With The Division 2’s launch only a few weeks away, Ubisoft has unveiled the game’s clan system. It’s a big step up from the first game’s non-existent system, letting you make and manage them in-game where you can all work towards common goals and earn clan XP. Everything clan members do in-game will net the clan XP, which can then be used to level up the clan and get unnamed “additional benefits” and extra customisation options for your clan’s insignia. The latter’s stock will improve as your c

Backblaze, a cloud backup company that frequently posts HDD reliability reports based on its own usage, has offered up some thoughts on the subject, with an interesting conclusion. There are several caveats, not the least of which is that Backblaze’s latest blog post on the subject is very different from its typical HDD reliability reports. It doesn’t contain any concrete data on fail rates, as the company doesn’t employ SSDs to the same extent and manner as it does HDDs. While the blog post lac

If you plan on buying one, there’s a new GPU driver available that you should install, to get your PC ready. For those who like to jump right in, the new 419.17 WHQL driver package adds support for the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. There are a few bug fixes in the latest driver package as well. Windows 7×64/8.1×64: Fixes random application crash or TDR introduced in previous GeForce display driver 418.81. Follow this link to grab the latest GPU driver from Nvidia, or let GeForce Experience fetch it for y

Art Deco adventure Close to the Sun is the latest game to appear exclusively on the Epic Games Store. It’s a first-person horror romp that looks quite a bit like BioShock but contains no combat. You’ll be stuck on a boat with Nikola Tesla, and bad news: he’s a dick. Epic’s surely considering it a double win, then, with the game using both its engine and store. “To launch on the Epic Games store feels like the perfect next step and we are delighted that our partnerships with both Wired Production

Destiny 2’s new season starts in March, and it’s bringing some welcome changes, including a nerf to rapid-fire shotguns and significant tweaks to the excellent Gambit mode. Adjustments to Blocker types by deposit tier:Small Blocker = Taken Goblin with less health than the previous Phalanx. Medium Blocker = Taken Captain with more health than the previous Knight. As for those PvP changes, Bungie reckons rapid-fire shotguns and the full auto perk have become so essential in PvE that it’s made othe

Why is it that GTA Online cars get me so damn excited when in real life, I don’t even have a driving licence? But hey, regular players can spend February’s free GTA money to take the cost down a little. There are two sets of double GTA money/experience bonuses this week: Doomsday Heist finales pay out twice as much, as does the more recent Arena War series of multiplayer modes. If you’ve never tried the Doomsday Heist—like GTA’s equivalent of a high-level raid, I guess—facilities are 30 percent

Clearly Fortnite has made Epic’s bank account fit to burst, as it plans on doling out $100,000,000 in prize money across 2019. Starting on April 8 and ending on June 16, the open online qualifiers for the Fortnite World Cup will pit players against each other for a $1 million prize pool each week. Every player will leave the finals with at least $50,000 of the $30 million prize pool, while the solo champion will net themselves $3 million. The weekly tournaments will continue after the World Cup,

Airborne Kingdom has very quickly shot to the top of my list of management games to keep an eye on. It’s a peculiar combination of city management and exploration, tasking you with the construction of a fantastical flying city, which you’ll then sail across the skies of a randomly-generated desert, meeting tribes and attracting new citizens. The Steam page teases some of the possible ways you can keep your city from crashing to the ground. Having a whole city to manage between engineering projec

Square Enix has is having a publisher sale on Steam this weekend. It’s a big sale, too, with almost every game getting a 50 percent discount or more, including newer releases like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Just Cause 4 and Dragon Quest 11. Other standouts include Final Fantasy 15 (and pretty much every other Final Fantasy game, since they’re all discounted) and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Digital Deluxe Edition. They’re 50 percent off and 85 percent off, respectively. The sale will run from now

Anakin Skywalker, grumpy Jedi and soon-to-be Sith Lord, is heading to Star Wars Battlefront 2. The previous planet-specific default outfits will still be available, however, and you’ll be able to grab them as free unlocks. The two phases of clone troopers are being separated, so they can be selected individually, regardless of the battle. The latter phase has a respirator and a few other minor changes, but both phases look pretty similar. They were Anakin’s unit in the Clone Wars, and continued

