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At first glance Logitech's G502 X gaming mouse may not appear much different to its predecessors, but look a little closer and you'll notice some useful revisions, in particular for FPS players. While there's no change to the already improved G502 Hero 25k sensor, there are some impressive ergonomic enhancements to note, along with customisability, and weight improvements to boot.
In fact, Logitech has doubled down on making the Logitech G502 X lighter. It comes in at 89g, which is a significant difference over the Hero's 121g. Sadly, it doesn't come with the option to configure the weight like the Hero, which would have been a nice addition considering it's going for the same price as its predecessor.
In order to improve the weight, several changes have been made. For one thing, there's no LED system behind the Logitech G symbol, or any RGB at all. And while that's a little disappointing that you can't program damage flashes on your mouse, for example, it makes sense to appeal to the FPS audience more. At least, while the scroll wheel is now plastic instead of metal to improve the weight, it still comes with an infinite scroll.
The infinite scroll is our Dave's most loved feature and I'm sure he would have written a strongly worded letter if Logitech had done away with his precious spinnies. We've decided between us that the plastic scroll wheel doesn't feel as nice as the old metal one, but we're also both not too bothered about having a heavy mouse. It's a trade-off, for sure, but one that does benefit Logitech's target market in the long run.
Logitech G502 X specsComparing the G502 X to my absolute favourite gaming mouse, the Logitech G502 Lightspeed, I've spotted some subtle differences that might not seem like much, but do affect the overall experience.
Interestingly (and most evidently) there's now an interchangeable thumb button with a little lip that can be rotated. I assume for use with larger or smaller hands, though hand positioning could also be a factor. It can be swapped with a lip-sans silicon button that, when rotated, can act as a stopper instead of a button. It's a neat little feature, perhaps aimed more at fingertip grippers. Either way, the thumb button in all its forms is a great addition that gives the G502 X that bit of extra customisability, without adding weight.
Image 1 of 3Comparing the white G502 X with the G502 Lightspeed (Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 3Comparing the white G502 X with the G502 Lightspeed (Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 3Comparing the white G502 X with the G502 Lightspeed (Image credit: Future)One of the more obvious changes comes in the G502 X's colour options. While there are both black and white versions of the G502 X, both have white PTFE feet. It's an interesting stylistic choice, one that seems to mimic Logitech's overall shift toward a more inclusive range or peripherals—such as with the Logitech Color and Aurora collections, but it is stark and very likely to get mucky quickly if you've an affinity for munching snacks at your desk.
The major difference comes in the form of the angle of your hand. While my initial qualm was that the lower profile shell meant my wrist was leaning on the desk a lot, my hand has now shifted around to the intended position. I get it now. It's slightly skewed, similarly to those vertical mice that are all the rage at the moment in offices, which gives it superior ergonomics to the simple flat, front facing hand placement of the original design, without it taking an age to adjust.
Pair that with the fantastic thumb rest, longer buttons and you have yourself a superbly ergonomic mouse that boasts improvements we didn't know we needed from the Logitech G502 line.
The thumb button in all its forms is a great addition that gives the G502 X that bit of extra customisability.
Another change that's not so evident to begin with is the lightforce hybrid switches. They're opto-mechanical, so they combine optical speed with a mechanical actuation. It's not something that's easy to test, speed wise at least, though I've been sitting here clicking the G502 X next to its predecessor for a minute, looking a bit strange in the process, and I can't feel much difference. There's a slightly more resounding click to the newer switches, which is probably owing to a lack of internal components in order to improve the weight. The switches also require a tiny bit more force to activate but it does mean you're less likely to accidentally snipe your own teammates.
(Image credit: Logitech)As far as pricing goes, it's being shipped at roughly the same price as the earlier models: $80 for the wired version, $140 for the wireless version, and $160 for the G502X Plus. The latter is the only one with RGB, which pushes the weight up 106g, over the wired version. It's certainly one way to separate the company's more utilitarian users from the rest, but $20 for some RGB LEDs does seem a little steep.
The wired version here is the evident choice for the sensible and frugal among us, and the wire actually doesn't create a detriment to the usability. It's long and flexible enough that it doesn't get in the way, and although it's not braided like some of the previous model's cables, it doesn't snag or curl up.
I can't say there's a lot to complain about with this one. I personally regarded the previous model as the perfect mouse, and it's almost a shame to remove the weight it had behind it, though I do admit the ergonomic changes are likely better for my hand. The new ergonomics do have the potential to alienate those with larger hands or who don't enjoy the sideways slant, and the weight reduction has meant RGB likers like me would need to spend substantially more. But FPS players with average sized hands are likely to be over the moon with the G502 X.
None of the negative points are enough to put me off one of the best lines of mice ever to grace my desk, and the overall improvements certainly outweigh my personal preference. For $80 I have no issues recommending the wired G502 X, it's just a little sad that RGB now costs extra.
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Asus' ROG brand hardly needs an introduction. Since 2006, Asus ROG motherboards have rarely disappointed, and the brand surely has the most loyal repeat buyers. But with premium hardware comes premium pricing, and the Crosshair X670E Hero is a very expensive board. At $699 / £649 / AU$1,189 it's priced at levels that were laughable a couple of generations ago.
Why is it so expensive? There are a few reasons. The fallout from the pandemic, global inflation, and a strong US dollar are partly to blame, but there's also the need for high quality PCBs. PCIe 5.0 signalling requirements mean the boards have to be built to a high standard. It seems like the days of $300 flagship boards are long gone.
But that's enough price talk - for now anyway. Returning to the board itself, you'd expect it to be packed to the hilt with features, and it is for the most part. Its M.2 complement stands out, with a total of five slots. Three of them are PCIe 5.0 compatible, and one of those is via a very well built PCIe 5.0 add-in card.
Throw in six SATA ports and it's a good option for the file hoarders.
Crosshair X670E Hero specs(Image credit: Asus)Socket: AMD Socket AM5
CPU compatibility: AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processors
Form factor: ATX
Memory support: Up to DDR5-6400+ (OC), Up to 128GB
Storage: 5x M.2; 6x SATA
USB: Up to 2x USB 4, 2x USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 9x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 4x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 6x USB 2.0
Display: 1x HDMI 2.1
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E; Intel 2.5G LAN
Audio: Realtek ALC4082 7.1 Channel HD Audio
Price: $699 / £649 / AU$1,189It's a nice-looking board with a goodly dose of RGB-lit ROG branding atop the VRM heatsink. Its mirror-like middle section will be completely hidden by a large graphics card, meaning it's predominantly black, and it will easily blend in with just about any system theme.
Asus ROG boards always feature good VRM solutions, and the X670E Hero does too. It mightn't have the outright phase count of some competing boards but don't let that bother you. 18+2 phase with 110A stages won't be stressed by a heavily overclocked Ryzen 9 7950X, even with liquid nitrogen cooling.
The cooling is more than adequate too, if not quite as impressive as Gigabyte's high-end boards which feature larger surface areas thanks to finned heatsinks. They're very solidly built and a 52°C load temperature when looping Cinebench R23 is not even remotely near its limits. Even if future Ryzen 8000 or 9000 CPUs require 300W or more, it's hard to see how the X670E Hero would struggle.
Image 1 of 5(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 5(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 5(Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 5(Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 5(Image credit: Future)The rear I/O is a real strength of the board, with one exception, there's 2.5G LAN only in terms of its ethernet connection. At this price, at least 5G should be standard, with 10G expected. That aside, the USB complement is about as good as it gets. Two USB 4 ports are joined by a Gen 3.2 Gen 2x2 port and nine 3.2 Gen 2 ports. When combined with the internal headers, the board supports up to 23 USB ports. That's enough to run all of your peripherals plus a plasma ball, Christmas tree, and head massager.
The rest is mostly standard stuff for a high-end board. WiFi 6E is now a standard inclusion on premium boards, and there's a HDMI port for use with the newly introduced integrated graphics of Ryzen CPUs.
