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This is the Chungus 2, a fully working PC built inside Minecraft—so you can play Minecraft while you play Minecraft. But that's not all it does, oh no.
Also known as the Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit, this machine is the lowest spec thing I think I've ever written about. But hats off to project lead Sammyuri and team for managing to push Minecraft redstone crafting to new heights.
Essentially what we're looking at here is a virtual machine, only these utter ballers painstakingly crafted the components using the tools Minecraft has to offer—along with a healthy helping of code—and put them together in-game.
"Built over a period of many many months, with a significant amount of planning and dedication," the video says in a rather swift wall-of-text splash screen.
It then goes on to detail an important disclaimer:
"Some viewers, for example those used to videos of simpler farms and piston doors, may not be able to comprehend the scale of this build and may suffer adverse affects including but not limited to having their minds blown in spectacular fashion."
Honestly, it is pretty mind-blowing watching all the components chugging along in real time, so we thought we'd bring you the specs so you can see what they managed to scrape together using Minecraft materials alone.
CHUNGUS 2 CPU specs8 bit data, 16 bit fixed size instruction length
1Hz clock speed, 4 stage instruction pipeline (fetch - decode - execute - writeback)
64 byte automatic 8-way associative data cache and 256 bytes RAM
Up to 256 addressable I/O ports
7 general purpose registers
Over 40 ALU functions, including a hardware barrel shifter, multiplier, divider and square rooter
32x128 byte program pages for a total of 4KiB program storageThe CPU runs at 1Hz, and the AMOGUS (Absurdly Massive Operator of Graphics) graphics processor packs just 6KB of graphics memory. It's sure as hell not about to win a place in our best gaming PC guide, though I'm very tempted to sneak it in there when my boss isn't looking.
The 96 x 64p resolution is garbage by modern standards, and the graphics are rendered in only two colours: brown, and brown. But what did I expect? The main thing is that it works. You can craft, smelt, take fall damage, and all that good Minecraft stuff, even if you do need to be superhuman to tell what half the things on the screen are.
Of course one of the top comments is "Can it play Doom?" And although there's no evidence of that, I can tell you it runs Tetris, Snake, Conways Game of Life, and even renders Mandlebrot sets.
Sammyuri cites Mumbo Jumbo specifically "for inspiring me to begin my redstone journey back in 2013." From there they learned computer architecture and how to build it in Minecraft from the ORE Minecraft server community, and they encourage anyone looking to learn the trade to head over and check it out.
So here's a nod to Sammyuri, Uwerta, StackDoubleFlow for putting the Chungus together, and to Dimdom10 for running the server and helping to render some of their work. May they be forever immortalised as the bringers of Minecraftception, even if the r/Minecraft mods team decided to remove their post and lock the comments section.
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Anyone who's played Overwatch will know how hero flexibility can make or break a match. Reinhardt isn't going to have much fun swinging his hammer at a troublesome Pharah 30 feet in the air, but switch to Roadhog mid-match and you can chuck your hook at her and bring her tumbling to the ground for an easy kill. So why oh why is Overwatch 2 planning to lock new heroes behind its battle passes?
That's the question fans have been asking after a leak on the game's store page revealed that Kiriko, the first support hero to be added since 2019, has to be unlocked by either purchasing the premium battle pass or grinding your way through the free track. While that info was pulled from the page pretty quickly, Blizzard vice president Jon Spector then took to Twitter to confirm everyone's fears: it's actually happening. "Addressing some incomplete info posted early about our Overwatch 2 battle pass," he wrote. "We'll be sharing all details ahead of launch, but want to confirm that new Overwatch 2 heroes will be available on the free track of the battle pass."
But what if you don't pay for the battle pass and don't reach the hero on the free track, or don't play at all during that particular battle pass period? Spector says the game "will have free paths to get new heroes in future seasons too," which isn't exactly very clear. It could mean that heroes will always be available on battle pass tracks, though that seems highly unlikely. The most likely answer seems that they'll be brought back on future battle passes when there's a hero lull in order to fill the gap.
Addressing some incomplete info posted early about our Overwatch 2 Battle Pass – we'll be sharing all details ahead of launch, but want to confirm that new Overwatch 2 heroes will be available on the free track of the Battle Pass.September 8, 2022
See moreUnderstandably, the news has caused some concern amongst fans. With a game that, traditionally, has relied so heavily on switching heroes mid-match to counter the enemy team, I can't imagine a world where asking someone to switch to Kiriko gets met with the response, "Sorry I never unlocked them!"
It does feel like Overwatch 2 is heading in a direction that drops the emphasis on team synergy and abilities, something which made the first game so damn endearing. In my brief time with its two betas, I got the impression it was more of an 'everyone for themselves' vibe, falling more in line with your typical shooter. It's a bummer, a design direction I'm not personally a fan of.
It's not yet known just how grindy it'll be to pick up new heroes if you're not jazzed about dumping money into the battle pass. Hopefully, unlocking them shouldn't take too much work, though we won't know until the game releases on October 4.
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Yesterday India's transport minister is said to have announced Intel would be building a chipmaking fab in the country. Big news, right? Um, no. Actually, Intel isn't doing anything of the sort.
According to a statement from Intel received by Reuters, the company says it has no current plans to build a manufacturing facility in the country.
This comes at a time when Intel is investing large sums of money into the chipmaking side of its business. Some of that money is coming from the recently passed CHIPS and Science Act, a US initiative to beef up domestic semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and that means it will be invested into US-based facilities and fabs. It also means that Intel is banned from investing that money in places that the US government doesn't see fit to receive it, namely China.
Though Intel does have other cash to spend on chipmaking, and it has other fabs and assembly facilities outside of the US, including in Ireland, Israel, Costa Rica, and Malaysia.
Intel is also building a major chipmaking fab in Germany, which will be joined by other new or improved facilities in the EU.
Yet nothing in India and apparently no plans to build there yet. That's despite India's best efforts to lure semiconductor companies to that region of the world. India's government recently announced a $10B plan to attract semiconductor and display manufacturers to the country, essentially aiming to cut down costs for any would-be investor.
According to journalist Debby Qu, however, Intel may end up expanding in some capacity in India, in a roundabout way. I know, that's exactly the opposite of what the company has said, but reportedly a consortium made up of multiple companies including Tower Semiconductor—a company recently acquired by Intel—agreed to invest $3B in a chip fabrication plant in the Indian state of Karnataka. Though the future of that investment may be up in the air for now.
In May though, a consortium including Tower Semiconductor said it will invest 229 billion rupees ($3 billion) in a chip fabrication plant in the southwest Indian state of Karnataka. A bit unclear what will happen to that.September 8, 2022
See moreThough there's one thing that's very clear: governments are desperate to lure chipmakers to their shores, and when it comes down to it, that ultimately means a battle of who can woo a chipmaker more (throw more cash and subsidies at them).
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Hardware upscaling has been the surprise hit for this generation of GPUs. Being able to render at a lower resolution equates to higher frame rates, and as long as the final image looks right, everyone is a winner. Maybe not that surprising a hit after all really.
Nvidia's DLSS may have got the ball rolling, but AMD is catching up and it keeps improving its FidelityFX Super Resolution too. If you need proof, it's just announced that FSR 2.1 is available right now.
AMD has shown off the new version of FSR 2.1 running in Farming Simulator 22 alongside FSR 2.0 for comparison, and it looks significantly better, with far less ghosting in the newer version. This is all thanks to some significant changes to the underlying algorithm specifically designed to reduce artifacts such as ghosting and shimmering. There's still some ghosting visible (especially when zoomed in), but it's certainly better.
The good news is that while the algorithm has changed, developers should find it relatively straightforward to update their games. "The application-side FSR 2 API has not changed, so updating to FSR 2.1 from 2.0 should be simple."
AMD has already updated the FSR 2 source code to move over to FSR 2.1 and updated the Unreal Engine plugins so developers can upgrade to FSR 2.1 straight away. Speedy work.
AMD has also taken this opportunity to highlight how quickly FSR 2 is being picked it. A total of 45 games either already support the tech or will do shortly. AMD lists a total of 20 games that are currently available, with another 25 on the way. Those up-and-coming games include Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, and Saints Row among many others.
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Nvidia has just confirmed that it will be kicking off its GTC keynote with CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, opening it with a GeForce Beyond Special Broadcast. The effusive co-founder had already outlined that he would be sharing details about its new GeForce GPU architecture back on the company's last financial call, and with a teasing #projectbeyond tweet sent out earlier it almost confirmed that we'd have new RTX 40-series deets.
But Nvidia has now confirmed the broadcast will show off the company's "latest breakthroughs in gaming, creating, and graphics technology."
Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) has not historically been a particularly GeForce, or gaming-focused event. This September show appears to be different, however, with the gaming goods being put front and centre before all the AI and datacentre stuff gets rolled out.
The caveat to that is we're only expecting Jen-Hsun to be holding up a bulky RTX 4090 graphics card at the even, which, if RTX 3090/Ti tradition sticks with the new generation of GPUs, will likely be a hyper-expensive, ultra-enthusiast class graphics card.
That means it's not really for the gamers, but mostly designed for the professional users who can't afford to go the whole hog and pick up a Quadro GPU for heavy rendering workloads.
So, expect a ton of CUDA cores, loads of memory, and a heinously expensive price tag. But we're used to those by now, right?
(Image credit: Nvidia)
Still, Nvidia will sell them all, and likely to a whole bunch of gamers with fat wallets who will pay whatever it costs to have the latest and greatest.
You can watch it all play out live on September 20 via Nvidia's Twitch and GeForce YouTube channels, starting at 8am PDT (4pm UK).
Rumored RTX 40 series specs RTX 4090 RTX 4080 RTX 4070 GPU AD102-300 AD103-300 AD104-400 CUDA Cores 16384 9728 7680 Base Clock 2235 N/A N/A Boost Clock 2520 N/A N/A Memory Bus 384-bit 256-bit 192-bit Memory Type 24GB GDDR6X 16GB GDDR6X 12GB GDDR6X Memory Speed 21Gbps 23Gbps 21Gbps TDP 450W 340W 285W -
The best builds in Elden Ring(Image credit: FromSoftware)
Elden Ring bleed builds
Elden Ring faith builds
Elden Ring strength builds
Elden Ring mage buildsWant to try some fun Elden Ring builds? Now that the game has been out for a while, one of the best ways to experience it again is to create a fun themed build. Maybe there’s a character in the game that you want to roleplay as, or you just want to see whether an idea you had is actually viable.
Do you want to beat bosses with a giant horn? Use vampiric powers to turn Elden Ring into Bloodborne? Or just run a treasure hunter build that makes a full collection playthrough that much easier? The amount of variety in terms of weapons, armour, talismans, and Ashes of War really lets you experiment with your setup.
And when each playthrough allows you to re-spec multiple times using Larval Tears, there isn’t anything holding you back. That said, here are some of the best weird and fun Elden Ring builds.
