UHQBot

Five seconds into being shown The Callisto Protocol and I'm already slapped with a (very successful) jump scare. A mutant human appears from nowhere, tentacles brutally ripping out of its chest as it lets out a blood-curdling scream. Protagonist Jacob hesitates, and the tentacles slosh back into its body. But that's no sign of safety. It morphs, in an unsettlingly believable way, growing larger, badder and a whole lot scarier. Developer Striking Distance pulled inspiration from Alien: Isolation's stalkerish Xenomorph to make its enemies unpredictable and ensure you almost never feel safe. "Things track you in our game, the grunts sometimes find a way," chief technical officer Mark James tells me. "They don't always attack you, they'll move into a grate and you'll hear them around you and they'll pop up in another grate somewhere else: there's a better attack spot for them. So they're looking for spaces in which they can actually make the jump happen, rather than just attacking straightaway." It generates a sense of fear, one that is present throughout a good chunk of the gameplay shown to me at Gamescom. When Jacob strikes a mutant with his stun baton, it feels as though it's coming from a place of panic and desperation. Quicktime events break up the combat and, but as long as they're as infrequent as they appeared in the preview they shouldn't become too tiresome. Jacob can also stomp on his foes in a very Dead Space fashion. The games share many key creative talents, and even if Callisto Protocol isn't trying to be Dead Space, maybe it is, a little bit. At least in that stomp. It's difficult to make an atmospheric spacey horror without looking back at the ones that came before it. CTO Mark James tells me that one difference is there's "a lot more characterisation, a lot more story" to be found here, and it appears to be true. Jacob mutters to himself and reacts to the environment around him, verbalising some of my own anxieties as he goes. (Image credit: Striking Distance Studios) "One of the things we really focused on early on was the idea of intelligent opponents and adaptable opponents." Mark James, Striking Distance Studios It surprised me, then, to see him lift a mutant into the air with a superpowered wrist grip and toss him into a crusher like a limp noodle. All of the frightened tentacle bashing in the run up to this suddenly felt a little unnecessary when there was the potential for him to dispatch a mutant like he was binning a banana peel. Striking Distance says it's tried to ensure that powers don't automatically turn the game into easy mode, though. All weapons have branching upgrades that are created and attached with 3D printers dotted around Callisto's prison. A maxed-out power grip can be a great way to quickly get out of combat situations, but it's not something that can be relied upon constantly. The mutant humans aren't punching bags that can be easily cheesed, either: they learn. Hit a big guy with the baton enough times and they'll start to stand defensively, arms crossed in front of them to block oncoming attacks. They'll protect limbs or other parts of the body where the virus is taking hold. "We've got these intelligent moments," James says. "That was one of the things we really focused on early on was the idea of intelligent opponents and adaptable opponents." (Image credit: Striking Distance Studios) "They're not zombies, they're not aliens, they are mutated humans." Mark James, Striking Distance Studios Not only are the opponents intelligent, they're also frighteningly grounded in reality and the prison environment around them. "They're not zombies, they're not aliens, they are mutated humans," James says. "We look at how the body mutates naturally." Even when there's an unhinged jaw, tentacles or boils blistering along the body, the game does a surprisingly good job of constantly reminding you that these people were once the prisoners and guards that walked Callisto's halls. The Callisto Protocol shows off a nice balance of stealth, action and survival horror. As the gameplay demo wraps up, Jacob is thrust down a sequence of pipes, sliding through fans whirring at ungodly speeds. He avoids them for a little while before getting clipped, pushed against the wall and split in half by the blades. I may not be much of a survival horror fan, but I have to admit The Callisto Protocol knows exactly how to pull off a spot of the old ultraviolence. View the full article

More on WoW Classic (Image credit: Blizzard)WoW Classic race guide: the best for your class WoW Classic class guide: choose wisely WoW Classic professions: make money fast WoW Classic addons: for vanilla and Burning Crusade Want to find the best WoW Classic server to play on? Perhaps you've decided to jump into WoW Classic to get a feel for how World of Warcraft used to play, or maybe you've decided to head back to Azeroth for Wrath of the Lich King Classic. There are certainly plenty of servers to choose from, but you may be wondering how to narrow down your choice. Basically, it all depends on how you like to play. PvE servers are far less stressful while leveling, and require you to manually toggle PvP on if you want to fight the opposing faction. If you're playing with a group or really enjoy the extra challenge and fun that PvP can bring, that could be the way to go, as you'll always be a target for enemies in contested areas. The lore-lovers aren't left out either—there are specific servers for RP if that's more to your taste. These lists include WoW Classic and Burning Crusade Classic servers—the latter of which will switch to Wrath Classic on September 26. In most cases, the same server name will exist in both versions of the game, though the servers themselves are separate. Seasonal servers are currently for WoW Classic only. Here's every TBC/Wrath and WoW Classic server in Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania. Fresh start servers (Image credit: Blizzard) Wrath Classic fresh start servers Wrath Classic is getting "fresh start" servers which aim to let people create a new character from scratch and build a new community with like-minded players. These new servers will come with some restrictions: For at least 90 days, you will not be allowed to boost a character on Fresh Start realms.For at least 90 days, Fresh Start realms will not be available destinations for character transfers.Death Knights cannot be created on these realms without a level 55 character on that same realm. Here are the Wrath Classic fresh start servers: Fresh start servers NameRegionTypeSkyfuryAmericasPvPThekalEuropePvP PvE (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment) PvE servers: WoW Classic and TBC If you plan to play on a PvE server, you have to manually flag yourself for PvP to fight other players. Choose one of these if you don't want to get ganked while you're going about your business. Americas NameVersionTime ZoneAshkandiBothEasternAtieshBothPacificAzuresongBothPacificMankrikBothEasternMyzraelBothPacificOld BlanchyBothPacificPagleBothEasternWestfallBothEasternWindseekerBothEasternObsidian EdgeSeasonalPacificShadowstrikeSeasonalEastern Europe NameVersionLanguageMirage RacewayBothEnglishNethergarde KeepBothEnglishPyrewood VillageBothEnglishAuberdineBothFrenchEverlookBothGermanRazorfenBothGermanLakeshireBothGermanХроми (Chromie)BothRussianKingsfallSeasonalEnglishQuel'SerrarSeasonalEnglish Oceanic NameVersionTime ZoneRemulosBothAustralian Eastern TimeLionheartSeasonalAustralian Eastern Time Asia NameVersionTimezoneShimmering FlatsBothKorean Standard TimeMaraudonBothChina Standard TimeBrightwater LakeSeasonalKorean Standard Time PvP (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment) PvP servers: WoW Classic and TBC In PvP servers, you're automatically flagged for PvP anytime you enter contested or enemy territory, where you'll spend most of your time after early levels. Pick these servers if you want to fight other players often or like the omnipresent threat of PvP combat. Americas NameVersionTime ZoneAnathemaWoW ClassicPacificBigglesworthWoW ClassicPacificBenedictionBothEasternBlaumeuxWoW ClassicPacificFaerlinaBothEasternFairbanksWoW ClassicPacificHerodWoW ClassicEasternIncendiusWoW ClassicEasternKirtonosWoW ClassicEasternHeartseekerWoW ClassicEasternKromcrushWoW ClassicEasternKurinnaxxWoW ClassicEasternLoathebWoW ClassicMexicoNetherwindWoW ClassicEasternRattlegoreWoW ClassicPacificSkeramWoW ClassicEasternSmolderwebWoW ClassicPacificStalaggWoW ClassicEasternSulfurasBothEasternThalnosWoW ClassicEasternThunderfuryWoW ClassicPacificWhitemaneBothPacificArcanite ReaperWoW ClassicPacificEarthfuryBothEasternBarman ShankerSeasonalEasternJom GabbarSeasonalEasternMutanusSeasonalPacificNightfallSeasonalPacific Europe NameVersionLanguageAshbringerBothEnglishBloodfangWoW ClassicEnglishDreadmistWoW ClassicEnglishFiremawBothEnglishFlamelashWoW ClassicEnglishGandlingWoW ClassicEnglishGehennasBothEnglishGolemaggBothEnglishJudgementWoW ClassicEnglishMograineBothEnglishNoggenfoggerWoW ClassicEnglishRazorgoreWoW ClassicEnglishShazzrahWoW ClassicEnglishSkullflameWoW ClassicEnglishStonespineWoW ClassicEnglishTen StormsWoW ClassicEnglishAmnennarBothFrenchSulfuronBothFrenchFinkleWoW ClassicFrenchLucifronWoW ClassicGermanVenoxisBothGermanPatchwerkBothGermanDragon's CallWoW ClassicGermanTranscendenceBothGermanHarbinger of DoomWoW ClassicRussianПламегор (Flamegor)BothRussianЗмейталак (Wyrmthalak)WoW ClassicRussianРок-Делар (Rhok’delar)WoW ClassicRussianDragonfangWoW ClassicEnglishHeartstrikerWoW ClassicGermanMandokirBothSpanishBonescytheSeasonalEnglishDreadnaughtSeasonalEnglishIronfoeSeasonalEnglish Oceanic NameVersionTime ZoneArugalBothAustralian Eastern TimeFelstrikerWoW ClassicAustralian Eastern TimeYojambaBothAustralian Eastern TimeSwamp of SorrowsSeasonalAustralian Eastern Time Asia NameVersionTimezoneHillsbradWoW ClassicKorean Standard TimeIcebloodBothKorean Standard TimeLokholarBothKorean Standard TimeRagnarosBothKorean Standard TimeIvusBothChina Standard TimeSulfurasSeasonalKorean Standard TimeJasperlode MineSeasonalChina Standard Time Roleplaying (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment) Roleplaying servers: WoW Classic and TBC Join a roleplaying server if you love to play in-character. Immerse yourself in the fantasy. These RP servers can also be PvE or PvP focused. Americas NameVersionTime ZoneBloodsail BuccaneersBothEasternDeviate Delight (PvP)WoW ClassicEasternGrobbulus (PvP)BothPacific Europe NameVersionLanguageHydraxian WaterlordsBothEnglishZandalar Tribe (PvP)WoW ClassicEnglishCelebasWoW ClassicGerman How to choose Which WoW Classic server should you choose? That's the million dollar question, ain't it? Choosing a good server is critical to your long-term enjoyment of WoW Classic, as the only way to change servers is to either start a new character or pay for a character transfer. Before you decide on a type of server, though, it's also crucial that you pick a server with the lowest population—especially at launch. While playing on a sparsely populated server sucks, WoW Classic's limited server pool means that many servers are bustling. But if possible refrain from picking any server that are listed at "high" or "full" capacity. There's nothing worse than sitting in a queue for 25 minutes before you can actually play. Normal servers are best if you just want to have a good time leveling up and doing PvE content. While playing on these servers, PvP is entirely optional. That means you won't get unexpectedly ganked by high-level players, but this also diminishes the social interaction of WoW. But if you just want to have a good, predictable time, Normal servers are the way to go. PvP servers are for players that want the true World of Warcraft experience, where danger can lurk around any corner as other players can kill you in most zones without penalty. What's great about PvP servers is that if you ever tire of questing or grinding, there's often groups you can join to raid enemy cities or take over bustling crossroads. Opportunities to make friends and have dynamic social interactions abound, so if you're okay with potentially having to give up questing in a zone because a group of level 60s are camping your body, PvP servers are the way to go. Roleplaying servers come in both Normal (PvE) and PvP versions. The difference is that, here, players are encouraged to interact as characters in the world. While it might be a bit awkward getting into the groove of roleplaying, RP servers are legendary for their vibrant and tight-knit communities. If social interaction is what you want (this is an MMO, after all), you should give RP servers a chance. Players frequently create their own fun outside of questing and PvP, like hosting parties, mock trials, and all sorts of other fun in-game events. View the full article