The BIOS of the X670E Hero follows the same layout that ROG boards have had for many years. It can be a bit daunting for newcomers but it's chock full of settings. If you like to play around, the Hero probably isn’t going to miss out on much compared to upcoming overclocking focused boards.
The X670E Hero certainly has the most mature BIOS of the five X670 boards I have tested to date. It's free of showstopper bugs, it boots quickly, and the ECO and PBO enhanced modes works well. More on that below.
System Performance
Image 1 of 6Image 2 of 6Image 3 of 6Image 4 of 6Image 5 of 6Image 6 of 6Gaming Performance
Image 1 of 5Image 2 of 5Image 3 of 5Image 4 of 5Image 5 of 5The X670E Hero generally performed on par with the other boards I've tested so far. Actually, it's a little surprising not to see more outlier results given the brand new nature of the platform. There's surely room for some AGESA tweaks and optimization. Perhaps we'll see some performance gains as the BIOS teams learn to extract that last 1 or 2% of performance.
You can't read much into results that fall within a margin of error. A subtiming here or there, Windows deciding to do one of its million background processes, or a tiny bit of throttling as the 7950X touches its 95°C limit can all affect results with small margins like these.
Image 1 of 3Image 2 of 3Image 3 of 3Test rigCPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
Graphics: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP Holo
RAM: 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 C30
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
Cooling: Cooler Master PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
PSU: Corsair AX1000Rather than spend time on overclocking, and essentially wasting time on it since the 7950X is cooling limited, I wanted to try out Asus' new PBO Enhancement mode in the 0705 BIOS. It can be found in the Extreme Tweaker menu, as shown in the image above.
You might be familiar with AMD's ECO mode which allows you to set a TDP limit. Asus' mode sets a temperature limit which I believe is a better method than using TDP as it's useful no matter what cooler you use. You can choose 90°C, 80°C or 70°C. I chose 80°C. At this setting the demands on my 360mm AIO cooler were noticeably lower. The fans simply didn't need to spin up as much when compared to the default 95°C limit that a 7950X can and will hit.
The results are surprising. Using Cinebench R23, you can see the 7950X scores 37129 compared to the 38384 at stock settings. That's a drop, sure, but it also delivers a power saving. At the 80°C limit the test system pulled a maximum of 305W under an all-core load. That compares to the 352W at auto settings, which is nearly a 50W saving.
If you’re using a 7700X or 7600X, you can expect the PBO enhanced modes to deliver performance closer to the stock settings. According to Asus, a 7600X at 70°C will see next to no performance loss.
The Asus Enhanced PBO modes and AMD's ECO modes are excellent features in my opinion. If you don't mind sacrificing a mostly intangible few percent of performance, you will be rewarded with a significant drop in temperatures and power consumption. I heartily recommend checking it out and seeing if you can really see the performance difference.
Image 1 of 2(Image credit: Asus)Image 2 of 2(Image credit: Asus)Asus usually comes out the gates well when a new CPU and platform is launched, and that's again the case here. The BIOS feels mature, and though we haven't had a chance to really delve into things like memory overclocking and PBO, the boot time and memory compatibility seem to be good.
The Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero is a solid offering, but that price!?
The Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero is a solid offering, but that price!? Of course, wider economic concerns and supply chain issues bear some of the blame, but at $699 / £649 / AU$1,189, this is an expensive offering however you look at it. Especially when the meat of the system performance metrics is practically identical across the boards I've tested.
Though if you don’t mind the lack of 5G or 10G Ethernet, you will be rewarded with a solid, reliable, and well-built board that will surely last you through Zen 5 and 6 upgrades. At least that's one way to try and get your money's worth.
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Razer is best known for making peripherals with a gamer focussed aesthetic in mind. The brand name quickly conjures up images of RGB lit setups, gamer laptops, and headphones topped with sweet little cat ears. This years' RazerCon 2022 showed off more of the brand's upcoming products, like the new Razer Edge streaming handheld, and also included new set of cat ear gamer cans. These headsets are better known as Razer's Kraken Kitty line up, and they're about to get a significant upgrade.
The brand new Razer Kraken Kitty V2 Pro is about to become the king of the jungle of animal ear integrated headsets. This RGB, wired headset doesn't just boast the optional clip on cat ears for your streaming joy, and instead comes with kitty, bear, and bunny ears as well. These come as separate options in the box and are said to be interchangeable, allowing streamers and the likes to easily swap them out on the fly.
No matter which animal you're trying to emulate, all the ears will work with Razer's integrated Razer Chroma software. They're fitted with RGB lights that can be fully customised to match your set up, or to react to different events or games. The ear cups also follow suit, so you can expect to have plenty of RGB lit goodness all up and around your head. There's heaps of potential for fun touches like having the ears change colour with your health, or swapping them out based on different classes.
Aside from that, it's likely the Razer Kraken Kitty V2 Pro will be a pretty decent set of cans. It looks like they have a bunch in common with the Razer Kraken V3 Pro and Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense which we've already reviewed. They boast what's likely the same Razer TriForce titanium 50mm drivers, 7.1 digital surround sound, and a detachable Razer HyperClear cardioid microphone. Plus they come in both the famous Razer black and green colourways, as well as the pink quartz options, so there's plenty of choice for style.
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 audioFor those who've fallen in love with the eary aesthetic, the Kraken Kitty headsets also have a cosplay mode. This allows you to use the RGB lighting with a power bank, so you don't have to be plugged into the computer. First you can set up what you need using the Razer Synapse software, and then take them on the go with all your RGB glory. Only now with those extra ear choices, you can be more than just a cool cat.
These headsets aren't quite out yet, and are said to be out in the US later this year, and will launch in other regions like Australia for $384 AUD and New Zealand for $464 early 2023. You can check them out right now on the US website, where both the black and quartz options are listed as coming soon for $200 USD.
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I can offer you the answer to today's Wordle in plain text as well as a whole range of general tips and one freshly-made hint, all created to make the October 17 (485) challenge go as smoothly as possible.
Today's answer surprised me because the word I'd gone for was one of those I assumed wouldn't be the answer. Of course, Wordle has shown me plenty of times before that any word could be the answer but I figured it would at least be a fresh set of letters allowing me to narrow things down. As it turns out, I didn't need to.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Monday, October 17
The answer today is a very specific style of earthenware drinking vessel designed to contain beer. They often have ornate lids. You'll need to find two vowels to solve this one.
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 485 answer?
Let's get you over the finish line. The answer to the October 17 (485) Wordle is STEIN.
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 16: SPADE
- October 15: CATCH
- October 14: FLOOR
- October 13: EQUAL
- October 12: IONIC
- October 11: VALID
- October 10: ENJOY
- October 9: HOWDY
- October 8: VIGOR
- October 7: DANDY
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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Recently Razer showcased some of its hottest tech at its own 2022 RazerCon event. There was plenty of talk about upcoming Razer products and partnerships at this green energy powered con, but one was a bit different than what we expect to see from the brand. In amongst a slew of headsets and the likes, we got a bit of a closer look at the Razer Edge, a dedicated 5G gaming device.
The new Razer Edge looks a lot like many of the Switch styled machines we're starting to see pop up. This year we've seen portable PC gaming take off with hybrid consoles like the Steam Deck receiving high praise. All sorts of competitors are coming in to take a piece of that portable PC console pie, with high end promises like OneXPlayer's new AMD 6800 powered machine -- but Razer is doing something a little bit different with the Edge.
Rather than go after the high-end portable PC market, Razer's Edge is a bit more like a gaming phone than a Steam Deck styled device, at least for now. The Edge is an Android powered tablet that comes pre-installed with launchers like Epic, as well as streaming services like Xbox Cloud gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now. There's no mention of a Steam client here aside from when talking about remote play, making it immediately quite different to those portable gaming PCs.
Though a gaming PC it is not, it still houses some pretty nice mobile gaming kit starting with a 6.9" AMOLED screen that supports a 144hz refresh rate at a 2400x1080 resolution. Behind the screen you'll find the Snapdragon G3x chip designed specifically for mobile gaming. This is backed up by a 3GHz Kryo CPU with 8 cores, paired with an Adreno GPU. The unit is then powered by a 5000mAh battery, which is pretty huge and should get you a fair few hours of gaming, provided that 5G connection doesn't drain it down too quickly.
