For real systemic change, the signs all suggest we’re going to have to wait until the major expansion scheduled for this fall. Destiny 2 didn’t feature in Activision’s ‘Audience Reach’ slide, which doesn’t suggest a stellar active playerbase. According to COO Coddy Johnson, the mode is “incredibly engaging” and features a “whole new style of play”. That new style of play is new to “first-person shooter gaming generally,” he says, not just Destiny 2. We’ll have more on Warmind next week, assuming

Activision Blizzard is the biggest publisher in the business, but the one thing it doesn’t have in its stable is a battle royale juggernaut like, say, Fortnite. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick acknowledged that shortcoming today with Bloomberg, saying that “Fortnite is definitely a lot of competition right now.” Not too much competition: Despite the pressure from Epic’s multiplayer juggernaut, Activision today reported record net bookings, revenues, and operating cash flow for the quarter. “The idea

Twitter is recommending that all 330 million of its users change their passwords today following a computer glitch that exposed them in plain text. “We recently identified a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. Out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password,” Twitter stated in a blog post. Twitter discovered the bug on its own, which is a far better scenario than finding out after a security breach

You can probably go a long way toward deciding if you want to play it based on that alone, but if you’re still not sure, a demo is now available on Steam. To get it, find the “Download Demo” button in the sidebar of the Steam page (just below where it tells you which of your Steam friends already own the game) and click it. The demo isn’t currently available from GOG, but developer CCCP said that it’s on the way. And if you spring for the full game after playing the demo, any progress you’ve mad

Got some time to kill this weekend, and an urge to dive into an existential struggle for the future of Europe, and indeed the entire world? Then I have good news for you, my warmongering friend, because Activision is once again making Call of Duty: WWII multiplayer free to play for everyone. The free-to-play period is already underway, and will run until 1 pm PT/4 pm ET on May 6. To take part, just hit the “Play Game” button under the Call of Duty: WWII Multiplayer listing on Steam, wait for the

Around a week ago, Kingston’s 128GB SSD dropped to just $36 on Amazon. If you missed out on that deal, here’s another option: Newegg has the 120GB Patriot Burst drive for just $29.99. In real-world testing, it achieves a sequential read speed of 338MB/s and a write speed of 295MB/s. That’s about half as fast as more expensive SATA drives, like the Sasmsung Evo 860, but this drive is only 30 dollars. You can buy the Patriot Burst 120GB drive from Newegg here.

For the most part, prebuilt PCs have been immune from inflated GPU prices, and to a lesser extent memory as well. If you’re willing to go that route, one of the better deals right now is Dell ‘New XPS Tower’ configured with an Intel Core i5-8400 processor and a GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card. That’s a six-core processor paired with a fast graphics card, and 8GB of DDR4-2666 memory. So for example if you want to bump up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card, the cost comes t

7-Zip is free, open-source file archiving software that’s been around for an awfully long time—nearly two decades, according to Wikipedia. It’s barebones, it’s simple, and it works, which is why we included it in our list of essential applications for a fresh PC. Unfortunately, as discovered by the Center for Internet Security, it also suffers from a pretty serious security vulnerability that can enable “arbitrary code execution.” The good news is that CIS says there are no reports of this actua

The good news is, larger capacity drives don’t appear to be any less reliable than smaller HDDs, even though there are typically more platters and moving parts inside. As we’ve seen in Backblaze’s previous reports, the larger capacity models are able to hold their own, in terms of reliability. “The failure rates of all of the larger drives (8TB, 10TB, and 12TB) are very good, 1.2 percent AFR (Annualized Failure Rate) or less. It’s still early, but so far things continue to look good for higher c

Last month we gave away some beta keys for monster mansion sim Machiavillain, which Joe described as The Sims meets Dungeon Keeper meets Rimworld when developer Wild Factor announced it last year. Today, Wild Factor revealed its release date: MachiaVillain is coming to Steam on Wednesday, May 16 for $20. The kicker is that your workers are all monsters inspired by legends and horror classics—vampires, mummies, zombies, wendigos, the works. To that end, you’ve got a few rules to follow:1) You mus

