO Brawls - Smash bros. with minifigs
• September 6, 2022 — Disney Dreamlight Valley (early access) - Disney's online Animal Crossing
• September 6, 2022 — Gloomwood (early access) - Victorian horror immersive sim
• September 8, 2022 — Justice Sucks - Murderous roomba stealth game
• September 8, 2022 — Roadwarden - Pixel-illustrated, text-based fantasy RPG
• September 8, 2022 — Steelrising - Automatron French revolution
• September 9, 2022 — Betrayal at Club Low - Latest sim/RPG from Cosmo D
• September 13, 2022 — SCP: Secret Files - SCP game collection
• September 14, 2022 — The Wandering Village (early access) - Creature-mounted city builder
• September 15, 2022 — Metal: Hellsinger - Heavy metal rhythm FPS
• September 16, 2022 — Melatonin - Dreamy rhythm game
• September 19, 2022 — Return to Monkey Island - Puzzle adventure
• September 20, 2022 — Soulstice - Spookily sisterly hack-and-slash
• September 21, 2022 — Gundam Evolution - Mobile suit hero shooter
• September 21, 2022 — The Outbound Ghost - Turn-based RPG with cute ghosts
• September 22, 2022 — The DioField Chronicle - Realtime tactics JRPG
• September 22, 2022 — Potion Permit - Fantasy chemist life-sim RPG
• September 22, 2022 — Serial Cleaners - Stealth-action crime cleanup
• September 22, 2022 — Slime Rancher 2 (early access) - Colourful collect 'em all
• September 23, 2022 — Shovel Knight Dig - Shovel Knight goes roguelite
• September 27, 2022 — Dual Universe - Player-driven space MMO
• September 29, 2022 — Despot's Game: Dystopian Army Builder - Procedural auto battler
• September 29, 2022 — Moonbreaker (early access) - Virtual wargaming with minis
• September 30, 2022 — FIFA 23 - EA's final football foray
• September 30, 2022 — Witchy Life Story - Potion-brewing visual novel

2022 Games: October

It's happening: the autumn releases are upon us. Overwatch 2 is kicking the gate open, with Gotham Knights following behind and Call of Duty closing out the month. Not the most earth-shattering lead-in to the holiday season, but you're going to be hearing a lot of Warzone talk over the next few months, surely.

Biggest October 2022 games

All release dates for October 2022 games

• October 4, 2022 — Overwatch 2 - Blizzard's hero shooter sequel
• October 11, 2022 — Asterigos: Curse of the Stars - Ancient Greek action RPG
• October 11, 2022 — Coral Island - Another farm and life sim for Stardew fans
• October 11, 2022 — No More Heroes 3 - Assassin otaku Travis Touchdown rides again
• October 12, 2022 — LEGO Bricktales - Lego diorama building game
• October 12, 2022 — Stranded: Alien Dawn (early access) - Planet survival sim
• October 13, 2022 — Cultic - Retro lo-fi shooter
• October 13, 2022 — Fueled Up - Like Overcooked, but in space
• October 13, 2022 — Sunday Gold - Stylish point-and-click adventure
• October 14, 2022 — Dragon Ball: The Breakers - 1-on-7 DBZ multiplayer
• October 14, 2022 — Scorn - First-person horror
• October 17, 2022 — Potionomics - Potion shop simulator
• October 18, 2022 — A Plague Tale: Requiem - Medieval action adventure
• October 18, 2022 — Marvel Snap - Digital superhero CCG
• October 19, 2022 — Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - Uncharted 4 on PC
• October 21, 2022 — Gotham Knights - Crime-fighting team up
• October 21, 2022 — New Tales from the Borderlands - Gearbox does Telltale
• October 21, 2022 — Persona 5 Royal - Team mind-heist JRPG
• October 23, 2022 — Monster Prom 3 - This time it's a road trip
• October 25, 2022 — Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord - Warband management
• October 25, 2022 — Victoria 3 - Paradox's 19th century society sim
• October 27, 2022 — Frog Detective 3 - Another amphibious mystery
• October 27, 2022 — Sackboy: A Big Adventure - PlayStation platformer comes to PC
• October 27, 2022 — Signalis - Throwback survival horror
• October 27, 2022 — Paper Cut Mansion - Papier-mâché roguelite
• October 27, 2022 — Saturnalia - Labyrinthian survival horror 
• October 27, 2022 — Maid of Sker - First-person survival horror
• October 27. 2022 — Sins of a Solar Empire 2 (early access) - Space strategy simulator 
• October 28, 2022 — Resident Evil Re: Verse - Zombie fighting PVP
• October 28, 2022 — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Cherished FPS sequel reboot
• October 29, 2022 — Butterfly Soup 2 - Visual novel about queer girls and baseball

