Victor MagnusonAnders points out that “almost 100% of the characters’ power if you disregard player skill, came from the loot system. The loot system was RNG based mostly, except for the forge and the shrine. “We’ve completely revamped how we do items, so we now use a power level system. Fatshark’s idea is to create a loot system that only carries you so far. We just made a loot system that gives you a much smoother, nicer experience while you’re progressing through the game.”

First-person pixely dungeon crawler Delver is emerging from a mammoth four-and-a-half year stint in Early Access on Thursday (February 1), developer Priority Interrupt has announced. I think ‘slow and steady’ would fairly characterise its development since 2013, with updates arriving every six months on average. You’re an unarmed adventurer thrown into a randomly-generated dungeon with the task of retrieving a magic orb that’s buried somewhere in the depths and bringing it back to the surface. Y

Hyper Light Drifter designer Teddy Dief was snapped up by Square Enix Montreal soon after the indie RPG released in 2016. “The business strategy of the studio shifted, and our project was sadly no longer compatible,” he wrote on his blog. I have decided to leave my position as Creative Director at Square Enix Montreal.Because this was a dream role for me, I feel it bears explaining why I’ve given it up, especially to those who have supported and encouraged me. He, and the rest of the team, will

Some PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds players are so bored by its desert map, Miramar, that they’re deleting game files so that they automatically leave any round that randomly selects the map from the current pool of two. One user has even created a programme that changes the extensions of the Miramar files so that the game cannot load the map, booting you back out to the menu instead. Perhaps developer Bluehole has noticed, because the latest update for the game aims to make Miramar more interest

The PC Gamer Weekender offers multiple opportunities to play games and learn about the hardware side of PC gaming, but it also offers a combination of the two thanks to Irregular Corporation’s PC Building Sim. The game will be playable during the Weekender, and allows players to build their very own computer repair enterprise. You can find out more about PC Building Sim over on its official site, via Twitter and Facebook, or by staring directly into its Steam page. The Building Sim will be joine

The second DLC episode for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus released earlier today, in the form of ‘The Diaries of Agent Silent Death’. As the name implies, it traces the adventures of protagonist Agent Silent Death (her real name being the comparatively benign Jessica Valiant). This description is helpful:”Play as former OSS agent and assassin, Jessica Valiant, AKA Agent Silent Death! Stalk, shoot and stab from the shadows in pursuit of your prey in the Diaries of Agent Silent Death!” It follows

Celeste is a clear contender for best platformer of the year, and it’ll probably end up being one of the most competitive speedrunning titles, too. The best run so far, by Magolor9000, manages an Any% run in 47 minutes and 33 seconds. You can see the run below, and while it’s super impressive, there’s clear room for improvement. As Magolor9000 points out on his YouTube page, this run is far from perfect in the opening minutes, but manages quite well in the second half. Anyway, as someone who spe

Microsoft announced today that it has acquired PlayFab, a “complete backend platform for live games” that is used in more than 1200 games, including Killing Floor 2, Pathfinder Adventures, Battletech, and Planetary Annihilation. The company described the move as “an important step forward for gaming at Microsoft” and said that it will help make the creation of connected games more accessible for smaller-scale developers. “Today we power more than 1200 live games, and have served over 700 million

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is set to arrive on February 20 on the Windows Store but not on Steam, an absence that was widely reported as somehow the fault of Valve. “Steam’s rules do not allow it,” a bold-faced subheader in the Google translation of German gaming site GameStar.de. As it turns out, the decision to keep the AoE redo exclusive was solely Microsoft’s, and unrelated to what Steam does or doesn’t allow. “We’ve chosen to release Age of Empires: Definitive Edition in the Windows

says Mateusz Pilski, co-founder and lead programmer at Ice Code Games, demoing the recently announced RTS Re-Legion at PAX South. When converting neutral citizens to your cult, units kneel in front of the prophet (or preacher). We make short work of the enemy forces, though Pilski noted that one limiting feature is disabled in the demo. The enemy also suffers from this effect, and a key strategy involves lowering enemy faith in order to neutralize and convert them. Using actual humans as a limit

