Art from the Japanese game manual for Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys. JRPGs might be remembered for their 16-bit golden age, but it’s their forgotten genesis on the PC that paved the way. The dark agesThe origins of Japanese RPGs is often attributed to Wizardry, a hugely successful western RPG designed by Robert Woodhead in 1981. Companies like Nippon Electric Company (NEC) were coming out with innovative hardware like the PC-8001, which is where the first Japanese RPGs would arrive. But until now, eve

The beta for Life is Feudal: MMO is ongoing, but if you’re curious how the experience plays out, and you don’t want to pony up for the privilege, then you’ll be pleased to hear that developer Bitbox has put out a video outlining its first five hours. You’ll begin your feudal life somewhere in the wilderness, meaning you’ll need to Minecraft yourself a campsite before too long. He suggests eventually carving yourself a role in medieval society, be it as a hunter, a fisherperson, or what-have-you.

Tom took a look yesterday at a huge capital ship that’s making a beeline for Star Citizen, and while he mentioned the game’s gargantuan 3.0 update, a launch date for that hadn’t yet been announced. Today, another Tom brings you the news that yes, it finally has: Star Citizen 3.0 should be with us on June 29. There’s also a 20-minute dev diary (above) explaining how RSI comes up with such a schedule in the first place. If you’re an active star citizen, it’s a schedule you’re going to want to read

Peter Moore established quite a reputation for himself in the videogame industry, as an executive at Sega, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts, where he served most recently as the “Chief Competition Officer” of its esports division. Today was his last day in the industry, and he said goodbye in style, in both a written message and in a retrospective video on YouTube. And if a game disappoints, provide constructive feedback, not the vitriol that is unfortunately so prevalent nowadays.” As we noted wh

The highsJames Davenport: Glutton mashingBayonetta got a surprise release on PC this week and not only is the port quality great (it’s Durante approved! A few games might slip from their planned Autumn release date and fall into the wastelands of February. Outside of PC land the Legend of Zelda, Persona 5, Nioh and Horizon Zero Dawn have shown that—gasp—people like buying and playing cool games all year round. Here’s hoping for more great games in early 2018. Tom Marks: Land of the rising PC mar

The Wild Eternal is “a reflective first-person exploration game” about an old woman in the Himalayas who, at the end of her life, makes a bid to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Guided by a talking fox, she—that is, you—will travel above and below the mountainous fog, seeking “to reconcile your traumatic pasts with your present fates.” “The Wild Eternal aims to create a sense of wanderlust while encouraging players to not only form a relationship with Ananta and her story, but with the med

But Phantasy Star Online refused to die. Phantasy Star Online didn’t just refuse to die. Oscar Canizales, Ultima fan server admin”I’ve always been a fan of Phantasy Star Online. And even then, Phantasy Star Online stands out. I have no nostalgia for Phantasy Star Online.

It’s been 22 years since Full Throttle first revved its engines, and now it’s the latest in a line of classic LucasArts and Double Fine adventure games to be remastered. Similar to the Day of the Tentacle remaster that launched last year, Double Fine has repainted all the art, remastered all the sounds and music—most of which the studio managed to find the original recordings for—and packed it full of extra nostalgic goodies like concept art galleries and commentary tracks. We were fortunate eno

Mega Man NES (left) vs Mega Man DOS (right)Mega Man released for the NES in 1987. The DOS Mega Man opens with stoned, sausage Mega Man passing through a police checkpoint in what appears to be the start of a different game. You certainly won’t find it in the Mega Man Legacy Collection, or in the 2009 Udon-published retrospective Mega Man: Official Complete Works. The colors are all nearly right and the tiles are clearly inspired by Mega Man tiles, but flatter—so it’s especially odd that Mega Man

Hearthstone’s latest expansion, Journey to Un’Goro, introduced a total of 135 new cards, and at launch many players expressed frustration about seemingly opening too many duplicates and not enough legendaries. Blizzard has said there’s nothing wrong with Un’Goro’s distribution rates, but how much does it actually cost to complete the set? “Five cards were randomly generated in accordance with their rates, and the number of cards collected were tallied” Seaserpent said. Seaserpent found that it t