The best fun Elden Ring builds
(Image credit: FromSoftware)Lord of the Honks
Weapons: Envoy’s Longhorn
Talismans: Shard of Alexander, Godfrey Icon, Carian Filigreed Crest, Sacred Scorpion Charm
Armour: Envoy’s Crown
Stat spread: Faith, Strength, MindWhile exploring Leyndell you’ll have come across the Oracle Envoys: white blob creatures who play horns and attack you with bubbles. But did you know you can get their horns as a weapon? There are three altogether, wielded by Envoys of different sizes, but the one I'm looking at in this build is the Envoy’s Longhorn. Though not as hard to get as the Envoy’s Greathorn, its bubble shooting skill is far better and absolutely melts large bosses.
You can get the horn from the mid-sized Envoy on Leyndell’s Ramparts and you can boost its bubble skill damage with talismans like the Shard of Alexander and the Godfrey Icon. The Carian Filigreed Crest also reduces the amount of FP each bubble burst costs, letting you do it more. You’ll also want to prioritise faith and strength for the Envoy’s Longhorn. Lastly, to fully commit to the concept, you can get the Envoy’s Crown headpiece at the Haligtree as well as summon ashes that let you call some of the little guys.
Bestial Sling Shotgun
Weapons: Two Clawmark Seals or one Clawmark Seal and one Frenzied Flame Seal
Talismans: Radagon Icon, Godfrey Icon, Flock's Canvass Talisman
Armour: The heaviest set you can wear while still having a medium roll.
Stat spread: Dexterity, Mind, Strength, EnduranceFurther continuing the trend of cursed PvP builds, credit to Gigasthiccas for discovering that by reducing spell cast time with 40 dexterity and the Radagon Icon, while alternating between two sacred seals, you can cast Bestial Sling at an alarming rate. Bestial Sling is already a very good PvP spell, but this build basically turns you into a shotgun.
If you don't have two Clawmark Seals, you can use the Frenzied Flame seal since it has similarly good scaling and will benefit from all that dex you're boosting for cast time reduction. For other talismans, Godrey Icon will enhance the charged version of Bestial Sling, while Flock's Canvass Talisman grants a damage buff to all incantations.
For this to work you'll need a fair bit of FP, but as you can see in the video above, the key is alternating between each seal as you cast. Though this build isn't so good for PvE, the physical damage still staggers enemies so you can get critical attacks in. With that in mind it might be worth equipping the Dagger Talisman and pairing this with a high crit weapon.
The Wall
Weapons: Fingerprint Stone Shield or any other dual-wield high-damage reduction greatshields
Talismans: Great Jar's Arsenal, Dragoncrest Greatshield, Greatshield Talisman, Bull-Goat's Talisman
Armour: Bull-Goat set or any heavy set you want
Stat spread: Strength, Endurance, VigorOur first build is inspired by Grimmy's amazing PvP "The Wall" build. Essentially you wear the heaviest armor you can and lug around two massive, high-damage reduction greatshields, using the bash to deal with anything that gets in your way. I can't vouch for its viability in regards to actual bosses, but either way, you're going to need a lot of stamina, health, equip load, and damage reduction to pull it off.
Great Jar's Arsenal will give you lots more equip load, Dragoncrest Greatshield reduces physical damage, and the Greatshield and Bull-Goat Talismans will make it harder to interrupt you and easier to guard. If you want to add another layer to this you could try making some Iron-Jar Aromatic perfumes for their damage reduction, since you'll be moving slow anyway, or add the Speckled and Leaden Hardtears to your Wondrous Physick for some increased defense.Mech Suit
Weapons: Any hand weapon with Ash of War: Bloodhound's Step attached
Casting: Frenzied Flame Seal and Dragon Communion Seal
Spells: Unendurable Frenzy, Frenzied Burst
Talismans: Flock's Canvass Talisman, Clarifying Horn Charm +1, Mottled Necklace +1, Stalwart Horn Charm +1
Armour: Silver Tear Mask for increased Arcane
Stat spread: Faith, Vigor, MindProbably my favorite weird PvP build to come out of Elden Ring is Adam Barker's mech suit in the video above; basically using everything to stay alive while you melt other players with Unendurable Frenzy. It's a great anti-invader tool to keep in your back pocket as a faith caster, because if they get too close and you use this, chances are they won't get away.
Adam Barker explains his exact setup in this video, but some of the key elements are the consumables, namely the perfumes; Ironjar Aromatic and Uplifting Aromatic. You need Arteria Leaf to craft the latter, but remember you can farm it from the troll by the Giants' Gravepost Site of Grace in Mountaintops of the Giants. You'll also want a Flask of Wondrous Physick with Cerulean Hidden Tear to eliminate FP consumption so you can keep the spell going, and Crimsonwhorl Bubbletear, which converts damage into HP and will stop you dying as quickly.
Once you use the Ironjar Aromatic, you'll be super slow, but that's where Bloodhound's Step comes in handy, since you'll have to be close to other players for Unendurable Frenzy to be effective. You could also equip the Radagon Icon or build dex to reduce cast time, which would make it easier to surprise players with the spell.(Image credit: FromSoftware)Drake Knight
Weapons: Bolt of Gransax, Dragon King's Cragblade, Eleonora's Poleblade, or any dex-scaling weapon with a lightning Ash of War attached
Casting: Dragon Communion Seal
Spells: Lightning Strike, Lansseax's Glaive, Honed Bolt, Lightning Spear, Vyke's Dragonbolt, plus dragon incantations depending on your arcane level
Talismans: Lightning Scorpion Charm, Flock's Canvas Talisman, Godfrey Icon, Roar Medallion or Radagon Icon
Armour: Drake Knight set
Stat spread: Dexterity, Faith, ArcaneThere's a whole backstory in Elden Ring about knights trying to wield the power of dragons and how that power corrupts. You see this with Eleonora is Yura's quest, and with all of the Magma Wyrms you encounter throughout the game, but as such, there are lots of great weapons and incantations for building your very own Drake Knight.
Since lightning damage scales with Dexterity, you'll want a dex-scaling weapon. Both Bolt of Gransax and the Dragon King's Cragblade are great choices and have some pretty thematic skills. If you're levelling Arcane to use dragon incantations as well as lightning, then Eleonora's Poleblade is another option. You could also just use a regular dex-scaling polearm or spear with a lightning Ash of War like Thunderbolt attached.
For spells, you'll likely want the Dragon Communion Seal if you're levelling Arcane, and then all of the lightning incantations you can get your hands on. Repeat cast spells like Lightning Strike and Honed Bolt will be especially powerful due to the casting time decrease you'll get from levelling Dexterity. You can decrease this even further with the Radagon Icon. The Lightning Scorpion Charm and Flock's Canvas Talisman will also give your lightning incantations a hefty damage boost.
If you choose to favor dragon incantations more, then you might want to equip the Roar Medallion to strengthen them. Alternatively, if you decide to use the weapon skills for Bolt of Gransax or Dragon King's Cragblade, you'll want the Godfrey Icon and the Shard of Alexander to make sure they're packing a punch. The final touch is the Drake Knight armor set that you can find in Farum Azula.
(Image credit: FromSoftware)Flaming Goat
Weapons: Butchering Knife with Ash of War: Lightning Ram
Casting: Giant's Seal
Spells: Fire's Deadly Sin, any other Fire Monk incantations
Talismans: Shard of Alexander, Godfrey Icon, Godskin Swaddling Cloth, Winged Sword Insignia
Armour: Imp Head (Elder), Bull-Goat Armor
Stat spread: Endurance, Vigor, Mind, FaithA while back there was an Elden Ring PvP build knocking around that involved setting yourself on fire and endlessly rolling towards your enemy. There are two key elements to this build: the Fire's Deadly Sin incantation, and Ash of War: Lightning Ram. When you set yourself on fire with the first, you'll damage anyone nearby, so you roll towards enemies with ram and do damage with both fire and lightning.
The only issue with this is you need a lot of health and mind to keep doing the skill and stay alive. I recommend using Butcher's Knife with Lightning Ram, because everytime it hits you'll get healed a little due to the weapon's ability. You can buff this even further with the Godskin Swaddling Cloth, and boost the attack power of those consecutive rolls with Winged Sword Insignia and its related talismans. You'll also need a lot of endurance if you want to wear the Bull-Goat armor, and some faith for the fire incantation. Honestly, this is a ridiculous build that's only really do-able in the endgame, but it's fun to mess around with.(Image credit: FromSoftware)Immortal Serpent
Weapons: Serpent-God’s Curved Sword dual-wield or Blasphemous Blade
Talismans: Taker’s Cameo, Godskin Swaddling Cloth, Assassin’s Crimson Dagger
Armour: Duelist Helm, Gravekeeper Cloak (Altered), Zamor Bracelets, Prophet Trousers
Stat spread: Dexterity, Strength, FaithA lot of the serpent god-related items in Elden Ring recover health when you kill enemies, so this build is all about becoming a vampire and healing yourself by getting aggressive. The Serpent-God’s Curved Sword restores health when you defeat an enemy, as does Rykard’s Blasphemous blade, so dual-wielding these can recover quite a bit. In terms of talismans, Taker’s Cameo restores HP for defeating foes, Godskin Swaddling Cloth on successive attacks, and Assassin’s Crimson Dagger when you perform a critical strike.
If you want to add one final layer to this vampiric build, get Malenia’s great rune, as that lets you regain health from enemies that have damaged you when you attack them straight after. Getting two Serpent-God’s Curved Swords would also make the most of the Godskin’s successive attack healing, but you’d need new game plus to grab a second. The final touch is the duelist armour, which has some great snakey details, especially if you alter the Gravekeeper Cloak.
(Image credit: FromSoftware)Necromancer
Weapons: Helphen’s Steeple, Death’s Poker, Rosus’ Axe, Ritual Death Spear, Grave Scythe, The Family Heads
Casting: Prince of Death’s Staff
Spells: Ancient Death Rancor, Explosive Ghostflame, Fia’s Mist
Talismans: Graven Mass Talisman, Radagon Icon, Magic Scorpion Charm
Armour: Royal Remains Helm, Night’s Cavalry Armor
Stat spread: Intelligence, Mind, and a combat stat for your chosen weapon.Death sorceries aren’t that good in comparison to a lot of the others in the game, but between the Deathbirds and the Tibia Mariners, there’s so much potential for a Necromancer build. You can pick any of the weapons above so long as there’s also an intelligence scaling. I went with Helphen’s Steeple because of its cool ghostflame infusion skill. For casting, the Prince of Death’s staff boosts the death sorceries you’ll be using, while Graven Mass Talisman, Radagon Icon, and Magic Scorpion charm buff your damage and casting speed.
The best death sorceries are Ancient Death Rancor, Explosive Ghostflame, and Fia’s Mist, though most of these are pretty late game. To be honest, this entire build is endgame considering how tough the Death Rite Birds are to kill. Finally, for some fun armour, there's the Royal Remains Helm and the Night’s Cavalry set, but anything works so long as it's spooky.
