THE HIGHSWes Fenlon: Hollow victoryOkay okay okay okay okay, yes, we were late to the party on Hollow Knight. I’m one of PC Gamer’s bigger Dark Souls people, but I really didn’t like Dark Souls 2 the first time around. There are so many strange, playful ideas in Dark Souls 2 that I retroactively miss in Dark Souls 3, even if a few don’t quite work. Andy Kelly: Mad worldWhen Avalanche’s Mad Max game was released in September 2015, so was Metal Gear Solid V. On the same day! It’s one of the best o

Square Enix reported last month that Final Fantasy 14 was suffering a DDoS attack on its North American data center. “As previously announced, we have confirmed that since mid-June, a third party has been targeting the Final Fantasy 14 game servers on the NA data center. Until now, we have been implementing defensive measures at our own facilities to combat DDoS attacks against our Final Fantasy 14 game servers, and have been able to keep the impact to services at a minimum,” Square Enix wrote i

The promise of playing big-ass dragons and magical shouts has lured me back to The Elder Scrolls: Legends this month. But the most interesting idea has been the introduction of Twitch drops . “Drops have, in short, been incredible,” says Christian “CVH” Van Hoose, who runs one of Legends’ biggest channels. “Before Twitch drops, I averaged between 150-200 viewers and peaked at 300 or so thanks to the recent Steam release, which was another good move. The day after drops my viewership more than do

Sam Barlow, the creator of the hit 2015 game Her Story, has revealed that his next game will be another FMV mystery, this time called Telling Lies. Barlow said Telling Lies will be a “spiritual follow-up” to Her Story, but will tell an entirely new political thriller-style story with three to four key characters. The 1970s, he added, “were such a golden age [for] exploring the intersection of government, society and individuals,” suggesting that Telling Lies could bear a similar aesthetic. Barlo

If you have questions about Hearthstone, game director Ben Brode probably has the answer. More usefully, he may share that answer with you or other like-minded players during an AMA set to begin today at 3 pm PT/6 pm PT on Reddit. Join @bdbrode for a Hearthstone #AMA on Reddit today! AMA starts at 3pm PDT, we start taking questions at 2:30pm PDT. pic.twitter.com/zbuFPAB2jsJuly 14, 2017The AMA is has ended over on Reddit, but Hearthpwn has a nice bullet-pointed summary of the answers.

Bethesda released an Evil Within 2 story trailer last month that delves into the sad, sorry history of lead character Sebastian Castellanos. Fortunately for me and everyone else in that boat, Bethesda has come to the rescue with an Evil Within 2 Story FAQ. It begins with a rundown of who Sebastian Castellanos is and what led him to the state he’s in at the beginning of Evil Within 2. Or, as writer Trent Haaga puts it, ‘STEM is like if Freddy Krueger made the Matrix’,” the FAQ says. There’s still

Back in 2013, we listed the Pixelmon mod for Minecraft as one of the best “Pokemon X/Y alternatives” available on the PC. We have had a great time making this mod and creating such a wonderful community but after a request from The Pokemon Company we will be shutting our doors,” the team announced yesterday. “I’m sorry for the disappointment this will cause but let’s remember all the great times we had playing Pixelmon, discussing Pokémon, making awesome things inside this mod and everything els

Back in June, ‘kill trading’ was enabled for public Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare playlists. With kill trading enabled, both players die. Enabling kill trading in public matches was controversial—as every change to CoD multiplayer is—but as of today, that decision has been reversed. “In June of this year, we enabled Kill Trading in public matches,” reads today’s patch notes. Kill trading is still an option for custom matches.

But if the last year has been any indication, the Overwatch team doesn’t rest. The standards for maintaining competitive games are higher than they’ve ever been in the history of PC gaming. Just last week , Blizzard added to the PTR Doomfist, the 25th hero for Overwatch, and the fourth hero released since the game’s launch. At launch, there were only three: Quick Play, Play vs. AI, and the weekly brawl. The standards for maintaining competitive games are higher than they’ve ever been in the hist

The value proposition on the least expensive Ryzen 7 series processor just got a little higher. That’s because both Amazon and Walmart have the Ryzen 7 1700 marked down to $270. AMD’s Ryzen 7 1700 is an 8-core processor with 16 threads, 4MB of L2 cache, and 16MB of L3 cache. The Ryzen 7 1700 comes with a Wraith Spire LED cooler in the box, which also adds to the value proposition. Go here to grab the Ryzen 7 1700 on sale from Amazon, or here to get it at Walmart.

