UHQBot
-
Posts
39,331 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
25
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Downloads
Posts posted by UHQBot
-
-
You will be shocked—shocked!—to hear that just one day before Electronic Arts is slated to reveal the new Need for Speed on YouTube, a bunch of images revealing the title—Need for Speed Unbound—and an unexpected "street art" aesthetic have leaked courtesy of Japanese site Neowing.
The images came to widespread notice on Reddit but fortunately for us the Neowing page is still up, which means we can find out a little bit more about the game itself too. "Beat the clock, outsmart the cops, and compete in weekly qualifiers for Lakeshore's ultimate street racing challenge: The Grand," the Google-translated description says. "Fill your garage with precision-tuned custom machines, put on your own style and exclusive looks, and light up the streets with a soundtrack that resonates from every corner of the world."
Unsurprisingly, it seems that multiplayer will be a big part of the experience: "Go to meetups and show off your style with many items, including limited edition gear, from the latest fashions in the world. Then add the finishing touches to your car's style, transforming it with unique wraps and cut-out items to match your legendary custom car, and take the lead in races and put your winning pose above the competition."
The listing also makes specific note of the game's look, describing it as "bringing graffiti to life in a completely new visual style, combining the latest in street art with the most realistic cars in Need for Speed
history." The soundtrack will also "embody the underground culture" with hip-hop artists including A$AP Rocky and AWGE, and original music produced by French composer, producer, and DJ Brodinski.Electronic Arts itself confirmed, albeit briefly, the title and new visual style:
(Image credit: Wario64 (Twitter))
My own reaction to the leaked images was an immediate "no thanks," but the reaction on the Need for Speed subreddit is actually pretty positive. "The art style looks very bold and daring," redditor DiamondScythe wrote. "I'm glad that NFS is once again becoming the pioneer of the genre instead of trying to imitate Forza Horizon but with cops or something. We still have to wait and see if the players like it or not, but at least I can give them credit for doing something new."
"Ok, that looks better than I expected," _asteroidblues_ added. "Don't know why the leakers kept calling it 'anime style', to me it feels way more inspired in an urban style/graffiti and Into The Spider-Verse effects."
"Kinda surprised how good this whole anime thing actually looks like," artem0n wrote. "Still not a huge fan of the smoke effects and so on but the characters look really cool. I expected things to look worse, like way worse."
Muckymuh cut right to the point with perhaps the most concise analysis of all: "Holy 'frack' that art style SLAPS."
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)(Image credit: Electronic Arts)(Image credit: Electronic Arts)I'm still not convinced by the new look, but I'm also not what you'd call in the middle ofthe target demographic for Unbound (I'm old) so that's probably to be expected. More importantly, it remains to be seen how the game will look in action, and the leaked images might actually be a little bonus for EA to that extent: We knew that a Need for Speed reveal is happening tomorrow, but now we know that it's a NFS that's doing something a little different—and potentially interesting.
Unbound is being developed by Criterion and Codemasters, two studios with extensive experience in making racing games, so it's quite possible that it will handle brilliantly regardless of the visual style. And as redditor Geraghini said, "No point trying to be realistic graphics when Forza and GT have that market cornered. Why not do something a little more outlandish?"
The listing indicates that Need for Speed Unbound will be out on December 2, although that too remains to be seen. The full and proper reveal, which may also include the release date, is set to take place at 11 at ET on October 6, on YouTube.
-
The life sims seeds have been sewn and now there are more games like Stardew Valley on PC than I can possibly play. Long gone are the days of 2016 when Stardew first revitalized the farm and town sim genre left largely fallow in the shadow of the console-bound Harvest Moon series Nowadays, official Harvest Moon games, their spiritual successors Story of Seasons, and dozens of indie game riffs on farming and befriending are all available on PC.
Stardew Valley Guides(Image credit: Eric Barone)Stardew Valley mods: Custom farming
Stardew Valley co-op: Farm with friends
Games like Stardew Valley: More life sims
Best indie games: Our mixtape to youIn the early years of this list, pickings were slim and we settled for Stardew-adjacent games that had crafting or seasons, but weren't always quite what I wanted. There's no shortage of Stardew style games on PC now, with even more in development. Some focus more on building relationships and revitalizing a town while others are all about crops and crafting. Whichever end of Stardew Valley you prefer, there's another game like it in our list to keep you playing for just one more in-game day.
Now that there are plenty of options to choose from, some are inevitably better and worse than others. We've collected a list of the best Stardew style games available so you can choose which homestead to put down roots in.
If you've already chewed through the lot, here are some Stardew-like games on PC just on the horizon:
- Roots of Pacha - 2023 - Stardew but it's prehistoric
- Lightyear Frontier - 2023 - Stardew but in a mech
Potion Permit
Released: 2022 | Developer: MassHive Media| Steam
Potion Permit may not be about farming, but it has all the local denizens, relationships, combat, and upgrading of a Stardew style game. As the new Chemist in Moonbury village, you've got your hands full overcoming the mistrust of the townsfolk, healing the mayor's daughter, and shoring up the dilapidated old medical clinic nearby. Instead of crops, you forage and fight for ingredients outside town and bring them back to create curative potions in your cauldron for everyone's many ailments. Also, you've got a pet dog that follows you around, which I find very important.
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: Gameloft| Steam
If you've got a fondness for Disney animated films, Dreamlight Valley is the way to go. It trends a bit towards Animal Crossing initially, as you're put in charge of managing and upgrading the entire town, not just your own plot of land. But Dreamlight Valley has a proper main story, individual character relationships, and if you want, a lot of farming. The folks who enjoy painstakingly designing the perfect Stardew Valley farm will have no trouble getting sucked into designing the entire island, whether that means adorable courtyard path builds or giant fields of optimized crops.
Slime Rancher 2
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: Monomi Park| Steam
The Slime Rancher sequel is another exceptionally cute game about the slime wrangling Beatrix LeBeau. This time she's headed off to a new plot of land: the Far, Far Range on Rainbow Island. Once again, Beatrix must build enclosures for her slimes and grow plenty of crops and chickadoos to keep them well-fed, and combine new types of slimes into special varieties. Slime Rancher doesn't have the same focus on relationships with NPCs that other Stardew-type games do, but it has plenty of exploration and base building.
Immortal Life
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: YiFang Studio| Steam
In the style of cultivation genre fiction, Immortal Life is a farming and town sim about joining the Guiyun Sect clan as their new crop expert. Unfortunately the town gets destroyed right as you arrive, so now you'll be helping rebuild instead—a much more dramatic opening than the typical slowly declining villages of other life sims. As ever, there's farming, fishing, befriending, and fighting to be done in order to rebuild. Don't let the trailer fool you; Immortal Life is also translated into English.
Dinkum
Released: (Early Access) 2022 | Developer: James Bendon| Steam
Okay Stardew fans, you've had enough of chickens and cows and sheep only, right? Dinkum is a town and farm sim based on the Australian outback, so you'll have kangaroos, crocs, and giant wombats too. Dinkum is over on the Animal Crossing end of this spectrum, with more focus on bug-catching than combat. You'll decorate your home, design the town, and choose the best biomes for your crops too.
Littlewood
Released: 2020 | Developer: Sean Young| Steam
Littlewood is plenty cute, with the same kind of jaunty music that makes you feel happy while playing Stardew. It has a long list of chores that you'll recognize: farming, mining, bug catching, cooking, crafting, and so on. You've got a a lot more control over the topology of your town as well, which means customizing the layout to your exacting standards. With villagers to recruit, a museum to fill, and buildings to plan it's almost as much a PC Animal Crossing as it is Stardew.
Doraemon Story of Seasons
Released: 2019 | Developer: Marvelous Inc., Brownies Inc.| Steam
Like Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons had never made its way to PC until it paired with the most unlikely of companions: a young manga protagonist from the '70s. Doraemon Story of Seasons takes the pastoral life adventure into a setting full of distinctly Japanese setting unlike Harvest Moon and most of its derivatives that go for a more "anywhere" rural vibe.
This incarnation of Story of Seasons has Noby and his friends doing all the usual rural life activities like planting fields of crops, making friends, cooking, and attending festivals in the town of Natura. Its adorable watercolor visual style is a welcome change from other Story of Seasons games that have retained Harvest Moon's chibi-style 3D aesthetic.
In the time since the Doraemon game, two official SoS games have also launched on PC: Pioneers of Olive Town and the Friends of Mineral Town remake. But like the new Harvest Moon games, the history doesn't really compete with the quality of all the other excellent genre homages on this list.
My Time At Portia
Released: 2018 | Developer: Pathea Games | Steam
My Time At Portia is the rare 3D town sim of the bunch that ends up feeling like Stardew Valley by way of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. On the little island of Portia, your father leaves you the deed to his old workshop. Instead of just growing crops, you'll be collecting and refining resources from all over the island to fulfill contracts requested by the locals. Its crafting system is heavily nested, with most recipes requiring a suite of special machines to be built and placed in the workshop yard.
Eventually you're able to build garden plots as well, though you won't be running a full-size farm operation like your neighbor Sophie, the actual local farmer. Portia has quite a bit more combat than Stardew, with dungeons to go spelunking through for loot and crafting components. It does have plenty of interaction with all of Portia's residents as well. Over the course of seasons and years you'll make friends with and be able to eventually marry one of your many eligible townsfolk by going on dates and delivering them gifts.
Portia's sequel, My Time At Sandrock, shares its formula in a western setting instead of an island.
Verdant Skies
Released: 2018 | Developer: Howling Moon Software| Steam
Instead of a small town in the country, Verdant Skies has you become the newest member of a small colony on the planet Viridis Primus. The colony is small to begin with but after helping build more homes you'll be joined by more residents each with their own expertise to help grow the colony and your operation.
As the new space farmer in town, you'll need to turn native space plants into an agricultural operation. You can even catch and tame wild animal species as well. Both can be turned into the strongest and most efficient specimens with Verdant Skies' genetic combiner machine.
Garden Paws
Released: 2018 | Developer: Bitten Toast Games| Steam
Garden Paws is the animal version of Stardew Valley where you'll take over your grandparents' farm while running a shop, gardening, and raising animals. For the multiplayer-inclined, you can invite up to three friends to your farm to play with you or, for Twitch streamers, integrate your chat so that viewers can have customers in your store named after them. There are currently 10 little creatures to play as while helping to rebuild the town with new shops that can unlock additional quests and areas to explore. It appears to be a combination of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with plenty of farming, building, and crafting.
World's Dawn
Released: 2016 | Developer: Wayward Prophet| Steam
Only a few PC games follow the Harvest Moon formula as closely as World’s Dawn does. It is a bit rougher around the edges than Stardew, but all the same charm is there. You can befriend and marry villagers, grow and sell crops, fish, attend festivals, and bring prosperity back to a stagnating village.
World’s Dawn is more about coloring inside the lines than forging your own path. Your farming plots are predetermined and you won’t be constructing additional buildings on your property. There are plenty of clothing options, home décor, and cooking recipes. Despite the outdated 4:3 aspect ratio and initially confusing menus, World’s Dawn is full of cute characters that make putting up with a few petty complaints more than worth it.