Update: In response to our inquiry, ArenaNet issued the following statement:”We can confirm that due to the cancellation of unannounced projects, ArenaNet will make staff reductions. This is part of a larger organizational restructuring within NCSOFT in the west, but the Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 game services will not be affected, nor is any upcoming game content canceled.” Original story:A report out of Kotaku indicates that ArenaNet, the developer of the Guild Wars MMOs, will undergo layoff

Ubisoft is hosting a PC technical test in The Division 2 for a couple of days, starting today, for a limited number of randomly selected players. The goal of the test, says Ubisoft, is to make sure the fixes that have been implemented since the private beta are working as expected. Players will be able to check out everything from the private beta, a part from the conflict, endgame and photo modes. You can check out his thoughts on what we’ve seen of The Division 2’s endgame, too. Invites were s

Space Engineers, one of the best space games on PC, is finally leaving Early Access after more than five years and 200 updates. It will be one of the biggest overhauls it’s seen and, according to Keen Software’s Marek Rosa, Space Engineers will evolve from a sandbox into a game. “We’re going to take Space Engineers to exciting places when it comes to gameplay, immersion, and challenges,” says Rosa. It’s been quite a long time since I last played Space Engineers, but it’s still provided me with l

Epic Games has halted Fortnite pre-roll ads on YouTube after a report surfaced indicating that ads from major corporations were playing ahead of videos used by online predators to exploit children. “Youtube’s recommended algorithm is facilitating pedophiles’ ability to connect with each-other, trade contact info, and link to actual child pornography in the comments,” Watson wrote. I have made a twenty [minute] Youtube video showing the process, and where there is video evidence that these videos

Update: The Day One patch is now live, weighing in at just under 5GB in size. “We’re actually going to deploy the patch here in a few hours,” Irving said. Numeric modifier indicators have been added to weapons and gear, gear pieces that were missing primer or detonator icons have been fixed up, and the promised improvements to mouse and keyboard controls have been made. It’s a big patch, but it’s got a lot of ground to cover: Read our review in progress to find out why. A rollout time hasn’t bee

The developers of Scum, the open-world survival game with the dressable, growable, uncontrollable dongs, have shared their development plans for the next three months. If those plans go well, they’ll bring new vehicle physics to the game, base building, a complete overhaul of the inventory system, and reworks to the cooking and metabolism systems. The vehicle damage system is also being changed, “which means the car will react differently depending on whether you shot at its tire or the engine.”

Chinese gaming giant Tencent has implemented a number of new rules to govern the conduct of streamers playing its games online. “A number of live streaming sites and streamers have been banned in the past for hosting questionable content. There have also been regulations that prohibit the streaming of games that are not approved for sale in China.” However, Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad confirmed on Twitter that they will only apply to Chinese streamers. “There is a natural copyright relati

Get ready to cry havoc—a new gun is coming to King’s Canyon pic.twitter.com/w8LNa2GDWnFebruary 19, 2019Just a quick note: Respawn announced that it’ll be announcing a new gun for Apex Legends tomorrow, an unnamed rifle shown in the pixelated clip on Twitter above. My guess is that the gun will use energy ammo, given the electric blue particles shown in the tease, and the fact that only two of the 19 Apex Legends guns use this ammo type. The gun appears to fire rapidly, but I can’t tell if what I

In April 2009, Heroes of Newerth went into beta—the same month as League of Legends. LoL beat HoN out of beta by a few months, and Heroes of Newerth spent its first year costing $30 before going free-to-play. Despite its much smaller audience, Heroes of Newerth has impressively soldiered on for a decade, and has just announced what may be its last major patch. As spotted by Resetera, HoN’s latest patch notes state “At this moment in time, patch 4.7.3 is planned to be the final patch that contain

Do you play Apex Legends? Are you a Twitch Prime subscriber? All of that is coming soon, but the Apex Legends loot is available today. The Apex Legends free loot is available until April 18. Twitch Prime subscribers also get free games every month—February’s selection includes Pikuniku, Dear Esther: Landmark Edition, Downwell, Darknek & Co Puzzle Collection, and The Flame in the Flood—and various other selections of in-game loot.