LastPass, one of the largest freemium cloud-based password managers with more than 25 million users, has been hacked. The hackers made off with "portions of source code," according to an announcement by the company itself. The good news is that no user information or passwords were at risk. In a blog post (via sweclockers), LastPass revealed today that it was exposed to a data breach two weeks ago. The company "detected some unusual activity within portions of the LastPass development environment," which resulted in the theft of proprietary data. A compromised developer account is to blame for the breach. Fingers crossed they weren't using 'password' or '12345' or this is going to get embarrassing for someone. As far as users' personal information and passwords are concerned, there's no evidence of customer data or account master passwords being accessed, according to LastPass. Users' Encrypted vault data also seems to have not been affected. LastPass says the whole incident took place in its "developer environment," which means that it went nowhere near touching any of the encrypted vault data. In addition to passwords, LastPass users can also store digital copies of personal records like ID and insurance cards in a vault in the cloud. The premium version of the services gives you access to this vault across multiple devices. Your next machine (Image credit: Future)Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines from the pros Best gaming laptop: Perfect notebooks for mobile gaming "In response to the incident, we have deployed containment and mitigation measures and engaged a leading cybersecurity and forensics firm," wrote Karim Toubba, CEO of LastPass. "While our investigation is ongoing, we have achieved a state of containment, implemented additional enhanced security measures, and see no further evidence of unauthorized activity." Last year, LastPass suffered a credential stuffing attack, where hackers attempted to access users' cloud-hosted password vaults. In 2015, LastPass told its customers to change their master passwords after a data breach occurred where hackers managed to steal some user data (but no passwords). If you're a LastPass user, the company says there's no action you need to take right now. However, LastPass does recommend that you set up authentication via the LastPass Authenticator app and make sure you keep all your devices up to date. View the full article

When it decided to turn Minecraft into a strategy game, Mojang had a couple specific goals, as creative director Magnus Nedfors explained during an interview in the Xbox booth at Gamescom this week. Minecraft Legends had to retain a somewhat indescribable "Minecraft feel," and also work well with a controller for console players. Mojang and development partner Blackbird Interactive managed both, Nedfors explained, by turning it into an action strategy game—a genre combo that really doesn't have a ton of successful examples to pull from. "Another aspect of Minecraft is that we always have a hero character," Nedfors said. Mojang and Blackbird wound up with a game that was one part hero-centric and also about controlling armies. It became an action strategy game where you traverse the battlefield on horseback, commanding armies from on the ground, not a typical RTS that's played from far above the battlefields. "That's not common in strategy games," he points out. "We started to realize that 'hey, this is quite new' and as a game maker when you find something [and] you feel there aren't ten games like that out there, you feel like you're onto something special." It's true that there aren't many examples of character action games that also involve unit command strategy. Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is one of the most similar successful comparisons. I'm also reminded of Kingdom Under Fire 2, which was a bit of a mess when I played it at its eventual western launch in 2019, but the combination of Dynasty Warriors style action and an RTS was actually great. I doubt that's the specific example that Nedfors had in mind, but he did later mention that "I think you should draw inspiration from things that you don't think are that good either," explaining that knowing when a game isn't working for you helps to identify how to do it better. "It's kind of strange to be inspired by bad things but that's actually true for myself." Being informed by unsuccessful competitors is, I think, more common in game development than most big studio leads like to say out loud. Nedfors carried on with his refreshingly frank take on the iterative development process of turning Minecraft into a strategy romp. "The pace of play in a strategy game is often higher than an action game because you're so quick scrolling around, maneuvering around with your cursor and so on. You do very many actions in a very, very short amount of time in a strategy game normally. Having a hero at the center that can't be there and there and there, surprisingly enough, brings down the tempo of a strategy game, which is very well suited to making it play well on consoles with a controller. "It was kind of a surprise. I wish I could be smart and say 'yeah we thought about that from the beginning' but sometimes you need to be honest and say 'that's something we discovered as we prototyped and developed the game.'" During the same interview, Nedfors and executive producer Dennis Ries also talked about some of the different unit types and new mobs being added in Legends. It wound up being a more illuminating interview than I'd expected from their Gamescom showfloor livestream. I was hoping to hear a bit about how building fortifications works—having only seen bits of players building structures in the gameplay videos so far—but Nedfors' dive into experimenting in the strategy space suggests that Minecraft Legends may end up as more than just another Minecraft spinoff. View the full article

Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja's upcoming wuxia action game, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, just got its first gameplay trailer and an updated Steam page. The gameplay and world on offer pretty much sent my personal interest in the game from zero to 100 at the drop of a hat. We knew from Microsoft's summer showcase that Wo Long would take the Soulsborne-derived combat stylings of Team Ninja's recent Nioh games and transpose them on a mythic, ancient Chinese setting⁠—relatively under-utilized in gaming outside the long-running Dynasty Warriors franchise. That's an exciting concept, but there's a difference between finding out about it through a pre-rendered trailer, and seeing it demonstrated through some (admittedly cinematic and massaged) gameplay. The locales are really stunning⁠—I was especially impressed by the ethereal, purple palace gardens featured early on in the trailer and revisited toward the middle. The gameplay looks exactly like the fun, fast, more character action-y take on Soulsborne combat that I've come to enjoy from Team Ninja. Wo Long will have a rich catalog of historical Chinese weapons to base its arsenal on too: in the trailer I clocked daos, guandaos, and jians—one seemingly made of jade and another lit on fire D&D style. Team Ninja also looks set to flex its monster design muscles, with the end of the trailer showing off potential bosses like a giant serpent woman and a massive, disease-ridden bull monster. It's great stuff, and I'm wracking my brain wondering why something more like this trailer wasn't shown off back at E3. I can't imagine development progressed from a point of not being able to cut an ingame trailer to having one on hand in just two months. Maybe it's too fine a point, but you only get one first impression and I'd pretty much memory-holed Wo Long until I saw this new trailer. Regardless, it looks sick, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set to release on Steam in "early 2023." Image 1 of 6 (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)Image 2 of 6 (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)Image 3 of 6 (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)Image 4 of 6 (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)Image 5 of 6 (Image credit: Koei Tecmo)Image 6 of 6 (Image credit: Koei Tecmo) View the full article

The Horizon Netflix adaptation is solidly in development, and new details have emerged revealing Netflix is keeping to the nerdy theme of its shows by holding on to some of the team that worked on The Umbrella Academy. Yesterday an interview with Netflix companion site Tudum revealed that the series creator of The Umbrella Academy, Steve Blackman, would be developing the Horizon series. In the interview he says: "Horizon Zero Dawn is an exceptionally well-crafted game with wonderful characters not often seen in the rank-and-file of the gaming world. Guerrilla Games has created an incredibly lush and vivid world of man and machine who find themselves on a collision course to oblivion. Their salvation comes in the form of a young female warrior named Aloy, who has no idea she's the key to saving the world. Suffice it to say, yes, Aloy will be a main character in our story. My writing partner on this, Michelle Lovretta, and I are thrilled to be able to expand this remarkable IP into a series for all types of viewers." Michelle Lovretta took to Twitter with a picture of herself with a boxed collector's edition of Horizon Forbidden West. She looks delighted with the package and with the announcement in the photo. Lovretta is a writer and showrunner on projects such as Killjoys and Lost Girl, and currently she's working on The Umbrella Academy for Netflix. The Umbrella Academy has just announced its last season, so it feels likely that Horizon's development is still early and will finally really get going with the end of that show. Though the box Michelle is holding is for Forbidden West, the second game in the series, it seems likely that the show will follow the first game's setting before it moves onto the second, as there is a lot of context to the world revealed in Horizon Zero Dawn to understand why the world is what it is. AHH! Looks like I can FINALLY talk about my next show !! An adaptation we're developing for Netflix. More in a sec, but here' a SUPER SUBTLE hint : pic.twitter.com/0WcDSqIOtiAugust 26, 2022 See more In case you've not played the games, humanity is now split into tribes once again after some sort of end to civilization as they knew it. Though animals still roam the planet, giant robots in various shapes and sizes exist and have been getting progressively more aggressive to human life. Aloy, a young woman who was previously an outcast, sets off on adventure to find out why and uncover more details about her identity and why humanity is in the state it's in now. The show will follow Aloy, at least, as she's pretty important in the development of this world's story, so it'll be fascinating to see who's cast as the main character. There are always big discussions following these reveals all the way from Henry Cavill as Geralt to the upcoming The Last of Us series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. With the lack of details it'll be a while until we'll see the series, but I hope Netflix doesn't screw it up. View the full article

