Category: Equipment

Sony’s latest heavy hitter to reach the PC, God of War Ragnarök, is experiencing minor turbulence. The word on the port itself is mostly good so far—some folks are having technical issues and others cite a possible memory leak—though easily the loudest piece of negative feedback on Ragnarök’s Steam page is that pesky PSN sign-in requirement, contributing to a “Mixed” rating.

Forcing PlayStation-uninitiated PC gamers to make an account for a solely singleplayer game is uncool. If a PSN login is your dealbreaker for getting into this genuinely great game, then you might be interested in the NoPSSDK mod by iArtoriasUA. The mod adds a .dll to the Ragnarök game folder that disables the PSN overlay and seemingly mimicks a fully offline mode.

I tested the mod and can confirm it worked for me, but you should still only try this at your own risk. After installing the mod, the game prompted me to optionally link my PSN account to Steam. I selected “No”, and Ragnarök stopped bothering me about it. The “Sign into PlayStation” button on the main menu no longer does anything, and I’m able to load my save as usual.

Some users…

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It’s an older model, sir, but it checks out. We give you the MSI MAG342CQPV, all 34 inches of it.

With that 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio and 3440 by 1440 native resolution, this monitor arguably nails the current sweet spot for gaming monitors. And it’s yours for $280 from Newegg.

Of course, at this lowly price point, you’re not going to get an absolute cutting-edge experience. This is a high-refresh monitor. But it’s 100Hz rather than 144Hz. It also uses a VA rather than IPS panel.

The upside is strong inherent contrast, with the panel rated at 3000:1. That’s far better than any IPS screen. The downside with VA is typically worse response, though MSI rates this screen at 1ms by the MPRT metric. So, it should be around 2ms by the the more demanding GtG measure.

If there is a spec that’s worrisome, it’s the modest 250 nits peak brightness. But again, at this price point, something has to give. It’s worth noting, however, that the MSI MAG342CQPV is an actual gaming model, not a generic monitor.

There are a fair few 34-inch ultrawide 100Hz panels around that aren’t designed explicitly for gaming. Very likely, less effort has gone into those mod…

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Hearthstone’s next expansion, Perils in Paradise, won’t have a new game board, and what might seem like a minor miss to you or I has quickly snowballed into doom-and-gloom predictions about the future of the game among quite a number of fans.

Game boards are exactly what they sound like: Different backgrounds on which Hearthstone is played. The game currently has 36 boards, though some of these are only available in the WIld mode, and aside from some cosmetic interactivity—on the Naxxramas board, for instance, clicking the spider eggs will make a squishy noise and eventually release some spiders—they have no impact on gameplay.

Nonetheless, the absence of a new board in Perils in Paradise is clearly being felt. The missing board itself isn’t really the issue, though, but rather what it’s perceived to reflect about the state of the game, exacerbated by the fact the audience has some real trust issues with Blizzard, as was notably seen with the quest XP debacle in April.

Hearthstone is of course 10 years old now, and perhaps no longer the apple of Blizzard’s eye—or at least its accountants—leading some to worry that the game is slowly bu…

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It must be nice being Capcom. At a time when most of the games industry is in a historic bout of brutal layoffs, studio closures, and other assorted cost-cutting measures that mysteriously seem to never touch the C-suite, the Resident Evil and Street Fighter maker is raising salaries and, now, posting its seventh consecutive year of record profits and 11th consecutive year of operating profit growth.

In a Capcom press release earlier today, the company announced that its net sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 totalled 152,410 million yen, or around $979 million (£784 million, a 21% year-on-year increase. The company’s myriad other income breakdowns—operating and ordinary income and “net income attributable to owners of the parent”—also saw double-digit percent increases.

What’s responsible for all the moolah headed Capcom’s way? The company attributes its results to its “core Digital Contents business,” which is pretty much MBA-speak for games. The corporation sold more games in the last financial year than it’s ever sold before: 45.89 million. In particular, Capcom calls out Street Fighter 6, “which leads [Capcom’s] esports acti…

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Between Embracer laying off thousands of employees and Microsoft shuttering studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, the recent wave of high profile multibillion-dollar acquisitions have proven to be terrible for the games industry. It’s hard to look at any game studio that’s been gobbled up by a new parent company and not be worried that it may soon be gutted just to promise shareholders 11% higher profits for the next fiscal year. This vile trend was on my mind when I visited FromSoftware in May for PC Gamer’s cover story on Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree—despite seeming quite independent, the studio does have a parent company, Kadokawa Corporation.

Kadokawa isn’t Microsoft big, but it is still big, with revenue of about $1.65 billion in its last fiscal year. FromSoftware is one of Kadokawa’s major earners, but the company also makes significant money in the manga publishing and anime markets (Delicious in Dungeon is one of its recent hits).

