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From 2010 to 2014 Richard Cobbett wrote Crapshoot, a column about rolling the dice to bring random games back into the light. This week, GTA is far from the only way to experience a life of crime. You could rob a bank in real life! Or, alternatively...
As credos go, a thief's is pretty simple: What's yours is mine. Why, it's so fundamental to the job, games about them may even pinch it from each other. Before Garrett though, and certainly before... uh... The Yellow Guy, the art of thievery was a little more of an adventure. A not very well translated one, admittedly, but still. The time is the 1950s. The place, London. The goal, to master the art of theft.
I hope it's fingerpainting. I was always best at fingerpainting.
So there I was, pretending to be in the middle of an anecdote, when I found myself on the platforms at Victoria Station. Three pounds in my pocket, a perpetual cigarette between my lips. No friends, no contacts, and only at 82% health. Probably something to do with the cigarette. This of course will not be allowed to stand. By the end of the week, I fully intend to be the Moriarty to this city's Sherlock, the Lupin III to its Zenigata, the Hamburglar to its Mayor McCheese. All I need to accomplish this is everything. Conveniently, that's also what I intend to steal.
But first things first.
Despite being broke, I call a taxi. I'm expecting a typically dour taxi driver, which will make it easier when I either Grand Theft Auto or Daley Thompson's Decathlon my way out of paying at the end of the ride. Instead, I come face to face with the terrifying sight of Dan Stanford, the taxi company's boss. "May I congratulate you on being the 1000000th client of our Taxi & Transport Company!" he exclaims.
With my free ticket, I head down to Holland Street to find a place to crash out, and start assembling my crew. Bed first. Crime later.
The Ugley Dog Hotel appeals to me, because any establishment that casual about typos must be confident of itself. "I've booked a room in advance," I lie. "Under which name?" the fiendish receptionist replies, cutting right through my lie like some kind of super detective bastard man. I can't use my own, obviously—which is "Matt Stuvysant", incidentally—so I go to the second name on the list. "Mark Goldberg," I say, as confidently as I can. Nothing happens. "Oh," I add, and actually click the option.
"Oh, Mr Goldberg, I'm awfully sorry I didn't recognize you at once!" says the receptionist. "We've got no room booked in advance under your name, but this is certainly due to a mistake in our administration!"
"Yes, well, don't let it happen again," I order him, taking the keys to Room 8.
"Home sweet home," my future self tells me, as I survey it. That makes me feel better, mostly because I can see that some time in the future, I'll be upgrading from a damp cigarette to a full on pipe. I wonder if he gets flash-forwards to his even more future self covered in Nicorette patches. I hope not, because that would be incredibly wussy thing, and a master thief like myself has no time for such childish nonsense.
Anyway, the first thing I do in my hotel room is phone Mummy.
"If someone listened to the rest of this conversation, he would surely believe that I'm quite a whimp for someone of my age," narrates my future self, who can't spell 'wimp', apparently. "However, it has to be said that my father never had enough time for me, and that therefore I had a very close relationship to my mother." What he doesn't mention though is that Mummy is connected. Where most mothers will advise wrapping up warm or wearing clean underwear, Mummy instead wastes no time setting up an underworld meeting with a man named Mr. Briggs, in what's technically called the Fat Man's Pub but looks disturbingly like the UK branch of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.
Briggs is a fat man with a plan—probably involving an all-lard dinner. He also wants to arrange a really big score, which currently has just one minor problem holding it back. He's broke. How broke? He can't afford the tools, he can't afford the car, and his best plan for fixing this is to rob... a kiosk. Somehow, I don't see this guy going after the Crown Jewels any time soon.
To conduct a burglary though, I need a couple of basic things—a getaway driver, who will be behind the wheel of some clunking piece of crap that he can provide, and some kind of tool to jemmy open a lock. Both, I'm told, can be found on Watling Street, along with the police station should I decide to go and turn myself in for kicks at some point. On a whim, I head over to meet the Competition: Inspector Gludo.
He's very professional.
And he doesn't even notice me steal his police identity card. Score!
A second bar beckons, called—oddly—"Walrus & the yellow shades". It's a little funkier than Callahan's Transworld Saloon, so I figure that it probably has a better class of criminals. Like this lady, Elizabeth.
Coughing, I switch effortlessly into my most charming voice. "What's your job?" I ask. "Housewife." she replies. "Have you ever had any trouble with the police?" "No. I've never committed any crime."
Ah.
"Would you like to help me break into a kiosk in Fulham?" I ask anyway. "I'll take 55 percent," she snaps.
I think we have our getaway driver!
Back at the hotel, it's time to plan a crime. Elizabeth will obviously be the Bonny to my Clyde, but unfortunately when I assign her to the car, she refuses on the grounds that she's sure I can find someone much more qualified. Her name turns out to be Justin White... Justine, presumably... who actually has the balls to follow a complete stranger into an illegal heist. Liz, you broke my heart.
Planning is a little strange. It's done in time units, with adventure game commands that build up into a full operation. Walking to a door will take as long as it takes, obviously. Breaking through it with a jemmy is another 15 or so seconds, while other things take longer. This being a smash-and-grab, there's really nothing more to it than Justin waiting outside, me going in to grab the cash, and then us all leaving.
You could have done that, Liz. This could have been you. This money could have been yours. But it is not, and it never will be, and that's on you, Liz. That's your fault.
After the heist, the police go over the scene in great detail but don't pick up a vast number of clues, or The Clue!s as the case may be. This one can be officially declared a success, unless your name is Liz The Coward, obviously. And Liz? That's your new name. To celebrate, I head down to the pub to find more work, only to be stopped by a totally legitimate looking bloke who definitely isn't the Inspector.
Telling him where to stick his pipe, and offering him a light with which to start smoking it, Not Inspector Gludo takes immediate umbrage. "Mon cher, don't be that aggressive. I've only got one toute petite question: Would you sell me your... how do you say... loot?"
Well, why not? Ignoring that the loot is already cash, obviously.
"Ha! You thief!" Gludo screams. "You are under arrest, in the name of Law! Everything you say from now on... may be used... and, um... everything else... may be, umm... used as well!" And from there, it's mostly downhill. To the station. Booking. A long jail sentence, with much time to reflect. Finally, a quieter, more honest life, as a monk who takes the old 'smoking habit' joke a little too literally.
Yeah, right. As if. Though honestly, the idea that I'd fall for that trick is almost as insulting as the offers I'm given from local dealers. See, despite having stolen cash, The Clue doesn't see it as regular money, the kind which you might be able to just spend. As such, I need to take it to a fence. About £175 for £190 seems like a distinctly poor rate of exchange, even on the streets.
At this point though, I feel free to be my own criminal... more or less. Mr. Briggs claims he has some big score planned, but that I'm not a bad enough criminal yet. Please! I raided an unoccupied kiosk. I'm basically Scarface, only better, because I have no scars. I'm... uh... Face, I guess.
Most of the rest of The Clue is at least somewhat open, with seven places to rob in ascending order of complexity—an old peoples' home, an art gallery, the grave of Karl Marx. Yes, really. You break in at night to lift his bones. Not jump them, mind. That would be a very different game.
Each one involves going to the site and Investigating, which means sitting outside and filling up an accuracy bar without being caught, then assembling a team, buying the equipment and getaway vehicle, and setting out a plan with pinpoint precision. The catch is that while you do get to see guard movements while conducting the plan, it's only when actually carrying it out that they're able to trigger alarms and call the police. This is officially known as "A Bad Thing". Possibly even "A Very Bad Thing."
Of course, the more heists you do, the more heist-gear you can afford. In that first mission, it's just a jemmy. Later, more advanced breaking and entering gear is on offer, as are useful extra tools like chloroform. No rope arrows or Outsider powers though, more's the pity.
But what's all this in aid of? What's Mr. Briggs' big mission?
The Tower of London, of course. He really does want the Crown Jewels.
Can't fault his ambition, I guess.
But that's a lot of crimes away, and there's a little bit after it when it turns out that there's no honour amongst thieves. Not even Carmen Sandiego's crew, as they discovered after one too many karaoke performances of her theme song led to her deciding that her next theft would be 'their oxygen'.
The Clue, itself an enhanced remake of an older game called They Stole A Million, would later get a 3D sequel called The Sting, which took the game into 3D but focused more on the heists in a world so foggy, it's like going treasure hunting in Silent Hill.
Technically, that was always the meat of the game. The Clue though was far more fun for its adventure-game leanings, with the characters wandering around town, the weird conversations that sometimes popped up, and the sense that you weren't just ticking heists off a list. Though obviously, you totally were. The Clue gives up any pretence of being a hardcore criminal simulator round about the time it provides free boarding, taxis, and only objects to you standing around for literally days on end without food and water because you're being boring.