It's the third mission of the game and, if this was Homeworld 2, I'd be screwed. Right now, I only have access to recon ships and interceptors—basic fighters that, per Homeworld's rock, paper, scissors design, are weak against the bigger, meaner frigates. And, I've been tasked with securing an area that, wouldn't you know, is being protected by two bigger, meaner frigates. But I'm not playing Homeworld 2. I'm playing its successor, a game that developer Blackbird Interactive—a studio that's staffed by plenty of Relic luminaries who worked on the original games—describes as being 20 years in the making. A game that takes concepts once considered back then, but dismissed because the technology of the day just wasn't up to the task. I'm playing Homeworld 3, a space RTS that's all about terrain. Those frigates are guarding a small segment of a colossal, derelict ship, which acts as the battlespace for this mission. Blackbird is keen to point out that the environmental artistry that Homeworld is known for—the grandeur of space, its asteroid fields and derelict ships, is no longer just part of the skybox. It's now an active part of each mission—an aspect of terrain to strategise around. "Terrain was a huge feature that was not able to be done at the time with the technology that was available for Homeworld 2," says game director Lance Mueller, "and that was part of the original vision. There was a lot of concept art brought over from Homeworld 2 that we used to feel the foundation." This is good news for me, and bad news for the two enemy missile frigates, who are guarding a section of the map that's littered with panels that have broken off the derelict ship. These panels can act as cover. By right-clicking on a section of this debris, my interceptors will fly up behind them. Because Homeworld 3 is simulating each ship's attacks, it means that cover and other elements of terrain play a huge role in battles. If the missile frigates can't get line-of-sight on my ships, they're safe to continue their approach. And so I continue, panel by panel, moving closer to the frigates until finally I'm in range. But rather than send my visible but well-covered squad into a close range suicide attack, I instead unleash my second surprise. While the frigates have been attempting to get a lock on my squad of well protected interceptors, my main squad was hiding underneath—in a tunnel running through what would have been the derelict ship's engines. (Image credit: Blackbird Interactive) Tunnels like this provide a route between two points that block line-of-sight, meaning they're perfect for flanking manoeuvres and ambushes. My squad emerges from below, surprising the frigates as they fire pointlessly at a target they can't hit. In the ensuing fracas, I lose a whole bunch of them—they're still just interceptors after all—but my losses are far less than what the match-up would suggest. Crucially, though, these elements of terrain nonetheless fit well into Homeworld's classic style of combat. Positioning and composition are still important. Attack angles and tactical retreats can still decide the moment-to-moment outcome. Despite the extra complication the environment brings, this still isn't an RTS that relies on heavy, exhaustive micro. Instead it feels like a genuine progression of the ideas laid out in the Homeworlds of old; a little extra spice that means battles can be more than just the sum of the units that make up each side. "The convenient cover in mission three specifically is to set up the hard counters and soft counters of the game," says Mueller. "Terrain is supposed to be more of a creator of soft counters. In previous Homeworlds, if you brought a bunch of fighters against a bunch of frigates, there's nothing to stop them from just immediately launching all of their weapons at you. Now you're able to move your fighters and use the terrain and get on top of something, which now means you've increased that time to kill, so that you don't die immediately before you get there." With the frigates dead and the points captured, my mothership gains the ability to build bombers—a natural counter to the missile frigates. Now I'm more than ready to steamroll the rest of the mission, although a more clever opponent could have still caused me some trouble. "The bombers coming after show you that there still are hard counters," says Mueller. "But again, the terrain—even with those—if you were to micro the missile frigates, you could bind to cover as well… if you think about that from a PvP perspective." The irony of Homeworld 3 is that it does feel like a Relic RTS—specifically a more modern one from the post-Company of Heroes era. The use of terrain, and particularly cover, gives it a strong flavour of modern RTS design, even while it seemingly retains the design philosophy—and the vibes—that built its legacy as a cult classic of the genre. I'm eager to see how these design elements play out in a more organic way, in a mission where they aren't being so clearly tutorialised to the player. But if done right, this should be a meaningful progression of the series—one that may even justify that 20-year wait. View the full article

You must forgive PC gamers for banging on about Crysis all the time—it feels like an age since a game came along like it that was so impossible to run on existing PC hardware that graphics cards actually had to be redesigned to cater for it. But we have had a few close run-ins with impossibly demanding games these past few years, and that's got me wondering which will be the next game to grind our PCs to a halt with their obnoxiously demanding system requirements? If you simply ask for a list of the games primed to show off your all-singing all-dancing rig at the moment, we've got you covered there with our list of the best games to show off your new graphics card. Rather, I want to look forward to what's coming and whether we'll ever reach that Crysis point ever again, as I'm not yet convinced we will. But a few upcoming releases spring to mind as candidates. Starfield, for one. This is a new entry from Bethesda but built very much in the vision of the company's biggest successes, such as Elder Scrolls and Fallout. A fresh open-world (or rather open-universe) with a brand new version of Bethesda's well-used and famously quite janky Creation Engine—this is sure to be a gorgeous, if very demanding, game. The Starfield trailer from earlier in the summer only offered a glimpse of a rocky planet or moon, yet even those lumpy space rocks looked impressively detailed. The actual gameplay upon release could be a lot different to what we've seen so far, especially as the game's release has been pushed back into 2023. However, the shadows and ambient occlusion alone in that trailer appear enough to make a graphics card whimper. Perhaps the vast emptiness of space will be easy on the CUDA Cores. In space, no one can hear your graphics card's fans scream. Then there's The Witcher 4. Though that's not confirmed to be the name, we know CD Projekt Red is working on the next instalment right this moment, and isn't wasting any time with its own REDengine on this one. It's instead choosing to side with Epic's Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), which will mean it joins the legions of games in development for that engine. The game will undoubtedly be gorgeous, but I wonder if its impact on hardware will actually be minimised by the use of a more widespread game engine. The business of game development has learned to do a whole lot more with a whole lot less. "Players can go in whatever direction they want, they can handle content in any order that they want, theoretically," CD Projekt Red's Slama said earlier this year. "To really encapsulate that, you need a really stable environment where you can be able to make changes with a high level of confidence that it's not going to break in 1,600 other places down the line." Already shown to be impressive in its breadth and detail, UE5 feels a great choice for the much anticipated Witcher game, and here's hoping it will offer a much improved launch experience than CD Projekt's last game, Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2077 was a recent game that really pushed the graphics hardware of the time, but was it because of its impressive expanse or due to a not-so-optimised engine? It's a mix of both, perhaps more the former at times, but the lack of optimisation really stung with this game's performance. There is an important distinction to be made between a game that's demanding for the right reasons and one that's demanding for the wrong reasons. It doesn't look like much now but this was at a whole other level back in 2007. (Image credit: Crytek) Perhaps the closest we got to a watershed moment for graphics hardware like that of Crysis has been the adoption of ray tracing in modern gaming, so I'd take a guess that whatever game we're waiting to become a benchmark of processor performance will use it to impress to some extent. Bouncing a ray for every pixel on-screen was sure thirsty work for even the graphics cards designed with that in mind. The RTX 30-series manages to lessen the load somewhat with more impressive RT Cores than the RTX 20-series, and since then we've seen AMD join in with its own RDNA 2 Ray Tracing Accelerators, which are moderately decent at the job. But there's still a fairly significant price to pay for pretty reflections and shadows. Just look at F1 2022. It certainly looked the part with ray-traced reflections, shadows, and ambient occlusion glistening off the side of Sainz's Ferrari, but even an RTX 3080 struggled to make ray tracing in any way worthwhile. That's with both Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) working their butts off to improve the final image and performance. Right, yes, upscalers. Upscalers might change everything. Are extreme demands for more cores, more VRAM, and faster clock speeds being swept under the upscaling rug? I'd argue that upscaling is, and will continue to, do as much for PC performance on a grand scale as faster GPUs. Meanwhile Unreal Engine 5 out here looking like this. (Image credit: Epic Games) That actually leads us back to the next Witcher game again, and seeing as CDPR is opting for UE5 rather than its own engine, it will likely come with support for UE5's embedded upscaler, Temporal Super Resolution (TSR). Not to mention any other upscalers that CDPR decide are well worth integrating into the game. That could be many of them by that time, as Nvidia's framework for better integrating even competing upscaling techniques, known as Streamline, could be in frantic use by the time that game's release rolls around. Considering console development, and what feels like a shift away from PC exclusive development, it also appears that the days of madcap schemes to push PC hardware over the edge may be dwindling. With compatibility across many PC-like consoles of varying power and capability, any developer will be keen to at least maintain a steady performance across most platforms. That doesn't necessarily close the door to extreme presets on PC but I would expect it to at the very least lessen their regularity. It comes down to what we class as the next 'Crysis'—in the sense of a PC-breakingly demanding title. It's not just a game that struggles to run at 120Hz at 4K on a high performance graphics card. We have loads of those already. It's a game that is so frankly absurd in its adoption of bleeding-edge graphics technologies and techniques that your PC gets coil whine just installing it. Crysis was a serious turning point for graphics. (Image credit: Crytek) Screen queens (Image credit: Future)Best gaming monitor: Pixel-perfect panels for your PC Best high refresh rate monitor: Screaming quick screens Best 4K monitor for gaming: When only high-res will do Best 4K TV for gaming: Big-screen 4K PC gaming In a sense of a game as absurd as Crysis once was, I look to the big games of the previous two years and those coming in the next two, and I just don't see anything that fits the bill. Even Crysis Remastered wasn't a match for its older self in this regard, though it didn't run particularly well at launch, either. That was also down to poor CPU utilisation rather than some new-age graphics technology, however, and was later patched for proper performance. The next generation of games are going to be beautiful, I never have any doubt about that, but perhaps the reason we won't see another Crysis moment is simply that the business of game development has learned to do a whole lot more with a whole lot less. Times have changed: Crysis came at a time when PC performance wasn't decided by hundreds of frames but a mere expectation of a steady 30fps. Developers weren't bringing their console exclusives to PC like they are now, either, and we're scoring big first-party games on PC like God of War. The goalposts have been moved and people expect a lot more from their games. I don't know if today a game like Crysis, with demands so high that they closed the door to the majority of gamers, would be met with such awe as it once was. A publisher certainly wouldn't be that fussed on the idea—someone spent a lot of time and money making that game. It's for the best, really—while it was a fascinating and exciting time in graphics development, not being able to play Crysis with any semblance of a decent frame rate was also rather annoying for those of us without the hot new graphics card. View the full article

