Month: September 2024

For gamers, one of the most alluring possibilities created by Microsoft’s finally-completed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the prospect of games like Call of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch on Game Pass. Microsoft’s subscription service is already a hell of a deal, and adding annualized iterations of Call of Duty plus everything Blizzard does makes it even more attractive. And it will no doubt happen eventually, but not anytime soon: Activision said last week that its games won’t arrive on Game Pass until 2024 at the earliest, and in a recent interview with the Official Xbox Podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that timeline is “accurate.”

Fans had their fingers crossed for a big Activision rollout in large part because that’s what Microsoft did when it acquired Bethesda Softwo…

Over the last week stills and clips of a game called Deadlock, which is claimed to be the next big game from Valve, have been leaking online. The 6v6 hero shooter is either legit or an extremely good fake, and the latter’s looking increasingly unlikely with the volume of material that’s been released: today, there’s more. PC Gamer has contacted Valve for comment but, so far, there’s no response. 

In the absence of any official word, we can’t say whether Deadlock really is Valve’s next game, but what’s undeniable is that there’s a beta version out there and elements of it do look like a Valve game. The leaks began with screenshots and a description from X user Gabe Follower, who specialises in Valve data-mining: “6 vs 6 battling on huge maps with 4 lanes. Usable abiliti…

Resident Evil 4 remake is pretty great and, while it didn’t quite stick the landing for me, the core of the game is a combat system that can only be described as exquisite. The remake somehow keeps the same fundamental elements but, through judicious addition and re-working the ganados around Leon’s newfound ability to move while aiming, updates the brutality and intensity of the crowd-management while feeling like Resident Evil 4 every instant. The best sequences in this game are the massive fights against crowds of enemies.

R4 remake isn’t shy about showing them off either: You’ll have dozens, but the very first is a total blowout designed to give players a serious workout. It comes when Leon, having ventured from the outskirts, enters the village square for the first tim…

Just one week after adding Ubisoft Toronto to the list of studios trying to get Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake finished, Ubisoft gave us a new release target during its big livestream today—and it’s, uh, 2026.

That seems like an awful lot of time to remake a game that already exists, especially with two of Ubisoft’s biggest studios on the case—because remember, Ubisoft Montreal is still working on it too. But it’s already been in the works for twice that amount of time, although to be fair it was completely rebooted in 2023 for reasons that have never been made clear.

By that metric, then, it’ll only be three years of development time, which is still a long haul unless the plan is to significantly change the game—but if that’s the case, why not …

The Sims 4’s next expansion, Growing Together, and the incoming free update for the base game are adding a lot of new outfits and furniture and a proper infant life stage, but the really exciting thing is the expansion’s deeper simulation of relationships, which looks like it’s entering straight-up strategy game territory. It’s enough to make a Build Mode purist like me a little jealous.

In a presentation of the expansion’s features, Maxis showed off lots of Create-A-Sim features with Live Mode implications. Most interesting among them are the new social likes and dislikes and the family dynamics system. In the same way you can choose preferences for music styles or activities for your Sims, you’ll also be able to determine what kinds of traits and interactions they enjoy from oth…

For the ergonomically minded, scouring the web for Cyber Monday deals using a basic gaming mouse and keyboard might be a bit of a pain. Thankfully we’ve been doing all the wristwork for you so you can concentrate on getting yourself a setup that’ll soothe that carpal tunnel messing with your high scores.

I’ve made sure to add a few different solutions, including a 75% board that’s one of the best gaming keyboards around—I’ll explain my reasoning for that a bit later. That’s the Asus ROG Azoth now $200, by the way now down from its usual pricey $250. I recommend pairing it with a good wrist rest, and an ergonomic gaming mouse.

• We’ll carry on curating the best Cyber Monday PC gaming deals all the way through.

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Before you jump down my throat, no, Dominion wasn’t the first tabletop game with deckbuilding in it, with predecessors like StarCraft: The Board Game. Dominion was, however, the first to build an entire game around the mechanic, giving birth to the genre that would hop to PC with Dream Quest, Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and so on. 

Dominion was unavoidable at board game night in 2008, with everyone wanting to pretend to be medieval landlords who could buy up markets and villages and occasionally witches in the tireless hunt for the thing every board gamer wants—victory points. Digital versions followed, in the form of apps and a browser-based Dominion you can still play. What makes this version different is that the AI opponent is powered by neural networks, and it c…

I don’t like poker, but I love Balatro—and I mean, hey, I’ve at least got that in common with its creator (though I’ve played considerably more deckbuilders than they have). It’s pretty astounding that someone with zero experience in almost anything their game is about could make such a banger, but here we are. 

A few weeks after its release, almost everyone on the PC Gamer team has an embarrassing amount of hours logged into this thing. My attention has been split almost evenly between Balatro and Helldivers 2, the latter of which has completely shaken up the landscape of live-service shooters, which gives some indication of the former’s quality.

Luckily, Balatro has enjoyed a success that’s proportional to just how dang good it is—it hit 500,000 copies sol…

Keep your Wordle win streak heading in the right direction with our help, no matter how your daily game’s going. Scroll on down and you’ll find a range of tips and a hint for today’s game and further down, the answer to the July 18 (759) puzzle if you need it.

Today’s Wordle answer didn’t give me too much trouble but that doesn’t stop me being annoyed with myself: I could’ve solved this puzzle an entire row sooner if only I’d gone straight for a word people actually use in the 21st century instead of something better suited to a Shakespeare play.

Today’s Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Tuesday, July 18

Any passenger travelling in a plane could be considered one of today’s answer—some people even do this frequently. This word can also refer to…

Heading into Chasing the Unseen, I was expecting Shadow of the Colossus, but without the sword. What I got instead was a delightfully weird, mindful little experience about climbing—and after spending most of my time this week shooting bugs for Super Earth and desperately trying to learn tabletop rules for my gaming group, it’s just what I needed.

You play a teeny-tiny monk exploring a surreal network of floating islands. You’ve got a glider, a Breath-of-the-Wild style climbing button, and a jump—that’s it. It’s a completely stripped-back experience filled with eerie music, and while its beasties are a touch unsettling at first glance, Chasing the Unseen isn’t really trying to scare you.

Its big, sprawling levels are difficult to navigate and a touch frustrating …