Category: Equipment

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has another update coming this month, bringing good tidings for anyone fretting over whether their Pawns have contracted the terrible scourge that is dragonsplague. Not only does it make the disease less appear less frequently, it also makes it easier to spot whether your Pawns are afflicted.

Dragonsplague, if you don’t know, is a mysterious illness that affects Pawns–the game’s customisable NPCs. When contracted, the illness will eventually drive the infected Pawn mad, causing them to turn violent and wreak havoc in the game’s towns and villages. You can check if a Pawn has dragonsplague by examining whether their eyes are glowing. But not only can it be hard to see a Pawn’s eyes in the game to begin with, their virtual peepers only glow intermittently anyw…

As reported by the BBC yesterday, Elon Musk is planning to potentially add a paywall to Twitter, as per a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which was live streamed on the site.

“We’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system,” Musk said, before explaining his reasoning. “If somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost to bots is very high.”

This is a head-scratcher for me, since I was under the impression that X Premium—previously called Twitter Blue, which is outlined in X’s help section, which at the time of writing still refers to Twitter and “Tweets”—was meant to combat bots. This has, after all, been a mission statement of Musk’s, after a tweet in April 2022 declare…

Diablo 4’s first XP farm is here and it looks like an exceptional way to suck the fun out of the new open world action RPG.

Like clockwork, Diablo 4’s most impatient players have found a dungeon to repeatedly complete for XP. It takes a little bit of set up before you can start grinding for levels. It’s technically more efficient than barrelling through the campaign, as long as locking yourself into one dungeon for hours sounds fun to you.

The dungeon is Anica’s Claim and, I don’t know who Anica is, but I doubt they expected to have the most popular spot in the Fractured Peaks, Diablo 4’s opening zone.

Inside the dungeon—which is helpfully laid out as a big circle—are unique enemies you need to kill to complete an objective and unlock the door to the final …

Ask a Final Fantasy 14 diehard what mods they use and many of them will say GShade, a fork of Reshade that lets you customize the game’s visuals. GShade has long been the tool to make the MMO (and several other games) look pretty for screenshots, allowing you to add shaders for a more vibrant or avant-garde aesthetic.

GShade, at least for the moment, is gone. Its creator, Marot Satil, announced in the GPOSERS Discord that it “will not receive updates for the time being.” But at the time of this writing, GShade’s GitHub page, including Satil’s account, have been removed.

Over the last few days, Satil has been battling another modder, NotNite, who made an alternative version of the software called GeezShade. GeezShade is essentially a fork of ReShade that uses a workaround to …

Earlier this year we got the excellent board game Dune: Imperium in digital form, and it seems it was successful enough that we’re already getting more. “More,” in this case, being a digital adaptation of the formerly meatspace-exclusive Rise of Ix expansion, which broadens the game with six new leaders, new spaces on the board, and new tools in your struggle for Arrakis.

Most notable is a new military asset, Dreadnoughts, which let you cement dominance over your enemies. There are also infiltrators, another route to figure out what and why your opponents are doing whatever they’re doing. Perhaps most exciting is the addition of the long-playing Epic game mode—an all-day affair when you’re playing in person, so perhaps a more approachable addition to a digital version of the…

A tweet from Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson drove fans into a speculative froth recently. Posting on May 31, one day in advance of Diablo 4’s early access launch, Fergusson seemed to coyly suggest that Blizzard had one more big trick up its sleeve. “Are we still teasing that #DiabloIV thing tomorrow night?” Fergusson tweeted at Diablo marketing director Daniela Rodriguez, “People are going to be really surprised”.

Well isn’t that exciting? The rumour-mill immediately sped up. Obviously, Fergusson was going to announce the sudden addition of Diablo’s paladin class for the fourth game’s launch. Or no, wait, he was going to announce that the game would get its full release a few days early. Or maybe he’d just announce some kind of glittering cosmetic we could form another weird…

It’s bad enough that we have apps launching our apps. While I tolerate Steam purely as a matter of convenience, every additional layer of software between me and the executable I’m seeking is a distance I’m forced to further stray from God’s light. But a launcher launching another launcher? That’s a crime against human decency, and no perpetrator is worse than the EA app.

Luckily, according to a tweet from BioWare, Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t require the EA app to launch on Steam. “We’ll be Steam native – meaning the EA App will not be required to play the game,” it says. The curse is finally loosening.

