At the same time, you might not be in the mood to roll your own rig, or don’t have the time. If that is the case, or you’re looking to recommend a pre-built for someone else, Newegg is offering a good price on a burly configuration with a Core i7-7700 processor and GeForce GTX 1080. It’s the ABS Battlebox Essential Prime, and it’s on sale for $1,350. Along with the Core i7-7700 and GTX 1080, this setup also includes 16GB of DDR4 memory, a 250GB SSD and 1TB HDD for storage, a 600W power supply, a

“Rich game data—including duration, score, current boss or map, and so much more—lives inside Discord. You can spectate a friend’s game directly from their profile popout, or party up via beautiful chat embeds with real-time information about open party slots and the party’s in-game status,” the Rich Presence “How To” page explains. Rich Presence is a living invitation to play together, or to watch your friends kick butt.” The system has to be implemented in individual games via the Rich Presenc

Star Wars Battlefront 2 won’t arrive for another week, but Electronic Arts has already unveiled what players have to look forward to in a free update coming in December. Following that, on December 13, Finn and Captain Phasma will become available for purchase with in-game credits. Poe Dameron’s X-Wing will also be upgraded with “a new ability inspired by Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” There will also be daily, weekly, and weekend challenges throughout the month, and themed Sundays: Blast, Galactic

AMD launched its third and least expensive Threadripper processor, the 1900X, at the end of August for $550. The Threadripper 1900X has a 3.8GHz base clock and 4GHz turbo clock, along with a 4.2GHz XFR range for short-term performance boosts. Compared to the cheaper Ryzen 7 1800X, the Threadripper 1900X is a bit of a tough sell. It also has less L3 cache at 16MB, and supports dual-channel memory, whereas Threadripper supports quad-channel memory. If any or all of that sways you towards Threadrip

Samsung is already collecting CES awards ahead of the annual of trade show, and one of those awards is for its 16Gbps GDDR6 memory. Apparently Samsung has been busy speeding up its graphics memory in the past year. That is double the throughput of current generation 8Gbps GDDR5 memory found on graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, and higher than 11Gbps GDDR5X memory on the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. Samsung also says its GDDR6 memory uses less power, operating at 1.35V versus 1.5V for 8Gbps GD

Phil Savage: IO, IO, it’s off to work they goRight, yes, fine. Seriously, though, while I’ve written about Hitman so much that I’m almost sick of my own opinions about it, it remains brilliant. And the fact that IO gets to make more of it as an indie studio is a rare and heartwarming thing. Joe Donnelly: Dressing room dressing downI spoke about Football Manager 2018 in last week’s high column and here I am at it again. I’m especially glad to see it arrive on PC because Sony published Nioh on the

Seeing Corsair and G.Skill pump out increasingly faster memory kits brings us back to the old days, when high frequencies mattered more than they do now. While the landscape has changed, the race is still on to deliver the fastest memory, and right now Corsair is winning in the 32GB category with its new Vengeance kit. “Typically, the fastest DDR4 memory kits are limited to low-capacity kits, but with this kit Corsair has combined ultra-high frequency, with high capacity, validating in MemTest a

Bossa Studios announced Decksplash back near the start of the year, and it looked quite promising: “The Rocket League of skateboarding,” we called it, following some hands-on time with an alpha build in May. But in October, the studio dropped an ultimatum: If it didn’t attract at least 100,000 players during a free week set to begin on November 2, the whole thing would be cancelled. Today is November 10, which means the free week ended yesterday, and I’ve got bad news for those of you looking fo

Seven: The Days Long Gone is a gorgeous feat of world design, said Tyler after going hands-on with IMGN.PRO and Fool’s Theory’s isometric RPG last year. It’s since teased a fair bit more of its stealthy murder—and now wants to showcase its traversal and movement mechanics. Cue some lovely-looking leaps of faith, last-ditch ledge grabs, and backs-to-wall brawling when protagonist Teriel makes an arse of holding his cover. Seven: The Days Long Gone is due December 1, 2017, which is somehow three w

XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 are so replayable XCOM 3 would need to be bold to tear me away. I enjoy the horror of first contact, and the pleasure of learning how to deal with them—besides, you’re supposed to lose soldiers in XCOM. A changing storyThe worst thing about restarting an XCOM campaign is the static story. Whatever shape an XCOM 3 base might take, I’d room placement to involve more interesting decisions with less waiting around. The Steam workshop has been great for XCOM 2 and The L