And other trailers are really just an excuse to watch people’s heads explode in bony messes to the beat of a catchy tune. Guess which one this Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 “Dangerous” video is? You’ll also enjoy some machine-gun fire, a stabbing or two, a spot of vehicular homicide, explosions, and a blonde woman who seems really angry with you for some reason. It’s a lot of noise and mess for a guy who’s supposed to be a ghost, but when things go sideways, it’s good to have options. Barring last-min

Newegg has a pretty good deal going for an Aorus 15.6-inch gaming laptop (X5 V6-NE3D) that pairs an Intel Core i7-6820K processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU. It’s on sale for $1,950, down from $2,499, though if you apply coupon code EMCSREBD4, it slashes another $200 for a checkout price of $1,750. In case you’re not familiar with the Aorus name, it’s Gigabyte’s “premium gaming” brand. The Aorus laptop featured here has a Full HD 1080p (1920×1080) panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 5ms res

Two of the guys behind the hit dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock are in the early stages of work on a new RPG, under the banner of a new studio, called Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest. He is, however, gripped by a great sense of purpose: “The forest called you here because it needs you.” And there may be some puzzles, “but it is not the main focus of Druidstone,” the studio said in the FAQ. Druidstone is being developed by a newly-formed studio called Ctrl Alt Ninja, which actually

Microsoft has been upfront about its plans to block Windows 7and Windows 8.1 updates on systems with Kaby Lake or Ryzen, but it’s never been clear exactly when. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version you are currently using, your system will miss important security updates. As it stands now, some Skylake systems are still being supported in Windows 7 and 8.1, while others are not. Ryzen and Kaby Lake system owners running Windows 7 and 8.1 already began receivin

Whether your need faster memory or not, G.Skill keeps pumping out DDR4 modules at increasingly higher frequencies. Its newest addition is an “extreme speed” Trident Z memory kit rated to run at DDR4-4333MHz. At DDR4-4500MHz, the tested bandwidth resulted in a 55GB/s read speed, 65GB/s write speed, and 52GB/s copy speed in dual channel mode. In time, G.Skill may release a DDR4-4500MHz kit, though it’s not getting ahead of itself. As for the Trident Z DDR4-4333MHz kit, retailers should have invent

The Yamaha CX5MII and its predecessor, the CX5M, were the only major MSX computers to see wide release in the US. Despite the sometimes indifferent reaction from the American press, one particular aspect of the MSX standard did receive consistent praise, MSX BASIC (aka, MicroSoft eXtended BASIC, where some have claimed the MSX moniker originated). In 1988, the MSX2+ standard arrived, which among other improvements, raised the base video memory to 128K, with a maximum of 192K. Another superior sh

If you’re ready to euthanize your rodent and replace it with something new, you should take a look at Corsair’s M65 Pro RGB. Corsair’s M65 Pro RGB features a 12,000 dpi PMW3360 optical sensor housed in an aircraft-grade aluminum chassis that is lightweight and durable. There are eight programmable buttons on the M65 Pro RGB, including an optimized sniper button on the left side for on-the-fly dpi adjustments. You can grab the M65 Pro RGB on sale in black or white direct from Corsair or from Best

The latest Star Citizen dev journal covers a lot of ground, from updates to fatigue animations to spacesuit punctures and new audio and lighting systems. The star of the show appears at 12:20 as the episode spotlights the Javelin, a huge three-deck UEE Destroyer. Star Citizen is a lot of different games at once, and that really comes across in these videos. The ship interior has to feel authentic according to the Star Citizen universe, but must also serve as an interesting shooter level, and a s

Whenever a Warhammer 40,000 game is announced British voice actors can expect a windfall. The latest Dawn of War 3 vid proves that to be the case as it goes into Relic’s recording booths to meet the voice actors behind the game’s major characters. Alec Newman (Gabriel Angelos), Elizabeth Andrewartha (Imperial Knight Solaria) and Elliot Cowan (Eldar Autarch Kyre) supply the clipped haughtiness essential to Warhammer 40K leaders. Dawn of War 3 is out in just a few weeks on April 27. An open beta i

Or if you’re thinking about getting into Dota, but its community is putting you off—these tips for getting more out of solo games are for you. It’ll make you forget about the game you just had, and possibly help you remember that Dota 2 is a fun game sometimes. I play Dota because I love it and because there’s nothing else like it. Don’t be afraid to add peopleIf you have a really great experience playing with a particular stranger in a solo game make sure to add them afterwards. It’s always wor