Though it is enough of one to suggest that a modern remake could be seriously cool.
As for my little crime spree? It ended in ignominious failure after a watchman caught me digging up Karl Marx's bones from his grave, mostly because I was fascinated to see who the hell was going to be able to fence them. It's not the kind of thing you can just take to eBay, and it's not as if London's hardcore gangsters are likely to care much whose moldy bones are over the fireplace. Sadly, when the whistle was blown, too much evidence... too much Clue... had been left behind to make a clean getaway.
Needless to say, I totally blame Liz.
I don't know what happened to the rest of the team, but monastery life didn't turn out too bad, all things considered. Especially when I saw some of the nice stuff in the glass cases. Jean Valjean had the right idea, if you ask me. His only real mistake was losing his balls afterwards and becoming a whimp. Yes, one with an h. That's how it's spelled these days, young whippersnappers.
(sucks on pipe, reaches for Nicorette patches)
Incorrectly.
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Indie game developer Rob Hale, also known as Squid in a Box, died of cancer earlier this month. Hale's partner, CJ, revealed the news in an announcement on the Steam forums of Hale's next game, Waves 2. Per Hale's final wishes, CJ has made the developer's games Waves and Waves 2 free to download on Steam.
"This was something Rob was considering anyway within the past two months as their health entered into more substantial difficulties," CJ stated, "I hope this can be seen as a parting gift to all those out there that haven’t yet played either of these games."
Hale's first project, Waves, was released in 2011. It's a mellow twin-stick shooter with a distinctive trance-beat and chiptune soundtrack. Waves was a standout release in those earlier days of the Steam indie scene, and remains well-worth returning to more than ten years later.
Hale's follow up, Waves 2: Notorious, will remain preserved mid-development due to the developer's untimely passing. "Over the years we were together they were always dreaming big and trying so hard to create the best game they could possibly make," CJ continues in their tribute, "Waves 2 will definitely remain incomplete. But that doesn’t take away from my awe and the pride I always had in Rob; to see someone so dedicated to their craft."
Rob Hale leveraged their experience in modding and AAA game development to pursue their passion independently, and the developer was kind enough to speak with PC Gamer back in 2012, offering advice to anyone looking to start making games.
In that interview, you can see the attitude of a person who loved what they did and wanted to share that passion with others. Making games was, as Rob quipped, "the reason I get up in the afternoon." Hale's body of work and the moving tribute left by their partner remain as a testament to that passion.
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The movie industry pulse publication Deadline is reporting that an adaptation of Days Gone is in the works at Sony's PlayStation Productions studio, with a pretty unlikely name circling as lead Deacon St. John.
Outlander star Sam Heughan, in fact, and honestly I can see the casting decision from a movie-making person's standpoint, but also I cannot see the brawny Scottish loverboy in the role of hard-drinking Pacific Northwestern biker antihero cruising through the zombie apocalypse.
Which is what Days Gone is about. "An outlaw biker drifting through a Pacific Northwestern post-apocalypse is a killer premise, and Days Gone occasionally lives up to it," said Andy Kelly in his review, which took a middling 63. Not outstanding, but not terrible. Either way, it was an impressive work from Bend Studios, which had been consigned to PS Vita Uncharted spinoff hell since its Syphon Filter days.
Despite that, Days Gone was a huge success for Sony's effort at putting PlayStation games on PC, and sold some 9M copies across all platforms. So what do we know? We know you liked the biker man and you liked it when he shot zombies even if it wasn't a great game in sum. What it did have was good atmosphere, which is what good movies need—maybe it'll shine brighter there.
The alleged adaptation will be written by Sheldon Turner, who wrote comedy Up in the Air and worked on X-Men: First Class. The script will, supposedly, be "a love ballad to motorcycle movies." Easy Rider would have been a lot spicier with the end of the world in the background.
On the other hand, maybe we get something really out of left field. Maybe we're talking more like The Motorcycle Diaries but with cannibal mutants. We'll keep you posted.
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You might have missed this when it came out the other week, but Fashion Police Squad is a delightfully colorful little arena shooter from the indie devs at Mopeful Games. In it you're Sergeant Des, and with sewing machine gun in hand you're charged with uncovering a conspiracy of fashion crimes.
It might look like a goofy joke, but it had so many positive reviews that I had to try it: and underneath the fashionable exterior I found a pretty dang good game that stays funny, to boot. If you, like me, wrote this one off on appearance alone then you're dead wrong.
The heart of Fashion Police Squad is the need to switch between weapons. Your 2DYE4 is a shotgun that paints on bright colors and drains overly-colorful outfits with a beam to supercharge, while the Tailormade sewing machine is an assault rifle that's extra-effective against ill-fitting and baggy clothes.
You match up weapon to enemy type on the fly, dealing with the most dangerous first and working your way down. Like the best Arena shooters the most dangerous areas are almost a puzzle of skill and speed where identifying threats and knowing how to solve them is key. Fashion Police Squad's neat movement mechanics line up with that.
You do that with your belt. By grappling the belt to items in the world around you, like flagpoles, your officer can swing to rapidly move from place to place. This lets you deal with nasty foes and evade vicious attacks like exploding briefcases or speedy melee enemies. (Bros in neon on scooters.) There's something great about swinging past a nasty enemy as you blast them with your drip-flamethrower-thing.
It also has glory kills of a sort, because a charged up special meter lets you raise the shining glove of style and fly across big spaces slapping some ever-loving fashion sense into fashion criminals.
Does the joke stay funny? I haven't finished it, but the entertaining bright colors and energy of Fashion Police Squad (FPS) are in truth a welcome break from the muted tones used in most retro-style shooters. (Whatever we're calling these.)
You can find Fashion Police Squad on Steam for $20, at 10% off until August 22nd.
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The founder and CEO of Midjourney, David Holz, has some truly inspiring views around how AI image generation will transform the gaming industry. During the short time we spoke this week, I had to hold myself back from falling too deep into the AI rabbit hole. In the process, I discovered Holz's view on how this kind of tech will develop and how it's likely to benefit the gaming industry, as well as human creativity as a whole.
Holz believes that one day in the near future, "you'll be able to buy a console with a giant AI chip and all the games will be dreams."
It's a beautiful sentiment for sure, but it's the physics of current technology that's holding us back from exploring the full potential of AI in games. Right now these kinds of AI generators use excruciating amounts of graphical power, and it's just not practical for the kind of utopian visions Holz and I have dreamed of.
He tells me that Midjourney's produces images using algorithms that "all run on the cloud, and they're running on very big GPUs—like $40,000 GPU servers … I think it's fair to say that it's the most compute-heavy consumer application that's ever existed."
That's a lot of energy and a great deal of money to sink into anything, but Holz truly believes in the benefits of the technology Midjourney is pioneering.
He tells me it's already being used as a way of self soothing after a traumatic event. "Some of them are actually using the AI in a purely therapeutic process. And it's hard to understand that, but you'll see weird images and you'll ask them 'why are you doing Maltese dogs in heaven?' And they'll say 'it's because my dogs just died.' And you're like 'oh my god, are you okay?'"
(Image credit: Midjourney / tino t)Of course, there's always that looming fear around AI replacing humans, but Holz has a much more positive outlook.
"We're not trying to build God, we're trying to amplify the imaginative powers of the human species," he says.
He makes it clear it's not about designing tech to replace people, it's about the "proliferation of the visual means to express yourself. It just means that people will become more visual in our culture, and more appreciative of those kinds of things. And there'll be more opportunity around that than there was before."
The barriers between consuming something and creating something fall away
David Holz, Midjourney FounderI'm much in the same mind, and having come from a game art and design background I can certainly see its potential in idea generation for concept artists.
"Before you see video games being generated on the fly, you're gonna see the technologies being used for every step of the asset generation pipeline, to increase the creativity of the content, the quality of the content, and the amount of the content," says Holz. "...you're gonna have game studios using AI to help bake out lots of assets, textures, terrain, layouts and characters. Even if it takes ten minutes to make a high quality character, that's still much faster than it would take during the normal production process.
"AI image bots helping people get better at video game art." (Image credit: Midjourney)"One would hope that in ten years time there's no longer static content because everything is generated on the fly. So in theory, the barriers between consuming something and creating something fall away, and it becomes like liquid imagination flowing around the room.
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"Everything between now and then is a combination of increasing the quality, being able to do things like 3D, making things faster, making things higher resolution, and having smaller and smaller chips doing more and more stuff."
So it seems we just have to wait for the technology to catch up. And it is catching up, fast. There are, albeit less powerful, AI image generators that run on consumer hardware, and it's only a matter of time before these algorithms are even more efficient and involved, so we can get down to generating entire triple A games as we play.