(Image credit: FromSoftware)Merchant of Madness
Weapons: Vyke’s War Spear
Casting: Frenzied Flame seal
Spells: Unendurable Frenzy, Frenzied Burst, Flame of Frenzy
Talismans: Godfrey Icon, Flock’s Canvas Talisman, Radagon Icon, Shard of Alexander
Armour: Nomadic Merchant’s Finery
Stat spread: Faith, Dexterity, and MindThe nomadic merchants are some of my favourite characters in the game, especially when you discover their connection to the Frenzied Flame and madness incantations. Vyke’s War Spear is weirdly the only madness-causing weapon in the game, so this is the sensible choice, and the Frenzied Flame Seal will boost your incantations. Frenzied Burst is an incredible PvP spell, while Flame of Frenzy and Unendurable Frenzy can stagger most enemies and bosses without much trouble.
Talisman-wise, Flock’s Canvas, the Godfrey Icon, and the Shard of Alexander will boost the damage of your incantations while also giving Vyke’s Frenzyflame Thrust a bit more oomph. The finishing touch is the amazing Merchant Finery outfit you can find in the hidden area behind the Cathedral of the Forsaken below Leyndell.
(Image credit: FromSoftware)Mushroom King
Weapons: Antspur Rapier, Scorpion’s Stinger, Serpentbone Blade, Venomous Fang
Casting: Frenzied Flame seal
Spells: Poison Mist, Pest Threads, Scarlet Aeonia
Talismans: Flock’s Canvas Talisman, Radagon Icon, Kindred of Rot’s Exultation
Armour: Mushroom Crown, Mushroom Chest, Mushroom Legs, Mushroom Arms
Stat spread: Arcane, Faith, Dexterity, MindPoison and Scarlet Rot aren’t quite as good as you’d expect them to be, but there are a lot of fun builds you can make with them. The Antspur Rapier is a fantastic weapon choice as it already has Scarlet Rot, but can also be infused with an ash of war to cause poison. The key to making this build viable is going to be stacking both Scarlet Rot and Poison at the same time, so this is important.
Part of this will be through incantations. The Dragon Communion seal is your best casting option due to Arcane-scaling, but Frenzied Flame Seal would also work. You’ll want the typical incantation-boosting talismans, except for Kindred of Rot’s Exultation, which buffs attack when you inflict Poison or Scarlet Rot. The final touch is the Mushroom set from the Seethewater Cave dungeon and the truly majestic Mushroom Crown from the Lake of Rot area.
(Image credit: FromSoftware)The Collector
Weapons: Regalia of Eochaid, Marais Executioner’s Sword, Pillory Shield
Talismans: Winged Sword Insignia, Carian Filigreed Crest, Shard of Alexander, Godfrey Icon
Armour: Black Hood, Briar Armor set
Stat spread: Arcane, Dexterity, StrengthIf you’re looking to run a collection playthrough and grab every item in Elden Ring, then this is an excellent build to try. It centres around the Eochaid weapons: Regalia and the Marais Executioner's Sword. Both of them scale with Arcane, improving your item discovery, but also have the Eochaid’s Dancing Blade skill that lets you blend bosses with a spinning magic sword. The key to strengthening this skill are the consecutive attack-boosting talismans such as the Winged Sword Insignia, Rotten Winged Sword Insignia, and Millicent's Prosthesis. Since every hit of the spinning blade buffs attack, it can rack up some nasty damage.
The other talismans listed will boost the skill’s damage and reduce its FP cost. Regalia of Eochaid is available relatively early in the game in the Gaol Cave dungeon, letting you use it before upgrading to the Marais once you beat Elemer. For armour, I chose the Black Hood and the Briar Set, as well as the Pillory Shield. It’s not a very good shield for anything other than buffing deathblight resistance, but it fits the whole escaped criminal vibe.
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The latest OBS Studio update is causing headaches for owners of Elgato's Stream Deck console.
OBS Studio 28, the latest version of the free broadcasting software used by streamers and content creators, introduces sweeping changes to the open source software. That includes some stellar new functionality, such as a brand new look, support for Nvidia's Background Removal tool, and 10-bit and HDR support. You can check out the full list of additional features and bug fixes over on the OBS Studio Github page, but it appears a promising overhaul of the excellent app.
The new version has also changed how OBS operates with the many plugins that deliver additional functionality or features to the software, however. Some of which have not yet been made functional with the new OBS Studio 28. You can find out the status of some popular plugins on the OBS Plugin Compatibility page.
In the case of Elgato's Stream Deck—the popular streaming shortcut device not to be confused with Valve's handheld PC—there is a new version of the console's plugin available to download that adds compatibility with the new OBS Studio 28. However, it has not yet been automatically rolled out to users.
"OBS Studio 28 is a major update that also changed the underlying plugin framework, requiring updates to all existing OBS Studio plugins, including the Elgato Stream Deck plugin," Elgato says.
"We are working towards rolling out this update via an auto update to everyone; in the meantime, the OBS Studio 28 compatible plugin must be manually installed…"
Details on how to install the plugin manually are available on Elgato's website here.
Some users are still running into some issues post-update, however, such as popular streamer Paladin Amber, who has instead reverted their install to OBS Studio 27 while these kinks in the software get ironed out.
This one’s for all my gaymers and streamers, the new @OBSProject update will break your @elgato streamdeck. The software update says it’s not compatible unless you update the stream deck and even once you’ve done that it still breaks it lmao so don’t update it.September 8, 2022
See moreStream machine(Image credit: Rode, Samson, Blue)Best microphone for gaming: make sure you're heard
Best webcams: be seen while you get your stream on
Best capture cards: lessen the load with a dedicated cardOver on the Elgato Support Twitter account thread for the plugin update there are reports of other users running into similar issues, though also as many others reporting everything's working as intended. Elgato recommends submitting a support ticket for further assistance if you need it.
I imagine the issue will be resolved swiftly, though sticking with an older version of OBS may be your best bet for the time being, especially if your income depends on streaming smoothly. Let someone else be the guinea pig for the release.
If you absolutely must have access to all those shiny new features then I would recommend you make sure to backup any scenes or profiles you might have on the app. That way you can restore them should you need to reinstall the application at any point. Better to be safe than sorry.
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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is the MMO's ninth expansion which will pluck us from the Shadowlands and drop us onto the mythical Dragon Isles. You can expect playable dragons, and rideable dragons, and playable dragons riding rideable dragons too. We'll be headed to the homeland of the dragons, where both Alliance and Horde will face some newly-awakened ancient mysteries.
Dragonflight doesn't have a firm release date yet, but it doesn't look like we'll have to wait until next year after all. There's plenty of information about the next expansion to go through, from new areas, races, interface updates, talent system changes, and of course, the Dragonflight beta. So if you're ready, here's what we know about World of Warcraft: Dragonflight so far.
Is there a WoW: Dragonflight beta?
Yes, the testing phase of Dragonflight switched from the alpha to the beta phase at the beginning of September. There's no sure method of getting into the alpha or beta phases for Dragonflight but if you want to be in with a chance, you should head over to the official Dragonflight website and hit the "Beta Opt-in" button, right at the bottom of the page.
When it was initially announced that Dragonflight was slated for a 2022 release there was some concern as up to that point, there had been no sign of any alpha testing. As it turns out, it was all part of the plan for a more focused testing period. Now that the alpha has finished and the beta is underway, everything looks to be on track for release later this year.
When is the WoW: Dragonflight release date?
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is set to release in 2022, sometime towards the end of the year—no exact date has yet been given. You can pre-purchase the expansion now too, which states that it will be available "on or before December 31, 2022".
That said, Wowhead spotted a post on Reddit which showed both the Dragonflight pre-patch and expansion release dates as October 25 and November 28 respectively. Other dates leaked in the same post have turned out to be correct, though personally speaking, I wouldn't start booking time off just yet.
Quick facts on WoW: Dragonflight
- Level cap: 70
- New playable race: Dracthyr, which are Dragons, obviously
- New mounts: Also dragons
- New zones: Four new zones, one new starter zone
- System overhauls: HUD rework, new talent system, professions updates
- Group content: Eight new dungeons and a new raid
- New race/class combinations
Dracthyr
(Image credit: Blizzard)WoW's new playable dragon race is also its own class
Yup, you can play as a dragon in the next WoW expansion. The Dracthyr have a draconic form and a humanoid form, both of which you can customize when creating your Dracthyr character.
Dragons are so special though, that Blizzard say they didn't really fit any of the existing classes. Dracthyr are getting their own unique playable class: the Evoker. All Dracthyr are Evokers and all Evokers are Dracthyr—though you can choose to be Horde or Alliance.
They have serious physical attacks like flying overhead with dragon breath, unleashing wind with their wings, and also their magical abilities which focus on ranged DPS or on healing.
Here are some other Dracthyr details:
- Dracthyr start at level 58.
- Dracthyr wear mail armor.
- They have their own starting zone.
- Two specialisations; a mid-range DPS and a healer.
Zones and story
(Image credit: Blizzard)WoW: Dragonflight's new zones and story
The new area coming in the Dragonflight expansion is the Dragon Isles, the homeland of dragonkind. It's divided into four new zones: Waking Shores, Ohn’ahran Plains, Azure Span, and the ancient Thaldraszus, the home of the new capital city Valdrakken.
The Dragon Isles were always a mysterious part of WoW's lore, and now you'll be flying face-first into all its ancient secrets. During the reveal stream, Blizzard explained that the Dragon Isles were the center of the dragon kingdom when the world was new. Long ago, the sundering of Azaroth into its continents sent magic into a dormant state that forced dragonkind to leave the Isles behind. No points for guessing that the elemental energy of dragons isn't staying dormant much longer.
In addition to dragons themselves, there are several other mortal races that you'll run into on the Isles. The half-giant elemental Djaradin are old enemies of the dragons. The walrus-like Tuskarr are making a return appearance as well. Blizzard also mention an old civilization of Centaurs living in the Isles.
Dragon riding
(Image credit: Blizzard)Dragon riding looks way better than flying
Dragonflight is really into dragons, so much that you won't just be able to play as one. You'll also have access to dragon riding, along with your own customizable dragon mount. Blizzard explained that this mount is customizable with different appearance unlocks (snouts, horns, colours, and more) and talent trees for making them fly further and faster.
WoW's game director, Ion Hazzikostas, has also confirmed that Dragon Riding unlocks will be account-wide. "We've talked about the philosophy of what should be character-specific progression, what should be progression that you, the human behind the keyboard, are making across your accounts. The convenience of traversal felt like one of those things—that's only fun to go in one direction. Having to re-unlock it on subsequent characters would not be terribly compelling."
