Month: September 2024

There are plenty of things to love about Baldur’s Gate 3, from the way its tactical battles never feel like filler to the best-in-class performances that bring its characters to life. But what marks it out from almost every other RPG, especially those that take 60+ hours to play, is its reactivity. Events and lines of dialogue are constantly referencing specific things you did and said earlier on, choices you made all the way back to the character creation screen, without ever making you feel like it’s cheating by collapsing the possibilities down to a more manageable number.

Speaking at BAFTA’s “An Evening with Baldur’s Gate 3”, Larian’s co-founder and CEO Swen Vincke, writing director Adam Smith, and lead writer Chrystal Ding gave some insight into just how much work went into ensuring Baldur’s Gate 3 was so reactive. 

Ding mentioned that while there were testers combing through the entire game, those dealing with the piled-up mountain of choices that influenced the ending had a particularly huge amount of work. “Just today I found the spreadsheet where we kept track of this,” she said, “and it’s one of those where you just keep scrolling and scrolling and scr…

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The Genshin Impact 4.8 livestream codes are here, giving you a little bump of Primogems to add to your hoard for wishing on new characters and reruns. For those that are new to Genshin, every six weeks miHoYo puts on a livestream detailing the characters and events that are set to arrive in the new version. As an added incentive to watch, there are three codes you can pick up during the stream.

For this version, it looks like there’s only one new character in the form of Dendro-user, Emilie, but there should also be reruns for Navia, Nilou, and Yelan, so plenty to try your luck with. As always, I’ll add each livestream code as it drops during the special program, plus details about redeeming them lower down. It’s worth noting that these codes usually expire within a day, so claim them quickly if you’re interested.

Genshin Impact codes: All current livestream Primogems

• YS2WHUHFNQ5M – 100 Primogems and ten Mystic Enhancement Ore
• 5TJWHDHX7R59 – 100 Primogems and five Hero’s Wit
• PTKXYUGW7R6D – 100 Primogems and 50,000 Mora

How to redeem Gen…

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One thing you never want to see as a player of a live service game is a convoluted new spreadsheet—they’re rarely if ever a bearer of good news. Case in point: The “improved” Apex Legends battle pass structure, announced today with a blog post and headache-inducing chart, has immediately led to protest planning.

Here are the two biggest changes:

• There’ll now be two 60-tier battle passes per season instead of one 110-tier pass
• Premium battle pass tracks will only be purchasable with real money

So, instead of spending 950 Apex Coins (approximately $9.99, but alternatively earned by playing) on each season’s premium battle pass track, players are now invited to spend $9.99 cash per “half season” premium battle pass track. A $19.99 Premium+ track has also been introduced for each half season battle pass, replacing the old premium bundle.

What makes this nouveau structure better, according to Respawn, is that it’ll be easier to get the most desirable items in each of the smaller half-season passes. Their 60 tiers will still include the same number of legendary skins as the old season-long passes, with a Reactive weapon skin at the top …

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“We have disabled the Paríaso and Antarctica: Pennesula [sic] map as we investigate an issue with performance when certain heroes are played,” says a relatively staid line from this week’s Overwatch 2 Known Issues post. 

It’s sprinkles on top of the cherry on top of Overwatch 2’s worst month ever. You’re not getting Overwatch 2’s long-awaited Hero mode, which as far as many people were concerned was the entire reason to have an Overwatch 2. In fact, you’re going to go ahead and pay $15 for the co-op PvE story missions coming in Overwatch 2: Invasion that you’ve been waiting for since 2019. 

And, well, now two of Overwatch 2’s new maps don’t work. So say goodbye to Antarctica: Peninsula and Paríaso while they figure out a nasty bug.

Paríaso was introduced in at Overwatch 2’s launch, while Antarctica: Peninsula just released in February of this year. The reason seems to be that there’s a bug involving switching character Mercy’s weapons around that slows game performance to a stuttering low-frame mess for everyone in an entire game lobby. Armed with the bug trolls were (naturally) just holding entire groups of other players’ fun hos…

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Whether you’re in the market for a cheap gaming PC, or just a graphics card upgrade over this year’s Amazon Prime Day event, there’s probably some AMD silicon with your name on it. There are plenty of slightly older AMD components still being sold for great prices today, and that’s not to say you can’t find its most up-to-date products with a tasty discount. 

We’re talking budget gaming PCs with impressive AMD CPUs backing them up. Machines with current-gen AMD GPUs like the Radeon RX 7900 XTX that will smash 4K with the majestic power of chiplets for just over $2,000 altogether. Or if you’re looking for something a little more portable, there are some fantastic gaming laptops with AMD silicon going cheap for Prime Day, too.

