Alongside “several” minor additions, as told by Mr Gilbert himself, the update brings with it two “major” ones by way of a new hint system and player character dialogues. “This was something I attempted during initial production but abandoned due to me being unable to think about it as anything more than an a overly complex hint system,” says Gilbert. As for Thimbleweed’s new hint system, it’s designed to replicate a hints hotline—similar to what players of adventures games Way Back When would’v

Immortals aim to continue their dominance during their week four matches against Counter Logic Gaming and Team Dignitas. The event will see a double-elimination group stage, followed by single-elimination, best-of-three play-offs stage. The group stage matches will be best-of-one match-ups, whilst elimination and decider matches will be best-of-three. FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming are kicking off the group stage today at 04:15 PDT / 13:15 CEST, while the elimination and deciders start tomorrow at 0

I updated my CPU test suite in order to have current versions of the benchmark software, providing meaningful results for all the CPUs, including Skylake-X i9-7900X. That’s why this is a preview of Skylake-X performance, rather than a full review. I have an upper bound of 4.5GHz performance, a lower bound of 4.0GHz, and somewhere in between is where moderate workloads should sit. And with the caveats out of the way, here are the current performance results, starting with CPU-centric workloads:Im

Titanfall 2’s next update is set to launch on June 27, and in keeping with previous updates it will introduce a map from the previous game. The War Games map was a DLC-only map in the first Titanfall, but it was also among the most visually striking, with its mix of steely architecture and fluorescent-hued gridded walls. “Pilots on the Frontier frequently use simulator pods to train, using life-like recreations of historical battles as combat scenarios. There’s also a new Live Fire map in the fo

I’m playing Walden, a new entry in the Early Access survival genre, and a game in which you play as essayist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau spent two years in the wilderness around Walden Pond, as he put it, because he “wished to live deliberately.” Walden is “an open-world narrative exploration title based on Henry David Thoreau’s classic literary work, Walden,” and I’ve been playing it a bit today. Gathering arrowheads scattered around the map slowly fills in the text of Walden,

It will commence doing so officially come July 20, because that’s when the game will officially launch on Steam. Developed by Motiga, the 5v5 game is currently in Open Beta on the Arc platform, so you can go play it right now. But even when it releases it’ll be a free-to-play title, much like fellow colourful hero shooter Paladins and, more recently, Gearbox’s abortive Battleborn. For those who have been playing Gigantic already, the move to open beta ushers in a few additions, including bot mat

The sudden surge of vitriol was driven by Paradox Interactive’s decision last month to increase the prices of its games and DLC in many regions. We sincerely apologize for any frustration this may cause and hope you can understand why we are doing this.” Wester also addressed the recent complaints about Paradox’s DLC policy, and on that point he was somewhat more intransigent. He concluded by saying that the decision to roll back the price changes was not a surrender to “mob mentality,” but rath

Malden, the original map from Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, has been reimagined in Arma 3 as part of a wave of new, free content released today. Off the back of the $10 Arma 3 Jets DLC last month, this is the biggest update to the military sim since last year’s Apex expansion. Indeed, as you can tell from old footage, Arma 3’s “Malden 2035” isn’t a 1:1 recreation that puts each tree and shrub in the same spot. Previously known as Project Argo, the game features three different competiti

After selling one million copies in April, only a few weeks after its March 23 release on Early Access, it doubled that number to two million just a month later. 3 months… 4 million copies of @PUBATTLEGROUNDS sold… Server PerformanceResolved an issue with server performance dropping drastically in certain circumstances. Improved rendering performance of vehicles, motorbikes, and boats at a distance. Improved the rendering performance of weapon effects at a distance.

In the meantime, I wanted to talk specifically about Kaby Lake-X, as it can be a rather confusing part. What is Kaby Lake-X, and do we really need it? These are both Kaby Lake-X (KBL-X) processors, which end up being quite different from Skylake-X (SLK-X). Put another way, there are 2066 pins on the socket for a reason, but Kaby Lake-X effectively ignores about 1000 of them. Skylake-X on the left, Kaby Lake-X on the right, showing differences in the capacitors used in the middle area.

