Sea of Thieves rolled out its closed beta last month, which brought out the best and worst of the PC Gamer team. Given this was a closed beta, accessible only via the Windows Store, that’s quite a healthy portion of its overall showing. “I joined [Rare] two years ago, and our ambition since then has been to deliver the PC game that PC players expect. PC player expectations are higher than your average human, because we are better than the average human. Timmins adds that Sea of Thieves’ PC itera

A film adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s will be written and directed by Chris Columbus, the filmmaker responsible for Home Alone, at least three Harry Potter films and Gremlins, among others. It’s a whole separate project from the one initially announced in 2015, which was to be handled by Warner Bros and tipped to feature filmmaking talent responsible for The Ring, The Grudge and more. This new one is handled by Blumhouse, and given how inexplicably popular FNAF is among kids nowadays, Col

I play as different characters over the course of The Red Strings Club, each with their own perspective. The Red Strings Club is all about conversations. Following the Akara segment, I spend a sizable chunk of time as bartender Donovan, owner of the Red Strings Club. The Red Strings Club turns conversation into a game mechanic by giving us a list of objectives to fulfill, all the while testing our social intuition. The Red Strings Club isn’t after a universal truth, but shows us another way to e

An Albuquerque Journal report says YouTubers Gavin Free and Meg Turney were forced to hide in a closet as an armed, deranged fan searched their home for them last month. “A search of Giles’ cellular phone identified various notations identifying Megan Turney and Gavin Free by name,” court documents filed by police state. “Furthermore, threatening thoughts were recorded by Giles and directed toward Gavin Free, ie., ‘I want Gavin Free to die alone, with no children’.” Gavin Free is the former crea

Bots are threatening EVE Online Thanks to EVE Online’s player-driven economy, botting is a exceedingly complex issue. To understand what they are, how they work, and how bots negatively impact EVE Online, check out our full report. Last week I wrote about how bots, programs that automate human input, are threatening EVE Online. What the dev blog is noticeably short on, however, is any discussion of how CCP is going to catch more botters. Correction: In a previous version of this story, we misint

He’s punched Mario in the face in Super Smash Bros. And now Sonic is finally on the battlefield he was born for: powering up into golden Super Sonic in Dragon Ball FighterZ. Modder Beatz posted the work-in-progress video above of Sonic (and Super Sonic) skins added into Dragon Ball FighterZ, overwriting the character of teen Gohan. It feels only fitting that Super Sonic, an homage to Dragon Ball Z, gets to come full circle here. Also, I’m just saying: you probably didn’t know you needed to see S

After five weeks of play, the first stage of the inaugural season of Overwatch League has come to a close. The stage one finals were one of Overwatch League’s most exciting matches to date, and a huge determining factor in the outcome was each team’s Widowmaker play. If New York took point A, they wouldn’t need to push the payload very far to secure the win. The Overwatch League stage one finals were going to a fifth map. “I really enjoy killing Mercy,” he said, noting that Widow will be stronge

“It’s adapting faster than we can track,” Rainbow Six demolitions specialist Eliza “Ash” Cohen says in the Outbreak briefing trailer Ubisoft released last week. To protect its host, the parasite armors its body and becomes more resistant to bullet wounds. To protect its host, the parasite armors its body and becomes more resistant to bullet wounds. Rooters – Rooters are a more rare type of hostile. The Rainbow Six Siege ‘Outbreak’ co-op event will begin with the start of Year 3 on March 6, and r

If you like to play Overwatch but only when it’s free (or maybe you just haven’t got around to trying it yet) then you’ll probably want to block out some spare time this weekend. From February 16-19, Blizzard’s hero-based online shooter is going completely free. The free weekend will include the full lineup of heroes (26) and maps (16) in Quick Play, Custom Games, and the Arcade. Player progression and loot drops will work as they usually do, and any progress earned during the free play period w

The Humble Store is having a week-long 2K Games sale, featuring deals on some of the publisher’s biggest games, a few classics you may have missed, and one or two that probably don’t fit into either category—but I’m not here to judge. I will, however, make a few suggestions. The Civilization 6 Digital Deluxe edition , which includes the game, six DLC packs, at the 25th Anniversary Digital Soundtrack – $40 (50 percent off), which includes the game, six DLC packs, at the 25th Anniversary Digital S