Steam in your hands(Image credit: Future, FromSoftware)Steam Deck review: Our verdict on Valve's handheld PC.
Steam Deck availability: How to get one.
Steam Deck battery life: What's the real battery life of the new device?
How loud is the Steam Deck? And will it pass the Significant Other test?
Steam Deck - The emulation dream machine: Using Valve's handheld hardware as the ultimate emulator.The Razer Edge tablet makes up the brains of the device, which comes bundled with the familiar Razer Kishi V2 Pro. While I haven't tried one, the Kishi has been available in some form or another for a while, and has proven to be fairly popular among phone gamers. This is a mobile controller that stretches around the back of the Edge, giving you those switch style side mounted controls. It boasts Razer's HyperSense haptics, microswitch buttons, a satisfying D-pad, and a 3.5mm audio jack which is always nice to see.
The bundle will be available in both 5G and Wi-Fi (whatever that stands for) variants launching in the United States before other regions. Currently, the Wi-Fi version is the only one to have a price, going for $399.99 USD on Razer's official store and set to launch in January 2023. You can preorder it now with a refundable $5 deposit to ensure you're a part of that first release. The 5G offering is set to go up exclusively for preorder at Verizon, but the details are yet to be provided. Razer has advised that they will be available from Verizon in due time.
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On an average day about a dozen new games are released on Steam. And while we think that's a good thing, it can be understandably hard to keep up with. Potentially exciting gems are sure to be lost in the deluge of new things to play unless you sort through every single game that is released on Steam. So that’s exactly what we’ve done. If nothing catches your fancy this week, we've gathered the best PC games you can play right now and a running list of the 2022 games that are launching this year.
Unusual Findings
Steam page
Release: October 13
Developer: Epic Llama Games
Launch price: $17 | £13.59 | AU$24.60Given the sheer amount of modern media that fetishizes the 1980s, you could be forgiven for passing over Unusual Findings, a point and click adventure set in the heady days of 8-bit videogames, VHS and futuristic neon. But even if you're wearing of the punishingly ubiquitous nostalgia, this throwback has a lot of style, as well as the substance to match it. Three friends have secured a cable signal descrambler (all the better to scam free "pay per view adult" content), but instead of accessing free TV shows they stumble upon an alien spaceship distress signal. The signal may be distressed, but it's also (probably) connected to the deaths of local people. This being the '80s, this trio's efforts to solve the mystery will inevitably lead them to a number of 1980s-themed set pieces (yep, there's a video store). What appeals about Unusual Findings is its finely detailed pixel art, more so than the trappings of the era it leans on.
Atama
Steam page
Release: October 14
Developer: Team Zutsuu
Launch price: $18 | £13.94 | AU$26.05Atama is a psychological horror game about Kaede, who has arrived in the small Japanese village of Kisaragi to visit her aunt. This aunt has stopped writing, and Kaede wants to know why. I think you can guess what happens next: the village of Kisaragi is creepy, cursed, and ridden with foes. Kaede can't fight, but she can inhabit the viewpoint of her adversaries, all the better to stealth her way around the village to figure out what the heck is going on. It's a stealth horror game, basically, but with an involvingly weird story and an austere, slightly retro, approach to world building. If the stealth is too much, there's a story mode that does away with the stress. If you love the stress, there's also a post-game Hardcore mode that adds permadeath and more.
Lost Eidolons
Steam page
Release: October 14
Developer: Ocean Drive Studio, Inc.
Launch price: $25 | £30 | AU$50The strategy RPG renaissance continues with Lost Eidolons, which has a decidedly modern (read: not deliberately retro) take on the genre. The story and setting is familiar—a peaceful land has been overtaken by a tyrant, who must be overthrown—but there's not a chunky pixel in sight, with studio Ocean Drive opting for a more immersive, realistic graphical style. Still, this is very much an SRPG: you'll tactically command soldiers, customize and recruit for your force, all while building up your camp and learning about the people who have joined you. As Jon pointed out in the afore-linked article, there are a lot of new SRPGs in 2022, but this is one for folk who like their production levels high.
Trifox
Steam page
Release: October 15
Developer: Glowfish Interactive
Launch price: $18 | £13.49 | AU$26.05Trifox is another homage to 1990s 3D platformers, though it shares an overhead perspective that positions it closer to modern games like Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Super Mario 3D World. Another thing that distinguishes it from the ye olde '90s games is its three playstyles: you can roll out as a Warrior, Mage or Engineer, and you can even create a hybrid. Overall there are 30 abilities to mess with across four different worlds, and you can expect the usual mix of light-hearted combat, stress-free exploration and vibrant colour schemes. It's been a busy year for the 3D platformer—thanks, Kaos the Kangaroo and Frogun— and now you've got another to wishlist.
Stella Pastoris
(Image credit: Cryptomnesic Softworks)Steam page
Release: October 15
Developer: Cryptomnesic Softworks
Launch price: $8 | £5.79 | AU$11.50Stella Pastoris is "a fusion of god game and shmup" which takes its cues from the old SNES game ActRaiser. The games are very different—ActRaiser is a platformer with city-building elements—but they share an interest in blending two seemingly incompatible genres. In Terra Pastoris you need to protect a bunch of Malthusian monks on a marooned space station. You'll be fighting (read: shooting) machine evangelists, while also managing the survival of "the ever growing ranks of faithful". Look: everything about Stella Pastoris, ranging from its narrative setting through to its gorgeous 1-bit art style, is a bit confoundingly weird, which is exactly why I'm going to play it.
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This is a fraught world, but we can fight to change it for the better. We can petition FromSoftware to bring back the limited time promo weapon reskins added to Dark Souls 2 in 2014 to hype up The Lost Crowns DLCs—a shocking omission from the Scholar of the First Sin definitive edition of the game. Wait, what did you have in mind?
Illusory Wall, the Dark Souls content creator behind the petition, released a video today covering the history of the promo weapons. I have fond memories of this time. After the release of Dark Souls 2 in Spring 2014, it was quickly followed by a DLC trilogy released over the summer, The Lost Crowns.
There was this great sense of mystery and excitement as the game got these huge updates each month, and this was enhanced by the promo weapons. In the lead up to the release of each DLC, a chest in the hub area of Majula would be updated to contain a unique reskin of one of the game's base weapons. With Crown of the Sunken King, it got a dark blue steel Murakumo curved greatsword, while later additions include a snow-white katana and a one-handed blade colored after the series' iconic Moonlight Greatsword.
After each weapon cycled out, it was impossible to get again via normal means. The reskinned weapons were not brought back in the Scholar of the First Sin GOTY edition/remix of Dark Souls 2. I recently replayed Scholar, and I know my experience could have benefitted from a blue Murakumo.
In addition to going into greater detail on the timeline and background of the weapon skins in the video, Illusory Wall points out that their absence does undermine Scholar's status as the "definitive" version of Dark Souls 2. To address this, the YouTube has launched that Change.org petition for FromSoft to add the weapons back to the Majula chest—potentially as a promotional tie-in for Dark Souls 2's servers coming back online (that's still happening, right?)
The petition's just passed 1,900 signatures at the time of writing. Is it a little silly? Perhaps. Is it also very funny? Definitely. Would I like to be reunited with my beloved blue Murakumo? You'd better believe it. If you're interested in Illusory Walls' other videos, the YouTuber's been running an Elden Ring Dissected series on the game's mechanics. These videos began with a particularly illuminating look at the game's fall damage system—it may feel random, but there's actually a method to the madness.
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Ready to solve twelve gruesome, strange murders in one go? Hope you are, because The Case of the Golden Idol has released. Color Gray Games' debut, published by Playstack, is an open-ended detective game where you're forced to investigate, think, and explore freely in order to solve several deaths. We first got a look at it earlier this year, and its appeal has only widened since then.