Unlike flight as it exists in WoW so far, dragon riding is a bit more involved. It's a very different way of getting around Azeroth and Blizzard's developers talked about how momentum and gravity are coming into play with dragon riding, with all new animations for diving and barrel rolling around the Isles.
While it's not a replacement for traditional flying, dragon riding will allow you to take to the skies in the new Dragonflight zones. The ability to fly is usually only earned partway through an expansion and is gated behind a specific set of achievements. While the same will be true for Dragonflight, dragon riding means you won't have to rely on going everywhere on foot until that happens.
Updated professions
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)Dragonflight professions are getting an overhaul
Professions will be revamped for the new expansion. Blizzard has gone into detail on the new systems here—but I'll go over some of the most significant changes coming in Dragonflight. These are:
- Crafting Orders
- Specialisations
- Stats
- Quality
Crafting Orders will let you place orders for pretty much any craftable item in an "auction house-like interface". This essentially means that you will be able to customize an item to your liking with the reagents you choose but get someone else to craft it for you. Crafters that pick up these orders will get a small commission for their work.
Specialisations allow you to focus on a particular area of your chosen field. Not many details have been shared about how this will work but it sounds similar to the old system specialisations, such as having to choose between Goblin and Gnomish engineering.
Profession stats will offer four new ways to make your crafting more efficient, and you'll be able to equip gear to gain their bonuses.
The Dragonflight profession stats are:
- Inspiration: You have a x% chance to be inspired, crafting this recipe with extra skill.
- Resourcefulness: You have a x% chance to use fewer tradable reagents such as ore.
- Multicraft: You have a x% chance to craft additional items. Only works on recipes for stackable items.
- Crafting Speed: Crafting is x% faster.
Quality is also being introduced to professions. Crafted items, including consumables, will have five new Quality levels and this will be determined by the quality of the materials used, as well as your crafting stats and skill level. For gear, higher quality means a higher item level whereas consumables will have a longer duration or more charges.
Gathered materials such as herbs, ore, and leather will have three new quality levels which, in turn, will influence the quality of the item you craft with them.
New Dragonflight profession bag slot
We've already mentioned that professions are getting an overhaul, so you'll need plenty of space to keep the different crafting materials, especially now you'll be dealing with different qualities.
"Think like what the reagent bank tab is, back in your personal bank in town," said Ion Hazzikostas in a recent interview. "One of the first questions that came up and feedback from people on the team was 'I don't have any backspace as it is. This sucks. Please don't give me more junk to put in my bags.'"
The new professions bag won't be the same as those we're used to either—these will be much bigger. There's been no word on exactly how many slots it will have, but it seems you won't need to struggle to find somewhere to put all of your reagents. "Not literally endless, but the intent is: big," stated Hazzikostas.
Talent tree and UI overhaul
Talents are returning to their roots
Talent Trees are coming back, and look similar to their pre-Mists of Pandaria counterparts. Right now, you get to pick six talents for your specialisation, with a choice of three for each row. Dragonflight will bring back a more complex talent system.
Instead of each class getting a tree for all of their specs in Dragonflight, you'll have a main "class tree" and an additional "specialisation tree", depending on which role you're currently specced into. The neat thing about this is that it will give you loads more choice, and you'll be able to save profiles for different talent tree set-ups, so you can easily switch between them for different kinds of content.
Image 1 of 2Talent tree arriving in WoW: Dragonflight. (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)Image 2 of 2Current Shadowlands talent system. (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)The 18-year-old UI is getting revamped
There's no getting around the fact that World of Warcraft's UI looks its age and Dragonflight will introduce the first major revamp in nearly 18 years. The upcoming expansion will give the UI a cleaner, less cluttered look and allow you to move individual elements around the screen.
Like talents, you'll be able to save UI profiles, and you can even have a specific set-up load automatically for different specialisations. If you play a healer, for example, you'll generally want party or raid frames to be in an easily accessible spot on your screen, whereas a DPS player might prefer those frames to be off to the side and out of the way.
The UI overhaul isn't going to remove the need for WoW addons, but giving us the option of not being quite so reliant on them for basic customisation can only help our overall experience.
New Race/Class combos
Mages, priests, and rogues can be any race
Traditionally, classes are locked behind the race you choose, with some being far more strict than others—yes, I'm looking at you, druids. And while that will still be the case for many classes going into Dragonflight, you can choose any race you like if you want to play a mage, priest, or rogue.
The eight new race/class combinations are:
- Tauren mage
- Highmountain Tauren mage
- Highmountain Tauren priest
- Orc priest
- Tauren rogue
- Highmountain Tauren rogue
- Draenei rogue
- Lightforged Draenei rogue
Endgame
(Image credit: Blizzard)New Dragonflight dungeons
Eight new dungeons are arriving with Dragonflight. Four of these dungeons will unlock as you level through the Dragon Isles while the others will be available once you hit level 70. These are:
- Ruby Life Pools
- Brackenhide Hollow
- The Nokhud Offensive
- Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
- Neltharus
- The Azure Vault
- Halls of Infusion
- Algeth'ar Academy
The changing Mythic+ pool
The Mythic+ dungeon pool is also changing in Dragonflight. Similar to Shadowlands Season 4, older dungeons from previous expansions will join the dungeon lineup, with Dragonflight dungeons rotating in or out of the Mythic+ dungeon pool each season.
It's important to note that this doesn't apply to normal, heroic or mythic dungeon difficulties, so you can access all eight Dragonflight dungeons on these lower difficulties throughout the entire expansion.
The first Dragonflight raid
The first raid in Dragonflight will be Vault of the Incarnates with eight bosses to go up against. These are:
- Eranog
- Terros
- The Primalist Council
- Sennarth, The Cold Breath
- Dathea, Ascended
- Kurog Grimtotem
- Broodkeeper Diurna
- Raszageth the Storm-Eater
In the current and previous expansions, raid bosses generally drop gear of the same item level, with instances where the last two raid bosses reward slightly higher loot. But looking at the encounter journal in the Dragonflight beta, it seems that raid bosses in Vault of the Incarnates will drop better loot the further you progress.
These may change before the Dragonflight launch, later this year, but this is how the item levels for Vault of the Incarnates look currently:
- Eranog: 385 (LFR), 398 (normal), 411 (heroic), 424 (mythic)
- Terros, The Primalist Council, Sennarth The Cold Breath: 388 (LFR), 401 (normal), 414 (heroic), 427 (mythic)
- Dathea Ascended, Kurog Grimtotem: 392 (LFR), 405 (normal), 418 (heroic), 431 (mythic)
- Broodkeeper Diurna, Raszageth the Storm-Eater: 395 (LFR), 408 (normal), 421 (heroic), 434 (mythic)
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)World quests, Renown, and Dragon Racing
As far as the rest of the endgame activities go, it all seems to be pretty relaxed so far. Sure, you'll have Renown to grind (Dragonflight's take on reputation) with the different factions but the rewards you get won't be vital for gearing up or increasing your character's power. Instead, there is a mixture of cosmetic rewards, pets, dragon customizations, or perks to make your time adventuring in that specific zone easier.
World quests will also return in Dragonflight, and you'll have the chance to show off your dragon riding skills against other players in Dragon Races that are available in some of the zones.
Group loot should be returning for raids
Personal loot might have solved many problems with players unfairly distributing loot via the old Master Loot system but it brings its own set of issues. Thankfully, it looks like Group Loot will be returning as an option in Dragonflight, for raids at least.
The hope is to move away from personal to a shared pool of loot where you kill a raid boss and can roll for the items on the corpse. Of course, you can pass on them, or trade to your friends too. "That's a world we think we want to be in again and so we're still hammering out the details but our current plan is to have raid bosses in Dragonflight work that way," said game director Ion Hazzikostas.
What about Sylvanas?
She'll probably be too tied up with grinding her (endless) weekly Maw quest to pay much attention to the next expansion, sadly.
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Melting stuff with the Kamehameha super weapon is just one of the many ways to enjoy the current Dragon Ball x Fortnite crossover, but you'll also be able to earn some XP doing it this week. One of the new seasonal challenges is to destroy structures using Kamehameha, and with Fortnite season four fast approaching, there's no better time to earn the XP to finish off your battle pass.
If you haven't had the pleasure of using Kamehameha yet, you're really missing out. Here I'll walk you through the different ways to claim the super weapon, and how to use it so you can complete the week 14 challenge for that 15,000 XP.
How to get the Kamehameha in Fortnite
Image 1 of 2The Capsule Corps capsules are marked with orange bottles on the map (Image credit: Epic)Image 2 of 2Bulma is located on an island to the east of Sanctuary (Image credit: Epic)There are multiple ways to get the Kamehameha Dragon Ball weapon:
- Visit Bulma on Kame House island to the east of Sanctuary and pay 250 gold bars
- Purchase it from the Dragon Ball vending machines at Rocky Reels, Rave Cave, or Ridgeline Ranger Station
- Grab it from one of the Capsule Corps capsules that appear across the island when a match starts
The Capsule Corps capsules are by far the best method to get Kamehameha, since you don't have to spend any gold, and you're only going to really need it for this challenge anyway. Since the capsule locations are randomised each match, you're going to have to keep an eye out for the orange bottle icon once you drop into the game.
How to destroy structures with Kamehameha
When you've got your Kamehameha, you need to change to it in weapon selection. You'll get three uses, but since the challenge requires you to destroy ten structures, you'll want to head to somewhere with a lot of buildings packed together like Tilted Towers.
Simply click LMB to start charging your Kamehameha and after a few seconds it'll fire out a beam of light that melts pretty much anything in its path. There's a little cooldown in-between firings, but otherwise it should be easy to delete ten structures and get yourself that XP for the battle pass.
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Catching a Zero Point Fish is a little trickier than wrangling any regular old tiddler, but you're going to have to do just that in week 14 of Fortnite's seasonal challenges. It might feel a little counterintuitive to go fishing while other players are shooting at you, but Fortnite's fish grant special effects, whether it's restoring health and shields or giving you low gravity.
Zero Point Fish, in particular, have a powerful effect when you consume them, letting you teleport jump using the Zero Point Crystal effect. So, here's how to catch a Zero Point Fish in Fortnite, so you can complete the week 14 challenge, and get that 15,000 XP for the battle pass.
How to catch a Zero Point Fish in Fortnite
Image 1 of 2You can often find rods at fishing spots (Image credit: Epic)Image 2 of 2You'll need to collect the Zero Point Fish after you catch it (Image credit: Epic)First thing's first: you're going to need a fishing rod if you want to catch a fish. You can find these all over the island, but your best bet to get one quickly is to look for fishing spots next to rivers or the sea. You'll be able to recognise these because they have a boat, camp chairs, a fire pit, and a barrel of fishing rods next to them.