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 launches on the 16th, and right now Origin Access players can access the campaign’s opening three missions. If you don’t fancy doing that, though, but are curious about what the singleplayer component of the game entails, our friends at GamesRadar have played the opening three missions. Naturally, spoilers ensue, but you’ll get a taste of whether this campaign is your sort of thing or not. For those unfamiliar with Battlefront 2’s story, you play as Iden Versio, an Imper

The 35th Golden Joystick Awards presented with OMEN by HP is almost here—taking place in London on November 17. The awards pre-show livestream kicks off from 3.15pm GMT / 7.15am PST, and will feature PUBG’s Brendan Greene, Friday the 13th’s Chuck Brungardt, Flavourworks’ Jack Attridge, and Outside Xtra’s Ellen—with more names to be announced in due course. Moreover, viewers of the livestream can win prizes, such as an OMEN by HP gaming laptop and an Intel Core i7 processor with MSI Motherboard B

There is no dedicated server like we have in CS:GO, Battlefield or Overwatch. The only thing that matters is your ping to the game server which determines the delay that it takes your shot to register. With dedicated game servers, your own hit registration is indeed not affected by another player’s bad internet connection. My verdictWith Destiny, Bungie set out to create a game that blurs the line between singleplayer and multiplayer. So I wonder if Bungie would use the dedicated server network

Need to know In Why I Love, PC Gamer writers pick an aspect of PC gaming that they love and write about why it’s brilliant. When FIFA 17’s story mode was announced, the response was mostly mockery. Let’s set the tone: the game begins with you, Alex Hunter, as a ten-year-old boy playing football in the park. Next year’s FIFA is confirmed to carry on Alex’s story, and I can only hope they continue this weird experiment. Yet regardless of which direction they go in, it’s worth going back to FIFA 17

The PC needs a new skateboarding game, said Mat Paget earlier this year, as he explored why our platform of choice is best suited to the genre. Within, Mat highlighted Project Session—a Skate-like, open world skateboarding game that uses real world physics and is powered by Unreal Engine 4. Developer Crea-ture Studios is prepping a crowdfunding campaign, due to launch November 21, however it has a PC demo right now. How we envision Session and the way the game is designed, this is definitely som

Hunt: Showdown—Crytek’s first-person demon hunter whose post-colon appendage was once ‘Horrors of the Gilded Age’—is lining itself up for a number of closed alpha tests in the coming months. “Closed Alpha will be our first chance to get player feedback, and we are really excited to see how they will interact with the game,” says game producer Fatih Özbayram. “After initial tests with a very limited amount of players we are planning to invite more and more testers with each phase. This is the fir

Little Nightmares’ three-part DLC series Secrets of the Maw continues today with the launch of ‘The Hideaway’. Part of what I loved about Little Nightmares’ base game was its claustrophobic hallways and tight, monster-packed spaces. The introduction of an explorable “hub-like layout”, then, sounds interesting, if a little at odds with what I’ve come to expect from the game. Little Nightmares’ The Hideaway DLC is out now on GOG and Steam for £3.19/$4. Its third and final Secrets of the Maw chapte

Rainbow Six Siege’s forthcoming expansion, Operation White Noise, is shaping up to be among the best. And come to think of it, I’ve no idea how the attackers will actually penetrate the building. Ubisoft teased the new expansion last week, which will also include new operators from the 707th Special Mission Battalion (better known as White Tiger). More info on the whole expansion will be aired during the Pro League Finals on November 19 – over on this Twitch channel. Meanwhile, Ubisoft has also

This year’s Armistice campaign will see the return of the Christmas Truce DLC for the First World War online FPS Verdun, which raised more than $22,000 for the campaign last year. World of Tanks will bring back its “peace emblems” for the event, which players can purchase and use to adorn their tanks. Nexon will also hold a one-minute silence in its DomiNations mobile game, and offer a “Peace Bundle,” with a number of non-violent in-game items, to raise funds for the War Child charity. The 2016

That’s what French studio Accidental Queens did with their first game, A Normal Lost Phone, and they refined the idea with Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story . “We wanted to try to go further with the second game,” developer Miryam Houali explains from Paris. Her phone is full of messages from worried friends and family, as well as clues. Sara Is MissingSimilar to Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story, but with more of a horror vibe. “We don’t want to make a third found phone game.