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Sometimes you just need a little help with today's Wordle. I can offer you all sorts of hints and clues for your daily puzzle if you'd just like a little nudge in the right direction, and below that you'll find the answer to the August 20 (427) Wordle ready and waiting if you need it.
Ah, weekends. What could be better than summer sunshine, a fresh Wordle, and all the time in the world to solve it? It's on days like these I like to add a notepad and a pencil to my puzzling, just to make sure I clear today's Wordle in as slow and relaxing a way as possible.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Saturday, August 20
There are a few very different and equally common ways to use today's answer. One way is in a medical sense, to care for an injury or ailment. Another is to give (to yourself or another) an unexpected but always positive experience or item, anything from a day out to a chocolate bar. Lastly, it can refer to the way someone behaves towards another, good or bad. There's a consonant used twice today, so watch out for that.
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 427 answer?
Weekends mean wins. The answer to the August 20 (427) Wordle is TREAT.
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 19: SHRUG
- August 18: TWANG
- August 17: TWICE
- August 16: GRUEL
- August 15: POKER
- August 14: KHAKI
- August 13: HUNKY
- August 12: LABEL
- August 11: GLEAN
- August 10: CLING
Learn more about Wordle
Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them.
You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns
️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. 
means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 
means you've got the right letter in the right spot.You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer.
After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
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Like Security Booth: Director's Cut's indie horror contemporary, The Mortuary Assistant, it isn't just the job simulator its laconic title might imply. There's an undercurrent of horror and intrigue to the seemingly mundane premise that really makes it sing. The first person horror game launched in expanded form on Steam on August 19.
The non-Director's Cut version has been available for free on itch.io, and is part of the Haunted PS1 expanded universe. In Security Booth, you play the part of a security guard at the Nova Nexus labs in 1996, letting in or turning away cars based on whether or not their license plates line up with an employee roster. Not all is as it seems on the graveyard shift at Nova Nexus, however, and things start getting weird.
That free game makes for a nice demo for the full $5 version that launched August 19. The Director's Cut includes more choices and outcomes, fleshing out the conspiracy story and seemingly untethering you from the titular security booth for some good old fashioned first person exploration of your nefarious employer's spooky corporate headquarters.
The free version already has a fantastic atmosphere with some good scares, and I love the concept of being a powerless bystander in what feels like a particularly good X-Files monster of the week episode. It's also great to see more in-depth games come out of Haunted PS1 quickies—Security Booth's fellow Haunted PS1 alum Dread Delusion has become one of my most anticipated games, and stay tuned for a deeper impressions piece on Security Booth: Director's Cut.
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Dolphin Barn's gladiator management sim Domina lost any appeal it may have had when, starting last May, its developer began inserting screeds against "soft" men and LGBTQ people into the game's patch notes and forum discussions. The game's official account has been banned on both Twitter and Bandcamp, with the individual having previously equated support for trans youth with pedophilia on the former platform.
Now the developer says he's been temporarily banned from posting on his own game's Steam forums, although he can still publish Domina patch notes, the latest of which accuses Valve and Steam Support of being "cowards." Meanwhile, Domina's "Mostly Negative" recent reviews are full of references to the developer's views, the game's forums are a battleground, and Dolphin Barn's recent banning shows Steam's typically laissez-faire moderation turning its attention to the game.
Dolphin Barn posted a screenshot via his personal Twitter account showing a message explaining the ban: "This is the second time that one of your posts violates our Discussion Rules and Guidelines, specifically insulting or flaming another user. We're also noticing a trend with abusive messages sent when banning players from your hub."
Following a request that the user adhere to community guidelines, the message touches on the developer's actions against negative steam reviews, and a potential avenue for Valve/Steam to escalate: "We also want to make it clear that you should not reverse Steam moderator decisions or enable rule violations in your hub. Future disregard for our rules and guidelines could jeopardize our business relationship." At the time of writing, Valve has not confirmed the details of its communication with Dolphin Barn.
A quick perusal of the game's recent reviews touches on one of the developer's sticking points with Steam moderation: that it's being impacted by "fraudulent reviewers" and that his efforts at flagging those reviews are being impeded by moderators from Steam. Most of those reviews cite the developer's well-publicized anti-trans screeds, though some seem to be criticizing the game for classes and features available in Domina's beta branch being made paid DLC in the live version—a potential wrinkle to the review moderation question.
(Image credit: Valve, Dolphin Barn)The comments on several negative reviews, meanwhile, include fans of the game spewing vile invective about trans people. Again, whatever merits Domina may or may not have had as a gladiator management sim, that doesn't seem to be anyone's concern at this juncture.
Valve's stance on storefront moderation has been that it won't police content unless it's illegal or "straight-up trolling." That stance has been somewhat unique in the tech sphere, as companies like Twitter and Facebook adopted more heavy-handed moderation policies in the face of online harassment and disinformation.
Previously, Valve removed school shooting FPS Active Shooter on the grounds of trolling and customer abuse. Domina perhaps presents a different challenge for delisting based on that precedent, as the game itself is less at issue—though the developer's usage of patch notes as a vehicle for invective perhaps presents more of a grey area.
This is a fascinating edge case of a strange individual pressing at the boundaries of a largely permissive system and only receiving grassroots pushback until now. We've reached out to Valve for comment and will update if we hear back, and time will tell if the company takes further action or if Domina's developer will continue reaping diminishing returns from a years-old indie game and the outrage cycles surrounding his psychosexual patch notes luridly ruminating on gay and trans peoples' genitalia and sex lives.
The game's latest update communicates a certain defeatist tone: "At this point, it is doubtful that Domina will receive future updates on Steam," though Dolphin Barn's activity this past year and change doesn't leave me inclined to believe we've heard the last of him.
In a contrast to the moderation quagmire surrounding Domina, Nexus mods' removal of a homophobic Spider-Man mod with the simple message "We don't want to and won't argue this with you" offers a refreshing contrast, with institutional moderation refusing to give a bad-faith actor the benefit of the doubt.
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SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik recently unearthed evidence of a "year in review" feature similar to those offered by Spotify or Nintendo in the Steam API. Djundik provided a screenshot of the evidence, as well as a brief description of the feature, supposedly set to arrive with the end-of-year Winter Sale.
The screenshot provided by Djundik includes playtime across various platforms like Linux, Mac, Windows, and the Deck, as well as peripheral information like controller and VR playtime. The total playtime for a whole year seems like an especially sobering metric—I spend a lot of time on Steam, it's gonna be like being reminded of how much of your life is spent sleeping or on the toilet.
The API already works. pic.twitter.com/5i4qTxDdaRAugust 17, 2022
See moreSteam already keeps detailed logs of users' playtime on the service—something we at PC Gamer have already developed an unhealthy obsession with. Still, there's something special about end of year wrap-ups that can put your consumption habits into perspective, perhaps to your horror.
It felt like an indictment from on high when Nintendo told me that my most-played Switch game of 2021 was Beamdog's Baldur's Gate port to the system. 125 hours of twin stick real time with pause tactical RPG action like some kind of sicko—what was I thinking? Similarly, listening to the great Doom (2016) or Furi soundtracks when you work out might make "Video Game Music" one of your top Spotify genres—not something I feel great sharing with my former high school classmates on Instagram.
All jokes aside, I find offerings like this to be a rare fun consequence of the constant digital surveillance we submit to on a daily basis. Instead of getting used as another advertising metric, this data can give us a fun and perhaps worthwhile look at how we engage with our digital media of choice. There's gonna be some Destiny 2 players on the PC Gamer team looking at gnarly triple-digit numbers come December, though.
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Gorgeously animated action-adventure journey Kena: Bridge of Spirits will come to Steam next month, and will get a pretty hefty Anniversary update to boot. The 2021 action game was released on the Epic Games store, but comes to Steam on September 27th. This was detailed in a new trailer, posted to YouTube.
The anniversary update will include a New Game+ mode with new combat encounters, challenges, and unique enemies. It'll also have skill-based Spirit Guide Trials like wave defense modes, obstacle courses, and the ability to re-fight bosses. There'll also be a system called charmstones, doodads that can be equipped to give advantages and disadvantages in combat, allowing a more customizable playstyle.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the gorgeously animated story of a young woman who serve as a spirit guide, helping to free spirits trapped in a forgotten village so they can pass on to the next life. She's helped along by her adorable-and-potent spirit companions, the Rot.
Luke Kemp admired the visuals and said it was "a pleasant cruise through familiar action platforming waters" in our review, but noted that Kena's linearity and simple combat held it back. User reviews of Kena are more positive, and as of this publishing it holds a 4.7/5 on Epic Games and an 8.1/10 on Metacritic.