2022 Games: November

Biggest November 2022 games

All release dates for November 2022 games

• November 3, 2022 — Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch - Open-world ranch sim
• November 3, 2022 — The Chant - Spiritual retreat survival horror
• November 4, 2022 — Harvestella - A life-sim RPG by Square Enix
• November 8, 2022 — Football Manager 2023 - Soccer team sim, to Americans
• November 8, 2022 — A Little to the Left - Cozy reorganization game
• November 8, 2022 — Sonic Frontiers - "Open zone" 3D Sonic game
• November 11, 2022 — Tactics Ogre: Reborn - An old gem of the tactical RPG genre
• November 15, 2022 — Floodland - Post-climate disaster settlement sim
• November 16, 2022 — Ixion - Space base city builder
• November 17, 2022 — Goat Simulator 3 - Physics sandbox sequel
• November 18, 2022 — Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me - Horror anthology season finale
• November 22, 2022 — Evil West - Cowboys vs. vampires
• November 22, 2022 — Ship of Fools - Seafaring co-op roguelite
• November 28, 2022 — World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - WoW's latest, scaliest expansion
• November 30, 2022 — Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Vermintide, but 40K
• November ??, 2022 — Pentiment - Choice-driven illuminated manuscript

2022 Games: December

• December 1, 2022 — Alterium Shift - SNES-inspired 2.5D JRPG
• December 9, 2022 — Choo-Choo Charles - Spider train horror
• December 2, 2022 — The Callisto Protocol - Survival horror on Jupiter
• December 2, 2022 — Marvel's Midnight Suns - Tactical demon-hunting superhero RPG
• December 13, 2022 — High On Life - tragically, a Rick and Morty-esque FPS
• December 15, 2022 — Blacktail - Baba Yaga action-adventure origin story
• December 21, 2022 — The Settlers - Reboot of the city-building RTS
• December ??, 2022 — Highwater - Flooded earth turn-based adventure

2022 Games: Dates To Be Announced

Possible new games in 2022

• 2022? — Avowed - Obsidian's new fantasy RPG
• 2022? — Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion - Remake of the FF7 prequel
• 2022? — Hollow Knight: Silksong - Challenging metroidvania
• 2022? — Horizon Forbidden West - When will it be on PC?
• 2022? — Indiana Jones - MachineGames' (untitled) Indy game
• 2022? — Metal Slug Tactics - Tactical rpg in the Metal Slug universe
• 2022? — The Outlast Trials - Survival horror with online co-op
• 2022? — Tactical Breach Wizards - Turn-based strategy wizarding

2022 dates TBA

• 2022 — A Highland Song - Scottish side-scrolling survival rhythm
• 2022 — Afterimage - Colorful dreamlike metroidvania
• 2022 — Alliance of the Sacred Suns - 4X Space Strategy
• 2022 — Atomic Heart - Sci-fi Soviet shooter
• 2022 — AK-xolotl: Wars - Multiplayer bullet hell
• 2022 — Backfirewall - Adventure game inside a smartphone
• 2022 — Blood Bowl 3 (early access) - Truly fantasy football
• 2022 — Chrono Odyssey - Fantasy MMO
• 2022 — CONV/RGENCE: A League of Legends Story - Action platformer
• 2022 — Cosmoteer (early access) - FTL meets Rimworld
• 2022 — Crimson Desert - Singleplayer RPG from Black Desert devs
• 2022 — Flashback 2 - Remake of a classic scifi side-scroller
• 2022 — Forever Skies - Airship-based FPS survival on doomed earth
• 2022 — Frostpunk 2 - Grim, snowy city management
• 2022 — Frozen Flame - Fantasy open-world base-builder
• 2022 — God of Rock - Rhythm game meets 2D fighter
• 2022 — GOODBYE WORLD - Narrative puzzle adventure about struggling devs
• 2022 — Harold Halibut - Claymation space story
• 2022 — How to Say Goodbye - Ghost-guiding puzzle game
• 2022 — I Am Future - Farming sim by way of Waterworld
• 2022 — Inkulinati - Medieval animal strategy
• 2022 — The Knight Witch - Metroidvania with witchy weaponry
• 2022 — Land of the Vikings (early access) - Norse settlement-building strategy
• 2022 — The Lord of the Rings: Gollum - a very Smeagol skulking game
• 2022 — Moonlight in Garland - Stardew in the big city
• 2022 — Munchkin Digital - Tabletop loot game adaptation
• 2022 — NAIAD - Vibrant underwater exploration as a sea nymph
• 2022 — Nadir - Hellish deckbuilding roguelike
• 2022 — N1RV-ANN-A - Cyberpunk bartending visual novel
• 2022 — Nighthawks - A vampire RPG from adventure game veterans
• 2022 — Norland - Medieval kingdom sim
• 2022 — Party Animals - Silly physics brawler
• 2022 — Path of Exile 2 - The big ARPG campaign sequel
• 2022 — Pharaoh: A New Era - City builder remaster
• 2022 — Pixel Tactics Online - Turn-based tactics
• 2022 — Pokemon Trading Card Game Live - Pokemon cards, but online
• 2022 — Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake - Action adventure
• 2022 — She Dreams Elsewhere - Retro-surreal adventure RPG
• 2022 — Slopecrashers - Competitive critter arcade snowboarding
• 2022 — Somerville - Sci-fi exploration adventure
• 2022 — Song of Nunu - A League of Legends adventure
• 2022 — Soulstone Survivors - Bullet hell roguelike
• 2022 — STONKS-9800 - Retro text-based stock market simulator
• 2022 — Superfuse - Comic-inspired sci fi ARPG
• 2022 — System Shock - Remake of an FPS classic
• 2022 — Voidtrain - Open-world survival FPS
• 2022 — Way to the Woods - Bambi adventure
• 2022 — Witchbrook - Wizarding school life sim
• 2022 — Wizard With A Gun - Co-op sandbox survival
• 2022 — WrestleQuest - 80's pro wrestling meets retro-styled RPG