Your job is to closely explore, then reconstruct, the scene of each death in order to deduce cause of death, murder weapon, and motive... when there was one at all. You can try that out for free in a nice little demo, and then buy it, because it's out now.
That's quite complicated by the nature of the deaths: They span 40 years, so you can more than guess that this gets real weird, real fast. Golden Idol encourages you to try unorthodox solutions, filling in the blanks of what you know as effectively and thoroughly as you can, as you go, and revising your theory as new evidence arises.
"Reveal the true nature of the mysterious Golden Idol and those who covet it. Follow the journey of a cursed aristocratic family as you untangle a web of deceit and villainy in your hunt for the truth behind this dark conspiracy," says the official description.
Back when I was playing Return of the Obra Dinn I often thought "It's very sad that t here aren't more games like this" and, now, here is a second game like that. If you loved Obra Dinn's more mystery-driven bits, well, here's a game you should definitely at least try the demo of. (Indeed, Obra Dinn author Lucas Pope endorses the demo on the Steam page.)
You can find The Case of the Golden Idol on GOG and Steam for $18, 10% off until October 20th. I've barely dug in to it, but so far I can at the very least recommend you give this startlingly interesting game a try.
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Following months of rumors and leaks, it seems like we might actually find out for sure what's happening with the Silent Hill series this week. Konami announced something it's calling the Silent Hill Transmission will be happening on October 19 in a tweet that opens by quoting Silent Hill 2's tagline, "In your restless dreams, do you see that town?"
Silent Hill art director and monster designer Masahiro Ito retweeted the announcement, if that counts for anything.
There have been rumors of multiple studios working on Silent Hill games, seemingly confirmed by Christophe Gans, director of the Silent Hill movie. There were leaked images hit by a DMCA strike from Konami, suggestions that Bloober Team (developer of The Medium) was making a Silent Hill game, perhaps a remake of Silent Hill 2, and something called Silent Hill: The Short Message was rated by South Korea's Game Rating and Administration Committee last month.
Konami's tweet links to a website that currently just displays the time the Silent Hill Transmission is scheduled for. Whatever it turns out to be, it'll be broadcast at 2pm PT/10pm BST on October 19, which is 8am AEST on October 18. Let's hope it's not just announcing another Silent Hill skateboard with a nurse on it.
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Who among us can resist the lure of delicious meatballs, simmered in a spicy broth, complete with chilies, veggies, and noodles? Because that is the allure of Bakso, a delicious traditional meatball served with noodles in Indonesia.
And that is the allure of Bakso Simulator, an addition to the long line of piss-take simulators, and one you can play for free on Steam. Well, that and punching thieves trying to make off with your expensive cooking equipment or pick your pocket or whatever, some of whom happen to be children.
To be clear I do not condone punching children, generally, but I make an exception for digital thief children.
In Bakso Simulator you're in charge of running a Bakso restaurant with your buddy, Bakso Man, setting up plastic chairs on the sidewalk, serving patrons, and stocking the booth. As you get richer and more popular you're able to add seating, room for patrons, and upgrade yourself and your chef buddy.
You've also got to deal with thieves, who'll do their darnedest to make off with not just a free meal, but occasionally the entire cooking cart, or a table, or frankly anything because they seem very strong and can lift basically anything they want. You also have to punch stuff like flies, which are pests, and ghosts, which are pests but in a different way.
There's a story and all that to enjoy, as well, I guess. You can design your house. It's a huge joke but it's a huge, detailed joke, and I'm sure by now you know if that's for you.
You can find Bakso Simulator on Steam, where it's free courtesy of creators Akhir Pekan Studio.
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As spotted by Hunter Grooms of esports company The Guard, Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa, one of the highest-profile streamers on Twitch, revealed that she is married and supplied evidence of her husband's abusive behavior in a stream early Sunday morning. Siragusa alleged that her husband controls her finances, pushed her to stream more than she was willing, and threatened to kill her dogs.
Grooms shared a sequence of four videos clipped from Siragusa's stream. Viewer discretion is advised as the videos demonstrate situations of emotional and psychological abuse. The first shows her talking on speaker phone to her husband. Siragusa questions why he threatened to kill her pet dogs, and after a long pause, the man demands she leave the house. In the rest of the video, the man berates Siragusa, calls her a liar, and denies that he threatened to kill her dogs. It's unclear if he knew he was on-stream based on the clips.
In the subsequent videos, Siragusa describes her husband exerting control over her finances, threatening to leave her with "only $1 million" if she took action against him. For context, a Kotaku interview from September quoted a net income of over $1.7 million per month from Siragusa's OnlyFans, Twitch, Patreon, and other endeavors.
The streamer presents that income as something she was pressured to pursue, and she has been known to work 12-hour shifts on-camera. In the second video from Hunter Grooms, Siragusa quotes a therapist who described her situation as "a form of psychological abuse" and "a fancy prison." Siragusa also showed text logs of her husband berating and insulting her in relation to her streaming schedule.
The final part of Siragusa's stream shows her responding to a woman off camera asking if she has taken her medicine, a question which seems to confuse Siragusa. At the time of writing, the streamer has not gone online or posted updates since the incident.
In the aforementioned Kotaku interview from last month, Siragusa presents herself as an independent entrepreneur with ambitions of opening an animal sanctuary. These videos suggest she is being exploited and abused by an intimate partner, one she claims wanted to keep his own existence hidden to better sell the fantasy of Amouranth. The streamer has previously dealt with stalking incidents, as well as a potential arson at her home. We will update this story as the situation develops.
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If you're hankering for that feeling of the open-world RPG days of yore: Morrowind, or Daggerfall, or even the early days of World of Warcraft, then let me serve up Gedonia for you. It's one of those "make a character, then get exploring" sandbox RPGs that were once dime-a-dozen, but these days happen less often.
The difference here is that it's an indie, the product of solo developer Kazakov Oleg, and that Gedonia is a mere $15 on Steam—or $12 at 20% off until October 21st.
In Gedonia you leave your village an adventurer and strike out into the world. Your goals are simple, and as you explore the quite large world you join factions, undertake quests, and build up your skills. There is of course an epic storyline to encounter and dungeons to loot, as well as bosses to fight and unique companions to recruit.
That's not to say it's too old school. You can do some adorably modern things building and decorating your own house, starting a farm for your magic herbs, and taking care of animals on the side.
If you're the kind of person who, like me, enjoys a game where you can make your character a talented crafter and trader in the world of adventurers and magic, then work your way up from there, you'll probably be interested in Gedonia. It's not the fanciest game, it's not the most detailed or richest or systems-dense RPG, but it's an impressive piece of work regardless.
In short, it's a clunky if charming indie for a decent price. It has roughly 90% positive Steam reviews, and most of them seem to agree with me on that. You can find Gedonia on Steam.
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Talking to Dualshockers for the 25th anniversary of Fallout, Feargus Urquhart, CEO and co-founder of Obsidian Entertainment, said that "if we ever got the opportunity to make another Fallout game, we'd make it. There's not even a question of whether or not we would do it, it's just 'Will the opportunity arise?'"
Obsidian developed Fallout: New Vegas, considered by many fans to be the best Fallout game. When Microsoft acquired Bethesda, it raised the question of whether Obsidian might be let loose on Bethesda's series again, to which the studio responded with a simple shrug emoji.
Since New Vegas, Obsidian has been responsible for RPGs like South Park: The Stick of Truth, the Pillars of Eternity series, and The Outer Worlds. The studio has plenty going on right now, having just released survival game Grounded, and medieval murder-mystery Pentiment is due on November 15. There's also Avowed coming up, which is a first-person game sharing the Pillars of Eternity setting, and The Outer Worlds 2 is in development as well.
But after all that, when Obsidian looks at what games to make next, Fallout will probably be on the list. "At some point we'll start looking into what those next games are going to be, and I would be surprised if Fallout is not on that list," Urquhart told Dualshockers. "If we were to do Fallout, it has to tie in with what Bethesda is doing with Fallout and a lot of other things, but I would always personally say my hope is that before I ride off into the sunset, I'd love to make another Fallout game."