I don’t remember much about Origin except the primal revulsion that the EA app’s predecessor evoked by appearing unbidden when I asked Steam to fire up an EA game&mdash…

In addition to Fortnite’s transition to its fifth chapter, Epic has revealed a collaboration with Lego to introduce a new Lego-themed survival crafting mode⁠ for the long-running battle royale—including minifig versions of many pre-existing skins⁠—coming December 7.

Details are sparse on what Lego Fortnite actually entails⁠—the Lego website describes it like a separate game, but my guess is that it will be covered by the Fortnite launcher. You can view the minifig versions of skins in-game already, but they are not usable in Fortnite’s battle royale mode. The Lego FAQ advises to expect more details with the game’s launch on December 7, and it describes Lego Fortnite as “the ultimate survival crafting adventure.”

The special Lego Fortnite s…

The same day Microsoft announced it would be laying off 10,000 workers, including employees at game studios Bethesda and 343 Industries, a former senior multiplayer designer on Halo Infinite, Patrick Wren, had harsh words for 343 management’s direction for the game.

“The layoffs shouldn’t have happened and Halo Infinite should be in a better state,” Wren wrote on Twitter. “The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be.”

It’s clear that the wide sweep of Microsoft layoffs can’t be laid at 343’s feet, but Wren seems to argue that the studio could have spared or at least mitigated the effect this downsizing had on its own team. Halo Infinite has h…

Call of Duty’s insatiable hunger for SSD real estate continues. According to official system requirements released by Activision today, all installs of Modern Warfare 3 will first require that you have another program installed: Call of Duty HQ.

If you’ve been playing Modern Warfare 2 or Warzone the last few months, you’re already using Call of Duty HQ. It’s essentially just the rebranded main menu for Warzone and MW2 that’s capable of launching other CoD games. Modern Warfare 3 will be the first new CoD to require that HQ is installed, and it leaves a large footprint on your SSD—around 45-57GB, according to Activison’s numbers. Its mandatory inclusion, as well as the ability to selectively install different pieces of Call of Duty, has resulted in the most convoluted “Storag…

When it comes to PC hardware decisions, it doesn’t get more subjective than monitor choices. For some, only the highest resolutions will suffice, while for others it’s all about color reproduction. But for a chosen few, a high refresh rate is key. If you find yourself belonging to this happy tribe, and happen to be looking for a larger screen on a tight budget, then this Acer Nitro monitor may be just the thing you need.

The Acer Nitro XZ323QU X3 packs a multitude of features into a rather svelte 32-inch frame, including a 1440p resolution 31.5-inch panel, a 240Hz refresh rate, FreeSync Premium, Anti-glare coating and a 1000R curve. Quite a good feature set, we think you’ll agree, especially as Newegg currently has it listed for $300, a whopping $150 off its MSRP.

Round the …

Bethesda got into a bit of a mix-up recently when an artist spotted his work in Fallout 76’s Atomic Shop, attached to the Fourth of July-themed Flag Waving Bundle. That’s not a problem by itself until you realise that he didn’t sanction it. 

The artist in question is Zack Finfrock, the creator behind Fallout: Nuka Break, a fan film about a former Vault dweller who’s searching the eastern California wasteland for an “ice-cold Nuka Cola”. But he’s also pretty well known for placing Vault Boy in various memes. You can see those images on FinFrock’s Twitter, including my personal favourite—Vault Boy as Charlie Kelly obsessing over Pepe Silvia. 

The memes are pretty good, and they’re so loved by the community that you’ve probably seen them floating around before, …

The Court of Justice of the European Union has dismissed an attempt by Valve to convince it that the geo-blocking of Steam game activation keys did not infringe on EU law, reaffirming its finding from 2021 that “Valve and five PC videogames publishers unlawfully restricted cross-border sales of certain PC videogames that are compatible with that platform”.

In a ruling released on September 27, the General Court restated its 2021 judgement that Valve, alongside Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and Zenimax had “participated in a group of anti-competitive agreements or concerted practices which were intended to restrict cross-border sales of certain PC video games,” by “putting in place territorial control functionalities during different periods between 2010 and 2015” w…

Earlier this week, Epic revealed its latest cross-marketing campaign, which brings Tesla’s Cybertruck—a vehicle that’s earned four NHTSA recalls in seven months and has been called a “guideless missile” by safety experts—to Fortnite. The announcement earned a rare sense of unity from Fortnite players, though perhaps not the one Tesla might’ve hoped for.

On X, users reacted to the crossover by declaring open season on Fortnite Cybertruck drivers, with players making a general commitment to focus fire on the detestable polygon as soon as they see it—all other targets be damned.