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[Victoria 3 review]

Need to know

What is it? Industrial-scale Grand Strategy

Expect to pay: £42/$50

Release date: October 25, 2022

Developer: Paradox Development Studio

Publisher: Paradox Interactive 

Reviewed on Radeon RX 6800 XT, Ryzen 9 5900, 32GB RAM

Multiplayer? Yes

Link: Official site 

It's 1836 and the industrial revolution's machines are in high gear. The coming century will change the face of the human world with a population explosion, a second industrial revolution, and more. In Victoria 3 you take control of a society attempting to ride this wave of explosive change to its end in 1936. What you do along the way, and how much fun you have with it, is up to you.   

Victoria 3 tasks you with building a nation by shaping its laws, economy, people, and institutions. The developers at Paradox call it a "society-builder". It wants you to care about the minutiae of political movements, distribution of power, population trends, economic organization, factory output, or global trade, and then to start manipulating them.

That might be hard for some. Victoria 3 boasts some of the most intricate game mechanics I've ever seen in a strategy game. They can be overwhelming. You can micromanage trade routes, chart paths for societal reform, tweak your nation's build queue, or examine production methods. Even a small nation is constantly given options to fiddle with, and progress in large nations can slow to a crawl as you scramble between trade crises and multi-front wars.

Managing this is made easier by one of Paradox's better user interfaces. It's not quite as friendly as Crusader Kings 3, but it does have significantly more complex systems to work through. The bottom bar in particular is useful, with shortcuts to all kinds of national actions, from building and diplomacy to mustering troops. The map, meanwhile, is striking and impressively detailed, with little trains chugging along, mines scarring the terrain, and tiny soldiers trading gunfire.

I am the law

(Image credit: Paradox)

It's in Victoria 3's simulation of how a society is governed where the game is at its best, drawing you deeper and deeper in. Governments are based on laws: sets of options which cover diverse topics such as how your economy is structured and who gets to vote. Changing laws requires the support of interest groups, Victoria 3's finest mechanic. These groups like landholders, petite bourgeoisie, armed forces, trade unions, industrialists, religious authorities, and rural folk gather up clout from their members and try to push their agendas, forming dynamic political parties.

These groups intersect masterfully with every other game system, creating opportunities and obstacles. Maybe you want to change tax laws to fix your budget, but the powerful industrialists will cause a big stink, or maybe even team up with another group and threaten revolution. So you change voting laws to give the poor power, reducing the industralist's political clout. Of course, this means you now have another group able to push forward their agenda.

It's in Victoria 3's simulation of how a society is governed where the game is at its best, drawing you deeper and deeper in.

Interest groups also have leaders, and while it's disappointing that you can't interact with them directly they do have nice portraits—and pleasingly disruptive effects. Playing as Gran Colombia I had a communist become leader of my powerful armed forces. The normally conservative military bloc shifted to form a new Socialist Party with the trade unions and began advocating social reforms. Reforms that would really tick off the powerful Conservative Party run by the Catholic Church and landowners.

Surprisingly, internal politics seem to barely affect international relations. Your World Socialist Vanguard State could be best buddies with Her Majesty's Oppressive Empire with little to no pushback internally or externally. While this might seem like cutthroat realpolitik, in action it just feels like a lackluster system.