The Anniversary update has cosmetic upgrades, to boot. Outfits for Kena to wear, unlocked by the Spirit Guide Trials, as well as silly hats for the cute little Rot. There's an upgraded photo mode to go along with all of that.
You can find Kena: Bridge of Spirits on Epic Games and, starting September 27th, on Steam.
https://www.pcgamer.com/kena-bridge-of-spirits-review/
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Hello ojikuta1859,
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.
ojikuta1859 joined on the 08/20/2022.
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Reviewing the video game Ikki in the mid-1980s, Jun Miura coined a new word: kusoge, literally meaning crap game—or in modern translation: "'frack' game." Kusoge became a rallying cry of gamers ever since, used in Japan as a widespread label for the games they loved to hate. The games so bad, so janky, that they somehow became good. In the 40 years since, bad games have become an art form.
Ikki was bad, let me be clear. You were in charge of leading a one or two man peasant rebellion against your abusive samurai overlords against ninjas. It was a bullet hell where you couldn't see where you were going, were painfully slow, couldn't aim your weapon, and where powerups sometimes made you worse.
Despite Jun Miura's scathing criticism, Ikki went on to do well enough on Nintendo consoles and at arcades that it's remembered now quite fondly by Japanese audiences. Ikki went on to be translated and released internationally as either Boomerang or Farmer's Rebellion, depending on region.
Now original Ikki publisher Sunsoft is bringing back Ikki in a revised release called Ikki Unite, set to release on Steam before the end of 2022. Sunsoft hopes Ikki Unite will be closer to the original design vision of Ikki, primarily by expanding its previous two cooperative players to 16, letting you stage a proper peasant uprising. So get ready to fight monkeys and locusts and ninjas with clubs, sickles, and bamboo spears.
"It's a game that can be enjoyed by a large group or a small number of people," says Sunsoft. For my money, it does have an element of currently-quite-popular games like Vampire Survivors to it.
There are other games that Sunsoft is bringing forward in the next few years. That includes Gimmick! in 2022, which is an adorable if famously difficult platformer, and an update of metroidvania Uforia The SAGA to release in early 2023. They'll both come to Steam.
You can find Ikki Unite on Steam, where it's recruiting beta testers.
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After two years in early access and six years in development, Ooblets is doing a casual cha-cha into full release on September 1st, 2022. The whimsically casual and cute Ooblets is a combination of creature-collecting, farming, and life sim with a funky story and a lot of weirdo characters to meet. The quirky adventure comes by way of indie developer/publisher duo, Glumberland.
Ooblets 1.0 will be released on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Epic (PC) on September 1st!Switch physical copy preorders: https://t.co/PDANEPvcupChat/FAQ: https://t.co/5tY8bfLEaG Website: https://t.co/b49GXIAEjhAugust 18, 2022
See moreWe watched the development of Ooblets with absolute fascination as it unveiled more and more cute critters. Some were drawn in by its farming gameplay, others by its dance battles, yet more by its whimsical abuse of the English language.
Even in early access les Ooblettes, as I believe they are called in the French, are what we would consider one of the best Pokemon-like creature collecting games on PC. "If you want a Pokémon game that's also a farming and life sim, then Ooblets is for you," says Rachel Watts in our Early Access preview.
"Building a team of different ooblets who all have different abilities will appeal to Pokémon players, and each and every oob is as cute as a button. If you get worn out by all the dance battles, the life-sim elements of the game are also a treat. You can build a farming empire, make friends with the locals, and decorate your home with funky furniture, all things I have sunk many many hours into," she said of the Early Access release.
The full release promises to include new locations, quests, and the conclusion to the main Ooblets storyline. I found the cute-yet-goofy characters the most appealing part of Ooblets, so if you're like me and have been waiting to dive in since the Early Access release then 1.0 will probably be your starting line.
You can find the full release of Ooblets on the Epic Store in September. It'll also come to consoles like Switch and Xbox. Ooblets has a page on Steam too, but that platform doesn't seem to be included in the September launch. Expect it there at a later date.
You can also find out more about Ooblets on its official website.
Either way, Ooblets is for the cutey witches. There are other games for the creepy witches. (A witch, warlock, or other practitioner can be both or either, depending on the day of the week.)
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Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a screen packed with enemies, feeling overwhelmed and outgunned, and thought to yourself "boy, I sure wish a friendly horde of skeletons, zombies, and pumpkinhead guys was fighting on my behalf so I could focus on picking up milkbones instead of shooting?" If so, Boneraiser Minions would like a word.
With a pixel art aesthetic that reminds me of title cards from old LucasArts adventure games and a bouncy retro soundtrack, this game puts you in the stinky robe of a necromancer put upon by waves and waves of annoying do-gooders. Your boney minions do all the fighting while you run around trying not to die, pick up bones that let you summon more friendos, and cast spells.
Boneraiser lets you know right off the bat that it's not taking itself too seriously. After a short title sequence that warns you to beware King Gigald's poundings, you head into the only map – a simple rectangular graveyard with a single skeleton minion. As you fight off hordes of villagers, knights, and various other fantasy creatures (why did they give the beggars BOMBS? Augh!), you collect bones - every 100 of which allow you to boneraise another minion or upgrade an existing one.. Sword skeletons, bombers, witches, and ghosts fill out your army until you eventually get overrun. Thou art dead.
However, all is not lost. In a system that feels like Hades in the best possible way, you use resources collected during your runs to level up your necromancer, boost your spells and minions, and add additional goodie-two-shoes to the map. As the game progresses, it requires more and more kills to get to 100 bones, so extra good guys equals more chances to grow your slavering horde.
At two dollars on Steam, it's hard not to get your money's worth. The runs are fast and satisfying, there's a ton of fun undead to summon, and with four classes there's a lot of replayability for its relatively small size. I wish there was a little more to do with your resources as it's relatively easy to cap out, but as an Early Access game (released August 5th) perhaps we'll see that fleshed out soon. See what I did there? Because ghouls. And zombies? Never mind, I'll see myself out.
Image 1 of 5(Image credit: Anthony Case)Image 2 of 5(Image credit: Anthony Case)Image 3 of 5(Image credit: Anthony Case)Image 4 of 5(Image credit: Anthony Case)Image 5 of 5(Image credit: Anthony Case) -
Hello Macaire,
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.
Macaire joined on the 08/19/2022.
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Earlier this summer, Microsoft and Samsung teamed up to bring the Xbox Cloud Gaming to Samsung's 2022 lineup of Smart TVs via the Xbox App. This partnership means you could stream a boatload of Xbox Game Pass games sans the need for an Xbox console, PC, or even a streaming device.
The only requirements are a Bluetooth controller, an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, and a solid internet connection. Now that the Xbox App has been out for nearly a month on new Samsung TVs, I decided it would be a good idea to call in one of these fancy displays in to see how well Xbox Cloud Gaming performed on real-world internet.
Samsung sent over one of its new Neo QLED 4K Smart TVs to let me see Xbox Cloud Streaming in action. Yeah, sending over a high-end 4K TV to test out a service that only streams in 1080p is a bit excessive. But am I complaining? Nope.
The Xbox App interface is nearly identical to the console, and PC versions and all navigated with a Bluetooth controller. The only difference in the UI is that it displays cloud-only games, so some titles will be missing from the typical Game Pass offering. It still has a healthy amount of 1st party Xbox and 3rd party games.
As cool as it all sounds, there are some limits. For starters, as I mentioned, it streams out games at steady 1080p/60fps. Samsung's TVs do some upscaling, but it's a bit of a let down that you can't stream Xbox games in 1440p or 4K like you can with your Xbox consoles. If you want to stream out games in 4K, you can opt for Google Stadia Pro ($10 monthly) or an RTX 3080 membership to GeForce Now ($20 monthly), whose apps are both available through the Samsung Gaming Hub as well. Though those services work with separate game libraries, so your mileage may vary depending on what you own.
As far as latency is concerned, as long as you have a wired ethernet connection to your network, it is shocking how little input lag there is. Maybe I'm still traumatized from the early betas of GeForce Now or the current state of PlayStation Now; who knows? I am impressed at how well most of the tested games perform.
In competitive shooters like Halo Infinite or Fortnite, I am pleasantly surprised to see that I can jump into matches and hold my own against players on PCs and consoles most of the time. Though precision weapons like snipers and pistols can feel a bit off in the heat of combat, especially in Halo, where even being delayed by a few milliseconds could cost you against better players.
Despite that, the service shines in games that don't require millisecond-dependent gameplay, like strategy and adventures. I've been able to complete a couple of runs of Slay the Spire and Hades, and they've run as well as they do on console. I also played a bit of As Dusk Falls, and it's been nice to sit back and make terrible life choices as a change of pace.
It is shocking how little input lag there is.
