Funcom, the MMO studio behind games including Age of Conan, The Secret World, and Conan Exiles, is getting up to something new. Could it be a new Stalker—my heavens, a Stalker MMO? Clicking on the names along the bottom of the screen—Pripp, Selma, Dux, and Bormin—reveals outlines of characters who will presumably take their places at the rail when the countdown hits zero. Pripp and Borman are good Stalker names, but I’m not so sure about Selma, and Dux appears to be wearing a top hat—stylish, un

The Warcraft film from a couple of years ago looked promising ahead of release, but turned out to be not so great. Near the end of 2016, director Duncan Jones hinted at a troubled production, saying that he’d be happy to make another one, but only under the right conditions: Specifically, “lower budget, less cooks in the kitchen.” Jones expanded on that sentiment in a recent interview with Syfy, describing the project as “a political minefield” that forced changes and rewrites over the course of

BiowareA rumour about Microsoft buying EA made the rounds recently, but what if Microsoft would rather take smaller bites? Odds: 6/10, because if Microsoft doesn’t Sony probably will. IO InteractiveHitman is an outstanding example of a game that’s both a compelling single-player experience and an effective live game. That’s maybe not the most compelling reason in the world to acquire a game studio, but it’s literally, like, right there. Its most recent “real” game was Dota 2, and believe it or n

Intel’s Core i7-8700K processor went on sale earlier this month for $335, which at the time was the lowest we’ve seen for this chip. Now it’s even cheaper, priced at $313.05 at Walmart, of all places. That’s right, Wally World has Amazon, Newegg, and even Micro Center beat on this one. The Core i7-8700K hardly needs an introduction at this point, as it’s still Intel’s flagship consumer Coffee Lake processor. You’ll need a Z370-chipset motherboard, as is required for all desktop Coffee Lake proce

Granted, it will probably be a long time before 8K displays become commonplace, but don’t be surprised if you see vendors trying to sell fancy new models in the near future. It could be sooner than you think—Liao Wei-lun, president of AU Optronics’ video products business group, said AUO will start shipping 8K TV panels in the first half of this year, Digitimes reports. It will only be a matter of time before we start seeing a bunch of 8K monitors as well. Our own Jarred Walton has as actually l

I love the Grand Theft Auto stunt scene, and am forever impressed with the teamtage collaborations coming out of Evolve. Its latest is shot alongside counterparts Revolution Alliance and centres around GTA Online’s Doomsday Heist. I’m aware not everyone shares the same levels of enthusiasm for these videos as I do, but I can’t fathom just how much practice and, crucially, failure goes into perfecting any of that. I love the cracks and blood stains on the walls during Forest’s clips, for example,

The new Adrenalin 18.2.3 driver release contains optimizations for Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age and Sea of Thieves. Starting with Final Fantasy XII, AMD makes the following claims:Up to 13 percent faster performance using Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.3 on the Radeon RX Vega 56 (8GB) graphics card than with Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.3 at 2560×1440. Up to 20 percent faster performance using Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.3 on the Radeon RX 580 (8GB) graphics car

The question for us is, what would happen to Nvidia and AMD if cryptocurrencies suddenly disappeared as a revenue source? Will GPUs suddenly become affordable—and even if cryptos don’t crash, when will we have reasonably priced graphics cards again? One supercomputer like Summit can mean more revenue than a couple of million gamers, and Summit is only one of many supercomputers that will use Nvidia GPUs. Currently, 120 of the top 500 supercomputers in the world use some form of Nvidia GPU, and t

A Powerline networking kit leverages the home’s existing electrical wiring to establish a wired network that is accessible through every electrical outlet in the home. In those situations, a Powerline kit is worth a serious look. The Trendnet Powerline 1200 AV2 Adapter Kit has a lot to offer, including passthrough outlets, MIMO technology, Beamforming, and Gigabit ports to not bottleneck throughput speeds. A variation of the standard kit is the Powerline Wireless Extender kit. This also has two

cries Flann Sinna, the King of the Gaelic Kingdom (latterly the High King of Ireland) in the trailer below. He’s the latest historical icon to be unveiled by Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia. “For Flann Sinna, King of the Gaelic Kingdom of Mide (later High King of Ireland), there is one that is truly coveted—uniting the lands into a new, greater kingdom. This roll of the dice is portrayed in the following eight-odd minutes of in-game footage, wherein the devs talk us through Thrones’ Kingdom