In the Indie GIF Showcase, we dig up the best-looking new and upcoming indie games and explore what makes them special. Redwood describes Photographs as “a dark narrative-puzzle game” where you explore pixel art dioramas and solve puzzles to advance five interwoven and altogether tragic stories. There are many different puzzle types embedded in each one, like the sliding puzzle seen above. Photographs’ announcement trailer asks viewers if they’ve ever made a serious mistake that hurt the people

Trine developer Frozenbyte is holding something of a Steam sale this week—through February 10, to be precise. Naturally, the Trine series is the forerunner, but there are other games to be had. Sale standouts include:Additionally, Nine Parchments is part of the Trineverse bundle ($16 at 79 percent off), which also includes all three Trine games. Then there’s the Frozenbyte Collection 2017 bundle ($13 at 86 percent off), which comes with the Trine series, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor and

ESL recently signed a deal with Facebook that makes the massive social network its “main broadcast partner” for CS:GO Pro League and ESL One Events. Ahead of the weekend, Facebook took the next step in its process of muscling in on Twitch and ‘Tube territory with the launch of the Gaming Creator Pilot Program, a streamer-dedicated initiative focused on “helping gaming creators build more meaningful and more engaged communities on Facebook than anywhere else.” The program is still in early days,

Case in point, this Asus ROG Strix 17.3-inch laptop (GL702VS-AH73) with a GeForce GTX 1070 is on sale at Newegg for $1,399 today. But if you’re in the market for a gaming laptop anyway, you’ll find that prices are still where they should be. In this case, the GL701VS-AH73 pairs the GeForce GTX 1070 with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and 12GB of DDR4 memory—a solid foundation for gaming on the laptop’s native 1920×1080 display, which also supports G-Sync. Compared to burly gaming laptops, thi

To deal with the latter, Microsoft has issued an out-of-band security update for Windows. In the meantime, Microsoft is updating Windows to undo the damage done by Intel’s initial patch. Put another way, the Windows patch disables one of the Spectre mitigations (variant 2) from Intel’s patch. It applies to Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8.1, and all version of Windows 10, for both client and server PCs. Anyone running an impacted device can apply the update by downloading it from the Microsoft Update

Leading the pack is the highly contentious Patches the Pirate, which after the update will no longer hit with Charge. “As we move closer to the new Hearthstone Year, we had some concerns about allowing Patches to remain in his current state after moving out of Standard,” read the developer notes. Next up is Raza the Chained, one of the key pieces, along with Shadowreaper Anduin, to the dominant Highlander Priest deck. “In a similar vein to Patches the Pirate, we had some concerns about allowing

The drop-dead gorgeous Dragon Ball FighterZ couldn’t be more true to its source material if it tried. Arc System Works went all-out recreating the look of Dragon Ball Z’s Goku and Vegeta and co. with 3D models designed and animated to look like they sprang straight out of 2D animation. Goku goes Super SaiyanThe culmination of years of power escalation led to this huge moment for Dragon Ball. In an alternate reality, Yamcha beats NappaYamcha is DBZ’s whipping boy. Perfect CellThe best moment in D

Everyone has their preferred method of applying thermal paste, whether it’s putting a dab roughly the size of a grain of cooked rice on the center, drawing a line down the middle, or making an X. While temps can vary a little bit, there really is no wrong way, so long as you use an appropriate amount of paste. None of them are textbook examples of how to apply thermal paste, but this one is especially bad. It starts off with MSI applying a glob of white goo near the edge. If you want to know how

Fortnite Battle Royale’s latest limited mode is live, Epic Games announced this morning. Named Sniper Shootout, the mode is what it describes, limiting players to sniper rifles… and revolvers. (Sniping players in the next room was too clumsy to be fun, I’m guessing.) Fortnite BR’s wide open ranges are great for sniper play already, so I’m not sure how much of an impact the long-distance conditions will have on the pace of match, especially if the storm closes in at the same rate. Sniper Shooto

If you’ve been waiting for just the right moment to finally dive into Fallout 4, then hop onto that springboard and get ready to jump. Fallout 4 will be free to play on PC beginning on Thursday, February 1 through Sunday, February 4. Other discounts during the free weekend: 40% off Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition (which includes all the DLC) and 50% off the season pass. Here’s the full list of discounts:33% off:Fallout 4 Core Game40% off:Fallout 4 G.O.T.Y. (Game of the Year Edition)Fallout 4: