It’s also having a free weekend, which is now live and runs until Tuesday. You can jump into Quick Play, custom games or the game’s Arcade (which has modes that mix up the rules), and play on all 18 maps. For starting heroes, it’s hard to go wrong with Soldier 76. Lucio is also a decent shout if you’re looking for a support hero. The free weekend ends on Monday at 11:59pm PT.

Yesterday, Epic Games launched a temporary game mode showcasing the new devices called Close Encounters—but had to disable it less than an hour later. But Epic quickly took it down, saying it was investigating “issues” with the mode. The mode was then reinstated overnight, but those player-reported problems persist, according to the comments in this thread. You can’t play solo games, which people seem particularly miffed about, and you’ll find non-shotgun ammo in the world. I suppose that means

What minor flaw in a game makes you madder than it should? It can be a specific thing in one game, or an issue that recurs across a bunch of the games you’ve played. As summed up nicely in Chris’s round-up of the best and worst game ladders and the gif above, GTA’s ladders feel like a 50/50 punt. That’s generally fine with me, because you don’t spend much of the game climbing them, really. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

This week, it’s the history of Championship Manager and Football Manager, originally published in issue 178 in February 2018. The series once known as Championship Manager, now Football Manager, turned 25 years old in 2017—but its story begins further back than that, in 1985. “We were playing the other games—League Division One, Mexico ‘86, the sort of international version of it, and Football Manager,” Ov explains. Helped by a loyal community—SI having redeemed itself with CM 03/04—the message

Federal charges have been brought against Tyler Barriss, the man who instigated a swatting that led to the killing of a man in late 2018 in Wichita, Kansas. The charges, including making false reports to emergency services, cyberstalking, making interstate threats, and wire fraud, come on top of state-level charges that were filed shortly after the incident. Interestingly, federal charges were also brought against the two Call of Duty players who initiated the hoax, Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill

The squad system has felt off to me since Battlefield 4, and that’s a big reason why I stopped playing. I love Battlefield’s spectacle, and sense of scale, but without coherent squads too much of the game involves running to the action. Tim Clark: De-escalation ProtocolHey, so you know how sometimes we sneakily write a low which is actually just another high? Last night I had an amazing time playing the Escalation Protocol event that’s part of Destiny 2’s new Warmind expansion. Because my team—w

Season two of The Wolf Among Us , Telltale’s Fables-based narrative adventure about Bigby Wolf, Ichabod Crane, Snow White, and other mythological characters and creatures living in the real world of the mid-’80s, was expected to be out sometime this year. The delay is the result of “a few fundamental changes” at the studio that have taken place since the game was announced, Telltale explained in a blog post. “Ultimately our goal is to deliver an experience deserving of the passion you’ve consist

The Sinking City is one of those games that sounds brilliant on paper: An open-world investigative action-adventure set in a gritty 1920s inundated with water and Lovecraft-styled horrors. The new teaser doesn’t serve up any gameplay, but even so I feel a little more confident about what’s in store after watching it. It really frames the emotional essence that a game like this needs: Primeval horror, driven desperation, and flat-out dream world weirdness. The audio work is really good too. We’ll

The big Battlefield 5 reveal earlier this week was not without controversy, most of it driven by the presence of a woman on the cover of the box. And not a demure nurse watching over wounded warriors in the tranquil English countryside, no: This lady is pissed off and packing heat. “Our commitment as a studio is to do everything we can to create games that are inclusive and diverse. And honestly, if the biggest complaint about the “realism” of the BF5 reveal trailer is the presence of women (I m

If you’re looking to start a new game of Skyrim, you’ve got plenty of options for how to play as different versions of the legendary Dragonborn. Here are five great mods for playing Skyrim as a character other than the Dragonborn. Alternate Start lets you skip the opening sequence and create a character living in Skyrim for a different reason. Maybe you’ve arrived by boat with a few basic supplies or maybe you’re a homeowner with a house and plenty of belongings. Live AnywhereIf you’re not the b

Perhaps not in the near future, if a new report by Jon Peddie Research is correct in its assessment. One of the reasons why graphics cards were tough to come by is because, in some cases, cryptocurrency miners were buying them by the plane load. JPR notes as much in its latest report, saying that cryptocurrency mining is “continuing to influence the PC graphics market.” As a whole, JPR says cryptocurrency miners bought three million graphics cards worth $776 million in 2017, and another 1.7 mill