Once you're good and roddy, you need to find a fishing spot. There are five types of Zero Point Fish that can each be found in a different area:
- Crystal Zero Fish: Anywhere
- Skull Zero Fish: Swamp
- Tiger Zero Fish: Coast
- Leafy Zero Fish: Forest
- Crimson Zero Fish: Mountains
Since it doesn't matter which fish you get, I'd suggest diving straight out of the Battle Bus and heading for the nearest river you spot. Work your way up the river, fishing each spot until it's depleted. To fish, simply equip the rod and hold LMB to aim for the spot. When the line shakes, press LMB again to pull it out. You'll get some less rare fish, as well as guns and ammo, but after a few spots you should net yourself a Zero Point Fish.
Alternatively, if you manage to find some grenades before a fishing rod, you can quickly fish a spot by hurling one of them into it, and then collecting what flies out. Once you've got the fish you need, you'll get 15,000 XP for completing the challenge.
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The Genshin Impact Seelie pet is back for a limited time. These friendly, floating, orb-like creatures are a fun addition to your party if you don't already have one, since when equipped, they'll follow your active character, making noises and bobbing around. While they don't provide any benefit, it's nice to have a little low maintenance shoulder pet.
When Inazuma dropped in version 2.0, we got a new purple Seelie to fit with the Electro Archon's region, so this time there's a new green Dendro Seelie to suit Sumeru's lush rainforests and plantlife. In this Seelie pet guide, I'll explain how to unlock this floating companion as part of the Lost Riches event.
Genshin Impact Lost Riches: How to get the Seelie pet
(Image credit: miHoYo)The only way to get a Seelie pet in Genshin Impact is through the Lost Riches event, which sees you help Ullman search for Ancient Iron Coins using a treasure-seeking Seelie. There's usually one of these events every time a new region is added, so if you don't grab a Seelie now, you might be waiting a whole year until the next.
Grab the quest from the event menu and you'll be directed to speak to Ullman outside Sumeru city. He'll give you the treasure seeking Seelie gadget and you'll be able to view your first treasure area in the event page. Though it gives you a location name and a map, these six areas can be a little tricky to find, so here is each location:
- Treasure Area 1: Head west from Alcazarzaray Palace
- Treasure Area 2: Due south from the Jadeplume Terrorshroom boss arena
- Treasure Area 3: On the mountain north-west of Port Ormos
- Treasure Area 4: In the valley south of Vimara Village
- Treasure Area 5: East of Gandharva Ville, where you first enter Sumeru
- Treasure Area 6: In the north section of the Apam Woods
The event itself works a little differently this time around. Head to the treasure area and activate the equipped treasure-seeking Seelie gadget with Z. This will reveal some coin-like icons on your mini-map which each mark the location of a blue orb of light. Pick this up and it'll reveal the next orb location. It's worth noting that these orbs are often located high up or require you to jump on bouncing mushrooms to reach them. Once you have three, a little shovel icon will appear, marking a digsite.
Image 1 of 3You'll often have to jump on bouncing mushrooms to reach the orbs (Image credit: miHoYo)Image 2 of 3A column of blue light will also mark the dig site challenge (Image credit: miHoYo)Image 3 of 3Collect the Seelie energy orbs to complete the challenge (Image credit: miHoYo)Before you can dig up the coin chest, you'll have to complete a challenge collecting Seelie energy. You'll get these glowing green orbs by defeating waves of enemies, or by running around the immediate area and scaling obstacles to collect them. When you've gathered enough energy and completed the challenge, you can dig up the chest and claim 30 Ancient Iron Coins. There are three chests to collect in each area.
These Ancient Iron Coins can be used at Ullman's event store to buy a variety of materials, and yes, your very own Seelie pet. Even though a Seelie only costs 200 coins, which would require you to visit three treasure areas, you have to complete all six areas to unlock the ability to buy a Seelie. At least you can spend the excess coins on some Primogems and character ascension materials.
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The organisers behind charity speedrun extravaganza Awesome Games Done Quick have canned January's upcoming live event in a statement criticising Florida's handling of Covid-19 and LGBTQ+ rights.
With Summer Games Done Quick making its first in-person debut since the pandemic, it was expected that the event's winter version would follow suit. It was supposed to return to the Sunshine State but, as reported by Kotaku, will now be online-only. "While we would love to return in-person, we've determined that to provide a safe and welcome event to all it was best that we move away from our originally planned location in Florida," the statement read.
"Given the state's continued disregard for Covid-19's dangers (including anti-mandate vaccination policies) and an increased aggression towards LGBTQ+ individuals, including the law colloquially known as 'Don't Say Gay,' we do not believe it is a safe place for our community at this time."
It’s official! #AGDQ2023 will be taking place online January 8th-15th! While we would love to return in-person, we’ve determined that to provide a safe and welcoming event to all it was best that we move away from our originally planned location in Florida.See thread below.September 7, 2022
See moreGDQ continues to explain that it secured the venue contract back in 2020 for the following year, but had put it on hold "until it was safe to return," but could no longer do so. "We've explored multiple options which would allow us to remain in-person by relocating to a safer location. Unfortunately, the cost required to cancel our contract is too great to justify relocating AGDQ while paying the cancellation fee, and we are no longer able to delay our contract. This ultimately led us to move AGDQ 2023 online.
"While the move to online will allow us to save some on expenses, we still have considerable costs to recover. We are looking to recover that money where possible, including with community support via Twitch subs. We thank the community for their support!"
It's a shame to have the fun, in-person aspect once again disappear from GDQ, but also feels like a very understandable move from the organisers. Regardless of the format, there's bound to be tons of fun and outlandish speedruns taking place, and it's still all in the name of charity at the end of the day. There's still a little while longer to wait until ADGQ kicks off, taking place from January 8 until January 15 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
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Crusader Kings 3 has its fair share of unusual events, but none have quite so many twists, turns and shocking surprises as the one created live on stage during PDXCon 2022, Paradox Interactive's annual convention. A beloved horse. A cosmic disaster. Super cannibalism. 'frack' got weird.
Game designers Daniel Moore and Ewan Cowhig Croft kicked things off by taking prompts from the audience. Iconic equine Glitterhoof and the classic 'comet sighted' event were thrown into the mix, elevated by more unusual ingredients like a supernatural hunger for human flesh.
Lacking a horse model, the devs opted instead for a human alternative: a bedraggled-looking Roman gentleman who they named Glitter Honse. Back in the days of CK2, events were mostly powered by evocative prose, but now backdrops and expressive 3D models give the designers more to work with. A not insignificant amount of time was dedicated to figuring out the vibes Glitter Honse and his owner were putting out. Sinister. Conspiratorial. The con attendees clearly had a weird relationship with horses.
"You should never do this" was uttered more than once as the devs rapidly fleshed out the event with the scripting tool before seeing the changes immediately take effect in the in-game event.
Despite the friendship between Glitter Honse and his owner being defined as one that would "last a thousand years", it wasn't without its complications. While they rode in silence, everything was hunky dory, but conversing with the horse generated such a vast amount of stress that his owner would go through 15 years of "howling hell". Horses just aren't great conversationalists.
(Image credit: Fraser Brown)Extreme stress aside, it was a lovely jaunt across the plains, until a shadow appeared in the sky: THE PROPHECY. Mandatory all-caps, of course. As this prophesied cataclysmic meteor—which only triggers if there's a king in Bavaria, because why not?—hurtled towards man and horse-man, there wasn't much either could do.
"OK, so now, whatever option you pick, the horse gets annihilated by a meteor?" asked Moore.
"Oh, absolutely," Croft replied.
So the horse was absolutely going to be toast, but there was more to do—what actually happens when the cosmic bowling ball strikes? One member of the audience suggested that there should be a chance for the player to die as well, given that the horse they're on suddenly gets murdered by space.
"Now while that is realistically fun," Croft responded, "for the player, randomly dying without some diegetic reason why that might happen is not necessarily a fun time. And we need to put the player at the centre of these experiences. So giving someone leprosy and having them slowly die over weeks and months and they're unable to do anything about it? Fine. Plenty of foreshadowing. Just randomly hitting them with a meteor? That's not great design."
For the audience, the takeaway from this explanation was that the meteor needed to give Glitter Honse's owner space leprosy.
(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)So what does space leprosy actually entail? Well, it's just like normal leprosy, but from space, which makes it even more concerning. Oh yeah, and it also makes you super fertile and can be inherited by your kids. What a legacy! Super cannibalism, meanwhile, differs from its boring variant by being both overt and immediate: you start eating people openly and straight away. It can spread, too! Specifically via the medium of feasts. A quick edit to an existing feast event meant that, whenever anyone held a feast, there'd be an outbreak of super cannibalism.
"Do you think this would have any balance implications?" Moore wondered. Everyone agreed that it would be fine.
While Glitter Honse's fate was sealed, the devs felt like there should at least be an opportunity to save him, deflecting the meteor. Naturally this had a 0% chance to succeed. But it's still important to try. You can't let your best mate die without putting up a fight, no matter how impotent your attempt.
More suggestions were being flung around, but there had already been quite a bit of feature creep. New traits, a change to feast mechanics, a Bavarian prophecy—it was a lot for a single event, and the deadline was looming. Moore and Croft's careers were on the line. It had to be shipped.
Tragically, this incredible saga will not be making its way into the live game; at least not in any official capacity. Maybe it wasn't actually all that balanced after all. Maybe people would be confused why a sad looking bloke with holes in his tunic was being referred to as a horse. And there were some worries that these cosmic plagues would overlap too much with Stellaris. It does seem a little unfair, though, that the Stellaris team gets all of space. It's a big place and CK3 already has comets. There was a substantial amount of pressure on Croft to put it on Steam Workshop, however, so who knows? Maybe you'll be able to play it one day. Here's hoping.
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The best cheap gaming chairs don't sacrifice comfort and stability to hit their low prices. They need to be worth buying. The problem is, there are loads of options available and it can be tricky to discern which ones are actually worth looking at and which ones will fall apart in a couple of years. Cheap gaming chairs don't need to match the best of the best, but they need to last.
Our favorite gaming chairs ramp up in price, so if you're trying to find something in a different range, you must look carefully and read up on all the details. Does it come with lumbar or neck pillows? What's the weight limit? How far does it recline? What's the material made of? These are just some of the questions you should ask when shopping around for a chair.
For this gaming chair guide, we set a budget of $200. We did find a lot of sub-$100 chairs on sale, but again they looked like they break as soon as your butt sat in them. $200 seems like a reasonable budget for a decent chair that will hopefully be comfortable enough for long gaming sessions.
Snapshot guidesWe've not personally tested every product in this snapshot's cheap gaming chair hunt, but our main guides feature products we're rigorously tested ourselves.
Best gaming chair
Best office chair for gaming
Best gaming deskYou're still paying for something you'll be sitting in for hours on end, so it's all about support when looking for a cheap gaming chair. Ergonomics are often overlooked when looking for an affordable gaming chair over a more expensive option, but make sure your new gaming chair will not disservice your spine. You also might miss out on adjustable armrests, but if you're someone who doesn't feel the need to mess with that already, you won't miss out.