During Gamescom's Opening Night Live, the ever-present Geoff Keighley always has a quip or two in his pocket when introducing the games he's leading in one-by-one for our judgement. I usually let them wash over me, as I do with the Game Awards or the many other pies Keighley has his fingers in, but this time he said something that got my attention. When introducing a new horror title, he chuckled that its reveal was surprising as no one would have thought this film would become the basis for a game. Enter stage right: Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I can't say I'm familiar with this film beyond seeing the name here and there on the internet. It's a 1988 comedy horror cult classic and, though not considered especially good, its name and legacy live on. Given this, and Keighley's bemusement before the reveal, I've got to wonder if there are any cult horror films safe from being made into videogames? Horror films are now maybe the best genre of any art form to transform into a game. Or at least they seem to consistently be the adaptations developers are willing to make in recent years. You get the odd transformation from books and TV like The Witcher games and Telltale's Game of Thrones, but the only medium I think that rivals horror's popularity are comic book adaptations and, if I'm honest, I think much of that success comes from Hollywood's hero rush. Otherwise the horror film to game pipeline is outstripping every other adaptation out there. (Image credit: Good Shepard Entertainment) Horror headliners Classic horror relies on violence and tension These games aren't usually direct adaptations of specific movies, but there are countless games set in these horror universes full of movie monsters and unlikely heroes. Among the modern adaptations we've had Friday the 13th, Evil Dead, Blair Witch, Alien Isolation and the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre game. And then we've also got Dead by Daylight, which has managed to turn itself into a Fortnite-like horror metaverse. It has collaborations with franchises like SAW, Scream, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Stranger Things, Hellraiser, and The Ring. It's collecting them all and providing an easy way for these films to get into games without committing to a full game themselves. There is even a flippin' The Exorcist VR game on Steam, I was surprised to discover. Though I am not someone who enjoys horror in almost any form—game or film—I am impressed by the genre's aptness at traversing between mediums. And I think it's pretty simple to see exactly why they can make these jumps so easily whereas it's much tougher for everything else. Classic horror relies on violence and tension. I say classic horror because I know there are all sorts of psychological horror films such as Midsommar or Possum or Get Out that wouldn't really make good games because their tension is based in dialogue and cinematography. I'm talking about the classic horror films like the ones included in Dead by Daylight, as well as more recent films like The Purge or maybe The Strangers. These films rely on immediate threats of violence and displays of that violence is what your protagonist sees and wants to avoid. And that's also what so many games are about. (Image credit: Behaviour Interactive) Small space, big impact Whether it be in FPSes or even card games like Inscryption, violence is a very consistent part of popular games even if it's not gory or gross. Violence is implied or carried out, and 'death' is a state we're used to encountering as failure. I mean, Among Us has an awful lot of murder in it for a kids game, right? But you wouldn't really call it a violent game or even a horror game in ordinary circumstances. But all this means is that making the jump from horror films into gaming is a smooth transition because of this common tension. Other aspects help too, of course. Horror films have clear antagonist and protagonist dynamics, someone who will live and another will die, often with a team of good guys working together as a team. And importantly horror thrives on relatability. Horror, to be really scary, needs to make you feel as though you could be stuck in that situation. Small neighbourhoods, random acts of violence, haunted houses, car breakdowns are at the heart of a lot of classic horror films. The audience needs to feel as though you could have stumbled into these situations themselves, which is why they stick with you well after the film has ended. Classic horror films use these smaller scale areas and relatable plots a lot. When low-budget films needed places to set their creations, they'd of course use whatever was local to them too, helping this trend along. And this smaller area has made it into gaming. Dead by Daylight's arenas are based on classic horror settings like cornfields, suburban housing, farms, and carnivals. And then you have games like Blair Witch which takes advantage of the woods and how terrifyingly lost someone can feel when surrounded by trees and darkness. (Image credit: Bloober Team) Even a space adventure like Alien Isolation traps you in small spaces with lots of doors and separated areas just like a real spaceship would require which conveniently help loading, as well as distinct levels and areas. The claustrophobic atmosphere of horror films coincidentally makes a very good area for games. Horror also loves a close call. People surviving by the skin of their teeth is crucial to both horror and PvP games. We've all held our breath when the hero is within grabbing distance of the villain, or when we've been healing up during a multiplayer firefight. When we're watching a horror movie or playing a game, we're craving very similar experiences. Horror films just fit gaming so well I thought it was quite amusing that Keighley was surprised by Killer Klowns from Outer Space's adaptation. Maybe I'm just used to old properties trying their luck with gaming collaborations here, there and everywhere these days. But I'm not sure any classic horror film is safe from adaptation, because let's face it, there is too much money and nostalgia in gaming for developers to not at least consider it. View the full article

In what is sure to be the biggest acquisition news you read today, TinyBuild—publisher of Pathologic 2, Not For Broadcast, Mr Shifty and many others—has announced that it's buying up a selection of Bossa Studios' games in a deal including "an upfront payment of $3 million". The deal covers Surgeon Simulator (including its VR version and sequel), I Am Fish, and I Am Bread. Bossa is selling its most recognisable properties in order to concentrate on "co-op PvE" projects, which the studio has been focused on exclusively since early this year. Future work based on these properties—either in the form of new games or updates to old ones—will come entirely from TinyBuild. TinyBuild hasn't said why it was interested in Bossa's various comedy games, nor has it said what it intends to do with them, but we can probably guess. The press release announcing the acquisition mentions that Bossa's various franchises delivered the company around $6 million in revenue in 2021. Picking up the most recognisable of those franchises in a deal that only requires you fork over half that amount upfront seems like a pretty sound business move. TinyBuild has also dropped another $5.4 million in a deal to acquire Russian developer Konfa Games, who will be assimilated into the company's Belgrade-based studio hub in short order. It sounds like TinyBuild has plans to put its newly-bought IP to work in short order, using the expanded capacity that Konfa's acquisition brings to spin up the game dev engines and start turning out, presumably, more games based on the questionable simulation of things which should not be simulated. Thanks, GamesIndustry.biz. View the full article