Urquhart was director of Black Isle Studios, Interplay's RPG division, when it created the Fallout series. He's one of four designers credited with creating the SPECIAL system, and was lead designer and producer on Fallout 2. He left to found Obsidian in 2003, though as he told Dualshockers, "I hung around at Interplay for probably an extra year because I wanted to work on Fallout more. I love Fallout."
Bethesda director Todd Howard has said Fallout 5 is coming after The Elder Scrolls 6, and The Elder Scrolls 6 is still in pre-production until after Starfield is released. Basically, we shouldn't expect another Fallout game from Bethesda this decade, which leaves plenty of time for Obsidian to clear its slate and have another crack at it.
If you've got a hankering for post-apocalyptic roleplaying in the meantime, inXile, the studio founded by Fallout 1 and 2 director Brian Fargo, has made two RPGs in a similar vein to the originals with its Wasteland sequels. Wasteland 3 in particular is pretty great.
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There are plenty of farming and life sim games out there these days, but the one that's most recently caught my eye released this past week. Coral Island is pretty standard genre fare where you farm, explore, catch fish, improve a town, and customize your house.
The big exception, though? Coral Island boasts a whopping 70+ NPCs living in its town. Which... is actually about the size of many small hamlets these games are supposedly based on, isn't it? 25 of them are singles you can date and marry, in case you forgot what genre this was.
Beyond that, Coral Island has a focus on rebuilding and improving the town to return it to the resort and destination it once was. It has a museum, as well as community projects to improve town infrastructure or rehabilitate cultural heritage sites across the island.
In addition to the normal stuff, Coral Island also has exploration and combat. You can go dungeon-delving against monsters in sea caverns, dive on the coral reef offshore, and mine for precious gemstones.
Coral Island seems pretty well-received by those who've tried its Early Access release, with a score at writing time of 88% positive reviews out of 1,158. Reviews at this time do seem critical of the combat—so if that's your bag, or if you just prefer a finished game, maybe wishlist it and wait.
You can find Coral Island on Steam, where it's in Early Access for $25.
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Need a hint for today's Wordle? A quick tip? A helpful clue? Perhaps the answer to the October 16 (484) puzzle delivered as swiftly as possible? No matter what sort of nudge you're hoping for, I'm sure you'll find it here.
You wouldn't think one single letter in a neat row of four greens would be that hard to pin down, but some days—and some words—like to make things difficult. It's a nice (if slightly frustrating) way to stretch myself, and the worry I might run out of guesses before I run out of valid words to use does make days like these exciting.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Sunday, October 16
A tool used to dig soil and sand, as well as a suit in a traditional pack of cards. Not to be confused with a shovel. There are two vowels 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 484 answer?
Weekends are for winning. The answer to the October 16 (484) Wordle is SPADE.
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 15: CATCH
- October 14: FLOOR
- October 13: EQUAL
- October 12: IONIC
- October 11: VALID
- October 10: ENJOY
- October 9: HOWDY
- October 8: VIGOR
- October 7: DANDY
- October 6: SLOTH
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 Arkesia with these Lost Ark guides(Image credit: Smilegate RPG)
Lost Ark tips: What you should know
Lost Ark servers: A complete list
Lost Ark controls: How to change them
Lost Ark mokoko seeds: Where to find themWondering which class to play in Lost Ark? You might think there isn't much to choose from at first glance, but each main class has multiple sub-classes. While each of these is based on that class's specific fighting style, they offer enough variety to really make them classes in their own right.
As with any MMO, picking a class can be overwhelming when you're presented with so much choice. Hopefully, we can make things a little easier by breaking down the classes to help you find the one you'll enjoy most. Subclasses are gender-locked too, so that's something else to be aware of.
You get the chance to try out each of the subclasses before you need to make your decision, so this guide aims to help you narrow things down. Here are the Lost Ark classes, along with the playstyles of each subclass.
Warrior (melee)
(Image credit: Amazon Games)Warriors in Lost Ark are exactly what you'd expect them to be. They're generally tanky hard-hitters without much in the way of mobility.
Berserker (male)
Despite using a greatsword as a weapon, the Berserker has relatively quick attack animations and decent defence. He can buff himself and a party for big damage and gain increased movement speed during these burst windows.Paladin (male)
A Paladin is primarily a support class with the ability to shield and buff himself and party members. This doesn't mean he can't dish out the damage, though, and he has decent defence to help him stay alive.Gunlancer (male)
A true tank, the Gunlancer absorbs damage and protects party members. He can shield himself and allies and can pull enemies towards him—think WoW's death knight ability—making up for his lack of mobility.Destroyer (male)
The slow and tanky Destroyer wields a hammer and can control gravity. He specializes in burst damage, building it up with Concentration skills and then dishing it out with Gravity Release skills.Martial Artist (melee)
(Image credit: Smilegate)Martial artists generally use varying types of fist weapons to damage enemies. They are quick on the battlefield, with both attack speed and mobility working in their favour.
Striker (male)
The Striker excels at fast attacks and aerial combos. Some skills knock enemies high into the air or launch themselves up, to bring the pain to foes from above. The Striker is a solid choice if you enjoy lightning-fast, close-quarters combat.Wardancer (female)
The Wardancer is similar to the Striker. She relies on quick skills and high mobility, and can charge up attacks or store up elemental power to blast her enemies for significant damage.Scrapper (female)
The Scrapper has a similar playstyle to the Striker and Wardancer, but relies on two opposing resources that you'll need to balance to make use of this subclass. You'll need to weave between the two types of attacks, so you don't run out of one resource at a critical moment.Soulfist (female)
The Soulfist uses a mixture of melee and ranged attacks, making her slightly different from the other Martial Artist subclasses. She can combine her skills to create powerful combos and channel special energy to help empower her abilities further or help them in the heat of battle.Glaivier (female)
The Glaivier's unique playstyle has you switching between stances—and weapons—to earn powerful buffs. The glaive offers plenty of crowd control by launching enemies into the air or slamming them to the ground, where the spear offers an array of damage-focused attacks to finish them off.Gunner (ranged)
(Image credit: Amazon Games)Gunners rely on guns or bows to take down enemies at range. Each subclass specialises in a particular ranged playstyle.
Gunslinger (female)
The Gunslinger is a mobile class that can switch quickly between weapons to suit the combat range and situation. Her three gun types offer different degrees of damage and utility, so knowing when to switch between them is vital for success.Artillerist (male)
The Artillerist is the least mobile of the Gunner subclasses, but he makes up for that with resilience. His huge gun deals considerable damage to large groups of enemies, and certain skills will make short work of foes by launching them into the air or calling down barrages.Deadeye (male)
The Deadeye subclass has a similar playstyle to the Gunslinger. They rely on switching between three different weapon types to adapt to different situations, and the high mobility and fast playstyle makes them look and feel flashy on the battlefield.Sharpshooter (male)
The Sharpshooter excels at damage from a distance and is the most long-range of the Gunner subclasses. Some skills offer a stealth effect, and you can knock enemies away if they get too close for comfort. The range of most Sharpshooter skills means the immediate threats won't impair you like they do melee fighters.Machinist (male)
Want to be Iron Man? The Machinist is for you. His specialty is sustain damage, using a drone, a submachine gun, and particle accelerators to lay down the DPS, then activating Hypersync mode to suit up for protection and even more damage.Mage (ranged)
(Image credit: Amazon Games)Mages are the primary spell-slingers of Arkesia. Depending on the subclass you choose, they can use their magical abilities to deal damage or heal allies.