I've used my experience and expertise to nail down the best cheap gaming chairs for the following guide. And while they won't necessarily be ones we've tested personally, I've sat my gamer butt on enough gaming chairs to know what we're looking for and what to avoid at all costs.
The best cheap gaming chairs
GTPlayer Gaming chair | Neck pillow | Lumbar support | Footrest|
$229.99$144.98 at Walmart (save $85.01)
If white's your color, this gaming chair deal is a rare chance to pick one up at a reasonable price. It lacks adjustable armrests but has both neck and lumbar support.View DealStaples Emerge Vartan Gaming Chair | Neck pillow | Lumbar pillow |
$329.99$129.99 at Staples ($200)
This is a big ol' saving on the list price for a chair that has an impressive 275lb capacity. You're getting a bonded leather back and seat for your money, with height-adjustable armrests and a lumbar cushion too. View DealBossin Gaming Chair | Neck pillow | Lumbar support|
$149.98$111.50 at Amazon (save $38.48)
This gaming chair has a subdued look, a neck pillow, and lumbar support. It has an impressive reclining system and can be adjusted for different desk heights. At this price, it's not a bad choice for a pretty solid chair.View DealX Rocker Pro 200 Gaming Chair Rocker | 2.1 speakers | Faux Leather|
$109.99$64 at Walmart (save $45)
Got a kid? This videogame rocker is perfect for some floor gaming action. It also has integrated speakers for an immersive gaming/music experience via a 3.5mm input. Unusually for a rocker it also has armrestsView DealBestOffice High Back Gaming Chair | Neck pillow | Lumbar support|
$84.99$59.99 at Amazon (save $25)
This chair has a simple design but packs in some nice features for an extremely low price. It doesn't have adjustable armrests, but it does have a neck pillow, height adjustment, and lumbar support.View DealX Rocker Pro 200 Gaming Chair Rocker | 2.1 speakers | Faux Leather|
$109.99$64 at Walmart (save $45)
Got a kid? This videogame rocker is perfect for some floor gaming action. It's easy to shift out of the way when not needed and also has integrated speakers for an immersive gaming experience. Unusually for a rocker it also has armrests.View DealShould I buy a cheap gaming chair?
If you're after the racing aesthetic, then a cheap gaming chair will deliver that, but it's what's underneath that faux leather exterior that counts. Going too cheap will mean you get a frame that can't stand the active exertions of a heated gaming session or a seat with padding that either offers no support or melts away within months.
Alternatively, if you're not desperate for the streamer look, you can find decent office chairs, with far more ergonomic designs, for less than the sticker price of a serious bucket seat. This, of course, if you don't mind going for something less flashy.
Good furniture is expensive but should last you a few years, so consider it an investment.
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Aesthetically, the Sirius Pro buds are the most 'gamer' of all the wireless headphones I've tested recently. The case isn't so much a case as a cage. Attached to a battery pack of a bottle opener. Really. Yeah, there is maybe a feeling that Gravastar is maybe trying a little too hard to hit a particular niche of a user.
But hey, it's a crowded market, so why not do something to make yourself stand out? The thing is, you need to be able to also deliver on the fundamentals so that the thing which makes you stand out isn't the only thing you have going for you.
And that's arguably where the Sirius Pro buds fall down. When you're talking about a wireless set, what is it you want? You want battery life, good audio quality, and a reliable connection. I'd also say, having tested out some of the rest, you want decent noise cancelling, too, whether that's passive or active.
Battery life is one place where the Gravaster buds struggle. The 4 hour battery in the buds themselves is so weak you'd only want to use them on your shortest journeys. For most commutes I guess it's fine, but if you're going transatlantic it's a definite no. The fact the pseudo-futuristic charging cage can deliver another 12 hours of charge doesn't really help when the charging time is, at a minimum, 90 minutes.
Sirius Pro specsBut it's the audio quality where I really struggle with them, especially at this price. The Sirius Pro earbuds seem to have been too heavily tuned towards the bass. While that doesn't necessarily muddy the rest of the audio, as I initially thought it might when I first stuck Rage Against the Machine on, it just becomes too overpowering after a short time.
It's almost lucky there's such a low battery life here, because I don't think I could deal with this overwrought bass response for long.
That's only in music mode, however, as when you switch to the low latency gaming mode the bass bias disappears. That seems to be in order to cut the lag, which it does to great effect when I've been hitting men in Hitman 3 on the Steam Deck, but it does add a certain artificial quality to the aural experience.
There is some strange, almost electronic distortion going on, and the drop in audio quality is rather plain to hear. Still, you do get used to it; the human brain is very adroit at normalising poor audio over time. And the audio latency is low enough that the trade-off is almost acceptable.
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)Or would be if other buds didn't deal with it far better. The Creative Outlier Pro's Bluetooth connection is speedy enough, when the specific low latency mode remains enabled, and the JBL Quantum TWS has a Type-C dongle that makes it indistinguishable from a wired connection. The Gravastar seems to just lower the audio quality to tighten up the latency issue.
When there are better sounding, longer lasting, and more affordable options on offer, even if I loved the more 'gamer' aesthetic of the Gravastar Sirius Pro, I would still recommend you spend your money elsewhere.
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One of my biggest gripes with the wireless ROG Cetra earbuds is the fact that it forces you to install Armoury Crate on my phone. I'll admit that's an unfortunate place to start a review, but it's bad enough I have Asus' software bloat plumbed into both my home and office gaming PCs—thanks to those damned reliable Asus motherboards—but I don't want to have it on my phone as well.
Thankfully it's not necessary, or even vital, as almost all of the key settings for these solid Cetra earphones can be accessed via the touch controls on the buds themselves. The different levels of active noise cancelling (ANC), gaming mode, pause, play, skip, etc, are all just a touch or a long press away.
All you really need the app for is such luxuries as Bass Boost, Virtual Surround Sound, and EQ and sound optimisation settings. Which is good, because when plumbed into the Steam Deck via the Bluetooth 5.0 connection none of that is readily available anyway.
But, whether connected to your PC, laptop, Steam Deck, or phone, the ROG Cetra TWS buds deliver an okay audio experience, and have a broad feature set that rivals the best on the market. With one minor, though missed, exception. I love the auto cut-out feature the JBL Quantum and Creative Outlier Pros offer, which saves battery and means you can just pull the buds out of your ears and they'll immediately pause. Then automatically resume when you jam them back in your earholes.
ROG Cetra specsBut the ROG Cetra TWS is still a good set of earphones… but notably not a great one.
For me it's the actual audio quality which is where the Cetra earphones fall down, because everything else is right up there. The ANC is good, the connection robust and quick to hook into whichever device they've been set up for, and the gaming mode can be enabled with a quick touch, and is as quick and reliable as you'd want from some wireless buds.
It's that weak audio which makes the ROG Cetra TWS just a fine set of wireless earbuds rather than a world-beater.
I'm into the wee charging case, too. It adds another 17 hours (21+ if you've got ANC disabled) and it's a smooth little box which is easy to palm and would slip into a pocket without being too obtrusive. The same cannot necessarily be said of the buds themselves; they've rather ROG. That means they have some of the angular design which is the hallmark of Asus' gaming focused devices, and I am not the biggest fan. Though they're not entirely the sharp-edged red and black buds I might have expected, they're still not the most pleasing design to my eyes.
That angular design is, at least, effective. I've struggled with touch controls on earbuds for a while, preferring the reassuring feel of a physical button when you can't actually see what you're trying to hit. You know where you are when you actually have something to press. But with the sharper edges of the Cetra it creates an obvious flat plane for the touch-sensitive surface which makes it easier to find with digit alone.
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)Which in turn makes activating game mode, or cycling through noise cancelling levels, or even just hitting the one-touch play/pause command, a mercifully simple task. That's not something you can say of all the earbuds I've tested recently.
Sadly, the audio quality is kinda limp.
It all feels very surface level, even when you muck about with the EQ settings to shift from the default flat EQ. Strangely, for a gaming set, it seems tuned towards higher frequencies, and lacks any kind of oomph at the lower ends. You can enable Bass Boost via the Armoury Crate, but that just muddies the otherwise clear sound.
There just isn't much depth to the sound, which is a shame either when you're playing a game or listening to music. And, in the end, it's that weak audio which makes the ROG Cetra TWS just a fine set of wireless earbuds rather than a world-beater.
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I will admit I wasn't expecting a lot from the most budget of wireless gaming earbuds that I've tested recently, but honestly they're not bad. At full price I would absolutely recommend spending that little bit extra on the Creative Outlier Pro, but if you're willing to ship from Tronsmart via its AliExpress storefront you're looking at almost half the $60 sticker price.
And at that level these are some great budget wireless buds. They have a decent battery life, solid Bluetooth 5.2 connection, and come with a dedicated gaming mode accessible directly through the headphones rather than enabled via a separate app.
And that gaming mode is actually pretty impressive, too. It perfectly matches the gunshots in Hitman 3 via Bluetooth on the Steam Deck or a gaming laptop, and makes for a great, super portable gaming experience. Tronsmart recommends disabling gaming mode for music as it won't offer the best audio experience, but I noticed nowhere near the same strange aural artefacts as with the Gravastar Sirius Pro buds.
Generally speaking, the audio is good. Not great, but it's only really a lack of direct oomph in the low ends that marks the sound out. I don't love an overly bass-heavy tuning anyway, but the Onyx Ace Pro buds do still feel lightweight on that front. The highs and mids are crisp, however, and the audio nicely detailed despite that slight bass tone failing.
Onyx Ace Pro specsBut, because they're aping the popular EarPod design, with no silicone ear-tips, they rest in your ears rather than get pushed into your ear canal. That will arguably make them more comfortable for people who cannot stand the feeling of intrusive earbuds, but it sure does kill any chance of noise cancelling.
These things are leaky as a colander that's been sieving shotgun pellets direct from the muzzle. You can hear everything. If you're concerned about being oblivious to traffic when you're crossing the road, fine, but if you want to use the Onyx Ace Pro buds to game on the go you're going to suffer.
Sat on a bus playing Stray on the Steam Deck and I can hear the youths mocking my failure to find the right path around this feline dystopia over the strained mews of my frustrated kitteh. Sat on a plane all I can hear is the general roar of the aircraft, and barely anything of the game I'm playing.
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)And that's a problem, because most of the situations where I want to be using a set of wireless earbuds for gaming will find me on some sort of transport or in a public place. And generally not sat in a quiet room with a level of noise that isn't going to aurally intrude upon my play time.
I mean, I love a good pair of open-back headphones when I'm after an expansive open-world soundscape, but I'm not going to wear those in a LAN party.
If you're after a good budget set of AirPod-a-likes for your Steam Deck, however, the Tronsmart Onyx Ace Pro will make for a solid purchase. So long as you pick it up with that AliExpress discount, that is.