It’s not just Fortnite players expressing Cybertruck discontent. Some of Fortnite’s own developers have shared their frustration with seeing Tesla’s infamous truck/icon of excess in …

Helldivers 2 may not have any official modding support, but you simply cannot stop players putting weird stuff in your game. A couple of weeks ago, YouTuber and modder ToastedShoes dropped Master Chief, Buzz Lightyear, the TARDIS, and more into the war for a truly chaotic take on managed democracy. Now he’s showing off an impressive collision with the Star Wars universe.

Not only are the Helldivers themselves reskinned as clone soldiers (including fan favourites Rex, Cody, and Hunter), the Automatons have been recast as Separatist droids. Though the weapons and stratagems are unchanged, it’s surprising how well it all fits together for a convincing recreation of a Clone Wars battle. Finally, you can experience what it would be like to scrabble in the mud against horrific odds whil…

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is entering its “early access” period tomorrow—players who pre-order it’ll be able to get on a boat to Tural before anyone else, though it’s more of a formality (and a chance to get a shiny EXP earring) since the cut-off for the pre-order rewards is July 2 when the game releases.

To celebrate, Square Enix has pulled out all the stops to create a fake tourism website for Tural, the continent we’ll be sailing to—and it’s honestly downright adorable. They even got in Rhys Darby to do some video promotions for Tural tourism—or “Turalism”—who you might recognise as Stede Bonnett from Our Flag Means Death and Russel from Half-Life: Alyx.

It has recommendations for activities like riding a dirigible, or a foodie tour of the bazaar…

What’s the worst thing you’ve accidentally deleted without meaning to? I can assure you that it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as Google Cloud deleting the entire customer account (including all backups) of $135 billion Australian pension fund, UniSuper, putting services for its over 615,000 members on the fritz for nearly two weeks.

As reported by Ars Technica, UniSuper picking Google Cloud for its digital services was a big enough deal to get its own press release, with the fund outsourcing crucial infrastructure to the internet giant—many companies do the same with Amazon Web Services⁠⁠.

While UniSuper said that pension payments were not disrupted by the outage, customers were unable to log into their accounts on mobile or desktop, and the fund’s outage upd…

European Parliament today agreed on how its proposed rules on AI will look ahead of being formally agreed upon by EU member states. The new rules aim to make it easier to spot when content has been AI generated, including deep fake images, and would completely outlaw AI’s use in biometric surveillance, emotion recognition, and predictive policing.

The new rules would mean AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT would have to make it clear that content is AI generated, and would have some responsibility for ensuring users know when an image is a deep fake or the real deal. That seems a mighty task, as once the image is generated it’s tough to limit how a user shares it, but that might be something these AI companies have to figure out in the near future.

If these new rules were to …

I love a trailer that properly communicates what a game offers, and the latest video of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a fine example of the form. In less than four minutes, it succinctly yet precisely explains all of the upcoming RTS’ major features, leaving me with a far better idea of what to expect when it launches in two month’s time.

The trailer kicks off with a swift overview of the game’s single-player offering, which includes two different types of campaign. The cinematic campaign tells a specific story of its four warring faction, written in collaboration with Black Library author Gav Thorpe. Running alongside this campaign is Conquest Mode, a procedurally generated campaign with “rule-breaking twists” designed to be different each time you play.

It the…

OK, look, you’re not actually going to do this. But it’s fun a fun idea, that’s apparently real and something you can sign up for on Indiegogo, so who knows what might be more practically possible in the future. It’s an external graphics dock from GPD that plugs into the Steam Deck. And other game handhelds, including the Asus RoG Ally and GPD’s own Win 4.

We’ve seen this kind of thing before with M.2 adapters jury rigged to the Deck and a desktop GPU. But the GPD G1 is a bit more polished than that, albeit it’s not expressly designed or optimised for the Steam Deck.

The problem with the Deck, of course, is that it doesn’t have an external USB 4 / Thunderbolt interface, which is the most efficient way of connecting an external GPU. Instead, you have to go through the handhel…

Final Fantasy XIV is now nearing the release of its fifth expansion, Dawntrail, this July 2, and Square Enix has released a benchmarking tool to help potential players find out what sort of performance to expect when they explore the sunny beaches and dense jungles of Tural this summer.

It’s a fairly hefty 3.9GB download, but what you’ll find inside is a character creator that lets you build a custom avatar that makes an appearance in the benchmark itself. Once inside, you’ll see your carefully crafted creation—or, let’s face it, an absolute mess if you’re anything like me—make their way through a vast array of tropical jungles, sweeping vistas, flowing waterfalls and rocky climbs.

