The Phoenix Point Reddit AMA was destined to be dominated by criticisms and questions about the recently announced Epic Games Store exclusivity deal. Gollop confirmed that Steam and GOG keys would still be given to backers after the exclusive year is up, and that the Epic Games Store version would be free of DRM. This is the case with other Epic Store Games, too, like Subnautica: Below Zero and Metro Exodus. They might be worth redeeming that Epic Games Store key for, but if you don’t, you’ll st

Netgear has added a new router to its Nighthawk Pro Gaming (NPG) series that is designed to reduce lag and minimize ping when playing games. You may recall that the XR500 debuted around a year ago as Netgear’s first router purpose-built for gaming, or at least it was advertised that way. At the time, we said it was the fastest router we had tested, and it remains one of the best gaming routers (second in our opinion to Asus’s RT-AX88U). “The XR300 leverages a purpose-built gaming dashboard power

A study made by EA’s Global Consumer Insights team has found that 56 percent of 2,252 survey participants consider it important for companies to make their games more inclusive. The survey was sent out in May last year, and targeted “decision makers in entertainment purchases” with an age range of 13-54. The survey implies that backlash against inclusive features comes from a minority of players. It’s not just that participants were happy with more inclusive games—they wanted games to go further

Not too long into a 168-hour VR marathon session, Jak Wilmot admits the monotony got to him. Wilmot, who is the co-founder of Disrupt VR, also says this experiment is “quite possibly the dumbest thing” he’s ever done. I can’t imagine immersing myself in a virtual world for a full week, nonstop night and day. He also spilled a cup of coffee on himself, because manipulating the real world while playing in a virtual one is not always easy. He also said that people in the real world seemed like NPCs

It’s a co-op RTS where players control hero-led armies across a campaign and skirmishes, and it’s already gunning for a slice of the esports pie. Games designed with esports in mind are often the least successful when it comes to their focus, and RTS games continue to be largely played for their singleplayer campaigns. A multiplayer-focused esports RTS, then, seems like quite a risk, especially when it’s the studio’s very first game in the genre. A Year of Rain’s co-op campaign can be played sol

Though it was made for this year’s 7-Day Roguelike Challenge, there’s very little roguelike DNA in DragonXVI’s Skyrogue, and that’s fine, because it’s a satisfying turn-based sneaking game instead. Across five (seemingly handmade) levels, you have to relieve a moving airship of its many glittering gems and gold nuggets, avoiding guards and their blasted sight lines as you go. You can hop around corners to lose them, or tactically manoeuvre them around, in this colourful and fluidly animated stea

The Epic Games Store is a barebones affair, and that’s putting it politely—you can buy games but that’s about it. Epic Games released its development roadmap on Trello earlier today, delivering our first proper look at the timeframe for new features. But there’s a handful of additions coming even sooner, with cloud saves expected to be supported within a 1-3 month timeframe. As far as long term projects, the store will get achievements and a “social overhaul” eventually, but these are expected t

But what about the buildings? Buildings Have Feelings Too promises to reverse the formula by bringing the buildings to life. “This could involve refurbishing a building or simply grabbing it by the hand and moving it to a nicer part of the neighborhood.” It’s a long way from SimCity, but it sounds cute, and maybe a little sad, too. Buildings Have Feelings Too is listed on Steam and expected to be out this summer.

The Radeon RX 590 is AMD’s latest mid-range graphics card, boasting around 10-15% faster performance over the RX 580. Most models of the card float around $240-260, but now you can get Sapphire’s ‘Special Edition’ 590 for just $219.99 on Newegg. Likely not coincidentally, this deal comes the same day as Nvidia’s launch of the GeForce GTX 1660, which ends up effectively tied with the RX 590 in performance. This specific RX 590 model has a boost clock of 1560 MHz, 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and a memory