• We’re curating all the best Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals right here.

It would be rude not to mention the Steam Deck in an AMD roundup, since Valve’s application of red team silicon in a handheld is one of the more affordable around today, and still manages to nail games like Elden Ring. Yep, I have fond memories of sitting atop a grassy knoll with one of my besties slayi…

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Bethesda’s games are complicated beasts, filled with all sorts of cheese wheels and sweetrolls and duct tape for you to pick up and do physics crimes with. It’s not a surprise, then, that the games have their fair share of bugs that evade the notice of Bethesda’s official patches. That’s why we have community patches—Morrowind’s Patch for Purists, Oblivion’s UOP, Skyrim’s USSEP—and now Starfield’s got its own one, too.

The Starfield Community Patch hit Nexus Mods yesterday, despite the fact the game hasn’t put out full modding tools yet, and “aims to make the game better for everyone by offering up fixes in a free and collaborative manner”. It tries to fix things relating to “Misplaced objects, script errors, inconsistencies in item properties, faulty missions/quests, game-breaking exploits, missing attributes (such as tags, header flags, etc.), [and] spelling errors.” So a fair bit, then. Given that the game is still in active development by Bethesda, I’m kind of curious to see what will happen when the fan patch’s fixes butt up against the studio’s own.

What it doesn’t do is make balance changes or implement tweaks “not in keep…

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You know all the tiny, pixelated paintings that you can decorate your walls within Minecraft with? Many of them were created by Swedish artist Kristoffer Zetterstrand, who “shrunk down” photos of his oil paintings to produce the now iconic pixel art canvases.  

On Twitter, Zetterstrand recently reflected on his contribution to Minecraft and shared the png that started it all. 

“Back in 2010, Markus (aka Notch) asked me if I could do some pixel paintings for his little weird indie hobby game ‘Minecraft,'” Zetterstrand explained in a tweet. “So I shrunk down some pics of my oil paintings and played around with them a bit. Then, I sent him this file. kz.png” 

In response to a question about whether he considered how many times his paintings have been viewed in Minecraft over the last decade, Zetterstrand simply said, “It’s surprising and fun.”  

I’ve probably stared at Zetterstrand’s macabre little pixel art paintings in Minecraft more than any other pieces of art in the real world. I still tirelessly re-hang and break canvases to try and get the right one to suit my grand interior design concept, whether that be in a dirt hut or a mediev…

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Inject some fresh thinking into your daily Wordle with our helpful hints and tips, or just click on down to the August 20 (792) answer and win today’s Wordle in an instant. Honestly, so long as you’re having a good time, it doesn’t matter how you win.

Today’s Wordle was an enjoyable head-scratcher, every new line another puzzling but sure step towards the answer, complete with a genuine “a-ha” moment as the right word finally crossed my mind. I’d like another day along these lines, I had fun. 

Today’s Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Sunday, August 20

The hero of a gritty cyberpunk game can expect to be sent on a mission, whereas a fantasy character would probably be given a _____. More widely today’s answer refers to some sort of difficult journey or long search for something. There are two vowels hidden in here. 

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Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

No, you won’t find any double letters in today’s puzzle.  

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

Anyone can pick up and play Wordle, but if you want to do it well and make all of your guesses count, these q…

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Somewhere in a filing cabinet is a contract. On that contract is my name and the name of my employer—PC Gamer’s publisher Future PLC—and a job title: “news writer”. And look, if someone assassinates the JFK of videogames* I’ll be there to break it down for you, but personally? I think my true job is telling you about tiny, mini, minute, trifling little mods that I find very amusing and intensely niche. And guess what, friends? I’ve got another one for ya.

ELAF Left Hand Shield Bash is a mod from a creator named—get this—ELAF, and it rectifies one of the venerable RPG’s most glaring oversights: that players and NPCs cannot use their unarmed left fist to absolutely batter interlopers who get within punching distance. In Todd Howard’s world, the left hand is a purely auxiliary extremity: you can use it to wield a shield, a spell, or a second weapon, but if you have nothing in it while you’re wielding something in your right hand, you can’t use it as a weapon unto itself. Attempting to use an unarmed left hand (while the right is armed) just makes you block.

What kind of world is it that lets you be half a wizard but not half a boxer? A b…

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Update: In what seems to be a mistake, Ubisoft announced the BG&E 20th Anniversary Edition would be hitting all platforms on June 25 (via Wario64) in a now-deleted tweet. After releasing the game accidentally, the studio appears to have gone ahead and announced it accidentally too. Never change, Ubi.