Jorge Jimenez, lag haterMLB The Show 22, which is my current yearly obsession, runs surprisingly well. I've only experienced one or two instances where the performance dipped, which caused a swing and a miss during an at-bat. Other than that, Xbox Cloud Gaming works as advertised.
I can't reiterate enough just how easy and seamless it is to get into a game, even though admittedly, the Xbox App could use better curation to organize its titles. For example, there are no horror or sports categories, which seems odd. Everything is just lumped into very generic categories. Aside from that, you just click on the title, and it boots up in seconds. It's streaming, so there's no download or updating to worry about.
Xbox Cloud Streaming won't give you a 1:1 reproduction from the PC or even console experience in terms of fidelity, but I applaud it for trying. Since I have been playing on a larger screen, the artifacting was more prominent, especially in darker areas. It looks pretty bad in motion in games like Inside, which is nothing but blacks and dark grays. When playing Slay the Spire and Hades, I noticed a dip in visual quality whenever the connection was wonky, where it looked like the video was buffering for a couple of seconds.
Image 1 of 6(Image credit: Future - Jorge Jimenez)Image 2 of 6(Image credit: Future - Jorge Jimenez)Image 3 of 6(Image credit: Future - Jorge Jimenez)Image 4 of 6(Image credit: Future - Jorge Jimenez)Image 5 of 6(Image credit: Future - Jorge Jimenez)Image 6 of 6(Image credit: Future - Jorge Jimenez)Then again, the further you sit from the screen, the less noticeable it is. Since the TV I received is a massive 55 inches, and I'm sitting less than 10 feet away from it, it's easy for me to spot the imperfections, whereas someone sitting on a couch 15 feet away in their living room might be more forgiving.
Just for the hell of it, I've tried a few matches of Fortnite strictly on wireless to see if there is much difference in latency. I had a few instances where my connection got screwy, and my video and audio quality took a dip before latency got affected. From there, I could notice a significantly slower response from button press to screen action. Even with my pretty good internet connection (891Mbps download speed), being wireless was too unreliable for serious competitive play.
As someone who isn't the biggest game streaming advocate, I'm still pretty surprised at how well it works. Navigating the Samsung Gaming Hub and booting up Xbox games is criminally easy. The games themselves look pretty good and, more importantly, play like they are supposed to, so long as you're on a wired connection.
At the end of the day, the quality of your experience with Xbox Cloud Gaming will always be determined by your internet connection. However, I can start to see the appeal of a world where you just sit down and play video games on your TV without worrying about upgrading consoles or tracking down an impossible-to-get GPU. Now that Microsoft is testing out 5-person family sharing for Game Pass Ultimate, this would eliminate the need to buy multiple consoles for a household, which is a pretty smart play from Microsoft.
If Microsoft can find a way to stream games out in 1440p or 4K without sacrificing latency, then this service would be an absolute slam dunk. I'll admit there's something to device-less game streaming, where $15 a month and a Bluetooth controller is all you need to hop online and play games with friends. As a diehard PC gamer, I'll never not need a beefy gaming rig to make me happy, but if services like this mean more people get to play more games without spending a ton of money on hardware, I'm all for it.
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The best part of any Bethesda RPG is getting to "be who you want," as Todd Howard likes to put it, and who I want to be is a sneaky jerk worming my way into a space faction to steal the best clothes. Yeah, sure, looting guns and customizing a spaceship will be cool, but my number one priority in any RPG is being dressed to impress nobody less than myself. Starfield may still be on the horizon after it got delayed into 2023, but I'm pretty positive I already know whose threads I'm nicking.
If you too care more about wearing a unique coat than the stats on the thing, you already know it's the space pirates of the Crimson Fleet.
Spare me from the Starfleet-looking sleekness of the United Colonies, the sci-fi academia of Constellation, and the space western duster jackets of the Freestar Collective. They've all got a recognizable visual identity, as Bethesda's factions always do, but it's going to be a pirate's life for me.
As soon as that fella with the long eyelashes in Starfield's June gameplay reveal said "No one quits. The only way out is death," I knew immediately that I'd be picking death. Specifically the death of whoever his boss is, because I know the space pirates are going to have the shiniest, edgiest outfits complete with excessive straps and buckles that don't appear to actually have a function. You know, the good stuff.
It looks like my new friend is wearing a terrestrial outfit, not a space suit, which I think includes a rather excessive red scarf. Dibs on that. And dibs on that metallic skull helmet full of lights and wires that this other pirate is wearing. This whole command center of theirs is an edgy space teen dream with its constant red glow.
(Image credit: Bethesda)Not for nothing either. I will (and did) prioritize my outfit over survival even in less graphically-minded games like Project Zomboid, but Bethesda's work on Creation Engine 2 means that the fits are a real sight for sore spacer eyes.
Even if I'm not dying to wear the gear from other factions, the gameplay reveal was a real feast of reflective fabrics. The Constellation welcome committee features a woman with a jacket whose zipper and tufted shoulder designs catch light differently. Another member's suit shows off how the coated atmosphere-proof fabric contrastes with the matte patches on his shoulders and the grain of his metallic collar. And, hell, did you spot the scratches on his helmet visor?
(Image credit: Bethesda)I guess this one goes out to Bethesda's materials artists for making me invested in a space game when I'd normally skip it for something pure fantasy. Realism isn't the end all be all of artistic design in games, but since we're getting more realism in Starfield, I'll happily take the giant leap forward in outfit integrity.
I'm also curious whether the many modular parts of Starfield's ship building system will tie to factions at all. The bulky ship that pirate reinforcements land during combat in the gameplay reveal isn't really my style, but I did spot some shiny gold thrusters on back that are.
(Image credit: Bethesda)For the sake of not making a choice entirely based on aesthetics, let's look at weapons real quickly too. Like choice in fashion, Bethesda's factions typically have a favorite class of gear too. From the gameplay reveal, the pirates seem to favor laser weapons over ballistics. I'm more of a melee lady myself, though maybe I can adapt in space. Plus, I'd be willing to bet my credits that getting in good with the bad folks will eventually earn me a unique laser gun with some ridiculous ability like extra damage only against friendly wildlife. There was a pretty slick black and gold laser rifle called the Equinox that the player looted from a Crimson Raider base during the gameplay reveal. Yeah, I could rock that.
While we wait to see more official gameplay from Starfield, my fellow PCG writers are hoping for weird as hell NPCs and cities more like Morrowind. I'm just keeping an eye on the gear my new best frenemies are wearing.
I will find out which one of them has the coolest helmet. And I will wear it.
(Image credit: Bethesda)(Image credit: Bethesda) -
Back during its 10th anniversary blitz, Riot announced a whole pile of new games. Among those was Project L, the working title for a League of Legends fighting game. This is what Riot's been working towards since it bought Radiant Entertainment, a developer run by EVO co-founder Tom Cannon, back in 2016. It's been rumored for awhile that Riot was making a fighting game. A drip-feed of info about the 2d fighter has continued since its reveal, giving us some insight into its roster and setup. Here's everything we know.
What is Project L's release date?
The short answer is: not anytime soon, according to the designer of Project L (and co-founder of EVO), Tom Cannon.
During Project L's reveal on Riot's anniversary livestream, Cannon also said: "Making fighting games is really, really tough. These are intricate games to make. And while we're a good ways towards making something that we think is really cool, we still have a long way to go. We're going to go dark for a while after this, so please don't expect anything soon."
They further updated this with new info in November 2021, describing that Project L would not release in 2022.Project L will be free-to-play
The Runeterra 2D fighter will be joining the legion of free-to-play service games, according to a dev diary video from Riot. We don't have any specifics for the game's monetization scheme, but dev Tom Cannon said the decision to follow a free-to-play model was motivated by wanting to "remove as many barriers as possible from you enjoying Project L. We want you to be able to play, no matter where you live, what your skill level is, or how much money you have to spend on a game."
What's Project L gameplay details do we have?
A surprise look into Project L from November of 2021 gave us insight into the type of fighting game Project L is going to be. Specifically, it will be an "assist fighter", where players create a team of two fighters, with one acting as the primary fighter, and the other able to be called in for assist attacks.
Designers Tom & Tony Cannon also described their hopes for the complexity as being one where a new player can easily jump in and learn a new character's basic moves, but still be woefully outclassed by masters of that character.
(Image credit: Riot Games)Which characters will be in Project L?
Riot hasn't officially announced a roster, but between the different snippets of footage they showed, we've seen that the League of Legends cast is out in force. Ahri, Katarina, Jinx, and Darius all put in appearances in. In the latest update, we've seen that Ekko will also be showing up. There's some serious diversity there, since we're looking at a fox-mage, an assassin with throwing knives, a bruising fighter with a giant axe, a minigun-and-rocket-launcher wielder, and a time rewinding inventor.