(Image credit: Paradox)

The core of all those interest groups are people, also known as pops. Every person on the planet is simulated in the background. They have jobs and families, and they want various necessities and luxuries. They migrate and move in a system which is supremely fascinating to watch in action. When ideologies like socialism and fascism are invented pop groups gain new supporters or goals, triggering unrest and revolution both at home and abroad.

Your big concern with pops is their standard of living, cultural discrimination, and employment, but trying to improve these things involves solving big social and political puzzles. Freedom of religion and giving immigrants citizenship will piss off other people even while it improves lives, so it's a thorny but compelling balancing act.

Of course, as with many other systems in Victoria 3, it can spit out some weird results. A vast wave of Lacustrine Bantu people are migrating to Oregon, a popup says. How, I ask, are thousands of people from halfway around the world, originating in undeveloped landlocked nations, migrating so surely and rapidly? Whatever, I guess they need jobs now.

Big business

(Image credit: Paradox)

Alongside managing a nation's people, your hand is also on the tiller of trade and industry. Victoria 3 has you serve as a kind of omniscient chief executive, deciding what new factories, mines, infrastructure, and farms get built. You'll need cash for that, of course, but whether it's from wealthy investors or the state itself, these are your decisions—the buck always stops with you.

The buck always stops with you.

Victoria 3's economic system is a slick simulation that incentivizes real world behaviors. You don't always want to hoard wealth. You can run a deficit for a few years, then build up a reserve, or nearly bankrupt yourself fighting world wars before entering years of austere recovery. And if you're missing some important goods, you can look abroad and start exploiting less developed nations.

Planning your economy, finding out what goods are needed to industrialize, what raw inputs to source and from where, is the stuff that economic strategy dreams are made of. The added complexity of deciding production methods and ownership stakes is just icing on the customizable cake of your nation's market.

(Image credit: Paradox)

As opposed to fiddly tracking of every single bushel of wheat, Victoria 3 provides comprehensibility by saying that while supply of materials is unrealistically infinite it'll eventually hit a very, very expensive price ceiling or become so cheap it market crashes into the floor. Helpfully, a rich trade system lets you quickly address deficits or excess from the same screen, and good feedback notifies you when trade routes post a negative balance.

The intermingling of business and state quickly becomes a colonialist machine that eats people and spits out bones. You'll fight wars of conquest over rubber just so your people can have bicycle tires—or find your budding socialist utopia playing world police to stop others from doing the same.

Aggressive negotiations

Eventually, of course, you'll have to deal with conflicts both domestic and international. These conflicts aren't always armed ones, however, and many take place across the negotiating table. This is perhaps the weakest part of Victoria 3, and only a few key systems keep it from being a total dud. 

(Image credit: Paradox)

Militaries are managed abstractly, with your armies run by generals assigned to fronts. You can tell them to either hold the line or try to advance and capture territory. It's actually a pretty fitting simulation of 19th century warfare—at least from a politician's chair—because it's about hoping the army you've built, the equipment you've produced, and the person you've picked to lead it can bring you victory.

When it comes to international relations the AI is static at best, unpredictable at worst.

Your suite of diplomatic options are simple. In order to do most things you make a diplomatic play: Claim a state controlled by another country as yours, demand another nation submit as a puppet regime, force others to adopt specific laws. You make demands, the other side makes counter-demands, and outside nations either stay neutral or get bribed to pick a side. You raise and deploy troops to rattle your saber. If nobody folds before the timer runs out, that means war.

This is a tidy system, but the diplomatic actions around it are anemic and difficult to pull off for one reason: When it comes to international relations the AI is static at best, unpredictable at worst. Sometimes it'll happily stay friends for decades, or it'll turn into hateful rival seemingly overnight. It's not clear if that's down to bugs or invisible changes in other countries.

(Image credit: Paradox)

Smaller nations without a sizable army can get locked into civil wars for an interminably long time, rendering chunks of the map unusable unless you want to declare war and end it yourself. Bigger ones have the same rich inner life as yours, but lack the guiding hand of a person aiming them at bigger goals.

That's exacerbated by the AI's short memory. In a game as the socialist United Syndicates of America, I helped every communist revolution across the globe to power. More often than not within a month of winning victory those newly-forged sibling nations would decide I was an existential threat and adopt a massive penalty to relations with me.

That's the exception, though. If anything, the nations of Victoria 3 are too reluctant to forge diplomatic pacts and too reluctant to start wars. I never saw anything resembling major conflicts like the Franco-Prussian or Crimean war, let alone international conflict like World War 1. 

Victoria 3 is weak on the international stage, but if your fantasy is to take control of a nation and set your own goals, build your own society and play around with complex, interlocking systems, it will fulfill that brilliantly. The internal life of your nation is rich, and for much of the game that's where your focus will be—up to your neck in domestic politics and squabbling pops.  

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