Bard (female)
The Bard is the real support class of Lost Ark. Her lack of defence and mobility is redeemed by the healing, shields, and buffs she brings. That's not to say she can't deal damage either—but her low attack power can't compare to other, more focused damage classes.Sorceress (female)
The Sorceress has a classic Mage playstyle. Three different elements are used predominantly to deal area-of-effect damage, either in a big burst or as damage over time. Icy attacks slow the movement speed of enemies, allowing you to line up bigger hits with more powerful spells.Arcanist (female)
Mobile and fragile, the Arcanist is a glass cannon. Her deck of magical playing cards can be drawn from for random effects, or you can rely on Ruin skills that cause extra damage. If the Machinist is Iron Man, the Arcanist is another Marvel hero: Gambit.Assassin (melee)
(Image credit: Smilegate RPG)The Assassin subclasses are both melee fighters, using dark forces to transform themselves or eliminate enemies with quick sword attacks.
Shadowhunter (female)
The Shadowhunter uses twin glaives to damage enemies and can transform into a powerful demonic form, giving higher health and movement speed for the duration. Though they may look similar to WoW's Demon Hunter on paper, their playstyle is pretty different.Deathblade (female)
The Deathblade uses several blades to perform quick combo attacks and works best when positioned behind enemies. Thanks to high mobility, it's easy to get around the battlefield and line yourself up for back attacks, but she's a subclass harder to master than it might seem. -
C Engineer is an Old School Runescape streamer who started an ironman run two years ago, asking his viewers to donate money to a prize pool to be claimed by whoever managed to kill him. It was initially a "hardcore ironman" run but he dropped the hardcore element after dying in a boss fight, intending to end the series only if he managed to earn an infernal cape, or died to another player. The latter finally happened this month.
A team of five players tracked C Engineer down so that Westham could score the kill and earn 16 billion gold, the largest bounty in the history of Old School Runescape.
As GamesRadar points out, C Engineer made things more interesting by playing exclusively in PvP worlds: "Ordinarily, players can only fight each other in designated Wilderness zones or special arenas, but as the name implies, PvP worlds basically turn the whole game world into one giant Wilderness where you can be attacked anywhere."
Westham's squad knew which world C Engineer was playing on, something he'd never made secret, and that he was farming a level 725 boss called Zulrah. That meant they could watch all his potential exits to coordinate their attack, but only after first defeating every other PvPer who was gathered to compete for the bounty.
With that done, they found C Engineer heading to a ship, cast a spell to prevent him from teleporting away, and launched their ambush. Westham struck the killing blow, ending the 32-episode challenge run. There's a great moment in their video where the team are celebrating and you can hear one of the other players return after a short absence, having completely missed the battle. "I was just making my tea," he says by way of explanation.
All five PvPers—Westham, Eriksnnn, Pimpact, Pip, and Skrib—will split the bounty, taking away 3.2 billion gold each.
help pic.twitter.com/LtCgmOweEROctober 13, 2022
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Hellena Taylor, the original voice actress of Bayonetta, released a sequence of videos on Twitter explaining why she did not return to the role. Taylor claims that she was offered a flat sum of $4,000 to voice the character in the upcoming Bayonetta 3, and on refusing this offer, was replaced by Jennifer Hale of Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic fame. Taylor urged players to boycott the game, compared her situation to that of other underpaid workers, and urged Bayonetta fans to donate money they would have spent on the game to charity.
Taylor begins her videos by pointing out the Bayonetta series' international success, as well as her extensive training and career as an actress and role in shaping the character. Taylor claims that she did a routine re-audition for the role, and received a lowball offer even below the $4,000 one she would get later. She then personally appealed to series creator Hideki Kamiya via a go-between. The developer allegedly told the actress he "values greatly her contribution to the game." Taylor was subsequently offered the final $4,000 flat sum for her performance.
Taylor indicates that the offer insulted her, given the character's international success and her role in that success. In addition to offending her pride as a veteran performer, Taylor describes being at a point in her career when she feared becoming destitute, and even contemplated suicide after turning down the role.
We have reached out to Hellena Taylor and Platinum Games, and will update this story if we hear back.
Bayonetta is one of Platinum's most successful franchises, selling over three million units across both games according to VGChartz, with only NieR Automata's 6.5 million units shipped surpassing it. The company recently shut down its first live service game, Babylon's Fall, after a dismal critical and commercial reception.
Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Hear ye!#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBtOctober 15, 2022
See moreHideki Kamiya, one of the creators of Bayonetta and a founding member of Platinum Games, responded with the message, "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's all I can tell now." Kamiya went on to caution readers to beware his rules—a reference to his combative social media presence and propensity to block people who argue with him. At the time of writing, the developer's account has been temporarily restricted by Twitter over "unusual activity."
Numerous figures in the industry have commented on the situation. Pentiment and Pillars of Eternity lead, Josh Sawyer, tweeted that the $4,000 offer to voice a game protagonist was "absolutely nuts," elaborating, "I have been working with union and non-union voice actors for over two decades and I've never heard of anything that lowball from a studio of any significant size."
Jarrod Greene, an actor who, among other videogame roles, recently appeared in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, tweeted that he had earned $2,000 for a 4-5 hour (a single standard shift according to the Screen Actors Guild's voiceover FAQ) union voice acting role. This in contrast to the multiple sessions required, high profile, and technical demands of the Bayonetta performance.
Lily Lammers, who has done voiceover work in Smite and Fire Emblem Heroes, shared a series of tweets contextualizing the $4,000 amount with typical pay rates in the industry. Lammers cites figures of around $250/day for non-union voiceover work and around $1,000/day for union voiceover work, figures which are consistent with the Global Voice Acting Academy's rate guide (thanks to Gianni Matragrano for apprising us of this resource.)
With that in mind, and assuming the work for Bayonetta would be done over four sessions/working days, Platinum's $4,000 offer to Taylor would be in line with industry standards for voiceover work. However, this strikes me as more of a floor than a ceiling, and still fails to account for Taylor's veteran status, the high profile of the character, and Taylor's 13-year relationship with the role. Lammers, for their part, pointed to the pay rates as examples of the potential precarity of voice acting as a career, barring the achievement of celebrity status.
As many people have pointed out, Taylor's replacement, Jennifer Hale, is one of those celebrity voice actors and presumably has the leverage to charge far more than a lump sum of $4,000 for this sort of role. The situation is in some ways reminiscent of how David Hayter, the iconic English language voice of Solid Snake, was unceremoniously replaced by Kiefer Sutherland in the final entry of the Metal Gear Solid series. Platinum Games has yet to offer any official response to Taylor's claims.
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(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
On October 10, Wizards of the Coast announced that The Meathook Massacre card was being banned from Magic: The Gathering's Standard format in Arena, Online, and tabletop play, making it the only card currently banned in Standard. (A ban for Yorion, Sky Nomad in Modern format was announced at the same time.) It's the first time a card's been banned from Standard since January.
Black decks enjoyed a boost with the release of Dominaria United in September. As I said, it's a good time to be a goth in Magic: The Gathering. New cards in that set like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and a reprint of the classic planeswalker Liliana of the Veil were both good for black, but The Meathook Massacre arrived in the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt expansion released in September of 2021. It's long been an essential pick in most black decks, especially the mono-black midrange decks that rose to the top of the meta following Dominaria United's release.
That's because The Meathook Massacre is an excellent sweeper (a card that lets you wipe multiple cards from the battlefield), as every creature takes a point of damage for every extra point of mana you spend casting it. While that applies to your own creatures as well, it also has the ongoing effect of giving you a point of life when one of your creatures dies, and on top of that it takes a point of life from your opponent when one of theirs dies. I don't even run a mono-black deck, but my vampire-themed black/red/blue deck had two Meathook Massacres anyway.
Wizards of the Coast explained the ban by saying, "To provide a small push against the color black's play rate among competitive decks, we're choosing to ban one black card. We discussed several different options, as no single black card stood out as a major power outlier played by all decks containing black. Ultimately, we decided that banning The Meathook Massacre was the best choice, as it's one of the most powerful black cards in the format, is especially powerful against specific archetypes (decks relying on a lot of small creatures), and has had its time to shine in Standard for over a year."
I can't be upset about The Meathook Massacre going away. I played a couple of matches the night before it was removed and won both without even drawing the card, so it's not as if decks without it will suddenly be non-viable. And the change has been effective in shaking up the meta, with untapped.gg showing that mono-black decks have dropped behind white/blue/black Esper Legends and mono-white aggro in terms of winrate.