With games like Elden Ring selling more than 25 million copies, you’d think FromSoftware would be free of any meddling—why mess with the golden goose? But that logic hasn’t saved other game stud…

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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford says that Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, the fantasy-themed spinoff from the Borderlands series, was “wildly successful” and that it’s reasonable for fans to expect more from the series in the future. Pitchford’s comments echo what he said around the launch of Wonderlands, when he said that Gearbox may well have “a new franchise” in the fantasy series.

“What we demonstrated with the first Wonderlands game was that there’s something there. It was wildly successful and exceeded our expectations,” said Pitchford during an interview with GamesRadar+ during San Diego Comic-Con.

“We had a bigger result with the first Wonderlands game than we did with the first Borderlands game,” he said, “so that’s something we can build on.”

Pitchford was also clear in that both he and the wider studio of Gearbox had a fondness for fantasy, and that given the game’s success, “it’s reasonable for our fans to expect more there.” Pitchford’s comments pretty much reiterate what businesspeople at Take-Two were saying during the launch of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands just a few years ago.

You probably shouldn’t expect any sequel immediately, though: Pi…

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It’s been a while since I’ve seen two genuinely impressive RTX 4080 Super and RX 7900 XTX builds competing in the same sub-$2,000 price bracket. Perhaps it’s the approach of an upcoming GPU generation that’s bringing current-gen prices down, or maybe it’s just the winds of chance blowing in our favor—it matters not, because now we’re faced with a dilemma.

Given that both of these gaming PCs are retailing for $1,950—with a saving of $350 at Newegg for the 7900 XTX build and a saving of $550 at Newegg for the 4080 Super build—and given most of their specs are the same or similar, the dilemma boils down to whether you want the one with an Nvidia or AMD GPU.

The RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4080 Super are two of the best graphics cards on the market and there are pros and cons to both, which is what makes this choice especially difficult. But, in a way, it also makes it easier, because both rigs are similarly spectacular for high-end gaming, even at 4K, meaning you shouldn’t be disappointed whichever you go for.

But despite these significant discounts, $1,950 is still a lot to drop on one purchase, so it’s worth taking the time to compare the two.

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Elden Ring wasn’t just FromSoftware’s biggest game ever: it was also the studio’s most high-profile collaboration with someone outside the world of game development. George R.R. Martin wrote the lore for The Lands Between, which FromSoftware built upon to create their fantasy game’s story. FromSoftware hasn’t done that kind of collaboration many times in its history, but there is one other famous example. Throughout the Armored Core series, FromSoftware has relied on mecha designer Shoji Kawamori to guide the visual style of the hulking piles of metal players pilot and destroy.

Kawamori isn’t famous on the international level of George R.R. Martin, but he is a legend within his old field. Or fields—he started working as an animator in the anime industry as a teenager in the 1970s, and eventually created, wrote and directed most of the entries in the Macross series. He also designed Macross’s famous transforming variable fighter jet-mech hybrid.

Outside of Macross, he’s written and directed other anime and also served as a mechanical designer for other shows as well as a number of games. Just recently Kawamori designed all of Devil May Cry 5 protagonist…

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Eidos Montreal, developer of the Adam Jensen-centric Deus Ex reboots as well as 2021’s Guardians of the Galaxy, announced today that it has laid off 97 employees “from development teams, administration, and support services.” According to a Bloomberg report, the layoffs coincide with the cancellation of an unannounced Deus Ex game the studio was working on. 

Eidos didn’t confirm the existence or cancellation of an unannounced Deus Ex project in its announcement, but Bloomberg describes the game as having been in development for two years, likely starting just before or immediately after the studio’s acquisition by the Embracer Group in 2022.

According to the anonymous sources who spoke to Bloomberg, the game was ready to transition out of pre-production into full development this year. This isn’t the end for Eidos Montreal as a whole, though: the studio is reportedly still working on a similarly-unannounced game that is not attached to any pre-existing IP.

The Embracer Group picked up Eidos Montreal as part of its ill-fated spending spree in 2021 and ’22, also acquiring Square Enix Montreal (which was immediately shuttered) and Crystal Dynamics from the Ja…

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We gave everyone a gentle nudge at the start of December to remind them that the clock on the Bluetooth upgrade option for the Stadia controller was ticking down: Google had given Stadia owners until the end of 2023 to convert their controllers to wireless functionality, or be stuck with wires forever. But someone, somewhere, decided the deadline was too tight, because now that deadline has been pushed to the end of 2024.

The option to convert Stadia controllers to standard Bluetooth functionality was offered in January as something of a parting gift for owners. It’s not a use-it-or-lose it situation: Even without any further adaptation, the Stadia controller works quite nicely as a wired unit. Wireless is awfully convenient, though, and while Stadia’s WiFi functionality isn’t doing anyone much good these days, Bluetooth is very common.