The best gaming desk can quite literally change the way you game. At its simplest, a good gaming desk should give you plenty of space for your keyboard, mouse, and monitor. All in a sturdy and ergonomic frame. You also have the option of standing desks now as well, with motorized options to jump between sitting and standing modes in a moment. Pair your dream desk with a good gaming chair and you'll be set. Or alternatively match it with a treadmill and watch the weight melt away while you WoW. Choosing the best gaming desk among all the potentials can be a hard task. So narrow it down first. Consider whether you're looking to sit, stand, or do a bit of both. There are benefits to spending some time on your feet, so an electric standing desk, or a desk converter, might be a better fit for you. Also, think about how much real estate you need for your gaming monitors and, should you take our recommendation to pop your PC on it, away from the dusty floor, whether there will still be enough space for one of the best gaming keyboards. Gaming desks with cut-outs to run cables through also exist, as well as other quality-of-life features, though you'll likely pay a premium for the convenience. Still, it's better than going cheap and having to replace your entire desk every eight months. So get your tape measure out, check your budget, and take a peek below at all the different gaming desk options we've put through rigorous testing for you, loading them up across our home setups so you can feel secure in your purchase. The best gaming desk (Image credit: Flexispot) 1. Flexispot EN1B The best value electric height adjustable desk Height: 28–48 inches | Weight support: 154lbs | Desktop dimensions: 39 x 20 inches min | 63 x 31 inches max | Warranty: 3 yr motor, 5 yr frame Smooth, quiet operationEasy-to-use height presetsSimple and clean designGreat value for moneyNo pressure sensorNo cable tray The Flexispot EN1B may not have the catchiest name here, but it makes for an impressively sturdy, motorized adjustable desk for anyone looking to upgrade their home/gaming/office setup. And it will do it all at a reasonable price. The Flexispot supports heights from 71cm (27.8in) up to 121cm (47.6in), which should have you covered for all comfortable sitting and standing setups. The control panel can hold three different height profiles in its memory banks and moves smoothly between them. Or you can set your height manually, with the current level shown on the three-digit display. Of course, the main thing you want from any desk is stability. If everything is bouncing along as you type, it doesn't matter if you're sitting or standing; you're going to want to break it up. The good news is that the Flexipost is rock solid—even though I have an old screen with a flimsy stand, it doesn't move even with my most aggressive emails. When you raise and lower the desk, the smooth action instills confidence too, and it's just as sturdy at its highest position. Construction is a straightforward task, taking just over an hour to turn the two boxes into a working, versatile desk. A few more pre-drilled holes for the control box and the central beam would have been nice, but the surface is easy enough to screw into with a bit of elbow grease. The only downside to the whole desk is that there are no sensors to stop the motor if it hits an obstacle when it's going down, which could be expensive if your chair gets caught under it—or upsetting if it's your cat. Overall, an impressive desk for sitting and standing, for really not much cash. (Image credit: Arozzi) 2. Arozzi Arena The best gaming desk for twitch gamers and hydrophobics Height: 28–32 inches | Weight support: 176lbs | Desktop dimensions: 32 x 63 inches | Warranty: Limited 2 year All mouse mat, all the timeHydrophobic surfaceWhole lotta spaceMinor instability if assembled wrong/on hard surfaces First, this thing is excruciatingly heavy; I had to get help rolling the two separate boxes into the living room for unpacking. Once there, however, it took me around two hours to get it all together. After one minor cockup, a dash of assistance, and a pinch of spice, we finally got there. Now in my living room stands this beautifully rounded monstrosity, with enough desktop real estate to take on the state of Alaska. The manual's adorable illustrations made the process streamlined, but I will say the machining quality was a little off, with some misaligned holes and parts not sitting as flush as I would've expected. The legs are sturdy, but consider the surface you're going to place the thing on carefully. It recommends rug or carpet placement, as opposed to a hard surface floor. It has settled nicely into my thick carpet after some anxiety over precarious wobbles, but there's still a fair amount of travel when I push up to get out of my chair. The built-in mesh hammock for cable management, however, is fantastic. And I'm no longer vexed by constantly falling off the edge of my mouse mat because the desktop's whole surface is a mouse mat. I was mesmerized by the hydrophobic surface and had to resist deliberately spilling drinks to watch the liquid ball up. And, perhaps most of all, I love having so much desktop space. So, while the engineers in my family would have been a little distressed by the setup, I am pretty enamored with the final beast. I can fit my gaming tower up top comfortably, alongside my two monitors and peripherals, with loads of space for coffee cups, open notebooks, and even a lamp. I'd say that's a win. (Image credit: Future) 3. Secretlab Magnus Pro XL The best gaming desk Height: 25–50 inches | Weight support: 192 lbs | Desktop dimensions: 177cm x 80cm | Warranty: 5 years Fantastic for working from homeStealth cable management optionsSimple and effective magnetic accessoriesExcellent monitor arms (sold separately)Weighs over 70kgEssential accessories add further cost Surprisingly innovative. That's how I'll sum up the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL. I've never been one to look for much in a gaming desk—I ask only for a flat plane on which to sit my monitors, keyboard, and mouse—yet the Magnus Pro XL has so thoroughly impressed me that I'm starting to reconsider my whole opinion of what a desk should be. I'm now firmly in the camp that a desk should be absolutely massive. The Magnus Pro XL is the largest desk I've ever used personally, having only recently found the space for such a behemoth, coming in at 177cm x 80cm. This is also the heaviest desk I've ever had to move solo by far, at 32.9kg for the desk alone. The mostly metal frame of the Magnus Pro XL, explains some of that, though it's the two included motors, one integrated into each of the legs, which add a whole lot of mass to the equation. But that's what makes this the Magnus Pro XL: the desk's adjustable sit/stand functionality. The standard Magnus doesn't offer this. The Magnus Pro XL is capable of lifting 120kg in gross weight (87.1kg if you subtract the weight of the metal desk itself) up to a height of 125cm. It sits only 65cm off the ground at its lowest. Another thing I've come to re-evaluate since the Magnus XL is how a desk should handle cable management. The foremost impressive thing about the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL is how sharp and clean-cut it makes your PC setup look. That's not through a lack of cables on my part, of which I have arguably too many, but for the Magnus Pro XL's clever magnetic cable management accessories and discrete cable tray. These hide my gluttony of USB, audio, and power cables out of sight. The one accessory I really do think is worth investing in is the dual monitor arm. My favourite of which is the compact cable tidy: a small block of metal with a couple of strong magnets within that securely fixes my cables in place. Though it must be noted that these magnetic cable ties are not included within the cost of the desk itself, and instead can be purchased for $25 for a set of three or for $49 as a set of three alongside two cable management sheaths and a stack of fastening straps. This is the thing: the Secretlab Magnus Pro XL requires some added expense to make it as sleek an experience as it should be. The one accessory I really do think is worth investing in is the dual monitor arm. It's a single unit that clamps firmly onto the desk, between the hinged cover and the desk itself, and it offers sprawling reach for both the 28-inch and 32-inch monitors I've got in right now. Ultimately I have to ask myself would I be happy with this desk if I'd paid that sort of sum for it? And, yes, I would. Though it is a definite luxury to be able to allocate that much of your budget to a component in no way connected to the performance of your gaming PC. The main reason I feel it worth doing is more because I feel I fit into a group of people most likely to benefit from an investment in a high quality sit/stand desk alongside an ergonomic gaming chair: those that work primarily from home. I really am impressed with what the Magnus Pro XL offers, as it's much more than anything I had expected from a desk previously. Read our full Secretlab Magnus Pro XL review. (Image credit: Lian Li) 4. Lian Li DK-04F The best complete gaming desk... that's also a PC case Height: 27–46 inches | Weight support: 176lbs | Desktop dimensions: 30 x 39 inches | Warranty: Limited 1 year Tempered glass top is super blingCan house a serious gaming PCAdjustable height with presets and sensorOnly 1 year warranty The Lian Li DK-04F is the ultimate gaming desk, simply because it will essentially also be your PC and its security device too. It's going to be incredibly hard for any would-be thief to make off with your rig should it be housed inside this weighty beast. With a 1 meter width, this behemoth is the smaller sibling, too; Lian Li also makes the DK-05F, in which you can fit two discrete gaming PCs. The desk itself is not that easy to build, however. The individual legs are super heavy, and the metal 'chassis' isn't much better. You're going to need a hand making it, or maybe an engine winch. It's classic Lian Li, too, by which I mean my fingers were striped with bloody slices once the chassis-on-legs were built. There were also some misaligned screw holes on my review sample, though that has not impacted its impressive solidity. In the end, even with a couple of monitors mounted directly on the desktop, it's a robust desktop, even at its full height. Then there's that tempered glass top. It's frosted, which makes the included RGB strips look great when your system's fully built, but at a single button press, it can be made crystal clear so you can gaze adoringly down into your PC's insides. It's completely unnecessary, and I love it. However, it's a blessing and a curse because even the best gaming mouse will need a good mouse mat with that glass surface beneath it. But, at $1,500, it's insanely expensive, and with just a one-year warranty, that feels a little stingy too. And that's also without any of the components needed actually to build a PC into it. All told, that's a hell of a lot for a gaming desk and a lot for a PC chassis. But it is a lovely, lovely thing for the serious enthusiast. (Image credit: VariDesk) 5. VariDesk Pro Plus The best convertible standing desk Height: 4.5–17.5 inches | Weight support: 35lbs | Desktop dimensions: 30 x 30–48 inches | Warranty: Limited 5 year Comes pre-built Fits on existing deskBoth sitting and standing useAwkward for some mouse pads You may not want to replace your office furniture completely—or even be able to if it's not yours—which makes a converter, such as VariDesk's Pro Plus range, a great option. The Pro Plus is available in different sizes and can sit atop most desktops, and immediately gives you the ability to switch from sitting to standing. It's also one of the simplest ways to get yourself a standing desk; it requires no setup and doesn't impact the desktop you place it on. The VariDesk Pro Plus comes ready to roll straight out of the box. All you need to do is put it on top of your current desk, and you're good to go. You'll need some strength to get it there as this thing is not light. Though, once it's set up, that's not an issue and means it's an impressively sturdy solution at each of its 11 height settings. We've been able to run a pair of monitors on the top section with the extended lower section ideal for a mouse and keyboard. Okay, it's not ideal for a mouse because the surface does not play nice with most sensors. We had to jury rig our shaped mouse mat to get a decent experience, but the two-tier stepping still makes for an excellent desktop. The VariDesk isn't motorized, but it uses a spring-loaded mechanism with twin handles to make it easy to move from sitting to standing quickly. The action is smooth and doesn't require a tremendous amount of force to shift, even when multiple monitors and peripherals sit on top of it. (Image credit: BDI) 6. BDI Stance The best luxury office standing desk Height: 24–49 inches | Weight support: 150 lbs | Desktop dimensions: 24 x 48 inches | Warranty: Limited 3 year GorgeousSuper sturdySmooth motorised actionCumbersome, two person setupLack of storage The first thing you'll notice is that the BDI Stance is gorgeous. The satin-etched tempered glass surface and powder-coated steel legs put it leagues ahead of cheaper standing desks, which often use a laminate surface that is easy to scuff up. BDI claims its glass finish offers protection against scratches and fingerprints, and our experience mostly validates that claim. Assembly took a little over an hour, and we recommend having a second person around to help get it upright since it weighs over 100 pounds. The 48 x 24-inch desk was more than enough space for me, though if you need the extra room, these desks also come as large as 66 x 30-inches. The only big negative against Stance as a gaming desk is a noticeable lack of storage. An optional keyboard drawer, however, is a great place to hide a keyboard and mouse since there are little cut-outs to run the cable through. The keyboard drawer's surface is an unflattering textured rubber that doesn't make for a great gaming mouse surface for day-to-day use. If you skip the drawer, invest in a giant mousepad to give you all the gaming surface you need without smudging the glass. Sure it's super-pricey, but if you have about $1,400 burning a hole in your pocket and are looking to class up your work and play space, the BDI Stance electric lift desks are seriously well-crafted and stylish. Best gaming desk FAQ What is the best size for a gaming desk?There are multiple sizes of gaming desk, mostly going up to around 60 x 30 inches, with 40 x 30 inches another popular size. Which you prefer will largely depend on how much space you have available and how many monitors you are looking to stand atop it. Is a gaming desk worth it?That depends on what you class as a 'gaming desk.' Indeed, it's worth having a dedicated desk upon which to have your monitor and keyboard and mouse, from an ergonomic point of view at the very least. Balancing your kit on top of a chest of drawers where you can't get your feet under is terrible for your posture and sitting at a dining room table isn't going to help either. But specific gaming desks can be helpful in that they may have cable routing for your peripherals and power leads and may even have an entire mouse mat surface across it. RGB on a gaming desk? Now, that's probably not worth it. Do I need a sitting/standing desk?There has been a lot of talk recently about how our increasingly sedentary lifestyle can harm our health. And if you sit down for much of your working day and then sit down to enjoy your favorite games for hours on end in the evening, then chances are that you're not going to be moving around that much, which is bad. But that doesn't necessarily mean you need a standing desk because purely standing all day and night isn't good for you either. Movement is the key thing, so even if you have a sitting desk, you can remain healthy by regularly shifting position and getting up out of your seat often. A desk that can transition between both is ideal, as that will offer the benefits of both and encourage you to move between sitting and standing throughout the day. And they don't have to be ridiculously expensive either. View the full article

Valve is going to do something with the Steam Deck that it hasn't done with any of the previous pieces of hardware it's created: follow it up. Celebrating the launch of the handheld PC in the Asian territories Valve has created an ebook ostensibly to introduce itself to the new audience. The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS Valve But it's not just that, it contains Valve's promises for the longevity of its Steam Deck and SteamOS platform, confirmation that this isn't just going to be a gen one piece of hardware that gets abandoned to the vagaries of time. Under the explicit headline: "The Future: more Steam Decks, more SteamOS" (via GamingOnLinux) it explains how those future Decks might be targeted. "In the future," it reads, "Valve will follow up on this product with improvements and iterations to hardware and software, bringing new versions of Steam Deck to market. "This is a multi-generational product line. Valve will support Steam Deck and SteamOS well into the foreseeable future. We will learn from the Steam community about new uses for our hardware that we haven’t thought of yet, and we will build new versions to be even more open and capable than the first version of Steam Deck has been." Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: Valve)Image 2 of 2 (Image credit: Valve) This is something the company hasn't committed to with any of its previous forays into hardware, not the Steam Controller, Steam Machine, Steam Link, or Valve Index. There have been rumours and the odd found patent that hint to future adventures in VR, but no-one's expecting a new Steam Controller. But, according to Valve, each of its previous hardware developments led them to the Steam Deck. This is where it's landed as a company, and it looks like it's found a natural home in the hardware. And maybe, finally, on the software side, too, when it does finally release SteamOS as a standalone installer that we can just jam onto our own desktop gaming PCs and forget about Windows for a while. So, maybe the Steam Machine has had a follow up, after all. View the full article