The August 2022 dev diary video revealed the Illaoi will be part of the Project L roster. An accompanying blog post from Riot has a lot more details about the design process of translating Illaoi into a fighting game context, but it's clear she'll be a powerhouse brawler, utilizing her heavy golden idol as well as her phantom sea-tentacles.
With nearly 160 champions to pick from in League of Legends, the character pool options are deep. But with so many types of champions, it'll be interesting to see which ones make it into Project L. Most humanoid champions are probably a safe bet, but I wouldn't be surprised if champs like Cho'Gath, Rumble, or Aurelion Sol are left out. How could they possible work in a fighting game? Well, there's always the Goro route.What other details do we have about Project L?
The look has been refined since the earliest previews, but matches most 2.5D fighters. From the short bits of gameplay we got to see with a UI, a lot of the usual fighting game elements are present. Health bars, EX/super gauges, a round timer, round win counters, and combo counters are all there. However, given the game is in such an early state, it's possible there are changes ahead.
One thing to keep in mind is that Riot bought Tom Cannon's company, Radiant Entertainment, presumably because Cannon was working on a game called Rising Thunder. Rising Thunder was unlike a lot of other fighting games in that it was specifically built to be more approachable for newer players who didn't want to memorize long, complicated combos.
One of Rising Thunder's coolest ideas was that an entire combo could be triggered by a simple button press. There was still a wealth of strategy in knowing invincibility frames, timings, and spacing, but you could easily play with just a keyboard instead of a fight stick.
Given that much of Riot's design philosophy has been making more approachable versions of complicated games, like MOBAs and autochess, it's reasonable to assume Project L will build off of Rising Thunder's foundation.
But will Teemo be in Project L?
Never underestimate the power of the scout's code.
(Image credit: Riot Games) -
Oh, no. It finally happened. I've reached the point in my life where I agree more with the stern dad in a videogame than I do with the rebellious teen.
I can take comfort, at least, in the fact that the dad I'm agreeing with in this game is voiced by none other than Doug Cockle, voice of Geralt of Rivia—and here he's playing a guy named Gerald who's visiting the Riviera. Cute. The game is Arcade Paradise, a first-person management sim set in the 1990s when video arcades were still popular hangouts.
In Arcade Paradise I'm a teenager—Gerald's kid, Ashley—put in charge of the grubby little laundromat my dad owns, following his instructions and enduring his lectures over the phone while he's out of town. Every morning I take the bus to King Wash and then go about a series of repetitive tasks, like picking up trash, prying gum off chairs, cleaning the tiny bathroom, and doing loads of laundry for customers who drop off their laundry baskets.
But this isn't just a coin-op laundromat. There's a back room, small and cluttered, with a handful of arcade game cabinets. And as a teen slogging through a boring, repetitive job at the family business, Ashley's dreams quickly outgrow the humble drudgery of a wash-and-fold existence. Why not take the earnings from clearing dirty socks and undies and invest them in arcade games? I'm already getting paid in quarters. How about buying some more machines that run on spare change?
The idea of running an arcade fits my character perfectly: Ashley already turns the grind of picking up trash and unclogging toilets into a game anyway. Just about everything you do in Arcade Paradise has been gamified: a power meter and target appear whenever I chuck a bag of trash into a dumpster, pulling chewing gum off seats and countertops works like a timed boss fight, and even unclogging a toilet requires finding the sweet spot (like when picking a lock) and then power-plunging. Doing a load of laundry rewards me with a ranking depending on how timely I got the clothes into the washer, then the dryer, then back into the basket for the customer to collect. And the better I score in these tasks, the more I get paid.
(Image credit: Nosebleed Interactive)When I've collected enough money and emptied all the coin hoppers, I sit down at the boxy old CRT in the tiny office and order new arcade games for the back room. All the cabinets in Arcade Paradise are playable, from electronic air hockey to a cute Dig-Dug clone.
My favorite game currently is a mix of Pac-Man and GTA, where you drive a bright yellow sports car through a maze of city streets, gobbling up cash and grabbing powerups that let me turn into a tank to defeat the police cars chasing me. Each arcade game has achievements you can unlock, with each achievement making the games more popular and thus better earners. It's the first time the term 'play-to-earn' actually makes sense.
But as my arcade grows, my dreaded little secret is… I think I like the laundromat more than the arcade? Apologies to the rebellious teenager I'm playing in Arcade Paradise, but when Daddy Gerald tells me to invest my earnings into better washers and dryers for the laundromat, I think it's actually a great idea. A laundromat is a sound business: people will always have clothes that need washing. But an arcade is doomed to fail. Here in the '90s, the arcade game industry is about to be sunk by home console ports like an iceberg taking down the Titanic.
Plus, I really like being in the laundromat. Maybe it's some weird twisted nostalgia for laundromats I didn't even know I had, involving the clutter of discarded newspapers and takeaway coffee cups, and the bored customers sitting around watching their clothes spin in those huge metal dryers. For whatever reason, I don't mind doing all the stuff Ashley probably hates.
But in Arcade Paradise, I can't spend my quarters on new washers and dryers (unless that comes later—I've only played for a few hours). I can only buy stuff for the arcade. Luckily there seem to be tons of games for sale, as well as other attractions like jukeboxes and pool tables I can install to diversify.
So far I'm finding Arcade Paradise oddly compelling—the other night I stayed up so late playing my eyes were bleary just from doing laundry, cleaning, and playing the arcade games between spin cycles. I earned enough to convert a larger adjoining back room into a proper arcade, and I plan to keep working until I can afford enough game cabinets to fill it. Looking at the blueprints of the building, there are a couple more rooms I'll be able to expand to once I've done enough laundry. Won't Poppa Gerald be surprised when he gets home?
But honestly, I do genuinely agree with Dad's lectures. I should be spending my money to upgrade the laundromat and not the arcade. The '90s will race by. The arcade doesn't have long left to live, but people will always have dirty underpants and stained shirts. It pains me to say this, but listen to your Dad, Ashley. He knows what he's talking about.
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Apex Legends kicked off its fourteenth season, Hunted, this month. The latest content update adds a bunch of stuff to the game, including another playable character, tweaks to the OG Kings Canyon map, and a level cap increase. While this should be—and likely is—an exciting time for players of Respawn Entertainment’s…
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No matter how good the raid tier, you're usually sick of the sight of it by the time the next raid rolls around. So when Blizzard announced that there wouldn't be a new raid in Season 4, and would instead reintroduce previous Shadowlands raids, I was understandably dubious.
When plans for the final stretch of Shadowlands were initially revealed, Blizzard was quick to point out that it would be an "experimental season". As it turns out though, fated raids fit in with exactly how the end of an expansion should feel.
There are usually at least three raids over the course of an expansion, and each has a limited shelf-life. Castle Nathria, for example, was the first raid to arrive in Shadowlands and when the second raid arrived seven months later, there was little reason to venture back in there. The gear from the new raid was far superior, and if you've spent the past half a year killing those same bosses week after week, then there's really no desire to return.
The same has been true for pretty much every raid in World of Warcraft's recent history, stretching back to at least Warlords of Draenor—and probably before that, too. Of course, I'm not saying that people never return to raids to farm transmog, mounts, achievements or whatever, but older raids from current expansions never usually get a look in once the next raid tier has arrived.
Season 4 has changed that.
Each week, we get one of the three Shadowlands raids on a rotation. To mix things up a bit, "affixes" are applied to each boss, giving us an extra mechanic to deal with so that boss encounters don't feel exactly the same each time.
Even with those changes in place, I wasn't sure how ready I was to step back into Castle Nathria, or the more recent Sanctum of Domination. The last thing I was expecting was the huge wave of nostalgia that hit me—something I never thought I'd feel for anything related to Shadowlands. Suddenly, I was remembering that one guild mate that never managed to time the portals right on Xy'Mox (and still can't), and another that somehow always died on the same trash pack. I'd also somehow forgotten the existence of several bosses until we reached them, though I did remember the pain of trying not to use Fel Rush when chained to another player on Sludgefist—albeit right after killing both of us.
(Image credit: Blizzard)While the encounters themselves have been scaled to our current power level, they haven't felt particularly challenging, and honestly, that's absolutely fine. We all know the bosses inside-out by now and I don't think this would've worked quite so well if the affixes had added too much difficulty to the fights. Instead, it feels like it fits perfectly with the end of an expansion and the power level of our characters.
The final stretch has always traditionally been a difficult time to find players to fill your raid team due to people taking breaks before the next expansion hits. This new approach not only makes it easier for anyone returning—they won't be thrown in in the middle of raid progress—but also for those still playing. You're not racing to grab an Ahead of the Curve or Cutting Edge achievement so the pressure just isn't there. There's almost a "social raid" feel when you can blast bosses and have a laugh but still get decent gear upgrades while doing it.