Last week I asked our community to share their sleaziest stories of scamming or being scammed in online games. Whether it’s screwing over your best friends for a quick buck or falling for the same scam twice in a row, all of you should feel bad. “I once scammed a guy from Italy out of 10 million gold in Vindictus,” he explains in the comments. “I told him I was a cam girl and I’d Skype him if he transferred the gold to my character.” Most embarrassing MMO stories To celebrate Leeroy Jenkin’s 12t

RGB lighting is everywhere you look, including on MSI’s new GH70 Gaming headset. Using MSI’s Mystic Light utility, you can choose from millions of colors and various effects to dazzle (or annoy) onlookers. The utility also allows you to sychronize and coordinate colors and effects with your gaming rig and other peripherals. It also comes with an in-line volume control with a switch to toggle virtual 7.1 surround sound. It has a rated frequency response of 100 Hz ~ 10 kHz and rated sensitivity of

Just a few days ago, the company slashed the price on its Rift headset and Touch controller bundle to $399, and now the company has taken the unusual step of announcing a permanent price drop before the sale is even over. After that, the Rift and Touch controller package will bump up to $499 rather than its previous $598. That will mark the second price cut in a year—back in March, Oculus slashed $200 off the price of its Rift headset and Touch controller bundle. Targeted for release sometime ne

Sundered, the Lovecraftian “replayable Metroidvania” being developed by Jotun studio Thunder Lotus Games, was announced last year and absolutely demolished its Kickstarter goal in January 2017, pulling in $200,000 CAD on a $25,000 CAD goal. But perhaps even more impressive is that the Kickstarter carried an estimated delivery date of July 2017, and today the studio confirmed that it’s actually going to happen. Thunder Lotus announced today that Sundered will be out on Steam, GOG, Humble, Origin,

It’s warm and sunny—not here, of course, because I live in Scotland—so that means it’s time to strip off and hit the nearest beach or waterpark. If that sounds like a nightmare, you could always just stay inside and experience the joys of a digital waterpark during Black Desert Online’s summer event. That’s hard work, mind, so you need a place to go on holiday, and that’s where the Terrmian Waterpark comes in. If you spend 10 seals you’ll get a coupon that will automatically enter you into a com

CD Projekt has mostly stuck with the “when it’s done” line, but we know that it plans to release Cyberpunk 2077 between 2017 and 2021, along with another, still unannounced RPG. Our guess, then, is that Cyberpunk 2077 will release in late 2018 or early 2019. So, if we take CD Projekt RED at its word, Cyberpunk 2077 will be exceptionally large and, hopefully, full of sidequests. Night City The cover of the Night City sourcebook. of CD Projekt RED explaining that Cyberpunk 2077 will be an RPG like

Smite Tactics, now known as Hand of the Gods: Smite Tactics, has hit open beta. The god vs. god CCG will be free-to-play, and you can start sending your minions into the fray right now. Hand of the Gods is part turn-based tactics, part CCG, with gods and mythological beasties duking it out in an arena, while spells, abilities and new combatants can be summoned from a deck of divine cards that you can build up over time. You’ll unlock a bunch of card packs now, just by taking the open beta for a

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, Fatshark’s Skaven-infested first-person romp, got a hefty update this week in the form of the 1.9 patch and some free DLC: Arrogance Lost. As well as the new features and a secret, “meatier” addition, expect a slew of fixes, balance changes and tweaks. Hopefully this will make it easier to gather a full party, too! I adore Vermintide—I mean, it’s Left 4 Dead with Skaven, what’s not to love—but it can be a bastard trying to find enough people to play with someti

It’s a new game from Josef Fares, coming after the marvellous Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons back in 2013. You can get Brothers today on Bundle Stars for a huge 80 percent off. It too is a co-op game, however one you play by yourself, bizarrely. It’s got a unique control scheme which requires a controller, where you control two characters at the same time using the two analog sticks. 80 percent off is the best price you’ll find for this game today, so grab it before the sale ends tonight.

It’s been a decade since Lord of the Rings Online launched, and the long-running MMO is finally about to reach the imposing land of Mordor, home of Sauron and his unfriendly Orc hordes. Mordor will appear in the game’s sixth expansion, simply titled ‘Mordor’, which will launch on July 31. Watch a stream of the developers discussing the expansion and future plans below. Lord of the Rings Online is free to play, but you’ll need to shell out for the expansion. The base pack will set you back $39.99