Of course, there’s the inevitable beastie-fighting to put your system to the test,…

I’m typically sceptical of trailer scrubbers—and there are a hell of a lot of them with Grand Theft Auto 6. Can’t blame them, obviously, it’s been 10 whole years since we last got a GTA game. 

But they’ve really been ravenous this time—drawing circles around moles, driving up Spotify numbers, and having some would-be players questioning their mortality. A game trailer shouldn’t be giving you an existential crisis, but as you’re about to find out, it got me pretty close.

The trailer tells Lucia’s story in reverse! from r/GTA6

As pointed out by Hudrenn on the game’s subreddit, the trailer might be actually telling would-be protagonist Lucia’s story in reverse. They sell it with an edit that on its own is convincing, …

Fortnite’s OG throwback season ended with a literal bang today, as Epic’s Chapter 5 event wiped the slate to replace it with a new one tomorrow after scheduled maintenance⁠—a cycle of eternal recurrence not unlike that central to several religions. Never fear though, nostalgia addicts: as reported by Eurogamer, Epic Games has promised to break the wheel of fate and bring the throwback map back once again next year.

It seems like a no-brainer: despite being unseated as the dominant cultural force among little nephews and cousins the world over by Roblox, Fortnite just turned in a record-setting season off the back of its throwback map, which provided a nostalgic mishmash of guns and geography from the battle royale’s first big year. Even the prodigal Tyler “Ninja” Blevi…

For reasons I won’t get into here because it may constitute a little bit of a spoiler, the planet Earth in Starfield is a bit of a wasteland. But what if it was The Wasteland—that is, the post-nuclear hellscape of Bethesda’s other big sci-fi-ish game series, Fallout? In an interview with The Washington Post, creative director Todd Howard said developers actually gave thought to the idea.

And there will be some mini-spoilers after this point, so consider yourself warned.

In many ways, Fallout would seem like a natural fit for Starfield: The remains of Earthly landmarks like the Shard in London and the Empire State Building in New York City are there to be discovered, so why not elements of the Capitol Wasteland? It turns out that the idea was actually given…

CD Projekt Red’s two biggest RPG hits, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, are both known for big main quests and engaging characters, but more than anything you’ll hear people consistently bring up the little adventures they have between other stories. In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC this past week, Cyberpunk 2077 lead quest designer Pawel Sasko said that’s mostly because they’re thinking of lots of ideas and only using the best ones.

“A good designer has an acceptance ratio of their ideas of between five to 10%,” said Sasko, “If someone has 10%, this is probably one of the best people we have in the team.” “

Sasko emphasized that for CD Projekt the key to weeding out the bad ideas was in the process of having quest designers pitch all of their ideas to the team so that …

One of the most essential school supplies for public school students has a sustainability problem. A report from the non-profit consumer advocacy group PIRG says that the planned obsolescence of public school-provided Google Chromebooks is costly to taxpayers and the environment. 

The biggest contributor to “Chromebook churn” is that these devices provided for students last, on average, about four years, claims PIRG. As of March 2021, 48.1 million K-12 students have been provided Chromebooks, and remote learning has become more commonplace due to the pandemic. This means a student will go through several Chromebooks throughout their school career.

A couple of factors contribute to the churn; the first and most common is that the Chromebook OS essentially has an expirati…

I’ll make no bones about it: I preferred Grand Theft Auto 4 to GTA 5. The latter is great and all but I never got over the more grounded and gritty take of GTA 4 and in particular its tragic central cast, defined and trapped by their lives in the criminal underworld. GTA 4 had two great expansions, The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and the Damned, both introducing their own protagonists and side stories. One of them was the biker Johnny Klebitz, who, unlike many of Rockstar’s leads, ends his GTA 4 arc in a better place.

An early twist in GTA 5 upset the apple cart: One of that game’s three protagonists, the psychopathic Trevor, finds a drug-addled Johnny and beats him to death. This has always been an unpopular twist, which perhaps indicates narratively it was a good one (boo!),…

He may have departed from Square Enix a time ago, but that hasn’t stopped Hironobu Sakaguchi from actively participating in the series that he created and continues to flourish in his absence. The father of Final Fantasy has been playing its 14th instalment for almost two whole years, and he isn’t afraid to admit the absolute death grip the critically-acclaimed MMO has on him.