Here are just a few of the things developer Blue Wizard Digital has called Space Tyrant: “a surprisingly deep beer and pretzels strategy game,” a “roguelike-lite-ish 5X game,” and a “zero-attention span mega-empire builder.” For those wondering, according to Blue Wizard, a 5X game is “like a 4X game, but with even more X.” “We’re confident Space Tyrant is the only turn-based space strategy title on the market where you can get through a complete game in under 400 hours,” Blue Wizard said. Blue W

2017 was a good year for Ubisoft, which reported a “strong rise in sales” in its third quarter report for 2017-18. Assassin’s Creed: Origins is a hit, the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League is continuing to expand, and even The Division is bouncing back, although I’m not sure what “player engagement,” which apparently doubled following the release of the 1.8 update, really means. In all, it added up to quarterly sales of €725 million ($891 million), easily surpassing the company’s targets. This has fu

Today, it’s one of those games you may only recognize by the reams of garish thumbnails dotting the YouTube bedrock. If you play Façade as it was intended—by role-playing the experience as a concerned friend—their AI system holds up remarkably well. The thing about Façade is that its reliance on genuine interaction with the AI makes it ripe for abuse. Mateas and Stern wanted to get as many eyes on it as possible, so they released it as a free download and accepted small, personal donations to re

20XX is a co-op roguelike platformer heavily inspired by Mega Man. For many players, it filled the void created by the disappointment that was Mighty No. 9, and it got a major upgrade today with the release of Hawk, its third playable character. She wields an energy whip that replenishes the fuel that powers her abilities, so it sounds like she rewards and encourages aggressive play. She’s available as part of the Hawk DLC pack, which is available for $2 at 34 percent off on Steam through Monday

When it comes to wired versus wireless gaming peripherals, we can talk about lag and latency all day long. Probably not, and that’s where Corsair’s new K63 wireless mechanical keyboard and lapboard combo come into play. It’s basically a wireless version of its K63 keyboard that comes bundled with a lapboard. The K63 wireless keyboard and lapboard combo is available now for $160. If you’re only interested in the keyboard, Corsair sells it as a standalone item for $110.

2, a puzzle game about manipulating blocks with magic color-coated gloves, will release on March 13, developer Toxic Games announced today. “When we made the first Q.U.B.E we were still students,” said managing director Dan Da Rocha, “but after a half-decade of real industry experience we’ve put together the kind of premiums product we’ve always dreamed of.”

One item that caught our eye is the Alienware Aurora, which can be had for less than a grand. That’s a decent deal for the money, and there are upgrades available. Notably, you can bump up the graphics card to a GeForce GTX 1070 for $98 more, or to a GeForce GTX 1080 for $196. However, you can add a 16GB Intel Optane memory module to the mix for $49, or a 32GB module for $98. That’s a bit of hassle, of course, but potentially worth it to score a decent deal on a gaming desktop.

AMD launched a couple of new APUs to retail today, the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G. Both of these chips combine Zen CPU cores with Radeon Vega graphics, with the promise of being able to play games without a discrete GPU. As of this writing, Newegg’s asking price for the Ryzen 3 2200G is $110, and $170 for the Ryzen 5 2400G. Or you could head to Amazon and pick up the Ryzen 3 2200G for $99 and the Ryzen 5 2400G for $169. The Ryzen 5 2400G is also a quad-core chip, but with eight threads cloc

Iceland will use more energy mining Bitcoin than powering its homes in 2018. That’s according to Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, a spokesperson for Icelandic power firm HS Orka. As reported by the BBC, Sigurbergsson says the country faces an “exponential” rise in Bitcoin mining that’ll exceed the electricity use of Iceland’s homes this year. Sigurbergsson continues, saying Bitcoin mining data centres will demand around 840 gigawatt hours of electricity; while homes require around 700 gigawatt hours

There’s going to be a lot to see at the PC Gamer Weekender, so you might not have a lot of time to play absolutely everything. With that in mind, here’s three RPGs at the show that you might want to prioritise if you love levelling up. We’d say ‘to spill his guts’, but the idiom sounds a lot more aggressive in relation to the sometimes-violent medieval RPG. SpellForce 3 is set in a fantasy world recovering from a war between mages and the forces of the crown. As well as this selection of role-pl