Cloud Imperium Games has kicked off another Star Citizen “Free-Fly” week to mark the recent release of alpha 3.7.0. From today until November 3, players can hop into the cockpits of five free ships and go for a spin in the inky, incomplete blackness. Will Star Citizen ever be finished? Whatever the semantics of its status (and Star Citizen is hardly alone in muddling the meaning of “released”), people are still throwing money at it, still playing it—and, presumably, still enjoying it. Details an

(Image credit: Blizzard)A new Overwatch image has leaked ahead of Blizzcon 2019, and once again it features long-rumored 32nd hero Echo. The image was exhumed from the Blizzard merchandise store by fans on the MMO Champion forum (via Polygon), but the original has since been removed. As you can see above, it features some familiar faces alongside Echo. It seems more likely then, that Echo will factor into Overwatch 2, which will reportedly have PvE story missions reminiscent of Left 4 Dead. Thes

(Image credit: Valve)Counter-Strike: Global Offensive container keys, which are purchased with real money and used to unlock the game’s equivalent of loot boxes, can no longer be resold. Valve has learned that they’re being used to launder money. “However, worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. Valve also notes in its statement that “pre-existing CS:GO container keys are unaffected–those keys can still be sold on the Steam Community Market an

Walmart has a great gaming laptop deal for that includes a gaming headset and mouse, free of charge when you purchase this build of HP Omen laptop. The 15-inch version is on sale right at Walmart for only $1,099, which is $300 off its normal price and it comes bundled with an Omen 800 headset and Omen 400 gaming mouse. The HP Omen Gaming Laptop DC1088WM has got an 9th Gen i7 processor, 16GB Memory, 256GB SSD with a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card. But hey, it comes with a gaming headset and mo

NVMe SSDs are a quick and easy way to expand your PC’s storage while also boosting gaming performance. And right now, one of our favorite M.2 SSDs is on offer: the Adata XPG SX8200 is down to $147.99 ($72 off) at Amazon. While memory prices have thankfully galvanized over the past year or so, this is still the lowest price we’ve ever seen on this effective and innocuous 1TB drive. We think the SX8200 is one of the best NVMe SSDs and for good reason. M.2 SSDs are great ways to quickly expand your

(Image credit: Intel)The world’s best CPU for gaming, as Intel describes its Core i9-9900KS, is headed to retail shelves on October 30, 2019, with a recommended customer price of $513. It’s a special edition processor that is essentially a binned version of the i9-9900K, but with a higher thermal design power (TDP) rating and faster clocks. “Intel has raised the bar for desktop gaming with the new 9th gen Intel Core i9-9900KS Special Edition processor. This processor demonstrates another innovat

If you’re in the market for a spooky game to augment your Halloween, GOG’s discounted more than 300 games for the season of scares. Sanitarium should leave you feeling very uneasy and is easily one of the most unsettling adventure games I’ve muddled through. It’s a surreal psychological thriller full of unusual characters and not so many scares, but it’s still good Halloween fodder. Wadjet Eye’s supernatural point-and-click is also one of the best adventure games ever made, so you should probabl

(Image credit: Nvidia)Nvidia on Monday rolled out a couple of new generation Shield TV models, and both look to be worthy upgrades to the 2017 versions they replace. They’re also cheaper—the 2019 model Shield TV costs $149.99, and the Shield TV Pro is priced at $199.99. Previously, the Shield TV started at $199.99, so we’re looking at a $50 price reduction for the baseline model. For the most part, we have generally been impressed with previous Shield TV models (we awarded the 2015 model a 90 sc

(Image credit: Asus)Asus is rolling out a new gaming monitor that has the potential to be a nice upgrade, based on the specifications. However, that will depend in large part on how pricing shakes out for the new TUF Gaming VG249Q. It’s a Full HD 1080p (1920×1080) monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. The VG248QE uses a TN panel, though, so the TUF Gaming VG249Q potentially offers the same resolution and fast speed in a higher quality package. So for now, if you’re looking for

ESPN say they’ve obtained a BlizzCon training document that spills the beans on Overwatch 2, and have a source to back it up. According to their info, Overwatch 2 will have a significant PvE element, with a narrative and missions that include “a four-player story experience set in Rio de Janeiro”. On the multiplayer side, there’s apparently a new mode coming called Push, which will use a new map located in Toronto. ESPN say they expect a minimum of one new hero to be announced as well, and that