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Original story: My god, I think it might be happening. Against all odds, against all precedent, against all sense, I think Ubisoft might be gearing up to release a Beyond Good and Evil game.

Not Beyond Good and Evil 2, mind you. Heavens no. We’ll only see that some time after the end of the Stelliferous Era. But it does look like Yves and co are preparing the way for a release of Beyond Good and Evil: 20th Anniversary Edition, a souped-up remaster of the original 2003 classic that looks set to coincide with its, uh, 21st anniversary.

I say this because the Beyond Good and Evil Twitter account has been teasing some kind of announcement about the remaster at the Limited Run Games Showcase (which airs today at 11 am PT / 2 pm ET / 7 pm BST), declaring that “Uncle Pey’j has a message to share with you all.” As if that’s not eno…

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Of all the VR painting apps around, Vermillion is the one we’ve got our eye on right now. It brings the joy of painting with realistic, analog colour mixing into VR games, and one artist has been taking full advantage of its features in Half-Life: Alyx.

Liz Edwards is a Senior Character Artist working on Apex Legends. Just recently, she’s been diving into City 17 to create gorgeous oil paintings of the characters (via Mixed), and her surroundings. When used as an application overlay in VR games, this comprehensive oil painting sim is giving artists the tools to capture gorgeous gamescapes that are far beyond what a simple screenshot can accomplish.

Designed on a whim by Thomas van den Berge (support the creator) in under a week, Vermillion’s beta overlay mode allows artists to whip out their easel in any Steam VR game they see fit, to have a go at painting in portrait or landscape, small-scale or humungous. 

Not only does Vermillion simulate wet-on-wet paint techniques, it even includes an integrated web browser so you can look up the odd tutorial from the man, the meme, Mr. Bob Ross himself when you get stuck. Imagine, taking a break from the post-apocaly…

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Welcome to your latest Wordle win. Now you’re here, today’s answer is only a cheeky click away, ready to send your win streak score a little higher. If you prefer your help to be a little less definitive, feel free to spend some time mulling over the December 14 (908) hint, or take a look at our general tips and tricks.

I probably shouldn’t shout out Wordle answers as soon as they come to mind so early in the day, but I just couldn’t help myself. I didn’t have an especially smooth game—it took a few goes before I had much of anything to work with—but it all came together in one happy instant, and that made this Wordle win especially satisfying.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Thursday, December 14

This widely used word generally implies something a person might wish to do in the future, or wish they had done in the past. Whether they could or should have is another matter. 

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Is there a double letter in Wordle today? 

No letters are used twice in today’s puzzle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

If you’re new to the daily Wordle puzzle …

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Need some Wordle help? Sundays are for relaxing, so why not sit down, sip on a fresh mug of your favourite hot drink, and let us help you solve today’s Wordle. We’ve got general tips if you’d like to give your daily game a helping hand, a hint for the April 7 (1023) game if you’d like a bit of a nudge in the right direction, and today’s answer if you’d just like to make sure you win. Ah, that’s better.

That was just what I needed after the past few days. No drama, no last-minute twists, no strange surprises, just a short, straight, line from my first guess to the answer to today’s Wordle. Is there a better way to start a Sunday? I don’t think so.

Wordle today: A hint

Wordle today: A hint for Sunday, April 7

Originally a French word, this short interjection might be used when revealing a delicious meal or a stunning new look. Think of it as a replacement for a satisfied “Look at this”. Three of today’s five letters are vowels, every one different from the last. 

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Is there a double letter in Wordle today? 

There are no double letters in today’s Wordle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordl…

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Graphics card pricing is still a huge point of contention for many PC gamers. While we’re long past the pandemic shortages and the accompanying crypto boom that drove the prices sky-high in the first place, we’re still regularly seeing many GPUs selling for way above their MSRP, particularly the high-end Nvidia cards like the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090. 

However, we’ve spotted this blazingly fast Zotac Super Trinity Black Edition RTX 4080 Super for its actual suggested retail price of $1,000 at Amazon, and given the state of the market right now that makes it a deal worth shouting about.

Yep, that’s genuinely a good price for such a powerful card as things stand, and while $1,000 is hardly what you’d call cheap you do get an extremely high-performance GPU for all that cash. 

With a boost clock of 2550 MHz and 16GB of GDDR6X VRAM this card certainly has the chops to take on the most demanding of titles at high resolutions and silky-smooth frame rates, and being a 40-series GPU you can make use of DLSS 3 and Frame Generation tech to wring every last drop of performance out of this massively powerful gaming GPU.

The RTX 4080 Super might only be 1% to 2%…

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