-
A full 24 hours after Overwatch 2's launch and it's still suffering from login queues, errors, disconnects, and account issues.
If you try to log into Overwatch 2 right now, as of Wednesday afternoon, you'll probably face a login queue in the thousands. Or you might get kicked out of line entirely with an error. And when you get in, you could be missing cosmetic items, currency, and heroes.
Blizzard hasn't provided an update since late last night when game director Aaron Keller tweeted that it's "steadily making progress on server issues and stability" after the rocky launch and two DDoS attacks. The developer said it would update the 'Known Issues' page as problems get resolved. The list currently includes the "unexpected server error" from merged PC and console accounts, missing cosmetics and currency, and server disconnects.
Some players report that swapping to the Asia region (via the globe icon on the Battle.net launcher) can get you in faster than queuing on the North American servers, but others have said it didn't change much for them. I successfully got in this way yesterday and was able to reconnect after a few mid-match disconnects too.
I didn't have anything catastrophic happen once I was in the game and playing matches, but apparently I'm lucky. Players are reporting a ton of issues with different features in Overwatch 2, which all could be rooted in the server trouble. Heroes are going bald because their hair isn't loading in, emotes cause t-poses, free cosmetic items cost currency for some reason, and accounts are being reverted into new ones without any heroes unlocked.
I've contacted Blizzard for an update on when it expects any of these problems to be fixed and will update this post when it responds. You can keep an eye on both the Overwatch Twitter account and the Blizzard customer support one for further updates.
[#OW2] We're aware that some players are encountering an Unexpected Server Error message when attempting to sign in. This is actively being worked on. Thank you for your patience!October 4, 2022
See moreEveryone hoping to play Overwatch 2 will have to keep rolling the dice on the login screen and pray that they get in and stay in. And since the sequel replaced the original game when it launched, you can't even go back and play it while you wait for everything to settle.
-
Remember Gylt? Perfectly fair if you don't: It's a singleplayer action-adventure horror game created by Rime studio Tequila Works, and it released in 2019 as a Google Stadia exclusive. And so it remained, despite some rumbling from the developers about going multiplatform. But the looming collapse of Stadia means it's finally going to happen—eventually.
"Spooky season is around the corner… And we bring terrific news!" the studio announced (via Eurogamer). "We’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s finally time to make it official: GYLT is going multiplatform in 2023!"
It is admittedly not the most detailed announcement of all time, but I think the Gylt situation overall kind of encapsulates Stadia's biggest problem: Despite being a platform exclusive from a reputable indie studio, it had very little exposure or visibility, and went largely unnoticed at a time when people were leaning heavily into at-home entertainment (like playing videogames) because of the pandemic. Gylt owners aren't going to take a financial hit from the Stadia shutdown because Google is offering refunds across the board, but it's obviously a problem for anyone who wants to keep on (or start) playing—and it's not great for Tequila Works, either.
Stadia's coming shutdown—it's going away for good in January—has left a number of developers looking for new homes for their games. Prior to the Tequila Works announcement, Ubisoft, IO Interactive, and Bungie said that they're also looking into other options for their players. For developers with products on the verge of being released, though, it was an even more unpleasant shock: Mike Rose of No More Robots, for instance, said the studio had a game slated to launch on Stadia in November and expressed concerns about possibly not being paid because the platform is disappearing. "To all the people who kept begging us 'PLEASE BRING YOUR GAMES TO STADIA'—this is why we didn't," he tweeted.
To all the people who kept begging us “PLEASE BRING YOUR GAMES TO STADIA” — this is why we didn’t hahaSeptember 29, 2022
See moreSplash Damage, which released the eight-player party shooter Outcasters as a Stadia exclusive in 2020, suggested that it could make a similar move, although it hasn't committed yet, saying only that "we need to take a couple of days to evaluate the options for Outcasters moving forward."
-
Over the last month the game of kings has come under intense scrutiny thanks to accusations of cheating made by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, against the grandmaster Hans Niemann. The whole thing began when the pair faced off in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup, a major chess tournament, an encounter that Niemann won as black. This was a major upset. Perhaps too major.
Shortly afterwards Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, and posted a clip of football manager Jose Mourinho saying "if I speak I am in big trouble." The implication, quickly made explicit by Carlsen's friend and former world #2 Hikaru Nakamura, was that Niemann had cheated. Niemann strenuously denied the charge, admitting that he had cheated twice as a youngster but saying he was now clean and has never cheated in an over-the-board game.
Carlsen faced criticism himself for the vague nature of the accusation (British grandmaster and former world title contender Nigel Short described it as "death by innuendo"), but then matters came to a head when the pair were drawn against each other in an online tournament. Carlsen made one move, resigned the game, and left. For the chess world champion to do this is shocking. Then, Carlsen came right out and said it:
"We must do something about cheating, and for my part going forward I don’t want to play against people that have cheated repeatedly in the past, because I don’t know what they are capable of doing in the future [...] So far I have only been able to speak with my actions, and those actions have stated clearly that I am not willing to play chess with Niemann."
The whole thing is a mess of accusations, denials, and arrant nonsense (such as the claim any cheating somehow involves vibrating anal beads). At the heart of it is Chess.com, which is distinct from the game's governing body FIDE, but is one of the largest chess platforms in the world and a major organising force. Following the blowup with Carlsen, it made an early decision to suspend Niemann, saying only that it had provided him with the proof as to why.
Now, it has published the evidence: and while there's no smoking gun about the Carlsen match, the general picture it paints is damning of Niemann. The report claims Niemann "likely cheated online much more than his public statements suggest. However, while Hans has had a record-setting and remarkable rise in rating and strength, in our view there is a lack of concrete statistical evidence that he cheated in his game with Magnus or in any other over-the-board ('OTB')—ie, in-person—games."
The full report can be read here. It goes into some depth, including long lists of matches and explains the statistical analysis applied to Niemann's games. Here we'll focus on the conclusions it draws and what it reveals about Niemann's past record.
(Image credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images)"Overall, we have found that [Niemann] has likely cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several prize money events."
Chess.comHans off
The report clarifies that Chess.com was "never pressured by Magnus or his team whatsoever to remove Hans from Chess.com" and that Carlsen did not know about the organisation's decision until Niemann himself went public. It nevertheless says the decision was made to ban Niemann "based on our experience with him in the past, growing suspicions among top players and our team about his rapid rise of play, the strange circumstances and explanations of his win over Magnus, as well as Magnus’ unprecedented withdrawal."
Then, the line that flatly contradicts Niemann's earlier denials. "Hans admitted to cheating in chess games on our site as recently as 2020 after our cheating-detection software and team uncovered suspicious play." Facts like this, and suspicions raised by other top players, lay behind the site's subsequent actions and investigations.
"Consistent with the letter we sent Hans privately on September 8, 2022, we are prepared to show within this report that he, in fact, appears to have cheated against multiple opponents in Chess.com prize events (beyond the Titled Tuesday event that Hans admitted to having cheated in when he was 12), Speed Chess Championship Qualifiers, and the PRO Chess League. We also have evidence that he appears to have cheated in sets of rated games on Chess.com against highly-rated, well-known figures in the chess community, some of which he streamed online. These findings contradict Hans’ public statements."
Chess.com's internal team uses various methods of analysis to determine whether a player is cheating. A common example would be where a player's moves mirror what a top chess engine would do in the same situation ("every move is an engine move"), though of course players also cheat by, for example, using an engine only for one critical move.
The site says it "gathered detailed evidence [that] there were numerous games where Hans’ gameplay fell along this [cheating] spectrum, strongly suggesting that he violated our fair play regulations."
It provides a table of matches in which, it claims, Niemann appears to have cheated. "Overall, we have found that Hans has likely cheated in more than 100 online chess games, including several prize money events. He was already 17 when he likely cheated in some of these matches and games. He was also streaming in 25 of these games."
Whatever the truth about Niemann may be, he is an outstanding chess player. The problem is not that he may occasionally produce a game of dazzling sophistication, which one could reasonably expect from one of the world's best. It's that while his performance in some of these games "may seem to be within the realm of some statistical possibility, the probability of any single player performing this well across this many games is incredibly low."
As well as conducting machine analysis, Niemann's games were subject to manual review by chess analysts. This included an authority on cheat detection in chess, Ken Regan, who "expressed his belief that Hans cheated during the 2015 and 2017 Titled Tuesdays, as well as numerous matches against other professional players in 2020."
There's an account of a phone call between Niemann and the site's CCO, regarding his then-ban. "In 2020, during a private call with Danny Rensch, CCO at Chess.com, Hans was informed of his account closure for suspected cheating in these events and matches. During this call, Hans confessed to the cheating offenses. Following the call, Hans and Danny communicated over Slack, an internal real-time messaging system, where Hans asked how to acknowledge the cheating offense and how to affirm that it would not ever happen again. In that call, Danny agreed to support Hans’ desire to save face and announce publicly that he was voluntarily closing his account to start fresh."
This was what went on to happen, with Rensch satisfied that the site had both done the right thing in dealing with the cheating, and given a rising young player a second chance.
(Image credit: Michael H. via Getty.)Endgame
"We want stability, fairness, and joy in the chess community, not turbulence, conspiracy, and accusations."
Chess.comChess.com would later reinstate Niemann before the last month's events. Now, one of the issues here is that Chess.com understandably specialises in detecting online cheating, not over-the-board games. It therefore avoids drawing firm conclusions about certain games it identifies, heavily implying that FIDE should be the ones to make any calls about them. This matters because "Outside his online play, Hans is the fastest rising top player in Classical OTB chess in modern history [...] While we do not doubt that Hans is a talented player, we note that his results are statistically extraordinary."
A lengthy statistical analysis of Niemann's over-the-board play follows, which nevertheless is not as impressive a record as some claim. A particularly prevalent charge is that Niemann had a streak of 'near-perfect' games that suggested engine use. "Hans actually has one of the lower percentages of 'near perfect games' when compared to similar players." It notes "oddities" in move choice and analysis but nothing that raises any "red flags".
As regards the first match between Carlsen and Niemann, the report notes Niemann's claim about preparing specifically for an opening line where Carlsen plays pawn g3 on his fourth move: “By some miracle," said Niemann, "I had checked this today and it’s like, it’s such a ridiculous miracle that I don’t even remember why I checked it."
The report notes that "Magnus has only played 4.g3 twice previously (both before 2010), and the position after Hans castled on move four had never been seen in any of Magnus’ games. Hans in a later interview commented that Magnus had previously played the opening against Wesley So in the 2018 London Chess Classic, but there is no such game on record." Curious stuff.
"In our view," the report reads, "this game and the surrounding behaviors and explanations are bizarre [...] However, we are currently unaware of any evidence that Hans cheated in this game, and we do not advocate for any conclusions regarding cheating being made based on this one encounter."
The authors describe Carlsen's accusation as "the loudest statement in chess history", and address suspicions that Chess.com somehow knew about Niemann's cheating over-the-board or was under pressure from Carlsen to act. "The much less interesting truth is that none of this is true." The site's intention was to settle the matter with Niemann privately, as is its custom in such situations, before the player went public.