Harebrained Schemes has shared its post-launch plans for Battletech, the giant fighting robot strategy game that launched to much acclaim last week. Specifics are still being determined but items up for consideration include:Accelerated Combat Options – We’re working on options for players who would like to accelerate the pace of combat missions. – We’re working on options for players who would like to accelerate the pace of combat missions. Granular difficulty settings – A set of discrete optio

You can score a huge discount on Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet today. It’s on sale at Office Depot/Office Max for $500, down 50 percent from its list price and significantly cheaper than Microsoft’s $799 sale price (it’s out of stock on Microsoft’s site anyway). It’s not unusual to see the Surface Pro discounted from its list price, though typically the savings are nowhere near this deep. Obviously the Surface Pro is not great for gaming. Go here to grab the Surface Pro on sale.

A customer care representative for Nvidia has responded to complaints on its community forum that its 397.13 driver release is causing installation headaches for some GeForce GTX 1060 owners, and perhaps owners of other video cards as well. The good news for those affected by the issue is that Nvidia is including a fix in its next driver release, which will be available “very soon.” For whatever reason, the issue seems to mostly affect GeForce GTX 1060 owners. “I have the exact same issue with t

Before watching this clip from Reddit user not_five, I recommend shoving an ice pack and a pillow between your legs. In the title of the Reddit post, not_five quotes the note that rests at the bottom of the item store: “These items are cosmetic only and grant no competitive advantages.” It’s a fun jab, but I doubt the target player knew what was coming their way and, duh, emotes aren’t actually going to become the meta. Not so in Fortnite, where the 99 other players aren’t your only problem. Awf

Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world, and it’s also pretty competitive, so it’s not really a surprise that a swell of Fortnite rap songs have and are continuing to appear online. XpertThief’s Fortnite Rap is probably my favorite, and the backing track that samples the menu theme is to blame. Nate Wins’ The Fortnite Rap (ft. MamaBurd) gets the body moving and has a clever line here and there. “Name a better Fortnite rap,” Nate says at the end, which is about as powerful a statement a

Battlerite’s biggest update since leaving Steam Early Access was probably the start of its first competitive season . Today, developer Stunlock Studios announced a considerably bigger update: a new game mode called Battlerite Royale. “That said, I think anyone who’s looking for a fresh and different take on the Battle Royale genre will have a blast.” Battlerite Royale will consist of 10-minute matches where 20 players duke it out “on a map 30 times larger than the standard arena mode map.” Other

Midair is a 16v16 FPS where everyone has a jetpack to blast and a base to defend, and it fully embraces the hill-hopping ‘skiing’ that made games like Tribes: Ascend so fun. It’s been in Early Access since August 2017, but as developer Archetype announced, today it’s officially launching on Steam as a free-to-play game. “We want players to be able to jump in and have fun without needing to pay money to get the best weapons or abilities,” its Steam page reads. Archetype also offers a $30 ‘Progres

Personal item trading in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been temporarily turned off according to a news post developers PUBG Corporation released through Steam today. To clarify, personal item trades are when you give another player an item in your inventory for free. PUBG Corporation has deemed this a violation of their system, and is turning off personal trades while it searches for “a better solution.” The PUBG Corporation said that “once we figure out a way to prevent abuse, the restricti

Three weeks ago, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds dropped its first deathmatch-driven Event Mode. Now, Desert Knights brings 50-player deathmatches to Miramar. Set to kick off from 7pm PST today/tomorrow at 3am BST, PUBG’s latest Event Mode pits ten five-person teams against one another. Unlike its forerunner, Desert Knights kits players out with top-tier equipment from the off—which is otherwise exclusive to care packages. PUBG’s Desert Knights limited-time Event Mode runs today through May 6 at 7

I respect people’s opinions and their right to like things without shame or judgement—unless the thing they like happens to be the Star Wars prequels. It’s this scene that inspired Star Wars Episode I: Racer, a surprisingly decent racing game developed by LucasArts and released alongside the film in May, 1999. It’s that bit at the end of Ben Hur viewed through a Star Wars lens, and arguably the most exciting 15 minutes in the prequel trilogy. Which is a shame, because with a bit more of a challe