That said, even when mono-black decks were dominant plenty of other archetypes were being played. Everyone's experience will be different based on where they're ranking, and I personally saw a lot of green and red/green decks running Silverback Elder immediately after Dominaria United was released. I'll just have to find other ways of dealing with the flood of wedding guests who arrive on the battlefield thanks to Wedding Announcement.
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This week in things what make you laugh: Here's someone's mod that puts One Winged Angel, arguably the most famous piece of music to come out of Final Fantasy as a series, into Trombone Champ. You can now watch blocky 1990s Sephiroth, would-be world destroying deity, badly destroy his own theme music on the trombone.
Modder Henry Zhou's Textbook has cooked up this adaptation, complete with custom chart and background orchestration of Sephiroth playing a trombone. Not just any trombone, mind, but one with a ridiculously long slide because if Sephiroth's sword is like eight feet long you better believe his trombone is gonna be even longer.
Here's the thing: Just when I was getting kind of bored, when I figured the whole joke was playing out, that I'd seen what there was to be seen, heard what there was to be heard, I remembered something.
One Winged Angel has what amounts to three whole acts baked into it. It transitions from symphonic madness, into orchestral bombast complete with chanting, into electric guitar shredding, then climaxes in a fusion of all three styles. As each of these periods kick off the track's background imagery switches to appropriately glorious scenes.
It's a delight and if you have any memory of Sephiroth's boss music, or Final Fantasy VII, or Advent Children, or any of the places this music has turned up, I think you'll really enjoy watching it above or on YouTube. The YouTube also has a link for you to download the abomination yourself, if you want to give it a go.
Trombone Champ already gave us Megalovania, and the Philadelphia Orchestra trombone section totally sucking at it, but now this? What other gifts could this "instant game of the year contender" give?
Do I dare hope for A Cruel Angel's Thesis? I can dare, and I do hope.
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From 2010 to 2014 Richard Cobbett wrote Crapshoot, a column about rolling the dice to bring random games back into the light. This week, it's time for another trip to our very own City 17; a shooter from somewhere around Russia whose alien invasion seems... just a little familiar.
I think the main character is called "Jim Fail". There aren't any intro subtitles. I may just be mishearing. But I really hope not, because a world with an action hero called Jim Fail is one that I want to live in. Not his specific world, obviously. This one. Where we can just sit and giggle at the idea of a hero called Jim Fail. Better make it quick though, because the aliens on his trail have no sense of humour.
Or much in the way of sense, for that matter. But they do know how to rock Dolce Gabbana.
While this one doesn't need the "NOT A FEVER DREAM" Post-It note of our last foreign offering, Venus Hostage, it's not for a lack of trying. The intro alone sets the scene in more ways than one, earnestly describing the setting as "so dangerous, that even when citizens are taking out the garbage, they're telling their relatives their last wish," over footage of a town happily going about its business, backed by music that should really be plastered onto a promotional video called "Hicktown. City on the GROOOOW!"
You know it's SF, because it starts with a clone rebellion that... what? Not clones? Seriously? Huh.Anyway, I don't speak a word of Russian, but you can probably guess that when the video says he's signed state secret non-disclosure agreements, what it means is, "Seagal." Only not really. This is never brought up again, and as far as the actual game is concerned, you're simply an engineer about to lose your job in the aftermath of your company being taken over by Evil Incorporated.
If that's not their official name, that's what they become the second they start employing guards in balaclavas to beat the 'frack' out of the former staff with batons. I'm not actually sure what else they're intending to do here, since the entire building is now 100% full of angry goons, but I'm assuming they know their business. Certainly, it's likely to be more profitable than the company's previous speciality: creating GLaDOS-powered sex toys.
I'm making a note here: huge success, big boy.Jim Fail isn't the kind of guy to just stand back and take unemployment lying down, and not just because that's a complicated manoeuvre only the world's greatest Twister players have ever managed. He barges past the guards and over the turnstile, fighting his way through the building with nothing but his fists. Sure, he could pick up a fallen guard's baton at any time. But he doesn't! Why? Because he's Jim Fail! Probably! I'm going to keep calling him that! And with an army of righteousness, he lashes out with both his fists and his greatest weapon—leadership—to take down the corrupt system from within.
Or, as it turns out, not. Absolutely nobody ends up following him into the actual fray, leading to him quickly being apprehended and... uh... just put back on the street, completely unharmed, with even his friends not feeling the need to mention what just happened. Grumbling about Gordon Freeman having it way easier, he shuffles off into the night with a new purpose in life. A quest. An ambition. He now knows what he needs. He needs... (drum roll please)... to get a job in a lousy economy!
Hey, it's still more exciting than the first hour of Doom 3.
I don't know if there's any way I can truly convey the sheer horror of what follows using mere words. Even allowing for the fact that this isn't an English game, and all the dialogue is ropey or poorly delivered, the lady at the employment agency sets an impressive low. Not only is it delivered badly, her animation is... gosh. If Jigsaw's puppet from the Saw movies ever needs an out-of-work game character to shoot a porn film where he won't have to be the most wooden performer, this is the lady he will pick.
The game itself seemed to recognise the quality of her lines and did its best to cut them off at the knees; the only thing I was pressing was an imaginary gun to the side of my head in the hope that bullets would fire out of my fingertips. But no. Didn't happen for Bloodrayne 3, didn't happen now.
Our hero, Jim Fail (whose voice sounds worryingly like Mike Dawson trying to read his lines through a coffee strainer) shuffles off to contemplate starvation and poverty, or maybe trying his luck over in the Arstotzkan Labour Lottery. He's saved at the last second though by a random stranger offering him a totally legitimate-sounding gig 'offloading' a car in the middle of the night at an abandoned train yard on a promise that the details of cash and things will be sorted later. Yes. Nothing bad can come of this.
Oh, what a surprise, something bad is coming of this.Yes. Somewhat oddly, and with no explanation at all, Jim Fail is immediately jumped by... two baseball bat-wielding preppies? They have baseball bats. He counters by picking up a muffler from the ground and using it to smash in their faces. A... muffler. Muffler. He doesn't punch one out and take a bat. He spends the rest of the game with a huge rusty muffler as his default melee weapon. Not a baton. A muffler. A muffler.
He also acquires a pair of very funky glasses and slips them into his pocket. What were they doing just lying there? No idea. It's probably not important to the plot. Certainly not as important as beating up college students with a goddamn muffler. THERE ARE BASEBALL BATS RIGHT THERE!
Couldn't hear you over your weapon there, sport. Your voice is a bit mufflered.Stumbling past their friends, Jim "Jim Fail" Fail ends up underground, in the love nest of two vagrants—one of whom seems to think he's Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. They don't seem too bothered about having a stranger burst in, as I may have mentioned once or twice, carrying a muffler!
They're actually pretty chill, talking about picking up girls, watching TV, and even complementing you on your newly found glasses—glasses that they suggest you try on just in time for some security guards to randomly burst in and murder them. Looking at them through the glasses though, Jim Fail sees what most can't: the Facehugger-style aliens locked to their faces. And they're not the only ones who've fallen. Those college kids? Aliens. The police? Aliens. Aliens? Other, different aliens!
Waaaait a minute. An alien invasion. A hero who can only see their true forms through his glasses...
Okay, different movie parody. But close enough!This is John Carpenter's 1998 movie They Live, isn't it! I see through your camouflage, not-actually-all-that-camouflaged title! There's no Vice President Keith David or Roddy Piper, but it's totally the same! Well, mostly the same.
There are a few differences. For instance, to my knowledge these are the first alien invaders who sat down to figure out the perfect place from which to hatch plans of global domination and decided "Diaper warehouse."