Those services include Azure, DirectX, Visual Studio, Xbox Live, App Center, Havok, and others, including PlayFab, a complete backend for building and operating live, multiplayer games. Cloud gaming is already starting to make PC gaming more accessible, and combining something like PlayFab with Azure only increases cross-platform possibilities within Microsoft’s gaming network. The first of those three important services is PlayFab Matchmaking, adapted from Xbox live matchmaking, but now availab

Snoop Dogg isn’t just a musician, producer, actor, and entrepreneur, he’s also an avid gamer. Now he’s elevating his game even further with the launch of his very own esports league. The winner will also have a chance to earn even more by beating the “Boss Dogg,” which I can only assume is Snoop, in a post-tournament match. Madden NFL isn’t a pro esports scene we cover very often, but an esports league co-founded by Snoop promises to be a very different sort of experience than, say, the Overwatc

“A glimpse into the possible future of warfare, Drone Strike Force is set in a world where power has shifted from countries to corporations,” reads producer Odisi Games’ description of its new multiplayer shooter, announced today. That looks more like fun remote-controlled dogfighting than war, as I’m not sure what close-quarters drone v drone combat over an abandoned city would accomplish. Drone Strike Force will include “a number of unique drones,” as well as “weapons, perks and abilities” tha

Battlefield 5 is getting into the battle royale business with its new Firestorm mode, which will be available to all players on March 25. The battle royale mode was unofficially revealed last week, when a leaked tutorial video was uploaded to YouTube. 17 types of vehicles will be available, including a helicopter and a tractor. While the basics of looting, killing and outrunning a circle of death are all here, it does look like Firestorm’s got quite a few of its own ideas about what a battle roy

Capcom has been courting PC recently, with a bunch of great ports and multiplatform releases, including Monster Hunter: World and Resident Evil 2 Remake. It seems to have paid off for the publisher, as Monster Hunter World didn’t just exceed expectations on PC, it was the game’s second largest platform. “Without getting into details, it’s the second biggest one for Monster Hunter World amongst all platforms, therefore incredibly important,” Molant told PCGamesInsider.biz. The PC release also hel

Yesterday, Gearbox teased a PAX East game reveal that is almost certainly—I mean, obviously it is, but I’m not supposed to say that because it’s not official and all that—Borderlands 3. Today it teased another game, and this time, I am baffled. Time to tease another game for PAX! One thing to note is that Gearbox specified “another game” in the tweet, meaning that it’s not Borderlands 3 (or whatever the mysterious highway sign game turns out to be), not that it looks like anything from that seri

Kunai is a tablet-powered side-scrolling ninja parkour hack-and-slash open-world Metroidvania, and when I say “tablet-powered” I don’t mean that it’s played on a tablet. I mean that the lead character, for reasons I don’t fully (or even begin to) understand, is literally a tablet. Tabby, as our touchscreen warrior is properly named, must save what remains of humanity from extinction at the hands of an out-of-control AI by running, jumping, grappling, and chopping an assortment of evil consumer e

Leading up to that date, the company is planning to once again badger Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 by pinging them with notifications. “Beginning next month, if you are a Windows 7 customer, you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC. According to Microsoft, there are now more than 800 million devices running Windows 10. It’s not clear how many people are still using Windows 7, but the available data suggests it’s still a lot. StatCounter, for example, pegs the

Weedcraft Inc, the game about growing and selling the electric lettuce and grappling with the legal and moral conundrums that result, will come to market on April 11. Publisher Devolver Digital revealed the release date today with a new trailer that showcases four minutes and twenty seconds of gameplay. The trailer sets up the story of Johnny, an MBA, and his brother Clyde, who is less academically-inclined but brings other talents to the table. Which isn’t to suggest that it will be an entirely

Today, 20 years after its release in 1999, the first EverQuest is still going strong , and it probably will be for life. Players didn’t buy it. The suicide runDying in early EverQuest really, really sucked. Plundering the eyepatchThe Eyepatch of Plunder was a Holy Grail for a lot of old-school EverQuest players. When asked if I wanted to ‘join the dark side,’ I didn’t really think too much about it and accepted,” he says.