I prefer the Summer Olympics over Winter, but really any old Olympics will make me happy, and as always I’m not quite ready for it to be over. So I thought I’d keep it going—for a few extra minutes—by playing Winter Games, a sports game developed and released by Epyx (RIP) way back in 1985. I have hazy memories of playing this on my Apple II as a lad who, at the time, had probably never watched the actual Olympics. After a few minutes of practice at each event, I figure I’m ready to complete in

I refuse to accept the Soulcalibur/Soul Edge/Soul Blade series is now over 21-years-old, despite what Wikipedia tells me. Perhaps in two decades’ time I’ll have forgotten 2018 was the year the fight ’em up debuted on PC, or that in February of that year publisher Bandai Namco confirmed Ivy and Zasalamel as part of the sixth main series entry’s roster. First, Zasalamel—the selfish, evil magician who first appeared in 2005’s Soulcalibur 3:And secondly, Ivy—the scantily-clad, dominatrix-styled “Twi

With transparency in mind, Riot has now published the official drop rates for League of Legends’ Hextech chests. Hextech Chests contain items from LoL’s store and can be both earned for free or purchased directly. Hextech rates appear on the support section of the game’s official site, contained within a list that Riot suggests will be updated “whenever we make changes to Hextech chests” including “event-specific” chests or capsules. Big Drops, Free Unlock: Ultimate and mythic skins drop as auto

If the latter’s your bag, you could stand to save some cash—Rebellion’s ‘Publisher Weekender’ on Steam offers big discounts on its Sniper Elite series over the next few days. 2011’s Sniper Elite v2 is subject to the same reduction, coming in at £4.49/$5.99; while a range of its DLC sees its price cut in half. Sniper Elite 3 is also subject to an 80 percent reduction, and costs £4.59/$5.99; whereas Sniper Elite 4—the game Tyler billed as a “hearty improvement” over number three “that embraces fre

This article was originally published in two parts across PC Gamer issue 313 and 314. Lured in by the promise of bee costumes and ball pits, I have decided to raise my very own child in The Sims 4. I wasn’t actually that interested in a Sims child until I saw the Toddler Stuff pack for The Sims 4. The Sims universe’s social services department has an entire shelf of paperwork dedicated to my misdeeds in earlier games. I haven’t given much thought to the logistics of acquiring a baby other than o

I ask designer Jeff Vogel if his games have always had hint books. IGN doesn’t write big guides for our games and there are no wikis, like for Dark Souls or AAA games. We mailed hint books on actual paper, using actual stamps.” In creating the hint books, one of Vogel’s aims is, “To think about what the player would want and might miss.” “For a small developer, hint books make a significant bunch of extra money,” Vogel says.

A cryptic tweet from the official Overwatch Twitter account is teasing… something—most likely a new hero. Those first three names are well known, obviously, as the Overwatch heroes Ana, Reinhardt, and Torbjörn—but the fourth name, Emre Sarioglu, is new, and could be the first tease of Overwatch’s 27th hero. Blizzard has a track record of teasing out new heroes via short in-universe snippets like this, as it did almost exactly a year ago with the tank hero Orisa. You’ll also notice that Overwat

The Florida Mayhem Overwatch League team announced today that its players will wear patches this week honoring Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the Florida community terrorized by last week’s school shooting. Mayhem Players to Honor Stoneman Douglas CommunityLinks: https://t.co/ACZsdShlP1https://t.co/z1mpR9TJ5K pic.twitter.com/RgxZ6W7bncFebruary 22, 2018″The tragic events of last week’s school shooting have left us all shaken and upset,” said Florida Mayhem CEO Ben Spoont in the statement. “As the

In my experience, London’s streets are terrified of straight lines, and Amsterdam is a melting city drunk on itself. Developer Polymorph Games wants to channel that freeform design in gridless city builder Foundation. Inspired by the likes of SimCity, Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, Foundation is centrally about organic development. Foundation will feature modding support, as well as a great soundtrack if its Kickstarter video is any indication. Depending on the success of its Kickstarter

In an unusual move, Metal Gear Survive charges its players for extra save slots. SV Coins are an in-game currency which can only be purchased with real money. Here’s the full breakdown of ways to acquire these coins:100 SV coins – $0.99550 SV coins – $4.991150 SV coins – $9.993500 SV coins – $29.996000 SV coins – $49.99You’ll note that “playing the game” isn’t among these options, because it isn’t an option. Aside from the log-in bonuses, SV Coins can only be acquired with real world money. We’v