I'll give you 'insidious', but you just officially lost any right to 'intimidating'.To give, ahem, 'They're Alive' some credit, the glasses thing is actually quite funky. You can take them off whenever you like, with the enemies switching from their human forms to whole new alien ones—office ladies become androids, guards get the facehugger treatment, advanced guards get a Davy Jones from Pirates Of The Caribbean-style Cthulhu beard.
It's largely pointless though, because at no point do you ever have to tell friend from foe, and even if you did, the fact that every single foe just barrels around with big weapons kinda gives the game away. And if they don't, then the regular moments late in the game when the office computing equipment decides it wants to have a piece of you certainly will.
Son, Skynet would be proud.There's enough attention to detail to swap a few things around though, with the aliens turning out to be cosmic pranksters when it comes to posters—a group of partiers being given pig heads when stared at in Dolce-vision for instance, or swapped for a couple in a dumpster. I can't read the captions, but I'm sure they're not particularly polite. Most of the aliens even have reasonable designs to swap to, even with their cloned human bodies.
Honestly, they're both more tempting than sitting through another two Hobbit movies.Gun-toting invader from another world or not though, this guy is about as scary as felt.
His friends hide to infiltrate. He does it to hide his shame.For the most part the world itself remains unchanged, but there are a few surprisingly neat little moments. At one point for instance you take a lift ride past some NPCs, and can slip on the glasses to see who's who there as well. Later on—though not much later, because this game is only about an hour long—you find yourself looking for the source of the alien power. But where? High up, you know that.
Huh. Underwhelming.Oh, wait. Glasses!
I AM NEVER GOING TO SPECSAVERS AGAIN.The aliens also provide most of what I think we have to call the official 'balls out crazy' moments in They're Alive, the first one being the shift from incredibly grim Eastern European architecture to a spaceship where it's constantly party-time.
Everything is brightly lit, organic, stuffed with detail and full of weird one-shot things that can't possibly have warranted as much time being spent on them as this. Who needs context? It's hardly Prey or Doom 3, but it's surprisingly detailed, especially when you notice weird little things like the hands that grip onto railings, detach to do a thing, and animate properly while they do it.
Ah, so this is the disco invasion I've heard about...Welcome to the Circus of Violence!Here come the Chaps In Black (Chaps in Blaaaaack) Gentrified defenders!But all that is nothing. Nothing. Compared that is... to this...
In his living room at R'lyeh, drunk Cthulhu waits with one hand in his pants.Where. To. Begin? This is the kind of wall decoration that you'd normally find in a fantasy or a horror game, especially something with a Lovecraftian bent. The details are similar. On the left, an alien world. On the right, the Earth, crippled and mutating like the bad ending of an X-COM game. But the alien in the middle... what the 'frack' is going on there? A pot-bellied conqueror in shorts and a vest, with a hat that looks like Harley Quinn's hand-me-downs had it off with an octopus, before they were handed to the Slob King of the Velociraptors to wear into battle so that all might cower before his staff and mighty knob.
But you know the worst part?
The really, really terrible thing?
He ends up looking even stupider.
BEHOLD, THE NEMESIS OF HUMANITY.Closer.
BOW BEFORE HIM!CLOSER.
AAAAAAAAAARGH!Ferengi, Hynerians, everyone in Lexx: you are no longer the laughing stocks of the galaxy. Even flying around on a gun platform in a collapsing boss arena with the planet almost under his control, this guy takes the cake, then falls into the cake, then has the cake humiliatingly licked off his face by a goat. A goat with halitosis. But of course, looks aren't everything. What's the big plan? Why invade Earth? Our resources? Our cats?
No. Earth used to be the galaxy's picnic place, and he wants to turn it into 'a blossomy garden'.
Really. He says this. He also says "You won't live to see it! Now die!", but that's minor in comparison.
You've got to love games like this. Good? Hell, no. But you won't get that level of alien overlord incompetence anywhere else, with the obvious exception of Strife, home of the worst superweapon of all time and a final boss who lives right down to it. (Luckily, Strife has other charms.) This one doesn't have anything like as much going for it, but at least it is very short. Want to take a look at the whole thing? Here's your handy YouTube-based longplay. An hour and a half. Good length for a bad game.
Oh, the ending? There's not a lot to it, oddly. You defeat the floating Velociraptor King of All Crapness and just black out, waking up back in the Job Center queue. This time though, Jigsaw's pal is on Jim Fail's side, giving him his pick of jobs and sending him on his way.
At least, that's what it wants you to think. Personally, I think this, not Mass Effect, is the game to search for an indoctrination ending. Not for long, though. In fact, not at all would be best. Whether it's real or not, if it's these aliens standing between us and the freedom of our planet, I'm pretty sure we can take them. And still have time for breakfast.
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Though it's just one of many, many October releases, Gotham Knights holds a special place in our attention because it's not just a successor to the Batman Arkham series, but because it's a cooperative successor that plays with two. So... it's actually pretty exciting to hear that it'll get a free update with a four-player co-op mode at the end of November.
Gotham has thrown down a new gauntlet. Heroic Assault, the free 4-player co-op experience, is coming to #GothamKnights November 29, 2022. Learn more at https://t.co/cDNfcheGrw pic.twitter.com/v3tU7DQvPhOctober 14, 2022
See more"On November 29, 2022, the game will also add Heroic Assault, a standalone mode supporting up to four players in online co-op," said developer WB Games Montréal in a FAQ.
That means at launch you'll be able to jump into the campaign solo or cooperatively. Then, at the end of November, you'll be able to play a separate standalone mode alongside all your pals. Heroic Assault is an arena combat mode entirely separate from the main campaign.
"Heroic Assault is an upcoming gameplay mode that is separate from the main story campaign. The standalone mode supports up to four players in online co-op and provides a dedicated arena-like environment with specific objectives to complete and enemies to defeat on each floor (30 floors total)," says the WB Games Montréal site.
To be frank, it's an unexpected, but certainly welcome, throwback to the age of standalone modes. It's more game for your buck if you end up loving Gotham Knights, and might just be something you really love in and of itself—there are plenty of people who loved Gears of War Horde Mode or Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer, but didn't give much of a fig about the main game.
Not that Gotham Knights was throwing out the vibe that it'd lack content. The developers said just the other week that it'll take multiple playthroughs to see the whole story, among the other details we know about it. With four separate characters available, cooperative play, and now Heroic Assault, I expect some peoples' main game will be Gotham Knights well into next year.
G4 TV's short-lived revival is disappearing after 11 months
in Gaming News
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Not everything benefits from a reboot or revival and, unfortunately, the 2000s gaming gem G4 TV is one of them. Following key layoffs, the channel is shutting down a mere year after its relaunch.
As reported by Deadline, staff were informed of the shutdown via an email from Comcast Spectator CEO David Scott. "As you know, G4 was re-introduced last year to tap into the popularity of gaming," he wrote. "We invested to create the new G4 as an online and TV destination for fans to be entertained, be inspired, and connect with gaming content."
Scott blamed low viewership and a lack of sustainable funds for the reason behind its failed second chance. "This is certainly not what we hoped for, and, as a result, we have made the very difficult decision to discontinue G4's operations, effectively immediately," Scott continued. "I know this is disappointing news, and I'm disappointed, too."
The sudden announcement is said to have affected a few dozen employees, some of whom weren't even aware of the network's closure until tweets began circulating. The Completionist's Jirard Khalil replied to Wario64's announcement tweet saying: "Hey! This tweet is how I found out I lost my job! How neat!"
According to Washington Post journalist Nathan Grayson, other employees found themselves abruptly locked out of their Slack and Google Drive accounts "with little explanation" following Scott's email. Grayson added that, allegedly, some major content creators featured on the channel were charging day rates of around $25,000 to $30,000 dollars, a pretty wild amount.
G4 was originally launched in 2002, bringing game-centric news and competition shows to network television. It was somewhat swept away by the rough tides of online streaming and YouTube, changing hands multiple times before pulling the plug in 2014. Its relaunch was teased back in mid-2020, before relaunching in November 2021. It's a shame to see G4 fumble its second chance, but it was always going to struggle in a market dominated by far easier ways to access gaming streams, news and more.
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