Adata's subsidiary brand XPG has just come out with an anime series called Xtreme Saga starring its ambassador Mera, a red-headed fireball with a heart of gold. And while her kawaii semblance truly melts my heart, there appears to be an ulterior motive here. There's something web3 shaped lurking under that adorable facade. XPG's area of expertise lies in PC components. It makes RAM, fans and PSUs, as well as peripherals and pre-built systems. Why the company has decided to branch out into "transmedia" storytelling is utterly beyond me, but I figured I'd give it a go. How bad could it be? XPG knows its tech, right? So a sci-fi anime from the same company must have some truly simulacrum-disrupting ideologies. Surely there'll be some technologically-fuelled philosophical gems meant to propel us into the next era of animated entertainment. Oh. From what I can tell, Xtreme Saga is an anime centred around the themes of hope, justice, leadership and empathy, but its execution is so far off the mark I'm seriously on the verge of turning in my weeb badge. It's like some AI generated approximation of what an anime should look like, and I'm not convinced it's even finished. Despite my colleagues' concern for my sanity, I somehow managed to get through the first 10 minutes of Xtreme Saga, and I'm already convinced watching the widely detested EX-ARM anime would be a preferable way to spend my afternoon. This isn't an anime for intellectuals like you and I. Let's just say it's no God Eater, and leave it at that—but that's just my take on the art style. The pseudo-philosophy being spouted here hurts me to my core, but this isn't an anime for intellectuals like you and I. It's a gateway for the impressionable into something much less stable than a simple anime obsession. (Image credit: XPG) What strikes me most about it, is that such a superficial anime concept doesn't seem to align with "the core XPG mission statement of ensuring better experiences." And a quick look at the site reveals that it's not about breaking into the world of CGI anime to express some poignant philosophy at all. It never was. It's about selling NFTs, of course. "There are several different types of Xtreme Saga merchandise," the press release notes. "Xtreme Saga NFTs, plans for a serialised version of the story in text, and in the future XPG even hopes to produce a feature length animated film." Please God, no. Your next upgrade (Image credit: Future)Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD Best gaming motherboard: The right boards Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest "XPG has stated that Xtreme Saga is meant to last for years to come and hopefully will grow in popularity to the point of being able to produce more content faster in the near future." The company talks about the "Xtreme Universe," with XPG admitting it's "in the process of finding the layout of the Metaverse." The site even calls for you to "Activate your gamer instinct, become a [Xtreme Saga Fan Club] NFT collector, and enter a new realm with us, Game to The Xtreme!" Welp, it would seem that heart of Mera's isn't necessarily made of gold at all. But it is minted. View the full article

Hello luke484, Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. luke484 joined on the 08/26/2022. View Member

Explore Sumeru these Genshin Impact 3.0 guides (Image credit: miHoYo)Genshin Impact 3.0: What you need to know Genshin Impact Sumeru: How to get there Genshin Impact Dendroculus: Where to find Genshin Impact Nilotpala Lotus: Ascend Tighnari End of the Line is appropriately named for a bow made out of an actual fish, but like the Luxurious Sea Lord claymore, it's hard not to get a kick out of defeating enemies by smacking them with an oversized aquatic creature. Alas, End of the Line is not available through an event; like The Catch polearm from Inazuma, you're going to be doing a whole lot of fishing if you want this bow. It ain't a bad weapon, though. End of the Line is a four-star that offers a buff to energy recharge as a substat, and triggers Flowrider when you use an elemental skill, dealing 80% attack as AoE damage when you hit an opponent, up to three times. If you're a no-spend player, it's worth grabbing if you plan on building any archers in the future and want a few more damage-based options. Here's how to get your hands on End of the Line. Genshin Impact End of the Line: How to get the fish bow Image 1 of 3 You can get End of the Line at the Sumeru Fishing Association (Image credit: miHoYo)Image 2 of 3 It's a pretty decent four-star bow considering it's free (Image credit: miHoYo)Image 3 of 3 You can see the spot with all three fish on the official miHoYo map (Image credit: miHoYo official interactive map) In order to get yourself the End of the Line bow, you're going to have to head to the Sumeru Fishing Association, just north of Port Ormos on the river. Just like The Catch polearm before it, this weapon is available there in exchange for fish, as are the Original Fish Ointment materials you can use to refine it. Here's what you'll need to get the End of the Line bow itself: 4 Peach of the Deep Waves16 Lazurite Axe Marlin16 Halcyon Jade Axe Marlin The ever-handy official Genshin Impact map shows which fish are available at which spots, and while these three are scattered all over Sumeru, you can get them all from a single fishing spot in the north of the Mawtiyima Forest. However, you will need Sugardew Bait to catch them. You can also get this from the Sumeru Fishing Association for three Medaka fish, and you can craft it using Harra Fruit and a Sumeru Rose. Here's also what you'll need for the Original Fish Ointment: 2 Peach of the Deep Waves8 Lazurite Axe Marlin8 Halcyon Jade Axe Marlin Luckily these are the same three fish as above. You can purchase up to four of the refinement materials, boosting End of the Line's ability stats. Most fishing spots restock after three real-world days, but you should probably check each day just to make sure and save yourself some time, since fish respawns are a bit inconsistent in Genshin. View the full article

Valve has made a nice little booklet to pair with the Steam Deck. The handheld device is celebrating its launch in a handful of Asian territories with the booklet designed to help consumers understand what the product exactly is and the company behind the tech. It seems Steam wanted a new way to stress that its "hardware is designed to enable you to do things we haven’t thought of yet." Curious. The book is available in English but is mostly designed to show off Valve as a company to new markets. The Steam Deck is about to launch in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong so the booklet is available in Japanese, Korean, and Traditional Chinese. Although you can see the booklet online right now, it's intended to be handed out as a physical product at the Tokyo Game Show in Japan next month. If you could pick me up one while you're there, that would be grand, ta. The book has a few topics it covers. The first is about Valve's philosophy on product creation and making its "customers happy". The second is Steam's history before rolling into the Steam Deck's history and why it is what it is. Then there is a section on working with Komodo, the company helping Valve launch the product in these new regions. Oh and it also wants you to know how pretty it thinks the Steam Deck is with a lot of pictures. This sort of practice, I think, feels pretty formal and quite polite. I can't ever imagine Valve doing this in the West as Steam is such a synonymous name with gaming that it doesn't need any formal introduction to anyone in games. So to have a booklet to make sure people know Valve is a dependable, upstanding gaming citizen is rather amusing, but certainly quite informative. It'll be interesting to see how the Deck performs in its new regions post-release. View the full article

More top Genshin Impact builds (Image credit: miHoYo)Genshin Impact Collei: Trainee ranger Genshin Impact Tighnari: Forest watcher Genshin Impact Heizou build: Brawling detective Genshin Impact Klee build: Little red bomber Genshin Impact Kazuha build: Anemo ronin Want to find out more about Genshin Impact's Candace? This upcoming four-star Hydro hero is one of the new Sumeru characters set to arrive in version 3.1. This polearm-user is known as the Guardian of Aaru Village and she will do everything she can to protect the residents under her care. With the 3.0 update well underway, we've been busy exploring the new region of Sumeru, the home of the Dendro Archon. If you've managed to successfully wish for one of the new Dendro characters—either Tighnari or Collei—then you'll be learning all about the synergies of the new element. And as luck would have it, Candace's Hydro element should work well with any new team you're building around them. If you're ready to find out more, here's what we know about Genshin Impact Candace, including her abilities and the Ascension materials you'll need to level her up. Possible release date When you can expect to wish for Candace Candace is expected to arrive during the 3.1 update alongside two other Sumeru characters, Nilou and Cyno. As a four-star hero, she's likely to be part of the banner line-up during the first phase which should arrive around October 4. Of red sands and glimmering gold, her vow to defend stands strong.◆ Candace◆ Golden Vow◆ Guardian of Aaru Village◆ Hydro◆ Sagitta Scutum#GenshinImpact #Candace pic.twitter.com/ah8ioTehPiAugust 22, 2022 See more Abilities Candace's abilities Here are Candace's abilities, passives, and constellations—thanks to Honey Hunter, as always. Just be aware that these may see slight changes before Candace's launch. Normal Attack: Gleaming Spear - Guardian Stance NormalPerforms up to four consecutive spear strikes.ChargedConsumes a certain amount of Stamina to lunge forward, dealing damage to opponents along the way.PlungingPlunges from mid-air to strike the ground below, damaging opponents along the path and dealing AoE damage upon impact. Elemental Skill Sacred Rite: Heron's SanctumCandace's fighting style is capable of warding off an entire tide of foes.TapRushes forward with her shield, dealing Hydro damage.HoldRaises her shield to block incoming attacks from nearby opponents, forming a barrier that absorbs damage based on her max HP and absorbs Hydro damage 250% more effectively. This barrier lasts until the Elemental Skill is unleashed. After holding for a certain period of time, Candace will finish charging and when the skill button is released, the skill duration expires, or when the barrier is broken, she will perform a leaping strike that deals Hydro damage to opponents in front of her. Elemental Burst Sacred Rite: Wagtail's TideRaising her weapon high, Candace calls upon a divine blessing that deals AoE Hydro damage, based on her max HP and confers the Prayer of the Crimson Crown on all your party members.Prayer of the Crimson CrownCharacters deal increased Elemental damage with their normal attacks. Whenever a character takes the field, they will unleash a rippling wave of water that deals Hydro damage to nearby opponents. There is a limited number of waves that can be triggered in the duration of this skill. Active sword, claymore, and polearm-wielding characters under this effect will obtain a Hydro Infusion. Passives To Dawn's First LightDecreases climbing stamina consumption for your own party members by 20%. Not stackable with passive talents that provide the same effect.Featherflow GuardIf Candace is hit by an attack in the Hold duration of Sacred Rite: Heron's Sanctum, that skill will finish charging instantly.Sand ArchCharacters affected by the Prayer of the Crimson Crown caused by Sacred Rite: Wagtail's Tide will deal 0.5% increased damage to opponents for every 1,000 points of Candace's max HP when they deal Elemental damage with their Normal Attacks. Constellations Returning Heir of the Scarlet SandsThe duration of Prayer of the Crimson Crown effect is increased by three seconds.Moon-Piercing BrillianceWhen Sacred Rite: Heron's Guard hits opponents, Candace's max HP will be increased by 20% for 15 seconds.Hunter's SupplicationIncreases the level of Sacred Rite: Wagtail's Tide by three. Maximum upgrade level is 15.Sentinel OathShortens the Hold cooldown of Sacred Rite: Heron's Guard to be the same as the Tapping cooldown.Golden EyeIncreases the level of Sacred Rite: Heron's Guard by three. Maximum upgrade level is 15.The OverflowWhen characters (excluding Candace) affected by the Prayer of the Crimson Crown deal Elemental damage to opponents using Normal Attacks, it will unleash the wave attack from Sacred Rite: Wagtail's Tide. This effect can trigger once very 2.3 seconds and triggering this effect will not consume the base Wave instances granted by Prayer of the Crimson Crown. Ascension materials (Image credit: miHoYo) Candace's Ascension materials You need to collect materials to level up Candace's stats and talents. These are: Character Varunada Lazurite is dropped by Oceanids and Hydro Hypostases while the Light Guiding Tetrahedron is rewarded when defeating the Semi-Perpetual Control Matrices enemies. The other items you need are: RedcrestFaded Red Satin/Trimmed Red Silk/Rich Red Brocade Redcrest is a flowering fruit found growing in the desert regions of Sumeru, while the red cloth items are drops from the Eremite enemies, also found in the deserts of the new Dendro region. Talents Admonition scrollsFaded Red Satin/Trimmed Red Silk/Rich Red BrocadeTears of the Calamitous GodCrown of Insight Admonition scrolls are rewarded for completing the Steeple of Ignorance domain on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays while, as mentioned above, the red cloths are drops from the Eremite enemies Meanwhile, Tears of the Calamitous God is a possible reward from the Guardian of Eternity weekly boss and the Crown of Insight is a seasonal event reward. The latter comes from upgrading the Frostbearing Tree in Dragonspine, the Sacred Sakura in Inazuma, or the Lumenstone Adjuvant in The Chasm. View the full article