The report refuses to draw firm conclusions about Niemann's over-the-board play, but is damning about his online record:
"Our investigation has concluded that [Niemann] did, however, cheat much more than he has publicly admitted to, including in many prize events, at least 25 streamed games, and 100+ rated games on Chess.com, as recently as when he was 17 years old."
The report ends: "We want the best for Hans. We want the best for Magnus. We want the best for chess. We want stability, fairness, and joy in the chess community, not turbulence, conspiracy, and accusations."
There's some fascinating material in the appendices, including the Chess.com security team's incredulity in 2020 when they first identify and accuse Niemann. After a few token efforts to deny what he was up to, the security team explain the kind of cheating they've identified (using engine moves sporadically at key moments) and… he admits to it. When he does, the team finds it "shocking" that such a strong player (a 2700 rating aka "a monster") is doing this, and speculate that he may be the highest-ranked player they've ever caught cheating.
There's also the sombre note of Dannny Rensch's letter to Nieman, which was intended to remain private correspondence before these events began to dominate the chess scene. Rensch patiently lays out the history between the organisation and Niemann, explaining the decision to revoke his account and not allow him to compete in tournaments, before ending with the offer of a phone call.
"If you are willing to correct the false statements you made about having never cheated when it mattered (now that you have said these untruths publicly), acknowledge the full breadth of the above violations, and cooperate with us to compete under strict Fair Play measures, Chess.com would be happy to consider bringing you back to our events," writes Rensch. "In fact, I think it would be a wonderful redemption story for the full truth to come out, for the chess world to see this and acknowledge your talent regardless of your past, and give the community what they deserve: The truth."
Rensch, the chess world, and everyone else may be waiting some time. Whatever the truth of the Carlsen match may be, the extent of Niemann's online cheating is clearly much wider than he ever admitted to: and it is not unreasonable to think that, if someone will cheat in one form of the game, then they'll be happy to do so in another.
The young challenger may well be able to say there's no proof he cheated against the world champion: but this report proves that, as Carlsen said in his accusation, he's cheated more widely than he ever admitted to. Niemann's future in the game must be in doubt and, thanks to this report, his denial and reputation are in tatters.
-
CD Projekt is heading back to the Continent with a new Witcher trilogy that the company teases will "build on the legacy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt". My interest is piqued, but after playing Wild Hunt for hundreds of hours, I quite fancy something that deviates from that formula. Good news: another studio is working on its own "innovative take" on the monster-slayers, and this one is going to have multiplayer.
Like my suggestion that Dandelion should be the protagonist of The Witcher 4, I'm pretty this will inspire people to hurl rotten fruit and veg at me, but I'm a lot more excited by the prospect of something that isn't just trying to replicate the success of a game I've played to death. I've travelled all over the Continent alone, aside from the odd NPC companion, and now I'm more than ready to share that experience with some humans.
(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)We know very little about The Molasses Flood's Witcher romp, codenamed Sirius, except that we'll be able to play with pals. Nonetheless, there's a lot of potential here, whether it's a co-op romp, PvP, or both.
Though Witchers are often presented as solitary mutants, we know that's not really true—they've just got a bad rep. Despite being a big ol' grump, Geralt collected plenty of friends and allies across the last trilogy, many of them temporarily joining him on his adventures. His relationships and interactions with these pals helped define him and increase the stakes of his quests. CDPR recognises that companionship elevates these quests, and co-op feels like the purest expression of this.
Fatshark's Vermintide series, along with the imminent Darktide, shows us how we can have our cake and eat it too. You get to traipse off on an adventure with your human pals, but you still get to enjoy the banter and relationships between your characters, who bicker and chat throughout their journey through skaven-infested dungeons. A Witcher-themed Left 4 Dead-style game could be a hoot generally, though I suspect I'd miss the more thoughtful, investigative side of the gig.
(Image credit: Fatshark)With two (or more) heads, The Molasses Flood could really lean into the more studious side of the monster-hunting career path, or at least make it a bit more involved than finding a very convenient tome containing all the relevant information on how to dispatch the current pest. Some of my favourite moments, particularly in tabletop games, have come from the party trying to figure out its approach to solving a conundrum or winning a tricky fight, especially since there's always one person who just suggests setting everything on fire. It's me; I'm the one person.
Pure co-op might be my preference, but asymmetric PvP is another tantalising prospect.
Co-op would also give the devs more space to craft extra-challenging brawls and inspire a more tactical style of monster-slaying, even if it just means one Witcher acts as bait and the other sets up a nasty trap. It could potentially open the door to encounters becoming more like puzzles, with each player taking charge of one part of the solution. Again, a bit more like a tabletop game. It's my solution to everything: every RPG could benefit from tabletop design philosophy.
Pure co-op might be my preference, but asymmetric PvP is another tantalising prospect. Specifically, I'm thinking of Turtle Rock's tragically under-appreciated Evolve (RIP). It was blessed with one of the most compelling yet straightforward multiplayer setups: you and a bunch of friends get dropped onto an alien world where you have to hunt down a monster, controlled by another player, who gets more and more deadly as the match progresses. This fits The Witcher like a blood-soaked glove.
(Image credit: 2K)Nearly everything you'd need to make an entertaining Witcher PvP experience already existed within Evolve. Tracking, for instance, played a significant role, as the large maps offered plenty of hiding spots for the monster. Listening out for startled birds or looking for the carcasses left behind by its last trip to the buffet guided you towards your quarry. I love me some Monster Hunter, but when it comes to making you feel like you're actually stalking a deadly creature, nothing can really match Evolve. But maybe The Witcher: Sirius could be up to the task.
The wide range of settings and monsters would be a huge boon here, obviously. You could spend your morning hunting down a thirsty vampire in Beauclair and then hop on over to a hag-infested Velen marsh in the afternoon. And since many of the Continent's menagerie are intelligent, having a human player controlling them should create some confrontations that are more true to the fiction—tense games of cat and mouse where victory is far from assured. Unless I'm playing the monster, that is, because if my performance in Evolve and Dead by Daylight is anything to go by, I'm more of a level 1 boar than an intimidating boss.
Equally exciting is the prospect of playing a character that isn't a witcher. Both of these setups demand that players embrace different roles, and while not every witcher is the same, with each school having their own way of doing things, I'd love to see some sorceresses getting some love. Or, indeed, some bards. More magic, subterfuge and impromptu lute performances all sound like good ways to spice up a fight.
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)I'm also keen to see another developer take a crack at The Witcher. CDPR worked magic with Wild Hunt especially, but given how many projects it has on the go, and the state of Cyberpunk 2077 at launch, some new blood just makes a lot more sense. The Molasses Flood also has experience when it comes to multiplayer, though its last game, Drake Hollow, is a co-op survival affair, and that's very much the opposite of the direction I'd like to see Sirius take. Witchers might like to make their own potent brews, but they shouldn't be building houses and chopping down trees.
Slightly troubling, however, is the fact that Sirius will also have a singleplayer campaign. We've already got multiple singleplayer Witcher games coming and Sirius has the opportunity to stand alone as something properly novel, but it looks like it can't quite escape the last trilogy's legacy. Look, I know there are too many live service multiplayer romps and any suggestion that a singleplayer property should pivot to multiplayer sounds like a threat, but this split focus means The Molasses Flood won't be able to give either component all of its attention. I should probably rein in my expectations.
Nah, 'frell' it, I'm still excited.
-
Hitman 3's roguelike 'freelancer mode' has been delayed yet again, this time getting pushed all the way into next year. The mode, which has already been delayed once before, will release on January 26 as a free update for Hitman 3 that includes "almost all" of the locations from Hitman 1, 2, and 3.
The good news—at least for a select few players—is that IO will be running a "closed technical test" for the mode in November. Some players will be "selectively" invited to participate in a test run for the mode that will let them experience a tasting plate of some of the freelancer mode's new features, such as the customisable safehouse and a few assassinations. Curiously, only Steam players seem to have the privilege of taking part in that test, even though Hitman 3 released on the Epic Games Store a whole year before it hit Steam.
Hitman 3's freelancer mode was revealed as part of the game's "Year 2 Update" in January this year. From its name, you might think it's a mode that simulates not getting paid on time, but it actually sees everyone's favourite hairless assassin set up in a customisable base, picking through a list of available missions and waging war against nefarious criminal organisations. Or, I guess, organisations even more nefarious and criminal than the semi-mythical contract killer you play as. Look, morality gets weird sometimes, okay?
Once you've chosen the criminal enterprise you want to take down, you pick out your consumable, finite gear and go on your merry, murdery way. You start out whacking low-level rubes before making your way to the top of the organisation's food chain. If you fail, that's it. Your progress through your chosen campaign is wiped and it's time to pick a new organisation to take down, and new missions with which to do it.
Speaking as someone who functions as a kind of itinerant preacher for the wonders of Prey: Mooncrash, I'm very excited to see another big and brilliant game get the roguelike treatment. It's a shame we won't be seeing the freelancer mode for an extra few months, but I'm pretty sure I can handle the wait. Better to do a thing right than to do a thing quickly: a lesson Hitman has taught me a thousand times over.
-
In a world where scammers are rife, and seemingly obsessed with hacking innocent parties—like the Costa Rican healthcare system—in order to hold their data ransom for crypto capital, we almost got excited when we heard about malware that intercepted scammers before they could profit from their misdeeds. Unfortunately, it's not all good news.
Trend Micro outlines in a recent post a parasitic threat actor the company just discovered. It's been named Water Labbu, potentially as a nod to a Mesopotamian lion-dragon-like mythological creature designed by the God Enlil to wipe out the nuisance that humanity had become. The rest of the Gods ended up cowering before it and he finally sent someone to slay the beast which took three years, three months, and a day to bleed out.
The more you know...
Water Labbu (the malicious actor, not the creature) had been targeting problematic cryptocurrency scam websites, piggybacking off the social engineering tactics many crypto scammers use, such as convincing people to hand over passwords, etc, in order to turn the tables on would-be scammers.
It would hide behind the guise of a decentralised application (DApp) and infect the crypto scammers' websites, waiting for a victim whose crypto wallet was overflowing to connect to the site. It then asks for permission from the original scammer to transfer an ungodly amount of USD Tether (USDT) from their target, making itself seem less threatening by hiding behind the DApp mask.
"If the victim loads the script from a mobile device using Android or iOS," the report notes, "it returns the first stage script with cryptocurrency-theft capabilities."
"If the victim loads the script from a desktop running Windows, it returns another script showing a fake Flash Player update message asking the victim to download a malicious executable file."
(Image credit: Trend Micro)Your next upgrade(Image credit: Future)Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the restIf the scammer accepts the permissions without reading them properly, the script essentially allows Water Labbu to intercept the scammer in their wrongdoings, turning them into the victim and draining their wallet. So far, Trend Micro reports that over $300,000 has been stolen in this parasitic manner, from at least nine victims.
And while there's always a part of me that loves to hear of scammers getting their comeuppance, their original victims are still victims here. I've heard nothing about Water Labbu's stewards going all Robin Hood and paying the money back, at least not yet.
Until then I'm not even sure it's worthy of the epic Mesopotamian beast's name; less of a mighty, world-ending dragon that instils fear even in the Gods themselves, more like a crypto tapeworm.
-
Greetings Inheritors!
We will be conducting scheduled maintenance at the following times:
Maintenance Start Time:
UTC: Oct 06 at 08:00 am
CEST: Oct 06 at 10:00 am
EDT: Oct 06 at 04:00 am
PDT: Oct 06 at 01:00 am
Maintenance End Time:
UTC: Oct 06 at 1:30 pm
CEST: Oct 06 at 3:30 pm
EDT: Oct 06 at 09:30 am
PDT: Oct 06 at 06:30 am
* Please note that the game will shut down before maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.
Thank you for your understanding!
The ArcheAge Team -
A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.
-
Hideo Kojima has announced… something? Or he's announced that he's going to announce something, but the announcement is its own announcement of, oh god stop the internet I want to get off. For a creator that made a game about information overload and the surfeit of junk in contemporary digital life, he doesn't exactly practice what he preaches.
Kojima has previously announced that the studio will be showing off a VR hallway at TGS (don't ask), then recently a new website launched with a blanked-out face and the phrase "Who Am I?" superimposed atop it. Now our boy's at it again, tweeting out the same face:
The answer to “WHO” at TGS will be in the next “WHERE”. pic.twitter.com/y6Y6l7gAxoOctober 5, 2022
See moreIt comes with some maddeningly on-brand text, which is both English and semi-gibberish: "The answer to 'WHO' at TGS will be in the next 'WHERE'." WHAT does that mean and WHEN?!
Clear as mud, though the implication seems to be that Kojima's going to reveal the identity (of Elle Fanning, most fans reckon) at one of the big year-end shows: given his relationship with Geoff Keighley, I'd stick a fiver on it being at The Game Awards.
The silhouetted face may well not be Fanning, of course: but it does look an awful lot like her (here's one fan comparing images while huffing the copium). Fanning's list of projects is as long as your arm, but one element of note is that she's previously worked with Kojima buddy and director Nicholas Winding Refn, who is the mocap actor for Heartman in Death Stranding.
Whether it's Fanning or not, the other unanswered question is whether this is the beginning of the hype for Death Stranding 2 (which is in the works) or the game that Kojima Productions is making in partnership with Microsoft. The former is in production, and the way Kojima's been tweeting about motion capture sessions recently suggests it's full steam ahead, while with the latter both sides have been careful to say that it's some way off.
Kojima certainly keeps busy. As well as those two games and the VR hallway, he's been producing a podcast for Spotify and helped make a watch with NASA (which bizarrely comes with a wearable skull face mask). You kinda have to respect the hustle even if, now and then, it would be nice for him just to announce something substantial, rather than Hideo Kojima announcing another Hideo Kojima announcement.
-
A report by market analyst, TrendForce Investigations, paints a sobering picture of the state of the memory industry right now. According to the report, memory pricing dropped at the end of last year, forcing the likes of Micron and Kioxia to reduce the production of DRAM and NAND memory. This means that the current low prices for RAM and SSDs will be short-lived.
Micron is one of the big three suppliers of computer memory, and alongside Samsung and SK Hynix. This oligopoly is responsible for producing 95% of the RAM chips that make their way into our machines. The fact that one of those is reducing production means RAM chips will be scarcer and therefore more expensive.
If Micron feels the need to reduce production, then the other two probably aren't far behind.
The reason Micron has made the move is due to the larger consumer electronics market being weaker than expected. Add in rising inflation, the Russian-Ukraine war, and the continued pressure from the pandemic, and it's bad news for plenty of electronics. In fact, things are so bad on the NAND flash front, that the report suggests that some manufacturers are selling at a loss right now.
This looks like it's going to have a knock-on effect when it comes to introducing new technologies as well. Micron is said to be focusing on its existing 176-layer NAND flash instead of ramping up production of its 232-layer NAND flash as we head into the end of the year. That's a technology that's expected to underpin the performance of PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs as well.
These new PCIe 5.0 SSDs are expected to start shipping in November of this year, now that AMD and Intel now both have supporting platforms. AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips and Intel's 12th and 13th-Gen offerings also support DDR5, which had started to come down in price, but could now bounce back up again, making them more expensive platforms to migrate to.
Essentially, the current incredibly low pricing for computer RAM and SSDs won't last forever, and if you're in the market for a new system, you may have to pull the trigger sooner rather than later. Alternatively, upgrading your current rig now may be a good idea too.
-
This is a moment we've been waiting for. With the Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition arriving from October 12, a third player will have truly entered the gaming graphics card market, and finally with a genuinely competitive product for gaming. That's not something anyone has been able to remark on for a very long time—it's been a mostly competitive two-horse race for decades.
A two-horse race gets you rapid technological progress, but throwing another billion-dollar company in the mix doesn't hurt our chances of getting genuinely affordable GPUs, too. Yet money alone won't build you a successful product, or a good gaming chip, though it probably helps get you some of the way. That said, Intel has plenty of cash, and even the company's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, admits it's still been a bumpy road to launch for Arc.
And, no, I haven't forgotten about the Arc A380 and Arc A310 graphics cards that launched earlier in the year. I'm simply choosing to ignore them for dramatic effect. The Arc A380 was the true card to kick off the Alchemist GPU generation—limping to launch with a quiet China-only release—but with the Arc A770 we're seeing a mightier thrust into gaming graphics than ever before from Intel. It's sure to be the Alchemist GPU we remember if this all goes to plan.
It's about time we got our hands on an Arc GPU ready to game on, anyways. I for one have been patiently waiting for this moment all year. The Arc A770 Limited Edition is a $349 graphics card going up against the entry-level graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, and while it may not have always been aimed at these more affordable cards, we can be thankful that it is. With enthusiast GPUs from the next-gen already towering over us with price tags in excess of $2,000, it's the budget PC that has a hazy future ahead of it.
The Arc A770 Limited Edition might just help with that. We shouldn't forget that Intel is also releasing the Arc A750 Limited Edition alongside it, which is going for $289.
Architecture
(Image credit: Future)The underlying architecture powering Intel's Alchemist graphics cards is called Xe-HPG, or High Performance Graphics. It's closely related to Xe-LP, Xe-HP, Xe-HPC—the Xe architecture combined covers everything from integrated graphics to supercomputers. That's actually one reason why Xe-HPG is a little late out of the gate. But Xe-HPG is here now and it is a little different to the few Xe-based GPUs we've seen in the past.
There are numerous changes to make the Xe architecture better suited to our gaming PCs, and the Arc A770 Limited Edition embodies those changes to the fullest.
The Arc A770 uses Intel's ACM-G10 GPU. That's the same GPU as the Arc A750, though that card doesn't offer quite as many Xe-cores. The full G10 GPU within the A770 comes with eight Render Slices, and each Render Slice contains four Xe-cores and four Ray Tracing Units (RTU). So take all those bits, stick them together, and you've got the Arc A770 GPU.
(Image credit: Intel)Let's go one level lower into the Xe-core, the building block of the Alchemist GPU. There are 32 Xe-cores in total on the Arc A770, the maximum amount available on the G10 GPU, and these each contain 16 256-bit Vector Engines and 16 1024-bit Matrix Engines. These also share 192KB of low-level cache.
The Vector Engines are our friend for rasterised rendering, and what's interesting about them is that they come in pairs—Intel says its Vector Engines "run in lockstep" and share a Thread Control with another. If you're keen on GPU architectures, you might notice that's a similar general approach to the one AMD has with RDNA 2—the red team's architecture also locking together two Compute Units.
(Image credit: Intel)It's the Matrix Engines connected to the Vector Engines that are the more exciting addition. These are the key to accelerating MAC, DP4a, and XMX instructions. The first two are common among more modern graphics cards, though the latter is Intel's own creation for its new GPUs. XMX stands for Xe Matrix Extensions. With proper acceleration, this instruction can be used to provide 16 times more inference compute power than a traditional GPU vector unit. That might not sound like it matters much for gaming, but bear in mind Intel's new XeSS upscaling technology will run on XMX where supported.
And, in our own testing, XMX makes a world of difference to the performance uplift you can expect from XeSS.
Intel has also fitted a Xe media engine for hardware acceleration within popular video software, including streaming apps, such as OBS Studio. The Xe media engine supports VP9, AVC, HEVC, and AVI. The last one is probably going to be a big deal for all manner of streaming content.
(Image credit: Intel)Perhaps the single most important thing for gamers to understand about Intel's Xe-HPG architecture is that it's been designed from the ground up for DX12 Ultimate. That has a few knock-on effects for what we can come to expect from Intel's Arc A770, and goes some way to explaining some of the performance disparity we see between DX12 and DX11 games.
DX11 and older APIs do not gel quite so well with the Xe-HPG formula. Destiny 2, Apex Legends, The Witcher 3—these are just a handful of older yet still extremely popular games that will not run as well as a game with a more modern API will on an Arc Alchemist GPU. Generally, the more modern the game, the better performance we're seeing on Arc.
Though most major games today will use DX12 or Vulkan, so you can be fairly sure that the Next Big Thing will run at its best on an Arc A770 graphics card.
If you thought Intel Arc was already being quite picky, let me tell you all about how it's highly recommended that you switch Resizable BAR (Resize BAR) on with an Intel Arc GPU installed in your machine. In fact, Intel's graphics guru Tom Petersen told journalists in a Q&A in the lead up to Arc's launch that "if you don't have Resize BAR, buy an RTX 3060."
So, yeah, Resize BAR is pretty important.
Generally, the more modern the game, the better performance we're seeing on Arc.
Resize BAR is a feature that allows your CPU and GPU to better communicate with one another over PCIe. Offering a wider channel of communication, essentially. Most modern CPUs and motherboard chipsets support Resize BAR: AMD Ryzen 3000/5000/7000 and Intel 10th/11th/12th Gen CPUs all work just fine. AMD calls its more proprietary Resize BAR feature, which operates specifically between Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU, 'Smart Access Memory' (SAM), however, other GPU vendors' cards also work in conjunction with AMD CPUs. Same goes for Intel CPUs and Nvidia or AMD GPUs.
If you're playing games on a PC with an older generation CPU or motherboard, and therefore unable to activate Resize BAR, you might find performance once again slips away from you with an Arc A770 graphics card. I tested this out in Metro Exodus, one of the few games heavily optimised for Arc, and you can expect a dip in frame rates of between 22–10% with Resize BAR disabled, depending on the resolution.
Intel does tell me that it hopes to minimise the impact that Resize BAR has on Arc's performance with later driver updates, but I don't have any further information on when that might be or what sort of impact it might have.
The general advice for maximising performance on Arc, then: Run games in DX12 or Vulkan where possible and switch on Resize BAR. I have enabled Resize BAR on every GPU tested for the purposes of performance testing in the section below, not only Intel's.