All the catch-up mechanics are in place, too, and they make levelling and gearing alts that much easier. And as much as I love raiding, Dragonflight is close enough now that these last few months of Shadowlands should be a time to chill and prepare for the upcoming expansion, not progress through new raid content.
That said, we're only on week three of Season 4 and Dragonflight is still several months away. This isn't something I'd like to see replacing entire raid tiers in the future, but for those final few months before a new expansion launches—a pre-pre-patch, if you will—I think Blizzard could be on to something.
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Best of Minecraft(Image credit: Mojang)
Minecraft update: What's new?
Minecraft skins: New looks
Minecraft mods: Beyond vanilla
Minecraft shaders: Spotlight
Minecraft seeds: Fresh new worlds
Minecraft texture packs: Pixelated
Minecraft servers: Online worlds
Minecraft commands: All cheatsLooking for Minecraft commands and cheats to make your time in your favourite world a little easier? Commands are a great way to cut down on a lot of work, whether you want to copy a building, change the game mode, or switch the time of day. If you're busy working on a masterpiece in creative mode, or you want to bend the rules in a survival game, these lines of text are invaluable.
There are a huge number of cheats and console commands to choose from, so this guide sticks with the ones you really need to know—there are also a few playful commands to troll your friends! So if you want an advantage in the blocky sandbox, these Minecraft cheats should help you out.
How to use Minecraft cheats
How to use Minecraft cheats
If you're wondering how to enter the Minecraft console commands listed below, all you need to do is hit the forward-slash key (/) and that’ll bring up a small window. Input the code and hit enter and your command will activate.
How to get information about commands
- /help [command name]
Need More Cheat Sheets?(Image credit: Rockstar Games)Fallout 4 cheats: Nuclear codes
Minecraft commands: Unblocked
RDR2 cheats: Most wanted
GTA 5 cheats: Phone it in
The Sims 4 cheats: Life hacks
Ark cheats: Expedited evolutionOffers additional information about any console command. If you’re trying a command and it isn’t working as it should, type the above command before the name of the command that isn’t working and you’ll be treated to more details about how it works.
Example: /help kill
Shorthand Minecraft commands
Below are the shorthand codes to save you from typing in different player names. These are worth memorising so you don’t have to type in names like “Sniper_Kitty_Bruv_91” every time some jobber joins your game.
- @p – the player nearest to you
- @r – a random player
- @a – all players
- @e – all entities in the world.
- @s - yourself
Minecraft cheat commands
Give item
- /give [amount]
Drops an item into the player’s inventory. Perfect for if you want to start a run with a full set of diamond gear. Just keep in mind the amount section only works for stackable items. You can’t give yourself 100 diamond swords in one go, as cool as that’d be. For a full list of item IDs, head here.
Example: /give PCGamer diamond_sword 1
Teleport player
- /tp [target player]
Teleports the targeted player to a designated location. And yes, you can indeed teleport a friend into the sky and laugh as their body flails back down to earth.
Example: /tp PCGamer 100 0 10
Clone blocks
- /clone
Clones a selection of blocks to another location. Very helpful if you’re building a city space and want to duplicate multiple buildings to different areas. “ ” is your start point. “ ” is the end point. And “ ” is where you want the cloned blocks to spawn.
Example: /clone 100 234 -10 200 100 0 300 200 100
Change difficulty
- /difficulty
Changes the in-game difficulty. Replace the latter section of the code with one of the following:
- peaceful
- easy
- normal
- hard
Example: /difficulty peaceful
Apply status effect
- /effect [seconds] [amplifier] [hideParticles]
Adds a status effect to the targeted player. “[seconds]”, “[amplifier]”, and “[hideParticles]” are all optional conditions, so feel free to ignore them unless you want to change the length, how strong the effect is, or whether the effect shows as particles or not. If you want to remove an effect from a player, type “/effect clear”.
Example: /effect PCGamer water_breathing 30
Apply enchantment
- /enchant [level]
Adds an enchantment to the item the player is holding. So that’s smite, bane of the arthropods, sharpness—any enchantment you’d pull from a book or enchant table. Here's a list of Enchantment IDs.
Example: /enchant PCGamer minecraft:smite 1
Add experience points
- /xp [player]
Gives the targeted player an amount of experience points. If you just want to add levels instead, which is easier for enchanting, try “/xp L [player]”.
Example: /xp 100L PCGamer
Change gamemode
- /gamemode
Changes the gamemode for everyone in the session. Add a player’s name to the end of the code to alter the mode for different players. Replace "" with one of the following options:
- Survival
- Creative
- Adventure
- Spectator
Example: /gamemode Survival
Keep inventory on death
- /gamerule keepInventory true
Changes the game rules so should you die, you keep all the items in your inventory. Replace “true” with “false” to turn it off again.
Kill command
- /kill
Kills everything, including the player. But should you want to kill another player, use “/kill ”. And to kill a certain type of mob, “/kill @e[type=mobType]”.
Play sound
- /playsound
Plays a specific sound file. Great for if you want to use a command block to play a sound when someone opens a door. Who doesn’t love a good doorbell? Take a look at all the sound file names here.
Example: /playsound minecraft:entity.elder_guardian.ambient voice @a
Check world seed
- /seed
Displays the seed for their current world should you wish to replay the seed again from scratch or pass it along to a mate.
Set world spawn
- /setworldspawn
Changes the world spawn to wherever the player is standing. If you don’t want to do that, you can also set it to a predetermined location with “/setworldspawn ”
Example: /setworldspawn 100 80 0
Pause time
- /gamerule doDaylightCycle false
This completely turns the daylight cycle off so it’ll always be the current time of day. To reenable the cycle, replace “false” with “true.”
Change time
- /time set
Sets the in-game time. Add one of the following numbers onto the end to change the time of day to something else:
- 0 - Dawn
- 1000 – Morning
- 6000 – Midday
- 12000 – Dusk
- 18000 - Nightist
Example: /time set 1000
Spawn a mob
- /summon [x] [y] [z]
Summons a mob to a specific location. Remove the “[x] [y] [z]” section at the end to have the mob spawn right on top of you. Just remember if you’re spawning the Wither you’ll need to leg it as fast as possible.
Example: /summon creeper -100 40 -128
Change weather
- /weather
Changes the in-game weather to a different type. I.e. “/weather thunder” would start a thunderstorm. This one’s a must if you’re going after charged creepers. Nobody's got time to sit around waiting for it to thunder.
Example: /weather clear -
Dishonored developer Arkane Studios has released a new deep-dive video detailing its upcoming cooperative shooter Redfall, and watching it is first time I've felt like I have a proper grasp on what exactly Arkane is building.
As part of this year's QuakeCon event, Arkane's studio director Harvey Smith got together with key developers on the Redfall team, including creative director Ricardo Bare and Art Director Karen Segars, to discuss various features of the game such as the open world, playable characters, weapons and character skills.
One of the key details revealed in the video is the structure of the game's open world. Unlike previous Arkane games (with the possible exception of Prey), the town of Redfall is a truly contiguous and freely explorable space. It's also substantially larger than previous Arkane settings. "I think the Talos [space station] in Prey was five football fields, and the size of Redfall is kinda 'hold my beer'." Segars says. "We definitely challenged the whole team with making something this big."
Smith adds more details. "It's an open-world, but it's not an open world based on the scale of vehicles. It's an open world based on foot. It's a familiar setting, New England. It's spooky. [You can] traverse the place, go into mom 'n' pop grocery stores, apartments, get on the roof of buildings. And we try to put in as many environmental storytelling scenes around as we possibly can, and so it just feels very lived in."
The video also elaborates upon how character progression will work. There are four different characters in the game, each with their own sets of skills and abilities. However, it wasn't clear how deeply these different abilities ran, or the extent to which players could interact with them. The video reveals that each character has their own skill tree, and pursuing specific elements of that tree can favour dramatically different play-styles with each character.
"We've come up with a suite of really cool abilities and powers for players to choose from, just like we did in Prey and Dishonored" Bare says. He then highlights Jacob Boyer, a stealth focussed character with invisibility powers and a raven companion. "My Jacob might not be the same as your Jacob because I may choose to really drill down into the raven skill-tree and max that out."
One last point worth discussing is the weapons. The game features a wide array of firearms, ranging from standard FPS guns like assault rifles and shotguns, to more ad-hoc weapons like flare pistols. But the most interesting weapon Arkane highlights is the stake gun, a "found ammo" weapon which you can fill with "broken-off pool cues" and "snapped-off mop handles". It also have various colourful bayonet attachements, such as a harpoon, a broken guitar neck, and even a garden gnome.
You can watch the full video above. I'd say it's well worth doing so, because I have a much better idea of what the game will be like now, and also just how ambitious the project is. In short, it appears Arkane is trying to create an open-world shooter that's bigger than Prey, with four Dishonored 2-style characters to play as, that caters to both singleplayer and up-to four-player coop. "Ultimately we hope that players will play single-player if that's what they want, and it'll feel like an Arkane game, but it's more expansive," Smith says.
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It's nice to know that we still live in a world where a random indie horror game can blow up the Steam charts due to screaming, petrified YouTubers. The Mortuary Assistant, developed solo by the Connecticut-based Brian Clarke, sends me back to a kinder, simpler realm—the heat of 2012, when PewDiePie was mostly making videos that featured various Amnesia mods. To date, The Mortuary Assistant has gathered over 1,000 reviews on Steam, and is responsible for over four million views for guys like Jacksepticeye, all on the back of a graphic style that would've looked outdated on the Xbox 360. What a time to be alive. Reject modernity, embrace uncanny, plasticky character models.
As you could probably tell by the name, The Mortuary Assistant puts you in control of an eccentric young woman named Rebecca who—for some baffling reason—has decided to embalm corpses for a living. You are summoned to the crematorium in the dead of night, are confronted with some exposition by your shady boss about the mechanics of demonic possession, and then go about the business of preparing the mortal remnants of the recently deceased. The Mortuary Assistant is pockmarked with whiplash-inducing scares, but I think the game shines the most with its genuinely uncompromising presentation of what morticians do on a day-to-day basis. If a dead body is all it takes for you to lose your wits, then The Mortuary Assistant will have you coiled and jumpy from the opening credits.
Pumping a body full of formaldehyde (also known as: fun). (Image credit: DarkStone Digital)Because, in this videogame, Rebecca is asked to wire jaws shut and preserve the pupils of decomposing eyeballs. You will need to drain all of the fetid blood out of these corpses using a pump and a cocktail of formaldehyde, and ram a metal gauge up into their guts in order to inject their innards with preservatives before wheeling them back into cold storage. It is wondrously, euphorically disgusting, and it makes you consider how no matter what you accomplish in life, we all eventually end up on a gurney with a variety of metal instruments desecrating our body. The Mortuary Assistant lavishes over that profanation; you feel a twinge of macabre joy with every nauseating, postmortem ritual.
Of course, Rebecca will need to accomplish all of those duties while the infernal spirits rotting the heart of this accursed funeral home rise up against us. That is the thing with The Mortuary Assistant—there is a good chance the corpse you're working on might spring back to life and knock you on your heels. The horror here is all pulpy jumpscare stuff. Lights flicker on and off, dark shadows cross through the periphery, a shadowy figure lurks at the window—double-take, and they might disappear. Mechanically, this is more or less a walking simulator with some haunted scenery, but at least Clarke knows how to mix in the classics. Is that a Ring-like wraith standing behind you in the bathroom mirror? You bet it is!
Long after the frights fade into the distance, I'm still going to feel the urge to beautify a few corpses.
From what I can tell, The Mortuary Assistant has multiple different endings, built around some puzzles you can piece together during the moments where you're not embalming, or getting your underpants set on fire by a demon. One of the first things you'll discover in the main game is a wooden, Ouija-ish panel studded with glyphs that surely the player can decipher in order to uncover some Great Eldritch Terror. (Already, I've identified a mysterious locked cellar outside, that surely plays into some sort of obscure True Ending route.)
I greatly anticipate the Five Nights At Freddy's-esque lore videos that will surely propagate into my YouTube algorithm as The Mortuary Assistant continues to carve up the discourse. But even if you're not the type to sweat over audio logs and practice some amateur cryptology, you'll still have plenty of fun defiling cadavers and getting spooked by the spirits.
Wiring a jaw shut (even more fun). (Image credit: DarkStone Digital)Honestly, my main takeaway from The Mortuary Assistant is that the grim art of embalming could easily be redeployed in an endless supply of future indie games. We're living through a boom period of developers morphing mundane physical labor into eccentric tails of splendor (Strange Horticulture, the forthcoming Haunted Chocolatier, and so on), and I would gladly don my undertaker in a realm where I was not constantly harried by the restless phantoms of the astral plane. Perhaps through a gauzy pixel-art veneer? Don't tempt me with a good time.
I'm telling you, Brian Clarke is onto something here. Long after the frights fade into the distance, I'm still going to feel the urge to beautify a few corpses. Call me crazy if you want, but just wait until you play The Mortuary Assistant for yourself. You'll see. You'll all see.
What's your favorite thing a unit in a strategy game says when you click on them?
in Gaming News
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Find all previous editions of the PCG Q&A here. Some highlights:
- What should boomer shooters be called?
- How many save files do you keep per game?
- What do we want from Fallout 5?
The Warcraft grunt's "Stop poking me!" is a classic, but it's hard to go past some of the things units in Company of Heroes come out with if you click on them too much. The Age of Empires and Command & Conquer series had plenty of memorable quotes too, and it's worth trying to select enemy troops in Total War games just to hear them insult you.
What's your favorite thing a unit in a strategy game says when you click on them?
Here are our answers, plus some from our forum.
Robin Valentine, Print Editor: Honestly, how can you beat the classic 'Zug zug'? Warcraft 3 is definitely still the gold standard when it comes to clicking on units. I remember being blown away when I discovered that, after enough prods, each unit would spout its own unique joke lines. Now that's world-building.
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: I could name so many I love: Starcraft's "In the pipe" homage to Aliens, Warcraft 2's "ready to work" and that pig sound effect I swear to god I hear in every movie with pigs in it. But in the end, there can be only one. The bravado of Command & Conquer's commando knows no equal.
There's no better throwaway line read in all of RTS history than "That was left-handed." He sounds like Guy Fieri casually flipping a burger with his off hand while holding a cigar in the other. It's even better when the commando follows up his next kill with a hearty chuckle and a "You got it." Sublime.
Rich Stanton, News Editor: I was obsessed with Starcraft 2 for several years or, more specifically, I was obsessed with building giant marine armies as Terran and then shooting lots of Zerg and Protoss. God I love those grumpy little guys, and when you select them they say a range of things including, most often, "You want a piece of me, boy?"
I also adore the insolence you get from them: "this better be good" or "you gonna give me orders?" Then the tragic moments where, with your eyes elsewhere on the map, an enemy swarm descends on a small detachment and your radio crackles with a tough guy's panicked yell of "we could use some help here" which, sadly, will never arrive. I'll always hold a candle for those brave Terran boys. Now let's build some more.
Sean Martin, Guides Writer: Total War has some absolutely standout voicelines, from Scottish captains in Medieval 2 saying "I'll rip off yer head and spit down yer neck!" to Shogun 2's "shameful display!" But despite that, I think it's hard to beat the classic priest "Wololo" from Age of Empires; hearing it immediately transports me back to that game/time.
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: Warcraft's orcs are funny and all, but they'e just a rip-off of Warhammer's version. Both visually (the green skin and tusks), and vocally. Anyway, the best videogame version of them is probably the slugga boys from Dawn of War, who have three different barks where they just shout variations on WAAAAAGH!
From our forum
JarlBSoD: Work work.
Dungeon Keeper: I thought Dungeon Keeper had some funny ones, but after looking into it I don't think your units actually say anything, it's just the mentor's voice that's funny.
Brian Boru: Nice n crispy—Telsa trooper, Red Alert 1 Aftermath
Why don't you drive?—Libya Demolition truck, Red Alert 2
Thank you for the new shoes—Worker, Generals Zero Hour
Lutfij: Ka-boom! - Crazy Ivan, Red Alert 2
Frindis: "Go back to the main menu and try out the tutorial" - Company of Heroes
ZedClampet: In Total War Warhammer 3, there are a lot of good ones, but my favorite is one of the Tzeentch generals who seems to have been voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. He's extremely enthusiastic. A lot of times when you click on him he just yells, "It's meeee!" which for some reason cheers me up.
After you win the game, you get Be'lakor, the perpetually angry and gruff antagonist as a general. If you are in the Kislev area where it's snowy, he will say (with no small amount of disgust) "So many snowflakes." Reminds me of your typical Internet discussion and cracks me up. At least he doesn't call you a "beta" if you ask him to retreat.
Zloth: The fun quotes in Sacrifice come if you select a unit, then just sit there and think. They'll start taunting you into moving. An earthfling (which, as you might guess, throws rocks at enemies) will eventually say "Yeah, got mud on your face." then "You big disgrace!" then "I will ROCK you!"
McStabStab: Starcraft Zealot: “My life for Aiur” is always the #1 in my book.
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