The big sale news today is obviously the launch of the Steam Summer Sale, but the good folks at the Humble Store are having one, too. The Humble FPS Sale isn’t quite the same scale as Steam’s, but there are some good deals up for grabs, and until Saturday morning you can pick up a full copy of the original Killing Floor absolutely free. A few prime Humble choices:And the big one, Killing Floor, which is exactly $0—that’s 100% off—until 10 am PT on June 24. The sale itself runs until 10 am PT on

Homeworld: Cataclysm, the standalone expansion to the magnificent trans-galactic RTS Homeworld, was not included with the Homeworld Remastered Collection released by Gearbox in 2015. Set 15 years after the story told in Homeworld, Emergence follows a minor mining clan called Kiith Somtaaw, which stumbles upon a deadly nanobot infestation that threatens to overwhelm the galaxy. “‘Cataclysm’ is now a registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., and the game has been renamed to avoid confu

I’ve restarted Darkest Dungeon twice in a huff since The Crimson Court was released this week. What separated Darkest Dungeon from these other games, particularly the strategically intense XCOM 2, was that there was no significantly strategic pressure on the player. This has changed dramatically with The Crimson Court expansion. It’s unfortunate because all the pieces of The Crimson Court are fun. Even the philosophical change engendered by the Crimson Curse isn’t necessarily bad, as long as it

Beyond Good and Evil 2 made a big splash at E3 last week when a spectacular cinematic teaser made a surprise appearance at the end of Ubisoft’s press event. But based on the “in-engine demo” video released today, I’d say his characterization of the current state of the game is pretty much on the money. The trouble is that there’s not much more here than the promises of what Ubisoft wants to do. The scale and technology on display in the demo are impressive, but where’s the game? I don’t necessar

It’s not much fun to bust open an Overwatch loot box and find a bunch of stuff inside that you’ve already got. So Blizzard is making changes to the system that will “drastically reduce” the number of duplicates that players encounter when the pop a box. Kaplan encouraged players to hit the Overwatch PTR and “feel it for yourself,” although he pointed out that, because Overwatch doesn’t have an infinite supply of content, you will sooner or later encounter dupes. The Overwatch PTR is live now wit

One thing that was missing from Steam’s Winter Sale last December was a discount on a Vive VR headset. The Vive headset is discounted to $750, though it doesn’t stop there. Even without the free games, however, the discounted headset and $50 Steam gift card alone make this a good deal. While not part of this bundle, you’ll also find several Vive Studios games marked down by as much as 75 percent. They include:You can grab the Vive headset bundle on sale here.

Not only do you need a relatively powerful PC, but the top two headsets—Oculus Rift and HTC Vive—are both expensive. Assuming VR is here to stay, the cost barrier will eventually be broken, and perhaps even by HTC when it comes out with a second generation Vive headset. When asked by TechRadar if HTC was currently developing new VR products at different price points, including a new VR headset, Marc Metis, global head of Vive X at HTC Vive, responded affirmatively. The main point that Metis want

“Since the day we launched, you were asking for a way to save highlights,” Kaplan said in a developer update video. The game will still continue to collect your highlights, and suggest top highlights for you. Then, from the highlights menu, you can save and export those moments in a variety of ways. When you use the highlights feature on PC, it’ll give you the option to record the video in many different ways. The new highlights feature is being tested on the Overwatch PTR, and will likely be im

There’s nothing worse than seeing that shimmering golden glow under a card in a Hearthstone pack, only to flip it over and see it’s your fourth copy of Millhouse Manastorm. Starting with the next expansion, you will never open a copy of a legendary card you already have. It’s small but impactful change to the opening card packs, and one that’s sure to make a lot of people happy. You’ll still be able to open a golden version of the card if you don’t have it yet, but let’s not get too carried away

More details have emerged on Valve’s upcoming Knuckles controller for SteamVR. Having now graduated from prototype status, Valve has begun shipping Knuckle’s dev kits to developers to test and design new functionality around the controller’s capabilities. Similar to HTC’s motion controller for its Vive headset, the Knuckles controller taps into Steam’s Lighthouse tracking system for 3D positioning. Otherwise, finger tracking will be “very poor” in an uncalibrated state, Valve says. Or using a fi