During London’s Fan Festival, Sakaguchi sat down with Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida to talk about his time with the game and even brought a couple of surprises to the table. When discussing his first foray into the MMO, Sakaguchi admitted that his early months with the game took up a significant amount of his time. “I believe every day I was in there for 12 hours,” he said through a tr…

Last week’s Borderlands 4 teaser didn’t tell us much about Gearbox’s next big co-op looter shooter, but at PAX West today, the creative leads lined up on stage to give us a little more insight—just a little—into what what we can expect from the next billions-of-guns looter shooter.

There weren’t many specific Borderlands 4 details in the panel—big news: it takes place on a new planet with new vault hunters—but one takeaway is that Gearbox seems to be self-conscious about the perception of Borderlands’ sense of humor as untethered, omg-so-random pop culture chaff. For Borderlands 4, the studio says it’s emphasizing character-driven comedy that “emerges naturally.”

“With Borderlands 4, we want to bring it back to the player,” said narrative director Sam…

I’ve had time to finish Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail’s main story—which landed to a bit of a mixed reception late last month.

Before I have a good moan about it, though, I think our recent Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail review (written by contributor Daniella Lucas) isn’t wrong in its assessment by any means. Things absolutely pick up in its latter half, there’s a lot to like, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t emotionally invested in Wuk Lamat’s journey. But that might be why it’s bothered me so much.

While I had a good time overall, it’s one of those stories that’s marinated poorly in my head. The more I think about it, the more frustrated I get with its issues—which isn’t surprising. I’m the kind of person who gets more irate the closer to greatness …

A sprawling Darkest Dungeon mod will release this month, with Black Reliquary set to release on March 24, 2023. The mod is a total conversion mod with the thumbs-up of the original Darkest Dungeon developers at Red Hook, and the list of changes is… really big. It’s foremost a gameplay overhaul and entirely new campaign with a new setting, new characters, new narration, new music, new enemies and facts, trinkets, and new player heroes.

The story will follow a band of heroes as they delve into the Black Reliquary, a monolithic structure in a desolate desert known only as The Valley. Here’s how the developers describe it: “Abandon what you think you know. The Valley does not know mercy or sympathy, and the trials ahead of you will be unlike anything you have faced before! Find your…

Larian is following up Baldur’s Gate 3 with not one but two new RPGs. And, unsurprisingly, they’ll likely be big ‘uns. That’s just Larian’s style, but it does come with some problems, especially when they’re following a game as massive and elaborate as Baldur’s Gate 3. 

One of the challenges inherent in following up a massive RPG with more beefy RPGs is finding original ideas to fill them with. Chatting with writing director Adam Smith for Baldur’s Gate 3’s first anniversary (check out the full interview on Larian’s past, present and future), he tells me that this is an issue Larian’s currently bumping up against. 

“One of the biggest problems we have now is that whenever we’re talking about things, we say we did that in BG3,” says Smith. “And it turns out, we did …

Getty Images has begun legal proceedings against the creator of AI art tool Stable Diffusion. Filed this week in London’s High Court, Getty Images’ action claims that “Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright,” and used these images for its own commercial gain.

Getty Images and image library rights holders like it are set to be some of the most affected by AI image generation, and while some have embraced the technology, such as Shutterstock, others have largely rejected AI art. Getty Images falls into the latter category. Getty Images banned the upload and sale of AI images in September 2022, in a bid to keep itself safe from legal challenges.

Getty’s CEO, Craig Peters, had previously said that there are concerns for AI-created …

Final Fantasy 14 doesn’t shy away from crossovers—from Monster Hunter to Yo-kai Watch, and even a surprisingly fun-looking Fall Guys crossover that’s set to hit at the end of this month. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida still has one game in mind that would be his dream collaboration: Diablo.

Speaking at a press conference during London’s Fan Festival, Yoshida admitted that he would really love to collaborate with Blizzard’s gorefest action RPG series. Speaking through a translator, he said, “I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I’m a huge Blizzard fan. So I mean, if we could just make it work then I would be so happy to see some sort of collaboration with Diablo.” 

Now Final Fantasy 14 doesn’t exactly scrub its game totally clean of dark themes, twisted visual…

A group of Diablo 4 treasure seekers, who banded together on the Not Finding A Cow Level Discord, has solved one of the game’s longest-running mysteries, uncovering a new event previously only theorised about, and a unique ring that has never dropped before. The short version is: they uncovered an event that rewarded the group with rare Lucky Coins, which they then dropped one-by-one into a wishing well, which sparked a meteor storm before each member received the Ring of Misfortune.

Hold up: misfortune? The existence of this ring was first discovered by dataminers soon after Diablo 4’s release, but players have had no luck finding it: which, given the hoops involved, is actually understandable. There are several prerequisites to trigger the chain of events: the group of fi…