Embracer Group has been on a buying spree frankly so large that it's hard to keep up with all the properties that it owns. Back in May it was announced, however, that the company was in the process of acquiring Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal. Now, a couple of months later, the deed has been done and Embracer now officially owns the lot, among other property too. A press release from Embracer Group has confirmed that the translation has been completed. It very plainly states that: "All conditions for the transaction, including regulatory approvals, have now been fulfilled and the transaction may be completed. Embracer has, therefore, today completed the acquisition." What might be interesting to consumers specifically is that the document proudly boasts some of the IPs it was interested in procuring with the purchase. The IPs it lists are; Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, and Tomb Raider. It's not a confirmation that these are games that will be making a sure appearance under the new Embracer Group, but it shows that its been paying attention to the games that audiences would most likely want to see a return of. Embracer Group hasn't stopped there though. It was announced earlier this month that the company was in the process of acquiring another ton of studios and properties including Killing Floor developers Tripwire Interactive, physical game distributor Limited Run Games, Teardown developer Tuxedo Labs, and Middle-earth Enterprises which gives Embracer Group control of The Lord of the Rings. Admittedly that's an intimidating prospect. A company owning that much IP is a scary thing, and today's acquisition wasn't popular among some for other reasons: such as Square Enix selling off its Western studios for 'only' $300 million. Though perhaps the bigger problem was that the Japanese publisher intends to use the money to focus on investments in "blockchain, AI, and the cloud." Still: maybe this means we'll see Deus Ex reborn. One can dream. View the full article

Earlier today a rumour began circulating that Amazon was preparing to make a formal offer to acquire EA, with USA Today's gaming blog citing its own sources that a bid was imminent. This unconfirmed report quickly circulated through the gaming media ecosystem, as well as all the usual channels, and saw EA's stock price begin to shoot up in pre-market trading, at one point rising 15% in value. It wasn't long, however, until CNBC's stock market team began pouring cold water on the idea. In the below clip, reporter David Faber states plainly, "No, this is not going to happen today. Unless the people who have been involved [in acquisition talks] previously have no idea". Amazon is not going to make a bid for Electronic Arts, sources tell CNBC's @DavidFaber. Shares of $EA surged earlier on a report citing a "rumor." pic.twitter.com/k7wk0Fy7xvAugust 26, 2022 See more PC Gamer has heard the rumour of this potential acquisition independently, but it seems clear that whatever's happening, it may not be happening today. The initial report cited GLHF sources in USA Today, saying Amazon finally decided to put in an offer for the company after weeks of rumours that one megacorp or another was set to acquire the publisher. The rumoured Amazon offer was framed in the context of the company's recent foray into television. That does make sense: Amazon has already been out and about signing deals with companies making shows based on the likes of Disco Elysium and Sonic. EA's stock price initially surged on the back of these rumours: rising 15% in premarket trading based on these rumours alone. Of course, things are in constant flux, and following the CNBC rumour-quashing, it's now on a similarly precipitous decline. And the story may not end here. It's looking like a bumpy Friday over at EA and Amazon both. It's worth saying that, while some may have jumped the gun, the acquisition rumours involving EA have been increasingly persistent in recent times, with its CEO recently having to reassure shareholders that there were no such plans. That's suit talk, of course, because deals on this scale don't tend to leak: Microsoft's offer for Activision for an incomprehensible $68.7 billion came out of nowhere, a deal that makes Take-Two's acquisition of Zynga for $12.7 billion feel relatively affordable. There's a lot of smoke, but no fire yet. This could be a deal waiting to happen, and it could be complete pie-in-the-sky: just another example of the modern media ecosystem sending an unconfirmed report halfway around the world before the truth managed to get its boots on. We've contacted both EA and Amazon for comment and will update with any response. View the full article

Creative Assembly, who you'll mostly know for the impossible breadth and depth of its library of strategy games, have announced that it's working on a new project to "sit alongside Total War, Hyenas and the studio’s other yet-to-be announced project". What's more, it's specifically looking for help from developers "with experience working on third-person titles using the Unreal 5 engine". The new project was announced in a post released earlier today on the Creative Assembly website. It's all pretty mysterious, though. Aside from saying that a new project is underway and implying that it's going to be a third-person title, the studio says it'll be keeping shtum about further details for a while yet. In a bid to reassure strategy fans that might worry about one of the genre's most stalwart devs branching out, the announcement concludes with a statement that Creative Assembly's Sofia studio will continue to maintain a team dedicated to working on future Total War projects. Personally, I'm more excited about the prospect of Creative Assembly getting experimental than I am for yet another Total War entry. I'm a sucker for grand strategy, but for whatever reason the more military-focused games they put out have never grabbed me quite as firmly as the expansive diplomatic and political simulations that you get from Paradox. On the other hand, Alien: Isolation was one of my favourite experiences of the last ten years. Here's hoping that the studio can pull off that trick again with whatever this third-person title turns out to be. This new project isn't the only non-strategy product that Creative Assembly has in the pipeline. It's currently accepting signups for the alpha of Hyenas, a new multiplayer shooter that promises zero-G battles, fast-paced battles, and… "epic merch"? Sure, okay. I might just wait and see what this other project is, if I'm honest. View the full article

There's still no solid release date, but at least we now know that Intel plans to release the new Arc A700-series graphics cards by the end of October. October 28, to give it a deadline. That's when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II launches, and according to the latest Arc teaser video, Intel's XeSS upsampling tech is going to be available from day one. And, as Intel's Tom Petersen says, the XeSS launch "is going to be coincident with the introduction and availability of our discrete GPUs, no surprise." We've been waiting a long time for some concrete information about when we might actually see the higher-spec versions of Intel's inaugural Arc graphics cards, after the low-end A380 card launched to little acclaim in China, and everything else was delayed to an ephemeral 'summer' release. Now we have an end point by which Intel has to call time on fiddling with drivers and just get the damned things released. I mean, the software engineers can always carry on optimising those drivers after all. 'We'll fix it in post…' Says Raja. The new video, presented by everyone's favourite buddy-movie duo, Tom Petersen and Ryan Shrout, offers some more details about Intel's own upscaler. Think about XeSS along the lines of Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR features, something which will take advantage of the AI processing capabilities of its new Arc discrete graphics cards as well as offer higher frame rates on its integrated GPUs and other manufacturers' cards, too. And it paints a pretty picture of XeSS, showing healthy performance increases across a bunch of games, and up to a 2.5x increase in the 3DMark XeSS feature test. Though it has already been shown that Intel's new GPUs are hella optimised for UL's benchmarking software, which makes those figures tough to trust. But running in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with ray tracing enabled too, the effect looks good, with minimal visual artefacts even on the lowest 'Performance' mode. In 'Balanced' mode the game is running at 79 fps at 1440 max RT settings, against 62 fps without XeSS enabled. Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: Intel)Image 2 of 3 (Image credit: Intel)Image 3 of 3 (Image credit: Intel) It's not just the four-year-old Lara lark and a reboot of an old CoD sequel getting the XeSS treatment, however, as Intel has got another 19 games lined up for launch. Well, either at the launch of Arc proper, or when the games launch if they arrive later than Intel's A700-series GPUs. Peak Storage (Image credit: Future)Best SSD for gaming: the best solid state drives around Best PCIe 4.0 SSD for gaming: the next gen has landed The best NVMe SSD: this slivers of SSD goodness Best external hard drives: expand your horizons Best external SSDs: plug in upgrades for gaming laptops and consoles These range from older titles, such as Hitman 3 or Naraka Bladepoint, to upcoming games, such as Gotham Knights or Arcadegeddon(?). Like DLSS and FSR, XeSS looks like another solid upscaler that will help negate the higher demands of modern games and their new lighting and rendering techniques, and provide gamers with another way to squeeze some extra performance out of the GPUs. But, as with all things Arc, it's all going to come down to final execution and how the GPUs actually perform when they're out from under Intel's gaze and in our independent labs with actual release drivers. Which should hopefully be before the end of October, right? View the full article