Specifications
(Image credit: Future)We've been through the building blocks of the Xe-HPG architecture but let's focus more on this particular card itself: the Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition.
The Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition shroud is one of the card's stronger points. It's relatively quiet, cool, and it looks great—just professional enough for an Intel product but still leaning into that gamer aesthetic we've come to expect from today's more and more extreme graphics cards.
Intel Arc A7 Limited Edition graphics card specifications Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition (16GB) Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition Generation Alchemist Alchemist Xe-cores / XMX Engines 32 / 512 28 / 448 Render slices 8 7 Ray tracing units 32 28 Graphics clock (MHz) 2,100 2,050 Memory config 16GB GDDR6 @ 17.5Gbps 8GB GDDR6 @ 16Gbps Memory interface 256-bit 256-bit Memory bandwidth 560 GB/s 512GB/s System interface PCIe Gen 4 x16 PCIe Gen 4 x16 Power (TBP) 225W 225W Power connector 1x 8-pin, 1x 6-pin 1x 8-pin, 1x 6-pin HW accelerated media AV1, HEVC, H.264, VP9 AV1, HEVC, H.264, VP9 Display outputs 3x DisplayPort 2.0, 1x HDMI 2.1 3x DisplayPort 2.0, 1x HDMI 2.1 Form factor 10.5-inch length, dual slot 10.5-inch length, dual slot API support DirectX 12Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 3.0, Vulkan 1.3 DirectX 12Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 3.0, Vulkan 1.3 OS support Win 10/11, Ubuntu Win 10/11, Ubuntu Intel Deep Link Technologies Yes Yes Warranty 3-years 3-years Price $349 $289 It's generally quite a tame card, at least compared with what we've come to expect from new graphics cards, but I should've expected as much from Intel. What I hadn't expected was the overflow of RGB lighting on the fans and around the entire outer edge of the shroud, which is quite lovely to look at. It's surprisingly quiet even when running at full whack—the fans seem fairly well-suited to getting the job done here. We'll get to it a bit further down the page, but it's notable how the Arc A770 runs relatively cool for its power demands and relatively slim construction.
(Image credit: Future)Intel's Arc A770 Limited Edition is a great version of a surprisingly decent GPU, and despite what it sounds like Intel doesn't intend to stop making them so long as there is demand.
I should note that this is the 16GB model of the Intel Arc A770. Intel is making two available: one with 16GB of GDDR6 and another with 8GB of GDDR6. Only the 16GB version will be available in this Intel-made trim, with 8GB models being made available by Intel's partners sometime after the card's release. We don't have a firm date for those, however. There is a cheaper card from Intel on the way, too, the Arc A750, and this will also be available in a Limited Edition look.
Performance
(Image credit: Future)Test rigCPU - Intel Core i9 12900K
Motherboard - Asus ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi
RAM - Trident Z 5 RGB 32GB (2x 16GB) DDR5 @5,600MHz (effective)
CPU cooler - Asus ROG Ryujin II 360mm liquid cooler
PSU - Gigabyte Aorus P1200W
Monitor - Gigabyte M32UCIt takes a well optimised DX12 game to show the Intel Arc A770's best side. Take Metro: Exodus, for example. This is a DX12-powered game that's not known for going easy on graphics cards, yet the Arc A770 delivers significantly higher frame rates than Nvidia's RTX 3060 in this title. The Arc A770 is around 54% faster across all resolutions, in fact. You can chalk that up to Metro Exodus being specifically optimised for Intel's Arc GPUs, according to the company, which goes to show what the Arc A770 is able to offer if given the proper attention on a per-game basis.
But it's not always like that.
The optimist in me would like to think that this is the sort of performance that Intel's Arc A770 will eventually reach in all DX12 and Vulkan titles. After all, this is performance encroaching on that RTX 3070-grade we had initially expected, and perhaps Intel had also expected, from Arc earlier in the year.
But let's be completely straight here: You cannot expect that sort of performance out of the Arc A770 at all times, and to do so would require cherry-picking a few good apples from the benchmark bunch. Performance on the Arc A770 is strangely variable and unlike anything we've seen from Nvidia or AMD these past few years.
1080p performance
Image 1 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 6 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 7 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 8 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 9 of 9(Image credit: Future)On the one hand: Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn, Civilisation VI, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Wolfenstein Youngblood. The Arc A770 is reliably quicker than Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3060 in these titles and able to deliver smooth, consistent frame rates at 1080p and 1440p. It's also beating Nvidia's card at 4K, though generally we expect to see less playable frame rates at this resolution on these more affordable cards.
Performance on the Arc A770 is strangely variable.
On the other hand, Total War: Three Kingdoms and, to a lesser extent, Far Cry New Dawn and F1 2020. These range from running only a couple points slower on Arc to up to 30% slower than an RTX 3060 in Total War.
Clearly, most of the games that are running better on the Arc A770 are using either the DX12 or Vulkan API.
Generally, DX11 game performance on the Arc A770 wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. Though that may have been the luck of the draw with our longstanding choice of game for our benchmarking suite. With just under a week to review both of Intel's new graphics cards, we've had to stick to our standard benchmarking suite, but there will be other cases to uncover, too.
We know that League of Legends, God of War, Destiny 2, and Rocket League don't take particularly well to Intel's GPUs from the company's own benchmarking numbers.
1440p performance
Image 1 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 6 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 7 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 8 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 9 of 9(Image credit: Future)But something I've failed to mention so far, which might be glaringly obvious to anyone flicking through our performance graphs, is AMD's RX 6600 XT. This graphics card is as much a match for the Intel Arc A770 at 1080p, if not faster, and its 1440p performance might also have Intel worried, depending on the game. That's probably why the company has not really made a point of referencing this card in any of its pre-launch performance graphs.
Intel's problem is that the RX 6600 XT, which would have once set you back $379 or more, is nowadays going for cheaper than the Arc A770 Limited Edition today. What makes matters worse is that AMD released a minutely faster card in the RX 6650 XT. At time of writing one of these is available for just $300. More often, however, you'll find this card going for around $320–340.
4K performance
Image 1 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 6 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 7 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 8 of 9(Image credit: Future)Image 9 of 9(Image credit: Future)The Arc A770 does take an unsuspecting lead at 4K, however. Now, granted, none of these cards are particularly adept at 4K gaming—there are simply too many pixels buzzing around the screen for them to manage—but as a point of competition it's interesting to wonder why this is the case.
In two out of the three games that the Arc A770 falls behind an RTX 3060 at 1080p, if you crank up the resolution to 4K, the Arc graphics card actually comes out on top. This is likely due to the increased memory capacity and memory bandwidth of Intel's GPU. The Arc A770 delivers memory bandwidth of 560GB/s. The RTX 3060 just 360GB/s. That means despite having a chunky 12GB of VRAM, Nvidia's card isn't quite as effective at putting it all to good use.
The RX 6600 XT, with its relatively low memory bandwidth (partially bolstered by 32MB of Infinity Cache), isn't always able to stretch a lead from the Arc A770 at a 4K resolution either.
Though there are times when it's not quite so rosy for Alchemist. In the worst performing game on Arc, Total War: Three Kingdoms, even the Arc A770's bountiful bandwidth isn't enough to shut the door on Nvidia.
You'll want to consider upscaling algorithms to get higher frame rates out of any one of these affordable graphics cards at 4K, anyways.
Synthetic benchmark performance
Image 1 of 2(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 2(Image credit: Future)The Arc A770 seems to smash 3DMark benchmarks. A couple of these use ray tracing in some capacity, which might explain why Intel does so well, but Time Spy is also a DX12 benchmark and so plays to the Arc A770's strengths.
The thing to note here is that in 3DMark's new XeSS Feature Test you can see for yourself the impact that XMX acceleration has on XeSS upscaling performance. It's considerable. That could be seriously handy if XeSS takes off with game developers looking for a free boost to performance. It could also help mitigate some of the ray tracing performance hit, though Intel is surprisingly squared away on that front.
Ray tracing performance
Image 1 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 5 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 6 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 7 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 8 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 9 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 10 of 11(Image credit: Future)Image 11 of 11(Image credit: Future)It came as a bit of a surprise to me when Intel talked up its ray tracing acceleration as being competitive with Nvidia's—generally considered the best in the biz for real-time ray tracing—but it shows in-game. The A770 is, generally, on a level with the RTX 3060 for ray tracing performance, if not coming out slightly better in ray-traced games on an even footing.
It's in these ray-traced titles—Metro Exodus, F1 22, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider—where AMD's RX 6600 XT really struggles to keep up. RDNA 2's Ray Accelerators have never been much of a match for Nvidia's RT Cores, so that's no real surprise, but it's also for this reason why I am so surprised to see Intel seemingly nailing ray tracing with its first-generation acceleration.
Thermals and power
Image 1 of 4(Image credit: Future)Image 2 of 4(Image credit: Future)Image 3 of 4(Image credit: Future)Image 4 of 4(Image credit: Future)What of power, I hear you cry? The Arc A770 Limited Edition is a power-hungry card, consuming up to 262 watts during our power draw test. It rests around an average of 220 watts, but even then it's still far in excess of our Zotac RTX 3060.
What can be said for the Arc A770 in terms of power is its actual efficiency when used with an optimised game, such as our power benchmark, Metro Exodus. It's not wasting power so much as it is asking for more and doing more with it, and relative efficiency is high for both 1080p and 4K runs. Metro Exodus has been our standard power draw benchmark for a couple of years now, but of course it's also the game that is best optimised for Intel Arc in our benchmarking suite.
The Arc A770 isn't always managing to do as much with its high power draw. If you measure power draw in the worst game of the lot for Arc, Total War: Three Kingdoms, it's a different story. At 4K, the Arc A770 manages just 0.13 Frames/J. At 1080p, it's just 0.39 Frames/J. These results are from the extremes on either end, and you'll likely actually experience something between the two.
Generally the Arc A770 tends to fall on the side of more power hungry than its competitors, but once again Intel's variable performance makes it tough to say exactly where it stands. This graphics card's performance is so dependent on the game being played that your mileage will massively vary.
Also while we can accurately extract power measurements from the card, our usual testing applications couldn't gather power and temperature data from either the Arc A770 or Arc A750. Intel's own graphics software, Arc Control, lets you run an overlay with the information, however, so I had to manually measure these metrics through that app.
Analysis
(Image credit: Future)Intel has managed to make the Arc A770 Limited Edition a competitive card through its more affordable $349 price tag, but would I recommend someone buy an Arc A770 for their next PC build?
Performance isn't excellent across all APIs and that does make it a harder recommendation. Not just because the odd DX11 game gives the Arc A770 a migraine, but also because I don't want to have to explain all of these caveats to the next person to ask me for help building a PC. At least in the Xe-HPG architecture's happy place, namely DX12 and Vulkan, it delivers excellent performance for 1080p and 1440p gaming. Especially in Metro Exodus. An added bonus is the Arc A770's actually decent ray tracing performance.
So in some respects, yes, I would say it's worth considering. But not before you've weighed up all your options.