By far the best deal for a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti right now can be found at Office Depot. For reference, the MSRP on a Founders Edition card is $699. And if you hit up Newegg, you’re not walking out the virtual door with a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti for less than $750, unless there’s a mail-in-rebate we’re not aware of. You can still overclock it a modest amount as well, especially if you raise fan speeds, but even at stock the 1080 Ti is incredibly potent. Buying a high-end card at this stage may be a qu

Broadcasting live from the Infinite Deadline, Samuel, Phil and Pip gather to talk about PC games new and old. It’s been a long week. Download: Episode 65: …It’s been a long week. Discussed: Beyond Good & Evil, Destiny 2, Phoenix Point, Two Point Hospital. Starring: Samuel Roberts , Phil Savage , Philippa Warr

Hacknet, we said ahead of its release a few years ago, is a game with “real hacking,” a phrase surrounded by quotes because of course it does not actually contain any real hacking going on. But it’s a reasonable facsimile in the context of a videogame, complete with a text-based terminal interface, a UNIX-based command set, and lots of reading. It’s also quite good—and, until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on May 26, it’s free on the Humble Store. It’s actually Hacknet Deluxe that’s up for grabs, which includ

Mirage: Arcane Warfare, the fantasy follow up to Torn Banner Studio’s insanely popular Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, is about to be shut down for good thanks to new European Privacy laws coming into effect today, May 25, 2018. It appears Torn Banner is in a similar situation with Mirage: Arcane Warfare. If you’ve been following this spiritual successor to Chivalry: Medieval Warfare at all, that’s hardly surprising. While it’s unclear if Torn Banner were working on any other hail marys to save Mira

Asus and Acer are each planning to release an IPS 27-inch 4K monitor with a fast 144Hz refresh rate (overclocked) and support for both HDR visuals and Nvidia’s G-Sync technology—ROG Swift PG27UQ and Predator X27, respectively—and both are slated to arrive this summer. Acer previously announced its monitor would arrive in July, though neither company has offered up a specific release date. That said, buyers with the requisite cash can already preorder the Predator X27. Most of the other specs are

How Dark Souls 3’s Aldrich Faithful covenant turns good people into trolling monstersXalavier Nelson examines one of Dark Souls’ cruellest covenants, and explains why being a bastard there is easy. Why I love Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City’s brilliantly incongruous architectureJoe enjoys the view from Dark Souls 3’s southernmost point, and suggests why it’s a fitting final setting for Miyazaki’s twisted vision. Why I’m glad Dark Souls is deadJames, a Dark Souls aficionado, is glad we’ve woken fro

I was suddenly face-to-face with a living relic of Lordran’s past (as alive as anything gets in Dark Souls, anyway). But at the time, he was fast and vicious and lithe where most of Dark Souls’ bosses were towering monstrosities. You’ve faced down the greatest character in Dark Souls lore and given him the warrior’s death he deserves. Housed within the Ariandel Chapel of Dark Souls 3’s gorgeous Ashes of Ariandel icy sprawl, Sister Friede leverages a deadly frostbite-inflicting slash attack. I ne

Feel super heroic this weekend with Batman: Arkham Origins, Mad Max and Injustice: Gods Among Us—the sum of which are on sale for ten dollars at Fanatical. Set five years before his journey to Arkham Asylum, Origins pits the Caped Crusader against crime lord Black Mask, Anarky and The Joker. Max Max, on the other hand, lets you explore a “beautiful wasteland”—said our Chris Livingston in his 2016 review—and engage in “satisfying car combat” within a sprawling post-apocalyptic world. Elsewhere, F

I cannot write or even think about The Sims 4 without picturing our Chris lovingly hugging a red panda. Perhaps he’s just caught wind of The Sim’s 4’s latest Seasons expansion—which adds four weather-driven seasons, and lets you craft your own holidays. Seasons first made their way to The Sims in 2007’s The Sims 2. The following trailer dives deeper, against its own spin on Len’s 1999 banger Steal My Sunshine:The Sims 4’s Seasons expansion is due June 22, 2018. In other Sims news, ‘Boost Week’ i