I'm not one for designer clothing. The closest I've come to being fashionable is the pair of Doc Marten boots I wore once, bled into, and threw to the back of my wardrobe so they couldn't hurt anyone ever again. And yet, when Microsoft asked if I'd like to try out some threads from the new Hardwear clothing line, I had a chance to once again dabble in the lifestyle of lavish fashion, and rethink my stance on buying everything second-hand. And so, my journey into becoming a "normcore" fashion model for a day began. The first hurdle was deciding on a size. Now, I tend to buy clothing that's a size up so I can wear it as a dress if I'm feeling fancy. What I forgot to account for was the difference between UK and US sizing—extra large seems to mean something different across the pond. In fact, I was sent an XXL which was a massive overcompensation for my little muffin-top, and frankly I'm drowning. (Image credit: Future) Though, while I've had to roll the sleeves of this humongous denim jacket up just to be able to type this out, I will say the jacket is very nice. Good pockets big enough for massive nerdy cell phones, too. I'm sure it'll make a great autumn jacket for cool evenings loitering around the server rooms at work, or wherever normies like to hang out. It's a bit strange that they put a paragraph of print on the inside of the jacket, though. Like I'm meant to take it off and be like "Guys, guys, read my jacket!" I guess it's a nod to the questionably-worded overarching theme, which we'll get to momentarily. I feel the need to hide the slogan from people, in case I get a complaint filed about me. If the sizing fiasco wasn't enough to put me off designer clothing for good (despite it being entirely my own fault), the fact it started to rain on my already heavy-'donkey' denim jacket really didn't help the situation. Carrying ten pounds of sodden denim home sure is a work out. Maybe I'll only have to upsize to a large size next time. And then there was the T-shirt slogan. I wasn't actually asked which T-shirt design I wanted, but I figured "how bad could a lucky dip be?" Boy, did I overestimate my luck. Microsoft could've have sent me a Bliss XP wallpaper print, or Windows 95 MS Paint icon tee. But no. Instead I got a slogan slapped across my chest that reads: "It's in you, not on you." To your average normie, perhaps there's nothing off about this statement. Maybe all they see is the earnest positivity about it being 'what's inside that counts.' But in the circles I float between, and even among my esteemed colleagues, you can bet someone passed a risque comment or two. Don't worry, it's nothing I had to contact HR about, but you have to admit there's a potential for some misconstrued undertones here. Dave James, Hardware Lead's experience"I'm angry at myself," says my long-suffering wife when I walk in the door. "I shouldn't have let you go outside wearing that. You basically walked in there with 'My name's Dave and I'm a sex pest' written on your T-shirt." So yeah, maybe strolling into daycare to drop off my three-year-old wearing a shirt with "It's in you, not on you" emblazoned on the front wasn't the best plan. Particularly when his key worker then asks him: "what's that on daddy's T-shirt, Charlie?" "It's just a silly slogan…" Says I, squirming. Just a silly slogan with far too many sexual connotations for my liking. Suffice to say that's going to be an at-home T-shirt from now on. Though I'm still digging the denim shacket with Inbox on the breast pocket, that's a keeper. And not casually offensive. Perhaps that's what designer Gavin Mathieu was going for? No, Microsoft describes it as a clothing line that "puts the focus on individuals and not on the clothing they wear." That's a much more respectable sentiment than it sounds when worded the way it is. But the thing about designer clothing with slogans like this is that it's so steeped in irony, the message ends up going full circle. Remember when everyone was walking around with "OBEY" on their T-shirts? The point was to show a "biting sarcasm verging on reverse psychology," urging people to "to take heed of the propagandists out to bend the world to their agendas." But of course, the real irony is in spending $50 on a tee in order to blend in with your current friend group's world view, while unironically mocking conformists. Okay, enough of my designer clothing rant. I'm here to write about cores and threads, not clothing threads. The bottom line is that I'm not feeling very normcore; I feel a bit like I'm camping in my own T-shirt, which isn't the fault of Microsoft by any stretch. But my real issue lies in the fact I feel the need to hide the slogan from people, in case someone files a complaint about me. View the full article

Summer steams ahead over at Fanatical as we enter our third week of deals fever. As ever, if you want to make this a summer to remember (i.e. one you spend mostly indoors playing videogames), you'll want to head over there and check out what's on offer. But if that sounds like too much decision-making this early in the day, we can help you out. We've picked out another crop of the finest discounted games for you to check out from the many that are currently on sale. Top Pick: Soul Hackers 2—20% off (Image credit: Atlus) £39.99/$47.99 | Fanatical link Soul Hackers 2 is the latest in the proud line of "Shin Megami Tensei games that aren't Persona" and follows the story of a war between duelling cabals of devil summoners. It's a sequel 25 years in the making: the original Soul Hackers debuted on a mysterious monolith called the Sega Saturn all the way back in 1997. I suppose you can't rush perfection. It's more combat-focused than the Persona games. You'll find yourself guiding your party of loveable cyberpunk demon-wranglers through various dungeons and engaging in traditional-but-rewarding turn-based JRPG combat. Even social links and confidants—the dating sim staple of the Persona series—are replaced by a set of dungeons called "Soul Matrixes" that see you diving into the minds of your companions and battling their demons, which are literal and metaphorical all at once. If you got hooked on SMT when we finally got Persona 4 in 2020, Soul Hackers 2 will tide you over until Joker and the Phantom Thieves finally land on our shores this October. Subnautica—40% off (Image credit: Unknown Worlds Entertainment) £14.99/$17.99 | Fanatical link I've never been one for survival games; I struggle enough to survive in real life. But something about Subnautica meant I poured almost 70 hours into the darn thing. Maybe it's the subversive and (ironically) dry wit of its anti-corporate humour, maybe it's the well-paced mystery constantly unfolding at the heart of the game's plot. Maybe I just like hanging out with massive fish. Whatever it is, Subnautica is the only survival game I've ever loved, and I suspect that may be the case for some time. Shenmue 3—78% off (Image credit: Ys Net) £5.49/$6.59 | Fanatical link The adventures of jiu-jitsu idiot Ryo Hazuki continue in Shenmue 3, which sees our beloved and baffling hero continue the search for his father's murderer in the mountains of Guilin, China. Shenmue 3 is a weird, deliberate, and languid experience that heard the criticisms people levelled at the games preceding it and responded, "Those things are all good, actually". We liked it a lot and, while it won't change the mind of Shenmue-haters, the world is a better place for its existence. Kerbal Space Program—77% off (Image credit: Private Division) £6.89/$9.19 | Fanatical link We choose to go to the moon because we clearly aren't fit for survival here on Earth. Kerbal Space Program is the premiere NASA-sim on the market, painstakingly modelling the physics and mechanics of spaceflight and letting you build the astonishingly explosive deathtraps of your dreams. XCOM 2—91% off (Image credit: Firaxis) £3.32/$5.69 | Fanatical link You're not playing defence anymore. XCOM 2 takes the defensive gameplay of Firaxis' first XCOM and turns it on its head: now you're controlling a cadre of revolutionary guerillas fighting to topple a tyrannical alien regime whose conquest of Earth was very successful indeed. Elite Dangerous—79% off (Image credit: Frontier Developments) £4.19/$6.29 | Fanatical link The finest space-trucking sim on the market. Elite Dangerous isn't perfect: its procedurally-generated missions can get old and its last expansion was controversial to say the least, but nothing else I've played captures the immensity and sublimity of space quite like it. Just point yourself in a random direction and activate your frame shift drive. That's where the real fun is. View the full article

Explore Sumeru these Genshin Impact 3.0 guides (Image credit: miHoYo)Genshin Impact 3.0: What you need to know Genshin Impact Sumeru: How to get there Genshin Impact Dendroculus: Where to find Genshin Impact Dori: Electro merchant The Genshin Impact Nilotpala Lotus is one of the new regional specialities that Sumeru has added to the game. But unlike the Sumeru Rose, which you can find pretty much everywhere, some other plants are a little harder to locate. The Nilotpala Lotus, Rukkhashava Mushrooms, and Padisarahs all grow in very specific locations across the new rainforest realm. If you were lucky enough to grab the new five-star Dendro character, Tighnari, then you're going to need a lot of Nilotpala Lotus in order to ascend him to max level, so you can actually use him and his powerful Dendro abilities. Here I'll explain the best places to farm these water-flowers. Genshin Impact Nilotpala Lotus: Where to farm (Image credit: miHoYo official interactive map) While a few Nilotpala Lotus can be found scattered across Sumeru, the best place to farm them is in the water around Sumeru City. If you head right from the bridge that leads into the city in the south, there are lots in the water there, and then you can continue to follow the water north, then west, then north again towards Alcazarzaray Palace, then west again. This route should let you collect lots. You can find every Nilotpala Lotus location on the official Genshin Impact map. There are 66 dotted across Sumeru, but you're going to need 168 if you want to level Tighnari fully. This means at least two full farms, and one almost full. Like any other regional specialities, Nilotpala Lotus will respawn after two days, so it's going around 4-ish days once you account for the cooldowns. Also watch out for the crocodiles. View the full article

All the Wordle tips, hints, clues, and more you could ever wish for are now just a short scroll away. Need the answer to today's Wordle in a hurry? No problem, the solution to the August 26 (433) challenge is just a little further down the page. When I'm faced with what seems at the time to be an impossible half-formed jumble of yellow letters I sometimes try to make up right-ish sounding words in a desperate attempt to narrow down the potential answers. I wouldn't recommend this non-technique, but every now and then it's been the little spark that sets me on the right path. Wordle hint Today's Wordle: A hint for Friday, August 26 Alanis Morissette famously wrote a song about a version of this word, a term used when the outcome of a situation turns out to be the opposite of what was expected, or someone's feelings don't match the words coming out of their mouth. This contrast between the two is often used in a humorous way. 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 433 answer? Don't worry if those greens aren't turning up today. The answer to the August 26 (433) Wordle is IRONY. Previous answers Wordle archive: Which words have been used The more past Wordle answers you can cram into your memory banks, the better your chances of guessing today's Wordle answer without accidentally picking a solution that's already been used. Past Wordle answers can also give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle solving fresh. Here are some recent Wordle solutions: August 25: CLOWNAugust 24: NEEDYAugust 23: WOVENAugust 22: MERITAugust 21: WASTEAugust 20: TREATAugust 19: SHRUGAugust 18: TWANGAugust 17: TWICEAugust 16: GRUEL Learn more about Wordle Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them. You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns ️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. means you've got the right letter in the right spot. You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer. After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS). If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below. Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. View the full article