I don't enjoy mulling what ifs for reviews, as it quickly gets too speculative, but Intel is betting on the RTX 3060 maintaining an inflated price tag in order to keep its GPUs looking like the much more affordable option. That might be a good call, price drops don't appear to be on the Nvidia CEO's mind right now, but there's definitely going to be some wiggle room for Nvidia on the price of that card. Whether it will choose to even acknowledge Arc, however, I'm not so sure.
(Image credit: Future)The supply of Intel's Alchemist generation will play a role in how much of an impact they have in the market and on existing GPU prices. Nvidia isn't going to be dropping prices of anything unless Intel has a whole lot of these chips ready to go. Statements to this very point from Intel's Tom Petersen suggest Intel will take things slow to begin with.
Regardless, I feel the strongest competition to Intel's Arc A770 is from AMD. The RX 6600, RX 6600 XT, and RX 6650 XT encircle Intel's Arc lineup at launch, and I'm not sure AMD even needs to sweeten the deal any more to win over PC gamers on a budget. The affordable market really is a squeeze right now. Should one of Intel's partners produce a third-party card that's even a touch more expensive than MSRP, I'd probably recommend sticking to the tried and tested driver package of Team Radeon.
In fact, I'd recommend an RX 6600 XT at $329 to pretty much anyone that asked, regardless of whether it's actually any cheaper than Arc.
It's less buggy than I had thought it would be, at least.
There are simply more caveats to performance on Intel's Arc Alchemist graphics cards than the rest. There's also the maturity of AMD and Nvidia's drivers that shines through in their performance and software packages. Intel may be able to play catch up—the company does say it plans to reduce its dependence on Resize BAR—but I suspect that there's no catching up with the decades of API driver development you get with Nvidia and AMD. Older APIs may always be left out in the cold in favour of newer ones.
I don't blame Intel for a focus on the latest APIs, though it would be wrong to consider it anything but a negative for customers in this crossover period in game dev. At least in the company's defence, while there once was a lengthy period of time when DX12 had teething issues and DX11 seemed irreplaceable for modern games, that's come and gone now. Some popular service games and competitive titles still use DX11 today, and probably will continue to do so for a long time, but we're seeing a significant and sustained shift from game developers to DX12 and Vulkan.
Ultimately, I don't blame you if you fall into the better safe than sorry camp and buy an RX 6600/XT. The Intel Arc A770 is a riskier buy. That said, I will put it forward for its frame rates in optimised games and its ray tracing chops—you will get the better end of a bargain at least some of the time.
Verdict
(Image credit: Future)For what I had at one time expected to be a pretty brutal graphics card launch, Intel has brought Alchemist back from the brink and turned it into something. Something is better than nothing and the Intel Arc A770 is absolutely one better than that. If there was more stability across frame rates I don't think I'd have qualms in calling Intel's first-generation GPUs a qualified success, but as it stands today it's much tougher to make any sort of sweeping statement.
You just never know exactly how this graphics card is going to perform. It'll either knock the socks off an RTX 3060 or be buried alive by it. It's both praiseworthy and lacklustre, depending on the game you're playing on it. I'm not sure I expected anything more of a first-generation graphics card release. It's less buggy than I had thought it would be, at least.
The card itself is very well put together, too. The Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition looks and feels the part of a modern graphics card and its thermal performance is genuinely solid. On that front Intel, and prospective buyers, can be thoroughly happy.
(Image credit: Future)Intel is also competitive with its price, and I think that's what puts the Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition into any sort of contention today. We're all still feeling the shockwaves of the GPU shortage—let's be honest, an RTX 3060 should be available for under its MSRP by now, even though it's not—and Intel has made an attempt to soothe cries from PC gamers for something, anything, more affordable. It's perhaps a shame Intel couldn't get this card out sooner, when AMD and Nvidia weren't dropping prices for their GPUs. Then again, Intel is using TSMC to manufacture its GPUs, the same chipmaker as AMD for RDNA 2 GPUs, so who knows if its supply would've been any better than the rest.
I wouldn't be disappointed if it came bundled with a cheap pre-built PC.
Ultimately, with the performance of the Arc A770 landing where it has, and not where Intel had hoped it to be, the company faced a decision: either price the card competitively or let the whole discrete gaming GPU project die on the vine. I'm glad it stuck this one out and tried to make the most of it, because it has ended up becoming something I can see making a good few PC gamers happy enough.
I might not choose the Intel Arc A770 for my next PC build—AMD seems to have a better hold on the budget market than anyone else today—but I wouldn't be disappointed if it came bundled with a cheap pre-built PC, either.
I have at times this year feared the worst for Intel's first gaming GPUs, but after this past week of testing, I'm actually more excited about what's to come. This first generation was always going to be a tough launch for Intel, and I think it ended up being even tougher than initially expected. However, if this is the baseline for the next generation, Battlemage, and after that Celestial, Intel appears on the right trajectory towards parity with the top guns in graphics at some point in time. And that's something I think we can all agree would be great for PC gaming.
Bring on Battlemage.
-
Genshin Impact's endgame (or lack thereof) has been an issue since the game launched two years ago. It was one of the main things that eventually drove me away in 2021, and I hoped that things would get better. Unfortunately, it seems as though HoYoverse has no intention of bringing any more combat-based endgame modes anytime soon.
In a recent interview with Gamespot, the developer responded to some long-standing community criticisms. With the only permanent endgame currently being Spiral Abyss—a challenge with multiple floors that can be completed every two weeks—there aren't exactly many ways to push your team comps. Temporary events like Labyrinth Warriors have proven that HoYoverse can come up with new, interesting endgame challenges but unfortunately, it seems like it has no plans to.
"If we design another type of permanent endgame content that is similar to the Spiral Abyss, it might end up creating excessive anxiety for our players," the developer said. It went on to mention its upcoming in-universe trading card game, saying that it wanted to appeal to "various types of gameplay."
Highlights of recent Genshin Interview- No plans to expand end-game similar to Spiral Abyss- Mini-game such as TCG to provide the permanent end-game experience- Resin increase: No- Old characters won't get buffs- Traveler oufit won't be a thing for now#原神 #GenshinImpactOctober 3, 2022
See moreThe disappointment doesn't end there. HoYoverse also said it has no intention to address the power creep that mostly affects pre-Inazuma characters, saying they're worth more than "a single dimension of numerical strength." It also said there are no current plans for additional geo reactions, Traveler costumes or an increase on the resin cap. Considering all of these are things that have been common community requests, it seems a shame for HoYoverse to not take any of them into consideration.
It makes sense for HoYoverse to want to try and make a game that caters to everyone, and creating new casual dailies or weeklies doesn't gatekeep in the way hardcore ones do. But it's important to consider your whole audience, especially when the hardcore players are probably also the ones sinking the most money into Genshin's gacha. The game also has an absurdly good combat system. Cooking up elemental reactions and playing around with team comps is a lot of fun, and it's a bummer that HoYoverse doesn't want to permanently explore that at a higher difficulty level.
-
Streets of Rogue, 2019's many-layered roguelite/immersive sim hybrid that we rather enjoyed, is getting a sequel. Streets of Rogue 2 has a Steam page, an early access release window of 2023, and a prominently displayed gif of someone ploughing a truck through a farmyard. Looks good to me: put it out now, I say.
Developer Matt Dabrowski packs a lot of new features into the sequel's announcement post, but chief among them is probably the move to a "huge, persistent and seamless open world". The original game saw you take elevators from level to procedurally-generated level, but flattening all those out into one big, contiguous land mass makes sense. Streets of Rogue is one of those games that's at its best when the AI and systems are given room to careen off one another. There's no better way to do that than shoving them all into one map.
Apart from the open-world switch, Streets of Rogue 2 will also see the addition of building, farming, and animals. Stardew stuff, in other words, but with the bewitching possibility that someone might steamroll your crops in a freight vehicle while you sleep.
You'll probably see it coming, at least: the final significant addition—at least as far as I'm concerned—is the inclusion of a faction and reputation system. Streets of Rogue 2's open world will be dotted with cities, outposts, and other communities that you can woo with good deeds (or terrorise mercilessly). You've got to assume that, if you annoy a community sufficiently, they'll eventually turn up at your doorstep like the angry mob in Frankenstein.
We'll find out in 2023. I'm pretty excited for this one: the original Streets of Rogue's design philosophy was very much my jam. It's a game that truly didn't care what you got up to, and was content to let you amass limitless power or die in the gutter depending on your skill, creativity, and the procedural whims of its artificial denizens. Plus you could play as a gorilla. That was great too.
-
Overwatch 2's Battle Pass is a new, if not controversial, addition to the franchise’s formula. Now the backbone of the game’s free-to-play focus, if you’re planning to jump in, this is something you’re going to have to contend with.
Overwatch 2 sees the franchise jump onto the trend of other free-to-play games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Warzone, by introducing the reward track. This is the first time the series has ever had one, and Blizzard has packed it with a new hero, and a whole load of cosmetics. That includes the franchise’s first Mythic Skin, a Cyber-Demon Genji, that allows you to customize the color, pattern, weapons and face of the skin.
The Battle Pass replaces the previous loot box system that was in the game, meaning that when you do buy it, you know what you’re getting and the effort you will have to put in to complete it. The flip side is that Overwatch 2 has also introduced a premium currency that is difficult to grind through play. Generally, you won’t be able to get as many free cosmetics as you once did if you played enough to be showered in loot boxes, at least in its current iteration.
This new monetization model naturally brings up a lot of questions. What’s in the battle pass, how much is it, can you get anything for free? With that in mind, here is everything you need to know about Overwatch 2’s new battle pass and how to get it.
How much does the Overwatch 2 Battle Pass cost?
There are two versions of the Overwatch 2 Battle Pass, giving players options on how they want to interact with the game’s key cosmetic progression. There is a free version of the Battle Pass which is available to all players. This is unlocked upon you loading up the game for the first time, and you don’t have to do anything to activate it. If you start playing, you’ll begin unlocking rewards. In this version of the Battle Pass, you can earn the new hero Kiriko at level 55, two epic skins and several other cosmetic items down the line.
There is also the Premium version of the Battle Pass, which is where the monetization begins to rear its head. For 1000 Overwatch Coins, retailing at $9.99/ £8.39 respectively, you'll get the upgraded version of the Battle Pass, which comes with an immediate unlock for Kiriko, a 20% XP boost and access to the new Mythic Genji skin if you complete the pass, on top of a whole lot of other cosmetic items.
It’s worth keeping in mind that every season is roughly nine weeks long, so you have that time to finish your pass. Blizzard has confirmed that if you do miss a season you will still be able to unlock heroes tied to those seasons.
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)How do you level the Battle Pass?
There are multiple ways to level up the Battle Pass, and the most persistent way to do so is by playing matches. At the end of every game, you will earn a little experience, and if you win, you will get even more. No matter what, you’ll be making progress as long as you are playing matches.
However, if you want to make really big strides, you’re going to want to complete Challenges. These are viewable through the Battle Pass screen. There are Daily, Weekly and Seasonal challenges that can add huge boosts to your progression. If you really want to make a dent in the Battle Pass as quickly as possible, you’re going to want to look at what challenges are available to you each time you log in.