It may not seem like much to go on, but EA tweeting out a picture of a steaming hot beverage in an EA mug sure seems like a hint their games will be returning to Steam. Said games have been available exclusively through Origin on PC since the launch of Battlefield 3 back in 2011, and Crysis 2 was even pulled from Steam at the time (though it came back a year later). One tweet’s not the only evidence EA’s games might be coming back to Valve’s launcher. Earlier this week, @RobotBrush found a test

The Art of Diablo coffee-table book, due out on November 3—the day after Blizzcon—has already been responsible for leaking the existence of Diablo 4 after an ad for it in German magazine Game Star described it containing artwork from “Diablo 1, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, and Diablo 4.” Now it seems to have been responsible for another leak, as Twitter user @WeakAuras has posted a seemingly legit page from the book. It’s a description of Lilith, the Queen of the Succubi first seen in Diablo 2’s Pandemon

(Image credit: Stadia)Google is planning to create “a few different first-party studios” to make exclusive games for Google Stadia—but don’t expect any blockbusters for a long time. Google’s studios will release exclusive games every year starting within the next four years, but it may be “several years” before we see a “huge new IP”, Google’s head of Stadia games & entertainment Jade Raymond told GamesIndustry.biz. For a big bet and a huge new IP that’s going to fully leverage the cloud, it may

(Image credit: Valve)A new AI built to combat toxicity in online gaming has banned 20,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players within its first six weeks, solely by analyzing messages in the game’s text chat. Minerva started examining CS:GO chat messages in late August, and in the first month-and-a-half marked 7,000,000 messages as toxic, issued 90,000 warnings, and banned 20,000 players. The AI, trained through machine learning, first issued a warning for verbal abuse if it perceived a toxi

(Image credit: Epic Games)Epic Games is suing a former Fortnite user experience tester for leaking details of Fortnite Chapter 2, claiming the leak spoiled “the suspense that Epic had been working to generate and build for months”. Sykes cashed in on what he learned as a user experience tester for Epic. He did so at the expense of Epic and those in the Fortnite community who were anxiously awaiting the new season of Fortnite only to have some of Epic’s planned surprises spoiled by Sykes’ leaks,”

(Image credit: 2K Games)WWE 2K20 is ridiculous. From wrestlers with no faces to players getting stuck inside ring ropes, every bout is plagued by a new, silly, potentially game-ruining bug. Publisher 2K knows it: in a tweet last night, the game’s official Twitter account said it was “listening closely to the feedback” and was preparing an initial patch to release within two weeks. Fixing the mess will likely take more than a single patch, and the account said more updates to address the issues w

(Image credit: Valve)The beta version of the new Steam client has started asking players whether they want to revise their user review once they’ve logged additional hours in a given game. The new feature, part of Steam’s big new library update, was first highlighted by user PunnyCasual on the Destiny 2 subreddit. A pop-up message on their Steam client, which they captured and posted here, read: “You’ve played an additional 93 hours. PunnyCasual had logged a total of 97 hours on Destiny 2, sugge

(Image credit: Respawn)The nerf Respawn promised for Apex Legends’ powerful Charge Rifle is now live, slowing the weapon’s fire rate and dampening its long-distance firepower. It follows a smaller tweak last week, which reduced its magazine capacity by one shot. The Charge Rifle also no longer takes extended energy magazines: instead, its base magazine capacity has been increased to four shots from three, in a reversal of last week’s patch. It’s still a powerful weapon at mid-range, but the dama

The Asus ROG Strix Flare with Cherry MX Red switches is simple, does everything you expect a great gaming keyboard to do, and throws in a few extra features. Throw in some extra bells and whistles and you’ve got a perfect description of Asus’ ROG Strix Flare gaming keyboard. However, I will say that with the ROG Strix Flare my fingers sometimes slip off the keys, particularly if I’ve been gaming for a while. But back to the keys—the Strix Flare comes in five different key switch options: Cherry

MSI, the maker of some of the best gaming laptops, is also responsible for some pretty nice monitors. Newegg has got a sale on an MSI Optix Curved gaming monitor to kickstart their (don’t laugh) ‘Call of Deals’ sale to coincide the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare release. The MSI Optix MAG321 32-inch curved monitor is currently $359, the cheapest it’s ever been at $70 less from its normal $429 price point. The Optix MAG321CURV is a 32-inch curved 4K VA panel gaming monitor with a 60HZ refresh rate.