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I can offer you a fresh clue if you'd like a little help solving today's Wordle, or if you're hoping to find the answer to the September 8 (446) puzzle then a quick scroll or a click on our handy sidebar will take you straight to the solution.
Today was one of those days. I could think of every possible valid word under the sun… except the one I needed. Luckily I took a brief swig of coffee before my final guess, and that minor distraction was enough to break me out of the wrong-headed rabbit hole I had been hurtling down—but it was a close thing.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Thursday, September 8
Today's word has two common—and different—meanings. In an educational setting this term is used to refer to a group of students as well as the lessons they participate in. Out in the wider world it often separates people into various social or economic divisions. There is a repeating consonant to find today.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If there's one thing better than playing Wordle, it's playing Wordle well, which is why I'm going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:
- A good opener contains a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants.
- A tactical second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
- The solution may contain repeat letters.
There's no time pressure beyond making sure it's done by midnight. So there's no reason to not treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you're coming up blank.
Wordle answer
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)What is the Wordle 446 answer?
Still not sure? Let me help. The answer to the September 8 (446) Wordle is CLASS.
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:
- September 7: LEERY
- September 6: TAUNT
- September 5: WHOOP
- September 4: INTER
- September 3: GULLY
- September 2: CHARM
- September 1: FUNGI
- August 31: PRIZE
- August 30: ONSET
- August 29: CHIEF
Learn more about Wordle
Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them.
You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns
️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. 
means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 
means you've got the right letter in the right spot.You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer.
After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
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#ProjectBeyond pic.twitter.com/aPTrpi8BXaSeptember 7, 2022
See moreToday Nvidia sent out a cryptic tweet teasing something called ‘Project Beyond’. This is almost certainly a teaser for upcoming RTX 40 series graphics cards, or at least something to do with them. It came from the Nvidia GeForce account, so it’s surely not a teaser for an AI or datacentre product or technology. Also, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has already confirmed that Nvidia will reveal some RTX 40 related information at GTC 2022.
Huang is set to deliver a keynote at GTC 2022 on September 20, meaning it's just 12 days away at the time of writing. GTC (GPU Technology Conference) usually features a focus on developers and high-performance computing technologies, but it’s also been used to announce Nvidia’s new architectures.
We won’t really know just what Project Beyond really is until Jensen’s keynote, but with just 12 days remaining, we’ll no doubt see some more teasers by Nvidia on its social media channels.
Might we get a proper look at the RTX 4090, RTX 4080 or RTX 4070? A stylized video would have to be on the menu. We can expect some details on new RTX technologies, but it’s pretty unlikely we’ll see any benchmark data, and it's certainly not going to be an actual launch event.
In the meantime, we have a few details on the upcoming cards, though they tend to change quite often depending on the position of the moon in the sky. We can expect a major jump in performance for each SKU relative to its RTX 30 predecessor, with higher core counts, more VRAM and higher power consumption levels, though hopefully not to the silly levels that have been tossed about.
The event itself is set to be livestreamed and we’ll let you know when we get information and a link for the big reveal. Assuming it is a big reveal!
The hype is real.
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Steam’s latest hardware survey has been released. The headline results for August 2022 show that Nvidia continues to dominate the market for GPUs, while Windows 11 is increasingly being adopted.
If we look at the GPU results, the venerable GTX 1060 remains the most widely used card, though it's slowly being retired from some rigs. The RTX 30 series is gaining market share—the 3060 held around 4-5% between May and July, yet jumped to well over 6% in August. The 3050, 3060 Ti, and 3070 also made gains. This is surely a result of falling prices, giving us an opportunity to finally upgrade our aging cards for a reasonable price.
The first AMD GPU is well down the list, and it's just integrated graphics. The highest ranked discrete AMD card is the RX 580 with 1.24% of market share. The highest-ranked current generation GPU is the RX 6600 XT, and it doesn't even crack 1%. AMD will be hoping its mid-range RDNA 3 models can do better.
The CPU results haven't really changed much in recent times. Intel maintains a roughly 2:1 advantage. AMD can't be too unhappy about that given the situation it found itself in a few years ago, where this much share would have been a dream. Quad and hex core CPUs are by far the most popular, though there is a trend away from quad core models in recent months.
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 restOf course, both AMD and Intel will release new CPU families in the coming weeks, so the Steam results over the next six months should be interesting.
The other interesting bit of info is the slight pickup in the move toward Windows 11. It's still nothing on the Windows 10 adoption rate, but ownership did increase from around 20 percent to 25%, so it's clear that Windows 10 use will continue to gradually decline.
1080p remains by far the most popular monitor resolution, though it dropped its share a little. Somewhat surprisingly, so did 1440p share which is where you’d expect upgraders to migrate. The answer to this is likely due to the increased number of lower-resolution laptop screens.
Steam's hardware survey isn’t a definitive analytical tool as not everyone plays games, but it doesn't give us a good insight into what's going on in the market. We await a reset in the coming months as new CPUs and GPUs find their way into the survey.
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Usually when a game studio makes an official announcement about servers, it's bad news. Entire generations of multiplayer games have already gone the way of the dodo: being routinely decommissioned as they get on in years and can't justify the effort to keep online anymore. If you're lucky, a band of dedicated fans will keep a great game alive with private servers.
Such was the case of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a beloved class-based FPS made by Splash Damage as a standalone expansion to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. In a rare instance of good server news, Bethesda has spun up new dedicated servers for Enemy Territory featuring its six original maps and a completely vanilla ruleset. As of April, the game is also on Steam for free.
"Though the community has hosted—and continues to host—servers with a variety of mods and custom maps that we highly recommend, we also understand that many players are looking for a more nostalgic experience," id wrote in an announcement post. "We've set up servers across multiple territories to better ensure players from around the world can play with relatively low ping."
There are actually four dedicated servers, to be exact, one for each region id is officially supporting:
- US: Texas
- EU: Netherlands
- AU: Canberra
- UK: London
Those regions should cover most of the places interested in playing a 20-year-old FPS. "Relatively" low ping is right, though. From California I'd probably get around 90 to 100 ping on the Texas server, an acceptable latency, but much higher than my average ping of 20 to 30 in newer shooters with Los Angeles-based servers.
Here's the official rulesets for the dedicated vanilla servers:
- Game Type: Campaign
- Maximum Players: 16 (8v8)
- Friendly Fire: Yes
- Punkbuster: No
- Anti-Lag: Yes
- Max Lives: Off
- Weapon Restriction: Off
Enemy Territory was perhaps one of the first "free-to-play" multiplayer shooters in existence, being originally released as shareware by id Software in 2003 (microtransaction-free, mind you). Splash Damage would eventually release Enemy Territory's source code into the world, too, opening the door for fans to run servers and modify it to their liking with projects like ET: Legacy.
The new servers are undeniably good news, but it does have me wondering: Why? Maybe there's an ulterior motive to reviving one of the most-beloved Wolfenstein games in the series' history, like a forthcoming announcement of a new id shooter?
Or maybe it's much simpler than that. I hope someone at id asked Bethesda/Microsoft very nicely to spend the Microsoft equivalent of a couple of pennies to breathe new life into a dead game, and the powers that be said sure, why not.
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Nier: Automata's last greatest secret, hoax or not, is finally real and playable.
The Nier: Automata Church mod is the long-awaited release from the modders who gripped the gaming community with one of this year's biggest mysteries. It's a roughly hour-long tribute to Nier: Replicant and Drakengard 3 and features new, groundbreaking modding techniques.
The mod's creators encourage you to use the Nier: Automata Mod Helper to install the mod, otherwise, you can just drop it into the data folder for the game. They recommend that you are around level 90 so the few fights in it are a challenge. The description says that "improvements" and "even bigger changes" will be added to it down the line.
Twitch user Jaynoo played through the mod on stream. Most of it will be familiar to anyone who followed the saga of Sadfutago, the fake identity used to tease the mod on Reddit and Discord. In the 9S portion of the game's story, you can enter a hidden door in the Copied City level. Through a twisted hallway is the entrance to the now-famous church. When you enter it, a cutscene plays (something thought to be impossible with mods before) and you fight a black monster, known via memes as "bloby".
After you defeat "bloby" and solve a riddle, you're dropped into a massive, dark room filled with statues ripped straight from one of the secret endings to Drakengard 3. Interacting with the flower in the middle of the room unleashes several enemies and, eventually, a boss that looks harder than anything else in the game.
The entire mod utilizes modding techniques, like custom level geometry and bosses, that represent a major breakthrough for the community. That's why nobody believed Sadfutago's post about a hidden church in the game, prompting people to search every byte of data for clues. The game's creator Yoko Taro even responded to the whole thing on Twitter. "It got out of hand as you may have noticed," Devolas told PC Gamer after it was all revealed to be a modding project later that week.
The people who worked on the church mod said that this will only be the first step toward more substantial mods in the future. They've already released the tools for others to create their own mods and expect the community to find tons of uses for them in the future.
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James Gunn has had a very solid run over the past decade, highlighted by the hit Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which he co-wrote and directed. Recently on Twitter he revealed that the first GotG was this close to not happening as it did, because Gunn wanted to do a Hitman movie instead.
"Weeks before I got Guardians I pitched a Hitman movie," Gunn tweeted. "The studio really wanted to hire me, but a producer on the project did not. I was bummed then, but thank God, because I would have never been able to do GotG if they had said yes!"
Weeks before I got Guardians I pitched a HITMAN movie. The studio really wanted to hire me, but a producer on the project did not. I was bummed then, but thank God, because I would have never been able to do GotG if they had said yes! https://t.co/0JYQGBsuGYSeptember 6, 2022
See moreI liked Guardians of the Galaxy (although to be honest I'm 90% of the way to a 'thumbs up' with pretty much anything Dave Bautista's in) but I think a Hitman movie written and directed by Gunn could be a lot of fun. Sure, the previous Hitman flicks starring Timothy Olyphant and that other guy have not been good, but that's not necessarily Hitman's fault. They're bog-standard action flicks, generic and uninteresting in all aspects except the videogame connection.
The success of the Hitman reboot trilogy has demonstrated that the real secret is to embrace the essentially absurdity of a large, scowling bald man with a barcode tattooed on his head moving like an invisible predator through large crowds and elite security forces. I mean, come on.
(Image credit: IO Interactive)That's something that Gunn does well: Mixing action, and even pathos, with the acknowledgement that all of this is kind of silly, but that's alright because it's a lot of fun, too. We were probably lucky to get Guardians of the Galaxy instead of a longshot flier on Agent 47, but I can't help but hope that with all these hits now under his belt, Gunn will take another run at a Hitman film someday.
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Next to nobody had heard of Atomic Heart before it dropped a disturbing, explosive trailer in May 2018. It quickly became one of the most anticipated games we know the least about.
Its inspirations are varied: you'll spot flashes of Metro, BioShock, Nier: Automata and Stalker in its art and gameplay, while the world is a product of both Russian sci-fi and the experiences of the Mundfish dev team, some of whom grew up in Russia. But what do you actually get when you mix all of those influences together? Here's everything we know about Atomic Heart.
When is Atomic Heart's release date?
Currently, Atomic Heart is set to release this winter. It's unclear whether that'll be in 2022 or 2023, as Atomic Heart's release plans have been very fluid the last few months, to say the least. While the release window was originally set and later confirmed as being in late 2022, a recent announcement that Atomic Heart would now be published by Focus Interactive described the game as "initially planned for 2022." Similarly, its Steam page has changed from an explicit 2022 release date to the more vague "this Winter." The implication seems to be that we should expect Atomic Heart in 2023.
Whenever Atomic Heart hits, it'll be a day one release for Xbox Game Pass, and hopefully Game Pass for PC too.
Here's the latest Atomic Heart combat trailer
With this latest gameplay footage, Atomic Heart continues its... unique blend of pulpy Soviet scifi. And by pulpy, I'm including the many and various ways living things are pulped throughout the duration. There's a massive, rolling Soviet death robot. There's a microwave gun. There's lady androids with impaling each other with unicorns to some unfathomable end? I don't know! I just watch things and write words.
Amid the maelstrom of things meeting violent ends, there are lots of combat options on display—all sorts of powers from the player's left hand, like telekinesis and ice jets, with equally varied weaponry in the right, including pistols, electrified rifles, and a pitchfork that's also apparently a big pair of scissors.
I'm interested. I'm intrigued. I'm extremely confused. Looks fun!What is Atomic Heart?
An alternate reality Soviet-era first-person combat game with killer robots, clown-themed torture chambers, and grandmas trapped in flowing molecular gloop. Yeah, it's weird. Its combat is a mixture of shooting and melee with improvised weapons, and the scarcity of ammo means you'll want to sneak through some areas, too.
(Image credit: Mundfish)What's the story? The premise?
The devs say the story is a bit like an episode of Black Mirror—if the show were set in a warped version of the Soviet Union sometime between the '30s and '60s. As Mundfish CEO Robert Bagratuni told IGN, the USSR still exists in this reality, "but a technical revolution has already taken place: robots, the Internet, holograms have already been invented ... all these innovations are submerged in the atmosphere of communism, confrontation with the imperialism of the West and all the other inherent political and social aspects of the time.”
Robots have been mass-produced to help with agriculture, defence, timber production and simple household chores—and now they're starting to rebel. You play Major Nechaev, a mentally unstable KGB special agent codenamed P-3, and the government has sent you to investigate a manufacturing facility that's fallen silent.
On arrival it's clear that everything is, to put it mildly, royally 'frell'ed. Robots are out of control, once-dead creatures walk again, and traps have been set to ensnare any who enter. It's your job to find out what's happened and put an end to the chaos.
Somewhere between the murdering and madness is a love story, although we don't know how big a part it will play. Oh, and it'll have two endings even though the plot is linear.
Here's all the other Atomic Heart gameplay you need to see
Mundfish tend to go a while between gameplay videos but when the show up they really show up. Atomic Heart gets weirder, wilder, and prettier every time we see it.
The E3 2021 trailer is particularly bizarre, featuring killer robots (and one with fruit inside its head), frozen explosions and other messing around with the laws of space and time, and a babushka who looks like she's about to beat somebody up with a soup ladle. It also shows the player using a glove to defy gravity, hack electronics, and shock those killer robots.
Mundfish released 10 minutes of Atomic Heart gameplay in 2019. It gives you a glimpse at both the shooting and melee combat, as well as the weird world. Mote the zipline ropes, the use of quick-time events, and the large robot enemy at the end of the video, who is presumably some sort of boss.
In summer 2020, Mundfish published a 7-minute gameplay and mini-boss fight video introducing the enemy Plyush. It starts off with the protagonist exploring a museum and clearing out less-threatening enemies before encountering a spooky mess of a boss.
In 2020 we also got to see a quick gameplay teaser showing some of Atomic Heart's retro-tech environments and a few really huge enemies including those wild drill snakes.
Just before that official teaser in 2020 we also saw some footage courtesy of Russian gaming service 4game who played four hours of an in-development build spanning five in-game areas, and has released a lengthy video detailing just about everything they saw. It's a slightly tough watch—being entirely in Russian with less than fantastic English subtitles—but it's good to see some gameplay.
The neatest bit discusses enemy ecosystems. The bee-like security cameras live together in a hive from which they'll emerge to hunt you down if you're detected by another enemy. Hacking or disabling these hives limits how many of the bee drones are active, meaning you'll want to plan your targets as you progress through an area.
There's also this cinematic teaser that depicts a cryptic conversation between what we assume is your main character and a shadowy figure on a screen. The trailer is only in Russian, but you can turn on closed captions to get the full picture.
(Image credit: Mundfish)Atomic Heart will support RTX
In January 2021, Nvidia shared an RTX trailer for Atomic Heart to show off ray tracing and DLSS support. As ever, Atomic Heart still looks stunning. It's a really quick look that appears to show off the museum area we've seen in past videos along with a bit more melee and supernatural power combat.
A tech demo of its RTX and HDR was briefly available, but you can still watch a video of the tech in action below. The team is particularly happy with how it improves lighting and shadows, and says performance is holding up well.
Atomic Heart system requirements
Atomic Heart's Steam page lists both minimum and recommended system requirements. You'll need at least an i5 4460 / AMD FX-6300 CPU, 6 GB of RAM and a GTX 760 or R7 260x to run it. The recommended specs are an i7 3770, 8 GB RAM and a GTX 1060.
However, there's a chance those are both placeholders: the game's website says it's "hard to tell exact requirements at the moment" (although it does say they'll be "modest").
Is Atomic Heart an open-world game?
It's not clear. The world encompasses "the entire Soviet Union—a vast circle, the borders of which reach the Arctic in the north, Altai Mountain in the south, and with plains, lakes and much more in the middle". Different areas of Plant 3826 will be spread "all over the map". You'll get some choice about the order you tackle them in.
In a 2018 interview, Mundfish CEO Robert Bagratuni told us that Atomic Heart was "conceived as an open-world game", but later declined to confirm that the map was fully explorable. When asked whether the world was seamless, he told Wccftech he couldn't yet answer. "Now, I can say that there will be many different biomes," he added.
We reckon it might be a series of connected levels spread out across a large map, Metro Exodus-style. It has a railway system to whisk you between different locations.
Atomic Heart will have a crafting system for makeshift weapons
(Image credit: Mundfish)Atomic Heart's weapons are makeshift, and you'll piece them together from "various metal parts, detached from robots or taken from the household appliances or fragments obtained during the game". It's not known exactly how the crafting system works, but the image above suggests there will be plenty of ways to boost your damage stats.
Weapons will include a railgun, a shotgun, an AK, something called a "meat grinder", and melee options like an axe and a hammer.
Will Atomic Heart support VR?
A 2017 teaser listed SteamVR and PSVR as release platforms for Atomic Heart, but Mundfish has since said the game won't get a full VR release. "There are no such plans now," it told Wccftech. "Maybe as we get closer to the game release, some elements of the game will be available in VR, but now it’s hard to say which and in what form."
Mundfish previously released a VR game called Soviet Lunapark VR that was set in the same universe as Atomic Heart, but it was removed from Steam. Anyone that had paid for Soviet Lunapark will get a free copy of Atomic Heart.
(Image credit: Mundfish)Atomic Heart will have PvP multiplayer—and maybe co-op too
Atomic Heart's story is designed to be played solo, but the devs say they're "thinking about co-op mode". They've kept schtum about what exactly they're planning.
They've revealed more concrete plans for PvP multiplayer. "If you are ready to challenge other players, a secret railway will get you to a special region meant for PvP battle," reads the game's website.
Atomic Heart development controversy
If you've been following Atomic Heart's development, you'll probably know that a bit of controversy bubbled up in January 2019 after a report—citing anonymous sources within Mundfish—told of mass layoffs and incompetency at the studio. A summary of the report, posted on a Russian gamedev-related Telegram channel (an instant messaging service), can be found on ResetEra.
The devs partially responded to these claims in a later interview with a Russian outlet. According to the (roughly) translated interview, they dispute the initial report, and say the game is far more polished than the Telegram channel claimed.
In its Wccftech interview, the team also moved to reassure fans about its development process. "[Our] experienced developers, who worked in large game companies like Ubisoft … are experts in making AAA games and complex subsystems such as online multiplayer, AI ecosystems, analytics and scoring systems and other complex and high-tech tasks," they said.
"Also, we’re working closely with Epic Games and we stay informed about all the latest technologies and UE4 features before they actually get publicly available. Our partners from Nvidia help us in graphics and performance optimization. So, for all the reasons described above our game is being developed at the highest technical level."
Mundfish has provided development updates infrequently, although a Discord post—copied and pasted to Reddit—hinted at more regular updates going forward. The team has also opened a new office in Moscow, the Discord post said.
Just two weeks after announcing Atomic Hearts release date, developers change their minds
in Gaming News
Posted
Just a couple of weeks after announcing that it would be out before the end of the year, it looks like the super-weird faux-Soviet ARPG Atomic Heart might be delayed.
I say "might" because, honestly, it's not clear what's going on. On August 25, developer Mundfish dropped a new gameplay trailer and announced that Atomic Heart would be out sometime in Q4 2022—that is, sometime between October 1 and December 31. It wasn't the most precise launch plan ever, but it was good enough to make it to Steam.
But yesterday, Focus Home Interactive announced that it had signed a deal with Mundfish to publish Atomic Heart, and that the release date had been adjusted as a result.
"Initially planned for 2022, the hectic and explosive action-RPG is set to release this winter," Focus Home said. "Polishing and delivering a game of the highest quality is the priority of this talented team, with a specific launch date to be announced shortly."
And now, the Atomic Heart Steam page says:
Those of us who live in northern climes will immediately recognize that a big chunk of "this winter" is in fact Q4 2022. The change, then, rather strongly suggests that Atomic Heart won't turn up until early 2023—or at least that a move into next year is a strong possibility. Nowhere in the announcement is the word "delay" used, to be clear, but you don't make a change if there's nothing to change, right?
This actually isn't the first time we've heard about a possible delay of Atomic Heart into 2023. In June, Xbox Game Pass Poland (Google translated, via Bloody Disgusting) reported that the game was likely to be delayed into 2023 because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Mundfish is a Russian studio, not Ukrainian, but the team had reportedly suspended work on the game immediately after the invasion began, at least in part because of Western sanctions against Russia had impacted moral at the the studio and made it "difficult for developers to live and work." Mundfish later denied that development of Atomic Heart had ever paused, but did not comment on whether the game was likely to be delayed.
I've reached out to Focus Home for clarification on whether we should now expect Atomic Heart in 2023 or if this is all just some wonky inter-company bookkeeping confusion, and will update if I receive a reply.
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