You can also earn some Battle Pass experience playing in underrepresented roles in Quick Play in Competitive, by either playing the role with the 500 experience marker or queuing up as a flex player. This system has seemingly replaced the Priority Pass which was previously introduced to incentivise players to play less played roles.
If you have more money than time, you can also buy levels in the Battle Pass outright for 200 Overwatch Coins each. This is a very expensive option that isn’t advisable unless you are at the end of a season and really want to complete the Battle Pass in a few hours.
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)What do you get in the free Overwatch 2 Battle Pass?
The free Battle Pass is available to every player in Overwatch 2, so here are all the rewards you can expect to receive.
- Newest support hero, Kiriko (at level 55 if you don’t own her already)
- Two Epic skins
- Weapon charm
- Two souvenirs
- Highlight intro
- 14 additional items such as emotes, victory poses, name cards, sprays and player icons
- Prestige Tier Titles: eight earnable titles you can choose between after completing the entire pass
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)What do you get in the premium Overwatch 2 Battle Pass?
The premium Battle Pass is available for 1000 Overwatch coins from the Shop tab on the main screen. As expected, there are better rewards with this Battle Pass, so here's what you can get.
- Everything in the free battle pass
- Immediate access to Kiriko
- 20% XP Battle Pass boost
- Mythic skin
- Five Legendary Skins and one Epic skin
- Three Play of the Game intros
- Four weapon charms
- Three emotes
- Three souvenirs
- Six poses
- Six name cards
- Additional cosmetic rewards
It’s worth keeping in mind, on the Premium Battle Pass you will get character skins every 10 levels, eight skins in total culminating in the Genji Mythic season at level 80. The skins have different rarities, and there are several early on that are Legendary meaning that you don’t have to get all the way to the end before you can get the good stuff.
-
Researchers are working on water-based microprocessors that could one day be used as a more diverse alternative to the current wafer architecture of today, with applications ranging from AI to DNA synthesis and likely beyond.
The chips in question are still in the prototype stage, so don't expect processors with built in water cooling just yet, but the way they work is really exciting. They use a technique called ionics, which involves manipulating different ion species in liquid, as opposed to the standard electrons shooting through our semiconductors today.
It's more akin to how the human brain handles data processing, and although the technique may be slower than current semiconductor architectures, scientists believe "the diversity of ionic species with different physical and chemical properties could be harnessed for richer and more diverse information processing."
That's according to a post from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Collaborating with startup DNA Script, researchers from SEAS recently published findings describing how they combined ionic diodes and transistors—something no research team had done before—to develop an ionic circuit.
Although the simple 16 x 16 array is a long way from matching the power of the 100 billion transistors found in Intel's 12th Gen wafers, or the Apple M1 Ultra's 114 billion transistors, the researchers did manage to perform a neural net computing core process.
They used said array to "expand the analog arithmetic multiplication of individual transistors into an analog matrix multiplication." Yeah I'm pretty lost here, too. Thankfully SEAS postdoctoral fellow Woo-Bin Jung explains that "Matrix multiplication is the most prevalent calculation in neural networks for artificial intelligence." He says their "ionic circuit performs the matrix multiplication in water in an analog manner that is based fully on electrochemical machinery."
Your next upgrade(Image credit: Future)Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the restThe transistors work through manipulation of local PH values, which enables the researchers to control the chips' weight matrix, similarly to that of a neural network.
Not only could there be potential for applications such as accelerating DNA synthesis and other neural networking processes, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at SEAS Donhee Ham says "the electrochemical matrix multiplication in water is charming in its own right, and has a potential to be energy efficient.”
So far, Jung notes that only "3 to 4 ionic species, such as hydrogen and quinone ions" have been tested, but as the researchers move on to testing other ionic species, the information processing is only going to become richer and more diverse.
Maybe one day we'll see neural networks running off water-based ionic chips. They'll be far more energy efficient, but likely much slower.
-
Intel's Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards go on sale on October 12th, although you'll get to see what we think of these cards later on today. In anticipation, Intel has posted what is probably the last of its chat videos with Ryan Shrout and Tom Petersen sitting down with Raja Koduri, the head of Intel's graphics division.
The 16-minute video is pretty relaxed and it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that there aren't any major reveals, although there are a couple of interesting explanations as to why Intel's re-entry into the discrete graphics market ran late and why optimising its drivers hasn't been easy.
Intel has been upfront about its driver performance in older DirectX games. In this video Koduri reiterates what Intel has been saying for months: that "optimizing for an API is a non-trivial amount of work." And that while there are games that are GPU bound, which run pretty fine without any optimisations, there are plenty of DX11 games that tend to be CPU bound. The solution here is to produce multithreaded drivers to make the most of the hardware available, and again that ain't easy.
This is all complicated by the fact that Intel's drivers have traditionally focused on its integrated graphics. As Koduri explains, integrated graphics "don't have much die area and have limited memory bandwidth, so you become GPU limited very easily." Leading to Intel's driver optimisations to focus on GPU-bound situations. Now that it's dealing with discrete graphics that isn't the case anymore though, and so a lot of work has had to be done to get older games running optimally and at the speeds we'd expect from a $330 graphics card.
The good news for anyone looking to pick up an Intel graphics card is that Raja is confident, "Our drivers will get there."
This confirms a sentiment shared with us by Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, who recently said they'd fixed, "the majority of the software stack issues." Given Intel has been very open about performance in older games, it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out when the cards are actually released.
You don't have long to wait to see if Intel's work has paid off.
-
Fresh tips, helpful tricks, and even full guides made to help you with today's Wordle are all waiting for you below, and if you would just like to see the answer to the October 5 (473) puzzle with the minimum amount of fuss then you'll find that here too.
This one felt a little trickier as I was going through it than it actually was, the mix of yellows and one vital green revealing themselves in a way that made visualising the final answer difficult—I was overthinking something that turned out to be quite simple.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Wednesday, October 5
You'll need to think of different types of land to get today's answer. This is the sort of low-lying area that's soggy and boggy all the time—and it's not covered in water-loving trees but tall grasses instead. There's just one vowel 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 473 answer?
Some days are tougher than others. The answer to the October 5 (473) Wordle is MARSH.
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 4: BOUGH
- October 3: STING
- October 2: TWINE
- October 1: LEAVE
- September 30: SCORN
- September 29: SCALD
- September 28: USURP
- September 27: SOGGY
- September 26: BRISK
- September 25: ADMIT
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.
-
I'm not usually one to say such things, but hot damn, Corsair just dropped one of the hottest looking ultra-thin keyboards I've ever seen. The K100 Air was just announced and it's a beautiful looking piece of kit with a brushed aluminium frame and ultra low profile keys. This might be the most stylish keyboard we see released all year, and it looks like it'll fit the bill for PC gaming and typing.
This keyboard looks so low profile that it would easily be at home on any desk and add a layer of class. Corsair boasts the K100 Air is only 11mm thick at its thinnest point, and the keys barely appear to go much higher than that in the images. This combined with that cool brushed metal finish and metal grey keys means this keyboard looks super slick, and the specs are equally nice.
Those low profile keys are none other than Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile key switches which are some of the most popular on the market. Cherry make great feeling, durable switches which have long passed the test of time. These switches can be found in many of our favourite mechanical keyboards, including our front runner for typing, the Ducky One 3. It's fairly easy to have confidence that this keyboard should feel great to use, even with such recessed keys.
The Corsair K100 Air supports slipstream wireless as well as Bluetooth connections, or you can just use it wired. It can be connected to a few devices at once and is built to deliver gaming level response times and performance. Those who love to game on mac style boards, or laptop keyboards are likely in for a real treat. There's a clear bent that this keyboard is aimed towards gamers, with a little bit of added chic.
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 audioThis means it also comes complete with some RGB backlighting which nicely illuminates the title of each key. It sounds like Corsair has gone pretty hard with the options here, stating there are 20 complex hardware RGB lighting layers working at once, though it's hard to know exactly what that means.
Sounds like there'll be plenty of customisation for those willing to sacrifice the battery life to get it. With the lights on, Corsair promises up to 50 hours of battery life, or you can turn them off to get up to 200 hours.
Aside from that the K100 Air looks to sport all the other bells and whistles you'd expect from a higher-end keyboard. It can support macros, save profiles, remap keys, and hopefully even be typed on. Of course, that sleek design and feature complete pedigree does come with a price to match. Corsairs K100 Air will set you back $279.99 USD for the honour of having something so good looking sit on your desk.
-
Amidst the surprise whirlwind of CD Projekt's major announcements today came a smaller but still very significant piece of internal news. Marcin Iwiński, who co-founded the studio in 1994 and currently serves as its co-CEO, is stepping down.
"For me, this is a huge moment. I've been at CD Projekt for almost 30 years and I have seen it go from a handful of passion-driven rebels to an internationally recognized developer of story-driven role playing games loved by millions globally," Iwiński wrote in his farewell message. "Back when Michał Kiciński and I founded the company, I don't think either of us would have been able to imagine this incredible journey, not even in our wildest dreams.
"When I think about the future of CD Projekt, it is so exciting for me. Today, the company consists of over 1,200 people across offices all over the world. But CD Projekt has never been about physical place or scale—it's all about the huge amount of talent we have, and the hard work and dedication of everyone who chooses to work here."
While Iwiński is stepping down from his chief executive role, he's not leaving the company. Instead, he's going to become chairman of CD Projekt's supervisory board, which oversees the activities of CD Projekt Capital Group—separate from the board of directors—and will of course also remain a major shareholder in the company.
"In my new non-executive role I will remain active and engaged dedicating my focus on supporting the entire management board," he said. "I will also remain connected to the core of what makes us special, which is making the best storytelling games in the world and doing right by gamers."
A message from Marcin Iwiński ― co-founder and Joint CEO of CD PROJEKT. pic.twitter.com/NTp7F9RcFwOctober 4, 2022
See moreThat last point, "doing right by gamers," feels particularly salient given CD Projekt's recent history. The massively anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 was such a mess at launch that it completely derailed the studio's plans for updates and new content, and badly damaged CD Projekt's reputation among fans. But it's continued to work on the game over the past two years, bringing it to at least a point of respectable functionality, and player counts and sales have both bounced back accordingly. Cyberpunk 2077 is still no Witcher 3, but it's no longer a wholesale humiliation, either.
CD Projekt also announced today that it is opening a new studio in Boston that, along with its current operation in Vancouver, will be known as CD Projekt Red North America. The new operation will be independent from The Molasses Flood, the Boston-based developer of The Flame in the Flood that CD Projekt acquired in 2021, and will enable CD Projekt "to fully tap into the North American talent pool."
Continued growth is going to be very important to CD Projekt's long-term plans. The studio also announced today that it has plans for a new Witcher trilogy to be released over a span of six years (which seems ridiculously optimistic), two more Witcher spin-off games, a full-scale Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and an entirely original new project of some sort—all of that on top of the current work being done on Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher next-gen upgrade, and whatever it is that The Molasses Flood is doing. That's a hell of a slate for any studio, much less one that's historically struggled to finish one game at a time.
-
It took ten years, but the European Parliament has voted to pass a law requiring all small to medium-sized electronic devices sold in the EU to have USB Type-C charging ports by 2024. By 2026, the same charging rules will apply to laptops.
The single charging solution is the driver of the Radio Equipment Directive. This legislation comes as "part of a broader EU effort to reduce e-waste and to empower consumers to make more sustainable choices," according to their press release.Under the new directive, customers will have the option to buy electronic devices up to 100W with or without a power adapter. This also forces companies away from designing products with propriety power chargers and charging cables, which make the consumer, in Parliament's words, "dependent on a single manufacturer." Anyone with an iPhone or an older Macbook knows exactly what's being targeted here.
The directive also ensures manufacturers must not "unjustifiably limit the charging speed and will help to ensure that charging speed is the same when using any compatible charger for a device." That means a company can't slow down the charging of its device if you decide to use a charger other than the one it provided or sold.
Cooling off(Image credit: Cooler Master, EKWB)Best AIO cooler for CPUs: All-in-one, and one for all... components.
Best CPU air coolers: CPU fans that don't go brrr.In the past decade, the European Commission has worked with phone manufacturers to reduce the number of chargers for mobile phones from 30 to three. According to the release, unused phone chargers reportedly contribute to over 11,000 tons of e-waste every year.
This new law is intended to reduce the number of people that just throw out their chargers every time they buy a new device. The European Commission also projects that consumers could save up to 250 million Euros annually on "unnecessary charger purchases.""We have waited more than ten years for these rules, but we can finally leave the current plethora of chargers in the past, wrote Parliament rapporteur Alex Agius Saliba. "These are difficult times for politics, but we have shown that the EU has not run out of ideas or solutions to improve the lives of millions in Europe and inspire other parts of the world to follow suit."
-
Here we are in the dystopian future where major game announcements aren't made in front of crowds of cheering fans at a packed E3 but in some Twitter slides of a group strategy update for long-term product outlooks. Instead of feeling goosebumps on your arms as the orchestra swells for a bombastic teaser trailer, maybe you can hear the sound of a stock ticker reporting marginal daily gains. Feel the rush, videogame fans!
That's how we learned today that another Cyberpunk 2077 game, codenamed Orion, is in the works. Or at least it's going to be in the works. We honestly don't know much more, except for this statement: "Orion is a codename for our next Cyberpunk game, which will take the Cyberpunk franchise further and continue harnessing the potential of this dark future universe."
If the announcement itself lacks drama, at least the timing is excellent: Cyberpunk 2077 is experiencing an upswell in interest, praise, and player numbers following the arrival of the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime series. The game has also received some pretty big updates to over the past year that have squashed bugs and added long-requested features.
But we can't forget the absolute toilet of a launch Cyberpunk 2077 experienced when it was released in 2020. I don't mean in sales—it sold a ton, and continues to. I mean in CD Project's decision to say the game was done and then sell it in an unfinished state after forcing its workers to crunch and then blaming them for the glaring issues.
How can CD Projekt avoid all that with Orion? Here's a few lessons to be learned from the original Cyberpunk 2077.
Just call it an Early Access game
Most of the rage, disappointment, and unhappiness stemming from the original Cyberpunk 2077 could have been alleviated by two simple words: Early Access. That's what Cyberpunk 2077 was: an unfinished game that needed at least another two years of development. I've said it before, and I guess I'll keep saying it because I'm still annoyed that CDP wasn't just upfront about it.
I'm sure truthfully labeling the original Cyberpunk 2077 as an Early Access game would have meant fewer sales initially, since many gamers are skeptical (and rightly so) of Early Access. But it would have solved a lot of problems: CD Projekt could have started making money from a game that had been in development for almost a decade, everyone's expectations would have been tempered, impatient fans could have had a chance to play it immediately, others could have happily waited for the 1.0 version (coming in mid-2023), and it would have taken a great deal of pressure off the people working on the game.
Also, y'know, it would have been honest.
And when I was playing a mission where I was pursued by the cops and those cops instantly vanished the moment I turned my head, my reaction wouldn't have been "Wow, this game is trash." It would have been, "Haha, early access!"
Build a smaller world with more in it
(Image credit: CD Projekt)The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is huge. Huge! It's also startlingly empty. There is definitely something alluring about a massive open world where the borders feel like they stretch for miles, and I remember feeling deeply impressed by just how much Cyberpunk 2077 was in Cyberpunk 2077. I spent a lot of time just hitting the road and exploring.
But that was very rarely rewarding. Cyberpunk 2077 turned out to be a world with a lot to look at but not much to really do. I had a good time while I was playing quests, but taking a break to see what else the world offered rarely resulted in anything tangible. The city is full of robotic NPCs and random activities are nearly all identical gang fights, but I found very little that didn't feel completely artificial. You know why your phone rings constantly while you're driving around? Because if it didn't there'd be nothing to do but drive. Bigger isn't necessarily better, and Cyberpunk Orion should feature a smaller world but one with more to do in it.
Create a compelling main character
(Image credit: CD Projekt)V isn't a great main character—at least in comparison to CDP's other leading man, Geralt (of Rivia). When the Cyberpunk anime series was first announced, was anyone clamoring to see V in it? Did anyone cry "Who is going to play V?" I don't think so, and maybe that's a sign your main character is a forgettable dud. I mean, imagine if The Witcher TV series didn't bother featuring Geralt. The world would have burned.
I guess just about anyone would be overshadowed by the presence of Keanu Reeves, but that's not an excuse for writing a boring and underwhelming main character, especially since there were a lot of interesting and well-written characters in the game. Choosing your background turned out to be entirely inconsequential as players were funneled into the main story within minutes of the introduction. I shouldn't have to open photomode and apply poses to V just to have some fun with him. With Orion, spend more effort making your player feel like they're the star, instead of just giving them a star to hang out with.
Don't tack on multiplayer unless there's a good reason
(Image credit: CD Projekt)Multiplayer was announced for Cyberpunk 2077, and then later we were told it would be a post-launch feature, and… well, we haven't heard anything since. As far as I can tell it wasn't officially canceled but CDP hasn't mentioned it ever again. This tells me it's probably canceled, but also that it wasn't all that important to the game to begin with. It's too bad: I could definitely see the appeal of multiplayer, particularly with the invasion-like systems you see in Watch Dogs or Dark Souls, or co-op shenanigans like the Far Cry series or Dying Light 2.
But multiplayer isn't essential for an open world RPG, and if there's not a great reason for it don't tack it on just to add a bullet to the feature list. An underwhelming or uninteresting multiplayer mode isn't going to do much for the longevity of an RPG, and Cyberpunk 2077 is fine (and currently flying) without it. Multiplayer an easy promise to make, but don't make it and then have to break it.
On the other hand, we don't know anything about Orion and probably won't for several years. Maybe Orion is a multiplayer Cyberpunk game, full-stop? In that case, ignore what I just said.
Go third-person
(Image credit: CD Projekt)Play to your strengths, right? The shooting in Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't particularly good, you weren't confident enough in the driving to make it first-person-only, third-person worked great with The Witcher, and since Cyberpunk is sort of trying to be GTA anyway, you might as well go all the way. And frankly, in a game about looking cool and stylish, it'd be nice to actually see my character once in a while without having to hunch over the bathroom sink.
-
Overwatch 2's launch on Tuesday has so far been less of a launch and more of a line: thousands of players, including a few at PC Gamer, have been stuck in a lengthy login queue, only to run into a connection error after making it to the menu. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra tweeted this afternoon that this isn't just the result of too many players trying to get in—Overwatch 2 is currently suffering a DDoS attack.
"Unfortunately we are experiencing a mass DDoS attack on our servers," Ybarra wrote. "Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage. This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues."
This isn't Blizzard's first DDoS rodeo: we've reported on DDoS issues affecting Battle.net and World of Warcraft in 2020, 2019, and years prior. A DDoS attacker who targeted WoW in 2010 even got jail time for knocking the MMO offline.
With an overwhelming amount of traffic pummeling Blizzard's servers, it may be hours until Overwatch 2's login issues smooth out; we'll update with more when we have it.
How Overwatch 2's competitive ranks work
in Gaming News
Posted
Overwatch 2 has made some changes to how its competitive ranked mode works. It's close to the original game, but tries to emphasize consistently good play over several matches rather than success in an individual match.
Overwatch 2 has two ranked modes: Role Queue and Open Queue—both require winning 50 games or having owned the original game to unlock. Role queue locks your team composition to one tank hero, two damage heroes, and two support heroes. You select the roles you want to queue for, play matches, and get an individual rank for each role. Open Queue is a free-for-all like Overwatch at launch back in 2016. You can choose any hero in any role and receive one universal rank.
At the start of each competitive season, you have to complete a number of matches before you receive your rank. You will be unranked until you achieve seven wins or 20 losses, whichever comes first. If you played competitive modes in Overwatch 1, your rank will be close to what it was but modified for all the new changes in the sequel.
This system replaces the original game's placement matches. It encourages you to simply play consistently over several matches instead of treating every one like a school test where you have to perform your absolute best.
For the entirety of the season, your rank will only update when you've hit the seven wins or 20 losses threshold again.
All the ranked skill tiers
Ranks are broken up into seven medals that represent each skill tier. Each one has five numerical divisions within it that ascend until you break into the next highest tier. So if you're Gold 1 and win seven games, you'll move up into Platinum 5.
The ranks break down like this:
Two weeks into every season will mark the release of the Top 500 leaderboard and rank icon—and if the season has a new hero, they will become available to play in ranked. Top 500 is a shifting list of 500 of the highest ranked players. Top 500 doesn't require you to be in a certain rank to qualify for it; it's a snapshot of whoever is at the top. But it does require you to play 25 matches in Role Queue or 50 in Open Queue first. And because it's only 500 players out of what is probably thousands of players in total, it will largely consist of Grandmaster and Master players.
If you take an extended break from playing, the invisible MMR, or matchmaking rating, will decay, or be lowered, to place you in easier games in case you're a bit rusty. Blizzard said your MMR will adjust faster than normal during this period to get you back on track.
How groups work in competitive modes
Overwatch 2's competitive modes have some limitations on playing in groups. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond players can group up with any number of people within two skill tiers of them. Master players can also group up with any number of people, but they have to be within one skill tier from them.
Everything gets more strict in the two highest roles. Grandmaster players can group up with one player within three skill divisions of them. And Top 500 players can only group with one player that is also in the Top 500 in their region.
How competitive ranked rewards work
Overwatch 2's competitive rewards are a little different now too. There are competitive points for buying your favorite heroes' golden weapons (3,000 competitive points each), and titles to put on your name card in the following season.
For every game you win you'll receive 15 competitive points, and for every draw you get five.
Your highest rank across Role Queue and Open Queue at the end of the season will reward you with a chunk of competitive points via a competitive challenge associated with it. Here's how many competitive points you'll get, along with the associate title rewards:
You get titles for completing a number of competitive games too:
View the full article