By all appearances, the process is relatively simple and painless, and I would’ve thought that a full year would’ve been plenty of time for everyone to get it done. But stragglers have lucked out: Head over to the Stadia Bluetooth mode page and where it once said, “Available until December 31, 2023,” it now says, “Available until Dece…

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Solve Saturday’s Wordle as smoothly as you like using our helpful range of tips and tricks. There’s some general advice just below if you need to brush up your guess-making, a brand new hint written especially for the September 21 (1190) puzzle if you’d like a prod towards the winning word, and even today’s answer if you want to skip straight to the best bit.

I don’t think I could’ve wished for a more perfect start to my Wordle weekend. It wasn’t the quickest clear of the week, but I really enjoyed the way every single row brought me just that little bit closer to the answer, like a trail of clues someone had personally left just for me. Fantastic.

Today’s Wordle hint

Wordle today: A hint for Saturday, September 21

Movies starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are going to help today, as well as the names of single-digit numbers.

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Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

Yes, there is a double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

If there’s one thing better than playing Wordle, it’s playing Wordle well, which is why I’m going to share a few quick tips to h…

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A year after putting on an Olympic esports event that didn’t include any actual esports games, the International Olympic Committee has joined up with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia to do it for real in the first-ever Olympic Esports Games, set to be held in 2025.

The Olympic Esports deal between the IOC and Saudi Arabia is planned to run for 12 years, with events held “regularly” over the duration.

“We are very fortunate to be able to work with the Saudi NOC on the Olympic Esports Games, because it has great—if not unique—expertise in the field of esports with all its stakeholders,” IOC president Thomas Bach said in the announcement (via Insider Gaming). “The Olympic Esports Games will greatly benefit from this experience.

“By partnering with the Saudi NOC we have also ensured that the Olympic values are respected, in particular, with regard to the game titles on the programme, the promotion of gender equality and engagement with the young audience, which is embracing esports.”

That’s pretty rich given that Saudi Arabia recently sentenced women’s rights activist Manahel al-Otaibi to 11 years in prison for crimes like calling …

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Happy new year, writes the president of Square Enix in a new letter, and now let me tell you all about the blockchain. The wider industry, or the respectable side of it at least, remains deeply sceptical of the value added to games by web3 technologies, but there are a few big outliers such as Ubisoft (which last year launched an ill-fated NFT experiment) and above all Square Enix.

The huge Japanese publisher stands out not because of its interest, but because of how bullish it is about the future incorporation of these technologies. Some necessary context for western readers is that the company has some successful mobile-oriented titles in Japan that do use such technologies, so when it’s talking about use cases it already has them.

The letter from Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda begins by wishing everyone a happy new year before outlining some of the problems the world faced in 2022, including “soaring inflation”, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, stock prices plunging (especially in the tech sector), and the “dramatic depreciation of the yen [ballooning] prices on imported raw materials”. The macroeconomic environment ain’t great, in other words,…

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Our own positive review of EA Motive’s recent Dead Space remaster has been joined by an illustrious voice: John Carpenter, horror legend and director of Halloween, The Thing, They Live, and many, many more.

“EA’s refurbished DEAD SPACE is exciting and scary,” Carpenter wrote on Twitter. “Great game!”

I wish my own reviews could be so pithy. I especially love his deployment of “refurbished” to describe a videogame remake. The phrasing gives it a kind of warm, lived-in, cozy feeling, like a ’90s station wagon that just got reupholstered. I’d contrast it with that Demon’s Souls remake on PS5⁠—that was more like a lovely Victorian brownstone painted white and made open concept.

This is far from the legendary director’s first time weighing in on gaming: he’s an avid fan of Fallout, Horizon, and Dead Space, and has even expressed interest and directing any Dead Space movie adaptation, should such a thing ever get greenlit. 

Carpenter first gave the idea a shout back in a 2013 Game Informer interview: “Dead Space would just make a great movie, because you have these people coming onto an abandoned, shut-down space-ship and they have to start it …

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Sony’s trimmed-down version of its PlayStation 5 has only been on the shelves for a week or so but one seriously talented modder has taken the new PS5 Slim and given it a comprehensive makeover. Half as tall, narrower, and sporting a cute mini PC look, the Tiny PS5 is a pricey but classy project.

News of the work was reported by Sweclockers, with the full details of the task covered by YouTube channel Not From Concentrate (NFC). They’ve been focusing on shrinking PC systems for years, using top-notch CAD milling machines and 3D printers to make some truly gorgeous projects. Ever since the PlayStation 5 first appeared, various people have attempted to make a smaller or slimmer version but this one beats them all, in my opinion.

The size alone is highly impressive, as not only is it barely any larger than the PS5 Slim’s motherboard, it still houses an internal power supply unit. Sony’s design is pretty big but it’s designed to be as cheap as possible, so it’s never going to be especially svelte. NFC replaced it with a 250W HDPlex GaN PSU, that’s roughly one-third the cost of a PS5 digital version console.

Cooling is handled by a new heatsink and fan setup, an Alp…

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